FV – Chapter 29

Refinement Process

Both girls were awake again late that night, having finally been able to get enough rest.  Rosa’s treatment had been going very well in the process, leaving both girls feeling a lot better.

Kori was honestly feeling a bit sore, but fortunately not due to anything serious.  After discussing the struggles Rosa had gone through, Kori had decided that getting to personally test her own DNTI would be a pretty smart move.  While she was recovering after the operation, Rosa had run back to the underground cavern to collect some rocks.  From Kori’s perspective, there was a degree of smarts to it, having their cybernetics shut down from using Rosa’s little trick could really cause them some problems.  Rosa probably had it the worst there, but Kori knew that a lot would be really awkward with her dominant hand unavailable, it was an experience they had already undergone before.  What Kori was thus left considering is the cross effect of how variables transgressed the barriers of known logic between worlds.  It actually helped her a lot in considering the principles of how elementals worked in the other world, being a variance of the periodic elements with a shifting integrity of molecular energy.  In that world, the process was generally safe, although void energy itself could be very dangerous.  Of the two stones she had collected though, one of them was mostly fine, the molecular shift being slightly inert and having restored itself quickly.  She actually found the rock to have exhibited minor magnetic properties instead, without even being ferrous.  The other one however was outright isotopic.

It hadn’t taken her long to figure out the cause of such distinction either, not with her own DNTI installation where they had to install the OSIDF into her arm.  Both of Rosa’s knees were designed to be identical, but the DNTI only needed one OSIDF, and the one that contained it was the same knee with the irradiated stone.  The elemental process was thus leaving the molecular balance rather weakened, and an ionic reaction outright severed the atomic integrity.  If they were going to work with both features, there was going to be some use for ionic and radioactive shielding.  Meanwhile, she also knew that the cybernetic system needed to be redesigned to integrate instrumentation features, the current rough design being very difficult to work with.  It didn’t help that she was stuck considering all of this on her own, her nanites not being available to help with the process.  She didn’t blame Rosa for the loss of her nanite culture, but it really did sting sometimes.  Of course, such a thing wasn’t permanent, the culture would be capable of repopulating and reteaching each other from backups.. but that was neither an easy nor quick process.  It also wasn’t genuinely the same culture anymore either.  As a result, she had no estimates on how much would need to go into the design to support the creation, but with the added shielding.. it was going to be important to make sure everything was compacted carefully.  More than just being an upgrade, this was a revision to a cross-world styled cybernetics, a rather insane concept.

Being so forward thinking though, she also started considering such principles inverted.  If Rosa could invert such world principles.. then what was stopping her from doing such from the other side too?  The structural system would have been biologically adaptive, the usage of minerals over metals not being in whole a problem.  However, unlike their cybernetics, there was a need to keep blood pumping through the cybernetic system for gift usage, such blood would stagnate in the arm without a real pump to keep the process going after the gift itself went stagnant.  The cybernetics also would need it’s own power supply, possibly their biggest concern.  They had solved power-supply issues here with Rosa’s random rock discovery, but finding a plasma core in the other world might be a lot harder.  She also had to make sure that they were careful about any cross-reactions from any additions either, but it really didn’t help that she didn’t fully understand any potential reactive principles the elements were concerned about.

“Hey, Kori, sorry to bother you, but we got reports of someone approaching our little outpost.  I expect it’s Rosa’s guest.”  “Oh, you mean her sister.  Is she driving a really sleek black drifter, all too obviously looking more expensive than it actually was?”  “Uh, I guess that works.  Yeah, yeah, probably.”  “Great.  I’ll go meet her out front then.”  “Is there any problem?  You sound pretty stressed all of a sudden.”  “You obviously don’t know Sophie.”  Tristine followed Kori down to the main level and out to the front, still not understanding.  Kori knew Tristine was the one who actually replaced the previous beacon, so there was some value having the other conduit present, but the technician better be ready for the sudden wave of intensity.  Sophie had stood against a landslide that had threatened to destabilize her life’s goals, but she had done so by herself being the bigger landslide.  The girl’s reckless ambition was much more reclusive when relaxed, but this really wasn’t a normal situation.  That girl was probably a time bomb ready to blow.

In the distance, she could faintly see a black speck approaching in a white surf, the snow billowing in a cyclone around it.  Of course, this is why Sophie always insisted on her choice of vehicle, drifters could go anywhere.  However, Kori knew there was more involved than just that.  Sophie pulled in at high speed, not even slowing down on her approach, passing through the main gate in a blur, she shifted the propulsor to a fierce side shift, going into a dramatic drift.  Kori casually stepped behind a steel fence, leaving Tristine to be covered in an avalanche of snow.  Sophie continued in a wide circle, evening out in a quick 360 before coming to a complete stop in the middle of her spiral.  The thing quite simply was not called a drifter for nothing.  Sophie herself was moving in her own momentum, herself leaving the drifter as it parked.  Kori was beside the vehicle as Sophie was getting some of her possessions out of the back seat.

“Hey Kori, where’s Rosa?”  “Attending her latest project, she’ll want to tell you all about it.”  “Oh, perfect.  I’ll bring Iggy inside then.  Can you grab a handful of the stuff from the trunk and show me where I’ll be staying.  Thanks!”  “The heck, why is your trunk full of rifles?”  “There was an aerospace program distributing this stuff like candy bars, I just grabbed a few extra.  I mean, if you and your new friends were out here, you probably would have missed out on the whole thing.”  “Wait, why is aerospace services giving away firearms in bulk?”  “No idea, something about proactive protectionism.  They’ve also reinforced the barrier perimeter with some serious smoke.  Whole place feels like the coming of the storms of war, but no sign of who we’re on the watch for.  Oh, actually, I guess letting you carry a firearm is kind of illegal, isn’t it?  Whatever, doesn’t matter, never liked that anti-conduit drivel anyway.  Where am I staying?”  “I’m not sure, ask Tristine, she would know.”  “Who?”  “The girl over there you buried in snow.”  “Great, that works.”  Sophie was already gone before Kori managed to get a collection of rifles out of the trunk.  Kori knew that, technically, carrying such a weapon was very illegal of her.. and had been ever since the end of the conduit uprisings.  In all accounts though, it wasn’t as if she wasn’t already dangerous, such a rifle might be simply the most practical weapon she had at her disposal.  Even in direct comparison, she had access to a plasma particle cannon already on site, something way more devastating than the little things in her arms.

“Kori, perfect, I managed to get a good design setup for an instrument, though I would like your opinion on its shielding.  If the model works, we can figure out how to upgrade… What in the world are you running around with now?”  “Gifts from your sister, she’s already making herself at home.”  “Oh, maybe I should go say hello.”  “She’s right now finding a good place to store her pet, which she brought along for some insane reason.”  “I can say hello later.  Want to get this done while waiting?”  “Sure, why not.  I kind of lost track where all of this stuff is supposed to go anyway.”  Rosa lightened a bit of Kori’s load to help make the trip easier as the two of them looked into what Rosa had achieved so far.  That was to say, Rosa took almost everything, set it on a holo, and walked along empty handed.  Kori was impressed, such a direct control over a holo would have required quite a lot, it wasn’t even something she was certain she could do.  However, considering how such a thing worked, Kori could tell what gave Rosa such an edge.  Managing focus was just something you got really good at in the other world overtime, especially for an elf, Rosa was probably just used to this sort of thing.

Additionally impressive, it was seeming as if Rosa was adjusting quite well to the sciences of this world too.  Applying a thin coating of lead to the stones was a brilliant move, especially since lead obstructed ionization and was rather decent with radiation.  Kori had no idea what impact that might have had elementally, but expected that Rosa would have accounted for any troubles already.  This did however have a notable increase in weight, but the gyro was adjusted to make use of that properly.  In all technicality, that would just mean that her arm would have a lot more strength than it normally would, even beyond simply weight compensation.  It was all too obvious that Rosa had been using a lot more advanced materials, stuff HyperTech had given her access to.  Kori wasn’t even sure why she was worrying, Rosa had this stuff down way better than she did.  Getting everything installed didn’t even take Rosa much effort, having gotten used to such a process as well.  Testing her grip, Kori found that her arm moved possibly too well, this was an immense upgrade.  Kori at least got to help Rosa install the new upgrades for the DREs on Rosa’s ears, a task that was wrapping up as Sophie walked in.

“Wow, that is quite the look for you, sister.  I know you said you might be an elf in the other world, but you look something of the part here, like that.  Knowing Kori, it’s not all for show either, is it?  Nevermind, I don’t know your techy stuff and I don’t want to start now.  All that matters to me is that you end up looking fashionable in the process.  I know, I know, practicality matters too, that’s why I brought some stylish practicality, right here.  I made sure to pick some sleek styled designs for these puppies.  Sorry that the colors were all garbage though, but I expect that wouldn’t be hard to fix either.  Yes, I did take an opportunity to look at the numbers too, they are supposed to do the good works as well as they do the good looks.”  Sophie was all over the rifles at that point, clearly and pointedly finding appearances more valuable than efficiency.  It seems her goal was to provide for the people she cared about, especially considering how rough things were going.  Going over updates of their travels only drove Sophie to be even more protective, leaving the other two with no choice but to pick their favourite from the collection she provided.  Kori went with a fairly intuitive-looking plasma projection design, trusting it to work fairly well with her cybernetic arm despite herself never actually using one before.  Rosa was even more ignorant, but at least opted for a light ionic laser rifle after a slight familiarity in design that developed working with Tristine on the same energy form.  Rosa meanwhile was cautiously aware just how useful this sort of thing might have been earlier, facing off against her previous foe.  A single one might not be much, but a collection would have shredded the thing.  Rosa clipped the rifle to the side of her leg, finding it rather easy to attach to another mechanical piece, leaving Kori to figure out where her own choice should go.  Kori eventually clipped it over her shoulders, attaching it to the upper-side of her cybernetic arm and otherwise supporting it with a shoulder strap.

“Stylish, awesome.  You know, with all this cybernetic stuff, why aren’t you two going with a stylish techy look?  You would have thought that silicon plating would have not just made things work better, but also provide some extra protection.  You two are doing so rough stuff, can’t just depend on that holo stuff, need to think ahead and take extra precautions.  Look, if it’s cause you two just aren’t slowing down long enough to look into it, I’ll help out.  That Tristine lady looked like she knew some stuff, I’ll run ideas off of her and come up with something stylish, you two can keep doing what you’re doing.”  “I think Rosa had something about working with Tristine first though, something about looking into working on the defenses for this place as a whole.  If you want to help though, I’ve got some routines I need you to hold onto, stuff to help my nanites when they get back into action.  You’re still going to need to meet Drew as well, since he’s pretty much coordinating everything here, we’ll go meet him afterwards.”  Sophie did not like having her plans shifted so suddenly by Kori, even though she had only just come up with said plans.  Even so, she understood she was still adjusting to how things worked around here.. all the techy nonsense throwing her right off most of all.  Regardless, Sophie was still happy to be here helping out, a bit of a voice of reason for people blinded by technology.. and mostly an opportunity to help take care of two people who really mattered to her.  She hadn’t mentioned that she had sort of lost her apprenticeship because of a suspicion of her being related to an identified arsonist, another reason to have been compelled to overstock on protection.  If she played her cards right, HyperTech might find use for a stylish individual such as her.  Such was why, after having a copy of the routines Kori wanted her to keep handy, she knew she had to be at her most professional when facing this Drew person.

“You would be Drew, right.  Sophie.  It is a pleasure to meet you, I must thank you kindly for all of your support in the endeavours of my sister and her friend here.  It is great that you have taken such good care of them, something I am endlessly thankful for.  In light of such, I’ve arrived to make an offer of my own services in thanks for everything you’ve done.  I’m a trained stylist, with an extensive background in textile designs.  I know such isn’t directly of service to you, but please be aware that modern methods of textile designs extend to both holo and mechanical aesthetics, something which I’m certain would be of value to you.”  “Well, true, there is value in aesthetic design.. but we’ve actually found an expert already very versed in the subject.  You would even know her, from what I’ve heard, as she would be your own sister.  Kori here isn’t that bad on the subject, either.”  “I.. well.. uh…”  “Look, I can see you mostly just really want to help out, and that’s very admirable, but it helps to be honest about these sorts of things.  Around here, there is no pressure in trying to fit in, there is rightfully plenty that needs to be done to get things running properly.  I’m guessing your concerns are that you’re not that well versed in matters of technology, unlike your sister.  That’s fine, we also have a lot of other things to look into, such as quite a number of business-level responsibilities.  If you’re willing to be open minded, I’m sure we can find a number of things for someone as visibly motivated as you.”  “T-thank you.”  So even Sophie couldn’t keep up to the management style Drew had going for him, Sophie looking quite displaced suddenly.  Kori had known Sophie for a long time, this was the first time she had ever seen a display like that before.  Drew was honestly even visibly the younger of the two, clearly a natural at climbing the chain of responsibility.  Kori could tell that Sophie wasn’t very comfortable, but had nodded regardless.

“Kori, as for you…  It has come to my attention what sort of things were discovered hidden below us, and I would like it if someone as analytical as you could return to such caverns and investigate the place further.  Rosa and I had discussed the matter previously, I have some suspicions of the place being very integral to conduit history.. a thing I’ve heard you have some interest in.  Knowing this, my request should not be considered an obligation.. more of an offer.  Would you be interested in seeing what sort of place your ancestors might have worked with in the past?”  “I.. they.. it.. uh…”  “Obviously, the decision is entirely your own, but I hope that you would be willing to share what you discover were you to take up such an offer.  Now, if you would both excuse me, I’ve got a lot of work to look into.  Sophie, I’ve heard you at least know Tristine, can you please go reach out to her.  Tristine can point you in the right direction, I’ll make sure to forward her any related instructions.  You might need to be patient though, the woman has been very busy, she will need to find a good opportunity to get you started as well.  All of us have a lot on our plate, so I look forward to seeing what you can do to help lighten the load for us all.”  Drew went back to work quite suddenly at that, Kori being worried that she might have picked a bad time to stop by.  Of course, after the attack from before, everyone was a bit worried.. so maybe that was only to be assumed.  Sophie wasn’t slowing either, already gone off to find Tristine as per Drew’s instructions.

It was this realization that made Kori feel a little guilty, being basically told to go enjoy herself in matters of history while everyone else got some real work done.  However, she recalled there was a request that had come with such an offer, Drew wanted some more information.  Of course, it would be sensible for the guy to be aware of what foundation his operations stood upon, there was a lot of value in such awareness.  Taking such into consideration, she rushed to locate the opening Rosa had visited earlier, making her own way down.  Even reaching the area with the generator, the place having warmed up immensely in operations, she found a passage that went even deeper down a side corridor.  At a certain depth, the rugged stone parted to reveal a chamber with the same stone clearly polished to a finished gem, the entire hall glittering as glass in her ionic lamp.  Nothing about the hall was synthetic, synthesized, virtualized, or holoed, this was all pure and natural.. except for possibly being manually shaped.  A richness like this in such crystalline composites was unheard of, not on this side at least.  To Kori, there was no way a sight like this belonged in this world, this was far more a sight of the other world.  Even standing there, she felt like she was actually already upon the other world.

As her thoughts shifted to being elsewhere so openly and unrestricted, Kori accidentally began a shift for herself to the other world.  Before she could do anything about it, the room around her had shifted dramatically to one that was obviously considerably more wild.

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FV – Chapter 28

Logistical Exchange

It wasn’t long after that Rosa and Tristine finally arrived at a section visibly more metal than stone, the place a massive structure within an expansive chamber of the stone.  Passing through the reinforced door, the two were finally at the generator station, their overall destination.

It was also becoming clear that this place was actually really cold.  Rosa was very thankful that her protection from the cold was still running strong, but it was getting so intense that she could still feel the chill regardless.  It didn’t help that sheets of ice were visibly coating everything everywhere, things just looked really cold.  Tristine was already shivering, even her own conduit nature was having a few struggles keeping up in this cold.  Even so, it didn’t seem like her own weaknesses were slowing Tristine down, she ran quickly over to the controls and checked to see what needed to be done to get everything operational once again.  Rosa meanwhile was at a total loss, feeling very out of place.  Why was she even here, again?  Tristine worked on the main control unit for a while, getting no response.  After a while, she figured out what the problem actually was though.  Beyond a few system lockups after so much disuse, the entire thing really was just too frozen to start.  She looked around for the central core, a prime location to get moving to get some heat pumping in the place.  Eventually she found it, in a level far above them.. with no access remaining to climb up with.

“Rosa, do you see anything we can climb up here with?  Going to need to restart the central core up there.”  “Ice, ice, more ice.  Not much else.  Oh, but couldn’t we use some holos?”  “I don’t happen to have anything like that handy, though I remember you brought something like that.  Could you give me a hand climbing up?”  Tristine waited for Rosa to construct a sort of ladder for her, but unfortunately Rosa found herself unable to generate a ladder more than a few meters high.  Their destination however was a good 30 meters above them.  If Tristine was generating her own holos, such a thing wouldn’t be a problem anymore.  It wasn’t even as if Rosa could just pass off her own kit, such a thing was sort of wired to her brain now.. even depending on cybernetics.  Tristine however simply stared at Rosa, as if the solution was all too obvious.

