Chapter 129: Everything Compressed
[Null POV] Year 5, Day 207 (Evening,Borderwatch)
Null listened to testimony from one of the attackers — now in clear mind, the brainwashing worn off enough for sanity and proper fear to return.
"A month ago, I got this idea that I needed to travel to Borderwatch. Had to be there in 30 days. Armed as well as possible."
The woman spoke carefully — a moneykin, former shop clerk who sold books. Not a warrior, never trained, hadn't held a weapon in her life before this. Just compelled to come.
"It all seemed so random at the time. No idea why it made so much sense. I just knew I needed to do it, had to do it, couldn't resist somehow."
She continued in full confession mode. "Used more than a week selling everything I owned of any value. Then took loans from everywhere I could find — anyone who'd lend on any terms. Pure desperate borrowing."
"Bought myself weapons with the money, and used some funds to take a short few-day course on how to use them. Crash training, basic instruction, the kind of amateur preparation that meant nothing in real combat."
"Took an airship to Borderwatch. Spent a few days just walking around the city — somehow certain that the rest would come to me when the time was right. Looking back it's insane, but at the time I was completely at peace with it."
Then came the turning point in her story. "And it did. One moment I had this knowledge that I needed to come to the gate behind your establishment, meet others of my kind. And when the bell rang... kill everyone who wasn't screaming about devils. The instruction landed inside me like it had always been there, like resisting it was something my mind couldn't even consider."
Null had listened to many more stories like this — more than twenty testimonies in total. All the attackers, once the brainwashing wore off and clarity returned, became very cooperative. Panicked, fully understanding the seriousness of what they'd done and what they'd nearly become.
More than twenty stories, all of them true as far as Null could verify through mind reading, life sense, and the genuine horror she could feel at the core of their terror and confusion.
All had the same pattern. Some point in the past month, sudden idea hit them: arm yourself, come to Borderwatch. Different timelines, different people from different walks of life — but identical compulsion, identical command, identical irresistible urge.
Once in Borderwatch, the second idea came: come to the establishment's front gate at a specific time. Exact coordination down to the moment.
And once they were gathered there at that specific time, the third command activated when the city bell rang. Kill everyone who doesn't scream about devils. Systematic coordinated slaughter, absolute in its programming.
The pattern was disturbingly clear by now. [As well as we can understand, all attackers came from Central. Someone had walked around there casting mind attacks at random — sending innocent people on this exact route, programming them into walking weapons aimed at us.]
The attackers themselves came from every corner of life — every possible background and skill level.
Some were professional warriors and trained adventurers, genuinely dangerous combatants.
But also people who'd never held weapons before — like this moneykin woman giving testimony. Just a merchant, a civilian, harmless under normal circumstances.
More than half of the people captured had done something similar to her — loaned like crazy to afford airship tickets across the Republic, armed themselves with borrowed money, bought weapons they didn't know how to use, prepared for a mission they didn't understand. All of them driven by the same compulsion, controlled and weaponized in the same way.
Now, even if they were cleared of legal culpability as brainwashing victims rather than criminals, they still had massive debt problems to sort out. Financial ruin waiting for them back home — loan sharks hunting, collectors coming, lives already destroyed by being used as someone else's weapons.
The bigger question hung over everyone. [And nobody knows what to do with these brainwashed attackers. It's been pushed around like a hot problem for hours. Master Void needs to decide once he's back. What happens to them? Where do they go? Who takes responsibility?]
They'd freed all the attackers from the mythril pipes that Cookie Fairy—or Sara as she was actually named—had bound them with. Released and unbound.
Then healed their wounds and restored their bodies through professional care — humanitarian treatment as standard procedure.
Now they just waited for their fate under guard, with their future uncertain in every direction.
Null stood and walked out of the warehouse being used to keep the attackers — a temporary prison and processing center improvised from whatever space had been available.
Null felt the anger rising. [Punishment needs to happen for this — for Lina, for Upsilon, for everyone we lost. But who deserves it? These people are victims themselves, used and controlled. Not their fault what they did.]
