Chapter 156 - 155 - Aftermath

Today's the 22nd of October, and there was just under a week left before the next set of exams. Oh, and as for the sequence of disasters that I inadvertently caused with my Tier One powers, nothing else happened after the incident at that base to the south. 

That didn't stop me from being extremely paranoid for the rest of the day though, and maybe for a couple of days after that too. At the start of each day, I set myself a Save point, but I haven't used Load at all since that day. 

And unless I have absolutely no choice, I'm not going to use it ever again. That day, hundreds of people ended up in vegetative states, including Andre, Instructor Satou and several others, all of them effectively dead. 

A fair number of X-Warriors were among those numbers, which only further weakened our already insufficient forces. And of course, those numbers don't include the few dozen people that were stationed at the south base. Director Silva was the only one who knew the cause of the sudden veggie outbreak, but naturally, she kept it to herself. 

After all, revealing the cause would do nothing be spread panic. Initially, a lot of people began speculating that this must be some kind of virus or disease, but after nothing happened in the following days, most people began losing interest. 

But plenty are still suspicious, and why wouldn't they be? There's the matter of every student in the current Level J class except for one ending up in vegetative states, it's something that's definitely not easy to ignore. 

Not to mention the Mutants that suddenly popped up from random teleportation platforms all over the Sanctuary...less than fifty Mutants made it in before Director Silva disabled the platforms, so it could have been a lot worse, but still, twenty people were killed and many others were permanently injured. 

So, yeah, things were pretty tense in the Sanctuary as of late, Director Silva and the other higher ups in the X-Warrior Zone were on the receiving end of immense criticism and backlash, which was starting to die down a bit over the last couple of days. 

There had also been some speculation over the cancelation of conducting the teamwork and combat exams outside of the Sanctuary, but it looks like things are going to go ahead as planned on that front. 

After the Disintegration Field was activated around all the remaining bases, there were a bunch of accidents and injuries caused by those barriers...Sofia then came up with an interesting idea for an additional barrier, which ended up being called the Dampening Field. 

Specifically, when walking through this barrier, it immediately negates any and all active XFE abilities...even my time freezing ability. And unlike the Disintegration Field, this barrier is easily visible, emanating an orangish-red hue. 

The Dampening Field has two modes; exterior and inclusive. With the exterior mode, it only nullifies XFE abilities when they pass through it, meaning that they can be activated again once the user is inside the barrier. But with the inclusive mode, the entire area inside the barrier dampens and nullifies XFE completely, so you can't use any powers until you're completely outside of the barrier. 

The only problem with the inclusive mode is that the barrier is much smaller in that state, since the dampening effect densely fills out the entire space within the barrier. Concurrently, the exterior mode can cover huge amounts of area, since the dampening effect is only on the barrier walls, it can be stretched out drastically. 

The inclusive mode, at best, can just about cover an average sized apartment building, while the exterior mode can cover the entire Sanctuary plus an additional radius of about five kilometers. 

Dampening Field barriers have been activated around the Sanctuary, as well as around all the bases. The Disintegration Field barriers are still active around the bases, and in fact, the Dampening Field serves as a sort of decoy. 

See, if an enemy sees the Dampening Field and get past it, they're probably not going to think that there's a second barrier inside it, making the Disintegration Field even more effective. Not to mention that the Dampening Field makes it harder to perceive the Disintegration Field. 

Also, there's an approximate eight meter gap between the two barriers, so those assigned to the bases simply have to stay about ten meters away from the Dampening Field and they'll be fine. After that was implemented, there were no more injuries. 

Oh, and if someone wants to enter the base from outside instead of teleporting in, they'll have to contact someone on the inside to open up a section of the Disintegration Field so that they can pass through. 

It's a pretty solid system, and since the Dampening Field can even deactivate my Pause ability, it's a pretty safe bet that Aku's invisibility and intangibility won't make it past that barrier either. 

And the inclusive mode of the Dampening Field is perfect for capturing enemies with troublesome abilities, their XFE flow will completely stagnate while within the barrier, set up a solid barrier around that, something like the Duel Field but stronger, and you've got yourself a pretty inescapable cage. 

And with the Dampening Field also around the Sanctuary, we don't have to worry about Aku infiltrating like before again. The moment he comes into contact with it, he'll be both visible and tangible, the cameras and sensors will react, and the combat androids will activate. 

Even if he manages to get past all that, he'll be trapped in the vacuum layer in the Sanctuary dome's exterior. 

Sure, all these measures might have been reactive instead of proactive, but even so, we now have a highly complex and tight security system in place for invaders. 

Oh, and the X-Warrior Zone has also begun a project to pave roads between all the outside bases and the underground bunkers, as well as searching for new water sources and whatnot...most such sources turned out be radioactive, but a few small underground springs were found that weren't tainted, so things were going well. 

It'll still be a while before the roads are complete and the new water sources are tapped, but when they are, they'll make a pretty big difference. To put it simply, we're expanding our territory bit by bit, and the more we do, the harder and harder it'll get for the Wights to attack us. 

And the Wights weren't the only threat that had been subdued. Thanks to the Disintegration Fields and the warding radiation emanating from the bases, for a radius of over a hundred and twenty-five kilometers from the Sanctuary, there were pretty much no Mutants to be found whatsoever. 

So, yeah, in the aftermath of me cleaning up after the mess I made with my haphazard time travelling, the result of the outcry was several improvements to security and defense, so all in all, things had ended well. At least, for me, anyway. 

The dead aren't going to ever come back to life, and those connected to them will suffer for it, latching onto false hope that someday, they'll snap out of their vegetative states and return to normal, but...that'll never happen. 

Well, anyway, it was currently around 6 PM on a Saturday, and a few minutes after I'd gotten home, following a four hour training session with Kiran and Bytra. Their stamina levels were improving, but it was clear that they were both still unable to keep up with me right throughout the session. 

Still, as much as I hate to admit it, we were working pretty well together as a unit at this point, the exam should go quite smoothly for the most part. Oh, and since there's no Mutants within a hundred and twenty-five kilometers of the Sanctuary, we'll be teleporting straight to one of the bases that was farthest from the Sanctuary, and head out from there before heading back. 

In other words, we'll be going out way further than we ever have before, though we'll probably come across a lot of the same types of Mutants, since their territories have been pushed back thanks to the warding radiation. 

I stretched my arms up with a stifled yawn, as I flopped onto my bed with a sigh...today's training was pretty intense, I still have some stamina left, but my body is quite worn out. After a couple more days of training, I think it'll be a good idea to rest for the remaining time...it'll be imperative that we're all in top form by the time the exam begins. 

As I stared up at the ceiling, I thought back to the time travel fiasco...specifically, after I went berserk when I thought that Suri had been killed. I can't remember exactly what happened, it was all a blur, but...I remember the feeling of absolute power coursing through me, and in that moment, I felt absolutely unstoppable. 

And the activation chant that triggered it...I can just about remember it, I also remember uttering a series of chants before that, though I can't remember exactly what they were...they weren't activation chants though. 

"What was that chant again...oh, that's right, <Unleash Anomaly: God of Space and Time>," I chanted, but naturally, nothing happened, before I scoffed to myself with a wry smile, "Yeah, figured it wouldn't be that easy...also, seriously, I know it's my own power and all, but still...what a pretentious activation chant..."

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