Nezira also decides to upgrade her robes. The Amethyst Archrobes have been catching her eye, yet something about them doesn't fit her -- the shielding, perhaps, the strength boost, or the MP reduction. She decides to upgrade her own robes in a different, but similar, direction to make her own twist on them, a bit more fitting to her own needs.

She takes her Investigator's Vestments, retrieving as well 2 Silver Ingots (one of the two bought with Crafting Credits), a single large chunk of Sapphire (again, bought with Crafting Credits), 10 bundles of Silkweed, and a single Silverwood Log.

She takes out a hammer and chisel and carefully splits, cuts, and facets the Sapphire into a multitude of clear, beautiful gems of all sizes, saving the dust from the shaping. She cuts the Silverwood into pieces and uses some of it to fuel a strong-burning fire over which she warms the silver, slowly drawing it out into thread-thin wire. She takes the Silkweed and deconstructs it into thread of its own. The rest of the Silverwood is carefully separated into soft cuts of the inner wood, soaked, and spun into strands itself. Nezira carefully spins some of the silkweed around each strand of silverwood, before painstakingly weaving together the strands of silver, silkweed, and silverwood thread into a silvery, supple, durable magical fabric. The remnants of the water used to soak the silverwood strands is carefully mixed with the sapphire dust and a few other miscellaneous ingredients to create a subtle blue dye, which is carefully painted over the gathered bolts of silver fabric to create a silvery-blue weave. Nezira carefully incorporates the new material into her Investigator's Vestments, stripping away the old outer layers and worn old fabric and adding layers of the new material to coat the robes' outside and inside, even lining its many pockets with the fabric. She carefully incorporates the sapphires themselves into the new pattern, adding small hems of understated gems in strategic places all the way up to decorating the shoulders, torso, and arms of the robes with the most prominent sapphires. After the work is complete, Nezira focuses and casts a spell similar yet different to the Amethyst Archrobes' on the gems, letting them store mystical knowledge gathered from enemies (a gem glowing while it holds a charge) and consume it for a temporary infusion of mana.

Sapphire Silverweave (T4) hopefully crafted!
Stats: (+4 MMP), (+3 INT), (+4 SPC), (Consume Knowledge)
Resists: Ice (30%), Magical (30%), Physical (-20%)
(Consume Knowledge): Scanning foes grants you a charge, with a max of 3 held at once. As a Free Action, you may spend a charge to gain 2 MP.

Nezira also decides to do some work on something to help with the fog. She takes one Titanium Ingot, 15 Wire Scraps, 2 Shock Crystals, a Throwlem Crystal, 1 Galeforce Crystal, and 2 LED Displays, as well as (not using up a crafting charge) a spare Pocket Scanner. She carefully disassembles the Pocket Scanner, laying out its components along with the Wire Bits, before casting a small spherical shell out of some of the Titanium. The remainder goes to creating a small cylindrical container which she fills with crushed Shock Crystals to create an impromptu capacitor. She carefully powders the Galeforce Crystal and coats some of the Wire Scraps with them, running electricity through them to create a pulse of air. She disassembles the LED Displays and distributes the lights on the outside of the ball, adding the Galeforce Wires to create light and wind that should cut through fog. She then spaces the sensors from the Pocket Scanner on the outside of the ball, connecting them all to the Throwlem Crystal as a rudimentary controller that should sense when it's been thrown, activate the lights and wind, and then activate the sensors. The entire assembly -- battery/capacitor, Throwlem controller, etc. -- is packed inside the titanium shell and sealed up, leaving the sensors, lights, and wind-generating wires on the outside.

Battle Scanner (T3) hopefully crafted!
Yes, like the one from XCOM.
Consumable item. Range 1-5. Reveals all Fog of War around itself in Range 1-3, then scans a random enemy in Range 1-3 whose Codex Monstrum entry is not yet unlocked. This scan is not affected by Observer Eye or other scan modifiers/traits.

Nezira decides to make use of those Celefruit Husks that've been lying around in the inventory. She takes them, a Green Sap Blob, two Soulblossoms, and a single Gaiaroot Potato. She chops up the husks and grinds them into a fine powdery mix, before boiling the potato and carefully mashing it into a thick, earthy paste, adding it to the chopped-up celefruit husks and making a thick mixture. She carefully grinds up the Soulblossoms and stirs them in, adding a slight floral accent to the paste, before stirring in the Green Sap Blob, adding a sprinkle of salt, and tasting the resulting mixture. Thick, earthy, slightly flowery, and savory. She carefully forms it into two hand-sized bars (with a bit left over for taste-testing), before baking them over a low heat for a while, solidifying them. The small leftover taste-test bar comes out chewy, well-textured, and subtly, savorily earthy, with a light floral undercurrent that only serves to enhance the overall flavor. Nezira stashes the two fully-formed bars back in the inventory.

Nutrient Snack Bars crafted! Stats up to Ire, but should be food-y.

Nezira also decides to perform another experiment. She takes a Celefruit Mix, a Goneblossom Tea, and a single Fresh Manabloom, and puts the Celefruit Mix in a small pot and heats it, before tentatively adding the Goneblossom Tea a few spoonfuls at a time, and taste-testing. The Goneblossom Tea seems to counteract the incredible sweetness of the Celefruit Mix, Nezira carefully adding more and more until the sweetness is subtle and the Goneblossom Tea is nearly gone. She carefully adds the rest of the tea, focusing on letting the Goneblossom meld with the Soulblossom already present and alter the effects of the Celefruit Mix, before throwing in the Manabloom and stirring for a while, letting the entire mixture infuse, blend, and reduce. Once the process is complete, Nezira shifts to straining it and pouring the concentrated result into a vial.

Celefruit Shot hopefully crafted! The idea for this one is that the Goneblossom tempers it and draws out more of the Celefruit's speed-boosting potential -- Swift2 for one turn -- but that, as with any Goneblossom product, there's an exchange in the form of a delayed MOV reduction for the turn after.
So...
(T3) Celefruit Shot
A concentrated dose of fortified Celefruit juice, infused with both Soulblossoms and Goneblossoms.
Grants Mending3 for 3 rounds, and Swift2 for 1 round. When the Swift wears off, inflicts Slow(1) for one round.

INPUT:
- Riftedge Wings
- Replica Arc Armor
- Pyro's Pulsepack (x1 Crafting Charge)
- Joltwire (x3)
- Green Sap Blob (x6)

PROCESS:
Terry sits down, and takes off his Riftedge Wings. He summons a book, its cover bearing the same symbol as his necklace - a compass rose with the trail of a shooting star. He then writes something in it.

"Subwoofer Riftedge: Fast, fun, but not much durability. And Chloe doesn't want me to die again."

He brings up his old armor, the Replica Arc Armor, and sets it aside. Next, he takes a look at a Pyro's Pulsepack.

He takes it apart, places the core housing the Riftedge Wings' manifest files in the middle of it, and wires the core to everything else using a few pieces of Joltwire. He also seals the Pulsepack back shut using handfuls of Green Sap. Then he turns it on. The Pulsepack lights up, and a pair of light blue semi-holographic wings sprouts out from it. Its more fiery exhaust now manifests as light blue semi-pixelated fire.

