[297] 4.18 Annihilation
I want to breathe a sigh of relief that Chloe is here next to me, but I can’t; there’s no air in subspace. No air, no air pressure, no sights or sounds or anything to separate this patch of blue from all the others that stretch out to infinity. Just me, Chloe, and the endless void.
“Sera, what did you do? And where are we? What’s going on?”
“I wasn’t about to get us both killed in that blast. And I wasn’t going to leave you, either. I didn’t know how long that explosion was going to last and I still have a few hours left before my [Overlimit] cooldown wears off, so I did the only thing I thought was likely to save our lives and dragged us both into subspace.”
“This– This endless void? This is subspace?”
“Yes, and from what I understand, this place doesn’t necessarily correspond one-to-one with the principal layer of space, either, so if we move, we might end up thrown into outer space or into a volcano or swallowed up in goddesses only know where, so please, Chloe. Stay in my embrace, keep us healed, try to keep my [Ether] up, and we’ll ride this out up until the blast diffuses.”
“And how long will that take?”
“As long as it does. I’m hoping it doesn’t take more than half a minute or so; that’s about all the time I can keep us held in place like this. Maybe less.”
“And why does it hurt so much?” Chloe casts [Mass Cure] and begins stitching the wounds up just as quickly as they appear.
“We’re too physical. Too low-level. According to the vision I had last night, the higher leveled we get, the more we become magical, Ether flooding our bodies to a greater and greater extent. This removes us from the limitations of our human body and allows us to survive longer-term in this place.”
“So–”
“We survive. We focus on surviving, love, then once we get out of here, we start searching for evidence, use what allies we have, and bring whoever is behind this to whatever justice we can.”
Chloe pulls herself deeper into my embrace. Seconds tick by in absolute agony as this foreign world attempts to tear us both to shreds. Probably by level 100, we’ll be magical enough to withstand the hostile nature of this space without having our bodies rent asunder, but for now, all we can do is endure it. We have only each other and the dim hope that every second we last is that much more likely that we’ll emerge from this assassination attempt alive and in a position to do something about it.
I can hold us in subspace for no more than two minutes before my [Ether] reserves crater to zero and the two of us are forced back to conventional space. My whole body hurts like hell, the improved regeneration of [Valkyrion’s Body] doing next to nothing to help with all the pain I’m going through. Chloe’s got it even worse, her body completely tattered, lacerations and missing chunks of flesh all over her skin, especially her back and legs that were more exposed to the harsh environments of that strange realm.
But worst of all, we’re in the middle of an enormous crater, and both of us are tumbling fast. Chloe’s on the edge of unconsciousness from her own pain, probably going into shock as I frantically assess the situation. I’m not doing much better myself; I’m utterly exhausted and even [Defiant Spirit] is struggling to keep me from succumbing, given I have only a couple percent of my [Health] remaining.
But I’m not dead, and I have just enough wherewithal to remember that I do have one [Ether Canister] still stored away in my [Inventory], which I summon and quickly use. My [Ether] restored from the low double digits into the lower triple-digits, I’m able to sprout my wings, dive down, catch Chloe, and slow our descent with only a second or two to go before we would have landed with a splat.
I’m… I’m gonna take a nap here. A nice, long nap, hope nothing comes to check out this blast site soon, and… Yeah, sleeping next to Chloe sounds real nice right about now.
I wake to the scouring midday sun shining its oppressive rays upon me. [Vitality] buttresses me from sunburn, but it fails to grant complete immunity, and it only makes the heat more bearable, not anything resembling comfort. Fortunately, the former can be healed once Chloe wakes up, and the latter staved off with a nice cool bottle of water out of my [Inventory]. Adventurers tip: never leave home without a dozen or three stored away!
Chloe is still out like a light. In a fit of panic and fearing the worst, I check her vitals. Pulse steady, though a bit quickened. Breathing a bit shallow, forehead glistening. Early stages of heat exhaustion— goddess-damned Oklahoma summers— but nothing that can’t be treated with a little water for her as well. Down the hatch in tiny sips; the last thing I’d want to do is choke my girlfriend by giving her too much to drink at once before she wakes up.
“Are we alive?” she asks mentally as her body wakes up.
“Barely. Still in rough shape. How are your [Ether] reserves looking?”
Again I get a passionate kiss, this one infused with [Potent Cure], which smooths over all the scrapes and fractured bones and even manages to restore the blood that I had lost over the previous however long I was out. She casts the spell once more on me, then once more on herself, at which point, both of us are nearly fully restored, only a couple of bruises and surface scrapes left to heal on their own.
“Good enough for that much.” She takes my water bottle and downs it as fast as she can chug. “And thank you for that as well. We’ll call ourselves even.”
A coy wink follows; I’d love to have some fun, but now is hardly the time or the place. Not after someone or, more likely, a group of someones, decided to try to vaporize us and everything else for a mile around. Almost exactly a mile, and extremely precisely calibrated, to boot.
