Aozaki Aoko [598-600] (Patreon)

Chapter 598: Demiplane Magic Ship

Aoko returned home and slacked off for a few days, making all the preparations before diving headfirst into the Idea Blood. In the central area, inside a castle that closely resembled the Raya Lucaria Academy, she began the preliminary modifications to this world.

The first thing to do was to transform the inherent bounded field version of the Idea Blood into a more independent demiplane that was less susceptible to corrections from the Type-Moon world.

This transformation required a special spell: Greater Create Demiplane.

This was a 9th-level conjuration spell. Its original effect was to create a demiplane consisting of up to 20 10-foot cubes of space, which could be expanded by casting it multiple times.

But Aoko wasn't bound by such restrictions. With the help of the Mythral core, she only needed to complete a single ritual casting. Because she wasn't really creating it; she was converting an existing pocket dimension. This greatly reduced both the casting cost and the scale limitations.

Without notifying anyone, Aoko installed the mythral core at the top of the highest tower in the castle. With its assistance, the entire demiplane conversion ritual took 6 hours.

The human residents living in this demiplane noticed nothing. Only the sensitive fairies felt a subtle natural change, but they quickly ignored the difference and continued their work.

After completing the conversion ritual, Aoko carefully sensed the pervasive new grand source mana in the environment. After confirming there was no trace of Yumina infiltrating it, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

It should be said that Aoko had long wanted to take Alice out to see the world, but Yumina's curse firmly bound the fairy tale witch and her mansion together. Short absences were fine, but prolonged ones would trigger the First Magician's resurrection process, which was very inconvenient.

Logically, sending Alice into the Inner Sea of the Planet, which still maintained the Cycle of Principles, could reduce Yumina's influence. But the Inner Sea of the Planet had nothing besides the mana environment and fantasy species. They couldn't just watch fantasy species fight each other every day, right?

Moreover, the comfort level on the Reverse Side was far inferior to the Surface Side; otherwise, Merlin wouldn't spend all day using clairvoyance to peek at the planet's surface and even secretly pull in a network cable.

She also couldn't directly teleport Alice to another world, because if Yumina's remnant detected Aoko doing so, it would accelerate the conversion process before Alice could leave. Aoko had confirmed this with Alice before.

But an inherent bounded field was different. Perhaps in the eyes of the Yumina elements, entering an inherent bounded field or the Inner Sea of the Planet still counted as Alice being within the world, not truly escaping. So Aoko exploited Yumina's carelessness and devised a plan to convert the Fairy world.

As long as Alice could be in an environment completely isolated from Yumina elements and then perform an otherworldly teleport with Aoko, the Yumina elements in the grand source environment wouldn't have time to convert Alice. In short, it was a sneak attack!

All of this seemed very troublesome and roundabout, but Aoko still thought it was very worthwhile.

This wasn't just to win a beauty's smile; it was also to research the Yumina elements and pave the way for Alice to inherit the First Magic in the future.

After the conversion ritual, the Idea Blood:[Castle, therefore kingdom] had completely shed its identity as the Idea Blood and inherent bounded field. Although the outer shell retained some features as camouflage, this thing was now essentially a demiplane magic ship fully controlled by Aoko. She could manipulate the mythral core at any time to take this demiplane away from the Type-Moon world.

This way, the situation of starting as a lone wolf in every new world would be gone forever.

-----

"Aoko, you didn't wear the clothes I made for you during your adventure?!" Habetrot jumped out from behind the counter in a huff, pounding Aoko's arm with her little fists.

"After all, it was a mission from a certain goddess," Aoko quickly placated Habetrot. "This is something like a cleric's robe she gave me. Habetrot, can you take a look and see if you can reinforce it in the fairy spinner way while keeping its original functions?"

"Fine," Habetrot took the Weave outfit from Aoko's hands, facing her with an attitude of 'I really can't do anything with you, Nobita.' "To be honest, I'm interested in clothes made by a goddess from another world, but I can't guarantee I can do it, okay?"

"No problem," Aoko said generously. "We all know you're the absolute expert in clothing. The robe you made for me before just has different functions from this Weave outfit; neither is better than the other!"

"Alright, alright," Habetrot looked a bit helpless on the surface, but the corners of her mouth were still slightly upturned. It was clear that Aoko had hit the mark, at least placating the previously huffing spinner fairy into smug satisfaction. "Come pick it up in a week."

