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Chapter 94 ( 1 of 2) Operation Crafter Reclamation
🕑 Added 2024-10-24 10:33:21 +0000 UTCLucille and Marellen took the briefcase to a location much closer to the facility entrance after Raegan went back in, beneath a large oak tree on a hill that had a clear view of the ruins littered across the valley. The Institute had been built in a clearing between short valley sides and they were standing on the only hill in front of the valley opening.
After a moment of observation, the two determined nobody was watching and they told the others to come out.
One by one, Scytale, Trisroa, Garthe, Larena, Annaliese, Raegan, Sir Albrecht and Vincent exited. Sir Albrecht squinted as he saw the valley, feeling the tangible difference in atmosphere of the Old Era plane’s leaking mana.
Annaliese had wide eyes. She spun around, looking at everything as her mouth opened and closed, like she wanted to say something. She accidentally bumped into Raegan and Jasten had to catch her. “The Fate is so strange here!” she announced in reply to Lucy’s inquiring look. “I can tell that the plane is in a really bad shape, but so much Fate is still around us! I guess it’s true that Old Era planes have a ton of treasure!”
“Yes, well, we won’t be bringing any ‘treasure’ back,” Lucille warned. She pointed a gloved index finger at the Institute’s entrance, and five large mana-circles formed out of light and water mana. A massive convex dome formed in front of the hill and everyone approached her to see the magnified image of the entrance.
“They haven’t posted any guards,” Lucille stated. “That’s abnormal. They wouldn’t be so overconfident, would they?”
“That or they fear a greater threat discovering their actions through the greater numbers,” Jasten said with a frown. “I don’t see the wizards believing you’d locate them so soon, nor find a way to come here in person.”
Lucille narrowed her eyes as she tapped a finger against her arm, pondering it. “Raegan confirmed Sedric is below the facility entrance, so…” She turned away from the others. “Excuse me for a moment. I’m going to contact Sedric.”
…
Sedric.
‘…hm? Oh, Lucille. What’s happening?’
We found out what plane you’re on, as well as came to it. We’re standing above the underground building you’re sealed in.
‘That’s great! How do you know where I am though?’
Raegan is here. He tracked you with his hex.
‘…Lucy, could you say that again for me, but really slowly?’
Not important right now. Has anything changed regarding your situation?
‘I still can’t crack this stupid item, but I feel like I’m beginning to underst-’
That’s… great, but I meant your kidnapping situation.
‘Uh… I think I got moved up? I couldn’t really tell but at least they didn’t teleport me. It felt like I as taken up a few levels higher. I had to climb a few stairs. After that, I’ve only felt small tremors underneath me.’
…okay. Sit tight, we’ll get you back soon.
‘Yeah, but when you do make sure to bring this item back to the commission because I feel like I’m on the brink of cracking it once and for all-‘
She shut off the connection. If there was one good thing about the situation, it was that Sedric had managed to distract himself by becoming absorbed in his obsession with crafting once again. That meant any mistakes in the operation were unlikely to be because of him.
Lucy walked back over to the others. “Good news. Sedric was moved to a higher floor, so we won’t have to go all the way to the bottom to find him. I’m not sure what that means for the wizards but I’ll take a guess that they’re attempting to brute force their way through whatever obstacle they originally needed Sedric for.”
“So…” Larena crossed her arms and smirked. “Mighty Count Goldcroft, what’s your plan of action?”
Lucille stopped and gazed at them all. She exchanged looks with Scytale, and then began to point at them. “Marellen and Roa. You’ll both be with Scytale and me and respond to my commands.” She pointed at Raegan. “If Sir Albrecht accepts, I want you to come down with us too.”
The Paladin squinted at her, while Annaliese seemed to suspect something. She slowly began to turn red.
Lucy noticed and quickly turned away from the Prophetess. “Larena and Garthe, I want you to be Raegan’s guards this entire trip, until we hand Raegan back over to Sir Albrecht. After that point, you’ll be in charge of protecting Sedric. We don’t know how valuable he truly is to these wizards.”
“Wait a second-”
Jasten interrupted Annaliese by covering her mouth. “You want to take Raegan down, and then we come down later? Is that the plan? Is Raegan that necessary when you have your spiritual energy?”
