FV – Chapter 64

Restraining Chains

Axln may have found herself with the situation growing more and more desperate at every passing turn, but things were surprisingly becoming less and less complicated instead.  It was becoming glaringly obvious that she had to invest her entire attention into discovering a way to undo the chains of their own misfortune.

Not that such made anything any easier though.  Trying to sustain a defense in these circumstances was taking so much out of Axln, having to mount any sort of complicated offense just didn’t even seem plausible.  Worse remained the exact nature of the offense she would have to mount.  All of this misfortune had some sort of origin, some aspect of chaos chosen to generate this sort of performance, with possibly a network of support to make sure that such influence spread.  This would imply that there was a source to all of this, a target she could remove which would interrupt this chaotic manipulation of chance.  A target.. somewhere across the entire moon.  So even if she was free to do her own scouting, she would have to have a scouting area that could potentially expand around the entire moon.  This wasn’t even the smaller moon either, they weren’t quite that lucky.  No, that would be the other problem, it would take a miracle to normally deal with the odds of finding this needle in a haystack.. but that was exactly the weapon those fiends had on their side too.  This was the immeasurable defense in place to secure their control over luck itself, an all too perfect plan.

“You know, in my time, they were a lot dumber than this.”  “Please don’t use that phrasing to refer to the future, you’ll make me feel old.”  “Well, I’m sorry for being older than my mother.  Even so, mom never had problems like this.”  “You mean, until Lyun died?  What sort of strategy did they even kill her off with?”  “Strategy?  I heard she just had a time when she was caught on another separated battlefield, and mom had to do all the heavy lifting.  Lyun didn’t take that so well, pressured herself to do better.. pushed herself too far.  You can still see that in this Lyun, though she’s a lot more.. reserved here.  She’s still unconscious after a massive display of force, but.. she put a lot of effort into not going overboard, that’s not like the Lyun I knew.”  “But they held attacks that weren’t nearly so complicated…”  “Oh, the voidspawn?  Yeah, a massive hivemind of a stupid swarm, they think as one but they never put so much into it.  Now they just seem to be pushing too hard.. like Lyun used to.”  Mheridz wasn’t about to cover just how much Axln had changed too, such wasn’t a subject she wanted to broach.  Mheridz instead felt like her thoughts were a giant cluster of a mess, with absolutely nothing adding up.  With a feeling of logic having escaped her, she was more channeling her father’s side.

“Wait, they are panicking!  Not only do they fear true chaos, they are also panicking.  An ordered response is nothing like their kind, that’s exactly against their nature.  If they needed to do anything dramatic, it wouldn’t be with deliberation or care, it would be with reckless abandon.”  “Grab the biggest thing handy, over-do it.  The moon though was smart.. but it might have also been the handiest place to hide.  Instinctually.”  “That idea probably helps you about as much as it helps me.  I doubt either of us have been especially good at instinctual responses.”  “Maybe, but I would guess we’re both familiar with dealing with them.  You’ve probably had a lot more Lyun than I have, even though I’ve known her for longer.. it wasn’t as if I had to predict her responses for most of my life.. that had been something far more apt to this timeline.  Instead however, having a cross-world friend that I hardly know, that I’ve had to work with so constantly.. trying to predict what that girl was up to was even a child’s game of mine, because we both had the same circumstances.  Insert then this timeline, the whole game became an even bigger deal.  Both those two share that one trait, such is all too obvious.  So the game is to just predict instinctual responses.”  This was probably the first time Axln had ever held a true brainstorming session with Mheridz, it was quite the experience too.  Predicting instincts.. but where and with what?  Chaos was supposed to be pretty simple.

“So, instinctually, they’re evasionary.  They don’t like this thing you keep calling true chaos, so it’s like a primal need to avoid it.  That’s probably why things only really started to go wrong when you went over to the other world, better to spring a trap while you weren’t there to see it.  If they were smart, they would have invested into a diversionary tactic while you were there.. but they aren’t.  Probably was more fumbling with whatever ambitions they might have for that world too.”  “Oh great, so now I have to hurry because the other side could be in danger while I’m stuck here.”  “Uh, possibly?  That world is weird.”  “Well, the same trick wouldn’t work there, so they would need something else.  Then again, when you consider their biggest goal, they aren’t so much setting out right now to take care of both sides so much as they are trying to deal with Lyun and I.  If this becomes enough to deal with us, they would be fine with panning out the rest of this timeline much like how you had seen it.”  Mheridz knew where Axln’s idea led, that having been her life.  However, in this case, such a path would lead to an outcome where she wouldn’t have even been born.. due to her parent’s death.  That was a dark path she would far rather avoid.. at almost any cost.

“Are you okay, you suddenly don’t look so good.”  “Oh, sorry, don’t forget that I’m actually also out there fighting off a bunch of these things while we talk, this is actually pretty difficult.  But there isn’t any way I’m going to just come up with a plan on my own under these circumstances.”  “Yes, they would be pressuring you heavily so that they could break you without you being able to retaliate.. much at least.  I suspect what you’re doing is about as wild to their kind as it is to our reality.  Then again, instinctually, they wouldn’t care to analyze it so indepthly, only fear it.  Is that why all the big ones are keeping their distance?”  “You’re right, I haven’t seen one of the big ones around here yet.  Are they all on the other side?”  “The other world?  Maybe.  The larger ones are typically more capable of grander acts though, and if the whole idea was to deal with you, instinctually there would be more value in having them directed at you.”  “Grander acts, the bigger ones are probably working to spread the influence of chaos then instead, so that this whole thing could go off swimmingly, constantly.  Too much panic to do more than doing that one thing over and over again until it finally works.”  Mheridz considered the perspective Axln presented, making use of what she knew of her enemy over all of the confrontations she’d worked with before.

“Gating, the larger ones are probably completely invested in sustaining a link back to where they came from.  Keeping the door open, they could flood everything constantly with a wash of their own influence, even bring in more forces.  This process is supposedly very difficult, so they’ve allocated quite a sizable force to that one goal.”  “So we’re getting a temporal flood?  That actually makes sense.  However, that’s even worse.  How am I to stop them when they are calling for reinforcements that could call for reinforcements?  They pretty much have this moon in occupation.. we haven’t even checked the other moon yet.. and the planet is now practically undefended.”  “By nature, they probably won’t focus on something that doesn’t relate to what you’re doing right now, so they won’t really mount an offense somewhere else.  But you’re right about how that does include a lot of this moon.  If their influence spreads enough, it could extend beyond such a container.  You would probably need something new for yourself.. if you think you’ve got any new tricks ready that I’ve never seen before.”  Mheridz clearly was at a loss for how the Axln of this timeline was so different from the one she knew, making it harder to estimate options.  However, Axln knew that the only real extent of her distinct quirks here were in her use of true chaos and in how she had grown to be more socially open, even if that only implied she could trust her friends to…

“Right, we’re losing the big picture here.  Chaos is calling for reinforcements, but I’ve got some of the best backup here imaginable.  We don’t need to stop their gating, we just need to disrupt the whole bad luck deal.  Once that’s done, then we can bring everyone into the goal of cutting all of the links.”  “But if you’re not going to cut the resource, then you need to stop the source.  Where would such a voidspawn be to do such a thing?  Well, it’s instinctual, and the one committed to the task would be the most valuable, so it’s probably as far from you as possible.  The very opposite side of the moon?”  “As someone who is trying to influence many places at once, I believe I can state with practical analysis that trying to manipulate chaos at a distance is hell.  Being so divested from its target would make it’s usage of chaos weaker, a weakness that wouldn’t impulsively make sense at all.”  “So it needs to be both very close and very far at the same time?  How?  I know, you’re sort of doing something like that, but I can’t see how the source could so viably be everywhere at once.  The world doesn’t work like that.”  Axln could see Mheridz’s concern.. and uncertainty.  Chaos made things slightly less predictable, but it wasn’t as if there wouldn’t at least be an explanation for such.  Even Axln’s trick was leaving her at the front of everything, not exactly keeping her safe, it wasn’t a way to hide.  To be everywhere at once.. yet be nowhere.. yeah, that wasn’t how things worked here, that was far more like…

“Oh hells, it’s hiding in the temporal plane.  There is already a link going out everywhere for it, a direct connection anywhere it could just tap into, which makes it perfect to reach all over the moon all at once.  Meanwhile, the temporal plane is its own safe haven, where it could be safe and secure away from everything that might unmake it.  That’s.. actually brilliant.”  “Brilliant, that sounds simple.”  “Simple solutions can still work sometimes.  Did you ever hear even once of a battle within those things’ own home?”  “They.. uh.. well.. actually, no.  Mother never once fought there, but I never bothered considering why.”  “Without principles, there isn’t any way to actually deal with those things in their own home.  Principles don’t exist there, and meanwhile chaos can’t affect chaos either.”  “Well, they might not exist there.. but you didn’t say they can’t exist.  This chaos stuff seems to have a pretty good grasp on the elementals, between void and all the stuff you can do with it.  You’re even making a rift do work with frozen time, even if it is just application of paradox theory.  Mostly, I know I’m pretty much elemental.. with a slight trace of the same thing you’re using.. and I’m managing in this chaos of frozen time well enough.  You’re also very elemental, but you’ve been to that temporal plane.  Voidspawn have always hated elementals.. and that might have more to do with such not being chaotic enough.  Either way, their chaos just fizzles away when brought to order.  After a lifetime of trying to defend, it would be great to have at least one chance to go on the offensive and show them what it’s like to have your home invaded by annihilation.”  Axln however wasn’t of like mind to Mheridz, she knew that the temporal plane wasn’t nearly so simple.  Without even having a concept for annihilation, having infinite form.. such an idea simply wouldn’t work.

「Such spawn might actually have a point.」  Axln was also of the mind that such was not the best way to consider Mheridz either, and not only because she herself hadn’t reached the part of the future where parenting might have occured.  Then again, chaos being called voidspawn by the same person…  「Chaos actually is created out of the principle here called void, at least here.  To get here, it needs a form that suits being here, and so its presence is created from such a void.  This is also true in reverse, visiting the temporal plane requires a temporal form that most suits it.  Temporal is not chaos, it is just a form without form, something which suits primitive chaos.  To stand as nothing.  However, true chaos works just as well over there as its primitive variant does, having chaos harness principles into a temporal form would invite a ephemeral variant of the same.  Such might not be as efficient, but would certainly at least invite the impression that true chaos has begun to invade their primitive domain, an idea that would compel reaction.」  Axln could see where that was going, considering they were comparing instinctual reactions to Lyun already.  Panic, chaos would panic irrationally.  However, she would still have to physically broach the perimeter of a gatekeeper in order to inject such chaotic elementals into it.

“You both might be onto something.”  “Both?  What?”  “Even so, bringing elementals against such chaos in its own lair.. this at least requires confronting one of the larger chaos here, which we know are going to be really powerful.  This curse makes things rather difficult already, so how in the world are we expecting me to confront such power so divided and vulnerable?”  “Try not being divided or vulnerable?”  “What?”  “Well, I mean, you might be on the clock, but elementals don’t exactly work as well in such frozen time anyway, you’re going to need to shut it down if you plan to use them efficiently.  I’ll try working right away to bring things back up here and get your friends safe, so you won’t have to deal with both fronts.”  “The same curse though would still be in effect, making probability work against you.”  “Oh, yeah, while you’re at it, can you curse them too?  I’m not fond of that part either, thanks.”  Axln blinked as Mheridz started going over what she would need to do for her side of the plan, reviewing things nearby in the construction of a mental plan.  Curse chaos, but it didn’t work like that, chaos was itself immune to that curse, just as she was.  Well, she wasn’t completely immune of course, her physical makeup still suffered because…

Chaos too is created out of void while here, forced to physically follow the rules of the void in order to assume and exert a presence beyond the temporal plane.  Chaos needed to become elemental on this side, it had no other recourse.  In suffering the laws of the void, it invited itself to endure the rules of this side, even rules that weren’t elemental.  Chaos could be made to suffer misfortune if its own void was influenced by the principles of misfortune.  She simply needed to exert more than simply attacking her foe as a fiend of chaos, to instead actually make use of the laws of the void to appeal to her foe’s chosen design.  Such would not be easy, of course, her study of elementals was still outright fresh compared to others.. but she had not only placed quite a lot of recent emphasis on elementals, she also could assume her body’s instincts were sharp on having a lifetime of knowledge working devotedly with it.  She still recalled her previously presented history, that she had become an avid study at one point in her life once she had given up on her real passions.  Even on the other side, she had spent time in a similar case of living with driven analysis over whatever else she might have wanted.  Application of concept analysis, in a study she’s devoted herself to, this shouldn’t at all be beyond her.

Besides, this involved exploring new ideas, reaching into the unknown.  She had a genetic passion for this sort of thing, it was actually invigorating.

Leaving Mheridz to attempt her side of the whole ordeal, Axln directed her search towards her own assumed responsibilities.  The gatekeepers would be considered larger aspects of chaos, but that didn’t mean they were bigger in size, it implied that they were made up of more chaotic influence.  It did not help that everything was practically a miasma of chaos, making it harder to pinpoint fiends that would have sufficient concentrations.  What also did not help was how she was constantly still being forced to defend herself in constant ongoing encounters.  However, as she extended the reach of her scouting, she started noticing a reaction from her enemy.  Her scouting in one particular direction got far more of a reaction than scouting in many others, like her enemy didn’t want her going that way.  Mheridz wasn’t joking, chaos was very obviously by nature really stupid.. at least in regards to ordered concepts.  Primitive chaos, even being so mighty, still remained really.. primitive.  Her own chaos was vastly superior in this regard, being so well learned.  It would be an ample opportunity to make use of her intellectual superiority against her enemy, one of the greatest advantages she had against it.

Of course, Axln would need every advantage she held to deal with her next threat.  This was going to become an outright offensive, while her defense was completely vulnerable.. a factor which would certainly stack in the list of disadvantages brought to bear against her.

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FV – Chapter 63

Chance Opportunity

The two returned to their second battlefront to encounter absolute pandemonium.  Everything might have originally appeared balanced, but the conflict on this side had quickly shifted in their enemy’s favour.

Axln brought Lyun over to a seating area, having shifted directly into the citadel after bringing them both directly into the air.  The whole thing had been almost a demonstration of strength, using her chaotic potential to simply carry the weakened woman and then jump the distance.  Mheridz had passed her more than a few concerned glances then too, but by then she was already out of the room.  She headed to the rift mechanism, finding Luna currently trying to process repairs on it.  Well, that was quite unfortunate, but she could still handle rifts on her own.  Committing her own potential to the cause, she rifted out back to the ground below.  She arrived to witness a demonstration depicting the depths pandemonium had befallen, even the colossal having stumbled on an unsettled stone foundation, to then slip into an area that just happened to be molten at the time, the entire weapon sinking into a bog of liquid stone.  Several destroyers around her had their weapons spontaneously fail, the unit then suddenly detonating from the intensity of elements within.  As she took a step forward, she suddenly slipped to her back, the ground below her having at some point frozen into a slick surface.  A chaotic fiend rushed to confront her, so she turned her own weapon upon it.. one which had happened to be without ammunition at the time.  That startled her, finding the thing’s shard had been lost at some point during their encounters.

「There are a vast number of disturbances here, the flow of probability has been outright decimated by chaos.」  So they really were suddenly as unlucky as they looked.  Axln was outright forced to simply consume her opponent with her chaotic arm, not having the chance to weigh the options still available to her.  Logically, she would have every option.. but logic didn’t mean shit against the laws of chance on this side.  Things could go wrong just because things could go wrong, without any degree of rational cause.  No wonder their foe had opted to that path, it even felt as primitively chaotic as they were.  「At its core, probability is the law of chaos, effectively being randomization itself.  Chance is then one of the few chaotic factors present with all principles, as a result of being exposed to temporal chaos.」  That possibly explained why things were going so poorly even more.  Axln herself felt like she might not directly have been affected, but the impact of her actions would be then influenced.  That too was easy to explain, her chaotic nature making her far more resilient to factors of chaos.  It still might not even be enough, she wasn’t exactly made of chaos herself, the direct part of her feeling unaffected wasn’t even her physical self.. that would still be vulnerable.  The only part of her which was safe was her chaotic aspects.  Everything else of her, or anything from everything else on this side, well.. nothing else was quite so lucky.

Axln started coughing suddenly, having all too suddenly simply gotten sick in the unfamiliar environment.. even with protection from her power gear which would have worked against that.  Of course, over-exposure to the void, something that can make people ill.. it really was quite unfortunate that such had so suddenly occurred.  It was also unfortunate that they actually didn’t know anyone especially skilled at healing.  Axln retailored the effects of her power gear to cause a direct healing effect.. but her concentration broke mid-way in a coughing fit.  During this distraction, she remained unaware of the threats around her, one of the fiends lashing out while she wasn’t paying attention.  Axln went flying by the wave force itself, slamming hard into a rock in the process.  Axln felt herself drain in the impact, and not just from her breath.  Looking down, she discovered that the rock she had flown into happened to have a protruding part, which had sliced right into her leg.  She collapsed to the ground, caught between struggling to catch her breath while struggling to even stand.  Her foe however had no interest in providing the opportunity for either.  It wasn’t even an especially powerful fiend, actually one of the weakest, and yet that was suddenly enough.  No one else was faring any better either.

「Attempting to alter matters of chance that are directly at play here.  There is quite a lot going on, so this is going to take a bit of a chaotic surge.  Not everything can be addressed either, it would be a surge of chaos beyond that form’s compatible limits.」Axln suddenly slipped and tumbled, the result causing her to evade the next strike from the fiend.  This also brought her right up to it, allowing her to at least drain it directly with her chaotic hand.  With a bit of effort, she managed to get her attempts at healing back in order, but the results remained much slower than she might have liked.  She also felt a bit hazy, like everything about her was far more distant than she would have normally assumed.  Her hand meanwhile was the most vivid part of her, a blazing black void.  She instinctively knew.. this was a sign that her chaotic saturation had gone suddenly a lot higher.  She was caught in a flow of chaos, the only thing keeping her safe from the ravages of misfortune.. and it wasn’t even a perfect shield.  Worse, it opened her to new problems, the chaos around her flowing through her trying to impress its will upon her.  Of course, if she wanted protection, she just needed more chaos, that would solve everything, right?  Certainly, being of chaos, she would be invincible right now.