[They're as much victims as the ones they killed. Punishing them solves nothing and just creates more suffering on top of injustice already done.]
[But the one who did this — who cast those mind attacks, who weaponized these people and sent them here to kill — that one deserves the punishment. That one needs finding, and that one will pay when we eventually catch and identify them.]
Not far from the warehouse, in one of the gazebos scattered throughout their territory, Null found Bunny, Twins, and Lucifer.
The table was covered with metal plates — the same ones Lucifer used for drawing. Scientific diagrams of bunny ears spread across them, complete with directional markings, labeled pressure points, and documented technique variations. A comprehensive systematic study laid out like proper research.
Twins looked quite happy now. Very different from when Null had left them earlier to check the prisoners. Then they'd been a total wreck—crying, devastated, inconsolable over Master Ealdred's loss.
Now? They were excited and engaged, focused on something entirely different.
They explained immediately. "Big sis! We documented 31 ways to give ear massages!"
Pride radiated off them — accomplishment fresh, purpose found, the grief temporarily forgotten in the warmth of having done something together.
Bunny added with happy laughter. "It's been an interesting experiment. You have an interesting friend, Mistress. I think he just invented the science of ear massage — actual systematic study with documented methodology behind it."
Lucifer added modestly. "Twins had a lot of theories about optimal techniques and pressure points. It seemed like a sin not to document those properly — real understanding requires the systematic approach to back it up."
[Nice to see they had a good day. Twins look much better than before, the distraction worked exactly as hoped. Lucifer helped, Bunny enthusiastically embraced her test-subject role, everyone contributed in their way. Grief managed through documentation and shared purpose — the best outcome we could have asked for.]
Then Twins added more, excitement bubbling over. "Also, big sis! We get actual hot springs here soon! Lady 22's work is almost finished!"
Null felt confused. [Where does this come from? Just being announced now, out of nowhere?]
Lucifer added the explanation. "One of Ziggy's assistants — I know him from Central — visited us not long ago. He was quite surprised about our science of ear massage, very interested. But he also talked about checking 22's work on the hot spring project. They're surprised in a positive way — impressed and optimistic, even supportive."
[Ah. Ziggy. The gnome archmage who came from Central to study the attackers. All those mages left with 22 as soon as the attackers lost research value — once they came out of psychosis they became just victims, no longer worth studying. So 22 used the opportunity to get help with the hot spring project. Smart opportunism on her part.]
Lucifer continued, informative as always. "It seems 22 has a working solution. Bit unusual for local standards — she needed to reinvent some things from scratch. But it's functional and viable and actually achievable."
"Her biggest issue was always the energy needed to overpower the ley line. Union has the tools to make it happen. So if you're lucky, you might have hot springs in literal weeks — not years, not months, but weeks from now."
Null felt deeply surprised. [Solved like that? After years of trying and endless failures, after all that frustration — it's just done? Actual progress? Real hot springs incoming, actually happening at last?]
She opened seed connection to 22 with urgent directness. «Hot springs? Actually solved? Really?»
22 sent back immediately in full business mode. «700 million to 1 billion gold. Get those funds ready. The wealth Ealdred left under Twins' names — access it, prepare it, have it available when needed.»
Null felt confused. «What? That much? For what exactly?»
22 explained in her clinical technical voice. «My main problem was always the energy needed to commit the change into the ley line. I've been trying to optimize it every way possible, but always coming out several magnitudes short of what's required. An impossible gap with our local methods.»
She continued. «X hinted the Union had some methods, but he wasn't aware of the specifics or their actual capabilities. Ziggy here was much more informed. Union has a special airship that's basically built to generate single massive bursts of magical power — designed specifically for projects like this, the kind of ley line modifications and reality alterations that require massive energy.»
She broke down the costs. «That's their current estimate to get it here — magical fuel to trigger the change, transportation costs, and insurance covering scenarios where the first attempt fails or something goes wrong and we need a second try. Everything factored in.»
[Need to check what exactly was in those vaults Ealdred left to Twins — what wealth exists there and what we can actually access. Safer to use that wealth first than risk touching the dragon hoard. Less politically dangerous in every way.]
