Arc 5 | Chapter 167: Burnt Black

⸂This is a terrible idea,⸃ Key grumbled as they circled the building Rin had pegged as a Clarity stronghold. In practice, that meant there was a collection of Clarity members who were part of the hive mind inside, some Risen Guard system function giving users the ability to judge how far gone people were into the heartcore’s manipulations. Apparently it was a difficult skill to use, and when Emilia sent a message to Boundary, inquiring about it, even he admitted that he generally avoided using it.

[

Boundary:

I suppose that’s why that girl was tapped for investigation.

]

Conrad had subsequently told her to stop distracting them from their fight, which hadn’t been going great. Emilia really wanted to ask what they planned on doing—if they intended to kill his sister and nephew or were just distracting them. Wasting time distracting them seemed like a bad move, but she wasn’t about to tell the man he needed to suck it up and kill his family, even if it was temporary and they both deserved it.

Another shot magic rounded the corner, seeking them out with enviable precision. Emilia’s energy splintered out of her, blocking this attack just as easily as it had the last. They had yet to see Livia—or confirm that she was alone, although no ally appeared on Emilia’s map, that she could tell, and the energy that wound its way through the attacks sent their way were definitely coming from a single, very pissed off person.

Emilia hadn’t even known until now that attacks could feel angry.

⸂She is persistent,⸃ Rin noted, as though she weren’t an incredibly persistent person herself. Even now, she was the one leading them in circles around this building, trying to attract the attention of the people within it with probes of her energy.

So far, no go.

“We could blow it up,” Emilia suggested. “Or, at least blow a hole in the side?”

It was too bad Conrad’s niece wasn’t a little less precise. It would have been helpful if she blasted the hole for them. Personally, she didn’t think Clarity would be too inclined to help them, if they were the ones to put a hole in their building. Now, if they were just innocent people, being chased by a big, bad visitor? An attack meant for them, just happening to harm their hideout instead?

Yeah, she wasn’t convinced that angle would work either.

As much as she’d been the one to suggest they try to convince Clarity to give her system access, Emilia was quickly coming to regret it. If they weren’t currently being attacked, maybe it would have worked. As it was, Livia was causing far too much chaos, and across her map, Emilia could see people rushing for the city centre, where—presumably—the elevators were located, a tall, unsurprisingly grey, tower extending towards the ceiling.

“Seriously, what are the stairwells for, if not emergency exits?” she muttered, surprised when someone who was neither Key nor Rin—nor even Boundary or one of the missing kids—answered.

⸂They are simply meant to be used by inner Clarity members, for easier movement between the city levels.⸃

Emilia tugged Key and Rin into an alleyway, eyes searching out the familiar voice, but unable to find its source. What she did find was Livia finally coming into view, looking just as dirty as she had the first time they’d met, in that cavern outside Livery.

Flames licked up her arms, the girl’s expression pure hatred as she stepped towards them. “You!” she snarled, the image she cut odd and mismatched. A dirty child, with the imperious, righteous anger of an adult who had grown up pampered, like they were entitled to all their superiority. A smile tugged at her lips, cruelty dripping through her voice as she reminded Emilia of her parting words that day, weeks ago now. “I told you, you should have let that bastard kill you.”

“Is he really a bastard, Livia?” Emilia asked, already preparing to defend them against the girl’s attacks again, all while wondering if she had imagined Phlostra’s voice—neither Rin nor Key had seemingly heard the woman’s explanation of the stairwells, although that wasn’t uncommon in this world of private conversations.

Livia’s eyes narrowed. “Did my uncle tell you my name?”

Cocking her head, Emilia gave the girl her most innocently questioning look. “No? Your mother called you by it when we met before, right before she smacked you across the face. I wonder, is that something she does just in raids? Or is she that much of an abusive bitch in the real world as well?”

Her energy exploded into a wall of pure defensive force as Livia’s flames barrelled towards them, lapping up the sides of the buildings. None of them caught fire, at the very least—Emilia really didn’t think anyone would be impressed if they burnt an entire city level to the ground. Actually, it felt like if they destroyed the level in an actual battle, that would be more acceptable than unintentional arson.

“I wonder…” Emilia called as they looped around the building, leading Livia through the streets with her voice. Shooing Rin and Key in the other direction, she continued spurring the other visitor on with her words, willing Livia to follow her and leave Key and Rin alone.

“What do you wonder, bitch?” Livia snarled, and thankfully, her voice did seem to be following her rather than the locals.

Heat sizzled up the street, flames of pink and black beginning to form over the grey road and forcing Emilia to scramble up a building, her energy defences more suited to brief, large-scale attacks, not ones that lingered.

“I was wondering if that’s why she doesn’t seem to care about that brother of yours? The one who’s actually a bastard? Your father’s I assume? Couldn’t keep his dick in his pants?”

“DO NOT TALK ABOUT MY FATHER!!” the girl screeched, and Emilia bailed over the opposite side of the building just in time to avoid a barrage of firebombs.

Lovely.

Honestly, Emilia felt a little bad about dragging up what were obviously painful topics with the girl—was she even a girl? She could easily have been an adult, someone just as old if not older than she herself was—someone who had also lived through the war and all the death and destruction of it.