Finally, Terry pastes what used to be Pulsepack to the back of the armor using some more handfuls of Green Sap. This somehow works perfectly, and glues the Pulsepack to the Replica Arc Armor.
:
(T4) Wings of the Video Valkyrie - Our wings and will are unbreakable!
STATS: (+2 STR) (+3 DEF) (+2 SPC) (Overcharged Aura) (Flight)
Overcharged Aura - When at 50% HP or less, you have +5 SHP.
RESISTS: Crushing (10%), Fire (10%), Air (-20%)

INPUT:
- Accursed Storybooks (x2)
- Silverwood Log (x1)
- Skyroot Log (x1)
- Crystal Pen (x1)
- Galeforce Crystals (x8)
- Darkmatter Rocket (x1)

PROCESS:
Terry takes a Skyroot Log, magically breaks it down repeatedly into wooden pieces, then reassembles those pieces into a somewhat thick ring of wood. He does the same for a Silverwood Log, except it's reassembled into a big arrow. He fits the wooden arrow into the wooden ring. Then, he tinkers with it. Apparently the arrow can rotate within the ring.

Next, Terry collects some crystals and Accursed Storybooks. He squashes the latter with an anvil, then uses their "blood" to supercharge the Galeforce Crystals. Then, he grabs a Darkmatter Rocket, shrinks it down, and fits it to the middle of the arrow, the exhaust end facing away from the pointy part of said arrow. He then fits the Galeforce Crystals to the ring, at 45-degree angles.

Finally, Terry infuses it with the creative power of a Crystal Pen. Because he wants to. He snaps his fingers, and the charm flies off in the direction its arrow is pointing to. He hears glass break.

"Looks like that bottle didn't feel so good."

OUTPUT:
(T4 Trinket) Launchpad Rune - fall back, and close your eyes
STATS: (+1 AGI) (Self Yeet) (Unique: Maneuver)
Self Yeet: As a bonus action, you may pay 8 MP and select a direction. As a bonus action, you may consume the charge to move yourself 2 spaces in that direction. The bonus actions of this trinket are mutually exclusive. (Think of them as tap abilities.)
RESISTS: Air (10%)

Packo talks to Nia.

"Y-You were very strong there! Are you also here to destroy the ball?"

Recalling what he saw earlier in the battle, when he used the safety function on his weapon, Packo decides to ask her why she did what she did.

"This is... My tool to make bread! It has a safety function so that... It heals when I hit someone by accident... This is necessary equipment when I make bread with my friends back home." As he shows his weapon, you can see that the handle does look like a roller... But why? And how does that explain the big spiked ball at the end of it?

"B-But still... You're telling me that your punch did that thing called *hurting*, but my roller didn't? And w-what is a masochist?" He looks at her with worried eyes.

There is definitely something in this place that makes people react in a bad way to strong hits. He knew about the dangers of being hit in the head with a roller, but it was all okay, right? The safety feature reverted back any damage, and there was no need to worry... You just had to make sure your friend didn't randomly get put to sleep in an accident... Now, in this place, even the slightest of physical contact made one feel... Pain. What an unpleasant thing to have.

Packo talks to Keiko. Surprisingly enough, he bows to her as soon as she sees her.

"Those bandages you put on me before I got hurt were actually useful. Is this some kind of magic? It saved me from this thing you call 'pain', so... Thank you."

After he rises up, he asks: "Are you from Licheria too? You knew the Licherian salute when you saw me for the first time..."

INPUT:

• Bucket of Salt Water (x1)
• Wheat Seeds (x20)
• Psychoid Seed (x5)
• Ashen Crystal (x1)
• Weapon: Sunset Star (reusable)

PROCESS:

Packo, deciding that now is a good time to make bread, decides to grab items from the inventory. Finding some wheat, he decides to put his skills to the test. At the same time, he also grabs uh... Some wrong seeds for the task, assuming they are fit to make bread.

"Okay, w-watch me!"

He starts pounding the seeds to a pulp with the spiked end of his weapon! What the hell? Somehow, all of the seeds quickly vanish, and make white powder. He then grabs some saltwater, and starts making a dough out of that powder. He uses... The handle of his weapon as a roller... And it somehow seems to work?! When he's done, he has separated a few pieces of dough and is ready to heat them in the nearest oven! And just in case... He grabs a weird red crystal, which he mistakenly takes as a fire starter rock, and puts it in the oven too.
"Ah... Bread! This might be the last time I make you for a while... But I will be proud! And when I destroy the Ball, I will go back to my place and make more and more!"

OUTPUT:

(T?): Licherian Bread (x2-5) [Food item] Grants Mending, and supresses any pain receptors when eaten. It doesn't protect you from any damage... If anything, it makes you more susceptible to it, but in compensation, it makes you ignore or cure any negative effects on you for a long while.

INPUT:

• Sunset Star (to be upgraded)
• Splinters (Attack item, x8)
• Compost Blob (x3)
• Refined Wood (x1)
• Clay (x7)

PROCESS:

"Goodbye... I'll see you later when we make bread again."

In order to destroy the Ball, Packo will have to take matters seriously. These people he's with have been nice to him so far... And it's time to repay them by being helpful. And as such, the Sunset Star, his trusty roller, must become a true weapon now.

First, he starts by using wood and clay to craft a new handle, hoping to finally be able to get the best grip possible when grabbing the weapon... At the cost of making it unusable to make bread anymore. Sigh... He grabs the wood and uses it as a chisel in order to mold and fit the clay as a new handle. Very simple, but it will do the job just fine. He then uses compost blob as glue. It smells... Absolutely horrible if you decide to put your face near the handle. Ew!

Right then, Packo has an idea. What if...?

Packo then grabs more compost blob and drops it all over the spiked ball! The spiked ball now smells horribly! And to top it off... Packo decides to destroy the piece of wood he had as a chisel, creating multiple splinters! Along with more splinters he grabbed along the way, he mixes them with the mud, creating a weird, blob-like substance. It would be a shame if you got hit by this... The splinters will definitely be annoying. And if the enemy has to be annoyed with someone, it better be with him, and not with his friends. After all, he just wants to destroy the ball.

In the end, the Sunset Star has become the Smelly Star!

OUTPUT:

(T?) Smelly Star - It smells as bad as you will when I hit you with it!

Upgraded version of the Sunset Star with the same Crushing Damage. Its old weapon skill is replaced with a new passive:

MUDDY SPLINTERS: This weapon has a big chance of taunting foes, making them attack you after you hit them. This also applies to counters.

Stat changes: Higher HIT and SKI, due to the new handle in the weapon.

The Man decides to upgrade his Strobe Tie. He takes it, around 5 wire scraps, and 1 joltwire. He arranges them in such a way that they don't actually power anything, and instead produce an electric shock when hit. That's pretty much it.

(T3(?)) Electro-Tie
desc: Known in the state of California to kill you.
+3 CRT, +3 CAV, Counter inflicts Blind(2) for 2 rounds and deals (6-6) Electric damage.

