You were already warned at the first chapter about what could possibly appear in the story.
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-+-+-+-+-+STORY TIME!+-+-+-+-+-
-+- Mario - Wednesday 30th 20:10-+-
'We're under attack.' His thoughts raced down the bonds and to the other pokegirls.
His hand clutched at the amulet on his chest, pale blue light beginning to shine from it. 'PDT activate.' He mentally commanded.
And then, the world slowed down to a crawl.
Movement almost seemed to halt altogether, even his body, but his thoughts remained perfectly clear. The situation they were in stacked the odds against them. Confined quarters with one enemy outside and two within. Collateral damage was the most likely outcome if the girls attacked with anything of even medium strength.
Currently, he had a full minute before the spell would automatically turn off. For the his sped up thought processes however, those sixty seconds would appear as an hour.
Though his hands were going for the pokepack, his eyes were currently locked on the flashes of red light, seeing how they coalesced into two separate pokegirls.
The first to fully form was that of a bug-type pokegirl, the element obvious as the tall slender mostly naked woman wore a chitin armor of a brownish red coloration. Each of her six thin arms held what appeared to be a two foot long needle-like sword.
If that hadn't been enough of a clue as to what her typing was, the two long antennae and compound eyes were not only bordering creepy but also a clear give-away.
This first enemy who appeared was also very quick to react, her head beginning to face Mario before the other one had even finished appearing.
The breed was a sword dancer, bug-type and experts at close combat. Speed and agility were its specialties.
She'd have to be the first one to go down, and her third tier durability meant she was comparable to a human in body armor.
Unfortunately for her, Mario's hand had already found what it had been looking for, and her face was not protected by the chitin that was reinforcing most of her body.
From the human's point of view the action took forever. His hands were rising ever so slowly as the muzzle of the hand-gun began lining up with its mark, the hammer already cocked and ready for the pull of the trigger.
Somewhere in the compound eyes of the pokegirl there was a realization of the threat the firearm posed to her. While still moving at an achingly slow pace, her upper and middle left arms began an arc towards him, the pokegirl clearly intent on throwing her swords as a way of stopping him.
Were the world going at its normal pace, Mario wouldn't have had the time to notice much less react to it. But here, time was all he had, and everything was moving so sluggishly she might as well have shouted her intent five minutes ago.
His only regret was that his body couldn't go faster regardless of the time dilation effects of the pendant.
The pokegirl's movements were elegant as her breed was known for. She had begun to step towards him as the two swords were launched, and she had her lower arms on both sides aiming their swords at his head as she did. The thrown weapons were released and so began their unwavering trajectory to his chest and arm.
The gun hadn't risen more than two thirds of the way, Mario had already begun the excruciatingly slow motion of throwing himself sideways towards the floor while his hand kept its steady pace homing in on the pokegirl's face.
Everything moved so slowly that it was extremely frustrating. He was glad he'd adjusted the spell so it didn't do a three hundred to one time dilation or he'd still be looking at the pokegirls being released.
There wasn't much of a sense of motion while in this state. Movement still occurred but it felt as if everyone was just pretending to be doing some silly slow-mo kung-fu. Even sounds were hard to interpret from how distorted it all appeared to his accelerated mind.
That was until his gun finally aligned with the girl's face. At that point Mario's finger had already tensed the trigger enough and just a twitch was needed for the gun's hammer to fall with a single concussive 'clink'.
With a time distorted roar the first round was shot, a burst of fire and steam erupted from the muzzle. The gun's slide moved backwards, re-cocking the hammer as the casing and the hot gases rushed out of the ejection port, before it moved back into position with a new round in the chamber.
The bullet that exploded from the gun's muzzle was fast enough that Mario couldn't follow it clearly. He was barely able to track it as a bluish-green streak rushing from the gun and square into the compound eye of the pokegirl. A faint look of shock flickered across her expression as blood sprayed out the entry point.
A heartbeat after, the magically charged round detonated with a force equivalent to a tiny firecracker. A chunk of the pokegirl's brain became soup in the process, and all signs of life were instantly extinguished from her toppling body.
Mario's free hand pressed against the floor to stop him from hitting the ground, and he began to look at the second target. She'd already materialized and was trying to take cover behind the counter.
This second pokegirl appeared to be both quicker to react and faster than her predecessor.
With a dark brown skin and glowing purple eyes, two black horns crowned her white haired head. She wore a tight corset and a pair of shorts, and appeared much less durable than the bug-type. If her body hadn't been giving off a faint purple glow, Mario would've figured she was more vulnerable as well.
Thankfully it only required minimal adjustment to have her in his sights, the second bullet raced out the gun's barrel and immediately crumpled against the pokegirl's forehead. The deformed piece of lead shone with a tiny burst of light as the magic contained within detonated in a puff of smoke. Shock and light from the minuscule explosion caused the fleeing pokegirl's pupils to shrink to tiny dots as she flinched.
