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Chapter 237: All the Pieces, None in Place

  Hunter stood once more on the verge of the twisted Astral landscape that Daniel had now ventured into. Whatever he’d done had moved him deep inside the tangle, and now that he was closer to it than he’d come with Grave, there was a sense of profound danger from inside. He didn’t know why his friend had come here almost immediately after his return and only had the hope that there was something inside that could help. That there had been some kind of reaction with the remnant of their bond tying him to Daniel supported that theory.

  Unfortunately, Hunter had been unable to prolong the duration he could use his combination of Hunt and Freedom, or find ways to combine any others for that matter. Whereas the rest of the Astral was a changing landscape freshly renewed, both the space here and the creatures he saw moving in the distance felt old. This was not a place for him to grow stronger but to die if he was ever caught. If he hadn’t been able to escape Grave, or if the circumstances weren’t dire, he might have hesitated.

  He didn’t have the luxury to. Bounding forward, Hunter prepared himself for either true death or a chance at new life.

  …

  My tooth. My damn tooth? That was Daniel’s first thought as he shook himself out of his head, suddenly and immensely aware of the canine that had been replaced by Star. Fair was fair he didn’t see a way he could have lost it short of it being punched out, whereas he had been in a position before where his possessions had been stolen. Still, with the disconnect of the memories feeling like they came from a slightly different person, a Pavilion-Daniel so to say, it felt like a weird choice.

  Becoming aware of his surroundings once more, Daniel saw that Halloween had come to the tall staircase chamber and sighed in relief that his team had gotten here safely. At least one person was watching every entrance and Spinner had covered the walls in loose threads of silk. The drider was currently suspended upside-down on the bottom of the third floor walkway, in what was the center of the room. Every so often a purple flash would run from her, around the room and out the side, then return.

  His eyes caught the rift and brought him back to what was important. “Willow, is Hunter here?”

  The Spirit Master was standing next to the bottom rift, almost sandwiched between it and the injured wyvern. Tlara’s healing power had gone some ways to restore it, but the severed leg and latter half of the tail were still gone. It could stand using the tips of its wings and one leg. Running, though, was beyond it. Daniel reidentified everything in the room as a matter of course and was met with a surprise.

  Wisp - (Young Skyshock Wyvern - (3), Possessed)

  Come to think of it, the wyvern did seem like it was acting with more than blank obedience to Tlara’s wishes. It bared its teeth instinctually as he approached, but there was clear fear in the movement. “How?”

  “The Astral is extremely thin here,” Willow answered, choosing the wrong question first. “My bond with Tlara is increasing my sensitivity, but that’s only part of it. Whenever she summons a monster, I can invest it with one of my spirits as long as there’s not too much in the way.”

  “So that’s really…” Daniel frowned as he had a thought. “Does that stop you from using Wisp for your abilities?”

  “Yes, but they can use them in the body they inhabit. It’s like they’re giving Tlara’s monsters extra powers in addition to their intelligence.” Willow put a calming hand on the wyvern’s neck. “I want them to get some time outside the Spirit Vault, it’ll be good for them. The sparrow’s staying put for now.”

  “What about Hunter?”

  Willow continued rubbing the wyvern’s neck as she looked away. “I’m sorry, I lost him as soon as we came through. It looked like he was following,” she quickly assured. “We might have been teleported away from him when we got here.”

  “If he hasn’t found me in an hour we’re either too far away, or the Astral is too dangerous because of the corruption.” If it’s the first… how much food did we bring? “We need to clear more rifts then. Most of us go make areas safe, and then we scout around with you to see if we can find him.”

  He felt the concern coming before Willow opened her mouth. “Daniel, we need to talk. I convinced Tlara that I should be the one to have this conversation, but it’s not because I want you to ignore what I’m about to ask. How confident are you you can get us back out of here? We all saw what you used be destroyed, and we know from last time Soraso can’t contact us in here. Are we trapped again?”

  “No.” Daniel considered in hindsight if he was able to trigger his Spoke to produce mana if he wasn’t in proximity to the sky limit, but killed that worry before it leaked out. “I still have the dagger from that avianoid. What I did only works with stuff she makes, but I have what I need to open a way out of here. We just need to find Hunter first.”

  “Alright.” Willow didn’t seem entirely satisfied though, and she followed up with another potential problem. “I don’t think I can survive if she finds me, even if we leave Spinner and Wisp here. You saw how fast she was, and she tried to kill me after she went for you.”

  “If that happens, just teleport away and let us know. We can give you one of the sendings stones we got with the money from the first ruin run.”

  Willow glanced at the rift with a frown. “You mentioned that during the debriefing, but I don’t know how it works.”

