NOVEL NEXT 407. The System
The blue light faded. Ike blinked, looking around. He stood in a strange space. The entire room was made up of blue energy, low, glimmering light shooting through the dimmer energy in veins. A big window gazed down on the world from on high, and a big panel full of mysterious symbols, buttons, and squares sat before it. It was a small room, just big enough to hold all the controls and the big window, with maybe the room of a small house within it.
Wisp immediately ran to the window and looked out. "Whoa… what's that ball thing?"
Ike followed her to the window. He pointed, drawing the shape of the continent they were on, something he knew dimly from some book he'd glimpsed at a distance. "I think that's the world. Our world."
Mag hopped over. "Looks like it. There's the rivers and stuff. They're just even tinier because we're higher up."
"The world is round?" Wisp asked, shocked.
"Looks like it," Ike said.
She stared at it again, her eyes big. "Damn. No wonder all you non-spiders struggle so much. Us superior spiders have the right idea, having clingy feet that let us walk at any angle. It's a miracle you non-spiders don't fall off a big round world like that!"
A gentle voice laughed from behind them. "That's not quite how that works."
All three of them whirled. On Ike's shoulder, Shawn yawned, not surprised in the least.
A man stood behind them. He was composed of the same blue light as the room around them and the System, with dense lines of blue light making up his face and hands, and fewer lines defining his clothes and body. He stepped forward, smiling at them. "Welcome back, o' Pillar of the World."
"Between the two of us, aren't you the one better suited to that title?" Ike asked. He was a Rank 4 mage, and this being represented the System, the only magic that connected everyone in the entire world and determined the strength of everyone from the weakest to the strongest. If someone was a Pillar of the World, it was the System.
"I was only ever a stopgap. A patch, to hold together the world, or perhaps a prototype, to attempt a new method of magehood," the System said, smiling gently. He bowed to Ike. "I apologize for meddling with your memories, but it was too early for you to realize my existence yet. You would have obsessed over the wrong things, and lost focus on what truly matters."
Ike crossed his arms. "I dunno about that… but apology accepted." In the end, it hadn't been too super important for him to know about the System that early; even though it was creepy that this thing was meddling in his mind, at the end of the day, it was a part of him, too, and sometimes he deliberately forgot things he couldn't handle knowing yet. Some people might feel strongly about their minds being altered, but it didn't bother him too much. Maybe it was because he already had his thoughts back, but… at the end of the day, all that mattered to Ike was that he won in the end. This counted as a win in the end, so that was good enough for him.
"Now that you've returned, this System is yours… if you want it."
Ike looked at the System, then out at the world, so far below. Immense power flowed all around him. He could reach out and tap into it, and accomplish unimaginable things. Kill all his enemies, promote his friends to gods, change the order of the very world below. It was tempting, but… Ike shook his head. "No."
"No?" The System didn't sound shocked.
"No. I won't want to be stuck up here, looking down at the world. I want to be a part of it. Just some savage kid killing shit and making a mess, not the guy who's responsible for keeping everything working. That sounds like way too much effort. And besides… well, we know how 'me' as the Pillar of the World worked the first time."
The System laughed. "That is true."
"But there's some things I want to change. Some tweaks I think we should make to the System," Ike said.
"As you wish. You created this System, so it's yours to change." The System spread its hands and stepped back, letting Ike take the lead.
Ike held out his hand instead. "Shall we?"
The System hesitated, then took his hand. Ike pulled him in, and he was one again. The greater being, reunited in one body. Not the greater being, but Ike, with a lot of fragments and the incredible power of the System within him.
The System stared. How… ?
How what? Ike asked.
How do you have all these distinct pieces inside of you, without going insane? They were meant to merge. You were meant to be one person, not a dozen different people!
Ike snorted. I guess we're all strong-willed individuals with a strong sense of personality. What did you expect, cutting apart a guy with a strong sense of self? Naturally, each of us became our own person, and none of us want to merge and give up our self to become one person again.