Aoko left Habetrot's shop with a grin, then took her Shadowstep Boots to find Baobhan Sith. Unlike Habetrot, Baobhan Sith just liked all kinds of pretty shoes. Although she ran a shop, she didn't make shoes herself; the goods were custom-ordered from Habetrot or bought from human societies outside.

Aoko went to her to share the joy of discovering magical boots from another world, like participating in an appraisal meeting.

Of course, before taking the Shadowstep to Baobhan Sith, Aoko meticulously cleaned the boots with magic, avoiding any appreciating original flavor intimate items nonsense.

"Oh oh oh! Is this a magical boot from another world?! It's so special!" Living in a friendly environment had made this kind fairy girl much more outgoing. So this was probably Baobhan Sith's original personality?

"Yeah," Aoko nodded. "I found this magical equipment in a dark elf's collection. They're a race somewhat similar to fairies..."

Aoko and Baobhan Sith chatted about stories while evaluating the boots' aesthetic value, and their conclusion was: the attached properties were really useful, but the style was truly plain and unremarkable.

After some small talk, Aoko returned to the Kuonji Mansion and brought Alice to the brand-new [Castle, therefore kingdom].

"How is it, Alice? Do you still feel the Yumina elements now?" Aoko asked.

"...No?" Alice looked at the beautiful scenery in the demiplane, feeling extremely surprised. This was the first time since inheriting her mother's witch name that she felt freedom outside the mansion.

"Although I can't completely solve your problem yet, this is still a way, isn't it?"

Aoko took the initiative to hold Alice's soft little hand, proudly saying to her.

Chapter 599: Earth Soul

Marisbury's work had hit a deadlock, not due to funding issues. The funds provided by the Aozaki family were quite ample, even ample enough to make the wheelchair-bound Marisbury suspicious. Why would the Fifth Magician invest so much in the Animusphere family's project?

Was it to take over after the project was completed?

No... Magicians who had graduated from humanity had no need to tamper with the Animusphere family's Grand Order, and the Aozaki family had two such people.

From the opponent's lavish spending, this investment was probably just a casual act out of interest. So much so that during the last Chaldeas test run, even when there were personnel casualties, the other side expressed little concern.

Speaking of personnel casualties... Pepe and Hinako, due to their peculiarities, weren't affected much in the spiritron transfer accident, but Beryl's death was indeed a huge loss for Marisbury's plans.

He had originally recruited that werewolf magus to act as a combat assassin to eliminate obstacles at critical moments, but he ended up killing himself long before the plan even started... So, for Team A selections, mental stability was important too?

In that case...

Marisbury pondered while maneuvering his electric wheelchair through Chaldea's long corridors to the control room, where his student Kirschtaria was discussing something with Da Vinci.

"...Has the cause of the accident not been found yet?" Kirschtaria asked with a frown.

"From the observation results of the Near-Future Observation Lens SHEBA during the Chaldeas test run, although there's no risk of humanity's extinction in the next 100 years, Chaldeas' synchronization accuracy has dropped significantly due to unknown reasons," Da Vinci, with her Mona Lisa face, operated the computer while reporting to Kirschtaria. "Although I don't know the reason, it seems someone is preventing us from fully activating the Simulated Earth Soul: Chaldeas."

"Can we know who is doing this?" Marisbury's wheelchair arrived at the control hub, joining the conversation.

"Unfortunately, if such a person exists, they're hidden too well; we can't track them at all," Da Vinci shrugged, indicating even a universal genius couldn't handle it. "Or perhaps they're not hiding at all, just not in the same texture as us, and the only place I can guess is the world's inner side, the so-called Inner Sea of the Planet."

"The Inner Sea of the Planet... Indeed, that's very possible," Kirschtaria agreed. "After all, if it were the outer side, it wouldn't be affected by our actions... and it would be hard to observe Chaldeas' activation experiment."

"Is it Gaia?" Marisbury asked Da Vinci. "What does Romani Archaman think about this?"

"Him? Hehehe, we'd better not ask him," Da Vinci gave a meaningful smile. "He's been quite busy lately~"

…

Meanwhile, in the doctor's office.

The successfully incarnated King Solomon, now Doctor Romani Archaman, was tearfully freaking out at the TV screen, which was playing a videotape he had obtained through special channels—Pretty Cure.

