61

Walking over to the green-haired girl, I saw that most of the people were placing donations in the box before either staying around and chatting or heading back in the carriage with a brave few attempting to talk with the young shrine maiden.

Walking over, the few remaining people scattered in my wake as I reached out a hand toward the shrine maiden, "Good to meet you, miss," I said as she grasped my hand firmly and shook it rapidly.

"Nice to meet you as well. Have you come to pray?" She asked while smiling; it was clear that she was an upbeat girl, and I couldn't help to smile, if only slightly.

"I was invited and thought I introduce myself so there are no misunderstandings," I replied, causing her eyes to light up as she pulled me toward the entrance.

Allowing her to pull me along, I was forced to pick up my pace as she jogged inside. "Lady Suwako, the guest you invited has arrived!" She shouted as we entered the cool shrine.

Cocking my head as I felt a brush of cold air, I asked the girl, "Two questions; first, what is your name, and is that AC?" Causing her to spin around, shocked, before apologizing.

"Sorry, my name is Sanae, and that is AC." Then after a moment and the sound of running feet, she continued, "What is your name?" Seeing as I was meeting the priestess of two goddesses and a demigod in her own right, I deiced to ham it up slightly.

"The name is Aidan, god of Magic, Fantasy, and the Moon," I said, giving a full sweeping bow, carefully moving my parasol out of the way so as not to hit it.

Stepping, Sanae blinked and looked closer at me as laughter rang out from the door leading further into the shrine. "I give it a six out of ten; you didn't include your other titles," The childlike voice of Suwako said as she walked up to Sanae.

"Well, then, may I try again?" I asked, mentally running through titles I might have a claim through as the diminutive god nodded, her exuberance somehow contagious as uncontrollably a smile of my own crept onto my face.

Taking a breath in, I cast Thaumaturgy, causing the wind to kick up around me as my voice boomed out. "Greetings, I am Aidan, god of Magic, Fantasy, and the Moon; Winner of the Fourth Holy Grail War, Dawnbreaker, and Foe of Outsiders!" I didn't have many true titles of my own, so I went with the ones Doremy Sweet gave me, as the people here would have no context on what I was saying.

Sanae blinked as she thought over my titles, and Suwako clapped before replying. "I give it an eight out of ten; not enough storms or other overt powers of divine power,"

Before I could respond, Sanae darted in front of me and grasped my shoulders. "Did you say the Fourth Holy Grail war?" She asked, confused, while attempting to shake me.

"I did," I replied, somewhat confused before I remembered something; Gensoyko didn't have AC, which meant that Sanae was likely from the outside world, "That's impossible," She continued, still very confused. I had messed up, but there was nothing to do but move forward; it wasn't like it was a massive deal compared to the Grimoire, so I would have to present myself as a multiverse traveler as I had before.

"It's anime," She continued, still attempting to grapple with the fact that I had claimed to be a winner of a fictional war; I decided to say something not all that wise, "And?" Resulting in her face twisting with annoyance at my unhelpful response.

I then decided to spare her and snapped my fingers, summoning the Gate of Babylon. Her eyes grew wide as she looked over at the glowing portal, "there are more things in heaven and earth than you can comprehend," I said before pausing and amending the statement. "Heavens and Earth, in this case,"

Seeing her deadpan look, I chuckled as Suwako laughed once again. "The Multiverse is real, and I can travel it; one of the worlds I went to held the Fourth Holy Grail War, and I managed to come out on top."

Once I mentioned the multiverse, pieces seemed to fall into place, even if she was still a bit confused. Any further conversation was cut off by the other god walking out from the depths of the shrine.

She was an inch or two shorter than me and was garbed in the same strange clothing she wore to the party. She looked me over with her arms crossed and a severe look in her eyes.

"If I may ask," She said in a voice that belied godly power, "What are you doing here, Aidan, god of Magic, Fantasy, and the Moon?"

Giving her a polite smile, I replied, "I thought I should stop by and say hello, you know, to ensure I don't step on any toes."

"I see," she said frostily, clearly not enthused to have another god in her shrine. "I have seen and understood that there shall be no hostilities between us; you may leave now."

