Chapter 296: The little engine that could (Patreon)

I stare at Dave, the gears in my head whirring. “Use the Voidcannon against them? That’s a pretty bold idea. Suri, could it be done?”

Suri is silent for a moment, her conjured humanoid face considering. “It won’t be easy, but it’s not outside the realm of possibilities,” she concludes. “We’d have to infiltrate its command centre and take control of at least some of the Peilor operators, I’d imagine. The more pertinent question, perhaps, is should it be done. How exactly do you intend to use the Voidcannon ‘against’ Starmother?”

“Ooh, ooh,” Alec oohs. “What if we just zap her to a lower Realm? If we send her to the Entropic Realm... wouldn’t she just turn into a rock collection?”

My gaze snaps around to Suri, but she shakes her conjured head.

“Wouldn’t work,” she replies. “The Realm of Crystals is high up in Realmspace, and its laws are strong; she wouldn’t just turn into a lifeless rock upon arrival. And if our understanding of her capabilities is correct, she should be more than capable of travelling between the Realms under her own power.”

My brows furrow. The concept of returning to Earth is something we haven’t properly discussed with Suri yet—it hasn’t exactly been relevant what with Earth coming to us—but now I can’t help but wonder what this might mean for Dave in the future. Well, if we succeed, and that’s a big if.

Also, could this have something to do with why my stats remained quantised even after I travelled down to one of the lower Spiritual Realms?

Interesting as it is, we’ve got bigger topics to discuss right now.

“Okay,” Kaitlynn starts, “if we can’t kill her, what about trapping her? Couldn’t we use the Voidcannon to seal, like, her whole palace in a pocket dimension? Actually, could it do something like that in the first place, or is it only capable of perform Voidshifts?”

“Well,” Suri chimes, “from what we’ve learned from our prisoners, the Voidcannon should be able to do pretty much anything related to Spatial Energy, as it’s really just a tool to massively empower Spatial Skills. However, it’s not very flexible. Before it can empower a different Skill, it needs to be recalibrated, which takes time. Even if we manage it, however, I don’t know how long such a pocket dimension would be able to hold Starmother; she really is a frightening being, and if we’re right about her, she can control Gravitational as well as Spatial Energy.”

“She’d probably be hard-pressed to focus on escaping if she was fighting Goddess, though,” I muse, warming to the idea.

“Yeah, I dunno about this,” Jacob says, scratching his temple with a frown. “I mean, there’s still Peilinor’s military department to consider. If we trap their Godqueen, they’re hardly going to sit back and watch the show. How long do you reckon we could hold the Voidcannon if they come for us?”

That gives me pause, and by the silence that follows, it’s not just me.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” Suri chimes airily after a moment. “I doubt it’d come to that.”

“Sugar!” Loudmouth croaks, perking up at this good news.

“Why not?” I ask, despite feeling like I’m once again walking headfirst into a verbal—

“Because before they could even make it to us,” Suri chimes, “Starmother would have used her stars to turn the Voidcannon into a pile of slag.”

“Oh,” Loudmouth croaks. “Not so sugar.”

Alec’s eyes widen. “Does she mean that the Twinstar—”

“Yep,” I reply, popping the P with a sigh.

“—and Big Bortha—”

“Her too.”

“—are weapons?!”

“Of supermassive destruction, you got it.”

“That’s not the only problem,” Akir grunts. “Did you forget? The Laws of Being empower Mara, and weaken Goddess. Even if you trap them together, if it’s in their Realm, there’s no guarantee Goddess can win.”

Well, that certainly sounds like the final nail in the coffin for this idea.

Dave is still taking notes, however, and after a moment, turns around for a recap. “Okay, it sounds like so far, the plan to trap Starmother in a pocket dimension has three major obstacles: the Peilor’s military department, Starmother’s stars, and The Laws of Being. The first two, we might be able to come up with a creative solution to... with the third, I must admit I’m at a loss. Are there any other ideas for how we could use the Voidcannon to our advantage?”

“If only we could Warp her into the Realm of Imagination, am I right?” Alec jokes.

I stare at him.

“We can’t though... right?” he asks after a moment, shifting nervously under my gaze.

“No...” I say slowly, my brain working overtime. “I don’t think we can. Actually, even if we could bring her here against her will, I don’t see how we’d stop her from leaving. That was why we were brainstorming ways to cut her off from her body before, but how can we ever manage that if she’s a hivemind with literally hundreds of bodies? That was a hypothetical question, Alec... if your answer has anything to do with a giant pair of scissors, please lower your hand.”

“I was thinking more along the line of a chainsaw,” he replies with a grin. “But your scissor idea sounds good too!”

“Yah,” Loudmouth croaks, glancing around furtively. “Loudmouth real good with scissors, definitely never cuts webs between fingers!”

I shake my head at them, and make a Herculean effort not to let it derail my train of thought.

Thankfully, there’s no stopping my steamed-up engine.

“Whenever Goddess and Starmother fought before,” I start, getting up to pace, “Starmother had the option to retreat to her bodies in the Yin-Yang Realm. In order to eliminate that option, Goddess would need to fight her in the Yin-Yang Realm, while Starmother’s bodies can’t escape. Except in order to be able to win the Spiritual battle, Goddess needs to fight Starmother in the Realm of Imagination. That’s the real conundrum here: the fight needs to happen in both Realms at the same time. It pretty much seems impossible, unless...” I stop pacing and turn to face the group with a growing smile on my face. “Unless we can somehow bring the two Realms together!”

