Interlude: Human Nature and the Desire for Freedom

With the fall of one of the Three Monarchal Families, the Mage's Association experienced a period of unease that eclipsed even that of Angra Mainyu's imminent emergence. After all, one incident was, to some, in the far off future. The other, however, was something completely outside of expectations as, for more than two-thousand years, families like the Barthomeloi had been unshakeable. They had survived the end of the Age of Gods, the period known as the Age of Heroes, and the meteoric rise of the Holy Church.

Even if Angra Mainyu was an unstoppable force of corruption and destruction, it was the common belief of many people that the most prominent Magus families would still survive. While they would undoubtedly make an appearance to try and fight against the world's enemy, there were few foolish enough to believe that the foundational families would stake everything in the conflict. There were already rumors about the major families having power in secondary and tertiary locations, some of which were even rumored to be on the Reverse Side of the World.

The truth of the matter wasn't actually that far off. Families like the Barthomeloi had indeed spread their power throughout the world, chiefly by implementing their progeny as the Heads of the various branch families belonging to them. This allowed them to control several Spiritual Lands, harvesting their resources to ensure their family had an unshakable foundation.

Unfortunately, with the loss of their Magic Crest and their Ancestor, Lord Barthomeloi, the family had been dealt a crippling blow. Their foundation might not have been shattered but, without a roof to help it wear endless storms, it was only a matter of time until the unshakeable was eroded away into nothingness.

Those that had survived Scáthach's onslaught had attempted to try and salvage what they could but, as the Three Monarchal Families had always been 'very' observant of each other, their only prize was a swift and merciless end. Though some of their members were adopted into various smaller families that were in need of 'fresh blood', anyone attempting to rebuild the Barthomeloi was disposed of.

There was no way the Trambelio and Valualeta families would allow their strongest rival an attempt at recovery. They had been the first to raid the Barthomeloi Manor after the slaughter, pretending to provide aid while raiding the former families coffers. At the same time, they used their forces to try and seize as many of the Spiritual Lands as possible, claiming it was to prevent others from trying to take advantage of their former 'ally'.

Few were foolish enough to take the two family's word at face value but, if they had the power, they would undoubtedly do everything possible to secure their own benefits. Since this was not the case, they could only murmur under their breath and point out the 'despicable' nature of the Trambelio and Valualeta families. Some of the bolder ones even began to gather together in secret, coming up with their own plans while hoping that the Aldrnari Empire didn't stop at just the Barthomeloi family.

At first, the majority of Magi within the Magus community believed that the Aldrnari Empire was just going to take over one of the families to make a name for themselves. What none of them expected was that, rather than profit from the destruction of their enemies, the Empire didn't seem to care at all. Rather than the corrupt and monstrous enemy the Noble Factions had painted them out to be, the Empire seemed to be content with their own wealth and power, two things that were unknown but, after witnessing how quickly they dealt with an 'unshakeable power', even the youngest Magi knew they wanted for neither.

When people finally realized how powerful the Empire was, despite not knowing anything about it, a lot of students began to openly speculate how Vahn had used the Greater Grail. The theory that had gained the most popularity was something along the lines of Vahn wishing for his Empire to rise up and become the most powerful force in the world. After all, he had gained too much power in a very short period of time, leaving the majority of people at a loss. They couldn't even fathom how strong the Empire was but, seeing Vahn's entourage, they could imagine endless possibilities.

The second most popular theory was that Vahn had used his wish to gain peerless power and direct access to the Throne of Heroes. These people believed that he was the Sixth Magician and, rather than Emperor of a largely unknown Empire, they believed he had become an existence that occupied the Throne of Heroes itself. Since it took upwards of 50 years for the Holy Grail to store up enough mana to summon seven Heroic Spirits, this was the only answer they could come up with for why Vahn was able to have tens in just a few short months.

While it wasn't as popular as the first theory, the second one had started to gain a lot of traction when people began speculating about the identities of each person following Vahn. As history was one of the core classes within the Clock Tower, there were a number of buffs that immediately set out to ascertain as much truth as possible. Though it was obvious there would be discrepancies, as even texts from 1500 years prior attested to Artoria being a man, it was still possible to make a few educated guesses.

