Chapter 39: 42. Coincidences are Funny Part 1

Three days later.

Ajax and Shaula are walking to the Astrid neighborhood bar. Ajax feels a bit sad. Shaula sees his face in her periphery and knows what he’s thinking about. He isn’t straightforward about his feelings though.

[Shaula, should I order one of those Caprit Lush’s again? Or something weaker.]

[It might taste different than last time. I’d say stick to something like beer or wine, but if the goal is just to get drunk… well, just have your meal after you try a bit of it, I don’t want you to vomit it out.]

[Ah, yeah, you’re right.]

Shaula sighs. His expression is still one of light depression. He’s thinking of a way out of the problem he’s facing, that they’re both facing. [I can tell, you know? You’re still upset. Don’t worry, we’ll find some way past this.]

Ajax frowns. He wants to believe Shaula’s words.

They have made some progress in exploring a new power of theirs. Perhaps, he should think of it as his first power. After all, he knew about it at least a few minutes before coming to Omicron, didn’t he?

The first thing they realized is that this power, the power to move through space, is mostly unconscious. It is a bit unlike conventional magic that way. They might not have realized why, but the reason for this is the Divine Limit. He had temporarily removed a limiter for their power’s activation.

This unlocked limiter was what allowed them to have access to that map of the stars for a few moments.

He was supposed to close that limiter, but instead left it… just a bit loose. Just a little taste, in exchange for their change in environment. Once Ajax and Shaula have shown themselves to be worthy, the limiter will be released all by itself. For now however, they have some advantages.

The purpose of the limiter is to prevent the full activation of their powers. The limiter was closed for their entire lives. If they tried using their power on Earth before all this, they’d have been able to, technically.

They could have theoretically generated spatial energy directly through their souls. They could have molded that energy into a circuit pattern. If they landed on a compatible shape, they could have contained their energy into a proper magic circuit.

Then, they could have also cast a laboriously long set of specific incantations onto that circuit. They would have been able to activate their spatial magic. They could even have done the same for time, gravity and mass magic as well.

But, they would have had to accomplish that without any training. It would be like trying to prepare a delicious pecan pie without knowing the recipe, or how to turn on an oven. 

Now however, their limiters are ‘loosened’. Generating the needed energy, containing it within a magic circuit, and imbuing it with incantations is automatic. Their minds can handle all that subconsciously. They can even glimpse into the process.

For example, after they became aware of the existence of a process, they were able to observe the magic circuits. They were able to see the spatial ‘mana’ collected into a circuit. They saw the circuit’s shape and drew those shapes onto pieces of paper.

The importance of the loosened limiter is more beneficial than at first glance. If what they imagine and visualize can be done through spatial magic, they can accomplish it. It need not be limited to transporting objects. However, Ajax and Shaula do not know this yet.

This also only works out for spatial magic. Their time, gravity and mass limiters remain untouched, fully locked.

Now the problem lies with visualization. If the spatial limiter was fully loosened, they would have the ability to visualize even the entire galaxy. Right now, they cannot do so. But, in order to activate their spatial magic, they have to imbue it with a detailed mental image.

They had started with a bronze coin. They reached into their power. They ‘fed’ two ‘coordinates’ into their power. The first was the origin in their hands where the bronze coin was. The destination was a flat tile on the ground, three or four meters away.

Then, they perceived the space between their hand and the flat file. They fed this mind’s eye perception into their power. At first, they weren’t successful in moving the coin to where they wanted it to go.

However, Ajax started to find success. There was a shimmering of air in Ajax’s palm holding the coin, like a small heat mirage. Shaula saw at the destination on the floor another spot of shimmering air.

Whatever was in his hand had dissolved into what looked like bronze powder. He had been dumbfounded. Shaula had immediately gone over to the destination point. She saw another smaller pile of bronze powder on the tile.  She tried to follow Ajax’s advice and soon was able to replicate his results.

Having found the right feeling, they are able to successfully move an object 15% of the time at first. They decide to use inexpensive tissues instead of bronze coins moving forward.

They continue their attempts for three days. Whatever object they used still dissolves 100% of the time. But, Shaula’s success rate increased to about 30%. Ajax’s success rate increased to 60%. He found greater success because he was far more willing to reach the limits of his power.

Ajax had noticed that after a few consecutive successes, his body got progressively weaker. It took him more effort to raise his arms and he felt dizzier as well. A couple times, he used his power and gained six consecutive successes in a row. After successfully using his power that often, his body became too tired.

The result was interesting. Ajax slept.

He had returned to his bed and slept for maybe fifteen minutes. Shaula kept watch over his body in the meantime. She listened to his heartbeat and realized that it was quieter, weaker. His heart rate was six times slower than her own. She became cautious towards their power.

