Orion was still deep in thought when he reached Mai's apartment twenty minutes later, unsure how to feel about the fact that Mai had killed someone who was, possessed or not, her friend. But the woman had shown no hesitation in murdering someone she had deemed an enemy.
Right now, he had been standing in front of Mai's door for over five minutes, having already taken a shower and changed into fresh clothes.
"Enough brooding about this stuff. I was already expecting this… This is the apocalypse. The earlier I get used to this, the better. As long as I'm not bloodthirsty and psychopathic... I guess that's what they all say."
He shook his head violently before slapping his face with both hands to clear his mind. Finally, he walked up to Mai's door and knocked.
Inside, he stood in front of Mai's zombie sister. The blue-eyed blonde, for once, wasn't tied up and was only held in place by the metal collar on her neck that was attached to the wall behind her.
"I've already cleaned and fed her," Mai said. "You said we could pull her out of that state of stasis, right?"
"Don't worry so much. The item is going to be bound to her and can only store her. While that seems to make the item less versatile, it is a lot more stable compared to a simple storage method."
Also cheaper. I can't afford to create anything with an accessible internal space just yet. This necklace works more on the principle of dimensional displacement than creating a pocket dimension space.
"All right," Mai nodded, a worried look crossing her ever-cold face. "Go for it."
Orion nodded, glancing at his status as he prepared to call upon the gear to help him craft the Stasis Necklace.
Name: Orion Vaelor
Exile Gear: Infinite Dream
Specialization: Creation
Factional Authority Initiation: 0.1%
Origin Energy: 132,472.26 Units
Physique: 1117.68
Matter Limit: 20 KG
Runic Energy: 334/1117 Units [Grade III]
Aspected Runes: [Grade 1 Inspection]
Slot I: Grade 1 Light (100%)
Slot II: Grade 1 Defense (100%)
Slot III: Grade 1 Lava (100%)
Techniques: (Expand)
Knowledge: (Expand)
Seeing a hundred and thirty-two thousand units of Origin Energy filled Orion with a sense of giddiness that came with getting an unexpected windfall. His initial estimates to gather such an amount were in the weeks, but the Origin Harvestor thing—while deeply unsettling—ended up giving him just what he needed.
With a thought, he called up the blueprint that he wanted.
Blueprint: Stasis Necklace
Origin Energy Cost: 94,000 Units
"All right… Let's go," Orion accepted the transaction, and immediately, his Origin Energy disappeared. An endless number of insights appeared in his head—a material with an unknown composition that didn't even conform to the subatomic structure that he was familiar with, an unknown energy that he had no real understanding of, and a three-dimensional structure composed of unfamiliar runes that all interlinked to form a complex structure that he couldn't make sense of for the life of him.
As the insights appeared in his mind, he quickly fed the blueprint into the gear as it started forming the necklace. He didn't have any excess mass, so he directly converted eighty units of Origin Energy into eighty kilograms of matter for the sake of having round numbers.
Of that, the necklace only consumed a single kilogram of matter, but even that seemed quite a bit to Orion for a simple necklace. Still, he followed along, forming something that he didn't have even the slightest clue about through his gear.
With that, the necklace appeared inside his inventory.
I wish there were a way to see how the mass distribution is done for my stuff…
As is usual, Orion asks, and the Exile Gear delivers.
Creation (21/100 KG):
Katana: 8KG
Ice/Water: 2KG
Runic Compendium/Pages: 10KG
Stasis Necklace: 1KG
He suppressed the urge to whistle and looked at his status panel, immediately feeling heartache after seeing his big, beautiful number go back down to the five digits.
Name: Orion Vaelor
Exile Gear: Infinite Dream
Specialization: Creation
Factional Authority Initiation: 0.1%
Origin Energy: 38,392.26 Units
Physique: 1117.68
Matter Limit: 100 KG
Runic Energy: 334/1117 Units [Grade III]
Aspected Runes: [Grade 1 Inspection]
Slot I: Grade 1 Light (100%)
Slot II: Grade 1 Defense (100%)
Slot III: Grade 1 Lava (100%)
Creation (21/100 KG): (Expand)
Techniques: (Expand)
Knowledge: (Expand)
It had only taken a few seconds for the necklace to take form as he summoned it from the gear's internal space and showed it to Mai as if having pulled it out of his pocket.
