“I think that crazy girl did it,” the vyssari woman says once again.
Despite having been so quiet up to this point, she now stands tall and points at Tacita nearby, who just lifts her eyebrow with a curious look.
“Io, I also think it was her. You saw what she did to me when I just touched her,” the gray, lanky man says, joining the vyssari in blaming the mute girl.
Before Io reacts to that, Malika joins as well with a smile that shows she doesn’t give a shit about Barion’s death, along with just how much she’s enjoying the chaos and dangerous situation.
“I agree as well, it’s probably her, we should kill her,” she says. “Right, Nathaniel? But if you say no, I’ll be on your side. The deal I offered, maybe we can expand that to the three of us, we can still get rid of the others, it still stands.”
Demons really do act like little kids sometimes.
Finally, Io gets his words in. “We can’t be sure who did it. Any of you could’ve been the one to do this, and if you look at it from your point of view, it could also be me. Lastly, there’s still the option that the Last Elf did it, or that some of his gilded beings have managed to hide from us.”
Meanwhile, Tacita doesn’t seem to mind it at all. She is confident as always and looks around in a way a cat would at a bunch of mice grouping up to fight her.
That and Io’s words seem to disappoint the gray, lanky man, and he looks at Tacita with anger.
“I know it was you, and I will get you sooner or later,” he says through his teeth.
Tacita meets his eyes and then smiles in that almost innocent-looking way only she can pull off.
She takes a step forward and disappears as her body fades into barely more than a blur. The next moment, she stands in front of the lanky man, and her dagger moves in a swishing motion to stab through his heart.
Before she completes her movement, she vanishes, teleported away by Io, who starts sweating profusely and staring wide-eyed as he does his best to react to the incredibly fast movement.
For a moment, Tacita stands where he teleported her, her face toward one of the walls, and her back to us.
Slowly, she turns her head around and locks eyes with Io.
I count one second as she makes her decision. Then her dagger flashes, and she moves.
She reaches the thylarin in a blink, and her dagger stabs its tip into Io’s chest right over his heart. But before it can pierce deeper, Tacita disappears, despite her field being modified to counter Io.
This time, he teleports her to the opposite side of the huge room, but Tacita quickly regains her bearings, reorients herself, and moves again, almost reaching Io before he teleports her again.
After that, she moves again, crossing the massive room even faster than before. She is almost on him before he can reactivate his skill, and her blade draws blood from his neck.
I know it’s only a question of time before she kills him, assuming he doesn't chuck her into outer space or tries something else, but he seems to be avoiding that for some reason.
Maybe it is because he needs her, or because he knows I would step in if he did. That would likely pull Malika in too, turning this into an even bigger mess.
Tacita is just too dangerous in this kind of combat, and Io will either run out of mana first or lose focus before she gets tired.
But that’s also when Malika moves into Tacita’s way, while as always having that demonic expression. She probably doesn’t even care about protecting Io, she simply can’t resist joining the fight taking place in front of her.
Tacita moves around the demon with ease and fully avoids her even as Malika tries to slow her down and use the same skill she used on me. Tacita even stabs Malika in the side twice as she passes by.
Thanks to the slowdown, she doesn’t reach Io and gets teleported toward one of the walls.
The gray man, who disappeared when the fight started, reaches out from one of the shadows, and the shadow itself creates dozens of ropes that reach out for the mute girl.
I slide deeper into [Focus] and watch as Tacita slows down, steadies her body, and breathes out. Her hand turns into a blur, and the dozens of shadowy ropes find themselves being cut short by the blue glow of mana shining around her dagger.
She dances around and avoids the lightning projectiles the vyssari sends her way as she joins the fight in turn.
The lightning projectiles crash into the wall and erupt into dozens of smaller bolts, scattering in every direction. But none of them touch Tacita. She weaves through the chaos with impossible grace, slipping between crackling arcs of energy that tear through the air around her. Each bolt lights up her figure for a split second, casting flickering shadows as she dances just out of reach.
The vyssari lifts her hand, and a ring of crackling lightning coils around her finger. In an instant, she creates dozens more lightning projectiles, each one sparking to life in the air around her.
But even then, it’s nowhere near close.
A second dagger appears in Tacita’s other hand. With which, she deflects the incoming projectiles in fluid motion. Then, without hesitation, she throws the blade forward with blinding speed.
The dagger slices through the air, pierces the barrier the vyssari creates, and buries itself in the vyssari’s arm. The strike comes within inches of her neck, just barely avoided at the last moment.
Malika, even though wounded, tries to use the opportunity in a perfect show of timing. Tacita just dealt with a mass of shadowy things, is wary of the gray man, and her body is slightly in the air from avoiding the lightning projectiles.
Even then, like an acrobat, Tacita twists in the air, evades Malika’s incoming strike, and her field flickers to counter whatever the hell Malika might be doing. Tacita’s dagger heads to stab itself through Malika’s eye and into her brain, but she is teleported again.
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Reappearing again, she lands softly on the ground. Her feet touch down with barely a sound as she rises smoothly, already preparing to strike again.
“I mean, shouldn’t we stop for now?” I use the brief pause to say.
When the pause increases and no one moves to attack again, I add, “I mean, it’s fun to watch, but I think someone is going to die if it continues.”
"Then why won't you help us? Are you with her? Did you kill Barion?" the vyssari growls, her voice strained as she yanks the dagger from her arm, blood running down her fingers.
