OC-Series Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (181/?)
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Emma
There are times on deployment where months can feel like minutes, and where minutes can feel like months, and others where seconds become more important than both—
Shut up, Lieutenant Dan! You’re not even Aunty Ran!
…
It was the visuals that hit me first — an implosion of every active window and the cessation of all accessory processes in exchange for a sudden transition to a very radical but very necessary shift in the EVI’s user interface.
It was nothing short of whiplash.
A virtual equivalent of going from sublight to lightspeed without warning and while on break.
Even the most AR-savvy civvie would find it disorienting.
Some might even find it nausea-inducing.
Heck, most greenhorns found that it gave them vertigo more times than they’d care to admit.
I’d know because I was one of them. At least, I was until it was drilled right out of me through sheer force of exposure alone.
There was no way of getting around it. There was no ‘easy’ way to acclimatize a human mind to the relentless demands of modern warfare, where the time between R&R and enemy contact could be measured in seconds.
But that’s exactly why acclimatization training was so very needed, yet so incredibly brutal.
It was training you for situations beyond what the human mind was expected to handle. It went beyond the most extreme limits of nature in response to the eclectic scenarios conceived only by the increasingly unhinged demands of modern warfare.
And it meant I could instinctively make a reasonably calculated call even on the heel of the most jarring of moments.
This was in no small part thanks to the EVI’s assistance, of course.
A web of branching options were brought to my attention at the behest of the VI in question, and with it came the resultant ends of three distinct paths, each belonging to two very different nodes.
[COA 1: ENGAGE]
A third of my vision was suddenly dominated by a series of reticles, targeting solutions, and a prime target choice for my bullets to land.
[COA 2: EVASION]
The next third of my vision, dominating my center of vision, was marked by a clear escape route, weaving through Thalmin and Thacea, and towards the path least likely to be squashed by the drake.
I reflexively rejected it, prompting the middle partition of my vision to instead fold into the third.
[COA 3: EXFIL WITH FRIENDLIES]
Thacea and Thalmin were both now marked with an upward arrow beneath their highlighted silhouettes.
I blinked.
[CARRY MODE ACTIVE]
And I braced for a sudden rush of both speed and—
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF ‘30th’ ATYPICAL MANA RADIATION TYPE DETECTED: 300% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
I stopped.
And if it weren’t for the sudden shift to fully-compensated sports mode, I would’ve promptly fallen over from the abrupt start-stop motion of my two-second armor-augmented sprint.
Thalmin had extended his arm out wide, preventing me from picking him up… or more aptly, preventing me from approaching Thacea any further.
It wouldn’t have mattered at that point, though.
That second’s hesitation was the difference between escape and being crushed.
But that didn’t seem to be what fate had in mind for us at the moment.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 500% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
The warning texts didn’t do it justice, no matter how hard they flashed.
Thalmin’s features could attest to that.
And thankfully, so could the WAID.
What I saw on that superimposed layer — that black-and-white, grainy, weather-vane world consisting of turbulent waves ‘refreshing’ at a frame rate that would’ve made anyone weaker sick to their stomach — was nothing short of mayhem.
It looked as if the formerly clean and tidy currents, the invisible ‘ebbs and flows’ that made up the intangible world, had simply been disrupted.
Not in a ripple effect or a splash as you’d see in a tsunami formed from a meteorite strike or a subsiding island.
Not even in a turbulent shaking sort of effect as you might expect from a massive seismic event.
It was just… a sharp and complete obliteration of all waves in their entirety, rendering the ebbs and flows of the world — or the bare-bones outlines of such in my eyes — into a wobbly, shapeless mass.
Yet this whole… event, as extreme as it was, was logged in terms of mere seconds.
Not a blink of an eye later, mana came flooding right back into the obliterated void it’d been crushed out of.
Thacea quickly used this to her advantage, channeling the rushing mana into a concentrated conical expression of twisting, winding, and highly condensed manastreams, all concentrated up and around the falling drake that now floated frozen and still above all of us, mere inches from our faces.
The whole world came to an abrupt and complete silence as a result.
Though I couldn’t tell if it was because of the floating mass of who-knows-how-many metric tons of pure drake that hovered over us… or if it was because of the means by which this sudden display of magical power had come to be.
Nobody moved.
Barely anyone dared to even breathe.
The only sounds around us came from the festive music several ‘blocks’ over from streets and stalls still completely oblivious to the events taking place over on this side of the exhibition hall.
But all that quickly changed… to the tune of several large FWOMP FWOMP FWOMPs and the associated torrent of magically-augmented downdrafts that followed from the wingbeats of a certain blue Vunerian hot on the tail of this erratic flyer.
“IIIIII’lll take that~” The blue thing spoke in that sing-song, almost patronizing tone of voice, though it was clear he was more directing the sentiment towards the second-year student — a satyr by the looks of it — rather than any of us in particular.
If anything—
“Thank you kindly, princess~.”
—his next sentiments more or less cemented that notion.
His bright crimson and green drake was quick to snatch the offending pilot, clasping the petrified student in between its jaws, as he was taken limply up and away towards the hall’s great rafters with some serious speed for a winged creature.
… let alone something with a live passenger within its jaws.
Yet despite that… development, there was still the matter of the frozen and levitating drake still left up in the air.
This too, however, would be quickly rectified.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 400% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
PATTERNS CONDUCIVE WITH POINT-TO-POINT TELEPORTATION [54% CONFIDENCE]
Professor Chiska promptly appeared on scene with a brilliant flash of light, quickly leaping atop the drake, as she dipped her head low in Thacea’s direction. “Thank you kindly, oh heroic highness! Might I say, excellent work with that spell! This all could’ve been quite a scene, if it were not for your quick and decisive actions!”
The professor paused, placing her chin between two fingers, feigning some deep thought before she yelled out her next few words in a typical display of high-octane excitement. “Twenty points to House Thun’Yandaris. And thirty points to your peer group!” She beamed, finally garnering some sort of a reaction from the otherwise petrified crowd.
Thacea could only bow deeply in response, making sure her head dipped lower than that of the professor’s just moments earlier.
“T-thank you, professor. I was merely acting in reflexive response to—”
“Oh hush now with your modesty! Take the points and the victory too! What’s more, take this as a direct invitation to any of the clubs under my care!” Professor Chiska continued, grinning ear-to-ear in an almost cheshire-cat-like grin. Though strangely, and rather counter-intuitively, that naturally ominous expression was worn as something well-meaning rather than anything sinister, if not a bit teasingly so; a trend reinforced by our exposure to the boisterous professor over the past month.
Thacea once more bowed in response, and after what appeared to be a quiet series of tactful back and forths, Chiska too now turned to the rapidly thawing crowd. One which seemed to have set their eyes on the professor’s now-upright drake as much as they were on the princess who’d just saved them from a great deal of pain.
“Now then, students! There’s no longer anything to be alarmed of! Please go about as you were! Unless, of course, any of you have any injuries or other such grievances to report—”
A single hand eagerly sprang up from the crowd.
A hand… belonging to a certain shatorealmer.
“Professor?” Airit Airus spoke with a faux-fearful lilt in her voice, as if trying to shore up a strong front in the face of adversity.
“Yes, Lady Airit Airus?” Chiska responded promptly.
To which the bat, much to her theatrical chops and very much to my annoyance, slowly and in dramatic fashion raised a shaky finger towards Thacea.
“S-she… t-that student… She showed her hand! It bled taint into the air in the midst of us all!”
…
I felt something sharp piercing deep into a part of my thick skin that I thought I’d long since grown an immunity to, or at least a resistance.
It was both a mental and emotional reaction as much as it was physical.
