Daily Life with Three Systems: Chapter 20

"Cloth make: Sparrow." 

A little bird made of black cloth springs to life fluttering beside me as I hold out a letter. 

Its body shifts, its talons instead stringing out and covering the letter in my hand completely in a net of string with no exits. It darts down from the cloud I am currently hovering within, wings flapping near silently. 

My magic is more accurate the closer I am to the item I am seeking I have recently found out. 

Then, by making the dice gold via 'attuning' to some of the gold we took from Everlue. I've found that my search is actually QUITE accurate. 

From my home I got the search area down to about a mile radius. Now, here in the clouds its gotten to about the size of the manor itself. 

Which helps as I now know Aquarius isn't IN the manor. She's over there in that little house by the garden. 

I gaze at an archive screen beside me. A little something I had been messing with. A 'camera' basically. 

REALLY useful. 

It's been what I have been messing with in an attempt to create a form of 'archive-skype'. 

The longer the distance, the more magic it takes, so that's the main issue I'm facing, but I suppose it also has a use for spying like this. 

The sparrow floats down and pecks the doorbell, causing a chime to echo out. 

A green hared woman opens the door and freezes upon seeing the bird made of cloth. 

The string sparrow rapidly unweaves and disappears, leaving my letter behind. 

Her eyes trail the letter as it flutters down to the ground. She reaches out, hesitating briefly before taking the letter. 

She opens it. Pulling out the letter I had written her. 

"Dear holder of Aquarius. My name is unimportant, but what may matter to you is that I am the current contractor of the celestial spirit Virgo. (No, I'm not Duke Everlue, if you 1: Even knew he had her and 2: assumed he still did). I am writing this letter to you as a favor to Virgo. For you see, my true magic isn't actually Celestial spirit magic. My magic is divination. And roughly a year ago while experimenting I discovered arguably my most costly spell. Detect Prophesy. A spell which can view the plans fate has for the world at large. 

This spell is what got my celestial spirit worried. 

To put the prophesy extremely bluntly, and do not worry I will be including the entire thing at the end of this letter. Layla Heartfilia is required to fulfil a contract that her ancestors had made in the distant past, she must facilitate the opening of some sort of temporal gate, at which point, due to Aquarius missing, she must in turn compensate and take her place which will no doubt result in her dying due to magic deficiency disease. 

If you care for Layla Heartfilia (or Jude or Lucy Heartfilia, I'm unsure. But I doubt a child could accomplish this and I am unsure if Jude is a mage so I am assuming the one in the Prophesy is Layla) please have Aquarius' key near her before July 7th 777. 

Now, you may not believe me and you may wish to question your spirit of this, however from what I can tell from Virgo, Celestial spirits are actually prevented from mentioning anything about this prophesized event. All Virgo has been able to utter on the subject is that she will need 'time off' soon and that I need to 'Save them' when she heard what I said. Now. I will leave you with the exact prophesy. 

'On the seventh day of the seventh month, of the year seven seven seven, a gateway of ages shall open. Guided by the clustered stars, five, with draconic powers sealed within and a sixth who's power is not her own, shall arrive with a guide. A decided price is paid. The water bearer's absence breaks the heart.' 

Good day, holder of the water bearer." 

I can see the woman's hands clench the paper slightly tight, eyes widening. 

She seems to look around, spying a golden key sat upon a small cushion. 

Well. 

Now I know why Aquarius got so fucking spoilt. 

Grammi takes her key and walks outside, placing the tip in the large fountain in front of her home. 

"Open! Gate of the water bearer!" 

Ding-Dong 

With a large flash a mermaid appears, she's combing her hair. 

"What is it?" She demands. "I've got a date with my boyfriend soon." 

"I got a concerning letter." Grammi begins slowly. "It said you can't necessarily speak about it, but... do you have some sort of contract you need to fulfil soon?" 

"Hm?" The celestial spirit frowns. 

"Something about... a time gate?" 

Aquarius pauses, a slight flinch on her face. 

"Because... the letter said that you and the other zodiac do... and that Layla would have to take your place due to your not being there. So... do you have some sort of job you need to do? I can... I can imagine why you wouldn't have been able to make it. I have been planning a trip to Alakitasia. Not this year, or the next, but sometime after that. That... that's quite far for you, isn't it?" 