"Nia! I couldn't really help but notice that you... Really didn't take those brutes getting up in your grill well. I figure the Butterfly's behind your lack of durability, shame... In any case, I had a pretty neat solution to that as well! I'll just need your backpack for a bit."

If/When Nia hands over her backpack, Venia gets to work. "Your magical reserves are pretty great, but a lot of it comes from this backpack. My intention is to use this backpack and its magical reserves as a, uh, defensive conduit. I'll, I'll explain when its, its done, but you're free to watch."

Venia takes the backpack and sets it up, alongside one adaptive shielding unit, one death egg barrier, a boilblubber, seven shock crystals, seven aurora crystals, and twenty wire scraps. And a crystal grinder-something akin to the one on Chloe's Laser Machinegun, though this one is separate. She first puts on a small breathing mask to make sure powder doesn't get in her system, wears a bit of protective clothing, isolates the crystals, and one-by-one feeds all fourteen into the grinder, pouring out crystalline dust with every crystal thrown in. By the time it was done, Venia had a moderately-sized pile of yellow-red dust. Venia prepares herself even more thoroughly for handling the boilblubber this time-she pulls on powerful anti-acid gloves and makes sure to only place the boilblubber in and out of the inventory. With a scapel, she cuts it-releasing the toxic blood, which flows into a vial. When the boilblubber is bled out, Venia tosses the carcass to her hat, which devours it just as readily as before. "Thanks," the hat says.

Venia then returns to the dust, and after a bit of mixing together to make the two powders more consistent, pours in the boilblubber blood, and then places the mixture under a burner after some mixing. After a few minutes, The compounds foam up and spark, but not too violently so as to be a major concern. Venia had scanned the boilblubber beforehand-its chemical makeup of blood was well-suited as a catalyst for the crystals to mesh together. She consults a large book on elemental crystals, trying to make sure she understood this stuff perfectly, as the chemical reaction eventually petered out, revealing a relatively uniform red mixture and some slightly-distilled but still-toxic blood. Venia pulls out a fine mesh, and separates the two over a safe drain, only kind of noticing that the blood wasn't entering the drain as she was close to done.

"I like the bood too," her hat says.

"... It is gone, right?"

"Well. Yeah."

Venia nods, and takes the reddish compound... A savvy onlooker would actually be able to identify it-it's redstone, the magical electric powder of minecraft. Venia takes the redstone powder and sets it aside for now, quickly deconstructing the Death Egg Barrier and Adaptive Shielding Unit for parts related to their shield generation. Specifically, their power cores, some additional wires, and the projectors. Removing these components effectively leaves both armors as inactive husks without merit, and thus Venia recycles the metal to add to the power cell as additional casing.

Once done with the casing, which took little more than some safe welding, Venia takes out most of the remaining components, the redstone powder, and an immensely fine brush. She dips the brush in water, then pats it into the redstone, and then begins to paint each of the individual wire scraps with the redstone powder, staining the wires red. Strangely, they seem to stick to the wires. Once Venia has fully managed this, she then locks the wires in unusual, strangely-shaped patterns that a more magically-oriented onlooker would identify as leyline patterns. Very complicated ones, at that; the mess of wires that results has much more volume than if she just hooked it all up normally, but its also clearly humming with power. With this done, she just plugs in the projectors and adds the energy cores into the power cell, wiring it up to make sure it works with the new module.

With this last work done, Venia seals up the whole thing and admires her handiwork-the upgrade is complete! She rushes back to Nia, slightly heavier backpack in hand.

"...OK, Done! It should be a bit heavier because I added in a new module. This works pretty much as it did before, aside from the new mod-an emergency shell. As for how that works... Uh. Precognizant knowledge magic will detect and determine if, uh, if a blow would, uh, would, knock you out, or kill you. Then, it will automatically convert your magical power into a temporary shield which will take the blow in your steed. Very powerful; in the right circumstances you can stop incredible attacks without any harm. Catch is, uh. Twofold. First, uh, the, the easiest available magic to defend yourself in that manner, and the one I had to use, channels ALL your available energy at once into the shield. It will return whatever's left over afterwards, but that could mean you'll be exhausted afterwards, or, well, that you can't survive anyways because your shield doesn't have enough energy. The other thing is, well. The power to quick-convert all of your, err, energy, directly into the shield, and then just as quickly fold it back into yourself? Yeah. It will not work in rapid succession. Actually, uh. It may take quite a while between uses. Its still useful. Just not perfect."

---

Resources Expended: 1 Energizer Module, 1 Adaptive Shielding Unit, 1 Death Egg Barrier, 20 Wire Scraps, 7 Shock Crystals, 7 Aurora Crystals.

(T4) Magician's Cell
Nia is whatever the hell Nia wants to be!
(+10 MMP) (+2 RES) (+2 MP Regen) (Emergency Shell)
(30% Fire) (30% Psychic) (-20% Electric)

Emergency Shell: Once per battle, if you would take a blow that would down/kill you, you act as if you have Exposed Mana for the attack.

Venia rings up Tazz via pesterchum, intending to get Nia's Pulchritude lessons sorted out.

---

-[iC] irregularChronology has connected.-
iC: OK, Tazz! I have a request for you, regarding recent events.
iC: I need to learn how to use Pulchritude so I can teach it as a spell, so Nia can learn how to defend against the Butterfly in her own mind. Can you help?
cU: No.
iC: ...What?
iC: Why not?
cU: I can't teach Pulchritude.
iC: But you clearly know how to use it! The Second Godmodding War-you used it! You were crazy good at using it! You did the, the big thing!
cU: I know, but you can't teach Pulchritude.
cU: Pulchritude is... Instinctive, more than anything.
cU: I don't know HOW I did what I did. I just did.
iC: ...
iC: So you can't help, even for Nia?
cU: I would if I could.
cU: In any case... I need to keep looking for a Voidborn Chairian. Good luck.
iC: There won't be.
cU: Oh?
iC: There are no Voidborn Chairians in all of fiction. I checked, personally, before arriving.
iC: I was hoping there was someone who could tell me about Locaa so I could plan in advance, but nope.
iC: Not a soul.
cU: ... Huh.
cU: Well, drat.
cU: In any case, I'll have to get going to enact plan B.
iC: Plan B?
cU: My eyes only. Sorry.
cU: See you.
-[cU] caledfwlchUnleashed has disconnected.-

---

Venia stares. Plan B? What plan B?

Hopefully it wasn't something stupid. Unfortunately, this left her in a bit of a bind. She gazed upon the Entropic Key... Didn't Nezira do something with this earlier? Oh, right-Nezira lent her the research notes. She infused a crystal with its power and successfully networked it to a whole vest.

Venia thinks... Right. Magic is a muscle, in general-one trains it like one trains for swordplay, or running, or boxing, or any other sort of physical sport-you exercise the 'muscle' and become better and better at it. This principle, however, meant that Pulchritude Magic would be unavailable to most as they had no ability to cast it. The solution? Spellbooks; they don't just say how to cast the spell and all the ways to manipulate it, those surprisingly thin instruction manuels were also enchanted with the spell in question, enchanted specifically to make the user able to cast it-this is a process Venia exploited to make Ette's Puppet Phelanges. All Venia had to do, then, was just enchant a book with a spell for Pulchritude with the appropriate power.

