The Last Dainv

Erin Weber telekinetically grabbed the two jars of Aurumn's fire from her desk at her office in Lab 7 which was formerly Oliver Glory's backup office. She exited the room and walked towards the designated meeting area. Today's meeting, at Earth's Time of 7:30 Eastern Standard Time, was to be held in conference Foxtrot-Bravo-Delta 52-021. There were three major points on the agenda:

1. Future location of the Origin Layer Fabricator, assigned name as Synthesis Facility for ease of understanding for the humans
2. Rift Aperture System schematics review for dual energy support of electricity and prana
3. Origin Encoder for healing 'dust-corrupted' individuals

She only had two jars of Aurumn's fire. According to calculations, the Origin Layer Fabricator alone needed three jars. During the review of the legal text by the United Knights, she could have asked the woman of fire for more jars. However, that would undermine the verbal contract with the Blood Blade Sect Defectors, whose 'Elder' became a new member of the cohort named 'Xinyi Zhou', colloquially now assigned as 'tempered woman'.

During her individual fight with the giant sandworm, Plkmwryd, the tempered woman exhibited signs of excellent technical control over the 3rd energy, Qi, and her core. Henceforth, the tempered woman had been assigned classification 2 under procedure of tier 5 specimen monitoring. This included monitoring of core stage advancement, progress of skill, and vitals.

Nevertheless, sacrificing legal review to trade for a jar of Aurumn's fire was declined at the time of incident. Contracts must be upheld regardless of the gains they may incur. The woman of fire had yet to pay her debt. An inquiry into her current debt was due.

Pulling out her phone, Erin tapped the side button to turn on the screen. She slid her thumb up the touchscreen (with no lock) and looked through each icon on her phone. Once she found the green icon with a speech bubble, she tapped on it. Now in the message list menu, she looked through each name.

[Sarah Chen]

[Gale Hathie]

[Oliver Glory]

[^^ our fun group chat (to Erin, this is the chat with everyone, type here)]

Erin stopped scrolling. The name of the 'group chat' was chosen by the woman of fire. Its name specifically stated that the 'group chat' was where to push her inquiry to the woman of fire. Paradoxically, the woman of fire had put the word 'chat' in the name of the 'group chat'.

Official business does not fall under a simple chat, yet why did the woman of fire tell her to 'type here', specifically stating her name (although without her full title) and not anyone else's?

The paradox could not be resolved, therefore, the fallback would be to message the woman of fire directly. She continued scrolling.

[Esther Ann]

[Gerard Ann]

[Doctor Gray]

[Rachel Ann]

Erin tapped on Rachel's name and the conversation opened. Instead of typing on the rudimentary, borderline barbaric, touchscreen, she tapped on the phone button to call the woman of fire.

The phone rang 4 times before the woman of fire picked up.

"Erin, what is it?"

"Woman of fire, you have incurred debt on our excursion to the event you've called 'the Summit'. I require 5 jars of your fire as compensation."

"5 jars? Are you serious? How does it even cost that much?"

"I shall explain in detail on how you've incurred such a debt. The first instance—"

"Stop. Stop. I don't care. 5 jars. Fine. You'll get it tomorrow morning, delivered by Gerard."

"Tomorrow morning is a vague measurement of time. Specify an exact time to allow me to adjust my agenda for tomorrow."

"UGH. 9AM. OK?"

"In your Earth time, 9AM is in the middle of early morning and late morning. However, the time is acceptable. I shall await the jars at my office at Lab 7."

"Ok. But why do you need it for? Wait. Don't answer. I don't want a lecture. Is there anything else?"

"Understood. You are dismissed."

"YOUR FACE IS DISMISSED."

"The face cannot be dismissed. It is part of the body. Your phrase has no sense, woman of fire."

"I'M HANGING UP. STUPID FLOATING BLUEY."

The line cut off immediately after. Erin put her phone back into her coat pocket and continued walking as usual. Although the woman of fire showed clear exasperation, the inquiry about the debt was a success. She was cooperative, if not, the next course of action would be escalation through her superior, Lady Esther.