  “Here, I need to check this anyway.” Daniel pulled his phone out of the shield-case, mentally noting that he’d need to find a way to add a touch screen to it, before pulling up his Arcadian notifications. That they were logged was a great relief as he was able to recall one of the ones he’d gotten for clearing the rifts they were at now, though he also took the chance to read the ones he’d gotten upon entering.

  Arcadian Administrative Alert

  >Teleportation gates at Cargo Elevator 4 have been activated. Further power consumption noted at the local node.

  >Processing…

  >Warning! Arcadian power supply critical. Rainbow drive inoperable, main power core offline.

  >Action successful.

  >Warning!: General alert in effect. Only qualified users are allowed access to the Arcadian’s teleportation network.

  >Warning!: Astral corruption has rendered multiple nodes inactive in the Arcadian teleportation network. Current nodes active: 4

  Arcadian Administrative Alert

  >Contact reestablished with acting administrator. Revoking clearance from qualified users designated under contingency protocol.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  >Processing…

  >Warning! Clearance successfully revoked. Unable to reallocate node access under acting administrator due to fundamental conflict. Subversive qualified users have been marked in system blacklist. Control of non-corrupted nodes outside administrative authority may be regained by removing the associated subversive qualified user. Teleportation to and from these active nodes is disabled until the corruption is fully cleansed.

  >Warning! General alert in effect. Only qualified users are allowed access to the Arcadian’s teleportation network.

  >Warning!: Astral corruption has rendered multiple nodes inactive in the Arcadian teleportation network. Current nodes active: 12

  Arcadian Security Alert

  >Warning! Several nodes have been detected with incomplete astral corruption purge. Immediate attention is required to prevent node relapse.

  >Closest affected node: Lower Armory. Estimated time to node relapse: 54 days, 27 minutes, 7 seconds.

  >Warning! Non-standard mapping feature detected on acting administrator. Arcadian attempting to resolve…

  >Processing…

  >Processing…

  >Warning! Action unsuccessful. Logging incident and querying acting administrator for authorization to expand parameters of non-standard resolution.

  >Action suspended pending administrative review.

  Arcadian Administrative Alert

  >Warning! Detection of non-standard power within the arcadian has triggered an attempted resolution. Automated protocols unable to reconcile.

  >As acting administrator, you can bypass standard restrictions on a case by case basis per general alert.

  >Logged qualified user: Acting Administrator - !?UNKNOWN?!

  >Logged non-standard feature: !?UNKNOWN?!

  >Action Required!: Allow expanded non-standard resolution process to continue?

  Yes / No

  Arcadian Security Alert

  >Warning! You have been exposed to an area of active astral corruption. Immediately make way to the nearest active node.

  >Nearest active node: Cargo Elevator 4

  >General security advisory: All personnel outside of safe zones contribute to field strength of nearby astral corruption. Qualified users significantly increase this response in accordance with their grade.

  >Warning! Non-standard mapping feature detected on qualified user. Arcadian attempting to resolve…

  >Processing…

  >Warning! Action unsuccessful. Administrative report already logged for indicated action and currently under review. Action suspended.

  That’s… a lot. Starting in reverse, it looked like Soraso had been partially correct about average party strength determining the danger around astral rifts. Rather, every Blessed near one would either spawn more projections or make them stronger at baseline. Daniel wasn’t sure which it was. They might even reach higher grades with more people active, and the mana bursts released by the rifts would become more dangerous.

  It did make a stronger case for attempting to clear rifts by himself, but it’d be foolish to leave behind people on his level due to the advantages they’d gain from teamwork. Tlara… she could be a problem. If her monsters didn’t count she’d be amazing, except she only has one good one left.

  The easiest thing to take care of was this non-standard resolution process tied to his Maps feature. It had already started giving him maps of the area, and it had triggered whenever it had tried to direct him to an astral rift. He could kind of tell where they were on the map already based on where the largest areas were, but directions wouldn’t hurt, especially with the biggest surprise he’d gotten: other people were here clearing rifts. What’s more, it sounded like they were still guarding them and preventing him from taking them back.

  Soraso, it has to be. Does he have black ops teams here clearing them after I showed I could permanently cap them? What the hell is his angle?

  “Daniel?” Willow asked softly as he continued to think.

  “We need to have a team meeting. Plan’s still to get Hunter back, but things have changed.”

  …

  Wingcraft, sans Khare, gathered under the spider’s web as Spinner provided overwatch. Daniel had already put his team on the teleportation ‘whitelist’ should the avianoid show her corrupted face here while their defenses were down, and the lectorum was far enough away that they could bounce between both rifts and remain safe. Whether the same could be said for who had cleared out the other 8 rifts was another matter.

