Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, Guys and Girls! How are you all doing?
Meh. This chapter has been a long time a-comin!
Sorry, been playin' me some Wildstar recently...
I seriously want to ask myself why I didn't post it sooner seeing as it was nearly complete for a month now.
Anyways, here comes chapter five of The Euphorian Acumenae! I sincerely hope that you enjoy, let us begin!
Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
Several Days Later... - A Certain Island outside of Genesis - Samathar's Point Of View...
"By all that I hold holy..." My own disbelieving voice echoes out within the area we are currently in, a massive hole carved out of a volcano, lava bursting forth from every earthen pore.
A place that is literally burning with Hellfire. Makes me somewhat paranoid about what Leonardo is currently doing here.
You see, we don't usually investigate the daily lives of our fellow Acumenae members, but when one of your friend starts causing tremors and earthquakes, the harmlessness of said tremors and earthquakes thrown aside, you go and investigate.
James breathes in deep."The elemental spirits of this world are young and inexperienced... whatever Leonardo is doing here has both intrigued and disturbed them greatly."
"Yeah, no shit. The whole place is looks like a planetary wound from a satellite's point of view..." Dana says as she barely manages to hold onto a rock so she does not fall down into a pit of flowing magma.
That said, this place certainly seems neat. Unless you are someone like Dana and walk near one of the lava pits, the titanium wells surrounding them should make being here mostly harmless.. In fact, the whole mountain has been alchemically terraformed into some form of high heat resistant metal.
The lava is being channeled into aqueducts and is flowing into the center of the mountain, from which a massive pillar of fire is currently erupting... but no stone or smoke is flying out, which means this is no natural eruption.
"My lords and ladies!" A magister bearing the sign of an eternally burning star, an executioner, one of Leonardo's people, rushes towards us with glee on his face.
He stops to breathe in before saying."You have truly come just as the master said you would!"
"The Master?" Trevor asks with a laugh.
"Leo keeps telling them not to call him that, but they never listen..." Audrey's lithe form comes from the sidelines with a smirk on her face as she turns to look at the mage."It's fine, boy. Let me take care of our guests, alright?"
He bows respectfully and runs off. We all turn towards Audrey with questioning glances and I ask."So what exactly is going on here?"
She smiles at us."Come, follow me and I will explain."
We continue walking alongside her and my instincts tell me that whatever is coming up will be glorious. She continues after a moment of silence."Tell me, why does a sun explode? What keeps the heat compressed inside till that time eventually comes? What makes one star differ from another?"
Her questions make us all stop a bit to think... the lava is being funneled into a center, could that have anything to do with this?"The answer to all of those questions is obviously density, or rather, the material holding the heat."
She nods at Trevor who had answered the question faster than all of us combined. A sudden buzzing sound takes away our attention as an asteroid miner ship descends down, carrying with it several comets. A large magical circle forms around the comet, transforming it into some form of metal and Dana's eyes grow wide.
"Incredible... imagine the possibilities of that! We don't even need to mine for resources if we can just transform the earth and stone into other materials! Why didn't I think of that first?!... And why hasn't Leonardo informed us of such an achievement anyway?" Dana says with several emotions running wild on her face.
Audrey clears her throat."I believe it is because he wished to complete this project of his first."
"Funneling lava to a singular point, harvesting massive amounts of metal.. could he be forging something?" Allen states with a curious glance.
Forging something? Wait... a singular point? Before I can express my thoughts vocally, we arrive at the epicenter of the supposed Forge to see Leonardo levitating in the middle and using his Psionic powers to literally smash massive amounts of super heated metal together.
He is most certainly forging, but with the power of Gravity instead of a hammer..."Um... what the hell are you doing, Leo?!"
Turning towards us to show a sweating and grinning face, he answers while yelling."Well, I just happened to one day ask myself what the hell would happen if I forced several mountains worth of metal into a single weapon! Would it continuously burn because of the massive heat caused by density? Would its gravity be able to pull other things towards it?! Would it exhibit incredulous amounts of energy because of being constantly pressurized?! Ever since we came to this world it seemed like the perfect place to forge one such a weapon! Not to mention how I suddenly developed the power to control gravity..."
He turns towards a group of magisters on his left side."Keep the chaotic mass stable for a bit, I need to talk to my friends."
They bow in respect and something else towards him."Yes, your lordship!"
An obvious twitch appears on his forehead as we all watch the gigantic mound of superheated metal being constrained in a field of pure void mana, making it incapable of interacting with the physical world. The thing starts to collapse on top of itself because of its mass.
Leonardo drops down to our level with ease... this makes me think."Could your sudden power spike also be because of this?"
