Chapter 58: Advent – Chapter 55: Principle of Creation

GamingWolf

"Dungeons are known to create, not to take the belongings of others," the horned man said. His voice was still apprehensive, but it was clear he did not believe the dungeon would have anything that belonged to Aperio. His next words were mumbled more to himself than the winged Goddess. "What could a dungeon even take?"

Aperio took another step forward and pointed her weapon at the core. “It is made from my mana; taken without my consent. I will reclaim what is mine."

The dragon-maid gripped her spear tighter at Aperio's rather forceful declaration while the horned butler let his eyes wander, taking in the core, Aperio, and the rest of her group. He did not seem to understand what exactly she meant, asking the core what the winged Goddess was talking about. At least, Aperio assumed that was what the increased frequency of mana darting between the two meant.

As the anger was still rising in her chest, Aperio directed her own thoughts at the core itself. At first she had refrained from doing so, foolishly fearing what might happen. Despite her rather timid acceptance of who — and what — she was, Aperio was still afraid of what she could do; even when she knew that her abilities would solve an issue or at least expedite the process.

Her mind's voice crashed into the crystalline structure, causing tiny cracks to form on its surface. The demand which she had conveyed went unanswered, however. The only reply was a frantic step forwards from the horned man as he moved to stand between the angered Goddess and the core. The dragon-maid, too, advanced a pace towards Aperio, slightly angling her spear to point at the winged Goddess.

"Please, I'm sure we can find a way to resolve this without violence," the butler said.

She wanted to destroy the core right this instant, wanted to call it an abomination; curse it for imprisoning a part of her mana and memories. For twisting her creation. But, she did not strike. Instead, she directed her gaze to the horned man. Within the scope of her aura she could feel Ferio and Caethya shifting to properly view the man, her daughter also taking on something Aperio presumed to be a fighting stance of some sort.

"I will not let it continue to use what is mine to further its twisted goals." Her statement was final. No matter what resolution he sought, she would not leave without reclaiming what she had come for. "Stand aside or perish."

Both the dragon-elf and the butler seemed to argue with the core, the bits of mana flying between the three increasing in both speed and frequency. A moment later the mist seeped out of its crystalline prison again, forming another imitation of Aperio.

She glared at her mist-born copy, raising her hand to dismiss it like she had done before. Clearly reacting to her threat of removal, the mist morphed, losing its wings and changing its shape slightly. It still looked very similar to Aperio herself, but it was clear that it was trying to appease the winged Goddess.

Does it even know who I am? In Aperio's mind, it had to. It had obviously recognised her, empowering its guardians to keep at her at bay. As fruitless as it was. She shifted her weight to her other leg and adjusted the grip of her weapon ever so slightly. The motion caused the Dragon-Elf to grip her own weapon tighter, her scaled knuckles somehow managing to appear whiter than before.

"Whoever made you has no more claim to the Mana of Origin than any other of my kind," the misty figure said, its voice echoing and overlapping as if multiple people were speaking at once. The language it used was not one Aperio knew, and yet she could understand it just fine.

The implications of that were ignored as its words caused Aperio's anger to flare, the weight of her aura increasing in response. She drew more mana from her well almost on reflex, an expression of her anger that caused the decorated windows of the cathedral-like building to shatter. She flared her wings, tiny arcs of her mana already dancing around them as she pointed her swordstaff at the core.

"Made me?!" Her words caused the cracks of her mental assault to further spread across the core. Tiny wisps of smoke leaked out and dissolved into the air. She knew her next words to be true, she was the genesis of all that existed; had seen how it all connected back to her with her own two eyes. "I am the Origin of all Creation!"

Saying it out loud felt right to a degree nothing had before; even her realisation of one of her Domains could not compare. She was the one who made this universe, created its laws and governed all that lived within. How dare a glorified piece of rock question her nature? How dare it presume her might came from anywhere but herself?