Lucy raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. “And alert all the wizards below that someone with high spiritual strength is here? They’re wizards. At minimum, they’re a few centuries old. They clearly have decent mental prowess.”
“I recall overhearing in some place of my past that superior cultivators may disguise their mental presence from their lessers,” Roa announced lightly.
“And I could do that... if I was a cultivator.” Lucy shrugged off her suit jacket and sash, then threw them into the briefcase.
Additionally, I’m not yet at Rank-3, where I have the potential to hide from Rank-5 wizards.
“We don’t have time to waste. Sir Albrecht, do I have your permission to bring Raegan down with us?”
“Is anybody going to ask for my opinion?!”
Lucy turned to stare at the indignant boy. The others did the same.
Raegan looked away, somewhat embarrassed. “Yeah, okay, I know I was the one who told Sir Albrecht about tracking Sedric in the first place… I was… I was just making a joke.”
“I’ll let you take Reagan down if I have some method of contacting you,” Jasten said curtly to Lucy.
Lucille blinked once and then gave him a bright smile. “Deal.” She held out her hand for him to shake.
Looking suspicious, Sir Albrecht did just that. He flinched back when he felt a somewhat cool chill emanating from her hand and narrowed his eyes at her.
“I wouldn’t have dared brand you with part of my spiritual energy before this, but I’m glad you made the proposal yourself,” Lucille stated in an upbeat voice.
“What? I did nothing of the…” He looked down at his armoured hand when Lucy pointed and frowned. “What is… this?”
“Considering it manifests on whoever I mark with my Origin Skill, I just call it the Simulacrum Tesseract, the symbol of my skill,” Lucy said, leaning forward slightly to look at the holographic 4d cube shifting above Jasten’s hand. “With this I can contact you regardless of distance… or realm.”
Vincent shifted his glasses. “That is a useful function. It may be wise to use it on me and several others to.”
“I already have.”
Her aide stared. “What?”
“Don’t you remember?” Lucille tilted her head. “We shook hands all that time ago when you became my aide. I’ve never needed to reveal this aspect of my abilities until now.”
Vincent looked at his hand. “…you didn’t get your Origin Skill until much later though.”
She smirked and turned away. “Moving on. Yes, I’ll be able to contact everyone here. In fact…” Lucy snapped her fingers. “Everyone is connected to the same channel. No matter who mentally speaks, we’ll all hear it.”
She turned to face her sponsored party. “All of you four. Where do you imagine Sedric might be held right now if you had to pick?”
Marellen frowned while Roa exchanged looks with the others.
“There is a location I chanced upon with the siblings while searching for Marellen,” Trisroa replied. “It appeared to be an experimental zone for practising spell casting or its equivalent here. We had first thought it had been utilised to seal dangerous entities away.”
Lucille nodded. “Is it far down in the facility?”
“It was a singular level above the second hidden Centre for Interdimensional Navigation, so there is a possibility that Sedric is there, if we assume the wizards have knowledge of the secret institute.”
“It’s a starting point.” Lucy walked over to the briefcase and unstrapped her arm guards from the upper compartment. She slipped them on and tested them with a brief infusion of fire mana. The rubies of the arm guards glowed crimson. “Everyone, stealth is important, but Sedric’s safety is higher priority. Do what you need to.”
Because if things go wrong I’m not above using what spells I need to.
“What about me?!?” Annaliese shouted.
Lucille stuck her fingers in her ears and began to walk downhill. “Sir Albrecht and Vincent, I leave her in your hands. Everyone who’s coming with me – we leave now.”
…
“...was it alright to leave Annaliese back there?” Scytale asked Lucy as they navigated the surface ruins.
“I didn’t have much of a choice. Albrecht barely let me bring Raegan,” Lucille replied. She had her perception field expanded to sense the first few levels, but no guards were in sight. If it weren’t for Raegan confirming Sedric was down there, she’d expect a trap. She almost expected a trap anyway.
But Lucy had no reason to assume the Light Tower wizards thought she had a way of tracking Sedric across planes, so the possibility of it being a trap stayed in the ‘unlikely’ rank in her mind. What Jasten had said about the wizards fearing a ‘greater threat’ stuck with her, however.
