Lyun was very surprised when everything she had been working upon had suddenly been interrupted, herself instead standing around some corner of the academy. She knew instantly that this had been Axln’s doing.. Kori’s doing.. something had happened there unexpectedly.

Lyun’s first impulse was that Kori might have caused such a shift to escape a dangerous situation, meaning a very viable threat had appeared on the other side. Rather than just rush back to face something she didn’t understand though, an act which could have put her in reckless danger as well, she decided to attempt to contact Axln for an update of the situation. She pulled out her cell and set forth the call.. only to find that Axln was in an area that could not be reached. That was itself concerning, the only thing these things couldn’t pierce was areas far from civilization.. or otherwise saturated with void. The first was unexplainable, considering how big the academy actually was, it would have taken too much to travel away from civilization out of range of such utilities. The range for such things used to be fairly weak, but now you would be actually hard pressed to find a location anywhere in the world considered ‘too far from civilization’. That only left a location with a dramatic threat of the void. Worry led to panic as Lyun rushed around, not even paying attention to where she physically was, herself totally lost to direction in the circumstances. Upon being lost to herself, her attention drawn to distant worries, she felt herself reawakened to a familiar bond.

Of all the things that might have happened, she found herself questioning suddenly why she was so worried. Of course such was obvious, with Axln missing and in danger, how could she not worry. Then again, why did she have such worries, Axln was fine.. even if she had no idea where she was. As far as she could tell, Axln was just in some strange underground cave. There was no point in just losing her head over things, that was much more what Lyun would do. Wait, wasn’t she Lyun? Wasn’t she Axln? Suddenly, everything made sense. Four bodies, two people, one being. She had revisited the link of her being that was shared between two people, making it very difficult to tell which was which. The benefit though was that such did provide her with a way to reach out to both aspects, a way they could both update the other on the situation. Such would however be a lot easier if both sides weren’t taking the situation so dramatically differently. Lyun was panicking with worry, Axln was calm and curious. Lyun’s panic was due to worries of the void, after a failed cell connection, and why she had reached out in other ways. Axln meanwhile was checking out a really impressive cavern, the whole place glowing because of the magma at the other side of the chamber.

Wait, magma, otherwise known as the world’s lifeblood, an elemental fire that was so powerful it could forge void materials as dangerous as pure obsidian. No wonder the cell didn’t work, that really was a considerably dangerous location. Then again, Axln was fine, possibly due to the power gear’s shielding. Wait, no, there was no person’s creation in existence as mighty as the essence of a world, such shielding was not enough. Then again, the room Axln was in wasn’t exactly normal either, appearing to naturally filter away some of the threats of fire. Axln was not the only thing in that chamber, much of it having endured the heat beyond reason too. Certainly, some of such were corpses, but those were probably because there was a visible lack of nutrients in the room as well. As long as Axln escaped before starving to death, she would be fine. In that light, maybe it was actually a good thing that there was a connection going on, so that an escape plan was possible. Also, maybe Axln was being an idiot. The strange objects forged out of pure magma at least were excessively facinting. Wait, it was also impossible to forge things out of the world’s lifeblood, how exactly did that happen? She really was very curious to learn more.

Lyun shook her head violently, trying to draw her attention back to her personal situation. It was neat that she could reach out like that, but drawing awareness from two people at once was proving to be quite confusing for her. A lasting impression of doing so was still that she herself had developed a touch of curiosity for some of the stuff considered. This added a complication, instead of adopting a rescue plan that pulled Axln from such a scene and sent her back to the other world.. Lyun wanted to find a way to see more of what Axln found for herself. The biggest question was.. how? Lyun had managed to pick up that Axln probably had a good measured interpretation of exactly where she would be under the academy.. but it really was pretty deep underground. A phasecraft could possibly go that deep, but there was concern about trying to phase through the world’s lifeblood in an area before such a chamber. Such depth was possibly too high for such heat to develop normally, it was clearly a bit of a lifeblood spring, but that left unresolved how such a spring expanded from such a site. A rift was the other direct way there.. but there simply was no way to just rift through such a density of void.

