Up and Coming 3 – A presentation of Corpos and Fathers

Ba-dump- Ba-dump- Ba-dump.

It took three calm heartbeats before the words he had spoke properly registered in his own mind. In an instant, he jumped up, picking up Ellie as he went. It was a storm of jubilation from his soul to his lips, manifesting in manifold spins around his own axis. The shortstack up in the air laughed with him, though she could not shake the nervousness. Eldred stopped mid-spin and pulled her close, placing a manifold of kisses on her lips. She tasted like toothpaste. Her hair was still damp from a shower.

“You’re giving me the ultimate gift,” Eldred told the goblin, pouring the feelings that welled up in his heart into every syllable. “You will want for nothing as long as I live and long after that, if there is such a time! I love you!”

Ellie produced a series of noises that could be interpreted as a sapient mind shutting down and rebooting. “I-i-i-i…. l-l-love… awawawawa….!” She never finished her returned confession, but she didn’t need to. The mother of his first child’s mouth was for kissing and stuttering. For everything else, there were cuddles.

Eldred walked backwards until he fell into the couch, where he proceeded to keep kissing Ellie until she was too drunk on affection to continue her undue nervousness. “We’ll be fine,” he told her with a certainty he simply had.

“The duty of being fucking stupid,” Avari remarked.

For the first time since he got the announcement, Eldred lifted his eyes from the goblin in his lap. His gaze first met that of his banshee, who hovered closer. Once in reach, she combed Ellie’s wet hair with her fingers, getting a semblance of order back into what Eldred had made such a mess of. A calm, happy smile sat on her black lips.

Avari had seated herself on the table she had been under moments ago. Kicking the air, she looked at the three of them with a mixture of resignation and excitement. They all knew that this not only could but would happen. When Eldred was home, there was no day on which he had not pumped at least one load into Ellie – though the pregnancy test being positive already suggested that it had been that very first time that had already been enough.

“Congrats,” Avari followed up her bratty statement with a heartfelt smile. “You’ll be a good father.”

“I better,” Eldred said, thinking back to his own unremarkable old man. If there was one thing he wanted to do, then it was to raise his children with ambition. ‘Not even two months since I decided to turn my life around,’ he thought. How quickly life could improve boggled the mind.

“Well, now’s as good a time as any to have my follow-up presentation.” Avari hopped off the table. “If everyone would follow me to the meeting room?”

Eldred and Nyx followed, Ellie was carried along. The goblin recovered from her elevated state of happiness but did not relapse into intense nervousness. Keeping her seated in his lap, he wanted her to feel that everything would be alright.

“Keep providing your utmost,” Nyx encouraged her, sitting right next to Eldred. “The rest will fall into place.”

“O-okay…” Ellie mumbled.

The three of them were on one side of the long meeting table, Avari on the other. She stood on a big box, putting her head and shoulders above the rest of them. With the lewd mood gone, for the moment, she had pulled her secretary outfit back into an orderly state. Truly, the ability of those clothes to be as professional as they were accentuating was sublime.

“Today’s presentation has three segments,” Avari explained, the first slide opening up to an empty white screen. As she spoke, lines of text flew in. “First, we’ll talk about the advanced manifestations of Cores, mostly Core Points and Reality Shattering. Second, we’ll talk about the four levels of power in the corporate world. Third, last and least, we’ll talk about why my father is a no-good scumfuck and everyone should hate him.”

She had written those exact words into the presentation.

“First topic, Cores. Eldred, want to remind the class what got stuck in your pea brain?”

‘She is feeling feisty,’ the driven man thought. Usually he would see that as an invitation to push back, but given that she was about to talk about a rather sore spot in her life… yeah, she could be allowed some slack. “Cores are manifestations in the soul of Cultivating using Echo in Iridescia. Each Core has one of six elements. As a Cultivator gets more Cores, they resonate with each other, causing greater and greater growth.”

“Wonderful, you remembered the most important bit.” Avari pressed a button prompting a graph to fade into the slide.

