Hey Guys, another short author note here. Please keep spreading the story around! It is recieving more and more views so I thank you for that! Also please leave reviews! I much enjoy feedback and haven't gotten a whole lot of it, especially recently. Anyways here is the next chapter and I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 11
Milla awoke with a shudder as an early morning breeze washed over her. She felt strangely cold. The fire must not have lasted the night. As she gathered her bearings, she realized that the fire wasn't the only thing missing; Jude was as well. Where could he have gone? It was still early morning, so she doubted he could have gotten far. When she managed to get to her feet, she felt her stomach grumble viciously. I can't think of food right now! She almost yelled at herself, I have to find Jude.
Her thoughts were answered by a not-so-reassuring commotion deeper into the cave. Jude! She hoped he hadn't gotten himself into mischief. She grabbed her sword from its resting place near the wall and hurried towards the sound of falling rocks.
As she dashed around a corner; she collided with Jude, causing them both to be thrown air-born for a few moments.
They hit the ground with a thud. "Ow! Milla! What's the hurry?" Jude said as he pulled a rock out from under his back.
Embarrassed at her lapse in concentration, she quickly scrambled off of Jude. "I heard a ruckus, so naturally I assumed you were in trouble." She said as she dusted herself off.
"Yeah. Sorry about that." Jude said, pulling himself to his feet. "I had a run in with a Tortoise- turns out my combat skills are a little rusty."
Milla cocked her head. "Rusty, huh? I was unaware that the human body had the ability to oxidize."
He laughed. "That's not what I meant. Of course the human body can't rust."
"Ah, so it's just an expression then?" Milla said with a smile. "In any case, we can't have you being 'rusty', now can we?"
Jude smirked. "I suppose not." He said as he resumed walking towards their campsite. "We had better get going; I figure we can reach Helioborg Fortress before lunch."
Milla nodded in agreement. "Why are we stopping there? The portal to the Land of Canaan is in Maxbard right?" She didn't want to take any unnecessary detours as they were already running behind.
Jude shook his head. "Origin sealed the portal after our adventure six years ago. A slight dimensional scar is all that remains of it now." He explained, "I believe I can force that scar open with the dagger that was forged from Muzét's power."
"Hmm, interesting idea." Milla said, putting her hand to her chin. "So I take it you kept the dagger in your office then."
Jude nodded. "I've kept it safely locked away all these years. The power to tear through space and time should never be used lightly." He packed up his few belongings and grabbed his canteen. "Well, we should be off. We have a long day ahead of us."
"Agreed."
About two hours later, Jude and Milla arrived at the black steel doors of the Helioborg Fortress. Jude swiped his ID card on a scanner and the door creaked open.
"The Spyrite Laboratory is on the far side of the complex, and my office is on the second floor." Jude said.
"Lead on." Milla gestured towards the looming buildings of the fortress. She was quite relived to be back amongst civilization. Their long trek through the wilderness had been quite labor intensive and the barren highlands of Elympios had been littered with monsters. She noticed Jude's reflexes had indeed been slower than she remembered them, but he had regained much of his speed with each battle they fought.
"Alright. This way." Jude headed into the fortress, leading her down one alleyway to the next. Slowly, they wormed their way towards the spyrite research center.
"This is the largest Spyrite Laboratory in Elympios." Jude commented. It felt as if he was giving Milla a tour, which made him smile slightly. Of course she had been here before, but much had changed in recent years. "Ah, here we are."
They stopped in front of one of the larger buildings. And Jude swiped his ID card once more to gain entry. When they walked inside, Milla was quite pleased to see people busily going about their lives. Some were messing with complex machinery that she could not begin to discern the purpose of, while others were performing tests on lesser spyrites. She smirked slightly; this was just the kind of place she imagined Jude would be working in.
"Doctor Jude!"
Jude and Milla turned to see a young and quite ecstatic researcher approaching them. The woman was dressed in a white lab coat, was slightly taller than Milla, and had fiery, scarlet colored bangs that framed her face with vermilion tresses that were messily bound into a ponytail on the top of her head. Her skin looked remarkably soft and her eyes were a bright crimson that matched her hair. She appeared to be no more than 23 years of age, which made her slightly older than Jude.
Evidently Jude knew who she was, for he responded "Hello Cynthia, how have things been while I was away?"
Cynthia smiled brightly. "Quite productive actually, we managed to increase the compatibility rate between spyrites and their human counterparts by almost 10 percent." She directed them to a computer terminal and began pulling up info on their recent endeavors. "What brings you back so soon? I thought you were going to be gone for at least two weeks."