“Lyun, it appears you have returned. I am here to report my successful recovery, the individual assigned to the task having restored all significant functionality.” “Luna! You surprised me there.” “Was I not supposed to report to you? I am sorry, but I could not detect Axln’s location.” “No, I mean I was worried too, I mean.. wait, so Ezhyrae is here?” “Correct, she is presently inside the archives relaxing. I hear she has been waiting for you two to return. Do you have any estimates on how much longer Axln will be away for?” “Reaching Axln will be rough, she’s right now far underground, in an area cut off by the void. She found a strange area within a spring of the world’s lifeblood there, of all things.” “Could you please provide specific values of trajectories? An astral gate could be used in an area immersed within the world’s flame, as the fortress was modified to transport the world’s seed itself. Accuracy in the astral gate is paramount though, as slight inaccuracies have been known to lead to catastrophic dangers.” Wait, so Luna was trying to tell Lyun that she had a way to rift through the void or something? Just how stupidly advanced was the citadel? Carrier of the world’s seed, maybe a place so in tune with the natures of a world wouldn’t have been as scared by the immensity a world could bring. Lyun reached back to that shared awareness, getting those numbers Luna would need in the process. Luna then opened a rift, inviting Lyun to follow. The rift itself only led to the citadel, but it was only a short walk from there to the strange dais Luna was already bringing online. After passing through a wonder of instrumentation she had never heard of, Lyun found herself just a short distance away from Axln.. who had her nose in a book.

“Nice entrance. I thought getting here was supposed to be a problem.” “It was, but Luna here is all but divine.” “See? Long before I got hungry, nothing to worry about.” “I see that being one of two perspectives of a single being would leave that being pretty messed up. What are you reading anyway? It never came up when I reached out to you.” “Some notes about what was going on here, really fascinating stuff.” “Oh, I guess it would also be pretty useful practice too, right?” “Ah, actually no, not the way you’re thinking. That’s actually what made it even more fascinating. This book is not written in the languages used around here, it’s actually written in a language I only barely know. This book here is written in the old conduit language, something no one really teaches anymore.” “Wait, but conduits are from Aestus.. how would…?” Axln had Lyun completely lost at that point, such details not making any sense at all. While Lyun’s thoughts fried on the shear concept being implied, Axln took the opportunity to explain.

“That’s the whole point, I think the people who perished here somehow made it here the same way I did, through the veil. They just didn’t know how to get back or how to otherwise escape. They were clearly researchers though, harvesting upon the world’s blood in an effort to keep going. It actually looked like their research provided them with enough life energy to survive for 23 sidus.. with no access to food at all in that time. Pretty insane, I could only guess that they were then surviving on pure life elements alone. They actually found a way to temper pure magma here into a life core, just to keep things going. According to this thing, it’s endured for about five hundred sidus. A sidus is the same as one of your solar cycles, by the way.” “Wait, what? This planet would have been a dead rock that long ago.. not even with any lifeblood. That was long before the world seed had been brought to Ruixse, which actually gave it any of such lifeblood.. unless it still had some that long ago.” “The history of Ruixse.. before it was cultivated. To think at least some of my people were here, this might not have been the only site either. When Drew asked me to get a glimpse of conduit history, I really never expected it to take me this far away.” Axln had clearly stumbled upon quite the treasure trove this time, Lyun could understand why such would have been important. She meanwhile went over to one of those tempered cores, picking the object up to get a good look at it. The thing was a serious saturation of all elements rendered fully stable, something almost unheard of. Much as how it seemed fire was great at making the most of the void, so too was it very capable of shaping life in something of the same concept. The people at the archives would faint at this discovery, let alone the academy.. let alone the foundry!