"Of course, have a good day," I said, giving Sanae and Suwako a wave as I turned on my heel and left the shrine, walking back into the metal carriage as it rumbled down the mountain even as Sanae looked like she wanted to chase after me.

While I had achieved my objective, I was annoyed at how blunt and dismissive the other goddess was, and it made sense. You want to avoid having competition in your shrine. It was still annoying.

Shaking my head as I walked off the carriage, I took to the air and started to fly towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion. I wasn't very speedy, but given that talking to the people at the Moriya Shrine had only taken a few minutes meant I had all day.

As the Grimoire grew and pulsed and I felt a strange itching in my hands and behind my eyes. For a brief moment, I wished I had a paintbrush so I could paint the beauty of the massive lack and the red manor behind it.

Shaking the strange thoughts away, I resolved to acquire some paints, a paintbrush, and a suitable canvas soon. I would like to paint the various sights of Gensoyko and perhaps the land itself.

Landing in front of the gate, I nodded at the guard as she started to open the gate. "The mistress would like to meet with you," She said as the massive gates shuddered open.

"Of course," I said, giving her a small smile as I traveled inside the spatially distorted manor. Walking towards the dining room where I had talked to Remilia before, I felt time slam to a halt around me.

Leaning on my parasol, I waited for Sakuya to arrive, and soon enough, she did. I saw a minute sigh as she saw me merely leaning on my parasol instead of being frozen like everybody else.

"I'll lead you to the mistress," She said, walking past me and directing me toward a part of the manor I hadn't seen before. Following behind her, she soon led me towards a new room that was clearly well-used based on the well-worn door handle.

Opening the door, she bowed and gestured for me to walk inside, and after I did so, she gently closed the door behind me. The room looked very much like a decorated office, complete with childish drawings and a plush chair.

The main difference is that I could see any computers, which were a very big part of any office back in my world. Turning my attention to the chair, I focused on the young-looking vampire who was writing something on a piece of paper.

"Good morning; why are you awake?" I said somewhat confusedly, as it was reasonably early in the morning, which meant that a vampire should be asleep even if this room lacked any windows and was pretty dark due to the only light being a single lamp.

"Unfortunately, the sun seems to be rising earlier and setting later despite it being early spring which has thrown off my sleep schedule and has caused some hardships with our crops." She said, placing the pen down and looking up at me.

"You grow crops?" I asked, provoking a small smirk from her as she started tucking away the paperwork. She ignored my question as she continued.

"I have two requests for you," she said before continuing. "Firstly, you seem incredibly competent, so I would like to see if you can manufacture something that would allow me to go out in the sun and possibly into the water,"

Nodding along, my mind was already thinking over how exactly I so I was surprised when she blurred forward fast enough for even my enhanced eyes to only see the beginning and end of her movement.

The next thing I felt was a crackling lance coated in red magic poking my neck as Remilia held a spear with massive amounts of red energy pouring off it.

"The second thing is for you to reverse whatever you did to Patchy; ever since your trip, she has been manic and trying to create bigger and more potent suns," She said in a deadly calm voice as if she was stating the weather.

"What," I croaked out, careful not to move. While this was similar to the situation on the moon, there were two differences. The first was that the weapon on the moon was only a masterclass sword with no exotic properties, while this was a potent magical spear with unknown magical properties.

The second was that if violence were to break out, I would have no choice but to flee, as while I could attempt to exploit Remilia's weakness, she was incredibly fast, and that wasn't even taking into account Flandre or Sakuya.

It seemed that I was incorrect about Patchouli being able to throw off the effect of the Dawnbreaker, which was a problem, but I had a thought on how I could fix it.

Preempting any more statements she could make, I nodded, and she removed the spear from my throat and gestured for me to leave the room.

Following her directions, she directed me towards the library and followed me the whole way, that spear of burning almost divine energy ready the entire time.

Walking inside the library, I noticed that Remilia hadn't followed behind me, and it was easy to tell why. I could almost readily feel a burning behind my eyes like I had felt when I had seen the Dawnbreaker detonate.