Is there someone else on this plane they’re wary of? The members of the Isærnelghen Duchy perhaps? But they’re only interested in the sword arts and battle skills found in the continent’s capital. It’s unlikely they have someone powerful enough with them to sense what might occur here.
There was the Black Order investigating the necrotic wasteland on the continent, but they wanted to locate vestiges.
If there was something so crucial about the plane shard that a powerful wizard or Archmage from the Dark Tower arrived... then wouldn’t I have heard about it in the first timeline?
The quantity of Athenaeum records Lucy had gone through and committed to memory was not to be underestimated. It was those records she had joined the Athenaeum for originally.
Her focus returned to her surroundings when they had passed the ruins and approached the base of valley on the opposite end. Garthe crouched down and swept aside a thick covering of bushes and leaves to reveal a stone slab set into the mountain’s base. Marellen slammed the end of his staff against the slab and it slid back with the grating of stone to reveal stairs descending into endless darkness – the secret passage entrance and one of the few intact exits remaining.
They all looked at Lucy and she nodded. “Let’s go in.”
...
“So, from what I understand, this is the same facility you found the Casket of Boons in?” Lucille spoke up as they walked through the cold stone hallways of the first floor. It was to break the silence that had descended on them all. As they walked, she matched the descriptions of the facility Efratel had relayed to her with what she saw.
“...ah.” Marellen blinked as he was brought to alertness and nodded. “Correct. Although, the facilities of the Centre for Interdimensional Navigation look nothing like this zone. Their technology is far more advanced.”
Lucy raised an eyebrow, curious. “Oh? How more advanced is it?”
“At the level of the most basic Athenaeum facilities, although it’s difficult to compare due to their unique system of technology,” he replied. “They have these interactive... slates of dark metal and glass I learned to operate the facility.”
“I had noted that for a civilization of ‘runic druids’ as Efratel described to us, they were unusually adept at construction and incorporation of magic items,” Trisroa stated lightly. “I may however just be unfamiliar with the ways of Old Era planes.”
Well, as the beginning of an era means the near-complete erasure of all former technology due to the World Tree Renewal, so Old Era planes that survived that have more advanced technology than we would expect, but advancing in the field of magical engineering – as I can see with these primitive mana circuits in the walls – is strange. I might have to send Marellen back here to collect more information.
Lucy wanted to enjoy discovering these new ruins for the first time in a while, however. It had been a long time since she could explore an Old Era plane.
‘Hello?!? Lucy?!? Can you hear meeee-.’
They all winced at the loud voice in their heads. Lucille sighed. “Annaliese, are you speaking out loud?”
‘Oh! You can hear me- never mind. Uh, yes I am speaking out loud. Is that a problem?’
“It’s a problem because you don’t have control over mental projection yet,” Lucy replied. “It sounds like you’re yelling. If you can, try to talk to us mentally only.”
The others looked at her and she waved them off. “I obviously can control my mental voice, so it doesn’t matter whether I speak out loud or not.”
‘Is this better?’
“…slightly. It’s good enough for now.” Lucille kept walking and the others followed. “I take it you were just testing it out?”
‘Oh, you reminded me what I wanted to say to you!’ The Prophetess’s voice grew angry. ‘You left me behind!’
“I can’t let the Prophetess of the Citadel of Fate enter a structurally compromised facility. Sir Albrecht barely let me bring Raegan.” Lucy gestured for Marellen and Roa to continue leading the way.
‘Then what was the point of me coming?!’
“Ask yourself that.”
Annaliese fell into surly silence as they continued trekking. Marellen stopped to look at Roa and the mercenary siblings. “Have we discussed which path we’ll be taking?”
“Path?” Scytale asked curiously. “There’s more than one way to get to Sedric?”
Trisroa’s usually cool expression became utterly frigid. “Marellen, we will be following you. There is no ‘other path’.”
The navy-haired mage sheepishly raised his hands in a poor attempt to appease her. “Er… yeah. Let’s… go my way.”
“Hello? An explanation here?” The humanoid amphiptere in their midst spoke up.
“We nearly drowned thanks to Marellen last time,” Garthe replied with a grin. “It’s the more exciting route, for sure!”
“It’s not an option,” Larena stated coldly.