The most interesting part of this ongoing discussion was the fact that it had originally started due to the conversations between a few students in an SMS chat room. As if to spite Vahn, they had started a private discussion about the various profane things they would like to do with each of his female companions if they were given the chance. Some even made petulant and childish remarks along the lines of have Artoria pull on their sword to become worthy of their Excalibur.

After the discussions regarding Artoria began to mellow out, many began to wonder about the other women that had appeared alongside Vahn. After all, his entourage had included seven females, each possessing an unnatural beauty that set them apart from most modern women. Since it was hard to talk about people without knowing who they were, a few began researching who the girls might be while, in the interim, people had assigned 'pet nicknames' to each of the girls.

Since Scáthach hadn't hidden herself away at the time, people began calling her the BDSM Queen while those like Kenshin and Lakshmibai earned derogatory nicknames of their own. After all, they were all extremely beautiful women with exceptionally mature figures. They were the most popular point of discussion, especially among the pubescent boys, but all of the other girls had fans of their own...

As could be expected after such a showing, there were a lot of people wanting to join hands with the Empire, irrespective of the rumors fabricated by the Noble Faction. Many believed that the Nobles' days were numbered so, rather than allow themselves to be poached and made slaves, they decided to hold out for an opportunity to expatriate and join the unknown country. Some even believed they would have a chance to meet some legendary heroic beauty from the past and, regardless of how silly the notion, believed they could 'conquer' said figure to rise up and make a name for themselves.

Among this group of extremists, some people had even started to compile a list of their most ideal wives from all of history's most famous figures. They baselessly believed that, if they were able to get on Vahn's good side, the latter would reward them by granting them a wife of their choosing. Others believed that, with how young the Empire was, it would need reliable allies and vassals to strengthen their foundation. They didn't even consider that the 'Heroic Spirits' summoned by Vahn were actual citizens as, with the 'common sense' of Magi, such existences were simply tools to be used.

What these people were unaware of was that, while they were happily chatting away and spreading rumors, there was a very advanced Artificial Intelligence observing each and every one of them. This wasn't even Da Vinci's original design, but something she had 'stolen' after finding the ghost planted by the Atlas Academy within the internet. They already had the means to monitor the entire world's telecommunications so Da Vinci had quickly developed her own version, one which piggybacked the existing AI without its notice.

Though the majority of orthodox Magus families didn't use things like cell phones, as they were too easy to intercept and trace, the vast majority of Modern Magi made use of such conveniences. There were even a large number of students who watched television, used the internet, and played video games. Rather than focus on their studies, they got a feeling of superiority by communicating with 'normal' people who, if given the opportunity they had been provided, would have put all of their efforts into studying Magecraft.

Even Flat Escardos, the current Head of the Escardos family, was a well-known professional gamer. He used some of his family's finances to support one of the largest Guilds in an MMO that had more than 50 million active players. Even his chants and activation keys were related to gaming terms and, though it wasn't well-known, he had developed things like Hacking Magecraft and his own version of a User Interface that overlayed with the real world. He was absolutely fascinated by RPGs and how every aspect of a character could be changed at the leisure of the user, a stark contrast to the lives people were forced to live in reality.

With her third proprietary AI, known as Shadow, Da Vinci had been keeping tabs on the entire world. Shadow traced every data transmission, recorded every conversation, cataloged every text, and kept an account of every tidbit of news that circulated, no matter how minor. It compiled all of this into a queue based on priority before sending it to Ark for the purpose of archiving. From here, Ark would analyze the information and run thousands of simulations before updating the priority based on its theoretical impact on the Empire.

In the future, Da Vinci was intending for her network of Artificial Intelligences to essentially run the entire world. Once she merged her systems with CHALDEAS, she would be able to tap in the Global Bounded Field, what most people referred to as the Surface World produced by Gaia. Eventually, her system would have a level of omnipotence that even Alaya and Gaia could not achieve and, so long as Vahn's goals never changed, it was only a matter of time before her vision of a Utopia became a reality.

While some people would argue that what she was doing was a gross invasion of privacy, Da Vinci considered these people 'grossly incompetent'. Their obstinance was one that had been bred into them by the people that wanted to control their lives and, while there were inarguably ways in which her system could be exploited to malicious effect, she would never allow this. There were an endless number of failsafes already in place and, though nothing was without fault, the fact that Vahn gave her impunity to act as she pleased ensured that any problems could quickly be addressed.