“Okay, just let me know when you get up there and I’ll see what I can do to help you from down here.”  “Wait, what?  Me?  But I really don’t know this stuff at all.”  “You mean, always in the past, you had to get tips from Kori and then did it yourself.  Like I said, I’ll be here if you need any tips.  I’ll probably just be chipping ice off the console while you’re gone anyway.  Don’t forget, we’re in a hurry, don’t spend too long thinking about it.”  Tristine left Rosa to simply stand there stuttering, moving instead to tend to the ice layer problem on the console previously mentioned.  Rosa was still very uncertain about this idea, but no one was leaving her with any alternatives.  Still muttering concerns under her breath, Rosa wove a ladder for her to climb, creating the thing as she went up.  At the top, she took a break against the black stone of the wall, looking upon the spherical form of the core before her.  Much like everything below, this too was covered in ice.  Before the sphere was a dashboard designed for manual operation, and as such it was full of physical controls.  However, most of the controls too were frozen.  She could work to free particular controls.. as long as she knew which controls she needed access to.

“So, it has some weird controls, what am I looking for?”  “I’m not certain what sort of layout such an old model is using, but there should be some controls for manual ignition.  Look across the labels for anything that seems pretty close to that.”  “What.. exactly would it look like?”  “Again, the order of controls would depend on the model, the only thing that would make what you need stand out is the label it was given.”  Rosa knew Tristine was overestimating her abilities, but hadn’t expected quite the reason she would end up having her first problems.  Reading.. the exact thing she hadn’t put much attention into, she had no way to figure out what any of the labels actually implied.  Sure, it did mean she could always spend the effort to get all of the stuff unfrozen.. but then what if she touched the wrong thing?  This.. simply implied the safe solution wasn’t her choice.  She turned her attention instead to the core itself, generally coated with ice too.  These controls were here to manually put stuff inside the core into action, something which would be dangerous to do for a person because close proximity could lead to serious injury.  Fortunately, she had the tools to work on such a thing from a bit farther away than conventionally possible.

After a few holo bashes, she managed to get the main cover opened, peeking inside.  Of course, the interior was ceaselessly complicated too, the entirety of her original concerns.  She was still well aware that, in all consideration, if she had actually taken the opportunity to actually learn to read.. this whole thing might have actually been as easy as Tristine made it sound.  Instead, she was left staring between valves and connectors, left generally confused.  She did know the thing needed an ignition spark to get the main core going, was generally how all the plasma stuff around here worked.  It reacted to an electric current to polarize the plasma, and then with the stuff agitated, it would start a chain reaction.  This was the sort of stuff she had bothered learning instead of how to read.  Even so, she had no idea how this thing was designed to begin a reaction, especially one so large scale.  Sure, it wasn’t hard to figure things out elementally using the principles of the other world, electricity being effectively lightning of the sky element.  A controlled spark could then just be injected into the system as a matter of focus, a precision process that took care of itself.  Even so, such logic did not work in this world, only scientific premises worked.  Well, she could potentially get it working with a surge of temporal chaos.. no no no!  The only thing she trusted much less than herself right now was the chaos that wanted to consume her.  She might not know much more than some loopy logic that didn’t actually apply here, but that was way better than something more likely to make problems worse.  The knowledge she had might not be of much use to her right now, but if she wasn’t able to achieve this for herself, then there really wasn’t any point.  If only somehow she could figure out a way to convert the knowledge she knew of such otherworldly practice into something more valid here.

Such a request was possibly far easier than she might have ever imagined.

Rosa felt a pulse spread from her, a faint haze as a white mist that lasted for but a heartbeat.  After that heartbeat, she could still feel something draining from her, but she also discovered newer problems.  Her legs completely buckled upon her, having completely lost function as she fell upon the metal floor, the stone she was carrying falling to the floor before her, her arm suffering a nasty bruise on impact.  She soon found her ears had gone offline too, as had her DNTI, she couldn’t call up more holos.  It wasn’t as if she hadn’t tried, putting a lot of focus into setting a nice sheet over a section of the floor.  The stone at her hand however reacted, drawing a current of its own into an extension of her will, a sheet of ice forming at the area of her focus.  Ice?  What?  That didn’t make sense, even if she wasn’t using a holo.  Worry dawned upon her that such was a breach of chaos instead, leading her to a moment of panic, an intent that such a frost would puff into a cloud of air.  It literally did, the entire design of the ice shifting composition to a white tuff of air that quickly dissipated.  Okay, that made even less sense.  Ice didn’t just evaporate like that without a lot of heat, but the whole place was still cold, thermal conductivity simply made what she saw make no sense at all.  Sure, such a thing could be possible, but only in the other world as a readjustment of elemental composition.  It would be like trying to make that icicle over there, teleport to that spot over there, considering science had no known principle for actual teleportation.

She blinked, startled, as the icicle eventually shifted on its new foundation and shattered on the stone.  How?  She put her face into her palm, only for it to then smack into the stone she had subconsciously picked up.  The stone in the meanwhile had mostly chipped away, exposing a black shard of crystal within the opal itself.  Such a black crystal.. with a slight white haze.. it somehow seemed.. very familiar.  She set the stone down, trying to repeat the same phenomena.. without any effect.  Picking the stone up again though was different, she could even call up a small flame to offer her a bit of warmth.  The experience was relaxing too, as she laid back and just took a moment to zone out in the wonder and warmth.  However, as soon as she did so, the flame vanished.  Not only that, but her cybernetics came back online, the faint haze of her surroundings going away too.  She picked up the stone, trying to replicate any of the same functions.. without effect.  That haze, that was something special then, something she had caused.  Notably, it had even felt as if doing so had tried to drain her too.  Wait, was that something her own chaos had done?  It seemed honestly as if.. she had created an opportunity where the world’s laws were exchanged.

Of course, that would then explain why her cybernetics had gone offline too, such a thing didn’t follow instrumentation at all.  However, these stones worked a lot like a kyuemu shard.  Considering instrumentation and the design of her cybernetics, she could get a half-decent functionality out of them if she attached one of the stones and then herself constantly kept a degree of focus on their function.  With a bit of work, she managed to get two of such stones to fit into her knees very rudimentarily, one each.  Trying to call upon the same form of chaos, she managed to open that haze around her again, stumbling to the ground once again.  With a bit of effort though, she managed to get back to her feet, her motions very rigid.  She was, once again, starting to get cold, her typical warmth source being deprived of her.  Making use of the original stone though, she managed to call up a half decent heat source to warm it up a bit.  Wait, if she could do that.. then what was stopping her from making her original idea work, to set lightning into the core as an ignition.  Of course.. a big issue would be that the thing probably couldn’t work as an instrument either, it would just fail much like anything else. There was a slight concern about how sky elements weren’t exactly her forte too, even in the other world.   What she needed then was to make it a matter of timing, generating elements that she could easily convert, creating a sky lightning’s presence before switching back to the scientific method one more time.  Wobbling over to the core, she fixed her focus within, calling for some elements as she grasped upon the doorway.  Once the elements resolved, she cut off the flow of chaos as she personally fell backwards in the process of her instability.  As a result of the same momentum, the stone she was carrying fell into the core, a faint wisp of its elements lost.  The ionization of the core surged successfully, causing a draw and shift of electrons.. especially those already rendered unstable, causing an isotopic reaction, the stones within her knees also undergoing a similar process.  Rosa as a result really didn’t feel that well, fleeing the area and rushing to make her way down below.  There, she found Tristine, instantly worried and running a check on her condition.

“My word, you’re suffering radiation poisoning!  What the hell would have caused that?  This isn’t a nuclear engine or anything.”  “I’m sorry.. I.. may have.. messed.. something up.”  “Oh, good.  Your DRE looks like it’s trying to compensate for the radiation.. but it’s having a hard time.  We need to get you out of here.”  Tristine had probably gotten Rosa out on her own at that point, it was hard to tell.  Rosa was having quite a problem trying to concentrate at that point.  Top side, she found herself soon stirring as a radiation suppressor was administered to her, it being almost as good at getting her awake as the sound of crashes outside.  Rushing outside, she found her misfortune had caught up with her, the fiend of chaos thrashing upon the main wall of their perimeter.  Looking around, she saw people panicking about as much as she wanted to.  She did however find Drew, himself working on one of the nearby turrets, trying to get the thing online, the unit slightly lit up in the glow of its own power.  Wait, that implied that they had almost done it, things were almost ready.. but she had been too slow.  That also implied these circumstances were all her own fault.  That realization haunted her, knowing that she had friends she could count on to pull through for her.. but when the situation was reversed, she proved to be far less dependable.

Rosa wasn’t going to let such a thing happen.  If she had made a mistake, she was going to own up to it.  Holi had provided them with a distraction to get this far, Rosa would just have to pick things up in the same way.  If she could distract the thing long enough, maybe Drew could get the turret working and then they would all be okay.  She was aware of the problem presented by that idea, it involved trying to dance around it again without getting smacked.  Even for a short delay, that really was asking for a lot.  However, much like last time, she still owed the thing a round of revenge, that was something she hadn’t yet achieved.  She walked straight towards the thing, having it then pausing its rampage to consider her.  She didn’t even wait, not even for any inner reaction she might have had too, she just came down on it with another holo to what would have been its face.  Of course, that only made it mad, such was only to be expected. Luring it away from the place, she kept her route of dodging, her holo strikes rapidly having less and less meaning.  She shifted to a complete defense, her dodging already getting difficult in the rage of attacks sent her way.  It really didn’t matter, she was only there stalling for time anyway.  However, she was quickly becoming insufficient for that as well, the things calculated sweeps suddenly having her slip in the snow and land on her back.  Well, that was that, she had no way to dodge the next strike nor to block it.  She could try to hit it with another holo, but again such a measure was too minor in energy to have any effect.  Only something supercharged with energy would work, something she couldn’t do on her own.

After all of such circumstances, all of her failures, all of the time where she simply couldn’t do anything.. and yet stuff just happened anyway.. she snapped.  The hells she wouldn’t do something.  In the finesse of the moment, she did feel something inside point out that she could call for some chaotic support.  To hells with that, get saved again?  If she had to depend on anything, it would be herself.. and if not that.. her other self.  A haze burst out around Rosa again, a move of desperation driven by instinct as she lost touch with herself.  While she had very little to work with scientifically, things were very different elementally.  This entire area was a saturation of the frost element, her own personal favourite.  Much like before, she shifted such an element to its sky counterpart.. and thunder boomed as a surge of lightning ruptured around them, the thing driven backwards in surprise at the high energy environment.  However, under elemental principles alone, the frost element wasn’t that highly affected by the sky element.  It advanced again, finding the same surge of lightning as it struck out.  This time, the haze vanished mid surge, the bolts causing fragments of the thing to instantly go inert and fade away.  Rosa then used another holo to provide herself a retreat.. only to get an even greater surprise.

As the haze faded, the stones in her knees once again resolved their slightly faded state.  When her holo was called using the OSIDF set directly against one of such stones, the propulsion of ionization flowed with an isotopic reaction, resulting in a beam of atomic force that collided with a hill in the distance, the snow melting along the entire path.  Such a reaction was quite the inverse of the static form of the absolute zero fiend, the dramatic shift of molecular form causing it to instantly dissolve completely.  The recoil of such a blast simultaneously threw Rosa far and wide, her protection working overtime against the radiation of a close proximity to a small atomic explosion.  Slamming hard to the ground, Rosa instantly lost consciousness.  She awoke in a medical bed, Kori at her side with worry.  At least.. Kori looked like she might have got a bit of rest.. even though she still looked really tired.

“Rosa!”  “Hi.. Kori.  I think I might have messed up again.”  “Are you kidding me?  I heard about the frosty mess out there, pretty sure I know what it is, but I also heard you nuked the thing.. actually pretty literally.  We got readings of a silicon isotope out there that was somehow impossibly unstable.  At least the half-life wasn’t bad, the place isn’t even dangerous anymore.. but that doesn’t explain how so much energy could discharge then either.  There was something about the most wild of a sudden storm too, I actually woke up because of the thunder.”  “I was probably mixing things I shouldn’t have.  I.. I found my own chaos too.  You might be able to manipulate time, as wild as that sounds.. but it sounds pretty normal when compared to me switching over world laws.  The pure opals underground, they make for some really good quality kyuemu shards.  Wait, silicon isotope.. Tristine said that opals are silicon based… I might have caused a destability in the opals by trying to draw the elements from it.  It might be a good idea to take them out of my knees then, probably isn’t healthy in their current state.”  Kori rushed to comply with such knowledge, quickly getting both stones extracted from Rosa.  Rosa meanwhile went to a state of half sleeping, not completely up to the idea of doing more.  Both stones were locked away for safe diagnosis while Rosa’s legs got additional treatment.

Rosa was only half paying attention to what was going on, her mind racing at what had happened.  She had done it, she had ended that thing, not even needing the big weapons in the process.  She was the big weapon.  Being a big weapon hurt though.. but it really was quite the thrilling feeling.  She had finally accomplished something serious, and didn’t even need anyone else’s help other than herself.  Technically accurate, she did need Lyun’s help there, but she’s sort of Lyun already, so it didn’t exactly count.  Even so, it did open a lot of other opportunities for her.. but it really did involve a lot of preparation first.  Such was something she could figure out.. when she felt a bit better.  Even Kori was starting to relax, with everything under control, Rosa could see Kori already asleep in another bed.  Certainly, no one would complain if she got some rest then too, right?

Unfortunately for Rosa, she found sleep would prove more elusive to her, her mind reeling in a swarm of thoughts she tried to shelve.  More than exchanging the laws of the world, it seemed as if Rosa had been capable of even exchanging such circumstances with Kori in the process.

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FV – Chapter 27

Inventory Control

Lyun found herself so tired that she had thus slept in very late into the dusk.  By the time she did finally wake up, she found Axln in a very zombie-like state, still unable to get even a wink of sleep.

“Axln, you look absolutely terrible.  Do you want me to get some kind of sleep instrument so that you can get some rest?”  “Nope, I’m good.  Considering everything that happened earlier, I think I would much rather not find myself under some strange influence.”  Lyun noticed Axln grasping a certain white glove while responding, the meaning not at all lost.  Axln was clearly feeling haunted by all of the chaos stuff, leaving her a complete wreck.  Lyun had no idea how she could help, but clearly her presence wouldn’t make sleep any easier, especially when she herself felt the need to get stuff done.  However, after making the finishing touches to the other power gear, she also discovered that her presence wasn’t being that constructive to anyone else getting sleep either, it had actually gotten a bit late.  Of course, that was only by the standards of this world, she could easily find energetic ways to be productive in the other.  The challenge would be dragging Axln around enough for them to complete a shift to that side.  Axln at least followed along with the plan, not wanting to be in the way.

Kori was then set into yet another bed soon after, still in much the same state as Axln had been at this point.  Their sleeping quarter with Hypertech was in one of the upper levels of the residential tower, leaving an overall trip from deep underground to high above it, and it didn’t help that the tower was still using a simple stairwell.  After Rosa ensured Kori had made it safely to a bed, Rosa made her way down to the ground floor and began looking into something to occupy herself with.  As uncertainty set in, she decided it might be best to start by checking in with Drew.  She wandered over to the main office and knocked on his door, getting a reasonably quick reply.  However, instead of the guy slipping out of his office discreetly as he had typically done, he instead motioned that she was allowed inside, his face showing that he visibly had a lot on his mind.  Walking inside, she had assumed his office would have looked a lot similar to Kori’s own, a scatter of processing units in a slew of documentation work.  While there were signs that some of such did exist, there was much more of something else.  Metal parts laid scattered across the hall, visibly unfinished but still a work in progress.  She couldn’t even tell what half of this stuff was trying to be, but there was still a subtle familiarity with it all.  Something about the layout suddenly started to remind her of her old workshop.

“Hey, welcome back.. and to my office I guess.  Sorry about the mess.  Listen, I was wondering if you two were aware exactly what sort of place you both had offered us.”  “A.. ruin in the middle of nowhere.”  “One which you two seem to vanish into frequently.  Then again, considering you both appear to absolutely vanish, I guess it might not be this place that is as interesting by itself.  We’ve already noticed all the strange singularities that have occurred every time you both leave as well as when you return, I sort of knew you were both here long before anyone even saw you.  I’ve even clued into such being related to all the fuss behind the whole Aerospace mess, the truth of why you were probably being detained before.  Still, that’s a completely different matter, one I don’t even hold against you at all, no one else even knows about it yet.  But what no one else seems to also understand is the exact nature of this place, especially its history.  It appears that, before humanity drove the conduits into the gutters of society, they had a quite established society of their own.  This site itself is actually one of their great capitals, a place that they held bastion for as long as they were capable.  Something about this place was a treasure to them, but humanity never cared.  To them, it was just a stronghold of their resistance, a fortification to be dismantled to put the conduits into place in the new society.  However, this location really wouldn’t have held any strategic importance, there was another reason then for keeping it so secure.”  Drew very clearly had been busy, Rosa was finding it pretty easy to tell why the guy might have had a lot on his mind.  Taking a seat, she listened intently to his report.

“I haven’t told anyone else about this yet, by the way.  I’m already feeling awkward walking all over what is basically the sacred ground of the conduit.  Being offered this space has already proven to be quite the honor, I don’t even know how we could ensure to pay proper respects in such light.  It would help if we understood why the conduit valued this place so much, but I guess such is asking too much.  It has been why I’ve been very thankful that Kori herself had been personally delivering reports about the place’s layout, so that we might not disturb something we shouldn’t.”  “Kori has told me that she honestly wishes she even knew anything about her own ancestral culture, she doesn’t know anything about the history of her people either.  Whatever secrets this place might have, you probably know more than she does at this point.”  “So, if I figure out anything interesting, I should let you both know.  Got it.”  Drew seemed slightly troubled by Rosa’s news, but he let it go.  He really couldn’t hold this against either girl anyway.

