The world of Remnant, or Remnant, is familiar to me from the story of the anime web work RWBY, which, if I'm not mistaken, translates as Red, White, Black and Yellow. In general, this story began quite "lampe", if you do not pay attention to details and do not think up the plot yourself. A world where there is a main villain, who used to be quite an ordinary "princess", locked in a tower, who for the sake of love was ready to do a lot. Two gods who somehow had a falling out with this princess because she had somehow deceived them or one of them. That's if you think back superficially.
The older brother is the God of Light who created the "life force" and the younger brother is the God of Darkness who created the "agents of death" - the Grimm. Both of these brothers have long feuded until they came to a compromise and together created life on the planet, including people. These people possessed magic and for a long time everything was fine, until one daughter of the "cruel father", locked in a magic tower, did not try to magically call people in the area to at least someone to save her. Eventually a hero was found who was able to get into the tower, even though the challengers were dying, and saved the girl, and they fell in love... as is clear, this girl was the main villain of the series, who because of the death of her love went to absolutely anything to get him back... in the process she became truly immortal due to the curses of the gods and could not die no matter how many times she tried. Eventually the God of Light before leaving the planet resurrected this "hero" and gave him the tasks of collecting the four relics that would summon them back to the world. And after that these gods flew away, one of them rammed into the moon on his way, which shattered into various pieces and that served as the name of the world - The Remnant... and before that the God of Darkness destroyed humanity. In any case, someone survived and besides humans there appeared the Fauns - people with the features of different animals, hare ears or bull horns. The lovers were very happy to meet and reunite... but in time the hero betrayed the girl, afraid of her cruel actions, and because of this their children died and the woman finally fell into darkness.
«Your blood pressure is elevated. - came Cortana's voice.
«Yeah, sorry, I got distracted. - I regained my focus. - Yes, you're doing the right thing. Leave this new element in the centre and close the case tightly. - I said, watching the AI-controlled mechanical claws behind the protective glass finish a simple version of the reactor. I could easily do it myself, but this new element was obtained by me using alchemy, so I...
"Boom."
There was a small explosion under the protective glass, causing Cortana's mechanical arms to malfunction and the glass itself to crack... and I had reinforced them with alchemy. Not too much, though.
«The element reacted too quickly. - Cortana said.
«I can see that. - I nodded. After a couple of minutes I created another similar element and left it under a nearby protective glass while I went into the Chat.
Rias Gremory: Mission One?!
Shinoa Hiragi: I guess so.
Hermione Granger: I got hit by that sound during potions! It made my cauldron explode!
Rias Gremory: Is it that bad?Hermione Granger: ... my first real and well deserved reprimand from the professor for a job poorly done... and because he's right, I failed potions.
Rias Gremory: Where is this Beacon Academy? I've never heard of it in my world.
Erina Nakiri: Neither have I. I know a couple of other academies besides Tootsuki Academy, but I've never heard of Bikon.
Erina Nakiri: And why is the hero in my world some kind of weirdo experimenter?!
Anthony (Administrator): Have you had a chance to watch it yet?
Erina Nakiri: Yeah... and am I really that arrogant? I'm just saying that their chef skills are negligible, that's all...
Shinoa Hiragi: That's all...
Shinoa Hiragi: So does the all-knowing administrator-kun know anything about this Beacon Academy? Or is he busy daydreaming about our young and seductive bodies?
Anthony (Administrator): About "ours", is that you mean Rias)?
Shinoa Hiragi: Baka Administrator...
Rias Gremory: Tony-kun like my body?
Anthony (Admin): Have you seen yourself in the mirror? Only if an impotent man or a homo didn't like you... with the latter having a good chance of coming back on the bright side.
Hermione Granger: Stop it!
Shinoa Hiragi: What do you mean by that?
Hermione Granger: W-all of it!
Anthony (Admin): Embarrassing Hermione is certainly very nice, but let's talk about the mission. I have some information about this world, but what I don't have is the Memory Copy. This world isn't as dangerous as mine or the enchanted demoness Rias...
Rias Gremory: Why did you stop the explanation on such a note?)
Anthony (Administrator): I just wanted to. Anyway, it's not as dangerous as our worlds and hers, but it can still compare to Shinoa's world, I think. Though maybe not in all aspects, but still. There are "Grimm" beings there, which are animal-like creatures that want to kill all humans. They were created by the God of Darkness...
