Transcendence?

by Andur

  “I am. And my mom and dad are reincarnated too. They've lived many more lifetimes than me, so I still regard them as my elders.” Sera points at Ascathon and Celestial, who are now looming over me with the same calculating glare.

  Gods! It's frightening when someone who is ten times bigger looks at you like that.

  “Hi. That's a first. Is this world something like a focus point for reincarnation? How old are you guys? I've lived one thousand, a hundred and four lifetimes.”

  “One thousand and seventy eight.” Sera smiles and pats her chest. “We are almost the same age!”

  “Three thousand and four hundred and five.” Celestial smiles down at me with a dangerous expression. Probably she wants to point out that you shouldn't ask women about their age.

  “I stopped counting after a few thousand lifetimes. It gets boring.” Ascathon replies with a tired voice. “So, would you care to introduce yourself. I am not giving my daughter to a stranger.”

  I gulp while looking into a pair of dangerous eyes. This guy would do perfectly fine as some kind of dungeon boss, or demon king.

  “I am not a bad guy. I live by the rule to help, if it's within my power. I am good with the sword and guns. Spells aren't my forte, but I am confident in my battle aura and at infusing my mana into weapons.” I answer fast.

  “Haah... hearing that from my baby is strange.” Tanith draws me closer and places her cheek on my head.

  Ascathon scratches his cheek while looking down at me, obviously in deep thought.

  “So? What do you think? And could you explain this reincarnation story to your best friend?” Father Kane looks at Ascathon with a forced smile.

  My father's friend covers his face with both hands and starts to rub while moaning. “Okay! Here are the facts. Souls exist! Everyone has one. But some souls are stronger than others and able to carry the memories of previous lives to the new body. We came to call ourselves Immortals. That's because we are simply reborn if our body is killed. I am one, Celestial and Sera too. The Immortal Empress is apparently an Immortal too.” He looks at me. “... and your son is one. That's why he is already able to speak.”

  Tanith sighs above my head. “Somehow that's a little too much for me.”

  “Why don't you lie down on the couch, mom?” I ask her with a worried voice. Please don't lose consciousness and drop me on the floor. That happened to me once already. Speaking of bad parents … Kane looks a little pale too.

  “How many of you are on this world? Are there more?” I ask my elders politely.

  Celestial shakes her head. “We five are the only ones we know of.” She looks at Ascathon. “They should stay here. With the war and all those assassination attempts, there is no way of knowing what might happen to them otherwise.”

  Woohoo! I will get to see the hot device everyday from now on! Suddenly my cheek is grabbed and twisted harshly.

  “Your expression! One minus point! At ten, I will give you a personal training session.” Sera puffs her cheeks.

  “Can we wait until we are sixteen? These bodies aren't suited for such exercises.” I apologize to Sera. I am not a paedophile.

  My mother inhales sharply.

  *SMACK!*

  “Ow …”

  “That wasn't what she meant!” Tanith hit me. My mother gave me a clout! She never did that before.

  “I will try to keep the jokes to a minimum from now on.” I mumble with a silent voice. Unfortunately I am still a baby and dependant on the ones around me.

  Sera hops down from the couch and smiles up at me. “Let's go and play somewhere else, while the adults do their talking.”

  “Huh? I don't see how that's possible, unless you can carry me around with that body of yours?” I look down at the girl to my mother's feet.

  “~No problem! I will take him for a while, Miss Tanith. You adults can keep talking about adult stuff.~”

  I am somehow lifted from my mother's lap and levitate half a metre above her. “W … wait!” But Sera pays no heed to me and skips out of the room while I float after her.

  On the corridor she stops and sets me down to the ground. “I just thought about showing you around the mansion! But it would probably be rude to do so without consent, so where do you want to go first?” Her eyes sparkle.

  This is a strange proposal! No matter how you think about it? You are concerned if I want to be shown around at all, so by letting me choose the location everything becomes okay? What if I want to stay with my parents?