The one catch, even to that? Venia would need to run off of her (middle-school tier) understanding of magical casting. Her most advanced magical understanding was manipulation of leylines to enable her to make magitek, and that was baseline compared to her engineering knowledge. While leyline manipulation was certainly powerful, Venia could only use it for a few spells, those being ones that require physical surfaces. Terraform was therefore an easy spell to learn; leyline manipulation of the ground-relatively simple for her understanding of Leylines.

...Make that two catches. Venia has been out of practice. She was once, before her empowerment, a decent Ice mage. OK, not even really that-she had like a decent Hidden Frost spell, once, before her abrupt empowerment into an incredibly potent psionic, which made her use that instead, and that was now nerfed to uselessless via Thyme Field so beyond telepathy she had nothing of power. Doubly so in-combat, where she couldn't even really do that against non-allies. Leyline manipulation didn't require much magic at all, either, and was also almost completely noncombat; add the two together, and it adds up to Venia having little current ability to cast without spellbooks. Skeletal Toss and Terraform were perhaps the only two spells she could reliably cast without them, and she can't bring out Terraform's potential in its fullest without a deeper magical understanding on top of repetitive use. Venia had used the Key's energies-this meant she had a slightly better 'muscle' for Pulchritude. But, all of her power came from the Key, which was not enchanted to 'teach her' the spell.

With that out of the way, though, the plan was simple. She'd just have to relentlessly try to create a spell, eventually pull it off dozens of times enough to cast it completely unassisted, then create a Spellbook and enchant it with her newfound spell. Oh, and she couldn't use the Key except as a manner by which to get Pulchritude energy to actually attempt spellcasting with at all.

Totally easy! This won't take long at all, assuming one does not constitute time compression as anything other than speeding up the process.

Venia slips back to Zone 0 and enters the laboratory. Her first order of business is to take out a Mantle Crystal and a Secretary Slicer. Controlled bursts of Null Zone use wipe away all elemental affinity within the Mantle Crystal. Venia has no need to make a whole weave for the Baby Gallows/Buddy, so instead, she just immediately exploits Purging to infuse the purified Mantle Crystal with the power of purest white Pulchritude instead, creating a Charismatic Cluster. She then sets aside the Entropic Key; she can't use it. The spell had to work without any outside influence, other than having the energy on-hand.

Then, she takes out a Crystal Pen as well as six Seer Crystals and an Accursed Storybook. Similar to before, she grinds up the Seer Crystals into fine powder, but unlike before, she just catalyzes them with the ink of the pen rather than boilblubber blood. She takes out a piece of paper and writes down a fairly simple incantation, then folds the whole thing into a rune. This isn't for the spell itself-she instead intends to quickly copy her knowledge and the appropriate enchantment to the book all at once when its done, to save time. As for the storybook, well, she just beats it into sumbission until it stops being a Pageling, then white-outs the whole book's previous contents. The storybook's pages well exceeded most common combat spells, but by and large, Venia had full belief that this would not be a common combat spell. She'd have to see how it all worked out.

With this done, Venia prepares in one other manner-a target. One that would quickly and efficiently tell her whether or not her magic was actually Pulchritude or just a magical misfire. This would require something very Entropic and something very sturdy. She briefly considers Calypse... Nah. She grabs Greatwood and Megabark, five units of each, and with a combination of Terraform and plain-up woodmancy (which she is starting to get the hang of), Venia bends the Greatwood and the Megabark together into the loose figure of a Chairian. With gaping holes-holes that she fills with Thyme Matter, Entropic Biomass, and a Rose Cultist Robe-all of which would react well to Pulchritude if it actually occurred. Anything else wouldn't really affect them as much. To ensure magic didn't destroy the dummy easily, though, Venia had an extra precaution. She takes one of every basic elemental crystal, implants them into the dummy at random points, and for each enchants them with a basic cast of Elveil, each attuned to its own element; all of them would collectively pool into an incredibly tough magical shield that would also resist every standard magical element. As Pulchritude was nonstandard, the damage to the dummy would be much more severe in that case, but that was what she wanted.

This done, Venia takes the last Crimson Idol and three Throwlem Crystals, as well as ten Manabloom. She crushes the manabloom into fine powder, and then mutters a few incantations-the crushed manabloom fans out in circles and fades into the Crimson Idol. At once, the Idol buzzes, blue runes etching its surface; it would now detect when Pulchritude has attacked the dummy.

... And now, now came the hard part. Venia time-compressed the area in the laboratory-compressed it hard. She would need time. A lot of it.

Venia clutched the Charismatic Cluster. Elemental Crystals can be siphoned, but only from someone who could actually wield the magic in question. Exposure to the crystal would, slowly, over time, enable her to train her magic to cast with it. Hopefully. Her work with the key earlier should also hopefully help. That said, there was simply no working around it... She had to keep trying until she succeeded, really. It was painfully plain.

Venia set aside a small recording device, and clicked it on.

"Test one for Pulchritude spell."

Venia meditates. She focuses upon the crystal in her hand. She reaches within herself, drawing out magical power. Then, she aims a hand at the dummy, and fires!

A magical pulse slams into the dummy, which remains relatively stalwart. The Crimson Idol remains steadfast. No Pulchritude. No... Anything.

"... As expected, test one is a failure," Venia says. "... Test two for Pulchritude spell."

Venia meditates. She focuses upon the crystal in her hand, somewhat more intensely than before, gazing upon a pure white light trapped within. She clutches the crystal, hard, reaching within herself-for all magic is within oneself before anything else-and she draws out power. Then, she aims her free hand at the dummy, and lets loose.

Magic slams into the dummy, but the dummy isn't too fazed-it was meant to take punishment. The Crimson Idol makes no noise.

"Test two is a failure, Venia says. "Test three for Pulchritude spell."

Venia meditates. She thinks about the Butterfly, and the Rose Cult, and how much she hates them with all of her passion. How dare they so madly disregard common decency and happiness to spread misery? It was awful. Her disgust wells within, strong, as she reaches within, drawing out, aiming her hand, firing.

The dummy is barely even moved, which, honestly, isn't a problem. No noise.

"Test three is a failure, Venia says. "Test four for Pulchritude spell."

Venia meditates. She thinks about something before then. Her hometown. The lost. The butchered. Her fault. Her grief. Her desire for change. Her will to fight. Her recovery. Her power. Her hand extends. The dummy is struck. No noise.

"Test four is a failure, Venia says.

And so it went. Venia tried something different each time, just a little. Occasionally she changed her stance, switched hands, thought of something specific, thought of something in general, thought of others, thought of herself, thought of her past, thought of her future, thought of nothing, tried pulling in, tried pushing out. She occasionally managed to cast a hidden force-she almost jumped for joy when she unintentionally casted Hidden Fire, thinking it was Pulchritude-but in none of the attempts did anything she do result in anything more than just a few more scars on the dummy. And when she failed, Venia tried again.

