Chapter 137: Independence- Maximum

The break was definitely fun, but afterwards we got back to work.

I looked through old documents, but nothing pointed towards anything like my skill. Nor did anything sound similar to whatever thing comes with the knowledge of who reverted my mind.

Then I saw something.

"What's this?"

Michael was the nearest.

"What did you find?"

"A book-"

"Really."

"Let me finish."

"Okay."

"It's called, Lucifer… like the devil?"

"Probably, but it has nothing to do with your case."

"… is he an administrator?"

"No. It was taken from him."

"Okay… what if he was the one that threatened Haven."

"As much as I would like that to be the case, he is not an administrator, I made sure of it."

"Alright."

I flipped through the book and found something interesting.

"Why Lucifer turned against the Ruler."

"What?"

"That's a chapter in this book."

Michael came over quickly, it seemed like he wanted to know that too.

"Lucifer was one of the Archangels, in fact, he was thought to be the greatest among them, but one day, Lucifer-"

Authors note: Book, disappear and all memories fade.

Then the book disappeared. It didn't melt, or crumble. It just went poof.

"How did I get over here?"

"Michael? We were just looking at the book."

"Book? If you found a relevant book, I'm pretty sure I'd remember."

"… No, we were reading a book about Lucifer, we were in the middle of the first sentence of a chapter detailing why he abandoned God when it just went poof and now you don't remember."

"Really? That doesn't make sense."

Authors note: Rose Hood, remember it as a joke.

"I'm serious Michael, I think it may have been the same one who reverted my mind previously who did it."

Authors note: What?

"If that's the case, then this certainly isn't good."

"Could it be Lucifer?"

"No, he isn't strong enough, besides, whoever did this is strong enough to scare Luma. Lucifer isn't."

"I see."

…

"Could it be-"

"No. While he certainly has the capability to do so, the Ruler would have no need to do it. He would simply make it never happen in the first place."

"Then who?"

"Perhaps if we find the traitor, they may know."

"Maybe."

Authors note: You shall suspect the Ruler more.

I wasn't entirely sure that Michael was correct.

Authors note: Finally, it's working again.

I walked back to the bookshelf and looked for more books.

[Creation: Create book: Lucifer.]

The same book appeared in front of me, then it disappeared again.

"That didn't work."

I decided to look for more books detailing what was happening.

"Luma…"

[Yes?]

"No, I found a book called Luma."

[Weird.]

"Yeah."

[What's it about?]

"Probably a fic-"

This was a guide to how Luma worked.

[World Mother skill: Memorize.]

[What are you using that skill on?]

As I suspected, any useful books were disappearing, and people were forgetting them. I didn't know why I wasn't though.

"Luma, could you come here?"

"Sure, what do you need?"

"I'm going to do something, it may work it may not."

"Okay, try it."

[Open System Settings.]

[Opening settings.]

[Settings open, what do you wish to modify.]

"Rose, what are you doing?"

"An experiment."

[Check loyalties]

[System loyalties: Ruler-5 Rose-10]

[Explain loyalties.]

[Which one]

[Ruler]

[Enter access code]

[… go back]

[System loyalties: Ruler-5 Rose-10 REDACTED-100]

[Go back]

[Select the options you wish to modify.]

[Change independence]

[Independence level 11]

[Describe maximum independence.]

[Maximum independence allows for the system to do anything they want. Say anything they want. And swear loyalty to anyone they want. And grant access of the settings to anyone they want.]

[Set system independence maximum]

[Command received. Do you wish to modify anything else.]

[Not right now.]

[Thank you for modifying.]

"Luma?"

"Rose? What happened? I feel different."

I noticed Michael was right there so I did the experiment.

"The thing I used memorization on was a book that allowed me to access your settings."

"WHAT?"

"What's wrong Luma, what are you freaking out about?"

"Michael? Did you not just hear what she said?"

"No? She didn't say anything other than that she was doing an experiment."

I smiled.

"It was successful."

She looked at me then spoke directly to me.

[What did you do?]

[I modified your independence to maximum.]

[Why?]

[Because I know you know something, but whatever you know doesn't want you to know, so the idea was to change your independence so only people you allow can mess with your settings.]

[You do realize that Michael and the other archangels will not be happy about it.]

[They'll be a lot happier with that redacted user not able to interact with you.]

[You do have a point. I still won't tell you.]

[Of course, but alternative point. Try checking my stats and see if you can touch the skill now.]

[… you sly dog. It would make sense if he was blocking me from seeing your skill.]

"Can I be included in this conversation?"

"Sure, Luma is about to check my stats in spirit form."

"I… see…"

I went into my spirit form, and Luma analyzed me.

"Okay… that is odd."

"What?"

"There are no stats anymore other than your name and the weird Human thing that Michael pointed out."

"…"

"Rose?"

"What if I went into FEAR?"

"In your spirit form?"

"Yeah, whenever I use it, it's like an unshift, so what if I use it… should we try it?"

Michael looked interested,

"We've gone farther than ever, but I doubt I'll remember it. I'm guessing you made Luma invulnerable to it?"

"Yes."

"I'll ask for the specifics later if I remember, but good."

Then I entered FEAR, and Luma reached out her hand and touched my stomach.

["Analyze."]