NOVEL WEB Chapter 56: Jailbreak
Amelia’s eyes flew open, though she was unable to see anything in the darkness of the cocoon. It appeared that something had gone wrong in her conversion process, and the failsafe she had put on herself to keep herself from converting for too long had triggered. She reached out to her magic, frowning as she had to dig deeper than she had before. She had expected to be weakened, but knowing it academically and experiencing it firsthand were entirely different things.
She found her magic, and began to work a simple spell that would undo the cocoon, then set it into motion. And, as she had expected, she encountered significantly more resistance than she should have if things were going properly.
Her frown deepened as she prodded at the obstruction; it was clearly an obstruction that had been purposeful, something that flat out stopped the conversion process while retaining the stasis-like effects of the cocoon. Fortunately, it had been constructed so that the cocoon’s stasis was left completely untouched, allowing the failsafe Amelia had used to work as intended.
She took a moment to collect her thoughts before proceeding further. She had clearly been accosted by a powerful entity that had the specific goal of hindering her ability to help Lia. Unfortunately for that entity, they didn’t realize just who they were dealing with. Even slightly weakened, Amelia estimated that she was more than a match for anything that had ever existed, even summoned Heroes.
She took a deep breath, then reached extra-deep into herself, drawing upon the extra well of strength that her Hero abilities afforded her, then pushed. The obstruction strained back against her, but it was obviously built under the assumption that Amelia would be asleep, and so she was able to overcome it after only half a minute of work.
The cocoon she was in burst, and she emerged, taking quick stock of the area around her. It was a room with sleek, unmarred white stone flooring and walls, undecorated save for a large table that held Amelia’s cocoon. Seeing no one else there, Amelia made a few quick alterations to the cocoon, collapsing it and placing it in her dimensional storage for use as ammunition, to be used on whatever had trapped her.
She wasn’t sure how Lia was faring at the moment, but at the very least Amelia would bring a new comrade back with her, a powerful one if the workings of that obstruction and the energy rapidly approaching the door were any indication.
Amelia tensed, taking a moment to switch into her feral form for the increased stats before hiding her presence with a spell and projecting a simple illusion of her cocoon on the table. She positioned herself in good spot to ambush the interloper, readying the modeling wax as she did.
A few moments later, the door opened and a tall human woman with brown hair stepped in, yawning and glancing around the room. “What is it this time?” She muttered to herself, already moving over to the table.
Amelia seized the opportunity, emptying her dimensional storage of the modeling wax and coating the woman, who immediately began to struggle.
“What?!” The woman exclaimed. “You were supposed to –”
Amelia cut her off with a blast of her Hero magic, bulldozing over the woman’s resistances and putting her to sleep and allowing the cocoon to do its work. Satisfied, Amelia moved to put the cocoon into her dimensional storage, but found that she had to use yet another blast of her Hero power to fit her in. The woman’s body, and by extension the cocoon, seemed to have some innate resistance to ordinary magic, a fact that was supremely annoying, as Amelia was starting to run low on it.
That was the thing with her Hero power; for whatever reason, it took significantly longer to regenerate than her other resources, and while she was able to substitute Blood Money for it in some cases, she had yet to find any other way to make it regenerate faster.
But she could ruminate on that later. She had spent far too long in this place, and needed to get back to Lia as fast as was physically possible. She didn’t have the coordinates of her current location, which threw a small wrench in teleporting out, but that was a minor thing, easily solved by a locator spell she had devised.
She seemed to be on a demiplane of sorts, much like a dungeon, but that was likewise a minor hurdle, one that a quick modification to the teleport spell would account for. She finished her prep and cast the spell, dipping into her Hero reserves to make extra sure it went through…only to find that she was blocked, Hero power or no.
“Amelia, I believe there has been a misunderstanding.” A blonde-haired vampire man said, stepping into the room. “Calm down, and let us explain before you get yourself hurt.”
Amelia didn’t bother with a response, instead concocting a spell that would incapacitate the man and firing it off.
The man sighed, and an overwhelming presence filled the room. It was something the likes of which Amelia had never felt, and it throttled her spell, killing it before it even had the chance to fully resolve. The man stepped forward, face steely as he waved a hand. The cocoon of the woman that had first entered the room was forcibly ejected from Amelia’s dimensional storage, the modeling wax melting away and the woman inside stirring.
The man waved another hand and Amelia felt a wrenching sensation as her connection to magic just…stopped working, and she returned to her civilized form. “There is no need to worry.” The man said. “Lia is safe and fully aware of your situation. I have not interfered with her goals, nor do I intend to. In fact, what you are attempting now is more destructive to her than anything I have done.
“My name is Jeryl, though you may call me Jerry. And this,” Jerry motioned at the woman who was beginning to regain consciousness, “is Connie, formerly known as Connor, Goddess of Commerce and the Dimension of Discounts’ sales representative assigned to Lia.”
Jerry’s presence deepened further, and his words gained a weight to them, one that reached deep down into Amelia’s soul and made it clear that what he was saying was undeniable truth. “I am the Administrator of this universe, architect of the system, creator of the gods, and general overseer of this reality. As you may have suspected, the abilities you possess are not normal, nor are they meant for mortals to use.
“They are from an error in the system, one that caused it to divert a significant portion of its raw, unfiltered power into you. Unfortunately, this accumulated power is highly dangerous, and I have taken the moment of your conversion to rectify this mistake, preventing you from eventually self-destructing.