I had to spend some time explaining the world of the Remnant, their technology and the dangers that are out there. This includes Hunters, Dust, Fauns, White Fang and Salem, that is consider the "goddess" of darkness, even though it is far from it. But she's strong enough. Other than that, I sent them a screenshot of the extra challenges.
Hermione Granger: What scary worlds exist... and our mission in that world?
Anthony (Admin): Yes. We need to protect the academy, the people, and destroy the Grimm. If you're scared and not sure... you still have a week to think about it, but remember you don't have to go.
Shinoa Hiragi: I'm curious. This world has some parallels to mine.
Rias Gremory: From Tony-kun's description, these Grimm aren't particularly strong, but they take numbers.
Anthony (Admin): As I recall, that's exactly the case. Though, of course, there are some exceptions there too in the form of very old Grimm. Also, this "Aura" that living beings have in this world can be more than useful if you can purchase it in a shop.
Hermione Granger: That sounds very dangerous... why does the mission have to consist of killing these Grimm?
Anthony (Admin): The main mission is to protect the academy, not kill Grimm, so that's extra. It's hard to become truly strong without putting in the effort. Hermie, there is magic in your world... something that can do miracles and anything and everything you can think of if you know how to do it. To not fully study magic would be... wasteful. Especially now that you know about other worlds. And trust me, Dumbledore is at the bottom of the lists of strong individuals... Wouldn't you want to be the strongest witch of your world?
Shinoa Hiragi: Administrator-kun seduces innocent Hermione-chan to the dark side.
Erina Nakiri: Magic... from what I saw in Memory Copy, you can make a lot more dishes with it! It's quite possible to create delicious additives, syrups with potions... I'd take that chance, too bad there's no magic in my world.
Shinoa Hiragi: You're all about food.
Erina Nakiri: I am Erina Nakiri, a member of the Nakiri family and a member of the Elite Ten and ranked tenth there! Of course, I often talk about food and cooking, as it is my passion and my purpose!
Shinoa Hiragi: Your destiny is to cook food all the time? Isn't that kind of, I don't know, shallow...?
Anthony (Administrator): You're wrong...
Erina Nakiri: Shallow?! Shallow!!!
Erina Nakiri: Shallow!!!!!!!
Erina Nakiri: You!!!! YOU!!! You don't understand anything at all! Cooking is not just throwing everything in a pot and putting it over the fire! It's an art! Plebs like you don't understand that!
Erina Nakiri: You're shameless, always talking about vulgarities!
Hermione Granger: I agree!
Shinoa Hiragi:...
Erina Nakiri: I'm not sending you my artwork anymore! Hm.
Rias Gremory: That's right, so hers. It's her own fault... but you'll keep sending me, right?
Anthony (Administrator): That's right demon.
Shinoa Hiragi: Was there any doubt?
Anthony (Administrator): Not at all. Rias sends Erina a lot of products from her world, it doesn't cost her anything, she's the Princess of Gremory.
Talk is talk, but I needed to make plans for the mission. I know roughly what will be waiting for me there and the dangers for me with my current strength there aren't that much...I guess. It's hard to estimate the level of danger without exact data, but thinking back to the footage from the anime series, I can't think of anyone besides Salem herself who could pose a huge danger. Humans with aura are very powerful... but Albedo was an artificial human, the best creation of a god capable of fighting a dragon with his bare hands.
Of course, in the world of DxD my power is now very small, but in RWBY... especially if I try to assimilate to the maximum possible in this week. Right now with Albedo assimilation has stopped at 30%, but even so I'm strong and fast enough to reach three hundred kilometres per hour in spurts. I think hypersonics won't be a problem for me either, especially since with magic and alchemy, my abilities are growing by leaps and bounds. This, by the way, also applies to the demons of the DxD world. If it weren't for their demonic power, most of them wouldn't be that strong.
I managed to create a suitable element for the presentation of the reactor to investors already at night. It was much more active than Palladium, even if it was more inert when compared to more active metals. But it gave out two hundred and forty-four times more energy than Palladium... and Stark's element gave out more than five hundred times as much energy as Palladium. But I didn't have a tesseract to better understand it, so I consider it a success. Especially since I'll definitely find more powerful elements over time.