Considering such in detail though, Lyun realized how impractical such was. A saturation of the elements was probably the least useful thing imaginable. Sure, it seems it was a wellpool of life, which has a use, but when it came to instrumentation… Instrumentation was boosted by a kyuemu shard, a crystal of pure void, because the absence of elements cultivated stronger reactions. In reverse, a saturation of elements would actually make instruments a lot harder to control. In that light, the stuff was actually pretty dangerous. Maybe it would be better to leave such otherworldly treasures to their original homes. Considering the cores from in that light however started her thoughts on considerations of how all of this applied according to scientific principle. Much as Axln had kept calling it, this was all basically tempered magma, which scientifically was a super-heated substance of immense temperatures. Such was also exactly the same sort of principle as thermal generators, the processing of inane temperatures to yield a great source of energy. Obviously, such was the original vision of the creators too, even if such a thing did not work on this world.. at least, not without changing the laws of the world. This.. this was then perfect for their cybernetics, a scientific power source that would keep their stuff running strong even in an otherworldly haze. Sure, it would need some additions to help protect it, all of that elemental mess needed containment under normal circumstances.. then the super-heat needed it’s own treatment once the heat was instead being tapped into as a power source. There was the question of what could yield such protections.. but she actually had a very good idea where to get something like that.

“Luna, do you have any material that is really good for all-purpose elemental shielding? I know you mostly work with strange metals, but I’m hoping for something more.. fitting in angles of the mythos for dramatic heat suppression.” “Fortress records report upon a mythos phenomenon called magnetic polarity, an attribute which could theoretically be woven into a material to cause it to repel the case suspending it. If the area between the object and the case were devoid of even trace elements, transfusion of such would be impossible. Obsidian would be required in the process, as such a void substance could also dismiss occasional contacts of mass elements.” “Magnetism.. which means we need some kind of ferrous obsidian composite. Technically, I think obsidian scientifically contains a lot of iron, and cooled obsidian isn’t natively dangerous. Iron though does count as stone elemental, which could weaken if left there too long. However, the stone elemental loss would also be countered by the mass elements also available.. that wouldn’t be a concern at all. Being devoid of all trace elements.. that would be like a pure vacuum. Fortunately we’ll be working at a really small scale, having such perfect conditions would be difficult otherwise. Could I borrow your help later in making such a design?” “Of course, inheritor. I am eternally at your service.” “Perfect. Okay Axln, get up. We’re leaving. You can bring your book though if you really want to keep reading the thing.” Lyun grabbed a stash of the tempered cores and waited for Luna’s exit. Once the strange portal was opened, Axln came to the realization finally that she was expected to also take this chance to leave. In no time at all though, Axln found herself somehow abandoned alone back at the academy, Lyun being busy on a new creation. It was at that point that Axln realized that she may have gotten carried away and had missed an important opportunity to be useful.

Lyun, Rosa, they were both the same person. Not only had she figured out a way to balance world factors in cybernetics as Rosa, but she was doing the exact same thing in reverse as Lyun. As such, maybe standing around being useless reading a historical book that she already had the basic idea of.. may not be the most useful use of her time. Considering what tasks might be more useful, it dawned on Axln that Luna being active would mean Ezhyrae was here.. and had just done a lot of work on getting Luna all fixed up. Sure, Lyun had asked for such help, but Lyun was busy at this point, so Axln would have to pitch in and help out. Finding Ezhyrae wasn’t even difficult, Axln just had to find the place with the highest density of ersatz wandering around like they owned the entire archives. Okay, asking for occasional directions along the way handled most of the process, but such really was how the whole thing actually felt.

