I ignore the calls coming in. Healer is.... a little pissed off at the moment. Incoherent swears is not what I'd like to hear at the moment. I only told her I'd being on a long journey, not that I'd be...well challenging the second nightmare. Now Valor is also banging on her doors. So she definitely isn't too happy. The only reason it isn't worse is because she's by all means completely independent, the fire keepers are just hiring her. I'm glad I didn't tell her where I live. I should do something to distract myself..... teacher, I'll talk with teacher.
I knock on the door
"Come in"
I peak in
"Hey....?"
His head slowly turns to me
"■■■■ my student what possessed you to take on the second nightmare without telling me?"
I walk in quite sheepish looking down
"Sorry teacher...."
He sighs heavily
"You didn't even come to me with the report, only he went"
I mean i knew he wouldn't be happy but... I didn't want teacher to worry while I was the nightmare.
"I'm sorry"
He sighs waving his hand then he gets a mischievous grin
"Well there's better be some information that was not added to the report."
I sit with him
"You see each chain lord seemed to be connected with one of the gods. Here's the thing there was 7 chain lords."
He nods
"I read there was 7 but them being connected to one of the gods each was not there. Although i can see that but which God does that last one represent?"
I shrug
"I don't know. Clearly there is a connection to sun god as the chain lord representing sun god is brothers with the one who can not be connected with any gods."
He taps his fingers on his desk
"It is quite odd isn't it. 7 chain lords each a god. 6 gods, that is odd isn't it"
I leave the building walking to the entrance of the academy. It still feels weird to see the candles, I think it always will. Seeing someone I knew... maybe not the best but i still knew, being treated like a living legend. I frankly don't know what to thi- i feel two hands grab my shoulders
"■■■■" I slowly turn around
"Hey healer my friend, my pal, my buddy"
She has a very angry looking smile, I'm boned.
"So. When where you going to tell me"
"I forgot....?"
I walk into the house flopping down on the couch. I may be a master now but healer can be really scary when she wants to be. I pull up my communicator, time to figure out how to make a super cool ice gun. This is going to take a while. I think probably, well now that I'm, mostly, done with making a cool, heh, ice PTV I can start this new project.
As I sit on the couch reading the child steps inside. I lean my head back looking at her
"Hey. So now that we are back i could speak to kai about teaching you archery"
She stops
"I uh.... thank you...?"
I shrug
"I intend to learn the basics, so might as well add you in"
I go back to researching guns.
"Well okay"
She slides away then runs over to sunny. Wonder if she still has that sword. Damnation why does everything cool have to be so complicated?
I raise my bow when I shoot it thunks into the wall nowhere near the target
"Hm."
I hear snickering, when I shoot a glare at the child she turns her head away.
"What. I've never used a bow before"
Kai walks over
"No no, your doing quite well for a newbie"
I sigh
"This is really annoying"
The child snickers again
"maybe you're just not that good at it"
I glare at her. She lifts the bow and hits the target, not in the middle but she hits it. Then she gives me a smug look. Kai sighs and she jumps a little, she seemed to have forgotten who he was for a bit.
I walk over to sunny, he's in the training room training with saint. He's resting rolling his, probably bruised, shoulder. I hand him a bottle of water.
"Soooo"
He slowly turns his head towards me annoyed
"What I'm going to get back to training soon."
I glance at his echo, or is it shadow?
"So uh.... mind if I train with you. I'd like to get better at using a sword."
He blinks a few times then he grins, its a grin oh dear I may have messed up
"Go ahead"
I roll on the ground hitting a wall
"Ow...."
I slowly stand up
"Ow...."
Sunny laughs eating a snack pack
"God damn sunny you did this to train?"
I look at saint who's looking back without much of a care.
"Hah! Yeah I did. Oh that and hunted nightmare creatures every night" I slowly get up
"Ahhhh...."
My body hurts to hell and back. I pick up my sword
"Well let's go again then"
I'm in the middle of trying to make a basic gun part when effie bursts in
"Yo!"
I jump a little breaking the complex gun part i was trying to make.
"Dork, I got food"
I look at the broken gun part
"Knock next time would ypu"
She walks over
"Oh what are you making now?"