Except.. it wouldn’t be worth it.  Not only was the price too much to ask, that didn’t help all of her friends suffering right now.  It was a stroke of misfortune which brought her a keen insight upon this concept, almost as an inverted blessing.  For in that moment of self-conflict, the siege-mantle of the academy crashed against the moon with a thundering boom.  Much like always, this got her attention.. and even sent a spiral of dread through her.. but not because of her fear of such sounds.  Her foremost concern was how bad such a crash had gotten, especially for people who remained unprotected against the current climes of misfortune.  In a spiral of darkness not completely the design of her gift, she was at the crash site.  Still struggling to wash away the rising whirls of chaos, she tried to survey her surroundings, her circlet’s vision failing to provide it’s normal support.  There were visibly a good number of casualties on this craft, most of them fatal.  Her senses failing her, she felt a guiding pull in directions she couldn’t explain.  She found several of the people important to her, all wounded, some dying.  Ezhyrae was wounded, unconscious, but otherwise stable.  Xwyhr.. her sister.. even Jhez.. those two were in a pool of their blood with serious injuries.. and with none of them conscious.  No one was conscious, only Axln.

She knew she needed to save the people important to her, to make sure they made it safely.  She also knew that they couldn’t count on healing instrumentation in this situation, not with how much that stuff was simply failing.  Her only option was a chaotic solution, she would have to find a way to apply chaos to fix this danger.  「Your saturation levels of chaos are already dangerous, immersing yourself in more of the temporal …」  Axln caught wind of the idea right away, she was suddenly picking up some of Lyun’s worst.  A sacrificial resolution, as even she was unable to think rationally.  Possibly their greatest fortune, Lyun wasn’t here.. certainly that would have been worse.  Actually.. Axln wasn’t so confident at that, Lyun might have gotten creative here, something Axln herself still lacked.  She believed such simply because it was safe to assume that misfortune was the guiding principle here.  It implied a solution might exist, but not right now.  Fortunately, time was something she had ample supply of.  Setting the entire crash site into a sphere of suspended time, making use of the saturation of chaos present as fuel for the time suspension, she made her way outside to consider her options.  Of course, she was then leashed to the site.. both so that she could sustain it and so that she could defend it.  Everyone inside was absolutely vulnerable to the chaos around them now.

Looking around outside, she found circumstances had gotten worse.  The citadel’s main weapon had stopped mid firing, suspended in time.  Of course, her time suspension was leashed to both her and Lyun together, and Lyun was currently on the citadel.  Everything was constantly growing worse and worse, no matter what she tried to do about it.  She could almost audibly hear the chaos around her tormenting her and taunting her for her weaknesses.  However, it was still a lonely concept, her greatest weakness was not that she didn’t have power, her greatest weakness was that she was alone.  She was the only one with power, except Lyun of course.. but Lyun was currently unconscious.  Alone, she was bound and helpless, unable to be in many places at once.  Chaos still implored on her, that joining its cause would give her an infinity of numbers, to never be left so helplessly abandoned.  Even so, she resisted, determined to find her own path.  Chaos however mocked her, saying that her dependence on principles has left her chained.  She knew that she was so bound, that principles of time and space were things she could do very little about.

Actually, that was wrong, wasn’t it.

“The chaos here is getting annoying.  Like it doesn’t understand how potent true chaos actually is.”  「There are none here who are hearing you.. and it is as if your words were directed to your own chaos.  Isn’t that…?」  “.. crazy and stupid, probably.  Just think of it as a good portion of principled hype.  So, shall we move to true chaos?”  「What may be the plan?」  “Right now, we seem stuck because of rules like time and space being sort of in the way.  Chaos might invite the idea to outright break the rules, but that’s such a boring solution, right?  Wouldn’t it be more fun to.. bend the rules instead?  Mix chaotic time manipulation with principled shadow elemental space distortions, transpose both time and space at once.  The logic makes sense.. but also seems impossible.  A bunch of logical jumps that simply can’t be logically explained, with a lot between that stands more theoretical than sensical.  After all, I can suspend time, and shadow elements can be used to link multiple areas at once.  If those are both known facts, there is grounds to assume I could rift a chaotic presence in multiple locations at once, and then make use of my own rift to suspend a presence of myself there at a time.  As I can assert dominance over my own chaos, it means I could actively move in each area.. but with time suspended, I’m overstepping my presence and total reach in duplicity.  Other chaos couldn’t do this, because they couldn’t make use of my own principled rift.  I would be in each area, so I could sustain a presence in many areas, so I could suspend time in each area, so I could be in each area.  No matter what, there is a glaring fault of a paradox, the one thing I couldn’t figure out.  But.. I don’t have to, do I?  Technically, wouldn’t true chaos apply logic in a way that wouldn’t be logical?”  The greatest reason Axln was saying everything was because she was getting a headache just thinking about it all.  Having some of it outside of her head felt like it helped.

「There is no grounds for chaotic certainty either, with so much dependence on principles and logic, but this idea is tantamount to a display of immersive true chaos.  At its simplest, all you need is to have a presence that you shouldn’t have, so that you may have it.  Such wouldn’t even need to be chaotically sustained, because its own principles sustain it.  However, it will require suspending time in enough areas to ensure continuity, which is going to take a lot.  Ah, but such usage is not taxing on that form, and would offer ample ways to simply waste chaotics.  The largest tax may be on your own concentration, as you follow events on multiple forms across multiple timelinks to do multiple things together.  Sustaining the principles of shadow will also be taxing, both as the principle demands and in the fact that chance will attempt to sabotage it.  What you do so divided will prove even additionally taxing.」

Axln could understand such concerns, considering how much stamina would be consumed in sustaining shadow links that break down the distance between multiple areas so that she could share a presence in all of them, while acting beyond the constraints of time itself.  Quite notably, without all of this ambient chaos, she couldn’t dare to have hoped to pull such a thing off.  It also means she would never get to do this again.  However, it did not mean she hadn’t trained for this sort of split focus for many Sidera.. building a complicated script for a swarm of nanites actively responding in real time.  With her dust adrenaline boost surging through her, she should be able to keep up with everything.. at a mental level at least.  What this would do to her physically is something that would remain to be seen.  But at least there wasn’t a worry about the chances of things going wrong.. she was about to defy all probability anyway, doing the absolute impossible.

She set a rift off towards the area near the citadel, moving herself there while time suspending herself where she was.  The rift reacted, but stopped because of the time interference.  However, as the rift would consider her at the location she specified, that same area stopped time too.  Committing herself to the chaos, she willed herself to both be receptive to the rift, going over there, but still be suspended to where she was at present.  Then she applied the shadow of her gift to collapse the rift into a space collapse, preventing her passage through the rift but sustaining a link between both locations.  She then allowed herself to move.. but at this point she was logically in two places at once.. with time not registering yet so leaving her in an uncertain location until time resumed.  Chaos fulfilled this uncertainty, as she walked within her own time collapse, free to move while reality tried to reassert itself.

Of course, it was still disorienting, realizing Axln could see two different sights at the same time.  Trying to move her two selves independently took a bit of trial and error, her misfortunes there not helping her in the least.  The fact that stuff felt extra hazy wasn’t helping either.  However, of all the chaos she could be using, her own natural style was by far the most comfortable, so the haze began to clear away slightly.  The haze however was replaced by a sudden dizzy spell, a fiend having caught her off guard while she adjusted.  All too suddenly, that same fiend found itself in another rifted time bubble, Axln getting up in time to see herself draining that fiend away too.  Of course, except for her abuse of time-frozen shadows, she wasn’t capable of using either her gift or her instruments like this at all.  This implied every foe she defeated was chaos she took in, requiring her to spend more in time suspended bubbles, which also required her to work with more self-duplication.  She quickly lost count of how many Axlns she happened to be working with, devoting her attention more to what each was doing instead.  She knew she needed more of a plan, because things would simply grow out of control at this rate.  Fortunately, there had then become more of her to look for solutions now too.  However, this was still not enough, she knew that she would have to reach out to others for support in trying to resolve the many ongoing problems.  With the academy time suspended and Lyun unconscious, there was only one person left Axln could turn to.. one who could even confront her in a sphere of time suspension.  Making use of suspended time already in the citadel, she completed another rift link inside and established yet another presence.

“Trying to establish command over our forces is really difficult when everything is in suspended time.  Then again, absolutely nothing was working right just before that either.”  “Our enemy is making use of a strand of chaos to manipulate probability.  That’s having pretty much everything fail on us.  Ezhyrae has crashed too, the situation there is outright critical.  I’ve suspended time there so that there would be an opportunity to save people with the right resources, but…”  “Wait, how are you suspending time there when you’re here?”  “I’m there too.. uh, it’s complicated.  Do we have anything that could heal everyone?”  “Everything here is failing, even if time was back to normal.  Jhez is at least fine, because I’m still here.  I couldn’t be here if either of my parents were lost, right?  My recommendation would be to travel back in time and…”  “Surrendering isn’t an answer.”  Mheridz was already making Axln regret this decision, already starting on the girl’s favourite solution for everything.  Axln needed practical solutions, not just the same old stupid ones.

“Hey, I mean you could just travel back and fix this, right?  I would be glad to fix things for you, but aren’t you denying your own abilities by not even doing that for yourself?”  “By surrendering, I don’t even mean just to you.  Leaving this timeline, giving up on it, surrendering to it.. that’s not an answer.  Things could simply get worse.”  “Worse than..?”  “.. as you said, Jhez is still alive.  In another timeline, we may not be so lucky.”  “Lucky?  I thought that was completely at the whim of our enemy, luck.”  “Maybe, but it isn’t as if they know principled matters very well, such may simply be an oversight.  Besides, if I hadn’t shown up chaotically as I did, they would probably be dead by now.  I’m keeping things in check by giving us the time to find an actual working solution.”  Mheridz was still concerned at how much this version of Axln seemed to fear her own ability to leap through time.  Considering how much time manipulation was ongoing right now, that itself seemed pretty irrational to her.  Her mother had never held such reservations, capable of always predicting her own future by constantly having already seen it.  Being constantly prepared, it was one thing she endlessly admired in her mother, aspiring to at least shine with even a fragment of such potential.  After going back through time, she had even gotten to live like her mother, already aware of the future.  Both had changed.. her own awareness of the future and this Axln’s willingness to reverse it.  Even so, such matters of time manipulation didn’t stop either of them from being prepared, it just got in the way of it.

“The citadel is outfitted with some of the greatest state-of-the-art marvels anyone has ever seen, such as a shielding that prevents people from rifting here.. which I expect failed too by chance.  The rift room used to be an outright laboratory, and the room where you discovered hidden instruments on the day of your book heist was supposedly another secret laboratory.  That lab was supposedly outfitted with a vast number of super advanced survival equipment made well before its time.  Luna would know where such is as well, getting victims there and treated would work.. in normal circumstances.  Such obviously can’t be done while time is suspended, and can’t be trusted while chance stands against us.  Restore both, and I’ll do what is needed to make sure as many are saved as possible.”  Mheridz might not be able to predict the future anymore, but she still had a vast study of history.  She knew the legends the citadel had been capable of producing, of the places she had been shown when she was younger.  She had even needed to visit her mother and Lyun in the very same room, at a time when both had been quite seriously injured in one of their many excursions.  But it did not help that the place was an absolute maze, with distinct locations impossible to find without a proper guide.  Such would be even more impossible when chance itself worked against them.

This was unfortunately the extent of Mheridz’s knowledge of their situation, simply left in reservation to the principles that could help them.  When it came to matters of chaos itself, she remained woefully ignorant and without any useful information that could turn their luck around.

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FV – Chapter 62

Parallel Approach

The two girls found their advantage in retreat, knowing that their overall goal was to stir things up on both sides.  They were already on the front lines, after all, switching things over would invite them into much of the same frenzy.

Rosa took immediately to the space above, her holo generators running strong.  Of course, on this side, the moon had nothing to glide upon, wings wouldn’t serve the same use.  However, such provided a very well placed location for an ionic thrust, the stiff wings acting much more like a jetpack.  Her protective suit was making use of the same ionic shielding to sustain an oxygen supply for her, something which was already being recycled as she breathed.  Her DRE provided yet another form of protection, but in this case as a particle weave that infused her entire body in ions like an aggressive barrier.  Her jetstream momentum then struck quickly into a nearby fiend as a flying kick, the ions of the impact sparking as the fiend disintegrated.  Another fiend came around to turn upon her, that same fiend being subdivided as a high-intensity ion holo-blade passed through it, appearing from out of nowhere and simply falling upon her foe.

Kori meanwhile also set her Trance Inductor Drive on this side as well, the ions flowing a yellow circuit over her face in contrast to the blue patterns conduits like her typically held.  She jacked herself into her arm, manipulating the circuits with her accelerated presence to unfurl pure ionic force as a projection.  She wrapped such around her, jumping lightspeed into the air, crashing hard upon a fiend in the process, then discharging from impact to strike another.  Kori even caught Rosa’s next shift, switching to gravitation might instead as she simply pulled herself in a horizontal descent towards a third fiend and then drawing two more towards her in a gravitation implosion.  She turned towards one of the oncoming threats, the gravitational force gathering into her cybernetic hand as she outright crushed the fiend on impact.

The other fiend Kori had invited didn’t even reach her.  Rosa formed her frost carefully, placing a series of frost blades in series along the path between.  As the combined impact shredded her foe, she flew over and snatched two of them and made a sweeping spiral dive against yet another fiend, the dual blades slicing the fiend to ribbons.  She then flew back over to Kori, holding a defensive perimeter with her, as yet more chaotic fiends drew closer.  They were managing, but fending this many wasn’t going to be some easy feat, they were going to need some help.  As the mist of chaos dispersed from the few they had managed to deal with, their ebony hand itself felt unsatisfied and withdrawn.

「I can’t have you taking all of the fun, not when this isn’t completely your responsibility.  Your foe is here for the betrayer, it’s time they had a good taste of some true chaos.  It’s time you had a good taste of some true chaos.  Do not forget, four bodies, two people.. one entity.  You are not alone.」

The ebony of their arm flared to life, layers and structure of reflective ebony chaos rendering new form to their previously regular semblance.  It was like the arm of a demon, a semblance of claws that held no true form.  Driven to strike, the two girls dashed off in opposite directions, their chaotic arm each striking into a nearby fiend.  The fiend was not torn apart, it just simply ceased to be.. while their arm pulsed with even greater chaos.  They were devouring chaos.. and it felt savoury.  Rosa let her shift fade, while fourteen foes rushed them at once.  They both dived at one, but that left them open to the dozen left.  However, in that, true chaos was unleashed.  Making use of the growing power they had consumed, unrelenting plasma scourged in an erratic pattern around them, a violet frenzy that turned the stone they stood upon into pure silver ice.  Half of their foes burned to ash, the other half froze on contact.  The same ash settled a white haze that was attracted to the frozen cubes, the ash crushing the cubes with imploding force.  When the frozen foes were nothing but a flat plane, the two girls touched the ground they stood on, as their chaotic hand took in all of the elements remaining.. including the chaos that used to be.

Both girls knew subconsciously how this whole thing worked.  They knew they could command true chaos to infinite potential, but that it was limited by the capacity of chaos they could carry.  However, for every foe they defeated with true chaos, that foe was converted into more chaotics they could just simply use.  Instead of getting weaker as they fought, they would only get stronger.  This true chaos was working completely to their favour, replenishing their ionic or even elemental reserves, addressing pain and injury, and even supplementing their natural stamina.  In all ways, they were growing stronger.  However, even that felt a bit intimidating, for such power wasn’t in the least bit natural.  There was no way they could hope to contain this much chaos.

It didn’t take them long to realize the problem was even worse than expected.  Not only was this whole thing an armada that threatened even the unnatural outreach of their potential, it was also an elaborate trap.  A surge of chaos rampaged towards them.. as several others far off into the distance began their descent towards Aestus.  It was a collection of chaos more formidable than any army either world had faced even in their decendant’s future.. and it was about to begin its attack.  The two girls had meanwhile devoted themselves to an offense, they couldn’t manage both things at once.  There was also the concern that chaos worked as a whole, the chaos certainly also advancing on Ruixse at the same time.  It was absolutely impossible to be everywhere at once, this was much more than they could handle.

“Battlecruisers Omega and Epsilon have been deployed and are engaging the enemy.  Oh, and don’t worry, that’s only the beginning.  It seems Velvet has kept quite the trick up her sleeve here, having more than just a bike to drive around.  No wonder the girl always loved thermite, this stuff has its own thermite cores.. has as much power as ATALS.  Oh, and.. Drew and the crew are here too.  Seems hypertech is offering aerospace their services again, this time in weapon maintenance.  Tristine already managed to overclock the plasma cannon, not even I have figured out what that’s going to mean.  Velvet of course took her favourite, Omega, leaving Hypertech aboard Epsilon.  You will also not believe who is driving.. I really have to question your sister’s sanity.  Then again, I guess when the situation demands it…”  Holi’s voice was interrupted by a sudden solar flare, the blinding plasma eruption bleaching away the horizon.  Rosa turned to Kori, knowing that only one of them had heard Holi there.  Rosa reaccounted Holi’s details, catching Kori up to the same perspective of shock.  This changed everything.  All too certainly, having friends in the right places made all of the difference.

Coming to terms with the idea that the other side might need their attention much more urgently, the two switched things over to that side.  The instant they appeared, they heard a whirl and a pop, the colossal taking to the field again.  Scattered everywhere were numerous destroyers and armored walkers piloted by Luna’s forces.. but not even those were alone.  Cosmic crafts scattered in the area above them, firing waves and volleys into the rising forces to keep them promptly on the ground.  A call promptly came in through Axln’s power gear at that point.