"..." 

"I need to get back to preparing for my date." Aquarius frowns. "I'd suggest against that trip. I've heard some poor things about the political climate in Alakitasia as of recently from a few of the silver spirits. I'd postpone it for a good... six... maybe seven years? Now. I must go... thank you Grammi. And if you ever find out who sent you that letter, it would be wise to thank them as well." 

With that she disappears with a flash. 

I allow my spying window to fade, letting a small sigh of relief. "Well. That takes care of that." 

I flash forwards in the vague direction of magnolia, the lightning bolt I ride upon letting out an echoing boom. 

My speed has improved since I unlocked my second origin. Plus I'm getting a little better at seeing where I'm going. Be it from practice or my second origin giving me a bit of an upgrade. 

It's gotten even better recently as well. Could my Barbarian's Essence improve my reaction speed as well? 

I mean. It may. It was a flat bodily increase across the board. Strength. Speed. Durability. Stamina. I'd imagine it also improved my reaction time somewhat. 

'ah... with this done- reasonably if Layla dies its ALL on Grammi at this point- I can finally relax and start on something else! Or I could try and collect the black keys... maybe that new quest- after this S-Class one finishes- will let me have a Lost Magic book as a reward. Then I might get some sort of 'Magic Item Restoration' lost magic so I can pursue those 'Broken Key's or whatever Virgo was talking about. 

But first? I believe I'll finally make use of Seilah and try to understand what exactly 'Cursed Energy' is. 

[Split] 

"So... curses are limited in scope?" 

"Yes." Seilah nods once. "Magic can freely grow. A fire mage might be able to create balls of fire, walls of fire, or intense gouts or beams of fire. While an etherious with the same power might only be able to create fire and control it. Not launch it across an entire city in a single attack while cleaving multiple buildings in half, but summon it, then telekinetically throw it forwards. The key aspect here is that etherious curses are just... more powerful than magic and some may have multiple applications." 

"Say for instance, one of my previous allies' curse. Jackal. One of the nine Demon Gates. He can turn anything that touches him into a bomb. He cannot wave his hand and detonate a building in the distance, or target more esoteric things like a mage might eventually be able to do like detonating someone's magical power or mind. But what he can do is turn air into a bomb, then ensure it is blown into the distance with a swipe of his hands. Or touch locations he believes an enemy may walk upon and detonate them at his leisure." 

"Are curses something you etherious are born with? Or is it something you develop as you grow stronger?" 

"it's an innate trait for Etherious. We were created at our peak. Our curses haven't grown stronger." 

"Is this for lack of trying or because it can't improve?" I question. 

She opens her mouth to reply only to pause. "Theoretically... it may be possible to improve the power of a curse, but the etherious' body would need to undergo some changes which I suppose would be possible quite soon depending on how our Research was going. Think of an Etherious' Curse as... a muscle- no. Those can grow stronger through use... curses are more akin to... a bone. It is theoretically possible for those bones to shift somewhat; it is possible for those bones to grow stronger... however those bones must be fractured first." 

"What of our familiar bond? Would this not slowly empower not only you but your curse as well?" 

"I am unsure. An etherious has never been a familiar before." The woman shakes her head, her long black hair swishing slightly. 

"Interesting! Interesting!" I smile brightly. "So how is this cursed energy generated? Where is it located? Is it possible to use both it and ethernano based magic at the same time despite them being opposites? Opposites like this tend to react violently when they interact. Reasonably if you were able to harness both wouldn't you be able to create truly devastating attacks by having them clash. I think the lucifer of Rias' world had an ability that functioned like that, the 'Demonic Brilliance of Evil Light'." 

Seilah seems quite happy to answer my questions. She strikes me as the type who is well-read and likes to show it off. 

I can tell this is truly the start of a beautiful partnership. 

[Split] 

My wings flap as I descend towards the snowy ground below. My wings slowly retract into my back as I land with a crouch outside a small home. 

My eyes stray around the surroundings. Sensing outwards. 

