Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
January 22, 1977 Magical World – July 16, 2008 DxD.
"Wow, I didn't know you'd snuck back to the underworld." I said to Narcissa as I stepped through the portal into her boutique. Narcissa snorted.
"I must say, after living in the Underworld for months, working and being in charge of everything, the chatter of Hogwarts students is... dull at best and a nuisance at worst," Narcissa said dryly. I chuckled. "It was... nice to see some of our classmates again, but... there's a kind of disconnect when I talk to them. It's... we're in two very different places right now." Narcissa sighed, and I grimaced.
"I'm sorry," I said softly. Narcissa was a social butterfly; it was her duty and what was expected of her. As the daughter of the Blacks and future Lady Malfoy, she was surrounded by people whenever possible. She knew the people in our year better than anyone else.
Me? I wasn't talking to anyone before all this, and that hadn't changed. The last two weeks at Hogwarts, I'd been practically ignoring all the students and focusing on a few projects, but now that I was free, I could get back to doing other things.
"Don't apologize, my dear," Narcissa said, almost dismissively. "I didn't expect everything to be the same, and I wouldn't trade having accompanied you for anything, especially alongside Lucius and Bella," Narcissa said, smiling gently. "It's pleasant to wander through the different worlds once you've finished solving the problems." Narcissa smiled at me brazenly, and I snorted.
"I'm glad you're able to enjoy it." I said dryly, and Narcissa smiled at me, amused.
" And I do, my dear. Your Pawn is completely satisfied with your sacrifice, my King." Narcissa sneered. I rolled my eyes in amusement. And yes, I had seen that they had gone several times to explore different worlds on their own, on dates, while exploring various parts of the world.
Although I couldn't really blame them, I also went on dates with the girls, whether it was just exploring both worlds or simply doing things together. It was really nice just spending time with them.
"So why am I here?" I finally asked Narcissa as I leaned against a desk. Narcissa hummed and pointed somewhere. All I saw was a huge bust about my height covered by a sheet.
"Your wedding dress." Narcissa said easily. I stopped stiffly, and my eyes widened.
"My... wedding dress?" I asked, completely confused. Narcissa snorted and smiled.
"Your wedding dress." Narcissa repeated playfully; I just blinked.
"You... you know we can only wear light clothing for the ritual, right? " I asked, confused. Narcissa waved her hand dismissively.
" Yes, yes, yes, a simple, light shirt and trousers, nothing that will interfere with the ritual and all that," Narcissa said dismissively. "I already have them prepared," she said easily. "Leave everything else to me. I won't let my sister and my best friend get married or even walk down the aisle in just a shirt and trousers," Narcissa said with a grimace of disgust. I looked at her before bursting into laughter and shaking my head.
"Just you, Cissy," I said with a gentle smile. Narcissa smiled amusedly. "So, what do you need?" I asked just as gently, glancing at the bundle covered in fabric, only to see several needles and a pair of red scissors appear before my eyes.
"If you so much as spy on my work, I'll gouge your eyes out. You'll see them on your wedding day, not a minute before." Narcissa spat. I raised my hands, looked away, and saw Narcissa frowning with her arms crossed.
"Okay, okay, okay," I said quickly. Narcissa just snorted and put away her needles and scissors. I laughed slightly.
"So?" I asked her once more.
"Okay, I need a part of your body," Narcissa said easily as she grabbed a piece of cloth and hummed.
"A piece... of my body?" Narcissa asked. She just looked at me and raised an eyebrow before nodding.
"Yes, a piece of your body. Look, only Morgana knows that when you start babbling about your powers, I don't understand a thing. In fact, when GLaDOS, Riveria, and even Lucyna talk, I understand almost nothing," Narcissa said dryly, but she didn't seem annoyed in the slightest; she was simply stating a fact. "So I don't know how your body works, but I want a piece of it, in the form of threads, please. It's the final touch I need to complete my work." Narcissa said, waving her hand. I just stared at her, confused.
"What?" I asked again, confused. Narcissa looked at me and bowed her head.
"What? Is it not possible? " Narcissa asked before frowning. "I'll have to find other material then," she muttered.
"No, wait, just... what do you mean by a piece of my body?" I asked, confused. Narcissa looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
"You are The Traveler, I want a piece of you," Narcissa said simply. I stared at her dumbly once more. "Okay, once again, I didn't fully understand what happened in that Destiny game, but what I did understand was that fragments of The Traveler were capable of creating weapons and armor, and all that, right? I've seen fabrics made with The Light among Rebecca's things, made from fragments of The Traveler."
"I want that," Narcissa said directly. I froze completely.
"I-" I froze completely, speechless for several seconds.
"You're-" I raised a finger in Narcissa's direction to silence her.
"Give me 3 seconds." I said immediately and started thinking fast.
What Narcissa said was fundamentally wrong; there were no weapons or armor made or forged from physical pieces of the Traveler itself. All of them were simply weapons empowered by The Light, or made from other paracausal elements or the body of other paracausal creatures, like Riven of a Thousand Voices.
