?

Fuse

So, walking up to the obviously evil crack in the giant wall was certainly a risk, but he was alone here and there were no other places he could go to, so he really had no option.

Then the evil looking crack in the wall had a very evil voice come out of it.

Now, any sensible person would turn around and leave once they realized whatever situation this was would obviously be bad.

But it felt as if I was meant to be here. And he obviously knows I'm here, it'd be rude to leave.

Once I had gotten close enough to the crack, I had politely replied, "My name is Fuse. Nice to meet you…"

"Skryb." He said, the air suddenly cracking as if it was being violently destroyed, causing a vortex to sweep into the empty space.

Skryb chuckled at the noise of the crackling, "Hah, so some of my passives work on that side, hm?"

Yeah I'm not going to lie, his name being spoken leading to the literal air around me exploding was mega intimidating.

Still, passives? That's some gamer speak I think, so I asked him, "Uh, are you also a gamer? Of the reincarnation variety?"

"Oh, yes, I am," Skryb readily admitted, before asking a question of his own, "Can I assume you're the holder of the soul of the domino, then?"

…How does he know that? Wait, that phrase I first heard, 'let my ambition raze all it lays its gaze upon…'

His ambition?

"Can I assume you're the one who gave me this soul, then?" I asked, feeling suspicious.

"Of course, our meeting was practically destined, wasn't it?" He answered with some sincerity, "But of course I can feel you don't trust me. How about a little gift from me to you, just so we start on the right foot?"

I narrowed my eyes, there was absolutely no way this guy didn't have some sort of ulterior motive, but what is it?

Looking up at the wall, the dots connected basically immediately.

So he's… trapped? Or this wall is keeping him from getting here.

Or maybe this is some form of segregation? Did someone or something forcibly seal him off?

"Depends on what's the gift and what's the price," I told him, feeling a bit more confident in his motives now.

"As much power as I possibly can lend you right now." Skryb answered, the hole in the wall suddenly starting to emanate with more power.

I quickly told him, "Do you know that the color scheme of red and black is super menacing? That just looks like I'll be cursed if I take it."

"Oh? Would you really deny a fellow American's gift?"

Oh he's American? Yeah he's a lot more trustworthy now.

"You should've started with that, you moron." I said before sticking my hand in the crack.

Suddenly, the sensation of a parasite seeping into my hand hit me and I couldn't resist the urge to shiver.

Then the pain came in the form of losing my breath, then my touch, my sight, my hearing, until…

I was fine, but a new text box was in front of me.

[Skryb's Blessing - Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty, And Despair. - When you call out Skryb's name for aid, you shall allow Skryb to control your body temporarily while you go unconscious. Your problems will be gone when you awake.]

"...I just gave you a way to steal my body, didn't I." I deadpanned, feeling both upset I just let this happen, and embarrassed that I just let that happen.

"Oh, no, I wouldn't say that. After all, you still need to call for my help." Skryb tried to console me, but I wasn't particularly buying it.

"Look, you gave me your "Gift," and now you need to explain your side of the story." I accusingly said, glaring at where I assumed he would be.

"Why, of course! We still have so much time together, I can explain everything to you if you want." Skryb said, sounding far too joyful for the situation.

…but that would be nice, yes.

"Sure, explain to me what's this wall, first of all." I listed out my first demand, prepared to take a lot of notes.

"Then let me start with this wall between us. This is called the Great Wall of The Universe, which spans to every direction you can see, creating a box. This is the eastern section of the wall, at least on our side. Now, what this wall does is separates universes and keeps them from interacting with each other." Skryb explained, mostly confirming my guesses.

And next, I bet he's going to explain his evil plan to break it and rule over all universes as the god-emperor or something.

"Now, I'm sure this wall has a good reason for existing but… It spits upon us, doesn't it?" Skryb's monologue turns into a question as he tries to coax me into an answer, "We are both Americans, yet we are separated by the circumstances of where we were created. Is that not an insult to our spirit? We must shatter it, don't you think?"

…Okay yeah I was not expecting him to pull out that card to try and get me to turn to his side.

But yeah, this wall's existence is pretty insulting now that he's brought it up. How dare some inanimate wall try to separate Americans from each other?

