Somehow, still not at 500 lol. Anyway, guys, with how regularly I've been posting, ARE WE BACK?
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"Oh c'mon, aren't we buddies? And you even skimped on my pay last time. I think you owe me for that if nothing else." I shamelessly harassed the unremarkable fellow sitting at the reception in the Department of Policy, the same one responsible for handing me an 'easy' job that ended with me having to fight a literal daemon.
Of course, I didn't really blame him but he didn't need to know that. I needed another field assignment to test out some theories, and practical experience was the best kind, especially for someone with eyes like myself. In a world where knowledge was power, I operated on shonen rules. That was, by attempting suicide via eldritch horror far beyond my level, I learnt and grew stronger.
"That wasn't... I didn't-... How was I supposed to know you'd end up encountering something like that?" He droned on, looking around nervously. "In the first place, you're not even an Enforcer or a mercenary."
What a reasonable argument.
Left with no other choice, I promptly threw around my rank like a proper Karen.
"You think it's smart to mess with a Cause aligned with Valuay (Creation) and Norwich (Modern Magecraft Theory)?"
"No, it isn't." His shoulders slumped. He sighed. "But, I don't know what to tell you. After last time, I feel the need to send a representative with you but everyone is occupied at the moment."
I opened my mouth to bother him further but then, suddenly, a chill crept along my spine. I felt a cold breath hit my neck and immediately spun around to find Hishiri Adashino standing there. Her thin lips curved into a sliver of a smile as she tilted her head to stare at the boring receptionist.
"I can be the representative. Give him something challenging."
He stared at her dumbfounded for a moment before bowing and nodding quickly, "Y...Yes Miss Adashino."
I narrowed my eyes, trying to work out her angle here. The easiest explanation was an attempt at winning favour. Yet, for these people hated by every magus, these apostates, it just didn't make sense. No, I quickly realised that she was trying to gather information, towards what end, I didn't know. It couldn't possibly be something good though.
"You don't need to be so startled." She offered cordially. "I have no intention of accompanying you. And..." She waved a hand at the empty hall, the long sleeves of her bright pink kimono dropping, "Despite what their lack of affinity for us, every lord transfers here for a time, to learn our ways. Ironic, don't you think?"
I just nodded.
"Remain amiable, and you will have no trouble from policies. Unless, of course, you do something to threaten the sanctity we uphold."
Sanctity my ass, they condoned literal child experimentation so long as it was kept under wraps. Getting along with these guys was a hard ask.
"I'll be sure not to mess with the egos you usually find on nine year olds."
She just gave a soft giggle. A fake one. Then, she floated away, dragging her long kimono and even longer jet black hair behind her. I pulled my eyes away and took the papers the receptionist held out to me.
"There's something seriously wrong with that chick."
"She can probably hear that." He rubbed his shoulder uncomfortably, gaze wandering.
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The job was a fairly simple one, some necromancer idiot had raised a dozen or so ghouls and then somehow gotten himself killed. His familiars however, were tied to the land itself and didn't fade after he expired. So, they were a risk to the secrecy maintained by the Department of Policy.
Unfortunately, the job ended at that. There was no over-the-top set of coincidences that ended with another eldritch horror appearing.
I held my nose, annoyed by the dust filling the rundown corridor, and watched the rotting corpses shuffle down my way with undisguised disappointment. Considering last time, I'd been expecting a vampire or some shit to pop in this time. The idiotic familiars tripped over themselves, hit the walls and windows, and moaned incessantly.
If that wasn't enough, I also had to bring along a companion... not of my own volition.
"Woaah. It's like we're in a real life B-list horror movie!" Flat shouted excitedly, jumping up and down.
"The problem is that it is a B-List Horror Movie. It should've been like the Grudge or the Conjuring, with forces beyond comprehension. This is a shitty zombie movie with an even shittier premise."
"Shitty or not, I love zombie movies! Don't talk about them. Isn't it really great to fight undead at the risk of infection?" He chided, wiggling his finger. Then, the one titled 'Idiot Genius' gasped, and put both his hands over his mouth in horror, as if some horrid truth had struck him out of nowhere, "Don't tell me you don't watch Jeeeean-Mario Suuuupinerra's Zombie cooking show every week?!"
I was genuinely confused. "...Jean-what the what now? That sounds stupid."
"WHAT?! HOOOW DARE YOU, SIR?!"
"For the love of-... stop screeching at every little thing!"
"He even kills zombies with pans and stuff...!"
I completely tuned him out from then on and turned my attention to the corpses shuffling our way at the incredible speed that almost bordered the pace of a paraplegic snail. Getting rid of them was as simple as dismantling the spell animating them but...