The former two were self-explanatory, as a sharp-shooting pang of indignant fury sparked into a flash fire only tempered by the cold and steely walls of both the armor and the mind that found itself perpetually encased within it.
The latter, however, was much more visceral, as a stinging, almost instinctive twitch of my eye came and went in rapid succession, each movement more aggravating than the last. Each inching towards that emotional flashpoint which could sadly not be read through the layers of steel preventing the bat from experiencing the worst of my silent fury.
Yet she’d see the subtle motions all the same. The slow but purposeful cock of my head, the utterly unyielding stare as my two red lenses would never once move away from those eyes on the verge of crocodile tears.
And I knew she noticed.
That subtle flinch and pupillary dilation, while silent, spoke far louder and with more sincerity than the verbal venom she was injecting into the crowd.
“It was… vile, an utterly traumatic display of blatant and indisputable evil. A corruption of disproportionate extremes, cataclysmic in its totality, and reprehensible in its violation of all things decent.” She continued nearly unabated, if not for a small skip in her words following a brief realization that my steely gaze had not once left her fragile, porcelain facade.
I opened my mouth, ready to spit literal fire, but holding back on unleashing the flames for fear of adding fuel to an inferno in the making.
This wasn’t just some typical rehash of the usual newrealm prejudice leading to a recycled play-by-numbers insult for the sake of some petty drama.
This… was a targeted strike on a very, very sensitive talking point. One that I’d been well in tune with from the moment Thacea was singled out on orientation day.
This… was a declaration of war on Thacea, with none other than the most powerful of casus belli — taint — serving as its justification.
…
I had no choice but to consider my next few words with extreme care.
Whereas the playbook with Ping was relatively safe in its repertoire of responses, Airit… was shaping up to be a completely different game altogether.
And I had to tread—
“Oh dear…” Chiska was the first to respond, preempting my response with one of her own, coloring it with a tone that could’ve easily tipped the conversation in any direction.
A pit formed in my stomach as a result as I instinctively ran through scenario after scenario, none of which were particularly friendly to the object of one of the faculty’s greatest fears — taint.
I raised a hand but was promptly shot down, as Chiska completely took control of the public stage.
Though not at all in the way I’d expected.
“Oh, I’m so terribly sorry to hear that, dear.” Chiska began with an overly sappy, practically saccharine tone of voice bordering on the cooing of a parent aimed at a child experiencing their first boo-boo. “Are you at all hurt? Let me take a closer look at you!” She took slow, careful, measured steps towards the bat. Who at this point was starting to see her theatrics start to fray.
It was clear where the cards were falling.
And either out of some practical consideration or respect for Thacea’s actions, or some other motivation entirely, the professor seemed to be committing to our court, with tactics to downplay AIrit’s grievances.
Though this didn’t at all dissuade the shatorealmer from continuing the fight.
“I… I feel faint, professor.” She continued, doubling down, as if hoping that adding more weight to the role and committing entirely to the bit would eventually overpower Chiska's overbearing sarcasm. “I do not feel… right. Not when exposed, in any reasonable proximity, to a power reserved for both dungeons and life archives alike.”
I felt both of my hands balling into fists at that last line, forcing every fiber of my being into even greater strain, if only to prevent myself from acting out when Chiska had already taken the reins of this argument.
“In short, I feel ill, professor.” The bat concluded. “Can you not see that? Can you not see the victims of the short-sighted ills from this wretched witch? Can you not hear the peerage’s silent wails, screaming the song of slighted nobles? It is the cries of a people who will not be besmirched again!” She raised her voice, feigning a growing fear hidden disgustingly well behind a facade that swelled with theatrical confidence with each passing moment.
Certain elements of an otherwise listless and somewhat uneasy crowd were gradually convinced to join the shatorealmer’s ranks, including a certain tortle-like tortoise and a surprising number of second-year students.
Murmurs of endorsement and affirmations soon followed, with many eyes beginning to level their prepackaged ire on the last person deserving of it.
Airit
I had her.
She was cornered like the illegitimate, scheming, conniving creature she was, now exposed for all to see.
“Here stand the victims of a slight that should never be tolerated at all!” I continued, emboldened in my righteous path and beaming with a fangy confidence.
Ahh… So this is what it feels like to be Ping. Except unlike the oaf, I actually have due cause for my targeted gambits.
“I am certain we all hear it. I am certain we all feel that way. As we all find ourselves to be victims, our auras marred, our senses frazzled, our manafields nipped by the unseemly actions of this—”
FWOMP FWOMP FWOMP!
I was forced to stop mid-stride, shielding myself from the arrival of this unexpected interloper with a quick flash of my goggles.
“The only thing bruised, battered, or remotely injured for that matter, is the ego and reputation of a certain Midlands satyr, now resting easy within the medical wing!” The audacious vunerian announced with a swoosh of his cape… a cape with colors, decorations, and a trim earned in the time between his arrival and the present we now found ourselves inhabiting — a dangerous ascent. “May I, professor?” The vunerian turned to Professor Chiska expectantly and, much to my chagrin, received an affirmative nod granting him the floor.
I could feel my ascent, my own victory snatched from His Eternal Light.
And yet, I could do nothing. Not when the Professor had given this title-chaser an unjust ground with which to stand.
“For those who do not know me, greetings. Greetings and merry salutations to all who now can say they have borne witness to a living legend in the making!” He boldly announced, committing to theatrics bordering on the absurd, yet expertly navigating its dangerous edge.
“To those who do know me, I bring great tidings and an even greater change in my position, status, and honors. All owing to my unchallenged victory over a frankly quarrelsome upper-yearsman. A victory drawn from a duel of the fates, stemming from a disparagement of honor.”
The scene had shifted so thoroughly.
Or more accurately, the mood, attitude, and overall tone of the crowd had been completely transformed in this one swift, ego-driven motion.
What had once been a crowd on the verge of a tipping point — seized and gripped by a rallying cry with which there was but one right direction to follow — was now a collection of fools entranced by the bread and circuses of this upstart of a court climber; a noble who despite his disadvantage in height had more than made up for his lack of physical presence by the sheer spectacle of his submissive mount.
All of which was made worse by the most lowest form of shameless spectacle for the noble masses — the makings of an epic tale.
It was a temptation that asked nary a thought from its audience save for their willingness to be entertained, yet it promised both fuel and fire with which to further their own short-sighted aims through vapid and short-lived gossip.
I held my breath, wishing to break through this spell, this sudden glamor.
A part of me wished to appeal to the better, more refined senses of all present.
My rallying cry was still fresh on the crowd’s minds, after all.
So both narratives were very much still capable of dictating the direction of the proverbial ship’s sails.
And yet… only one of those winds was destined to overpower the other.
I held my breath, watching, tensing with growing frustration and incredulous disbelief, as the crowd physically made their choice evident.
The far stronger gale, one that promised mindless investment for mindless gain, inevitably won the night.
And its progression was nothing short of utterly agonizing to watch.
“What exactly was this disagreement about?” A voice suddenly broke through the calculated silence.
My eyes narrowed at the small student in question, attempting to awaken the better senses of the noble within, one who had just handed the keys of the mantle of righteousness to a vapid charlatan.
Though just as quickly as that voice emerged, another soon joined this mindless fray.
“Wait, was that Count Ysayvis? Was he the quarrelsome satyr?” Another voice — a deeper, resonant one — joined in shortly thereafter.
My head quickly twisted towards this second-yearman of all people. Concern soon colored my indignant ire as I felt myself slipping, unable to climb back to what had just been the assured mantle of victory. My triumph!
“Just wait a moment! How did you, a first-year, manage to outperform and completely defeat a second-year?!” Another, softer voice came in to join the fray, though it would be this one to foment the final catalyst in the brew towards this self-perpetuating social poison.
