The grid shattered, but the bladewind didn’t lunge for his throat. He hadn’t truly attacked her this entire time. Not really. Her Judges were asleep on the floor. Not dead. Hopefully that helped? The space between him and Brianna opened up into a fang-filled maw and collapsed down in the spot where Artorian had stood. His eyes flickered with Mana in response, and finally he managed to pull up her stat card. Sheet? Screen? The thing with the numbers!
He slid his back foot into position, and placed his fists against his sides. Drawing a steadying breath, the space in their vicinity burned as celestine might purged the poison mist from the air. The change in his demeanor made the blurred Brianna falter, her shattered frame of mind unable to anticipate patterns she didn’t already have memories of. Her dagger sliced down with a black flash, but was bumped away at the wrist via a slide of the old man’s palm.
Brianna’s Soul Item flickered and vanished, her hip bending to send a cutting leg straight through his midriff as her own Aura molded to become the dagger she’d just lost.
Artorian had to keep her closely inspected. Because eeesh! Forget Sword Aura, the entity Bri-Bri hung on her sleeve and embedded into her Auric signature was one far more dangerous than mere ‘cutting’ or embodying the idea of a sword. Her limbs moved through space, and that space became a lingering embodiment of ‘cutting.’
The assassin Queen had not been idle in the near-century of isolation, suffering defeat after defeat as she attempted to re-establish control of Niflheim. She could defeat Phosgen, Greater Phosgen, and Dire Phosgen. Yet therein lay the problem. Only she could defeat certain variants, and she was unable to be everywhere at once without the beacon system functional.
The Dark Elves had tried to jury rig it, but hijacking a system made by a tier seven-twenty Law had proven to be an unattainable feat. They could have just overpowered it by shoving enough Mana in to compensate for the tier difference, but they just didn’t have the remaining organized manpower. Not without kneecapping the remains of their local defenses.
The brawl between Administrator and supervisor was a rough one. Artorian was a great Mana manipulator, but merely an okay melee combatant. He got beaten to the ground several times as Brianna, who was a top-notch melee combatant, floored him. Given her discord, her Mana control left much to be desired.
The balancing measure in this fight came down to the details. The actually dooming effects of her strikes were nullified as the academic applied his patented ‘No’ style. Sure, it wasn’t great to get kicked in the stomach, but it wasn’t deadly so long as it was ‘just’ being kicked in the stomach. It wasn’t so bad after he crashed through a few palace walls and projections, finding he could handle it. Oh hey, those were still functional? Great craftsmansh— “Abyss!”
Dancing into her follow up attack, Brianna shrieked out the word: “Kingsbane!”
Artorian rolled out of the way when her soul dagger reformed, cutting through the floor and ceiling with a range it should not have reasonably had. The deft physical dagger Brianna held was by itself perhaps… a foot in length? Add an ‘ish’? The range of the blasted Kingsbane, on the other hand, was actually an invisible line that extended from said dagger. One that proved it to be much, much longer. She could cut people in twain without them ever being the wiser!
*Chink*.
Artorian didn’t follow for a second. Chink? Why did he hear the sound of a blade piercing armor? Oh. He’d been stabbed in his Mana body. Ow? A fake Brianna was behind him. Was that a very realistic copy? No, that was her! How was she in two places at once? Had she split her Presence? What kind of suicidal nonsense was… ow! “Oh. Right. Dagger in the kidney. Ruminate later.”
He pulsed his Aura, rebuking her with kinetic force that omnidirectionally repulsed matter. It did a number on the stately room they were in, crumpling furniture and stone alike as matter compressed outwards against the newly reshaped wall. Their room remodeled into the shape of a cracked ball.
Something really hurt, but Artorian found out why with a glance. He was leaking Mana from the new wound, and fairly egregiously at that. Crackers, now he was on a timer.
Brianna reformed with her other self, twitchy as could be. Her form clearly threatened to split again as the reformed Brianna wavered with discordant static. That wasn’t good. Artorian guessed that there was a Seed Core disconnect at play.
“Well… so much for trying it the loving way.”
