It was around noon when Jason awakened from the trip to his own mindscape. He packed his luggage and check out of room to leave the area altogether. It would not be wise to stay there after Magic happened especially if he was the very reason that happened. Even before he woke up at morning his bound field on the room had repelled several scrying spells already. It was not safe to stay longer.
Jason had planned to return to Gotham if the summoning ritual were not led to Third Magic and Spectre. But now it changed, he decided to depart for London on foot with occasional Hallow Jump, nipping some budding crimes. They really grated his nerves because of Avenging Angel and Revelation. Avenging Angel was the refined version of Spectre Force. It detected Evils to punish in passive state and let him transform into Spectre in active state. Adding Revelation, it was practically impossible not to know or not to care what happened around the world. It was as if the world itself was pestering him to solve problems, it felt strangely underwhelming.
The pestering signal was stronger in the countries that was in civil wars and in Gotham.
Gotham happened to do Gotham, it seemed.
Anyway.
Jason did not delude himself into thinking nobody noticed his endeavor to hack into the League network. Moreover, Batman might have suspected the magical shock wave was somehow connected with the hacking, considering Jason's forged ID and the time between two incident. Returning to Gotham was now akin to volunteering to be captured by the world's greatest detective.
In all honest, Jason would prefer Atlas Temple in Egypt than London, but it was not possible for now. Magical shock wave the 3rd magic caused affected all magic users across the world, alarming them greatly. Black Adam, the son of Ozymandias, would be in red alert, thus it would cause strife if Jason were to come close to the African Continent.
He had other plan for Black Adam though. Ever since Revelation was obtained, it had been warning about something so foul and blasphemous that he could not help but became anxious and prepare for crises. It was Revelation that beckoned to him to head to London in the first place, for Jason was not to make Black Adam out of his enemy. Black Adam was needed in the future crises, Jason must prepare to manipulate some events to make him an ally for sake of the world. And London was the ideal place for the plan with its leylines no one tapped.
Once, there had been a move to organize some kind of magical association in Britain when Makarov was a snivelling brat, but the attempt end up the genocide. Back then Homo Magi had been massacring mages who tried to preserve the Mystic. No magus was spared, not even an infant. Alchemists of Atlas Temple were unharmed only thanks to protection God king who ascend to the degree of the divine spirit graciously provided, and for that reason the direct those days assisted him and saved his son's, Teth-Adam's life when Yahweh waged war on Egyptian pantheon and unleash the Spectre on its people.
So yeah, Jason didn't want to fight against the son of the God king, Spectre Force or no ─ actually, no. Especially not with Spectre Force, no thank you. There was no fucking way for Jason to set even a toe on Egypt without feeling agonizing guilty, considering he was an Atlasia. Jason Makarov Todd Atlasia could not afford to make Teth-Adam out of am enemy at all, the debt alchemists of Atlas Temple owed was now solely his to repay. An Atlasia already failed once to protect Teth-Adam from the machination of Shazam. Jason must not fail, he would surely repay the benignity the God king bestowed upon alchemists as the last Atlasia.
Upon arriving in London full of rain and gloom after 5 weeks, Jason in the disguise of tourist tamed the leyline and set cornerstones of bound fields strolling around the British Museum and its near district in day. And in night, he executed Shadow Dive and entered Imaginary Number Space to install the responding cornerstones for the Timeless Grand Temple.
The Timeless Grand Temple: The vast, radiant, magnificent Reality Marble of King Solomon; Workshop he constructed in the Imaginary Number Space for purpose of establishing magecraft that could be preformed by the hands of the common man that previously belonged only to those with connections to the god; And hideout to escape the vigilance of divine spirits that saw magecraft as an insubordination against them and sought out to stop him from establishing it.
A masterpiece Eligos(Makarov) provided from his knowledge that was not belonged to Demonology when Jason was about to make his own workshop.
The moment he appreciated the information he fell in love with the idea instantly. He didn't care about beating Sperctre currently dishing out to Eligos for its reckless provision of knowledge. He wanted the Temple! It was a perfect hideout and place to rest, and he could build the Pseudo-Clairvoyance because Imaginary Number Space was the plane outside of concept of the time-space.
