Chapter 197: Omen – Chapter 183: Approaching the Threshold

Aperio hummed a tune she did not truly know but could recall hearing when she had first arrived in Ebenlowe as one part of her mind poked at the [Translation] skill, another was getting ever closer to Earth, and all the while she was listening to the increasingly more fluent conversation between Adam and Caethya.

The fact that she was able to absorb the knowledge of his language as quickly as she did was not truly shocking to her. Aperio would be a fool if she still thought that learning something that was mostly remembering would be hard for her. No, what surprised her was that her love had progressed so far in the same language-learning task in a mere few hours, despite having to do it the 'hard' way. It was fast enough that Adam no longer simply looked confused, but also a little intimidated.

Why he was intimidated by someone learning a language a little quicker than anticipated was not something Aperio knew, but neither did she care. Her love was a Demigoddess, so it should be expected that she would be beyond a normal mortal's capabilities. Probably also has a skill that helps her. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if she had one that helped her somewhere in the long list Aperio had gotten a glimpse at.

"Your language is weird," Aperio said as her love and Adam had a rare moment of silence. "So many rules, yet you ignore most."

The Human looked at her, blinking a few times as he processed the fact that Aperio had spoken to him in English, accented and broken as it might have been.

"What?" Aperio asked, tilting her head slightly as she shifted back to the Common she was more familiar with. "Did you not think I could learn this simply by listening to you?" Not that I thought myself that it would work, the All-Mother mused as she mentally squinted at the mess of runes she was working on. Perhaps the [Translation] skill is working for me? While Aperio doubted that was the case, it certainly bore more investigation.

"It's just not something I would have expected to happen," Adam said to her after another moment of silence. "I should have known that you could just magically learn a language in a matter of hours, but Caethya is not the literal Creator of everything there is."

"No, but she is smart and a Demigoddess."

"And good with languages," Caethya added. "I do have a few skills that help with learning them. Most people speak Common, but not all, so it's useful to have something like that as an Adventurer." She offered a small shrug. "I tried my hand at so many, I must have gotten a knack for it."

"I guess you becoming a Demigoddess also helped," Adam said. "I noticed that remembering things got easier the more points I put into intelligence."

"It did," Caethya agreed. "But dumping points into intelligence to get 'smarter' doesn't really work. Being able to remember more is nice, but it doesn't make you magically better at math or something. You still have to apply the knowledge."

"Unless you are Aperio," Adam mumbled, glancing at the All-Mother. "She just seems to do things and they work."

"Because that's what she does," Caethya replied, looking at the All-Mother and smiling. "I wouldn't try to understand how she works — how anyone works, for that matter. Accepting a person for what they are is usually best."

The Human let out a sigh. "I just can't help but think about how things work when I see her. Like, how did she come to be? Why did she make the world the way it is?"

Aperio let the mess of runes that was the [Translation] skill fade to the back of her mind as she set a bit more of her attention on Adam. The Human shrunk slightly under her gaze, the mana coursing through his body tensing almost as much as his muscles.

The All-Mother offered a small shrug in reply. "My earliest memories are of me alone, surrounded by nothing. And I did not truly make all of this, I simply created the foundation upon which the world could build itself." And I am technically also the nothing that surrounded me.

That last part, Aperio kept to herself. Adam did not need to know that she was technically a form of nothing that decided it wanted to be a person. The memory she had retrieved from the dungeon in Ebenlowe had been of her in absolute nothing already possessing a body, but Aperio now also knew that that memory was not the first universe she had made. Perhaps not even the second.

How many previous attempts had actually existed, Aperio did not know and, quite frankly, did not want to know. She touched her armlet, a bit of the magic that resided within flowing into her as if it wanted to soothe her. At least one, Aperio thought to herself, closing her hand around the armlet that adorned her bicep.

"You say that like it's nothing," Adam said. "Like creating everything everyone knows is just something one does on a Friday afternoon. Even if it is 'only the foundation'."

Caethya's smile faded slightly as Aperio cast her gaze downwards. The voice of her love brushed past the edges of her mind, making sure that she was alright. Aperio let out a sigh, a few wisps of mana flowing out with it, and gave a nod. For one reason or another, the knowledge that the world she was in was not her first or even second attempt weighed a lot more heavily on her than she thought it should.

