February 15th, 629

  “I think this is it.”

  I stood within a workshop, looking up at a large device surrounded by sensors and measurement systems. It was a massive sphere capped with a parabolic reflector pointed to an opening in a dome above us.

  I let out a breath of smoke, glancing at the few researchers around me getting our test ready. It had already worked in both theory and prototypical practice, but this would be the big test to see if we could finally move it into the production phase.

  I looked back down at the terminal, the researchers finishing their preparations, preparing to log down all manner of data.

  “Ready when you are, sir.”

  Once of them came up to me, his words making me nod.

  “Good. We start now.”

  I reached down to the terminal, punching in a code before activating the test sequence.

  The data was compiled and sent, the sphere pulsing with power before the large reflector, almost 80 feet in diameter, flashed with magical power.

  The signal was sent, and then only a second later, I got a response.

  I smiled, the codes matching and the encryption on the response message falling away. It revealed the Island of Continuance’s daily report, the same report that a dedicated set of planes were responsible for ferrying.

  And now it had reached us in a tiny fraction of a second. I ran the numbers through a few calculations, finding extremely little packet and transmission loss. The converters were also running nicely, maximum theoretical bandwidth more than accommodating enough for the amount of data Iron Legion, or the entire Kingdom for that matter, would need it for.

  Hardware wasn’t a bottleneck here, that much was clear.

  “Test two, start.”

  The researcher called out, the reflector lighting up again, and then staying that way.

  For half an hour I sat back and watched as the antenna spat out massive amounts of redundant data, pushing itself to the limit. After some time errors started to get thrown, but they were within our margin of error. All data was transmitted anyway given some error correction and redundancy software.

  The results showed that this singular antenna could transmit a few thousand times Iron Legion’s average total bandwidth on just two frequencies. That included encryption/decryption and compression/decompression. Latency was measurable, but as tests had found, the speed of transmission depended on how much power was given to the encoded magical messages. More power meant more speed while more data meant slower speeds, but it also didn’t take much power for a small message to easily circle the planet in half a second. We had plenty of room to work with, and latency was effectively a non-factor in real world application, for now.

  This was all to say that we had just achieved global wireless communications, and that was without satellites.

  It didn’t have to be so bulky either. What was before me was a more advanced Node, no different from a normal one besides the large dish and encoder. We were calling them Beacons.

  However, we already had prototypes of far smaller ones, devices that used the special encoders and transmission system of this new Beacon. It couldn’t send messages across the globe, but it could boost transmission distance. Sawn’s most current Aerial had a transmission distance of about 40 miles, and it utilized powerful White Crystals as well as its own special Node.

  But the device I had in my hand, one of the prototypes, had an standard transmission distance of over 250 miles and a burst transmission distance of ten times that. If you just had to get a single small message out, the phone-size device in my hand could send a signal over two thousand miles away.

  All on a White Crystal no more powerful than Authority 3. We were already scaling down some models to Authority 2 Crystals. They could run on barely any power, being far more efficient than Aerials while accomplishing so much more. In fact, we were already developing wireless power systems. With magic being far more programmable than electromagnetic radiation, we could code wireless power delivery given the right transmitters. That way, we could power handheld devices without even a Crystal.

  We already had other things developed, one of them being a global positioning system. Sawn’s Aerials used triangulation in reference to multiple existing Nodes to figure out location. But these could figure out location so long as there was any singular Beacon within range.

  I was far from the only one trying to think up new ways to use this tech. As soon as we had gotten the concepts off of paper, every person from multiple Wonderland teams had hounded me with ideas. Not because they thought they would make tons of money off of it either. They were just able to see the possibilities and wanted to see them come to fruition.

  They were picking up on their role in this place well. For years now they had been doing nothing but thinking, designing, engineering, and building the most advanced tech this world had ever seen. We were generations ahead of anyone else, if the gap between us could even be measured that way. If Wonderland and its knowledge were to disappear, never to reach Iron Legion or the public, I couldn’t guess how many years it would take for this world’s humanity to reach our level. It could be a couple centuries, and I only thought that since people like Sawn were already driving magitech in that direction. Without him, it would be even longer.