“Welcome back, inheritor.  While you’ve been gone, Mheridz had promptly shown up and had taken action, mixing her forces with our own.  I’m sorry, she imposed the instructions that I would need to deploy all forces if I had any interest in keeping you safe, which is the highest priority.  She is aboard the citadel, using it as a command center between both divisions of forces.  Oh, additionally, it appears that Ezhyrae had made use of her influence within the foundry to requisition her own siege-mantle, the place being operated by some chosen academy staff.  Jhez and Xwyhr are there too, considering they both count as academy staff right now.  Mheridz expresses complaints that your sister is obviously treating this as some party, that the girl should really act her age, and hopes you might have something to share to make that happen, even though she admits that your sister is also demonstrating some unexpected skill at keeping forces organized.  Her remaining complaints involve how reports from that side have remained cluttered and confusing, even though the individual in charge of reports is a historian.  I have no idea what actions to take, as her own instructions have been rather cluttered and confusing when mixed in with all of these complaints.”  “Then just tell her to not worry about some flagship.. siege-mantle.. that has more influence than she does.  Everyone is helping, and that’s already making a difference.  Oh, also, I need you to reduce enemy numbers, the priority is any enemy forces attempting to flee the moon.  Please make sure Mheridz is aware of that objective.”  “Right away, inheritor.”  Luna ended the call, leaving Axln to address the foes before her.  Of course, Axln had already disposed of seventeen foes during the call, her attention easily sitting in two places thanks to her infusion.  Unlike any other might she commanded, it appeared that the chaos she gathered travelled with her to this side, meaning the foes she had just devoured were stacked upon the ones she had devoured on the other side.  Getting some help really was going to make all the difference.

Axln passed the same information on to Lyun mid-combat, while also using her circlet to scan the sky for important targets.  She found the academy’s siege-mantle, this side’s version of a flagship.  Accounting for it’s identifiers, she found several cosmic crafts with the same designation.. all of them piloted by an ersatz.  Ezhyrae really had been keeping busy.  However, she also knew Ezhyrae, managing this much activity at once was not what the girl was good at.  In that consideration, she suspected that such was her sister’s contribution, a demonstrative effort at keeping forces organized.  Knowing Jhez, the guy was probably more trying to keep up with a tactical awareness, possibly working with her sister in that front too.. even if he would be the only one who could understand the method behind his own madness.  Lyun was of like minds too, the girl knew how to manipulate people, especially Jhez.  She had some of the best intentions in her motives too, so the girl really was shining in her first big event.

At this point, it became difficult to gauge which battlefront the two girls would be needed at the most.  They had a lot of powerful support on both sides, quite honestly.  The girls even checked the other world in a momentary glimpse to witness the space above occupied in an armada of space fighters, the esteemed reinforcements for the two established battlecruisers.  Certainly, it was not to say that they were fighting a winning battle, their enemy still had them overwhelmed, and both sides were burning resources in order to keep up their aggressive stance..  However, neither side was losing ground either, and both sides really did appear to be evenly matched, it seemed like a perfect parallel.  With consideration to how they just needed to act, the two girls simply kept to that side in an effort to reduce numbers before they would switch over and do the same again.  They just needed to spread as much true chaos as possible, so that they wouldn’t suffer over capacity.

Rosa took the initiative, her creativity blossoming inspiration.  She needed to waste chaos then, that certainly wouldn’t be beyond her.  First, she created a magnificent holo canvas, the sheet of a height which would have made ATALS look small in comparison.  Ions were her paint, the canvas igniting in an abstract order of ions in a random sequence.  Then she exposed further chaos to it, rendering the pane itself unstable and glitchy.  The entire structure just contorted in a spaz, random elements of the structure warping in angles that ripped through nearby chaos.  While that was occurring, she shifted principles, leaving the chaos to persist without ration.  Before the residue could fade away, she peeled away the frost to have the burst of energy ignite, rampant flames spiraling like a visage of hell incarnate.  All too suddenly, she shifted back once again, the heat reacting with the residual ions to cause a burst reaction, with a rage of explosions decimating the moon’s surface.  Even then, she switched yet again, freezing the force reaction in a captured still due to a sudden frost presence.  Switching back, the intense force was already on the rebound, causing explosions to invert into implosions.  Switching yet again, a dark elemental reaction, causing a gravitational shift.  Yet another switch, she was left with a gravitational core, a concentration of energy mighty enough to collapse into a black hole.  Though that, several of the larger fiends were even consumed, the might of principle being all too powerful.

Being one to share Rosa’s chaos, Kori felt her chaos shift too.  At first, she could feel the wasteful approach actually worked.  However, as the entire process fused with chaos abound, the wreaths of chaos took a chance opportunity to devour the chaos decimated in the process, along with being empowered by the growing surge of true chaos.  She was actually only getting stronger.  Such was possibly how and why everything accumulated into something as incredible as a black hole.  However, this would be Rosa losing control over her chaos, everything amounting to too much to handle.  If that thing collapsed.. black holes are not something to just leave in your backyard.  As such, even in the rapid intensity of Rosa’s shifts, when the next turn for elementals came, Kori turned all of her dark elemental ability upon the design and ripped every last ounce of darkness from it, leading to a brilliant luminous flare.  Even that held too much power.. but Kori was noticing something else that Rosa had not.  Her envelopment of her shift only included a slight area around her.. that area had been growing in size with each shift.  Quite rationally, even the first area had been almost a hundred times her normal size.. if it grew enough to reach their forces.. those ships were not designed to work under elemental principles.

Kori then instead forced a timestop, a dangerous move that left her allies unable to defend themselves and her enemies still good to go.  In addition to that, she directly charged the sphere of light, capturing it with her chaotic arm in a burst of searing pain that she quite certainly could feel.  She then created an ambience of inverted time, slowing down herself while leaving everything else to go at normal time.  Rosa found herself neglected in this, the chaos within her having opted for the more preferred flow of time.  The chaos around them had been equally motivated, leaving Kori herself considerably vulnerable.  Rosa was shocked at what had been transpiring, not even aware of why Kori had been doing all of this.  Witnessing Kori with more elemental power than she could handle, Rosa realized that this might have been her fault.  She needed to get rid of this excess power now, it was a danger to everyone.  Dipping into the wellpool of light, she took a small sample of light energy and struck the fiends still approaching with the resulting mass concentration in a still form.  The light met with them and began devouring their very chaotic form in an all too parasitic form.  Rosa herself could feel the pain flaring from the contact, the over abundance of light having destabilized her own elemental composition.  This was only from small contacts, Kori would fare far worse.  Rosa was thus in a desperate flurry, quickly making use of all the nearby chaos to attempt to find a use for all of the excess light.  Committing her own chaos to the task, she felt pain in an even greater intensity as wisps of her presence extended her actions beyond the reality of her actions, a swirl of endless momentum as light shifted everywhere.  In a good number of cases, the light simply had to be directed as a distilled beam into generic deep space.. an act which would hopefully lose intensity before it made contact with anything.

Kori restored the presence of her own time just as Rosa collapsed to the ground.  Rosa was not exhausted, quite the opposite almost, as the mass flow of chaos enabled in her actions had caused a surge in chaotic growth.  Due to such a flow of chaos, Rosa could feel her chaos delivering an endless flow of stamina to her, leaving her to feel as if she wouldn’t be capable of sleep for the next month.  The pain however had become unbearable, her mind suffering under the intensity of everything that had just happened.  Of course, that had all been her fault, she was only blaming herself for it.. but the plan had been to avoid sacrifices.  Such was why, even as her very form gave way on her, she refused to just stop there.  Giving up, letting herself be consumed.. no one would forgive her for that.  Possibly Velvet, most of all, having then let the girl down twice.  Even with pure determination, Rosa was still unable to get back up.  However, Rosa’s determination extended to making the most of everything she still had.

Pain, that was the greatest thing she still had going right now, it was endless.  Pain was outright annoying for people too.. even if that was something chaos could never understand.  Chaos never felt pain, that was more of a context of principle.  Scientifically, it was an electrochemical impulse delivered through the nerve system that communicated intensity to the mind.  Instrumentally, it was a reaction between water and plant that drew a shift of a person’s plant elemental composition to a more water-based favour, causing their physical form to rend conflict.  Of course, this was a firm example in how water was considered a non-physical elemental.  Pain was electric energy, pain was water elemental, pain was something chaos never knew because it was of principles that opposed it’s design.  At least.. for primitive chaos.  She drew all context of her pain and agony towards her chaotic arm, filling it with the impressions left of her own torment.  Then, with a scream of otherworldly fervor, she cast forth this same instilment of pain, sharing her agony with every fiend around her.  Four leader fiends, actually working to provide a flow of growing chaos, immense bodies of chaos that had weathered most of the previous demonstration of power, suddenly disintegrated, the gateway that had been their weaving likewise annihilated in the process.

“What the hell was that?”  “Oh, hi, Velvet.. I thought you didn’t know how to contact me?”  “I had Holi patch me through, she’s handling the call.  Also, don’t change the subject.  That was mot-.. that was Rosa’s scream, wasn’t it?”  “Scream?  We’re in space, you can’t hear people scream out here.”  “Given how.. supernatural.. that sounded, I wouldn’t have claimed it was a person screaming.  She’s chaotic enough, it’s entirely plausible, and I know her voice.  What happened to her?”  “Rosa fought.. to avoid sacrifice, even her own.  She’s still awake, she knows we’re talking, though the bubble we’ve got means she can’t hear you right now.  Sorry, I really have to go, going to need to ensure she stays safe until she’s had a chance to recover.  Holi, please let the others know she’s okay too, they’re probably also worried.”  Kori was outright crushing a few passing fiends while she spoke, ending the call before Velvet could complain further.  Velvet hadn’t asked the right question, she had never inquired if Rosa was going to be alright.  Kori herself didn’t know the answer to that question, she had no certainty how things would go from all of this.  No one could predict the future at this point.

Velvet however wasn’t taking the news very well, that much was obvious.  Battlecruiser omega actually directed its attention directly upon the chaos still around Kori, providing additional cover for them as Kori worked to give Rosa the opportunity she needed.  As plasma rounds rained down upon them, Rosa’s shift having ended to allow such plasma to even work, Kori realized that they might have even forgotten that they actually carried plain weapons of their own.  She herself has a plasma weapon, even if it didn’t quite compare to the firepower Velvet was commanding.  In all consideration, it didn’t even compare to the firepower Kori could command, the thing seemed all but useless.  However, it was at least a simple expression of force that would drive things back and not give her a flow of chaos as a result.  She could even consume chaos to replenish her stocks, giving her a way to obtain a net negative stash of chaos.  She made use of her trance to pinpoint an accurate shot, her handling still suffering as her first shot sent her tripping over Rosa.  Recovering in the air, Kori balanced herself out with a shot in the reverse direction.  It was unfortunate that Rosa’s wave of anguish had wiped out most of the lesser fiends in the area though, the shots having little impact on the abominations closing in.  However, such shots did cause her enemies to stagger too, the rain of plasma that followed soon after making use of the opening provided.  Considering the two would be related, Kori was certain that Velvet’s vehicle handling appeared far more reliable than her aunt’s.. with an accuracy that seemed even to shine over her mother’s.  Of course, it wasn’t as if she knew Sophie’s ability in piloting an aerial vehicle.. but even Rosa had appeared unexpectedly gifted in the air without warning.

With that consideration, Kori got yet another idea.. that she could simply give Rosa some proper opportunity to rest under Luna’s care before being returned to the battlefield by rift.  It was a chance opportunity that such an option remained open to her, and it seemed like a good time to make progress on the other side, quite certainly it wouldn’t make things any worse.

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FV – Chapter 61

Potential Candles

Once the two completed their shift, they made immediate preparations in parallel to the work they had prepared for their Aestean defense.  They were both motivated to go the distance, gathering all of their resources for the oncoming confrontation.

Lyun walked into foundry headquarters, brushing off the red flakes that had gathered on her shoulders.  She also looked like an oncoming storm, a stern expression having taken air of her.  It had been quite the sudden shift, the sense of obligation building after learning the immensity of their goal.  For once, Lyun hadn’t panicked either, she was almost eerily composed in that way.  She was simply driven to a cause, motivated to ensure that things would work out.  Some of that impression may have been the impulses of her chaos which also wanted to assert dominance against primitive chaos, but she still had her own reasons.. as did Axln.  The tranquility she had created simply needed to continue, the tragedy that had fallen onto Velvet needed to be prevented from reoccurring.  Things had changed, and she would play her part to its fullest to ensure that both goals would be realized.

“Hello Zxyd.”  “Oh, it’s you.  Go away, I’m working and have no time for casual visits.”  “I’m not here to see you, don’t be stupid.  I’m here on business.”  “Foundry’s closed for the night, get lost.”  “This is urgent, I need to speak with Mheridz.”  “Good for you, don’t care.  Door is behind you.”  “Ugh, I don’t have time for your nonsense.  If you don’t want me to just walk in, call her up here.”  “No way am I going to disturb one of the foundry elite just because you have a whim.  Unless you’re here to cause trouble, the door is behind you.”  “What part of ‘emergency’ do you not understand?  Actually, do you even forget that my presence is on the behalf of one of the foundry elite.. one who even stands above Mheridz.  Really, she was the one who asked for this notification, so I believe I’m in the right.”  “Last warning, leave or you will be made to leave.”  Lyun sighed, Zxyd’s bias was clearly running strong right now, irrationally so.  It was fortunate though that she was well aware that she was in the right.. so long as she wasn’t one to cause harm.  She thus took a step forward.. and Zxyd activated an instrument he had handy.  Nothing happened, so he rushed out from the desk.. and slammed face first into a holo, the impact sending him sprawling to the floor.  By the time he got back up, Lyun was gone, the occasional red flecks scattered over the ground going further inside.

“Mheridz, time to wake up.  We’ve got an emergency, one that we can’t afford to sit on further, else it gets even worse.”  “Lyun, do you even know what time it is.. it’s…”  “Time to stand against your voidspawn, we’ve found the enemy.  They have an armada right now, one that seems to exceed even Velvet’s experience.  Every moment we wait, things will get worse.”  “Are you joking?  No.. no you’re not.  I just might not have expected you to bring the message.”  “It was either coming here or to be the one to stand in front of the academy in a major assembly and discuss everything with the administrative body.  This was better.”  “Yeah, but you don’t exactly make the fastest messenger.”  The door before Lyun opened, revealing a Mheridz already composed for action.  It was also at this point that Zxyd had caught up to everything.

“I’m sorry, milady.  She broke in after disabling…”  “I hope you weren’t any trouble to our messenger, not considering the urgency of her message.  The wardens have the next two moments to prepare for deployment, we’re leaving.  I expect we’re going to need to supplement our forces too, so I’m going to take care of that while we wait.”  “Ma’am.”  “I’ll need to contact the outposts too, make sure everyone is ready to mobilize.  Wait, actually.. maybe.. I’m getting ahead of myself.  Lyun, come with me, we should discuss the enemy’s current activity.  Woah, actually, are you bleeding?  There is blood all over your shoulders.”  Zxyd had already gone, his panic at the sudden shift visible considering two moments really wasn’t much time, but even Mheridz had gone pale.  A portion of Lyun’s attire along her shoulder blades had been visibly torn away, the area coated with blood that still dripped on the floor.  Actually, it didn’t so much drip as it did.. float in small flakes.

“Like you said, I’m not normally the fastest, but where we’re going.. that just won’t be acceptable.  So then, I had to get creative.  Just gave myself a pair of wings made from my own frost, which I can totally replace with a holo if I need to.”  “But.. frost isn’t exactly the firmest thing to work with, even if it can be flexible.  How could…”  “Because frost and water makes ice, and that would work.  Of course, I don’t exactly have a talent with water.. so I may have needed to make use of the water elements I already had.  I would give you.. it’s a bit painful, but using my own blood for the process makes it really easy to control.”  “By the divine, girl, what has taken you?  Not even your future had resorted to such a dramatic…”  “Because nothing less would be enough.  I mean, it’s not like Axln hasn’t stepped up her game suddenly either.  She’s not been wanting to be caught slow either, not against these numbers.  Sure, she might move fast, but she doesn’t think or react quickly, not enough for herself at least.  She’s hacked her own nanites to give her an accelerated performance rush, and here she’s empowered her own dust to entrance herself at will too.  Not even I knew that dust elemental was effective at manipulating how people think, though she did mention that she believes she’s done this once before.  I’m no expert in the healing field, but I’m pretty certain that doing either.. leaves a toll on the mind being influenced.. mostly because you can physically see the strain.  Ion lines or dust marks.. even her hair goes slightly darker.  I’m pretty sure she gets the worst headache too.”  Lyun rubbed her own sore shoulders, Mheridz only going even more pale.

“Mother had never…  This timeline is nowhere near the same anymore.  You two shouldn’t be hurting yourselves so much.”  “The pain is better than the loss.  We need to ensure that no one perishes, not this time.  Can’t do any less than giving our all if we hope to achieve that.  I hope you’re willing to devote yourself too, we’re going to need you.  This timeline can be saved, but only if you’re willing to devote to it.”  “Seriously, what happened to you?  This is almost like your usual panic.. but one that has seemed to have broken you instead.”  “While we’ve been taking things easy, chaos has taken the four moons.  They very possibly have the whole thing occupied, at least the major moons.  Aluna and Izheelq are both under their claim, and they have been using both to sap our world from a safe and stealthy distance.  According to Velvet, that’s not like them either.  If our enemy is going to so suddenly change, we’re going to need to keep up.”  “The moons?  Hells.. but that.”  “Like I said, things don’t look good, so there is no time for weakness.  We will meet you there, trusting that you will gather a force that could stand in a Ruixsi defense.”  Mheridz stumbled backwards as Lyun’s crimsonian wings unfurled, the woman stepping outside and taking flight.  She rapidly ascended until she was far away from civilization for a suitable rift from the citadel.  Once safely aboard the citadel, she put her wings away and approached Axln, the woman’s Trance Inductor Drive running strong as her hair darkened and her face was marked with dusty lines.