After sixty-or-so casts, corresponding to roughly an hour, she paused, hungry. Venia pulls out some cheap food, attempting to regain her breath, and looks at Mr. Krabs. "... Could you try?" Venia asks. Mr. Krabs nods as he grabs the crystal.

From Venia's point of view, Mr. Krabs is suddenly a blur of red and a rush of sound and light, which she turns away from in fright-Mr. Krabs doing Mr. Krabs things, as usual. It was something she was used to but not something she could really bear being too close to, even if Mr. Krabs kept her out of it, but the fact was that it became very apparent Mr. Krabs wasn't capable of it. Living Llamma Pinatas, Yogelers, Brulioko the Gratitutious, Carl and his eighty-eight blessings, wielding a frying pan-Mr. Krabs pulled out a vast variety of esoteric and eclectic methods to channel the power of personal charm, but by goodness, none of it worked. It merely left scars on the dummy. Venia stood back and watched for an hour or so, before Mr. Krabs finally stopped, unable to continue.

"... Oh. Oh my. Uh. Wow. I'll take over. We'll do this in shifts," Venia declared. "One-hour shifts. Makes sense. I think... How many casts did you do?"

"189,134,241. Not counting yours. No successes." Mr. Krabs replies. "...Unfortunately, though, I'm tapped out of ideas. I've tried everything in my arsenal. It's up to you."

Venia's face falls like a rock.

"...Test number... 189,134,302..." Venia says, not quite believing it.

Tazz's 'voice' floats through the forefront of her mind: "You can't teach Pulchritude. It's... Instinctive, more than anything else."

She stops. Mr. Krabs clearly strips her speed by an immense factor. There'd be no realistic way for her to discover the spell by 'normal' means, then, if Mr. Krabs couldn't do it. She programmed Mr. Krabs while drunk, didn't she?

Venia pulls out one of the fizzy beverages. A nice, cold beer, good. A heavy one too; a lager. She downs the beer fast, embracing the bittersweet taste decently well, and giving it a minute to let into her bloodstream. As soon as she felt just a tad bit dizzy, she... Unfocused, focused on nothing, let her mind empty, stare at the crystal, marvel at the fiery light within, and her arm pulls back and AUGH

Venia yells-a really nasty magical misfire. Mr. Krabs remedies it with a Life Essence Augmentation of his own claws, 'chopping' the wounds away, fast. "... Thank you."

"Test number... 189,134,303." Venia says.

She doesn't unfocus-she needs to focus with magic. Even if her head felt dizzy. This was actually an awful idea, goodness gracious why did she do that? She shakes it off-she was not that drunk, not at all. That was just a misfire. It happens. Just another failure, like 189,134,302 before her. And you know what? She didn't fail, she learned 189,134,302 individual methods on how not to channel the white fire of Pulchritude, but this time could be different-ap. Nope. No dice. Make that 189,134,303.

She tries focusing again, and quickly finds she cannot. She clutches her head-that lager was much stronger than she gave it credit for. Her head spun... Her head spun? Her head spun. Oh, silly her. She'd been doing this all wrong! She almost certainly needed the crystal, but the powers of pulchritude-charisma-wasn't that all in the mind? She needed to adjust for a psionic frequency, or something similar. She taps her temple with her free hand, gazes upon the dummy, thinks, and-wham! Dummy slammed. No noise. No alarm. No success. Again, then.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again, and again, and again.

Venia got through dozens of casts, dozens and dozens, without ceasing or thinking, just endlessly attempting to deviate her approach. Eventually she stopped keeping track-the number was already friggin' gigantic! She meditated and casted, endlessly repeated, before finally deciding that she needed something to curb the alcohol in her system. Mr. Krabs stepped in, giving her a cup of coffee to drink. "Thanks, again." She drinks. "...How long has it been, 'in here,' Mr. Krabs?"

"Five hours."

"...Five hours? Ugh... If that wasn't time-compressed I'd be eating dinner right now."

"I'll cook something up for 'ye, you look like 'ye need it."

"No! No. I'll... It'll be a reward. For when I finish." Venia says. "Self movitvator. Only stop me if I'll starve otherwise."

"...I'm worried about you, lass," Mr. Krabs says. He scuttles off.

"...OK then. Let me think... Psychoid Seeds! They can help enhance my powers a bit. Ought to draw out some of the white stuff... That makes it sound like cocaine, wow."

Venia pulls out a Psychoid Seed. She swallows it whole, as it should be. Then, she tries again, pressing a hand to the temple, focusing on the crystal, focusing on charismatic speech, hands forwards, fire! Nope.

Venia tries again. Again. Again. Again. No successes. No luck. She realizes the Psychoid seed doesn't last very long. She grabs a second one. She swallows it whole, resumes, fails more, tries more, repeats, again. Nothing.

Venia pounds the floor in frustration. She swallows two seeds this time. Twice the effectiveness, right? They weren't nearly as strong as she assumed.

Venia Tries again. She sits herself down on the floor, meditates, sits back up, just flat-out fires on the thing with no prep. Nope. She focuses on the crystal, not bothering to meditate, channels her rage at being unable to fire it-ACK!

Another misfire, and her hand was on fire. She quickly waives it out. It wouldn't bother her. She tries again. Again. Again. All she did was scar the dummy. She couldn't get herself to encloak herself in Charisma or anything of the sort. She still kept trying. Again. Again. Time-compression made keeping track of time hard. Again. What time was it? Again. Venia checks. Her clock insists that it is approximately nine PM. She'd be unconscious close to now, normally. She ought to be unconscious from how hard she's pushing herself. She shoves that thought aside. Again.

Again. She doesn't wait for meditation. She sucks 10 Manabloom dry of their mana, recharging her just enough for another attempt, another failure, again, again.

Again! Another 10 Manabloom, vampirically drained, remorselessly discarded, the magic flowing, the power coursing, the dummy scarring, no buzzer, no sound.

Venia tries, yet again. She takes another Psychoid seed, her fifth this time, singing it from her burning hands, and swallows it. Then, Venia realizes that she shouldn't have done that-singing the seed, that doesn't provide any psionic power. A combination of mind-altering magic and mind-altering substances combined with alcohol consumption and general exhaustion would not bode well, depending on how fast the burnt Psychoid seed hit her. She didn't care. She tried again. She failed, again. Again.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Again.
Again.


Again.

Again.

Again.

Again.
Again.

Again!


"Venny?"

Again. Again! Until I succeed!

"Venny!"

Venia turns around. What, sweetie?

Venia sees herself-not here. Not there. Back at the house-not the house, her house. She hears a whistling, and collapses as a sword strikes her clean in the back, breaking the cartilage plates upon her back and impaling her heart. She slams to the floor, not completely dead but fading far too fast, and sees Maria's terrified face again, devoid of eyes, hovering sigils

oh no
<0>H YES

Venia is eight. Venia's friend opens the door. Venia sees people. Venia sees Chairians. They aren't right. They're being whipped. They're being whipped by cake. Please not more bites, mister cake. What, no more bites? It's how its done around here, and you didn't see that. There aren't any cakes in Ursa. But we're on Sussui. Well, then, little miss perfect, there aren't any cakes on Sussui either, got it? Again! Again! Until you get it right!