But Skryb was so obviously evil in some way for me to just accept him face value. I mean, for god's sake, his blessing literally read out something from Ozymandias, a tyrant.

"Yeah, it is an insult, but what are you…" I was ready to ask him what he was going to do about it, before I realized I had already gotten all the contextual clues I needed to figure out his plan.

This crack in the wall is obviously not meant to create it, and I can make a good guess that Skryb was the one who made it.

And I think the 'how' was the domino that I'm tasked with putting back together by the ambitious soul of the domino.

Like a trojan horse, the domino must've gotten through to here, but broke apart in the process and scattered across worlds, maybe even to different people if Luciel ends up having that destiny piece, judging by how the world menu tells me I can't travel worlds until I grasp destiny's blessing.

Presumably, ambition trumps over destiny in my case. And after that, every other part of the domino would likely fall over easily to me.

And once I gather all the pieces of the domino, I assume it'll somehow give me the power to break this wall, but…

Wait, if destiny is an active force in this universe, was my entire existence made for this purpose?

Is this why I made my name Fuse without a second thought? Was it all just foreshadowing that I would fuse with this domino? So I can somehow break the wall?

That's…

"I think you already know how I intend to break this wall." Skryb both interrupted and confirmed my thoughts as my distrust grew tenfold.

"Tell me, how much of this is predestined?" I demanded, hoping to see if I had enough leverage to get him to answer.

If all else fails, suicide would likely screw up his plans.

"Who knows, really? And why would I have to show you my entire hand?" Skryb had decided to enigmatically answer, causing my irritation to swell.

"Because if you don't show me that 'hand' of yours, I'm going to flip the table and shoot you." I angrily told him.

Skryb outright laughed at my threat, "Oh! Of course you will! I'd expect nothing else from an American like yourself. I have a friend that's exactly like you."

God, this guy is pissing me off, are we not peers? He should at least have the courtesy of answering some of my questions.

"That friend should shoot you in the face, maybe then you can answer my question. How much of this is predestined?" I asked, setting a tone of finality into my question.

"Hm, I would say I would know the result of this journey, that is to say, I do know that this wall will break… But whether you'll be the one to break it, only you can decide." Skryb revealed, sounding not even slightly hesitant of revealing such a massive card.

That's actually huge to know. Because now I know that I actually have the most leverage right now. He has to take me, or he's going to have to wait some million years or however old he is to find someone else to do this job for him.

Deciding to push my limits, I told him, "Right, and right now, I'm thinking I'm not going to help you."

"Oh, but you will. Just the simple idea of having entire universes segregated like this just absolutely infuriates you, doesn't it? It's in our nature to destroy walls like these. It's the most American thing any of us could do." Skryb said, making me reconsider.

Yeah, this wall is a travesty, and it is in my American blood to destroy walls. But… would it really be worth whatever price that Skryb is going to ask? Especially considering how evil he's seeming to be right now?

…Maybe he's not that evil, right? He still is an American… Then again, I thought Trump was an American too, once…

"It does infuriate me to no end, this wall does need to be taken down, but I assume there are other walls, yeah? What's stopping me from breaking those down first?" I said, trying to draw some sort of bigger concession or reveal from him.

Skryb sounded slightly amused, "Well, nothing, I suppose. But in the end, would you rather risk breaking down a wall you have no idea what secrets it hides, or would you rather go with the devil you know?"

…Okay, that's fair. But the simple fact is, I don't really know this devil.

So I asked, "Well, what are you going to do once this wall falls, then?"

And Skryb gave the answer that I feared most.

"Then, I will break another."

He mentioned the wall acting as a box to lock them in, so of course if this side falls, then the other 3 sides would presumably still be there. And he wants to tear down all of the walls for, most probably, something evil.

Speaking of, what evil? "Then why do you want to escape your home, then? Is it for power? Maybe you just have a big ego?"

"This is more of a matter of principle, really. We are Gods, are we not? Why should we be confined to this space, no matter how big it is?"

…Okay, maybe he's misjudging Skryb just a bit. That's still super egotistical, but it doesn't scream out obviously evil, aside from his color scheme of red and black.

…But it's also American as hell, aside from the obvious showboating of calling himself a God.

America too once sought to shatter the box it found itself in as Britain's colony, and Skryb is looking to break the box that confines his universe. And presumably, I'll find the western side of the wall if I go back far enough, so we're both trapped in our own big cages.