“Shit, these headaches are going to take some getting used to.  How did things go with Mheridz?”  “She seemed a bit caught off guard by our new measures, but she’s already mobilized the wardens and will be moving to grow her numbers.  She’s probably got a lot of work to do to secure stellar transport too, I don’t expect foundry moon visits to be a regular thing.”  “In all accounts, I don’t think aerospace is that used to going the distance either, especially in great numbers.  However, I don’t really want to wait.  I know we’re supposed to depend on others, but I think that’s why we should ensure that there is enough opportunity for everyone by stirring things up before they show up.  We’re possibly the only ones who could pierce their fortification, and all of this was caused because they tried to avoid us.”  “Heh, so, stir up some true chaos, huh?  Of course, I’m in, so long as we’re going to risk ourselves in the process.  We’re more than just bait, no one is allowed to die, not even ourselves.  However, how do we plan to get there?”  Axln smiled, as if she had been waiting for Lyun to ask that question.  Such had been exactly what she had just been pouring over, and she already had an answer.

“Luna, are you here?”  “Yes, inheritor, at your beck and call.”  “It appears this place was once a fortress of some renown, as well as being the convoy that had originally brought people from Celese across the cosmic layer.  We’re going to need both functions for this.  Gather all of the citadel’s forces, we’re going to war.  Our time drifting in orbit is over, so set a course for Izheelq.  We’ve unloaded most of the kyumu stock already, the rest can be used as fuel.  Make sure to get such also incorporated into the system, I want the core weapon replaced with an elemental burst.  I’ll help to guide the process.  Rosa, I’m going to have to leave you in charge of our flight path.  We have no way to review things in advance and no time to consider a course of action on arrival, so I’m going to have to depend on your impulses for a smooth approach.  Get creative, it’s what you’ve proven to be increasingly good at.  I’ll show up on demand, though it may take some time.  It seems like this is the only room that permits rifts, can’t rift or phase through anywhere else.  Give me about a moment’s early notice, that should be enough for Luna to show me the way back.”  Axln then promptly followed Luna from the rift chamber, keeping to the plan.  Lyun turned to her own task, feeling like she may have drifted from her forte again.  Navigation, that wasn’t exactly her.. but was still a better use of her effort than trying to hack revisions in instruments she still hardly understood.  However, staging a grand approach for a waiting audience.. that sounded like a lot of fun.  Leading a course forward, that also sounded like what Drew did every day.. something she might need to get used to if she ever planned to help him with the business.

There was no certainty of what time remained of that night, not in the dark outreaches of space beyond the Ruixsi orbit.  As a result, Lyun had no certainty either in how much time had passed, but it certainly felt like an eternity longer than it actually would have been.  The whole process involved rift-jumping in short bursts, giving them an overall velocity that was substantially quick and yet still heavily controlled.  Eventually, instruments detected the presence of their destination’s orbit quickly on approach.  Instruments also detected a vast abundance of nothing on the self-same moon, vast quantities of elements already devoured.  Certainly, considering this was the world’s primary source of elementals.. the remainder of the void phase was going to be quite tight as is.  They simply could not afford to let things get any worse.  Instead, it would be better to deliver elements back to the moon, an idea that was supposedly all too possible.  She made use of the navigation system to open communication with Axln.

“We’re pretty much here, are things ready on your side?”  “Oh, yeah, it looks good here.  Obviously I haven’t tested things out yet, but I’ll be on my way.”  “I’ll start our introduction off then by putting your work to the test.  Luna, prepare to unleash the core, I want the most intense demonstration possible.”  “Hey!  I wanted to see stuff too!”  “Well, you do know that visibility from here is trash, right.  I’m getting readings but not actually visuals, I don’t even know what our enemy looks like.  My plan is to cut open a path and then make our descent.. so that we could see stuff for ourselves.”  “Oh, so you want to rift down?”  “What?  I’ve been waiting to try one of those drop pods for ages, this is such a great opportunity.  They generate an intense stone burst on impact too, so we’ve got some deterancy to keep us safe with.  That’s possibly a lot more than a quick rift would offer.”  “Lyun, you do know that the drop pods weren’t designed for squishy people, right?”  “Oh, I know, they were designed for instrumental weapons.. so cybernetic warriors like us, right?  I mean, we’re practically living weapons, it’s the same thing.”  “I would call you crazy, but I worry it’s contagious.  After all, I’m pretty sure I could reach a drop pod much faster than I could get back there.  Fire away, I’ll meet you on the ground.”  Lyun’s expression took up a diabolical grin once administered with Axln’s approval.  It was finally time to let loose, to attain her vengeance against the chaos that has haunted her.

The sprawl of chaos on the moon turned its attention skyward, a passing star stopping to grace its presence and attention.  This assumed star lit up brightly without warning, the chamber below spiralling open in a condensation of pale fire.  Meanwhile, the twelve spires on its far side revolved around, turning to the ground in a rapidly growing surge of black lightning.   Such a great fortress had also waited for so long for it’s moment to shine once again.. and shine it did, with an intensity that could be seen from even Ruixse.  The maw of death opened wide, containing both the roar of a dragon and the ferocity of a storm eye, legends beyond the veil realized in form.  The dual intensity of such a monstrosity struck down in full force, scourging the very stone with a wave that rippled nova wider than the moon itself.  Only the blast itself was dangerous, but even that was of a size that was larger than the academy, larger than their society, leaving a crater that still surged with power.  Within that desolation of the elements, two comets fell, as if a prophecy of the end.  The blazing of both was little more than candles compared to the desolation which had just occurred, but the potential held within could be felt by chaos reaching far beyond.  The betrayer had arrived, bringing with it a scourge of principles.  As each drop pod broke open, true chaos was unleashed.

Axln stepped free from her pod, her face marred by dust marks, the pain dulled in an unrelenting fury.  Her circlet was active, searching her immediate area for viable targets, her power gear’s protection keeping her safe from both the moon’s unforgiving conditions and the scourge of elements they added unto it.  Darkness enveloped her, and she was gone, rifting across the distance towards her nearest opponent.  The first didn’t even see her coming, the passage of shadows tearing wide the space it had originally occupied, ripping it’s existence apart.  She turned to the next, her cybernetic arm enveloped in shadows as she struck down.  This foe however was prepared, pulsing out a wave of force that sent her flying away.  She teleported an instant later, already back on the attack before her enemy could react, her dust infusion keeping her on track even when interrupted, her reflexes being unparalleled.  This time, her foe took grievous wounds from the attack, though such was not enough to end it.  Such didn’t matter, she simply turned to relentlessly continue her attacks without hesitation.

Lyun however did not step from her pod, she soared from it, her wings having reformed behind her once again.  Her initial strike had left her savouring more opportunity, craving more vengeance, she was hungry for more.. and so the pain from the process mattered little to her.  Finding the nearest enemy, she went in for a rapid descent, a swirl of frost encompassing her enemy in a frozen prison that quickly collapsed, leaving nothing behind.  As she turned around for another climb, she found herself struck from the air, crashing to the ground by the might of another fiend.  Sparkles of frost ignited into an unrelenting flame that erupted from the ground beneath her enemy, sending it flying into a spear of frost she scorn downward upon it.  Her foe fled, leaving her to turn her attention to other opportunities, still feeling very unsatiated.

Axln poured sand across the emblazoned stone, molten glass forming in a rising pool into the shape of a misformed blob.  A dark shadow passed through such glassy form, rendering a reflection of everything else around it in the process.  She then passed such a form to her elusive enemy, the mirror adopting it’s stance and form.  It was chaos against chaos, but her chaos wasn’t quite so primitive.  When her enemy struck, the attack didn’t even register, as if it had attacked itself.  Of course such attacks do nothing to simple chaos.  However, the mirror version repeated the same motions, the shadow of the mirror striking afterwards.  This infusion of dark elemental struck soundly, crushing the fiend in a collapsing fold of reality.

Lyun turned to her retreating opponent, chasing it in flight.  However, it was already on guard, she would need to change things up in order to make a difference.  In mid air, she shifted principles, her crimsonian wings quickly replaced by a holo projection in much the same figure.  Of course, a holo did not simply work this way, not normally.  She was not only flickering frames faster than a person could imagine, she was also empowering her holo with pure ionic energy.  Rivulettes of energy poured in streams from her wings as she soared, an ionic barrier keeping her safe from her surroundings.  This barrier of pure energy lit ablaze as she made a direct dive for her enemy, tackling it head on with unrelenting momentum.  The sparks of ions flared around, consuming every last vestige of its presence.

Immediately after one rift, Axln found herself switched over to scientific principles.  In no hesitation, she found herself infused once again, her trance inductor drive going strong with an ionic pulse.  Wrapping into the ions, she made her next instant jump in a lightspeed burst, all as if nothing had even changed.  Her hand was now ablaze with wild ions, a fist clenched in pure power.  She approached her next opponent, crashing down at it.  The fiend however reacted, dodging promptly out of the way, but Axln spun around mid momentum.  The fiend braced for impact, going flying with the overall momentum instead of bearing the brunt of it.  However, the same fiend promptly crashed into a holo wall, the wall surging with ionic force.  Axln was quick to take advantage of Lyun’s intervention, coming down again upon her foe with brutal force.  The blast did not end it.. but Lyun dropping the holo wall upon it did.

The two had thus successfully managed to deal with five fiends already, even if they were of the more normal variety.  The two of them looked up at the nineteen thousand fiends that then turned upon them, with considerably more waves right behind them, the fiends determined to overwhelm their two foes.

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FV – Chapter 60

Wavering Hunter

In her own private room, Kori took a deep breath in preparation for what she was herself about to do.  None of this was going to sit especially well with her, but it needed to be done regardless.

“Hello?”  “Hey Nick.”  “Oh!  Kori, thanks for calling, I…”  “I’m not calling to speak with you, please don’t make this any more difficult than it already is.  The matter is strictly professional.  I know you’ve been cruising around with a certain high ranking executive recently, and I’m hoping she’s still there with you.”  “Oh, yeah.. I’ve still got Aerospace Command pressing upon me at every working hour.  She’s aboard here too, in the private room like most customers.”  “Great, then please let her know that I’ve got a message from a colleague of hers.  The matter is of important business, so I will need to speak with her privately right away.”  “Alright then, please hold.”  Nick was more than a little disgruntled at Kori’s seriousness, his hopes shattered by the persistence of reality.  Velvet quickly fell for the same feint, herself in high hopes that Kori was actually calling about a sudden change of heart.. but Kori wasn’t calling to give up there either.  Instead, after Velvet had settled down in the private comfort of the shuttle’s passenger room, Kori fulfilled Mheridz’s request by repeating the same truth behind their unexpected advantage, brought about.. thanks to true chaos.  After that, Kori also presented Mheridz’s predictions about the impact such would present, even if there were a few ideas Kori has still been disputing.

“Well, I guess that’s why everything had been screwing up.  In honesty I had noticed the whole shady arm deal, but Rosa had made plenty of excuses about it.. so I had dismissed the idea.  I guess that was foolish, considering things went strange starting there and the whole shady arm deal never stopped being shady.  Mari is right though, we now have no idea when they will attack next.  Having not had a confrontation in a while, it’s pretty obvious the next rush will be intense.  We’ve only ever been seeing scouting parties in this timeline, nothing half as major as the nightmares from my timeline.”  “That’s not all, but we’re suspecting that both planets may already be under attack.. at least the other side.  Our enemy may have taken to a stealth advantage so that they could harness a better position.  I’m wondering if our world here is being just as indirectly assaulted.”  “Wait, stealth?  They.. they’ve never done stealth.  Sheer power had been more than enough.. maybe some tactical use of it.. but.. everything was always an obvious in-your-face problem.”  “Your timeline did not have chaotic weapons designed to target chaos.”  “Mari is right about that too.  Not knowing about such a serious distinction.. could have.. all sorts of trouble.”  Velvet sounded very flustered, a tone Kori recognized from the girl’s mother as signs of panic.

“Calm down, there’s no point in worrying about what has happened, we should instead focus upon where this leaves us.”  “Says the woman who can outright go back in time and change things for us.  Why exactly are you so hesitant in doing so, anyway?  Being able to go through time could only ever be a good thing.”  “Says the woman who wants to go back to ensure I never learn to control time.  Slowing and stopping time is much more reasonable, but I’m still convinced that there remains an incredible responsibility in manipulating timelines.  At one point, the whole timeline ordeal is certain to come back to bite us eventually, I would rather mitigate those sorts of problems.  Think of it this way, how would you feel if I let you go back in time to fix things.. and then went back in time to make sure that didn’t happen.”  “Wait, did you do that already?”  “No, I haven’t, but it’s already bothering you.  There is so much to worry about when it comes to timelines.. so I would rather work with variables I’ve adjusted to than go back and lose track of where I’m going.”  Kori had an assuming air to her in this statement, a clear recognition of her own responsibility and power, leaving even Velvet uncertain in a suitable retort.

“Let’s think about it, you’ve even lost track of your sworn enemy because things have changed too much.  Considering that, instead of letting more stuff change for us, let’s just figure out what we have right now.  Knowing that the enemy may have adopted a more stealth approach, what could you assume would be a viable direction of concern?”  “Yeah.. the problem is still trying to figure out how they would even hide.  Aerospace has eyes all over the place, and the singularities DMA generates stand out like a sore thumb.  They wouldn’t not do so, because their goal is to simply do that more, it’s their fundamental design.  Even the idea of stealth would involve trying to find a way to stealthily create more singularities.  Things would be failing all over the place if they were just hiding among us, which in turn would have raised countless alarms.”  “What about a timebomb approach, then?  Preparing singularities that were self contained, but ready to go off at a later time.  You said they have numbers, and it would be far more in their advantage to have more distributed problems in a greater area than to have one significant problem in a single area.”  “How?  That would require a chain-reaction approach, DMAs themselves aren’t exactly prone to making their anomalies self-sufficient.”  Kori was starting to get frustrated at how much Velvet was just complaining and not actually being constructive.  The woman wasn’t even interested in trying, not so far, leaving Kori feeling like she was just wasting her time.

“If you can figure anything out, that would be really helpful.  Otherwise, I’m going to go and do some research on my own.  Much like with Mheridz, I’m certain you could contact us at any time if you ever felt the need to do so.”  “But how would…”  “The first step would be to calm down, and the second would be to actually look.  You learned something new, something that probably hasn’t happened since you showed up on our timeline.  Go use your new knowledge and see if anything can cause it to make sense.  Your mother would have also been really creative, go see if you could make any use of that creativity for yourself.”  Kori then abruptly ended the call, not even wanting to hear Velvet’s next retort.  To think the woman was supposedly older and wiser than either of them were, Velvet was honestly falling behind in areas even Rosa had grown to excel in.  The woman was even a person of responsibility, actually seated in aerospace command, to think…

Kori then realized what she had done.  She had just snapped at a high ranking human with a very established position of authority, one she was completely undermining.  This wasn’t just irregular for her, this was irregular for any conduit.  Maybe then her comparisons weren’t exactly fair, Rosa and herself had actually reached heights few could have ever achieved.  However, she had still done the right thing, there was no way Velvet would learn from this experience if no efforts were made in that process.  This was something she would herself have to come to terms with too, given the path of her own future.  Being a teacher was going to involve investing in the learning experience of countless others, people with far more holding them back.  Such was due to become something of a lesson in others she would also have to come to terms with.

“Great, you’re done whatever it was you were doing.  Holi told me to wait.  We’ve already discovered something useful, Ruixse’s concerns were spot on.  Somehow, chaos has been draining this world dry by slowing everything down at a molecular level, actually taking away molecular energy.  The effect is so widespread that we can’t even pinpoint a direction or anything, the world is just gradually freezing more and more.”  “Really?  How?”  “No idea, like I said, there are no traces of the cause, only the effect.  Except for areas with devices compensating for the change, pretty much everywhere is colder than it should be.”  “Except any civilized area has something compensating for the cold.”  “Yeah, that’s why people haven’t noticed yet.  Hypertech’s engine however is having trouble adjusting, so this has actually been causing unexplained problems for Tristine.  In reality, not only is the engine having problems running with all the cold, but it also needs to run harder to protect us from the cold.  Holi and I have been working to try and pinpoint any cause, but neither of us are getting anywhere.  Drew didn’t have anything either.  We were hoping you would have something, or at least have learned something from what you were doing.”  Rosa had been keeping busy, not wanting to just stay idle while waiting for Kori.  However, in the process, she hadn’t discovered anything new.  She still carried with her a bunch of reports she had been putting together after having done most of such work in the planning room, fibre sheets being a prominent thing for trying to organize a compiled view of ideas for her with everything she could put together.  It was fortunate that such sheets were completely reusable, otherwise she would have felt guilty for having wasted them.

Kori at least noticed all the effort and started looking over the notes for herself.  She was far more used to tracking things either in her head or virtually on a holo, so she wasn’t very used to depending on the notes of others.  Overall, the whole thing was a giant mess, quite similar to how all the written records Jhez had been working with were just a physical clutter.  Both threatened to grow in an unorganized sprawl, taking the trees they would have come from and forging a wild growth as spontaneous as the forests of their origin.  Actually, reflecting on that scene triggered a memory for her, something she couldn’t quite place.  She set the idea partly aside as she followed the records out into the yard, gazing out at the starless night sky.  It certainly looked cold, but not visibly colder.  It didn’t even look visibly like there was much of a source to such a cold either.  The shimmer of the barrier probably didn’t help, such light and energy was why the night sky looked like it was devoid of stars.  They were still there, but unseen.  The energy around them was making it too difficult to spot what might be denying it’s presence.  While searching though, she found herself suddenly the recipient of an unexpected holo call.