Clearly unable to hurt the pokegirl with his weapon, Mario stepped into his room as Corona leapt past him towards the target, the pinielf's body glowing green from her aura-guard. Hecate was still aimed towards the window and casting barriers to block out whoever was attacking.
The moment he was inside his room, the human deactivated the pendant and felt reality speed back up.
There was a second or two of disorientation as the inside of his head felt like it had swerved itself into a loop, but the feeling was both familiar and expected.
Someone shouted from the living room, most likely the horned intruder considering he couldn't recognize the voice.
'We're two blocks from there.' Verde's voice echoed through the bond.
'Catch the one that's outside only if you have the opportunity.' He replied, ejecting the magazine from the handgun and forcing the last bullet out of the antechamber. 'I'll try to give you a little help first though.'
Rummaging through the pokepack's item list, he quickly found what he was looking for and summoned the second magazine that he quickly loaded into the firearm. Holstering the weapon on his right hip, he then brought out his staff, a six foot long piece of tubular gray metal with rounded tips.
Closing his eyes, he searched for his bond with Hecate and quickly connected with her. 'Status.'
'She can fly and is concealing herself so I can't aim anything her way.' Came Hecate's calm assessment. 'I've blocked her from seeing inside, and I think she doesn't have a way of communicating with the ones she threw at us.' A wave of irritation passed over the surface of her thoughts. 'She's a flying type with access to strong magic, and placed a teleport block around the building, but I can replenish my barriers faster than she can wear them down.'
'Teleport behind the one inside, and use her pokeball to recall her. Priority is finishing the fight with her now.'
As he gave the command, his ears picked the Corona's voice as she cursed, closely followed by the feeling of their bond straining abruptly. The horned one seemed to have a psychic element to her.
Pushing out the sound of fighting, he focused on the staff instead. The magical object lit up with a pulse of green light, the metal humming as the thousand tiny enchantments that were layered throughout its core and surface into a structure akin to a computer's logical circuitry began to respond to his energy.
Focusing harder, Mario raised the staff and thumped it against the floor once. "Cast: detect mana. Target: pokegirl. Type: flying. Search range: three hundred meters."
With a second thump, his words of command triggered a single pulse of yellow light from the staff, the vibration became more intense for a moment before stopping entirely.
Mario opened his eyes and scanned the area; he quickly spotted a small sphere of yellow light that was towards his right. As he focused on it, the objects that were between him and the sphere quickly became fully transparent and allowed the human to see the pokegirl with black wings as she threw some king of magical attack towards the general area he guessed Hecate was in.
The pokegirl appeared to have black leathery wings as she flew around, shrouded in dark energies of some sort. She was looking for better angles to launch an offensive from, but from the distance it was slightly hard to make out all the details.
"Target lock." He thumped the staff once more, the yellow light taking a reddish tone, and the objects around him returned to being fully opaque.
Mario clutched the staff with a bit more strength as he prepared himself for the second part. 'I'm going to light her up for you, get ready to hit her hard.' His warning was given to everyone as he began gathering his energy for the second spell.
He thumped the staff again. "Cast: glow. Target: locked target. Strength: maximum."
This time he felt like he'd been punched in the gut as the staff sucked his energy to power up the spell. Mario had to keep a firm grip on the metal to avoid falling on his knees. Even a low level spell like this one was enough to knock the air out of him.
Gritting his teeth, he kept it going for several more seconds, until he felt a slight sense of satisfaction coming from the girls. The moment the magic was cut off he fell on his ass, as even the energy needed to keep a lock on the pokegirl had been used up and all he was left with was a windowless room in near darkness with the only light source the open living-room door.
Panting and trying to recover his breath, he kept himself leaned against the wall with the un-holstered gun on his right hand. He'd used practically all the mana he had available as it was, so the only thing he had left to do was wait. If anyone other than his pokegirls came through the door… He just hoped the bullets enchanted for penetration would work better than the exploding ones, otherwise he was toast.
Steadying his breath, he tried to focus on drawing some information out of the girl's consciousness's, but was interrupted by a strong beeping sound that came from within his mind. Mario frowned at the alarm from one of his mental constructs. 'Hear messages.' He thought out the command.
'Sakuya has connected.'
Pausing, Mario's mind lashed out through the bonds, looking for the one belonging to the dark kitsune's.
As the many other times he had attempted it, he came up against an invisible wall.
'Intruder captured and magically sealed to avoid escape.' Hecate communicated. 'Verde and Jade are focussing on the one outside.'
There was a knock at the door, the human raised his gaze and saw the door slowly open, revealing Corona. "Gonna check you up while the others deal with the one outside." She spoke gruffly. "Nothing I can use with the range to reach her can affect her, so my job's now to protect you from potential collateral."
"Got anything on the psychic?"