And breaking things is an American specialty.

"Look, I obviously don't trust you a lot" I said, causing Skryb to chuckle a bit before I continued, "But we both carry that American ideal of 'fuck cages and chains' so I'll agree to continue my quest of hunting for the domino pieces… For now, at least."

"For now?" Skryb curiously inquired.

"If I feel that you're planning to do something obviously extremely bad over here, then I'll just kill myself, and take this domino down with me, and set you back some hundred years."

"That's fair, then. Come by every now and then, my friends will have more gifts for you to take." Skryb had said, as the glow in the crack became brighter and brighter, "But now our deal is made, and you must return to where you were previously. Don't forget about me, Fuse."

Eventually, the red and black glow had covered my body as my vision once again faded to black as I felt myself being transported back to where I once was before.

The Other Side of The Wall

"Skryb, are you absolutely sure that this is the way you want to approach this situation?"

"Aodare, my good right hand man, I assure you that it's absolutely vital to my plans that this is the way I speak to him."

"If I recall, that didn't work very well on-"

"Don't bring that name up near me."

"Hah, still salty?"

Sumeru City

Fuse

Immediately opening my eyes, I see the massive text box in front of me.

[You have used your totem of undying! You have cheated death!]

Yeah, falling off of a 50 story tall tree does that to people. It's still harrowing that I actually died, though, only to be revived by my totem of undying.

Immediately checking my surroundings, I saw that Dottore wasn't jumping down here, Nahida's shocked expression as she was safe because I cushioned her while falling, and a bunch of bystanders trying to figure out what was happening.

"Alright, Nahida, you have any preferences for where we're running, or do you mind if we run to where I'm staying for now?" I quickly asked before starting to run in the direction of the exit of the city.

Nahida quickly shook her head, "No, I have no preferences."

Ignoring the sharp pain all over my body from my delusion wearing me out, I kept running.

I'm sure Dori won't mind if I bring the god of wisdom over to her place.

Surprisingly, I did manage to run all the way there without collapsing to exhaustion. Well, until I finally let go of my delusion.

Then, I collapsed and panting for air as I tried to ignore the agonizing pain.

I didn't do that well on that part, but I didn't scream or cry.

Dori wasn't even home yet, so in between my long breaths, I told Nahida to just relax around here and hope that Dottore isn't coming straight here.

Nahida nods as she says, "I'll stay with you, since it'll be safer that way… And thank you for freeing me, Fuse."

I gave her a thumbs up, "No problem…"

Nahida then takes one last look at me to make sure I'm safe, and then she leaves the room, likely to scout out the area.

Ugh, while I'm on the floor, I guess I should go over what I learnt with Skryb during my… What do I even call that? A near-death experience?

Well, whatever.

I found who gave me this stupid soul, and it's the most clearly evil son of a bitch I know who's not Trump.

Well, at least Skryb has that common American ideal of breaking down arbitrary walls. So that puts him leagues above Trump.

God, hate that guy.

Anyways, from what I know, Skryb wants me to gather all of the shattered pieces of this domino and put them back together, and use it to break the wall so, and he didn't really say why, but I'm pretty sure since he called himself a god, he wants to rule over all the universes, I guess.

Multiverse? I guess that's a thing, I guess?

But Skryb did allude to the fact that the walls are prophesied to eventually fall, and he did quite implicitly say that it's probably going to be me breaking that wall. But… I feel as if destiny is an actual key player in this universe.

The worst part is, it still feels like I have all my free will, but with the knowledge of my end result being predestined, it still feels like I'm on strings.

But… I did say I would help him in that task, for now, at least.

Though I'm 99% sure I'm going to hate whatever he does afterwards, for now we share the simple hatred of that big divider. And better the devil I know than any other option.

You have Completed a Quest!

[Mysteries of the Universe]

Description: So many questions, but where will you find the answers?

Objectives: Find the answer to why you have the ambitious soul of the domino. [Complete]

Reward: Major increase in social ranks, 10 gacha tokens, A letter from a future, Quest [Manifest Destiny].

Addendum: At the end of the day, there is only 1 result. But will you be able to accept it?

X

You have unlocked a Quest!

