No, it was to risky dragging Natalie into this life. He held out his hand, and before she could say anything, sent out a pulse of mana, his sister's eyes becoming glazed.
"Forget this conversation, as far as your aware we simply played some video games together. You'll ignore the idea of Faust and myself being connected, the idea won't even cross your mind". Aleister finished the hypnosis, guilt and determination swelling together in his chest.
He needed to become stronger, expand his influence. He had Medea, he had a workshop in his basement with plenty of captured Merchants to experiment on, and could easily create most materials he needed for any technology he wanted. He wouldn't run into a situation like this, where he'd be forced to hypnotize his own sister for her own safety.
He'd become so strong and influence, nobody would dare meddle in his affairs.
Thanks to your choice, Aleister has gained the ability to break his limits on one of his abilities! Check more at the end of the chapter.
Aleister loved watching Medea work, not just because she was beautiful, but her mastery of magic was stunning. She moved elegantly, grabbing the materials she needed and masterfully binding them together.
He glanced to the item she was working on, or rather items. A pair of necklaces, a symbol fire attached to it.
"Fire?". He asked, watching as gold as slowly poured over the symbol, somehow becoming perfectly designed golden flames.
"A symbol of Hestia, goddess of the hearth and home. Protections that invoke her carry a piece of her divine authority, protecting all who enter her home". Medea grabbed some oil and began pouring it over the golden flames, causing them to begin to glow. "As long as we wear these, the protection of Hestia will defend us against Master capes".
"Impressive work as always...". Aleister grabbed his own necklace and put it around his neck, he could feel the magic within. The sheer difference between the Mystic Codes Caster could create and what he could create was massive, perhaps he should look more into the technological side with how Medea easily dealt with their magical issues.
Mystic Code acquired.
- Charm of Hestia.
A necklace with golden flames at the end, it provides the protection of Hestia to anyone who wears it, protecting them from Parahuman Masters.
Aleister frowned as he looked over the... Frankly monstrously large machine, he'd had to dig into his own basement to create enough room for it.
"...Aleister, what use could this... Monstrosity even have?". Medea winced, this was the most horribly put together Mystic Code she'd ever seen. It seemed to absorb electricity to convert into mana, but it was massively worthless. "It'd need an absurd amount of electricity to produce a sustainable amount of mana for even a single Servant!".
"True, and we don't have a generator that could produce that much power... We could keep building downwards to create a massive generator, but the more energy we produce, the more likely Tinker-Tech will be able to detect it". Aleister sighed, he'd been so distracted creating this massive Mystic Code, that he'd never considered how he'd power it.
"...Master, I have some ideas, but we need a open to the sky base. A pocket dimension won't work ether". The Witch of Betrayal gained an interested expression from her master. "Creating a magical storm isn't that hard, a simply pulse of mana to force a storm into forming. Add in some lightning rods...".
"And we'll be able to absorb those lightning bolts as energy, convert it into mana, and use that to create more storms!". Aleister grinned, despite how impossible it sounded, it was actually far easier then creating a massive generator.
Aleister had plenty of blueprints in his head for dimensional travel technology, if he could set up a base in an empty world or at least close to empty, he could create whatever he wanted with no fear of some Precog or Thinker discovering his true abilities.
Mystic Code created.
- Mana Generator.
A large generator that turns electricity into mana, but it requires a monstrous amount of electricity to create any mana... And it's very large, so hard to move.
Aleister stared at the small pile of red crystals before him, frustrating building up in his body. Eleven fucking Merchants, their souls burned to ashes to drain every bit of mana he could get... And he only had six mana crystals, which only gave a small recharge to his mana if used.
"Fucking waste of time...". It really was starting to get annoying how hard it was to get any outside sources of mana, both the generator and harvesting souls weren't giving the results he wanted.
Captured Merchants - 11.
You lost a lot of test subjects there, very unlucky roll. This is the only way your getting anymore mana from those Merchants though, so maybe focus on more scientific experiments? That may have better results.
Item gained.
- Mana Crystals (6). Small red crystals formed from blood and mana, they'll recharge the user's mana slightly if crushed.