He shrugs at me with a smirk."Well, I suppose you could say that trying to pound a mountain into a single point is a form of training... granted I had quite a bit of help."
Saying that, he points towards the executioners, mages and scientists alike who have gained an immense interest in his power over gravity... some even going as far as to proclaim him a god. Something he seems to hate just as much as big brother does, ha.
"But that still does not explain WHY you are doing it." Dana states, quite flatly. Every man in the area deadpan's her with quite a stare, while all the women have the same questioning glance, aside Audrey.
She blinks under all the stares."W-what?"
"Women..." James puts all of our thoughts into one word. Yep.
"You mean to tell me that you really don't get why I'm doing this?" Leonardo asks, somewhat flabbergasted.
She shakes her head in negative and he lets out a sigh."So does that mean you would never try to forge a Legendary Weapon if given the chance?"
A laugh from Rhode."So the only reason for all this, is the sheer awesomeness factor?"
Getting a satisfied nod from Leonardo, she continues laughing."Well, I hope your legendary weapon is worth all the paparazzi bull crap later on."
Then she turns around with a sigh."That said, I have more important work to do than watch you forging something of Epic proportions, bye bye!"
"Right, I'm outta here too." Dana states as she calls in a VI shuttle.
Promptly ignoring the female members of The Acumenae, James makes a surprising step forward and asks."So, whatsit gonna be? A sword? An Axe? A war hammer?"
"The last one. Can't have something that has the weight of several mountains combined and radiates the heat akin to that of a worlds outer core, not be a hammer." Leonardo states with pride.
I quirk an eyebrow at him."Thought up a good name?"
And he stops dead in his tracks."Well... that's what I was hoping you'd help me with."
"And that's my cue to get the hell outta here. Let me set you boys up some drinks and then I'm going shopping." Audrey says with a twitching smile on her face as she runs off and quickly returns with several bottles of beer before leaving for Genesis.
We all take a bottle and form a circle."How about The Worldbreaker?" Trevor says with a dramatic wave of his hands.
"Already taken. Its a title of one of Zeus's kids." James says and we nod while Trevor shrugs."Meh, worth a try."
"How about Hope's End?" My turn this time as we take a sip. Leonardo nods."That's a good title, but we still need a proper name."
"Olympian?" James says with a few choked down laughs. We all stifle a laugh ourselves before I reply."Nah, brother will probably want to name his own weapon that eventually."
Suddenly, Leonardo blinks as an idea forms."What about Oblivion?"
Too cheesy."That would go nicely alone but not with Hope's End afterwards." Trevor says with another laugh.
"What about Hellfall or Chaosfall?" I say, downing another gulp.
Everybody hums in thought."That's pretty nice."
"Another good name would be The Unmaker." Pretty good James, pretty good.
"Those are all just title names... what about original ones?" Trevor says sounding somewhat disappointed.
"Easy to say, but hard to think of one." Leonardo mutters out.
A blink from me."How about Eadem?"
They all share a quirked eyebrow."Eadem?"
Letting out a sigh."Its Latin for rupture."
Leonardo suddenly stands up with his bottle held high."That's bloody perfect! Eadem it is!"
We all laugh and stand up with him as we cheer. Now, all he has to do is forge it!... which could take a while...
Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
The Following Sunday - The Meeting Chamber Of The Acumenae - Samathar's Point Of View...
"So here we are reporting in with the latest update on the massive construct that has been causing great tremors and minor earthquakes over the past week and I believe that our dear watchers are in for quite a surprise now that they are watching this program, isn't that right, Lauren?" The male TV reporter says with quite the smirk on his face as one of Leonardo's female workers comes into the camera's view.
We are currently all watching TV in the meeting chamber if you couldn't have guessed."Indeed they are Steven. My masters work here is sure to bring many new frontiers to light, ones belonging to both science and magic, or perhaps whatever is in between."
"Err, first question from me is, why do you refer to whomever is your leader here as your master?" The male reporter asks somewhat disturbed.
Lauren waves her hands defensively in front of her."A-ah, don't take it the wrong way. We just do that to piss him off. You see, it has surprisingly, pardon the sarcasm, turned out that the guy titled The High Executioner, does not have an amazing sense of humor... at least not when the joke's on him."
Steven's eyes grow wide."T-t-this is the work of The High Executioner?"
She nods at him and shows the emblem of The Eternally Burning Star to the camera."Yes. Everyone you see around you is a member of the company called Blaze Heaven, we are as much game makers as we are the keepers of the law."
A nod from him in turn."Yes, that makes sense. You guys probably made that game in order to cool off after a hard day of work, correct?"
