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Chapter 616: Dana’s Resolve

Dana furrowed her brow as she sat in the library, looking at the book that was resting in front of her. This was one of the several books that had only just been created by the Goddess of Education, bestowed on their library for the sake of teaching Dana how to create the World’s Shadow.

“In theory… this should be easy enough.” She muttered, looking at the detailed description of the energy controlling spell diagram. There were no particularly new elements to the spell that she needed to make herself aware of, so theoretically she could perform the fusion with ease.

After she said that, though, she glanced at the five other books beside her. Four of them were about training microscopic control over the four primary energy types, as if to emphasize just how exact this fusion needed to be. Clearly, it wasn’t enough just to have the spell diagram and rough knowledge of the process.

As if to further drive that point home, the fifth book was all about powerful defensive spells that could protect the user’s life in the event that an energy fusion failed. Dana wasn’t sure if she should laugh or feel touched at all of the care that both the Keeper and Udona were taking to make sure that she was able to go through this transition smoothly.

“I’ll use an avatar to try it out first.” She nodded to herself, splitting off a portion of her energy to form a clone body, much in the same way that Tsubaki regularly did. “If it works… I can have the avatar bring the energy back to me.”

Of course, if it didn’t work, she likely would not even be able to retrieve the energy that she used to create the avatar. But that was a risk that she was willing to take. After all, this was only a learning experience, a test for her to properly understand how the fusion process would work.

Once the avatar of Dana had been created, it opened a portal next to itself, departing to arrive at their ‘private world’. Naturally, the location she chose was far removed from the refineries or their world observation tower.

The first thing that her avatar did was to call upon the world spirit that she had created, to use it to help her more finely control the natural energy required in this process. This world spirit was… something that embarrassed her to a certain degree, with how it turned out. Its facial features strongly resembled Tsubaki, and even the curves of its body were a perfect match. The only discernible difference between the two was that one had the appearance of a kitsune, while the other appeared to be an elf.

Meanwhile, in the library, Dana’s main body opened the four microscopic control books. Although she wasn’t able to practice them in depth while her avatar was acting, she would be able to scan over them for helpful tips.

“Note to self, get Blank to work on a program that could download books straight into someone’s mind.” Dana muttered as she read over the introductions to the four books, flipping to relevant chapters.

As her avatar began the process for creating the World’s Shadow, Dana’s attention focused primarily on the book detailing its construction. Establishing the spell diagram was child’s play to her. Let alone a third tier diagram, she could create some of the more simple fourth tier diagrams with only a small amount of focus.

Next, the avatar activated the diagram, officially beginning the attempt. Dana had not used any of the protective spells found in the fifth book, as she was only using a disposable avatar for this test. “First stage, primary fusion… success.” She muttered, monitoring her avatar’s progress.

Her senses sharpened to their limits, following the instructions left behind in the various books to monitor for any fluctuations in energy. “Second stage, intermediate fusion…” Dana muttered again, but this time she felt a twinge of pain flowing through her soul. Her avatar had been destroyed.

It took her a moment to realize that there was an almost imperceptible imbalance between the mana and ki used in the primary fusion stage. By the time she noticed it, and was moving on to the second stage, the imbalance triggered a cascading reaction with the other energies.

“…Yeah, that’s not working.” From that one experiment, Dana’s expression dimmed. She knew that her own perception was not finely tuned enough to detect and react to the imbalances in real-time. Even if she were to train in the methods of the four books, it was unlikely that her ability would reach that level. In the end, it would all come down to her personal luck.

“No.” She muttered decisively to herself, closing the five opened books and picking them up. “You’re a mage first, Dana. Solve this like a mage. If at first you don’t succeed… make a better spell.”

Adding in the defensive spellbook, Dana lifted all six books with a simple levitation spell. Then, she turned and marched out of the library, a firm look on her face. When Tsubaki saw her leaving the room, and heading towards her own, a relieved smile appeared on the kitsune’s features.

Once in her room, Dana rushed over to her computer, booting it up to load her spell modelling program. “Third tier is too rough. Increase the complexity to refine the process, remove user error as a factor.”

Dana began to assemble a fourth-tier spell, no longer keeping track of how much time was passing. For the first time in a long while, she even neglected her regular duties, not that anyone saw fit to blame her. For Dana, this was quite literally a matter of life and death.