“Time for some demonstrative, accurate enough math,” the gremlin continued. She pulled a pebble out of her pocket, using her newfound Earth Core to make the small object levitate. Directing the eyes was one way to train her Elemental Mastery, Eldred supposed. “Imagine, if you will, that 10 is the peak performance of the average Iridescian. We’re just taking all of the species and throwing them in a big pot and using the slop that comes out as the basis of our calculations.” The pebble traced the blue line to the first stop. “The first Core boosts power immensely. This is the 1-Core Point, the entrance level of all Cultivators. As you can see with our math here, something odd is happening afterwards. From 10 to 20, it’s an increase of 10. Yet, it’s not until the 3rd Core that the same growth rate is exceeded. Still, it is a compounding climb.”

All of this made sense to Eldred. He had been told that a Cultivator that was 1 Core higher was an incredibly difficult enemy and that anything beyond 2 more Cores than oneself was essentially impossible to beat in a 1v1. Cores resonated with one another. Eldred had assumed that this meant growth was exponential, but it did not seem to be that drastic nor mathematically simple.

“Now, at the 5th Core, something very odd happens,” Avari continued. A press on the remote switched to the next slide, an extended version of the same graph.

“Here in orange, you see what the projected development would be if the scaling stayed the same,” Avari explained. “But it doesn’t. The projected earnings on investment are exceeded. If that was my portfolio, I’d be shocked. This…” She circled the blue dot above the 5 on the bottom line. “Is the 5-Core Point. It’s where Cultivators become elite. Not only does their scaling suddenly increase, but crossing this 100 here…” She emphasized the horizontal line with the pebble. “…has actual consequences. It’s semi-accurate math, after all.”

The graph went off to the side for a moment. 5 empty circles came into its places.

“’Let’s start with the Manifestation. Hey, Nyx, what do you expect to be able to do with a Water Core?”

“Control water,” Nyx responded, bereft of hesitation.

“How about a Water and an Earth Core?”

“Mud.”

“How about Water, Earth and Fire?”

“…Baked Clay?” Nyx began to hesitate.

“Then how about Water, Earth, Fire, Fire?” Nyx asked.

“Molten sand, perhaps?” the forlorn banshee tried to find a definitive answer.

“Y’all get the point,” Avari said. A simple animation played, causing the five circles to be filled with a multitude of combinations of the six colours standing for the Core types. “One Core, two Cores, that’s simple to consider, but as there are more Cores the type of power that Manifests becomes more and more dependent on the Cultivator. At the 5-Core Point, the power usually is unique or at least has an unorthodox spin to it that emerges from the character of whatever moron is throwing their weight around.”

Another press of the slide put the words ‘Reality Shatter’ onto the screen.

“Another phenomenon that occurs is the Reality Shatter. This can basically be understood as a little godhood. A Reality Shatter is a metaphysical phenomenon in which your presence so totally overwhelms someone else’s perception that they involuntarily make their mana work for you. You, quite literally, Shatter their Reality and substitute what you want them to experience, and their own power will make it real.”

“So that’s what happened with Neora,” Eldred realized.

“Precisely. She shoved us into her own little hurricane and we were sweating rainwater,” Avari joked drily. “Reality Shatters occur due to plain power differences and a difference in willpower. That’s why you weren’t overwhelmed quite as fast, you stubborn freak.”

“During moments of intense emotion, one can overwhelm even stronger opponents,” Nyx added.

“…How do you know?” Avari asked.

“…How do I know?” Nyx asked back, then let out a depressed sigh. “You are aware of my lack of answers…”

Eldred freed one of his arms from goblin cuddling duty to put it around Nyx instead. He couldn’t let her sink into the mire of her forlorn nature.

“Alright, amnesiac, keep your mysteries.” Avari returned to the slideshow. “As I am sure you have guessed, where there’s one exception, there are others. Welcome to the 10-Core Point.”

