"I'm sorry I couldn't have been of more help, Climb-kun. You guys were all out here fighting demons while I was bumming around at Gazef's."
Brain shoveled up a spade full of debris and dumped it into a steadily growing pile. Several men were doing the same thing within the ruins of the business district. Climb worked alongside him.
"N-No, please Brain-sama, I under-"
"-But I really did mess up…"
Brain chuckled ruefully.
"I thought that I would be ready next time I encountered a monster like Shalltear, but I just didn't expect to find one only minutes after finally getting back on my feet. I guess it was still just a little bit too much for me at that time. This world can be so cruel."
Climb nodded slowly.
"How is your sword coming along."
Brain's eyes lit up. He bowed to Climb.
"I must thank her highness again for paying for the repairs. That sword is my soul. I dropped by the blacksmith's before coming here, it's almost done being reforged."
Climb nodded and they both went back to silently working. Several minutes passed by until Climb remembered something.
"Do you know what the 'four fundamental forces of nature' are?"
"Huh?"
"It was something that Rhamnusia said after he caught my sword as well. He said that he was able to do it by exploiting 'his second favourite of the four fundamental forces of nature' and that it was 'simple science'. It might be something important, or it might give us a clue on how to defeat him."
Brain pouted in concentration.
"Hmmmmmm...nope, I've got nothing."
"I see…"
"But I do know someone who might be more knowledgeable in the subject."
"Who?"
Brain chuckled painfully and rubbed his arm, as if remembering old wounds.
"She's an old crone, but she packs quite the punch. She gave me her address last time we parted in case I ever wanted to drop by and spar with her again, hehe."
"Where does she live?"
"Well, the address she gave me was kind of vague, but she apparently likes to hang around down south. I'm sure I could find her if I just looked around a bit."
Brain planted his shovel down and wiped the sweat from his brow, he smiled.
"Brain-sama?"
"It's a long journey, but perhaps that's just what I need."
He chuckled.
"And besides, as much as appreciate her highness's kindness, the blacksmiths here in Re-Estize probably won't be able to do my katana any justice. Yes, a trip down south is probably exactly what I need."
...
Standing against the backdrop of Moot village, the alien looking fence appeared at first glance to be a somewhat ineffective barrier.
Most fences made of metal used either small latus patterns or tightly arrayed vertical pikes in order to prevent them from being scaled, but the fence constructed on the rims of the volcanic caldera of Moot Village looked like it was almost encouraging it.
Standing at the height of three meters, it was constructed of two dozen steel cables that ran across its length horizontally like the steps of a ladder. And with no added vertical or horizontal lines other than the steel posts which supported the cables, it looked rather easy to climb, but that was what made it dangerous.
Niven turned to Vera and they knelt down to examine the cables of the fence.
"This is the furthest spot from the alternator, go ahead and check the levels, Miss Vera."
"Right."
What she was about to do would be considered suicide if performed by anyone but her. She focused and gently outstretched her hands. She took a deep breath and gripped one of the cables with both of her hands.
[Flow Control]
A flood of electrons entered through her hands and ran through her body and into the ground. She focused and guided the flow through her body, steering it away from her vital organs and nervous system, and providing it an external path across her skin. It was a technique she had been trying to master, and even though she had a strong natural affinity was towards lightning, electrons in an alternating current had a habit of being rather unruly.
Faint fractal patterns started to burn into her skin, but she ignored the pain and kept going. She was paying close attention to the amount of oscillating current flowing through her.
Hmmm… That's still quite a lot, I didn't expect that such a simple thing as alternating the direction of the current would be so effective at overcoming resistance. I'm sensing that this level of oscillating current would definitely be lethal if given free reign through a body…
She let go of the cable and started to heal her light burns. She then turned to Niven.
"The current here is more than adequate now, I doubt anyone will try to get into the village after touching the electric fence."
Niven nodded and they both started to head back to the village. She watched the back of the boy's head as they descended down the hillside.
What I probably shouldn't tell him is that this is probably a little bit more than just a deterrent... Anyone who grabs it probably won't be able to escape once the current contracts their hand muscles.
It had been several weeks since the demonic disturbance, and after returning to Moot, things had been relatively quiet.
Niven pulled out a small, leather bound notebook from his side pouch. Written entirely in English, it contained a multitude of plans concerning the development of Moot Village, and with nothing else to do, Vera and Niven had taken the liberty slowly turning it's contents into reality.
The setting sun just fell below the ridge of the caldera and Moot was washed with shadow.