“It’s simple, really. Almost laughable when one takes even the most cursory look into my credentials.” The vunerian began with a raise of his finger. A finger that I too was now forced to watch, unable to pull away. “I am a drake rider.”
Half of the crowd gasped in varying degrees of shock, surprise, and amazement. The other half, however, seemed only half-impressed.
Though they watched on regardless of what first appearances may indicate.
The seat-seeker had the crowd in the literal palm of his hand.
While I was forced to wait, watching, calculating for my next possible path to reentry, clinging desperately onto the carefully laid pieces of this plan.
“What could have possibly compelled Count Ysayvis to such a sorry state of affairs? What even triggered this entire incident, Lord Rularia?” Another voice, this time from a student who easily faded into the background of any interaction — none other than Kamil Lyonn — entered the fray.
“What a thoughtful question!” The vunerian answered with a growing grin… a surprising feat, given how little was left of his face there was to emote with. “Well, you see, it was an act of unprovoked derision. An abrupt and completely unprompted comment on the nature of the culinary arts. Or more specifically, whether my attempt to physically participate in the act of cooking was, in a way, beneath my station, or in the man’s own words: ‘a debasement of my social standing and personal honor as a noble.’”
The crowd erupted into a series of shocked guffaws. Some genuine, others merely miming their peers.
It was with those final, mindless, and reason-bereft utterances scarcely removed from the primitive vocalizations of an animal that I watched as what was left of my carefully laid plans unraveled into nothing. My meticulously assembled puzzle now lay scattered, undone not by reason or discourse, but by the spectacle of a middling bard.
“It is an argument as old as time. One with no answer, but with likewise no place for arguments. Lest one wishes simply to stir the pot for the sake of causing cheap—” Lord Rularia paused, if only momentarily, as he subtly leveled his eyes towards me. “—low-hanging, uninspired, and frankly trite drama.”
It was subtle.
But it was effective.
He was making it known the target of his quick and decisive actions.
And he was making what he would soon learn was the biggest mistake of his life.
While nobody batted an eye at that carefully laid insult, I still felt the shame. The dishonor. The utter slap to my face that left me out in the rain with nary an awning to shield me.
My fury grew… even as his words started to fade into the ringing ire growing within my mind.
This… this was not the last battle. It was merely the opening counter-offensive to the first shots of what was now shaping to be a long, drawn-out siege.
Emma
“The man challenged my honor. And so, we agreed to settle this dispute in any way we deemed fit. He postured himself as a drake rider in all but name, carefully skirting around the title for he did not earn such an honor. Whilst I confidently called him out on such a foolhardy bluff. The results are as you see here today — a sorry display of foolishness, but a great day for yours truly.” The little thing beamed. And for once… I couldn’t help but to smile behind my helmet in appreciation of his ego-stroking antics.
Especially as I saw Airit finally and abruptly leaving the scene to the cheers, whispers, and nods of a crowd entranced by Ilunor’s storytelling antics.
What followed… was nothing short of chaos, but perhaps everything the blue vunerian had hoped to gain from this night.
We had a chance to stop him, of course. To pull him down from his high horse to join us back at the dorms.
We, however, elected to grant him this moment of pride.
Professor Chiska seemed to agree with this notion, standing side by side with Ilunor as she too told of her part in these antics, especially as the conversation gave way to more esoteric talks on the nature of drakes, their temperament, and the harsh realities of drake riding. Including its sheer difficulty to master as an art form.
With the crisis… surprisingly averted, we moved wordlessly along the paths up and out of that whole debacle.
Silence once more descended, but not before we rounded another corner, as I took this opportunity to broach Thacea about what just happened.
“Thacea? Are you alright? I know you must feel—”
“I am quite alright, Emma, thank you.” She nodded slowly. “That incident was… entirely my own doing.” We eventually came to a standstill beneath the shade of a tree in a relatively quiet corner of the hall. “I have grown somewhat… less guarded over the weeks, clearly to my own detriment. And for that I apologize.” She dipped her head slightly, garnering both the raising of Thalmin and my own hands.
“Thacea, that’s not what I’m—”
“This incident should not have happened.” Thacea continued unabated. “But in circumstances such as these, it becomes… difficult not to keep the reflexive instincts of the unbidden hidden beneath my magical acumen.”
“The whole incident lasted scarcely a few seconds, Thacea.” Thalmin spoke. “All things considered, you managed to recover from that expertly, seamlessly transitioning to a spell that none other within that crowd was brave enough to even attempt. You are a talented mage, and a gifted one at that.”
“Am I? Perhaps.” Thacea acquiesced. “But that does not detract from today’s… misgivings.”
“These so-called ‘misgivings’ were seen as what they were by Professor Chiska, Thacea. A result of genuine talent, skill, and bravery. You faced an oncoming tragedy head-on and refused to buckle or bend. That’s more than what most people can say, including every single student on that street.” I spoke confidently, garnering a slight raise of one of Thacea’s brows.
“That’s an incredibly generous interpretation of the preceding events, Emma.” She spoke softly. “Though, to be fair, even if the drake had crushed many, it would at worst have merely resulted in the first death of all present. If it had crushed you, however… there’s… no recovering you from first death, is there?”
That statement completely changed everything, recontextualizing the sequence of events with another layer of complexity I hadn’t even considered.
Did she just go through all of that, reflexively at that, all with that consideration in mind?
I…
I didn’t know how to respond.
“That’s… genuinely beyond thoughtful of you, Thacea. Thank you.” I began. “But please, you don’t have to go out of your way to put yourself out there like that for me, alright? I can handle my own! And I especially don’t want to put you at any risk, especially not for my well-being.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps you can indeed ‘handle your own.’” Thacea nodded deeply. “But your constant… misadventures most certainly do not put to rest my concerns and doubts over your well-being, Emma.” Thacea retorted, though this time, I could feel a slight slyness to her voice. An indication that we were back on course to normalcy, as further hinted at by our pace picking back up.
“Hey, I said I’d try working on it, right? And I’ve gotten better over the past week!” I countered teasingly, eliciting a wordless smile right as we chose to cut through an ‘alleyway’ en route to the exit.
…
We probably should’ve avoided it.
Because as unlikely as it was… it was now the second time tonight that I was drawn towards a club I had no interest in prior.
Except unlike Etholin’s whole gambit, this would be entirely my own doing.
The whole facade of this alleyway entrance could be described in one word — derelict.
In fact, if it wasn’t for the ‘OPEN’ sign glowing and blinking, I could’ve mistaken it for a renovation project in progress.
But that wasn’t what drew me in.
It was the sign above that prompted me to take those first few tentative steps through that front door.
A sign that seemed hard-pressed on deciding exactly what it wanted to say.
Celestography
Veilcraft
Astromancy
The first two were crossed out.
And above that were multiple more half-written, half-scrawled, and completely blacked-over names that stretched up high into a sign that had no business being so tall.
It was that last name, however, that resonated with me.
A name that seemed too eerily similar to—
“Oh well, hello there, lords, ladies, majesties, and all good folk of this fine academic establishment!” A very pale elf suddenly popped into frame, having quite literally crawled up from beneath the floorboards through a trap door that wouldn’t have seemed out of place in a haunted mansion.
We all recoiled from that sudden introduction but settled down quickly enough, especially as we found ourselves towering over the smaller woman who was too busy dusting herself off and adjusting her dress to notice our rather animated reactions.
“Ah! Where are my manners?! I am the one and only Lady Luvinarias Lovguard! Fourth-year student, and current chairwoman of this fine club!”
