Chapter 115: Planning

FieryKathy

After thirty minutes we arrive at the walker. It has clearly seen better days. The engine is still smoking and parts are strewn across the road.

“Must’ve been quite the impact.” My sister whistles. 

“I don’t even remember it that much.” Ruva admits. 

Nikki looks over to Hilda and Ruva. “Are you sure you can fix this?”

“Well… I thought so but now that I look at it again…” Hilda rubs the back of her head. 

“Aren’t we all forgetting that Ami can repair things?” Sam interjects. 

“Oh!” I call out. “I definitely did.” I get my staff ready. “Mind it if I try.” 

“No, please, go ahead.” Hilda signs at the walker. 

“Wait, she can?” Ruva asks. 

“The heal she casted on you also can work as some sort of time reversal spell.” My sister explains. “As long as all the parts are present.”

“She doesn’t use it that much so we kinda forgot about it.” Nikki nods. 

“I’m interested to see it at work.” Ruva takes a notepad out of her bag as I ready my spell. 

Blue light starts to envelop the walker and not that long afterwards the metal parts that were bent are being bent back in shape. The debris around the walker also slowly starts flying back in place. It takes a minute or so before nothing else is changing anymore. 

“Wow.” Ruva calls out and walks over to inspect the walker. “That was really impressive.” 

“Did I fix it?” 

“Give me a moment.” Ruva walks around the walker. “There’s a couple of critical parts missing.” 

“Ah, shit.” My sister swings her fist. 

“But.” Ruva suddenly crawls underneath the walker. “Luckily for us these military things come with spare parts bolted underneath. Hilda, could you slide my wrench over to me? It’s in my backpack.” 

“Sure.” Hilda searches through Ruva’s pack and quickly finds what she was tasked to look for. “Here you go.” 

“Thanks.” A couple of seconds later, spare parts start being slid from underneath the walker. “I think these should do.” 

“I have two questions.” My sister raises her hand once Ruva crawls from underneath the vehicle. 

“Yes?” 

“First of all. If you are missing critical parts, how did you drive all the way here?” 

“It’s easier to keep the thing moving I guess.” Ruva shrugs. “The inertia probably kept it going.”

“Right…”

“And your second question?” 

“Wouldn’t it have been easier to put the spare parts on the side or in the back of the walker? You know, in a place that’s more accessible.” 

“That’s a good point.” Ruva says, while she and Hilda are already mounting the parts in place. “But it’s a lot harder to get shot off if it’s below the walker, you see.” 

“True…” My sister nods, satisfied with Ruva’s answers. 

“What about land mines?” Sam asks. 

“Hmmm.” Ruva stops in the middle of bolting down a strut. “I hadn’t even thought of that. I’ll discuss it with the engineering department once we come back… if there’s an engineering department to go back to once we arrive…” 

“It’ll be fine.” Hilda gives Ruva a pat on the shoulder once she gets her part in place. “We’ll go save your city.” 

“At least you’ve got the spirit.” Ruva’s smile crawls back on her face as she tightens the last bolt. “There, that should do it.” 

We all get on the vehicle with Hilda as the driver. Ruva takes the opportunity to rest a little. Meanwhile the rest of us try to formulate a plan to destroy the teleportation obelisk. 

“I’ll not be very useful here, since the only thing I have are my sword and shield. The new skills I got do allow me to pull the attention of and defend against a lot of people.” My sister says. 

“I think one of my new skills might come in handy.” Sam raises her hand. “Apart from some crazy AoE abilities I also got one that does a crazy amount of single target damage.” 

“And I can probably help with that.” Nikki nods. “I can buff her with my fire element and do some damage to it as well.” 

“What about you, Hilda?” My sister asks. 

“Hmm… large scale combat and destruction aren’t really my thing, however… I might think of something to throw at the stone as well. But my question is, what will our angel be doing?” 

“Me?” I point at myself. 

“Who else, kitten.” Hilda looks back and gives me a smile.

“I hadn’t really thought about it… can’t I just heal everyone.” 