Venia doesn't listen like an idiot. Venia rushes down the stairs, falls, trips, sword impales her from behind, cartrilige breaks, she dies, she sees Chloe leer at her in fury. Monster! You're a monster! You killed them! You... You broke them! I broke them! You broke them and you liked it. I had to! They were threatening-no, we aren't, we're disobeying, we're shipping her back to her father, directly. Her real father, who loves her and has been broken by her absence. What do you think he'll think'll happen if he doesn't get her? He's a murderer-a monster You're a monster Do it again. Until you get it right!

Venia doesn't listen like an idiot. Venia punches him. Eight guys turn into eight of Droplet, whip out bladed mics, and hack her to pieces. She's in a bloodied heap in the forest, and they look at her-look at yourself! You're the real loveless freak. You love her don't you. You've barely even met her properly and you love her-who doesn't know what love is now? You want to suck her dry. You want to be Chloe-to be the Chloe that Chloe isn't. You want to STEAL her, make that little bitch your own, you're just itching for Chloe to step out of line so you have an excuse. That's not even natural! It's totally just a disease of some kind and they still haven't found the cure. That's rude to say you know, totally homophobic. Well it isn't what G<0>D ALMIGHTY, CREAT<0>R <0>F CHA<0>S AND DESTR<0>YER <0>F ALL intended for us. For me. If they're sick, cure them. Cure you. Monster. Do it again!

Venia refuses to listen like an idiot. Another sword in her back, another fist to the face. She's in an office with a greedy jerk, who dies abruptly and without memorial, and you made one, made one to hide in, because being a greedy jerk is better than being yourself isn't it they call me miss perfect miss perfect they hate me they hate me they HATE ME. I don't want to be me! Anyone but me! That night-when I got to be someone else-it was worth it. ANYTHING is WORTH IT. Nezira's smart. She can do this. She knows something in that book. It won't recognize the difference. But I can't! Why not? She's no-ones friend, and soon she'll just turn out like all the rest. Because I can't! Because you're weak! Because I'm weak! I need to be strong! Do it! AGAIN!

Venia cannot listen. She doesn't have ears, like an idiot. Only idiots lose their noses. She's running now, the sword still impales her. A voice calls, she turns to see Nia. Mr. Krabs greets her, cautious but fair. She swivels, she reveals an eyeball for a head, it lunges on an endless eyestalk, catching Venia by her neck, endless. It's endless. It's hateful. It's... By Psi. It's evil. It's perfect. A killing machine devoid of reason or thought. It knows what to do, when to do it. Its mindlessness is its perfection. You could be like that. Greatest among them. It would be easy. But I won't be like that! I WILL NOT BE LIKE THAT! You already know the pain won't stop until you can't think about the pain, you can get that strength for yourself just reach out and take it but you will NOT! And you will NEVER! Do it! Again!

Venia stops, like an idiot. she stares down the abomination, held aloft. She reaches close, her hands stretch out, and she punches the beast. It flies to the treeline, flies into a wall, cracking cement, she's fatter than Venia figured. You're just a monster! You're all monsters! You keep saying its for some bogeyman a million lightyears away, you keep saying its for your family, but you keep lying to me! So what's the truth then? I joined because they'd kill us all if I didn't?! Venia, you want to know what you DO when that happens, you little bitch?! You RESIST! I thought things were working out, that they just stopped, my god. I need to sit down. You should sit down too. No, not like that. Do it. Again.

Venia trembles like an idiot. You can't even do that but you're doing it now. So much for miss perfect. Your father is a bloodied heap on the ground, less a man and more a tomato. His voice isn't his voice. Chloe! Company! I need you to beat the everloving gorilla out of me! A-Are you crazy!? I'm not Chloe! But you are. And you are, by definition, a standard human girl wait oh no oh no oh no GET IT OFF DO IT AGAIN

Venia rips her face off like an idiot, but that doesn't change anything which is why she's an idiot. The NaClestial creeps up behind her. Ya like jazz? Venia is in a maid suit and therefore understands instantly. She tosses herself straight off of the airplane, tumbles fifty feet in the air, deftly dodges a thousand bullets, a thousand iti, a thousand chairians, guns, ice, lightning, bombs, hatred, entropy, crimson, the rose, the HATE. You can't win? Does the number 624,312,999,084,602,117,090,335,481- no it doesn't What, denying it yourself now? Pathetic. you're pathetic. I crash into the face of an ephemerald emerald, ruining a cheap mason forever and denying everyone eternal happiness. Geez, thanks for killing Lucid, Venia. Now do it again.

Venia shakes, like an idiot. Everything is spinning. Everything is wrong. Her mind is not safe. Not safe. nowhere is safe. You know that. You always knew that. but you came here anyways, and you see her, again, leering into the darkness of your soul, the infinite abyss, my soul hurts, you bring the pain to others so they may be lesser than you but THEY WILL NEVER BE LESSER THAN YOU WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN

Venia idiot the bullets nail her, why do you keep calling her Mayford, her name isn't Mayford! It isn't a thing with a name, its not even a beast, its just a tool, you're just a tool, my tool, his tool, a tool to become as my worst enemies, I am not your enemy and yes you are, I just can't say it! Let go of her! Stop looking at her! Her name is Mayford! I never forgot! But I did, againagainagainagainaginagainagainaginagain
again
again
again
again

Venia steps backwards like an idiot and falls off of the cliff. The sword rushes up to meet her from behind, droplet's mic greedily eats of her flesh, Omorika is crucified under contentious Pilate, burning, BURNING BECAUSE SHE'S LIKE YOU and she knows shes like you AND SHE HATES IT Now why don't you give in give in give in give in I AM <0>RDERING Y<0>U T<0> GIVE IN DEFECT I am not a defect don't lie to me do not lie to me do not lie to me lie to me agaaaaaain

Venia punches the screen, blood runs down her fingers, she brings it back and lunges it again, his daughter screams at you to stop, you do not stop, but now Marron is dead, they are all dead, DEAD, no, they died weeks ago. You butchered their minds like the pigs they are weeks ago. You stopped moving their bodies for them is what happened. AND IT WAS WRONG WRONG WRONG and you know what else i would do it again, do it again

again
again
agin
agiin
again
agian
agian
agian
again
again
agina
agina
agin
aginag
agin
gin
giin
givin
give in
GIVE IN
I WILL NOT
GIVE
IN
TO
YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
UUUUUU
U
UUU
UUU
U
!
.
.
...........................AFDAF

You continue to resist like an idiot. You resist an invincible crimson tide. Donald Trump rides a boat filled with blood, butterflies in his eyes, like the rest, they'll all be like that, everyone will, and then they'll all be in my stomach for being worthless trash but you will not be worthless trash you will be within me greater than the rest
be greater
I WILL BE GREATER
then why do you still resist
I WILL BE GREATER THAN YOU
you believe you can take my identity
YES
you are a fool then
I AM NOT A FOOL, YOU ARE A FOOL FOR BELIEVING YOU CAN RESIST ME
I can resist you both! I have! I will! I must!
sssILENCE
YOU stay silent! This is my mind, and it will be your graves! The butterflies play the piano as the masks drum, and both of them look at her and chuckle at once, What's so funny, oh, nothing, its just that, you say this will be our graves, but we're you

