15 Chapter 15

"I'll call you Fateweaver," I said while examining my uplifted blade. 

At the edges of my senses, I thought I could hear a brief burst of laughter coming from the Warp at my declaration. However, it was so distilled by time and space that I couldn't be certain that I had even heard anything in the first place. I shook my head and ignored the phenomenon as I brought the blade back down and sheathed it at my side. Once it was secured, I placed it inside my inventory where it would be the safest. Then, I looked back up to Hephaestus and bowed deeply, causing her to complain, but I ignored her words. Even if we were pretty much family now, you still tanked family when given a gift, especially one as grandiose as this. 

"I will treasure this blade and make sure that it isn't wasted in my service," I said seriously, looking the goddess directly in her good eye, "Although you probably made Tsubaki do all the work, so I should probably thank her," I said, defusing the serious atmosphere I had created after my serious declaration. 

That got a laugh out of the two women as Tsubaki chimed in, "I am honestly surprised that she didn't pawn this project off on to me." she said, still chuckling. 

"I am not that lazy," Hephaestus said, placing her hands on hips giving an exaggeratedly offended look to which Tsubaki replied with a flat stare.

"Then why do you still have work to do while you are just sitting around here doing nothing?" Tsubaki asked innocently.

"I am here having a meeting. That's why I am not doing other work. How can paperwork be more important than my familia members?" Hephaestus asked, gaining the moral high ground and winning the argument.

"Speaking of the meeting," I said, gaining the goddess's attention once more, "This may be a bit soon, but can you update my falna?" I asked.

"Why? It hasn't been enough time to make pretty much any progress. All your stats should be in the low I0-99 range." Hephaestus said curiously.

"I have reason to believe that my magic may be increasing faster, and I just wanted to check quickly," I said, skating around the fact that I was absorbing magic since I wanted to keep that secret.

Hephaestus looked puzzled and a bit intrigued but shrugged and set a stool in front of her. I moved and sat in the chair before lifting my shirt so that she could access my back easily. From there, I felt her trace her fingers along my back until I felt the dormant power inside of me rush to the forefront and become freely available. There was a crash behind me as Hephaestus fell out of her seat, only to be caught by Tsubaki, who moved faster than my eye could track to keep the goddess from hitting the ground. I turned to find Hephaestus's chain tipped over backward, with the goddess herself being held in a princess carry position by Tsubaki. I couldn't help but let out a brief snort as I saw them.

"Never mention this to anyone," Hephaestus said to us while her cheeks were tinged a brilliant crimson and Tsubaki set her back down. Prompting her to place a paper on my back and hand it to me.

- - - Status - - -

Name: Augustus Ahriman

Level: 1

Strength: I0 >>> I70

Endurance: I0 >>> H112

Dexterity: I0 >>>I63

Agility: I0 >>>I76

Magic: I0 >>> E409

 - Magic -

Psychic Might

 - Skills -

Inventory

- - - Status - - -

I grinned as I looked down at my status sheet. I had already gained this much while only a few days had passed. My magic stat truly was the star since I used it so much, and due to the fact that I had empowered it with rituals. I had known the growth would be significant, but this was more than even I had anticipated. My other stats were kind of trash, but I hadn't really been focusing on them at all, and they had still experienced decent growth. They were already more than halfway to the next rank, which was nice. However, I was still a long way from maxing them out, which was my goal for every single stat. I still wasn't sure if the stat limit would apply to me or not, but that was something I would find out in the future.

"How is this level of growth possible?" Tsubaki asked, turning to Hephaestus.

The goddess looked slightly disturbed as she answered, "For some reason, I can't see his memories, only bits and pieces." she said, turning to me.

I merely shrugged, "I don't know how these things work completely," I said, sticking to a statement that was factual but misleading since Hephaestus should be able to tell if I am lying or not automatically. 

I had a few ideas for why she couldn't see my memories. All of which had to do in some way, shape, or form with my reincarnation and the powers that somehow moved me to this world. I trusted Hephaestus, but not with the sort of secret like that. I would never let anyone know that I came from another world. I snapped my thoughts back to the conversation in time to see Hephaestus shrug and then look back at me. I already had an idea of what she was about to say, which she confirmed a moment later.

"Just add this to the growing list of secrets between us." The goddess said, massaging her temples like she had a headache.

"Of course," I responded, standing alongside Tsubaki.

Once we were dismissed by Hephaestus, the two of us walked out of the office. However, there was one more thing I needed to ask about, so I stopped the captain before she could walk away. 

"Hey, Captain," I said, tapping her shoulder and causing her to turn around and give me a quizzical look, "Do you have a tool that I could use for engraving?"

Without a word, she reached into a pocket and tossed me a small tool. This prompted me to raise an eyebrow since she was just walking around with a random tool in her pocket. She grinned, turned around, and walked down the hallway, giving an exaggerated wave over her head. I turned to the guard, who just gave me a shrug as if to say that this was a common occurrence. I didn't bother thinking too deeply about the interaction and made my way up to my room. I walked into my study and took my blade out of my inventory, then laid it on the desk. Fateweaver was a perfectly clean slate, just waiting for me to empower it which I prepared to do. Once this was done, Fateweaver would be my very own Force Weapon which pretty much all real psykers have.

With that in mind, I took out the tool and began to carve into the metal of the blade. While carving runes and sigils, I focused on ones that would boost how much power I could channel and also how effectively I could do it. I also tried to create sigils that would decrease both the amount of magic and warp power that I would have to expend to create powerful effects. I kept working for around a week, carving the correct symbols into the blade carefully and precisely. Any missed lines or incorrect angles and the sword might explode in my face. Once most of the runes were done, I checked, then checked them again, then one more time to confirm that they were in the right place and order. However, when I pulled back and looked at the blade as a whole, something was missing.

Before, I spent a full day brainstorming and obsessing over what I had missed. I combed through my memories again and again to no avail. Once I was about to give up and complete the blade without whatever this missing piece was, I heard a quiet whisper calling out to me. I started and looked around my messy apartment. However, it was the dead of night, and there was nobody there but me. I thought that maybe Tsubaki or somebody had an extra key and came in to check in on me, but after calling out and getting no response, I ruled that possibility out.

"look...deeper..." the whisper urged, causing a shiver to run down my spine as I understood what it meant.

I activated my Whichsight, which allowed me to glimpse shallowly into the Empyrean. I was unable to see the creature that was speaking to me, but I could feel its presence, like a second heartbeat in the area around me. The air thrummed with potential, and this thing's mere presence caused ripples to spread out across the Warp.

"Deeper..." It purred, its voice a bit more discernable now, "I hold the answer to the question you ask." it said. 

Despite my better judgment, I closed my eyes and allowed my consciousness to sink into the Great Ocean. There, I found the source of the whispers and realized that I may have made a massive mistake by allowing myself to be drawn in by curiosity.