In the center of the brightly lit library was the purple-clad figure of Patchouli sitting at her table with dozens of books spread out. As she darted between them with supernatural speed, unlike before, I could see a massive sun floating above the table, slowly bleaching books and causing bookshelves to slowly smolder.

As I approached her, I felt a push on my back as vines grew out of the bookshelves and delivered me to a chair across from her. Sitting down, I kept my parasol firmly in hand as I waited for her to speak.

"Hello," she said, turning to face me, causing me to flinch; her eyes were almost entirely golden and shining with an inner light that caused me to twitch and want to join her in deciphering the secrets of the Carcass Spark.

"I need the schematics for your device; I am willing to offer anything you might desire for it," She said in a tone that was manic, and I could hear a deep hunger underneath it.

I couldn't give her the schematics because they didn't exist, and even if they did, Patchouli had been able to recreate Lantern aspected light with her only notes being a few seconds long witnesses of the Dawnbreaker; anything more would likely cause many problems.

So I went with plan A, and as we locked eyes, I slammed the full force of my mental weight behind Hypnosis and commanded her to sleep.

As the Grimoire grew and she swayed, I grew hopeful; however, she merely shook her head and floated into the air, conjuring spinning discuses of pure sunlight that she flung at me.

Throwing myself to the side, I mentally hit myself for not remaking my teleportation device before being forced to jump over another ring.

The follow-up promptly slammed into my chest, burning a cut an inch deep into my breastbone and leaving it hanging on by a bare inch even as she wound up for another few shots.

It looked like it was time for plan B so I focused on my soul and pushed it out, causing pale light to envelop the library. When the light faded, the Magician and I stood on a well-kept lawn as a full moon shone, casting a pale glow.

Her luminescent eyes darted around as she gestured in an attempt to conjure more sunlight; however, the presence of the full magical moon smothered her attempts.

"Where are we?" She snarled, her eyes darting around frantically, trying to catalog everything she saw. Shouting back up at her, I replied, "We are in Castle Brunestud, the closest place to the moon,"

As she slowly started to float down, I kept my eyes focused on her and engaged in a slow pulse of Hypnotism that would hopefully begin to make her sleepy.

Landing on the ground, she strode towards me, her slippered feet brushing through the dewy grass, "Tell me everything about this place," she demanded to which I accepted. It seemed like the effect of Lantern made her erratic and willing to put aside fighting when there was knowledge to learn.

"Come, let's have a seat, and I can tell you about this place," I said as I walked inside the representation of my house. Pulling out a chair for her, I noticed a blue raven perching on a tree in my backyard through the kitchen window; it looked at me and gave a multi-layered caw before flying off.

Pulling out two cups, I rummaged through the cabinets noticing that all the various teas and medicines we had at home were here, which was a bonus to my original plan.

As I brewed two cups of tea, I discreetly slipped three pills of Ambien into her tea and swirled it around with a spoon as I added sugar to mine.

In a few minutes, the tea was ready, and both sugar and Ambien had dissolved in the drink. I then brought both to the table and set the laced tea in front of the Patchouli.

"So, where do you wish for me to start?" I asked while we both started drinking the warm drinks. Her eyes turned away from where they had been examining the walls and ceiling back to me.

"Everything," she breathed out as she took another large sip of the tea; it appeared as if she hadn't eaten or drunk much in the past few days, and while it wouldn't harm her, it seemed that she still liked to drink.

"This is where the Earth meets the moon metaphysically, and it also acts as a booster given my nature as a god of the moon," I said, continuing my tea drinking and hypnosis as Patchouli's eyes started to grow heavy.

"Fascinating," she drawled out, taking another sip as she swayed and attempted to formulate a response. However, it seemed that the sleeping pills and hypnosis had taken their toll as, despite her magic, she was still thin and weighed relatively little.

"You drugged me!" She rasped out as her luminous eyes glared at her despite her tiredness. With a flick of her wrist, the table distorted and twisted, sending wooden spikes into my chest, splintering bone and twining around my ribs.

