Chapter 62—Questions |
After dropping Romin off at the Bastion of Tomorrow to look for Polis, Hiral zipped down to Trevallen. Almost unsurprisingly, Gauto was waiting for him at the entrance, a notebook in hand, with three more laid out on the small table beside him. Based on how cushioned his chair was, along with the fine detailing on the table, both must’ve come out of an Interspatial Ring.
“You’re late,” Gauto said, looking up at Hiral and tapping his notebook with the pencil in his hand.
“Glad to see you’re okay too,” Hiral deadpanned to his “best” friend.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Gauto said. “Besides, it’s you. You were always going to make it back. I didn’t just believe that; I knew it. Why would I worry?”
Hiral stared at Gauto for several seconds, but there was no sign of humor or facetiousness on his face. He was serious. He’d really known Hiral would make it back with one hundred percent confidence.
“Thanks,” Hiral said.
“As for Gauto,” the tank from Gauto’s party—Raff—said, “he only almost got himself killed three time since you last saw him. Twice by his own experiments, and once from a Cinder-Bloke.”
“I’d argue the Cinder-Bloke was an experiment as well,” Gauto said to Raff, before looking at Hiral. “I believed myself to be close to cracking a communication method between them.”
“Did it work?” Hiral said, instead of mentioning that almost getting killed by his own experiments was arguably worse.
“Any idea why they want to destroy the city?” Hiral asked.
“The leading theory is something done by the PIMP to force the city to grow,” Gauto said.
“I… may have an alternate theory to that,” Hiral said, thinking back to Genesis being trapped in a dungeon. There was a very good chance that influenced monster development on the world.
“About the dungeon, I’m guessing, which I’m very much eager to hear,” Gauto said, then looked down at his notebook before slapping it closed. “I doubt you’re here just to see me, though.”
“It’s only part of the reason for my visit,” Hiral said.
“You’re not planning on setting fire to anything else, are you?” Raff asked, his tortoise companion having joined him. “The whole sky was enough, in my humble opinion. Then again, who listens to me anyway?”
“Not if I don’t have to,” Hiral said. “The fire, I mean, not the listening to you. I’m here because I need Osteo, and he wasn’t up in the Bastion. Colly said she thought he was down in the city with Elsadella.”
“Somebody got hurt?” Gauto asked, voice more serious.
“Several people did,” Hiral said. “Three didn’t make it back. Yully, Dole, and Ilrolik.”
The names clearly came as a shock to Gauto, his whole body freezing up before he lowered his head and whispered his disbelief. “Everybody else?” he finally asked.
“The rest of us made it,” Hiral said. “Barely. It’s quite a story, and I can start telling you some of it while we head down to the city to find Osteo.”
“Misty found him for you,” Raff said, referring to another of his and Gauto’s fellow party members. “I can show you where he is.”
“That’d be great,” Hiral said, but then he reached into his Shared Storage to pull out a stack of books. “Before I forget, and to save myself from all the questions I know you’re going to ask, Left made notes of everything that happened since we entered the A-Rank dungeon in the Ascender’s Tower. Some of it you’ll know, I’m sure, but it’s also got the S-Rank dungeon and the three guardians, not to mention our time on Terminus.”
“Give, give, give!” Gauto said, reaching out for the stack of books.
“Only if you promise to save your questions until after you’ve read them. All of them.”
“Of course,” Gauto said. “I’m not a child. Do these contain the final fate of the Fallen?”
Instead of answering, Hiral pulled the stack of books away from Gauto. “That sounded a lot like a question to me. And it’s Raff I need to find Osteo. If you’d like to wait here…”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Gauto said. “It just slipped out. It won’t happen again.”
As much as Hiral considered tormenting his friend, he had other things to attend to, so he handed over the stack of books. Between blinks, Gauto took the books, storing most of them but opening the first volume in his hands. Another second brought his Medium down, where it used its barrier ability to create a platform to hold the book open so Gauto could read.
Hiral didn’t even need to ask why Gauto had the setup, with one of his notebooks coming out in hand to start taking notes about what he read.
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“Well, are we going?” Gauto asked Hiral and Raff. “Feel free to start giving me the highlights as we walk.”
“Walk?” Hiral said. “Who said anything about walking?”
“Uh…?” Raff said at the same time Gauto paused and looked up from his book. Just in time for a scarf of energy to wrap around him, Raff, and Donny. Then they were gone, Hiral dashing into the long tunnel that would take him to Trevallen.
Rejection sped them along at S-Rank speeds down the tunnel, covering the entire distance even before Gauto could start to scream. Unfortunately, he more than made up for it when they stopped at the bottom.
“AHHHHH… ahhhh… ah?” the Academic said, like it had taken his mouth and brain time to catch up to the fact the trip was already finished. As he turned his head to find Possessed near the entrance eyeing all four of the newcomers who’d basically just appeared right in front of them, he finally turned to Hiral. “Did you get faster?”
“Significantly,” Hiral chuckled. “Don’t worry, Raff. We’ll actually walk the rest of the way, since you have to show me where Osteo is. It’ll give me time to tell Gauto all about the fact Genesis was in a dungeon. And that’s probably got something to do with how the Cinder-Blokes were acting. Maybe even how they came to be.”
“Colos mentioned a dungeon. So, it’s true?” Gauto’s eyes narrowed as he stumbled upon more and more implications of that. “You do know how much that changes all of the calculations. It’s the variable we’ve been missing. The X factor we couldn’t explain. Why didn’t I see it?”
“And that’s just the beginning,” Hiral said. “Walk with me while I tell you. Remember your promise, though. No questions until after you finish Left’s notes.”