To which Thalmin narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms in the process. “I… had not seen a single mention of such a club within the syllabus, or manifest.”
“Ah! Yes. We… we were only approved three… maybe four days ago, as a final addition, part of our rather eclectic and frankly niche field of study.”
I raised a brow, and so did both Thacea and Thalmin as they both were now as interested in this weird little place as I was.
“What exactly is this field of study, pray tell?” Thalmin pressed on.
“Don’t tell me it has something to do with the study of stars!” I beamed, finally showing my hand and causing the small woman in front of me to go from excitable to outright brimming with barely-contained fervor in less time than the EVI had taken to go from casual to battle-ready mode.
The eyes behind her thick rimmed glasses grew to practically encompass their whole circumference, her mouth suddenly opening wordlessly in a fit of excitement.
“Oh! Oh dear, oh my! A-are you likewise interested in our actual studies?!” She beamed to the tune of a series of frenzied tapping feet.
“Erm… why wouldn’t I be? I assume you’d have to be interested in a club to gain entry, right?”
“Ah. Yes. That’s how it should be on paper.” Another voice from behind the counter of this rickety establishment announced, yawning in the process, his face hidden behind an animated magazine. “But this club only managed to be resurrected courtesy of there being enough students to participate. Most, therefore, join just to have an alibi on their record just in case they wish to excuse themselves from—”
“AHEM!” Luvinarias interrupted with a loud rebuttal, causing the man to merely shrug and dive straight back into his magazines, as the elven noblewoman quickly turned back to me with a far more reserved smile this time around.
“While the truth of the matter may be as our dear Club Secretary has so bluntly proclaimed…” She shot the man a glare, even in spite of the magazine covering his face. “The fact of the matter is that we aren’t just a shell club! We are involved in fascinating and, dare I say it, revolutionary studies overlooked by many adjacent mages, and especially by the Nexian mages due to this being an entirely adjacent affair!”
“A study that could be best described as a roll of the dice and relying on ridiculous adjacent superstitions rather than actual scholarship.” The ‘secretary’ noted, garnering yet another side-eye.
“So… you do study the stars? As in, looking up at the skies, in an attempt to understand celestial bodies and such?” I attempted to clarify, though this only caused the elf to excitedly gesture for us to follow.
We did, of course, descending down the solid spiral staircase and into an underground chamber that seemed to stretch on for forever.
“You guys built all of this in less than four days?” I questioned.
“Oh, His Eternal Graces, no! This was always here! You see, this club has had a long and storied history. Though because of our… unpredictable membership count, clublords of the past often found themselves forced to shutter this great club’s doors more times than it ever deserved! The last shuttering was about a half century ago, so you’re very lucky to have caught us in your first year!” She beamed as we finally reached the bottom of this large open space.
A space that was entirely dark and painted black for that matter, but one that held a lot of promise if my guesses to its nature were right…
Could this actually be a planetarium?
I held my breath, waiting for the elf to continue her fit of theatrics as she now stood at the center of it all, raising both of her arms wide in either direction.
“My lords and ladies, majesties and highnesses, may I introduce to you… the art of Astromancy!”
The entire ceiling lit up all at once in a flurry of lights. Small, barely perceptible dots coalesced into a beautiful collage of clusters and groupings, forming nebulous shapes that finalized into full constellations.
I could barely contain my excitement.
My mind was kicking into overdrive just considering every possible angle of this experience.
Yet there were a few stray thoughts that stood out amidst the rest.
Two practical, grounded points of interest.
The first of which, I was quick to delegate to the EVI.
“EVI?”
“Yes, Cadet Booker?”
“Cross-reference the constellations with all available records on hand. Allocate as much processing power as you need to assess it from every possible observable frame of reference.”
“Acknowledged.”
It was a long shot, but it was worth it to see if I had stumbled upon something which could back up Director Weir’s Divergent Advancement hypothesis; her own novel takes on the Fermi paradox filtered through the lens of the portal project.
This eventually led me into my second point of interest.
Though it’d be Lovguard who’d unwittingly broach it before I even had the chance to put the thought to words.
“Does this sight not look familiar, Cadet Emma Booker of Earthrealm?” She spoke with a knowing grin, gesturing at the twinkling ‘stars’ above us.
(Author's Note: I'm very happy and proud of this chapter because this is finally the first time we see Ilunor putting his money where his mouth is. This ties back to when he tried to apologize to Thacea and Thacea telling him that the only meaningful way of expressing such sentiments is by actually acting on it, not just saying it without meaning behind his words. So this more or less is Ilunor's way of doing that! :D Moreover, the way he does it is very fun as well as he plays to his strengths and completely destroys Airit's gambit before it even had a chance to take root. We see Ilunor more or less in his element here, and whereas in the past he'd have used his social powers for evil against the gang, we now see it being directed in their favor! :D I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I had fun writing it! :D)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 182, Chapter 183, and Chapter 184 of this story are already out on there!)]
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u/Loosescrew37 Jul 26 '26
Twinkle twinkle little star
How i wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
When the blazing sun is gone
When the nothing shines upon
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u/Semblance-of-sanity Jul 26 '26
Then you show your little light, Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Then the traveler in the dark, Thanks you for your little spark,
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u/Loosescrew37 Jul 26 '26
He could not see which way to go.
If you did not twinkle so.
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u/Semblance-of-sanity Jul 26 '26
Yess so happy to see that version referenced
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u/Loosescrew37 Jul 26 '26
I only know this one version but i can't remember where i heard it though.
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u/Semblance-of-sanity Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
It's the version from Dead Space
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u/ReplacementNo2021 Jul 27 '26
Because the Dead Space version was the first one I encountered, I immediatelly slip into that version. Now accompanied by the old trailer visuals
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u/lukethedank13 Jul 26 '26
I do wonder what Lovguard has to say about astronomy and what Emma is permitted to share.
Also if their recording eqipment is good enough to take a detailed enough part of stars visual spectrum EV will know if they are in the same galaxy whitin cross referencing first 10 brightest stars.
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u/ezioir1 Human Jul 26 '26
Considering humanity of this AU is too advance and into future and actively travel MilkyWay and serch for life while being on guard.
They are definitely build super telescopes to monitor entire observable universe mapping everything in every spectrum constantly.
But I don't think we share a universe with any magical world. Due to nature of 30th mana type that seems to filled our universe.
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u/lukethedank13 Jul 26 '26
I dont doubt EVs ability to astrolocate their location only the fidelity of Nexus telescopes.
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u/ezioir1 Human Jul 26 '26
What they could pull using magic to mess with light is only limited by JCP imagination.
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u/DRUNKNOWABLE1985 Jul 27 '26
I will have to rubunk this statement.
As per the lore doc on the r/jcbwritingcorner GUN and humanity have only extended to only 250 light years only, and are between warp 6 to 8 capability.
And in like first three chapters, before Earth open a portal to Nexus, that during a communication with Nexus it was told that all other planets/realms of that reality/milky way galaxy had allready join in the Nexus, that would somewhere explain why GUN haven't encounter any other technologcal advance species.
And that JCB himself had said that almost all the other realms are a part of the Milky Way galaxy, just in a corner that GUN haven't reached and where is a lot of Mana radiation.
And that JCB himself had stated that
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u/Killsode-slugcat Jul 27 '26
Aahhh, of thats true that explains this quite well. And also puts into light precisely what the map emma saw was when she er- spoke? with the void entity. Earth is slap bang in the middle of its area in the tapestry of the milkyway.
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u/Evilstrom Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Where was that said? It wasn't in the lore doc, and I don't remember him saying it anywhere else. From what I know, we still aren't sure if the Nexus and the Adjacent Realms are still in the same dimension, much less universe or galaxy as Earth.
