Chapter 26: Chapter 24: A New System

After forty or so minutes, Lilith and Carmen had finished their packing and met back up with Kali. “Sorry for the delay.” Lilith said. “Things ended up being a bit more scattered than we thought they would be.”

“It’s fine.” Kali replied. “Not like we’re really on a time limit here.” She waved a hand, and they were back in the room where Raphael was sleeping. “So, I want to explain a bit about what’s going on, and how we’re going to do things. I can’t just…willy-nilly change the magic system, not in any way that is cheap enough to do or even easy enough to do. The last time I tried, we ended up with the eldritch, and the whole ‘driving people insane’ thing was not intended. So, I’ve had to figure out another way to do things.

“Fortunately, I’ve figured out a way around that. You see, I made yet another mistake when I was designing Perfect Chimeras. They’re supposed to encapsulate everything the magic system has to offer, but…that street goes both ways. If I start giving a Perfect Chimera abilities from outside the system, the system’s going to do its best to integrate those abilities into itself. I can hijack that process to change the system in a much more…natural way.

“I consulted my old Administrator about this, and she helped me figure out what to do. I did a test run when I gave you The King in Yellow, and I’m happy to say it’s worked perfectly; the eldritch should no longer be driving people insane. At least, not by accident, I’ve retroactively added that as a ‘feature’.

“I knew it wouldn’t hurt you, though, I made very sure of that before I even thought about testing it on you.” She said hurriedly. “This process is totally safe on your end. When I was designing Perfect Chimeras, I made a point of making sure they were way more resilient than most things to stuff that’s not normally in the system.”

“So…you’re going to give us this new system first, and then you’re going to use that to spread it to the rest of the world?” Lilith asked. “Seems simple enough.”

“Broadly speaking, yes.” Kali said. “I’m going to make sure there’s a couple months where only you have the system so you can get a head start on everyone. Once the system switches over, everyone has to start from square one, albeit with increased growth rates until they reach the point they were at before. I want to cement the idea of you being much stronger than them in their heads, so they don’t get any funny ideas.”

“That’s all well and good,” Carmen said, “but what’s everyone else going to think? If we just vanish for no reason for a couple of months, people are going to panic.”

“Right. So, I was thinking of a sort of…compromise. I want you to stay at Tunem’s academy and pretend you’re Lilith. I’ll cast a spell that prevents other people from remembering you, so they should just see you as Lilith. Furthermore, since I know things would get lonely here for Lilith, I was planning to bring Siph here as well, both to keep her company and to help us out in our endeavor. She should be able to greatly increase the efficiency of what we’re doing.”

Carmen nodded. “I can handle that.”

“Good. After we’re done talking here, I’ll duplicate your stuff so no one thinks anything is up in that regard.” Kali paused, looking over to Raphael. “That just leaves the matter of Raphael.”

“What about her?” Lilith asked.

“I want to keep her here with us.” Kali said, somewhat nervously. “I don’t like how she’s been treated by Elenoa, and I thought…well, I can’t really stand for that sort of abuse. I can’t just put a blanket stop to it without greatly reducing people’s agency, but I’m personally involved with Raphael, so I don’t want to just let it go.”

Carmen nodded. “I agree. Though, the final decision is up to Lilith, of course.”

Lilith thought about that for a moment. “I’m fine with it, but what’s everyone else going to think? Will Raphael be blocked from their memory like Carmen?”

“Yes.” Kali said. “Siph too, for that matter. That block will be lifted after the system gets officially implemented, of course, but until then no one will come looking.” She paused, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “I think that’s everything I need to explain right now…wait, no, one last thing. I’m going to have to temporarily disconnect you two from each other, I don’t want Carmen automatically getting the new system when Lilith does, it’ll make keeping her cover hard.”

Carmen nodded. “Sensible. When are we doing this?”

“As soon as you’re ready.” Kali replied. “Just let me know when you are, and I’ll knock the both of you out while I tinker with things. I don’t want any unnecessary complications arising during the process, so this should be easier for everyone involved.”

“Alright, I guess I’m ready, then.” Lilith said.

“I as well.” Carmen agreed.

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Kali smiled. “Perfect. I’ll see you in a few hours, then!” She snapped her fingers, and everything went black.

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“Hey, you, you’re finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked into that Society ambush. Same as me, and that angel over there.” Kali said, jerking a finger at the still-sleeping Raphael.

Lilith blinked, sitting up. “What?”

Kali giggled. “You heard me.”

“So…I wake up, ready to help in this massive, world-changing plan, and the first thing you say is a meme?” Lilith said. She took a moment to look around, noting the absence of Carmen. “Where’s Carmen?”

“Already gone. I woke her up a few minutes ago. And as for the meme, I wanted to get us off on the right foot. We’re doing serious work, yes, but that doesn’t mean we need to be serious all the time. Seeing as how you’re going to be rooming here for a bit, if we were all seriousness all the time, I think we’d actually end up with decreased productivity rather than increased. So, rule one, try to keep work and life separate. It’s gonna be a little harder than normal since we’re going to be working in the same place we live, but you have to make time to relax, or your mental state is going to get bad pretty quickly.”

Lilith nodded. “Seems fair enough. When’s Raphael going to wake up?”

“Whenever she feels like it. She’s not under a spell anymore, just regular sleep. Anyway, how are you feeling?”

Lilith paused, moving a little experimentally. “Like garbage.” She said after a bit. “I feel tired and weak.”

“That’s to be expected.” Kali said. “I had to set all of your attributes to what I want the ‘average’ value to be, so you’re a fair bit weaker than you used to be. I’ve gone ahead and given you a Skill that’ll expedite the process of getting you back to your old stats, but it’s gonna take a couple of levels. If you want to check, go ahead and focus on viewing your status, you should get a pop-up window. Ignore all the sealed stuff, that was part of setting the average, it’s temporary.”

Lilith focused and was greeted with a pop-up window, similar to the ones she would receive upon getting abilities before.

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