A grin crossed my face.
"I'll have you help me with a little experiment."
I could analyze and manipulate the flow of mana at a subatomic level at a glance, joining that with my affinity and designing an entirely new spell based on a rather simple interaction with the Imaginary Numbers Space was something easily accomplished.
The calculations and 'writing' were done even faster. Using Flat's methods, the spell itself became the impromptu foundation. This was necessary since there was no Thaumaturgical Foundation I could use for them.
The end result?
A complete recreation of the original use for these eyes I possessed.
I held up a hand, my eyes shimmering, a massive grin on my face.
"Cursed Technique Lapse-"
The same with Fuga, the stable image and belief needed for actualising the spell at a potent knowledge came with the very name. Anyone familiar with these eyes of mine had the firmest of ideas as to what I was about to do.
A spell that pulled 'unreal space' or rather, 'negative numbers', into the real world. When that happened, real space rushed to fill in the sudden irregularity. In simple words, the space was affected by a distortional pull. A pull so strong that-
"Blue."
A flash of blue erupted from my hands. With it came a pull so strong that it ripped everything in the vicinity to shreds. Everything shifted and morphed and compressed as it was tugged at by an unnatural pull.
In a mere instant, the corridor beyond us was torn to shreds along with everything inside it.
No, it was as if that general direction was just gone.
A mess of shredded wood and bone and flesh lay all around me.
Admittedly, that was not according to plan. But it didn't matter. My experiment was a success. Controlled deployment needed more tries and modification to the original spell but... it was a success overall. I'd made a unique spell, available only to me. Each subsequent usage henceforth meant significant improvement after improvement.
My very own cursed technique.
Since it employed the untouched realm of Imaginary Numbers, the depth of its mystery was unquestionable. I had no intentions of sharing the mechanisms or formulae either. This was mine and mine alone, at least in this world.
And, with blue in hand, red was a matter of reverse-engineering the spell. Coming up with precise variations... well, I didn't even need to think about how easy that was going to be.
"WOAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
Flat screamed again. He immediately tried to do the same except he neither had the necessary affinity nor the understanding or precise manipulation. The Idiot Genius just wrote a new spell altogether, designed to mimic mine.
Expectedly, his spell went haywire.
"You're not that guy, pal."
I chuckled as a stray plank of wood flew through the air and knocked him against the face, throwing him to the ground.
"Owww..."
Well, it was impressive that he managed it so easily in the first place, I supposed.
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Honestly, the pay they gave me for that was chump change after cuts for property damage and destruction of research that was supposed to be confiscated by the department. I didn't really care though. My sugar momma took good care of me.
Or at least tried to, I refused her money. Carnac was more than enough for several generations of my family to lead luxurious lives.
In the afternoon, I somehow found myself sitting in a cafe overlooking the River Thames, sipping a cup of tea with strawberry shortcake as I thoughtlessly stared at the Great London Bridge and the passing Woolwich Ferry.
"Now that I have the means for Blue and Red... I should get to doing something about infinity."
If memory served, the Professor had told me there was a member of the Church capable of making mobile Bounded Fields. Hopefully, it wasn't just an isolated phenomenon like my eyes and there was someone else with that particular skillset. I desperately needed his knowledge. With it, the number of people capable of harming me would become drastically lower.
Hmm... contacting the Holy Church as a magus was going to be troublesome though.
"Maybe Heine knows someone?"
No, he definitely did. He was also the sort of person to help me willingly with this without asking for anything in return. He was my bro, after all.
Wiping my face with a hand, I took a look around. There were only a few customers sitting outside the cafe, and all of them were couples. I felt a bit out of place. At the same time, I also felt the need to rub my own partner in their face for some odd reason.
Where the hell was all of this even coming from?
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Hope you enjoyed. Please comment something, I'm doubting my skill as a writer lol.
Originally, I thought of making it harder for him to acquire blue. After much deliberation though, I realised that it really should be that easy for him with his intrinisic talent, his way of interacting with mystery, the Six Eyes and the Hollow Affinity. Especially the Hollow Affinity, considering other users have made straight up pocket dimensions using it. This is not to say any other holder of the affinity should be able to accomplish the same thing with similar ease.
No, it's because of his unique 'skillset' that he can finely manipulate and interact with his affinity to make the spell... Not to mention the mana costs. He doesn't mention it because he has an insane amount of it.
It's a Cursed Technique Blue made by using the concepts of the Nasuverse so it's not exactly the original thing, but with the Imaginary Numbers Space, it should be equally if not more potent.
Lastly, I hope most of this explanation was unnecessary as the story itself till now should easily have made it clear without me specifically listing it out.