[Manifest Destiny]

Description: To be an American is to be the descendant of a great line of men who set foot into the unknown with a simple declaration: That All Men Are Created Equal. Many trials and tribulations have since passed since those hallowed words were written, and all Americans have always strived for this equality. And now, this wall that separates universes mock the American ideal. The solution has already been written out by the minutemen of the revolutionary war, the abolitionists of the civil war, and the free men of the civil rights movement. When there is injustice in the world, you must fight against it with all your might, no matter what may come. For that struggle is inherently American.

Objective: Destroy The Eastern Wall of The Universe.

Reward: Freedom To Never Be Chained Again.

x

Your Confidence Rank has increased to B-!

Your Charmn Rank has increased to C+!

Your Luck Rank has increased to B-!

Oh, wow, that's a huge text box.

The description of my new quest, Manifest Destiny is… Comforting, in a way.

I am an American, and I'm part of a long line of people who would gladly sacrifice their lives for freedom, and why should I be any different? In fact, trying to struggle against literally gods who can control fate and what I think is one of the foundations of this universe, is probably one of the easier things an American has had to do.

Besides, struggling against actual Destiny is quite frankly, the most American thing that I can think of right now.

Managing to sit upright, I checked the description of, what is apparently, a letter from me in the future.

[Letter From A Future You - This is a letter that comes from you in the future. Whether it's from your timeline or somewhere else, who can say?]

…Ah, so not quite my future, but rather a parallel timeline in the future? Well, either way, I should read this.

To The Fuse of The Past,

I will start with the assumption that you've encountered the same problem that I have. Namely that of Skryb's unfavorable deal and our destiny that we would one day break that wall. Perhaps you may have read it already, but the description for your new quest rings true to this day. We struggle not for personal gain, any self-satisfaction, or to simply reach the 'end' of a story. Rather, we would struggle for something greater than us, The United States of America.

You may have seen your reward for completing your Manifest Destiny quest, and allow me to inform you of what being 'free' exactly means. It first and foremost means that you are free from 'Destiny', which means that there will no longer be an 'ending' that you must achieve. Secondly, it means you are free from the 'confines' of a story.

Skryb doesn't exactly tell us much of what he knows, but what I've gathered, there's another 'god' in the sky that pulls Skryb's strings, and that god's eyes are only capable of seeing into specific people's stories, and once the walls shatter, their eyes will no longer be on you, allowing you freedom of movement.

It's been hundreds of years since my 'story' has ended, and I'm still struggling to catch up to Skryb's strength, but it's just a matter of time until I do. And when that day comes… We'll see if Skryb has more than just raw power, and instead has the ambition to back his ideals.

I would write to you more, but alas, I am limited to this one sheet of paper. So instead I will give you this final piece of advice.

No matter where you are, know that Americans everywhere pray for your success. And have faith that no matter where you are, know that there is always a corner of the universe that will always be American. You will do great things, be proud of it.

Long Live The United States of America.

Most Sincerely, Your Humble Servant, The Fuse From The Future.

…That's…

It's good to know that my future self seems to be in good spirits. Seems like he has everything handled compared to me right now.

And that is good advice. It's nice to be reminded that the ground I'm lying on is American right now because I'm on it.

The information about the 'freedom' I'd gain from completing my Manifest Destiny quest is a bit confusing, but I think I get it. It just means I'm not subjected to being 'destined' to do something, right?

…Ah, it hurts too much to think…

As I doze off on the floor, I try to think of what I would be doing in the future. Where am I spreading the good word of America, I wonder?

Nahida

Looking over Sumeru using her powers, it seemed as if they were safe for now.

500 years of being imprisoned and on her first day free, she can't even set foot inside of her own city. Such a pity.

Still, how did Fuse manage to greatly increase his powers in the span of just the few minutes they spent speaking? While she'd forever be grateful to him for freeing her, she has absolutely no clue on how, or even why he did that for her.

Well, something to talk to Fuse about later. He ended up passing out on the floor, and she had to bring him to his own bed.

Surprisingly, Fuse didn't end up being fully human and was actually half slime. She wonders how that happened, but it wasn't that important.

Still, she needs to have the aranara scout out Sumeru city to find if the fatui are doing anything sinister…

Then, she feels a part of Sumeru freeze over, sending a chill through her entire body.

