Chapter 207: Chapter 205 ~ Frozen Meals

//Author Note

I just released 2 new books on this platform, check them out!

//End Note

 

Pulling the frozen pizza out of the crisp plastic bag it was sealed in, I don’t waste any time in thinking. I toss on sliced kabana, pineapple pieces, and a good handful of jalapenos, before drowning it all shredded cheese. A few slices of salami over the top, and it’s ready to cook.

The countertop oven is already heated and ready, so I slide the pizza in and close the door. Depending on how it tastes, I might have to spice it with some extra mana. I brought enough spare mana that we should be fine for the week even using it quite liberally.

“You’re holding your mana in just fine?” I ask Vii, settling onto the couch beside her and handing her a can of Pepsi.

“Yeah, it’s a little straining though.” She says, “Everything wants to suck the mana out of me. Like, how is this any different from a normal atmosphere with low mana density? Why is it that having practically no mana here just makes the world want to suck us dry like this?”

“Don’t know.” I say, shrugging. I don’t feel much of an issue from it myself, but as I’ve already well established, I’m something of a freak compared to most living things in the universe. “Let’s put on some tv… actually, tv’s shit, let’s find something else…”

Scrawling through the handful of streaming services still running, pulling money from my bothers account probably, I see a few old favourites and pick one to put on. The theme song to a decade old anime starts up, and I leave it to run while I check on the pizza.

The cheese isn’t even fully defrosted yet.

“What’s it like growing up here?” Vii asks, watching the colours fly by on the television screen. “You don’t have mana or magic. What do you learn in school? What do you do?”

“Science, math, language, history.” I say, listing off a few classes from my memory. “Everything is still similar, just a little different. Oh, and we do have better entertainment. More options for what to watch, what to do with your free time.”

Vii nods, staring at the screen. She asks more questions, delving into my past school life, and what I was going to be here if I never left. My answers fall flat, as she constantly expects more of me than I can deliver.

“I’m sure you’d have risen to the top here too.” Vii says, shuffling up to my side. “You’d have used science, and you’d find a way to rule over this world and reach out into the wide universe after.”

I just smile and hug her.

The truth is, that I was satisfied with this nothing lifestyle that I was living back here. I didn’t want to rule over others, or at least the want was never so tempting as to draw me into action. I was happy enough just living quietly, happy and safe.

I think it was that ship ride, seeing more of the universe, and being tossed into the violence of that mad-world where your life is worth less than the mana in your body. I think that was the turning point for me, where I realised that I have to do something if I want this life to continue.

It started as a bluff, pretending that I’m fine. Now, I’ve been fighting for so long that it’s become a part of me. This room just feels like something that I left behind.

I realized that the villains in the real world aren’t comic book evil, they’re just more people trying to get what they want. No different from animals hungering for a meal. I realized back then that I need to take what I want, and protect what I love, and that no one else will do that for me.

But maybe, I can be someone who gives others a chance to be protected without pushing themselves to fight and kill, like I have. I want for a world where survival of the fittest doesn’t demand greater and greater violence, but where we can instead work together to build something more beautiful.

“What’s that? It’s magic, right? How do you know about magic?” Vii asks excitedly pointing at the magical girl onscreen, summoning a thousand flintlock styled rifles from nothingness.

“Myth and legend, and a little bit of madness.” I say, prying myself up from the couch and looking over the pizza. It looks ready, and the timer is nearly going off.

It’s when I’m in the middle of cutting up the pizza, that the door is thrown open and a tall man charges into the room. He barely even takes a moment to look around, before he charges right at me, leaning down with his arms wide.

“Kyra!”

“Berty!” I say, smiling despite myself and wrapping him up in my own arms. The bear of a man is exactly as I remember him, from his fuzzy orange hair to the big blue eyes, though they’re shining with tears of joy right now.

“When I saw the call was from the home phone, I knew it had to be you.” He says, letting me go but still holding my shoulder firmly. “I mean, who else would it be? Have you been alright? Can you tell me about it?”

“I’ll tell you all about it.” I say, “But first let me get this pizza served up, could you pour some drinks? Make it three, I have a guest.”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t even notice.” He says, turning around to look at Vii who stares back at him with wide eyes, and a ferocious curiosity only tamed by her equally powerful anxiety. I’ve gotten to know her well enough to recognise those emotions running through her face.

“This is Vii, ah… how’s the translator working? Should we stick him with one?” I ask Vii, who nods sharply. The conversation won’t get very far if all Vii says sounds like random chirping.

“How will this work without mana?” I ask, looking at the small silver blob in my hands. The thing has mana in it, but will it still work when the mana bleeds out into the environment?

“It’ll probably be fine.” Vii says, sounding even less certain than I am.

“So, who’s you’re friend, what’s this? And just, what?” Berty asks, poking the silver blob in my hands. Of course, this is sufficient to set it off.