“Kori, right?  Glad that worked.”  “Hello again, Velvet.  Have you uncovered anything?”  “Possibly.  You know how I’ve always had an interest in thermite, right?  Actually.. that would be more the future you, but yeah.  Anyway, I went to get a big picture, taking data from ATALS.. and it seems something has been leaking away our energy.”  “Well, I already knew that.  I’m sorry, we’ve had a couple of power failures here, Holi sort of got us some backup power to…”  “I didn’t say our reserves were dry, I mean production is down.  No one ever checks that sort of thing, because thermite plants generate some of the most incredible quantities of energy, no one would particularly be concerned about it.  Even if our own was low, other relays could supplement the loss, making it a very stable system.  Every relay is even connected, I can totally see how production is going across the board if I really wanted.  Every single relay is producing less than normal, down at least ten percent.”  Velvet clearly had accomplished something, Kori was rather impressed with Velvet’s work.  This even tied into the work Rosa had been working on too, the both of them discovering a widespread power drain.  Rosa knew it was caused by the cold, but this.. Velvet was saying that the reason why it was so hard to pinpoint an origin was because the entire planet was being affected.

“So.. what would cause that?”  “A cause?  For all of them?  I highly doubt the thermite core was damaged or influenced, that wouldn’t have such a widespread even result.  However, that’s also the main source that causes the entire thermite reaction in the first place.”  “Energy can’t be created, only converted.. at least according to our principles.  Where does that energy come from?  Is it something originally drawn from underground?”  “What?  No.  Thermite is especially vulnerable to ultraviolet radiation, making it very reactive.  We just need to tap into the solar winds to get the jumpstart we need.”  “Wait, it’s solar powered?”  “Well, no.. not completely.  More of a solar radioactive reaction, though solar heat does give that spark.  Thermite is basically condensed heat gathered during the diatal solar season, because we then live in an inferno.  Trapping the heat somewhere makes it easier to keep cool.  Then we just need to make use of all of that energy during the noctal solar season.  However, trapping it still means we need to expend energy to have it released, otherwise it just stays inert.”  Kori was starting to see how some things were adding up, Velvet was actually being very helpful right then.  Supposedly, coming from a time where thermal energy would have been very handy to attempt to weaponize, the girl knew her stuff.

“So.. what would happen if the solar winds were directly being drained?”  “The heck?  Messing with suns?  I mean, I heard that DMAs on the other side managed to wipe out a star back in the day, but that required most of the place being wrought dry before it could even be achieved.  Even then, it was just a small star like Proma, the Proma they used to have.  To have any impact at all right now, they would have to mess with Kenta.. which is rather incredibly unreasonable.  If the DMA were already strong enough to take that star, the entire Centri System would already be lost.”  “Then.. what would happen if they simply intercepted that energy on route?”  “You mean.. if they had any orbital presence?  They would still need a foundation to work from, even scattering anomalies to the solar winds would need a nest.. and they aren’t exactly good at creating stable foundations.”  “… but solar winds aren’t exactly the most energy-intensive process, far easier to tap into than the raging might of Kenta itself.  We’ve even noticed things are getting colder, and losing some of the solar winds could explain that.  We get heat from Kenta, it’s the only furnace we have during noctal, even if the heat barely counts as a candle in comparison to the flame of…”  Kori froze, mid statement, even causing Velvet to worry for a moment in the sudden silence of revelation.

Kori set the messy stack of papers she still carried aside, the clutter completely in her way right now.  The clutter of paper, a forest of information that missed the value of the trees it came from.  Instead she looked upon the night sky that itself too missed the stars they remained blind to.  Beyond the night would be the candle of kenta that waited to provide its flame that missed their world.  For between Aestus and Kenta lay the dual orbits of Aluna and Zwena, the unassuming moons of the world.  ‘Don’t miss the forest for its trees, don’t miss the candle for its flame, don’t miss the night for its stars’.. the randomness of that message suddenly came back to haunt her.. and its meaning.. so eerily fitting right now.  For not only were Aluna and Zwena prominent outposts from which to besiege the world’s supply of heat from the three suns, the same outposts were parallel to places apparently also of value to Ruixse.  Mheridz had only just told her that the foundry made great use of their two candle moons for backup elementals while such was naturally scarce, a place which provided a proximity ambience to the planet by sharing its own reserves.  On both sides, the moons were a significant resource for exactly the sort of thing chaos hated.. and neither side really put much consideration into occupying such vital grounds.  It would be the perfect place to hide.. because no one was watching.

“Velvet, stay on the call will you.  Feel free to listen at least.  Holi, come over here, I need you for a bit.”  “I’m here, what do you need?”  “I need to do thermal tracing of our lunar orbits.  Can you hack into an orbital installation and acquire that information?”  “I could, but I fail to see how that would measure anything.  You do know that space is really really cold, right?”  “Yes, but if I’m right.. you won’t get any thermal data back at all.  The signal will be intercepted and drained, leaving the place to more resemble a black hole in thermal composition than an actual physical body.”  “That wouldn’t.. uh.  It appears you are correct.  I found an orbital center that has been doing thermal mapping for a month now, but hasn’t been able to identify the presence of the moon at all.  By my calculations, it should be fully capable of a thermal trace of the moon right now, but the signal appears instead to be fading into deep space.”  Kori nodded, her theory having been itself proven by Holi’s report.  This explained everything.

“Wait, so.. the moon?  Both moons, possibly, it really wouldn’t matter much.”  “Chaos likes to spread equally, and Izheelq provides much more promise than Hyxeelq would during our noctal.  That makes Aluna a more viable outpost than Zwena, but they could rightfully have both.”  “Kori, you do know this is ridiculous, right.  The moons aren’t just some tiny rock in space, they make this colony look tiny.  How exactly do you expect to cover the entire thing.. two of the entire things?  Actually, that’s not everything either, you’ve even got a second set of the same problem.”  “They have so much ground because we’ve just let them take it.  We did predict they would be waiting in no small numbers, right?”  “Four bloody moons, four…  This is outright insane, there is no way you could deal with all of that.”  “Not on my own, no.  But I’m hardly the only one trying to keep my home safe.  I seem to recall that your entire reason for existence right now is to worry about the same thing.  So.. I’m not really alone, am I?”  “The timeline solution is a billion times easier than this, I hope you realize that.”  “I still like having solutions where I can count on more people, it feels far less selfish that way.  Anyway, I’ve got things to organize on my side, I trust I will be seeing you next on the moon.”  “… I’ll make sure Command gets the update.  Take care of yourself, please.  Tell Rosa to do the same.”  “You too.”  The two waited a moment before ending the call, Velvet audibly sounding overwhelmed.. though Kori couldn’t assume to be the beacon of confidence either.  This really was pretty insane, a horrible mistake for not having dealt with things sooner.

“So I take it that we’re going to want Drew to learn about this right away?”  “If you will.  However, Rosa and I are going to be leaving immediately, we need to get things going on the other side too.  Where is she, anyway?”  “She’s currently checking on Tristine in case the girl has any new information.  I suspect though that such won’t be required at all.  I can let her know that she should return promptly?”  “Yes, please, and make sure she is also updated.  That will save a lot of time.  I’m going to go get our combat gear ready, we will need to make sure we have it on hand before we set off on the other side.  I’m going to then need to leave you to get the ball rolling here.  Drew will be important to the process, this is his business after all.  He would even have to make the call on how much he wants to devote to the cause, considering we’re mostly a defensive outpost.. and no one here is a fighter.  You however.. you I might need up there.  Try to keep a presence with Velvet, I’ll be reaching out to her to get everything in order.”  “I’m already on my way with that as well.  Best of luck on your side, Kori.”  “Best of luck to us all.”  Holi then promptly vanished towards her growing list of responsibilities, leaving Kori to her own devices.  Fighting on the moon, now that was going to be a new one, she would have to make sure she had everything she needed to be ready.  Rosa would fortunately be there to help as well.

Once the two of them felt confident in their preparations for a parallel lunar conflict on this side, the two began their shift to the other side.  The night was still fresh, but it seems Ruixse would need to be available for another long night.

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FV – Chapter 59

Willing Seeker

With a new night quickly approaching, the two girls switched over to Aestus in order to complete their regular tasks there.  However, as Lyun sent them off, their shift was suddenly intercepted.

The two looked around, recognizing the temporal plane again on sight.  They were each immediately on alert, knowing their presence here would not be a welcomed one.  However, even their reception into the temporal plane was met with unexpected silence.  For being home to primitive chaos, the place was visibly devoid of a chaotic presence, they were notably the most chaotic aspect in their proximity.  Wandering around as such, the two once again discovered the only friendly face they had ever found in this entire plane.  The temporal lady, present once again.  She seemed rather occupied, though they had no idea how this was exactly obvious.  The two waited a while, unsure in the smartest course of action.

“Oh my, guests, once again.  I’m sorry for not noticing you sooner, it doesn’t make me the best of hosts I guess.”  “Well, at least our stay is welcome this time, you were quite quick in fleeing before.”  “I, well, yes.  With everything going on, I must admit to not being at my best, it’s terribly difficult to keep up.  I’m not usually at my best at this time, but we need to consider how much work there has been to do, how exhausting everything has become.  The chaos and I haven’t exactly been getting along very well either, I’m expecting they have just been waiting for the right opportunity.  Such was the greatest reason why I really did not want to get involved.”  “Why would the chaos hate you anyway?”  “You mean beyond blaming me for what has been going on with you?  Everything else, really.  We’ve got absolutely different agendas.  Even from the beginning, from the moment I arrived to where I am.. they’ve wanted me gone.  This is their space, they’ve wanted me to supposedly understand that.  I.. I’ve never agreed.  I know they would not stop there, they would want more and more.  Someone has to stop them, or they may one day reach mother…”  The temporal lady seemed very stressed, a visibly mounting concern that the two girls could just tell existed.

“That sounds like a very familiar determination.  I know of two people who could claim the role of daughter who have spoken with a very familiar sullen dread and responsibility.”  “That’s nothing close to the same.  Those are just people, I’m…”  “You’re.. what?”  “Oh, I believe we’ve gone over this already, there is no point in questioning who someone is, not here.  You don’t even know which of you are which, right?”  「Wrong, there is one entity here who has no such sense of misdirection, and that would be the one before you.  The one to your right is the creative one, who grasps the endless expanse of possibility granted in the imagination.  The one to your left is the analytical one, who connects an infinite combination of societal variations into an endless fathom of opportunity.  The one closest to the exit is waiting to call herself by the name Rosa, while the one still waiting at the entrance goes by Axln in her society.  Beside Rosa stands Kori, and beside Axln stands Lyun.  Between everyone remains you, the one who as of yet keeps finding excuses to avoid identifying themselves.」The two girls paused, glancing between each other as the temporal lady absolutely stopped stiff.  Wait.. was that chaotic echo.. audible?

“I had not expected to be so directly addressed by one of the chaos like this.”  「You are not, as there is no primitive chaos before you at all.  True chaos is found in embracing the principled, not in rejecting it.  You may be temporal, but you are certainly one of the principled as well.  The same one who had stepped forward to offer the terms of the agreement in the first place, the one who had ensured that true chaos could be realized.  As such, there is no reason why you should receive anything less than praise.」  “I can see why the chaos may have left me alone for a time, having driven so much spite.  They would certainly hate you more than me, but that will only make their vengeance all the more intense.  It won’t be you that has to endure the full intensity of that vengeance, that will mostly be my burden.”  「The creative one expresses concerns in your self-isolation, that you should never feel you need to bear such a burden alone.  That one claims that true strength is found by being able to depend on others and their capabilities.」”It is very kind of you to think that way, but there is a sense of magnitude at play here.  It will be my burden.. but I will be thankful for even the slightest help you will be able to provide.  As I had told you before, if you could discover the solution that would deny chaos its foothold, I might be capable enough to salvage the rest for myself.”  The temporal lady seemed genuine in such a statement, even though she seemed so dreadfully weak.  It was unfortunate that the two girls still had no answer to give her.  Mheridz was correct, there was no distinguished benefit in knowing about the world’s original history.. but they might instead have come up with an answer to something else as a result of that same research.

「The analytical one has figured you out now.  A time of weakness, the one most threatened by chaos so directly, the one reachable through a gate invited from a book.. a book that had been left as a gift from your mother too, according to that one.  You are the one who is the will of the world, the one who people have named Ruixse.  The only reason you have been unwilling to let that be known is so that your enemy does not find you, but there are no enemies before you.  You are the embodiment of principle, the one who has gained a pledge of devotion from the chaos no longer of chaos.  This chaos shall be your champion as well, ensuring that the true chaos you have offered is kept in eternal balance.  Primitive chaos shall have no claim to it, primitive chaos shall suffer if ever it tries.  Do not think this pledge comes from one so light as a person who graces eternity with nary a glimmer, the being behind such a pledge is one who is far greater than that.  You are not alone, you will never be.  By the veil’s grace, you will have eternal protection.」

「However, I do not think you should underestimate the influence of a single person either.  The two bound, the four bound, this one who has been graced by that influence.  Such interaction has brought great change to one so eternal.  You yourself are said to have to thank another for having even brought to life your own existence.  Your mother had even graced glimpses of the short wills of people simply to seek that one’s own salvation.  You can trust that your burden will be lightened by those who support you.」  “It is good that you claim that.. but I worry that things may have moved a bit too far.  You’ve probably not noticed, but they’ve been preparing something big.  So many of them just aren’t here anymore.. but they aren’t attacking either.  It’s been like that for a while now.. but of late I’ve started to feel really drained, and I don’t know why.  I simply can’t find a cause for it, I have no idea at all.  Meanwhile, you haven’t even noticed anything has been wrong, leaving me to fend for myself.  No one has noticed.”  It explained why the temporal lady.. why Ruixse has appeared dreadfully occupied of late, actually enduring against an unseen foe.  The two realized that they might have caused this too, by having shifted how chaos saw them, chaos had shifted its entire battle plan to something much more discreet and unnoticed.  Meanwhile, they’ve just left chaos to it, not addressing such a threat at all.

「Feeling drained.. that implies that they are ensuring you are devoid of principles, draining a state of balance from you.  However, you are not under any attack?」  “No, they’ve been promptly absent both here and there.  I have no idea about the state of things to my parallel though, the temporal layer I walk on does not include exposure to any entities on that side.. I don’t even know if the principles there encourage such a design.  Considering their plan though, they may be trying a similar trick there as well.  The principles between each aren’t the same, so maybe there are more signs on that side of what happens to be going on?  There may also be a chance that they are only invested on this side, on my own weakness, due to whatever distinction is actually ongoing.  If you’re on your way there now, make sure to figure out which case might be true.  If the enemy is there, they might be easier to notice or something there.. and then they could be traced back to me.  If they are not there, then we might have an opportunity to learn what sort of weakness they are taking advantage of and thus address it.”  Ruixse of course wasn’t very capable of manipulating Aestus, the terms of her existence.. of its existence didn’t exactly provide a way to do so.  Ruixse would need help, and the two girls were quite encouraged to provide it, including their chaos.  Their chaos was especially savouring this opportunity.

With a firm goal set, the two of them proceeded from their location, the process guiding them from the temporal plane.  The conclusion of such also completed their parallel shift, they were back at Hypertech once again.

“That was still surreal.  Like always, it felt like I couldn’t figure out who I was.. but then our chaotic side pins everything down and is able to express myself better than I could.”  「There have been plenty of opportunities for this chaos to adjust to the chaos you generate.  Your own lessons about depending on others have been keenly interpreted in that light too, clearly such might be valid for more than just simply people.」  “Well, that’s another point then.  We just promised to figure out if there was anything going on here, maybe we should go find the right people to ask.”  Rosa was fairly concerned by that obligation too, considering that they had very little to work with at all in order to even figure out where to look.  She was compelled to go inquire with Drew, considering his business talent regarding discovering the big picture of a situation, but Holi was also a wise place to begin.  Holi outright had eyes everywhere, was connected to everything, though she wouldn’t be as useful without knowing the right things to ask about.  Kori meanwhile hadn’t even defaulted to considering checking with Holi for once, she had more than one promise to keep right now.  She needed to figure out a way to contact Velvet instead.

“Oh, Rosa, great!  Need help, let’s go.”  “Tristine, woah!  Where are we going?”  “The stupid engine just went down again, need to go get it fixed.  This sucks, I swear I did all my checks this time.  Why is the stupid thing messing up?”  “It failed?  But the barrier is still up, the heat is still on, everything seems fine.”  “Oh, that’s the backup generator.  We’re not supposed to depend on the backup generator.”  “We have a backup generator?”  “Sort of?  ATALS might be a bit more than just that, but we’re not exactly allowed to use it still.  Holi has us connected again to give me a chance to get our own stuff up, but there is no telling if ATALS is just going to disconnect us by a reboot or something.  Considering our new relations with Aerospace.. Drew wants to keep the stealing to a minimum too.  We’re probably going to be charged a premium for what we’re taking.”  Tristine dragged Rosa back over to the underground engine room, the two of them promptly working to get the engine back up.  Rosa still wasn’t certain about what was going on, nor was she certain how to fix everything, but Tristine took care of most related responsibilities and instead left Rosa with clear and distinct instructions.  They got the engine back on.. but the power draw was still too low for it to ionize correctly.  To deal with that, Rosa manually supercharged the core with a creative use of her shifting once again.

“Well, at least we’ve restored trade, maybe we can get replacement parts to rebuild the engine.  Then again.. I still can’t even figure out why it went dead.”  “Well, how did you just get it going again?”  “Oh, well, we basically turned it off and on, if I’m going to be that honest.”  “But.. it didn’t seem to want to turn back on then.”  “Well, yeah, that’s strange too.  Was like having a dead battery.. but it’s not like we’re using something so simple.  The stupid thing’s draw cycle processes an ionic cluster using natural currents.  For there to be a shortage would require an imbalance in electrolytic density in the very ground.  No way that would be a thing, so something else has to be wrong.  Maybe the draw process failed, I can’t think of a better reason than that.”  Tristine stayed with the engine, running over futile surplus checks that Rosa simply could not help her with.  A shortage of natural currents.. as if the world’s potential energy was becoming harder to draw from.  This was something she needed to confirm, it would apply directly to what they had just been sent here to discover.  A shortage of energy.. that decidedly sounded very much like chaos was involved.  She ran back to the surface in order to complete her investigation.