I fly up and Chloe follows.
From back near the surface level, I get a much better glimpse of my surroundings, confirming my earlier suspicions. This was some sort of very precise proximity bomb. Everything within the blast radius, vaporized. Anything even just a couple inches away, perfectly fine. The newly-exposed bedrock is perfectly smooth and glossy like so much glass, even without erosion needing to work its timewrought magic upon it. A bit higher up, dirt clumps occasionally break loose via the wind and the precarity of positioning, but the same principle still holds.
There are even trees still standing where half the trunk has been bisected lengthwise, buried roots leaking water and sap in tiny doses. No fire, no shockwave, no sign that anything outside of the annihilated area was adversely affected by the explosion in any capacity. Eerie, unnatural, and all but a confirmation that the device was Ethertech rather than conventional in nature.
Thinking upon it, I could think of more than a few ways to create such a weapon. My trusty [Repulsion] would be a good starting point. Introduce an [Expansion] glyph or two, shape it with the [Sphere] glyph, add in enough [Heat] to melt or even vaporize everything, and then add in a fuse and enough crystals to store the necessary Ether for a blast this size.
And that’s just the first thing that comes to mind; enough people thinking about it for even a couple of hours could come up with more elegant solutions. If they used a relatively common effector material like quartz, or better yet, diamond, yeah, that could definitely cause things to explode violently. I sigh. Nonproliferation was never going to work, but for it to come to this so soon?
“We need to find who’s responsible for this,” Chloe says. She grips my hand tightly. “This screams two things. First, that someone is trying to get rid of us. And second, that this was just a test.”
“I agree,” I say. “Someone was trying to kill us. If I were a betting girl, I’d guess the Legion. If they control the other Seraphina, they’d want to get rid of me. They have the means, I’d be a threat, and it would be a great demonstration of terroristic intent and willingness.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t say Nicholas.”
“I mean, I don’t like him and he doesn’t like me, but I don’t want his responsibility and I think he likes the fact that we do a lot of the heavy lifting for him. He’s… tolerable, at least on a professional basis, and–” I shrug. “I just don’t see what he gains out of trying to off us. Still, we will be paying him a visit.”
I cuss under my breath, not wanting to have this conversation, especially not after all the other shit I’ve had to deal with over the last forty-eight hours. I was supposed to be taking some time away, resting for at least a few weeks, laying low, mentally recovering after so many fights. But no, circumstances dictate, and so here I am, bracing for a war I’m not getting paid nearly enough to deal with.
“Is there anything else we need to do here before we leave?” Chloe asks.
“I can’t think of anything. And I don’t see any wraiths, zombies, specters, or residual undead around, either. We already got the core, and I’m sure that blast would have vaporized anything unlucky enough to have been inside when the blast hit.”
Chloe shakes her head and takes a deep breath. “Let’s head out, then.”
“Wait,” I say. “Let’s go by foot instead of by air. There is a chance that the Legion, or whoever else, is going to be watching this area. And there’s a small chance that going by land, underneath the tree cover, will obscure our movements.”
“But it’ll take longer,” Chloe says, bringing up the obvious counterpoint to my argument.
“It will, but I think that’s a good thing. I don’t think either of us is in the right state of mind for a conversation with Nicholas. I’ve got half a mind to strangle the stuffy bastard for not warning us of the potential for a trap; I’m sure he had his suspicions. And I can’t imagine you’re not at least half as angry about the whole thing as I am. Let’s just say that if there’s a couple of monsters along the road that try to interfere, I would welcome the catharsis.”
“C’mon, Seraphina,” Chloe says. “Let’s get going.”
Unfortunately, the path through the trees, tracing along the highway leading back home, proves to be remarkably devoid of any creature capable of providing a good fight, or any Experience points. Plenty of creatures who haven’t yet ascended, and more than a few who haven’t developed enough of a danger sense to recognize when they are so far beyond outclassed that it strains credulity. Nothing worth sullying Filia’s edge over. We just run past, either dodging their attacks or letting them bounce harmlessly against our armor.
We don’t really lose much time compared with flying overhead; what time we do lose is mostly due to following the indirect route of the highway versus the straight-line path back to base.
Unlike the last time, however, neither of us is in the mood to go through a bunch of useless layers of security theater that everyone and their monkey’s uncle knows don’t matter. A couple of guards— brave, devoted, and foolish in equal measure— do try to detain us for violations of security protocol. Try, and fail miserably.
“Just take us to the major,” Chloe says. “We’re really not in the mood for this whole song and dance.”
I don’t catch Chloe’s exact face, but I do see the sheer panic in the poor guard’s eyes in a rare breakdown of military discipline. He stammers for just a moment before regaining his composure, though the sweat on his neck and palms tells a different story.
“I– I will let him know right away, ma’ams.”