Kick the Sphere 36 (Patreon)

Kick the Sphere

Chapter 36

-VB-

I didn’t know how much time passed after I purchased Mantra Generation. 

I couldn’t help it. 

I was engrossed by the technology available to me. It was magic and technology both. What else could it be when one could “store faith” and turn it into energy? 

I found myself perusing blueprints and rituals alike as they melded together. 

But I also saw horrifying things. Things I would never consider doing even if I had no other source of power. The history of Mantra was one built on blood sacrifice; for in the past millions of years ago, the cold and cruel nobles sacrificed humans by the trillions for an iota of power. They turned human souls into raw energy and made themselves into demigods. 

It was … 

It was power fantasy made manifest. There existed no other technology or magic out there that had its scale and power. Mantra Generation went to planetary scale; it spoke of ways to convert a planet’s worth of faith into power and furnaces to sacrifice unwilling innocents by the billions. I just didn’t know any other technology and power that birthed this sort of megalomaniacal fantasy. 

It was …

It was like Warhammer40k. 

It was a receipt for making mini-Chaos Gods, because what else would I call demigods capable of becoming larger than planets?! 

I finally allowed myself to stop and sighed explosively. 

There was a lot. 

Thankfully, the core of this purchase was just the ability to produce mantra. 

I opened my eyes. 

I was curious now. Just what was the limit of one person’s mantra? 

No, I knew that just this alone wouldn’t be much. It cost me 1,100 CP, but it wasn’t good enough.

I had extra points. Just enough points for me to gain needed insights into personal mantra expression. 

I had points to spare. Why not? 

I opened up the catalog again, navigated quickly to the correct page, and looked at the sub-purchases for Mantra Generation. There was six total sub-purchases, and each one of them gave me power beyond what other powers or knowledge of the same cost would give me. 

For example, [Demigod] was only a 100 CP purchase that made me a galactic threat. Being the equivalent to one of the Seven Divinities was ridiculous; like the aforementioned “larger than planet” forms, one of the Seven Divinities can break apart worlds on their own without any help. 

I had 200 CP right now, which meant that I could, technically, become a god already. 

At the very least, I would be able to live up to the prayers and devotion of my unwanted followers. 

But something else caught my eye. 

[Mantra Training and Techniques]. It would give me the tools needed to fully utilize my Mantra. 

Yes, this was a better purchase, and if it wasn’t, then I probably didn’t need to wait long before I could purchase [Demigod]. 

I reached forward and made the purchase. 

And again, I doze off as my mind got swamped with knowledge.

-VB-

Boring, boring, boring! 

“Ugh!” Rebecca “Negev” groaned as she pushed herself off of the couch. 

She was inside the main Reupgrade faction’s workshop, and there wasn’t anyone else here to entertain her. 

The pinkette huffed as she looked around. 

Tammi “Jericho,” GeeGee “Galil,” and Jennifer “Type 64” all looked equally bored as well. And that made sense. 

Reupgrade was the least fancy of the factions that worked underneath Alan. The Alondights, the other faction headed by other T-Dolls, liked training people into soldiers, so they always had people around. The Temple of Ares was the replicator’s thing, but they were all off on a war. The Marble Court of the White Sisters liked their charity thing, so many of the new T-Dolls without anything else to do joined them. 

And the Swarm was the swarm. Beware to those who treaded upon the creep. Prepare to get slobbered.

“Hey.”

The other three in the machine shop looked at her. “Yeah?” GeeGee asked from where she sat backwards in her chair. 

“Let’s go visit Alan.”

Tammi, GeeGee, and Jennifer all contemplated that before shrugging. “Why not? Let’s go!” Tammi smiled as she got up.

It was quick, too. They called up one of the replicators, they sent a ship to pick them up, they then traveled across a continent and an ocean, and finally got off right in front of the Manufactory’s front doors. 

They rushed to where Alan was (told to them by the replicators), and Rebecca was the first to barge into a large experiment chamber. “Alan, let’s go pl-!”

But then she froze. 

As others came to the doorway behind her, they all also froze at what they were seeing. 

See, it was one thing to see Alan making all sorts of new technology. And magic. And giant flesh bugs. 

But it was another thing to see light shining out of him (not him glowing but light shining out from inside of him) while an equally shining lotus flower slowly blossomed behind him.

“What?” she muttered. 

There was … something in the air. 

Something powerful.

Something more.

Yet, in her digital heart, she didn’t understand how she was sensing this.

She and her Reupgrade sisters watched in stupified shock as Alan slowly drifted down. The light dimmed. The lotus disappeared. 

And Alan landed on his feet. 

Yet the light never went away. 

He was … more. More than he was last time they met him (last week).

He opened his eyes.

And then she knew. 

Alan was no longer human.

He was … divine.