“I think she’s lost it,” Jacob whispers after a moment.

He only just barely manages to duck the lemon square I throw at him. Loudmouth and Alec immediately scramble for it, ending up in a cluster of limbs on the floor behind the couch.

“You wish to... fuse the Realms?” Suri asks with no small amount of incredulity.

I shake my head. “Not fuse them, more like superimpose. And obviously I don’t think we could move entire Realms, but we wouldn’t need to. I mean, all we’d need to do is somehow overlap two pocket dimensions! One from the Yin-Yang Realm, one from the Realm of Imagination.”

Alec shoots up from behind the couch with crumbs on his cheek and wide eyes. “You mean like Herman’s Haven!”

“Ten points,” I say, pointing at him, upon which he pumps his fist.

“And you have an idea of how to do it?” Dave asks calmly.

“I think so,” I reply with narrowed eyes. “If it can be done at all... then it can be done through collective Imagination.”

I glance at Akir, and he makes a shrug-like motion. “I don’t know about the Yin-Yang Realm, but on our side, anything is possible as long as you believe. And have enough Espir to throw at it.”

I turn to Suri.

She hums pensively. “I’m not sure how the laws of the Realms would interact to something like this, but... if it were possible anywhere, I suppose it would be here. These two Realms are already very close to each other, to the point that their laws are partially integrated.”

I smile. “That was my reasoning too!”

“All right then,” Dave says. “Sounds like the plan to trap Starmother in a pocket dimension has been resuscitated. So far, it sounds like our best option, so let’s talk about its other pitfalls...”

“So,” Marty glubs, mere hours later, “we’ve reconvened, despite the worry that it might be a little... suspicious, that we’re back here so soon. Tell us about this idea of yours.”

He doesn’t quite say that we better have a good reason for summoning them, but the implication is obvious.

“Time is growing short,” I tell him with my eyes narrowed. “Some risks will need to be taken.”

“But what we’ve prepared for you,” Kaitlynn quickly cuts in, “should be worth the risk. Dave?”

Standing next to the blackboard, which has a white tablecloth draped over it, Dave nods, then clears his throat. “So... this is our plan.”

He gestures at the board.

Loudmouth, who’s standing besides it, grasping the tablecloth... does nothing.

“Loudmouth,” Alec stage-whispers, “that was the signal!”

“Aack!” the Hoig croaks, before he finallypulls the cover away, revealing Alec’s meticulous drawings of the various stages we’ve divided our masterplan into.

“It’s a plan to make use of the Voidcannon,” Dave intones, “to help kill Starmother, before the Earth is due to be brought over.”

I carefully watch their reactions as he says it. Agath perks up, her twelve-pack vibrating under her tight suit. Marty furrows his brows a little, but leans forward. Goddess raises a brow.

Looks like we’ve got their attention. Now we just need to sell it. Sell them Earth’s last friggin’ chance...

“I love this plan!” Agath exclaims, breathing heavily for some reason, her eyes shining. “It’s brash, but it could work. More importantly, they’ll never see it coming!”

“Well, it is certainly bold,” Marty glubs begrudgingly. “However, it’s also quite elaborate and risky. The part where you stall while the captured engineers recalibrate the Voidcannon, for example, could easily turn into a bloodbath... Also, the preparations you’re going to need are rather extensive. Are you positive you can pull it off under the current time constraints?”

“We can,” I reply determinedly. “And we will, because we have to.”

He sighs. “I’ll admit, your conviction is admirable, but I’m still worried you’re being too hasty. What say you, My Lady?”

Goddess stares at the board for some time, unblinking, while we all wait in silence. “I confess, I am conflicted,” she finally says, her voice soft as the rustling of a bird’s feathers. “The failure of this plan would mean great trouble for my people, but its rejection might very well be a death sentence for yours. It is perhaps the hardest decision I’ve had to make in all my time ruling this Realm.”

She stops speaking again, and the silence that falls over the room is thick and cloying, reminding me of the Pond of Stillness. It’s almost claustrophobic, but I don’t dare break it.

“Very well, I have made my decision,” she intones. “Taking action could lead to ruin... but so could passivity. I would rather regret acting than not acting.”

It’s like I can breathe again.

“So, we’re really doing this?” Kaitlynn asks, sounding like she scarcely believes it.

“We’ll have to come up with a few critical deadlines our preparations will have to hit,” she states. “And a proper test for the viability of your ideas. If we miss or fail any of them, we’ll need to re-evaluate this plan’s validity, but barring that... I hereby decree that we set this plan in motion.”

I bite my lip, doing my utmost to keep the primal roar of victory I feel bubbling up inside of me in. Behind me, I sense Alec trying to jump up out of his seat, only restrained by Jacob grabbing him by the shoulder.

Dave bows deeply to her. “We thank you deeply, Your Highness.”

Despite his measured tone, I can hear the emotion shining through in his voice.

She peers at him. “It is I who is in your debt, young one. Now go, prepare. We all have much to do, if we are to defeat Mara once and for all.”

Author's note:

Thanks for reading! ^^