  To that end, Daniel gave the team a brief rundown of his thoughts. “This is an opportunity. We can capture the rifts these people are holding, maybe even without a fight depending on who they are. With more rifts I’ll have an expanded map of the ruins, more points to teleport us to, and a wider net to find Hunter. Since it’s confirmed everyone we take increases difficulty, my suggestion is to leave Tlara, Willow, and Spinner behind while the rest of us head for this armory. Even if its corruption has been cleared, we’ve seen projections wander from the rifts that spawn them before. Better to reduce the chance of running into something that could alert the corrupted avianoid.”

  Sigron raised a hand, somewhat reluctantly pointed at Khiat’s head to expand on his point, and then indicated the nearby rift. He’d still yet to have made significant progress in restoring his speech, though the rare grunt from him was now occasional. Shuni, who was currently kneeling with an arm across one thigh with the other holding a dagger downwards like she was about to carve a heist plan into the floor, gave a negative, “Neh. If I’m hearing this right there are other Blessed here. Guessing Soraso sent a few through in secret because of how much scrutiny was on us. You? Us,” she decided after a moment. “Don’t think the Arcadian would have described them how you said if they got corrupted. Won’t have to worry about that.”

  “And if not, it’s more than likely I can take over the rift if I can touch it. I think they were only able to gain partial control because there was nothing else here the ruins detected as an ‘administrator’.”

  “K. So ignoring the fact that you’re holding us fucking hostage, that doesn’t sound as bad.” Tlara nodded toward Wisp’s current host and added, “Even gives Willow a chance to do… that in peace. What happens if that wind fuck sent level 5 Assassins in here and you get wiped?”

  “We’re all on the same side,” Khiat protested. “I’m not here to fight people either.”

  “Not like he could put too many high level Blessed in here to begin with,” Shuni added. “Assuming he’s keeping it secret, which is fair to assume. Knowing what he did about the ruins, I’d say it’s more likely he sent talented low levels through since they wouldn’t be missed.”

  “We won’t find out until we get to the armory.” Daniel lifted his shield, which was currently displaying a map of the ruins centered on him. A blinking yellow line was leading to and up the nearest staircase, and the way the light projected allowed everyone to see it. “It’s not that far but it is on the next level up and off what I have mapped. We’ll move slowly and carefully. By Quick Mind’s count there’s still ten hours to dawn, so we have time to get there before we’ll need to rest.”

  Shuni stood up and rolled her neck. “Sounds good. Guess now’s as good a time as any to heighten. I’ll miss the free mana but it beats fighting dozens of creepy statue things. And don’t worry, that corrupted avianoid comes after you again, I’ll have your back just like last time.” Her body shimmered for a moment as whatever she’d triggered caused a physical manifestation. The rest of the strike team, Sigron and Khiat, prepared as well while Daniel considered his options.

  Regeneration was and always would be the darling feature that got heightened whenever possible. The things that made it worse to have were so specific and rare that it made no sense to not empower. Otherwise, there were no others that were immediately helpful. Reaching level 2 relatively quickly had made most of his features automatically unlock their benefits from that level, and the few he had from level 1 were either economic or utility in nature. He would heighten Maps when they got close to the edge of what he had unlocked, just in case, but otherwise there was nothing that could compare to the value either Regeneration or his Focus Enhancement from Beast Mode could bring.

  Most of his time was thus spent double checking equipment. For his initial magazine he loaded splitting ammunition without a damage affix on the round, just in case. He had a far more limited supply of ‘blank’ bullets compared to those with elemental damage, but after encountering another monster with damage absorption he wanted to play it safe. Swapping magazines took seconds, especially as he didn’t load a round.

  The four departing gathered at the second floor entrance, purple flashing ahead of them as Spinner checked the main hallway. “Stay safe everyone!” Khiat called as she hefted her bow, looking out into the darkness beyond and seeing more than Daniel would without Night Eyes.

  “You too, Khiat.” Willow nodded from the staircase, Wisp close on her heels. “Don’t forget how strong you are. If they get close, fight. I believe in you.”

  “Thanks,” the dusker replied somewhat nervously. She still had a bad habit of freezing whenever engaged in melee, and he was surprised to find Willow had been helping with that.

  I should have been. I still haven’t done anything to improve my bond with Khare, but Hunter needs me more right now. I can help them both later. Orienting his arm so that the map displayed in front of him, Daniel nodded along with Willow’s words. “We all do. Alright everyone, let’s go bust into that armory.”

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