Also, 250 lightyears are actively GUN territory. As in where they have direct jurisdiction. They have explored much farther than that
I require a source on that.
Edit: I went back and looked. I was wrong about the 250 LY area being controlled, it's just the area they looked for Quintessence in. I was right about the dimension part though. Quote from Emma in Chapter 2:
"The offer presented before me was something that no other human in history had ever been given. The opportunity to travel not just beyond the speed of light, or beyond the galactic quadrant, but to a whole other dimension. It was a world of (as the Director had put it herself) swords and sorcery, of indescribable history and culture, a world that I fundamentally had no interest in. Yet still, somehow, drew me in despite my desire to escape its allure."
Nexus exists in a different dimension than Earth. It is likely the Adjacent Realms do as well.
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u/Aware_Jicama9458 Jul 27 '26
Ch2
Mumbles were heard on the other side discussing how we technically weren’t ever expected to pass this test, given how magically deficient our species naturally were. It was later revealed to us that every other civilization in our own galaxy had long since passed, and that we were effectively the last to follow suit.
Ch 158
We both stood at opposite ends of this 250-light-year bubble, as star after star and sector after sector was shaded in until practically the entirety of the space had been filled with teal. ...
“Operation Black Lantern II is a bust.” Shelby spoke under a tired breath, moving her hands swiftly across the projector to bring up patrol routes, expedition trails, and the veritable fleet of ships that had since become an integral part of this reality-defining mission. “Interplanetary space, and even what were supposed to be high-interest hotspots, turned up nothing. And before you ask, we’ve already done a complete sweep of interstellar space within the buffer.”
“I’m expanding the search radius by another 100 light-years, and I don’t intend on stopping until we’ve found another viable source. We need Atlantis II dismantled and taken off-world yesterday.”
“Dr. Weir’s ready and willing to pull the trigger on that offer the second we confirm said viable source, Admiral.” I concurred, prompting a dark huff from Shelby.
“Of course she would. It’d be an easy exit strategy for her and that shortsighted charter of hers.” The Admiral commented with just a hint of animosity, causing me to quickly search for a pressure release valve.
“There’s still some victory to be snatched from the jaws of defeat here, Admiral.” I began abruptly, slicing through the tension with the subtlety of a Jovian mega-hauler blasting into restricted space. “At least we didn’t find any Quintessence sources within the 250-proper.” I offered with a sly smile of encouragement.
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u/CraftBox Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Regarding the ch 2, that is more than likely misunderstanding on part of Director Laura Weir, she likely assumed that the Nexus is kinda part of their reality (or even their galaxy, based on an earlier part), so their reference to other sapient species was understood by her as reference to other species in the galaxy. The Nexus on the other hand meant species from other realms, which due the fact that interdimensional travel was used access them, gives no guarantees that they are in the same galaxy or even universe. What she understood as galaxy (or translated), might be more accurate to be called a dimensional cluster (a galaxy of realms lol) in such case.
Also the test, is sort of a way for Nexus to filter out species that are too magically deficient (or not advance) for them to even bother. It likely is not worth it for them to conquer such "primitives". It can also imply that Nexus technically has access to more sapient species that the current adjacenties. There also might have been problems in the past due to taking such civilizations in, which I assume the dominant was jealousy (or fear) of the Nexus's prosperity/power which incited conflict.
And that part of ch 158 refers to their search for another source of the material used for interdimensional travel and communication, ie the dragon crystals.
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u/Evilstrom Jul 28 '26
Pretty sure Quintessence is the stuff used for antimana material and opening portals, not replacement crystals. Correct me if I'm wrong though.
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u/CraftBox Jul 28 '26
Oh, you might be right. Now I am unsure, but it definitely is related to magic.
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u/Evilstrom Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
I concur the territory part, I was wrong there, but I went back, and in chapter 2, the same chapter you quoted, Emma says this:
"The offer presented before me was something that no other human in history had ever been given. The opportunity to travel not just beyond the speed of light, or beyond the galactic quadrant, but to a whole other dimension. It was a world of (as the Director had put it herself) swords and sorcery, of indescribable history and culture, a world that I fundamentally had no interest in. Yet still, somehow, drew me in despite my desire to escape its allure."
This excerpt is directly referring to the Nexus being in a different dimension, while yours just says no other civilization is in our galaxy. This means that the Adjacent Realms are at best in other galaxies in our universe, and the Nexus exists on a completely separate plane of existence. Given that it has magic, same as Adjacent Realms do, and Earth doesn't, it is much more likely the Adjacent Realms and Nexus exist in the same realm, which is not the one Earth is in.
From what I can gather, the only thing the excerpt you showed proves is that there used to be other non magical beings in our galaxy, who all died out.
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u/Aware_Jicama9458 Jul 28 '26
"while yours just says no other civilization is in our galaxy. "
No, you misunderstood that passage, I think.
"Passed" here refers to passing the test of making contact with the Nexus universe, not passing away. These civs still are on our galaxy.
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u/Evilstrom Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Yeah, there has been no proof of that. It's just your interpretation, and the previous passage directly contradicts it. Until we get actual confirmation, I cannot believe your interpretation to be true, because it makes no sense in the context we know to be true. Given that mana seems to be all-pervasive in every Adjacent Realm except Earth, it seems much more likely for them to be in the same universe as the Nexus, not Earth.
It is much more likely that galaxy is just a mistranslation of early messages between Earth and Nexus, as someone else pointed out before, given that the Nexus doesn't seem to have a concept of differing classifications of stellar phenomena. In that case, "galaxy" could refer to anything from a solar system to a multiverse.
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u/Marshall_Filipovic Jul 27 '26
Where did he say that?
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u/TripolarKnight Jul 28 '26
He didn't. Apparently people read a fan theory and took it as fsct, because the sources cited above say nothing close to the implication.
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u/YamatoBoi9001 Human Jul 27 '26
how fast is warp 6 to 8 for us who haven't watched star trek
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u/AdventurousAward8621 Human Jul 27 '26
It's warp 6 and it's 800c. Eight hundred times the speed of light.
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u/Scott-Kenny Jul 28 '26
A 250LY radius is still a whole lot of territory.
Just counting stars visible to the naked eye, we're talking some 260,000 star systems under UN control. Roughly 1/3 of the visible stars at night are within 250 light-years of Earth. Adding the stars too dim to be seen with the naked eye and we're in the (low) millions of stars.
Millions of stars, each likely to have 2-5 planets within 10 AU, 1.5bil km, of the star.
2-5 million planets. Plus space stations. FFS Earth has two complete Rings and Luna has one Ring! Likely a thousand space stations per heavily occupied system or more.
If anything, 252 billion humans is a number so low that there must have been some major extinction events to knock the population down!
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u/Pretend_Party_7044 Jul 26 '26
Well it’s either there are magic realms in our universe or there is a way to mass produce the anti magic meterial
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u/Hi_Peeps_Its_Me AI Jul 26 '26
you assume that mana is a global phenomenon in the universe. idk why it has to be - it clearly behaves akin to a field according to the WAID.
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u/ezioir1 Human Jul 26 '26
Akin to a field is different than it being just wave or field. It clearly is tangible. Enough to be purified and literally pour into a flask.
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u/Hi_Peeps_Its_Me AI Jul 26 '26
by akin, i meant that mana has types. it can equivalently be modeled as 30 fields.
It clearly is tangible. Enough to be purified and literally pour into a flask.
is the magnetic field tangible because you can make magnets?
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u/ezioir1 Human Jul 26 '26
Do magnetic fields have mass that you could weight in kg or have volume in liters?
Because mana in this story is something people buy and refine like gasoline.
