It was time to begin the Experiment, now was the only time that it was possible. All the Sidereal observers who normally kept watch over the Loom of Fate were busy celebrating at the Calibration Banquet that was just about to begin. If I did not start it now, then the next chance I might get was the next Calibration, and I simply could not wait that long to explore this phenomenon. Who knew if the small contact between Creation and this foreign dimension would last until then anyway? I was lucky it had lasted as long as it did so that I could build this manse to power this artifact so I could explore it! "Enki, start protocol alpha psi lambda. Priority one, divert all available geomantic energy to the Lambent Dimensional Portcullis," I said, giving directions to the artificial intelligence that I had created to manage the manse. It would not act without orders from my Mate or myself, so I did not need to worry about others tampering with the device while I was gone.

"Very well, Mistress Kishar. Running process, progress will be displayed on the motoluminescent readout on the device as well as read out by the speakers," the robotic voice of Enki responded before pausing for a second and saying, "Have a good trip, Mistress. May the light of the Ignis Divine guide you as always." It seemed that the virtue and emotion arrays I had installed recently were taking fairly good hold in it, if I improved them further it might be possible to create a full intelligence that was the equivalent of a soul with that sort of technology, which would be a breakthrough that would one up that damned Bright Shattered Ice and put her to shame despite her accomplishments with I AM. I would show her that she was not the only one who could make extraordinary artificial intelligences, I would show them all!

System Online. Motonic Generators: 100% Output.

The robotic chirp of the machine dragged me from my internal musings, and I turned my attention to the machine. It was going a bit slow for my liking, so with a slight exertion of my essence I touched the machine and altered the insides to tweak them while it was running. The theoretical math was always different than what worked in practice by at least a little bit due to the imprecise nature of such things, but it wasn't beyond fixing for one of the Chosen of the Most High. As evidence, the process sped up quite dramatically with that infusion of essence, causing the displays to read out that the Essence was gathering from the leylines much faster than it had been doing before. It was within an acceptable rate by my standards, which was rather fast admittedly. I demanded perfection that was reflective of my own perfection as one of the Solar Exalted, representatives of Sol Invictus himself.

Motonic Capacitors at Peak Storage. Starting Cross-Dimensional Essence Bore.

The machine began to hiss and whir, energy flavored by the solar aspect of perfection that came from both the Orichalcum that the device was largely made out of as well as the aspect of the Demesne that my Manse was built on. The taste of Sidereal essence was also notable, as the starmetal needed to provide protection against fate and to bore through it also caused it to be made in large part out of it as well. Part of the work was creating the proper alloy of Orichalcum and Starmetal needed to make this device, let alone manage to get enough of it at all with how rare starmetal could be at times due to it's source. Luckily, I had a supplier that could get me some whenever a small deity crossed an Exalt and found themselves with trumped up charges and were executed for it. It wasn't that uncommon, especially for terrestrial deities especially. They didn't give as much in one go as a Celestial deity, but they were far more numerous and found themselves dying far more often.

...Contact Established, Motonic Pathway Building.

This was the moment of truth, contact had been established so all that was left was for the device to build the pathway, using a combination of the power of orichalcum, the stabilizing power of jade, and the fate weaving properties of starmetal that were all imparted by the various magical materials and exotic reagents that I had built into the dimensional bridge part of the portal. I wasn't even sure that I would be able to reach this foreign place, it was quite a ways away metaphysically and while the math checked out, that was not always indicative of what would actually be feasible with the designs you had. This was the earliest prototype, so if it worked then that would be the best outcome for sure. But it was at best a 50/50 tossup when I had activated. Now that contact had been established, success was all but guaranteed as the bridge was one of the least complicated things in it. I simply made a grander scale version of some of the devices others had made for travelling between Creation and realms like Malfeas or the Underworld.

Pathway Finished, Portal Established.

With that, the gateway was open, and the arch in which the device curled around was now filled with a portal that was frayed at the edges, pure wyld essence due to what I had to bore through gently leaking out of the sides. I had expected this, so the lab was all proofed against Wyld Energy. "Well then, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Might as well take advantage of the portal while it is here," I said to nobody in particular as I took a deep breath in and out to make sure I was topped out on essence from the Manse. With that done I walked into the portal, heading in so that I could find out what was beyond.

