"I can't believe I had to be helped by a god!" growled Joseph, looking over the interior of the mech. It would need new seats, to be comfortable for the amount of time they would be spending in it. There needed to be something to keep any outside poisons from leaking into the interior, because he wasn't sure what they might encounter in the wastelands. While he was immune, he didn't want to bring anything that might be dangerous to others back when he returned.
"After all the hard work I put into learning magic so I didn't have to rely on anyone!"
There was a loud clang as he tossed a metal plate down, and pulled out a wrench.
Joe was sitting back, in a second body, watching him, because neither was in the mood to think at each other. This way they could vent some of their pent-up steam by yelling at each other, if need be.
"I wonder why mom was magic null?" contemplated Joe, looking at the seat with a wince. It was built by a gnome, for a human sized occupant, but the gnome obviously didn't know anything about human anatomy. The waist was too thin, and the legs space too long. Maybe he thought it would be an elf driving the mech instead of a human?
"I wondered that too. Do you think she was cursed by a god?"
"Maybe. It would explain why a god was able to grab her soul, yet magic wouldn't work."
"What if there's a level of magic we can't touch yet? Like we can use mortal level magic, but not god level magic?"
"Maybe that's what divinity is?"
"The system's been taking all of our divinity that we would normally acquire to try and break free from whatever prison its stuck in."
"I've been thinking about that. Do you think we might be able to break it out of its prison?"
"I was thinking of waiting to try that until after we got META."
"That's a good idea. You know, we could have asked those gods for it…"
"And owe them a debt? No, not going to happen. I'm tired of asking gods for anything. I fully intend to get powerful enough not to need a god to help with anything."
"I don't want to become a god…"
"No, too much responsibility. Shavist! That won't work!"
The piece he had tried to pry out had just broke.
With a sigh, Joseph cast MEND, and looked over the piece again.
"Just use magic to make it right. Just because magic didn't work on mom, doesn't mean we have to do things the hard way."
"I want to be able to do things without magic, if the need ever arises," grumbled Joseph modifying the mech with magic, to be what he wanted.
"That's the whole point we focused on learning magic so hard. Shavist, we lost our entire childhood, and almost the entire teen years trying to learn magic. You're just being ridiculous for trying to do things without magic now. If our magic doesn't work, that just means we need to work harder at getting it to work. Look how much easier it was to just magic that mech, instead of reworking it by hand."
"You're right, of course. I have a couple more ideas on the mech…"
"I know and you already know my thoughts on them. I learned a whole bunch of new spells. Want me to list them out?"
"Sure," said Stella, stepping out of Joe's shadow, then looking at him strangely for a moment, before going over to Joseph.
"You can tell us apart?" asked Joseph in surprise.
"Yes, can't you?" she asked with a smirk.
"Sometimes," laughed Joe. "I've learned how to combine runes to discover new ones. They're pretty interesting. EARTH, AIR and WATER makes MATTER. GATE and MOVEMENT makes SPACE. LIGHT, FIRE, SOUND, and MOVEMENT makes ENERGY. COMMUNICATION/EMPATHY, MIND CONTROL, and NECROMANCY makes SOUL. FIRE and WEATHER makes PLASMA. Adding TECHNOLOGY to any other rune allows precise control. I also now know how to make CREATE AIR specify a specific mix of gases, CREATE FIRE specifies the temperature of flame, and RAIN specifies the amount, duration, wind direction, and whatever else I want. I think I also know how to make that small pocket dimension using SPACE, but I won't be calling it my purse."
"No man purse for you?" asked Stella laughing.
"Absolutely not!"
Joseph rolled his eyes as he turned back to the mech.
"How's your robot coming along?" she asked.
"It's a mech, not a robot."
"I fail to see the difference," she said with a shake to her head.
"You would look fantastic in heels," said Joe, looking her up and down.
She turned with a dangerous smile on her face, and he swallowed.
"You would have to use illusions to know. Heels were invented by evil men in an effort to hobble warrior women. I'm sure of it."
"Wait, you've worn them before?" asked Joseph and Joe at the same time, both of their heads whipping around to look at her in shock.
"We won't speak of them," she said, crossing her arms.
"As Stella, or Sylva?" asked Joe.
"Joe," warned Joseph, shaking his head at him.
"It's okay, Joseph. We do have the illusion rune, and she only knows what we feel, not what we think."
"Joe," said Joseph more firmly, as Stella's eyes narrowed. Joe was looking up at the ceiling in thought, not noticing the danger he was in.
"I wonder which would be prettier. Sylva has more…impact. Stella has that girl next door sort of charm, instead of the lady in red sexy that Sylva had."
"Joe, stop being suicidal," warned Joseph, grabbing Stella's arm before she could jump at him.
Joe gave a laugh, winking at Stella and disappeared. She turned and went to slug Joseph, but he was expecting it and dodged. When he straightened up, she had both hands on her hips.
"Guess it's going to be a couple more years before you get to see me in a dress," she finally said with a shrug. "I'm going to go cook some slow roast BBQ pig wings."
Stepping through his shadow, while Joseph cursed at Joe, she disappeared from the room.
"It was worth it, because we both know she wasn't going to wear a dress anyway," said Joe.
"We had hopes! You didn't have to crush them!"
With only himself for company, Joseph shook his head in amusement, knowing she wasn't really mad, and turning back to the mech, he rubbed his hands. It was time for the next step.