The floor cracked beneath Aperio's feet as she took a step towards the core, a slash of her swordstaff slicing through the core's projection, causing it to dissolve. Both the dragon-maid and the horned butler quickly moved away, clearly not wanting to stand in the way of the being that had just proclaimed to be the creator of everything they knew. That both of them looked sickly pale was pointedly ignored, for they had come upon the beck and call of the thing that dared to withhold what had been stolen from her.

Taking another step forward, Aperio drew more mana from her well, letting the power course through her veins. She could feel the world around her slow as her mind's reach expanded; could see the tiny threads of her mana that held reality together. Her weapon thrummed as her mana surged through it, almost as if it was anticipating the violence that was to come.

She ignored the mental call of her daughter to calm herself as she took another step towards the core and, with a swing of her arms that felt so blissfully natural, embedded her blade into it. A quivering shudder seemed to scuttle across the surface of reality. Everything shook violently — just once — and then the piercing sound of a thousand voices screaming in unison filled the chamber as the core broke apart and the weapon vanished into her Void.

Aperio closed her eyes and breathed deeply as she felt the mana the core had kept from her surge through her body. She could feel the changes it brought. Much like her initial transformation in the Void, she could feel her bones breaking and muscles tearing only to be reforged anew, stronger than before. She turned around, facing her daughter and Caethya. They were so small; insignificant. Weak.

She drew more mana from her well, aiding the still ongoing flood of mana from the destroyed crystal in its mission to bring the change she had never admitted she wanted. Aperio took another deep breath, ignoring the wispy smoke of mana she exhaled in the proces. What she was doing felt right, the scepticism to trust her instincts gone as she knew them to be true just as surely as she knew her name.

Ferio's assumption had been correct. Along with her mana returning to her, so did memories of a time she could not recall. There was nothing to speak of in the thoughts that she retrieved — nothing, in quite a literal sense. Images of herself hanging in a black abyss not unlike her Void flooded her mind.The only difference was that this place did not feel like home; not welcome. Just cold nothing.

Then, with a thought, a surge of energy erupted from her figure to fill the nothingness that prevailed around her. She wanted to do the same now, let her might do what it was supposed to and form reality according to her will. But, despite the pleasure she knew it would bring, Aperio restrained herself, if only for the sake of her daughter and her blessed. The change and re-creation her body was undergoing would have to be enough for the moment.

Returning her focus to the newly returned memory caused more of her anger to wash away. Seeing — remembering — the creation of the universe she lived in brought a measure of calm nothing else could compare to. The feeling of her mind brushing against all that she had made; her creations thrumming with joy at her presence.

Seeing how the nothingness slowly shifted to a star-filled sky over what Aperio knew to be aeons caused a spark of delight to race through her. That she was older than anything else that existed did not matter to her when she could finally remember, actually see for herself what she could do.

The mana flowing through her body reacted to the joy she felt at her memories, as the air around her took on a spring-like quality. A slight breeze swept through the eerily silent building, brushing against Aperio's wings and letting her hair flow in a way she would have deemed impossible had she still been a mortal.

More wisps of her mana danced around her, almost as if they enjoyed the remembrance of their mistress'. She took another breath, her nose picking up a faint scent that she could not place but that sparked a newly-returned memory of herself and young Ferio running over a vast plain of green. It was something she had not known she had missed. How could I have known? I didn't remember any of it.

She let out a breath of wispy, mana-filled air and opened her eyes. No longer did she stand on the cold floor of the core's cathedral but on a field of grass and flowers. Looking up, Aperio saw tiny clouds floating just beneath the ceiling, lazily drifting in the breeze that still gently flowed through the room.

The mana of her well and the dead dungeon was still coursing through her, doing its best to further her body’s endless quest for perfection. Currently, however, it did not matter to Aperio. The world around her seemed more alive than before, more colourful, almost as if she had previously viewed it through a dirtied window that turned everything on the other side bleak and lifeless. The threads of her mana that tied reality together shone brighter than the time she had drawn on her well in anger, seemingly happy at her current calmness.

