In Loki's Honor

The shift was immediate. One moment we were in Yznarian, the next... elsewhere.

"Where are we?" I asked.

We were on the bridge of this space station. Garfield Babbage sat on the captain's chair. Clones of the vine girl, Lily, sat on the many stations, doing whatever people ought to do in that situation. These clones were without a soul. Weird. Were they robots?

"This world has no name we know of. I'll put it on the screen."

We were on the dark side of the planet, once again. Apparently, the red shiny paint job of this space station would stick out like a sore thumb during the day. The planet that appeared on the big screen was mostly lit with nightlights. It reminded me of some satellite pictures from Earth.

"Huh, they seem to have some level of technology. Though it is mostly a magical world," Garfield Babbage mumbled to himself. "Impressive, they figured out magitech, it seems."

I hadn't yet seen the man outside of his power armor.

"Magitech?" I asked. "Like computers but with magic?"

"Exactly. It's amazing. I thought I was the only one who could do it but," he chuckled ruefully, "the more you know."

Róta cleared her throat. I had yet to see her speak.

"Sure. The problem is, computers and magic don't work together. Better yet, small transistors. Magic changes its physical properties at scales smaller than a hundredth of a millimeter. Once a world reaches a certain level of magical saturation, electronic devices short out and stop working."

I stared at the room around me.

"All the tech you see around us works with enchantments. Here," he extended a hand and I saw a smartphone appear. "You can have it."

"Thanks. What is this soul we are looking for, anyway?"

"Lily's brother. He dies on Earth back in 2054. But his soul didn't stay on Earth—"

"Wait!" I raised a hand. "Back in 2054? What year is it on Earth now?"

Róta sighed and shook her head.

"Ta-da! We come from the future!" Garfield chuckled. "I told you, the pocket dimension of your world is weird! Anyway, so long we don't go to the Milky way, we are fine. You'll return to your world without being shifted to our temporal coordinates."

I was speechless once more. What did I sign for? At least this guy killed two Demon Lords and wiped the incursion on the Northwestern end of the Scorched Continent like they were nothing. It made me feel inadequate. Unworthy to be called a Goddess.

"I'm glad you decided to pick this form," Garfield mused. "Because everyone in this world is a furry."

He showed me some footage from the planet. People moved to and fro in what seemed to be a steampunk medieval-Victorian setting. They had weapons, carried armor, and almost everyone had a gadget on their left forearm that looked very much like those Yu-Gi-Oh game bracers. But aside from their odd choice of equipment and clothing, Garfield was correct. Everyone was some sort of animal person. Some only had ears and tails like me. But a few others looked more like humanoid versions of several animals.

The image on the screen shifted as we scanned the planet.

"Are those fairies?" I asked.

"Yes. It seems they have some fey creatures too. Like mermaids, elves, and dwarves. Not a single human, though."

*

*

Lily was a robot. The plant woman was what Garfield called a cyber-dryad. She was formerly human too. Somehow she ended up digitizing herself and her brother Leonard. Yet only her mind could endure being inside a computer. Every other person they tried it on would go mad and homicidal. Her life goal was to bring her brother back to life but to do that we needed his soul. It would be like searching for a needle in a proverbial haystack. During that day, Lily provided me with the scans of her brother's brain as well as a DNA sample of her own. With some effort, I managed to craft a spell that could track Leonard's soul.

After spending a month scanning the planet, we decided to go down to the surface to search for that soul. Due to security constraints, we couldn't take anyone else with us. And I couldn't go too far away from Garfield or I would lose my System powers.

We started in a country ruled by a family of lion people. Garfield opened a portal to the outside of a city. He wore a power armor that resembled a medieval gothic plate. The armor had a mechanical tail that moved like the real thing.

"This planet has thousands of Dungeons. It is really amazing," Garfield said as we walked to the city gates.

It was early morning and we crossed some people on the road. Farmers and other adventurers decided to start their journeys earlier. People kept glancing at me even though I had only five tails out. They have dyed the usual orange-red of kitsune tails too.

"Excuse me!" A bipedal horse-man called me. He had one of those strange devices on his left forearm. "Kitsune ma'am."