“Of course,” Gauto said, at once storing the first of Left’s books he’d propped open, only to bring out a second notebook. Before Hiral could even ask how the man was going to take notes in two books at the same time, a pair of hands made out of glowing red force appeared in the air. Gauto handed a pencil to each, and they stood ready to write.
“What are those?” Hiral asked.
“An ability called Force Hands,” Gauto said. “Academics and occasionally Artists seem to get it. I don’t think I’ve met anybody outside those two classes that has access to it. They don’t serve any real purpose in combat, but they are invaluable in research situations.”
“Could you use them to carry things like potions in combat?” Hiral said. “How far can they travel? How much health do they have?”
“Who’s the one asking questions now?” Gauto said.
“No wonder you two get along so well,” Raff said.
“To quickly answer those questions,” Gauto said, “I have no idea. Nobody thought of that! We’ll have to test.”
“I’ll leave that to you,” Hiral said, “though I may need your help on some calculations in a few days.”
“Of course,” Gauto said. “It’s been a while since we worked on a project together. That’s for later, though. Tell me about this dungeon thing.”
“Sure,” Hiral said, getting started on the story while Raff led them deeper into the city.
***
Telling Gauto the short version of the story—and getting to Osteo—took Hiral almost fifteen minutes. He’d had to glaze over most of the details, but that was what Left’s notebooks were for. Gauto would find the answers to most of his questions in there. By then, he’d be done just in time for Hiral to come back and get his help on the “other project” he had in mind.
However, before Hiral could grab Osteo and get back to Fallen Reach, somebody else found him. Somebody made entirely of black ink.
“I knew I felt you nearby,” Colos said as he sauntered down the street to where Hiral stood with Osteo.
“I’m kind of surprised you’re still summoned,” Hiral said. “Last time, you weren’t able to stick around nearly this long.”
“That’s what being S-Rank gets us,” Colos said. “That, and I wasn’t using any solar energy to fight off Pilgrims invading the city. Still, I’m on my last legs here.” He pointed down at his feet. “See, only two left.”
“I’d be worried if you had more.”
“Me too,” Colos said. “Jokes aside, I really am almost out of time. Do we have a plan for the Eidolons?”
“Yes, but it’s not a right now answer,” Hiral said. “How are things here? Any troubles?”
“The Possessed were, understandably, surprised when the Eidolons came marching out of a portal that magically opened up by the Fountain.”
“You handled it?”
“I handled it,” Colos confirmed. “Once they understood what was going on, they immediately started to help. There isn’t anything permanent set up, but the Eidolons have somewhere to stay for the time being. We just need to know for how long.”
“Maybe a week,” Hiral said. “I’ve got a permanent solution in mind; it’ll just take some time to get it all set up. If they are open to it, they won’t be staying in Trevallen, and they’ll have a new home all their own. One with quite the view.”
“Oh? Color me intrigued.” Colos then looked down at his black-and-white form again. “Scratch the color part.”
“You’ll be back in the scroll by the time it gets done, so you’ll know as soon as it happens,” Hiral said. “Any idea how long your cooldown will be this time?”
“If I had to guess,” Colos said, “at least a week. I might be able to come back out at the same time you bring the Eidolons to their new home.”
“It would definitely be helpful if you were available to be there,” Hiral said. “You and Nivian. He’s their patriarch or something, and you brought them here. They’ll trust you two, but he’s got another new challenge he’s got to deal with.”
“You say that like they don’t know how involved you were in freeing them from their purgatory,” Colos said. “The ceiling glowing with a runic lightshow didn’t slip past them.”
“Fair,” Hiral admitted. “Do you have enough time to let the powers-that-be know what’s going on, and the timeline?”
“I don’t even know what’s going on,” Colos joked, “but I can tell them the timeline.”
“That’ll be enough for now.”
“Any chance this plan of yours won’t work?” Colos said. “In case we shouldn’t get their hopes up.”
“It’ll work,” Hiral said. “It’ll work.”
“I like that confidence! Okay, I’m getting pretty sleepy here, so I’ll go explain things. Osteo is just in that building over there.”
“It’s a hospital,” Gauto said. “Becoming Possessed isn’t always without its downsides. The body modifications that result from the joining of souls can come with pain or malformations. Osteo has been helping treat those. From the sounds of things, the Eidolon process offers them another option.”
“Afraid that isn’t an option, actually,” Hiral said. “The Urn of Ur’Thul is… missing.”
“Missing?” Gauto said, his Force Hands madly scribbling. “Are we going to find a new horde of Undead popping up on Genesis somewhere?”
Hiral shook his head. “Sounds more like the Urn got punted off somewhere through time and space along with GG. Uh, GG is… a Black Gate… and you know what, that’s probably in Left’s books. Just… the Urn is gone, so if we’re looking to birth more Eidolons, we’ll need another way to do it. Do you really think some Possessed would want that?”
“I do,” Gauto said. “Maybe not a lot, but some. If things with the Enemy and the impending end of the world have settled down, I’m sure we could get a team on exploring that.”
“Exploration and testing that I am going to leave to you two,” Colos said. “If you’ll excuse me…” Then the Soul Rendition was jogging off, his outline thinner than before, with small streaks of dark ink getting left behind before dissipating.
“That’s a wild ability,” Gauto said, watching the ink-man until he turned a corner. “Then again, so is just about everything you do. Wild or reckless.”
“Hey, I haven’t done anything reckless all day,” Hiral said.
“And the day is still young,” Gauto countered. “Give it time.”