Null asked the important question. «New timeline? When does this happen?»
«Few weeks to verify all my plans for the insurance requirements,» 22 sent back in her organized systematic way. «After that depends on airship availability. But from what I understand, it stands idle most of the time in some Union base somewhere — just waiting for projects like this one. Should be easily accessible.»
«Will check the funds situation with Twins — need to verify what Ealdred actually left them and what we can use,» Null confirmed. «Will get back to you soon.»
Null wanted to ask about the funds immediately. About Ealdred's legacy. About what the Twins had access to.
But she hesitated. Twins were in a good mode right now — happy, engaged, focused on their science. Asking about Ealdred's assets could ruin that entirely, bring the grief crashing back, undo every bit of progress they'd made today.
But Twins got there first. Talking before Null could decide. "Lucifer's friend mage said the hot springs will be very expensive. So we checked the accounts and vaults. 1.9 billion gold in accounts. Plus more assets in the vaults if needed. Is that sufficient for hot springs, big sis?"
Null noticed how this statement about billions got both Bunny and Lucifer surprised. Well, it was an insane amount of gold — kingdom-buying wealth dropped into the conversation like it was no big deal.
That familiar thought processed through her again. The wealth inequality here was so extreme it bordered on systemic — a tiny handful owned vaults full of billions, while regular people structured entire lives around amounts that would round to zero at this level.
"It's more than sufficient," Null confirmed. "Thank you both for checking and being so prepared on this. Really appreciate it."
Lucifer was almost laughing. "I've seen rich people do some insane things with their money. But never heard anyone using that much just to take a swim. That's... that's new level of wealthy eccentricity. New category entirely."
Null tried to fix the misunderstanding. "Half of that should be enough. 22's estimate is intentionally high — conservative and padded with safety margins for worst-case scenarios."
Bunny laughed. "Then we have buffer for a second hot spring if needed!"
Null caught mind leaking from Bunny. [In case Mistress has her next crazy obsession idea — another fixation forming, more impossible demands arising at some point. Better to keep funds ready and stay prepared with options open.]
[Not wrong, actually. Fair and accurate prediction. Coca-cola happened, hot springs happened — something else will probably happen eventually. Having that buffer ready makes sense.]
Null opened connection back to 22. Quick update. «Twins have 1.9 billion ready to use. We're fine. Funds secured. Project approved.»
Then she closed the connection as she remembered something else — a different project with a different opportunity attached to Lucifer being here right now.
"Bunny, while Lucifer is here, perhaps you can organize a meeting with him and Tornin about food storage. They had a really impressive setup in Dragon Sanctuary — professional and efficient beyond what we have. Let's get something similar built here. We have an expert sitting right at our table; we should use the chance to learn from him and improve our systems."
Bunny nodded. "We can arrange it for tomorrow morning — everyone should be available by then, good timing for it."
After that, they chatted without clear purpose — all the business talks concluded, all decisions made and planning finished. Just relaxed social time now.
Twins presented their ear massage research results — showing plates, explaining findings, demonstrating techniques on Bunny who endured with professional patience and the occasional pleasure sound.
Lucifer talked about daemon meat pie — recipe, preparation, the cooking technique. Both Bunny and Twins were very interested. Food always got their attention in this household, the topic guaranteed to spark connection between everyone present.
So they packed things up to move inside to the kitchen — time to actually make the pie, test the recipe, enjoy the cooking together.
Then Null felt it through the bond. Master was almost back. In an airship moving closer to Borderwatch. Getting nearer. Coming home.
Soon everyone would be back — Master, Kira, Black Wings, every one of them who'd gone to Central and endured the chaos there. All coming home together.
Long day. Very long day. The attack had brought deaths and grief to Borderwatch, but Central had also delivered Master surviving an assassination attempt, Kira awakening her dragon, the hot springs suddenly solved, ear massage science invented, daemon meat pie planned. Everything from the impossible to the small all compressed into one overwhelming, exhausting stretch of hours.
But ending now — everything finally settling and resolving itself.
Master coming home with family reuniting. Safety and normalcy returning together.
Home. Finally. Soon.