Abyss, that dagger really hurt. With another quick check, he realized the wound was spreading, and that injury was getting worse by the second. That Kingsbane dagger was nasty! “Come on! I don’t get to see Halcyon grow up, and now I have to skip Vol too? What is it with people and not wanting me to see my kids? Fine, Brianna. You’ve made it clear. I must.”
With his health bar plummeting at a steady rate, Artorian didn’t give an abyss about his Mana expenditure. It was all going to poof momentarily anyway. Directed attacks she was just going to dodge. Melee was out of the question, and he’d been a dum-dum to try it in the first place. She was a professed assassin, you academic nut! Actually, what hadn’t she dodged this entire fight? The realization jolted him. Oh my word, he hadn’t gotten a single hit in on her. This was early Irene all over again. So, he needed… something special.
Rail Palm wasn’t going to fly here. That was an empowering attack to go at zippy speeds. She’d bat him out of the air like a bothersome fly. Mass driver? No time to charge it. Orbital suns? No time. Fix by fireball? *Tch*. She’d dodge. The only thing he’d seen her specifically dart away from was his kinetic pulse just now.
The Nixie Tube illuminated above his head as genius struck him. Well he was going to die anyway. Blaze of glory? He shot her a Mana-leaking smile. Blaze of abyss-burned glory! Let’s make Marie’s Law proud. He coughed, and managed a wry smile. “Hey Bri-Bri. Dodge this.”
The confidence melted from her face as his Auric signature inverted, sucking energy towards him instead of repelling it. She was having none of his second wind madness. Breaking the ground by throwing herself forwards, the ever-blurred assassin sliced the room in a multi-line star pattern. How she was cutting easily twenty-plus paths with a single strike, Artorian didn’t know. Also, it didn’t matter. He got the words that popped into his head out in time, even if he flubbed the first one. “[Majin Repulsor, Spiral Drill].”
Brianna didn’t understand the words, and didn’t believe they would do anything.
Artorian, on the other hand—he did believe. An orb-shaped pulse rippled from his form before her criss-crossing cuts reached him. The spirals forming on Artorian’s Auric surface blocked all the impacts, and plinked them away. Forcing her attack to veer, and cut several layers deep through the palace as entire walls collapsed from whole columns being Kingsbane-cleaved.
Green and white spirals twisted into being on Artorian’s Aura, twisting faster, then faster still. That same spiral design was forming in the old man’s eyes when Brianna glanced at him. She didn’t know this pattern and was instantly unsettled. She needed to backpedal. To back off and veer away as her attacks had. Brianna did move backwards, but not by choice, as the orb shaped Aura around Artorian expanded with a spherical pulse.
The surface evolved! The spirals were now going at such speeds that they covered him in omnidirectional drills. Each of which ground Brianna’s Magenta Palace into little more than broken hunks of dust and gravel.
The resulting sound was terrible, but neither of the combatants heard it. Brianna screeched in defiance. A cloak of Mana-daggers formed to clink and chink against the expanding dome of green, spiraling drills that limited her mobility and pressed her ever more outwards. The surrounding Judges that woke from no longer being trapped in a sleeping field took it the worst, unable to dodge the destruction as they were already plastered to the walls.
Brianna fumed. She would have effortlessly beaten such an indiscriminate effect back, had the Administrator not poured a full tier of Mana into it. After all, he wasn’t about to need it.
Artorian’s health representation flashed dangerously red, and went ignored.
In response to being cornered, Brianna summoned every dagger she had and attacked. Save for her Soul Item, her weapons shattered against the spiraling field. With a shout of finality at being pushed back once more, her actual form touched the wall of drills, trapped against the wall as her back was flattened to a section of ground-reinforcing Runes.
Brianna may have been stuck, but the green wall didn’t stop expanding. With the sound of grinding metal and shattering glass, it was over. Artorian managed another cough as he watched Brianna’s A-ranked form fragment into… triangles and confetti? He unwillingly dropped to a knee, hand no longer over the wound as he noticed that the entire left section of his chest and midriff was completely missing. “Welp.”