'Wait.' Jason hesitated. 'Why? If it were a perfect hideout as it is and Solomon established magecraft in working order, Alaya should have been awakened long since before me. So, why? Why now?'
He decided to leave it for later examination, he could research after his workshop was finished.
The Timeless Temple would be tremendously useful although it was hard to make, for there were difficult conditions to meet. First and foremost, the builder must be able to enter the Imaginary Number Space. And second, the builder must be able to negate the force high-dimensional beings bring, for high-dimensional beings that inhabit the Imaginary Number Space could determine what fate and future were brought to someone who dared to traverse the Space. Furthermore, Imaginary Number Space functioned in the order that differed from the Reality(Real Number Space) and law of physics had no meaning in there. Thus third, the builder must have means to retain oneself's identity and personality if one were not to decompose into the random number particles forever.
Conveniently, Jason met all conditions: He could meander the Imaginary Number Space, since one of his elements was Hallow; he could negate the high-dimensional beings' influence thanks to the Spectre Force; and he could retain himself through the sheer force of will and calculating objectivity that let him objectify himself to the level of spiritrons.
It spent three months to build a section of the temple. Materials of construction was easy to find in Gobi Desert, the Amazon jungle, abandoned mines and dumping grounds. He just needed some metals and nonmetals, any other things were to be wrought.
Building process was accelerated once a section was completed thanks to peculiarity of Imaginary Number Space. Imaginary Number Space was timeless to the Reality and acted as the bridge among parallel worlds. So he could regulate the time between his workshop and the Reality to a hundredfold maximum, and summoned materials from other worlds.(However, he could not travel to other worlds…yet.) Third Magic also help. He wrought philosopher's stone with his infinite life force and produced golems to work for him.
Though materials like divine bronze, true silver and proper gold were used as if they were mere cement and bricks, they were rare nowadays. He did not know it as they were commonplace when Makarov lived, but he would be in trouble if anyone ever caught wind of it.
After two years at his workshop in Imaginary Number Space and about a week in the Reality perspective, The Timeless Grand Temple was completed.
It was not the end though, it was a start. Jason was engrossed in Magnum Opus while he constructed the temple enough to be impossible to stop to rest. Insignificant but beneficial side-effect of synchronization after purge, Makarov the director would say somewhat proudly.
So it was after five more months in the Imaginary Number Space that Jason stop working. He looked at the photonic crystal in the form of gigantic obelisks that was Tri-Hermes: the Pseudo-Spiritronic Processor, heard melodic hum of Hermes, and saw his familiar Laplace the cyber-demon that resembled Makarov the director for some reason floating around absentmindedly.
'Ah, shit…...'
That was his last thought before he leaned against Tetra Anax: the Real Numbers Observation Lens and passed out from exhaustion.
And he did it again after five days when he finished Paper Moon: the Bond Compass.
=Avenger's Rhapsody=
When Jason Zero Sailed to Gotham with Paper Moon, only two weeks went by in Real Numbers Space. His objective was to take Atlas uniform and leave as soon as possible. He really did not want to encounter a certain Bat. He did not disguise himself this time, since his hair color changed, he did not see the need of it.
He went straight to the tailor shop he had ordered.
"I come for Mr. Atlasia's order." Jason cut to the chase and put the tailor under hypnosis.
"Oh!" yawning tailor sprung out of her armchair. "I was waiting for your order. Come, come and see."
She showed him perfect Atlas uniform proudly for his profound satisfaction. The fabric was sturdy and sewed seamlessly. He paid extra hefty sum for her great work and Zero Sailed from near alley that he thought there was no surveillance.
Unknown to him, a new surveillance camera that was set after Magical shock wave spotted his appearance from behind and recorded all, including the scene he was submerged by shadow.
[Postscript]
He is so busted.*snigger*
By the by, frankly speaking, this chapter was originally a half of the previous chapter. I split it in half because it is too much for me to translate at once. And the content in this chapter is slightly different to its Korean counterpart. English version is more detailed, I think. Don't know why, the level of difficulty to write and the endeavor to prevent misinterpretation perhaps?
Thank for Reviews, Fav and Follows.