Chat Points: 4953
I now had almost five thousand Chat Points that had accumulated due to the daily accrual. I had thought about getting an evil figure, the King, which would give my abilities a boost, but becoming a demon is not something I want to do in the DC world. There were also thoughts of acquiring the Eighth Metal, which is considered the metal of the gods. Theoretically, I could acquire two hundred and fifty grams of this metal. Or one hundred grams of the Ninth Metal. Well, or five grams of the Tenth... but as much as I'd like to do that, it's counterproductive.
It's still possible to buy an angel bloodline, which would cost 1500 Chat Points, but that bloodline would have to be developed. And frankly, I've already found a better way to become stronger and more functional in the short term.
Senjutsu (B) - 1000 points.
Senjutsu, or Ki energy is in all living things, this technique allows you to take control of your aura, spiritual and life force, which ultimately increases your physical abilities many times over, as well as allowing your "Chakra" or "Ki" to directly harm the spirit of your opponent. In addition, this technique also has Touki, or "Fighting Spirit", which further increases physical ability and improves control over one's life force. But besides the usual rank B Senjutsu, there is something more interesting.
Senjutsu (B+) - 1800 points.
Judging by the description, this Senjutsu technique is "perfect" and allows you to maximise and "improve" the flow of your Ki, as well as giving you easier access to it than the previous version of the technique. So it's not really an ability that you can just activate and that's it, it's specifically a technique that gives access and "opens" the door to the energy of the world and one's life force.
«Well, it wasn't. - I decided to buy Senjutsu (B+) and it was good that I did it in the underground complex without any witnesses, because at the same moment, invisible energy spread from me and cracks started to appear on the floor and on the ceiling. I felt as if the previously unused tap had finally started to work and water began to flow through it drop by drop, and it was delightful. It was as if a long-lost feeling was working again, giving me greater sensitivity and lightness.
I literally understood how to control the flow of energy in my body that I had not even realised before. A lock-opening wave travelled through my very soul and body. In this world, it was unlikely that I could learn to control life energy, at least not through training. In the world of Rias, however, it was possible.
Around my hands I noticed a pale glow of Chakra, or Ki, which at my will became more intense when I accelerated the movement of this energy through my body, or on the contrary static when I wanted to slow down this flow.
«Cortana, prepare to record changes in speed. Also use the energy sensors, we will test them on different energies. - I spoke as I walked towards the lift to go down to the underground floors. I also looked at my characteristics, shown to me by Gacha:
Name: Anthony Joseph Luthor
Race: First Man
Title: Brother of Villain, Brother Killer, Administrator, Head of LexCorp.
Total Power: 8-C (Power greater than even a normal superhuman. Ability to affect medium-sized buildings or structures, such as large factories or some shopping centres)
Assimilated Characters:
Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark (A) (85%)
Albedo (B) (30%)
Skills: Senjutsu (B+)
Gacha Points: 66
The "power" used to fluctuate between 9-A and 8-C, now there is no fluctuation. The very possibility of taking control of Ki has spurred the development of my powers. And in the RWBY world, the aura still protects the user at all times, which is more than interesting to me.
========== Chapter 18 - Almost Ready ==========
«...power surpasses that of a nuclear reactor. Needless to say, the "cleanliness" of the energy is also many times greater than nuclear. The mini-arc reactor presented for this example produces five gigajoules of energy, while a full-fledged reactor would be at least ten times more powerful.
I spoke the next day in the office where Lena was, with whom I had not been able to have a normal conversation about the kiss. I presented her the possibilities of the arc reactor and explained its advantages.
«And you've done it all these days? - The girl was clearly surprised, judging by the slightly opened red lips.
«What can I say, it turns out I have talent. And I've already had some work done in the engineering department... but it's very raw.
«It's not just talent, it's genius. - The girl shook her head and moved closer in her wheelchair. - If your arc-reactor is really that powerful, it will revolutionise the energy industry.....
«...and it will be our company that will lead the way. - I finished for her with a smile and looked straight into her beautiful eyes. The room became abruptly quiet and the degree of awkwardness began to gradually rise. - Lena, about yesterday....
«Let's not. - The girl looked away and an unreadable expression flashed across her face.
«Sister, running away from the problem is not the solution, and I don't want any awkwardness between us. - I took a step towards the girl and her eyes widened. - I can't call that kiss a mistake. You're the most precious person to me and that's not going to change.
