Chapter 202: Genesis

Harvey, Celeste, and Tyler walked into the Thorne family home to find Cash sitting alone at the kitchen table, eating a turkey sandwich.“Glad to see you made yourself at home,” Harvey said.

“You guys ditched me, so I figured I’d raid your fridge while I waited for you to get back from Lily’s,” he replied through a mouthful of food before washing it down with a sip of his energy drink.

“Didn’t they need your help at the medical tent? I figured you’d be busy,” Celeste replied.

Cash scoffed at that. “Barely anyone got injured. If anyone should’ve been busy, it would be you! Captain.”

Tyler waddled over to the table and grimaced as he plopped down into the wooden chair. Cash looked up from his lunch and saw the state of Tyler’s skin, but didn’t raise a hand to heal him, even with Tyler’s pleading looks.

“Can’t help with that. Sorry bud. Weave damage is harder to heal than physical injuries, and trying to heal it now would only revert the changes you’re trying to make. Sorry bud.”

“No worries.”

“So you found a pattern that works then? How many phoenixes did Brutus end up giving you?” Cash asked.

“Three,” Tyler responded.

Like Lily, Cash looked aghast at the thought of stuffing an F-Grade weave full of that much resonance. “Was he trying to kill you?”

Celeste just laughed. “Lily asked the same thing. Brutus isn’t trying to kill anyone! He gave us some extra materials, so Lily had enough extra oil to find the right pattern. She’s really only ever worked with holy resonance and a few of the adjacent paths.”

“If he was willing to do that for you, I wonder what kind of goodies Harvey can shake out of him. I’ve been thinking about the creatures we have blueprints for that match your resonances, and I have a few ideas.”

Harvey wanted to hear what Cash had to say, but he wasn’t sold that Forgefire was the right way to go. He wanted his path to embody more than a single resonance, especially when most of his weapons had nothing to do with it. Sure, flames might be the delivery method for his Heaven’s Wrath and Prophet’s Suffering inscriptions, but those arrays were more than how he spread them. His command of the holy and undeath resonances found in his ink was where the real power came from. Still, he didn’t have any better ideas, so he might as well hear his friend out.

“I’m all ears.”

“Well, I know you’re not super stoked about adding any holy resonance to your weave, which cuts down our options quite a bit. Lily can always cut that part out of any materials we use, but that probably means less potent ink. I’m sure Brutus has access to a few blueprints the rest of us don’t know about, but there’s no way he’d tell me what any of them are.”

Harvey interrupted and asked, “What do you mean, blueprints? You’ve brought them up twice now.”

“That’s something you’re not supposed to know about. I don’t even know how Cash knows about them,” Celeste warned.

“I’m guessing the same reason you do. My parents told me,” Cash laughed.

“No. I was being trained to command my own integration before the System made us wait too long.”

“Well, the important thing is I know they exist.”

“What I want to know is why they matter?” Harvey pressed.

“Most angels believe that the foundries creating our armies here in the integration are some secret technology the Father created that was stolen and corrupted by Hell when they defected millions of years ago. Then the System, seeing how the use of that technology would fit integration trials so well, took that technology and built our trial around it.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Harvey conceded.

“Well, it’s not true. Foundries that can turn pure essence into living, breathing beings existed long before the father found his. Found, not created. They are rare enough that most angels never encounter another one outside of our conflicts with Hell, so the higher-ups let most of us live with the delusion. The foundries themselves can create almost anything as long as you have an intimate understanding of how the thing you’re trying to create works. If it’s alive, you need to understand the biology, anatomy, resonances, bloodlines, and everything else that makes up its very existence. Inanimate objects are easier, but you still need to understand every minute detail for the essence to fully transform. Otherwise, the foundries' creations will just fade away after a while.”

Harvey’s mind clicked into overdrive as he tried to process the implications. If he understood it right, then these foundries worked exactly like his Echo Forge skill. He didn’t understand his creations down to the last atom, but he gained a deep enough understanding of the items crafting them the first time to be able to conjure a near-perfect replica. He wondered if he could make his Echo Forge constructs permanent if he learned more about the materials and inscriptions he was working with. The current wording of the skill explicitly stated they were temporary, but he might be able to change that if he evolved the skill to E-Grade. Then he could forge the strongest swords merit could buy and arm every Earthling with a perfect duplicate. He could outfit an entire army by himself. All it would take is time and essence regeneration.

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“Harvey? You ok?” Cash asked.

“Hmm?”

“You’re drooling,” Tyler added.

Harvey slammed his mouth closed and wiped the line of saliva dripping down his chin with his shirt. The possibilities afforded by those foundries were endless. He had to get one for himself.

“Sorry. I got distracted thinking about all the cool things I could do with one of those foundries. Wait, how do we even have one? If they’re so rare, I can’t imagine Heaven can afford to send one into every trial. Is the one here a fake one created by the System?”

“It’s real,” Celeste confirmed. “The foundry itself can grow in power with proper nurturing. It’s expensive, but the original one found by the Father was only C-Grade when he first got his hands on it. The story about Hell stealing the technology is actually somewhat accurate, except they just stole a piece off the Father’s and nurtured it up to a similar level over the eons. Now, the cost of an integration slot for both sides is an F-Grade sliver of a real foundry that gets artificially boosted here in the trial ground.”

“Do you get to bring it with you to Earth? You’re not telling me the other factions invading my planet are coming with their own army-sized 3D printers, right?” Harvey asked.