Gritting my teeth, I looked into her gaze and slammed against her mind with the full force of my Hypnotism, causing her to recoil before collapsing out of the chair fast asleep.

I took a deep breath before pulling myself off the wood, ignoring the ribs that snapped and sending pulses of agony through me. As I started to heal, I grabbed the slumbering magician and dismissed Castle Brunestud.

Remerging into the library, I noticed that the sun had vanished, and Remila was sitting at the table, her spear being held loosely in her hand. It, however, lacked the red energy, and as my gaze passed over it, I thought I saw what looked like Norse runes.

Dismissing it, I gently placed Patchouli's body down in a chair and turned to face Remila, who was once again tense as her spear crackled with red energy.

"She's asleep and should be for the next few hours, which will be enough time for the influence to get out of her system; the main issue is that she can remake the light again, which means you need to sit her down and have a talk about how she can negate its mental corruption."

At my comment, Remilia relaxed slightly as her eyes searched my face for deceit. "I see," she said before rising to her feet, leaving her spear leaning against the table as the energy surrounding it faded.

Sitting down, I pulled out the blue book from Tome of Secrets and started brainstorming ideas on how to help Remilia with her vampire weakness.

Despite her pulling a spear on me, I felt like I could give it a pass as it was my fault that Patchouli had been affected, even if it was after I had left.

What was absurd was Patchouli getting affected in the first place; she managed to recreate the fragment of a dead god close enough that its mental effects would propagate from only having seen the Dawnbreaker, which I wanted to talk to her about, but that could wait until Remilia had a talk with her.

Moving past that, I returned to my small book as I continued to think of ways to help Remilia; I knew that I didn't want to change her fundamental nature as the goal was to remove the weaknesses and keep the benefits.

The issue was that the aversion to flowing water and sunlight was baked into the very bones of the vampire myths, although I did have an idea.

The Grimoire grew as I pursued this new avenue of thought, Risen Legend had taught me a method to make myself immortal, and I could pass that to Remilia.

I would have to bind her to a location, but given her manor, I could use that instead of land. That would allow her to walk in the sun and cross flowing water as she would become part of nature so it would not impede her.

Of course, it would only work so far beyond her mansion, meaning if she ever left Gensoyko, she would be just as vulnerable if her estate didn't follow her; it also had the added benefit of preventing her death so long as the manor was intact and the manor would repair itself if she were alive.

There was another issue that could crop up in the far future, while the sun and its effects were considered part of nature going forward if humans managed to gain space travel or something of that sort, then the sun could be divorced from the idea of nature which would cause Remilia to burn up in the sun again.

It wasn't a big deal given that it would take many years before that was even a slight chance, and since we were in Gensoyko, it wouldn't likely affect her anyway, but it was still something to inform her about.

Finishing my writing, I looked at Patchouli, seeing that she was still asleep, causing me to close the book and turn to Remilia. "If you would like, we could discuss possible methods to suppress your vampiric drawbacks."

Her head snapped up to me, and she leaned forward, clearly interested. "To put it quite simply, I would bind your manor and its land to you, which would cause nature to regard you as one of it for as long as you were within Gensoyko."

"Fascinating; I was expecting something such as sunscreen or a parasol, but this is much more impressive," She said, clearly enthralled with the idea I had presented her; however, she shook her head and leaned back in her seat.

"I do want Patchy to look over your spell before you cast it but rest assured you will be compensated handsomely; in fact, I would like to ask if you would like steady work going forward.

Pushing down the instinctive glee at the idea of steady work, I forced myself to act calm. "That would depend on how much the fee would be and what work would be requested," I said, settling my hands in front of me.

"I would be paying you one hundred thousand yen per job, and you would likely be assisting Patchouli with magic or watching Flandre, which would likely involve magical bouts." She said in a similar state, resting her hands in front of her and acting calm; however, unlike the small nervous twitches in my hands, she was sitting perfectly still with a small smile on her face.

Reaching out my hand, we shook on it as the blue fire spread up both of our arms, sealing the deal; leaning, I smiled as I returned to my small blue book for the time being to refine my ritual further.

