Archive Of Potentialities.

Short story: Of Slime and Blood -- 4

"I guess his mind gave out?" I said as I caught the young blonde swordsman before he could hit his head on the hard ground.

"Whose fault is that? I wonder." Luminous didn't seem very amused, already pinning the blame on me.

"A mystery, honestly." I played along before looking at the kid, his sword was still clutched tightly in his fingers, sending wave after wave of frantic threats at me.

His blond hair was of a more lustrous shade than his sister's, and was way longer as well. He looked twelve, but I could tell that he could dish out violence just as potent as any full grown man.... mensch? Whatever they're called in this world.

There were a few peculiar things about this boy; his whole being that reeked of fey, his possession of this sword with its twisted form of sentience, the book giving off a dark aura in his pack.

I took the sword in my left hand, only for it to attempt to eat through my multidimensional barrier.

It failed, of course, but it was an admirable attempt.

A conditional circuit?

[[Indeed. The blade does not have such attack power on its own. Rather, the act of picking it up without gaining its acknowledgment is considered to be the same as surrendering oneself to its retaliation, effectively making any barriers useless.]]

Man, why is everything so advanced in this world?

Anyway, peculiar stuff. But all that paled in comparison to what I saw in his soul.

"Hmm, the god who brought him here is quite innovative." I mumbled aloud as I keenly observed the overly intricate system of growth this boy had been blessed with.

I doubt anyone other than me and a select few others with remarkable analysis skills and experience would be able to spot it. I can't tell exactly how it works even now, but I suspect it won't take too long.

A few minutes, perhaps?

"Innovative? Or just more motivated to work than you?" Luminous hit me where it hurt, slightly.

"Nuh uh, it doesn't count. This is clearly a hobby rather than work that actually matters." I picked the boy called Erich and his sister, placed the boy in his master's hammock to mess with both of them a little, then I placed the changeling on the luxurious couch.

"Well, I'm not much better actually." She said before glancing at the empty space in front of her, looking unamused.

Agrippina du Stahl appeared in that same spot just a second later.

After doing some.... editing...to a few things that would be better left unsaid, I had managed to create legitimate documents for both Luminous and myself.

Agrippina looked especially exhausted and bleak after witnessing my magical genius - I just made the fake documents a universal reality by leveraging my authority with Diablo's Ultimate skill, but she didn't have to know any of that - and voila, anti-forgery magic can't detect something that the whole world agrees is real. A bit overkill but I can't be blamed when the damn College insists on being thorough about everything.

And so, she went on to take care of the more mundane parts of this whole arrangement, and was returning right now.

The Methuselah immediately zeroed in on her hammock, or rather, the blond boy napping leisurely within it.

Her magic churned a bit before she immediately remembered who she left in her atelier.

She looked at me, I almost thought I'd done her the greatest injustice but I didn't care and gave her a small shrug.