The two of them suddenly stopped when they saw this and turned their gazes to the windows of the buildings below them. They were both waiting for something to happen.
Vera turned to Niven, "You remembered to set the timer right?"
He nodded, "Yeah, it should be synced to go off right after the sun falls behind the ridge."
There had been several test runs on earlier nights, but the two of them hadn't had very much luck so far.
They waited in silence for a few more minutes. And then finally -
All the windows of Moot Village simultaneously glowed with yellow light coming from within the buildings.
They both continued to watch and whispered under their breath, "...come on...work…"
The waited for a few more seconds and suddenly they heard the cheers of the villagers.
Niven and Vera jumped and smiled.
"Yes! They didn't blow out this time! Lets go check it out!"
They ran down to the village and the villagers were coming out of their houses, faces full of joy. They called out to the pair and congratulated them.
"Nice job you two! The lights didn't explode this time!"
They giggled and Vera turned to Niven.
"I'm going to go check on the generator to make sure everything is alright."
"Hai."
They nodded and went their separate ways.
Niven ran to the building that contained the laboratory. He flung the door open and smiled when he saw that room was glowing not by the light of a candle, but from a glass orb anchored into the ceiling.
He then turned to a small switch that had been fastened into the wall. He flipped it several times and squealed with joy when the light turned on and off again.
"This is so cool! This invention will change everything!"
He trotted up to the back room and knocked the shut door.
"Master! Master! We finally got the lightbulbs to work!"
There was no reply from the door, but that was to be expected. It had only been opened a scant few times in the last several weeks.
The silence had seemingly no effect on the gleefully smiling boy and he continued to talk with enthusiasm.
"And the alternator thing that worked super well too! Miss Vera said that we have more than adequate current on the fence around the entire perimeter of the village!"
He suddenly stopped, as if remembering something.
"Oh! Hold on for a second! I wanted a find a way to cheer you up so I went ahead and made the thing you wrote about in the notebook called 'soda.' So just hold on a second."
Niven hurried over to one end of the lab to the thing called the "Kipps Apparatus". A strange piece of glassware that consisted of the glass bulbs that formed what almost looked like an oddly shaped glass snowman with a tube sticking out of its side. The middle bulb contained chunks of a granular white substance known as calcium carbonate.
Niven poured in hydrochloric acid from the top and the clear liquid rushed in to mix with the calcium carbonate.
As the substances were mixing, he then hurried over to the other side of the lab to get a flask of a dark brown liquid that smelled very sweet. He had painstakingly gathered and mixed over 27 different ingredients and flavours over several days to create the liquid.
He brought it to the glass snowman and plunged the tube into the flask. Bubbles of carbon dioxide started to bubble through the liquid and slowly dissolve.
He waited for several more minutes before pulling the tube out.
He poured the now fizzy liquid into a large glass.
He walked over to the door once more.
"M-Master? I made the beverage."
A hoarse voice came from the other side of the door. It was the first time he had heard since coming back to Moot Village.
"Did you carbonate it?"
"Hai."
The door slowly creaked open. A pair of eyes peeked out from behind and looked at the glass of liquid in Niven's hands. The door immediately shut closed again.
"I remembered drawing a diagram of the container it was supposed to be served in."
"Y-Yeah I saw the drawing, a-and I went ahead and had Mr. Faber make the container as well, but…"
"But?"
"But polyethylene is valuable and super hard to make...we dehydrated all of our alcohol just to make the container...so shouldn't we save it for something super important-"
"-Just...Just put it in the bottle Niven. It's important."
"Hai…"
Niven walked back over to the other end of the laboratory and revealed an alien object, a plastic bottle.
He undid the plastic cap that had been specifically dyed red and poured the fizzy liquid inside. He then put the cap back on and walked back over to the door.
"It's in the bottle now."
The door opened once more and a hand quickly snatched the bottle in a blur of motion before the door closed once more.
...
Stockwell leaned up against the backside of the door and took a deep breath.
He was in terrible shape.
His skin was sickly pale and his cheeks were hollow. He had barely eaten anything in the last several weeks and his limbs were weak with atrophy. His hair had grown out, and it was almost grey in its entirety. He had maybe only a few hairs that were still brown.
He sat with his back to the door, surrounded by half-eaten trays of food and buckets full of excrement.
Jaldabaoth's words continued to echo in his mind.
"You're Welcome."
The demon had truly one him a great service. In that moment, the demon had stripped away his insanity, but it that was only to prepare his mind for the demon's next gift. He had bestowed upon him an image of absolute power, an omnipotent evil, and an impassable obstacle.