The System nodded quietly, understanding.
"Whoa… Ike. You're all glowy now," Wisp said, amazed.
Ike looked down. His hands were shot through with veins of blue power, his whole body glimmering with an overload of System power. He could tell that his body couldn't handle the System, but when he was the administrator, that was irrelevant; he could simply will the System to allow it. He grinned. "Cool, isn't it?"
"Are you gonna be god?"
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He shrugged. "Only for a few minutes. Being god sounds like a lot of hard work. I'd rather be some idiot in the wild."
She beamed. "Awesome."
"But first, I want to fix a few things." He lifted his hands. The System had limits. There was only so much power it could draw from the world, at the end of the day. The limits were irrelevant on a personal level, but when applied to the world? They absolutely had a limit. Its current operation was at the limit of what it could handle… but that didn't mean it couldn't do more. It was just that its current operation was inefficient, not perfectly connected.
"I've always thought it was wrong that you needed a skill to join the System. Why not just give everyone access? And then we can get skills through… through our own hard work and effort, not through killing beasts and spending gold," Ike said.
"Sounds like a pain in the ass… but also like fewer dead spiders, so I'm for it," Wisp said, giving a thumbs up.
Ike grinned. "But the System can only reach so far, and it needs something to call out to it, to connect the pieces. And who better to connect the whole world… than a web-weaving expert?"
"You've called on the right girl. Give this spider your power, and I'll get everyone hooked up to the System. Even the tiny baby spiders who're about to be eaten."
"Even the birds?" Ike asked, giving her a look.
Wisp made a sour face, but nodded. "Fine. Even the birds."
"Hey!" Mag complained.
Ike turned to him. "Wisp is handling the connections, but I need someone to carry the power around the world, and spread the message of the new System. Someone with big, strong wings, experience handling lots of magical power, and handsome feathers."
Mag perked up. He fluffed up his chest. "Of course. I'll handle it with honor."
"You'll make sure even the spiders know?"
He harrumphed. "Why wouldn't I spread the message to prey? They're more worth eating if they have more mana."
"Birds," Wisp grumbled.
"Spiders," Mag shot back.
Ike looked at Shawn. "Shawn… I know this is a lot to ask, but… would you be interested in rooting here? At the end of the day, we still need someone who can handle the System's power. Someone who can serve as a conduit to a massive amount of energy, who won't get bored sitting here for a long time, who can think on a long, long timespan. I know you don't want to root yet, but…"
Shawn laughed. "When I'm the System, I'll be right there with you the whole time, won't I? I can root, but still travel and see the world. It's the ideal location. No… maybe it's what I was waiting for, this whole time."
"You got crazy lucky coming with me, then," Ike said.
"Eh. I've got a long time. Eventually I'd end up somewhere System-like," Shawn said, his face crinkling into a grin.
"Sure, sure," Ike said. He took a deep breath. The changes had already been made. The System he'd absorbed knew how to handle everything he'd asked for, and wasn't afraid to make the changes. The other fragments within him offered their pieces, fixing and adjusting the System's parameters to account for cases Ike hadn't even thought of or encountered during his journeys. Even Rosamund had a piece to share, stepping in for mages within society who'd only ever encountered buying skills and never earned them, and offering the idea of a tutorial for those who wouldn't have the mental construct to understand this new System. Regardless of how the fragments felt about him, they all had their issues with the System that they'd rather address than focus on hating Ike in particular, and Ike was fine to let them act. The only one he suppressed was Llewyn, but the infants had his back on that one, and continued to dogpile him in the hell-corner of Ike's mental scape.
The System's new shape had been defined. Now all he needed was to spread it around the world. He touched Wisp's shoulder, and System energy poured into her. "Go!"