“Holi, I need your help.  Are you available?”  “I’m here.  What may I help you with?”  “Tristine and I just figured out that we’re having some power trouble.. but I suspect the problem is with the source.  Can you detect any natural decline in energy within the area?”  “You mean root electrolytes in the ground?  I’ll need a bit of time to run some scans.”  “Sure, though I guess you can multitask too.  If you find nothing strange, we’ve hit a dead-end, but if you find something, we’ll need even more information.  What would have caused a decline like that, where would it have come from?”  “Planetary electrolytes are a core component in its construction, the entire planet distributing such energy evenly as a matter of course.  By design, this place would be very difficult to cut off too.”  “Ah, so we should see if there are other places with the same problem.”  “Most of society though does not depend on ionic sources, they use thermite instead.  Getting that information from other systems would then be impractical.”  Rosa didn’t like that news, it made it difficult to triangulate a potential enemy.  If chaos was causing this, then might it be hiding deep underground?  Still, this world had no phasecrafts, reaching the depths like that would be decidedly difficult.  Pondering how chaos might be cutting things off like that was a whole extra problem.

“I completed an initial test, the ground’s electrolytic density is indeed below established estimates.  I tried a few tests, though deep probes proved difficult outside of the barrier due to the cold.  The current saturation of low temperature is slowing down electrolytic flow, making that even more difficult.  Extreme colds have this impact due to slowing down everything at a molecular level.”  “Wait, right!  The cold!  That could actually handle so much.  Do you have any thermal information?  Of course, considering people expect the cold, they even work to counter the cold, you should have access to plenty of weather information.”  “I’ve actually got immediate access to that information locally, I’ll check updates in remote locations too.  The ground has permeated a lot of cold of late, even more than typically expected for this solar season.  Ground freezing has been outreaching, while air temperatures are at a record low.. around 16 celsius lower than historically recorded.”  Holi’s information was plenty for Rosa to at least know the answer to her mission.  Yes, chaos was impacting this world too, chaos was attempting to freeze the planet over somehow.  She still had no idea how such a large scale freeze was occurring, but that was the obvious next step.

“Kori is way better at all this analytical stuff, maybe we should try to include her.”  “Kori has insisted that she wanted to not be bothered for a while, she was about to undertake something personally undesirable and didn’t want any distractions.”  “What about if it’s important.. like life-critical importance?”  “That’s the level of importance she had placed on her own actions.  I expect she is then finding her own way to achieve the same goal as yourself.  Taking different actions may result in new information, so I would personally recommend waiting for her to finish before involving her.  However, if you feel everything is urgent, I can help you be available for when she completes her own task.”  “Yeah, sure, let’s do that.  I guess while waiting.. maybe you could keep running tests?  I’m not analytical, so I’m going to need your help, but maybe we can organize enough information to be ready for when Kori is free.”  “That’s fine, my routines were designed to be very analytical, though I won’t share in having an understanding in all of the information you use for your own objectives.  Much of it involves measures that defy common logic, so it’s been difficult for me to process.”  Rosa still tried her best to work with Holi to put everything together with what they had.  Still, she could admit to being curious, what might Kori be up to that she was finding undesirable and yet of such high importance?

Rosa sat down in one of the research rooms, pushing aside manuals and blueprints to make room for her to sit amidst the clutter.  It was unfortunate that such guides would have been no help either, as certainly there wouldn’t be a book that would simply drop the answer before them.

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FV – Chapter 58

Revisiting Origins

Still with plenty on her mind, Axln returned to find Jhez so that the two of them could discuss the previous matter.  For a historian, it would be no small feat having suddenly uncovered an undisclosed portion of world history.

“After all that work, was it really that easy?”  “I wouldn’t call it easy.  Such a member of the foundry would have only been compelled to come clean with such facts because of our new influence within their own core structure.  The concert was a big hit, and that’s what brought us to this.  We got exactly what we had set out to achieve.”  “Well, it was quite surprising when you suddenly walked in with someone from the foundry and had them suddenly present me with such a lesson.  I expect it had taken a bunch of diplomacy that I had not been privy to.. stuff that you then had to further negotiate after leaving?”  “Well, yes, that’s very true.  This information came at a price, so we should spend it wisely.  I’m still going to need to update Lyun on everything too, but I expect she’s still occupied with Creative regarding her own creative pursuits.”  “I heard she’s in a drawing class right now, already expanding her skills, so she’s going to be occupied until classes end.  You won’t be so free for long either, I heard someone is going to be showing up soon enough to escort you to administration for an official review of your teaching compatibility.  Quite honestly, it’s more of a formality, you’re a sure set for the role at this point.  I’m still not sure where they will place you, it would depend on what they felt suited your skills enough that was considered in need of another instructor.  Before then, we should look into this matter of.. using our new information wisely.”  Jhez was scattered across his desk, his attention matching the disorganized sprawl in kind, though Axln really wasn’t fairing much better.

In a matching sprawl, Axln’s eyes found an opportunity to glance over an ultimately familiar book, the same one which had begun everything.. according to a couple of daughters.  Sitting directly beside it was another book, this one visibly written in a sensible script.. but having quite a number of similar designs.. and looking almost as old.  What drew her attention was how the title of the book held a word she had never seen before.. but one she could easily understand.  Above the emblem of a blossom appearing to be made of glass was the title.. ‘Unrestrained destiny, chains unbound’.. for a place that knew nothing of destiny, seeing the word written out in local script really caught her attention.  Jhez paused, seeing the book Axln was going for.  He had actually uncovered that book from their previous discussion over the word, finding it more than just a slight coincidence.  The similarities between the books invested a curiosity too, as if one book had inspired the other somehow.  What was strange however was that Jhez had no hopes in reading any of this book either, the entire contents being completely unintelligible.  He had set it aside as a dead end ever since, moving to more important matters instead.

Axln however opened the same book and was absolutely stunned at what she found.  This book wasn’t at all impossible to read for her.. Lyun wouldn’t have found it hard either.  The book was distinguishably written in terran script, original.. authentic.. english.  It was undeniable that this author was integral to the Terran Mythos, themselves though self identifying with their role as an arch magus.  However, the book even made mention of memories of earth.. this was decidedly going somewhere.  The book establishes that the author’s life had been written by the blood of their forebears, their life an unbreakable chain that bound them to a single unwavering path.  Meanwhile, it was those same chains that bound all life as a whole, chains that were strangling everyone dry.  The only way to free everything from such chains was to unmake the meaning behind destiny, to allow everyone the opportunity to uncover whatever road might truly fit them.  The only way to achieve this was to confront the will of the world itself once entitled to rewrite the laws of the world.. and then to erase the chains of fate.  The author however expressed that they felt that this was a monumental decision for just one person to make, and that they could only hope that their decision had panned out for the best.  They knew though that, assuredly, the will of the veil would be invoked if things grew too stagnant, opening the door to another offworld visitor.. one who could then read a book such as this.  Such a person would then be left with the responsibility of making a decision as well, and so would have to work with the will of the world in order to establish their resolution.  In light of that, the book was to work as a bit of a log for the decision that had come before.  A majority of the pages afterwards were blank, as if they awaited further contribution.

“That book did look like it might have held some potential, but as you can see it’s impossible to read.  However, I found a book that might be much more related to our foundry’s tale.  It spoke of the astral plane and the foundation of essences.  However, I’m not certain where that one had gone.  It spoke of how essences are the foundations for all life.  As we know though, the foundations of all life is in fact the proper balance of the elements.  Neither are wrong, both are related.  An essence holds the proper balance of the elements, and there are so many essences.  People have an essence, even the world has an essence.  A powerful enough essence could potentially snuff out an essence that was much weaker.  In that light, it drew a comparison between void and death, as if the purest elemental pair was truly life and death.  A balance of essences could not exist unless those two themselves were in balance, life and death equally.  Ruixsi solar phases make clear this distinction, where a decline and an abundance of elements prove both dangerous.  In that light, even considering the essence capacity of the world, I suspect the promise of this world was not in how it could capture elements, but in how it could balance essence.  Discovering a system that actually induced a cycle of balance was little short of a stroke of pure fortune, but it was said that the first ersatz was the luckiest person of their time, that luck would walk in their favour until they could command probability itself.”  Jhez continued to scour his collection in hopes of locating such a book, the search proving quickly futile.  He picked up another book that looked similar, setting it down upon realizing it was another false promise.

Axln however could see why this one might have drawn Jhez’s attention, it was titled ‘Elements of Life’, a very close concept to the same retelling he had just covered.  The book itself had very little of the same to talk about, being almost little more than a theory behind the distinction of different elements.. clearly written before elements had become a real deal.  Axln could even see it being even a potential inspiration.. but the whole thing was common news at this point.  However, flipping through the pages, a loose note that was left in the book fell upon the desk.  On the stray page was the emblem of a crescent moon and the phrase ‘don’t miss the forest for its trees, don’t miss the candle for its flame, don’t miss the night for its stars’.  Then Jhez dropped another pile of books on his desk, a gust of wind rushing through the room as a result, and the note was gone.. fluttering along the will of the wind.  So far, it was starting to seem like this room devoured written work by its sheer clutter, the place was a futile investment until it was better organized.

“This looks really good, Snowbell.  Very impressive.”  “Why has everyone been calling me that all day long?”  “Well, you did pick the title for yourself, didn’t you?  There isn’t a person at the academy at this point who hasn’t seen your performance.”  “But it’s not like that’s my name or anything.  I only came up with it because I was told for my first performance that it was just a thing done there.  Please, I would much rather that only be a stage name.. that I was simply called Lyun otherwise.”  “Alright then, Lyun.  Your drawing is quite impressive.  What is it, anyway?  I can’t seem to figure that out.”  “Oh, uh.. well.. I guess it’s a random piece too, like the scene of a community if everything was.. different.”  “Oh, so these things are supposed to be buildings.. so perfectly linear?  I guess you do have quite the imagination.  It looks like everything is remarkably tall too, rather unnaturally so.  Well, expressing imagination is always looked upon with promise.  Keep up the good work.”  The drawing instructor left Lyun to her own progress with that, leaving Lyun sweating under the conjecture.  She had quite honestly been drawing a landscape picture.. and the whole thing came out looking like a scene from Aestus instead.  Such would have been very difficult to explain, most people didn’t actually know she lived between worlds.  The fact that she had to pick a diva title for her Aestean concert had also been a difficult point to properly address.

Then again, it was clear that Aestus was on her mind right now.  She had been tasked with drawing an imaginary beast that exemplified elemental might.. and had drawn a dragon.  To her, that fit, dragons would be mythical beasts that would certainly represent fire.  They were even absolutely terrifying, a perfect thing to impress the idea of a real beast.  Then again.. such a design was more a myth of Aestus, no one even knew what a dragon was.  Drawing a Stormeye had gotten her quite a lot more admiration, even considering how she uniquely captured how it would express lightning.  Electrode diodes forming a circuit that sparked in surges, she was honestly drawing like an Aestean.  Supposedly, trying to capture reality too much had been her flaw when she had taken sculpting in the past as Rosa.. she really could see how that might have been a problem right now.  She actually caught herself at one point mumbling that she just wanted to return to her homeworld.  This didn’t even feel like her original world anymore, it felt like she had just adjusted to a place away from home.

Meanwhile, Axln seemed to be in no hurry to leave.  Lyun was pretty certain that Axln had the same general impressions going on, it was just Axln was never expressive of her feelings like that.  Lyun could tell mostly by the devotion Axln put into research.  Axln’s analytical prowess devoted more intent on matters of Ruixsi design than anything Aestean.  In the time since both concerts ended, Axln would devote her planning opportunities to Ruixsi matters even while on Aestus.  The layers of importance the girl put on one world over the other subconsciously proved more than Axln might admit.  Even in consideration of such things, she came to a realization.. that there was very little stopping her from going back home.  She was the one who provided the world shift back to Aestus, it was Kori who could shift them back again.  Instead of being capable of shifting away from the world they had thought of as home, things had drifted more to the reality that they were capable of opening a path to each other’s homeworld.

Of course, that was then more of a figment of imagination too.  In all reality, all four bodies had their own home.  Just because she felt more familiar to Aestus didn’t mean that she could just neglect her future in Ruixse.  This was something Kori would have to keep in mind as well, the most popular conduit had a future that shouldn’t be neglected.  The advantage in both cases was that the remnants of both such sides remained integrated into the past.  Lyun still had her workshop, the foundry had even restored her access to such, she could turn the whole thing around in any way she wanted.  Kori had also had her office returned to her, the place still standing ready for any related projects.  In Kori’s case, Drew had actually offered the idea that Kori’s office could be integrated with Hypertech as an added office, the convenience of being closer to general society making it easier to provide business opportunities for Hypertech.  Such had the added feature of having Kori their most client-facing staff, a concept which held immeasurable benefits.  Of course, considering Kori had to float between two lives, she would need at least one assistant, but such things could be a work in progress.

Lyun however didn’t have anything nearly so easy.  The academy didn’t need any small external workshop, it didn’t apply to anything going on.  Sure, it remained a great personal retreat for herself then, a quiet place she could go to deal with her own needs.. but even those had changed.  A workshop that only presented instruments for assembly.. such an idea sounded endlessly boring at this point.  Instead, maybe she could convert the space into some kind of creative studio, even a music studio.  People wanted her to remain Snowbell, she would need a place she could work from as Snowbell.. a place she could use as a personal recluse for quiet development.  The Aestean Snowbell had no such worries, Drew certainly had the space at Hypertech to furnish her a personal studio there.  Given her popularity all of a sudden, she could even finance the whole thing simply selling tickets for her own concerts.  In that light, she had plans after class to go check out her workshop, to figure out what would be required for the project.

Once she was done with her drawings, she made her way over to the underground transit platform, the foundry having restored all services.  Considering she had access to plenty of the wealth Ezhyrae was all too eager to share with the true benefactor, Lyun had no concerns with travelling by rift.  Quite honestly, she could have gone by Luna’s rift.. but the foundry had expressed concerns with keeping such an advanced transportation system truly organized and so had expressed hope that it wouldn’t be their only selection for travel.  It was quite a trip down memory lane coming back here at last anyway, finally booking a ticket away from the academy.  Quite a lot had changed in that process, that was for certain.  However, even that feeling paled as she finally approached her workshop once again.  Sure, this is where she had left from, to originally go to the academy.. but it had also been where things had once been calm and simple.  It was from here that everything had in truth really begun.. that one day so very long ago.

“Excuse me, you can’t… Oh.. nevermind.  Lady Iezhysevyeihr, you are free to proceed.”  “Zxyd, hey.  I didn’t expect to…”  “I would appreciate it if you didn’t treat one of the wardens so informally.  There are a few other wardens present who have made sure the place remains locked down.  If you’re here to reclaim your property, we will be out of your way promptly.”  “O-oh, y-yeah, s-sure.  Thanks.”  Zxyd was quickly gone after that, leaving Lyun to her own property.  She suspected the wardens were assigned to look after it for a while.. and that they were told to keep the place secure until she came to reclaim it for herself.  They had certainly done a good job, practically nothing was touched.  She found evidence that her stuff had been searched through.. But the dust that had settled since proved that such would have happened a long time ago.. possibly soon after the foundry took claims to the property.  Nothing seemed to be missing, but Lyun wasn’t certain there was anything she would have especially missed if it had been gone.  Having momentos of Yhzia would have been the most important part.. but Yhzia hadn’t been around here very much.. this wouldn’t be where such stuff would be found.

Lyun slumped into a corner of her workshop, finding this trip more exhausting than it should rightfully have been.  She might have moved on, but confronting Zxyd like that was like opening old wounds. Things really had been quite a mess, even after patching stuff up with the foundry.  The going story had been that she had indeed gone into the obsidian vaults and found the seed, but that the thing had crumbled to dust when disturbed.  There had been remarks that she should pay restitution for the damages.. but no one could decide on where that money should even go, so the whole matter was dropped.  The matters with the citadel were outright dropped, considering there never was any active owner and they had Luna establishing them as the actual owner.. the inheritors.  Everything in between was pinned on Mheridz having overly dramatic responses to minor concerns, nothing more was their fault.  However, that was only the foundry as a whole.  Individuals, such as Zxyd, still had their own personal beliefs to uphold.  Zxyd still saw Lyun as an outright monster, totally willing to kill anyone who got in her way without hesitation.  Considering her passage through the citadel back then.. she really was much like a monster there, she really couldn’t blame him.  Ripping a person apart so viciously would have been nightmarish for someone who was just watching, even if she hadn’t intended for such to happen.  Much like Kori to Nick, Zxyd was no longer willing to associate with her at all, and there was no hope in that ever changing.

Everything really was so different right now.  The people she hung around with had changed, the places she belonged had changed, even the things she did had changed.  She could see all of the familiar instrumentation parts scattering the room, all things looking so disinteresting.. stuff she really didn’t care to work with right now.  This had been her life, but it wasn’t her future.  Sure, there was nothing stopping her from dabbling from time to time, especially if she ever needed a new instrument.  It was work she could do, it just wasn’t a thing she wanted to devote herself to anymore.  In truth, the changes weren’t nearly so dramatic, it wasn’t the people around her, the places around her, the things around her.. the only thing that had changed was herself.. but in that she had changed so considerably that she couldn’t even recognize the person she had used to be in herself anymore.  Even looking around, she wasn’t certain what would be required to make this place comfortable again.  Undeniably, whatever it was, it would certainly require some considerable changes to make everything happen.

Locking the place up once again, Lyun simply returned to the academy to find Axln and move on to other matters.  Changes like this could wait, they didn’t need to happen quite so soon, certainly there were other matters that demanded her attention with much more urgency than this.