“I don’t have the mana to personally fuel a fourth tier spell for long.” She muttered, setting up an auxiliary formation. “I’ll need to be able to use the scepter to handle the spell’s operation, but make sure that the mana doesn’t contaminate any of the energy I pour in.”

“This energy fusion is handled in stages… do I have to create multiple spells to automatically handle each stage, since I’m taking personal control out?” Her brow furrowed as she reached that issue, before her eyes widened. A wide grin spread across her face as realization struck her.

“Geometric spells are essentially programs. Any advanced program would have multiple files that it calls to, so why should I have to set everything up in a single executable?” Her fingers danced on the keyboard, the original spell model simplifying itself slightly. Instead, the scope of the program expanded, creating dozens of different spell ‘nodes’.

“The main body of the spell only needs to serve as the initial activation protocol, and contain the energies until they can be passed through the secondary programs.” As she was designing her ‘spell program’, she failed to notice the sky turning dark outside her window, or when it lit up once again several hours later.

Each node of her spell was a complex assortment of two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes, carefully drafted as Dana focused on the screen. The more time passed, the more she considered her problem, the more answers she found to solve it.

Five days… for five days she sat at her computer, not standing from it even once. She barely even noticed when one of Tsubaki’s avatars had walked into the room, slowly feeding her energy to help keep her form stable. Aside from referencing the information in the different books she had brought from the library, her focus was entirely on the computer screen in front of her.

When Dana saved the file, she knew that she would have no hope of constructing such a complicated spell diagram from simple memory. This had gone well beyond the scope of what she, or even Tsubaki were capable of drafting on their own. Thankfully, she had something to help with that. After all, what good is a spell modeling program without the ability to help construct the spell model?

No, that doesn’t mean that the program itself was magical. Rather, Tsubaki and Dana had built an additional printer to go along with their computers. This printer, built by studying the grimoires that they had obtained years ago, inscribed a spell within a suitable sheet of paper. The spell inscribed had only one purpose, which was to project a three-dimensional image saved inside of it.

With Dana having split the spell into numerous different component nodes, that also meant far more spell-paper was used to print them. However, even that was still completely worth it. Although such paper was expensive to craft, its utility value was priceless.

Dana grabbed up the papers from the printer and darted out of her room, almost crashing into Tsubaki as she did so. The kitsune deftly stepped to the side to let the little elf pass, watching as the portal opened up in front of her. This time, Dana was confident enough to act with her main body, it seemed.

When Dana appeared at the site that she had previously used to try creating the energy, she winced at the scale of the crater that appeared before her. Ten meters deep, and over a hundred wide, it was no wonder why her avatar had been instantly destroyed.

“Doesn’t matter, all in the past!” Dana shook her head firmly, exerting control over the natural energy to turn the crater into a flat platform. Afterwards, one by one she peeled the backs off of the sheets to reveal an adhesive coating. As she did, she calculated the approximate locations to place each paper, slapping them down on the ground.

After each paper was slapped down, its inscribed spell triggered automatically. So, by the time she was done, there were over a dozen three-dimensional spell diagrams hovering in the air. “One last step.” She muttered, before pulling out her own grimoire. She hadn’t created this as its own spell page simply because she already had what she needed. “Energy void.”

In order to ensure that no stray energies interfere with the process, Dana created a barrier that first sucked out the ambient energies before creating a barrier to stop any others from entering. She smacked her lips together briefly, feeling as if the air had gone stale without the ambient natural energy, but shook her head.

“Let’s begin.” She muttered with a smile, withdrawing her mana scepter and placing it in the main spell node, in a space she carved out specifically for the power source. As it slid into place, it hovered within the air, causing the lines of the spell node to shimmer before glowing a deeper shade of blue. Then, streams of azure light could be seen spreading out from the node, connecting to the others placed around the platform and causing them to light up as well.

“Good, good!” Dana shouted happily, jumping up to the ‘input array’ and placing her hand on it. The first thing that was drawn out was naturally her mana, which was wrapped within a faint light and moved deeper into the diagram. Then, once the mana had reached the threshold that Dana set, it closed, no longer accepting any additional energy.