“So was this what you’ve been up to all this time?”  “Oh, you mean such research.  It was a bit, to be honest, but not quite everything.  As you can see, I have quite an interest in robotics and animatronics in general, it was my original inspiration into the industry.  I started with such things, and then just climbed the ladder until I found myself with more executive responsibilities.  Really though, I find it better to take the opportunity to return to my roots.  Quite honestly, that cybernetic work between the two of you.. really inspired me to try something new for myself.  I mean, it was my passion, but it kept being forgotten.”  “Oh, so that’s why you’ve been so secretive about it?”  “What?  Oh, no, not quite.  The others already know I do this sort of thing on occasion, but I guess, well, I had been working on a bit of a surprise.  Cat’s out of the bag now though.”  Rosa followed Drew as he went over to a counter space that had clearly been his latest efforts, the location generally clear of unrelated clutter.  Rosa couldn’t figure out what anything there even was, though she suspected one piece was a kind of ODIF.. how did that go again?  She was really bad with these names based upon letters.  She knew that the other side made convoluted names by pulling terms from the Mythos, but here she learned that the Mythos really loved using overly long names, then condensing it into a string of letters.  As she was still even getting used to such letters, it was really convoluted in her mind.

“This is an OSIDF DNTI, a Dynamic Nanotech Implant, or at least the parts of such.”  “Oh, so the thing is done?”  “It is a functional design, but I really don’t like it.  It was having some huge performance issues, the only solution I’ve found for such was a neural interface.”  “Is that bad?  Sorry, these details are far more Kori’s part in things than mine.”  “It means that the whole thing has to connect directly to someone’s mind in order to work properly.  It runs in the same way your mind delivers commands to the rest of your body, through your nerve system.  The whole thing gets attached directly to your spinal cord near your skull.  It’s pretty intimidating stuff, having technology that is so invasive inside a person.”  “Does it hurt?”  “It might hurt a little at first, but it uses nanotechnology, most of the pain is just the insertion, it honestly takes no real space once inside.  Such a thing would couple well with existing cybernetic infrastructure, drawing from an OSIDF unit to produce dynamic holo constructs.  It would be like painting with a holo made by your mind.  Considering you were communicating in drawing that whole time in captivity, I thought the idea would be pretty neat.  I was planning on offering the design to you, for your own use, but I can’t in my right mind offer something as intrusive as a neural uplink.”  Rosa’s eyes brightened the more details Drew presented to her.  Constructing a holo design from the mind, wasn’t that pretty close to how the gift worked?  She desperately wanted to try this thing out, the complications sounding totally worth it.  Nanotechnology, that would basically be the same basic premise as the nanites.  It wouldn’t be as smart as one, but it would be her own mind that would be doing the smarts.

Drew had given in with that, though they had called in Holi to help with the installation.  With such skilled help, the process didn’t even take very long, though it did leave her with a bit of a headache.. mostly because of the medication.  It seemed her neck was still rather swollen and sore from the process as well.  The rest of the attachments were things she didn’t even notice, her knees fitting such other components rather easily.  She found out that there was even one which Kori could use too if she was so interested, but that would have to wait for after Kori was back on her feet.  While waiting for things to settle, she had also learned from Holi that there was a call that had come in for her while she was away.  Something about her sister having checked up on her, the same one she had kept forgetting to contact.  Holi meanwhile had gotten Drew’s permission to offer Sophie a trip to the new Hypertech, so she would be on her way soon.  However, it might still be difficult to locate the place from so far away in the valley of snow.  Someone would have to set a beacon up on one of the hills so that Sophie wouldn’t get lost along the way.  Feeling generally responsible for this neglect, while being appreciative for the present, Rosa had been quick to offer herself for the job.

Thus, Rosa found herself out in the cold again carrying a rather heavy parcel through the snowy landscape, up a hill.  Holi however had come along, something about offering to lift the package for her with a holo.  Rosa jumped as inspiration struck, that was perfect.  She went over to an area of open air, her mind focused upon the area as one of her experiences had often received training in.  A sheet of holo appeared in the air, though she found no problems passing through it.  Right, these things also needed a kinetic factor, a part of the same technology.  Still focused upon the same idea, she attuned her creation accordingly, then successfully setting the package upon it.  That done, the next problem she found was that the whole thing couldn’t be moved.  Oh, she had the kinetic factor too high, it was all immobile.  Carefully processing her adjustments, she managed to balance things evenly so that the package’s weight was supported, but the whole thing could be moved.  Most people might have set the holo to a stable surface and basically dragged it along, but that took too much effort for Rosa.  Instead, she pulsed the creation of the holo so that it played out like a mobile animation, shifting rapidly forward in a sequence of frames.  The process was very slow at first, but as she got used to how such worked, she found things going about as quickly as she was comfortable walking.  Holi just walked along with her, not having any idea what to say to these events.

Reaching her destination potentially far easier than she should have, she had the whole package set itself down carefully.  Feeling proud of herself, she even managed to get the whole thing unpacked and set up by herself too, a beam of light shining into the distance.  Her goal met, she turned to descend back down the hill, even proceeding a short distance away.. before a chill ran up her spine.  Streaks of intense frost streaked across the ground towards her from behind, bringing a deep freeze far superior to the cold air.  Turning around, she came to face a solid white mass of intense cold, moving without discernible shape.  The thing stared at her just as she stared at it, a sense of familiarity building between them both.  Catching herself being compelled to just advance into it’s cold embrace, she was instantly aware of what she faced.  Much like the void monster that Axln had dealt with, that Lyun herself had gotten an opportunity with very briefly in another timeline, this was another fiend of chaos.  However, in light of such memories, her previous failure to rush in and make a difference, something Axln had to instead step in for her.. Rosa was compelled instead to an opportunity for revenge.

Her biggest problem however remained that she simply wasn’t even as prepared as she was back then.  She still did not simply have nothing.  Remaining focused upon her target, a slash of holo crashed down onto it from above.  The thing however weathered the strike with little concern, though such was enough to enrage it.  As the beast tried to strike, Rosa formed up a holo barrier of full kinetic factor, but with the barrier fading on impact.  Rosa still was then given enough opportunity to dodge, but the package she had brought was shattered by the blow.  The wave of cold in turn also froze the very snow into a sheet of ice, having Rosa slip a long distance down the hill before she caught herself with her own holo.  Struggling to her feet on the holo, Rosa tried to consider her options.. only to find the thing already upon her.  It was viciously fast, dodging it was difficult, she wasn’t even certain she could outrun it.  Was there even any point in trying?

“This thing is a dense concentration matching the same composition of your arm, which means it’s a state of zero energy.  A high energy burst would very likely disrupt it’s stability, possibly even vapourize it.  Holos are things of energy, but they are very energy conserved, visibly such low energy outputs aren’t enough to faze it at all.  Meanwhile, this thing seems to easily consume energy quantities too inferior to it, considering its dark matter composition.  Even the beacon there wasn’t enough to slow it down.  We have nothing here that might stop it, but there is only one thing that might slow it down.  Run back to Drew, tell him what had happened and tell him to get the weapon systems online.  Ionic laser batteries, plasma particle cannons, those are some serious energy weapons.  If anything we have might stop this thing, it would be some high density weapons like those.”  “Wait, why me, why not…?”  “Like I said, we have only one thing that might slow him down… well, one or a few billion.  A high concentration of plasma cores set to overload all at once would be a very efficient way to slow this thing down.  Don’t argue, just run, I won’t be able to slow it down for very long.”  The holo that was Holi vanished at that point as the air around Rosa started to heat up quickly.  The nanites were all primed to overload their cores in order to provide Rosa the room to escape and seek help, and Rosa knew it was too late to even argue.

Wiping her eyes, she hopped down the hill from holo to holo, ensuring the stability of her footing in the process.  Right around the bottom of the hill, she had to catch herself with a holo as she was flung forwards by a catastrophic blast, the detonation generating some considerable smoke and a blue flame.  Her ears still ringing, Rosa got back up and continued to run.  For having original aspirations to gain revenge, this really wasn’t going according to plan.  Rosa was still devastated at Holi’s sacrifice, but made sure to follow her last instructions.  The whole place was in a flurry quickly after that, people running around to make their best attempt at getting the defenses online.  However, left in disarray all this time, absolutely nothing was functional.  This was bad, really bad, they didn’t have time for these delays.  As Rosa ran around in the confusion, she found herself colliding with Tristine.

“Oh, Rosa, perfect, I need your help.  I figured out what our biggest problem might be, for getting things working around here.  I’m not an ionics technician for nothing, big deal repairs are what I do.  I’ve seen these signs before, the biggest problem going on here is visibly a generator station failure.  Drew hadn’t let me go check out this kind of stuff before for some reason, but now seems to be quite the exception.  The guy is already quite busy, but you’re good with machines too.  Follow me.”  Tristine didn’t even leave any opportunity for a reply.  Generator stations?  Getting things to work would be a requirement for what Holi sent her to do, but this was only making things more complicated.  Rosa certainly wasn’t skilled enough to help with something that big, not even in the other world.  She only ever tinkered in the small things, never anything so architectural.  Something like this was totally beyond her.  Sure, maybe if she borrowed some of the immensity of the temporal plane… No no no!  She just wished Kori was here right now, the woman knew so much about this stuff, understood so much, things would have been so much easier.  Of course, Kori wasn’t in much of a capacity right now, not with her level of exhaustion.  Rosa could tell there was something more to all that exhaustion too, Kori would have easily even made mistakes as a result.  Kori had come to Rosa’s rescue too much as things stood, such a pattern couldn’t be left to continue.  This was more than she had ever achieved before, but it was still something she had to do.

As is, it wasn’t even as if Rosa was alone, she still had Tristine helping her.  The woman had already isolated that the generator station would be underground below the ruins, even had pinpointed a prime location for such a thing.  There was a bit of concern about a decent access point, but Tristine still managed to figure that out while Rosa was still trying to figure out what was going on.  However, they quickly found their path obstructed, a bunch of heavy plates having collapsed in the way.  Tristine saw no other way, they would have to go back and figure out how to bring some heavy equipment here.  Rosa looked at the formation, almost instinctively piecing the entire formation like an overglossed puzzle.  Some very distinct movements could cause things to move correctly, but it required some excessive strength in some very tight spaces in some very precise locations.  She could just take the whole thing out by opening a temporal breach.. that was always an option.. one she simply had no use for.  Focusing on key locations, she set holo points carefully, extended the kinetic factor, then expanded the framework.  Stepping back, the entire mesh of plates collapsed to the sides, the way through opened.  Tristine passed Rosa a very inquisitive look, a moment where Rosa felt a bit of pride in having actually accomplished something, before leading the way down.

The area got incredibly dark very quickly, almost unnaturally so.  Even after Tristine pulled out a tiny ionic lantern, the very darkness of the walls seemed to devour such light.  Checking a bit closer, Rosa discovered that such was the case specifically because the walls were actually naturally solid black, with only trace patterns of white filaments scattered through the stone.  As they continued along the path, this collective of stone continued to persist.  Along the way, Tristine found a loose sample and started observing it as they travelled, just in case this wasn’t exactly safe.  Rosa wasn’t sure, something about this was both comforting and.. repelling.  She couldn’t quite pinpoint what might be causing those feelings either.  Quite certainly, having Tristine on the job was great, she would have needed Holi’s help otherwise.. at least maybe Kori.  She certainly wasn’t the most qualified in this area.

“It’s a silica mineral with a lot of crystalline composites.  Gosh, this is like some kind of gem mine or something, it’s so rich in the stuff.  It has some definite quartz qualities, with the moganite’s parallel banding makes it seem more like onyx than agate.  Is this even natural?  I can’t even detect much iron oxidation, it’s nothing like sardonyx.”  “So, this is a gem?”  “Yes, a silica one, so silicon dioxide.  At the very least, that makes it pretty harmless, so it’s not a concern.  You can look at it if you want.”  Tristine passed Rosa the stone sample, her gloved hand sinking in dread at the close proximity.  However, much as Tristine had expressed, the thing really was harmless, it was actually sort of pretty.  She looked at it a while more as they progressed, before simply putting it away.  It was rather fascinating, but they really had more immediate troubles.  That thing from before was certainly on its way, there were people counting on them getting stuff working down here.

However, as the two of them continued deeper towards the generator, Rosa was still uncertain if she could be any more useful than the rock they had just discovered.  Much like her, it was little more than just an interesting oddity that was simply just hanging around.

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FV – Chapter 26

Time Management

Axln was locked in a frame of pure white, a scene that faded quickly after.  To her surprise, she fell off her bed and collapsed to the floor.

Axln was muddled in her consideration of the whole scene, as if she might have awakened from a bad dream.  Checking her timepiece, she found the time was 24:73e.  She then pulled out her cell, noticing that a call from Xwyhr had just recently ended.  She very obviously had not just fallen asleep.  Getting up again, she stumbled a bit, her leg not responding as well as it should have.  Checking it out, she noticed that her leg was slightly pale.  Adjusting her circlet, she found that there were trace elements of void.. right around where she had taken that injury.  Rushing over to Lyun, she found the girl in a fairly deep sleep, also with a lot of internalized void, but herself gradually recovering in her current circumstances.  It was as if everything had both actually happened and .. had yet to happen at all.  Clearly, she needed to talk to someone, especially considering how much her ignorance of the elements was haunting her.  It may have really been foolish to ignore such principles, something as foolish as if she was Kori and ignoring principles of science in everyday life.  Considering this critically, she made her way to the observatory, finding her sister there relaxing as she watched the stars.

“Oh, hey Axln, didn’t expect you would come to a place like this.  What brings you here anyway.”  “Oh, I.. just thought you might be here.”  “Weird, I came here on a whim, no idea how you might have predicted that.”  “I guess you could have just called it a feeling of my own.  Sorry, I was feeling pretty bad for harping on you about your studying, especially considering how my own have been going.  Pretty sure, if I had to deal with a sudden test of my own knowledge of the elements, it would be a disaster.  I mean, I’ve been getting some pretty good lessons about it.. but I probably haven’t been putting as much into that sort of thing as maybe I should have.”  “Ha!  You know.. Yhzia didn’t like to study things like instrumentation or elements either.  It’s a wonder she somehow became friends with someone like Lyun, who was like all about instruments.  Once though, I heard Yhzia had apologies to Lyun about it, some sort of scene where she pretty much had to throw Lyun in for her cause she didn’t know enough about it.  Yhzia told me she felt horrible for using Lyun like that.  Something about sort of following along with all the work Lyun was doing, but that she probably wasn’t putting enough into that sort of thing as she should have.”  Xwyhr was probably trying to help Axln feel better, but honestly it reminded Axln about what her decisions were actually doing.  Of course, in much the same way, neglecting such things simply made for more work for Lyun to do.  Such was why Lyun had to try and save her.. and then failed.

The two opened a bit of conversation on the elements, though it wasn’t exactly a practical conversation, and it was rather long winded.  Xwyhr had some minor fascination with the elements, but most in some of what had inspired her current studies.  One day, after an evaluation of their gift, they had discovered that the whole family had a neat devotion to the same element, in matters of stone.  She herself happened to be good with rocks, and it so happened that rocks even fascinated her.  However, the stones of the world were mostly ashen, so she turned her attention to other worlds that might have stones she had never seen.  She had hoped to grow up to be a cosmic explorer, so that she might get to witness other worlds.  Yhzia herself had a gift that focused strongly on metals, which had then built her infatuation with the mythos and all of the indepth usage of metals that were promoted there.  Their parents were already both explorers, having gone quite the distance in the process to different corners of the world.  Actually, her mother was supposedly currently on one of the two moons while her father was off in a crystal factory.  He himself had a gift for crystals, but his wife was actually more attuned to wind.  As a family, they had always considered their mother an honorary member of the stone, her heart was in the right place.  The saying was, they got their element from their father and their desire to travel from their mother.  It made Xwyhr really proud to learn that it appeared Axln herself was attuned to sand, there was an instrument handy there which identified things like that.  To her, it made Axln yet another complete member of the family.

Suddenly there was the sound of a loud crash that echoed across the entire academy.  Xwyhr ran over to the observation instrument and used it to get a good look, a process which seemed to take a lot of effort.  After a gasp, Axln took her own turn getting to see what there was to see.  Off in the distance, at the edge of the academy, there was a giant swirling mass of white which had just finished smashing into the academy’s protection against the void, the thing having then failed spectacularly.  Streaks of white streamlined into the academy from the breach as the thing pressed forward, obliterating everything in its path without reservation.  It.. it was the same monstrosity from before.. or last time.  She looked at what time it was, noticing it was now 35:94e.  She instantly bolted from the observatory, her mind racing.  That thing had then shown up regardless of her being out there or not, it was completely inevitable.  By sticking here, she had only ran away from the problem, with things panning out just as she had assumed they would have if she had actually ran away there too.  This was her second try, and she had already messed up.  Would she even be allowed a third?  Was doing so even safe?  Wouldn’t it be better to find another way, such as forcing it back through a tear into the chaos.