He panics as the liquid runs up his arm, trying to swat it off.

“Just let it do its thing.” I insist, to try and calm him down, but it doesn’t work. He claws at the liquid until it’s fully sunk into his flesh, beyond his reach.

“Well, I guess we’ll see how this goes then.” I say, as he finally stops panicking. He looks over his body in confusion, swallowing back a dozen questions at least when he returns his attention to me. “At worst it’ll probably just leak out of your ears when it runs out of mana, like when I pull them out of people.”

Vii flinches, likely remembering the time I did that to her. Let’s hope it goes a little less painfully for Berty.

“Vii, this is my big brother Berty.” I say, introducing him while pulling him over to the lounge room.

“Robert Baker.” He says, his voice a little distant and hollow, his eyes unable to focus on the wings and talons that should really be putting him off. He’s polite regardless of his current state of shock.

“Berty, this is Vii. My girlfriend.” I say, Vii timidly waves one of her wings, and he jumps out off his frozen state realizing that he has to say something.

“Oh, ah. Wow.” He seems taken aback, and I’m not sure he’s really even present with us right now. “I didn’t know you were into feathers and things...”

“I wasn’t.” I reply dryly, meeting his eyes and shaking him a little to try and get him back. “I love Vii as a person, and she’s woman enough that the rest doesn’t really put me off, if you must know.”

“Ah, sorry, sorry.” He bows his head a few times in apology, before shaking his head, his eyes clearing up just a little bit. “This is all… What was that silver thing?”

“A translator, and a little more. There’s like textbooks and stuff, and… we’ll talk about the rest later. Sit down and eat something.” I say, pushing him into a chair.

“What is this school they sent you to? Some alien Hogwarts, or something?”

“I mean there’s magic, there’s all sorts of strange people and species, but I’m not sure that I’d really draw a connection to Harry Potter. Not enough humans, and pretty far from Earth.” I say.

“Right, right…” He nods slowly as his eyes settle on the television, I don’t think he was expecting an answer in the affirmative.

“Hogwarts?” Vii asks.

“It’s from a book, I’ll download a copy and you can read it when we get back.” I say as I get the food and drinks, setting them down on the tea table in front of the couch.

“How have you been while I was away?” I ask Berty, hoping a change in topic might help him return to his bearings.

“I’m still forming connections and keeping up with politics.” He says, chuckling. “It’s been rather exciting, a few countries have been annexed, a plague hit the world that might or might not have been an intentionally released bio-weapon. At the very least it proves a potential use case for them, and I’m sure the worlds powers are paying attention and formulating responses.

“We might even be heating up to a new era of cold war.” He says, with a great big smile.

“Isn’t that a bad thing?” I ask.

“Well yeah, and I’ll try to make this world a better place, but that doesn’t mean it’s not exciting.” He says. “The world is spinning, and a thousand different plots are being made, and unravelled even as we speak.”

“Oh, so who’s winning?” Vii asks. “What faction should we be backing?”

“No one’s winning yet, but they’re all rather awful choices to side with. Instead, you have to consider the future and what each can become, and side with a faction that has a chance of becoming something better in the future.” Berty says, starting to dive into a geopolitical breakdown with Vii, completely forgetting her alien nature as he gets into the zone.

“Oh!” He jumps, breaking himself off from his rant. “That’s right. You’re only here for a week, right? Tell me, how is it? Where is it? What’s it like? Just, explain everything.”

“Oh, let me!” Vii says, worked up by Berty’s own passionate speech. “Kyra started off boarding the ship without any mana, so like, each time we teleported between worlds it was really, really painful. All the other humans were screaming and crying in a corner, but she just sat down and started talking to people and even ordered a meal! Kyra’s incredible!”

Vii is passionate enough to run right over Berty’s complaints and worries, answering his questions quickly and barely giving him a chance to say anything himself. He’s clearly still confused about the whole mana/magic thing, but that’s not what he’s focused on.

With great energy, Vii describes the beginnings of our adventure together. This, of course, covers the fall of our ship and the terrible hell we went through back there.

Berty’s face is pale at the descriptions, but his eyes look angry. I’ve not seen him look like that often, but I know that when he does start getting serious that no one should mess with him, not like he’d be able to do anything even if he was with us out there.

I’m the only one interested in the pizza, but the familiar flavours filling my mouth are not quite as nice as what I’ve been eating recently in my own home. We usually order our food from that talented chef, if I remember correctly she and Slan, that snake man who’s always helping out, have finally started going out properly.

“So, we were exploring under the academy, and-”

“And we rescued some people from prison and started a small empire in the hollow world underneath.” I say, squeezing in beside her and stopping her short with a firm voice. “You can go into more detail later, Vii. For now, I want to cut to the chase.

“We came here to hire some people who would be interested in helping us build our little empire. I don’t know enough about politics, economics, psychology, or engineering. I was especially interested in picking up engineers and psychologists, maybe some experts in early childhood learning too, we have a swarm of baby bugs about to spawn.”

