^^Oscar's Collective Cardinal Equation^^

--- Oscar Hidden ---

"And now we have... Tilda St.James." Elder Bacchus said.

She stepped forward, holding only a large bag of crystals.

"Do you not have a scroll, Ms. St. James?" Elder Van Halen asked.

"My magic is with Crystals, Lord-uh-Elder-Sir..." she stuttered.

"It's just Elder, dear. Calm yourself. What's your magic, then? Crystals, you said? What about them?" He asked, lacing his fingers together, drawing my eyes to them.

I noticed his palms and fingers were lighter than the rest of his skin, and the contrast in front of his face was striking. Not in a bad way, just surprising, and almost artistic.

I hummed and focused on what she was saying.

"-and both resonance and terraforming terrariums are my main areas of expertise." She finished.

"I see... so you start with a glass bowl full of random articles, and you terraform it into a glass full of crystals?" He asked.

"No, the other way around... I start with crystals, and then transmute them into other things... like minerals or different types of crystals. Jewels and Gems are easiest, because their formats are fixed, and simple." She said slowly.

"I see... and Resonance? I don't understand how the frequency that shatters a crystal would be a magical specialty, or even important." He stated callously.

"Now now, all knowledge is worth learning, perhaps we should let her-" elder Bacchus started.

She bulldozed over him. "Resonance is not only what shatters a crystal, sir... though that is the most common usage of resonance by people who don't understand it's true purpose." She said tightly, holding on to her hot temper carefully.

He blinked. "Oh? And what is that, may I ask?" Elder Van Halen asked.

"Resonance is Sound Magic, and it can affect any object in a multitude of ways. It's an extremely powerful, yet underrated magic. The Cardinal Equations were based off of Resonance, and most other Magic as well. It is, without boast, the Grandfather of all Modern Magic." She smirked triumphantly.

Elder Bacchus nodded. "I remember that the original Cardinals were all created long after Pythagoras learned magic from a Sound Mage, but I never gave much thought to how that would have affected his later work..."

Elder Van Halen hummed slowly, and rubbed his short silver beard. "I seem to have made a decision in err. I apologize for my flippancy. Please demonstrate your magic, then."

She smiled. "Alright... here goes." She sat down with the bag of crystals, and then pulled out a metal knife and a sharp piece of chalk. The edges were gently scraped together, creating a keening sound that made my ears hurt.

The rest of the crystals shattered almost instantly, and then liquified.

She changed the angle of her rubbing, and the liquid formed a bubble the size of her head, with a small hole in the middle. Then, small pebbled of crystal started to turn into rocks, and crush themselves, turning into dirt.

She pulled a small packet of seeds from her pocket. "Creating plants is a little beyond me. The DNA is too tricky." She explained.

Elder Bacchus chuckled. "Absolutely understandable."

She planted the seeds, then pulled out a different stick of chalk, this one with traces of silver in the mix.

The resulting sound was almost beautiful, but still high-pitched, like a Viola, and the seeds sprouted instantly, though they didn't grow any more than that, for now.

She grinned and whistled once, growing crystal stalactites in her little terrarium, then catching it, ending all the noise.

She carefully set it on the bench, in front of Elder Lee-Hwan. "And for you, a Terrarium containing a baby bonsai I got from Amelia. It's supposedly a mix of Cedar and Mint, so it'll smell great when it's in bloom."

The elders examined it carefully, and then nodded. Elder Bacchus smiled. "Well done, Tilda. Try to open the Mana Vault, then, to conclude your Exam?"

She nodded and gripped the Log, squinting her eyes in a glare as she flooded it with her magic, which was decent, for a Sorceress.

They nodded when she was done, and then conferred shortly.

"Ms. Tilda St.James, the Council has deemed your skills and knowledge to be that of a 10th-Tier Sorceress. Welcome, Ms. St.James, to the Upper-Ranks of the Mage Guild." Elder Van Halen said quietly, smiling.

She grinned widely, and bowed. "Thank you!"

"Yes... and now for the last of the Examinee's... Oscar Hidden, please, step into the light." Elder Bacchus said dramatically.