Aleister looked over the game page he'd created, a simple game was all he was going for... And he'd failed. Aleister had the ability to create mechanical giants, godlike machines, and program the stars themselves, yet he had absolutely no talent towards creating stories. He could make the game beautiful, some of the most amazing graphics in Earth Bet, an interesting combat system, but that didn't make up for the fact its story was basic.
Perhaps calling it a failure was too far, but it certainly wouldn't become one of the 'greats'. He read over some reviews, frustrating building.
"Graphics are beautiful, and I like the combat system. But the story's just a bit to basic for me, Baryon's betrayal was obvious from the start".
"Three artifacts, representing three virtues in the shape of orbs. I've never seen such an obvious ripoff of the Tri-Force! Make some ideas for yourself instead of stealing others".
"Characters are to cliche, Princess Mori was cute, but that doesn't make up for the fact she's the stereotypical video game healer".
"Three great beasts, one from the land, one from the sky, and one from the sea. I get the reference, but its kind of disturbing seeing something so similar to the Endbringers... Even if it was satisfying as hell to kill the Simurgh ripoff".
"LOL! The character's designs are just obvious ripoffs of other famous characters like Link, Samus, and Captain Falcon, just thrown into the fantasy generator".
Aleister sighed, perhaps he'd been trying to overachieve? A simple story of trying to defeat three monsters by gathering three sacred artifacts, some party members, a betrayal from what was meant to be a close friend, and a happy ending with the protagonist marrying their love interest (Whichever one was chosen by the player). Add in the very high level graphics and easy to understand controls, and it should've been a success.
But writing the characters had proven to be a whole other issue, one man alone couldn't rush out an entire game within a few hours (Even if he'd cheated to create the game itself, the story writing was the work of only eight hours... Yes, it was obvious he'd fail).
Well, Aleister is going to get a small amount of income now, enough he won't have to worry about a job or paying his bills. But beyond that, he's not going to have much spare to spend.
Aleister grinned as he held out his hand, items moving around the room with ease, seemingly teleporting about. Even the larger objects like his sofa were moved about with ease. With a casual wave, everything returned to their proper spots and he sat onto the sofa, leaning back as he turned the TV on to a random news channel-
"Breaking news! Bank robbery by new villainous gan-". He half tuned out the rest of the words, only paying attention to certain details.
Aleister frowned, a bank robbery by the... Undersiders? He's heard of the group, but only as mere rumors. A group of parahuman thieves, apparently teenagers. He quickly grabbed his laptop and began to check out what the internet was saying about what happened.
The Undersiders had started by filling the area with black smoke, apparently the ability of the group's suspected leader, Grue. They came in and demanded money, taking the bank visitors as hostages, including unknown to them at the time, Panacea. Glory Girl who was nearby quickly came to her sister's aid, fighting against the mutated dogs controlled by Hellhound.
The fight was relatively equal until the Wards arrived, when the other Undersiders decided to enter the battle. A Master who controlled bugs being called Skitter by PHO, Tattletale who was an extremely high level Thinker and suspected Precog by many, and Regent, who could mess with peoples nervous systems.
Aleister frowned when he read that Glory Girl was almost killed when Tattletale hit her with some type of Tinker-Tech grenade, that was concerning. Ether one of them was secretly a Tinker, or they had a Tinker ally supplying them with technology. The grenade that hit Glory Girl apparently tore through her forceful and took out half her stomach, if Panacea wasn't nearby and healed her sister...
The Undersiders were also shocked by the effectiveness of their own weapon, quickly fleeing when they realized they'd escalated the situation way to far. He frowned, they didn't know what their weapon actually did, which implies they were given it without an explanation.
Aleister leaned back, Brockton Bay had been peaceful for to long now, and now something was happening with him having no clue what.
Spell improved.
- Flash Air (Allows the user to swap small to large sized items about, even able to use the air around them to swap items about. Can swap energy and liquids now).
New mission added!
] Defeat or capture the Undersiders (Uncommon).
Ah... That wasn't how that event was meant to go. It seems somethings changed the timeline up... Which you'll learn the situation of when the Interlude comes out!
And now, canon is starting to fade away... Lets see how things change, eh?