"Demoness, she either was fived recently or she got her psychic powers recently enough she never had a chance to practice. It was more of a nuisance than a threat."She placed a hand against his arm, a soft greenish glow emanating from her palm. "Physically you don't have anything worth healing, but..." Corona's golden eyes locked on his, worry appearing on her eyes. "Are you ok? You look shook up."
"It's Sakuya, she connected for only a moment but I didn't feel it." Mario muttered darkly. "I'll have to check my constructs in dreamtime to make sure, but..." He bit his thumb, closing his eyes as his brow wrinkled. "It feels like the bond's weakened a lot more than I'd thought, at this rate she... we don't have much time."
'Target dispelled her barrier and teleported away.' Hecate informed. 'Starting a scan of the area for more hostiles.'
'The bird took off.' Verde called out. 'Instructions?'
Crossing his arms, the human sighed and opened his mind so as to connect with all of them. 'We're leaving in five minutes. Corona and I will pack everything up, everyone else take defensive positions.' Taking the pokepack, he began to digitize the various books and smaller pieces of furniture in the room. 'We'll go under the assumption we're going to be attacked again. We'll teleport into Inari ranch and sleep in shifts.'
-+-Travis- Thursday 31st 08:30-+-
Travis stared at the scene with as much detachment as he could muster. No matter how many times he'd see it, such things would always make him very uneasy.
There were two corpses.
The first was a pokegirl's, some kind of snake type… it was hard to really tell anything past that since the body was nearly mangled beyond recognition. Whoever had done it appeared to have had a sick sense of humor, as its entrails had been used to strangle the second victim, a young female that appeared human by all accounts.
The human was almost untouched in comparison, naked and covered in blood, but her expression…
Shuddering, Travis looked away as he tried not to gag.
"Together forever'?" The green furred pokegirl who stood beside Travis spoke with a mild sense of curiosity in her voice.
The words had been smeared onto the wall with blood.
"So?" Gabriel stepped past the police line as he stared at the scene. "You think this is our guy?"
"Odds are in favor of it being the case." The woman standing next to Gabriel stepped forwards, golden hair wavering slightly as it shone with unnatural light. "No elemental attacks were used by the pokegirl, so she was either killed or restrained before she could even realize they were being attacked. Sharp objects were used to… do… that."
She frowned slightly as she made a gesture towards the pokegirl. "Considering the only trace magical energies are in their heads, I'd bet her mind was scrubbed before being offed. It'd make harder to extract information from her spirit if someone managed to make contact with it."
"Just like what happened in Jusenkyo." Travis nodded.
"And the same scent is all over the place." The furred pokegirl spoke with a growl.
"So what the fuck is that about?" Gabriel motioned at the bloody message.
He was met with a round of shrugs.
"The girl had a recognition level bond." One of the officers spoke sullenly as he read from a datapad. "We found her pokedex nearby, our video-gals sent us this after going over the data."
He turned the device to hand it over to Travis. "Name's Susan White, born and raised in Crimson League. Came to Edo as a vacation… that's when she met 04EE-2."
He motioned at the snake's corpse. "A feral eelara that'd been caught and put on sale, Susan here appeared to recognize with her because she sold her two pokegirls just so she could afford purchasing 04EE-2 right after… that was a little over a week ago."
"Since then, her activity has been pretty much standard tourism." Travis took over as he read from the datapad. "For what it looks on her credit receipts, she's been going all over Neo Osaka hotspots since she got here."
"What's that orange dot on her name?" The voice came from a much smaller pokegirl as she tried glancing over Travis's shoulder, her round ears twitching every which way as she spoke.
The officer scratched the back of his head, appearing confused. "It means her profile had come up as a potential suspect in someone's investigation. It's usually there so that officers from other departments can know the individual's to be kept at least under some minimum level of scrutiny."
"I see." Travis's brow wrinkled ever so slightly as he handed over the datapad. "We'd like to find out why she was a suspect; it may be related to why she was targeted."
Looking slightly startled by the request, the officer bowed slightly. "I'll look into it, but you'd need authorization from whoever's in charge of the investigation to get access to the information." He hastily bowed again before trotting away.
"Meaning we'll probably never know…" The shorter pokegirl muttered under her breath. "Some help they are, you'd figure they'd be more proactive in catching their secretly most wanted criminal."
"It's probably because they fear losing face." Travis sighed, turning to leave the scene with the rest following close behind. "Makes sense they wouldn't want someone that's not working for Edo taking the trophy away from them."
He glanced at the green furred pokegirl, shooting her an apologetic smile. "Seems we'll have to wander around town for now and see if you can pick up on the scent."
"Aye aye."
"In the meantime…" Gabriel gruffly shook his head, staring at the blond pokegirl, the both of them sharing a conspiratorial grin. "…we'll head out to see if we find anything among the local tamers…"
Travis and his girls rolled their eyes in unison as both Gabriel and his own pokegirl vanished into thin air.