When he woke up, she told him about this. But, he was in awe.

He was able to dream for the first time since coming to Omicron. He felt amazed, a little hopeful even. To be able to sleep was an awesome feat for him.

He started practicing moving objects while doing experiments on his healing factor at the same time. First, he used his space magic often enough that he became exhausted. When he thought he was weak enough, he created various injuries all over his body.

It hurt more than normal. He didn’t like doing this, but he couldn’t live painlessly in this world as it is.

Every time he cut or bruised himself, his wounds healed much slower than normal. Wounds healed in minutes rather than seconds. His healing factor was still amazing, just slower.

But, it wasn’t like he regained the need to breathe, sweat or excrete waste again. There was something about those needs that was different from his healing factor and stamina.

Of course, he also got the idea to return to the Astrid bar and try getting drunk again.

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Shaula didn’t want him to try pushing his power towards exhaustion. After hearing his heart rate, she wondered if he was harming his body permanently. By using their spatial power too often, would they be unable to heal properly? Would their bodies return to how they were on Earth?

That would be too dangerous in this new environment.

But, after he stopped using his spatial power, his healing factor slowly returned to normal. As long as it kept bouncing back, Shaula couldn’t say anything to Ajax. He does want to do everything he can to go home after all. To see his family again…

But, she doesn’t feel the need to train this power of theirs to exhaustion.

She certainly doesn’t want to sleep again, especially if it’s possible that her nightmares return.

But, they both understood an implication of the resulting exhaustion. At the end of the three days, both of them were still only trying to move an object a short distance. They did try with different objects and different distances. Depending on the mass and distance of an object, they can fail at different probabilities.

They can also consume more energy as well.

How much energy would they need to move both of them across a galaxy?

He would fall asleep before he could even see a result. He would also be turned to dust or mush along the way, just like the objects he had tested. Wouldn’t he just die if he tried to use his power to move himself? Would his healing factor be able to restore a body turned to dust?

They did both arrive on Omicron intact… More questions, always more questions.

So, right now, Ajax is sad that this experiment has ended in a potential limitation. Maybe some drinks will help him through this. This time of night is also when Angelidis shows up to drink normally. The company of her and her friends would also be nice.

Ajax and Shaula enter the bar. They see Meixi, Sudirja and Olah sitting at a table with three people. Angelidis isn’t here right now.

Ajax is about to walk over to their table, but Shaula stops him.

[Do you see… that one there?]

[?]

Ajax turns back to the table; he takes a look at the three strangers one by one. There is a beastkin woman there, a beastkin person of indeterminate gender sitting to her left. To her right…

[What is… Wait, he knows them? What kind of fucking coincidence is… Ok, let’s just quietly–]

“Oh, hey!” Ajax and Shaula have already turned around towards the door. However, a loud voice makes them pause. It’s Olah, as boisterous as ever.

[...We could just ignore her, you know? You want to deal with this?]

[Come on, Shaula, let’s not be like that. I… I still like these people, you know? Also, we were masked up, he won’t even know–]

“What are you two standing there for? Get over here, will you? You’re being rude!”

Ajax and Shaula stiffly walk over, wondering if they should be here right now.

“I’m hoping you’ll be gracious enough to get another round, but I’m not gonna be– Ow! Meixi!?”

“Since Angelidis isn’t here, I’m smacking you for being rude.”

“...Fine, I’m sorry, Ajax, Shaula, forget what I just… Oh, wait, you don’t know who these three are, right?”

“Ah, no, we don’t.” Ajax laughs awkwardly. Olah points to her friends one by one.

“Well, this one here is Sigvor. She’s really nice. But, be fooled, he’s a little wild too. But, don’t be an asshole to him! She gets a lot of pricks who don’t get what her deal is.” They notice how Olah is referring to Sigvor using both masculine and feminine pronouns.

Shaula was curious about how non-binary people are treated in this world. Sigvor raises her drink towards Ajax and Shaula. He has a pretty cunning smile on his face. She is wearing unisex clothing so he appears to have an androgynous preference right now.

“That one there is Malia. She’s a cutie. But, sorry Ajax, she’s taken.” Malia nods towards Ajax and Shaula, smiling softly.

“The last one is her boyfriend, Dzantemir.”

“Hi, you can call me Dzan if you want.” Dzan stands up and shakes both Ajax and Shaula’s hands. He has a big smile on his face as he sits back down.

“So, I heard you two were the ones who made sure that Jelli didn’t get hurt when those pricks mugged her? You have my sincere thanks! What would we do without her?”

Ajax and Shaula’s gazes lingers on Dzantemir. Now they know his name. He is the pickpocket who tried to steal from them, but failed. What a stroke of ‘fortune’ that he also has a connection to Angelidis.

They’ll have to navigate tonight carefully.

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