  On the other hand, being shown around by my maybe fiancee isn't that bad? “Which locations are there to see?”

  Sera takes a thinking posture. “Well, there is the survival parkour in my mother's office. Or my father's laboratory! We could play with one of his machines! There are the guards' quarters too. I have an ongoing battle with Den on how far I can infiltrate his private quarters. Then we could avoid traps and guards in the garden. Or we could go and watch the deadly training exercises of Liandra and Violetta! They are trying to keep it a secret from me though.”

  I feel one corner my mouth starting to twitch. “Why do all those options sound like they are life threatening?”

  Sera nods. “I see, you want to do something that's not life threatening. In this house. Well, lets see.” Her forehead starts to create cute wrinkles while she is obviously thinking very hard. She starts to play with her fingers after several seconds.

  “There are no non life threatening activities within this mansion?” I ask after several more seconds of silence.

  “~Nope.~” Sera smiles at me.

  “What's the least life threatening activity you can think of?” I continue the interrogation.

  “Humm... Maybe reading books in the library? Though my dad forgot one of his research notes there and when I looked into it I almost got mindwiped, because he protected it against unauthorized usage.” Sera smiles at me with excitement.

  “Is it safe if we just keep sitting here and do nothing? Except for talking?” Just sitting on this corridor can't be dangerous.

  “We can't do that! Dad installed traps against assassins! If you stay too long in one spot, the corridor starts to do some strange things with your mind. Last month an assassin slit his wrists right here. I found him the next morning and asked my dad about it. He said that I should never watch the walls for too long while it's dark. Though it should be safe in daylight.” She touches her lips like being not sure about that point.

  “Then please move me to the next safest location.” I urge Sera forward.

  Suddenly her face brightens. “I have a good idea! The kitchen!”

  “Ah, good. Kitchen doesn't sound very dangerous.” I nod and smile for the first time.

  “Mom has just a few of her potions there. They shouldn't be very poisonous. And in the big pot at the highest level lives something, but I didn't muster the courage to check it out until now. We will explore that! With you, I have finally someone to watch my back.” She starts to toddle faster while levitating me after her.

  “Potions? Poisons? Something that lives? What kind of kitchen are you talking about!?” I start struggling, but it's in vain.

  “Ah, I haven't told you. My mom is a witch. And dad is a mad scientist. I was never so lucky with my parents!” Sera starts to hum while taking me along.

  The hot device is a witch? My world view is crumbling. I stop struggling and resign to my fate with a dead expression. “Aye. Let's explore the kitchen.”

  That day we had a life and death encounter with a slime, after knocking over the mysterious pot.

  We fought a small moving spider construct in Ascathon's laboratory.

  Then we avoided traps in the garden.

  And we finally got caught and done in by Liandra and Violetta, who turned out to be something like the final boss of this mansion, according to Sera.

  That day I realized that my fiancee had a very hard childhood up until now. And when Kane and Tanith informed me of our prolonged stay, I came to the conclusion
that I'll have to share Sera's fate from now on.

  Why is she so oblivious of her living circumstances?

  64 - Being a boss.

  Norfolk, Sarn-Valley

  Violetta

  “It's a pain in the ass to search for those two!” I complain to Liandra, while we walk along the hallway.

  “You are right. I wanted to train my firestorm spell! Ascathon promised to teach me the next level if I prove to him that I have enough control.”

  “What's the next level of Firestorm? I am a little confused. According to our tutor, there is no next level of Firestorm.” Unless I heard something wrong. I am very sure that my memory is correct on that point.

  Though I am not concentrating on fire magic like Liandra. I am becoming a more traditional mind magician. Creating hallucinations and mirror images is my preferred usage of magic.

  “He said that he would teach me a spell called Firenova! The name alone sounds awesome enough.” Liandra starts to hop a little.

  Right now we are on our way to the kitchen. We took a look at the library first, but there was no one there.

