Sakura edged a little closer, listening while trying not to LOOK as if she were listening.
"You know what a universe is, right?" asked Naruto after a brief pause.
"A universe would be everything that exists," said Sakura, not realizing she was blowing her 'not interested' cover until halfway through her answer.
"Except that there are other universes, a lot of them," said Naruto. "Our sun is a star, right? It has planets orbitting it, right? The other stars often have their own planets too."
"Yeah," said Sakura, "that's first year Academy stuff."
"I think I heard somewhere that the typical universe is 13.7 billion years old, and has over seventy sextillion stars," said Naruto.
Sakura drew back a fist, ready to berate Naruto for bringing sex into all this, when it registered what he was actually saying.
"Most universes have at least two or three, sometimes hundreds of millions, of sentient races," said Naruto. "It blew me away when I realized this over on Mid-Childa. I was talking to Yuuno at the time in fact. A Continuua is a universe."
"So?" asked Sakura.
"Shit," said Sasuke. "Is that even possible?"
"Yeah," said Naruto. "I heard that stars are born and die, that universes can die too. So each of these 'Fossil Continuua' are actually universes. Concentrated, crystallized, contained."
"Talk about mass graves," said Sasuke.
"Yeah," said Naruto.
"Wouldn't they be impossibly heavy though?" asked Sakura.
"If their mass was contained and crystallized, no," said Naruto. "It wouldn't weigh more than the outer shell."
"That what Mitternacht says?" asked Sasuke, answered by Naruto nodding.
"What did Yuuno mean 'conjuration' and 'transmutation'?" asked Sakura, wanting to change the subject from dead universes.
"These are types of magic used in the universe Mitternacht came from, different from the element-based ninjutsu we use here," said Naruto. "Transmutation is turning one thing into another thing. Conjuration is summoning spells."
"Turning one thing into another? I'd like to see that," said Sakura, deciding to be skeptical. Dead crystallized universes? Now ninjutsu which could literally change something into something else?
"Polymorph Other," said Naruto, pointing at Sakura.
POOF!
The little pink bunny rabbit blinked her green eyes repeatedly, then tried to henge back. Then tried a couple of other things like dispelling a genjutsu. Finally she screamed like a frightened rabbit.
"Naruto," chided Yugao, moving from where she'd been quietly listening.
"Yeah," said Naruto, making a gesture to dispel the polymorph.
"So what other kinds of jutsu are possible besides 'Transmutation' and 'Conjuration'?" asked Sasuke.
"Abjuration - which dispels magic or neutralizes forces," said Naruto. "Divination - spells that don't deal with physical things - just information. Enchantment - enhancing or making minor changes in an object or individual. Evocation - which are spells that go boom or otherwise involve energy shaping and release. Illusion - genjutsu. Necromancy - spells which affect the dead and draining life."
Sakura continued to check herself and make sure she didn't have any bunny parts left over.
The castle looked to be of black rock, with a definite flame motif carved into its walls. That and skulls.
Had Mitternacht been able to get a Clairvoyance spell past the defenses, she would have immediately identified WHOSE castle this was.
Lolth had looked at this world shortly after Cyric had brought her attention to it. Some third-rate copy of her daughter out here? She would have enjoyed killing that daughter all over again. Except she'd manifested a 600' tall spider briefly when appearing there, which had been impacted by a large anvil marked "100% pure neutronium" which had splatted her armored body over a twenty mile radius before it abruptly disappeared.
That had been quite enough of a calling card that she could tell WHAT was involved. At which point she decided it was not worth her time or effort, thank you very much. It was not fear, for she feared nothing. She went back to torturing acolytes and her drow elves, and... were there a few thousand fewer of them? Well, that certainly cinched it. She had to keep an eye on her pawns lest some disreputable deity of chaos go all sneaky while her back was turned.
No, let someone else be Cyric's catspaw... catspaw. Oh no, she DEFINITELY wasn't going near that universe.
All she'd done is use a rumor to direct Cyric's pawn towards an unstable and potentially powerful set of artifacts. That would end her involvement.
Unless Cyric showed up at some point with whipped cream up his privates. Then she'd laugh at him.
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(Posted Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:44)
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