It was a long passage, that much was for sure. So instead of merely walking, I flew through it, using the wings I had given myself to speed up my journey. An hour or two passed without much event, but as I reached what I predicted to be the halfway point, the bridge seemed to start to frey and wear out, causing a runaway acceleration reaction in the space within the portal. In short, I was dragged along at an increasingly fast pace without any signs of decelerating. The good thing about this was that traversing the second half of the pathway was exponentially faster than the second. The bad news was that it was accelerating me at rates that would likely destroy anything that I crashed into when I exited the portal, and the wearing away of the bridge likely meant that there was a massive energy bleed on the other side, both likely caused by a much lower concentration of free essence than I had assumed, causing it to flood the area. I could only theorize about the effects of that much free essence, but anyone who was attuned to noticing that kind of thing would be able to feel it for miles all around where the portal would exit, let alone what would happen when the portal opened, likely causing auroras of rainbow Wyld energy flying through the sky, arcing and knocking anything in the air out of the sky, let alone the effects of my displacement of the air.

Soon enough I reached the other side, and everything was pretty much as I predicted in regards to the essence. However, one thing that I was not expecting was how it looked. It looked as if it was a first age city, but with quite different architectural styles and a distinct lack of major essence signitures. That was rather odd, but that could come after I got my bearings from the impact. In the seconds before I hit the ground, I registered a person below me, and I tried yelling out in Old Realm for them to get out of the way, but I figured since they were unlikely to know the language it would be futile. Bracing myself for impact, I suffused my body with Essence, hardening my body to be tougher than the magical materials so that I would be utterly immune to the harm from the impact, my skin taking on the same hue as the Orichalcum I wore and my Essence field flaring needlessly to help absorb some of the shock. The surrounding area would likely not be so lucky, as a high energy impact was likely to leave a rather large crater and create a shockwave that could shatter windows nearby as well as knock anyone off their feet.

After what seemed like hours,Mizuki finally woke up. He sat up and groaned when he felt intense pain all over his body from the impact. Sure,he did have super strength and was extremely durable,but that did not stop him from feeling any pain. Besides,saying pain was an understatement. Have you ever laid on a mattress amd thought,"Wow that's comfortable"? Only to find out that it was filled with hand grenades and all of them had their pins pulled off and then having them explode all at once? Yeah,that's what it the pain felt like. Several dozen grenades going off in close proximity to you. To top it all off,he had changed into his female form. Which felt quite embarrassing since he hadn't gotten used to that particular ability of his. He slowly came up to his knees and noticed that he was covered in dirt and soot. He gingerly brushed some of it off and winced from the pain. He was going to have to take a loooong bath after this crash. One thing that stung was that he didn't stick the landing like his mentor always did. He always ended up crash landing and only managing to get a perfect landing 2 out of 10 times. He got plenty used to the flying aspect of his pyrokinesis AND his hydrokinesis,but the landings always evaded him. Maybe it was because of that female elamentalist who chased after him prevented Mizuki from making the landing. Ah well,he was knocked out after all,so it wasn't his all his fault. 

Mizuki looked around to study the clearing. He gasped when he saw the massive amount of destruction that pretty much leveled that area. Sure,he WAS powerful,but not even HE could have caused THIS much damage! Surely,there had to have been a third party. Could it have been that woman who fell out such high speeds when she was violently ejected from that portal? Mizuki looked around in surprise. How the hell did he miss that? He was in quite the crater and there was also parts of plumbing sticking every which way and some strange animals had been trapped in the ground. But instead of living and struggling,they were quite dead as there were plenty of bones that came from the animals. He grimaced at the horrid site and decided to look at his own body instead. He sighed. He was right. He had definitely changed genders. Seeing as he was 17,he had a pretty well developed body,something that most guys will still drool over if they got the chance. Mostly,it will be the type of guys who are perverts without girlfriends. He was wearing the standard school uniform of the Neon Lake High School. It was the male uniform,and it looked out of place on his current form. And for some reason,he knew his three sizes,as if he had been a female all this time,and not if he just changed. The last time he changed,it was when he was 14. He already looked like a cute girl when he was a boy,and the only change that was noticable was the higher voice and longer hair. He managed to pass it off as him being sick,so no one thought of it. But now,with this well developed body of his,it will be more difficult to disguise it. His older sister might be able to help out. She has known of his shapeshifting since the first incident. He sighed and looked for the other two people that he landed on. This time,he made sure to speak in English. "Hello? Is everyone all right?" 