"Waaah, this is truly a great work full of love and hope!" Romani Archaman wiped his tears and drool with a handkerchief while wildly waving a glow stick in the air for support.

"Especially Magi☆Mari, she's just amazing!" Romani panted, moving his chair closer to the TV. "But this is indeed a new character... One that didn't appear in the original. An enemy from the Nightmare Group... A mysterious fairy from the dream realm, Honoka-chan's dream teacher?"

Doctor Roman stroked his chin, frowning as he pondered why this new character's setting felt so familiar, but he quickly gave up on the question because Magi☆Mari was just too cute!

Using clairvoyance to see the answer to this question would be an insult to this great work!

"Magi☆Mari, go for it!"

The liberated Magecraft King was now fully immersed in the world of Pretty Cure, experiencing the joy of being human for the first time.

As for ensuring humanity's survival... Even if he considered it a few months later, it shouldn't be a problem, right?

------

"It's done," at the top of a tower in a sea of flowers, the Third Magician Aozaki Touko adjusted the position of a massive golden illusory sphere. Patterns resembling but not quite continental plates appeared on its surface. She clapped her hands and said to her sister, the Fourth Magician Aozaki Aoko, beside her, "All said and done, why did you suddenly ask me to do this?"

"Of course, for the future of our world!" Aoko responded with a righteous expression. "If we don't keep an eye on certain guys, they might pull off some world-destroying nonsense, so I need to prepare in advance."

With that, she glanced at a certain white-haired dream in the corner of the tower room, bound hand and foot with a cloth gag in its mouth.

"Him?" Touko glanced oddly at the struggling, wriggling person on the floor, seeming to think Aoko was overreacting.

"Oh, of course not this guy," Aoko waved her hand in denial. "It's Marisbury and them. The Astromancy Department's project is progressing too fast, so I need to throw some obstacles their way."

"The full activation of the Human Order..." Touko mused. "I get it. So you asked me to come here and really create a Materialized Earth Soul to preemptively lock Chaldeas' synchronization rate at 49%?"

"Hmph, for those Astromancy Department guys, as long as they can perform human order observation and spiritron transfer, that's enough," Aoko said in a cold tone. "But Marisbury has always been greedy. He's pushing this too fast using Da Vinci and the Magecraft King. If Pepe hadn't secretly notified me in advance, that guy might have fooled us, and our world line could be in danger!"

"The Grand Order..." Touko looked at the materialized Earth Soul in front of her, a bit dazed. "There really are people crazy enough to want to replace the original universe with an artificial alien star..."

"No, what Marisbury wants to do is far worse," Aoko said, her eyes shining as she looked at her sister. "He wants to use the reflection between the alien star and the real Earth to achieve an inside-out reversal, turning all resources in the observable universe into his own, then replacing the existing old humanity with new humanity inside the alien star."

"In the end, even he himself will become the alien star's deterrent force. That's the so-called Animusphere family's Grand Order."

"I don't quite understand," Touko frowned and asked Aoko. "If what Marisbury is doing is so dangerous, why not just take him out? Why invest in him?"

"Because I need a half-dead, usable Finis Chaldea to ensure the safety of our world's human order."

Chapter 600: New Kuonji Mansion

"I get it," Touko nodded in understanding. "But actually, for this matter, it would be simpler to ask Arcueid, right? Why not let her help?"

"Well, let's just say her position and role aren't suitable," Aoko thought for a moment and replied. "As the planet's brain body, Arcueid isn't suited to fight for Alaya-side human order. Even if Marisbury wants to replace Earth with an alien star, it actually has no impact on the Inner Sea of the Planet."

"Indeed, thinking about it that way, asking that child to do something that might trouble her isn't good." Touko nodded in agreement.

"Oh? The once bloodless and tearless Grand Puppeteer has become gentle and considerate now?" Aoko elbowed Touko's back teasingly.

"Who do you think caused that?" Touko rolled her eyes. "But probably because after becoming a Magician, I let go... The so-called magical inheritance is just that. I feel like I wasted my previous life..."

"Don't dwell on gains and losses, Touko-chan," Aoko put her arm around Touko's shoulders, grinning. "Tonight, I'll treat you to a big meal as thanks for helping. How about it?"

"I want paella! The kind with caviar!"

"Piece of cake~"

The sisters' figures disappeared from the tower top with a flash of light, leaving only the massive materialized planetary soul and the pitiful white figure on the floor, gagged and wriggling weakly.