She shivered as she tried to figure out what had happened. It's still spring, so it's clearly not natural. It was probably some sort of cryo creature, but what could possibly freeze over enough of Sumeru in order to affect her like that?

Tapping into the minds of people near the disaster, she finds the cause of all of the cold.

…A entirely blue woman? Some sort of half human, then.

It seems like some of the fungi tried to attack her, and in retaliation she froze that entire section of the rainforest.

Well, that's certainly not ideal for Sumeru right now, and she isn't quite sure why that woman is here. Hopefully, she won't cause too much trouble.

Taking her attention off from the disaster, she spots Dori on a caravan coming back home.

Using one of her aranara to take a peek inside the contents of the caravan, she finds…

Oh, how nice of her. Fuse must be fortunate to have her as a friend.

Her caravan will probably arrive in 15 minutes, so she takes the moment to check on Fuse.

He seems to have fallen asleep, and just a quick checkup tells her that he's heavily affected by using his delusion for a long time.

Still, not dead, so she'll just have to take that as a victory, considering the other attempts people have made to rescue her resulted in their demise.

She frowns. If only the Akademiya didn't prioritize their own power so much…

Checking on Fuse's mind to ensure he wasn't being tampered with, it looks like everything was fine.

It looks like he's dreaming of home. One that looked far different from hers.

Another descender? And this one from a place that feels more mortal than the other worlds the other descenders came from.

Hm, there are a few things that descenders are able to do that she can't. Maybe if she could connect him to Irminsul, he'll be able to find something she can't…

Regardless, Fuse won't be awake until hours later, and even then, he might not be able to stand. But he'll be able to speak, and that's all she needs.

Looking for Dori, it seems like she'll be home at any moment now, and she'll have to be the one trying to explain how this happened to her.

Before Dori arrived, she checked for the frost lady again.

She was only mildly surprised to see her coming straight for her direction.

It seems as if descenders will always get themselves in these situations…

Fuse

Waking up at what must be at the middle of the night, I see the 2 tiniest people I know of looking concerned for me.

Also, dang, why am I acquaintances and friends with the only 2 people in Sumeru who look like children?

Ignoring my waking thoughts, I get up from my bed, or at least I got halfway up before realizing everything still hurts, and falling back down.

Dori had no sympathy as she lightly mocked me, "If I recall, didn't I say something to the extent of don't be stupid and try to fight Kusanali? And then you went off and picked a fight with a Fatui Harbinger?"

I immediately retaliated, "I literally freed your god, isn't that at least worth a bit of praise?"

Dori didn't refute that as she shrugged and smugly looked at Nahida, "Well, that's true. You're worth the investment, because you just got me in touch with the god nobody has seen in 500 years and we're already such great friends, aren't we?"

Nahida looked at Dori oddly, "Oh? Friends? I'm afraid that at the moment, I may be the poorest person in Sumeru, are you sure you want to be friends with someone like that? As greedy as you are?"

Dori's eye twitched, "Does nobody here understand what the point of an investment is?"

Nahida giggled, "Well, I'm happy to be one of your 'investments,' then. Anyways, Fuse, we need to talk about what happened with you."

Ah, yay, the consequences of my actions.

He remembers the whole sequence pretty clearly, and it's not like I have to keep the system hidden, it's just kind of hard to explain game logic to someone in a world that has no games.

So, I'm pretty confident in being able to explain anything that comes my way.

So I said, "Alright, what do you need to know?"

Nahida opens one of her hands, revealing one of my fortune cookies, or to be precise, she ended up opening it and had the crumbs and the fortune inside, "You had this appear on your hand a few hours after you passed out. Can you explain this to me, if you can? The text feels rather important."

Taking the slip, I mentioned, "Oh, the cookie that this slip was in tastes pretty good, feel free to eat it." And then I checked my fortune.

The Amazon shall freeze over as Destiny approaches, its footsteps coated by ice.

…Yeah, I don't get this.

Wait, actually, maybe I do. This is elementary school English.

So the Amazon is clearly a jungle or something, so it's probably Sumeru, and destiny approaches means…

…Does Luciel have ice powers? Because Luciel being destiny sounds vaguely right.

So this means that Luciel is here? Somewhere? Sometime?

"Uh, do you happen to know if some section of Sumeru is freezing over right now?" I asked, getting a nod from Nahida.