«Stop it. - she said quietly. - Enough, do whatever you want with the reactor, I'll sign all the papers. No more of this conversation, I... I have work to do.
***
The girl heard her brother's footsteps getting further and further away from the office. Her hand touched her plump lips as if remembering something beautiful. But there were tears in the eyes of one of the two heads of LexCorp.
«...who needs a cripple with an expiry date? - she whispered quietly, her hands clutching her trousers, not even noticing that she was also clutching the skin underneath.
***
LexCorp has investors that Lex used to have by the balls, and now I do. Their money won't be needed anytime soon, so I didn't waste any time creating a presentation for them. But creating publicity for the knowledgeable people at the top was the right thing to do, and that's what Lena decided to do. I continued to build the arc reactor, only in full size. And, of course, for this it was necessary to get a lot of permits and certificates, both from the mayor of the city, and from many others. After all, a reactor that would be comparable and even superior to a nuclear reactor in terms of power is no joke.
But all the paperwork wasn't hard to get when you have an excellent AI that can find the dirty laundry of almost any politician or even an entire company, not that I enjoyed doing it.
I eventually decided to make the engineering department a subsidiary of LexCorp and gave it the name LuthorEngineering or LuthorEngineering. And the very first project of the subsidiary was the design of an arc reactor that could provide clean energy for all of Metropolis, which, of course, caused a furore. For the first three days, Lena and I often had to attend various meetings with representatives of the "high nobility" of the city. My picture and words about a genius engineer often appeared in the news, because nobody hid that the reactor project belonged to me, and I was the one who created it. Those words couldn't help but stroke my ego... I think I got a little bit of that from Stark, too.
But while the arc reactor project in the Luthor Engineering building is still a work in progress, my personal projects are well underway. Knowing what awaits me soon in the world of RWBY I started to create myself a full-fledged Mark L series suit based on nanotechnology and Stark's knowledge. But I simply don't need all the functions that the suit originally had, because my body can be considered a weapon. With the help of Alchemy I could easily create the necessary metals and from them create nanoparticles... if not for the abilities of my brain, which clearly became more powerful after the beginning of assimilation with Albedo, it is unlikely that I would have been able to do it. Even so, it was taking a decent amount of time.
Besides, I continued to train day in and day out using all my abilities. I had to travel outside of Metropolis for this, though, because I was too cramped in the underground complex. I learnt that after my first little training session using Senjutsu.
Hermione Granger: Being in a completely different world is interesting, but I don't think I can handle it....
Shinoa Hiragi: You're breaking like a virgin. It's been a day.
Hermione Granger: I'll just ignore what you say.
Rias Gremory: I immediately decided to agree. I may not be able to take my peerage with me, but as Tony told me, as long as I don't underestimate the opponents of the customs, I'm in no danger.
Shinoa Hiragi: Such trust in Administrator-kun... has the princess fallen in love?
Anthony (Admin): Shinoa, you're going to meet soon, don't tease her too much. She's a demon.
Rias Gremory: What else does that mean?
Anthony (Admin): Nothing, just saying that you are the most beautiful demon. And yes, if you don't relax, those Grimm won't do anything to you. I mean, you can fly and you can throw your powers of Destruction left and right.
Anthony (Administrator): As for Hermione... with your current level of power, you're not likely to be able to help much. Though your magic is quite versatile.
Hermione Granger: You're supposed to help people out there! I don't know... on the one hand I'm a little scared, but on the other hand I can't just sit around and do nothing!
Shinoa Hiragi: Those people are from another world, I doubt you're obligated to help them. I'm just going because of interest.
Erina Nakiri: And because of the Chat Points. That's the most important thing to someone like you, isn't it?
Shinoa Hiragi: Are you still resentful of poor me?
Erina Nakiri: Hmm!
Rias Gremory: Well, I could use the Chat Goggles too. I want to acquire one thing and without missions, I'll be saving up the Goggles for months.
Erina Nakiri: I have many different cooking related skills and even talents available in my Spatial Shop, but... I believe I can achieve it myself!
Erina Nakiri: But there's an interesting skill here called "Basic Ki Control", the description says that it just gives you the ability to feel the energy around you and it can be used to enhance the food a little bit! So I wouldn't mind going with you guys, but it's very dangerous, and I can't even fight.....
