Heekapoo simply stared into the air in disappointment without saying a word, thousands of thoughts running through her mind at that moment, and not a single one of them was positive. In the end, she could only lower her head in disappointment. "As expected, it doesn't work. I don't know what I was expecting after all this time."
"Give them to me."
"What?" Heekapoo asked.
"Give them to me and I'll make them work" Kaito replied.
"Do you even know how they work?"
"I have no idea" Kaito replied without the slightest trace of deceit in his voice.
"Here" but Heekapoo handed him the scissors anyway. After all, they no longer worked, so it wasn't like he could break them.
"You and Marco explain the current situation to Star, I'll take care of making these things work" he said as he took the scissors from her hands.
But before he could pull his arm away, Heekapoo grabbed it. Her hand felt especially warm, as if it were made of fire itself, giving Kaito a strange sensation.
She pointed with the thumb of her free hand toward where Star and Marco were.
"Do you really think they need me over there? Just show me what you're going to do." Although she spoke with her usual carefree attitude, as if she simply didn't want to watch those two flirting, Kaito could feel her hand tightening around his arm and her expression growing slightly tense.
Unlike Marco, whose goal was to find Star, or Star, who had only just awakened and still didn't fully understand the situation or even Kaito himself, or Kaito, who, despite wanting to escape from this place as soon as possible, had only been here for a little over a month, Heekapoo not only wanted to leave as quickly as possible, she had been searching for a way out for centuries.
So even though she tried to act with her usual calm and carefree attitude, not even she could hide her true emotions.
"Fine." Kaito sighed in resignation and walked a few hundred meters away. He didn't want to disturb Marco and Star while he worked, and vice versa.
Once there, Kaito sat on the ground while holding the scissors in his right hand.
"What are you going to do?" Heekapoo asked.
"I'm going to try using Fragments of Divinity to improve these things."
"What's that?"
"You can think of it as a special kind of energy that lets you do anything, as long as you have enough of it and know how to use it" Kaito replied without going into much detail.
But upon hearing that, Heekapoo's expression changed. A faint trace of dissatisfaction and disappointment appeared in her eyes.
"What's the difference?"
"What?" Kaito asked, confused.
"The crown could grant wishes, and even then it couldn't get us out of here. You had that omnipotent power, and even then you can't get us out of here. That kid Bipper had reality manipulation, and he's still trapped here.
So... what's the difference? Why would this energy work instead of being just another false hope?"
Kaito remained silent for a second, giving Heekapoo the impression that he didn't know what to say.
"As expected, it doesn't..."
"Pffft." But soon Kaito broke his silence with a laugh. "Hahaha, sorry, it's just that your comparison was really funny.
It's impossible to compare the Fragments of Divinity with those simple artifacts or abilities. Because the Fragments of Divinity created those things."
"Created?" Heekapoo repeated in confusion. "Do you mean the object, the ability, or the person?"
"Everything" Kaito replied. "The Fragments of Divinity are the very essence of the world, no, of the universe. Everything was created through them, your world, my world, every living being, every ability, magic, everything. The Fragments of Divinity can do anything. Even this dimension was probably created by Fragments of Divinity."
"...and then?" Heekapoo muttered.
"'And then'?"
"And then why aren't you using them?! What's the point of all this if you've had them from the very beginning? How do you even have something like that in the first place?!" Heekapoo started complaining again.
"Well, they're not that easy to use, you know? That's why I wanted the scissors. Basically, it's about improving something that already has all of its rules and functions established, so it's much easier than creating something from scratch" Kaito explained.
In reality, he shouldn't even know how to use them. He was lucky that he had used them once before, so he at least knew the basic principles. Even then, he wasn't one hundred percent sure it would work.
His only reassurance, and the source of his confidence at this moment, was the message Future Shiho had left him.
"Whatever, just do it" Heekapoo told him immediately without letting him explain any further before looking him straight in the eyes. "And don't you dare fail."
Kaito didn't reply, he simply nodded and closed his eyes.
He used soul manipulation, not because it was necessary, but because it made things easier. The Fragments of Divinity were stored within his soul, so moving them that way was simpler.