  These researchers, the wackiest nerds this world could hop up on Psyka and offer to me, were driving magitech so far forward under my guidance that we were on a plane of knowledge all to ourselves.

  “Good work, gentlemen.”

  The test eventually finished, my hand patting the back of the researcher next to me.

  “Good fucking work. Run whatever tests you need, but keep the lines open. I’ve got my own tests to run when I get back home.”

  “Yes sir.”

  They nodded to me before going back to their terminals, no longer giving a damn about my presence. With the systems up and running, not only them, but the people over on Continuance would want to try all sorts of things. I didn’t want to get in their way. For some time now I had been more hands off, only starting up projects like these when we really needed it. I may guide Wonderland development, but these guys were getting better than me at actually getting the ideas off paper. I just simply didn’t have the time. If I was working on anything, it was the research portion of R&D.

  I was the brain behind the theory, laying the groundwork and concepts so that they could take it and build.

  After packing my things, and a few more devices, I left Wonderland and flew back home with Erhan. I soon landed in my estate, hurrying to my room.

  Umara was there when I entered late at night, crunching away her own elemental research. She continued to expand off her spatial magic from the Dragon Zirion. She could use most of it, but lately she had been more focused on her Aura and cracking the Great Barrier.

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  She was getting close. I could feel how powerful she had been getting. Her Aura had already surpassed mine in sheer power and it was only cascading.

  She said that she wanted to advance before she hit Authority 10, but a call to Luna for advice had apparently changed that quick. Now she wanted to get as close as possible, advance, and then break the Barrier right into Authority 10.

  I was told that entering the Horizon, where the Conceptual could be touched, was dangerous from someone not yet powerful enough to even defend themselves. While Umara would argue that she could defend herself perfectly well, Luna was rather vehement that she couldn’t.

  Basically, doing things quicker, or earlier, wasn’t necessarily better. In this case, it posed great danger, so Umara caved and changed plans.

  She had been working hard, but it would still be some time before she decided to advance. Umara said that she wanted to use this year to its fullest, not wishing to advance to Authority 10 before I got to Authority 9 like her.

  Especially since this was, in fact, the year that I would be advancing once more.

  “Working hard or hardly working.”

  “Hardly sleeping. Your schedule continued to be all over the place.”

  “Honey, I can stay awake for weeks at a time. I’ve slept like, four times this year.”

  “I know, but still. I like to welcome you back home.”

  We exchanged a kiss before I went to my workshop, Umara following.

  “So how was the test?”

  “Successful. Now we get to deploy the other Beacons and start rolling out the tech where necessary. I plan to withhold it from the majority for now. Aerials are serving their purpose just fine and I have no intention of revealing these capabilities to the enemy.”

  “Mm. Now, how’s this one working out?”

  Umara turned her head up to the Beacon in my shop. It wasn’t nearly as big, but it was significantly more powerful and had primarily been used for pushing the limits of the tech. I used it as a sensor, mostly, and with it I had mapped out half of the Kingdom just using wireless connections to every Aerial within range.

  It was capable of incredible things, and it used my most sophisticated Programmed Magic. This thing, as well as what it helped me prove, was the reason that Beacons were able to exist in the first place.

  After putting a large box of bullshit down on a bench, I turned to Umara and glanced at her baggy eyes.

  “It’s working just as I need it to. I’ll be doing some more testing tonight since we got the other Beacons set up. You should go to bed while I do so.”

  “You’ve also been up for over a week now. You should join me. It’s not good when you push yourself past 10 days.”

  I stared into her worried purple eyes, eventually smiling.

  “Alright. Go get the bed warm. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “Mm.”

  She gave me another kiss before walking out. I went and sorted through my devices afterward, making sure everything was prepared for testing tomorrow when I woke up.

  Once that was done I cleaned up and jumped into bed with Umara, snuggling under the heated blankets, the room temperature low.

  I hugged my wife as we went to sleep, my thoughts about where my new tech needed to be applied as soon as possible.

  ……

  …

  {Wake}

  My eyes snapped open, finding darkness around me. No longer was I in my bed.

  I popped up on my feet, head spinning and only finding more darkness.

  {look at me, child}

  I turned to the source of the voice, hand grasping for something that never appeared. My summons were nowhere to be found, not even the power I should possess as a Magus.