Marellen avoided eye contact with the three. Lucille glanced between them and shrugged. “If you say so. Then how did you pass this barrier when you were here last?”
“...barrier?” They all looked ahead to see where Lucy was pointing and frowned.
“Was this here last time?” Marellen asked the others. They all shook their heads.
Lucy narrowed her eyes at the metal door. It was massive, made of dark metal and interlocking mechanisms embedded into grooves. The mechanisms had twisted together to form a tight lock. It wasn’t something that brute force could solve, as the metal of the Old Era plane was nigh-on impenetrable after millennia absorbing mana.
A closer look at the point where the barricade met the wall and Lucille could see the issue. “It retracts into the walls. Did you enter through this method in the past?”
Larena walked forward to see what Lucy was looking at and sighed. “No. One of the ruin’s collapse had unearthed a corridor below the ground which we took last time. However, we took a month of navigating those passageways due to most of the doors being sealed or shut down, and we needed to find unlocked areas.” The raven-haired woman crossed her arms. “We used this to exit the Centre for Interdimensional Navigation.”
“Either this door shut behind you when you left and you didn’t notice, or someone has interfered,” Lucy mused.
“Yep, you’re done for,” Raegan commented blandly. They gave him odd looks and he pointed at a raised section of the wall next to him. “This place is less lucky than those I put my hex on.”
Marellen walked over and his eyes widened as he recognised what he was looking at. After pushing on the wall, it opened up to reveal the control system he had learnt to access in the past.
Only this one... had been devastated, with broken sparking wires tumbling out of the opening, the terminal dull and cracked, and runes glittering dully beneath the soot and blatant charring of the system.
“Oh... no, no, no, this isn’t good,” Marellen muttered, picking up random wires and failing to reconnect them in any way. “Did the lightning mana in the system escape and damage the controls? Or...”
“If a natural phenomenon hasn’t disturbed the systems of this place yet, then this mechanism wouldn’t fail without warning only now,” Lucille refuted, gently pushing Marellen slightly to make room and kneel before the control unit. She ducked to stick her head in and inspect the technology. Her thick spiritual energy analysed every particle of mana and matter and committed it to memory, enabling her to recreate the events of its destruction in her mind. “The anterior wires of this unit have external damage and created a ripple effect that blasted the further systems.”
Lucille straightened and backed up. “Traces of fire mana are present. Just enough to upset the balance of mana within. Someone knew what they were doing, and didn’t use a more powerful spell that could track back to them. I can’t get a read of their full mana signature with the interference of the unit.” She held her chin. “Overloaded low-ranked fireball. With about 1000 MP in it, by my estimate.”
‘You can put that much mana into a low-ranked spell?’ Vincent spoke up through the Simulacrum connection.
“Adept mages or wizards could do that. I happen to be more surprised that the wizards brought along someone without pure light affinity,” Lucille replied.
“…but whatever shall we do about this?” The snow elf of their group gained a faint frown. “I highly doubt my spells may leave a mark on the material before us, however I could try if you so wish.”
Lucy glanced at the door, thinking. “Raegan says this area is unlucky. If so, then I will believe that the forces of his unique ability are accurate and that no matter what all of you try, we won’t get through.” She turned to look at the boy. “Raegan, are you capable of roughly gauging how much time Sedric has?”
Raegan stared at her. “He’s… he’s not dead, you know.”
“In the sense of how much time he has before his situation becomes drastically worse,” Lucille explained with a dismissive wave. “Is his status stable, or is his situation gradually going to become more disadvantageous over time?”
The dark-haired boy hesitated. His brow furrowed and he appeared to be deep in concentration for a while. “I… think he’s fine for now, but it’s changing a lot. I can’t tell if he’s going to be safer or more in danger soon.”
She looked back at the door.
I’ll make a safe bet and assume he’s on a time limit.
“I see. Then we can’t afford to waste time and mana any more on this door than needed,” Lucille stated, walking up to it. She could sense that the three they left on the surface were waiting tensely to know their final decision.
Marellen and Roa nodded.
“Then we’ll have to go back to those ruins we found last time,” Larena said. “Roa, could you cast a haste spell on Raegan so that-.”
“No need.”
