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Arc 5 | Chapter 199: A Lack of Ideas; A Sudden Idea

⸂So… ideas?⸃No one spoke, no one offered any ideas about either what to do about Sk’lar or why he hadn’t died, although the latter was pretty obvious: either his defensive abilities were frankly terrifying, or he had a gift protecting him. Given what Emilia knew about defensive skills, she was willing to bet it was the latter.

As much as her own core-based defensive skills were sketchy at best, that was more a result of having taught herself to utilize her core for such things and a general lack of practice than cores being unable to actually sustain such things. Ri in particular had been a monster, as she supposed had Conrad. Both had been able to push their energy outside of their cores and physical bodies with little effort, creating a bubble of safety for themselves and their allies, although it had sometimes been a struggle to fight alongside Ri, as his defences could also interfere with the skills and abilities of his allies.

So, yeah, Sk’lar’s whole not-currently-being-a-roasted-human thing have been due to some insane core control, but then, why wasn’t he moving? More likely, in Emilia’s estimation, it was some gift—or perhaps even a stolen blood weapon similar to her own {Blood Ball}—that was protecting him, with the consequence that he couldn’t move.

Unfortunately, that meant they—or at least Hyr—were stuck holding the man prisoner, or they had to let the fire spread.

[Emilia:]

Technically, she wasn’t completely positive which building she was in, but when she had entered it she had had Hyr tell her how would have described the building they were entering in relation to the collapsed one. Boundary and Rin had replied to her message containing said information that Phlostra was pretty sure she knew which building she was in. Hopefully, the woman had been correct.

[Boundary:]

That seemed like quite the coincidence…

[Rin:]

[Boundary:]

[Rin:]

[Rin:]

[Rin:]

[Emilia:]

[Emilia:]

[Rin:]

[Emilia:]

[Emilia:]

[Boundary:]

No, it probably didn't. Nearly falling because she could be a klutz was probably better than nearly falling because she had overestimated her abilities, if only a little. That climbing wall had been hard, okay!? And when she’d gone through it the second time, inside the labyrinth she’d hacked, she had shot through it!

Still, as much as it hurt a bit that her so-called friends had turned to evacuating the building she and the northerners were travelling through because they were worried she would accidentally blow it up—they hadn’t said as much, but they might as well have—it was convenient.

⸂I say we let it burn and run,⸃ she said, shooting off a few more messages to the others about what was happening. Phlostra informed them that the buildings did have fire protocols, but they likely wouldn’t be enough to stop the fire Emilia described from eventually consuming the building.

Part of it was that Zyrex hadn’t used normal magic to create the flames: he’d used a different sort of core ability, one that came from the real world. As such, while the buildings were normally protected from this world’s magic, they rarely survived anything otherworldly. That would explain why The Quiet Boy’s attacks had destroyed so much: just as his uncle’s membrane of defensive power was based on some real world ability, his attack likely had been as well.

“I can keep it from chasing us for some time,” Hyr said, their voice strained as they continued keeping the flames at bay, “but unless I completely obliterate the flames, the moment I move, they will begin to spread.”

⸂Yeah, well, according to my friends who were evacuating people, there isn’t much left to try and evacuate in this place.⸃

Boundary and Rin had been sending her updates as they travelled. They had succeeded in reaching several of the places Phlostra knew children had been tucked away. Rin, along with a few other Risen Guard investigators who had decided to risk their lives to help evacuate people, had sorted anyone who wanted to be taken out of the city system into categories of danger level, based on their heartcore corruption and connections to Ajarni.

Since she’d awoken from her dream, following taking in Tobias’ {Blood Tattoo}, a few other people had joined their group, mostly Clarity members who weren’t far enough along in their corruption to be too much of a danger, but who had enough skill with teleportation to remove kids and other, more innocent-leaning adults. The Risen Guard had at least relented and sent a number of members to temporarily commandeer landing pads in one of the bigger cities. While the landing pads were normally set up to work as and , that was only a safety precaution, so people didn’t slot themselves into one another.

As such, the Risen Guard were using the out-pads as in-pads for their evacuations, while Rin had been relegated the job of letting the coordinator know where the evacuators could land back wherever she and Boundary were currently working. Emilia wasn’t sure who had come up with this idea or organized it, but it seemed to be working quite well, and the group of mishmashed people had been working themselves through the city levels relatively quickly.work. In other words, while Ajarni and the rest of the hive mind would be getting back information about whatever questions the Risen Guard interrogators were asking, that probably hadn’t been the case when Conrad had questioned their now dead members—assuming the Risen Guard didn’t have someone with a similar gift, anyways.

Actually, Ajarni might not even know she and Conrad had questioned his people and then killed them.

Emilia supposed it was a bit like the Virtuosi System stations in the Data-Recovery Lab, except in reverse. Where the stations they used in class were protected from outside threats, due to their isolation, hive members who were removed from it were a liability, whatever they said an unknown to their colleagues.

Of course, the Virtuosi Systems in the lab also struggled when they needed to be updated. It was a whole thing, having to choose between taking the time to update them individually, while they remained offaether, or risk connecting them to the aethernet to let them update automatically. Speed vs the risk of a virus.

A virus.

A virus.

A—

Oh. That could actually be a good idea, assuming they could make it work.

[Emilia:]

[Emilia:]