51. The Word of Invention, the Word of Power

The Word of Invention, the Word of Power

Directly granting someone magic was the portion of those treaties most often violated by certain parties, and such violations often triggered catastrophic wars.

So Liya did not do that.

Rather than forcing healing energy directly onto Cheng Rui’s body, she exposed him to her own energy and allowed it to form naturally, as magic did.

Better still, the emerging pattern was only one among many. It overlapped with the abilities already inside Cheng Rui, just as an intelligent life could belong to multiple groups.

Last, and certainly not least, it was only an impression, not a fully formed thing. The final choice to accept or reject the pattern remained with Cheng Rui.

This was another opportunity offered to him, not a decision made and imposed on his behalf.

As the healing progressed, the Word of Invention slowly took shape.

Chi Li still hovered near the recovering boy, radiating worry and guilt.

Liya watched the young mage’s development with a critical eye.

Unlike her friends, the girl had discovered on her own the process of harmonizing her power with ambient magical energy…

Then she had begun forcibly taking power from enemy undead and lesser demons and using it as an element to harmonize with.

In her not-too-distant future, many causal branches led toward her becoming a new necromancer. Even more led toward her becoming a demoness of flame and destruction.

Had most people from Liya’s home noticed, they would have eliminated her immediately.

As usual, Liya did not judge.

Those who judged too early failed utterly to understand the meaning of infinitely possible futures.

Unlike the other two, Ye Lin’s complex pattern was already harmonized, but also broken.

Past influences had caused this, and Liya’s efforts to repair it were slow and yielded little.

So far, most possibilities in which the girl’s potential was strangled in the bud had been avoided.

The possibilities in which she grew into a monster, however, would remain a problem for a long time.

For someone who had manifested the Word of Power only eleven planetary rotations after first contact with magic, that was less than ideal.

Outside the underground safe house, new patterns appeared in the structure of the world.

To the north, there were long-awaited patterns that would push Liya’s plan toward success. In the city’s core, there were more urgent ones.

But those, too, were within her expectations.

“The healing is complete,” she conveyed, receiving gratitude and relief in return.

Unfortunately, she immediately had to dispel those emotions. “While he rests, I have a new mission for the two of you.”

“We just fought a major battle,” the taller girl conveyed forcefully.

Her pattern’s interaction with the world unconsciously triggered an earthquake in the west, the Word of Power resonating through it, forcing Liya to spend more effort handling the consequences.

“The city outside is a mess—what’s left of it, anyway. We can’t go fight monsters right now. We need rest!”

“Then I suppose I should tell the other survivors in danger of being slaughtered by monsters to wait,” Liya replied.

That produced a brief flash of anger, followed immediately by guilt.

“The reward for doing things well is more work. You are among the very few who no longer require physical rest, and who can survive doing what must be done. Who else am I supposed to send?”

She did not need to see the girl’s pattern shift toward agreement. Countless causal branches across the world moved toward the desired outcome because of this single choice.

“Fine!” the girl said, crossing her arms in a rather childish way to express her displeasure while still choosing to cooperate with Liya’s plan. “Where am I putting out fires this time?”

“How interesting that you mention fire,” Liya said thoughtfully.

Manipulating people into doing what you wanted was simple. With sufficient knowledge and precision, it could genuinely be accomplished by waving a hand at the right time and place.

But by making the manipulation obvious, clearly conveying what you wished people to do, and also making it the best course of action, you could cause them to choose to do what you wanted.

That was far more ideal.

For one thing, even if they hated you and the plan, they would still choose to participate.

“The enemy is about to burn down the old trailer park and drive a group of survivors out to be slaughtered.”

“…Did you just say trailer park?” Ye Lin asked furiously after a burst of chaotic thoughts. Innumerable old and deeply rooted patterns lit up inside her mind, and her entire body went taut as a coiled spring.

“Yes,” Liya said with a firm nod. “I did.”

The girl gave a silent snarl and strode out of the infirmary. With every step, her complex pattern unconsciously amplified multiple destructive causal chains, bringing the Word of Power a little closer to full manifestation.

In all creation, only one living being had never disliked Liya at least once.

She could accept that.

The screen had been showing the target range for quite some time.

Inside an artificially lit hangar with metal walls, no windows, and heavily secured exits, dozens of soldiers were firing at nonstandard targets while even more technicians carefully studied hundreds of measuring and recording devices.

One soldier fired a standard rifle at a block of ballistic gel three hundred meters away.

The automatic weapon roared. Suppressed or not, dumping an entire magazine at once was never quiet.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

When the soldier finished firing, several technicians gestured frantically at their computer screens.

Many soldiers also looked thoughtfully at their comrade.

They certainly should have, because at three hundred meters his grouping was noticeably tighter than normal.

Also, he had just fired sixty-seven rounds without reloading from a magazine that physically held only twenty.

The technicians gave him a new weapon and a fresh magazine directly from the nearest supply and had him shoot again while the sensors recorded everything and they argued among themselves.

Then they handed him weapon after weapon, with different magazines as well.

The soldier repeated his impossible feat nine times. By the ninth attempt, the number of rounds he actually fired had increased slightly.

On the tenth try, he fired only the standard twenty rounds.

Considering the magazine they had given him was loaded with dummy rounds that should not have fired at all, that was still impressive.