novelraw Chapter 293: Well, that wasn’t so bad.
Chapter 293: Well, that wasn’t so bad.
And now that she knew what was happening, preparing to return to real time (Again) was not as hard on her as before, and sure enough, as her awareness washed back to normal speed. The first thing she noticed was a blooming headache that vanished almost as soon as it started.
[Fixed some burst blood vessels.]
...Totally not dangerous at all.
Either way, both [Elder] and Vulcanus.exe were looking at her as if waiting for something, what was that? Oh right.
"My older brother prepared something for these circumstances." Ale said pointing at her temple, "So while I know the loud alarms and all of that, there is nothing to worry about."
"Main Core, transmit a sanitized version of what that wave of Mana will do to me... or fail to do to me. Send it to Vulcanus and check with the Saintsworths AI to see if there is anything wrong with the math."
Ale of course would send proof of it.
"Are you sure?" [Elder] asked, "I know you are saying that, but you have not seen these readings..."
[Elder] turned his tablet towards Ale, there were some preliminary readings, somewhat incomplete, Ale had to add. But still they implied dangerous stuff.
"[Done.]" Vulcanus.exe lowered its arm and stored away the crystal sphere he had prepared.
[Receiving acknowledgement from Vulcanus and the local network. The math, as host stated, is right and does not lie.]
"[Do you wish for us to lower the defenses then?]" The intonation of Vulcanus had changed, and Ale could no longer see as clearly the phantom of Vulcanus.exe as clearly as before, but she could still see his outline behind Vulcanus. Meaning, this was no longer Vulcanus.exe. "[We could seal you back into the...Pod...]"
Vulcanus had started saying as they turned their attention towards the ruined pod. [Big Sister] had done a wonderful work with that. "[Or perhaps have Sylph teleport you away while we study the reaction of your mana with this.]"
"Letting her in would break the seal." [Elder] said shaking its head, "Besides we don't know if she can teleport long range, or how will this mana react if they come into contact with Rhapsody."
That was a very fair statement.
"[Nor do we have enough time to debrief Sylph.]" Vulcanus added as the countdown finally arrived at zero, "[It's here.]"
[Elder]'s body got quickly covered in a full body armor as he turned towards Ale, as if ready to react and move her as soon as possible.
The sound of a crystal panel breaking and to Ale's eyes, the walls suddenly got painted in a dirty pink colour as a wall of Mana broke into the room. As soon as it was clear of the wall, it was as if a malicious grin formed on the wall of Mana as it came crashing down on them.
[Detected foreign Mana.... analyzing...]
[Mana enters within estimated density a nd properties...]
[Starting depuring and assimilation...]
[Reinforcing Mana Core.]
Reinforcing what?
"How are you feeling Rhapsody?" [Elder] asked as all kinds of letters and graphs flashed across his googles, "Feeling anything wrong... Ale?"
That... was probably the first time she had heard [Elder] call her by name.
"Everything is fine." Ale answered as she tried moving her arms and legs, nothing wrong with them, not that there should be, "I don't feel anything like before."
"I'll be..." [Elder] sighed as his armor peeled away, tucking itself under his clothes as if it never had been out, "Whatever that brother of yours made, it worked."
Ale... was not so sure about that statement.
"[We aren't detecting any mana decay.]" Vulcanus said, "[The Death Mana seems to be fading away as it continues to search for its target. We can conclude with this that while it has some degree of intelligence...]"
"It doesn't have a good way to sense things, and will probably go around trying to search for its target." [Elder] continued the statement, "We should probably send a communication to the other Super Villain organizations in the city... I would say to inform the Saintsworths but... I doubt that is needed in this case."
"You would report to the Saintsworths?" Ale asked confused, "Why?"
"[Even like that, they still hold a great deal of control within the city, and one of their main directives for them to look the other way is to report any incident that could cause damages above a certain treshold to the community.]" Vulcanus said, pointing to Ale, "[What you experienced enters within that threshold, they move a rescue team and help bad triggers. Providing them a safe haven to stay and options to work in case their bad triggers impede their former jobs.]"
"They... do?" Ale was... not entirely surprised, Miriam Eversoul had said that some of her rescue organizations worked thanks to the Saintsworths umbrella, perhaps this was one of those? She did not think Alexanders would set up something like this.
"[Yes, not many take it, some prefer testing their luck. And so they come our way, or towards other villain organizations.]" Vulcanus shrugged at that, "[So these Saintsworths rescue plans divert some help our way, or tell us where to send the most extreme cases we can't deal with.]"