She tilts her head in confusion."While most of us do indeed play the MMORPG, myself not included, I don't see why we would need to cool off doing so.. I mean because of the maste- ah, sorry, force of habit, because of Lord Leonardo's work so far, crime rates have been an all time non-existent. Then again, that is exactly why we are still in business."
"You mean that The Executioners very presence deters people from committing crime? Well, that's true. You guys are pretty scary, after all." He says and the woman responds with a very expected shrug.
Shaking his head out of a stupor, the man continues."Anyhow, could you explain what it is that you are all doing here?"
A nod."Of course. Well, to start, we are conducting several experiments concerning terraformation, alchemical transformation, thermodynamics and VMC."
"VMC?" He asks with confusion evident in his voice.
She lets out a cute giggle."Ah yes, VMC. It is the most basic component for any combination of magic and science, standing for Void-Magic Channeling. Namely, it is a form of science discovering and experimenting with drawing upon the limitless mana of the Void itself. Then we use said mana as energy for literally everything here."
"Ah, yes that makes sense. But I see at least fifty portals around the complex, which I am going to assume are what channels the mana from the void and into this world, for what exactly do you need that much magic energy for?" A good question.
She nods as she breathes in and then continues."We need it in order to keep our masters project stable. To put it blankly, you know how the MMORPG Blaze Heaven is full of Legendary Weaponry of all kinds?"
He returns her nod."Of course, I do. I play the game myself."
"Ah, that will make this easier to comprehend. Basically, the master is trying to forge one such a fantasy weapon in reality." The reporters eyes grow wide at the implications.
"Wow... Could you explain this in more detail please?" He asks while receiving a drink from his co-worker.
The woman then casts a spell onto the ground below them, creating several chairs from smooth stone and sitting down. Steven follows her charge and does much the same as she continues."Very well. First, do you see those massive ships hauling comets from outer space? They are being brought here to be alchemically transformed into several different metals. Our alchemists, scientists and mages alike have worked incredibly hard the last few weeks and have managed to crack the Alchemical formulas for iron, steel, titanium and tungsten, all of which are being superheated by the excavated lava and then funneled into a single spot at the center of this massive forge."
Gulping down some water, the reporter asks."But what kind of machine are you using to forge so much metal?"
She smirks."None. The master is a psion that has the capability to control gravity and his power levels grow daily as he pounds literal mountains worth of metal into a form."
"Holy Christ on a bloody bicycle... How is that even possible?" Steven's camera man mutters out with a disbelief in his voice.
Ignoring the stupefied man, she continues."Our scientists have created several machines to monitor our masters brain waves and have managed to completely map the process of his psionic energy controlling gravity and or creating gravitational fields. This has allowed for the creations of the things you know as GAmps."
Blinking as he nods at her, Steven asks."You mean those things which can increase or decrease the gravity around whatever you put them on?"
She nods."Yes, exactly that. Those amps were created by the alchemists in our group who managed to create these simple round objects which are made out of two parts. The upper side of the lower part is filled with a thousand VI inscribed runes which mimic our masters powers and the whole top part is a battery which feeds the process. These objects could not have been possible has we not mastered runic magic and had the machinery and programming capable of working with such intricate detail."
"Can we know when the weapon will be complete?" Steven asks as if salivating at the though of seeing the thing in question.
She nods once more."Of course. We are estimating it to be complete by the end of next week if everything goes smoothly. Master is working hard on his War-Hammer every day and night. Oh and, in case anyone is wondering, the Hammer's name is Eadem, translating to rupture in Latin."
The reporter then stands up and shakes the woman's hand as he turns back towards to the camera."Well folks, there you have it. Our first mayor cultural creation on this brave new world and we are already making the real-world version of Mjolnir itself! Not to mention the great achievements and scientific discoveries our High Executioner and his company have managed to discover along the way. I can imagine it now, great alchemical formations transforming comets into whatever material we need, which would make mining unnecessary and allow us to save this world's natural beauty, equally massive constructs connected to void portals, channeling limitless free and nature friendly energies from the void itself!"
He takes a short breather.".. I do not know where the future of our race may lead, my friends... but if the rest of our leaders are as great as Lord Leonardo, I am sure we are destined for an amazing one!"
With a final dramatic bows."This was reporter Steven Jenkins... singing out, see you all soon."
And with that, the TV is shut down and we all turn around to face each other at the table. Leonardo is currently brimming with pride but while his own accomplishment is great, the rest of us haven't exactly been sleeping for the last few weeks. It was time to report on everybody's progress.
Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
And that is it for chapter five of The Euphorian Acumenae! I sincerely hope that you've enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed typing it!
In any case, this chapter has been a long time coming as it explains several things being incorporated from The Heart Of Blaze story line.
Now, I just need to figure out how to dunk in life fibers... oh wait, I already did that, never mind.
Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!