He wasn't speaking English or any language I knew. We had enough time to learn the local language after Garfield deciphered it. The guy had supercomputers and a bunch of Lily AI clones to do the job.

"Yes? Can I help you?"

"You're a five-tail Kitsune, right?" He asked, part embarrassed, part amazed.

I grinned. "Yes, that seems to be the case. Is something wrong?"

"I couldn't help but notice you don't have an Arbitrium," he pointed at his forearm gadget. "Are you some Princess? Would you want to hire an able Adventurer?"

"Oh, I was on my way to get one." I lied. "Sorry, I'm not hiring. Do you know where I should go?"

"Try the Adventurer's Guild."

"Thank you, good man. Here, for your trouble," I produced a gold nugget from my dimensional storage.

"Oh, you're welcome! Your Highness," he nodded but still took the gold nugget with a wide grin on his horse mouth.

We went on our way but I was happy to know gold was well-accepted in this world.

"Will you get one of those devices?" Garfield asked.

"Will you?" I asked back.

"No. I don't have a forearm," he waved his left arm. A hatch opened and I could see it was all wires and gears and vines inside.

"What are you, anyway?" I finally asked.

"I'm a Dungeon Core. I was once human, like you. From Earth as well, I guess."

"Oh, Really? A Dungeon? A living talking Dungeon?" I teased.

"All Dungeons I met so far were alive," Garfield rebutted with a chuckle.

"Did you meet many?"

"Only myself so far. But hey, one out of one is a hundred percent."

"You can increase your sample population. I make Dungeon Cores and can confirm every single one needs a sentient soul to work."

"That's impressive!" Garfield said. "I tried to make other Dungeon Cores but had no success."

"Yet you can make magical computers."

"To each their own specialty, I guess."

We had to cut the chatter as we passed some travelers. Then the town gates. The guards looked at us as we approached but didn't challenge or block our entry. Though they stared at my tails and left forearm for too long.

"You really need to get one of those contraptions," Garfield said. "I can make a fake one if you want."

"No, people saw me without one, it is better if we go and get a real one. We can even try to reverse-engineer them later."

We asked for directions and found the way to the Adventurer's Guild.

*

*

I grinned as I saw that no matter what world you were on, the Adventurer's Guild would always be a rowdy place. It made sense. Adventurers faced horrors that would break the soul of an average person daily so they need to cheer and carouse to vent their inner demons. We drew some attention as we entered. Some men even catcalled me.

A fairy zipped our way and hovered in front of us before any of them made a move. I knew she was someone important as the guys who were coming to talk to us halted at the same moment.

"Greetings! Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild, exalted ones!" She chimed.

This fairy had a huge amount of magic and also wore a tiny version of the wrist device. She was still weaker than one of the grandmothers but maybe on the same power level as the current Nenandil.

"Exalted... ones?" Garfield asked.

"We can talk more comfortably inside. Would you like a cup of tea?" She asked.

It was obvious she didn't want an audience to our conversation. "Sure. We would be delighted."

"Great. This way, please!"

She flew ahead of us. The receptionists showed the fairy a lot of deference.

"I'm Amaryllis, a pixie and guildmaster of this humble establishment," she said on the way.

"I'm Haru."

"Garfield Baggabe."

Introductions were done, and we went deeper into the building.

"Here. Jenny, please brew some tea for my guests, okay?" She asked one of the guild staff.

"Of course, Guildmaster!" Jenny said before she dashed away.

Once we were seated, Garfield broke the silence. "What did you mean by exalted ones?"

Amaryllis landed and bowed. "It's what we call deities in this world. I'm humbled to meet you. It's been three thousand years since the last time we last had contact with an Exalted one such as you. The Gods of this world are..."

"Dead." I completed.

"I'm afraid it is so."

"We didn't come to take over your world," I added right after.

"We are also not of the vengeful type," Garfield added. "We won't demand any deference of obeisance out of anyone in this world."

The pixie sighed relieved. "Thank you. May I ask what—" A knock on the door interrupted her. "Enter."

Jenny came with a tea set on a tray. After she poured us a delicious tea, she left us alone.

"We are looking for a stray soul from another world," Garfield said. "We would be grateful if you could help us look for it."

"I'm also interested in these devices you wear. Arbitrium, right?"