“The grey line is how it would look if the 5-Core Point scaling kept going,” Avari explained. “Beyond the scaling jump, the 10-Core Point has nothing as flashy as enabling Reality Shattering. By the 10-Core Point, you are usually Rending reality instead, which is a Reality Shatter taken to its midway point. Remember how I told you that Reality Shatter makes you basically turn other people into your batteries?”

“Yes, I have a memory greater than a housefly’s,” Eldred assured.

“Right, and Reality Shatters are affected by your magical power, right?” Avari led his thoughts.

“So, it works like a mass psychosis?” Eldred asked. “More people believe it, making it spread to other people who then also believe it, making it spread to more people?”

“Exactly – except that there is an actual reality to this and, when there’s enough magical power behind it, it becomes totally real. Taking Neora as an example, you remember how it rained in the entire district? That was probably her lingering presence minorly Shattering the reality of everyone.”

Eldred snorted in amusement. “So, she was showing off?”

“Probably training her Elemental Mastery, to be honest,” Avari remarked. “Must take her a lot of effort to keep a rainstorm running. We’ll know eventually. Now, onto the final segment of the first topic, the 20-Core Point.”

“Also known as the God Point,” Avari said. “Which is understating the power of this level. Neora would probably be able to beat a lot of divine avatars already. With 10 Cores, Cultivators definitely can compete with all but the most powerful deities. With 20 Cores, though, you are basically among the most powerful beings in the known universe. You can probably make planets at this point, but don’t quote me on that. It’s pretty difficult to find any solid intel on the Netspheres about what this level of power actually enables beyond ‘they are above the rest of us’.” Avari paused for a moment when Ellie slowly raised up her hand. “Yes?”

“Uhm… I, uh… heard that you said that the power difference between some with… for example… 7 Cores compared to someone with 6 Cores should be b-bigger than 4 to 3, but… p-putting aside the Core Points… percentage wise, that’s just not true?”

“…Huh…” Avari turned to the graph. “Now that you mention it.”

She hopped off the box and walked over to the PC that controlled the screen. For everyone to see, Avari quickly drew up a new calculation sheet and made new formulas to compare it all. Eldred scanned over the numbers. He understood them, but he was happier with it all when it was put into a graph.

“Guess the instructor was talking shit he didn’t know about,” Avari remarked. “This is why we’ll homeschool.”

Eldred wasn’t sure about that, but that was a talk for many months from now.

“To retain fairness,” Nyx spoke up. “His advice remains sound, especially in the early development of our Cultivation.”

“It was wrong!”

Nyx shook her head. “It was semi-accurate.”

“Oh, you’re lucky you’re cute!” Avari pulled the presentation back up, went back to her box and continued the presentation. “Now, a very quick rundown on terms we are commonly using but that Ellie doesn’t know and that few people actually understand. The four general levels of the corporate world: upstarts, corporations, megacorps and Great Ones. I’ll just rattle them off really quick, because it’s a pretty dull topic.

“Upstarts is what we are. We have no established identity as a corporation and are essentially mercenaries that are working wherever we find work in an effort to get into the real economy. Upstarts usually just have a handful of members and only Cultivators in the 1 to 4 Cores range. So, even as far as upstarts go, we are small.

“Corporations are the vast majority of Iridescia’s economy. They have a stable revenue flow, occupying some economic position in the local ecosystem. Stable income, stable Echo, predictable Cultivation, predictable expansion. At least one member of a Corporation, typically the CEO, has reached the 5-Core Point.

“Megacorps are a spectrum between conglomerates of many corporations or a single corporation that has grown enormous. In any case, megacorps are corporations but bigger. More money, more Echo, more Cultivators of great power. The leaders of megacorps are typically at the 10-Core Point or above.

“Great Ones, you guessed it, are led by people at the 20-Core Point or beyond. Great Ones are rare, and there’s very little churn among their numbers. They usually have some massive market in Iridescia cornered, like Imperialis with the software sector. When you move that level of money around, you can basically do whatever you want. The only thing holding Great Ones back are each other and the sheer annoyance it must be to organise anything in a company their size.”