Artorian winced as he could swear he just heard Cal’s voice. He unfortunately couldn’t reply; his Mana allotment was too low, and the sensation of pain overbearing. Why did that dungeon snoot see a need to add pain receptors?
Cal sounded delighted when he spoke again, and dropped a left boot near Artorian as reward. A joke from his old dungeon days.
Artorian swallowed, his form slowly disintegrating as he verbally complained. Brianna had been right. He’d been played like a pawn. “Cal, I’m gonna…”
Artorian’s mind was back in the Seed Core before he was able to finish his sentence.
Within the private meeting space for S-rankers in the solar archives, Cale spun in his chair. He jumped out of it to hoot wildly and punch both his arms to the sky. He was in a great mood! Sadly for him, his company did not share his good cheer.
Tatum and Dawn looked at him with murderous displeasure. Dani’s expression wasn’t much different. Cale just shrugged. “What? He said he would take the task and the responsibility. So what if I brought him back a little early?”
The living bonfire seated next to Tatum exhaled flame. “You used my favorite person as a pawn. Cut off his communication with us. Didn’t tell him an abyss-blasted thing, and left him to flounder. He had no idea that he was alone down there. You populated places purely for test results, and nearly lost the thread a few times. He made a chosen, and you messed up the sigil. Do you know how badly that would have backfired had he puzzled it out there? Even then, you showed up at the end. He’s going to be furious with you when you bring him back. You should have just told him.”
Cale mumbled and flopped back into his seat, feeling disgruntled with his own situation. “Well… I couldn’t. It was important that I didn’t interfere, because events could have played out differently if I did tell him. Now I have a set of events from when he knows nothing, and look! Success on both fronts. Made it to Niflheim, and canted Brianna. A month before my expected Incarnation date no less.”
The glares weren’t letting up, so Cale conceded. “I’ll… find a way to apologize and make it up to him. Alright? We’ve got all the supervisors, and I can now go ahead to box, gem, and memory stone the remaining people and creatures. Aaaand, done! That’s it. That’s everything. Every mind is stored, and every realm save for our little spot is completely bare and barren. Save for the plants, but I have the samples.”
Dawn stopped burning up, though her arms remained crossed in displeasure. “Fine. Shall we get started then? You have enough.”
Tatum nodded in rigid agreement. “She’s right. I’ll go ahead and knock on the Tower.”
Cale frowned, not feeling ready. “Wait. Wow. Hold on. Just wait a moment!”
Dawn vanished with Dani in tow, leaving a definitely-not-prepared Cale to momentarily panic as Tatum did exactly as he said he would. The man was acquiring attention. Cale’s hands shot out towards Tatum to stop him, but it was too late. “Hey, no. Not yet! I have a month! I have a month! Cease this instant! I will shove you into obscurity for this!”
*Vwop*.
Chapter Seventeen
“Finally!” Dawn stretched with utter relief.
Tatum was right there with her, breaking into entirely unnecessary elaborate yoga poses. “Oooh, yeah. Preach to the choir, sister. This is so much better. Not quite there for me, but definitely better. No more replacing bodies every few days, this’ll do me!”
Dani copied Dawn’s stretches, testing her new human-shaped body. Her voice was its usual level of matronly, which pleased her. “It’s my first time in one of these, but wow. These are special. It doesn’t even feel like I’m in a body, it’s just so malleable and utterly natural.”
The Fire Soul tapped her own hip, showcasing a stretch properly performed before responding. “Mhm! Incarnate bodies aren’t so much bodies as they are thoughts shaped into being. Using an energy that’s… Well. You feel it now. Isn’t it great? Just try to hold onto the wavelength you currently feel. Take it from us, falling into a different layer by accident is anything but fun. As a bonus, we can come get you if you do. So just yell, and we’ll hear you. Don’t worry if the space you’re in is made from kaleidoscopes, or seems as if you’re stuck in nothing. It’s a place, and we can get there.”
Dani nodded, looking over her shoulder as she put her hands to her waist to flourish her new chartreuse romper. “Wonderful! Soo… does that mean you’re about to go fetch Cal from whatever layer he just plunged into? I didn’t expect Incarnating to… uh. Break so much.”