Cash smirked at the rapid changes in Harvey’s thought process, and calmed him down before he could spiral any deeper. “Yes, we get to bring it with us. No, we can’t summon entire armies with it every day. Like she said, the System is artificially enhancing them while we are here. Whoever wins the trial will get to combine their piece of the foundry with the chunk stolen from the losers, and even then we’ll probably only be able to summon a handful of creatures each day. The foundry itself condenses ambient essence into genesis matter that can be turned into anything as long as you have the blueprint. Killing a lieutenant doesn’t actually release more ambient essence or genesis matter into the air. It just tells the System to up our daily allotment.”

“That makes more sense. I was wondering why I didn’t feel anything change after we killed the lieutenant back at the casino,” Tyler mused.

“Yep. There you have it. One of Heaven’s biggest secrets,” Cash replied.

“You’re lucky I don’t report you for sharing it,” Celeste warned.

Cash rolled his eyes. “Harvey deserves to know if it means getting him the best E-Grade weave we can provide. Heaven doesn’t have any forge golems or pure flame beasts to match his Forgefire resonance, and the makeup of his Tempered Heart Imprint is too complex for us to find a good match. We could probably swing something to fit your Guardian of the Gilded Return Imprint, but from everything I’ve seen, your path doesn’t really fit the Nobility Aspect the System gave you.”

“I can ask Brutus what blueprints he was given to try and catch the demons off-guard, but I doubt I can get him to tell me,” Celeste sighed.

“Screw that. Can you get me some of the genesis matter?” Harvey asked.

That seemed to catch both angels off guard. “You want raw genesis matter?”

Of course he did. It was perfect. Ambient essence condensed into pure, unbridled potential. Forgefire might be the cleanest resonance to try and attune his weave to since all of his other legacy aspects were a mix of multiple concepts and well out of reach of an E-Grade weave, but imbuing himself with the building blocks of creation could build a foundation that helped him transform his weave into one that fit the Architect of the Veils End. The Imprint born of his very first Born Innovator Mark was his favorite. It might not be as flashy as Tyler’s Gathering Storm Imprint empowering his Fulmination skill or as cohesive as his dad’s Hallowed Protector Imprint strengthening his holy shields, but it fit him perfectly. The Architect of the Veils End forged life-saving armor and unstoppable swords. Innovated ways to protect those he loved and annihilate those who sought to hurt them. It helped him walk his path of becoming the arbiter of life and death by building exactly what he needed from whatever materials he could get his hands on.

The Imprint itself and the resonances it was based on were too complex to create a fully resonant weave at E-Grade, but genesis matter would build the perfect foundation.

“Yes. It’s perfect.”

Celeste glared at Cash, her voice rising to a shout as he shrank back into his chair. “You just had to tell him all our secrets! You had to know this would happen, right? I mean, no offense, but it’s Harvey! The guy played with blocks so much he made it his profession! Then you tell him there’s a magic block that can turn into anything and you don’t think he’s going to want to get his hands on some?”

At first, the ensuing argument was two against one, with both angels telling Harvey that getting Brutus to give them some genesis matter was impossible and he shouldn’t even ask. Once he explained how great a fit it was with his future path and Architect of the Veils End Imprint, Cash swapped to helping him beg Celeste to get some for him.

“What if we just stole some?” Harvey asked.

“Oh! Of course! While we’re at it, we should pop on over to Hell and snag a sample of theirs too!” Celeste replied.

“That’s not a terrible idea. We already have the disguises ready to go,” Harvey acknowledged.

“It’s a HORRIBLE idea! Even if we did manage to steal some, we would still have to convince Lily to refine it for us. Brutus knows exactly how much we get each day. You don’t think he’s going to start asking around if he finds that some of it’s missing?”

Tyler gave up after half an hour, standing up from the kitchen table and plopping down on the couch where he struggled to take a nap. It took another hour for Harvey and Cash to wear her down, convincing her to at least ask Brutus if he’d be willing to use that as Harvey’s reward. In the end, it wasn’t much different than giving him the body of something created with genesis matter. The only problem was that they wouldn’t get to fight alongside the beast first.

With a promise to try, Celeste stormed out of the house and Harvey and Cash moved to the garage. Both were still a little heated despite knowing deep down that they were all on the same team, so they blew off steam by finally getting to work on the set of silver armor Harvey had promised Cash so long ago. Taking the angel’s measurements was easy with Artificer’s Eyes, so the two chatted while Harvey started melting down a few crucibles worth of silver.

“I feel bad dragging her into the middle of this, but the genesis matter is just too perfect for me,” Harvey said after delicately placing the crucible in the forge with his tongs.

“Honestly, she’s right. I never should’ve told you about the foundry and genesis matter, but I’m still glad that I did. We probably wouldn’t live to worry about our secrets if you hadn’t helped us turn things around, so you deserve the best we have to offer.”

“I appreciate that, but I still feel bad forcing her to choose between me and the Commander.”

Cash laughed at that, moving to watch the metal heating up inside the crucible while holding his wings as far from the heat billowing out as he could. “She shouldn’t have to choose! Brutus should just hand you a fat chunk of the stuff and send us on our way!”

Harvey doubted it would be so simple, but silently prayed he wouldn’t have to fight for the perfect weave. Whether he had to beg, borrow, or steal, he wasn’t going to sacrifice his future ascension for Heaven and Hell’s secrets.