Sell you a Bridge chapter 321

June 22nd 2016 Mysterious Tower, 6:00 PM EDT

After  spending about twenty minutes grilling me about how my void sphere  worked, then another thirty lecturing me about testing unpracticed magic  combinations in battle, Master Yen Sid had me fight the armors a few  more times without it, and then eventually let me go.

Well,  I say LET, but mostly I think he just realized I was so exhausted that  keeping me practicing wasn't feasible. I'd tested my magic in various  ways, throttling the strength and using it ceaselessly to figure out how  it would fit into my combat style. After hours of that, I'd come to the  conclusion that I needed to be careful with it in battle. While my  Deception powers put a strain on my mind and spirit, the new magic  source I was using was ME. Specifically my natural magic reserves, which  meant I wasn't cheating with reality altering bullshit anymore. I was  using a finite resource.

A few spells, hell, a few dozen,  and I was fine, but after hundreds of casts, I felt my body start to  slow and my energy flag for probably the first time since I'd become a  god. On the one hand, it was kind of reassuring I remained human enough  to GET tired, but on the other, if that happened to me mid battle I  would be pretty much fucked, so I had to learn what my limits were and  work around them.

This was infinitely more annoying than  my powers, which came with the handy side effect of an 'oh gods my brain  is melting' stress meter. Once I got finished with my training, I went  to go see the girls and do a bit of tantric energy building. Combined  with the five thousand I'd already gotten that put me at ten, and I  decided that one tenth was a viable amount to try awakening another  keyblade.

It cost a hundred thousand points theoretically,  but I already knew that I could offset some of that by taking more of  the burden on myself. I doubted I could spam them or anything, but I was  pretty sure one a day would be doable, considering I'd already felt the  keyblade awakening process get easier with each new keyblade. The more  the Deception took root the more it became a reality. Using my power for  the same thing over and over made it simpler and simpler to accomplish.

With  that in mind, I decided my mentor would be next. Jim was probably one  of the most terrifyingly effective magic users I had ever seen, and with  a keyblade to enhance and boost his capabilities he would be on par  with some of the Organization members I had met for sure. I shuddered to  think what he would be capable of with that kind of power, almost as  much as I was itching to find out.

Tracking my mentor down  wasn't tough to do, he was sitting in Master Yen Sid's library with  Sindella and John, poring over books happily. Unlimited access to a  universe level wizard's private spell repository had made all of our  magic using members extremely excited, and I could even see Zee off in  one corner in an overstuffed chair leafing through an ancient looking  grimoire.

Clearing my throat, I looked down at my mentor.  "Hey, boss." He didn't respond. "Jim." Nothing. I rolled my eyes and  reached out, shifting into my incorporeal form as I flicked the area  right next to his monocle, smacking him right in the forehead. "Nerd!"  He jerked up, his face fading into existence just so he could glare at  me for the interruption. It was hard not to snicker at the sheer outrage  in his expression.

"What? You insufferable child!" He  closed the book carefully, somewhat undercutting his anger, clearly too  worried about damaging the precious tome to vent and making himself look  ridiculous. "Some of us actually LIKE studying magic. Can't you be more  like your girlfriend? With you memory you could be a prodigious magic  user if you were willing to put in the time, instead you just waste your  energy practicing sword work and brute force armor augmentations."

I  rolled my eyes as my suddenly triggered mentor went on for about five  minutes about all the problems with my combat style, my eating habits,  my discipline, and anything else he could rant about. I knew this was at  least half annoyance at being interrupted, so I just let him vent for  as long as he needed to until he finally ran out of steam and realized  that he was being absurd.

Once he stopped, I just raised  an eyebrow. "Are you done?" He cleared he throat, looking away  sheepishly, and I rolled my eyes again. "Good, because I came down to  talk to you about finally getting your keyblade. I figured you were the  best pick for the next awakening, since you're already magically gifted  as hell." I averted my gaze lazily, scanning the room for anyone else.  "But if you aren't interested I'm not going to push. You can always wait  around and go last."

Jim just chuckled. "Don't bluff me,  boy. But point taken. My apologies for being so short. This library is a  treasure trove, but I'm not one to turn down a power boost. Can you  actually do this though? I thought it would take much longer to save up  the amount of points you need" He glanced over at Zee and Drea, who were  listening in but not interfering until I finished explaining. I  appreciated the trust.

Gesturing them over, I pointed as  they came close. "It would be much longer. If I was doing it alone. But  I'm fairly certain I can offload some of the strain to the girls, at  least if I have Tommy's help. Between the two of us we should be more  than strong enough to handle the load, and with the strain mitigated I  should be able to get you your keyblade immediately. Can't exactly stay  here for months saving up, after all."