Anthony (Administrator): Basic Ki? I have something like that... most of the time it's used for fighting.
I went to the shop and found this skill in the Nakiri world.
Basic Ki Control (C) - 100.
Apparently her world is not so simple if even there is such a skill, then there are also masters of Ki or someone who has mastered this path at a sufficient level.
Kee? We call it Senjutsu here.
Erina Nakiri: Is that the cat girl Koneko?
Rias Gremori: Yes, she's a youkai and can use Senjutsu... only she's afraid of it, since you feel the "evil of the world" when you use it. It can even drive you insane if the mind isn't prepared.
Anthony (Administrator): I just recently started using Senjutsu and I can say that yes, I can feel the evil in the world... it's a strange and ephemeral feeling, like the flow of a river. But just the Basics of Ki is unlikely to have that kind of problem. It's just the knowledge of how to use your life force.
Rias Gremory: You're a yokai after all!
Anthony (Administrator): ... No, Rias, I am a human. You don't have to be a youkai to learn Senjutsu.
Anthony (Administrator): Erina, you're right about the danger. We'll get to that world at the moment when the Grimm will attack Beacon, according to the mission. So we'll have to fight, and quite a lot. On the other hand, you don't have to do it, but if you show up there, it won't be safe anyway.
Erina Nakiri: I see. Still, I'm a cook, not a fighter.
Shinoa Hiragi: Cook-fighter Erina...
Erina Nakiri: What are you implying?
Shinoa Hiragi: If this "Ki" is a kind of magic, then you can become stronger and at the same time it will be much easier for you to cook food. You'll also purely physically be a lot faster, which is a plus.
Hermione Granger: Magic doesn't make you physically stronger.
Shinoa Hiragi: Have you tried?
Hermione Granger: Fair enough. But I don't recall anything like that from the professors' words.
Shinoa Hiragi: You have a Death Eater teaching under the guise of an old retired dark wrestler. So I have a vague doubt about your professors.
Anthony (Administrator): It's up to you whether or not you want to go to the world of Remnant. I doubt the next missions will be any less dangerous. Especially there you will be able to unlock your "aura" and it will automatically make you several times stronger and faster. I don't know about Rias though... she's a Demon after all, will it work for her like it does for the others?
After writing the message, I went back to work on the armour. The Kryptonian technology was a great help, because the computer in the pod was much more powerful than the computers on Earth. And that's what I used to enhance Cortana's capabilities. With Stark's knowledge, it took me a couple of days to figure out how it worked, and... it was hard to think of a good reason why the race that had created THAT could so stupidly destroy itself. Even though I understood how this particular Kryptonian model of analyser worked, it was simply impossible to create something similar without Alchemy. At least because of the absence of some metals on Earth, which is quite logical, considering that the analyser is from a distant world.
The Clean Energy Project, for which we have already started building additional buildings in several places across America, as the reactor must be well guarded. Not everyone has taken this project seriously, even though I'm the head of a company like LexCorp. That's why I decided to write a doctorate in energy engineering, even though it's not my speciality, given that I graduated from Metropolis University, but there's no prohibition or restriction on writing a research paper outside of your speciality. With Cortana's help it didn't take long, all that was left was to submit the paper and wait for the excitement of the masses.
At this pace, this week went by very quickly.
Decision time: 3 hours.
Anthony (Administrator): Hermione, Erina, have you decided?
Erina Nakiri: I still don't know. I'm just a normal person and it would be dangerous for me there, but I'd really like to... it's a whole other world after all! How many new things are there?! Different fruits and berries! Or spices!
Hermione Granger: I've prepared to go! I can't leave people behind! Tony, did you say you could prepare something for my defence?
Anthony (Administrator): Yes, I expected that with your adventurousness you can't miss such a trip) So I prepared you a nanoparticle armour, it will protect you from Grimm and there is an autopilot with Cortana's AI, so you will be more or less safe.
Rias Gremory: I'm ready too.
Erina Nakiri: Tony-kun...
Anthony (Administrator): What?
Erina Nakiri: Nothing!
Anthony (Admin): ...
Anthony (Admin): Don't worry, I've got some armour for you too.)
***
The whole story is already available at:
patreon.com/posts/124888009