Amaryllis touched the gadget on her left forearm. "Yes, that's what we call them. They let us harness the power of cards."

She produced a magical box that had some space magic woven in it. Opening the box, she took some card stacks. "You can have these. A gift."

"We can pa—"

"Thank you for your gift," I cut Garfield and picked the stacks of cards. "Interesting. These cards are so amazing! They look like game cards!"

"We use the Arbitrium to realize the power of these cards. They can materialize equipment, grant powers, skills, and much more. These cards are all common and uncommon. Not really worth much."

"Nonsense! It is an amazing gift. Here, a gift from me!" I took an Adamantite sword out of my dimensional storage. "This is Adamantite. The metal is almost indestructible and can cut through most things, including magical barriers."

"Incredible," Amaryllis touched the flat of the blade. "It seems to drain Mana."

"Yes. I did several experiments, and it is impossible to saturate Adamantite with Mana. Though it makes the metal also impossible to enchant."

"I want some of it too!" Garfield demanded like a kid. "Is it stable outside a manasphere?"

"Nope. It explodes rather violently."

"I want it even more now!" The Dungeon-man stood up and stared at the sword. "I can't even absorb it!"

"Hey, it's not yours to eat!" I stood up and shielded the sword. With an actual shield that blocked his aura. "Bad Dungeon! Down!"

"Please don't fight!" Amaryllis whimpered. "Exalted ones!"

"I'll sell you a few tons of it and teach you how to smelt Adamantite, okay?"

"Deal."

We sat back down. Amaryllis sighed. "You'll make my wings wilt!"

"Sorry," I replied, then glared at the metal man.

"Yeah, sorry."

"The sword won't fit any ordinary dimensional storage. It will interfere with most enchantments too."

"Exalted one—"

"Haru. Just Haru is fine."

"Sorry. I believe this sword is too powerful for me. Though I loathe rejecting such a wondrous gift..."

I made the blade vanish. "Don't worry. Here, this is a Mithril shield."

The pixie seemed relieved. "Oh, we have mithril. But this isn't our normal mithril..."

"It might be a flawed alloy," I remarked. "It absorbs and dissipates energy."

To show what I meant, I took the shield and struck it. As expected, it took the force of the blow and projected it in every which direction, with aftershocks due to its layered build.

"I want that too!"

"There, there." I placated the Dungeon. "All in due time."

Amaryllis made the shield vanish. "This is worth more than a thousand card stacks like the one I showed you."

"It's no big deal."

"I'm humbled and honored," the fairy bowed. "You said you want an Arbitrium, right? I have a pupil at the university that can get you one."

"Would it bring you trouble if we studied it?" Garfield asked.

"No, I don't think so. It's not a secret technology, anyway." Amaryllis shook her head.

We talked a bit more and Amaryllis tasked two tiger beastkin with a Quest to escort us to the university. We took a car there. A steampunk car fueled by magic crystals.

*

*

The city was lovely. Everything ran on these essence crystals that were monster drops from Dungeons. It had quaint street lights, and smooth cobblestones, and everyone was well-dressed. I guess we were in the posh part of the place. I wondered when Yznarian would stop being such a barbaric place and become a charming world like this one.

After going through the checkpoint at the gates, we entered the university and the car stopped before one of the buildings.

"Lots of gadgets in there," Garfield said as he got off the car.

The damn Dungeon could see everything a mile around him. Physical obstructions meant nothing to him.

"Welcome to the Gadgeteering department," a wolf-kin receptionist greeted us. She had a human face but wolf ears and red eyes.

I approached her, "We are looking for Professor Bezzias?"

"I'm sorry. Professor Bezzias is away on an expedition. His assistant is available though. What is your business with him?"

"We are looking to know more about the Arbitrium's inner workings," Garfield said.

She smiled. "Then you came to the right place."

The wolf-kin woman fiddled with something on her desk. "Nero, you have some visitors at the reception."

After several minutes, an elevator opened and a young man came out. He seemed human. I exchanged a glance with Garfield but the Dungeon in power armor shrugged.

"Hello, I'm Nero, Professor Bezzias' asssitant."

"Nice to meet you, Nero. I'm Haru and this is my friend Mr. Garfield Babbage."