I snorted, standing up slowly. "Elder Bacchus, you're getting a bit touched in the head. Cracked with age, like good glass." I retorted.

"Perhaps, but I'm still just as clear!" He grinned cheerfully.

"Thank the gods for that, at least. I don't know what a Senile Grand-Wizard is like, but I really don't want to know." I chuckled.

"Yes, yes... ah! Elders, just so you understand and are not shocked, Oscar here is my Apprentice, and he has, in the last month alone, Completely Solved all 13 of the Pythagorean Cardinal Equations." He said proudly, as if he was boasting about me like a happy grandfather.

They froze, and then gazed down at my diminutive form.

"Hmm... interesting. What are you going to show us today, little one?" Elder Lee-Hwan asked, smiling indulgently.

"I am going to cast my own personal Collective Cardinal Equation." I smiled, and set my scroll in front of Elder Bacchus.

They looked at him accusingly, and he frowned at them. "This is the first I've heard of this, and I DARE you to say I've cheated and helped him!" He snapped at them harshly.

They flinched at his sudden vehemence, but nodded. "I apologize, I think I'm simply... Unaccustomed to small children having the secrets of the Universe sitting in their brains." Elder Van Halen hummed.

"You need a nap, old man?" I asked quietly, smirking at Elder Bacchus.

He snorted, surprised and amused. "Damn you, Oscar, I do not need a Nap!" He answered louder than necessary, and I snickered.

"Sorry, sorry. Just read the scrolls, please. Or, if you prefer to be surprised, wait until the end." I shrugged.

They looked at each other, then the scroll, and then looked at me, none of them reaching for it.

"Alright, then. All aboard the Hidden Express towards Enlightenment!" I grinned, and then stomped one foot, spreading the basic level of my spell, and snagged my scrolls, spreading them out at the edge to see.

I breathed deeply, and then pulled at my Mana Reservoir, a new feeling for me. The magic from my reservoir was far more potent, thicker, like honey, when compared to vegetable oil.

The magic filled the circle, making several people gasp at the flood of corporeal golden honey-magic. Magic only became physically corporeal at the highest of all levels of magic.

That was simply the type of magic that had been successfully genetically engineered into me and Mother. Those same modifications had summarily failed in my siblings, taking away their ability to weave magics with more than one or two sequences, forever.

I looked at my family, before I continued.

Mother gazed at me steadily, a mix of maternal pride and maternal fear in her eyes.

Father and Pietro simply stared, slightly confused as to what was going on, but trying to keep up.

Mitra and Tander knew what I was doing, or at least the magnitude of it, and were smugly staring at the Elders, as if boasting about me, even before I'd finished.

I smiled at their faith in me, and cast the next stage, which created an astrolabe with thirteen rings, each made of a chain of symbols that I had made for each of the Cardinal Equations, with the sun being made of a giant chunk of my Mana Reservoir, more magic than I'd ever used at once.

Elder Bacchus stood up sharply, putting on his glasses to look closer. "Candor of Gods..." he breathed.

I ignored him, and began the next stage after the astrolabe was finished.

The third stage was the Environmental Control, all 26 sequences, which would be attached, (in the astral plane,) to the small glass globe I made without a thought from thin air, then etched with the constellations, (from the point of view at Polaris Aa), and set it to levitating above the center of the circle.

The magic connected to the globe as it was supposed to, and now it was a thin pillar of light, connected to the floating astrolabe, which was connected to the main circle.

The main circle, now that it had basic instructions, began calculating destination coordinates, searching every dimension for the type of cosmic mass that I needed.

I needed a Polaris Aa that wasn't within gravitational or thermal/luminal range of any living planets or other fragile cosmic body.

I found one, and grinned savagely, then looked at Father. "You're gonna be really pissed at me in a few moments." I warned him.

He crunched his eyebrows slowly, confused.

I took a deep breath, and then simply let the spell begin, sending the Activation Sequence.