The Traveler had never used his body to create weapons; he had created the Ghosts from his body, yes, but nothing more. At one point, his surface cracked and several fragments fell to Earth, but those fragments were only used as sources and focal points for The Light.
They were used to channel The Light in a purer form, to regain a connection with The Light, or to empower and reinforce other types of weapons, such as Hawkmoon. But their fragments themselves had not been used to create weapons.
But… It's not as if I couldn't, really, all the fragments of The Traveler were imbued with an exorbitant amount of The Light and maintained a connection with The Traveler; in fact, those fragments could be used to create paracausal weapons without any problem.
And I was The Traveler. My whole body overflowed with The Light; it was formed from The Light. It was biological, yes, but The Light flooded even the smallest cell of my body; it was something completely fundamental to my body at this time.
And that was why I could continue placing templates on my body; my body was just a manifestation of The Light at this point, so continuing to place templates with The Light was no problem in modifying my body so easily.
The Light adapted to my body, but it needed The Darkness to settle in my soul. That did not change the fact that my body was a natural source of The Light, and any part of my body would maintain certain properties regarding it.
I could practically use my body to create weapons, right?
That… was really strange. I'd never thought about using my body as material, but there wasn't really anything stopping me. In fact… if I did think about using my body as an ingredient, could I create weapons with the traits I was accumulating? Could I create things similar to Sacred Gear or paracausal weapons from it? Let's say... create a weapon that fires Bael Destruction beams?
I stopped my thoughts before going too far; I really didn't want to use my body as an ingredient for the time being, but it wasn't something I could ignore now, especially since the idea had already taken root in my mind. I would have to study it further.
"I... okay, first, I can't use my body as you said, but I can do what you wanted, you said you needed a thread?" I asked Narcissa as I walked back. Narcissa just looked at me and shrugged.
"Yes, lots of thread." Narcissa said easily. I nodded, walked over to Narcissa's work table, took a huge spool of white thread, and let The Light fully infuse into it.
Slowly, the thread began to shine even brighter before stopping. Finally, I stopped and looked at the thread; it was still white, but it seemed to vibrate with an iridescent energy that reflected thousands of colors like a rainbow every time it was stared at.
"Like this?" I asked Narcissa. Narcissa just grabbed the spool of thread wide before starting to take out the ice and look at it closely.
"Perfect, my dear," Narcissa purred. "Make several more," she said, pointing to the other white threads. I shrugged and did as she asked. "Can you use The Darkness on them?" Narcissa asked once I finished, pointing to the spools of black thread. I shrugged and did as she asked.
I infused the reels with The Darkness; the threads seemed to emit light puffs of smoke, or even flicker within existence itself. It was disconcerting to stare at it for several seconds. I handed it to Narcissa.
"Very well, now go. I have to finish this." Narcissa said, practically kicking me out of the shop. Dozens of needles began to prick my hip to push me away. I just huffed and left Narcissa's workshop while puffing amusedly.
I looked around and shrugged. I was already in the underworld; I could check a few things on the way. I headed to the Pharmacy. Maomao, Sotheby, and Sucy's classes had resumed comfortably under a time bubble. They were progressing really well, so I had nothing to worry about.
Then I visited Jester, and to my surprise, the joke-and-magic curiosities shop was really popular. Jester had made great progress with the enchantments for magical portraits, so he could start taking orders soon once we began advertising them.
The chocolate frogs, on the other hand, were delayed. Everything was ready to start selling them, but I wanted to wait until the Peace Conference to use the image of the angels and fallen angels as part of the collection set of the biblical pantheon as an initial step.
I also had time to visit the new distillery I had created in the underworld; well, it was a sort of mega distillery, large enough to supply what would become Distracted Globe.
We had hired demons who were more than happy to work with alcohol, and they were producing hundreds of liters of all kinds of alcohol every day. And that was too much. Even to produce the bare minimum, it took up to a year to make the most basic alcohol, if you factor in the time spent planting the raw materials and the time spent making the final product.
But between potions to treat and enrich the soil, and potions to accelerate growth, or bubbles of time to have everything ready in a few seconds, and then more bubbles to ferment and distill everything, and then more bubbles of time to age them, you could practically do the whole process in a few days.
I had to create many safeguards with the time bubbles. First, they were completely fixed; no one could move from the places where I had placed the Harmonium grenades. Second, they could only be activated remotely and would only activate if there was no one inside.
There was a period of showing the workers the process and teaching them how everything worked. Still, once they realized they could practically create almost any kind of liquor in just a few days, many of them were more than enthusiastic about it all.
Especially with magical alcohols, after all, they were simply made with magical plants, so the same procedure could be used. However, it was necessary to put certain properties into the earth to keep the magical plants alive while speeding up time in a bubble.
So all the alcohol was nicely accumulating for use soon.