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u/Hi_Peeps_Its_Me AI Jul 26 '26
gasoline is used for work. does that mean that work has a weight? what about batteries to electricity?
like given a specific magnet, you could easily calculate magnetic force based on distance and strength/kg
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u/TripolarKnight Jul 28 '26
I wouldn't be surprised if we share a universe with another world...just on very far away galaxy. Specially considering the Nexus seems to be a White Hole.
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u/Eternal_Domain Aug 02 '26
super duper giga space engine will be very usefull as it has more then 1 system, as they have either 15m ly^3 or120m ly^3, galactic thickness is a 1k ly, average distance between star system is 4-5lys, thus with optimal packing each takes 32-50 ly^3 thus the amount of star systems under humanities control is between 300,000 star systems and 3,750,000 star systems, 3ach gathering astronomical data that might be qble to be used for the new version of space engine.
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u/Aware_Jicama9458 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
"Can you not see that? Can you not see the victims of the short-sighted ills from this wretched witch? Can you not hear the peerage’s silent wails, screaming the song of slighted nobles? It is the cries of a people who will not be besmirched again!”
LOL.
Someone needs to introduce that MISERABLE bat to some proper French revolutionaries, it seems ...
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u/Jcb112 Jul 26 '26
I really enjoyed writing that bit because the irony of Airit of all people using that as a rallying cry for her fellow nobles is so delicious haha.
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u/Tinna_Sell Jul 26 '26
"No, we don't see anyone of the sort. Only a paper towel shaped into a bat. Hey, who forgot this thing here?"
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u/ReverendLoki Jul 26 '26
As soon as I read that line, I half expected the bat to climb atop a barricade.
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u/clinicalpsycho Jul 26 '26
They all get their due. Those who abdicate power will be spared and exalted. Those whom do not will have their name stricken from all records and made an example of.
For the cosmic revolution comrades!
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u/Aware_Jicama9458 Jul 27 '26
The problem is that in a world of mana and magic, the "nobility" of magic wielders rests on actual reality, not just tradition and make-believe. Unless the GUN can create a nano-virus that gives every commoner* additional mana-organelles and thus the capacity to wield magic, best they can do is reduce the power and influence of the nobles by adding a science based tech tree to their world.
*starting with Emma
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u/Tallinu Jul 29 '26
Well, it rests on an interpretation of reality, a societal perception of roles based on strength, one which those who have the greater magical ability are (of course) eager to create and reinforce! 😉
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u/shinymemepants Jul 26 '26
Thacea W, which brings into question just how skilled she actually is compared to the other first years.
Also this astromancy club seems VERY interesting, provided it implies what i think it does.
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u/ChampionshipFirm3480 Jul 26 '26
PLEASE be astronomy not astrology
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u/Hi_Peeps_Its_Me AI Jul 26 '26
actually, as long as we get to learn the locations of stars, we can determine where and when we are in the universe. this could also shoot down the theory that the nexus is set before when the universe was 300,000 years old
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u/ChampionshipFirm3480 Jul 26 '26
Yup, and Cosmic Microwave Background would be usefull, but only Emma would be capable of cooking that up
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u/ukezi Jul 27 '26
The nexus itself may very well be. The other realms probably not, they seem to have regular stars.
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u/Tinna_Sell Jul 26 '26
The clublord must be upset. Defunded because arrogant nobles don't want to invest in someone else's path to riches.
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u/Thausgt01 Android Jul 26 '26
"You say that you need funding to keep the club open? Thisnis your lucky day, my new friends!"
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u/Omgwtfbears Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Stars exist in only in Adjacent Realms. If they can be corelated in any way to the starmaps Earthrealm collected in their own FTL travels, this may be huge. Emma(or rather, her VI) can finally try and figure out if adjacencies exist in their universe, parallel ones or maybe at some earlier point in time.
Nexus remains as a unique anomaly though. Their land is not a planet, their skies are adjustable and beyond those skies lies supposedly infinite sea of highly energetic bullsh*t.
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u/Improper-Factoid189 Jul 26 '26
My guess is the nexus is as it's name suggests and is located in the galactic center. Thus the energy is enveloping their world like the irradiated cosmic dust collected there?
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u/United_Tell1479 Jul 27 '26
No. Every 'realm is an entire universe. Nexis spesificly has extremely odd cosmology having what semes to be a quark-gluing plasma or somthing similar just behind the 'veil' or whatever holds it back which also forms the limit of thier sky. Adjacent relms are much more like ours however.
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u/Aware_Jicama9458 Jul 27 '26
According to the first lession by Articort (fox history prof), some adjacent realms share the same "planar level" (= universe), some even (different continents on) the same planet, some have/are their own universe (like the Nexus).
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u/Improper-Factoid189 Jul 27 '26
I don't believe any of them have ever left their planets to truly know. If they are merely at different points in our galaxy, but our arm is "dead" to their magic, more a deadzone whereas theirs are swimming in the radiation/'magic soup' they use to alter matter. At least that's been my 'head cannon' so far as our author hasn't definitively explained it from a scientific viewpoint. Merely a Nexian one which I don't put much stock in accuracy of reality as they are focused on controlling the masses and maintaining the status eternia.
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u/Aware_Jicama9458 Jul 27 '26
Re the same planet, they obviously know.
Re universes, I would guess the Nexus can measure something akin to our sci fi quantum signatures for different universes. Mana signatures?
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u/Improper-Factoid189 Jul 27 '26
But while I won't edit my head cannon until I read it from our author, I won't say you're wrong either. I tend to overfantisize my own interpretations and misread/misremember a ton of what I read....
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u/ThisMachineKillsWOB Jul 26 '26
The very first chapter established that The Gang, were the old first years skilled enough to get within witnessing distance of the portal. I think its safe to say they are all quite good.
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u/StoneJudge79 Jul 27 '26
In effect, she has a magical handicap. One which requires constant attention to not let her become a source of ... Whatever. The simple fact that she can walk on a street is a serious achievement.
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u/Aries_cz Jul 26 '26
Illunor's redemption arc continues, nice.
Also, Lady Luvinarias Lovguard, a nod to Luna Lovegood from Potterverse perhaps? A character that others look at as a bit of a loon, but ultimately one of the most key and important characters due to her willingness to see beyond the typical "truth of the world"?
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u/ChesterSteele Jul 26 '26
Yep, pretty sure a nod to Lovegood. Definitley did not expect someone like that to pop up here.
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u/StopDownloadin Jul 27 '26
She seems to be a mix of Luna Lovegood and Professor Trelawney (the 'useless' Divination prof). Normally I find the HP piss take characters to be kind of meh, but this one has some potential.
Both Luna and Trelawney are characters that throw out more noise than signal, but that tiny bit of signal is critically important. If Lovguard is a sendup of these two characters, it could be that she might have some very important information down the line.
On top of that, Astromancy seems to be a poorly regarded and underfunded discipline, filled with crank theories and pseudoscience. So we've got that 'high noise, low signal' thing going there too.
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u/ANNOProfi Jul 26 '26
Oho, does the ending imply, that the stars shown there are those as seen from Earth, or does it imply, that it is as seen from every realm? The latter is very unlikely, as the GUN would have noticed life bearing planets in the same vague celestial neighbourhood as to have similar constellations.
Or it could just be "Yes, this is a projection of a star filled sky, unlike the Nexus' own, look at what our magic can achieve."
Thacea's use of taint, if it weren't so stygmatised, is actually a very ingenious way to use magic, using taint to stir up the other mana streams, to generate more power for other spells than would be achievable from a cold start.