The image of Jaldabaoth bringing his hand to his forehead vividly appeared in his mind. The two gently cocked fingers would flick off his head and grant him a certain death.
So why even try to escape? Why was he even alive? Was it because Jaldabaoth had shown him pity? Was it because Momon had somehow saved him?
He didn't know. All he knew was that he would never be able to defeat that demon no matter how hard he tried. Death had written his name in his notebook the moment Jaldabaoth flicked him away, he was now just living on borrowed time.
"It's just too unfair…"
Perhaps Jaldabaoth's goal was to simply make him suffer in his own powerlessness.
He held up the plastic bottle of dark liquid. It reminded him of home, a place where there was more plastic than fish in the oceans, and where the demons in stories were always defeated in the end.
He chuckled painfully, remembering what Niven had just said.
"Heh, valuable. Mom died making the damn things. Mom…"
Why was he alive again? Wasn't it to kill the demons who boasted their power? To punish those who fall victim to hubris? To kill those who think they're gods because because they were born with a little bit of power?
"No…I just wanted to feel powerful again…"
Yes, he hated that feeling of powerlessness, that feeling that someone else is dictating your life that you have no control over.
"But what's wrong with that!? What's wrong with wanting to regain control!? You laughed at me when brought me into this world! This unfair! Horrible! Terrible world! Why!? Did you just expect me to just accept it!? To roll over and die in your hands!?"
He began to sob.
"All I wanted was to finish my quest and finally go to rest."
Jaldabaoth's image appeared in his mind once more.
"How cruel of you... to reveal your hand like that for right when I was finally regaining some control…"
He slumped over.
"Was it hubris? Is that why? Was it wrong to try to fight gods with my lowly human body? A 74 kilogram bag of mostly water trying to fight the gods...Haha...I'm so stupid…just let me rest already…."
He looked up to the shelves around him, he was in the storage room after all. Hydrogen peroxide, arsenic trichloride, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, potassium chlorate, sulfuric acid. Maybe he would finally be able to find peace at the bottom of one of those jars.
"It would be so easy…"
He realised that he was still holding the bottle that Niven had just given him. The boy's smile appeared in his mind.
A smile untainted by evil, one that reflected a boy whose only joy was learning about the world and proudly reciting his findings to his mother.
It was a smile he had lost at the hands of injustice long ago.
"I…"
He tore his eyes away from the shelves.
"I don't want to loose it again."
They were being hunted down by Renner's secret masters. People associated with that demon, people who've come from earth and brought a sniper rifle with them. Yes, should he die here, Niven would never be able to smile like that again. It would only be a matter of time until he was cornered and tortured of all his information.
"Yes, of course, that's the kind of world this is."
And it wasn't just Niven either. Vera, Mr. Faber, the villagers. They all appeared in his mind. They were pleading him to stay..
"But what am I supposed to do against that? And that demon can't be the only thing that god has up his sleeve for me."
Wesley.
He didn't know were his mother's voice ended and Vera's began.
You're so smart, I'm sure you're going to change the world one day.
Yes, she was right.
He leaned back and mimicked a news cast that he had heard.
"Wesley Asimov Stockwell, finder of the first stable ultra heavy element. Inventor and scientist who paved the way to modern unified field theory and lossless fusion reactors. The man who had allowed mankind to start taking leaps and bounds to the heavens. The man whose net worth is in the hundreds of billions, and whose mind is priceless."
For the first time in several weeks, he smiled.
He twirled the bottle a little and then gently loosened the cap. He listened to the hiss of the carbon dioxide escaping. The sound brought an inexplicable peace that made him chuckle.
"Hehe, Wesley Asimov Stockwell, also a pavlovian dog who's conditioned to the sound of CO2 escaping a bottle."
He brought the bottle to his lips and drank. He downed it one go.
A small burp escaped his body, and with it, any lingering hesitation.
"Fuck it. I'm more vindictive than cautious anyways."
He made a point of disgracefully throwing the bottle into the corner.
He opened the door and walked out into the lab.
"The first thing I did after buying PepsiCo was dig up their secret recipe for Dr. Pepper and commit it to memory. So either my encyclopedic memory is waning a bit after all of these years or you simply mixed the ingredients incorrectly my boy. It tasted like shit."
Niven jumped out of his chair in response to the voice. He smiled with glee when he saw his master standing in the doorway.
"Master!"
He ran towards him but stopped halfway. He pinched his nose, but he was still smiling.
"You should probably take a bath."
