It took me exactly three days and nights without sleep to design the core schematics.
Not because I lacked data—my Earth-memory held enough physics, quantum theory, and computational design to shame any archmage.
No. The problem was translation.
How do you convert cold, logical tech from a dead digital Earth into something that breathes magic—something that lives and grows in a realm built on ley lines and willpower?
You don't replicate. You hybridize.
I sat in my study, surrounded by archaic scrolls, glowing stones, and a single hovering crystal terminal I had constructed from a fusion of circuitry and sorcery.
I called it: VIREL NODE ZERO.
The first brain of the new age.
Aetherpunk, if you will—industrial steel alloyed with the weft of mana.
Accessing Design Workspace…
Welcome, Prince James.
Initiating Project: STARFORGE DRIVE v1.0
Base Components Needed:
Fold Coil Housing (Mytherium Alloy)
Mana Conduction Relay (Tier IV Minimum)
Stellar Cradle Core (Artificed Heartstone + Reactor Crystal)
Synchronization Key (Soulbound to Creator)
I already had the theory. The problem was gathering the pieces without raising too many questions.
Especially from the High Mages' Council.
They had tolerated my strange experiments. Until now.
"Mana is not a slave to science," Archmage Vael hissed during that morning's audience.
"Nor is ignorance a virtue," I replied, calm but cold. "You rely on inherited spells and divinely-engraved grimoires. I build things. Real things. Engines. Weapons. Worlds."
The Queen said nothing, but her eyes gleamed faintly with pride. She understood. She had been a battle mage once, before the crown.
The King… watched me with that same unreadable expression. Like a chessmaster waiting three moves ahead.
Still, he spoke.
"If your 'Starforge' fails, James, we bury the remains in the Grand Pit. Agreed?"
"If it fails," I said, "you won't need to bury it. It will already be halfway through another dimension."
Back in my workshop, I called for Joseph, the old royal steward and the only man outside my family who truly believed in my vision.
He entered the hidden chamber beneath the palace without flinching.
"Your Highness," he said, bowing with a knowing smirk. "Is this the day the stars bend their knees?"
I handed him a sealed list of materials, each coded under the guise of royal repair and tribute requisitions. If the mages learned I was hoarding reactor cores from the border ruins, they'd likely demand a public lashing.
But Joseph only nodded.
"Consider it done."
I worked until my eyes bled.
Drew schematics in dragonbone ink. Aligned circuits with my own mana pulse. Inscribed symbols that looked nothing like runes, but everything like code.
And when the final core casing floated before me, humming with stable, low-yield fold energy...
[Crafting Complete: STARFORGE DRIVE v1.0 – STATUS: STABLE]
Synchronization Key: James Virel – Soulbound Confirmed
Engine Capacity: 1,000kg Initial Fold Jump (World-Tier I)
I dropped to my knees.
Laughing.
Breathless.
Because I had done it.
I had built a working prototype of an interdimensional engine... in a magical world.
But then the System added one more line.
Warning: Unknown Energy Signature Detected
Location: Throne Hall, Northern Corridor – 2nd Soul Resonance Interference Active
Entity: "Princess Aelya" – Synchronicity Spike Recorded
I froze.
She was dreaming again.
And this time, she wasn't alone.
Level Up!
Level: 31 → 32
+5 Stat Points – Assigned: Strength +2 | Mana +3
I closed the chamber doors behind me, heart pounding with fear and hope alike.
I had unlocked the engine.
But now, it seemed, my sister had unlocked something else.
Something that might outrun even the future I had planned.