Wisp ran forward. She leaped through the viewscreen, transforming into a spider as she did. A giant spider landed on the world below, its feet gripping onto the invisible barrier around the planet's atmosphere. At speed, she crawled over the world, weaving the largest, most complex web Ike had ever seen.
Down below, the people started to panic; understandably, upon seeing a giant spider crawling through the sky. Ike touched Mag's shoulder, imbuing the System's power into him. "It's your turn."
"Mhm!" Mag leaped out into the sky, transforming into an enormous magpie with glittering dragon scales in the place of his white feathers. His voice echoed over the world, speaking the new reality in a thousand languages at once, thanks to the power of the System.
Ike looked at Shawn. "Are you ready?"
"I was born for this. Hand over the reins, pathetic human," Shawn said.
Ike gave him a look.
Shawn laughed. "I'm joking. I'm so nervous… I'm planting my roots at last? It's been so long. I thought I'd die like this, without ever reaching my true form. I'd made peace with that. But… to have a mountain's lifespan ahead of me, to, to have that kind of eternity…"
"Don't worry. We'll be back. We're going to grind up to gods the honest way, and we'll see you again," Ike promised him.
Shawn nodded. A moment later, he frowned. "The gods. Gods are supposedly mages who ascended, right? Who beat Tier 10. But if that's the case, where are they? Why aren't they intervening?"
"Maybe that's who the greater being punished, and there's none left," Ike suggested.
Shawn frowned, unconvinced. He nodded slowly. "I guess that could be the answer… but it feels wrong."
Ike shrugged. "Maybe they're on a higher plane, and they don't have time to care about our tiny world any more. Anything's possible."
"That's true." Shawn swallowed, then put on a resolute face. Jumping down from Ike's shoulder, he held out his hand. "I'm ready."
Ike put his hand on Shawns shoulder and transferred not just some System power, but all his System power. The blue energy flowed out of him and into Shawn, pouring into his tiny body, and as it did, Shawn matured. From a child, to a preteen, to a teenager, to an adult, until Shawn stood taller than Ike, with a rugged, adult face, broad shoulders, and piercing eyes.
"Damn, what the hell?" Ike muttered. That wasn't fair. Shawn wasn't supposed to be taller than him.
Shawn laughed, his new, deep voice strange, yet familiar at the same time. "Thank you, Ike. For finding me a place where I could survive."
"Yeah, no problem," Ike said, a little lost. He ran a hand through his hair and looked out at the world below, suddenly struck by the magnitude of what he'd done. "We really did it, didn't we?"
"We sure did."
Down below, Mag and Wisp both vanished. Shawn gestured, and they reappeared in his hand. He looked at Ike. "Are you ready to go back down? Be just another Rank 4 mage again? You can still turn back, you know. Become the System."
"Nah. Way too much responsibility for me. And my personality's kind of shit." Ike nodded at Shawn. "Do it."
Shawn nodded. He gestured, and bright blue light surrounded Ike. It flashed, and when it faded, he was back on the planet, in the ruins of Brightbriar's city.
"Whoo! That was awesome!" Wisp cheered, bounding over to Ike.
Mag hopped over, very pleased with himself. "Heh heh heh. I wouldn't be surprised if a few lady birds saw my beauteous form after that."
"So… what now?" Wisp asked, looking at Ike.
Ike nodded ahead of them. "The same as it ever was. Let's keep going. There's more to this world than this fishbowl Brightbriar carved out for us."
Wisp nodded, grinning. "That's right. We'll keep adventuring and getting stronger until we can meet Shawn again."
"Nothing ahead of us but a lot of hard work," Ike said, rolling up his sleeves. He hopped off the rooftop and headed out, turning his feet away from this city and this whole region. There was so much more of this world to see, and he didn't intend to wait a single second longer here.
"What's new?" Wisp asked, leaping down the wall and chasing after him.
"Hey, wait up!" Mag shouted, hurrying after Ike and Wisp.
The three of them wandered off into the sunset, leaving the rubble behind them.
END