  I puff my cheeks. “That's unfair. My brother should teach me something with an awesome name too.”

  “He taught you telekinesis! Isn't that skill overpowered enough? I am still envious that you can levitate stuff around like nothing!” Liandra opens the door to the kitchen and freezes up.

  “But the name isn't cool.” I take a look at what caused Liandra to stop in her tracks. My expression freezes in place as I try to comprehend the destruction. The kitchen looks like a battlefield!

  The place is a mess! Pots are lying around and there are broken plates and glasses all over the place. In the middle of the room is a charred and half dead slime.

  “Noo! Glutton!” Liandra storms into the room and hugs her pet. She created it herself under Celestial's guidance. Her big sister is teaching her alchemy from time to time.

  I've always had an aversion for the slimy thing in Liandra's hands. “Don't get so worked up about it. Glutton is a slime!” I get Glutton's tilted pot from the shelf.

  Glutton is used by Celestial to dispose of the food leftovers and the pot is his home. I place the pot in front of Liandra and she puts Glutton inside.

  “He will recover. He is just a little charred on the surface.” As a slime, he will regenerate in no time.

  “Still! He feels the pain too! I will punish the one who did it!” Liandra starts to scan our surroundings for clues.

  I start to search myself until I find a clue in the form of small fingerprints of marmalade on a cabinet. “I know only one person with such small hands!”

  “We will get her!” Liandra throws a little food into the pot with Glutton inside. Then we rush outside to search for the wrongdoers!

  “This will take forever. The mansion is huge.” I yield after forty minutes without results.

  “We could use the globe in Ascathon's laboratory.” Liandra suggests.

  “Are you sure? Brother doesn't like it if someone is using his stuff.” I weigh the benefits of using the device against the chance of being caught. “But they caused chaos in Celestial's kitchen. It's probably better to catch them fast.”

  “Yes. It's for the sake of stopping the destruction spree.” Liandra heads for Ascathon's laboratory.

  Arriving at the door, we already hear noises from inside. A metallic chattering and damped explosions! I head for the door and open it.

  A few steps bring me to the room with the machines. I take a quick look at Ascathon's worktable, but everything is untouched. “Puh. His current work doesn't seem to be damaged.”

  “Violetta. I don't think that you should come here.” I turn and arch an eyebrow. The small worktable, which my brother brought down here for me, is empty!

  I rush over to Liandra and …

  “NOOO!”

  I crouch down and gather the pitiful remains of Spidi, my eight legged spider robot! “It took me two months to get him to the point of moving on his own!”

  All my free time was invested in this project. Ascathon helped a little and taught me the basics. Ever since I saw his machines, I wanted to create something that could move by itself. “I will avenge you! We knew each other just for a short time, but that doesn't change my feelings!”

  Liandra pats my shoulder. “For Glutton!”

  I join her. “For Spidi”

  I look around “How did they get out of here? They must have gotten past us!”

  “I think they took another route.” Liandra points at an open air shaft.

  I walk closer and take a look inside. All there is to see, is a pitch black hole. “That one should lead to the garden! If we are fast, we can cut off their path at the veranda.”

  Liandra and I leave the laboratory with fast and purposeful steps. There will be judgement!

  We intercept Sera and Arran like planned. They were just about to enter the house again. “Got you!” I point at the evildoers and call out.

  “Who is that?” The little baby, who is floating beside Sera talks. He has a defeated expression.

  “Ah, may I introduce you? These are Violetta and Liandra. My aunts.” Sera points at us and smiles.

  “Aren't they a little young?” Arran looks at us with a curious expression.

  “We are all from magical bloodlines with much power. So it isn't that strange, if you consider that magicians get very old.” Sera nods.

  “That's of no concern now! Do you know what you did? You destroyed Spidi!” I call out in rage.

  “And you hurt Glutton!” Liandra joins me.

  “What are you talking about?” Sera asks innocently.

  “She did everything! I was just used as a meatshield!” Arran is faster on the uptake and spills the beans.