"He's going to go and look for a fight isn't he?" The green pokegirl sighed, ears dropping and head hanging low. "I want to fight too…"
"Gabriel's the bruiser team… meaning I'd rather he and his girls go lose some steam with some random tamers than to have him on a hair-trigger." Travis patted her back reassuringly. "We're the tracker team, so it's our job to find something for Gabriel to bruise up."
Sighing discontentedly, her ears lowered and her tail hung limply. "Aye aye." She repeated, slightly less enthusiastic than before.
-+-Kim- Thursday 31st 18:50-+-
His concentration was breaking.
Kim didn't need to take a look at the readings, just being in the same room as him made it all too clear something was gnawing at his focus. His energy was lashing out and taking away from the precision of the spellwork, something someone with such a small source of mana like him couldn't afford to do.
As she'd expected, the spell failed once more, a blast of hot air billowing into existence somewhere between Mario and the sheet of paper he'd been drawing on. The remaining energy dispersed harmlessly into the air as the paper turning to ash instantly.
Not waiting for Kim to make a comment, Mario rubbed his face and brought out the next sheet of paper. Glaring at it as he put the pen down, focusing once more at the task he was trying to master.
With a shake of the head and a flick of the wrist, Kim made the pen levitate out of his grasp. "If you keep wasting your energy like that, you won't be able to draw the enchantment, much less activate it."
"If I used my staff…" He grumbled under his voice.
Kim felt the urge to smack the back of his head. "The staff amplifies precision, so the more precise you are without it the better the results with it." Her frown deepened slightly as he snatched the pen back.
Mario twirled the pen once, glaring at it. "What about blood?"
"Don't." She replied without so much as giving a second of thought. "The more the properties of the 'ink' change after application the less likely it'll be to work or for the purpose of the spell to be corrupted… in which case whatever it does it'll not be what you originally wanted it to do."
The supe-bra-genius shuddered at a particular unpleasant memory. "Blood rots, dries, cracks, and darkens. It stops being 'alive' and becomes 'dead'… It's a preferred medium for pretty much all forms of dark magic for a reason… Which is also why dark magic has such a low success rate compared to most other forms."
The look in his eye made it clear he hadn't been dissuaded from the idea though. "Then what about a onetime use enchantment? Like a scroll with a spell stored in it, only that it's meant to activate right away rather than save it for latter… Like a summoning circle but rather than a creature it casts a spell."
"So a small scale plain magic circle… only more impractical." Tilting her head, Kim pondered this. "Depending on temperature and ambient humidity, you'd have to wait anywhere between ten minutes and an hour for it to have dried out enough to be a stable catalyst. Plus even if it dried out instantly to cast something like a manabolt you'd need about… a minute or two to draw it?"
She shook her head. "Meanwhile, even a weak pokegirl could easily cast such a technique in less than a second, not to mention she'd be able to actually aim it while the drawn version would shoot it perpendicular to the plane the circle was drawn on. This sort of method is really useful only when it's a spell on a grand scale."
There was a pause as Mario scowled ever so slightly. "But blood is already charged, isn't it? Unlike ink or a carving, it wouldn't have to be saturated while drawing, only the energy to activate."
Kim dismissed his words with a wave of her hand. "And so you stumbled into the very dangerous path of an apprentice wanting to cast something big, and not having the time or patience to make the magic circle the safe way." This time she clonked him with the pen he'd kept twirling. "But that's neither here nor there; you still need to improve your focus and control."
"I'm just saying…" He snatched the pen back, rubbing the tip of his nose. "If the ink's already saturated, then it could be drawn by something rather than someone and still work once the energy to activate it is applied… So I could just get a printer and make several hundred copies of a magic circle and just cast them."
He turned back to the sheet of paper. "I'd only need to find out what part of the blood is the one that carries the mana. With that you'd only need to…"
"…find what part holds the magic… been there, done that I'm afraid." Kim shrugged with a shake of her head. "It was one of the projects being researched here while they tried to industrialize magic. Once blood stops being blood the concept of life is lost along with it. Whether it be by mixing blood with another substance or breaking it down into its baser components, it always loses its saturation levels along the way."
Scratching her chin, she turned a thoughtful gaze upwards. "Currently, I think they're trying to find a way to liquefy evolution stones and see whether it'd be possible to use as a substitute to draw the spells out… unfortunately the testing requires essentially destroying an evolution stone, so they're burning through the budget pretty quickly… I figure it'll be labeled a dead end sooner rather than later."
With a pause, Kim looked square at Mario's expression as he opened his mouth for a split second and closed it just as hastily, a twitch on his lips signaled the barest of grins that was quickly hidden.
"I think the question I ought to ask is why you're trying to come up with a way to make single-use spells en masse rather than focusing on your training."
There was a glint in his eyes as any sense of humor or friendliness quickly vanished. "I'm just looking at what possibilities I have." He met her eyes squarely, and she had to refrain from shuddering. "Because it seems things will be getting rough pretty soon."