Even then, I see poison beginning to spread as she uses her lightning to burn the flesh around the wound. Behind her is a circle of lightning, spinning rapidly, ready to fuel and create more high-speed projectiles, and the lightning ring around her finger crackles dangerously.
“Wouldn’t you guys already be fucked if I was the one who killed Barion and decided to join her to deal with you?”
“Probably, but wouldn’t it make for a beautiful fight?” Malika says first. She doesn’t seem to mind her two bleeding wounds at all.
“This is the most dysfunctional group I have ever been part of, by far,” Io says, seeing that Tacita doesn’t rush his way to cut off his head. He wipes the sweat from his forehead and touches the scratch and blood on his neck. “Not only did I get stuck here with a demon, which is bad by itself, but there’s this girl who only communicates through whatever weird drawings she makes and does everything she can to stab everyone through the neck.”
“At least you have me,” I say.
"You are as bad as any of them. What are you, some kind of half-demon or something?" Io asks, regaining his composure. "So far, I've held back because I want this group to stay together. But if anyone tries to kill anyone else again, I will not just teleport you across the room, I will shunt you into outer space."
“Can’t you teleport people inside the walls? You know, to squish them inside and stuff? Or just teleport half of them? Maybe just a brain?” I can’t help but ask.
He just glances my way before heading towards the vyssari and gray man, possibly to scold them. He doesn't even attempt to do the same with Malika, and I'm not that surprised.
With the situation solved, I glance towards the boxes where Barion's body has been left and head towards one of the panels in the wall. It’s open and shows that the man was working on it before he got killed.
I barely knew him, but even then, I feel a bit of something that I identify as regret for not being able to get to know him better. I rarely get that feeling, but he just seemed like someone I could’ve gotten along with. A man who stayed in his lane, working on his own things, and exploring the things he got excited about.
The best I can do is to kill the one who did it.
I form a few Ley Lines to connect to the panel. Before, I would’ve done it differently, but after seeing Barion and his wires, I found that creating a direct connection helps a lot, especially if you place them in the right places. It’s possible to get through without it, either by direct thought or "wirelessly", but with more delicate or difficult locks, it can have its advantages. Also, [Manifestation] has made materializing them easier.
That skill just keeps on giving. It also worked really well back then when I released my mana to pressure Malika. And that's only the start. It is just unfortunate that I can’t use it with [Empyrean Lance] yet because of my limited understanding of that skill. But once I do... maybe I’ll finally be able to create multiple projectiles, and not just a single lance.
Thinking of that, I also continue to work on the panel, and as I work on that, I notice a movement nearby, and Tacita sits on one of the boxes by my side and faces towards the others.
"Are you guarding me?"
She nods.
"I’ll cover your back as well."
Another nod.
No more is needed to be said, and the panel and lines it is connected to require more of my attention. One of them is seemingly connected to one of the working tables in the corner and has something that I figure must be something akin to records. They likely belong to the replica of Last Elf, but I’m suspicious now.
Why would he keep records? For a being like him, I would’ve expected him to be able to keep them all in his mind. Maybe to share them with the other replicas? But wouldn't that mean he had something like a web for communication? Even our group has something like that. Or maybe they’re records left over from a time when he was much lower level and couldn't pull that off? Limited by his brain capacity, he kept them either as reminders or as something to share with the other low level replicas?
That part of the evil base system feels fairly old and rough, so I wouldn't be surprised.
But there is also always a chance they were left there on purpose. My paranoid mind just keeps thinking it might be that.
Even so, I sacrifice a bit of my time to pull them out. Because of the encryption, I don't get them fully. And as I do so, some of the information gets deleted by the safety protocols.
[Log 018.1_Core_Response_Log_A]
...held past projection. The gilded subject remained functional beyond the expected threshold. No instability recorded across the first three phases. Local containment adjusted 0.2.
[Log 019.0_Command_Override_Trace]
Command received via encrypted channel. Source authentication: inconclusive. Mission parameters updated. Priority shift from long-term analysis to asset collection. Before leaving, some leveling will be required to unlock more memories and to allow creation of blueprints... Destination classified: E-3.
[Log 019.6_Vector_Adjustment_Calc.v2]
Base trajectory modified. Current orbit decoupling in progress. Slingshot path through [REDACTED] system estimated to reduce travel time to E-3 by 17.03%. Estimated arrival window: 221.6 years at current mana draw efficiency.
[Log 036.7_Reactor_Load_Distribution]
...18% of reserve diverted to long-range vector core. Field distortion detected across Deck 4. No feedback loop triggered. Structural risk…
[Log 090.1_E3_SurfaceScan_001]
Initial survey complete. The planetary surface shows signs of catastrophic ignition. Origin unclear so far. Burnout likely occurred post [REDACTED] tutorial closure…
[Log 091.2_Mana_Reserve_Audit]
… reserves at 23.4%. Compression rates within acceptable limits. Spike in core temperature during artificial gravity realignment logged but dismissed. Continue monitoring for anomalous fluctuations every 2.4 cycles.
[Log 0105.6_Contact_Trace]
... a conclusion has been reached. [attendee] returned to E-3. The subject carried a Fragment of...
Then there is a huge number of logs missing, and the last sentence I managed to get out of it.
...blueprint for Low Pristine item modified. Containment pathways integrated into the revised design. Preparation sequence initiated. Resource gathering restructured at 94%.
With that, I open up my bag and look at the cage I threw in there.
Just what the hell are you for?