Beside him, there was a note with writing: "If something goes wrong with the materialized Earth Soul, tell Romani Archaman about Magi☆Mari."

The white-haired fairy, upon reading the note, shuddered all over, then slumped into a ball, silent.

---Divider---

Aoko had been busy with a rather important large-scale project lately, but this project wasn't about increasing her strength, nor was it research in magic or science—it was literal major construction.

She was 100% replicating the Kuonji Mansion on a small hill in the demiplane for Alice.

Even excluding the influence of the Yumina elements, Alice was a very home-loving person.

In the fairy tale witch's heart, besides the few people most important to her, the Kuonji Mansion's priority probably ranked on the same level as the three great Ploys.

For Alice, the concept of home referred to this Kuonji Mansion.

It was filled with her precious memories, both good and bad, and these memories were Alice's most treasured possessions. If some reckless thief ever tried to steal something from the Kuonji Mansion, they would surely experience the cruelest punishment the fairy tale witch could devise.

"Hmm...? It still feels like something's missing around here?" Aoko evaluated after flying a circle around the New Kuonji Mansion. "What's off?"

"Lighting, terrain, leylines, climate..." Aoko counted the elements one by one on her fingers, then finally discovered what was different from the surroundings of the Kuonji Mansion. "...Oh! That's it!"

Aoko flew into the air and snapped her fingers. A mass of grayish-white mist appeared out of nowhere, which she shaped into a ring, spreading outward around the walls of the New Kuonji Mansion.

The unusually lush trees touched the mist and began to wither rapidly, leaves visibly wilting and falling.

7th-level necromancy: Withering Cloud!

This spell was invented by Aoko in a flash of inspiration while researching the 5th-level Wither spell. Its main use was to create a cloud that massively drained plant life force. She originally thought it was useless, but it came in handy today.

After creating a withered tree area with an outer radius of dozens of meters, Aoko canceled the spell and nodded in satisfaction. She hadn't completely killed the trees; given the current leyline density in the demiplane, they would recover in a few weeks.

But by then, it wouldn't matter. As long as the mansion gave Alice the first impression of "this is my home," any later changes could be accepted by her cohabitant with confidence.

"That's more like it. When have the trees around Alice's house ever been this lush?"

Not far away, Artoria and Morgan were walking hand in hand and saw the situation on the hill, feeling puzzled, but considering it was Aoko doing it, they quickly relaxed.

After all, she was a Magician; doing weird things was normal, no big deal.

Speaking of which, lately, little Gray had been assigned a lot of homework in magecraft. The serious little girl was tragically staying in her own luxurious magecraft workshop, diligently completing the tasks assigned by the Fairy Queen, unaware that her guardians were out playing hand in hand...

---Divider---

"Don't open your eyes yet, okay?" Aoko held Alice's hand while instructing her. "Be patient a little longer; it'll be ready soon~"

"What weird thing are you up to now...?" Alice's tone was a bit impatient, but she obediently followed Aoko's order, waiting for the surprise from the Blue Magician.

She felt a slight dizziness and subconsciously gripped Aoko's hand a bit tighter, but immediately noticed it, making the fairy tale witch a little annoyed.

I've gotten weaker... Alice thought self-reproachfully. Is it because of Aoko?

"Okay, you can open your eyes!" Aoko pinched Alice's palm, reminding her.

Alice opened her eyes and found herself still inside the Kuonji Mansion. Nothing around seemed to have changed.

But Aoko wasn't one to act without reason, and the dizziness just now was real. So what had she done?

Alice glanced at the grinning Aoko, let go of her hand, and began exploring the surroundings, searching for the surprise in the environment.

The magical barriers were intact, and even the large Ploys placed in the house were functioning normally...

Wait... Alice turned to look inside the Mirror of Slumber, and the reflected triple forest appeared lush and green, but it was currently winter.

"Aoko, what exactly—?" Alice's eyes widened. Had this girl used the Fifth Magic to take her on a time travel straight to summer?

Aoko didn't answer Alice directly. Instead, she opened the window, took Alice flying out of the mansion, and into the midair.

"100% complete replication!" Aoko said proudly. "This isn't some temporary knockoff like Mansion spell, okay? I really put in a lot of effort to build the New Kuonji Mansion! Even the building materials were high-quality goods I commissioned Arcueid to materialize with her Marble Phantasm~"

"How is it? Satisfied, Miss Witch~?"