Time passed as I moved the instinctive knowledge granted by Risen Legend onto paper and made minor tweaks to improve it and make it more compatible with Gensoyko and outside the Nasuverse in general.

As I was writing, I heard a soft groan as Patchouli opened her eyes and looked around unsteadily; fortunately, her eyes were not glowing, as it seemed the Dawnbreaker's influence had vanished.

"What happened," She asked tensely as she looked at me and wiggled her fingers, prepared to cast magic if need be; this was stopped when Remilia coughed, causing Patchouli to turn her head and spot the diminutive vampire.

"You had an episode," Remilia said flatly, "Conjuring mystical sunlight that nearly burned down the library and resulted in attempts to kidnap me to test how the new kind of sunlight affected vampires,"

Patchouli's cheeks flushed as her gaze looked around the library and its ruined state, "Koukama!" She shouted before waiting a moment, only for nothing to happen.

"I do believe your little devil was the first experiment you worked on," Reimila said, causing Patchouli to blanch further before she took to the air and floated deeper into the massive magical library.

"She always gets so embarrassed after an episode," Reimila said, giggling softly behind her hand, causing me to cock my head in confusion. Seeing my confusion, the tiny vampire expanded on her prior statement.

"Every so often, she finds something that captures her interest completely and utterly; fortunately, in the past, they were basic, and Sakuya or I was capable of shaking her out of it,"

"This time, it was cognitohazardous sunlight, which would have prevented you due to it being sunlight, and Sakuya because she would still see it even if time was stopped," I said, causing Remilia to nod, seemly appreciative that I had caught on her planning.

"So I used a physical threat along with it being your fault to ensure you would fix the problem," Remilia replied before picking up her spear and, in a single motion causing it to vanish, startling me.

I was slightly peeved at the manipulation, but at the end of the day, nothing she said was false, and it was my fault that Pathcouli got sucked into exploring the Dawnbreaker, so I could brush past that for now.

"Fair enough," I said, and that was that; Remilia settled back down and retrieved a small book from the table, and started perusing it, clearly burning time until Patchouli returned.

I decided to follow her lead and reached into the Gap and pulled out the awfully named cloning manual and my small blue book.

I then got to work transcribing the percent information over and left out any of the author's more crude and often nasty interjections. Scarcely five minutes had passed by the time Patchoui returned, her familiar in tow.

The Grimoire grew as the magician joined the table, and her familiar soared off to repair the mildly burnt library. Sitting at the table, I looked back and forth between Remilia and Patchouli as the smug grin on the vampire's face grew more prominent.

"Don't-" Patchouli said, raising a hand only for Remilia to burst out laughing, "I told you," she gasped, "I told you that you were going to have an episode if you continued, but you shrugged me off,"

Patchouli sighed and slumped her shoulders as Remilia continued to laugh loudly and without a care in the world before her voice grew hoarse a few minutes later; it seemed, without biological limitations, the limit on how long you wanted to laugh was your mood.

"Anyway, as we agreed before, I want you to help Aidan here out with this ritual, and if it works, perform it on Flandre and me," Remilia said, provoking a worried look from the pajama-clad magician.

"Let me take a look at it," she said, reaching out towards me, and so I slid my small blue book across the table, taking a quick moment to disarm its explosive defenses.

Flipping through the pages, she frowned as she leaned forward and narrowed her eyes. Grabbing paper and pencils from among the scattered books and empty cups, she started to scribble out formulas and other magical methods.

Remilia soon grew bored and summoned Sakuya, who produced tea, and started cleaning away the small crumb-filled plates and empty cups.

I, on hand, watched as Patchouli continued to slowly churn out written equations and filled sheets of paper nearly two hours later, and with both Remilia and me thoroughly bored, she closed the book and slid it back to me.

"It should work," she said, causing Remilia to pump her fist and smile; however, that smile dimmed with the next statement, "However, I would need years to fully comprehend it, so while I trust that it works, if you want a deeper explanation from me that will take time."