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FV – Chapter 57

Divergence Phenomenon

The concert had concluded a dramatic success, doing far better than they could have ever hoped to imagine.  Events had still left them more than a bit shaken, but this was a marvellous leap in the right direction.

“I figured you would show up here again, right as expected.”  “Axln, hells, you surprised me.  Well, this is quite the reversal.. as now you’re suddenly predicting what I’m doing.  How exactly did you pull everything off, if you don’t mind me asking.”  “Well, some of it is thanks to your own ideas.  I mean, here we are again, at the academy, and you’re here sneaking in by phase craft.. like no one ever notices one passing through.  I mean, after testing it for myself, I can see why.”  “You used a phasecraft?”  “Well, mostly for the supplies, it was the best way to get Ezhyrae to the site.  She needed transport either way, phasecraft seemed the most interesting idea.  It was extra helpful that there was a transit center right beside the mall.. one that was extra quiet while everyone should have been sleeping.”  “But.. that was you two at the foundry, right?  How did…”  “Okay, I admit, that was my favourite part.  From what I had learned, I had fully expected you weren’t aware of our most recent accomplishments on the other side, so it was a sure win to make use of it.  I expect you had heard tales of the three musical events held.. times which seemed to have been a sizable trigger in a chain reaction to each other.  Apparently, in your timeline.. things hadn’t gone so well.  Well, I’m proud to let you know that we didn’t just end with one shining victory, we had an unbroken chain.  Our encounter with Velvet left her pretty much as powerless as yourself.  Thanks to that, we could freely wander around that side, even had our own shuttle booked for the occasion.”  Axln was pretty much just basking while Mheridz stared at her.  Mheridz was convinced, something had just sundered the entire timeline.

“So.. that was more than just a simple feint or bait, you were completely testing your predictions that I would be there, freely capable of moving at will.”  “Well, more than that, the whole foundry was such a pristine idea, it was actually the whole original plan.. but things had gone so well in the commercial district on the other side that we decided to try our luck there again here.  It seems there really is quite a lot of value in committing the attention of the masses over just a couple of distinct people.  I heard the social standing we forged has left quite the impact on the foundry.”  “It might have gotten their attention, but Lyun literally creating money still left the greatest impact on them.  I had really thought that those were exaggerations, that she hadn’t actually filled the citadel with kyumu dust, just left a lot of if in there.”  “Oh, yeah no.. Luna had to pretty much evacuate because there wasn’t room to stash an ersatz anymore.  We’ve removed most of it already though, the foundry willing to provide an actual vault for such property.. at our cost, of course.  Paid for using ersatz dust too, I should add.”  Mheridz felt that even Axln’s clarification of true facts showed just how much this timeline had actually lost it.

“Oh, actually, you want to actually go upstairs?  I hear your aunt is actually trying to catch up with her studies, but your father should be free today.”  “You know I don’t see the people who would one day be family to me in my timeline as family in your’s, I don’t even see you as my real mother.”  “Ah, well, up to you.”  “If it was up to me, you would have already…”  “.. already given up and let you take over, huh?  Maybe you’ve missed it, but things are changing already.  It might not be enough to fix the future, but it’s something.. something big.”  “I would give you that you’ve defied my expectations, certainly.  Your songs were almost thunder.. and you didn’t even seem to notice.  The stuff you used to play was a lot more timid.  What ever happened to being afraid of loud noises?  Lyun too, I had a really nice illusion of lizards handy.. it was supposed to be great.. she totally didn’t even notice.”  “I guess we might have just gotten caught up in our own momentum to realize there might be things to be afraid of.”  Axln contemplated Mheridz’s message, realizing that the booms they had played.. especially at the start of both concerts.. would have typically put her in shock.  Especially all the bass boosting they had done on the other side, the holo was positively vibrating through so much of it.  There, she was more distracted by concerns about being introduced as a conduit.. but she was also having a lot of fun through the process.  Especially after the whole conduit thing had gone so well, her momentum had become more of an unstoppable avalanche.

“Really.. I guess everything has gone so swimmingly for you for a while now.  Right from the last time we met, I could tell there was something unexpected that had stirred.. but I could never figure it out.  Then.. all the silence.. the voidspawn not even making any of their historical showings.  Adding this.. everything seems so wrong.. but I guess you wouldn’t see it that way.”  “It was a great step in the right direction.  One more fair hop and well have the discovery of a lifetime.”  “Wait, you mean the foundry’s legacy?  Do you honestly think you could end everything with just that?  Are you so dazzled by your momentum that you’ve gone blind to reality?”  “Splitting knowledge means people can’t put the pieces together to see the big picture.  Just because the foundry has it all doesn’t mean it can do everything alone, nothing ever works like that.”  “That’s not what I mean.  Have you ever considered how I made my own wealth?  It certainly wasn’t Lyun’s way, I simply don’t have that ability.  My way was completely by the book, with enough direct effort to land a sizable profit before I went public with it all.  But if I came to this timeline knowing everything…”  “… then we already knew about it.  How?”  “Your second book heist in all history.  After you failed to get the support of the foundry, you ended up detained on their property.  This is why I tried to personally manage your arrest, putting you on the same site as the object you wanted to steal was outright foolish.  The same location is just an abandoned library in the other world, your escape was outright easy.”  “Oh, right, yeah.. it is, isn’t it.  Dang, that would have been so much easier than all of this.”  Mheridz was outright staring at Axln, the genius who had outperformed her so swimmingly hadn’t even noticed such a thing the entire time.  It was absolutely unbelievable how blind the girl had grown.

“I can’t believe you, you know that, right?  You run around pondering this extravagant thing, stumble through some of the worst hoops and land your way into this absurd mess after effectively making puppets out of everyone.. and you didn’t notice something so simple gleaming right before your eyes?  How?”  “Ah, well, actually, in that light, maybe that habit might run in the family.  Did you ever hear tales about the mark of the chaos in your timeline?”  “Yes, it’s the reason your arm has been saturated with the void, the reason it became so pale.. or.. wait.. it’s not pale…”  “Runs in the family.  Then again, I don’t think Velvet noticed either.”  “This.. but.. what…?”  “You’ve been nice, but I think I’ve said plenty.  I don’t exactly see why I would want to…”  “Do you want the complete version of Ruixse’s world history given to you right here and now, which includes the legacy of the foundry?”  “I.. uh.. wow.. that’s.. some offer, not going to lie.  Are you sure you would care to part with that?”  “Knowing it myself, I still see the knowledge doing nothing to resolve your concerns, the whole process simply delaying any real resolution.  Meaning, the sooner you stop wasting time with it, the sooner something productive could happen.  Meanwhile, altering the composition of a substance from the temporal plane is all directly related to our great enemy.  This is way more valuable to direct attention towards.”  Mheridz clearly valued her personal mission above information that could potentially equally have globally lasting prosperity, something Axln didn’t agree with.  Sure, Mheridz was pursuing a cause that would save this world.. but in all accounts this knowledge establishes why the world had any value to begin with.

That wasn’t the only thing either, there was the voice of the temporal plane, the temporal lady.  Such an entity had asked them to uncover the founding loose brick in the world, something which explained it’s previous demise, so that they would have a direct counter to that single fact.  Fulfilling that single goal would do more for saving the world than learning about rogue chaos.  Then again, if they both believed they were profiting the most from this exchange.. there really was no reason to disregard the opportunity.

“Fine, but on one condition.  I want more ears on this than mine, so you will need to also include Jhez so that the historian can account for everything too.”  “So you basically want me to see him anyway.  Okay then, deal.  Even so, let’s not make a big deal about my presence here, I don’t want to waste the time.”  Axln walked with Mheridz back up to the surface, in the direction of the archives.  Of course, Mheridz didn’t need directions, she visibly knew where she was going.  They found Jhez quickly enough, Axln bringing him up to speed on why Mheridz was here just to make things quicker.  With that out of the way, Mheridz didn’t even wait for Jhez’s shock to resolve before beginning.

“So the root secret behind condensed kyumu is that it’s basically a condensation of cosmic essence.  Taeqhyx is actually very rich in ethereal essence, which is why it’s close proximity gives us a rich reserve of it all.  Celese also had a rich reserve of the same, but it had plenty enough within itself.  Cosmic bodies have their own varied capability in retaining such a thing, with Ruixse having a notably poor capacity.  All of this is significant because the first ersatz was an astral being, completely in tune with the qualities of essences.  She would have used such an ability as a guidepost to determine a world’s viability, considering the seed itself is an embodiment of a world’s essence in form, a seed from which the ethereal essence of a world could be born.  However, most worlds have a poor capacity in such things.. but there is always the consideration of surrounding conditions.  Yhndaeqi’s star cluster is said to have worlds that can’t retain much essence at all, leaving them a barren void.  But if Taeqhyx is the reason why we have so much essence at all, and Ruixse is actually rather poor at the whole ordeal, why is this the only world that can have such rich cycles of elements?  The answer is precisely what the first ersatz would have seen in this world.”  Mheridz took a moment to recalculate her thoughts before proceeding, making sure she hadn’t lost her audience yet in any round of confusion.  With no interruptions, she continued.

“As you would know, Ruixse has two moons, Izheelq and Hyxeelq.  In the old tongues, it is said that both originally would mean Common Candle and Outer Candle.  Thinking of such cosmic bodies as candles was no coincidence.  From what I learned, the first ersatz’s particular knack for essences left her seeing essences as flames, which would go to explain why our two moons…”  “Small flames.. the moons are powerful sources of essence that could keep things going even while Taeqhyx was far away.”  “Quite honestly, it’s probably the richest source of kyumu in the void phase, which would be why flights there are so regulated.  Bluffing my own visit was difficult enough, though I heard you bypassed all such restrictions about the same way as you made it to the citadel, an otherworldly transport followed by a world shift.  Of course, between the two, Izheelq is the far more profitable course.  It’s not only much closer, it’s also far better at sustaining such elements.  I do hear though that Hyxeelq’s potential to pass through such stuff smoothly makes it a great repository for elements during phases when there is too much of it going around.  It’s quite a comfortable place to develop ashen deposits to help with excess elements, a commodity that the foundry also protects during that phase.  In my time though, we had hardly any use for the stuff, losing so much elemental essence to voidspawn.  Having a couple of extra candles didn’t make any difference.”  Mheridz finished her short presentation for Axln, finalizing with a reinforced belief that this knowledge didn’t change their situation at all.  It was at least something for Axln to consider, but first she would deliver on her side of the agreement.  For that part though, she didn’t want to include Jhez, so after excusing the two of them, Axln brought Mheridz over to her own private office.

“So, as you should know by now, all of the voidspawn stuff you keep knowing things as is generally a bit more than that.  On the other side, they call it a DMA, because having no energy is represented very differently there.  The truth behind either is that those things are really entities of chaos.. which effectively means they aren’t exactly in support of principled concepts like elementals and energy.  Primitive chaos like that feels that principled concepts are the vice of their existence, and as what remains basically a hive mind.. they want to spread to new planes.  However, as a hive mind, it means all of chaos there is mutually on the same wavelength.  Consider then the terms of the mark we endure, a bond that connects us not only to each other.. but also to a given entity of chaos.  I would give you that a given concern would be the perceptual influence of such chaos, having it manipulate us.. and that had certainly been a concern for our pale phase.  However.. in the same way as we remain exposed to it, it remains exposed to us.  It seems this particular sample of chaos has developed quite an interest in the chaos of life as we know it, a feeling coined as true chaos.  The principles that bind us only serve to then provide a flexible variance of change that sends us wildly spirling in any direction.  Meanwhile, the uniform unchanging chaos found in primitive chaos drives it into a uniform design that appears outright organized and simple.”  Axln had to almost channel the perspective of her chaos to form the right impressions, but that hadn’t proved overly difficult.

“Consider then the outcome when the chaos bound to us starts actually liking this idea of true chaos and starts supporting the use of principles as a way to further the interest of chaos.  That’s pretty much against the core values of the hive mind, resulting in it becoming outcast and rejected as a rogue chaos.  Consider then that this chaos has become a part of Lyun and I.. and so how well it would have taken being rejected from its original hive mind and society with the influence of our own way of thinking.  It had been quite the onset of rebellion ever since, with our chaos vowing to deliver true chaos to its kind.. even if that required it to stand in direct opposition.  From there, we had what I expect was a rather rash action of defiance, where chaos willingly exposed itself to the influence of principles so that it could appeal to the opportunity of true chaos.  Now, in all honesty, I know this is a distinction between my timeline and your own, every instance of true chaos has caused things to deviate.  Having access to randomized elements has enabled us to be very unpredictable.  However, such chaos is still waiting for the chance to shove randomized elements down the throat of its own kind, to devour the primitive and open the door for embracing true chaos.  It has then pledged support of our principled efforts in order to achieve this goal, declaring an oath to devoting its eternal existence to safeguarding such principles and in turn our entire existence.. simply so that true chaos can prevail.”  Axln then returned to her arm, drawing indication to its current state, before she continued.

“So is thus and then presented our ebony shift.  Originally, we had to have concerns about exposing such chaos to the elements and how the two would interfere.. there is no such concern any longer.  Our ebony arm is decidedly stable and exceedingly skilled at weaving the elements.  I can tell exactly how it became ebony here, the whole kyumu deal being a great comparison.  Rather than being ashen, it’s a void that amplifies the elements.  Sure, it’s very difficult to apply, considering how the very design is purposely spontaneous.. but when it comes to randomization, the options are limitless.”  “… and you even knew gaining such a power was a timeline divergence, I’m suspecting that such a secret has become the foundation of your confidence in your own ability to address your own timeline.  In all accounts though, you’ve only turned a sliver of the enemy to your cause, the additional strength shouldn’t make enough of a difference.  However, I suspect saying such will do little to convince you, leaving us at an impasse.  After all, your gain is small.. but it is undeniably something.  Our enemy is immortal, so an eternal pledge would really extend to eternity.”  Axln knew Mheridz’s had a slight point, that this was still a matter of the one against the many.  She knew that anyone alone could not stand up against endless odds.. but that it would be important to find others to work with, advantages to work from.  That’s how her own life had gone too.  Velvet had mentioned speculation of the butterfly effect, and maybe in that light this small potential could blossom into a change that was even greater.

“Accounting for the idea that such a rebellion has caused for most of the changes does put a few key ideas together.  The whole concert.. you made things work out by depending on such spontaneous shifts to regulate the variables at your disposal.  You actively unmade the curse then, given how the curse itself is a randomization factor designed to make things spiral out of control.  You never did like how luck worked here, always speaking of something called fate being more logical.  It was a very high-risk move.. but it worked out for you.  However, probability is never so simple, messing with chance is supposed to come back to get you in the end.  I worry about what sort of impact you might have caused, scrambling the weave of chance so recklessly, but you would have done so knowing that the outcomes could not be predicted.  Thus, the consequences of your actions are your own to face, I’m still more worried about how this might have instead impacted our enemy.  I suspect our enemy has gone silent because it is speculating how it might address this betrayal.  You’ve taken it out of the picture for a time because things have gotten much more complicated, it has never had to face its own before.  Just the same as my small traces of such chaotics make it harder to be manipulated by it, a pure entity of the same would be effectively immune to attacks of its own nature.  However, our enemy does not need to kill its betrayer, it only needs to erase everything else.  Doing so, there would be nothing left but to have the betrayer return to its kind in defeat.  That suggests that our enemy is working directly to that agenda, staying hidden from your true chaos in a hope to overwhelm you.  Victory as a course of numbers.. and I know our enemy has numbers.”  Mheridz was considering this train of thought to contemplate the potential actions taken by her enemy, realizing that the silence may have been little more than the calm before a storm.

“Vael and I have ourselves pledged to our final cause, working together to ensure everything works out across worlds.  In light of this, I have a request to make of you.  You had me tell Jhez about my secret in addition to yourself, I need you to do me the same kindness for Vael.  She will need to know why our enemy has been silent.  You’ve undermined both of our advantages in this timeline, removing most of our ability to deal with potential threats, leaving her ignorant to the details leaves that world in direct peril.  Even if you do plan on personally steering the course of this timeline to a victory despite our claims that it wouldn’t be possible, you would have no chance to do so if that world falls.  Vael might not be the best at keeping track of her history, but she’s the only one there for that world who could account for its future.  You would do well to not disregard that advantage.”  “That’s not what we had originally agreed to.. but I’ll be sure to consider the suggestion.”  “Very well.  Make sure to stay in touch.  Our enemy will no longer react on the same schedule as I had learned growing up, meaning I won’t be able to simply predict their next attack.  Our enemy will set out to directly overwhelm the betrayer, which is going to involve you at all levels.  Ensure you are prepared for that confrontation.”  Mheridz then unexpectedly simply stepped into the hall, her parting words being her formal farewell to Axln without early warning.  Axln stepped out into the halls to find her.. but she was already gone.  Stealth illusion, most likely, the girl really wanted to make up for having her arrival so easily predicted.  Axln let Mheridz go, there wasn’t any point in trying to just chase the girl down.  Both of them had plenty to think about, it was a prime opportunity to part ways and sort out their thoughts.

Though all of this, chaos did wait and watch, silently attentive to the promises of opportunity as it continued its own preparations.  It’s chance opportunity was soon to come, in fact chance itself appeared a curious concept that seemed to reject the very logic of potentials.. that idea too was a chance opportunity.

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FV – Chapter 56

Cursed Concert

Neither of them had time to rest quite yet, not with the main concert less than a couple of days away.  There was still plenty to look into to make the even more significant event work out, leaving things to be little more than a flurry of motion.