Axln shook her head sharply, diffusing such impulses.  No chaos.. not unless it was her own.  Entrapping her expectations within herself, she crouched to the floor, her eyes firmly shut as to block out anything else.  However, in such a precarious position, she eventually stumbled forward, landing onto her pillow.  Taking account of her surroundings, she went immediately to her timepiece, feeling a bit weak and dizzy in the process as she confirmed the time as being 24:73e once again.  It felt like she was feeling especially drained, even though she had been a lot better an instant or two ago.  Very obviously, reversing the flow of time was taking her own resources, it was something she was doing for herself.  Such was the good news, it was not only a capability of her own chaos finally revealed, it was something she could use without inviting more temporal chaos.  The bad news in turn was that as such her resources weren’t infinite, she couldn’t afford to keep reversing time.  If she had to go back again, it was all too possible that she might be too weak to get the job done.  She had to make everything work this time.

In consideration of such, she knew she wasn’t all that prepared, she had very little to work with.  What she had learned in the process was that her opponent couldn’t endure a saturation of the elements.  Lyun had demonstrated that with the thing she had brought.  That was it!  Lyun had been working on such a project, with it then being workably complete.  Axln rushed over to where such a project would have been stored, finding it quickly stashed away.  The thing was honestly just a scatter of the big pieces she had seen previously, but putting everything on in the correct positions resulted in a mesh of crystals that she felt covering her skin all over her body.  The crystals then integrated with her cybernetics, connecting firmly in response.  Axln was stunned, such was basically this world’s version of an exo suit using cybernetic technology.  More than even feeling like another layer of clothes, it felt as intuitive as another layer of skin.  It even had a built-in ashen protector, a touch Lyun had personally added.  Knowing she wouldn’t have time for more, Axln took the opportunity to leave.

She arrived at the same ashen dune by 34:09e, leaving her with a bit of time to try and prepare.  She turned her attention to the entire gear, realizing she had no idea how anything worked.  It wasn’t as if she had anything handy like at the observatory where they had something which could just see her own aspect of the gift.  Actually, she did, didn’t she?  Turning to her circlet, she revised it to a detailed scan mode, something which could provide information on the capacity of things, especially related to the elements.  She was still a fair novice to the elements, but she still remembered them all.  Light and Dark, Sky and Stone, Fire and Frost, Water and Wood.  Brought to balance, life resulted, and when drained away, only the void remained.  Her gear was a combination of a series of instruments, all working simply by the complete connection in unity.  The first thing her sight was able to grasp about it was that whatever elements were provided, those elements would be greater as a result.  An amplifier?  Then wouldn’t she still actually need an element to offer in the first place?

The sudden shift of white in her environment revealed to her that she was out of time.  Dashing back reflexively, she witnessed the white fracture fade away as the mass of void resolved in place of it.  Once again, the thing looked at her inquisitively, and once again she was compelled in the same way.  Such was not the answer she was looking for, she needed something that was more of her own abilities, a gift she gave to herself.  A gift.. of course!  Xwyhr said that she had her own natural talent with an element too, that she was strongly attributed to dust.  If she could harness her own inner power, she could wield that amplified to her own offense.  Actually.. hadn’t she already done that before?  She could faintly recall commanding dust at the citadel to quite a magnificent effect.  Of course, something there was keeping her at an excessive performance, but she could still trust in her own natural ability.  Leaping into the air, remaining focused, she unfurled her crystalline hand as a shower of dust descended with her, slashing down upon the fiend.  The thing enraged as a result, lashing out at her retreating frame as portions of the void faded away.  Realizing she was too fast, the thing got smart and slashed upwards with the ground, a rain of boulders wailing towards her after having been separated from the ground.

It was like a return of her own attack, stone for stone, but this one was much bigger.  Her focus shifted at that, seeking anything that might protect her.. as a barrier came to life around her.  Such a barrier looked all too familiar, similar in design to the barrier used by the colossal, the stone bounding off it harmlessly.  The elements as a whole were on her side.  Returning for another dust claw strike, she managed to slice the thing another four times.  Before the fifth try, the thing instead uppercut her with a geyser of the void.  Such a strike connected with her shield, which rapidly started to fail.  Wait, her shield wasn’t designed to deal with the void?  That really did suck, she needed protection for the void right now.  Wait.. didn’t she already have one?  Turning to her ashen protector, she interweaved it’s functionality into her shield, extending the same concept into that as well.  However, the next time she was struck, such a shield still flickered, just not as much.  It was an improvement, but she was dealing with something that was far greater in design, it was made with pure chaos.

Technically, to a degree, so was she.  Pressing upon herself, she drove her very being into the weave of the shield, her own chaos fitting into the design.  The shield around her then went a solid pure white, while she herself felt a sting of some form of pain.  She felt a sudden impulse, that if it was chaos she needed, there was a far greater source she could use, it would then easily be provided.  No, this was something she had to do for herself, it was her own trial, this was something she knew.  What she did not know was that the one element that was effectively the flow of power for all instrumentation was fire, the element that shaped the energy wielded from the core of every instrument.  The power source meanwhile was a kyuemu shard, a fragment made from pure void.  Fire was the best element for forging destruction, it flowed easily with the void in the presence of the elements.  So once she unleashed her next dust claw strike on the beast, the sand flowed with the void of her own design, and the flame of her instrumentation erupted in an augmented state.  Such a flame fused with her sand, reshaping it into a glass volley.  Such a flame though was trained, it was to work with the other elements, to build and build and build.  The glass swirled in mid flight, growing into outright lances that struck down in force.  Such a flame, having been blessed by void already, fused into a glass form, felt the taste of another void in much the same nature as it had been blessed by.  The glass spread in full around the abomination, weaving through it as an infinitely designed augmentation, consuming all of the void in the process. Once the glass weave was too much for its own design, it shattered, the ground below gaining a brown color in a response to the saturation of elements.  For a moment, life had been brought to the void.

Lyun stopped in her approach, staring at the sight.  What had Axln done, should it have even been possible?  It was like a burst of raw elements, small traces that had grown way beyond control into a burst of life.  She was wearing ashen protective gear, but as she approached she didn’t even feel the need for it.  However, even being so impressive, such was not enough, the colors very slightly shifting to white within the ashen wasteland.  This sanctuary would not last for very long, but it did exist for now.  Axln however had fallen over into the brown dirt, having worn herself out.  Lyun at least noticed now where that suit had gone, its partner having still been under construction.  At the same time, she found Axln’s cell with an incoming call, which Lyun took for Axln.

“Hello.”  “Oh, hey, you’re not Axln.  What happened to my sister, Lyun?”  “Your sister is fine, she just wore herself out.  She really pushed herself hard there.”  “That was her, wasn’t it?  I saw it at the observatory.  By the divine, what in the hells happened?”  “That’s what I’m hoping to learn, I missed most of it.  I only showed up in time to see that rush of elements.”  “Oh, really?  That’s all I caught too.  Is the ground there really brown, not white, or is my stuff dirty?”  “No, this is brown.”  “Wait right there, I have got to see this for myself.”  “Sure, I don’t think we’re going anywhere anyway.”  Lyun ended the call with Xwyhr with a sigh.  She really wasn’t sure she could endure a confrontation with Xwyhr right now, she was still feeling a bit tired.  Even so, maybe it would be a good opportunity to at least return the girl’s house key, something which had still gone all too forgotten.  Also, it wasn’t as if that freaky lizard was with her either, she shouldn’t worry so much.  She probably also shouldn’t blame the girl for concern too, she had only just learned about losing a sister, this concern over another sister was probably pretty reasonable.

Axln woke up to find herself with company who were both being very uncharacteristic.  Lyun looked like she was researching a dirt sample, while Xwyhr was staring at something in her hands in a still silence.  Axln however found herself in a sudden hug as Xwyhr took notice that Axln was finally awake, still not saying a word.  Okay then.  Axln took an opportunity to at least check the time, noticing that it was now 40:16e.  Maybe it might be best for them all to just get back to the academy, things were definitely far more comfortable there.  At least everyone was finally alright, it had taken so much out of Axln, but everything was going to be fine now.  Even so, there was a chance they could end up seeing more things like that, she would need to take what she learned in the confrontation and maybe work out some kind of defensive plan.  It did appear that concentrating a burst of amplified elements did a lot to take care of things.  It just didn’t help that she didn’t understand much about such elemental principles.  Both were things she should probably take an opportunity to discuss with Luna.

“Now that I think about it, where is Luna anyway?  Would have expected her to be here too, considering how driven she’s been to look after me?”  “What?  Don’t you remember?  She’s still down after that accident yesterday, you were telling me all about it while you had me go over some of that elemental stuff with you.  I hope you at least didn’t forget that lesson, I gave up some study time to help you out with that, you know.  You were even telling me just earlier this dawn that you got confirmation that at least an expert was going to show up to look after her health and get her back on her feet.  You even seemed so excited about it, even though you said that Lyun was the one who pulled it off.”  Axln was completely baffled by this exchange with Xwyhr, none of that making sense to her at all.  She turned to Lyun, who looked equally confused.  However, after making the long trek back, they found the room where Luna was being kept in recovery, some of the local staff doing what they could so that she was properly looked after.  Xwyhr meanwhile went back to her own stuff, though even she probably had no idea what that might be yet.  Axln and Lyun then together went back to their underground suite, still with a lot on their mind.

“So.. just checking.. but when I went out to go check on you out in the ashen wild, I could swear I had just done that before.  I can still sort of remember going out there to fight.. a thing.. and then I think I got hurt…”  “That sort of happened, though I guess then only the two of us are able to witness when we go back in time.  I mean, that was when I had discovered I could do it.. and I guess we went back together.  It does seem to take a lot out of me, though, which was a weird feeling.  Spending your own chaos is.. weird.”  “Wait, so that was a chaos thing?  That was your chaos thing?”  “That was actually my third try, though you probably slept through the second one.  You had a pretty nasty injury there, which fortunately went away.”  “Yeah, but now Luna got injured somehow.  You don’t seem to remember anything about it either.  An expert, Ezhyrae?  Did I call Ezhyrae?  Wait, my cell says I did!  When?  I would have certainly remembered that call.  It says I called just last dawn, but I distinctly remember realizing that I had left my cell in this room when I had rushed off, leaving me to work on stuff without having it handy.  How would I have done a call if I didn’t even have it?”  “The butterfly effect?  Sorry, not sure if that’s a phrase you would know.  I mean consider the chances that, having gone back in time, a few other bits of history would then end up being rewritten in the process.  Messing with time is pretty big stuff, it would have some rather hefty consequences.”  Lyun was rather troubled by the weight of Axln’s theory.  Would that mean that the chaos they each possessed, even if it wasn’t the version that would try to eat worlds, it was still a power that came with considerable responsibility.  Time.. that really was no light thing, there was absolutely nothing that could rewrite it as far as she knew.  It might be possible to have time go faster or slower, but never simply jump back in time.  If Axln’s chaotic power was in something so significant, what sort of impossible power might Lyun have that defies all reason?

Soon after, the two of them found each other exactly where they had begun.  Lyun had fallen asleep as her worries washed over her, while Axln’s worries were successfully keeping her wide awake in all of her exhaustion.

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FV – Chapter 25

Orderly Distribution

Another nine days passed since the temporal visit, time the girls spent immersing themselves in normal routines.  With how simple things had gotten in that time, it was all too easy to feel relaxed.

Through that time, Axln devoted her time to her studies, with her efforts landing her with a base reading comprehension even without her circlet.  She had even adjusted her speech to a really believable accent, she had all of the sounds down really well.  In turn, her studies had shifted more to a research of instrumentation and elements, possibly her weakest areas of knowledge at this point.  Considering she had a knack for revising the function of an instrument so long as the principles flowed correctly, it was obvious that her understanding of the extent of such principles was a limitation of her own abilities.  However, as the greatest expert in the Terran Mythos in the world by virtue alone of having lived a life with such technology, she was spending quite a lot of time with archivers who had questions of their own records.  It didn’t help that, after all this time, the mythos had really lost track of reality, overall feeling far more like a strange science fiction than what she had really experienced.  That was not to say that she was ignorant to such fictions made reality though, the starlight citadel was still pretty much that made real.  Luna had even started offering rift transit to the citadel so that they could unload that treasure cache she had found, a brand new vault of the archives made simply for the storage and research of the stuff found there.

Xwyhr had even shown up at a point, taking Axln out shopping as had originally been promised.  Since then, Axln had unexpectedly found herself the proud owner of what was being called a cell.  The small communications instrument was also a research utility, clearly similar to the cellphones back on earth.. the similarity of name possibly not being a coincidence.  The similarities ended pretty quickly after that though, the instrument being far too advanced for the name.  The thing was about as information exposed as a holo, able to take readings and scans, she hadn’t even yet figured out the full extent of its capabilities either.  Sure, she had to actually physically carry it, but the thing was completely in tune with the elements, it was an actual multi-tool device.. instrument.. whatever.  Such a novelty took a lot of her attention, even though Xwyhr still had plenty else to show her.  It seems Axln’s sister was a cosmetology student, actively researching cosmic bodies of the stars.  Axln had to wonder though if Xwyhr was finding such studies boring, because the girl had honestly started spending quite a lot of opportunities to instead just casually go places around the academy to simply spend time with her, doing nothing actually important.  As a result at least, Axln had gotten really used to the layout of the entire academy, exploring new areas each night and day.

Lyun meanwhile had been finding plenty of opportunities to do her own tinkering.  One of her most ambitious projects had been to work upon the power armor suits they had found.  The things were a marvel of instrumentation, with a lot of key units that processed functions even she remained unaware of.  However, everything was so bulky, the scatter of instruments packed into a density of metal that felt more like space padding.  Even without deducing what stuff could do, everything could be dramatically compressed, units the size of her hand reduced to a sliver of the size.  Most of the processing occurred in the base unit, a tiny thing that took almost no space at all, so much space was wasted simply in elemental saturation.  The thing used some of the worst capacitors she had ever seen, not even using a decent kyuemu shard.  Simply reducing the areas around instruments broke down the size of everything to being little more in size than the shard and core themselves, like really tiny buttons.  The bulky metals were yet another thing.  Of course, it was obvious that the purpose was to provide protection, but such expensive metals were just simply inefficient, even rather slow.  Sure, it was an appeal of the Mythos, but she had seen real mythos protection, either a holo’s kinetic factor or a sheet of metal that had a visibly low destiny factor.  In fact, she had worked with cybernetics, core metals that could compact material durability at a very light density.  If such protection wasn’t as light as casual clothes without compromising in this current durability, it wasn’t good enough.  More so, crystal composites were perfectly okay, there was much more she could do with some good minerals than some difficult metals anyway.  At least, that’s how things were here.

Across the temporal plane, Rosa was perfectly fine working with metals that were far more usable on this side.  Helping out with some of the construction efforts was actually proving to be a bit of fun, even if her projects were far more small scale than the buildings the others were practically printing out in volume.  The ruins were already cleared up, a lot of the base infrastructure for basic buildings in place, several core buildings already done.  The area even had an OSIDF barrier set up to protect against the cold.  What was missing then was basic accommodations for daily living, leaving her the chance to assemble some rather interesting machines to help with basic comforts.  Her first machine was little more than an ionic lamp, something Tristine had helped her figure out, something Drew had even complimented her on for the really sleek design.  However, it wasn’t as if she had nearly as much opportunity to focus upon things like this as she had on the other side.. as Lyun had.  Getting even that distinction in her head was a rough process, but it wasn’t the only thing she had to learn.

Just like Axln, Rosa had plenty she had to study just to fit in properly.  What was making that especially clear was how HyperTech’s official blueprints actually came with substantial documentation.. stuff she couldn’t even read.  Holi had been around to help with that, but it was proving to be really awkward.  To deal with such problems, Rosa had been taking a lot of her time working with Holi to actually try to improve her vocal and reading skills, to catch up to the quality Axln was capable of.  She had at least made good progress on the accent, a thing she even tried to practice as Lyun while working over there, but reading was a lot harder.  When it came to matters of relevant lessons though, what she was absolutely fascinated by was lessons of the sciences.  Biology, chemistry, physics, the laws of this world.  She had thought the eight elements of the other world were in depth, to think this world had over a hundred.  As a result, she had the periodic table of elements memorized before she knew the alphabet.

Kori had meanwhile spent time looking around the ruins, having her nanites assist her in the search.  It was like talking a walk into the past, seeing a scene from before the conduits had simply given up.  The place was quite the serious stronghold, titanium alloys reinforcing barricades around decommissioned ionic laser battery towers, a weapon which would have caused some serious damage to invaders.  Further in, she even found a plasma particle cannon turret.  The whole thing was like some kind of war museum.  Her surveillance proved very useful for all of the construction efforts, though she did try to help out with a few more direct things, mostly still in measures of planning.  She had noticed that Drew had become especially busy, and not all of that was him remaining focused upon construction supervision, the guy was actually being quite secretive in most of his spare time.  Tristine had at least let Kori know that such was pretty normal of the guy, he almost always had his own personal projects to work upon, though he wasn’t usually so closed-door about it all.