-+-Ranko- Thursday 31st 22:50-+-
She woke up.
Her eyes opened to lifelessly register the oak roof above her head. It took a full minute of silently staring before reality began to set in.
"To serve is to feel pleasure." The words came out of the choker that was tightly wrapped around her neck more than herself, a slight and unwelcome wave of artificial gratification coursing through her as she spoke the accursed mantra.
With a 'tch' of distaste, the panthress rose to her feet to properly fulfill her commands. Muscles bulged as she tensed them in annoyance at the thought, but her collar sent the slightest of shocks to remind her of what would happen should she disobey.
The shower was perhaps the best part of her day. It was the only moment when she could at least pretend she was something else, somewhere else. Even then, she had a schedule to keep and her wash, rinse, and dry were done in quick order.
Sighing, she straightened her posture, before allowing her shoulders to drop as she opened the closet. Eyeing the sole item that lay within, Ranko felt a seething mix of hatred and humiliation course through her, and her claws twitched at the thought of ripping the outfit to shreds.
Her collar burst with a single pulse of pain strong enough to bring her to her knees. The panthress panted for breath for a moment before a second tingling warned her of further punishment were she late. "To serve is to feel pleasure." The words left her lips without her consent once more, and yet another light pulse of artificial bliss coursed through her as she began to don the uniform.
It was a frilly purple dress, small enough that its skirt only reached Ranko's knees, with a corset so tight her already large breasts appeared near bursting through. The entire ensemble was comically small and stiff on her broad shouldered and well-muscled body.
A glance at the mirror, and her large paws moved under the collar's command to straighten out the dress to fit as properly as possible within the impossible disparity in size. Then she put on the stiletto heels, too tall for any form of comfort, and only served to make the seven foot tall pokegirl look even taller.
The lack of undergarments was both a blessing and a curse in her eyes, as she was certain whatever would've been picked for her to wear would only further her humiliation.
"To serve is to feel pleasure." She spoke to her reflection once the collar had deemed she was 'properly attired' for her task, and another minuscule wave of bliss raced across her body.
The hatred boiled deep within her chest, but at this point she knew it was futile to fight it. The collar's commands were absolute.
Walking out the small room, she skillfully clacked her way down the hall making sure her steps were short but quick. It was something that had taken her nearly a full day's practice to master, and that was only the beginning of her daily torture.
The kitchen was empty, as always, and the only thing in it that was of Ranko's concern was the lone plate with a raw chunk of red meat. Her mouth watered at the proposal but once more her collar kicked in and she found herself taking the piece of meat and placing it back into the fridge, quickly taking out a feeding bowl and filling it to the brim with pokechow, pouring milk on it before carrying it over to the table.
"To serve is to feel pleasure. A servant must eat the food meant for a servant." The words escaped her throat without her control yet again; the following pleasurable shudder just an addition to further degrade her.
Breakfast finished, she washed the bowl and glanced at the clock. Everything remaining was within the allowed schedule, if not, the collar would've been certain to punish her accordingly.
"Good morning Ms. Black." The giddy voice greeted her from the opposite end of the kitchen. "Ready for another day of being productive?"
Ranko turned to face the short haired brunette as she gave the panthress a vacant smile. "I am ready to be productive." The words weren't her own, at this point they never were, nor were the following tingles that ran down her spine. But the grin on her face was all Ranko. The thought of what she'd do to the bimbo given half the opportunity something that greatly brightened her dark mood.
"Then let's go!" The pokegirl squealed in gleeful anticipation.
Ranko dutifully followed the brunette out the kitchen and down another hallway, her body moving on autopilot as her eyes wandered over the nearly naked pokegirl, gliding across the pearly skin and imagining how easy it would be to tear her into ribbons with her claws.
Among the myriad of commands she'd been given to follow, one was to never think of damaging something that was of the mistress's property. This meant Ranko couldn't even imagine snapping her heels without intense pain overcoming her.
But the bimbo wasn't of the cruel woman's property; the nameless bimbo technically belonged to someone else even though she worked here. Ranko seethed at the thought, the airheaded girl probably even enjoyed what she did… All the day prancing in some skimpy dress that was several magnitudes tighter and more revealing than what even Ranko wore... eagerly offering her body to whoever approached her… and that airheaded high-pitched voice… It made the panthress want to puke.
The only reason Ranko couldn't do anything about it was because of her orders forbidding any form of violence without the mistress's explicit permission.
"We're here!" the pokegirl giggled loudly as they reached a set of double doors. She turned towards Ranko and pouted. "Now remember, nothing less than your best from here on out!"
Ranko felt her body being manipulated and prepared for the task she was to fulfill, this time arousal flourishing across the entirety of her being as it began to gradually escalate past a general sense of stuffy warmth.