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Aperio folded her wings behind her back, smiling slightly at the silver and blue sheen her black feathers had taken on, and moved towards her daughter. Ferio had done her best to aid her mother ever since they had been reunited. But, despite her help there had always been a tiny voice of doubt in Aperio's mind that claimed she was being used. That Ferio was using her for her own goals.

She had never listened to the voice, and now she knew it to be wrong. Aperio stepped in front of her daughter, ignoring the fact that she now towered over her. Ferio had said that drawing on her well had affected her size the last time she had done so but, much like that time, Aperio herself had not noticed until it was unavoidably obvious.

Lifting Ferio off the ground, Aperio wrapped her arms and wings around her. This time, there was no feeling of wrongness or anything of the like. Only joy that she could finally remember her daughter, and her previous life.

How she had made her daughter's soul, formed her likeness and raised her. The joy and sadness as Ferio discovered her Domains while she could not find her own, the anger when one of the Goddesses she had allowed to ascend tried to take her daughter, and the sadness she had felt but could never show after a disagreement with her Ferio. There was still a lot more that was missing, she knew that, but truly knowing felt better than just an ethereal feeling of right or wrong.

She gave her daughter a gentle squeeze, not wanting to hurt her daughter with the new strength she knew her excessive influx of mana had brought. Ferio returned the gesture, wiping away a tear from her mother's cheek with a content smile on her face.

After Aperio set her daughter down again, she turned her attention to the one she had blessed. Caethya was looking at her with wide eyes, looking as if she was ready to fall over any minute. For a brief moment Aperio feared that her aura had become so oppressive that she had hurt her, but a look at the pair the core had summoned removed that doubt. They were looking just fine.

Neither of them was deathly pale anymore, nor did they show any signs she had previously observed when people were negatively affected by her aura. What surprised her more was that she knew why they suffered no harm from her aura despite the fact that she was still drawing more and more mana from her well.

Aperio had not anticipated answers. She had expected a vague feeling that perhaps would lead her to answers later, not solid knowledge that she could now easily recall. She had been fighting her nature, struggling with what she knew to be true. Of course the beings that were a product of her creations would feel the ever-shifting swirl of her emotions. That struggle was no more, her mana no longer lashing out at her surroundings in constant turmoil. Now it was weaving its way through the mana that had always filled the air, almost joyfully dancing with threads of reality.

Her reverie was interrupted by a silver-framed System notification.

Anomalous Entity removed. 

Temporary control over Entity’s Soul-bound minions has been seized by the System.

Terminate all Soul-bound minions?

Aperio tilted her head at the notification. Did she want to fully destroy the dungeon? Can I have the System run it? It should be able to, right? Sadly, the memories she had retrieved did not bring more insights into the System itself. They did, however, grant her an understanding that she had not had before. She simply knew that it could perform the task she wanted it to; just not how. Annoying.

She directed her thoughts towards the space the formation of runes that comprised the System resided in, trying to find something that would help her find a way to get it to do what she wanted. There was a small pull coming from a section of space that was filled with inactive rune formations. A part of her knew what she was looking for to be there, hidden amongst the masses of unused parts.

For a brief moment Aperio considered turning them all on to see what would happen. She had more than enough mana to do so, after all. Still, she decided against it. Aperio still knew too little, and it would be unwise to activate everything without knowing the scope the consequences might take.

Following the nudge from her instincts led her to a large diamond-shaped mass of runes. The connection between the previous core and the System’s interpretation of it was obvious the moment she laid her eyes on it. Or did they take the shape of this? That was probably what had happened, the System had existed long before the dungeons after all.

After she had eased a bit of her mana into the new part of the System, another notification appeared before her.

Partial functionality restored: Combat Trials.

New designation assigned by the will of the Creator: Dungeons.

Aperio blinked at the notification. If it knows what I want to do, why can't it just turn the things I want on by itself? Further thoughts were interrupted by another window.

Area and entities suitable for 'Dungeon' deployment found.

Previously Soul-bound entities will be replaced.

Please designate an Entity or Entities to oversee 'Dungeon' designated 'Principle of Creation'.

GamingWolf

Remember.

This is also the end of the second arc!

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