"Yes, in fact, there's a woman whose skin color is blue that's actually heading in this direction as we speak," Nahida said, sounding entirely too nonchalant about it.

Well, damn, that's probably Luciel then, but why so determined to get to me?

"Well, I can probably guess her name is Luciel, but I have only the slightest clue on why she would be coming for me. How long will it be before she gets here, you think?" I asked, concerned that I won't recover in time.

It'd be comically bad if Luciel were to get here in like, 2 hours while I'm still recovering.

"I would say you have an hour before she gets here." Nahida gravely said, making my heart want to kill itself.

God damn it, she better not be here for a dang fight.

Dori spoke up, "Yeah, and if there's a fight, it's not going to be on my property! There's a few ways out of this little valley that my palace is in, so you can get away through there, and you can talk or fight with this Luciel character on your own."

"Wow, abandoning me to preserve your property value? That's so unbelievably American that I don't even mind." I said, slightly chuckling.

Dori shrugged, "By the way, I managed to rush an order through a bunch of blacksmiths and got those bullets you wanted me to pay for."

"Dori, I love you. Where?"

"Blegh, I've seen you hug your flag before. I put them in the room across from here."

Immediately getting up, much to Dori's and Nahida's surprise, and didn't even feel any pain.

"Ladies, it's been good talking to you, But I need my bullets first and foremost," I said before making my way to the door, giving a salute to the American flag before I forget.

Yeah, this Luciel character stands no chance.

Making my way to the room, the 2 following behind me were probably taking bets on if I'm going to fall flat on my face or not. I opened the door and I saw a load of ammunition stacked on top of each other.

This pleases me.

Let's see here,100 for Washington and Lincoln, 60 for Kennedy, hell, they even followed my kind of crappy drawing of the type of ammunition that Polk needed and made 20 of those!

I am so back!

I stored all of the ammunition into my inventory, much to Nahida's shock.

Dori already knows about it because I offhandedly mentioned it to her once, and that was how I became one of her best work mules for a while.

Nahida looked as if she wanted to ask about it, but instead she asked a more pressing question, "Are you sure you can stand like this? You're still hurt."

I waved her concern off, "I'm fine, if I really need the help, I'll ask."

Also, I have 10 whole gacha tokens now! I'm sure that I'll strike gold on whatever I get.

Common Item Rolled

[White Flag of Surrender - An white flag that indicates surrender.]

Uncommon Weapon Rolled

[Golden Sword - A sword made out of gold.]

Rare Skill Rolled

[Hand Hologram - Allows you to create a hologram in your hand.]

Common Weapon Rolled

[Iron Sword - It's an iron sword.]

Uncommon Perk Rolled

[One Question, Please! - All opponents will allow you to ask one question. Whether they will answer is up to them.]

Uncommon Class Upgrade Cursed Weapon Rolled

[Cane of Weakening - A small cane that boosts your magic rank, but saps your strength.]

Common Skill Rolled

[Light Pull - Any non-organic physical object that weighs less than 10 grams is able to be pulled to your hand.]

Legendary Item Rolled

[Random Pokemon Egg - You can get any pokemon out of this egg. It also comes with a pokeball!]

Mythic Item Rolled

[Everburning Flame - A flame that has the capability to burn anything and not be extinguished by anything but a divine force. Once unleashed from your inventory, it's guaranteed to burn the entire continent.]

Uncommon Item Rolled

[Top tier Quality Vanilla Ice Cream - Vanilla Ice Cream so good it'll make Jesus Christ cry.]

Alright, now it looks like… I got a bunch of crap, but there is some good stuff in here.

The hand hologram sounds like it could be useful to help explain things in the future, and maybe I can play around with it when I get bored.

The one question perk sounds pretty handy to at least delay a confrontation for a few seconds. But otherwise, if I'm not guaranteed an answer, it's kind of useless.

I already have telekinesis, so the light pull is totally worthless.

The random pokemon egg sounds super cool, but I don't think I'll be able to hatch it before Luciel appears, so I'll have to put that on my to-do list.

And the everburning flame is… Well, I guess if I ever want something REALLY gone, I have an option now.

Dori and Nahida both saw me break the gacha tokens, and since Dori knew the deal about them, she asked, "Well, did you get anything good from those?"