They stared at Lucille as she unclasped her arm guards and they dropped to the ground with a heavy thud. “We won’t be going anywhere.”
Scytale raised a hand after staying silent while the thinkers were doing their job. “Uh, Lucy, even I don’t really know how you’re going to be sorting out this-.”
The air began to vibrate and hum as intense rings of silver-white mana pulsed out of the dark-haired woman in their midst. Lucille tilted her head at the barrier blocking them.
Scytale backed off with his hands held in a surrender. “Never mind, you do you. I, the Great Scytale, have been bested once again.”
Larena watched Lucy hesitantly. “Lucille, what are you trying to-.”
The loud clang of metal echoed throughout the hallway as she lifted her briefcase to turn upside down. The crafting materials she had stol-
The crafting materials she had reclaimed from Sedric’s workshop tumbled out. Lucille gestured over her shoulder at the group and a barrier of arcane mana formed a thick wall between her and them. “Back up. Modern industrial equipment has the potential to shear you right in half.”
And with the rings still pulsing, she pointed one finger up. The metals covering the floor levitated up and paced themselves at equal intervals around her.
“Equivalence of Formation: Indefinite Design,” Lucille stated confidently.
And with an electrifying roar of machinery, the air rippled. Her white arcane mana that had been flooding the circular area around her snapped into semi-translucent and crystalline machines, grinding and fusing the materials she had poured out earlier. The immaterial constructs disappeared almost as soon as they were done, with a black metal instrument of some kind lying next to a metal mask assembled themselves on the last device. A robotic arm picked it up and passed it to Lucille, who glanced over her shoulder at the others and gained a wicked grin.
“Look away now. It’s going to be bright. Because…”
She turned back and hoisted the black metal device as she hid her face behind the mask.
“Who needs spells when you have a laser rifle?”
…
The last beam of intense red energy struck the barricade, completing the doorway shape melted into the two halves of the larger metal door. Molten metal dripped from the places where it had been cut into. Lucille raised a boot and kicked the makeshift doorway down. The slab of metal slammed onto the opposite with a thunderous clang.
“There. All done,” Lucille said, lowering the face shield to admire her handiwork. She snapped her gloved fingers. “Roa, would you be able to cast a frost spell to encase the doorway and cool it down? We wouldn’t want hot metal landing on our heads.”
There was no reply. She looked behind her. “Roa?”
“W-What manner of spellcraft and staff was that?!” the snow elf stated, looking alarmed. “To carve a design with immaculate accuracy, yet disturb no mana and shear through a material of the Ancient rank at the very least-”
“It’s not a staff, nor a spell.” Lucille casually waved the black bulky gun in her hand. “It’s a short-range weapon I modified for the purposes of enhancing its piercing power and lengthening the duration of its shots to create a device that shoots beams of highly concentrated heat and sound energy that can cut through the metal of this door.”
She looked down at it. “As it stands, I was never going to use it after this so I don’t need it any-”
“Ooh! Me! Give it to me!”
Lucy turned to gaze dully at the speakers. Speakers plural, because while one was, as she expected, her winged serpent bond who liked anything that sparkled and made him ‘look cool’, the other speaker was a green-eyed mercenary.
Scytale and Garthe narrowed their eyes at each other. “Lucy, I’m your favourite bond, right?” Scytale quickly said before Garthe could talk.
“You’re my only- you know what, never mind. That isn’t something that needs to be said.” She looked down at the rifle and then at the two of them. Lucille cocked an eyebrow. “Are you certain you want to carry this around? It’s impractically large and heavy, and I don’t expect there to be any opportunities to use this again.”
“...wouldn’t she want to keep it to open up more passageways?” Raegan muttered. Marellen looked thoughtful at his rhetorical question but the two arguing over who had rights to the flashy weapon didn’t hear him.
“I don’t care! I want it!” Scytale stated firmly.
“Don’t forget me!” Garthe yelled anxiously. Larena facepalmed.
Lucille stepped back and threw the metal device up. “It goes to whoever catches it.”
Garthe tried to leap up, but Scytale was too quick. He turned into his serpent form and used his Lightspeed Sky Predator Aspect to shoot up and fly into it. Both he and the gun slammed into the wall. With a haze of gold the snake disappeared to show a silver-haired boy triumphantly holding up the weapon. “I got it!”