"This is the thing." He showed it to her.
The necklace, at a glance, seemed to be made of gold, but Orion had seen the composition of this material, and let alone being familiar, it was in the truest sense not from the Periodic Table. The atoms of this material were built completely differently, with no protons, neutrons, or electrons, but entirely different subatomic materials—none of which he knew the names of.
Beyond that, it seemed like a simple necklace with a thin double-chain link on each side of the pendant that joined into single chains as it approached the clasping mechanism. The pendant itself was pure obsidian, with what seemed like a condensation of energy itself, with its faint and unnatural luster.
"We need one of your sister's fluids. We can work with saliva; no need to make any cuts on her. That will bind this necklace to her and allow the owner of the necklace to summon and desummon her at will."
"I'll do it," Mai nodded, extending her hand forward.
She took a second to admire the necklace that Orion placed in her palm and raised her brow.
"Heavy…for a necklace."
"It is what it is," Orion shrugged as Mai approached her zombified sister. Nodoka got agitated again as Mai approached her, trying to claw at her and bite her, but Mai gracefully sidestepped her strikes and stood behind her. Locking both of Nodoka's arms behind her back with one arm, Mai had subdued her within a second. She brought the necklace close to the zombie's mouth, keeping in mind the attempts to bite her hand off.
"Do I need to leave it there?"
"It will glow a little," Orion said, feeling a little impressed with Mai's nimble movements as she restrained her zombified sister completely without the slightest issue.
The pendant was inside Nodoka's mouth as the zombie kept trying to spit it out and bite Mai's hand, but she wasn't having it and clasped her palm over Nodoka's mouth in a way that her thumb pressed on her jaw, forcing it shut.
"It's done," Orion said. "You won't be able to see the glow this way."
"Oh…" Mai nodded and kept Nodoka restrained as she pulled the wet, saliva-covered pendant out of her mouth.
"One thing I forgot to mention to you. This necklace is a soulbound item that is bound to me. I can't really change it."
Mai frowned. "What if you die?"
"It's a free-for-all. You can bind it to yourself if I end up dead. But then your sister is going to stay a zombie forever."
"I'm not considering it," Mai said. "I still want to keep this necklace on me."
"Of course. You just need to let me know when, and I'll release your sister."
Mai nodded, "Take her in."
Before her words were finished, Nodoka was gone, leaving a metal collar and the outfit that she had been wearing to fall down to the ground.
Mai seemed stunned for a moment as she looked at the clothes on the ground.
"Can you leave this room and summon her from outside?"
"Sure," Orion nodded understandingly and left the room, speaking through the door. "I didn't expect that, huh… But it makes sense. This can only take a single entity inside. Your sister is bound to it, but not her clothes. I'll see if I can figure out a solution for that."
"Take her inside," Mai said through the door, and Nodoka disappeared again.
When Mai emerged from the room, the necklace was already gone, with hints of the chain visible under Mai's collar, hiding the pendant in her bosom.
Looking at him, she paused, standing straight in front of him. She took a deep breath before looking directly into his eyes. "Thank you, Orion. I mean it," she said before bowing deeply, at a perfect right angle. "I know I'm a cold person, and I don't plan to change that. But I'm not thankless. From now on, I will follow your lead, whatever you plan to do."
"No need to be so formal with me, Sakurajima-san. We're no strangers," he said, waving his hand as she looked at him with her usual unapproachable expression. "Hell, I like to think that we're friends, even."
Mai looked thoughtful for a few seconds before nodding.
"Now, for my reward," Orion said, immediately causing the temperature of his surroundings to drop as he quickly clarified. "Can I call you by your first name? Sakurajima-san is a bit of a mouthful."
"No," she refused. "I don't approve. Ask for something else."
"So distant," he sighed. "How about we have dinner together? Every night, you make those tasty steaks that spread their aroma through the entire hall and even to my apartment. I want to eat something good for a change."
"I'll come over to hand the meal to you when I cook it," she said.
"Tsk," Orion clicked his tongue. "Fine. I'm not a sexual predator, you know? You are acting like I have some kind of disease."
"That's not what that woman told me."
"Of course, she was telling you about everything we did while I busted my ass killing zombies," he said, shaking his head. "Whatever, at least I finally get to eat something actually good. I'll see you later. By the way, we'll leave tomorrow morning. It's time to move on to greater things."
***
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