Nahida looked curious on what Dori meant, but I answered first, "Eh, kind of, but nothing immediately useful, unless… Hey Nahida, do you think you can extinguish a flame that literally can't be extinguished without divine intervention?"

Nahida looked a bit confused as she answered, "Well… I'm not fully sure. I've never had the opportunity to even try extinguishing a normal flame before."

Well, I guess that's something I shouldn't try, then.

"Well, if that's the case, I guess I have nothing else to do then to go meet Luciel, now." I said, walking towards the front door.

I also have an extra class slot I could use, and I don't really know what would be the best ice counter.

Theoretically, fire, but I'd start out as a complete novice. And also…

I don't want to deal with the water from the melting of the ice.

Hm, if I could control the ground, maybe I could throw some stones at her to shatter the ice and not have to deal with the water…

A geomancer would be dope, actually. Throwing stones at people and moving the earth would be awesome.

Alright, so how would I unlock that class?

Going to the first idea in my mind, I crouched to the ground, picked up some dirt, and tossed it.

New Class Unlocked!

Requirements: Manipulate the earth, or at least try to.

[Geomancer - Using the power of the earth, geomancers are able to create shields and create weapons from the ground they stand on.]

Starter Spells Unlocked.

[Create Wall - Create a small wall in front of you using the ground around you.]

[Earth Blast - Earth flows to your hands as a ball, and then unleashed towards where you aim it.]

[Dust Cloud - Creates a field of dust around you, hampering visibility.]

All as planned.

Dori looked at me oddly, asking "Why did you just throw dirt?"

"Don't worry about it." I said, waving her off.

I can't really look at it closely right now, so I'll have to wing it later.

Now, because I'm such a good friend, I'll get off of Dori's property and go walk towards Luciel's location to see what's up, and hopefully, a little piece of the domino will be in my hands at the end of the day.

At the very least, I'm hoping for no fights, because if she can resist my bullets, it's kind of over for me.

But either way, would I ever outright lose to somebody that wasn't an American? And not a technical defeat like forcing me to retreat because I literally can't harm them, but just outright being better in battle against me?

Nah, I'd win.

AN:

It occurred to me while writing this chapter to take a look at the outline.

I was not following the outline. The outline is now useless.

Well, not really, it was good for getting some ideas down, and then I chose whatever I wanted to choose to what actually gets written.

Anyways, give a cold welcome to in-universe Skryb! Who for probably the first time since I deleted him from my first fic because I got my ass kicked by M.G in the FFN review section, will play a somewhat major role in a fic!

As the primary antagonist!

I'm sure in-universe Skryb is very happy about it.

Anyways, Skryb is here because I was thinking of ways to end the fic when I first started thinking about Manifest Destiny and I decided to pull Skryb out of side-character purgatory because I still like self-inserts.

You'll eventually see the entire FaBI cast, in what order, I have no clue. But everyone will have a turn on telling Fuse some idiot advice and give him a random ability.

Ah, and someone in the comments asked on why we're leaving Genshin kind of early, and it's kind of because I shot myself in the foot by making Luciel beeline straight to Fuse and I didn't want to retcon it. But Fuse will return to Genshin occasionally to train a bit or to go talk with some friends or something. But more on that in like, 3 chapters.

[Also, I finally got people in the FFN review section talking about how they didn't like Fuse shittalking politicians in the 1st chapter! You'd have thought it'd come sooner, but somehow it took until now for me to finally get those sorts of reviews. Also one guy misread a sentence and thought I called Trump a commie lol. Highlight of my career.]

[The only rigged thing in the 10 gacha pulls was I boosted an epic to a legendary. Other than that, all of the rarities were what I got.]

[And of course, by giving Fuse an everburning flame, I give him ANOTHER Chekov's gun. I have 2 places where I think it'd be fun to use, but you won't see it in a while.]

(I hope you're enjoying Thanksgiving, wherever you are.)

(Gentlemen, Time Capsule is slowly taking away my will to write Manifest Destiny, but I'll be DAMNED if I don't keep my schedule. And right now, the December schedule is looking like it'll be on the 9th, 23rd, 25th, and Jan 1st, and so on and so forth. For all those American holidays. I don't have the 9th chapter even remotely done yet.)