Stockwell laughed tiredly
"Yes...I've a mountain of things that could use a good cleansing. Also, get me some parchment and some pencils."
...
Vera lazily swung her legs back and forth as she sat atop a workbench in Mr. Faber's workshop. She often found herself bumming around the blacksmith's workshop over the last several weeks whenever she and Niven weren't working on something.
The blacksmith came over to her.
"If you're not doing anything at the moment lass, could you go ahead and coat this for me?"
"Hm?"
The blacksmith placed a bucket of clear-brown liquid on the bench along with a brush. He then placed in front of her some kind of large wooden item. She realised it was the stock of a firearm.
She gestured to the bucket.
"What is it?"
"It's varnish, it'll extend the life of the wood."
"Hai…"
Vera nodded and picked up the brush. She began to coat the wood as directed. The blacksmith gave her a nod and went back to his work.
I don't know much about smithing, but that has to be pretty amazing, right?
She was watching how well Mr. Faber was boring out musket barrels. He was using a mechanical lathe in conjunction with his [Greater Shape Metal] to efficiently make the holes.
"Say, Mr. Faber."
The blacksmith responded without looking away from his work,
"What is it lass?"
"Why do you follow Wesley? I'm sure you know what these are capable of and what they're being used for."
The blacksmith continued his methodical work pace.
"I could ask the same question of you lass. Why do you follow Mr. Stockwell?"
"I…"
Vera stopped her brushing for a second and thought.
"I guess I had my own personal reasons at first, I thought he was...well... I'm not so sure now…"
The pair continued to work in silence, listing only to the soft mechanical hum of the lathe.
"But I think now...now it's more like I just want to be there for him. I've seen first hand what he's been through and also what he's capable of. Or maybe I just simply have nowhere else to go or that I simply feel like he'll kill himself If I don't keep an eye on him."
She then let of a wry smile and shivered a little bit.
"I'm discovering new powers every day because of the knowledge and weapons he's shared with me. Maybe...maybe all it is is that I'm just secretly selfish and just want to see how powerful I can get."
The blacksmith nodded silently.
"An honest answer."
He completed the barrel he was working on and took it off the lathe. He examined it and blew out the metal fragments.
"As for me, It's much the same reason. I also want to see how powerful these weapons can get."
"Even if you know that your creations are killing people?"
The blacksmith chuckled and continued.
"Hehe, I've been making tools of killing long before Mr. Stockwell showed up. If I had a moral dilemma every time I made I sword, then just where would I be? No, weapons are just weapons lass, without them, people would still try to kill each other, only that they would then be using rocks, now how horrible would that be? At least this way there's a little more dignity and a little less suffering."
Vera nodded after contemplating the blacksmith's words for a while.
"I see…"
"And besides, much like you, I'm always interested to see what new fascinating project or tool that scientist will place in front of me. I must say, it is rather fun to test my limits as a smith. Hahaha!"
The blacksmith let of a hearty laugh and moved on to the next cylinder of metal that would eventually become a musket.
The continued to work in silence for a long time, meditating on the methodical sounds of varish being brushed across a wooden surface, or the soft hum of a mechanical lathe quietly spinning away.
She looked up when she noticed the door creak open. She nearly dropped the piece of wood when she saw who came walking in through the open doorway.
"Wesley!"
Stockwell gave her a nod and she rushed over to him.
"Wesley! Are you okay!? How are you feeling!?"
The blacksmith turned and smiled when he saw the man back on his feet.
Stockwell politely pushed her off of him and continued.
"I'm fine now, thank you for your concern."
He revealed several rolled up pieces of parchment.
"We can talk of pleasantries later, right now I'm in the mindset of getting right back down to business."
The blacksmith started walking over and gave him a confident nod.
"Vera, I think it's about time you really started getting serious about learning about electromagnetism."
"Hah!? Then are you telling me that-"
She was recalling all of the intense lecturing she had received about the subject regarding the true nature of electricity and electrons.
"Yes, you have only begun to scratch the surface. So far you know what electrons, charges, and ions are and how they act for the most part, and you also know about the relationship between current and magnetic fields and can manipulate them."
"How much more is there!?"
"Lot actually. So far you've been relying on your natural affinity towards lightning to sense and manipulate electrons and their corresponding magnetic fields which is all fine and dandy, but It's clear to me that you're still missing a lot of things that should theoretically be within your field of expertise. I imagine you would be a lot more precise and efficient with your control if you really started to internalize this…"
He handed her a piece of parchment and she unrolled it. She was horrified at what she saw. She couldn't even begin to guess at what the markings meant.