The door slowly creaks open, a tall black haired woman slowly sauntering out with a yawn. 

"Ur Milkovich. I've come to pit my maker magic against yours. Like I said I would all those months ago." I grin. 

The woman blinks twice, tilting her head slightly. "Huh. You feel different than when we last met." 

"I've grown... considerably stronger." 

"I can tell." The woman huffs. "The sheer magical power you're putting out. How old are you again?" 

"Uh..." I pause. "My age is whatever's convenient because I don't actually know." 

She rolls her shoulders, I can see a white haired boy peek out from behind her. The woman on par with a wizard saint gives me an incredulous look. "You... don't know your own age." 

"To be completely and totally fair, most of my memories beyond a little over two years ago are pretty much gone. So I'm anywhere from thirteen to twenty two. Whichever's the most convenient at any point in time." 

"You're sure as hell not twenty two." Ur snorts. "Nor thirteen either. I'd place you at about sixteen. Maybe seventeen. Regardless. You've got a magical aura that'd make most experienced wizards green with envy." 

"So. Where are we doing this?" I question. "You know the surroundings best and it could get a little messy." 

"There's an open space about a mile north." The woman announces. 

"I see." I nod slowly. 

With a wave of my hands, cloth wings explode from my back, flapping twice and carrying me off the ground. 

Ur conjures a large ice bird that she climbs upon, lifting the small white haired boy up onto its back. 

We take off into the sky flying the short distance to this 'clearing' she mentioned. 

It's as she described it. Open. Barren. The ground covered in permafrost and snow. 

I nod slowly, wings unweaving and flowing back to where they came from. 

"Hm?" I can hear the woman hum mutely as her creation cracks and shatters. "That's... unusual... what is that?" 

"String maker magics can remain connected to the magic circle, allowing me to eventually recall them and recharge my magical power for almost all that I spent." I call out. 

"Huh... that's interesting. I kind of wish Ice-Make had something like that." 

"Well, Cloth-make isn't very good for hitting things so it has to have other advantages, right?" I shrug. "So. How are we doing this. Is this an actual fight or are we just going to focus our attacks on whatever we make?" 

"Let's just focus the attacks on whatever we make. I'm not looking to hurt you. Your magical energy is absolutely impressive... but I hold the edge there and I don't doubt that my body has been trained harder." 

"Fair enough." I shrug. "Why don't we make this interesting." 

"Interesting?" The woman echos. 

"I win, you teach me some of the basics of Ice-make. You win, I make you something out of fine maker-magic silk. What do you say?" 

"Why do you want to learn Ice-Make?" The woman looks perturbed. "Aren't your hands full with your many cloth magics?" 

"Ah. You'd think." I shrug. "But in truth, I want to write a book one day. I'm still working on a title, but so far I'm sitting on 'Making Maker Magics'. I want to write a book that focuses on the origin of all maker magics an how a reader can develop their own style and elements. That means I've got to learn a lot of maker-magics at the very least at a novice level to see how they compare. How they are made. Stuff like that." 

"Huh... alright. If you win just sure to leave me a little credit in the back, right?" 

"Oh, of course." I nod with a bright smile. "So. Let's get this show on the road!" 

"Composite-Make: Knuckleduster Ogre." 

Several large magic circles appear in front of me, a large figure standing at roughly thrice my height is woven in an instant, metal glinting on its knuckles. 

"Composite-make?" The woman echoes. "Fascinating! Ice Make: Tiger!" 

A massive feline beast appears with a blue glow. It's much larger than a normal tiger, standing at roughly the height of a person at the shoulders. 

It leaps forwards at high speeds, my ogre pounding its fists towards it. 

The tiger slips around the side of my creation, claws slashing at its side and cutting thin grooves into its fibrous flesh. Far less than what you'd expect, but... this is magical spider silk. Its strength is quite impressive. 

"Rope Make: Binds." I call out as my Ogre turns. 

Rope coils around the tiger. 

"Ice Make: Floor!" 

Ice shoots across the clearing reaching my ogre's ankles in an instant and freezing it up to the thigh. 

"Clench." 

The rope tightens and the ice tiger cracks, the freezing ice completely envelopes my ogre. 

