Chapter 131 - EVO

Chapter 131 - EVO

***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Astra***

Magnus bringing Isaac home involved a little drama, as my rather insensitive partner failed to prepare the boy for finding his mother in bed with her arm and neck wrapped in bandages.

Mom! Isaac ran up to the bed and took my good hand to place it on top of his head to hold it there while he began to cry. Mom is hurt!

I will be fine! I reassured the boy while ruffling his hair. The doctors said I just have to lie down for a while and everything will be better.

Then I looked at Magnus and raised an eyebrow. And what required you to visit the crib? Please tell me you didnt show up there covered in blood as you are now. No, why am I even asking? You did. Didnt I tell you to change before going there? Then a thought struck me. Or even worse. You got yourself cleaned up and that blood is from the crib?

Hey, they told us it is important so I rushed there right after we received their request. Magnus shrugged and grinned while he leaned against the door frame. And nothing dramatic happened. Just a little disagreement between Isaac and another boy. And Isaac won! I am very proud of him.

Right, who cared about a little bit of blood when talking to civilians who likely never left Mount Aeries living caverns in their entire lives? There werent many such people, but if they were to be found anywhere, then they would be crib workers.

I massaged my forehead. Normally, I should argue to make him see reason. Magnus was presenting the Frosts out there. But right now I simply couldnt summon the energy.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience

Isaac nodded. Andreas was mean, so I shocked him till-

Till he got the message, Magnus finished quickly for Isaac and petted him on the head reassuringly. Remember what we talked about, Isaac? You did exactly the right thing in this particular situation, but going any further on the first offence would have been bad.

I wanted to sit up and give those two a proper lecture. It was clear something inappropriate was going on, but a lance of pain went through my torso when I tried, so I relaxed back into the bed. Magnus, I told you not to make the whole affair any bigger! Have you threatened the staff? What about the other boy? I hope he wasnt injured! Isaac, you didnt hurt another child, did you?

Magnus gestured for me to calm down. I havent threatened anyone. Honestly, your imagination is just wild, Astra. Trust your two boys a little bit more. I went there, allowed them to explain the situation, and concluded it to be a stupid fight between children combined with an inattentive caretaker who should have stopped the entire incident before things became violent. I was extraordinarily nice! Isaac is my witness.

Isaac nodded. Dad didnt scream once, even though the caretaker and the other parents screamed at me. Dad was very calm with them.

I coughed and groaned. Why do I get the feeling the next time I show up at the crib I am going to have to listen to a complaint?

A womans intuition? Magnus answered unhelpfully in a questioning tone. And maybe because they think you are the nicer one between the two of us? No, seriously, I can give you the details later, but I think I was very lenient with them. You can tell them if they have complaints, they can take it up with me.

That was exactly what I was afraid of.

Right now I want nothing more than sleep, I said, unable to muster any interest in dealing with the problem. And maybe you could go and talk with my parents? Tell them everything is fine.

Magnus gave me a thumbs-up. Ill tell them your best wishes and fill out those reports the military likes so much.

Mmh I hummed and closed my eyes, allowing my tiredness to take me to the land of dreams.

And thats how I found myself sitting behind a desk while the entity continued her physics lectures as if nothing happened. How foolish of me to believe to ever get some true downtime. How my mind could keep functioning without going crazy was a mystery to me.

I sighed and told myself to get my act together before I narrowed my eyes at Gaias back, wishing to be able to drill two holes into it with the power of my mind alone.

Gaia stood in front of a chalkboard and was scribbling a set of formulas which explained the warping of space around a black hole. An exercise which, if duplicated properly, should allow Magnus and me not only to teleport and move at extraordinary speeds, but also affect gravity around us to a certain degree.

After all, gravity was an effect of spacial distortions, normally caused by mass.

Right now it was unclear how we could use this in combat since causing a significant gravity distortion would require a lot of power, but all of Gaias teachings turned out to be useful in one way or another.

When it became increasingly obvious that Gaia had no intention of broaching the matter of a sub-identity taking over my physical body, I cleared my throat.

Gaia stopped chalking away at her board and turned to face me with a smile on her lips. Is there anything you havent understood? Maybe we should revisit the reason why certain speedsters can seemingly circumvent the laws of physics. And why you can bypass gaseous mass, but solids prove an obstacle?

I ignored the jab at my failure to exploit the opponents weakness. A weakness I should have been very aware of since I shared it.

So you know what happened? I narrowed my eyes even further, glaring at her. I thought your interactions with the physical world are very limited. Has something changed?

Only as long as you dont enter the dream, my dear, Gaia replied without a shred of shame. In here, you are like an open book to me. If you had paid as much attention as Magnus, maybe you could have avoided being turned into shish-kebab.

I guess I will accept this for now, I answered hesitatingly. So, what exercises do you believe would be effective for training these sub-personalities?

***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Magnus***

It took me little time to wash myself and clean my equipment before I went to report on the outcome of the mission. Abusing a blood-covered getup to intimidate a few civilians was one thing, but I didnt want to show up like a barbarian fresh from the frontline in front of the elders. Thankfully, maintaining iobeetle armour wasnt as annoying as preventing rust on medieval steel armour. Hosing my armour down with water and soap was more than enough.

