NOVPUB
Chapter 1242: Past Glory
Honestly, I wasn’t all that sure what to do about Cypher. This had all come so suddenly, and I didn’t really have any time to prepare. Still, it’s not like this was the first time something like this had happened, so I decided to take it in stride.
Thankfully, it seemed that Cypher learned quite a bit more quickly than usual, as he reappeared in the mirror after less than an hour. Just as the movie that Aurivy and I were watching came to a close, I saw his figure appear in the reflection. His formerly dull eyes now had a certain sharpness to them, and he carried himself with more confidence than before.
“I’m back, father.” He said with a polite nod, to which I smiled.
“Good. How much have you learned?” I asked curiously, still eager to understand just how quickly his perception of fate was.
“I have completed all levels of mandatory education, as well as advanced and master-level education in the fields of magic, finances, and criminal investigation.” His answer caused my eyes to widen in surprise, as that meant that he had spent at least twenty or thirty years learning in just the last hour.
“I see.” If his ability was this impressive, then it certainly had a lot of versatility. Of course, that also depended on how well he could see into the future. For instance, Pierce had his notebook that he used to warn himself about upcoming disasters. If Cypher wasn’t able to develop a similar system, then looking into the future wouldn’t be too helpful. “What else can you do?”
Cypher nodded his head briefly. “Please place me against the wall, and I can show you.” He said, and I did so, standing and walking over to the nearby wall to hang him up. Aurivy, curious, followed behind me.
“To be accurate, the three domains I am composed of are Mirrors, Fate, and Souls.” Cypher explained once he was positioned on the wall, the mirror growing to be more than five feet tall. “After undergoing my necessary education, I began work on creating my own divinity circuits, utilizing these three domains. This has let me expand my abilities considerably beyond what they once were.”
“As an example, I am able to create a reflection of fate within my mirror, one that I can interact with regardless of whether it is the past, present, or future. However, this interaction will have no effect on the real world, which is why it does not constitute as time travel. Using the Souls domain, I can allow an individual within this reflected fate to communicate with us.” As he said this, the scene within the mirror changed. 𝚗o𝚟pub.𝚌𝚘𝚖
Soon, what was displayed was several weeks into the past, when Tsubaki and the others were all still getting ready for the invasion. Despite Cypher being visible within the reflection, the others did not seem to immediately notice him. That is, until time seemed to pause, and only Julia was left moving, looking around in confusion. “What happened?”
When Julia spoke up, Aurivy’s breath hitched, catching Julia’s attention. “Rivy?” She asked, soon looking towards us. “Where did this mirror come from? Did Dale do something again?”
I gave a wry smile at that, shaking my head. “Not me, this time. It’s my new son, Cypher.” I said, and her eyes widened in shock. Cypher’s body seemed to become more solid, and Julia turned to look at him.
“Since when have you had a son?” She asked in alarm, seeming to begin to piece things together.
“Jules.” Aurivy spoke up softly. “We’re looking at a reflection of the past right now.”
Julia paused, before her face fell slightly. “Did we all die in the invasion?” She asked in a sullen tone, turning to look at Aurivy.
“Huh? What? No, no, of course not!” Aurivy shook her head rapidly, waving her hands. “There hasn’t been a conclusion to the invasion yet. Cypher was just showing off his abilities, that’s all!”
Julia blinked, before sighing in relief, and letting out a small chuckle. “Had me worried there. How long have we been gone?”
“It’s been nearly half a standard month.” I answered, and Julia pursed her lips. “We’re expecting to receive the results any day now.”
“That’s good.” Julia gave a firm nod. Then, she turned to look at Aurivy with a small smile, crouching down to be at eye-level. “Don’t worry, I’ll be home soon.”
“You’d better…” Aurivy mumbled under her breath, and Julia giggled, standing up to face Cypher.
“Thanks for this.” She said, before moving over to stand roughly where she had been standing before. Cypher simply nodded his head, the reflection shifting to show the current room we were in, returning to the ‘present’.
“That’s quite remarkable.” I said, thinking about the various uses for this ability. Just from that demonstration, it should be possible to solve nearly any crime, if Cypher decided to do so. “What are the conditions for you to create a reflection of an event? Do you need to project the image through a mirror that was at the location? No, that shouldn’t be the case, since we didn’t have a mirror there before.”
“That’s correct.” Cypher nodded calmly. “First, I create a reflection of the time period I wish to visit. Then, I can traverse within that reflection of fate to any location I desire, regardless of whether there is a reflective surface for me to use as a medium. However, should I wish to establish two-way communication between a reflected soul and the viewer, it is necessary to manifest a mirror at the location.”
