14 The Way Forward

"Successor, just because you are in a child's body doesn't mean you can act like it." "It Does and I will while I can!" I said, whilst proceeding to cross my arms and turn away from the hat.

"Well successor ill continue on then. For a proper answer to your question, we would need true world examples and or a flexible enough magic system for many of the examples. Not to mention even the basic usage of Mana or Magicka to be able to manipulate into these different forms. With enough knowledge of them it could be possible to imitate the spells and/or abilities found in those forms of media." 

"So, if by succeeding in that could I perhaps also consider that as part of my achievements?" A subtle smile making its way on my face. "If the feat in question is remarkable enough, it could move the progression of the Pathway." Ok I can work with that. "What of the Seer pathway then?" With a bit of a dance he began, "My lord decided this Pathways progression was to be Acts of Drama. These can be interpreted as Acts with an audience that invoke emotions. My lord chose this as what is a Lord of Mysteries without flair! It also was the only Pathway he chose and left the others to the Authorities themselves to choose. It was his Main authority upon his own apotheosis as well. I am also pleased to announce that with the act done tonight in the tavern you've unlocked the Seer sequence abilities." that took me by surprise? 

"How does that work? I didn't do anything deliberately, if anything I'm still confused a bit by how I acted." It quickly cleared some of my misunderstanding. "The successor should remember i said that he IS a Lord of Mysteries. Even if you do not possess the abilities of one your soul has been adapted as such. you can consider it like the Dragonborn from this universe. This includes the different parts that make up a Lord of Mysteries." interrupting him I announce with a slight grimace, "Faceless" "That is correct successor. Due to these factors and how the Wish using the last of my former master's powers have integrated the former soul of yours and the body and soul of the child Shirou. It has made the connection more seamless and cohesive. The original exchange would have not facilitated this but I was able to make it so with the added "Fluff" from the heroic spirit version of yourself."

"Makes kind of sense, but what about the psychological issues the former Lord of Mysteries faced?" I was particularly worried about this. There may not have been any inherent madness but hey what about self induced? "The Lord chose to allow this for the successor to decide how to deal with. in other word's this is your problem successor, how you use the abilities in question and how you are able to deal with their side effects are apart of the responsibility of being a new Lord of Mysteries. for now there is no worries as instead of two separate individuals that are you its just YOU. This is the [FOOL] at work. It has been used to fool the history and time of the TWO parts and made them into ONE. This is also why you refer to yourself as Azarius Emiya. Because to you there is no longer the separated existence of the two in question. Does this answer the successor?" 

There's WAY to much there, so recap? I'm basically just ME? yeah that works for now. But I'm still self aware of it, maybe its temporary? It was only a half a day ago now that I think of it. "Ok, I mostly understand, now back to the whole Act thing, even if I wasn't planning such an action because it evoked emotions it allowed the pathway to progress? Did I get that right?" "Yes successor, but always remember that the pathway's progress is still a journey and will take time. there is no need to rush through them and harm yourself. Especially because you are in the body of a child and still growing. This is both good and bad. it will mean slower overall progress but it also means we can do modifications when the changes, metaphorically, hit the body."

"Now, what kind of changes do you mean?" "This refers more to when you are undergoing pathway changes we can "slip in" slight changes to appearance and more importantly potential!" sounds interesting. But cant be too distracted when he keeps talking "Successor, the downsides of the body have already been known to the successor. When you are in a more mailable state we can include additions that with time will boost the successor past the Heroic spirit's original baseline. This can include the limited Magic Circuits the body was born with." That's... far crazier than I thought it would be.

"So. How big are the changes available with the change to Seer?" Arrodes dipped down to the watery like surface and touched with a strip of cloth on its surface. It rose up to my height in response into a mirror. "The most we will be able to do is very minor for the outside appearance. BUT, we can add some minor "Buffs" if you will." I remembered slightly my hair color in one half being black so it might help to alleviate some of the dissonance between my selves quicker to do that. As for that buff?

"Change my hair to have some black streaks throughout it. The buff though, what about my eyes, changing them to "See" more. I know I'll get access to spirit vision, i want it to be able to see Magicka, even if its limited in range that's fine." With this Magicka training should be so much easier! "Successor, the mutation of the eyes will be able to happen. I take it when the Apprentice pathway opens we will address the Mana Circuit situation?" "Yup" no point in arguing with the talking hat. 27 poor quality Mana Circuits was my current base if I remember correctly. The number was decent and above average but their overall quality was not as desired. Unlike Shirou we could fix these issues.

There was another question though, "What of my origin and element though?" "Your current body successor, while keeping that of the sword for those two, your soul being more divine uses your authorities as the Origin and your elements are corresponding to each their own. For the [ERROR] it is the Time element. For the [FOOL] it is the Fate element. For the [DOOR] it is the Space element. But due to the body housing the soul your Sword element will experience changes overtime. it could even evolve one day to encompass more and grow to an Authority on its own. A fair assumption would be to learn the full potential of this."

A bout of silence followed. I will admit I had an idea. A crazy one admittedly. But it would be so worth it, not for me but for one who already walked so far for centuries already. A smile came to my face. "Arrodes, to grow the sword into an authority. It would potentially require a form of a Pathway if you will, correct? If even just a facsimile of one to bring it to a conceptual level?" 

"That is correct successor." closing my eyes I spoke, the bare basics of a plan forming. "Build a road map from my memories, we have a multiverse to work with to potentially build one. But not for me. Build it for Emiya Shirou the Heroic spirit. Also include ways of forming a body for him to potentially inhabit to no longer require us." When he accepted my hand in trust i was gonna damn well make sure he got out well from this. And if that just happened to make him become a God by definition? Who am i to judge!