Jude faltered for a second. "Yeah… we had quite the turn of events. Anyway, I won't be here for long, I just needed to stop by and pick up a few things."
Cynthia nodded; still busy inputting information into the computer. "Here it is!" She said, and gestured for Jude to take a look. "These are our research logs from the past 5 days."
Jude sighed; as she clearly hadn't caught on to the whole 'we are short on time' tone he had been using.
Milla noticed his reluctance, "Go ahead Jude, we can spare a few minutes here."
He nodded a 'thank you' and began examining the readouts on the computer monitor, muttering to himself as he read.
Milla began examining a spyrite on a nearby table while she waited for Jude and Cynthia to finish. The creature was quite small and emitted a bright light from its fur, not to mention the strong mana influx that she could feel around it. They were quite extraordinary creations, and she couldn't help but marvel at the ingeniousness of humanity.
"Amazing!" She heard Jude exclaim when he concluded his analysis. "I can't believe that you were able to make so much progress in such a short time."
Cynthia laughed, "That's my job! I was actually wondering if I could begin experiments on a few of the greater spirit spyrites. I believe with the advancements we have made, we could potentially make them less dangerous to tether with."
Jude hesitated for a moment. "Hmm, greater sprit spyrites are a whole different story. Simply reviving one without proper precautions could be disastrous." He put his hand to his chin. "I would prefer to be around for this type of experiment, but considering the circumstances…"
Milla could see conflict play out on his face. She knew he wanted to make as much progress with spyrites as possible, but he also knew the risks involved with hasty experimentation. "Perhaps it would be wise to advise caution in this instance." She chimed in. "Perchance with a few Spirit channelers on standby and ample security precautions such an experiment could be attempted."
Jude nodded in agreement. "Yes, it would have to be a very secure location with multiple personnel on standby. Perhaps it would be best to begin with one of the more docile greater spirit spyrites we have uncovered recently, possibly Aska?"
Cynthia seemed put-out by the apparent lack of confidence that Jude had in her abilities, or at least that's how it appeared. "Alright… when can I begin?" She said with sigh.
"I'll have Aska delivered to your lab, you can begin tomorrow." Jude replied, effectively dismissing Cynthia.
She nodded and turned towards the door. Once she was out of earshot, Milla commented to Jude "She seemed disappointed."
Jude nodded with a sigh, "Yeah, she is always so zealous in her research. She makes remarkable progress in short periods of time, but I don't want her to make a dreadful mistake by advancing too hurriedly."
Milla followed Jude up the stairs and into his office, which was larger than she expected. In the center of the grey walled room there was a desk with a computer sitting on it, some writing utensils, a label that read 'Dr. Mathis' in bright gold lettering, and a black box that Milla assumed was a communications unit of some kind. There was a window to the left, which looked out over the expanse of Helioborg Fortress. On the right wall there was a vault that was the size of a small walk-in closet. She watched as Jude punched in some numbers into the keypad and put his hand to a scanner, causing the door to lurch open with a hiss.
Jude disappeared within for a few moments, and emerged with two items in hand: the dimensional dagger and a spyrite casing that she assumed contained Aska's spirit fossil. She had never met Aska before, as its' fossil had only been found in the last year. She wondered what kind of Spirit it was; so far she had been continuously surprised by the personalities of these ancient greater spirits.
Jude noticed her staring at the casing, and explained "We have found a total of four greater spirits' fossils throughout the entirety of our years researching spyrites. The first two were Celsius and Volt, and just recently we unearthed two more. We uncovered Shadow two years back and Aska most recently. We know they are greater spirits from our first attempts to tether with them, which proved ultimately unsuccessful. Shadow proved much harder to control and was barely contained, while Aska was much more compliant." He went over to his desk and pressed a button on the black box, which emitted a quiet buzzing sound.
Before long, there was a knock on Jude's door, and three uniformed guards came in. The first stepped up and politely asked, "What can we assist you with Doctor Mathis?"
Jude walked over to him and handed him the spyrite casing. "I need you to see to it that this is safely delivered to Cynthia's research lab, it must be kept under watch at all times, and could potentially be very dangerous."
"Yes sir." The guard answered, and then proceeded out of the room with his companions.
Jude turned to Milla. "Well, now that that's all taken care of we can be on our way. Are you hungry? We could stop for some lunch before departing towards Trigleph."
Milla smiled. "You know how much I enjoy human food Jude. Of course I wouldn't mind stopping for lunch."
Jude raised an eyebrow at her. "And here I thought it was only my cooking that you liked."
They both laughed for a moment before making their way out of the building and set a course for the nearest food vendor.