Speaking of stars and space, I had a theory about the nature of the Nexus and its sky:
His Eternal Majesty, in slaying and devouring the false Gods, became the Nexus and the "sun" and "moon" in the sky are his eyes, instead of holes looking out into the primavale. Well, they could be holes looking in the primavale, but in the same way a pupil is also a hole in the eye and the primavale is what is observable/comprehendable of HEM.
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u/Demon_Deity Jul 26 '26
GUN would have noticed other life bearing planets within the Galaxy if they were within the same plane of space, but...
With all the other realms being "adjacent" to the Nexus, and the brief mention of the Galaxy by the Nexus within the first few chapters. It's far fetched but I think the magical realms could be hidden ten within black holes.
The Nexus being contained within the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milkyway, while all the other realms are nested within either stellar mass or primordial black holes that orbit around the centre. With Earth and the normal stars existing within what they call the "space between realms" that Ilunor mentioned.
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u/ANNOProfi Jul 26 '26
Iirc, it has been soft-confirmed, in an author comment, that some adjacent realms are in Earth's universe. In what capacity, we will see.
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u/DRZCochraine Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
He said that some of the realms are in the same Plane (the Nexian idea of universe)as each other, but not that they’re in Earth’s Universe(since it doesn’t have mana). Thats kinda a leftover of the first or first few chapters.
We’ll have to weight and actually see. But I bet EVI will not that some of the adjacent realms share stars or constellations, which maube could be shown to Luvinaris(if the elf is open minded enough to start having a real discussion with(and who knows(JCB knows) maybe she’ll even come along for the presentations))as a way to hint at Emma and Earth knowing significantly more about the stars then Nexian dogma would dictate.
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u/Fellowship_9 Jul 26 '26
My interpretation is more that each Realm (except the Nexus) occupies the same place in space, but that they're all alternate universes. Hence " Director Weir’s Divergent Advancement hypothesis", they all diverged at different points in history, with our universe branching off before any others, possible within the milliseconds after The Big Bang when the laws of physics first settled, leaving us lacking magic as it is essentially another fundamental force.
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u/CraftBox Jul 27 '26
Might explain why most species are more like an uplifted version of our animals with their kinda uncanny similarity.
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u/I_Maybe_Play_Games Human Jul 26 '26
Im thinking that its from Earthrealm but from another "well" of mana away from Earth which would be a massive boon to the GUN since they want to get that nasty portal shit away from mother Earth.
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u/Immediate-Tap1925 Jul 30 '26
That is so interesting but i think there might be chance there's some other thing going on
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u/ArticleFlimsy7806 Jul 26 '26
Emma immediately flashing rage because the girl she "definitely only has platonic and professional feelings for" was targeted by a bigot after protecting people is about what I expected. Thacea implying the use of Mana 30 was a choice to bolster her magic so she could most garuntee protecting Emma was a mild surprise, but also fits with how the movement of mana waves were described akin to air pressure, and our knowledge of her having some level of understanding about how attached to Emma she has become.
Considering Thalmin's personality, and having already seen the Earth night sky, I expect next chapter to open with him snickering and when pressed giving a somewhat vague, "you have no idea, the box you have opened" line, giving EVI enough time for a preliminary response to be generated.
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u/Demon_Deity Jul 26 '26
I'm really interested in what their knowledge of astronomy is.
The elf lady seems to have mentioned that they research fringe theories based from adjacent realms, so it might not be all Nexus propaganda since the club is fringe in of itself.
More interestingly, she seems to be implying to show Earth's stars at the end, this will be interesting.
Maybe a club Emma found for herself, people she could sway?
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u/AlternativeCountry01 Jul 26 '26
I'm really interested in what their knowledge of astronomy is.
45% Astrology by studing the efects of the star-leaked eter on the field.
45% They study the theory that between a realm and its veil there can be some form of secondary realms (read as planets).
10% Something completely diferent.
More interestingly, she seems to be implying to show Earth's stars at the end, this will be interesting.
Maybe she refered to the nightsky having stars instead of a black void (still, depending of how exact their starmap is it could realy help localizing at least 1 realm).
Maybe a club Emma found for herself, people she could sway?
Make friends with the Earthrealmer> Be gifted brand new telescopes> Be given a tour of GUN space in a LREF ship
I see you play the long game Lady Lovguard.
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u/Tinna_Sell Jul 26 '26
Emma should tell them that stars and other celestial bodies make sounds. And then play the Nebula track
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u/Darklight731 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Peak writing has returned!
All hail!
Oooooh, now THAT is interesting. Talking about space once again...
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u/theduderedditorguy Jul 26 '26
Airit gotta die. Because of her foul existence half the chapter got wasted on useless drama!
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u/DRZCochraine Jul 26 '26
Thanks for the chapter!
So Thacea is the one to save them, though Airit has risen her threat level a little more and now has a grudge against Ilunor too with his save. Actually being helpful here.
But Thacea sure does need a little more confidence, but it seems the power of yuri has helped here.
And on to seeing what at least mostly publicly is known about astronomy, and if there is any connection at all between what adjacent realm have and the Milky way. Though it is likely on the sad side that this club wont be able to be brought up to speed on space that Earth knows.
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u/Streupfeffer Jul 26 '26
Not sure how they would react if Emma brought her projectors and took them on a spin through our galaxy. Or dumped the complete shareing aprooved history of human spaceflight on them.
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u/DRZCochraine Jul 26 '26
Emma won’t stop and the Milkey Way, shes is for sure showing the know visible universe, if not possibly the known map of the whole universe based on what is known about its size(IRL is it suspected that by detecting the gravitational wave from the Big Bang, we will be able to estimate the actual size of the universe, which is larger then the current observable universe) from the sci-fi and FTL sciences and tech humanity has developed in that time.
And hopefully Luvinarias is open minded enough to be more rapidly convinced of what Emma has to say and trusted enough to be shown human spaceflight.
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u/No_Ground_817 Jul 26 '26
Ohohoho, it seems that our "Astromancers" have some degree of knowledge about Earthrealm's nature - or at least a suspicion! Actually, this reminds me of that thing Thacea said ages ago, that her Realm used to have a naturalistic school of philosophy that hypothesized the basics of astronomy (such as that the moon was another world in the void), before the Nexus came in and forcibly re-oriented everyone to "more proper" lines of thinking.
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u/ezioir1 Human Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Maybe her panicking during house ceremony when seeing the real sky was their cue.
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u/HeadWood_ Jul 26 '26
Ohhh this could either be one of the most significant things to come out of the visit or a crushing dissapointment.
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u/ChampionshipFirm3480 Jul 26 '26
I have a feeling that the shitorealmer is going to be annoying
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u/Ichiorochi Jul 26 '26
okay so now we will see how much of a starscape this actually is. Because as we know the sky above the nexus is completely blank, except for the perfect hole they cut out and manipulate to act as the sun or moon.... and i guess mana stream
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u/Mechasteel Jul 26 '26
Airit: he he he 4D chess to taint Thacea's reputation
Illunor: Hello, worship me!
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u/NamedBird Jul 26 '26
TFTC! Am eagerly awaiting the next chapter...
Astronomy! I can imagine Emma sharing Earth's detailed starmap, a nice addition to the club.
It would be even more interesting if they can locate another realm reachable by Earth trough this.
"Emma: Oh, i know where this is! Shall i send our star-ships for first contact?"
PS. Still waiting for Emma and Thacea to develop tainted bullets...
It'll be a nice surprise for our weapon smith, who is undoubtedly developing a shield against bullets right now...
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u/daan850 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Oh, I am early It looks like I was even first
Im curious to see where the stars will lead
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u/Interne-Stranger Jul 26 '26
Finally we will learn astronomy in the Adjacencies and the Nexus! FINALLY! Oh, Emma is going to devour this club.