By far, the hardest part about shuffling between worlds was sustaining a decent amount of sleep.  It might have been nine days, which would classically be eighteen cycles of wake and sleep, but with each side having different definitions of when either would occur, it proved difficult to stay adjusted.  The two of them spent a lot of time sleeping while people worked, even occasionally sleeping during the times both worlds were sharing a waking state.  Left in such a daze, each girl had to often take a moment to recall which of their two selves they happened to be at that time, which world they actually were currently in, which laws currently applied.  Shifting rapidly between the laws of two different worlds, they were also left in a flux of the two different schedules, making it harder to keep track of both time and space.  The warning they had in the temporal plane was no joke, trying to keep up awareness on this stuff was no easy task.

In line with the same lesson, it was also stressful that they were having troubles building an awareness of more than just the four of the two, they had made no progress on the one of the two either.  The original impressions they had of the link held between each other had faded too, they weren’t blending into silent messages anymore, in fact they couldn’t figure out how to do it anymore either.  There weren’t any signs of the aforementioned chaotic abilities either.  The one thing they had noticed was that they were having a few different compulsions to unleash chaos, and it was happening with a bit of a growing frequency.  Axln could just very well command the temporal like it was nanites, wouldn’t that make her research even easier?  Lyun knew that instruments were empowered by the void, couldn’t then the temporal give her an indisputable edge?  Rosa meanwhile could shape so much from a frost mold that would then be so easy to take down.  Kori in turn would have no problems safely researching dangerous equipment, such a thing wouldn’t be able to hurt her at all.  Constantly turning away from the voice from without, they were unable to hear the voice from within.

So by the dusk of the ninth day, Axln was both exhausted and restless.  Her timepiece read that it was 24 moments into the evening, specifically 24:73e.  Morning, afternoon, evening, night, each was a hundred moments long, with each moment a hundred instants.  She had this system down to an art.  It was so distinct, but it tracked the same rate of time as Aestus did, just with different units.  Over there, at this time, it was pretty much a good opportunity to get some rest.  Lyun herself was already on that, considering how much work Rosa had just recently finished accomplishing.  Axln meanwhile had only just recently got back from a call from her sister, the energy proving a bit too contagious.  It had appeared that Xwyhr was currently trying to study for a big test, and so thus had quite the volume to say about an unfair curriculum.  Considering how hard Axln herself was studying of late, she couldn’t really offer much sympathy.  It had however taken the better part of ten moments to actually convince Xwyhr that it might be more productive to study than to complain about it, even if the girl had only taken that as reasons for clearing her mind instead of being stuck on the problem.

In the midst of trying to find rest out of the whole ordeal, pondering her complaints of circumstances upon her pillow, Axln suddenly realized she wasn’t doing any better than her own sister.  In that light.. actually maybe Xwyhr had the right idea after all.  Axln picked up an ashen protector instrument from the archives and left the academy, finding a quiet place in the middle of nowhere.  Sitting upon an ashen dune, she just looked around at the vast expanse of scenery around her.  The white ashen looked a lot like snow in this environment, but sitting around it proved it had a few more things in common with sand.  The stuff was basically a thin white powder, almost like flour.  However, she knew it was pretty deadly stuff, the kyuemu ash really was ash of the void, the stuff left when no life remained.  Compared to her arm though, the stuff was actually gentle, it wasn’t as devoid of the elements.  Such was exactly like the contrast on the other side, the snow was deadly cold, but it wasn’t as cold as absolute zero.  If she didn’t have her instrument, she could probably manage a moment.. maybe even two.. before she got sick.  As things stood, with her instrument, she would have all the time she might need.

By then it was only 28:16e, with her relaxing in the ashen just staring out into the bleak wilderness.  A desolation, there was nothing to look at, but being occupied with the process left her nothing else to reflect upon.  Zoning out though, she did catch herself reflecting upon how her arm could always bring more comforts like this if she did so wish.  Of course, like all her other considerations, she dismissed that one too.  It was perfectly okay if nothing happened right now, things were good just the way they were.  Checking the time again, she found it was now 34:59e.  Thankfully feeling a lot more relaxed, she decided that it might be a good opportunity to go back, maybe get some actual rest.  Getting up and brushing the ashen away from her attire, she turned back towards the academy.  As she did so, the ashen drifted past her from behind, a burst of white saturating outwards from behind her.  Alarmed at the familiarity, she spun around to determine what had happened.

Towering behind her was an amalgamation of shapeless white, the ashen below it drained away until nothing remained.  This horror advanced towards her, very clearly curious about her, somehow compelled.  Despite all fears, Axln could feel a growing sense of familiarity with the monstrosity, a compulsion to just give in to it.  Such compulsions were more horrifying than the abomination before her, as she was aware of what such could imply.  This was an entity of chaos, the origins of her mark, and it resolved beyond the temporal plane as an aspect of absolute void.  Such a thing was capable of two things if she let it, it could either corrupt her into sharing in its own chaos or it could simply consume her and leave no remains.  If neither suited her tastes, which was certainly the case, her options were to fight or flee.  If she fled, someone else would have to continue her fight for her, and certainly that would be a problem too.

“Luna, I need your help!”  “Inheritor, how can I be of service?”  “That thing is a problem, I need it dealt with.”  “I’m sorry, but there is a considerable collateral damage potential in this area.  Addressing such a threat remains difficult as a result.”  “Superweapons aren’t as good on a small scale, great.”  “Rift sequencer operational, calibrating sequencer.  Providing filtration of core unit, cross-weaving discharge process.  Deploying the core at limited capacity.”  “Wait, what?”  Axln looked up at the citadel as it blinked a momentary shine, Luna having assigned a suitable target.  A rift appeared not far above the collection of void, with a surge of purple force smashing down upon it, the radius of the blast controlled using a rift.  Once the purple flames vanished, they were both able to witness such an act had only made the thing mad.  A wave of void washed forwards towards Axln, Luna raising up a barrier generated also by rift.  The barrier shattered on impact.  Axln blocked the remaining strike with her ashen arm, the threat of the void negated by her arm, but the force of the impact persisted, throwing her a distance away.  Getting up from the kyuemu ash, Axln knew she was in trouble.  She could probably escape with Luna’s help, but then what?  That would leave the thing to wander towards the nearby academy.. which would not fare any better.  Actually, if someone was going to leave, did it really have to be her?

“Luna, if destroying the thing is too difficult, have it removed.  You’re already doing portals through the atmosphere, can you rift it into deep space?”  “The fortress can only submit rifts with itself as one of the endpoints, this process would require containing the target and then providing it with an exit it would willingly pass through.”  For having such an impressive reserve of power, Axln was starting to worry that Luna’s stuff wasn’t as omnipotent as it had originally seemed.  This left Axln to try her best to simply dodge a couple more sudden attacks bursting out in waves as the thing sludged towards her.  However, of all the worst circumstances, it was at this point her cell decided to go off, someone was trying to get her attention.

“This really isn’t a good time.”  “I can see that.”  “What?  Xwyhr.. why?”  “I so happened to have decided to take my own break in our observatory.  Seeing the citadel spark like that, it was pretty obvious you were up to something.  The purple rush was a pretty decorative sign where to look next.”  “… and this is still a bad time.”  Axln stumbled as she tried to dodge another sweeping attack while holding a conversation with Xwyhr, the cell going flying at that point.  She eventually cared to recover it, hearing further conversation on the other side.  “… and from what I could tell such a thing was all pure void.”  “Yes, that’s why I’m busy trying to dodge it.”  “That’s the point, that thing is so clearly ashen, it just wouldn’t have been the right…”  Xwyhr got cut off again as Axln was left to fumble the cell again, this time having the thing dive into the ashen.  Luna was having little problem, making intuitive uses of rifts to easily step out of reach, the lucky woman.  Axln herself was left with little more than the mundane to her help.. except for possibly that cell.  She eventually managed to recover it, dusting it off.

“You dropped me, didn’t you?”  “Surviving is more important than staying on the call.”  “Right, of course, but I think ignorance isn’t doing you any good either.  You do know how the void works, right?”  “Huh, wait, what?”  “Hells, Axln, void does nothing to void.  Void exists when elements do not.  This is really easy stuff.”  Xwyhr had been trying to tell Axln that the purple strike used before was itself also attributed to the void, or at least related to it.  Such a thing erased elements.. which then did nothing to actual void.  Luna hadn’t actually considered such factors at all, and Axln was still generally lacking in her research of the elements.  However, in this moment of distraction, Axon failed to dodge the next strike, a sweeping strike landing strongly upon her lower right leg in a flash of pain.  A lot of the color of her leg vanished in that instant, and she found it impossible to stand upon.  She was now wide open.

“Hey, jerk, leave her alone.  Come get me instead, I’m a lot more fun.”  Lyun was there too at that point, dashing around the field.  The thing did a burst sweep in her direction, only for her to go straight up.. and float there.  Faint glistens of crystals protruded in sparse areas around her entire body, the various pieces forming a thin sheen over her entire body with a few additional added winglets for her shoulders and a ring sitting on her head like a crown.  The addition of a dense belt and shiny boots, in total it was a huge reduction from the original power armor.  However, she still knew very little about what most of the instruments were for, she had only identified one.  This thing had come with a gift amplifier, of all things, supposedly such having been important back in the day.  She hadn’t had much practice with her gift before, but she really didn’t have anything better on hand.  Focusing upon the amplifier, she came down on the thing with a flurry of frost, a glimmer of blue slashing over the otherwise pure white.

A large mass of the thing simply fell away and vanished as a result of the impact, with Axln watching in turn.  An ice strike, such a thing seemed so obviously efficient upon the fiend only thriving by its lack of elements.  However, Lyun herself got too confident in her moment.  Lashing out in pain, the thing hit her square on, a direct hit across the middle of her chest, the crystals shuttering at the impact.  The whole structure was mighty enough to withstand the blow.. but the white mark left behind covered a vast area of her upper torso.  As vital areas of her body stopped functioning, Lyun flopped to the ground, completely unconscious and dying.  All too obvious, she would be dead within the moment.. if it didn’t consume her instead.

Axln stared at Lyun’s fallen figure, a concept with more horror than the fiend who caused it.  No, no, this couldn’t be happening, there was no way.  There had to be another way.  Her arm glinted in that moment, it was totally willing to open another door to another possibility, as long as she herself was willing to pay the price.  She screamed in the turmoil of agony such instigation left her, the words of the temporal lady haunting her.  Succumb, and everything is lost, it was an invitation to pay an even worse price.  The result was then to not only watch Lyun drift towards death, but also to do so knowing that she had to do as much as possible to resist saving her.  If it wasn’t by her own ability, it was a price she could not pay.  That however was asking too much, it was beyond her to simply reshape the circumstances that she had been left to, to simply go back and redeem herself.

Or was it?  Was she really so certain?

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FV – Chapter 24

Unveiling Chaos

The two girls looked around with alarm, having felt the entire process as yet another shift.  However, this time there was nothing that resolved, a white fulfilled in its own perpetuity.

Each girl noticed that even their own form was hazy and nondescript, like a questionable existence that questioned its own existence.  The two of them tried to look around for anything else, but there was nothing beyond nothing.  After a bit more wandering, the two were surprised by a tap on their shoulders, spinning to face a woman of pure white.  Notably, it should have been impossible to see anything pure white on a backdrop of equally pure white, but that did not seem to stop them in this case.  The woman guided them properly to the nothing they should be at, before they had gotten lost in other nothing.  Even conceptually, this was making both of their heads spin.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware there were any visitors.  I’ve not actually had visitors before either, I must apologize for that as well.  Well, visitors, what brings you so far from home?”  “I.. we’re trying to figure out what has happened to us both.  We have been taken from our own world, thrown into shared circumstances as we shift together to each world in turn.  We had found a book that was supposed to reveal something about everything for us, only to instead find ourselves here.”  “Oh my, fortune has done quite a deal upon you.  Maybe I should apologize for that as well.  I wasn’t aware that things would have involved entreating such important guests so directly.  Sorry, I’m still rather new to all this, in all accounts.  I know mother had worked with quite a few of you in the past, but that was all while the rules were ones of fate instead of ones of chance.  More so, never had such a meeting been so.. personal.  Mother had reached out to those who had drawn close enough to speak with, even walked within the dreams of several in important cases.  I know in some of my first days, mother had been graced with the essence of an important case too, a responsibility I was then assigned to.  But to have someone actually enter the temporal plane, someone that commanded the temporal frost itself, I would have never even thought it possible before this meeting.  To have two at once.. although maybe a pair is what becomes required in the process.”  The white lady seemed very fascinated with the two of them.  The temporal plane, this would mean they were within the veil then, in the places between worlds.  Very obviously, this might be the worst possible place they could ever get lost in.

“Anyway, yes, I guess then you have come to the right place by chance.  I’m the one you would probably have to blame for being stuck in this mess, after all.  You see, I had been forced to reach out beyond the veil and try to forge a connection that might change the misfortune the world is beset to.  Both worlds, if I may be honest.  When I had reached this world, witnessed the terms of its existence, I knew it was only slated for destruction.  Being so bound.. even I could no longer escape it.  This place held life, but misfortune would rob it of that very quickly.  In the past, I might have been able to change its fate, but my family had long lost that potential.  Fate does not shape events anymore, only chance can determine what actually happens.  Everything was beyond my control.  However, left with nothing but chance, I wove chance into design.  If the worlds would draw so close together that they would connect, I would let a connection slip through, I would use that state of parallel to bridge probability, to create luck.  It seems, in seeking out such a parallel, I had found the two of you.  That was very fortunate, any luck with such chaos had been quite fleeting.”  The white lady then had personally been the one who had designed their link, who had made this whole thing happen.  However, she had no control over it, it had only just happened.  They both recalled the friend they had each lost in the process, realizing that such then was a failure of the chaos.

“Why though, why do we have to suffer this?”  “To save worlds, like I said, the worlds of both parallels.  I was able to reach through because a link existed, and matters of chaos had driven them even closer.  The more the parallel of chaos pulls on both worlds, the more it invites chaos into each.  If too much chaos is released on either world, destruction will be unleashed upon it.  If this tears the veil too wide, chaos will consume it whole.  I have found signs that there has already been a nearby star lost in that way.  I’m also certain that the same catastrophe is what had rendered the world a husk in the first place.  However, it seems this misfortune was not visited upon the other side, something that would have shifted it completely out of parallel had the one remained dead.  With the parallel restored, both are at risk once again.  The parallel itself is so strong that the death of one would exclusively cause the death of the other.”  The two girls were stunned to hear that the white lady was claiming that she was trying to resolve something so serious.  Everything though remained well beyond them in the scope of things.

“Now, however, I have learned that the parallel itself is not a problem.  Just as how destruction would be a chain reaction, so would preservation.  What mattered was removing the chaos consuming the parallel.  However, look around you, the temporal plane is nothing but chaos, waiting to feast on anything else.  You two have not fallen to such chaos yourself only because you carry chaos with you, you have been marked by it.  It was the price of passage.  I’m sorry, I do not know of a way to remove the mark, but I still entreat you, please find a way to at least prevent chaos from scourging its misfortune.  Find a way to stop the ravages of chaos with such a potential, the secret lies within the parallel of worlds.  Being marked by chaos protects you from it, there is none else who can travel as freely as you two.  Just, at the same time, your mark makes you agents of chaos as well, if you are not careful you could just as easily succumb to chaos instead, becoming a part of it.”  This really was a big goal, but the white lady’s mention about being so chaos infused was especially concerning.  They knew that it was related to their arm, and most likely represented its power, the same power they had unleashed a few times already to devastating effect.  This was making such a power sound even more dangerous than they had first assumed.

“So, that means that it’s important to never use our arm’s powers, right?”  “You think that is the only vestige you have?  Especially having visited here, you’re practically infused by the Temporal Frost.  You will find your experience has granted you access to new temporal abilities that remain fully your own instead of being agents of chaos.  What is the problem is either opening vents to the chaos itself, or unmaking the veil.  You’ve vented chaos before, you know what that is like.  Slipping into the Temporal itself though isn’t as harmful as a general concept, but some things there can unmake segments of the veil.  When I had found you two, you were both heading straight for the fabric of the veil all too innocently.  Your exposure to chaos has shaped your own actions without your own awareness, it is such unawareness which could trigger further problems.”  The news they might have such unexplained oddity to their being, more than just an arm, the white lady’s words were especially concerning.  Even so, this idea that they lacked awareness.. it was very difficult for them to grasp.  The white lady could see they would need an example to relieve some confusion, and knew of a very good one.

“Alright, if you want a fine example of how your own awareness is being shaped, realize that your self-awareness of your own body is itself chaotic.  Try to answer this question, one which your people usually find to be as easy as second nature; what is your name?”  “I’m.. uh…”  “You have taken to calling yourself frequently as Kori and Lyun, Axln and Rosa.  Your confusion right now though stems from how all of that has flown so easily.  While in one world, you each readily think of each other as Axln and Lyun, but instantly just shift into thinking of everything in the perspectives of Kori and Rosa when you leave.  You are in a completely different body, but you aren’t even considering yourself as the same person.  In this world between, you are then something between each, which is why you can’t even figure out your own name right now.  More so, you might realize you don’t even know which of you is which.  The Kori here knows she is Kori, and is considering everything as Kori, just as Lyun.. and Axln.. and Rosa.  Between you, there are two people, four bodies, one entity.  It is in that unison of entity that lies the chaos within you, and immersed this much in the temporal, it is the chaos that stands out far more than anything else.”  The white lady pointed out that, even now, the two girls.. weren’t even aware which was who.  There was simply no way they could tell right now.