I wave her off
"A gun of course"
She starts laughing
"Really? First a PTV and now a gun? How creative"
I glare at her
"What and using a spear is?"
Me and effie eat. Sunny is out doing something or the other, I forgot what it is. I think it might be setting up a job at the academy. That seems cool enough to do, and it gives money so I get it.
"So maybe you could teach me to use the spear. I doubt it will take long as a halberd isn't that different"
She looks up from her fast food
"sure dork but you'll have to clean up all my mess"
I glare at her
"I already do that."
She looks away in embarrassed
"Yeah i guess so...."
I get a call from master J weird. Oh, she's the type to text so it has to be important so after letting it ring for a little i answer
"Good you answered. Hey mind helping me with something. You'll get paided"
I think for a minute
"What is it?"
She seems just as laid back as ever so probably nothing big
"A nightmare creature had lava powers and someone has to cool it down."
Sounds... fine, plus I'll get paid
"Sure do you know where I live?"
"Yeah of course I do"
I grip desperately onto anything I can.
"How did you get a license you manic?!"
J laughs like a fucking crazy person. Even I don't drive so damn crazy.
"Its fine, I haven't hit anyone"
"yet!"
She laughs scoffs
"Yeah yet"
She takes a hard left and I only don't slam into the door because I'm a master.
"Slow down!"
She scoffs
"Its fine. Even if we crash we will both be fine"
I look at her face, it is far too calm.
I lean on a wall, sunny's first ever lecture should be just about done. When he finally leaves I use my shoulder to bump him
"Oh would you look at that the nobody has become a wise and very important ascended academic"
He laughs
"Oh and what does that make you?"
We start walking together
"A truly famous ascended. Well known and well feared of course"
He laughs then looks away.
"So uh.... I got a call from jet and I'm going to meet up with her."
Oh i see
"Should I leave?"
He shakes his head
"No no its fine"
We walk into the instructors cafeteria. Still looks pretty damn nice. I follow sunny to sit next to J.
"Master jet"
She looks up and smiles at him and shoots me a questioning look, I hear her mutter
"Eh its fine, they follow him around anyways"
The hell does that mean.
"Master sunless, master ■■■■"
Heh I'm a master now. A famous one too. She looks put together today. Is something important happening?
"You… uh… look nice?"
I mean yeah but what does she need?
"Oh, this? I had to attend a… a special ceremony in the morning. Promotions are flying off the shelves in the government these days."
Sunny cleared his throat seeming to be a little embarrassed for some reason
"Congratulations, I guess."
She laughs pushing a box towards him
"No, no. Congratulations to you. Happy belated birthday."
He opens the box to a very nice looking soul shard
"Ah, this is exactly what I needed! Thank you so much! But… isn't it too luxurious?"
I nod, its real nice i have to say. J shrugs
"Perks of being a public servant. I have more access to such things than most."
Yeah that seems about right.
We stay silent, I should maybe say something soon. I guess.
"What, no present for me? I recently turned thirty, you know."
Oh shit. I dig into my bag
"Oh. Well, in that case, dinner is on me."
J seems happy at that at least
"Ah, you know me too well, Sunny. In that case, don't mind if I do!"
I slide over a ascended soul shard. I have a lot of soul shards after all
"Oh wow thats something, you shouldn't have, but now that you have don't mind if I do"
After we eat j smiles
"Credit where credit is due… you Academy people really know how to treat your staff. I am regretting my choice of career, a little."
She gets a look like she's thinking of what could have been then she zones back in
"Good news first. You can relax, Sunny. Valor seems to finally be ready to behave reasonably, so the worst part is over."
I doubt that. They're still far too willing to super murder us
"At last! What changed?"
J shrugs like its all fine, it is not.
"Well, a lot of things. But mainly, they just don't have the energy to pursue small matters anymore. The tension between the Great Clans seems to be growing, so Valor elders have a lot on their plate. That plays in your favor, because you and your cohort have managed to make yourself valuable. With Saint Tyris advocating on your behalf, everything is ready for a sincere and friendly negotiation."