With a goal in mind, Kaito focused, trying to transform the Fragments of Divinity into something real, an improvement for the scissors in his hand.
But the moment he did, his brow unconsciously furrowed. The instant he conveyed that idea, the energy within his soul began moving toward that goal, that part was easy. But after that, he no longer knew what to do. The moment the energy and the scissors interacted, countless rules appeared before him. It felt like a language he had never heard before, with grammatical rules unlike anything he had ever encountered.
On top of that, while trying to understand it all, he also had to devote everything he had to transforming the energy, making sure not a single stray thought distracted him, or he would have to start over.
After what felt like hours of absolute concentration, with cold sweat running down his forehead, Kaito finally opened his eyes while breathing heavily.
"What happened?" Heekapoo asked.
"How much time passed?"
"About fifteen seconds. Why?"
"Only fifteen seconds?" Kaito muttered in disbelief. "This... is way too difficult."
"What happened? It didn't work?" Heekapoo asked, her face changing in real time from happiness to despair as she spoke.
"It did work, it's just..." Kaito explained the sensation he had experienced while trying to improve the scissors.
"So it's just too difficult?"
"I estimate it'll take me a few months before I can do it" Kaito nodded.
"Only a few months and we'll get out of here?! Great!" Heekapoo hadn't been this happy in centuries, almost jumping for joy. But when she saw Kaito's expression, she realized something was wrong and quickly understood what it was. "But you don't want to wait that long, do you?"
Kaito didn't answer, but his expression said everything.
"Ugh, fine." Heekapoo sighed in resignation and sat down between Kaito's legs. "I'll help you."
"You'll help me?" Kaito asked in confusion.
"I understood what you said before. Basically, you're a blacksmith. First you have to learn all the theory behind how swords work and how they're made. Then you have to create the mold, and finally you pour the molten iron into it to make the sword. This is just ten thousand times harder, and you have to do everything at once" Heekapoo said. "I'm the creator of these scissors, so I understand how they work better than anyone. Understanding how to improve them won't take me long. I'll learn the rules and make the mold, you just have to pour the iron."
"It doesn't work like that, only I can..."
"I know" Heekapoo interrupted him. "Do you think I was just sitting around here for no reason? I'm a being made of magic, literally pure magic. Back in Mewni, I was connected to the source of magic and survived thanks to it.
Once I came here, that connection was severed, so I had to steal magic from the few magical beings I came across just to survive.
I'll link myself to you. Basically, I'll become nothing more than the physical manifestation of your magic, so I'll become a part of you."
"That... could actually work" Kaito admitted in surprise.
"But once I return to Mewni, I'll reconnect myself there, got it? Don't think I'll just stay linked to another person forever, that would be weird" Heekapoo assured him.
"Ah." Only then did Kaito realize these people had no idea about the truth of their world. "I think this is a bad time to mention it, but your world was destroyed."
"...What?" Heekapoo didn't know what to say for a moment. "Wait, what are you talking about? How would you even know that if you're from another world? Was my world destroyed after I left? What happened?" Heekapoo started asking questions one after another.
"Actually, it wasn't after you left, it was before."
"Impossible, my world looked perfectly fine when I left."
"It's a long story, but if I had to summarize it, most worlds have already been completely destroyed. An interdimensional entity called the Gaia System saved everyone's souls and gave them a chance to be resurrected.
That chance consists of turning their worlds into training grounds for the people of the last surviving world. By overcoming trials across different worlds, they'll become strong enough to eventually face whatever destroyed the worlds in the first place.
Because of the number of Lords, which is what the participants in this trial are called, and because of the nature of the trials themselves, every world was simulated thousands of times, and everyone's souls were split across each simulation.
Every now and then, a simulation can go wrong because someone fails to follow the same story as everyone else for unknown reasons. When that happens, either killing that soul fragment or returning it to the complete soul would cause problems for the original being, so they send them here, a place completely disconnected from everything else, to sever the connection with the rest of the soul so it can't affect it.
Easy enough to understand, right?"
"..."
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)