Her mouth remained tightly shut only long enough for the pain to return, and then the collar took control over her. The growl she'd been intending to let out completely rendered mute as instead she spoke out something else. "To serve the mistress's guests is to feel pleasure." She was grinding her teeth as she felt her body forced to throb in acceptance of the words. "To give pleasure is to receive pleasure."
The pleasure and humiliation only managed to stoke the arousal higher. Her cheeks burned under her coal black fur as she stepped through the double doors and into another night she wished would never happen.
-+-Miranda- Thursday 31st 23:50-+-
"We need to talk in private, I need your help, it's urgent."
The archmage played the message again, a smile on her lips as she twirled the pokedex and hit play. The smile only grew the more she heard it.
A part of her could only wonder why her adopted son had called for her in such a way, the other though glad because of it, was cautious. His voice had been every bit serious and lacking any of the familiarity he'd used on his usual messages; more to the point, he hadn't even recorded a video but only his voice.
In all likeliness the young human didn't want her to fully grasp just how seriously he was asking for the help at this late hour.
She chuckled softly, thanking whatever circumstances had pushed the tamer into asking for her help.
It didn't matter much though; she'd get to find out soon. Once Sheika confirmed it was indeed Mario and teleported back with him, they'd get to talk out whatever it was he needed aid with.
One couldn't be too cautious after all.
Miranda began humming, content in waiting.
A knock on the door alerted her and a quick burst of concentration confirmed who it was at the other side. With a smile and a little skip on her step, the archmage opened the door. "Hello Mario, it's good to see you again." She greeted amicably, glancing at Hecate as the splice stood stoically next to her tamer. "Come in, come in. Would you want some tea?"
Mario's smile was a wry one as he shook his head. "No, but thanks for the offer. We're on a tight schedule right now."
Giving him a good long look, Miranda nodded approvingly. "I understand." She quickly switched to a deflated sigh. "Straight to business it seems." With a wave of her hand, she guided the duo over to her isolation chamber.
As the locks finally clicked shut, Mario and Hecate began summoning various objects and materials to set up what appeared to be as a large drawing table. Miranda took the opportunity to look the two over and study them as they worked.
Hecate had grown remarkably since the last time they'd met face to face. The splice's aura was not only incredibly more stable but it also pulsed in the rhythm of Mario's own. The bond they shared was a mix between a familiar with her mage and a pokegirl with her tamer, and the way their energies mingled when in close proximity was quite nice considering they hadn't even known one another a month ago.
Mario's aura on the other hand was much more controlled; there was a certain conscious precision in the pulses… An inexperienced mage would've mistaken those as a constant struggle to control one's own emotions, but Miranda knew otherwise, she'd taught him the exercise after all. To cause one-self to feel emotions strongly and then make them null, it was a training that would not only help strengthen psychic defenses but would also help in improving mana control.
Once the setting up was finished, Mario offered Miranda one of the chairs he'd brought out. "First, I'd like to have your word that nothing of what we say or do in here gets out." His expression had become more serious since he'd stepped into the chamber. "I don't trust Kim enough to even propose this to her, and though I haven't tested it, I don't want the wrong kind of person getting any ideas."
"Sure." Miranda took the seat, raising her right hand as she cast a binding oath on herself. "I hereby swear to never reveal any new information regarding magic or technology that I learn from you tonight to anyone either directly or indirectly unless you've given me the express permission to do so. And so I swear." The flash of blue signaled that the oath had been properly cast.
His expression turned wry for a moment but he shook his head. "That spell doesn't smell good." He mumbled, taking his own seat.
"I think that's the best I could've hoped for." Sighing, he placed his hands on the table. "For starters, I'll have to say that we have a confirmation of where Sakuya's being held. The bond had been restored for a moment and I managed to get some information out of her memories."
Now it was Miranda's turn to grimace slightly. As much as Sakuya's kidnapping had hurt Mario, it had also pushed him into becoming stronger at a rate she doubted he could've managed under other circumstances.
She remained silent rather than answer, preferring to wait and see if he had anything else to add.
"We came in contact with someone that had already pointed us at the location as the most likely place to find her a while back, but Sakuya's memories confirmed it. It's not somewhere you can just waltz into. There are powerful wards for both protection and concealment all over it." Shaking his head, he leaned back in his chair. "We had already started staking out one of the minor entrances of the place… it's got so many spells on it I can practically taste it from three blocks over."
"I see." Miranda nodded knowingly. "So you want me to help you design a way to break the spells?"
He shared a worried look with Hecate and shook his head. "No, I think I've already managed that." Slowly, almost afraid of showing it, Mario brought out a single sheet of paper and handed it over to Miranda. "I want you to help me make it so my spell doesn't kill us all along the way."
Frowning, the archmage looked at the drawing of nearly thirty interwoven spells. At first she couldn't quite make heads or tails of it as the pattern appeared to be flawed, the very design making it impossible for the energy to saturate the whole of the spell simultaneously, but would rather to pulse through it… Also the weave of the end connected with the beginning so the magic would cycle back through it, the drawing though flat, was clearly intended as a three-dimensional object.