“The most imperative thing is to remain aware of this, two people, four bodies, one entity.  You are linked and travel as one because you have become a single entity.  You are however two very distinct people at any time, but you have four bodies total.  While you are walking around as a pair, it will be difficult to keep aware that you are actually four, not two.  One person is both Kori and Axln, the other is both Lyun and Rosa, but those are all four distincts.  When you pass through the temporal as your one entity, you awaken into your other bodies, and disassociate the previous.  Remain aware, Kori is not Axln, Lyun is not Rosa, but you both and you all are a single entity of chaos.  You can not reject the chaos, just as you can not reject yourself.  But you can be the chaos that defies chaos, there is no other chaos that has found the unity you have, and chaos is not a thing of unity.  Your link is your strength, it is how you can avoid succumbing to temporal chaos.  Deny all other chaos, your own is too unique, too distinct, and too defined.”  The white lady was making it clear that they were to know they were perfectly allowed to fight chaos with chaos, as long as it was only their own.  They needed to resist making any more vents then, while figuring out what being an entity of chaos actually implied.  However, talking to someone who actually remained in the temporal plane, one of the girls wondered who such a being might actually be.

“You had us try to name ourselves, but what exactly should we be calling you, anyway?”  “Names are a thing of people, important to how they are.  As I am not a person, I do not bother with my own name.  However, I am well aware that people come up with names for everything anyway.  In that light, exactly as your kind has always done, you are welcome to come up with whatever name you wish, it won’t matter to me at all.  I suspect your kind may have even already named me as well, I just would not have bothered keeping track.”  The one of the girls who came up with such a question decided that it might be best to not bother figuring out the name of the white lady, given such circumstances.  It might matter another time, but it did not now.  The white lady was obviously just some kind of caretaker or guardian, an entity that remained temporal within the chaos, chained to her responsibilities.  If anything, it was even a question if she was actually as white as they thought, or if that was just their perspective within the colorless temporal.  After all, they really didn’t belong here, this was a place of temporal chaos and the occasional temporal being, they were not so purely temporal themselves, they had a real form or two.. or four.  It was something they would need to return to.

“As you’ve already found the key to visit, I expect I might see you around, although it might only be a matter of chance.  Such visits won’t be easy to predict in such measures.  Just realize that I watch as you pass through every time you switch to the other side, that short period you spend within the temporal before reaching the other side.  I wish you luck saving worlds from the rampages of chaos.. which is why I should warn you about what you’re bound to find on your return.  Your entry to the temporal plane here was dramatic, dealing quite the blow to the veil in the process even before you had reached its proper.  In your arrival, you have provided the chaos with new exits and new opportunities.  Just as you will find yourself with grown abilities forged in chaos, you will also find other chaos has become strong enough to reach out as well.  There is a price in making demands of chaos, and that price is typically more chaos.”  The temporal lady turned away at that, her attention returning to her own eternal responsibilities.  The girls turned away too, the book turning with them.

Axln closed the book with a gasp, Lyun herself collapsing slowly in a cold sweat.  That.. that had really happened, hadn’t it?  Of course it had, they couldn’t have imagined the same thing.  But how did they just know they knew the same thing?  They hadn’t even talked about it yet.  The two of them however traded glances, fully aware of what was going on.  Somehow, they were expressing things to each other through their link, they were having this conversation as a single entity.  Axln rubbed her forehead vigorously as Lyun simply face planted the table.  This melding of their chaos while they spent too long in the temporal plane was going to spawn quite a lot of confusion.  As is, they realized they needed to account for four, not even just two, unlike what they’ve been doing.  Focusing on the four instead of the one, the girls ran through the details in their mind and started to salvage the framework of their own identity.  It took a while, but as a result they were capable of keeping their sense of self to just themselves.

One entity, two people, four bodies.  Being of two people, two minds, two cores.. it was how their sense of self was founded.  Even in the temporal, they were two people, not one, not four.  That implied that the temporal may have affected them in two different ways, even if their link provided one unified change by itself.  After their initial experience, it might be better to search for answers rather than to be surprised.  Such was what Axln believed at least.  Lyun however was more of the belief that her head hurt too much right now, all this information was giving her a headache, and that she might find room in there to figure out more if she took a break first.  As Lyun left to go take a break, Axln realized though that she had to be aware they were four lives, four identities.  Axln had a twin sister, Kori did not.  Kori lived for nanites, Axln did not.  Axln had to worry about the responsibilities of an orbital superweapon, Kori was just a conduit.  They were four, two, and one.  Things that were a part of them affected everything in different levels of their being.  Figuring things out was not going to be easy.

Mheridz was still annoyed at how that last desperation had gone so totally wrong.  Of course, the fortress was going to deny them.. but that really was going to be their last chance.  Checking over her instruments, she found a very important one blinking in alarm, an instrument no one here could reproduce.  Positive readings, the ones she had been dreading for so long.  There was no longer any reason to worry about the book, things had already happened.  This was no longer a time to be on the offense, she had to ensure their defenses were improved.  No matter what, she had to ensure as many lives as possible were saved.

Velvet jumped at the sudden alarm, especially considering the nature of that alarm.  Wasn’t.. the book secured?  Not trusting the light in her dark domain, she brought the device outside to get a better look, finding four footprints in the snow walking from the building.  It seems she had been outplayed, and now it was too late.  There was no longer any reason to stick around here, she needed to find somewhere much safer.  There was quite a lot to be done now, quite a number of changes.  Luckily, she had a number of things ready to start, plans that would dramatically amplify their defenses all while making her work finally much easier.. and actually a lot more dangerous.  Overall, the whole situation sucked, but she had to do what she could to keep things safe.

Both worlds were dramatically changed at that point, even if few people knew it was of such a specific time.  The rest of society would still learn quickly enough in the time that resulted from it.

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FV – Chapter 23

Overwhelming Advantage

Axln and Lyun found themselves comfortably in the archives once again, the book they recovered finally delivered to Jhez.  Even the power armor they had brought back was getting quite the intensive investigation, leaving the girls feeling like they had achieved quite the considerable success.

Soon after though, Lyun found she had missed more than several calls on her cell, all from the same person.  Reading some of the messages that had come with it, she had discovered that Yhzia’s sister had actually been trying to contact Yhzia for a while now.. and had never been a recipient to any replies.  She had even gotten ahold of Ezhyrae and found herself without any straight answers.  Ezhyrae had instead simply told her to call Lyun if she really wanted answers, and had shared the relevant number.  Of course, in all of the commotion, she had forgotten about that little scene at the start.  She had happened to have left Yhzia’s cell at her sister’s house the entire time, and not once ever took responsibility for letting important parties know what had even happened.  She might have thought to claim that it wasn’t as if she knew Yhzia’s sister very well, she really didn’t know the woman much at all beyond the pet incident that had kept her away from actually making friends with the woman in the time since.  Of course though, the girl would worry about her sister.. and Lyun was the only one who could really explain what had happened that day.

“Hello?”  “Oh!  Is this.. uh.. Lyun?  Sorry, I forgot your name there for an instant.  Listen, I’m getting really worried, Yhzia has gone silent for a while now, I’m worried something might have happened.  Ezhyrae seems to think you could help me figure stuff out.”  “Oh, uh, yeah.  That’s.. really quite the story, you won’t even believe a fragment of it.”  “Why does it sound like you’re at the food market?  Yeah, didn’t that girl just talk about a class report.  Are you at the academy?”  “I.. uh.. might be.”  “Oh, perfect!  Can you meet me there?”  “This really isn’t a place to talk.  Here, can you meet us at the archives?  I’ll send the exact room by message, along with some handy tips for directions so you don’t get lost too.  I’m going to head back there and I’ll meet you there, okay?”  “Oh, yeah, sure, archives, got it.  Not a problem at all.”  Lyun ended the call Yhzia’s sister had begun in that instant again, almost regretting accepting it.  She had just been finishing having a quick snack, this was going to complicate everything.  She made sure to provide the promised directions at least, the room specifically being to where Axln was doing some studies.  It was probably the best place for them to deal with this mess, and Axln would really have to be a part of this stuff.  The girl might be Yhzia’s sister, but technically that also made her Axln’s sister.. in about the same way as how Lyun had an unexpected sister on the other side, too.  That reminded her that she really might want to touch base with such a sister too, hopefully before Lyun’s own sister figure started worrying about her too.  She quickly made her way to the designated location, discovering a woman standing just outside, having visibly been locked out.

“Lyun, right?  Hey-hey!  I.. I came as fast as I could, which I guess.. was faster than you.  It.. it seems you weren’t inside yet.  They kicked me out pretty quick.”  “She’s still finishing her exercises, but should be nearly done at this point.  I’ll go inside and make sure things are fine for us to talk soon.”  “Oh.. oh, yeah.  S-sure.”  The girl was absolutely vibrating, she had so much energy it was leaving Lyun’s head spinning.  The girl was even honestly talking at an energetic speed, having her stutter more than once as she tripped over her own tongue.  Lyun slipped inside to find Axln wrapping stuff up.  Axln could obviously tell something was up, her quizzical look getting an apologetic one in response.  Once the ersatz in attendance was also gone, and everything was organized for a discussion, Lyun let the girl in.  She sat there listening to the full tale, depression visibly sitting in on everything else the girl might have had going on, the energy of the room lost.  She too confirmed the incredible tale of her new sister, which didn’t end up very hard.  With a lot to think about because of such, the girl eventually simply left to collect her own thoughts her own way.

“I’m sorry.. Axln?  This is a lot to go over.  I know this would be rough for you too, suddenly finding yourself in a brand new family.  I.. I’ll get back to you, I promise.  Do you have a cell, we could exchange contacts.”  “A what?  No, actually.”  “Really..  A girl shouldn’t have to endure in this society with no window to the outside, I’m surprised Lyun didn’t know better than that.  Okay, fine, later you and I will go get you one then from the academy’s grand market, I know just the place.  Don’t worry, your big sister Xwyhr has your back!  .. I just need to spend some time for myself first.”  Xwyhr left at that, leaving Axln a bit muddled.  Big sister?  She could have sworn the girl was younger than her.  Maybe that was just Xwyhr’s expression of responsibility for someone as inexperienced in the ways of this world as Axln.  Either way, that had taken quite a lot of time, Jhez would be expecting them.  However, when Lyun and Axln arrived at Jhez’s room, they found a typhoon of activity that in no way represented someone waiting for anything.

“Oh, right, Axln.  It’s that time already?  Everything goes so quickly when things are going wrong.”  “Wrong?  Is there a problem with the book.”  “Oh, funny you should say that.  Specifically, the research on the book itself is still progressing reasonably well.  We’ve got some translation indexes available, but even that is having a rough time keeping up.  Would only be a matter of time.. something we are suddenly running short of.  You see, it seems the foundry has become very.. proactive.  They are demanding the immediate return of a very specific tome, and aren’t exactly in the position to accept any delays.  It seems they have weaponized the wardens and have laid siege to the entire academy, something that has been absolutely unheard of before.  There have been claims that the tome was used to sabotage their own property, not only costing millions of qeld in expenses, but they had mentioned that the process had involved the injury of around four hundred wardens, eighty of them in a critical state, five of them already perished.  Claims of the individuals they are searching for have escalated from being simple thieves to outright terrorists.  They are claiming that their invasion of the academy is thus fully justified.”  Jhez looked probably far more tired than he actually was, and Axln seriously couldn’t blame him for it.  It was all too obvious that the woman from before was back to taking very high-scale actions, being that desperate for the book.

“Administration is taking great offense to all of this, but they know the academy isn’t exactly outfitted for an actually weaponized conflict.  Administration is even of the belief this is way bigger than just some terrorist thing with a book, that this is actually some great conspiracy to force the academy into the foundry’s control.  It’s an act of war.  I fully agree, even knowing a bit more than administration does.  To me, it looks like the foundry wants to control the veil itself, and is using us as a stepping stone to that goal.  However, I have no idea how we might stop them.  You even mentioned you were chased in the other world too, there might not be anywhere you can simply run to.  I’m sorry.”  Jhez looked absolutely defeated.  Lyun and Axln both ran outside, hearing the commotions build up outside.  Making their way toward the perimeter of the academy, they could see the endless battalion of siege weaponry, instruments mounted upon a variety of thick ebony transports of a vast slew of designs, with a scatter of uniformed troops all but glowing in their elemental armor.  Both girls turned to look at each other, realizing that they were about to be responsible for countless losses at the academy.  Some of them were even reasonably close to the two at that point.  Even so, there was absolutely nothing that could stand up to the might of the foundry, it was absolutely unparalleled.  This really was futile.

“Bloody hell, is there anything that can stand up to a force this size.”  Axln cursed their misfortune loudly, a cry that did not remain unheard.  Lyun jumped aside as a vortex opened beside her, an act she recognized as a rift gate.  There was no rift receiver here though, so this was already unheard of.  “Inheritor, it appears you are being threatened with a considerable show of force.  Do we have your authorization to deploy a suitable response?”  “What?  Luna?  What are you doing here?”  “I apologize, but I have come to personally receive your instructions.  Do you wish to deploy a suitable show of force in response?”  “Oh, uh, sure.  If you can defend the academy here, I would be very thankful.”  “Acknowledged.  Deploying the colossal.  Activating spire strike emitters.  Destroyer pods on standby.  Rift sequencer is fully operational.”  Luna was saying a lot of things that Axln didn’t understand, but it didn’t take much to figure out the general idea.

A falling star passed from the citadel in the distance, the comet striking down in the open field between the oncoming force and the academy.  Standing up from the impact crater was a towering monster with an array of weaponry.  The largest of the siege weapons they were facing could simply be stepped on by something this huge.  Several of such actually took to firing upon such an imposing figure, all of the shots rippling off of a shield the thing possessed harmlessly.  Visibly aptly named, the colossal then turned towards one of the weapons that had fired upon it, a volley of missiles ripping the thing to smoke and shards, two of the others splitting in half as a beam of light sliced right through them.  Several other crafts moved into position to overwhelm the one imposing figure as the star lit once again in a rain of light.  Beams of pure might struck down upon eighteen of such crafts at once, vaporizing them.

“Enemy is not responding to an initial show of force.  Scaling up demonstration.  Activating Destroyer pods, Rift sequence in progress.  Charging Fortress core weapon in preparation of another escalation.”  Luna clearly wasn’t even done with this.  Just as suddenly as she had herself appeared, the field was scattered with countless other larger rifts opening all over a few instants later.  Destroyers?  To Axln, the entire selection looked far more like some kind of super tank.  Several of the battalion let loose upon their enemy in a photonic burst of elemental destruction.  At this point, a lot of the rear forces were trying to make themselves even more of a.. rear force.  Axln meanwhile was getting worried about how many lives this might be costing.

“Luna, uh.. maybe it might be nice if some of the demonstrations did not result in lives lost.”  “Twenty seven enemy casualties have been identified.  Accepting conditions for demonstration.  Deploying the core where no casualties may result for an initial shot.  Selecting an appropriate destination.  Target found.  Core deployed.”  Axln was actually starting to feel terrified by Luna at this point herself.  No wonder there were concerns of their making use of the citadel.. the bloody thing was a serious super weapon.  This wasn’t ever as qualified as when the next strike hit.  A blinding purple flare surged the skies at this point, a violet beam much larger than the size of the entire academy striking harmlessly at the armada’s flank, a purple flame which burned even in the void erupting on empact.  Not even ashen dust was left where the strike connected.  That single strike could have obliterated everything.

Very hastily, the entire enemy force made a prompt withdrawal.  Soon after, even Luna’s forces were gone too.

“Please remember that all fortress defenses are at your call at any time.  As inheritors, the entire fortress is at both of your commands.  Is there anything else I can help you with at this time?”  “… bloody.. hell…”  Luna left Axln absolutely speechless beyond that, at a total loss for anything else.  Lyun was only cluing in that she too was being included in the whole inheritor thing.  Wait, that means all of that power she had just seen, that was all hers too?  A power that surpassed even the foundry, this was insane. That would make the two of them viable as the two most powerful people in the world.. in regards to their military might at least.  However, turning around, they quickly noticed quite the crowd staring at them.  It seems they might have developed quite the reputation with their demonstration, all so unexpectedly.

This same fact haunted the two of them all the way back to Jhez.  You could tell he had gotten the latest reports too, stuff sent directly from administration.  Apparently, the entire secret was exposed after that, administration being completely aware that the two of them were the ones hunted by the foundry.  However, this in turn garnished them the support of the entire academy.  It was clear that everything that had happened was simply a result of the foundry being scared that there was suddenly someone discovered to be a threat to their prosperity.  The fact that the two girls were even willing to stand in the defense of the academy against the foundry made them local heroes.  Luna meanwhile had actually remained on the surface, disclaiming that she was looking out for the interests of the inheritors.  Axln was quick to interpret that as Luna was making sure that Axln’s friends would get protection and her enemies would get retribution.  If the academy treated the two of them well, there would be no problems.  She had to admit, that left her feeling especially uncomfortable.  She was always used to being the lowest rung, just another conduit.  On this side, she would have to deal with the uncomfortable fact that people would be taking her role going forward, that any who inconvenience her would be then quick to apologize in fear of a harsh retribution.