They both shatter into millions of pieces, the ice and cloth dissipating into little more than motes of light. 

I can see a faint smile on the woman's lips as she brings her hands to her side. She wasn't doing her classic ice-make pose for the first bit... well, I suppose I wasn't doing my cloth make poses either. "Let's see how you handle this!" 

"Ice-Make Soldiers!" 

"Cloth-Make: Dire Wolves." 

Two knights made of ice wielding jagged blades sprout from the tundra floor. Two become four. Then ten. Then forty. 

They rush forwards as sprouting from a large complex magical sigil are my own creations. 

Large wolves the size of horses barrel through her line of soldiers, cloth is parted, limbs of ice are sent flying through the air. The sound of conflict fills the air. 

"Composite-Make: Archers." I whisper. 

Five men made of cloth appear wielding bows made of tin, drawn by cords of silk and pulling arrows of tin from quivers on their back. 

Arrows fill the sky as numerous flying ice beasts quickly soar upwards. The attacks lightly curve, seeking out the targets and shattering her most recent creations. They are still created from my maker magic so it's well within my ability to do so. 

I don't really wait, spending a large amount of magical energy to begin conjuring something else. 

"Cloth Make: Drake." A large figure rapidly knits together, I can see Ice climbing higher and higher a large reptilian beast lunges forwards, charging through the intense fight between wolves and knights. 

A giant steps forwards, bringing down a massive blade onto my drake. 

It cuts deep, but the mouth of my creation clamps down around the neck of Ur's own.  

Three more giants appear and skewer my creation with large spears of ice. 

Five blasts of ice pass cleanly through the torso of my archers. 

"Haah... Alright then." I mutter under my breath before calling out. "Hey, Ur. Want to see my absolute peak?" 

The giants loom as the battle of wolves and knights seem to have cleared up, she is crossing her arms. "Go ahead. You're doing pretty good." 

"This might take me a minute. I'm kind of still experimenting with this idea." 

I bring my hands together, eyes narrowing. 

"Composite make..." 

A skeleton of tin appears, cloth flesh begins to slowly cover the body. The legs. The stomach. 

Multicolored strings begin to weave across the body. Stitching and weaving into... symbols and shapes. 

They're extremely basic. A pain in the ass to charge and aren't as effective thanks to the lack of precision. 

However. 

It allows my summons to do things they ordinarily would be incapable of. 

If I can get this to the point where this is effortless? What would I even call it anymore? 

Enchantment-make perhaps? 

My silk-make has grown to a point I could have only dreamed of back when I first started... I've reached heights I doubted I ever could... 

"Argonaut." I whisper as the cloth fills in. Magical power seems to explode from the cloth figure that stands a good head and shoulders over me. 

The aura its producing is unrefined. Sporatic. Shaky. 

But this is imperfected. 

Enchantment layered on top of enchantment on top of enchantment. 

Its as if my power was a three-d printer and I was able to layer enchantments both horizontally and vertically. 

The cloth figure raises one of the tin spears that I quickly scatter around it. 

Then it throws. 

BOOM 

One of the giant's torso cracks into three parts. One arm going one way, the head and other arm going the other and the lower torso falling back. 

My Argonaut rushes forwards, body reaching speeds that very few maker magics can. 

Fractures spread out from one of the remaining giant's ankles as the cloth makes contact. Another spear stabbing deep even as the tip bends and dulls. 

BOOM 

It turns and hurls the other spear. 

"Ice make... whiteout." 

The world turns white. 

Jagged icicles point in every direction, splitting around me and its caster. 

The cloth soldier is frozen in a massive block of ice. 

Nothing is safe from that chill. She even froze over her remaining creations. 

nobody moves for a long moment as I breath heavily, a grin on my face. 

"Well. I'm tapped." I admit.  

That last spell took a good thirty percent of my reserves. 

I run a hand through my hair, hopping up and over the nearest ice spike. 

I slide briefly, body gripped by my thaumaturge magic as I slow my descent. 

I make my way over to Ur and her student. The boy looks genuinely awed by the magic we displayed. 

"So. What do you think?" I ask as I come to a stop across from her. 