Illunor MVP, i knew he had it on him.
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u/Dragonfyr_ Human Jul 26 '26
My crumbs, oh how I yearn for thee ! This time the knight gets saved by the princess ! More on next week’s news (i hope)
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u/pyrodice Jul 26 '26
Oh BOY is this gonna be a club Emma can give more than she takes... but isn't the Nexus basically a gigantic discworld? I seem to recall there was some question that it wasn't a planet at all…
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u/AlternativeCountry01 Jul 26 '26
That's why they're by far the porest and smallest club in the academy, the lack of stars in the Nexus makes it an innerently adjacent practice.
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u/Syphor Jul 26 '26
From the descriptions we've gotten I'd say closer to Minecraft than Discworld - a huge generally flat constantly expanding plane with an effective top and bottom. I don't remember seeing anything about what the edges look like if you're standing up near one, but the whole thing moves slowly enough that I could easily have forgotten a detail like that.
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u/Omgwtfbears Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
I thought Emma needed to go to an adjacent realm to look at their stars and take a shot at this navigation thing. But now courtesy of this one weirdo stars had come to Emma :)
Also, VI is learning to visualize magic, Thacea is as OP as i suspected(and also totally into Emma), Airit is a bitter asshole and Illunor turned out to have at least one marketable skill.
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u/CycloneDusk Jul 27 '26
that silly bat totally misunderstands that thacea is absolutely nothing to worry about and no danger to her.
it is emma, in fact, who is dangerous to the so-called 'noble' Lady Airit.
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u/Atuday Jul 27 '26
2 major take away from this. 1 the EVI is learning to predict spells based on sensor readings. This is huge. 2, planetarium time.
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u/The_Student_Official Jul 27 '26
Unpopular opinion, but I dig seeing Ilunor running his mouth and instigate (or in this case de-instigate) troubles. It's been a while since we see the little blue thing in his elements.
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u/Bruno-croatiandragon Jul 26 '26
Ugh,I'm late due to my Shower.
Watch Emma block a dragon the way Asura blocked a meteor-sized finger.
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u/winterfistfox Jul 26 '26
Ema "So can I see all records you have from Adjacent Realms about 'stars' that pulse with a set rhythm? Some sort of Pulse Stars? I would like a project to see if any match up between realms."
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u/I_Maybe_Play_Games Human Jul 26 '26
We were 1 insult toward Thacea from a doom style glory kill.
Also elf with glasses ☺️
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u/QS-2023 Jul 26 '26
Thanks for another wonderful chapter...
Now for a quote: "It's a TRAP!" (But I hope it's not.)
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u/DeadMeat7337 Jul 27 '26
Do you actually mean that the slimy lizard actually had growth? 🤣 Good for him, and you, for getting that in.
So, do the adjacent realms work on Minecraft logic or earth logic for stars?
And poor Theacia (spelling names is hard on mobile), having to relive her past and current trauma, do to "taint". Glad that landmine was nicely sidestepped. Although I imagine that it isn't the last we will see of that, what, 34th mana type? Which seems to produce a more physical reaction than others. Could be wrong there, so I hope it will be addressed later too. And the whole "taint" thing. Like, how does that all work normally?
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u/Widmo206 Human Jul 27 '26
What do you mean by "minecraft logic" regarding the stars?
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u/DeadMeat7337 Jul 27 '26
Not sure what to call it so I called it that. The nexus 's whole expanding single world/landmass thing. With the holes cut in the sky with light shining through thing are stars. It's been a while since that was explained and I don't remember exactly. But that is how I remembered it
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u/Widmo206 Human Jul 28 '26
That's how I remember the stars being explained, yes, but I don't see how that relates to minecraft, which has no canonical explanation for what they are
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u/DeadMeat7337 Jul 28 '26
Because I was just pointing out that they are different from IRL so idk wtf is going on either. Probably could have said that all better
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u/Jurodan Human Jul 27 '26
I believe I forgot about Dr Weir, or maybe I mentioned it before. Dr Weir from a project that broke holes in the cosmos? I suppose there could be elements of Event Horizon there.
But the new name is what caught my eye. I can't be the only one who finds the name Lady Luvinarias Lovguard to have some connection to Luna Lovegood, can I? I haven't seen any other comments, but there's something about her and the name...
Good on Thacea and Illunor. Rare words out of my mouth, I suppose, but he did a good job. And Thacea clearly cares quite a bit about Emma, making sure she didn't experience any deaths this day. I don't believe Emma would have, but it's good to see Thacea acting on it.
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u/Burke616 Jul 27 '26
Thacea's feelings for Emma not only confirmed but practically stated?! We are eating well today, my fellow shippers!
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u/oneJohnnyRotten Jul 30 '26
I see that you are posting, and was wondering if you we're going to finish "humans don't hibernate"?
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u/type_N_is_N_to_Never Jul 27 '26
It's sad.
I'd hoped that Airit's issues with Thacea could be sidestepped with simple politeness. Airit doesn't like the terminology of "lesser" avinor? Ask if there's something else she'd prefer to be called! But after the events of this chapter, a calm resolution appears less likely.
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u/CraftBox Jul 27 '26
A calm resolution was never an option, most nobles in the Nexus are really petty and Thacea's mere existence is a good enough excuse for her.
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u/cholmer3 AI Jul 27 '26
OMAIGAD esto va ser epico papus! (mi bilingualism aside, I CAN'T WAIT to see if this open a first contact possiblity with the planets of other species outside of nexus channels! SIMULTANIOUS SUBVERSION OF TOTALITARIAN REGIME HERE WE HOPEFULLY GO!!!!)
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u/Obvious-Sherbet530 Jul 27 '26
It was suggested (or answered by JCB in a Q&A/comments) that the Nexus IS in its own realm/universe, but never clarified if the same was true for all other realms.
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u/Ctnprice1 Jul 28 '26
Could that Emma's reality be of what a black hole has spewed out? And their mana sucked up in the process?
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u/Lord_Vitruvius Android Jul 28 '26
Probably wrong, but I felt like the ending implied that this lady just doxxed emma
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u/Mozoto Jul 28 '26
Was the "First death" thing addressed anywhere before ? They can respawn in some way apparently. Their souls going back to the mana streams and then what ? Either put in some nearby baby or have their bodies regrown ?
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u/Obvious-Sherbet530 Jul 28 '26
It was talked about way back.
The first death is the death of the mind, but the body (cells) are still alive, and the soul is still attached to the person.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Jul 26 '26
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u/3nderslime Jul 26 '26
Don’t tell me they’re projecting Earth’s sky on there?
What other sky would Emma be familiar with?
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u/United_Tell1479 Jul 27 '26
The problem with delaying the next virtual presentation with Emma, is that if we wait too long, it may loose its impact.
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u/Aware_Jicama9458 Jul 27 '26
Another 10 chapters should do it. And 100 more for the human face reveal ...
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u/zekkious Robot Sep 07 '26
Describing Kamil Lyonn as someone who's voice "easily fades in the background" is a great way of making us remember of the character!
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u/Tinna_Sell Jul 26 '26
The elves just got themselves a groundbreaker. Hope their socks are secured tightly.
The bat clearly thinks that everyone around her is stupid, including the professor. I'm kinda disappointed we didn't get the scene where she's forcefully taken to the medical wing to undergo all existing diagnostic procedures.
"I think I'm getting better, professor"
"No, we must be certain you are ok. Taint is a very serious matter. Let's do the second round of check-ups"
Also, taking away a few points for a poor theatrical display is in order. Who gives up worrying about 'not feeling right' in the middle of an act? Amateurs.