It seemed that my hypothesis was correct, and that he did react well to my Essence despite his origins, so it wasn't anything inherently at odds with Solar Essence. Perhaps if I were to use things that were holy in nature and targeted the enemies of the Most High that would be a different story, but that was an experiment for later when I could convince him to let me do that or I had extracted all the other information I could from him. I didn't want to lose a good test subject because I got too hasty in my studies, after all. That was my objection with the Cauldronists after all, they wanted to remake Creation, which was all fine and dandy, but they didn't have a concrete plan for doing it that they had tested and we certainly haven't unlocked all of it's secrets yet, so it would simply be a waste to do something like that just yet. There was plenty yet to learn before we scrapped everything and took the mantle of creators for ourselves. In any case, it seemed that he had recovered well from it, and stood up rather soon after. He was not too surprised at all by it, which made sense since he was obviously powerful enough to survive such a thing without the dissociation of body from soul, most commonly referred to as Death. I thoguht I could make out gratitude from his nod, but it could have been something different. I needed more before I could make heads or tails of anything. A few snippets of the language were all I needed after all.

His name was strange, a two part name like some parts of the world had, or perhaps a title. It was impossible to tell just yet, I needed more to the language still. I still nodded at him, hoping that it meant the same thing, recognition or approval. That was likely, as far as I could tell, but I didn't want to presume too much about the language and body language especially of this entirely different dimension. However, it seemed that the other mortal practitioner of magic was back up and about, more hardy than I had given them credit for it seemed. They were speaking, and it gave me another snippet of the language, more clicked into place, but it wasn't all there yet. Another spoken phrase, another source of the language and my magic would give me what I needed to understand and speak it, so long as I kept my essence inside of my body and suffusing my skills at Linguistics. She did seem concerned about something, I could tell that from her voice at least, so I decided to tap her on the shoulder and wave if and when she turned around to make sure that she could tell I was alright. She was rather dirtied and her clothing a bit damaged from the fall, as was the man's. Their clothing was mundane and perishable, unlike the hardlight that most of my clothes was made out of, let alone the imperishable nature of the artifacts that I crafted for myself.

More snippets and it all fell into place, putting together everything that was said, my skill at linguistics, my consummate intellect, and the power of the Essence flowing through me to reach an understanding of the lesser tongue they were speaking. It was limited, oh so limited, compared to Old Realm, but most languages were that way after all. In Creation, they were branches off that were specialized for their environment, no longer needing the wide variety of things offered by Old Realm. "She is quite fine in regards to damage that would be considered able to put her life at risk without repeated and constant exposure. Contusions, a pulled ligament here or there, minor cerebral hemorrhaging most commonly referred to as a concussion, all mostly healed it seems. Pain responses still firing as the body is not used to the enhanced healing responses. Intriguing," I said, using my newfound use of the language to speak. It probably was rather wordy for the tongue, as Old Realm tended to be that way compared to most languages. "As for myself, I am completely unharmed, the only one who was majorly harmed was Mundus, I believe. I took care of that already, hence the luminescent glow of my soul's anima light and mark of the chosen," I said, waving at my caste mark and anima. "This is also caused by the magic I am using to understand your language, please do give forgiveness to me for any strangeness there is in the use of your tongue, this bypass to the irritating problem of border walls separating people on the basis of language is by no means comparable to the Most High." 

My eyes lingered on the woman, noticing something off about her, it seemed she had other magic on her body that changed her shape. Its form was slightly different but the overall pattern was the same, some sort of magic to switch her gender, much like what the Lunars did. "I see that your corporeal container for the seat of your mind, the ethereal controller of your body, the soul, has been changed. Is this an act brought about by your own self ordained will, or mayhaps is the effect an act akin to the falling of rocks from an unstable mountainside?" I asked, inquiring as to the nature of where it came from before asking, "If the latter is indeed the verifiable fact of the matter, I have justified true belief that I can remedy the ills of your form, and return you at least for this moment within eternity to the form from which you were birthed from your mothers womb."