5 jars were forthcoming tomorrow morning at Earth's Time at 9AM Eastern Standard Time.

The motives of Lady Esther remain inefficient. To keep an Aurumn Dainv in a cage when a Cev Dainv was in close proximity was utterly incomprehensible. The combination of a Cev and Aurumn Dainv in combat culled many invasion vectors of the tide. Yet the Lady squanders this chance to allow the Aurumn Dainv to train in earnest alongside the Prototype Cev Dainv.

Lady Esther had been part of the forces at the front lines to hold theatres of war against the tide. It was a certain unexpectation that she became part of the dissenting Dainvs that hides from the Cesnv.

A strategy must be thought of to undermine the strategy of Lady Esther at the earliest, as soon as the debt with the House of Ann was settled.

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Though, the Plkmwryd rift became a boon in disguise, allowing her to train the woman of fire and the young lamb in the ways of Dainv training. Additionally, the other members of the cohort managed to keep up.

The loud one and the quieter of the loud ones exhibit procedures that put them at classification 1. They exhibit latent Origin emission that needs to be studied.

On the other hand, the quiet one exhibited extreme mechanical and technical control over her own body and ether. It bordered on perfection that rivalled that of Asain and Vianne Dainvs.

From what she gathered from Sarah Chen, the current cohort she managed were part of this generation's 'rising stars'. Truly, it was an accurate name. A Tier 5 planet to exhibit Tier 2 prowess was an unheard of feat. Had it not been for this particularity of the planet, she would have taken the young lamb to a different home planet and trained there instead.

Erin stopped in front of a double wooden door. Above was a nameplate labelled 'Foxtrot-Bravo-Delta 52-021'. As soon as the time hit 7:30AM, she opened the door.

She moved forward and sat on the first available seat before glancing at the occupants, setting down the two jars of Aurumn's fire. In the boardroom sat Sarah Chen, Doctor Gray, and Oliver Glory, the short one.

"Then should we start the meeting?" Sarah Chen asked.

"The meeting has already started. It is now 7:30AM," Erin said.

"Sure..." Sarah said. "OK, first order of business, the location for the Rift Aperture System. Ollie, you got anything?"

"Can't we just put it in the Oshawa warehouse?"

"But the United Knights already raided that place. Wouldn't that cause issues with them?" Sarah asked.

"What issues? It's not like we're doing anything illegal. We're just renovating the place to accommodate this... alien technology," Doctor Gray said.

"Based on how big it was back in the Tomb, I think it's the only place that could fit it," Ollie said.

"The Rift Aperture System you saw in the Architect's Tomb was a prototype designed by my own hands. I have revised the schematics to scale it down to a level that could fit a standard 'American house'," Erin said.

"Ok, but hear me out. What if we wanna push trucks through an open rift? Or heavy equipment. That would need a lot of space. Would your revised schematics account for that?"

Erin did not consider that possibility. Truly, being able to push heavy equipment would be desirable when it came to the needs of war. Having a continuous open and safe rift would allow for logistical opportunities. In the first place, she had only sized down the Rift Aperture System due the young lamb being able to carry large materials via his space storage. Should the young lamb not be there, a smaller Rift Aperture System would become a hindrance.

"I have not thought of that possibility. However, your statement has been accepted and the schematics will be revised once again," Erin said.

"HOLD ON!" Sarah shouted. "The last time you said that, it took 5 months to get a complete revision from you and now we're here."

Ollie shook his head.

"ERIN, PLEASE, just let us build the first version for now," Sarah said.

A fair request by Sarah Chen, however, this demonstrates a lack of foresight. The current materials they have attained from the rifts are 'rare'. There were four other open rifts that have the materials, but all four exceed Class 5 and are in a state of Active Origin Defense. The Plkmwryd was a Class 2 rift in an Active Origin Defense. Due to its low class, it was the perfect rift from which to extract materials from.

"The request has been noted and dismissed."

"WHY??"