Going by Ark's calculations, it was possible to begin implementing her vision of the future in as little as seven years, real-time. The actual integration could take decades, as there would undoubtedly be a lot of resistance, but there was nothing she could do about that. She knew it was pointless to try and reason with people who were already convinced that everything you said was the result of an attempt to try and 'control' them. Even if she pointed out that the control measures would only ever come into effect when they tried to commit heinous crimes, these types of people didn't care about the logic behind the system, only that it prevented them from doing whatever they wanted.

Even if she wanted to implement something as innocent as a quantum tracking chip that allowed the Empire to trace the location of each person, preventing things like kidnapping in their entirety, there would still be idiots saying they just wanted to spy on them. What none of these people seemed to consider was the fact that they simply weren't that interesting. The only justification for why anyone would be interested in what they were up to was if they were either breaking the law or, as was the case in the current market, a source for revenue generation.

In Da Vinci's vision of the future, monetization and revenue were both abstract concepts that would have no value. She intended to completely gut the free market and bring an end to big business that prioritized profits over their products and consumers. This would significantly reduce the availability of products but, as most of these served no purpose, Da Vinci didn't particularly care since it only led to excess waste and an oversaturated market.

Instead of being allowed to waste their money on garbage that was slowly killing them, everyone in the Empire would be provided highly nutritious and mana-rich foods. They would not be allowed to eat in excess as, much like how they would have a Companion to monitor them, Da Vinci had already developed a prototype bodysuit that all people would wear under their clothes. Their bodies would be strictly monitored to prevent the emergence of new diseases, ensuring people lived a healthy life without having to make much of an effort.

Since Da Vinci knew people would still want to experience a variety of different products, regardless of whether or not they were good for them, she was also developing a network of simplified [Space-Time Orbs] that were all interlinked with each other. These could be worn like headsets that were perfectly calibrated to their individual users, preventing other people from using them. When worn, the headsets would allow them to project a version of themselves into their own [Space-Time Orb], one that could be freely customized with various safety restrictions.

This would work a lot like the virtual reality that was such a popular topic on the internet and, with all senses perfectly emulated within the [Space-Time Orb], it would be possible to eat as much as you wanted, take as many drugs as you pleased, and even experience things like death without any negative consequences. Though it would require an inhibitor chip to be implanted to prevent people from developing a dependency on the headsets, Da Vinci was confident that the vast majority would quickly acquiesce when they realized the possibilities.

Regardless of the accusations that would inevitably throw her way, the only thing Da Vinci truly cared about was being able to innovate without restraint. She wanted this same opportunity for others as, after living a life being suppressed by others, Da Vinci felt that people were unqualified to govern and regulate each other. They needed an objective system and unlimited individual freedom, both things that she could provide for them at no cost. With Vahn's assistance, she was even slowly gaining an understanding of the requirements to reach godhood so, if a person worked hard, their Companion would even allow them to become the God of their own world.

To prepare for the day her dream would become a reality, Da Vinci rarely slept and, unless she was watching over her daughter or spending time with Vahn, she didn't take any breaks either. To open up a future with unlimited possibilities, she couldn't afford to idle about as, when the time came, she wanted to be able to present Vahn with the solution to everything that troubled him. He, and their daughter, were her second-highest priorities and, to make sure neither of them had to worry about the future, Da Vinci worked hard in the present.

Though not her highest priority due to her quirks, Vahn and Sophia were the most important things in the world to Da Vinci. She wasn't exactly sure when it had happened, even after pouring over the information dozens of times, but she began to care more about how Vahn viewed her work than how she herself viewed it. His opinion was very important to her and, if it was something that might make him upset or troubled, Da Vinci would come up with several alternative iterations of the same concept to make it fit into his vision of the world.

Da Vinci knew that Vahn wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of pacifying people by allowing them to live in a world with virtually no restrictions. After all, if they put on a headset and suddenly had the freedom to create entire universes for themselves, people would quickly become detached from reality. At the same time, he wasn't comfortable with placing inhibitor chips into their brains, effectively preventing them from developing this dependency as it was a restriction on their actual potential in exchange for the illusion of freedom.