Well, it seemed that someone or something was not too happy with our presence, if the sudden imposition of a barrier around us didn't say that already. The oddest part about it was that I could sense no magic from it, nor could I analyze it with my Caste power, meaning that whatever was responsible for it was completely mundane. Its effects were completely unknown, and due to that and the fact I was in a place that could do what was seemingly impossible, at least as far as I knew, I didn't want to risk anything when it came to testing that barrier or whatever else came our way. Deciding that it would be wise to go all out without holding back, I took a deep breath in as I closed my eyes, before sharply exhaling, my anima banner flaring to iconic levels from the mere hint of an aura that it was before. No longer was it a small haze of colors around me, instead the bright core of it was an intense swirl of the previous colors, but even more vibrant than before. Coiling around me was the phantom image of an eastern dragon, it's scales shining the bright gold of orichalcum, while its eyes, teeth, and claws all burned with the bluish white of Adamant. If one looked closely, whirring gears, springs, and other magitech components made up the dragon, moving and whirring as if they were part of it as it tensed and moved around me like a ghostly automata. The light I put out was so intense that people from miles around would be able to see flashes of blue, red, and gold light in the sky above where I was.

What had caused this was the activation of several different charms at once, preparing me a bit for combat with one combo. I couldn't activate all of the ones I wanted at once, so it was good to get a few of them out of the way so that by the time combat began proper, I would be able to activate the others. Keen Sight Technique, Unsurpassed Sight Discipline, Speed of Light Approach, and another three invocations of Lightning Speed. All said, that would allow me to move around this area of theirs pretty much at will, appearing and reappearing whenever I moved due to the sheer speed by which I could cross my max distance with Speed of Light Approach. I could only do that once per every couple of seconds, depending on how much I focused on moving, but that was of no real consequence. It would be enough to deal with with the rest of my charms. Now to wait for the enemy to show themselves. I knew not why they were attacking or what they were capable of, but so long as I stayed cautious, nothing could defeat a Chosen of the Most High in Combat. Anyone who thought such a thing was a lunatic who simply had no idea what they were talking about. We had destroyed beings far greater than any mortal mind could ever comprehend, so it was only the arrogance and hubris of proud madmen to think that anything but another Solar and perhaps a master of the arts of the Sidereals could hope to win. A thought occurred to me and I said, "If you see fire that is green, run away," casually directing that at my companions.

The things they sent reminded me of magitech drones that I had made before, likely designed for both reconnaissance and combat, so I kept my eyes on them as I waited for the attack to come. And come it did eventually, but it was utterly a bore. A bunch of directed energy weapons aiming for me? Not even perfect, but the lasers were likely deadlier than they let on, so with a force of will I flooded my body with Essence while declaring that I would not be hit. And reality, knowing it's place, warped, my body breaking into a myriad of dancing shadows, each dodging the many beams with ease. Not satisfied with that, I launched myself a good distance away from where they were aiming. Deciding that I might as well use that spell now that I was far enough away from the cluster, I said the words to activated the Total Annihilation Spell that I had kept in my Metasorcerous Phylactery for later use. Bluish white light crackled and popped around me for a brief moment, interspersed with green fire as the great spell that carried the force of 65 motes that I had pre-cast before I left, allowing it to sit there and not require me to put more energy into it later, went off. 

The ball was only about the size of a fist despite it's extreme energy density, and it went flying at extraordinary speed at that unsuspecting drone, perfectly homing in on it since it had no way of avoiding the attack due to it's utterly mundane nature. Upon contact with the drone, the fifty meters around it exploded into a roiling inferno of radioactive fire, dealing enormous damage to anything caught within the blast. The column normally reached five miles in height, but it crashed into the dome, likely straining whatever magical defense systems they had in place. The power of Solar Sorcery was one of the most devastating powers known to all of Creation. As a testament to this, instead of shrinking after the initial blast, the emerald light would expand at a rate of about ten meters per second for 50 seconds, further scorching everything that it hit or was still caught inside the blast. I figured that this would be the end, but I knew better than to let my guard down. To do so was folly in a combat situation, so I kept on my guard even despite the utter chaos caused. 

Step. Step. Step. Silent, soft steps towards his goal. He was not accompanying those who made their "appearance" at the Calibration Feast. Oh no. No, he had another assignment, another part to play in the grand scheme of fate, in the heroic preservation of Creation against the madmen that would be responsible for it's total, complete undoing. A powerful, headstrong sorceress, one foolishly gifted with Sidereal arts. Truly a foe that would push my abilities to the absolute test, abilities that I had refined, if not to their pinnacle, but far beyond what most would expect out of my years, not even halfway done with the Sidereal natural lifespan. Of course, I didn't go empty-handed. I had all manner of ascending destinies attached to me, to prepare me for this moment. The moment I would bring this unallowable threat to Creation's continued existence down. Fortunately, not only that was in my favor...after all, her Lunar mate would be at the Banquet, filling in her place as she was preoccupied with other matters, with her oh so important investigations into the fabric of reality, with her doubtlessly trying everything she could to tear fate apart.