That was... actually kind of smart way to deal with that, the Saintsworths didn't benefit from this, but then again, charity wasn't supposed to be about helping your own image, but about helping others.
Ale could live with that.
"Well, I guess I'll send a report back to my brother about his experiment working." Ale said, internally shuddering at the words that came out of her mouth, she wasn't the actual sister of Alexanders, even if she was registered as such.
... Man, it was refreshing when you could think whatever the hell you wanted and didn't get hit by an error.
"[That would be for the best.]" Vulcanus said nodding, "[I have found what I wanted. We will call for you later, how long will you remain? Can we still think of you as a Hephaestus' Forge Minion?]"
Now, that was the important question was it not?
"I was planning to remain at most a week, at the shortest two days. Depending on how many times I had to deal with this phenomenon." Ale said pointing around herself, the corrupted Mana was now leaving (Or attempting to leave, as Main Core was trying to funnel as much of the Mana inside), "But now that I know there is nothing to fear? Well, probably two weeks at the longest. It will depend on what and how things go forward."
Now that she didn't have a time limit, there wasn't really a reason for her to leave was it?
But then again, she couldn't help but think about Aquila. And what the old asshole said, he claimed that there was a danger towards her in Aquila.
That should be impossible, but then again...
Alexa had also said that they weren't supposed to be there yet, as if she knew they would end up there? How could Alexa know that?
Thinking on that... No, not yet.
"Main Core, set up a reminder. I need to do some self-reflection on some topics." Ale said inwardly.
[Setting up a reminder.]
[First alarm is set up for tonight, secondary alarms will be set up in shorter intervals as time goes forward till the host deems the reminder no longer necessary.]
"Thank you." This was more effective than before, even if Main Core was somewhat cheeky sometimes.
"[Then we will set up the meeting for...]" Vulcanus started speaking, only for his eyes to flash red for the briefest fractions of a second, Ale was getting better at noticing those changes, "[... Never mind, you come to my office when you have time. There isn't anything important enough to prevent me from speaking with you.]"
Vulcanus had decided to change his approach midway, another interference from Vulcanus.exe? Probably.
"[I will be seeing you at a later date then Rhapsody.]" Vulcanus said bowing to her and turning to [Elder], "[Do not take too much of her time, Rhapsody has returned from a trans continental flight, and should rest as soon as possible.]"
And like that, Vulcanus left the room. Leaving her alone with [Elder].
"We don't know about it you know?" [Elder] said shaking his head slowly, "We don't really know where you were before, from the design of your glider pod we can infer it was somewhere within the continent, since there is no way that thing has enough fuel to traverse farther distances. Even with that modified engine... at best you could traverse half the states."
That was... actually quite accurate. So Ale nodded.
"And yet Vulcanus claimed you are tired from a trans continental flight." [Elder] turned his eyes towards her, crap. "How would he know that?"
"How indeed..." Ale said nodding, "He downloaded the flight path from the pod?"
"Encrypted with the Saintsworths' cipher, one which we haven't been able to crack since the bastards change it as soon as someone gets past the first security net." [Elder] answered instantly, had he waited that answer? "So, did you know that Vulcanus was compromised? Was that why you joined us?"
"... I didn't know." Ale answered, "I... I knew something was off, but then again, it's always like that with people and Alexa."
"What do you mean?" [Elder] asked confused, "Is something wrong with how he treats Alexa?"
"There is something wrong with how everyone deals with Alexa." Ale said with a small laugh, "Is it not?"
"Of course not," [Elder] said shaking his head, "Everyone should pamper Alexa, that is how the world works."
....Did... did she hear that right?
"Main Core, did I hear that right?" Ale couldn't help but ask aloud, not that it would matter, people already got used to Main Core anyway.
"Yes Mistress, subject Elder seems to be under the influence of a hostile mind manipulation effect. Purging... doesn't seem to be a viable option." Main Core answered within Ale's head, "... not unless you find the source of the effect first."
"Isn't that one dead?" [Elder] suddenly asked, "Who are you speaking with? Main Core has not spoken or said anything since your return."
Ale jumped as far and as away possible from [Elder] as she could.
"... How would you know that?" Ale asked as she felt all kinds of alarms rise inside her head, there was no way that [Elder] could hear Main Core, no one had reacted to that before. "Are you under the effects of a hostile Mind core user?"
"Sorry if I spooked yah," [Elder] said raising his hands and showing her that they were empty, a pointless move since all he needed was a twitch and those would turn into cannons, "Alexa used to go around with a speaker that broadcasted the voice of that Main Core remember?"