  “Hey! I thought we fought the slime and the spider construct together!? You even taunted them properly with your screams! We are in this together, since you played your role as a tank!” Sera gasps and starts to rant.

  “Whatever! I call forth shackles of ice, Bind Them!” I point my finger at them, but Sera rolls to the side, moving faster than I expected from her tiny body. Arran gets caught in my ice spell and stops floating around, frozen in mid air. Sera gets to her feet and starts to run away.

  “Wahahaha. Learn some buffs or cast fas... *ouf*” Sera ran right into an earth wall, which was summoned by Liandra. She slowly slides to the ground, while a light dent remains in the earth. Luckily for Sera, Liandra didn't conjure solid rock.

  “I wish to encase, Ice Prison!” I cast another spell to use the opening, but Sera raises her hands.

  “~Counterspell!~”

  I feel my mana being disrupted and the ice prison stops forming. What's going on?

  “I seek to chain! Earth Shackle!” Liandra throws another binding spell at Sera.

  “~Interrupt!~”

  Sera stops the spell again by disturbing Liandra's mana flow. She is able to cast counter magic too easily!

  I raise both hands and hold her in place with telekinesis, lifting her a metre upwards.

  “What! Not fair!”

  I feel Sera trying to counter my telekinesis with her own, but after a few seconds of struggling she goes limp and gives up.

  Five minutes later we have them roped up like a pair of villains. Correction, like the villains they are!

  “And now we will teach you a few rules about harming my pet!” Liandra talks with a strict voice.

  “And... And destroying someone else's property!” I add fast.

  “Why am I roped up too?” Arran continues to sulk.

  “You failed to evade the first spell! Why didn't you evade? I had to fight both of them alone!” Sera isn't listening to us.

  “You got caught too in the end! And how should I evade on my own? I can't even walk yet!” Arran shoots back.

  “I just got caught because they used brute force. Telekinesis is unfair, because it's just a test of your mana reserves. I got done in by brutish methods.” Sera mumble
s.

  *Smack!*

  I gave her a clout. That's for Spidi! “My methods aren't brutish! I worked hard for them! And as a punishment, you will repair Spidi!”

  “And heal Glutton!” Liandra nods.

  “Why are the kids roped up like that?”

  I turn around. “H... Hi, mom.”

  I look at my angry mother and then at the bound up Sera and Arran. Arran still has ice on his clothes, while Sera is dirty and has a small bump on her forehead. The bump was caused by running into Liandra's earth wall. They look like they were bullied by someone.

  “This isn't …”“… as it looks.”

  65 - Sleeping beauty.

  Norfolk, Sarn-Valley

  Ascathon

  It's still early in the morning and I am lying in my bed. Somehow I started to worry about my future actions. Everything evolved on its own up until now. I even ended up controlling Norfolk.

  At least I control it through the snoring figurehead at my side. Celestial is still out cold. She goes to sleep right away, ever since she became the Jarl.

  We also got news that the Academy was taken by the Immortal Empress. She used the opening which was created by the stupidity of the Inquisition.

  So that leaves me with Norfolk, the Kingdom of Mislow, the Nation of Mist, the Phenex Empire and those mysterious manipulators. The Inquisition and their leader still exist too. They just lost their headquarters. There is the fact that Mislow and the Nation of Mist worked together to attack Sarn. So that makes them allies? Or did they act independent?

  It doesn't matter. Both of them are against me. The Inquisition too. And Norfolk isn't as easy to control as one might think. Three against one isn't my idea of a fair fight. Maybe I should try to enter an alliance with Phenex?

  That could give me enough time to advance the technological level of Norfolk. An enemy of my enemy is my friend? The Phenex Empire doesn't seem to be evil. The Immortal Empress is just a little power hungry like every good immortal.

  I also have to try to take a look at Fingulf. That's if he is still alive. Should I send a flying ship to fetch him?

  All kinds of worries are going through my head.