Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
We finally left the dungeon, though not all of us were entirely satisfied, Rebecca, but we had still managed to test most of our new powers. Unfortunately, it wasn't as if we could stay inside the dungeon for days on end, much to the annoyance of some people, Rebecca.
We were able to try many interesting things despite the short time we were inside.
To begin with, the manipulation of The Light and The Darkness while we were inside the VR was extremely accurate with the sensations and everything else, so all of us were able to manipulate the traditional and well-known manifestations of The Light quite easily.
But we could also change and combine manifestations on the fly. One moment we might be unleashing scorching solar fire blasts, and the next we'd be electrocuting an enemy with Arc energy. Or both at the same time.
Rebecca continued to use and push the limits of Light and Darkness, which she had access to on her own, and also to my almost inexhaustible reserves. She didn't care in the slightest about the side effects; she simply continued to drain ever-increasing amounts of paracausal energy with a huge, sadistic grin.
Lucy was more reserved; we had found a kind of rhythm while playing in VR. Although the monsters' AI was acceptable enough, it didn't compare to reality. Even so, it didn't take Lucy long to adjust to the slight changes.
She continued using the Cloudstrike, which was somewhat perplexing; I still didn't understand how the weapon maintained its activation effect when it hit a weak point, usually the head, but it worked wonderfully. Killing an enemy with Cloudstrike on a weak point summoned lightning around them, killing everything nearby.
Even if it didn't kill them, hitting them repeatedly in the head or a weak point had the same effect. This was incredibly effective when we were deep in the levels and faced waves of dozens, or even hundreds, of monsters at once.
Inspired by Lucy, Riveria had taken the Trinity Ghoul, a combat bow that essentially had a similar effect to Lucy's. After killing a monster with the bow, the next shot could unleash chain lightning bolts.
Perfect for clearing large numbers of monsters. Especially since Riveria's shots were far more powerful than her VR Avatar's. Apparently, the massive enhancements Riveria had thanks to her Falna and abilities could also modify The Light and its shots.
So the chain lightning bolts were completely overwhelming and destructive. Especially when I temporarily became a High Elf like Riveria. Her Alf Regina enhanced all elves within her magic circle, and that included me, so my magic was enhanced.
And in turn, my Alf Regina improved Riveria by pushing her much harder.
Bella was the only one who hadn't grabbed a weapon yet; she simply grabbed Kazikli Bey and launched herself into the crowd of monsters with a huge smile alongside Becca.
Where Becca used shotguns or heavy weapons or her fists wrapped in The Light, or supers to kill everything around her, Bella used a combination of her spear coated in Haki or long-range dark magic.
Her spear sliced through all the monsters as if they were butter, while her dark magic destroyed them in great numbers with ease. She tried different manifestations of Light, but none pleased her enough to continue.
Even so, she handled Sword Logic like a fish in water. It was minuscule, almost infinitesimal, but with each death Bella caused, its power grew as it channeled from Darkness to guide Sword Logic.
In addition to that, her intake of monster blood meant Bella was improving the further we descended, slowly but steadily.
To my surprise, I could feel myself experiencing spikes of lust every time I killed a monster whenever Sword Logic activated. Sword Logic uses my Darkness to function, and that was already charged with my lust, so Bella became even more excited to kill than she already was.
This would only make it even more dangerous for basically everyone.
Putting that aside, I also tested the replicated weapons with my Reality Marble and didn't encounter any problems with any of them, which was quite good. Even so, despite having grown accustomed to using weapons over the past two weeks, now that I had full access to my abilities, using firearms, even magical ones, felt awkward.
So I had tried to switch from using the plans and designs I had in my Reality Marble to designing magics that could replicate them; I didn't need all of them, after all, some were redundant or simply useless to me.
And with those I tried, there was… partial success in that regard.
Shooting bullet-sized black holes like Graviton Lance did was really easy, but I definitely couldn't copy something like Thousand Voices. This exotic fusion rifle fired a beam of fire that left a trail on the surface, which detonated after a few seconds.
The problem with Thousand Voices was that it was made from parts of an Ahamkara, an extremely powerful paracausal species capable of granting wishes. Many weapons and armor were made from Ahamkara bones, and I couldn't magically replicate any of their effects properly.
I could still project them if necessary, but creating an identical magic formula was impossible; I had to improvise too much and change many formulas to obtain the same result as the weapon.
But weapons aside, the most important thing was undoubtedly The Light. I could manipulate paracausal energy with such ease that it was truly overwhelming; it was just a matter of a little intention, and The Light would eagerly bend to my will.
I could use The Light for any of the basic manifestations—Solar, Arc, and Void—but that wasn't its limit. Creating and destroying matter, living or inanimate, was extremely easy with The Light, so I was able to use it to replicate most of my traditional magic, and there was much to try.
I tested the different magics and magical systems while trying to use The Light to replicate or improve them.
The interesting part was when I tried using Alchemy with The Light. It worked just as easily as usual; there was nothing special about the transmutation circles or the clapping alchemy. The Light created and destroyed whatever the transmutation circles commanded.
And that got me thinking, could I create a formula and quantifiable symbols to use The Light through Alchemy? My flame alchemy was unfortunately falling behind, but if I could make flame alchemy use The Light to transmute and change normal fire into solar fire, then it would be a huge power boost.
Unfortunately, I didn't have time to continue experimenting; creating new symbols and quantifying something paracausal would involve a lot of trial and error, something I could see excited GLaDOS enormously.
We were only there a short time, but we'd descended nearly a dozen floors. Even Riveria was surprised by how quickly we'd covered them. And that shouldn't be surprising. The Guardians' suppression tactics were designed to handle large numbers of enemies.