The next place I went was the red-light district to talk to Marion, Fengxian, and Sheila. I was usually up to date on what was happening with the succubi. Still, more than anything, I wanted to talk to them about Distracted Globe and the possibility of several succubi working there, whether as the majority of the Distracted Globe staff, as bartenders, waitresses, escorts, and more.
To my surprise, they themselves seemed excited about the idea and agreed to pass on the message vaguely so that nothing about Distracted Globe would leak. I passed the information on to Ravel and Rebecca; they would be in charge of hiring and training them.
Finally, I returned to my lab and enveloped myself in a time bubble. The Peace Conference was two days away, and although I wasn't truly afraid of the Khaos Brigade, one could always be well-prepared for any situation, and there was something I'd put off long enough to do. I pulled out my phone and quickly bought what I was looking for.
Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown [-100] [385]
Ainz Ooal Gown's staff appeared in all its glory. A golden, twisted staff, coiled by seven snakes, each a different color, its power could be felt without even touching it; it emitted a truly colossal aura.
I reached out to touch it and shuddered. My eyes widened as I felt my magic and demonic power surge immensely simply from holding it. It wasn't just a normal increase; my magic multiplied several times over just from holding it, and that was truly ludicrous.
It wasn't that the strength of my attack increased, something like multiplying the magic cast; literally, the amount of magic I had available just increased simply by holding it. Now I had at least five times the already exorbitant amount I had before.
And not only that, I could sense the affinity of each elemental stone, of each jewel placed on the Staff. I knew it; manipulating each of those elements had become so easy, it was truly ridiculous.
Especially things like fire or wind, I already had an affinity with both, the first from my Adolla Burst and several racial templates, like the Phenex; my affinity with fire was already practically abnormal. The same happened with wind: between the affinity of the Phenex and Paimon, it was already really high, but the Staff pushed them even further, especially because the Staff increased my racial abilities even more. All that counted as something racial.
Both elements practically obeyed my every command, and I could feel the range and quantity I could handle of both increasing enormously. It was… incredible.
Not only that, my natural affinity for magic had also increased by leaps and bounds due to racial enhancements; it was simply incredible.
"Ahem." I snapped out of my reverie and saw Cia to one side, her eyes narrowed, and her arms crossed as she glared at me. I just raised an eyebrow and shook my head playfully.
The Staff was attached to me; I could practically feel it. I could feel the mental link that had formed with the Staff, so it didn't react or resist when I used magic to shrink it.
It was small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, yet I could still feel the tremendous power of the Staff, enough for the size reduction magic to quickly begin to disappear and distort the Staff in an attempt to return to its normal shape.
Then I quickly took out the Elder Wand and placed it next to the miniature staff, and gave them both to Cia, who squealed with joy. She grabbed the wand first, opened her mouth, and swallowed it immediately, fiercely biting the wood, and, with a few bites, swallowed the Elder Wand completely. Then she grabbed the staff and swallowed it in one gulp. I smiled slightly.
As in the previous Deathly Hallows, my RM could not replicate the Elder Wand, so Cia would have to analyze and digest it herself.
On the other hand, the Staff had been mostly replicated by my Reality Marble, so it was almost completely absorbed. The only problem was a divine object. I have no idea how a class of that object would be treated since YGGDRASIL was primarily a game, but since it existed in the New World, in theory, they should still be of divine origin.
Thus, some parts, especially the jewelry, were difficult to scan.
Cia yawned widely and blinked sleepily. I placed my hands beneath her and watched her descend as she fell asleep. I suppose analyzing both Ainz Ooal Gown's Staff and the Resurrection Stone and Elder Wand was too much for her.
I smiled, conjured a comfortable armchair, lowered myself into it, then conjured a pillow in my lap and carefully placed Cia on it.
I used my magic to summon a book and began reading it with one hand. Runes might be useless in the magical world, but they weren't in the underworld and other realms. It wasn't something I wanted to waste credits on right now, because I'd need a new template for 320 credits, which I didn't want to waste. But that didn't change the fact that runes were magic, and I loved every aspect of magic. Regardless of whether it would be redundant for my current abilities, it was still magic.
I could feel Cia snuggle deeper into the small pillow, and then she clung tightly to my hand as I smiled in my sleep. I smiled softly back. This might take days, but I could wait as long as it took.
Author's Notes: This week, I had some extra free time and I spent it as usual, creating images! This time, it was Cia's turn.
First, several in her fairy form!:
https://imgur.com/a/we7IUrx
Then, her wand and staff forms. Serena's wand is the canonical one, a plain black staff with few details, so I wanted something similar for the staff, and I ended up with three versions. The first one is practically without any embellishment, and the other two have metal rings:
https://imgur.com/a/cljwOnc
And finally, an image of Serena in her human form with Cia in her fairy form to show her height:
https://imgur.com/a/DKADFYi
I liked that last image of Serena; I'll have to see if the AI behaves and if I can replicate it sometime.