Both the Incarnates shrugged, miming the same uncertain: “Eeeeh.”
Tatum wavered his hands up and down, truly lacking in certainty about that action as his hips swayed for effect. “Maybe in a bit. He’s not going anywhere, given where he’s stuck.”
Dawn nodded and jumped in place, testing her reconnection to a form of Incarnate energy. It was incredibly liberating, and she loved it. “Mm. What layer is he on? I didn’t track it. I don’t notice him on bordering wavelengths.”
Occultatum formed, then reformed the robes he was wearing. He just wasn’t pleased with them. It didn’t take more than mere thought at this stage, so he was cycling for fashion. “He tumbled and ended up in the Pi layer.”
Dani turned on her heel, the ground beneath her foot moving so quickly that she caused an honest-to-Cal earthquake in Niflheim. Eh. What were a few more displaced pathways? “A layer of pie? As in the confection? An entire universe filled with pastry? I wanna go!”
The Incarnates shared a good laugh, and their grayscale burst into being around them. Dawn punched the air in success. “There it is! Took a bit of traded Mana, but looks like the safety field works. I moved our laughs into a higher layer. So it should…”
The grayscale around them faded, and Dani opened and closed her palms. She felt perplexed. “No pressure? I expected to be locked down.”
Tatum filled her in on both fronts. “Pi, as in a realm dedicated entirely to this weird, one number. A full layer is needed to store the full sequence string. It’s a strange place. No confections, sadly. As for the lockdown effect, you’re counted as a true Incarnate, so given we don’t have the energy to really throw our weight around, you’re just not affected. We should be picky about who we bring back first. An Incarnate body in this Soul Space is going to sap the free Mana right away.”
Dani waved it off. “Let’s not bring anyone out just yet. Please go fetch our village totem pole from the number realm. I’d rather he institute his system specifically so that doesn’t happen. I’m just glad we didn’t lose the stored minds. I expect that when it comes to things we did lose, we lost more than we can see. I want my inventory audited.”
Tatum didn’t argue and ceased existing where he was. A moment later, he was standing back in the spot he’d occupied a moment ago. Ho
lding a very pale Cale by the shoulder. Cale stammered. “I never want to do that again. I’m… just… going to sit down. I’m not okay.”
“Shh… he’s been traumatized by pi.” Tatum’s voice was a whisper. The slightest movement from Cale’s human body grayscaled the entire Soul Space, and outright locked every occupant down. Cale could move freely, even if at a wobble. He couldn’t walk right for some reason, and collapsed to the grass like a fresh-born fawn. When he stilled, the global gray field faded, allowing the others a breath they didn’t need. They took it regardless, just for comfort.
Dani shot Tatum a demanding look. “You said we’d be unaffected!”
Tatum bent over, hands pressed to his knees. He raised an arm without straightening his body, gaze firmly on the ground as he reiterated an earlier point. “Given we don’t have the energy to throw our weight around! Mr. Seven-twenty-plus over there has gobs of it. He is unwittingly trading all his Mana into Incarnate energy. Compared to us, he is energetically loaded. It doesn’t even matter that I’m technically a double S-rank, the difference is just too large.”
When Tatum finally straightened, it was with both hands to his back as it popped, mimicking mortal features. He felt better, and finally remembered a question now that he had a half-decent body again. “Dawn. Is there by chance a convenient ancient word for S-ranked energy? Calling it something-energy all the time isn’t remotely as convenient as the term we have for Mana. Though I’m aware that’s an acronym.”
Dawn cleared her throat. “Spirit is the common term. No bells or whistles.”
Dani liked the sound of that. “Stick with that. Back to brass tacks. Cale. Take a look at the quackening that occurred. I think we need your system in place in a hurry. You can take two guesses which creations self-manifested when you Incarnated.”
Cale discorporated his body, returning to being a disembodied voice. That didn’t cause the grayscaling effect, so it was better for now.
Anima: A Divine Dungeon Series (Artorian's Archives Book 6) Page 13