The hordes of monsters were almost routine every time we went on patrol. Killing dozens or hundreds of monsters on a single mission was practically a daily occurrence. And we had to do a lot of that during our VR game.
Although different, the dungeon monsters were a bit tougher than the weaker monsters in Destiny; they could still be easily killed to advance quickly.
Our fighting tactics worked perfectly with a few alterations. The monsters were different from the enemies in Destiny. Also, GLaDOS wasn't here; where GLaDOS had been a Titan specializing in shields and the dome, in Ward of Dawn, Bella was more of a front-line fighter alongside Rebecca, killing everything in her path.
It almost seemed as if they were competing to see who could kill more monsters, if the deranged, bloodthirsty smiles they shared were any indication. I shuddered slightly at the scene, but continued onward alongside them.
Finally, after several hours, we decided to leave the dungeon. Bella teleported us to one of the upper floors before we left the dungeon.
Once we left, Bella and Riveria were guiding us through Orario. Lucy and Becca had removed their armor to avoid attracting too much attention. Our plan, at least on my part, was to go see Miach and Naaza and finally meet them after they had looked after Bella for the past few weeks.
Lucy and Becca would take a walk around the city alone; both were really curious about a magical medieval world, and besides, Becca wanted to walk to calm the excitement of having used my connection too much, at least enough to last until I finished talking to Miach and Naaza.
Riveria was returning to the Loki family to update them on a few things. She had agreed to drop the whole business with the Light and resurrection, but she would tell them about her reincarnation as a devil.
She also wanted to see if there would be any noticeable changes in her Falna.
I chuckled as I listened to Becca speak; my skin prickled all over. I felt eyes on us, staring intently.
Without hesitation, I turned around, instinctively looking up at the tower and raising my hand. They weren't physically watching me; they were using something to see me remotely. It was… unnerving, especially because I could feel them peering into my soul.
I wrinkled my nose in disgust. I was finally able to identify and approach the consciousness that was watching me, so I simply grabbed it and pulled it inside me. I could see the spy's consciousness forming within my Reality Marble, and my eyes opened slightly.
Freya.
I had put Freya inside my Reality Mable. She seemed completely shocked, her eyes glazed over as she looked around.
I frowned. Freya could remember everything Bella had done to annoy her, so it wasn't surprising that Freya kept a close eye on Bella. But she… she had focused specifically on me.
I… dislike Freya. I wasn't going to deny it, though; it wasn't a visceral dislike akin to the one I felt now every time I thought about Final Shape, but something more… normal.
Freya's past couldn't matter less to me; in fact, I could even sympathize with her past to some extent.
Her charm as a goddess of beauty was so absolute that she could even override the will of the gods; they feared her to the point of locking her up and trying to limit her with the virgin goddesses, but it did not work.
So the gods locked her up even more, forbidding her from participating in any of her hobbies or activities, because no one within reach of her charm could disobey her, they would be so enchanted and under her command, to the point that the main gods were afraid of her, they put figurative chains on her to restrict her movements with the threat of killing her, they turned Freya's life in heaven into a prison.
At some point, Freya began to seek unconditional love, love without reward, someone who could understand her, which she could not obtain because of her charm; no one could disobey her, no one could avoid loving her, so she felt that 'love' was something empty.
So Freya began to resent herself, her power, her status as a goddess. She believed that love was pure, that if she 'defiled' herself enough, she could escape those bonds. Therefore, she ended up giving in to her sexual and physical desires for tens of thousands of years, and yet the gods around her never changed the way they regarded her.
Freya finally broke down and wept for years in a field of flowers until someone advised her to seek her ODR, her destined one, the person who would love her unconditionally. And Freya believed it and has been searching for it ever since.
So yes… I could feel some pity and empathy for Freya and her tragic past. During my time on the forums, I saw people upset that the goddess of beauty wasn't a virgin, but I couldn't care less that she had literally slept with every god in heaven.
No, my dislike extended beyond her past and focused more on her actions. Oh, I could understand them; in fact, it made Freya a more... complete person, a complex character, and all things considered, well-written.
Love is something pure, something beautiful, something powerful. But likewise, love can be terribly ugly; it can be an obsession; it can make a person commit the most horrible acts in the name of love.
Freya wanted the first one, but it ended up becoming the second.
Her obsession with love led her to commit atrocities, although she did not see it as such, simply justifying herself, or she did not care enough about mortals to be concerned.
She orchestrated a brainwashing of the entire city, a complete mental violation to erase all memories of Bell from the minds of the whole city. She emotionally tortured Bell simply because she wouldn't take no for an answer, trying to mold him into her ideal husband, trying to lock him in the same cage she had tried to escape from heaven because of her charm.
It was terribly hypocritical of her.
The worst part was how it all ended. Freya was far worse than many of the 'villains' in Danmachi—worse than Ishtar, worse than Apollo, worse than or equal to Dionysus— and yet she received no punishment whatsoever. The hypocrisy was blatant.
The people of Orario may not have wanted Freya's Familia to commit suicide after losing her, as it would have greatly weakened the city. Still, Freya received no punishment whatsoever—literally nothing. It was all swept under the rug. She was only vaguely 'exiled,' but not even that; she was still in Orario as Syr, so it didn't really count.
I wasn't even sure if she felt remorse for her actions, so yes, Freya was an excellent character, very well written at that time when I thought she was just a fictional character, but still, her actions disgusted me enough that I didn't like Freya.
And now she was in my Reality Marble. I sighed wearily, " Let's get this over with."
"Freya, what a... pleasant surprise." I said with a grimace as I manifested within my Reality Marble. Freya's glassy eyes fixed on me. Let's see how this ends.