"The current materials attained from the rifts only allow for 1 Rift Aperture System. Building two systems will impede on the material requirements of the Synthesis Facility and the Origin Encoder; however, revising the schematics to account for a bigger system while maintaining enough materials for the other two is possible. You may choose which one to sacrifice should you still wish to create two Rift Aperture Systems," Erin said.

"Nope, I'll pass on that. We'll stick with the revision. How long will it take you this time to revise?"

"3 months."

Sarah Chen groaned while Doctor Gray sighed.

"Your disapproval of the situation is noted, but ultimately nonsensical. The Rift Aperture System and the Origin Encoder are dependent on the Synthesis Facility. They cannot be built without it. Based on proper personnel and the speed of craftsmanship of the average Earth craftsman, the Synthesis Facility will take 4 months to finish as long as the construction runs for 24 hours a day."

"Ollie, you think you can get that kind of personnel?" Doctor Gray asked.

"Meh. It's just about money with them anyways. Problem is the local governments. Are they going to let us construct a building in under 4 months without safety checks and bureaucratic bullshit?" Ollie asked.

"The schematics of the Synthesis Facility adhere to all known forms of zoning, safety regulation, and legal tape pitfalls of the local jurisdiction," Erin said.

"I get that, but that doesn't mean an annoying arse politician won't start problems," Ollie said.

"How about we call Lennard for help on that?" Sarah asked.

"Pfft, Lennard is out to get me. He ain't helping."

"Wait, why don't we just retrofit the asylum for all of our shit?" Sarah asked.

"Oh," Ollie put a hand on his chin. "That could actually work. There's also a primitive rift system there discovered by Gale and his friends."

"And what about this dual energy thing you're talking about for the Rift Aperture System? What's that about?" Sarah asked.

"The Rift Aperture System requires immense energy to function. Fraedium Gems would be crafted and then artificed to be as a battery for the energy of Prana. This would allow the Rift Aperture System to use the current electricity energy grid as a supplementary energy to Prana. This requires personnel to feed the Fraedium batteries with Prana constantly," Erin said.

"How constant are you saying?" Ollie asked.

"A constant connection with the battery must be maintained at all times to feed the Fraedium's large capacity."

"So, they're basically serving a life sentence hooked up to a bed?" Doctor Gray asked.

"I mean, it's not like we haven't done that before. Just find the criminals that use Prana and have them hooked up to the battery. Heck, maybe even give them a computer to play games on," Ollie said.

"That works, I guess. Isn't there any other way, though?" Sarah asked.

"The alternative method is inefficient," Erin said. Technically, an Origin Shard could power a Rift Aperture System for at least a year in Earth time. But the act of using an Origin Shard as a mere power source was barbaric. The Shards would already be used as trace linings for the artificing of the Rift Aperture System materials via Synthesis facility manufacturing. Multiple logical cores were also required for each system. At minimum 30 Origin Shards per system.

"Fine... guess we're using criminals again," Sarah said.

"What about the Origin Encoder? How long would that take to build after the Synthesis Facility?"

"The Encoder will require a maximum of 3 Earth Days to be in full functionality. Its size is no bigger than an MRI machine. However, you must research the Encoder yourself while I research the coordinates for the Rift Aperture System."

"I thought you would already know how to use it?" Ollie asked.

"Each biological species needs different encoding when dealing with Origin crystallization, the dust corruption you speak of. Therefore, getting the right process to eliminate encoding errors that allow the Origin to create its pathways must be researched by your researchers for homosapien biology."

"Cool, more research, fun," Ollie said, rolling his eyes.

"Your sentiment is understandable. The pursuit of knowledge through research is, understandably, 'fun'," Erin said.

Sarah sighed.

"What are those two jars of fire anyway?" Doctor Gray asked.

"They are a requirement for the construction of the Synthesis Facility. The woman of fire's remaining jars of fire will be forthcoming tomorrow morning at 9AM."

"Woman of fire...?" Doctor Gray asked.

"Don't ask," Ollie said.