Oh well. The girl had attacked her first—not to mention Key and Rin. At the very least, she had actually killed a few members of the girl’s family. Her friends had nothing to do with that, and attacking them simply for their association with her was patently unfair!

“No?” she called back, wishing there was some sort of equivalent to the voice throwing skills that existed in her world—a highly regulated skill that was largely used by actors and politicians and people who just needed to be heard. It would have been much easier attacking the girl if she wasn’t also being forced to use her voice to lead her around the city.

More flames shot towards her, ones more easily blocked by her energy. It was annoying that she couldn’t just turn and fight the girl—that her attack needed setup. Then again, the look on the girl’s face when she surged around the corner, the energy vibrating around her reminiscent of the flames her temper was calling out of the aethernet, was worth it.

A smile tugged at Emilia’s lips as she sent a {Blood Needle} flying, hoping it wouldn’t explode on contact with her flames—or, alternatively, that the girl’s flames wouldn’t enhance their weapon’s explosion. She, for one, wasn’t particularly inclined to be blown up by her own weapon, but the risk had been worth it, and thankfully, the {Blood Needle} slipped harmlessly through the girl’s flame, more and more sprouting up as she attempted to stop the weapon from colliding with her.

She didn’t know what it was, of course, but only an idiot wouldn’t pay any mind to something being thrown at them. That said, one member of their unit had been particularly bad about paying attention to, well, anything. How Trinity had managed to survive the war, she had no idea. The girl was so absentminded, always tripping and being hit by anything thrown her way. It wasn’t that anyone had worried she’d die on the front—not after she’d survived those first few battles, much to everyone’s surprise. Trinity had just been better—although still not great—about paying attention during a battle. It was outside them that she was a menace. If Emilia received a message telling her Trinity was dead because she’d accidentally walked off a cliff, fallen off a slide line, tripped down the stairs, she wouldn’t be surprised. Sad, but not surprised.

Trinity was the sort of person to watch a projectile coming her way, her head tilting to the side in absent thought, short black curls barely moving with her. Then she’d die, and no one would be surprised.

This girl wasn’t Trinity. This girl tried to stop the {Blood Needle} even as she was already bolting back the way she had come. It wouldn’t be any use. Emilia had picked this spot deliberately, and her needle simply collided with the wall of a building behind where Livia had just been standing, Emilia already hurling herself around the corner at the other end of the street.

The explosion rung through the air, flames and sparks smacking into the wall she had just been standing in front of—some of them even daring to reach for her. Having thrown a lot of energy into the {Blood Needle}, Emilia knew the explosion would be large—large enough to reach after Livia as well. Still, she was surprised when they actually touched her, pain lancing up her back when sparks from the explosion scattered over it, a burst of air sending her sprawling forward. Her {Blood Armour} largely protected her, but not completely, and she tugged off the sweater Boundary had lent her as it sizzled and burnt.

Bits of her back that weren’t covered by her {Blood Armour} ached, but it was nothing compared to so many other things she’d experienced in this world. Mostly, as she pushed herself back up, racing the way she’d come, she was just cold without a proper top. Did the city levels have climate control? If so, they kept their temperature way too low!

The Livia’s dot on her map was now black—the colour that she had presumed meant a dead body, back in the city Boundary had found her and the children—but she had to be sure the girl was dead, which, thankfully, she was, what remained of her a managed black body.

[

Emilia:

she’s dead

]

[

Emilia:

as far as i can tell, she was alone

]

It felt a bit wrong to tell Conrad she’d just—rather brutally—returned one of his nieces to the real world, not that the man seemed particularly attached to any of them. A part of her wondered if his brother—the good one, not the psychotic one she’d killed—had any kids. Would Conrad care just as little for them? Was his heart filled to the brim with love for his brother? A love that overflowed onto people who reminded him of that man and no one else? People like her?

Emilia hoped not—she hoped that Conrad was capable of loving other people, especially if they were important to his brother… and her.

Shaking herself and trying not to think about that too closely—it wasn’t like this was her first experience with that sort of stilted, conditional relationship—she raced back to where she’d left Key and Rin, their dots unmoving on her map.

“Key! Rin!” she called as she rounded the last corner, scanning the area for signs of anything—of anyone. Despite the fact that she was looking, so almost missed the person Key and Rin were staring at, their posture stiff in a way that wouldn’t help them if they had to fight or flee.

Emilia skidded to a halt between her friends and—

“Phlostra?” she asked, blinking at the woman and trying to ignore the way she didn’t show up on her map. She might have thought it was the building she was standing just inside the entrance of, except it was the one Rin had pegged as housing that group of Clarity members, and she could still see their dots inside, standing still—watching them? listening in?

The woman looked tired, her previous, softly kind demeanour gone as her PollyPollen eyes met Emilia’s. ⸂Hello,⸃ she sighed. Something—the hive mind—flashed in her eyes and the aether bubbled, and then it was gone. ⸂You should come in,⸃ she said, turning and vanishing inside the building, a trail of blood dripping from her hand and splattering over the ground as she moved. It vibrated and slid up through the air, following the woman so it could rejoin her.

The three of them glanced at each other, silently communicating their worries and the fact that they had no other options. Shrugging, Rin went first, following Phlostra—following a high-ranking Clarity member—into what might very well be their deaths.