"Perhaps I should show you how I see the world?" Aperio asked. She was not really planning on showing Adam anything, as she was fairly sure he would not be able to survive it, but she still felt like offering it was the correct thing to do.

"I doubt that is a good idea," Caethya said. "It already gives me a headache, and he is far weaker than I am. And he does not carry your blessing like I do."

"And I don't want to know how you see the world, either," Adam said. "What I felt just before I arrived here was already weird enough, I have no need to see it. I think ignorance might be for the best when it comes to that."

"Ignorance is bliss," Aperio mumbled as she stopped the part of her mind that was speeding past world after world. There were things she'd seen on her quest to find Earth that she'd have to follow up on eventually, but that search had now come to an end. What her aura saw was without a doubt Adam's home world.

A fraction more attention on her aura caused the view of the world to sharpen, and the countless objects that orbited it to become clear. She could even see metal contraptions flying through the sky and driving on the ground. Every being on that world was in her sight; within her reach. All she had to do to interact with any one of them was will it.

Aperio paused for a single moment, no longer than a breath of a mortal, but it stretched to an eternity for her. She could feel mana in this world. It wasn't much — not enough to do anything big with it — but it was there. Perhaps Earth had had magic in the past, but as the amount of mortals on it grew, the mana had to be split between them all and so the perception of its presence faded. No life without mana, after all.

To make absolutely sure that it was the correct world, Aperio held out her hand and wielded a small projection of the planet into existence. "Is this your home?" she asked, nodding towards the small planet that spun around itself in the palm of her hand. "It matches the description Diskrye gave me." Mostly, at least.

The space-borne deity had told her how the world had looked after they had made it and how it should appear if the amount of time that had passed was what Diskrye thought it was. Why it had designed a world with a continent that was supposed to split apart after a few million years was beyond Aperio, but she was also not the one that actually made the worlds the mortals needed to live on. Probably important that it works like that.

Adam stood up and took the couple of steps needed to close the distance to Aperio. He looked at the projection in her hand in silence for a moment. He pulled his head back slightly as one of the many metal things that orbited the world flew by his eyes and he gave a weak nod.

"It certainly looks like it," he said and looked at the All-Mother, who tilted her head in response. "Is this what you see?"

"A part of it," Aperio replied. "I also see some weird metal things — planes, I think? — flying through the air, not just space. Are you sure your world has no magic?"

"I am, yes," he replied. "Both the planes and the satellites do not use magic. Just good old Human ingenuity."

Caethya smiled at the exchange. "This is what I meant. Our approach to flying has been to simply tame something that can do it, or to learn it yourself." She paused for a moment, tilting her head. "Well, I have heard that some people are trying to build a flying ship, but I doubt that's anywhere close to being done."

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"I do have a flying island," Aperio said, lifting one of her wings to point in the general direction of her temple. "Still need to land that somewhere."

She wanted to simply place it somewhere in Ebenlowe, but for that she would have to talk to the mortals in charge. If she did not want to be a hypocrite, that is. Not that they would ever deny me… Aperio was fairly certain that most mortals in a position of power would do their best to appease her in a vague hope that she would repay them somehow. She wouldn't, of course, but they did not know that. Just like they don't know that I would accept it if they denied me.

Adam walked back to his bed and sat down. He rubbed the back of his head and stared at his feet for a moment before he set his gaze onto Aperio. "I assume this means you want to go now?"

"Not quite yet," Aperio replied as she closed her hand, causing the projection to disappear. "I want to finish the [Translation] skill before I leave, as I am sure your world has more than one language on it and I would rather not explain where my accent comes from. I do not think they would believe me if I told them that I came from a different world."

"No they wouldn't," Adam replied. "Some would think you are just staying in character, though. Or that you are… not quite right in the head."

The All-Mother did not reply, instead devoting more of her attention to the mess of runes that made up the [Translation] skill. She had taken it apart and put it back together multiple times as she tried to understand how it worked, but none of it told her why she herself could not use it. Its function was easy enough to understand, and while the way it went about translating languages was a little odd, that too was understandable. All it did was read the required knowledge from the Souls of those involved in the conversation and then translate between the two by interpreting the intent each word had. How exactly the runes managed to even grasp something as immaterial as intent from a conversation was not something Aperio understood. Perhaps I need to figure that out?