Several hundred lightyears away, in a different universe, the brightest star in the galaxy, Alpha Ursae Minoris, commonly known as Polaris Aa, or the North Star, blinked out like a faulty lightbulb.

At the same time, Polaris Aa's smaller compatriot, Polaris Ab, instantly went through 10million years of nuclear fission, all that it required to prematurely go supernova.

This Cosmic(pun intended,) surge of kinetic, physical, and chemical energy served to fuel the teleportation of several things, into a Separate Universe of my own Making, sequestered away in my glass orb.

I started off with the a Yellow Supergiant Star Polaris Aa, obviously, then decided on several Quintillion Tons of ice, comets, and meteors. Then, because I had extra energy left over, I found some Black Dwarf Stars, which didn't exist in our universe because our universe wasn't old enough to have them. They would be completely invaluable to astrophysical research.

I finalized everything, and the magic circle I'd built disappeared. I reached forward, and caught the glass orb, then held it out...

Or rather, attempted to.

The weight of a Supergiant Star, 9.7 Quintillion Tons of Matter, 3 Black Dwarf's, and 10 Neutron Stars, was, even through a dimensional barrier, apparently...

Kinda Heavy.

Of course, I'd thought of that, and so the moment I touched it, I was able to alter its gravity impact to that of the original small glass orb, but the entire castle rumbled with the initial collision of the Star to my Immovable Palm.

Elder Bacchus sat down heavily, then suddenly got his bearings. "Explain. Now."

"I stole the North Star, and turned its baby brother into a supernova to fuel the transition of the SuperGiant into this glass orb." I smirked, and held up the glowing orb, then tossed it to Father. "You always said you wished you could pull the stars out of the sky and look at them up close. Now, I have." I winked.

He caught it, and blinked at it. "Did you... what about the constellation?" He asked.

"Ehh, it'll exist for another 450 years, give or take half a century. Then the light will stop, yes. It wasn't really the North Star anymore, either way, so it's fine." I smiled. He slowly drew in a breath, and I sighed. "Fine, fine, I'll stop playing with you. I pulled it from a different universe." I grinned.

Elder Bacchus blinked slowly. "You... reached into a different universe... pulled out a star... and placed it in an orb... in another alternate universe, this one of your own making?"

"Got it in one." I grinned.

He cleared his throat. "May I see that orb?"

Father carefully handed it to me, and I grinned, setting it on the desk. "Here you go." I nodded.

He hummed, examining it with his glasses. "Extraordinary... the glass is engraved with something, I can't read it... perhaps a containment spell?"

I shook my head. "No, those are constellations, and then on the astral plane there are the environmental controls, 26 complex sequences worth. Then there's 11 Sequences inside the Star, keeping it fed with magic, and then 13 more that are my Cardinal Equations, which will spread out and create a solar System around that star... oh look! It's already happening!!!"

I peered at the orb as it zoomed out slowly, and the single star started collecting the rocks around it, (which I'd pulled from several dead universes, something I'd discovered while I was tuning the spell,) and creating asteroid belts.

He laughed softly. "Oscar... gods above... you've just created a Universe! The magic involved in this... this must go on the Index Immediately."

"And what, get a bunch of novices dead because they want to try to create their own universes, and play god?" I said dryly.

He blinked. "If that is their choice, then so be it."

"What if they decide to use it to take the Sun?" I asked.

He flinched. "True... is there a way to safeguard it, and lock it onto a dimension with no intelligent life?"

I hummed softly. "It's possible. I could take away the targeting section, and give it pre-ordained coordinates, only allowing them to look at one galaxy?"

"Very good, yes. That is favorable." He nodded, looking at the other Elders.

Elder Van Halen nodded slowly. "Yes. Ultimate Knowledge is one thing. Ultimate Power is another. Men can be trusted with knowledge. Not with power."

I snorted. "You have too much faith in men. Any man would take Ultimate Knowledge and give himself Ultimate Power, even with good intentions such is the Failing of Man. Now, what is my new Ranking?" I grinned, switching subjects, while tucking the globe away in my pocket.

They shoes me away, and began talking amongst themselves, arguing softly.