“Oh, finally a familiar face. Where is Lyun though?” “Sorry, she’s still pretty busy with some work, but she should be around soon enough. … is it just me, or do you have a lot more of these ersatz than I thought you did?” “Well, I might have not shown you the full capacity of the staff I work with, but this is honestly much more than that. It seems Luna had determined that my work had been a sort of.. quality upgrade. Something about wanting to make sure that she was running at the same version as each of her peers. Then I found out that peers means many thousand more. I have to be glad they let me take a break, I’m not even done with a sliver of the collection.” “I’m.. sorry to impose on you so much.” Ezhyrae must have then been working on that entire squall of ersatz Axln had walked by in the process. Axln hadn’t even bothered taking count, she couldn’t even figure a proper estimate of exactly how much of a mess this was.

“Ah, don’t worry about it. I’ve sort of learned how imposing my latest client can be, having such a favour due from such an established client would be quite handy. I’m also possibly a bit too passionate in my work, this has honestly been more fun than I’ve seen in a while. That’s saying something too, considering how much ‘fun’ stuff is back home. Seriously, I heard they almost went to war with the academy here, then fled because of the academy having.. well, Luna. Now they are instead just stocking up on weapons to help bolster the defenses of everything. Oddly though, it doesn’t seem like the academy was the only thing they feared. Distributing weapons everywhere and then amping up protection measures really felt like some serious paranoia. They were eager to give a weapon to every single person that walked the street. It.. probably didn’t help that they never checked if every person was actually not an ersatz, either. Now it seems I sort of.. snuck a ton of weapons over to the academy without even knowing it. Oops, my bad.” Ezhyrae sighed in her playful giggle, clearly more troubled by such strife than even her latest responsibilities.

Axln however was considering the exact nature of such strife. Weapon distribution, sounding exactly like what Sophie had witnessed. This parallel reaction between worlds pointed squarely at an intervention from Velvet’s entourage. As such applied an understanding of the ways between worlds, it presented the idea that this was a consideration of the two chaos fiends they had faced off against. Such also reminded Axln that the two women involved knew an impossible amount of what was going on, stuff she was seriously interested in learning for herself, stuff that she knew would be very useful for Lyun as well. The roughest part though would be trying to track down such powerful women in an environment where Axln and Lyun would have enough of an advantage. It was something they certainly would need to be prepared for.

“So, Axln, are you still as interested in ersatz as before? Want to see some of the process of upgrading one?” “Oh, sure, I would love to learn more.” Ezhyrae called an end to her break and brought Axln over to her workspace, an erzat arriving soon after they did. Axln watched things panning out, though found some of the process a little difficult to focus upon. The whole thing was something between a technician and a doctor, the ersatz being carefully segmented so that its blood would not rupture in the process. Each piece was actually some very biological looking material made from some strange fibers, a fact that made it a bit difficult for Axln to watch on more than one occasion. As the whole structure had to be kept sound in the process so that the individual would not.. die.. the whole operation felt more like a series of messy transplants. She was surprised at just how alive such seemingly robotic folk actually were, that even their blood was as capable of manipulating the gift as a regular person could. They felt so artificial.. and yet were technically so very alive.. almost a direct opposite to how nanites were.

“Want to give it a try?” “Huh? What? No, no, no.” “Come on, don’t be shy. I’ve got a really simple piece here, easy to fix if you mess up, but probably a great learning experience. Ersatz are everywhere, and I can tell you have a subtle talent in the area somewhere. Making the most of it surely could be useful then, right? So here, take this instrument and carefully set it in these areas.. just you’ll be doing the other side. This will teach you what is probably the most useful skill in the whole field, the steady hand. Again, if you do it wrong, I can fix it and we can try it over.” Ezhyrae passed Axln the instrument mentioned, leaving Axln to position herself accordingly. Axln pondered the idea of adjusting the functionality of the instrument simply to make this easier, but she hardly at all grasped what such an instrument was even doing.. that might honestly cause more problems than it prevented. She had seen the fundamental aspects at least, this was simply running the instrument over a very precise line exceptionally slowly, without even twitching and without ever breaking focus. Ezhyrae had the advantage of being an elf too, clearly not aware how difficult this degree of attention took in those without such elven benefits. Axln tried using her circlet for the process.. but such didn’t help with the performance of her hand, the biggest struggle of the process. Going really really slowly, that was the majority of the challenge here. She still put in the effort, following along the line, trying to keep a grasp of the movement. The stress of her own actions though was quickly taking its price from her, she was going from outright nausea from before to now feeling a pinch bit dizzy. This was far more difficult than it should be, sustaining her accuracy like this. The fault lay in her own ability to keep a slow steady pace of absolute precision, an effort she applied her very being into achieving as the stress built up.