“Okay, Luna, let’s at least make something clear.  I know you’re here to have our best interest, but I would like you to at least be aware that we should be fully capable of dealing with our own small scale incidents.  If my life or health is in danger, you can save it.  If it is in danger because someone is intentionally trying to cause harm, you would ideally still just scare them away without causing harm in turn.  If anyone is just being a bother, I’ll probably just take care of them myself, no help required.”  “Acknowledge, harm is not to be delivered without explicit authorization.  Automatic permission to address concerns are only valid in situations that threaten life or health.”  Axln sighed, honestly missing machines that had a much more life-like thought process like her nanites at that moment.  Even so, people originally believed very little intelligent thought would be possible in a nanite as well.  Maybe this was just going to be yet another long process.

On matters of long processes, Axln returned to her studies.  However, her head feeling as clouded as it was, she was finding it easy to get distracted.  Inadvertently, she had switched to simply reading the latest passage with her circlet, her eyes not even looking at the same passage.  She just wasn’t in the mood for the long way right now, she already had a key to translate with, it would just be easier to read things like this.  Even Jhez was using the same approach, making a key for their book instead of actually learning the language.  In the middle of that thought, Axln paused completely.  Of course, why was she wasting Jhez’s time doing translations for her if he had already obtained an appropriate key for her.  The key would only translate that old elven to the modern language she was still learning, yes.  However, she had already perfected that conversion, the reading she could accomplish from her circle was guaranteed accurate.  They had wasted enough time trying to simply read that book, she would have to complete the reading for herself, a much quicker solution that would finally get people off her back about it.

Getting her hands on the index along with the cryptic book, she started making optimum use of her circlet to the task ahead.  First, she scanned over the entirety of the index.  Helpfully enough, it appeared most of how writing had occurred in the past hadn’t changed very much, it was almost the same style.  There were a few different characters, things that represented new sounds, or old sounds that were lost.  Sentence structure was probably the most complex thing, but the meaning of words had the largest selection of changes.  The fact that it was a language based upon another language though, so carefully, it was much easier to track than her original efforts.  It probably helped that she had already done another language tracking at this point too.  However, it was still plenty of work, the index alone was making her tired.  Even so, she was absorbed into her work, she had worked under these conditions countlessly in the past.  She could keep going a while more.

Lyun however was getting worried, having heard about the whole ordeal.  It still concerned her that the book there had her name on it, it left her feeling as if she should be present for everything.  She walked in while Axln was still double checking the index, testing herself by guessing what an elven word should be, before she checked it.  She had done programming in languages before, such archaic stuff was still being taught, but only in this world had she gotten to program a language instead.  Feeling very confident in her results, she set her attention on the book at last, Lyun edging closer as it was picked up.  Axln opened the book to the first page, and watched as the words spread across the page.  Then, just as suddenly, her enhanced vision picked up the words hidden within the words.

This book was never intended to be read by a simple human, it required the pristine vision of an elf to read it properly.  However, Axln had in fact been artificially given such a potential.  The book itself was not intended though to be read by a simple elf either, it had been even further protected in that.  The book of the veil was only designed to be read by one in tune with the veil, one who could grasp things at a level beyond the fabric of the world itself.  Originally, it was designed so that the only reader was one chosen, who might get a response from the world itself.. but this wasn’t Celese anymore, and no one was simply chosen anymore.  More so, the book had been touched by elves of both the celestial storm and the astral flame, it had become something far greater than just a worldly artifact.  There was just one more seal remaining, and as the infatuating glow of the book drew Lyun closer, her gloved hand began to shine.  In response, it’s pair shone too, connected to the reader unlocking its secrets.  The entire room went a pale white as the pair were themselves stuck reading the book, unable to turn away.  The pages of the book flipped on their own, and even Lyun seemed exposed to what was being said while Axln noticed she wasn’t actually picking up exact phrases with her circlet anymore, she was more reading the book itself, not the words upon it.  Pages flipped faster and faster as the book presented itself in full.

However, the book was not its pages, and as the pages ran out, it was the world itself that flipped next.  At that point, they were seeing the page as the world, a blank white canvas at first impressions, but one they were firmly printed upon.

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FV – Chapter 22

Mirrored Partnership

Rosa and Kori completed their shift back to the relay successfully, the mist of frost signaling their arrival being rapidly replaced by a thick green smoke.  Not even a second later, the two of them collapsed to the floor, the drug having taken full effect.

Velvet eventually arrived to inspect her catch, still wearing her gas mask.  She really should have just started with this, it was far more potent.  It was just rough as Hypertech had found one of these gas canisters posted earlier, raising concerns within aerospace command about the implications of their usage.  That was all good and fine, but the stuff worked remarkably well, that mattered much more.  Sure, there happened to be no way to actually vent any of this gas, making for even more dramatic cleanup measures.  At the very least, she had finally taken the two girls into her custody.  What remained incredibly concerning though was that this was on the return trip, it was almost certain that the book was then gone.  What she needed to do then was to secure both girls for an appropriate delivery back to their other handlers.  Fortunately, there was already a plan for that as well, a plan Velvet began upon right away.

Kori awoke first, looking around at her unfamiliar environment.  Trying to stand up, the first thing she noticed was that her right arm had gone limp, completely offline.  The plasma cell had been completely removed.  Trying to call up a holo for more information, the second thing she discovered was that her holos weren’t working at all.  Looking around, she noticed that everything actually looked a bit low-tech, the lead bars where holos would have usually sufficed.  She surmised that implied that, more than not using holo bars to cage her in, it just wouldn’t have been possible.  Something here was interfering with OSIDF usage at all, it was quite the impressive cage.  Scanning her surroundings, she quickly noticed that she wasn’t alone.  More than just Rosa, who was still asleep in the next cage, there was another woman who had been waiting in the shadows, a woman who took the opportunity to finally approach her.

“Good morning Kori, I trust you slept well enough.  It was quite poor manners for you to have walked away from our call last night, something which may have landed you in comforts much more suitable than this.”  “Velvet, in person too.  I trust I’m to feel honored before such an esteemed human?”  “Oh please, don’t even bother trying to belittle yourself behind the whole conduit thing, it doesn’t suit you.”  “Well, what do you expect of me anyway?”  “Easy, I simply expect your cooperation.  As you can see, you will not find an escape here, so there is no point in bothering.”  “Ha!  Little do you know that escape wouldn’t be hard at all.”  “Your equipment is all offline, you have no way to reach out to your little friends, no way to call for help.  Your fancy arm might have been capable of breaking such bars, even if they would have certainly become seriously damaged in the process, but such arms just don’t have the strength they should right now.  I suspect you could try calling forth that singularity of your’s, the frozen bars obviously shattering easily with a simple kick at that point.. but then what?  This place is not getting any special heat, if you froze it, you would just find yourself in an icy cage instead, one with very limited oxygen.  Besides, such rash actions aren’t like you, are they, it brings far too much danger for so little gain.  It would be more like you to simply use such a singularity to garnish yourself more time to get something done, but is there anything you could accomplish with more time?  Quite certainly, if you want more time, you don’t even need to ask, you can stay there for as long as you might like.  Certainly there isn’t anything else you could do to escape, is there?”  Velvet seemed almost snide in her review of Kori’s circumstances.  It was quite a comprehensive review of everything Kori might have done, though Velvet was missing one thing.

Contemplating how a shift could benefit them, she took a moment to consider Rosa’s state.  Maybe it would be best to wait for the girl to wake up first, there really wasn’t any hurry, after all.  Velvet scoffed at Kori’s lack of answer, heading back to her seat to wait as a result.  Kori just didn’t want to make any rash actions, knowing it would be better if Rosa was instead awake.  Eventually, Rosa too began to stir and take in the terms of their circumstances.  Once done, Rosa turned to Kori, looking for advice.  Kori returned a nod silently, this still wouldn’t hold them.  Without warning, the two of them began to shift while Velvet let slip a slight grin.  On the other side, the two discovered instantly that they were still in cages, a spherical instrument activating nearby.  Rosa took deep breaths as she tried to resolve her state of panic, having instantly brought them back over again.  That was a Warden prison, and the woman from before had been waiting there.  Velvet’s grin quickly shifted to a frown, realizing her feint had failed.

“Just because I said you couldn’t leave didn’t mean you had to come back.  Okay, fine, let’s make things a bit more clear.  You aren’t escaping from this side, go back over there and hand over that bloody book!”  Velvet shook the bars of Kori’s cage, exposing the crystalline bracelet she wore which looked as if it was carved out of pure diamond, giving quite the pristine reflection.  Rosa meanwhile noticed the same bracelet, and recognized the same emblem as the woman she had been facing off against before.  The bracelet, the mention of the book, the exact sequence of events between worlds, it was undeniable that somehow both women were working together, even divided between different worlds.  Had the influence of the foundry really extended so far as to be unbridaled by limits like the veil?  Was that even possible?  Wait, if that was true, then why weren’t there any instruments that accurately conveyed the reality of the mythos?  Even this world remained totally ignorant to the other, all of the aerospace divisions not even sparking any familiarity in her from home.  Something still wasn’t adding up, even Kori could see this.

“Velvet, wow, I didn’t expect Aerospace Control to be so invested in fantasy worlds.”  “Oh come on, stop pretending to be a moron, Kori.  ASC has nothing to do with this, it’s more of a.. shall we say.. family matter?  Your meddling however is going to make this a bigger problem than you’re aware of, the ruination of worlds.”  “A very interesting claim.  Please, continue.”  “Damn it Kori, it’s far too soon for you to learn about everything, stop digging for more.  Things are rough enough in the dark as it stands.”  “So, you want me to make an uninformed decision?  Really, I was starting to think you knew me fairly well, but then you would understand I never do stuff like that.”  “I hate you sometimes, I hope you know that.  Shit.”  Kori was surprised that Velvet had suddenly started to break down in tears.  Rosa and Kori quickly found themselves alone in the room, Velvet having fled somewhere else.  Rosa couldn’t help but feel sorry for the woman, but she really was with Kori in this one.  There was no way she wanted to leave herself to the whims of that woman on her side again, that had gone horribly wrong.  However, Kori meanwhile wasn’t so certain about their circumstances in general.  Much like her arm, Rosa’s legs didn’t work at all anymore.  Meanwhile, there were always those concerns of Rosa resorting to reckless desperation.  With Velvet out of the way, the chances of such were even greater, because there would be fewer reasons to hesitate.  Kori meanwhile could see Velvet was not bluffing, this place had no source of warmth, if they dropped the temperature drastically.. they would simply be frozen inside a cage of ice that would start to sap away their vitality instead.  Doing anything only made things worse.. unless she gave in to their demands.

“So–y mis- -osa.  I -m do–g my be-t to -eep y-ur e-rs cha-ged.  My -las-a cor- is-’t en–ph to kee- thi–s goin-.”  Wait, was that Holi?  Rosa perked up and looked around, a faint pulse stinging her right ear.  Right, Holi had tried to talk to her through her ears, apparently specifically using her fancy ear ornaments.  Such things weren’t working right now though, they weren’t getting any power.  She tried to figure out what was being said, something about charging her ears, but not having enough to keep going.  Oh, right nanites ran on much of the same thing as her cybernetics, just in a much smaller version.  The little things were then trying to offer her their own energy just to communicate.  Wouldn’t that be really dangerous, that’s like a person offering their blood, wasn’t it?  Yeah, Kori would not like to hear about this, she would blow a fit that her little friends were being so sacrificial.  That made things complicated, as she had no way to communicate back.  Disappointed, she flopped into the massive dirt collecting across the bottom of the cell, coughing in the process.  Wait, dust?  She knew the nanites were capable of understanding movements, but she couldn’t handle writing.  Then again, that wasn’t the only sort of shapes which were possible, drawings were the same across both worlds.

Kori was still stressing over things as she noticed Rosa suddenly occupying herself with the floor of her cage, playing with the dirt with her finger.  This suddenly alarmed Kori, it was almost as if Rosa was a lot calmer about this situation than Kori was.  That.. was not the way things usually worked.  Clearly then, Kori wasn’t being very composed about the problem, she just needed to relax for a while and re-approach things with a calm mind.  Ten minutes later, she still was no closer to anything sensible, and even after a full hour she was still left with nothing.  By that point too, Velvet has returned, sighing as she found her guests actively making themselves comfortable instead of being cooperative.  After another half hour, Velvet just wandered away again, looking into something more interesting to occupy time while she outwaited her guests.  Once Velvet was gone, Rosa pulled herself up with her arms, a very suspicious smile crossing her face as she gave a quick nod.  This caught Kori’s attention right away, something big was going on.  Had she really been sitting there useless while Rosa remained the only one productive?

Kori squinted as light burst into their domain, the major doors of the place in the distance being slowly and carefully opened.  Soon after, two shadows entered the room, unclear in the light as their eyes fought to refocus.  One of the shadows worked with Kori’s right arm, closing it as the whole thing glimmered to life once again.  The arm didn’t project a holo, but she could move it once again.  Rosa meanwhile was back on her feet, the other shadow helping her with her ears, both cages wide open.  The two of them were guided back outside into the light, yet another blinding experience.  One of them had stayed behind, carefully closing the cages as if they had never been opened, then closing the main door just as quietly.  Kori then found herself being draped in a big coat, still uncertain what was going on.  By the time she was able to focus again, she found all four of them obscured by heavy snow gear, absolutely unrecognizable.  The four of them promptly passed by several other people posted outside, visibly working on their own stuff.  Leaving the perimeter brought them into the snow, and after another five minutes they found themselves finally back into civilization.  At that moment, a familiar green-haired figure appeared to greet them.

“Welcome back, Kori.  I am sorry that your rescue could not be engineered with any further haste.  It had taken quite a bit to identify anyone suitable for the task, as I was not in any position to handle things by myself.”  “Holi, you set up a rescue effort?”  “Actually, I was working with Rosa in the process to get everything done.  Her artistic skills are quite impressive, such quick diagrams were so vivid and descriptive.”  “Wouldn’t that still make it hard for you to communicate back, considering OSIDFs weren’t working there?”  “It was a challenge Rosa had overcome with her excellent.. hearing?”  Holi had to explain to Kori exactly how the whole voice in ear thing actually worked.  Kori wasn’t even aware that such had been a thing they had prepared at any point.  It did however explain how Rosa was also so silently informed during the shuttle flight.  If Rosa was getting so much good use from such an idea, clearly Kori would have to feel pride for having brought things together.  On the matters of bringing things together, there was also the consideration of their two rescuers, both of them already taking off the snow gear, over heating.

“I never got to thank you for stepping in for me earlier, but I hope that this proves enough thanks in turn.  Seriously, locking a conduit like you up seems insane, you’re more of a hero than anything.  You even handled the two humans so professionally, not actually ever attacking them at all.  There was no cause for you to be detained.”  “Oh, I remember you.  The conduit from the terminal, right?”  “Yup!  Name’s Tristine, and this guy here is Drew.  Don’t mind him being a human, he doesn’t suck at it.  Actually, sorry, I guess I shouldn’t say stuff like that.”  “Ha!  Nice, not bad.  My name is Kori, and this here is Rosa, who you two might have been working through.  She’s human too, and also doesn’t suck at it.  The one over there is Holi, if you haven’t met already.”  Tristine laughed at Kori’s introduction.  After a bit more small talk, Kori learned that the two of them worked for a company called HyperTech, a contractee for many different Aerospace services.  The two of them had meanwhile gone through hell.  Tristine used to be an ionics technician, handling engine repairs for a variety of aerospace transports among other similar tasks, to then be transferred to the relay to do similar work there.. when that work broke down too.  When the relay incident happened, she was discharged and had gone to Drew since.  Drew himself was an assembly chief engineer, effectively Tristine’s boss.  Drew himself never really had anything directly to do with Aerospace services, not until the incidents started to happen.  Once reports started to come in about everything going wrong, he was one of the first to take action and deal with the outcome.  However, such actions had resulted in the leasing of their business spaces being withdrawn.  HyperTech was in need of a new home.

“There is nothing left that would suit our needs.  Inside the barrier is already too packed, and all the limited infrastructure outside already has owners.  We were considering starting a new construction from scratch, but that would be really rough.  It would be far better if we at least had a foundation we could remodel instead, even if it was very rudimentary.”  “Ah, so like.. ruins.  Wait, that would be perfect.  Okay, yeah, I might have just the offer for you.  I happen to know the place of some really suitable ruins that fit what you need, the property is completely unowned.  After pulling through for us, I think it would serve as a fair reward to help you guys out.  We actually happen to have the need of visiting the same ruins for ourselves, actually, so we can just show you guys along the way.  If you do make use of the place, you could probably expect us to visit.. more than frequently.”  “And you would certainly be welcome.  I should admit, watching you each do your thing at the terminal really inspired me to think that you girls know your stuff.  Cybernetic parts, especially of such quality.  I mean, if you two are looking for some high end work in the industry, we could certainly use that level of talent at HyperTech.”  Drew was marvelling over Kori’s arm as an example, something which was put in clear demonstration for the both of them.  Kori meanwhile was feeling a bit flustered in all of the attention, but Rosa’s eyes were gleaming.  Did she hear correctly?  Was that an invitation to work with people who handled this world’s version of instruments for a living?  In addition to the consideration in how they were basically the underdogs of all Aerospace services, and how that was similar to the foundry, it made for an opportunity Rosa was all too eager for.  This was definitely a project she wanted to visit frequently, it sounded amazing.