Turning to face me, Remilia looked deadly serious, "Do you swear that this ritual holds no known negative effects and you have worked to mitigate any known. In addition, will you inform me of all risks prior to casting the ritual,"

I flipped the book open under the heavy gaze of an ancient vampire and started to reread my notes and attempt to find any issues, it took almost another thirty minutes, and it was clear that Remilia was growing bored and fidgety, but she was willing to suffer it.

"The only issue I see is if in the future, after Gensoyko's falls and humanity travels to space, they would divorce the sun from the concept of nature, which makes you vulnerable to sunlight once again," I said, closing the book and looking at the very bored vampire.

"So, no other problems?" She asked, and when I nodded, she jumped to her feet, almost spilling her tea, "Well then, when will you be ready to perform the ritual?"

Looking back over my notes, I ran through my list of ingredients; it was very short, as the heavy lifting was being done by both the planet and humanity's beliefs. The main things I needed were aspects of nature, but they were easy to get.

"I need soil, a room with air, a bowl of untainted water, and a lit candle," I said, standing up as Patchouli followed my lead and walked out of the library following Remilia.

She led us up towards yet another part of the manor I had not seen, and as we entered the room, I saw that it was a massive throne room with two large thrones at the other end of the hall.

Approaching what was clearly her throne, given the red and how it was a smidge bigger than the other throne Remilia spun around with a twirl that caused her skirts to flair as she sat down.

"You said that I would have to take and be infused with a portion of the planet, so I choose this room; it shall be the literal seat of power," the diminutive vampire said with a smug tone to her voice.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Patchould sigh before time halted as Remilia clapped her hands twice. This time I didn't bother to extend my time-stop field as I needed to conserve mana for the upcoming ritual.

I was slightly disappointed with her choice of location as, in most cases, bigger was better in rituals, but if she wanted this, it was no skin off my back, given the fact I had to cast the entire thing by myself.

It was awkward being stuck in place, but a few minutes later and after many tries of seeing how the time stop affected me given that I was immune, just unable to move during it, Sakuya returned with the required components.

As time restarted with a click, I rolled my shoulders and cut my palm, spilling dust out as I drew a circle in the ground. "Remilia, I'm going to need your blood," I said, causing her to huff and descend from her throne.

I then drew an additional four circles for each of the elements where I placed the candle, soil, and water. That was followed up with me drawing another circle for Remilia to stand inside as I cast the ritual.

The last step was mixing both my dust and her blood to create a final circle that would mark the entire room as the location she wanted to be attuned to. The seven circles were also an important thaumaturgical number that, while unstable, held great power. Standing at the room entrance around thirty feet from Remilia, I felt the Grimoire grow.

Dusting my hands off, I flicked my wrist, lighting the candle before taking a deep breath and starting a ritual that in another world would shake its foundations; here, it would be no less powerful but hold far less long-reaching consequences due to the world not being sentient.

Powers Gained

Talent

Each fairy is born with an innate talent that defines her role in Neverland and what sort of magic she has. If you do not buy a talent, you will get a lot of strange looks from your fellow fairies. The power of the talent is proportional to your size. It is possible to teach your talent(s) to others, though it will take quite some time for them to learn anything more than minor little tricks (it's easier when you are teaching people with innate affinity for your talent); in turn, you might be able to learn a couple things from other talents, but not nearly as much as you would with it as your talent. Also, your control over your talent is enhanced with the One Feeling at a Time perk. Shoot the Birdie! lets you take leadership over people who specialize in/practice your talent.

Art- You are constantly inspired to produce various works of art, but your greatest strength lies in painting. For you, painting is not merely a physical skill, but a magical one, as you can literally determine the color of things by painting them. Any change you make to a target's color becomes its true, permanent color unless you use a new paint. The colors will also enhance certain traits and strengths of the subject depending on the symbolism; for instance, blue embodies depth and stability, while orange represents joy and excitement. And if the colors should belong on something else, it can become that thing; for instance, painting stripes on a horse makes it a zebra, and painting a dome brown or white could turn it into an earthy hill or an igloo respectively. This ability also allows you to change the seasons by painting leaves either green or orange; once you paint enough of them the same color, the world will conclude that it must be time for that season and change accordingly.