Suddenly, Axln noticed her surroundings going slightly pale, and in the process noticed just how long it was taking her to even blink. However, with her perspective of time itself shifted, Axln found it considerably easier to sustain the slow pace desired. Completing the process as a result with an unnatural accuracy, Axln adjusted her perspective on time, which then caused herself to feel capable of moving in what she saw as real time.. but everything else was going slower. Right, her form of chaos manipulated time, but it seemed that was not just restricted to something as intense as going back in time, she could also do fine touches to the time she was experiencing. She dramatically shifted the flow of time until an instant felt like an eternity, giving her a chance to relax before facing her work once again.

Even as she started to relax, she found herself again wondering what she had done. Ah, so they were probably connected again.. and that would imply that Lyun and Axln were both feeling the effects of Axln’s distortion of time. Of course too, such was currently in the way of the work Lyun was actually trying to finish, nothing at all was actually working with time pretty much on break. It couldn’t be disputed though that this sort of thing was a smart idea for the future, as this light of a usage of Axln’s abilities wouldn’t have the usual harsh effects of reversing time. In fact, this might actually provide them with windows to get their own rest on their own schedule as they jump between two worlds on dramatically opposite sleeping schedules. Actually, on the subject of mitigated use in chaotic abilities, Lyun too could potentially make use of her own ability without them investing in any of the opposite factors beyond having their cybernetics stay active. Doing so, Lyun would effectively be able to shield most effects of science and technology, or elements and instrumentation. It was certainly an idea, of course, but one to consider once they were actually back together in person.. as trying to figure out who was coming up with what like this had become rather a challenge in itself, and as such was actually making it harder to think.

As the connection ended, Axln also restored the flow of time. That connection thing was probably the weirdest of all of their tricks. Quite honestly, they had together devised a couple of really good ideas.. and Axln had no idea which of them had been the one to project either. It felt like both of the ideas were her’s.. but it felt like all what had happened was her’s, that she was just thinking about things to herself. Four bodies, two people, one being.. in that way.. she kinda was.

“Not bad for a first try, I’m not finding any mistakes. Really, doubt I could have done better myself, you’re clearly a natural in all of this.” “Uh.. maybe having a fake hand had something to do with everything.” “Wait, what?” “Oh, right, that happened after we saw you. Here, I’ll take away the illusion and let you see what I mean for yourself.” With the illusion removed, Ezhyrae was absolutely captivated by Axln’s arm, utterly stunned at this marvel of instrumentation. However, Ezhyrae also noticed how certain aspects of ersatz design were being captured in the process to what was actually below an optimum level of performance. With this marvel presented, she quickly wrapped up the work on her current ersatz and then devoted her attention to Axln instead. However, Ezhyrae quickly identified that making any adjustments would not be possible without knowing some of what certain oddities actually did. Axln knew that such would only get even more complicated once Lyun actually showed up with the parts she would currently be working on. This whole situation left Axln wishing she could find a chance to invest in more research, as there were a number of things she really wanted to learn about how this world worked.. so that she wasn’t feeling so oblivious to everything.

Without having the opportunity to manipulate time to her favour, there was no escape for Axln in her current circumstances. Without any other recourse, she sat through Ezhyrae’s verbose lecture on ersatz design instead.. an alternative which at least might possibly have its own merit.