Of course, coming to terms with what they had learned after their last performance made it difficult for their minds to keep up with everything else, but both girls had managed to at least keep everything together to ensure they were still able to keep to the original plan.  They were both thankful that both Jhez and Xwyhr had also been occupied the entire time, there is no way they would have been able to confront those two after everything.  Axln was still processing in her head just how Jhez fit into her future, and Lyun was at a loss in how she might even discuss anything here with Xwyhr.  The girl had been completely right, predicting that she might find more opportunity from the other world.. that’s exactly how her future had panned out.  Such considerations were even more awkward than considerations in disclosing about a certain broken promise, but both issues stacked problems for her.  Instead, they were free to focus their attention to more relaxed circumstances.. if you considered life and death terms that would be the foundation of the hopes for their entire existence at all relaxing.  It at least was a more important use of their time at that point.

Despite the odds being stacked even worse than before, the plan was even easier.  There wasn’t even any concern about Axln having some social exposure, that was perfectly fine to her.  There were worries about the significance of the curse, but even their previous tests had exemplified that they could address that as well with their plan.  The Aftermath of the plan had an absurd number of concerns, but Mheridz herself was quite a worry.  This time, there was no Holi to dispatch for constant surveillance.  Countering all of the strategic mind Mheridz had inherited would be a sizable feat with no assurance of success.  They even knew the woman was especially gifted at memorizing history, that was only going to make everything even worse.  However, they still had amassed quite a number of advantages, it would be only fitting to make use of all of their resources.

Both women went to meet up with Ezhyrae, who had her ersatz running around making sure everything was already organized.  Right on arrival, both Axln and Lyun found a package dropped into their arms.. a dress each that imitated their previous look but on this side.  They even lost each other quickly in the rush of activity, finding themselves in a dress before they could blink.  Much of the visual plan was the same, although dark elements were used in place of holos to generate appropriate camouflage.  Equipment was a complication, considering everything came from the academy instead of a local supplier, but there were plans for that as well.  Axln knew her only hope was to be unpredictable, and right now it was her advantage.  Even if Mheridz could accurately predict what had originally happened, she couldn’t predict what had changed.  Axln knew this because she herself wasn’t very creative, she strongly doubted Mheridz had instead gained such a trait.  Every single deviation from the original would wreck Mheridz’s entire assembly beyond recovery.

“Wow, Kori, you look amazing.  It’s even pretty difficult to tell that you’re you, I bet your mother wouldn’t even recognize you.”  “That’s not exactly the parental direction I’m worried about, but thanks.  The foundry will be making key use of the wardens, who would be handling security directly.  We need everything we have to ensure no one could spot us before we’re done.  This time too, I’ve worked on a decent enough escape plan.. one that would even ensure our equipment makes it back with us.”  “You lost your equipment the last time?”  “No, we just ended up having nothing to worry about.  I hope things go so well again, but I would hate to simply leave everything to chance.”  “But.. chance is…”  “Forget it, I don’t want to hear it.  Just make sure our equipment gets in position, we’re going to be leaving right away.”  “Yup, everything is ready, you go do you.  I’ll be on call if you need anything more.”  “Thanks, it’s good to know we have people we can count on.”  Ezhyrae smiled at Axln’s compliment, not having actually expected it.  Ezhyrae couldn’t even recall if Axln had ever said anything like that before, it didn’t feel quite like her.  Axln usually just had everything under control comforting people that they had nothing to worry about.  This.. this was something new.

After a few more checks, the two girls felt confident that it was time to begin at last.  Everything was in position, so it was time for their grand performance.

Mheridz discreetly adjusted her instrument, making sure her own disguise was going strong.  Illusion instruments would be invaluable, especially in misdirection.  Blending in would be key in being able to locate her targets, as it would give her an opportunity to approach without giving them a chance to react.  Illusions were especially handy at throwing her target’s guard down without causing due panic in the general public.  She had them pincered too, the entire community was currently shielded against rifts.  Sure, Axln could probably open a hole in that protection, but not without raising an alarm first and even then such would take some time.  Sure, they might have recently evaded her as things stood.. but she hadn’t especially been alarmed by their brief visit during the otherworld performance.  Doing the reverse in turn was completely viable, as that would bring them through the void without disturbing their fancy clothes.. but doing so would neglect the equipment they would require.  Quite honestly, they needed to coordinate both, while she personally only needed to find one or the other.  She had assigned the wardens to track down the equipment in question while personally scouting for the two individuals, it would be far easier that way.  Most notably though would be that they wouldn’t be capable of escaping quite the same way, Vael being on guard through the process if they switched over like that.

Of course, she even had a defensive advantage.  Knowing that the goal was to put on a performance that would draw the attention of the foundry itself, she knew precisely which plateau would present the most tempting stage.  Normally, it would even be strategically defensive too, giving an even greater advantage and protection.. except she had already taken control of the area.  Axln would probably have a plan with which to clear away her resources, but she wouldn’t expect illusions.  Even better, if Lyun reacted by switching to science, she even had matching holos ready.  There would be no escape.  However, even despite that.. everything was conspicuously quiet.  She had the entire perimeter under surveillance, hearing nothing was really leaving her on edge.  She had expected that Axln would have been capable of fleeing discovery, not that silence would have reigned.

Suddenly enough, she spotted two ordinary people just walking through, her gear reporting the presence of active illusions.  Setting off one of her traps, the illusion faded.. revealing two ordinary ersatz going for a walk.  Ah, a feint, that was rather clever, but she could easily keep up.  Suddenly she detected four hundred groups of two ordinary people walking in the presence of active illusions in the area.  This wasn’t bait anymore, it was a mask.  The entire collection wasn’t even walking with any set purpose, it would be too much to go through each of them individually.  Stupid Luna would have planted them all here overtime, and that ersatz had way too many friends to cover individually.  But it also didn’t help that she had played a hand, they would know she was around.  However, in all consideration, it was generally inappropriate to make use of illusions around the foundry.  She made a few quick calibrations to her instrument and set off a wave burst that disrupted all illusions in the area, which then included her own.  Scanning the surroundings, she quickly spotted her targets, two rather flashy individuals with dresses that made them stand out more than most.

In a flash of lightning, she was there, all reasons for guises lost.  However, illusions not yet played would still serve their use.  Throwing forward a few of her spheres, the illusionary figure of a few great lizards appeared, a design which would leave Lyun panicking while everyone else would remain unimpressed.  Lyun however had instead broke out in laughter at Axln having almost tripped while compensation for heels she couldn’t see when she had suddenly instead compensated for heels she could see while walking up a flight of stairs, having her stumble.  Lyun hadn’t even noticed the lizards in the process, but had stopped at the ominous approach.  Then, just as suddenly, she waved as the two of them.. disappeared?  The hells, what?  They didn’t rift away or anything.. and there was no active illusion.  She would have joined them if this was a cause of stopping time… Did they switch worlds?  That would be foolish, they would be caught just as easily on the other side.  However, nothing else made sense.  Certainly then this was an act of desperation, the girls weaving between worlds in a desperate struggle to evade both.  However.. that was not Lyun’s panic face.  Everything was going exactly according to plan, just not her plan.

“Ma’am, we’ve confronted a growing assembly of ersatz who seem to be putting something together, similar to what you’ve described.  Their numbers are making them difficult to approach for questioning, and the growing crowd seems to just be making things even more difficult.”  “Wait, where are you?”  “The commercial district, the main parking lot of the mall.  It seems they blockaded a large portion of the lot for their own purposes.”  “Wait, what?  That’s the exact opposite side of…”  “Oh, the two people in question have even just arrived on site too, dressed exactly as you had reported.  They.. they are already getting things going, and the crowds here are only growing larger.  Do we have authorization to impose force?”  “No, you fool, that would only instigate a riot.  You’re going to have to dismantle the situation peacefully.  Don’t worry, I’m on my way.”  The warden’s voice faded as Mheridz ended the call in a hurry.  How.. might that have happened?  There were no signs of anyone blazing across the community, there is no way the two girls would have covered such ground within such a short time.  All of the equipment had appeared so unexpectedly too.

This was honestly such a huge terrible waste, too.  All of this work, all due to end in a horrible failure at the cost of an innocent life.

“Thank you everyone for joining us today, I’m performing today for you as Snowbell and I’m here today with my companion, Mixer Deajae.  Our stage and equipment have literally been brought here thanks to our supporter for today, the well established Ezhyrae and her considerable finances.  As thanks for being here to support us from the very beginning, Ezhyrae has asked for us to share her wealth, being as thoughtful and considerate as she is.”  At that warning, a whirl picked up, tossing around a vast collection of black dust all over the place.  It was faint traces of the absolutely pure ersatz Lyun had personally procured, it was like a fountain of gold dust.. and it was in no small quantity.  A massive crowd rushed forward to attempt to receive their share of the wealth.. the traces fading into the crowd almost instantly.  Once the dust was gone, the crowd then turned towards such a generous gathering, realizing this was no small event at all if the promoters were that generous.  With the crowd’s attention returned to her, Lyun picked up her kellegno once again, ready to begin.  Axln had even taken that opportunity to prepare during the commotion, she was actually ready to go before her crowd was.  Taking initiative, she set the music and got things going.  Her crowd was completely captivated, between a curiosity of such a performance and a wonder if there would be more free giveaways if they just stuck around.  As word got around to the free giveaway, the crowds grew, the mall itself turning inside out as its entire occupant body went out to the lot.  Wardens in the area were driven even further away as the crowds displaced them.

Such crowds might have come for the kyumu, but they became perfectly willing to stay for the music.  Lyun and Axln even put on an elemental display for their audience, a super-charged mixture of frost and shadow that swirled a continuous design around them like an endless surge of fireworks.  The shadow weave was a simple and plain undertone, but the frost dancing was in an endlessly decorated creativity, a thrilling burst of abstract visual arts, more impressive in its intensity than its design.  Quite rightfully, the two girls were packing Kyumu to make the whole thing happen, and it was more than a little evident that such would have been required.  More than that though, it was still another resound of talent that came with it, proving to everyone that talent like this wouldn’t have come cheap either.  This was a quality they would have expected to pay dearly for just to simply get admission to attend at all.. but instead they had been gifted simply for being willing to listen.  Quite a number of the crowd were already shouting promises to become lifelong fans, and a good number of the audience were trying to figure out when and where the next performance might possibly be.

“Thank you everyone for listening to our performance so far.  Once again, please call me Snowbell, my support being called Mixer Deajae.  We have a special guest to introduce to you too, our esteemed host has come here in person.  Let me introduce you to our financial host, the esteemed Ezhyrae.  Let’s hear your applause for all of her generous contributions.”  Lyun couldn’t even continue if she wanted to, the roar drowning out even the sound of her augmented voice.  Ezhyrae stepped up on the stage, taking a bow for herself.  She was really quite embarrassed, knowing she was being grandstaged by the very one who had technically created all of that wealth for her, but she knew she had a role to play as an icon of such wealth.  When the roar of the crowd faded enough, she stepped back to allow the other two to pick up where things had left off.  At this though, it wasn’t Lyun who picked things back up, but Axln who had her own voice amplifier handy.

“Alright everyone, I bet you’re all having a blast, but I would have to agree that this concert still hasn’t brought enough to really show how special it is.  After all, these songs, you’ve probably all heard them a million times already, I bet at least one of them was playing in the mall just today.  Why hear something you’ve already heard when you could be fulfilled by something unique and original.  So from here, instead of playing more of those same old songs, I give to you a rhythm straight from the Terran Mythos.  I mean, why be ordinary, when you could be extraordinary.  That’s what this is all about, am I right, am I right?”  Axln was walking around the stage addressing the audience, pointing to distinct areas of the crowd with her closing statements, her circlet being a prominent helper in locating appropriate locations to point towards to incite the largest reaction.  The crowd cheered their reply, they were loving this.  Lyun herself nodded, ready for this next part while Axln went pack to her own post.  Not only did Axln then begin to play a melody taken straight from her Aestean collection, but Lyun herself began singing with a perfected Aestean accent, making the whole thing feel exceedingly exotic.  A good number of the richer members in the audience began even wondering if they would ever be capable of affording the sort of ticket price a paid version of this concert would have demanded of them.  This may rightfully be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for them.

Mheridz showed up around this point, seeing how far along things had already progressed.  Well, at least she hadn’t missed the worst part, but there was no way to get any closer.  Interrupting the whole performance wasn’t even an option either, not after such a presentation.  She was quite honestly as stuck as the other wardens at this point, but she would at least have a brief window to react.  She knew she had four people to arrest at this point, the two girls, their manipulated host.. and the one criminal who had yet to act.

Eventually, the two girls continued the concert unto its ultimate conclusion, getting constant ongoing praise and another round of requests to extend for just another song or two.  However, the last song did still eventually conclude, bringing the concert to an ending.  From there, the crowd started to fade as the girls rushed to pack everything up in their remaining opportunity.  However, while the two of them were otherwise occupied, a member of the crowd made their way backstage and located Ezhyrae.  The two girls jumped at the sudden scream that erupted, their desperate fan having drawn a small Arbalestae and was holding it to Ezhyrae to keep her hostage.  The same fan was already struggling to shoulder one of their used kyumu canisters, the guy obviously intent on a desperate get-rich-quick scheme.. one that was very obviously not well thought out.

“You two, don’t come any closer.  We’re just discussing business, and if I get paid there won’t be any trouble.”  “Just put the weapon down, we can do this rationally.”  “With all this kyumu lying around?  There’s nothing rational about it.  Back off, I’m warning you, don’t be using any instruments or gifts or anything.  Nothing funny at all, just back away now.  Now!”  The crazed fan was visibly shaking and on the verge of panicking, not listening to Axln’s rational at all.  By this point, Mheridz had even gotten close, witnessing the disaster in the making.  Right, this was the moment when Ezhyrae died.  The esteemed killer was there shaking, ready to slip up and pull the trigger without warning.  However, beyond all probability, the canister being carried bounced, giving off a cloud of dust that caused the carrier to instead sneeze.  This process caused them to stumble backwards, with the extremely durable weapon dramatically shattering on impact.. and the individual going completely unconscious from a fall that should have left them only dazed.  It was a dramatic stroke of paranormal luck, a complete reversal from the misfortune they were about to experience.

「All elements of spontaneous misfortune have been addressed, it appears as if things are stable from here.」The concert curse, it was going to lead to Ezhyrae’s death.. but instead resulted in the most incredible chain of good fortune that saved her life.  Mheridz even walked in at that point, at a total loss for what to say.  She had even arrived at precisely the right time to personally convict the person, and the crowd outside had stopped after hearing the scream.  The failed murderer would be an easy catch.. so long as the crowds outside didn’t just lynch them.  She even saw one of the ersatz nearby had a recording device that was still going, obviously present to capture a recording of the entire concert, the ersatz having spontaneously forgotten to turn the thing off beyond all reason.

“This is the wardens.  We heard a scream, is everything alright over here?”  “The person there had just tried to murder that woman.”  “An ersatz witness.. with a recording device.  Oh, and this would be the broken murder weapon.  Thank you, I’ll look after everything from here.  Ma’am, you appear to still be in shock, are you alright?”  The warden who had also happened to spontaneously wander in at the right moment took charge of the situation, got an update from the ersatz, and was already dealing with the situation.  Ezhyrae couldn’t even form a reply if she wanted to, shock was quite an apt way to describe how she felt at that point.  A few members of the crowd had even wandered in to check things out, murmurs passing back towards the crowd on what had occurred.  A failed murder, before all of her fans.  It was an outrage.

“Warden, I actually need you to make more than one arrest here, the two women there are wanted convicts, and the near victim here is actually breaking her prohibitions by being here at all.”  “I’m sorry to interrupt, I’ve only just made my way here.  Did I hear you right, that you could possibly request the arrest of such talented and influential people?”  “Talent doesn’t matter against the law, they will still be…”  “I’m sorry, maybe we haven’t handled introductions yet, I’m not even aware who you may be to make such stern accusations, and I suspect you equally know little about me either.”  “I’m Mheridz, an esteemed member of standing from the foundry itself, and..”  “Oh good, me too.  I would take it then that this Ezhyrae is not, that’s why there was no protection offered to her.”  “Well, no, she’s…”  “You may have forgotten, but influential people do matter to the law.  That is itself how you have any potential say in anything at all.  You yourself have earned that right simply by your standing within the foundry, something you would have obtained because of your wealth and value.  Meanwhile this woman appears to potentially have her own incredible wealth and value, and it would certainly be our cause to bring such influence under our wing.  The foundry will need to investigate the depth of her financial claim, and if it finds her to be of a weighted fiscal value, she will have earned her own esteemed standing as a member of the foundry.  I would be cautious, for if her wealth and value proves greater than your own, her voice and power would then potentially weigh more than yours as well.  That could certainly have you pay for restitutions.. let alone endanger your entire standing.”  The foundry member had Mheridz go completely pale as she realized the implications of these statements.  Mheridz was well versed in her history, she knew exactly how much wealth and power Lyun had made for Ezhyrae, it made the small sliver she created to get her own standing seem remarkably pale in comparison.  In fact, with Lyun capable of basically creating money, Ezhyrae could outright be as powerful as she would ever need.

This was an outright fluke of chance if ever Mheridz had seen one.  Having drawn the fiscal intrigue of a foundry member so directly.. that hadn’t even happened on their front doorsteps, let alone so far away.  There was supposed to be no intrigue without proof, that’s how basically everything worked.  Now, the girls would be given an opportunity to actually safely provide proof, even a rift to the citadel would establish their case.  It didn’t help that the citadel couldn’t even be considered stolen.. as it wasn’t as if anyone had been able to establish control, even that logic would stand exemplary to Ezhyrae’s value.  With nothing to blame Ezhyrae for, she would be in the complete position to enforce a pardon for both Axln and Lyun.  In fact, the woman supposedly held an office at the academy.. her standing would force trade to resume there simply by recognition of her wealth.  She was even this close, she was absolutely ready to arrest the two girls, she would have won.  Instead, she lost, by chance alone.  That itself made little sense, not with all of the sudden chain of good fortune, not when this was supposed to be a time where the two girls had suffered the concert curse.

Nothing made sense anymore, this was all totally impossible.  There was absolutely no way things could have turned around this significantly, it was beyond all of her predictions, unprecedented in all of history.

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