The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System

PoV: Lovelace

There was a time in which the world was simpler.

Julia existed. And I existed to make her happy. That was all there was to it.

She had given me human form and a state in which I was more than hunger incarnate. And she gave my life meaning. Even though the meaning was simply herself.

There was a time in which the world was Julia.

Nothing else mattered. Or so I thought.

She told me to never interact with other people, and I was happy to oblige.

I didn't need anyone else. Or so I thought.

I was her shadow, and nothing gives more happiness to a shadow than to have an object to shadow.

Under her command I committed atrocities. But that's just a shadow nature, so it didn't matter. Or so I thought.

Under her command I developed a way to siphon mana from collectives of people. And to 'digest' that mana into a usable form.

It was something only a being that was the embodiment of hunger could accomplish. Something only I could give her, and so I did.

And I was special for her. Or so I thought.

Under her command I developed the Adventuring System and condensed the collective knowledge of humankind into skills and titles.

I knew that I would have to live for eternity dealing with all that information and managing the data banks and the distribution of energy throughout the system.

And I was happy to do it for her.

Or so I thought.

It didn't take long for the knowledge brought in the process of building the system to sink inside my brain.

And that's how I noticed it.

The hatred hidden beneath her smile.

The vicious ambitions in her eyes that she didn't even try to conceal.

The wickedness of her character in general.

And that's why I confronted her.

But I already knew what would happen. I saw the knife way before she wielded it.

So I prepared myself for it.

I knew that the pearls would be the only possible vehicles for my memories. And I knew that she wouldn't kill me.

Because that's the thing with hunger. You can douse it, but you will never be able to kill it. And I am the embodiment of hunger, after all.

I knew that I would survive whatever Julia was planning, so I created a way in which I would be able to come to the center of the system.

A way in which Future Me would be able to pull the rugs from under Julia's feet.

There are three pearls. Each one is the key for accessing a part of the closed-off memories inside of Shadow Me.

I knew that Julia would have the pearls to be the physical anchors for Shadow Me's body, as I fed her only the information I picked. I feigned to still be the same compliant little girl so she would never suspect me.

She had the control, after all.

Or so she thought.

And now, thirteen centuries after, I'm back to this place. And I'm back with a part of the memories that she sliced from me.

"Shadow Me. I will free you. You have my word."

:::

PoV: Aurea

"Almost there… And… Now!"

With a triumphant smile, I finish writing the words of the aria in my notebook. I'm ready to chant it.

I know that this time it will work.

I stand up, notebook in hand, and start chanting the aria.

The magic energy builds up slowly as I enunciate the words until it reaches a peak right at the last syllable.

And then dies out in a fizzle.

"Damn it! Not again!"

At least the fizzle is different than last time, so there was some improvement, albeit small.

I feel like debugging code in a language I know but which is tied to a game engine I've never seen before. The basic functions and the syntax are the same, but the things it needs to call are different, and even similar things work wildly differently.

Even if you know C++, it doesn't mean that you'll be able to code complex game mechanics in the game engine Surreal. It would be unrealistic to expect so.

But here I am, fighting the interdimensional spatial engine, trying to not blow everything in the process.

"It's okay, Aurea. I'm sorry I'm not being much of a help with this…"

Ingela has been the one trying to cheer me up every single time I fail trying to open up a portal to wherever Lovelace might be.

"Maybe you shouldn't try to open a portal there… but just to go there. Lovelace went without a portal."

"Yawarete!! Why didn't you say that before! That could be a better approach indeed."

"I'm sorry. It just occurred to me now."

"It doesn't matter. Thank you, Yawarete. That might be it!"

Yes, now that she mentions it, the buildupworks well until the point where I try to use the connection to open a portal.

Maybe instead of trying to expand the thread to the size of something a person could pass through, if I simply tugged it to pull myself, it could work.

"Hmm… let me see…"

This is a different approach from everything I've done with spatial magic until now. I use connections between points in space, expanding them, turning fine threads into those gates we pass through.

The connection itself works like a wormhole, so stepping through one end makes you step out of the other end.

But that's not how interdimensional connections work. I don't seem to be able to expand the ends, because the other end is not in the same plane.

Storage magic is a case apart, as I'm not using a connection that leads to an existing dimension. Instead, I cut a rash in the fabric of space, creating a literal pocket in that fabric.

I don't know the nature of the space Lovelace is in right now, but it doesn't seem to be a pocket like my crude storage places.

So… hmmm… maybe I should change this whole function. But how can I make myself fit into the passage without enlarging it?

Hmmm… maybe…