“Also, I should add that it is impossible to see into your future, father. Fate behaves oddly around you, likely due to your identity as the Keeper. Similarly, I cannot see into the future to determine when the invasion force will return, as they currently exist outside of our realm’s fate.”
None of that was particularly surprising to me, as I had experience interacting with the Origin of Fate previously. If she wasn’t able to see my future, there was no reason why Cypher would be able to. “In that case, for now, I would like you to set up some form of early-warning system. It should be focused primarily on universe-scale threats, though hopefully those won’t be too much of the problem with the World Tree present.”
“Aside from universe-scale, your secondary focus should be galaxy-scale, with planetary threats being a lesser concern. Given how the system’s behaving, as bad as it sounds, we shouldn’t try to create a foolproof system to protect everyone, or else the system will inflate the difficulty to compensate.”
Cypher nodded his head in understanding, assuming a thoughtful pose with one hand holding his chin. “I see. I’ll need some time to create a warning system. Though, I can anticipate the measures that the overarching system will take against it, as I am achieving my actions through viewing fate. Thus, it would be a simple matter to have the ‘fates’ that I perceive either being false positives or false negatives, with the true fate being hidden within the various possibilities.”
“If that was the case, I wouldn’t know for certain what was going to happen until it became inevitable. Even our actions of averting the disaster could lead to a fate within my warning system where the disaster never happened.” He speculated, and my eyes widened in surprise.
It seemed that he really had taken the time to learn all about his abilities during this period. It almost felt as if I had fast-forwarded through his growth phase in the Admin Room, and skipped right to him being a trained investigator.
Still, that made it easier to integrate him into the workings of Olympus. If we had to spend years to manually nurture a new child, Olympus would get… quite chaotic, I imagine. “Alright. Let me know when your system is ready.” I told Cypher with a small smile, and he nodded his head in understanding.
Cynthia Hill looked at the prospering clockwork nation that had spread out over the planet she had chosen to colonize. Steam rose into the air, the sound of gears clinking together forming a melody that symbolized the life of her reborn Geer race. “Now…” She looked to the sky. “It’s time to spread.”
While she had been waiting for the Geer race to finish developing this first world, Cynthia had accessed the virtual world to get an understanding of the current situation. In doing so, she learned of the increasing number of extremely powerful monster attacks on various colonized worlds.
This had greatly alarmed Cynthia, as the last thing that she wanted was for everything that she had created to be destroyed yet again in an instant. To avoid this, there were two things that she had to urgently accomplish. The first and foremost was to establish a defensive network around the solar system where they currently resided. Doing so could ward off most threats, and provide at least some level of warning for her to prepare against bigger dangers.
The second action that Cynthia needed to take was to spread her race among the stars. As long as she didn’t keep herself anchored to one specific planet, there would always be the chance for her people to grow again in the event of an emergency.
Now that the Geer had come this far, they were at the point where Cynthia was comfortable with this expansion plan. To do so, she created ‘seed ships’, combining the technology of the Geer with that of the Metong to create an extremely fast ship capable of traversing the vastness of space safely… she hoped.
However, these seed ships were not piloted by the Geer. In fact, they were not piloted at all! Once launched, they were under the control of a basic AI, which would guide them to an unpopulated world. When they arrived, a series of clockwork drones would be dispatched, establishing a frontier base with a teleportation network. Only then would the main forces of the Geer be dispatched to spread onto the colonized world.
The reason that Cynthia set her plan up like this was to minimize the losses that the Geer would face during transit. Since they were only going after unoccupied planets, they could not rely on the Hyperlane Network to travel, and had to do so through unguarded space. Despite her taking every precaution she could think of, she estimated that only one out of every ten ships would be able to reach a destination suitable to colonize.
Thankfully, the ships themselves were fairly easy to produce and launch, thanks to the various systems that hadn’t existed back when the Geer had first controlled a corner of a galaxy. Now, as long as she had sufficient energy, she could simply print a ship in a matter of moments.
With this in mind, the largest districts of the new Geer nation were set up as energy gathering factories. By combining the total energy of millions of Geer, she could easily fuel the most critical facilities, whether they were the defense network or the seed ship factory.
As she thought about that, the ground shook, and a rocket launched itself into the air. Rather than a seed ship, this was the final component of the orbital factory where they would be produced. Given that raw resources were not strictly needed, and only energy was required, she had planned for the shipyard to be stationed in orbit, as that would minimize the cost of the ships themselves.
Seeing the final rocket launch, the mechanical plates of Cynthia’s face twisted into a smile. “Finally, we can return to the galactic stage.” She spoke, her eyes seeming to witness the past glory of the Geer.