“That’s so unfair! I can’t fly!” Garthe whined. Larena whacked the back of his head to wordlessly tell him to shut up then walked forward.
“Back to the task at hand. Roa, if you would?” Lucille said, unamused.
The snow elf silently lifted her staff and let her ice mana seep into the ragged molten edges of the doorway. Lucille walked forward, then took a glance at the slab of metal on the floor. After some short thinking she lifted it up and used her spiritual energy to open and shift her briefcase under it. The others stared as she shoved the metal into the case.
“Lucy, I thought we weren’t allowed to take anything with us,” Scytale stated flatly.
“Technically I specified ‘treasure’, and part of a wall doesn’t fit the standard definition of ‘treasure’,” Lucille shot back. She dusted her palms when done and grabbed her briefcase again, then gestured to the opening. “After you.”
Once through they were off again. Marellen came up to her, with Trisroa close behind.
“Lucy, how did you manage to craft something that powerful in such a short amount of time?” he asked quietly. “Archmages struggle to blast through Ancient-ranked materials.”
“I want to know why my skills thought we had no chance if she could do that,” Raegan retorted.
“Because I’m immune to Fate. My interference is invisible to you and Annaliese,” Lucille replied. “As for crafting... it’s my third Primary Skill. Using arcane mana I can construct machines I know the blueprints and physical properties of.” She glanced behind them. “The Mystical Realm simply won’t have the ability to replicate the technology of my home world for a while, so instead of entering a foolish battle to try fast track the pace of technique and technical skill development, I can create mimics of the manufacturing machines themselves.” She shrugged lightly. “It just so happens that my world has been in the stage of automation for a while now. Replicating the robotics needed for quick assembly of anything I need is a simple task.”
Marellen and Roa exchanged confused looks, clearly not understanding. Trisroa shook her head. “And the power to cut through Ancient ranked metal without disturbing the mana round us?”
“Simply pure mundane forces. The density of mana in the item means nothing when it comes to a high-intensity laser,” Lucy said with a smirk. “Mana and electrons are separate forces.” She pulled out her pocket watch and her expression grew more serious. “We need to speed up the pace if we want to get this done in time to see what Alichanteu is up to.” She put it away and cracked her knuckles. “Everyone, get ready to use any speed-enhancing skills you have. Raegan...” She winked at him. “Keep a handle on your stomach for us, won’t you?”
Fear for his future began to dawn on the boy’s face. “Wait, how fast are we going to be going?”
...
“Chin up Raegan, we’re almost there!” Garthe said cheerily.
“Blarghhh...”
They all ignored the unpleasant, exaggerated sounds coming from the gloomy teenager’s mouth as they walked down the hallway, footsteps echoing, and slowed to a stop in front of the deep rift in the floor. Marellen pointed down. “This is where I went down. I used a spell, but from what I recall it wasn’t that far down. The warriors among us can probably jump.”
“Tally Hoooo!”
Lucille watched with exasperation as Scytale jumped down with wild abandon. Marellen and the others cast their respective spells or skills and jumped – Raegan went green in the face when he was grabbed by Garthe around the waist and whisked away.
Once everyone was down, in the pitch black room, Marellen blindly fumbled through the darkness, sliding his hands along the wall until he found what he was looking for. “Ah!” He got down and unlocked the metal cabinet, showing the wall of glittering wires and mana circuits within. He placed his staff against the wall and got to work.
“Is this... a functional control unit?” Lucy said, standing behind him as he worked.
Marellen didn’t even blink twice at the fact she had used her perception field to find him and nodded as he rapidly went through the combinations of elemental mana, attempting to turn it on as he did last time. “Yes, but this is far more advanced than the broken one used to control the door. Now, if I recall correctly, with this last combination-”
Walls hummed with sparks of lightning mana and elemental cacophony, then the room was flooded with light as the control panels and screens turned on. Digits and numbers trailed down the clearly digital displays, leaving almost everyone in silence as Marellen had been the only one to see it all be activated in the past.
