MTLNOVEL Chapter 1708 Before the Time
--- Lily --- (A few Minutes Earlier)
Lily really wanted to ignore the idea behind Pebbles healing spell… but it was just so interesting. How did he do it? Did he start at the feet and add details as he slowly worked his way up? Occasionally cutting into himself to check he was on the right track? Did he instead make the basic form and then add details to it slowly over time? Was the statue made standing up? Laying down? Could she do it with paper?
That last one was the real thing catching on her mind. It was obvious that both space and shadows were terrible affinities for pulling the trick of. You just couldn’t bend space into such a fine shape without being a lot stronger… and even then it would cause problems. Shadows on the other hand? They were only partially real when in active use by the magic. It would require a lot of enchanting to keep a shadow that had so much detail.
Paper though? It was… probably not easy, and certainly improbably but could it work. *If I did a sort of paper mache thing perhaps? I’d need to carve in the details with my mind but… individuals muscles? Nerves as well perhaps? How on earth did he manage the brain? Or was that part skipped? Is there a spell to just copy over the details? That would make it easier but that presumes such a spell exists and that it truly is easier to cast.
I think… I think I’d be better off going a different route. Problem shunting my injuries into my shadow and using something that’s a bit like Kamiko’s bubbles? Perhaps connecting my shadow to someone or something else and shunting the damage through that link? It doesn’t seem easy but both seem a lot more possible then THAT madness.
Pebbles was said to be a prodigy and I can feckin believe it. I have no idea how you’d TEST something like that. It sounds like the injury is less important than the statue and I’d hate to have messed that up before testing it. In fact… I don’t know that I could take the risk at all. Madness… but maybe that’s how you build yourself a city. Madness.*
Lily shook her head to clear it. Now wasn’t the time for theorising potentially deadly healing magic. Even if it was interesting. "So what’s the plan here Meg?"
"You’ll be on my shoulder using your shadows to point out the best place for me to break into the space. From there we hopefully get to the centre of this mess and hopefully that’s where the problem is. We can work out the specifics later," said Meg with a shrug.
"Wait you can destroy space?" asked Lily.
"No, not at all… but once space and time are visible like this? They become more… real is the wrong word… more ’solid’? I suppose? Like how it’s easier to hmm… you were a normal mortal once right? Well it’s easier to pop a blister by accident then accidentally slicing your fingers open.
"It’s sort of like that. Space is distorted in such a way I can ’lance’ the ’boils’ of spacetime. Not an elegant explanation or a particularly factual one but it’s correct enough for this without getting into the specifics," explained Meg.
Lily shrugged at the answer. "Right… do we want to wait a bit for Pebbles to recover?"
"I do have a name you know," cut in Pebbles.
"You don’t complain when Meg does it… and I um… don’t really know it?" offered Lily. Stay updated through empire
"She’d definitely do something in retaliation. Easier to let her have it… and my name is-" Pebbles tried to say but as he’d somewhat predicted Meg chucked a small rock at his face, cutting of his answer and causing him to dodge. "Gee alright, I’m Pebbles then I suppose,"
"Good. How much mana do you have?" said Meg.
"Um… I’m not even at half yet?" offered Pebbles.
Meg poked at her cheek for a few moments. "Lily can you sense how deep this is? I don’t want to use up any more time then we have to… and if it’s a good distance we can make a start while Pebbles recovers. Just need to take it slow-ish,"
"I really don’t know. It makes me uncomfortable just standing here. I have no idea how much I’d need to focus to see how deep the changes go and at that point I’m not sure I could avoid throwing up again," answered Lily.
"Can you lead us to the centre at all then?" asked Meg.
"Yes," answered Lily while trying to project confidence. I’m pretty sure I can at least. Because… "It’s easier then finding the centre itself. I just need to go one layer deeper. The space here is… metaphorically tied up in knots and going deeper is pretty easy. The worry I guess is if you can go ’deeper’ then the centre… but I don’t think it works like that?"
"Hmmm… Pebbles give the word when your mana has recovered up to seventy-five percent," stated Meg.
And that was that. The group sat around waiting for Pebbles to recover. Meg took out her knitting needles and inspected them, rubbed some sort of gel over them for some reason and then repeated the process with a few different set of needles. Pebbles performed some slow stretches. Nothing too serious and it wasn’t enough of a workout to slow down his regeneration. If anything the smooth repetitive movements improved his mana regeneration a slight amount.
Compared to the other two Lily didn’t really know what to do. The unsettling feelings the area produced meant it was hard to calm down and she didn’t want to get lost in her own speculation about magic and risk not being prepared. Lily could feel the space around them and it was constantly shifting its corrupted morass around.
Space here was distorted yes, but it wasn’t as simple as just being ’twisted’ in specific designated spots. It was closer to a ball of constantly moving snakes rather then a stationary knot of yarn. Keeping track of the best place for Meg to break through was difficult and Lily was really hoping the other demon could manage it.
Hunter had needed a specialty bullet to get them into the pocket dimension of the drake… though that was obviously quite different. The drake was in an enclosed pocket dimension. Space was disrupted minimally, and only the fact they knew there was an entrance to the dimension helped them break in.
Here? It felt like space was moments away from falling apart. So making sure Lily didn’t direct Meg to a spot that was exceptionally weak was going to be necessary. This meant that Lily also needed practice with her shadows to make sure they were constantly on target… but mostly it meant that she was just pacing around in circles restlessly.
When it was finally time to act Meg scooped her up into her arms and Pebbles stopped with the stretching. Lily pointed a clawed shadowy hand off to the side where she thought was the best place to break through. Lily made sure to stretch her shadow as far as possible to signal that it wasn’t all that close to them.
Meg jogged over and Lily made sure to keep her shadow in the correct place to compensate both for the movement of Meg herself and the movement of the spot they were aiming for. When they got close enough it was within range of Lily’s shadow she stretched out a second set of claws and pointed directly to it. One above, one below. There would be no mistakes.
Meg pulled a very particular set of needles from her storage ring and Lily could feel their power. It was one closely aligned with space. It wasn’t Meg’s abilities nor skill at all! The boils metaphor might’ve just been a joke! She just had a set of knitting needles that could interact with space dammit!
Lily didn’t let her annoyance show as Meg jabbed a needle into thin air and twisted. Suddenly the area around them exploded into cracks and the group fell forward into a tunnel as the lights engulfed them. Lily quickly orientated herself and started indicating a spot further down the long tunnel for Meg to attack. A glance back revealed that Pebbles had made it through as well. So… that was probably good.
This process would end up repeating itself over and over. Identify, move, attack. Meg was never too fast nor too slow. It was a light jog for her at most and Pebbles could keep up the pace for a good few hours before it became a problem. Occasionally the cracks in space would react more violently and attempt to slice into the group but Meg seemed to know what she was doing and could lead them all through it, even without Lily’s help. It was only a matter of time until they’d end up in the centre. Hopefully.