"Not bad. What did you even do for that last spell? That was a cut above all of your other ones." 

"Oh, I learned a supplementary magic to my cloth make... cloth enchantments which involve creating patterns and sequences of code on clothes to generate magical effects. What you just saw was me layering enchantment after enchantment after enchantment. Regretfully, it's one: a very precise art, two: very energy intensive, and three not even close to being ready for battle." 

"Regardless. It's my loss. What do you want me to make?" 

"I've been wanting a new pillow if you wouldn't mind." 

"Oh that's easy." I wave off. 

A pillow-case is rapidly woven, then filled with cotton. 

I seal it quickly then hand it over to the woman. 

She stares down at the pillow now in her hands. 

"You know... I never doubted my choice in magic... but it would be quite useful to be able to just... make a pillow." 

I pause as I feel a presence in the distance. "Oh? It looks like we've got another spectator... oh hey, is that your... daughter?" 

The woman stiffens, eyes narrowing slightly, she turns, following my gaze onto to freeze. 

Standing at the forest edge is a small black haired girl, peeking around a tree. 

"Ultear..." She whispers. "ULTEAR!" 

She takes off with a sudden burst of speed. 

"..." 

"Huh." I hum with a slow blink. "Anyways. Here. Another pillow. I'm... not the best for heart wrenching reunions sooo I'm going to let myself out. Bye!" 

I toss the boy a pillow before conjuring some silk wings to allow me to climb into the sky. 

'Well... another fate has changed. She won't be in Grimoire Heart now.' 

Speaking of Grimoire Heart... I should really deal with them one day, but I kind of doubt I could take them as I am now. 

Maybe if I, Seilah, and Rias jump Hades, we trap him and Rias punches a hole in his chest with the Power of Destruction but eh. Who knows. 

I open my archive magic, gazing over my map. 

'let's see... home is... this way!' 

[Split] 

My boots thud on the doorstep as I let out a long yawn. 

I decided to have a mild scenic flight back. It was quite relaxing. 

The door creaks open. "I'm back."  

Natsuki is in the kitchen, Koneko is observing, Rias doesn't appear to be in the building, nor does Valerie. 

"Welcome back." Natsuki calls out, she appears to be cutting a baked cake into layers. 

I walk forwards, taking a seat beside Koneko. 

"The others out?" I question. 

"Mission." Koneko notes. "Saving up for... second good bed... Demon's... upstairs..." 

"Ah. I'd imagine Valerie would have gotten tired of that one bed I made her with cloth-make." I nod slowly. "So. What are you baking, Natsuki?" 

"Chocolate cake." She replies. 

"Oooh." I hum. "Chocolate's one of my favorites... a close second to that strawberry pound cake my mom used to buy at walmart, haaah that cake was heavenly." 

"Oh. I think I know the kind your talking about." Natsuki beams. "That was always my favorite too, but I didn't have it that often." 

We fall into a brief silence that is eventually broken by the pink haired girl. "So. Where were you?"  

"Oh, I went north for a bit." I shrug before glancing to Koneko. "Hey Koneko, remember that really strong ice wizard?" 

"Mn? Mhm." She cocks her head to the side before nodding once. 

"I went to go and make good on my promise and pick a fight with her. She's REALLY strong, but I think I impressed her a little bit. Oh. She apparently has a daughter. There was apparently something going on with that because she looked like she wanted to cry in relief upon seeing her. I let myself out after that. To not intrude on their private moment." 

"Oh." Koneko blandly notes. "Okay." 

"You any closer to figuring out that thing with Seilah?" Natsuki asks. 

"No... and that's kind of annoying." I sigh, shoulders slumping. "Ah well. Someone come get me when the cake is done. Koneko I'm watching  you. Don't unhinge your jaw like a snake and eat it all in one bite." 

"Mn. I may." A faint smile appears on her lips. 

I reach up and rub the top of her head, her smile grows slightly cat-like as a low purr seems to echo out from her lips, ears flattening slightly and her tail swishing back and forth. 

We both freeze as we realize what's happening. I awkwardly cough into my fist, Koneko's slitted pupils watch me, her smile growing a mischievous glint appearing in her eye. "I didn't... say you could stop..."