...Alexa did do that.
"Sorry, we are stressed here too. What do you mean when you said that everyone acted weird with Alexa around? Isn't it normal to want to pamper a cute child?" [Elder] asked in a more relaxed way, "Alexa is cute, is she not? The cutestest was it?"
... Alexa... did claim that, even if Ale was not quite sure why they claimed it. Actually, that made her cringe inwardly, she had gone around saying that she herself, Ale, was the prettiest didn't she?
Oh god, she had said that aloud a few times...
"Yeah... that sounds... fair." Ale sighed as she lowered her guard, not all the way down of course, that would be foolish, "Sorry about the jumping, we have not had a good couple weeks."
"I can imagine." [Elder] said nodding, "So, when did you find that Vulcanus was a Saintsworths plant?"
"He is... not really one." Ale answered while walking back towards [Elder], "Not in the truest sense of it."
"Oh... That one took me almost a week to find out," [Elder] said nodding, "Are you sure you aren't a Tinkerer Core?"
"... I mean, we didn't find it by doing amazing detective work. They told it to us, to our face." Ale shrugged, "And seemed to imply that their condition was similar to ours, albeit, less... amicable."
"I guessed as much, Gabriel did imply that before disappearing too." [Elder] shook his head, "And a few test confirmed it for me. Vulcanus sometimes can process information way faster than a normal Core User can. Even if his body was turned into a machine, the one part that hadn't was his brain. So there was no excuse for him to have achieved that."
"Unless half of his consciousness stream was in an AI Core." Ale said nodding, "Which is what happened."
"That was my guess too, but the human side of him doesn't seem to be aware." [Elder] sighed, "And if we bring it up..."
"If you bring it up?" Ale asked, the worst that could happen would be a fight between the two right?
Not like that could do anything, the original owner was the meat side, so that one should have dominance.
"Either we cause a bad trigger, or we lose Edwards." [Elder] closed his eyes as he said that, "Not something we can do. I... I don't think Edwards has the upper hand. Some of the things he has done... It was not things he would do before. The changes have been so gradual and slowly spread that we didn't notice till we searched for them."
"How so?" Ale asked, this seemed important after all.
"At the beginning, we wouldn't have pushed for Lena to use her Core Power as she does, binding people with the metaphysical aspect of her power." [Elder] sighed as he pulled a photo from the tablet, an image of a younger [Eleanore], "She didn't even like to use her Core Power, the world is a terrible place if you know when people say a lie. More so since her power doesn't discriminate, she is unable to tell lies too."
That didn't seem that bad, but perhaps it was some nuance that she couldn't see because she herself didn't need to lie or hadn't experienced being lied to.
"Edwards wouldn't have pushed Gabriel to become a hitman, even if his power allowed him to do that." The tablet turned to a picture of a younger Gabriel Light, this one with his wings out and in the open, "We would have taken in The Spider before he became the monster he is now, instead we merely offered him some help and ensured his nest was in a convenient place for us..."
Sam? Ah right... They hadn't had the chance to return there. Ale should... She should probably take some time to go and give the news to Sam... Even if they hadn't interacted for long, he was one of the figures that had featured in their Older Sister life.
"And now there is the program he is moving forward... The only thing that is something that Edwards would do, but now with this information... we aren't sure if it is from him or not." [Elder] sighed yet again, "Do you know something about this?"
The tablet turned once more towards Ale, and sure enough, it was what they had been told before coming here. The new schools for Aquila, the plan to move all the education and centralize it around the floating city.
"...Yeah... about that..." Ale said scratching the back of her head, "That is where we got sent to."
Ale pulled something from within her jacket, or well, made a new copy of the same pamphlet that had been left in their apartment at Aquila and pretended to pull it out from here.
"The school that Alexa got send to? We got send there." Ale offered the pamphlet to [Elder], who accepted it and read it.
"...It doesn't say the place it is at." [Elder] seemed disappointed, but that much was obvious, was it not? Who would tell the secret location of your hidden base? "Well, thank you for confirming that, sorry about the scare."
Right... Sure he was sorry.
But at least Ale got something from this.
People spoke about pampering Alexa as if it was normal and they didn't seem to notice, she now only needed to find if this was only for Alexa, or if it was for everyone of her age. Time to look into her friends I guess?
Alexa's friends that is.
...Also it was time to try and not turn them into paste, since Alexa's friends were a couple little pieces of entitled shits...
How hard could it be?