“Don’t forget our own kids.” Vii says, cuddling up to my side. “They’re going to grow up big and strong, and conquer galaxies.”

“Damn right.” I say, chuckling at the thought.

“Wait, you two… how… what? Why?” He falls back into his chair again, his eyes wide.

“Nel, one of my other girlfriends back home is pregnant with our children.” I say. “I forgot to mention that.”

“Congratulations…” He says, more confused than ever before, but still filled with a quiet rage that he just can’t quite lose. I’m sure he’ll be excited for us by the time we introduce them to him.

“So, I was hoping you could help us in reaching out. I don’t really know how to go about hiring engineers, weapons designers, scientists, or any of the experts we’re after. Especially since the offer has them leaving behind their families, and there’s a chance that they won’t be able to return to Earth afterwards.”

“That’s… I can do something about that.” He says, pulling a small laptop out of his bag and tapping away at the keys. “There’s so much that I just don’t understand, so much that’s just… I want to hear about it all. I want you to tell me about it, but for now… I can do this.”

“Thank you.” I say, settling back down. If it’s in his hands, I know we can trust that it’ll be properly dealt with.

 “I… okay, I’m guessing any culture and language is fine… I’ll have a friend of mine translate it and share it around to all the right people. How were you looking at paying them?”

“Does gold work?” I ask, showing him our collection.

You are reading story The Unified States of Mana at novel35.com

He doesn’t even flinch at the sight, just shaking his head and returning his gaze to the computer screen while whispering expletives to himself.

“You have a lot to explain.” He says after a few moments. “That summary wasn’t even the start, was it?”

“No.” I admit.

He nods.

“I’ll convert the gold into useful currency, and we can use that. Lump sum payment prior to leaving for the project, how long are you looking at hiring them for? An initial contract at least?”

“A year?” I say. “I should be able to get them back around then, if they don’t want to stay. Dealing with the mana problem might be an issue if they want to come back, but I’ll leave that for latter.”

“Alright. I have a draft together already. I’ll just clean it up and upload it, and we’ll see who we can get.” He says, sighing as he sets the computer aside to face me.

In the background, on the screen, a battle rages on between heroes and monsters. It’s yet to be revealed that things aren’t quite so simple, that the monsters were once heroes, and that the heroes will become monsters.

“How are you?” He asks me, his eyes digging into mine. “Are you okay? No lies.”

“I’m… I’m okay.” I say. The emotions swirling inside me aren’t repressed, but sometimes they do overcome me, and sometimes it’s just easier to pretend that I feel nothing at all. “I just need to get everything ready, and then I’ll be out of your hair.”

“Don’t talk like that.” He says, pulling me in close for a hug. “Your family, we’re meant to bother each other with things like this. Tell me all about it, and I’ll do everything I can to help make it better. I’ll help you build yourself a nuclear warhead if that’s what you need right now.”

“Even though I’m a mass-murdering dictator.” I ask.

“Even though you’re a mass-murdering dictator.”

“The best mass-murdering dictator our reality will ever know.” Vii says, nervously watching us with a smile on her lips. “And much nicer than I ever thought you’d be.”

“Do you need to cry?” He asks, patting my back.

“No. I’m fine.” I say, closing my eyes and pretending that I feel safe.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

Stats and Skills

 

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 32,718 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 16,262 / 30,266 shards

 

Mana volume at crystallisation density (Max. mana volume):

Kyra: 30,266 shards

Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards

Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards

 

~Forms

Mana Canon

-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)

-Blood Fuel (20,000 mana shards)

-Bone Magic Storage (40,000 mana shards)

-Nail Shifters (50,000 mana shards)

 

Dancer

-Flash Nerves (8,000 mana shards)

-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)

-Burst Reflex Muscles (35,000 mana shards)

-Layered space Muscles (80,000 mana shards)

 

Turtle

-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)

-Catalyst Sweat Glands (140,000 mana shards)

-Repulsive Skin (80,000 mana shards)

-Prehensile hair (10,000 mana shards)

-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (100,000 mana shards)

 

Investigator

-Wide eyes (5,000 mana shards)

-Wide ears (5,000 mana shards)

-Sharp nose (5,000 mana shards)

 

Misc.

-Clean bowels (Adapted)

 

 

~Favourited Skills:

-Tag and Film

-Trapping

-Stealth

-Mana surge movement

-Annihilation defence

-Annihilation flame burst

-Annihilation net

-Eyes of an Empire

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

//Author Note

More chapters available

Patreon: 

Substack: 

You can find story with these keywords: The Unified States of Mana, Read The Unified States of Mana, The Unified States of Mana novel, The Unified States of Mana book, The Unified States of Mana story, The Unified States of Mana full, The Unified States of Mana Latest Chapter