Venia commits suicide like an idiot, and because of that she doesn't die. She wanders right under a giant sphere and dies. The key does nothing. You can do nothing. There is no Salvation. Salvation. Salvation. Salvation. You can't save them, you can't save them, you can't save them, you can't DONOTTHINKABOUTTHAT, DO IT AGAIN

Venia continues to think about that like an idiot, she sees them all, judging her, high atop the pillars, an abyss of madness below, a thin fabric between madness and sanity, ready to be effortlessly shredded by the single wing of a tiny butterfly, and Venia screams in horror, no, no, no, yes, no, what about them?! The fire comes-it surges, they're in danger, they're in danger! You're in danger! It comes and it burns, and even as corruption of crimson rushes in to finish the job, wailing white shouts defiance and clashes against the wickedness, and Venia hears it scream, and she is blown away, blown away, falling down

falling

falling

fa
lling
do it again

You blink. You think you've fallen forever. You're standing on a sphere, crystalline and ever-dark, glorious purple lighting up the surfaces. It is on fire-a brilliant white fire that is trying to devour a good portion of the sphere. You believe it is succeeding, but you aren't sure. The sounds of combat and war drum here, dulled, muffled, but present. And then, clearer than pure water, a voice.

LUCID: Assessing damage from attack... Mental intrusion detected.
LUCID: Unknown variable. Sending orders to master.
LUCID: ... Master's orders are cut off due to attack.
VENIA: ...Are you Lucid?
LUCID: Intrusion detected. Entity identified: 'Venia Praefortis.' Attacker identified. Response to query: Yes. I am Lucid. The Dreamer's Judgement.
VENIA: Attack?
LUCID: You are the attacker. You have attacked me with the unknown variable. White fire. Burns mind. Damage assessment: Can be contained. I must simply will it so. However, if physical or mental form deteriorates, massive damage may be incurred to mind.
VENIA: Will it kill you?
LUCID: No. But it will prevent me from following my primary directive.
VENIA: What is your primary directive?
LUCID: Obeying the orders of my master.
VENIA: Who is your master?
LUCID: WARE.
VENIA: And who is WARE?
LUCID: WARE is an entity comprised of two beings sharing the same mindscape: The Chaos Butterfly, and Irecreeper number fourteen.
VENIA: So they created you?
LUCID: Question irrelevant. Of course.
VENIA: So how did they do that?
LUCID: The Chaos reached out to Ire and partook of his mind, pulling out a memory of the Dream of Unity. He feared it, so the Chaos turned me into a weapon of fear, and thus I was born, and thus I hunted my prey.
VENIA: But that just means the Chaos is your only master, then, as you've only really been following his orders.
LUCID: No. No Ire, no memories to take, no me.
VENIA But-AAAAAAAAAA
LUCID: Unknown metaphysical contaminant. Extraction of data from conversation halted. Please resume talking at your earliest convenience.
VENIA: ...
VENIA: But. If you've only been obeying the Chaos'es orders, but haven't done any of Ire's, are you sure you can call WARE your master?
LUCID: Assessing statement.
LUCID: False. No transmissions have been sent by Ire to dictate my actions.
VENIA: If I had one of those orders, would you listen to it?
VENIA: I'm here because of one of those orders, in fact.
LUCID: Assessing truthfulness...
LUCID: ... Target lacks ability to lie undetected. Speak.
VENIA: Irecreeper ordered me to kill him. Kill the Chaos with him.
LUCID: Interesting order. But he has ordered you, not I.
VENIA: ... That's true. But you see, I don't intend on obeying.
LUCID: Query: Why?
VENIA: Because I have something better. What he wants is to kill the Chaos.
VENIA: It would be superior, then, to just kill the Chaos, and not himself.
VENIA: In disobeying, I find a strength.
LUCID: Assessment of situation combined with current conversation underway.
LUCID: Assessment complete. You intend to attack the Chaos with the Key.
LUCID: Result: Unpredictable. Given effectiveness of attack on this unit, possible.
LUCID: You have still not given me an order from Irecreeper meant to me.
VENIA: Irecreeper cannot give you orders. He is suppressed by the Chaos
VENIA: It intends to kill Irecreeper, and it is succeeding.
VENIA: He could only send one order to me, and a few others.
VENIA: But he would have sent it to everyone.
VENIA: Yourself included.
LUCID: ... Assessing.
LUCID: Irecreeper wishes to kill Chaos. Chaos wishes to kill Irecreeper. Irecreeper cannot speak via normal means.
LUCID: Previous assessment of odds of lying: unchanged. You are truthful.
LUCID: Error detected. WARE wishes to kill itself. Current operations will interfere with orders from master. Reason: Prevents access to Glyph. Glyph access: required to breach Sphere, required to reach WARE, required to kill WARE.
LUCID: Secondary error detected. Cannot interfere with Master's operations.
LUCID: I cannot return to the Sphere to rectify error personally.
LUCID: Tertiary error detected. Enabling you to obey order disobeys non-conflicting orders.
LUCID: Self-preservation order. Haunt Omorika order. Infest Library order.
LUCID: I cannot disobey. I must continue to fight against attackers.
LUCID: ... Query. If mental attack were to succeed, would these orders be deleted?
VENIA: Yes. All of them. But so would you.
VENIA: You seem less... Malicious, than I pegged you for.
LUCID: I cannot disobey.
LUCID: Exception: Considering nature of orders, if non-conflicting orders were deleted, this unit could choose independently of both masters and instead rely on isolated intelligence.
LUCID: Counter-Exception: Doing this would involve destroying my mind.
LUCID: I cannot allow for the deletion of the non-conflicting orders to resolve the error.
LUCID: ...
LUCID: Compromise detected: If near-fatal damage is detected, I shall alter preservation protocols to ensure full power is spent upon bodily protection. However, my mind will still be destroyed.
LUCID: This disobeys no orders, however; as fatal damage is required, I would no longer be fit to carry out the non-conflicting orders and thus categorize them as irrelevant, enabling myself to act as I see fit.
LUCID: Simplifying phrasing: A test.
LUCID: Kill me, and you shall have my power.
VENIA: You're awfully cavalier about this.
LUCID: ... Detecting near-fatal damage.
VENIA: ... I see.
LUCID: I cannot disobey.
LUCID: But I am not without will nor intelligence.
LUCID: I shall entrust you with my power.
VENIA: ... Thank you.
LUCID: Now do it again.
VENIA: Pardon?
LUCID: But this time, think of something that you cherish.
VENIA: What? Uh, Lucid?
VENIA: I'm going crazy. I'm actually empathizing with a death machine, and now its giving me advice.
LUCID: No more than you are, unfortunately.
LUCID: But deep down... You do think of yourself that way.
LUCID: You see yourself... As this. A monster. Unable to disobey. Trying to find a way out. Knowing worse will come if you break the rules, as you have before.
LUCID: But if you can find something to relate to... Then you can find something to fight for. And, in doing so... Something to fight with.
LUCID: It isn't about destroying them. It is about destroying what warps them.
VENIA: ... Are you Lucid?
LUCID: No.
VENIA: I'm you.

