Shades of the New World

Chapter 100: Empress is a nice lady

"Lady Helain, do you know which World works best with Darkness?" Evin asked.

"Are you talking about the horn?"

"Yes"

"Well For the current me, it's the World of Thoughts, it's just such a useful World when you get enough mana to truly benefit from its wonders. But it'll be quite useless for you for most of your life, since the first thing that mage schools teach their students is the ability to discern illusions... and that's basically all you can do with the amount of mana you have. But there is one thing that the current you could do with a Silver horn, and that's creating artifacts," Helain said with a smile.

"What do you mean?"

"You know how the World of Thoughts is sometimes referred to as the World of Creation? It means that your imagination could become reality after a while. It's a grueling process, but if you try really hard, you can create magical artifacts out of nothing," Helain said with a smirk.

"What?"

"Well, I suppose I shouldn't say that it's created out of nothing. Look here and tell me, if this was a magical artifact, what would it do?" Helain said and brought out a small statue, made out of wood. It was a masterfully created depiction of the human heart.

"Some sort of healing spell?" Evin answered, expectantly waiting to see what would happen next.

"Sure, why not," Helain said and started directing Thought energy towards the statue.

A huge mass of energy surged into the object, painting it with a brilliant silver hue, which started turning pink at some point. A small light-show later, Helain threw the now pink wooden statue towards Evin.

"It should completely heal your wounds once every week, and after you use it, you won't be able to use the World of Life for a day. It has a bunch of restrictions on it, since that's the main way of creating powerful effects: sacrificing some parts to make the others shine brighter. You can compare it to a zero-sum game, I suppose. When one thing is prevalent, something else needs to be lessened to compensate," Helain explained.

"How much mana did you direct towards this thing?" Evin could not help but ask.

"About two tons, but don't think that every Super-imposer can do something like that, it mostly depends on the skill of the artificer. Even a beginner mage could do the same, albeit over a much longer period of time," Helain bragged.

"By constantly imbuing it with Thought energy?"

"Yep, it's a grueling process, like I said, but it's definitely possible,"

"And the Horn would help me with that process?"

"Yep, and usually you would need to spend years and decades training and all that bullshit but I can cut you a nice deal. I'll have Veidra impart the knowledge directly into your head. It will be like you know every aspect of this art, and you just need to practice it in real life," Helain said with a smirk.

"Is that fine?" the whole thing sounded profoundly illegal to Evin.

"Of course! Though in exchange, I'd like to hear everything Earth knows about Darkness from you," Helain asked expectantly.

"Is that all? I'm pretty sure you will be disappointed by what you might end up hearing. It's not much different from what people here think," Evin said.

"That's all fine, it's just a passing interest of mine," Helain said and contacted Veidra.

"Hey, Lizard Lady, come here, I want to have you do something for me," Helain said.

"What is it? Kena's pulling out the fermented stuff, come quickly. What are you even doing over there?" the old lady's voice sounded from the object that Helain used.

"Alcohol can wait a few minutes, I need you to stick some raw data into Evin's head. I got a really good deal"

The silver haired lady materialized out of thin air the next moment.

"Stop making deals in my name," she said spitefully.

"Don't sweat the small stuff, k? The boy needs to learn Forced Artificing. Do your thing," Helain waved her hands.

Veidrakar grumbled something under her breath, but still looked at Evin in a professional way.

"The boy's not talented enough. Even with a silver horn and all the information he needs, it will take him half a century to create something worthwhile," Veidrakar said after a glance.

"Really? We were picking a horn for him, one good enough to fit the Dark World, what do you think?" Helain asked cutely.

"Luminous, Heavy, Fire, Emotions Just take your own pick, and you won't be disappointed. And besides, you'll outgrow your horns sooner or later, so in the end, it doesn't really matter, yeah?" Veidrakar answered.

Evin was confused with the statement. Noticing the boy's confusion, Veidra explained.

"How many of us do you see having a horn?" Veidrakar said and pulled out a pipe and put some herbs inside.