“I don’t know if that’ll cut it. If we have to believe in what Ruva said, there are a lot of people. We could definitely use some divine help.” Lise looks at me. “If only we knew how to control it.”

I sigh. What she says is true, it would definitely help a lot.

“If it amplifies her feelings then I might have an idea but I’ll only do it if Ami agrees with it.” Hilda says, staring at the road in front. 

“What idea?” I ask. 

“Well… we could try to lure your other form out by means of meditation or just an intense form of focus.” 

“But that’s not how I transformed before.” 

“I know, but those transformations were caused because of the emotional state you were in, right?” 

“I think so…” 

“And both of those transformations were out of your control because of the sudden onslaught of emotions you got.” 

“Hmm. I think I see where you are going with this.” Nikki nods. 

“But nothing really tells us that we can’t imbue those emotions in a controlled manner, aka, by means of meditation.” 

“I see…” I look down at my lap. “Do you think I could then control myself better while I’m being transformed as well?” 

“It’s purely theoretical, but I think so. It’s a bit annoying that we haven’t tested this out yet in a non-serious context though…”

Sam starts rubbing my back to comfort me. “You don’t need to do anything if you don’t feel comfy. We will find a way anyway.” 

“No.” I shake my head. “I think this might be our best option…” -It would put my family in the least amount of danger possible… so I have to try…- 

By the evening I can tell we are getting closer and closer to the capital city. However, a strange feeling starts to develop in my stomach, something I can’t really place. When I put my hand on my belly to try to calm it down, my sister looks at me. 

“Are you feeling okay, Ami?” She asks. 

“I’m not sure. I’m feeling weird.” 

“Do you think it’s because of stress?” My girlfriend asks, laying her hand on my lap. 

“I don’t think so… stress feels different.” 

“Hmm…” Lise looks around into the forest. “I got this nagging feeling as well that I can’t really put my hands on. 

“I’m feeling it too.” Nikki nods. 

“What are you talking about?” Hilda looks back and stops the vehicle.

“I’m really not sure, Hilda.” My sister gets up and dismounts the walker from the back, stretching a little since we’d been driving for a while. “The air just feels… foul.” 

“Can you sense anything, Sam?” Hilda turns towards my girlfriend. 

Sam shakes her head. 

“And you, Ruva?” 

Ruva does the same. 

“It’s like there’s something wrong…” I say, also getting up from the walker.

Sam follows me and grabs my hand, her skin only shortly touches my wrist but immediately she pulls her hand back. “Holy shit, Ami. Your bracelet is bloody warm.” 

“Really? I don’t really feel it.” The bracelet is hanging around my wrist like normal, it doesn’t really feel any different. When I bring my other hand in to touch it, it feels slightly warmer than normal. 

“If a holy relic reacts like that…” Hilda swiftly jumps from the driver’s seat and walks over to me. “Can you concentrate on divine energy, Ami? Nikki, you could do so as well, right?”

“Yep.”  Nikki closes her eyes. 

“Sure…” I do the same and start concentrating. Within a couple of seconds I almost get smothered by this dark aura that’s around us. And I can tell that down the road it only gets worse. After a couple of seconds I can’t hold out any longer and drop out of my concentration. Breathing heavily as if I’d been without breath for a while. I can tell from Nikki’s face that she had a similar experience. 

“I’ve never felt this before.” Nikki crouches down for a bit. “It’s like the complete opposite of how it feels when I’m around Ami.”

“Could it be unholy energy?” Sam proposes. 

“I didn’t know such a thing existed. But I suppose it could be possible.” Hilda scratches her cheek. 

“I guess I can also sense it because I’m somewhat of a paladin now.” Lise walks over to me and puts her hand on my shoulder. “But why, in the name of the Goddess, would it be present here, in that quantity…” She stares down the road with a concerned look on her face. 

“We’ll find out soon.” Hilda grabs her gear from the walker and takes out pieces of beef jerky to hand out to the rest of us. “Let’s continue on foot from here.” 

FieryKathy