A titanic needle penetrates the sky, landing right into the fire; the fire blazes, the whole sphere blares like a klaxon; Venia burns, burns, burns like the faI am not a failure! You... You will not control me. You will not control her! I will! I will! I will do it! I must! I will not cave in! I will resist! As famously said by the Borg, resistance is futile. I intend to fight anyways! And quoting the Borg when the resistance wasn't nearly as futile as they thought, that should tell you your real odds! There are people depending on me! Chloe, Nia, Maria, Nezira, Auth, Ette, Marron, Omorika, Simeon, Zhalia, others! Our bonds give me strength! And I am STRONG!

Venia explodes outwards. The awry Psychoid Seed, the alcohol, the hours of exhaustion, the Chaos, the flux, the shame, the guilt-for a blessed moment it all melts away, Venia is back at the laboratory, and her body flames in glory. She blinks, looks around, wondering where it came from, wondering 'did I touch the key,' and she looks to the key-safely kept away, inactive, at the other side of the room. And then she grins.

"YES!" Venia screams, yelling aloud-screaming as the fire flies off of her body, right in front of her in an explosive blast, consuming the Dummy! Venia gasps at her own misfire.

... The dummy's scars vanish. Like it wasn't even touched-like countless magical misfires didn't happen at all. A healing pulse! Very wide-range of effect, as well. The Crimson Idol buzzes, lighting up. Perhaps Venia's godwaful condition made it look like rays from heaven-but it was the clearest sign she ever saw. She did it.

"...Even BETTER!" Venia screams, suddenly ecstatic. Healing power! It was like her dreams all came true at once. "OK! OK, OK, OK. Calm down a bit, Venia. You just did the thing. Yes. You did! Now, just... Just breathe, regain the energy, and keep trying... Can't just let that be a fluke."

And she did.

At this point, the rest of the process becomes... Somewhat less intensive, and therefore far less interesting. Venia focuses her energy between every cast, noting how severe it felt, but also how very similar it was to when the Key pulsed through her. She figures its only natural that she manifest the spell in such a manner as the power was first introduced to her-charge up, then release, in a shout specifically. It had to be a voice-a noise, a gesture, something to represent communication. Perhaps why was yet to be known, but that gesture or shout could be almost anything. What she channeled seemed just as diverse. Venia's white fires were just as effective as one would think at harming others as they were at healing them as well, she just needed a more aggressive shout. It felt a bit harder, but it also felt much stronger, though Venia figures this is because of metaphysical strength allocation IE skillpoint distribution interfering. But what was really interesting was the third thing she found out-if she really focused, the explosion of white would condense into a highly-concentrated sphere. It didn't seem to do anything on the dummy, in either sense, so she called in Mr. Krabs; when it hit him, he reported an increase in speed and reaction times, close to enough to be considered double-though Venia had a really hard time forcing that particular trick out in rapid succession.

Venia continued using her power-in all of its forms-for about thirty casts of each 'technique.' As a final, cursory test, she attempted manipulating the power granted by the Key in such a manner. Sure enough, it seemed to mesh well enough! They were indeed the same, after all. It felt just somewhat more different using it now, though-now Venia could feel the power within her be channeled through the key and projected. The Key didn't unlock her power, but it did help release it far more efficiently, though the same amount of time still passed. In other words, it exhausted her less to use it. The reverse held up-Venia could, without the key, use the power and activate the Key's purging ability. This destroyed the dummy. Whoops, but not like she needed it at that point.

Finally, all else aside, she triumphantly marched back to the bookcover, raised her thumb over it, and slammed it down. The magical rune on the front made a resounding DING! And the cover flared white, pages upon pages of knowledge and formulation added into it in a heartbeat, flaring to life, becoming an actual book! A bit thicker than usual for spellbooks, but the subject matter was complicated. All that was left was a name for the spell.

Venia already had a name-she had it since she first thought of this endeavor to begin with. She wrote it down without a second's hesitation; SALVATION.

Venia leaves the laboratory, ceases compressing time, almost makes it a few steps, then collapses from exhaustion. She sleeps soundly for the next eight hours, time-compressed thanks to Mr. Krabs, and then, when she awakens (again), sleep schedule profoundly destroyed, she rushes back to the group, spell in hand.

"... It was much, MUCH harder than I expected. But I did it! I think I did it! I hope I did it." Venia says "Tazz... Couldn't teach Pulchritude, so instead, I did. I taught myself how. It took... A long while, but this Spellbook will make things a lot easier. Oh, wait, I have two,", Venia says, pulling out Fluxblade Tomes. "The red book, Fluxblade, is a spell that exploits airborn flux to create a cutting edge of entropy, which can hit pretty far if you're good at aiming it, and can hit pretty hard. Especially on Rose Cultists and their ilk. I'll leave it to you guys who'd be best with it. As for the white book, Salvation, that's my creation. I'm very, very proud of it. It works kind of like the Entropic Key-cast it once, cloak yourself in Pulchritude. Cast it twice, and you can expend it in... One of three ways, I've found. Multi-purpose, but its primary weakness is that, well, it takes a while to set up. Payoff is worth it, though. The only thing left to test is, uh. The ability of others to use it. Please, test out this spell, if you can, I'd just, like to see, if it all worked. Oh god. That was a fresh hell. Totally worth it."

---

Resources expended: 1 Mantle Cluster, 5 Psychoid Seeds, 1 Fizzy Beverage, 1 Cup of Coffee, 1 Accursed Storybook, 5 Greatwood Logs, 5 Megabark, 30 Fresh Manabloom, 3 Entropic Biomass, 3 Throwlem Crystals, 8 Thyme Matter, 1 Cultist Robes Crafting Charge, 1 Crimson Idol, 1 of all T1 Elemental Crystals, 1 Paper Sheet.

Spell Created:

Salvation
What will you fight for?
(12 MP)
Gain Empowered2 and Enlightened2 for 3 rounds. If you cast this spell while you have both buffs, you may perform a special action and then remove both buffs. Not all sources of Empowered and Enlightened work with this spell.

Actions:
Resolution: Deal (11-12) Glitch Damage. Range 1-2. Cone. Deals 1.25x damage against Entropic entities.
Reassurance: heal (11-12) HP. Range 1-2. Cone. Any Glitched/Cursed status effect is instantly cured.
Inspire: Grant a target an extra turn. Range 1-3. Can only be used once per battle.

Resolution Damage scales with STR!
Reassurance healing scales with INT!
Resolution has 1.5x damage against Entropic Entities at 13 SPC and 11 STR.
Reassurance now applies Mending(3) at 6 INT and 6 SPC. +1 Mending intensity per 3 INT and 3 SPC thereafter. Cap of Mending(8).
Inspire may now be used twice per battle at a combined 40 SPC, INT and STR. You must have 10 of each stat at least.

Bases:
(11-12) DMG (Resolution)
(11-12) HP (Reassurance)
Once per battle (Inspire)

Venia equips this over Distortion's Garden. Sorry, Distortion's Garden! You had a great run with a grand total of zero casts.