Jim gave a slow  nod. "Fair enough I suppose." Setting the book aside, he stood up  purposefully. "I can't pretend that I haven't been feeling thrown behind  recently. A chance to catch up with my apprentices and be useful again  is certainly appealing. Lead on then, my lad."

With only a  quick stop to get Tommy and bring him up to speed, we all gathered in  one of Master Yen Sid's training rooms. Before we could start though,  Zee called a time out. "Wait." She said, face pinched in consternation.  "There might be a better way to do this. Your Deception powers and  Tommy's gift might be odd expressions of it, but they're still magic.  Brute force is fine when needed, but we aren't in any immediate rush. We  have time to try to set up a ritual to focus and guide your power. That  should make this much less of a strain than even sharing the burden."

"She's  not wrong." Said Jim contemplatively. "Technically any group spell is  already a ritual, but with some careful modification we could create a  spell array that would serve to ease the burden on the two of you." He  gestured Zee over to him. "What were you thinking in terms of format?  Conceptual superstructures can be difficult to model, and their  abilities are definitely in that vein. Some sort of thaumaturgical  linkage maybe?"

It was nice to see Zee so excited instead  of being worried about my head exploding like a watermelon. I left them  to chatter on about magical minutiae while I walked over to check on  Suzie, who had come with Sindella to watch the next awakening. "So. How  has your own keyblade been treating you? I haven't heard anything about  you doing any magic training, but to be fair I haven't really been  around."

She just shrugged. "Not bad. Sindy gave me some  magic lessons, but Fenrir isn't really made for magic. I've gotten a LOT  stronger since I awakened it. Tougher too. Which suits me better than  some hocus pocus in any case. Old Sid has been lettin' me use his  training rooms for sparring and your girl has been helping out when she  isn't watching you train or complaining about what an embarrassing dad  you are. She's a little firecracker, that one. Even with my new upgrade I  can't really keep up."

That was nice to hear. I didn't  want Rana wandering around bored after all. Another comment drew a bit  more of my focus though. "So it gives you strength? I knew that  different keyblade gave different benefits, but I wasn't aware exactly  how different. I suppose each of then has a unique twist." I knew my own  keyblade subsidized summoning and shadow constructs. Tartarus was  incredibly well suited for me when I awakened it, and while it might not  be a perfect fit anymore, I still found it incredibly useful. Knowing  exactly how varied the effects could be, I made a note to ask the others  what theirs could do beyond just make them stronger or give more magic.

Asking  around, I got varying answers that really surprised me in terms of  variety, but was also able to establish that specific keyblades did  specific things because of the repetition. Oathkeeper enhanced magic and  summon power and increased base magic, similar to Tartarus, while  Oblivion actually slightly reduced magical power in exchange for an  absurd boost to physical strength.

It  seemed that while there were some pretty interesting secondary effects,  most keyblades still gave boosts to magic or physical attack, and the  extra benefits tended to be variations of those themes. I got the  impression there were other possible uses that we were all still  figuring out, but it was interesting to look into. After talking to  everyone except Zee, I headed back over to check on the ritual to find  that it had just been finished. Zee had been training in ritual magic,  as well as adapting some of the knowledge from my void grimoire to  enhance her understanding of conceptual principles, so she'd been the  perfect person to work on it.

Taking  up positions, Tommy and I stood on either side of the circle of  spellwork they had scrawled on the floor, and once they gave us the go  ahead, we both began the process. The weight of it was crushing for the  first few seconds, almost making me pass out, but once Tommy began  offloading it, it eased up. The ritual was definitely helping him do the  job, because the flow of strain from me to the people in the secondary  layers of the circle (the girls and surprisingly Suzie) was smooth and  even, making sure no one was overloaded.

I  felt the points drain away, acting as the foundation of the working  even if I was bullshitting most of it, and I knew that no matter how  good I got, or how much help, ten thousand was the bare minimum needed.  Even with Tommy doing the heavy lifting this was nearly impossible, and I  knew that I'd never manage it without him unless I used the full  hundred thousand points.

As  the working completed, there was a shift in the air as the power  discharged, much more visible using energy from a lower level gift like  Tommy's. The existential detective looked tired, his nose dripping blood  as he swayed on his feet, but he wiped it away and gave me a thumbs up  after a second.

There  was a knock on the door, and Jim walked to answer it, finding a similar  box to Suzie's and opening it. After the same process Suzie and I had  gone through, Jim held out a hand and grasped the air, conjuring a new  keyblade in a dark swirl of power. Looking down at a keyblade of what  appeared to be bone, with a dragon head at the end, I could practically  hear the grin in his voice, despite his face not being visible. "Well  now, nice to meet you. Fatal Crest."