As I approach, I hand her attendants an official mandate to be here. I could have used a Resplendent Destiny for this task...but really, such a thing would be overkill. After all, there was no reason I shouldn't be here, should there? There have been plenty of calls by the Bureau of Fate regarding the nature of her experiments, of complaints regarding her reckless handling of Fate. They let me in, though they weren't too happy. They never were. People didn't like to be called to task, didn't like to be beholden to people. And why should the great Solar Exalted bother to be constrained by anything, least of all sanity, least of all common sense, least of all discretion when it came to the fate of every soul within Creation. They wouldn't learn, they wouldn't even consent to be taught. Many were failing to learn how to humble themselves, to remember that they are not the end-all-be-all of Creation, even for techniques that could bend reality more directly than their Charms. Why would they do what the Golds suggested they would do, to be taught by those they increasingly frown on as their pointless inferiors? No. This was the only option. As much as he disliked the prospect of the murder that would occur, there was no other choice to preserve Creation.

With a flick, I commit Essence towards granting me the ability to hear the tune of Magic, of Charms, of Essence, of Spirits. The sound of what reverberated was loud and discordant, but recognizable, the hum of artifacts, the ringing of latent charms...though one was louder than usual. Taking this to be the location of the Solar, I walk up. I was suffused with power, only time I waited for my anima to flare down hiding the fact that I had flared iconic only a short while ago in order to prepare my skills for the task. To kill a Solar...such a thing was still unthinkable. To go against the will of Creation. But if the Unconquered Sun itself had turned it's back on it's Chosen...then perhaps it was the will of Heaven that such an undertaking be carried out. As I walk towards the powerful sound, I blink, as what I see is not some new bizarre contraption...at least not mainly. Instead, it was a portal...to what? I quickly glance around, trying to get an idea of what was beyond that portal that I would expect. My quest for notes and the like is a relative failure, with me only able to uncover basic designs for the artifact and the portal's structure, other than that it leads to a fragment of reality distinct from Creation. I withdraw an emerald pattern spider, and ask it to find the truth of "What is on the other side of the portal." The answer it comes up with is...indistinct. Hazy. Obviously, the answer was not a part of Fate...then, I ask it "Where is the Solar?" That answer is more readily apparent...she went through the portal, and has not returned. "Damn." I mutter to myself, before sighing and forcing myself to relax. "Well, if that's the case...only way out is through."

As I step through the portal, I feel a long corridor, one that I ran through with extraordinary speed thanks to my knowledge of the March of Charcoal Spiders. When I was shunted through, however, I find myself high up in the air, going far too fast, far too quickly, at far too steep a descent! I couldn't stop it, I couldn't manipulate it, and I end up crashing into the ground, with enough lethality at the force to lead to the death of a Lunar, the hardiest of the Exalted.

Or...did I?

No. That wasn't a fate I wanted for myself.

So, instead of accepting that fate, I dodge it. No matter the impossibility, instead of suffering the fate of "Crashing into the ground at breakneck speed" I adopt the fate of "Alights easily onto the ground." My essence fuels the charm...seeming to fly off into the world rather than subsume into Creation, but it works just fine." Dusting myself off, I shake my head. "Now that was a surprise." I mutter to myself, withdrawing the emerald spider once again. "Where is the solar." The answer he delivers this time is much quicker...but rather absurd. "Cover your ears." Now, whatever could that...

Just at that moment, a loud, splitting pain directed my attention a few blocks over, to the point that I would have noticed the strange architecture if I wasn't subsumed by extreme pain at the Music of Spells toning so loudly that it could rupture eardrums. There was no mistake. I turn that way...and well, there it was. A Solar Caste Mark burning at the Iconic level, accompanied by what could only be a Solar Circle Sorcery spell...Total Annihilation, I recognize, from the absurdly thrashing, painful song that burrowed into my ears. Panting until I can recover, I turn off the charm, it serving it's purpose. Unfortunately, there was no time to learn a new language, so I could only watch the absurd spectacle display before my eyes while I invoke a few charms to make sure that I was going to remain unnoticed. I wasn't getting any closer to that if I didn't have to. Finding a sleeping, homeless man, obviously affected by drugs and near death to not be affected by the explosion, I begin to recite a blessing in Old Realm, intending to steal this land's language from him.