Marellen smiled and stepped back slightly. “Now, you see those characters scrolling past on the black glass? I’ve been working hard to decipher it a bit. From what I can tell, the control unit just said “Welcome to the Institute of Nomological Augmentation’s-”
“-Centre for Interdimensional Navigation, Master Channeler Marellen. Please check in with the officials on the main floor before returning to your .”
He beamed. “Exactly! It even recorded my name after that one time I put it in. It took me some time to discover that was the characters it chose for my nam-” The words died on his tongue. He turned around. “Wait, Lucy. Did you actually just correctly guess what it said?”
She was expressionless, her arms crossed. “It wasn’t a guess.”
Marellen looked between her and the screen. His eyes widened. “Can... Can you read that?”
“I can. I can read everything.” Lucille’s gaze was cold as she read the characters speeding past. With every new word, the atmosphere around her grew frostier.
“Uh... Lucille? You might want to see this...”
Straight away in response to Scytale she turned on her heels and marched over. Her hands clenched into fists when she saw the control panels and digital switches flickering across the displays.
“You might think I’m crazy, but I swear I’ve-”
“Scytale,” she interrupted. “I know.”
“You... know?” Her bond looked between her and the controls. “But how-”
“It shouldn’t have happened. It can’t happen.” She began to pace furiously, her hands held behind her back.
“If they’re on this plane-”
“Not possible,” Lucille instantly refuted. “Physical people couldn’t pass through the breaches.”
Scytale looked slightly relieved. “Then maybe this is just a coinciden-”
Lucille burst out laughing, cutting off Scytale’s words. She threw a hand out and gestured roughly at the glass panes overlooking the natural phenomena lake. “Coincidence? Scytale, a language of nation that disappeared from records eras ago in the Mystical Realm?” She turned away and stormed up to the glass. “There’s only one organisation that could be responsible for this. I just- I just don’t understand how. How is it here? Do some of them remember? Did they escape the timeline rewrite or-”
“Lucille, please.” Larena tried to interject. “I think we need an explanation here. Who are these people you’re talking about? We need you to tell us everything you know, even if you don’t know that much-”
“That ‘much’.” Lucille’s voice was flat. “Larena, I am probably the lone person in the Tower who knows this much about them!” Her eyes widened with anger and she threw her hands up. “I spent a hundred and fifty years of my life devoting myself to destroying them in any way possible! Why?! Because it was them that sent a Primarch to destroy the Citadel of Fate’s Pedestal plane 159 years from now and who would’ve nearly succeeded if I hadn’t stepped in!”
It was quiet in the room. Scytale was the first to move, and put a hand on Lucille’s shoulder. “Hey.”
She covered her face. “Even with my soul, I’m not infallible. A big enough emotional impact and my emotional equilibrium is destroyed. I shouldn’t have said any of that.” Lucy lowered her hands and took in a deep breath. “Turning off my emotions as soon as I saw their traces would’ve sorted this out.”
‘Lucy, you know how you of all people cannot make that kind of joke.’
She couldn’t reply to her bond, because someone else had spoken.
But it wasn’t one of the people present. A baritone voice echoed through their minds, still connected to the Simulacrum channel.
‘Count Goldcroft, please clarify exactly what you mean by Pedestal-’
‘Uh, hey everyone. I- I’m going to take it that now is not the best time.’ Sedric’s voice sounded and he laughed nervously. ‘I don’t really want to brush over that part about Lucille referring to the future in past tense, but... I’m being moved. And I don’t know where, but the wizards sound like they’re in a rush.’
Whether it was a beneficial feat of timing or not, Lucy didn’t know, but she had to put her qualms about the room aside. She rubbed her neck, ready to make sure the ensuing conversation was short and quick.
Now that my emotions have been forcibly calmed, I know that there’s no way anyone of them is on this plane. The plane natives must’ve somehow received a signal of theirs and got in contact, using the organisation’s knowledge to accelerate their research.
Even though she overreacted in a way she had nearly never done before... it was an undeniable fact that a language of a nation from the Cosmic Realm was present in the room on all sides.
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I'M SORRY
Sorry for the sudden break, sorry for the irregular updates and all.
I have maybe two weeks left before all exams are done for this semester.
Comments
Adurna
Honestly I just appreciate the chapters when they do come. And I am thankful my studies are done.
sinclair
welcome back!