Since it was on the way, Gilbert was my first stop.

As expected, I found the forge master and his crew tinkering with the wormgate. It was currently our most valuable strategic asset, so maintaining and perfecting it was of the highest priority.

Magnus! Gilbert greeted me right away when I stepped through the gate and found myself in one of the flagships secure hangar bays. Feels like you have been hiding from me recently. I bet you only show your face because you have ruined another armour.

I grinned back at the elder. I am proud to report that your latest masterpiece is still intact. Instead, I have a present for you this time. Though, I dont know its value.

Wrapped in a blanket, I handed Gilbert the two strange rapiers and one of the axes we had looted from the Thich raiders. I was keeping the other axe for myself because the weapons had shown great durability. Astra had shown no interest in the rapiers after she had already abandoned the weapon category altogether.

To top it off, I added a stack of papers. They were a set of Gaias transcribed lessons on wormhole theory. It wasnt anything revolutionary, but the knowledge should be condensed enough to allow Gilbert to optimize his machine. The elder was a magician with machines and he was rapidly developing into our top expert on adapting creature cores, but he was no wormhole specialist.

Ooh, steelbone weapons, and big ones, Gilbert took out one of the rapiers and flexed it appreciatively. Those are rare. Whoever you took them from must have been a big shot. And the papers, wormhole theory?

You know of the material? I asked and nodded. Yeah, Ive been researching all the wormhole theory I could get my hands on lately. This is a condensed theory guide on optimizing steps for the wormgate. Hope it helps, though I wash my hands in innocence when it comes to the hands-on stuff.

Oh, I will be sure to read it. Gilbert nodded and raised the rapier. The Thich have an animal similar to the iobeetle in their region, but its very rare and only the bones are useful. The creatures bones are usually no larger than a human thigh bone. Its very unusual to see weapons this big. Normally, the bones are just big enough for knives, spearheads, arrowheads small things. Never seen them make armour out of it.

So you can make use of the materials? I asked.

Gilbert shrugged. To be honest, repurposing these beauties would feel like sacrilege when I can use normal steel or iobeetle shells for the same purpose. These things are a statement of wealth.

I nodded in understanding. Well, just add them to your weapon collection then. Its not like you havent given us more than enough for free.

What is this!? He suddenly pulled out my short sword which I had tugged beneath all the other weapons, hoping it would go unnoticed till I was out of there.

The weapon was still roughly sword-shaped, but using it as a projectile for my latest artillery skill hadnt done it any favours. One side was intact, but the other was patterned after the rocky underground it had hit. As if it had been cold-forged, the previously diamond-shaped cross-section was now more crescent-shaped. This made the weapon awkward to handle and essentially useless for a serious fight.

I scratched the back of my head and patted the axe at my side. Aw, dont worry about a replacement. I have found a liking for this axe hammer as an off-hand weapon.

Gilbert snorted. Well, the speed at which you have been going through my swords, an axe or a hammer might indeed be the better choice for you. In other words, that looted axe seems perfect. Just tell me what you did to this sword.

Threw it at the enemy, I replied. He dodged, but the ricocheting debris took him out.

It was a gross simplification, but I didnt have the time to reiterate the whole fight. The central command was assuredly already waiting for a report.

Gilbert only raised a doubtful eyebrow but didnt ask any more questions. If thats the case, then I suggest not repeating the feat with your new axe. Its more durable than steel, but I expect it would break just the same if you do whatever you did to the sword. Steelbone is harder and more durable than steel, but it is also comparably brittle. You would likely end up with a pile of shards.

Noted, I assured him I would find a better projectile next time and excused myself.

The next stop was filling out the mission documentation in duplicate for Astra and visiting the command centre where I found Matriarch Vanya and Skye Rumen studying a table with morose expressions. Gunnar was also there, wearing a sour expression while a diminutive creature hid behind his legs, Chitters if I remembered correctly.

Magnus reports back with a successful mission, I stated cheerfully and slapped the mission report onto the table. Am I qualified to learn the reason for all the sour expressions?

Vanya threw up her hands. Someone infiltrated our flagships holding cells and killed all the high-profile prisoners we captured at the battle for Jengs Mother Tree! All that intelligence about Thichs forces and their fortress city just gone!

We believe it was the spy who Chitters and I are searching for, Gunnar added. We know of nobody else who would have the skill to walk into a high-security prison and kill twenty-four people without leaving a trace.

Uuh, I pursed my lips. Sounds like that spy just jumped to the enemy of the state number one. And good that Astra and I just caught ourselves another high-priority prisoner. I brandished the, as I just learned, precious axe. He had two of those and Gilbert said only people with lots of funds can ever hope to get their hands on one, let alone two.

Vanya looked at me, blinking at the axe before a Cheshire smile stole itself onto her face. I suppose you arent up to play bait for us?

I stopped brandishing my new axe. My premonition tingled ominously at whatever plan was just spawned inside the Matriarchs brain. Bait?