"I can assure you that I am of sound mind," Aperio said, furrowing her brows as she nudged the runes of the skill further apart. "But my thoughts are also barely comprehensible for the mortal mind." So much so that it kills them.

"I can only imagine," Adam replied with a sigh. He leaned back, letting himself fall onto his bed before he spoke again. "I am not sure if I really want to go back. You have to realise that people don't just disappear like this without consequence." He sat himself upright again. "My parents would have told the police that I ran away or am missing, which means that they would forcibly take me back once they find me."

"From what I understand, your police are basically like the Guard, right?" Aperio asked, only continuing once Adam had given a nod. "Then they only work for their country or city, not the world," Aperio said as a bit more of her mana flowed into the copy of the [Translation] skill she had begun to build. "If they are confined to one country, we will simply go to another. Or we could alter your appearance."

"Well, yes, they are only responsible for their country, and even then only parts of it," Adam said, "but many countries have agreements to hand over people that another country is looking for."

"I sincerely doubt they could take you," Caethya said. "You are what, level fifty now? If that world has no magic like you said, you are essentially untouchable for them."

The Human shook his head in reply. "I would agree if we were using swords and bows like you do here, but we invented better weapons. Being able to move a little faster to dodge a sword or arrow won't cut it. A bullet moves faster than sound does."

"And? I can do that too, if I wish." Aperio looked at Adam and narrowed her eyes slightly. "Even if you cannot protect yourself, I can protect you just fine."

To make her point more clear, a thought manifested a thin, invisible barrier around Adam, a second barrier around the room itself to keep any sound from escaping, and a small metal ball in Aperio's hand. She might not know what a bullet was, but a piece of metal moving as quickly as she dared to throw it indoors should be a fine substitute.

A flick of her wrist propelled the ball forward, a loud crack echoing through the room and a trail of fire filling the air just behind the metal projectile. As soon as the ball hit the barrier she had created, it simply ceased to exist, at least to the mortal eye. The All-Mother could see how the metal tried to move through the barrier but instead simply ground itself into a fine dust before harmlessly falling to the ground.

Adam merely stared at her in response, his mouth opening and closing but no words coming out.

"I think a warning would have been nice," Caethya said and brushed a few hairs out of her face that had been moved by the pressure Aperio's demonstration had caused. "It's awfully loud."

"I apologise," Aperio said, inclining her head slightly towards Adam. "But I think I made my point. The barrier can withstand a lot more, but I did not feel comfortable throwing the ball with more strength indoors. This was probably already a little too much." At least the other members of the House of Healing did not hear this.

"I think it is best to let Adam think on the matter a little more," Caethya said as she stood up and smoothed out her dress. "I would like to visit my parents before we leave. Maybe introduce you, too."

"Do they know?" Aperio asked, setting her gaze on her love.

"They know that I am with someone and that I found you, but they don't know that we are together."

"I see," she replied. It had always only been a matter of time until she would meet Caethya's family, but for one reason or another, she felt a little uncomfortable with the thought.

Her love took the few steps that separated them and took her hand. "You have nothing to fear from them," she said, offering a warm smile. "It's just gonna be my parents. The worst that'll happen is my mother maybe wanting to spar with you and my dad asking you all kinds of questions about magic and your views on some boring laws."

"Is your mother stronger than you are?" Aperio asked with a slight tilt of her head. "If she is not, I see little point in a match, even if it is friendly in nature."

Caethya waved her off with her free hand while trying to pull Aperio to her feet. "She just wants to know if you can protect me and she likes to make sure of that herself."

"But you can protect yourself?" Aperio stood up and pulled Caethya closer to herself in one fluid motion. "Is that some sort of tradition?"

"It is," her love replied, returning the embrace for a moment before pulling back. "I'll explain it when we are alone."

"As you wish," the All-Mother replied. She turned to look at Adam and offered him another small, apologetic bow. "We will return once we have spoken with Caethya's family. If you do not wish to come with us, you are free to stay here."

A weak "Okay" was all Adam managed in reply before he slumped backwards onto the bed again. Aperio furrowed her brows slightly, and just before she teleported Caethya and herself into her Void she reached out to Laelia, asking her Scion to send someone from the House of Healing to look after Adam. Perhaps I overdid it a little?

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