As she focused on certain areas, she began to understand; one spell meant to detect the nearest available source for mana, the next to attack it with a tiny burst of magic. The next series of spells were meant to suck in the energy that had been released, and use that energy to duplicate the entirety of the spell as it cycled back into its first spell set.
Slowly, she began to comprehend the principle behind it, her eyes becoming broader as she went over it again.
Finally, almost with shaking hands, she put the paper down, looking straight into Mario's eyes. "What is this?"
His expression was a wary one as he sighed. "I view magic as a form of computer programming." He commented calmly. "The way I see it, spells like 'Fire ball' or 'Detect life' are the equivalent of simple commands."
His eyes closed for a moment. "Then we've got slightly more complex spells, such as 'Trapped sigil' where an explosion spell is bound to a detection spell that goes along the lines of 'If someone reads this…'." With a slight shrug, Mario made a gesture towards the piece of paper. "I took the next logical step and created a loop function, having the spell repeat itself until the conditions are met or until it runs out of magic. A bit trickier since you can't have all of it turns on at the same time or it won't work."
"But this…" She gestured at the paper again.
"That is the design for what I believe to be the equivalent to a magical virus. It targets sources with mana and either absorbs it if it's unbound mana or chips away at it while replicating itself over and over again with the chunks that have been released." He scratched his head and groaned. "Which is the reason for my fear, unlike a normal computer program; magic has immediate effects in the real world. Basically, I think that what I really made is more akin to magically fueled grey goo. So long as a single copy of the spell remained active near a mana source of any form, it'll continue replicating itself until there's no magic left to draw from."
Miranda frowned, looking at the spell again, this time focusing on the delaying spells.
"The cycle is made so it repeats itself twenty times per second, but the few tests I've done on looped magic have led me to believe it could go at least ten times faster than that without needing to stabilize it." Mario spoke out, appearing to read her intentions. "I haven't tested consumption at that level of complexity, but I estimate it'd have enough to sustain a copy of the spell per cubic foot even in places with irregularly low levels of natural occurring mana."
"In theory, a dispel technique would be useless against it since it's just a pulse of energy. The spell would just use the energy to keep duplicating itself." He shook his head. "As far as I could guess, the only true way to stop it would be to either disrupt the entirety of the spell at the same time or to isolate it from any and all mana sources for long enough for it to die out… only a kissitalcoatl is known to be able to do that naturally."
"Though there are a couple minor mistakes that are relatively easy to fix…" Glancing at the piece of paper one last time, Miranda put it down and smiled broadly. "…I think it's safe to say you can consider yourself a true wizard now." She swelled with pride. "Congratulations."
Everyone went quiet; it was so silent you could hear a pin drop a mile away.
Eyes wide as plates, Mario and Hecate could only blink in surprise.
"Wait… what?"
Practically puffing her chest out in delight, Miranda beamed. "You can't really be considered a true wizard until you've found at least one way you could potentially end the world on your own." She sighed contentedly. "For me it was when I figured out to create a resonance with the Earth's core and cause it to shake violently enough that it'd leave everyone playing 'the floor is lava' within a day. It's such a rush!"
Mario and Hecate blinked, slowly this time.
"Oh, don't give me that look, you'll make me blush." Miranda waved them off. "I must admit yours is among the most energy efficient ways of pulling it off. Most don't try using the Earth's mana as a resource in the design to end all life on the planet since though vast you'd need to draw from large areas to have something useful."
She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I'm just surprised no one's made a thesis about this method yet… though considering I haven't even heard of magic being structured as anything other than as a flat design, I figure no one's found out about it either."
Mario blinked. "Wait, thesis!? As in a published paper? Wizards publish papers detailing ways to end the world!?"
"Well… we don't go around shouting it to anyone that could hear…" She muttered. "Most of our research is kept secret, but at the very least we usually share with one another most of the 'ways to end the world' we discover."
Miranda closed her eyes thoughtfully. "After that point, we try figuring out a way to stop the hypothetical 'End' from happening out of what you'd call a combined desire of curiosity and survival…" Her chuckles turned into a giggle. "As of right now, I think it's the only tried and true way to get a mage to share spells and information with anyone that's not their student or apprentice."
"I… uh… ok…?" He seemed at a loss for words, flopping back into his chair and staring at Miranda blankly. "This isn't very reassuring to tell the truth."
"Don't fret over it." She quickly waved him off, still beaming with an almost too broad smile. "I don't think you ought to share this one just yet though, at least not until we find a working way to contain or stop it on your own." Bringing up the piece of paper, she hummed a little tune. "But when the time comes, I'd like to be the one to introduce you. To think my little boy grew up so fast…"
Mario and Hecate shared a shudder and an overwhelming sense of doom. With just an exchange of gazes, the both of them had already agreed that this was not an agreeable situation to be in.