  Where my eyes landed was filled with darkness, but faintly beyond its veil I could see what was speaking to me.

  Its voice was… bloody. Choking. It smelled like putrid iron and felt like long legged insects under my skin.

  What I glimpsed behind the veil was an entity. I couldn’t make out its form, but what I did sense within that mess of visual molestation was evil.

  True evil, not the superficial kind that the Scourge fueled itself with.

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  {I am ------, and I can give you the world.}

  Its voice carried promises and visions of vast wealth and power. I tried to reflexiveely muster Psyka, and it did nothing to protect my mind.

  {This is not power you can hide from by yourself. But I can teach you. I can give you knowledge not even you can fathom. Knowledge of great technology, powers beyond the bounds of your world. It will be yours.}

  “And let me guess, you want blood in return?”

  {I want life. I want you. And for nothing more than a contract, you will have the world and everything that will help you conquer it. John Cooper, the most powerful Summoner.}

  “Don’t speak my fucking name.”

  I kept looking around, trying to find a way out, a light in the darkness. But with my own eyes I could see none.

  My eyes just kept falling on that thing in front of me. It’s distorted figure became clearer in my mind the longer I looked at it. I could feel its promises in my body, in my flesh.

  The worst part was that I actually wanted it. I could see the imaginations of the power I could achieve, the control over the world I could acquire. I could see the esoteric knowledge that it was willing to offer me, powerful knowledge that nobody else had. It would take my technological level to new heights, far above even Wonderland.

  I could be doing things nobody else could even fathom, wield machines and devices with abilities they couldn’t guess at. With them, I could mould this world as I saw fit, like putty in my hands that could be shaped across decades.

  I would be king over this planet.

  And yet I just kept breathing harder, hyperventilating. Without my Psyka, without the ability to protect my mind, I couldn’t hide from the injections of great visions.

  I knew what was happening and it scared the shit out of me.

  “Fuck off. You’re just a demon.”

  {I am a god, not a demon. I am without age, and my intellect is without bound.}

  “Doubtful. Your intellect can’t be without bound.”

  {You will ask me from what dimension my intellect resides, and if it is anywhere comparable to where your own mind operates. Ask me for my knowledge, and I will give it to you.}

  I turned, facing the entity again, only to see it right in front of me.

  A distorted face, a mimickry of what a face was supposed to be. My human brain could instinctively see everything wrong with it, a disturbed level of wrong that activated my fight or flight.

  Adrenaline surged through my body. I feared that thing, and its hand reached out to grab it.

  It pulled, some of my fear disappearing. In its place appeared a soothing mark on my chest.

  “Fuck! What the fuck is this?!”

  {I cannot take from you what you don’t willingly offer.}

  “GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!”

  I tried to lunge back as its voice caressed my neck, long legged insects turning to smooth tendrils that filled my flesh with desire.

  More promises, more want, more power.

  {I cannot be escaped. I am ever present. I am everywhere, through all mediums. This is mere communication, but through our exchange, we will develop a connection of the soul. A connection deeper than you have even with your wife. Ecstasy of a realm Inception cannot compare to.}

  “I don’t fear you. I don’t want what you have to offer!”

  {I cannot take from you what you do not willingly offer. John Cooper’s fear. It will suffice, but not forever. You must offer something more. I want your blood, and I want your name written in it.}

  I backed away endlessly, and it did nothing to help me escape. I refused to speak, the urge to vomit filling my throat and stomach.

  And then, the entity froze, distance growing between us as I crawled away.

  {Find me, John Cooper, like you already have once. I will have what you desire.}

  I couldn’t respond before the darkness flashed, my eyes snapping open.

  It was still dark, and I saw a few faces around me. One was Umara. The other was Luna, and not far I could see Anderson staring at me, a blade in his hand pointed toward the doorway to my workshop.

  Umara looked terrified, but Luna and Anderson looked grim. Anderson was especially pissed, nothing close to a grin on his face.

  He walked over, grabbing my shirt and lifting me into the air from the bed so I could face him equally.

  “You better start explaining, John. What the fuck is that cursed device in there, and which one did you talk to?”