Avari turned the remote in her hand for a few seconds, then pressed the button. Out of nowhere, all of the text was replaced with a picture of a man in his early thirties. He had jet-black hair, worn slicked back, and wore a fine suit. The sleeves seemed deliberately cut to reveal the edges of tattoos that, presumably, travelled up his arms and joined up with what little could be seen around his neck. The colourful ink evoked the image of hellfire.

“My father,” Avari spoke with entirely unveiled disdain. “CEO of the mega corporation Aura Dynasty – Carnos Aura Vermillion.”

The implication of the power behind that human male, retaining his youth courtesy of that might, left Eldred cold. What had his blood rushing through his veins at increasing heat and speed was the discomfort his beloved gremlin displayed. “What did he do?”

Avari did not answer immediately, instead initiating a preamble. “The Aura Dynasty corporation is a pyramid-style corporation in which all key positions are filled by children of Carnos himself. In order to have enough… ‘stock’…” She spat the word out like the foreign invader it was. “He has taken to holding a harem of women. He keeps one or two in each of his many estates, going around, keeping them pregnant, and discarding them when it fancies him. His children, he pits against each other, makes us compete for his favour, and those he deems have the right mixture of sycophancy and talent he promotes.” Avari crossed her arms. “I didn’t make the cut.”

“Which makes him an idiot in addition to a cruel bastard,” Eldred stated coldly.

“Yeah, well, his idiocy is your gain.” Avari managed to shoot him an unsure smile. “Now I’m with you and if you are going half as far as you think you are, I’ll wield you as a beat stick to smash his face in.”

“You’re not going to try and bash his face in yourself?” Eldred asked.

Avari shook her head. “I’m not going to stand here and say that he was entirely wrong about me, okay? I am not exceptionally talented. He is already past 10 Cores. For us to split resources so I can catch up to him is entirely unfeasible… and I’m honestly not letting my need to stomp him into the dirt dictate my life. I prefer handling money.”

“Then we make for a good couple,” Eldred asserted. “Stomping the faces of those that hurt my women into the ground… that sounds like a fantastic life goal.”

“And that’s why I love you,” Avari purred and pressed the button to make the hated face disappear. “I won’t belabour you with the details of what I did and did not suffer. I can imagine worse childhoods, though I can also imagine a whole lot better. The point is that Carnos is a scumfuck who deserves to suffer and I will do everything…” she lingered on and repeated the word. “…everything necessary to ensure you are not going to be like him.”

“If I show signs of it, you may slit my throat in my sleep,” Eldred permitted without hesitation. “I am committed to a harem for all of us, not for me to breed foot soldiers.”

“Good,” Avari nodded, having expected nothing less from him.

“What about your mother?” Nyx asked.

“The type of woman that is happy with being a breeding sow in a golden cage,” Avari spoke with a little less disdain but disdain all the same. “She had the decency to get me a job in the middle of buttfuck nowhere before cutting me off and I got a small fortune before I left. ‘A child of Carnos can’t live like a beggar!’ she said. Even while she was shoving me out the door, the only thing about me that she cared about was the guy that put me in her.”

“Avari?”

“Yeah?”

“Come here.”

Eldred held an arm out. The gremlin regarded him with a lightly insulted stare. “I’m fine, dude.”

“Come here,” he insisted, waving her in.

Avari rolled her eyes, put the remote on the table, and then circled around it. Once she reached him, she half climbed, half was pulled into his lab. Ellie had already shuffled to the side, making room for her fellow shortstack. Without any word spoken, the goblin wrapped her arms around the gremlin. “T-this is home…” Ellie muttered the words that Eldred was thinking, while he and Nyx closed their arms around her and Avari.

“This is a stuffy hug onion,” the gremlin croaked.

“It’s fine,” Eldred muttered.

“Shut up…”

“One day I will get you revenge.”

“You… fucking better…” Avari’s voice was flat, strained.

“Right now, I hope the treasure of the moment is good enough.”

“Fuck you… it’s perfect…” the gremlin managed to push those words out. Then she curled up in the combined embrace of the others.

And cried.