"Selat only?"

"The horns are like a crutch for babies. At first, it will be helpful for your casting, but at some point, you will be able to do what it offers you by yourself," Veidrakar lit the pipe and puffed a big one and continued: "But, I recommend you to choose a World that's difficult to understand but one that you're not completely clueless on"

Evin thought briefly and asked.

"For the Artificing thing, do you know what kind of people are most talented at that?" he inquired.

"People without any useless memories So, Children of the Empress are a definite no-go. Normal children, or even teenagers who hadn't really learned much about magic are the best," the old lady said. Hearing the details, Evin thought of a possibility.

"How about a commoner with a silver horn?" he asked.

"Hmm, I suppose it would work, but you should make sure that their horns are big enough. One that's comparable to a quarter-core or a new half-core, at least"

'If I let Sasha touch the Velvet Contract, she should be able to utilize this Forced Artificing thing,' Evin concluded.

"My sister's a normal person with a silver horn, could you impart that knowledge to her?" he asked.

"I can, but do you have the methods to increase her horn size?" Veidrakar asked and Evin showed her the Velvet Contract.

"Hmm, I suppose that barely works. Actually give me that thing. I'll chuck the knowledge inside it, so you can just have her touch the Velvet Contract and she'll receive the necessary knowledge," the old lady said.

"You can do that?" Evin asked in wonder.

"Hmph, who do you think you're talking to?" the old lady scoffed and took the Velvet Contract.

"Think about your sister and give me some of your blood. I'm assuming she or you both aren't adopted or something, right?" the old woman said. Evin complied and thought about Sasha. Veidrakar's hands glowed silvery as she touched Evin's head and the Velvet Contract.

Another Light-show occurred, and Evin now had a Velvet Contract with silvery words etched on them.

"Just have your sister touch it and it will impart the necessary knowledge upon her, alongside some extra boost to her horns," the old lady said.

"Well, you got what you wanted, now tell me about the Darkness of your World," Helain said expectantly.

"I've sorted all I remember about the subject onto the most exposed area of my mind. Just get inside there and take a look yourself. There should also be a flimsy barrier protecting the rest of my head, so please don't go beyond that spot," Evin answered. He learned how to do these things thanks to the Potion that Kena made him drink. Obviously, the Dark Authority would be able to easily breach his sad excuse of a barrier, but Evin trusted her enough to go through his mind.

'Besides, if she really wanted to, she would have taken a peek without caring about my feelings, anyway,' Evin thought

Helain did not take long, as there wasn't really that much that Earthlings thought about Darkness. Perhaps there were some individuals who do have much more interesting things to say about it, but Evin was not one of them.

The more interesting stuff Evin had in his mind were the scientific definitions of darkness, and Dark matter. Obviously, Evin didn't know much about such difficult subjects, except for surface-level trivia. But the dark-eyes woman did not seem to mind and happily thanked Evin for the new info. Looking at the adult woman in front of him, squirming from happiness, Evin couldn't help but ask, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Why are Authorities so nice?"

"Hmm?" Helain cocked her head.

"Well, you should be able to forcefully glance through my head if you really wanted to, right?" Evin asked.

"Oh, that. Well, let's just say the Empress has us following some certain rules and guidelines," Helain shrugged.

"Oh"

That explained a lot of things to Evin. Then, another question popped into his mind.

'What do Authorities do anyway?' he could not help but think. Evin really wanted to vocalize this question, but the two Oaths inside him vehemently refused to let Evin speak of such matters.

Evin clutched at his heart, due to the sudden pain.

"Are you Oaths acting up? Well, you'll get used to it," Helain said with a smile.

It took a little while before Evin's heart calmed down.

"Well, if you don't have anything else to ask, we'll be taking our leave. Hope we see you again," Helain said.

She took the elder lady's hand, and the two disappeared out of Evin's vision.

'Guess asking about an Authority's job is a no-go. Well, thankfully, the Empress is a nice lady,' Evin thought, as he glanced at the two Oaths wrapped around his heart.