After she pulled her hand back, the input changed from mana to ki, allowing her to insert energy once again. This process repeated for her spiritual energy as well, and then finally forced her to draw her green scepter to insert natural energy, as the ambient source was cut off.

As soon as all four energies had been properly inserted, Dana… turned around and ran. The entire reason that she was willing to come here and do this herself was not because she was supremely confident in her spell model. Rather, it was because she had designed it to not require her personal intervention after inserting the four energies. After that point, she would be able to flee to a safe distance to watch the events unfolding.

And so she ran, and she kept running until she exited her sealing barrier, only stopping when she arrived at a tall tree over a kilometer away. Dana climbed the tree, clinging to its highest branch as she watched the fusion process.

By the time she made it to her perch, the initial step had been completed. The energies had been fused at the primary level, and then each portion was transported to a different spell node. This node would measure the energy, ensuring that it fit the criteria for fusion, before passing it to the secondary level. If even one of the mixtures was the slightest bit off, the entire spell would automatically shut down.

“Come on…” Dana muttered to herself, enhancing her sight to the extreme so that she could watch what was happening. There were visual cues that she had placed in the spell to determine if everything was proceeding smoothly. And as each node lit up with the ‘affirmative’ green light, Dana couldn’t help but pump her fist in excitement.

Afterwards, the fused energies were passed to the second level, where they were split up and merged once again before passing through a second check. Only after this second check was verified did they go to the final level.

Dana knew that the success of the final level would mean that she had truly created a spell diagram capable of forming what the Keeper called a Saint-level energy. Part of her was already happily considering if she should share her spell with others, before shaking her head. She had read the description of this energy, and knew that it was too dangerous for mass circulation.

As she was thinking about that, she saw that the second check was complete, all nodes lighting up green. Finally, the dark masses of power were brought to the final node, where a strand of Dana’s spiritual energy had been stored to await this step. According to the manual, this was the safest step of them all, a simple binding of the energy.

With that thought in mind, Dana descended from her tree, beginning to walk over to the scene. However, she only made it halfway before freezing in her steps, feeling her isolation barrier shatter. There should have been nothing in this world that could break that barrier, aside from the world spirit she created, but it would have no reason to do so.

That was when she realized that the barrier had been broken from within, and that whatever did so was racing towards her. Just as she began to turn around, preparing to flee, she felt it connect with her back. There was a brief feeling of impact as the elf’s body swayed, before something cracked inside of her.

Dana dropped to her knees with a gasp, golden light flickering around her body as it was expelled piece by piece. The World’s Shadow was rejecting the imprint on her soul from the Goddess of Light. It was rejecting her very status as a familiar itself. The golden light seemed to form a thin layer on Dana’s body before it shattered. In its place was a faint, dark glow that slowly receded into her form.

The little elf couldn’t help but feel a pang of sorrow as she was stripped of her status as Tsubaki’s familiar. But at the same time… the change didn’t stop there. She could feel the energy swirling within her, connecting to the deepest parts of her soul and infusing itself.

There were only two other practitioners of the World’s Shadow that existed within Dale’s territory. One of them was Thelsa, and the other Dale himself. Adding in Dana… there was a distinct difference between herself and the other two. While Dale was also an energy construct after obtaining divinity, he had a Perfect Soul, which protected him against his soul being changed without his consent.

Thelsa, while not having a Perfect Soul, obtained the energy from the system itself while being a living being. The process was far more smooth for her than either of the others. Now, there was Dana, a spiritual being that had yet to condense the Perfect Soul.

Her body shifted on the ground as she groaned out, her childlike visage disappearing as she matured. Her hair darkened, turning long and black as it cascaded down her back. The World’s Shadow held a certain amount of intelligence, and it fully embraced Dana, becoming one with her in the truest sense.

Dana let out one final gasp as the process completed, slowly standing as she felt the fluctuations inside of her receding. At first, she stumbled, unused to her new, taller vantage point. But once she stabilized herself, she glanced down, shocked to find her fully mature figure. “But… but… I liked being a kid.” She muttered sadly.

After she said that, the World’s Shadow stirred inside of her again. Dana’s eyes went wide as she shrank down, returning to her previous height and childlike proportions. The only difference between her current appearance and her previous one was that her hair had turned pitch black. “Oh… uhm… thank you?”