Vahn didn't disagree that it was necessary to regulate all races, as this was the best way to guarantee the greatest amount of happiness, but his perspective was a little 'unique' compared to most. Thus, instead of allowing each person to make their own world without restriction, Da Vinci had designed the helmets to give them a small personal space with nigh-unlimited freedom. This would serve as their 'home', a place where they could essentially do anything they wanted without interference from others.

When people inevitably got bored of unlimited power within their own [Space-Time Orbs], they had the option of joining the larger network, a virtual world with numerous restrictions that also allowed them to interact with other people. This would function as a comprehensive virtual world that was a nigh-perfect emulation of reality. Here, they could use the powers they had developed in reality to show off and compete against others or, if they wanted to experience something more abstract and 'fantastical', they could dive even deeper into the network. Here, time would be dilated even further but, in exchange for making almost no 'real' progress, they would be able to experience fantastical worlds based on their favorite fictional universes.

Da Vinci had been surprised about Vahn's insistence about this aspect but, after having Ark compile all the data into a structured format, she could understand his reasoning. Though she felt this was an even bigger limiter on human potential, considering that many would want to spend entire lifetimes within these virtual worlds, Da Vinci could understand why people would want to visit the worlds of fiction that meant the most to them. The hardest part would be implementing an Overseer system to monitor each of these worlds but, after developing several advanced Artificial Intelligences, Da Vinci wasn't too worried about it.

(A/N: I am still very ill so I don't have the willpower to write much at the moment. I barely managed to squeeze this one out and I'm still going to try and release a Babel a little later. I don't know what it is about the holiday season but everyone seems to be getting sick, myself included. By the way, I can write a few interlude chapters if there are any requests. We're about to enter the final major arc of the Nasuverse so there will be a pretty big time skip at the beginning of the next volume. Examples of Interludes would be like: Depiction of Solon's Dream, Vahn spending time with children, Fenrir being the goodest girl, the perspective of one of the Designer Babies, etc. Also, for those that keep asking about Vahn visiting other worlds, even for a short period of time, I have been considering the possibility of writing a continuation/side series related to EPIC after its completion. It would be called EPIC: Side Stories, a series of short stories about Vahn visiting a variety of different worlds for short periods of time. If there is support for this idea, please consider donating through Paypal or making a few small contributions through Patreon. A lot of people have expressed concern about how much my writing has diminished in the last few months but, if we break it down by the numbers, I believe most of you will understand why I was getting stressed out. The truth is, I love writing a lot more than I thought I would. It makes me happy and helps me to feel fulfilled in everyday life. However, when you're 'working' for upwards of 100 hours a week, around 400 hours each month, for less than a fraction of minimum wage, it begins to wear you down. There were times when I was only making around $0.72 per hour, without any overtime wages and no benefits. With my lackluster diet, a sharp decline in physical activity, and no time to go out and interact with friends, it began to wear away at me. When I went to work over the summer, I was always stressed out because I was afraid that all of my supporters would simply vanish due to the limited amount I could write. Since then, my support dipped by around 30% and, even when I was writing 100-120k words per week after the fact, it did not go back up. This made me feel depressed and, around the same time, my father tried to kill himself by taping his exhaust and simply 'going to sleep' in the garage. I had a lot of stuff going on and, even now, I haven't really fully recovered. Without the constant support from a few blessed people, I feel like I might have descended into a very dark place. So, while I love writing, I can't give up everything in my life to write. It doesn't provide enough for me to be truly happy and, whenever I get sick, I can't even go to the hospital because I had to stop paying for health care due to lacking in finances. Even now, I have no medical or dental insurance and, despite my living expenses only being around $640 a month, this is the 'minimum' I need just to survive. On average, I make around $718 a month right now, meaning I have less than $78 to spend on personal effects like laundry detergent, shampoo, razors, etc. I honestly don't mind this that much but, if you expect me to work 100+ hours a week for upwards of two-three years straight, there is a good chance I would become irreversibly ill. I want to complete EPIC, even though it sometimes feels like it is killing me, so I ask for patience and understanding as we continue on this journey together. Only death can stop me from finishing this story so I'd like to avoid it for as long as possible xD...)

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