Sunny frowns
"Sincere… friendly? What about the Fire Keepers that disappeared? You might have not noticed, but the survivors of the Forgotten Shore are a tight group. To them, this is not a small matter."
I scoff
"They've been harassing healer and frankly she is pissed at me for it. So if they could hurry up that would be nice."
She smiles almost darkly
"They are alive... although maybe not well. Their release is one of the points you two and Song of the Fallen will have to negotiate. However, I don't foresee any problems with that. As long as you told the truth and neither of you had conscious plans of assisting that mysterious prisoner of theirs in the escape, everything should be fine."
This will be annoying won't it be.
J talks about what's going to happen and all that. Boring but its tomorrow.
"-I am being transferred out of the city. This is my last day here, for a while."
I frown something is happening
"Actually, that is the second thing I wanted to talk to you about. The bad news."
She summons a memory to stop people from listening in.
"To be honest, Sunny, I was not going to have this conversation with you… at least not yet. But since the situation changed, and the things we are going to talk about can affect the decisions you will make tomorrow, I decided that there is no point in postponing it. I didn't expect ■■■■ to be here but I'll offer this to you as well"
I glance at sunny, he shifts uncomfortably clearly we both know something is wrong
"That is… very suspenseful. What is the matter?"
She takes out her communicator showing a map of the earth
"Is that a previously unexplored region of the Dream Realm?"
I snicker at his obvious comment
"No. That is planet Earth, you dummy."
Sunny freezes then he looks back at it
"Oh… right. I am an idiot.'
She explains the earth for a bit, its mostly stuff I already know so its fine.
"Oh, it's very simple, really. These four bastions of humanity I mentioned? They're about to become three..."
I almost choke on my drink. Me and sunny speak at the same time
"What?"
She sighs glancing around to make sure nobody is listening in.
"I have told you about the Obel Scale once, right? It is a very complicated spelltech system that the government uses to predict the appearance of Gates across the globe. Well… I was not entirely honest when I said that a bit of maintenance and calibration would solve all the problems it had been experiencing recently. In truth, the problems we've been having with its readings are not as trivial as I implied. They are just a symptom of a much bigger problem."
Sunny seems to realize something
"Kurt… Shadow Blade Kurt. He mentioned something about the Obel Scale. It was the reason he had given up and gone mad… one of them, at least."
Who the hell is that? Is this another god damn thing nobody has explained to me? Why does this keep happening? What next, a great terror is going to appear or something? I know their asses wouldn't tell me.
"-Nightmare Creatures to invade the real world. And all that is going to take place…"
I think she said there's going to be a ton of smaller gates
"...In Antarctica."
Sunnys voice is clearly nervous
"But you… you just said that Antarctica is the second most populated continent on Earth."
Yeah. Not good, ill assume that's offer to help with that
"Yes. There are around nine hundred million people living there."
All in horrid danger. I sigh, it seems ill be joining the government.
He looks away
"You also said that a compartmentalized global infrastructure is vulnerable to cascade failure. And that Antarctica serves as a logistical hub between the four continents and South America, where most of our food is produced."
The two start talking about what would happen after. Not that i care man. I only care about the fact millions will die.
"Why, what else? We are going to evacuate nine hundred million people from the doomed continent while a neverending horde of Nightmare Creatures is pursuing us. Or… we will try, at least. To be honest, I think that most of those who try will probably die…"
But it is a sin to not try. They start talking about.... boats. Why I dont know I dont care much for boats. That's when she finally makes her offer
"Instead, I want you to leave everything behind, enlist… and come with me."
That seems about right.
After she's done convincing sunny and unintentionally making me hate the great clans song and Valor a ton more. Like a lot more but thats not that hard. I elbow sunny
"hey doofus go get me a soda"
He glares at me
"Do it yourself"
I put my hands up, he catches the hint that I will in fact grab his face with my cold ass hands.
"Fine. You'll pay me back for it"
He walks away i look at J
"No questions. I'm joining"
She blinks a few times
"Really?"
I nod
"Yeah. Just wait until everything with Valor is over if you will but yeah I'm joining the fight for Antarctica."