“As I told Lia, this is currently only a problem for you, not her, despite the fact that she contains some of the power you have diverted into her. I would be removing this and the Urge from you, allowing you to live safely and without the twisted desires that the Urge forced upon you, leaving you happy, healthy, and ready for long term service to her.”
Jerry paused, carefully studying Amelia’s face. “However, it seems that you have no intention of quietly complying, so I will offer you a deal.” He raised a hand, and Amelia was blasted with a series of memories, detailing the events surrounding the swarm that had occurred while she was asleep.
“As you can see, though Lia is currently safe, her position is tenuous. I will devote the majority of my time over the next two weeks to finishing your repairs, allowing you to return to her with a month left before her deadline. However, in return, you must not struggle against any of my repairs, and allow me to do my work. Furthermore, in the distant future, after the swarm has taken over the world or died in the attempt, I will require you to spend half of each week as my research assistant for an indeterminate period of time.”
Though he was obviously trying to hide it, a faint spark of excitement was visible in his eyes as he continued. “You have done some very interesting things here, things that may shake the balance of power in the multiverse. However, your work was instinctual, and is very hard to decipher. So, I will need your help documenting, reproducing, and refining these things until they are in a state that is useable.”
At that moment, Connie sat up. She blinked sleepily a couple of times, then sprung to her feet, regarding Amelia warily.
“At ease, Connie.” Jerry said. “I have the situation under control.”
Connie relaxed slightly, but her wariness was obvious. “How did you…” She trailed off, eyes widening as she inspected Amelia. “No.” She whispered. “What cruel twist of fate is this?!”
Jerry raised an eyebrow. “Is something the matter?”
“I was just looking at her soul,” Connie explained, “and you see, Rose had been wondering what had happened to her previous wife, so I had been looking for her soul. I had figured out it was up here, but I couldn’t locate it and,” she heaved a sigh, motioning at Amelia, “it turns out that’s because it was Amelia.”
Amelia felt…not much of anything, really. It was interesting news, yes, but ultimately irrelevant. She may have been the wife of the Ruby Emperor in her past life, but she had no memories of that time, nor did she care for them. She was herself, not some long-dead woman, and it changed nothing about her relationships now, nor did it affect the situation she was in.
“Back on topic,” Amelia said, ignoring Connie, “I agree on one condition. You may remove my power, that is fine; I was expecting it. You may remove the Urge as well, as it has been a constant thorn in my side. However, you will keep the desires it ‘forced upon me’. Those are part of who I am, and I don’t take kindly to you changing that.”
Connie snorted. “That’s rich, coming from you. You don’t seem to care about changing other people’s minds.”
“And?” Amelia said. “That has no impact on this discussion.” She turned back to Jerry, giving him a steady gaze. “Well? Do you accept? I recognize that I may not be able to stop you from doing these ‘fixes’ you intend to make, but I will refuse to aid your studies if you do not meet this simple condition.”
Jerry nodded. “Terms accepted. We start…now.” He snapped his fingers, and Amelia slipped into unconsciousness.
“Why did you let her make demands?” Connie asked Jerry. “She has no power over us. And, are you really not going to fix her mind? She’s a dangerous person, she doesn’t even see anyone except Lia as people, we can’t just…let her be!”
“I changed my mind after her escape.” Jerry said distractedly. He had found himself impressed by the young girl’s prowess, the strange architecture of her spellwork and surprising subtlety had fooled even him, and it had become increasingly clear that she was a talent he couldn’t afford to let go. “Her work is good, despite its messiness. I think she will be of more use to us as a willing collaborator than she would as an object to study from afar. And, regrettably, altering her mental state too drastically might reduce her talent. Even more than that, though, she asked us to not; it may be easier for us to change her, but then we would stoop to her level. Turnabout may be fair play, but if she wishes to strike a deal, then I will accept. Besides, I have faith that Lia will rein her in. If it becomes too much of a problem later, then we will simply deal with it then.”
Connie frowned as she watched Jerry speak. “I know that look. Are you thinking of letting her keep Worship?”
“Yes. I am going to restrict it so it cannot be used to augment her magic, only to make new things, and I will lock the rest of her power behind evolutions, but we need her to be able to use Worship if we want her to be useful later. I won’t make her a Higher Being, not unless she proves herself trustworthy, but the details can be worked out later.”
Jerry picked Amelia’s body up and placed it on the table before turning to the door. “I do believe Kali is the most experienced of us at safely putting Worship into people who aren’t Higher Beings, so I’ll be taking a social trip. I shouldn’t be more than an hour or two, so just watch Amelia while she rests. I have made almost completely sure that she cannot wake until I lift the seal I placed on her, but things tend to go wrong around her, so…stay on your guard, alright?”
Connie sighed. “Yeah, I got it. I’m keeping Dominique on call, though, I’m not repeating this experience again. I don’t know what would happen if they actually managed to convert me, and I don’t want to find out.”
Jerry nodded. “A wise idea, I’ll let her know the situation. After I have returned and begun working and Rose has finished her conversion, will you call Lia and Rose to the Dimension of Discounts and explain the situation? We will need Lia’s help in controlling Amelia, and Rose is intimately involved in this situation, regardless of Amelia’s status as the soul of Rose’s ex-wife.”
“Yeah, I got it.” Connie said, pulling a chair out of her magic storage and sitting down in it. “Hurry back, alright? Don’t chat longer than you need to, I really don’t feel safe after what just happened.”
Jerry gave her a smile. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