"Anyway, this spell wouldn't be one you'd want to use." Miranda chirped out, taking some paper herself and quickly beginning to draw. "But I think I've got a couple things up my sleeve that would be perfect to use with your looped structure."
Her grin broadened just past what was possible for a human as she excitedly wrote her ideas down. "Let's get to work!"
+-+-+-+-+-STORY END-+-+-+-+-+
+-+-+-+-+-CURRENT HAREM-+-+-+-+-+
-SAKUYA (Dark Kitsune)(Missing)
-VERDE (Hun)(Alpha)
-CORONA (Pinielf)
-JADE (Eelara, aka: Marylith, Laplass)
-HECATE (G-Splice)
+-+-+-+-+-A.R.-+-+-+-+-+
(Author's Replies)
Vendettadabeast: Hahahaha, just because I mentioned we'd see more of Ranko didn't mean she'd be in the attack. Remember that Ranko and Sakuya were "Lent" to a certain yakuza clan in the previous series... Also, remember that pokegirl that had screwed up and made it so Mario ended up getting detained by the police? Well, SHE is the one that got 5ed and stuffed into a pokeball (the glowy horny bullet-proof pokegirl to be more precise).
Also, it wasn't JUST a Romanticide, it was a CHARRED one (she hit Sakuya through her shadow after all), which made the fight that much more awesome (in my head at least). Mario and Verde taking a job has its reasons other than money... I'll let you guess at that.
jdub1597: Agreed that Mario needs to improve survival capabilities, he'll get there... just remember that most forms of armour are either too heavy to have any form of manoeuvrability (for a human) and doesn't give enough protection to merit such a reduction in speed/agility (for a human).
Unwanted Empathy: Remember the handgun Mario found at the police department? Well, THAT'S what he used to blow the first girl's brains out. That said, as you might have noticed, I'm doing a bit of time skips here and there, I'm hastening it all up and trying to keep all the important/interesting parts.
And as you might have guessed at, Mario's already preparing his arsenal. He might not have much energy to use, but Dream Time lets him design a whole lot of fun ways to make things... interesting. Just remember it's been over a week since Imagine Pokegirls, so it'd be hard to get THAT much of a power boost (though getting formal training on how to cast spells has helped LOTS in that regard).
A Whimsical Seishin: You'll get to fully see what it's done to her, and as a contrast, Ranko's been reduced to a pleasure maid, something that's also messing with her head in a rather different way... which is slightly sad considering no one's really trying to rescue her...
cko2: Though I agree he's been somewhat of an idiot... it pains me to do so since... well, he's technically me in a way... but yeah, that's what's been happening in a way, he could've just fucked himself into having an army at this point but it's not the way he does things.
That said, remember that though Mario's had a rather interesting book about magic to read from for quite some time, he hasn't had the ability to do anything about it... think of it like having an engineer being able to draw up all the designs he could want but not really having anything to build them until NOW.
Example: PTD is "Partial Dream Time", it's something with a lot of potential that he didn't have actual access to until recently, and as stated in the story, he hasn't even fully mastered it yet.
+-+-+-+-+-W.C.-+-+-+-+-+
(Writers comments)
Another day another chapter... TMF helped me beta it as always (even when he's gona get laser vision!) to which it's much appreciated. And I've confirmed with him of my very own super power! Amnesia!
Apparently some of the stuff that I've shown have been forgotten, such as the fact that Mario got the firearm at the police station and that he's been messing around with Dream Time and that little glowing pendant on multiple occasions. So I'm betting that there are other very... fun details that'll come to light latter on that you most likely didn't expect! (muahahaha).
If you're new to the story, I'd suggest reading the previous series, though it's much slower than this one... so read at your own peril!
Schedule for chapter updates as of yet remains an unknown (TMF's laser vision could put a damper on it since he could potentially destroy his computer while betaing my mess of a story) and it'll be an update by update struggle for the time being... will try to speed things up back on track though.
Oh, yeah, as to the story... I originally intended to extend Ranko's scene to show all the... messy details, but after having half-written it up I wanted to jump off a building. Basically she's raped over and over and forced to physically enjoy it by the collar, it's... it's ugly. Maybe next time I'll be able to better stomach it and write it properly.
Also, yes, when the crazy reality that is magic is a part of the world, it's only a matter of time before someone finds a NEW way to blast everything to smithereens (I mean, come on! Even without magic our world is pretty fragile and could come to a near end by a myriad of reasons out of our control!), so yeah, it's kind of an initiation thing amongst the more knowledgeable mages to reveal a way to destroy all life on the planet... to then everyone else try to find a way to avoid such a thing from happening and putting up the proper defences to ensure it doesn't occur.
Ah, and Travis and his brother are the agents sent by Cologne to hunt Jack, they may become important if they prove half competent as I imagine they are...