Drew made a few holo calls to other members of HyperTech to report upon the good news and to organize an expectation for a site review, Tristine following directions all the while of who else needed what information.  Leaving the others to plan, Kori and Rosa were faced with their own circumstances.  This was a clean opportunity to go with the others to the exact same site.. and then to slip away shifting back to Ruixse.  That same location beheld the academy, a direct access to the archives and their destination for the book.  At long last, they would be able to put this whole thing behind them.  Both of the people after them seemed to believe they were currently in the custody of the other, giving them the last window they needed to reach their goal.  With a clear goal in sight, the two girls stuck along with the process, quickly finding themselves fitting in with a crew, each sporting their own HT jacket.  They all packed into a rugged vehicle designed to weather the overland trip to their destination, avoiding leaving the ground so that they wouldn’t have to deal with aerospace command.  Kori was absolutely aware how the vehicle they were in appeared far more like an armoured personnel carrier, but that just made the experience even more interesting.  Such armor was only to make weathering the cold even easier, without even being a holo blip.

An hour later, they arrived, along with the other ten carriers and six cargo cruisers, with plenty more to follow later.  The ruins meanwhile didn’t appear to be very much, clearly an old fortification that was probably used a long time ago during some of the conduit uprisings, most of it buried in snow.  Kori felt a bit invested in the work involved at least, so made sure to ask Holi to help out where feasible with the whole process in their absence.  Drew and Tristine were very obviously curious where the two girls might possibly be going out here in the middle of the wild, but Kori told them that she was right at home out here, it wouldn’t be a problem.  She had no idea when they would be back next, but Rosa certainly at least seemed eager enough to make the window tight.  No one knew where the girls were actually going.  Leaving the construction site, the two girls made their way to an appropriate blanket of snow that matched Kori’s calculations as at least being a reasonably accurate spot of the academy near the archives.  After a short cold wind, the two were gone.

Velvet might have been left with a rational buff built into her circumstances to cover for the girls, but Mheridz wasn’t so convinced.  Things were taking far too long, it was far too easy to assume that something had instead gone wrong, leaving her to make another dramatic stand.

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Previous -|- Portal -|- Next

FV – Chapter 21

Escalating Responses

The two girls had finally obtained what they had originally set out to find, still generally uncertain what they had actually accomplished.  If nothing else, it was obvious that they had overextended their stay, it might be a prompt time to leave.

Lyun poked her head cautiously out from the secret passage, having carefully ensured that she was actually alone.  She might have been compelled to stay in hiding longer, but she was keenly aware that such would have had a really poor impact on Axln.  In all consideration, she had endured plenty on her own in this place, she just wanted to meet up with Axln.. and hopefully get out of here.  Sure, she only had a really strange book to her discovery, but maybe Axln had discovered far more luck than she had.  She really, really hoped at this point that they were in a position to leave.  This whole place quite honestly felt surreal, a pure defiance of all that should be, the place was almost a pure embodiment of the mythos.  Herself, having actually been to the place such a mythos originated from, it wasn’t even the same, that place had a dramatically different distinction in how it existed, like it really did just exist in simplicity, in its own form of sense.  This.. this place felt embodied by the thoughts and feelings of the mythos itself, intangible figments somehow made real.  She was well versed in the laws of her own world.. and this place felt like it stood in defiance of those very rules.

Lyun quickly left the abandoned library too, the place reminding her of another really horrible deviation of her comforts.  Ashen dust didn’t even remain at this point, all traces of the accident having disappeared.  However, the previous silence and stillness of the halls had been lost, the entire place humming with a faint red glow.  She recalled the secret room coming to life in her presence, moving in recognition of her in a spiral that reminded her of an instrument’s core.  It was far too obvious, she had caused this.  Deprived of all familiarity, she just wanted to find Axln so that they could get out of here.  However, that had remained something she had failed to achieve even in her earlier moments of the citadel.  Even so, since then, she had found herself guided to the book, maybe whatever paranormal guidance she’d been experiencing would be kind enough to deal with this problem too.  All she needed was anything that was related to her friend, anything that would bring them closer at last.

“Oh my, this is quite the change of fortune.  And here I was worrying things were about to get difficult, only for our paths to cross so suddenly.  Even better, it appears you even have the book, give it to me now.”  A human woman stepped forward from the corner she had passed around, someone suspiciously not in the warden uniform at all.  Actually, she was specifically adorned in a very formal coat, looking like quite the established business woman.  The expensive looking silver bracelet around her wrist only proved to further establish her sense of wealth and prosperity, such reflective metal being almost priceless in their society.  Her disposition made it far too obvious her affiliation, she could only be a part of the foundry, a fairly high individual in such structures considering her visual flair.  However, maybe that wasn’t such a huge concern, the woman was really alone.  This wasn’t some martially trained warden, just a high-class business woman.  Lyun thus made ample use of her leg enhancements dashing in the absolute opposite direction, only to suddenly fall backwards as she rebounded off of a sudden forcefield that had formed before her, bolts of light streaking through it in a sign of shape and dimension.

“Oh please, don’t make this difficult, Lyun, just give me the book.”  “I’m flattered that someone so high up in society has actually taken the opportunity to learn the name of someone as simple as myself.  I can’t actually fathom why the foundry might actually even care, they typically show no consideration for anything else.”  “Oh please, I don’t have the time to entreat your ignorance.  Book.. now.  You know what, fine, if you want more convincing arguments, I can think of a few that would suit you.”  The woman reached into her coat and pulled out a few small spheres, quickly throwing them to the floor towards Lyun.  Both of the spheres surged with stripes of lighting, unfurling from such cores into a surge of a storm that resembled a living creature almost half her height.  As the shape of the creature resolved, Lyun backed sharply into the wall in a heightened fear, the apparition lizard’s tongue surging with a series of sparks.  The thing looked so real in some of the worst ways, and so much more unreal in even worse ways.  The thing was clearly a demon of abstract horror.  The two creatures advanced upon her as the woman went back to her coat, visibly preparing to use some other selection of instrumental marvels.  Lyun could even see she had quite the selection from such a perspective, the woman had an utter arsenal of instruments hidden under that coat.

Lyun realized then that she might have actually underestimated her opponent.  Certainly the woman had not proven her martial prowess, but with such an arsenal of instruments.. she may actually be a far greater danger than any of the hunters she had already confronted.  Worse was how the woman seemed keenly aware of her fear of lizards.  It really didn’t help that such demons were probably as dangerous as they looked to her horror-filled eyes, foundry instruments had the funding to go the full distance.  A sweeping kick strike at one of them who had got dangerously close proved her fears beyond a shadow of doubt, the current of force surging through her entire body, leaving her feeling numb as her leg sparked.  She was very obviously at an overbearing disadvantage, even her own exceptional instrumental prowess was nothing before this might.

Axln continued her walk through the halls, having come to terms with the power armor she had discovered.  The thing was honestly quite neat, even if she still didn’t get half of what the thing was capable of.. maybe not even a sliver.  The best part of it remained how relaxing her walk was when she was having something doing all of the hard work for her.  The next step of the plan though remained finding Lyun, a tough challenge considering how the place was designed to keep her so lost.  At this point, she was really missing her nanites, she could really use the guidance of someone like Holi right now, pulling through to provide her with just the right route.  Distracted in such thoughts, she leaned against a rounded node of the wall, the entire unit lighting up and sliding open.  Within, she found a black-haired woman, blinking awake as if after a long nap, a crescent hairpin adorning her hair.  Wait, this was an ersatz?  The woman eventually focused and turned directly to Axln with a very courteous bow.

“Greetings, inheritor.  It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.  How may I be of service?”  “Oh, uh, hi?  I don’t know, maybe you could help?  I’m looking for my friend, an elf.”  “Do you happen to be speaking of the other inheritor?”  “Uh, maybe?  Sorry, still not completely certain what is going on, or even what you mean by ‘inheritor’.  All I know is that I need to meet up with my friend so that we can get out of here our own way.  The place is full of people trying to hunt us, and I’m tired of it all.”  “Acknowledged.  Inheritors are in need of protective enforcement against aggravated threats.  Deploying additional support.”  The ersatz spoke without even a hint of emotion, the entire thing seeming only faintly alive despite looking absolutely genuine.  It was clearly an even more rudimentary model to the ersatz she had seen before.  However, it became quickly clear this one was certainly not alone.  In series through the halls, several other nodes in the wall slid open, revealing a hoard more of the same.  Each ersatz was unique looking enough, but they all had the same lifelessness to them at the same time, like they had very little will of their own.  The first ersatz, positioned like a sort of leader among the others at this point, started her path forward, with Axln quick to follow.  Very obviously overkill, it seemed Axln had stumbled upon the support of quite the significant search party.

“Who is it?  I’m really busy right now.  Oh, Zxyd, it’s you.  Sorry, I don’t have time for anything right now, I’ve got the thief cornered right here, would be really glad if even some of you guys were to show up.  What do you mean, no one is available, this is the exact reason you guys were sent here in the first place?  Don’t make me do your work for you.  She’s dangerous?  This is why you guys were supposed to sleep her, she doesn’t unleash wildly if she’s sleeping.  Wait, what do you mean there was suddenly a series of ersatz spotted in the halls, all weaponized.  By the divine, everything is awake.  Alright, everyone back off to a safe perimeter, you guys don’t have the weaponry to deal with such force.  Those ersatz are not to be underestimated, they are completely capable of overwhelming force.  We need backup.. now.”  “Problems?”  “The two of you have been really busy, it’s actually annoying.  So even Axln has been sticking her nose into things she doesn’t understand.  No more wasting time, either give me the book now, or I’ll take it from your fallen frame.”  The woman didn’t even give Lyun time to respond, knowing she no longer had the time to wait.  The lizards stopped playing nice, charging her full on.  Lyun managed to jump out of the way of one, only to find her leg wrapped in the binding chains of the other’s tongue.  Lyun was slammed into the ground hard as lightning surged through her in full intensity and pain, leaving her partially paralyzed.  She really was suffering a losing battle, she couldn’t do a thing to the blasted lizards, let alone get past them, and she was still trapped in a corner.  She turned to the barrier that was cutting off her progress through the halls, wondering if there was anything she might be capable of doing about that.  She was already missing the infusion of ability she had endured earlier, all of it having left her.  The only part of that she had left was the power her arm was capable of, a power she really didn’t want to need to release.  Considering those thoughts, she turned to her white glove once again.

“Oh hells no, you already unleashed your void scourge here not long ago, you might really want to consider how bad it might be to do it again so soon.  This is not the time for panic, just give me the blasted book.”  The woman actually sounded to be on the verge of panic herself, stepping back a few times in concern.  Lyun however could see her point, this power was still terrifying.  She could still vividly see in her mind’s eye the woman from before falling apart before her.  She even recalled her own decision to not entreat such power so easily.  Did she even have anything else she could count on right now, though?  It was especially concerning that her opponent seemed so vividly aware of the complete extent of her abilities, even knowing so keenly what the white glove represented.  Somehow, it was as if the woman knew her far better than should have even been possible.  And as the woman came to realize that Lyun was indeed holding reservation on her void power, she returned to the offensive, knowing Lyun had nothing else.

“Back off from the elf if you know what’s good for you.”  Axln’s armor hissed as she arrived around the corner, starting up in a charged rush.  The woman realized that she had already taken too long, with Axln having already shown up.  Worse, the blasted woman has uncovered some of the fortress’s power armor.  It was fortunate for the woman that she knew Lyun would hardly know how to use such a thing, else things would have gone really grim.  She pulled out another instrument, yet another sphere she tossed towards Axln.  This one discharged in a sonic burst, the shrill intensity hitting her before the waves of force did, throwing her into the back wall.  Axln just lay there in a complete daze, the thunderous intensity having left her in pure shock.  The woman then threw up another wall of force that cut off Axln’s approach, leaving her to face Lyun again.

It didn’t take long for Lyun to notice that the choice of attacks she had saved for Axln was also of a very distinct taste.  She had witnessed before just how easily very loud sounds startled Axln, her own elven ears were still ringing from the directed burst that wasn’t even in her direction.  The woman was even talking to her, but she couldn’t even hear through the ringing of her ears.  It didn’t take much to know what was said though, she still wanted the stupid book.  However, Lyun came to a very distinct realization.. Axln was here.  She had an escape option that the woman had nothing she could use to counter it.  Lyun stood up again as her ears cleared, a sly smile broaching her face.  The woman knew too much, but there was one thing she would have no chance of understanding.

“Before you think you could escape so easily, may I remind you that we’re in the very middle of the citadel.  If my calculations are correct, that might end up being a bit too much heat for you to handle, am I right?”  The woman sported a smile of her own, a demon smile without remorse.  Despair suddenly beset upon Lyun, considering such provided details.  That the woman knew they were actually in the middle of the citadel was impressive alone, considering how easy it was to get lost around here.  However, if this was the middle, they had another problem.  She recalled her discussions with Holi regarding how the relay handled heat, that most of the heat was in the core.  It was probably more heat than she could survive, even with her fancy ear pieces.  But the most incredible part was how the woman knew this would be important.  Lyun wasn’t the only one who noticed, Axln wasn’t actually completely out of it.  First Velvet, now this woman too.  They really needed an edge against such over-informed individuals.  Fortunately, Axln still had a surprise of her own.

“Luna, I need you here, now.”  “Yes, inheritor.  What can I do?”  “I told you, I’ve got a friend over there I need to rescue, and it seems there is someone in my way.  Might you please scare her away?”  “Authorizing use of non-lethal force.  Fortress defense grid online.  Weapon systems active.  Proceeding to disable invasive shielding instruments.”  Axln climbed back to her feet while the hairpined ersatz walked out from behind the corner.  She had taken to even naming her based upon such a hairpin, just to get things straight in her head.  Behind Luna was a score of other ersatz, all drawing weaponry.  The walls of the citadel itself started to whirl, an intensity that started having the shielding attachment that were set on the wall gradually begin to crinkle as the very walls started to vibrate.  The shield then instantly went down to the explosive force generated by one of the ersatz’s projectiles, the walls dented in the process but automatically repairing itself soon after.  Ten other beams pointed straight at the woman, a light emission that did nothing originally but was visibly building in intensity.

Mheridz was fully aware just how bad this situation was.  There was a slim chance she could stand her ground against such might, but this was only the beginning.  If she stayed, there would be many.. many more to come.  In fact, if she knocked both girls unconscious, their protectors would ensure their safety, potentially even keeping the book secure for their awakening.  It was at most only a slight delay, and it was at risk to her own continued wellbeing.  She had no choice but to withdraw.  Pulling another sphere again, this one connected with the remaining shield, pulling her rapidly towards it and letting her pass through it.  She then ran, knowing that such a shield wasn’t about to last very long either.  She slipped behind another corner just as a rush of air burst through the halls at yet another explosion.  Things were going very bad, but she hadn’t lost everything yet, there was still one plan remaining.  Pulling out another sphere, she detonated several charges in the nearby area in calculated areas, pulling down the roof in select halls but leaving certain others free for passage.  With that accomplished, she rushed to meet up with the wardens, fully intent on starting an evacuation.  The citadel was lost to them, it was in the full hands of their enemy, stolen completely.  They couldn’t stay here any longer, but they did have other areas to be as things stood.  The foundry was certain to take interest in this aggravated escalation too, maybe people would finally be willing to listen to her some more.

“Lyun, you okay?”  “I’m.. fine, thanks.  By the divine, you looked so cool there.  Talk about finding some really useful stuff, all I found was a stupid book.  You found.. some incredible gear.. and quite a number of handy friends.  First nanites, now ersatz.  It’s.. like I can’t do anything to help you anymore.  I was totally useless there, a failure with no chance of enduring had you not shown up as you did.  I’m sorry.”  “Nothing here is your fault, I just happened to stumble upon a few things that could help out, while you uncovered the real treasure.  I found a lab that made it pretty clear that your book alone is the very thing we came here for.  If we can bring it back to the others, we might be able to uncover some real answers here.”  Axln helped Lyun back to her feet after having fallen over in the onrushing chaos, first by the woman’s sudden dash, then also by the leveling blast.  After dusting herself off, Lyun found herself holding a small package Axln had offered her.  It was the second armor that Axln had found earlier, ready for Lyun’s own use.  After a moment to get into her own version and adjust to how it works, she started finding the principle quite interesting.  Her biggest concern remained how bulky such a design really was, it really wasn’t intuitive.  Lyun suspected most of the intent was an appeal to the mythos, something so many inventors in society could appreciate.  However, she personally knew their interpretation of the mythos was seriously out of date.  It was a concern, but it wasn’t relevant at the time, they really needed to get out of there instead.

Accounting for what they were told, the foremost objective was to reach an appropriate distance away from the central area of the citadel.  As Lyun and Axln set off, they found their paths cut off in a number of turns, even though those halls were already visibly under repair.  Neither of them though were willing to just sit and wait for repairs, they wanted out.  Conveniently it wasn’t as if every path was denied to them, they simply followed what opportunities they had available.  They travelled for a distance along, getting confirmation from Luna that they were no longer in the inner circle of the citadel.  After Luna and the other ersatz wandered off, the two found a place as good as any for their return shift.  This time however, the two kept much closer, intent on not being left separated again on the other side.  Beginning their shift, the two were gone in the next instant.

Mheridz peeked out from behind the corner, a sly smile on her face despite knowing that she might not have recovered the book, instead she had delivered the two straight into the waiting hands of her accomplice.  Mheridz turned her attention back to her bracelet, hoping that those on the other side were sufficiently prepared as she took her own leave of the citadel.

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