"What…"
Stockwell saw her face and chuckled.
"Are physics equations really that scary? Those are just the five simple ones too. They're the four Maxwell equations along with the Lorentz's force equation, it should be a good start for you."
Vera stared at the tiny piece of parchment. It wasn't just a matter of her not being able to read English, in fact, he had the feeling that even those who could read English wouldn't even be able to understand the five strings of alien characters.
"Don't worry, it really is simpler than it looks. I'm sure you'll understand what they mean after a good month of tutoring."
Vera simply gulped and nodded.
The scientist then turned to the blacksmith.
"As for you, Mr. Faber, I've got a couple of projects I'd like you to take a look at."
The blacksmith nodded and waited.
"The first one is pretty simple, you'll probably be done in half an hour with your skills."
He handed him the hilt of his broken dagger.
"The blade was completely shattered, I'd like it if you could replace it with a styglight one."
The blacksmith took the hilt and nodded.
"No problem at all, what's the second project?"
Stockwell flashed a fiendish smile.
"This project isn't for the faint of heart, It'll probably take several months and we'll likely fail many times."
Mr. Faber let off a hearty laugh and smiled.
"Those are the best kind of projects!"
"Then I wish you luck. Here are the plans to project dragonfly."
He handed him a large piece of parchment and he unrolled it. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he say the sketches. He then started to laugh lightly.
"Project dragonfly indeed."
...
On the night of the Demonic Disturbance
Evileye weaved through the corridors of the compound, retracing her steps to the entrance. She suddenly saw dozens of ex-adventurers and mercenaries approach her from up ahead, she recognized them as Raeven's men.
She called out to them.
"Don't come this way! Rhamnusia is here!"
"We know."
She suddenly realized that they were holding muskets and pistols.
"What-"
Bang-B-B-B-Bang-Bang-B-Bang.
The vampire fell backwards.
The men exchanged glances.
"I think we just killed an adamantite adventurer…"
One of the men approached the body and prodded it with the barrel of his musket. And after it didn't move, he knelt down to examine Evileye's corpse.
The other men approached him from behind.
"She is dead right?"
"Yup."
Evileye's body was littered with bullet holes and her blood was drained out onto the floor. They took note of her juvinile face.
"I thought she was just a small person, but she's actually just young, she must've been no more than only twelve years old."
One of the men scrunched his face in confusion. "But hasn't she been an adventurer for a while? She's had to have been casting magic for quite some time, right…?"
His eyes started to grow wide and his voice became alarmed. The others were suddenly realising what was going on as well and they started to back off from the corpse. However, someone was still poking it.
"G-Gavin, get away from her."
Unfortunately for Gavin, his IQ tended to orbit at just around room temperature. He continued to kneel over the corpse and poke at it.
"What are you guys so worried about, she's dead."
"Y-Yes, we know, and she probably has been-"
"Whoa! Guys! Look at this! Haha! She got some crazy lookin' teeth."
Half of them started to run away, as if by instinct.
"For God's sake Gavin! She's a-!"
The vampire opened her blood-red eyes. She shot up and wrapped her arms around Gavin, sinking her teeth into his neck.
"AHhHHhHHHHhH!"
[Life Drain]
Gavin's screaming shriveled up along with his body as the vampire engorged herself on his blood. Her wounds began to mend.
"G-Get her while she's feeding! Aim for the head and the heart!"
The men drew their blades and charged her. She opened her jaws and Gavin's shriveled body dropped to the ground.
"Ahhhhhh!"
One of the men stepped in and thrusted his blade towards the vampire's heart.
[Animate Dead]
Gavin's corpse stood up to intercept the blade.
"What!?"
The tiny vampire used her size to dart around the zombie. She grabbed ahold of the man's leg.
"Get off of me!"
The man tried to kick her off, but she slithered up on him like a snake and planted her fangs into his neck. He screamed as she began to suck his blood.
Seeing this, the men dropped their swords and firearms and ran for their lives. Mana or no mana, they couldn't hope defeat the vampire without any kind of silver or enchanted weapons.
Evileye continued to suck the man's blood as she watched the men flee. She began to desperately try to hold herself back.
S-Stop it, you won't be able to stop yourself! B-But, it tastes so good...
Evileye was incredibly disciplined when it came to her vampiric urges. She had adventured along side the thirteen heros and Blue Rose and countless other humans for over two hundred years, and never once had she broken her vow of abstinence. But she had been forced to do so in this situation…
Surely one more...or two would be alight...
It had been ages since she had sunken her teeth into a nice, warm...juicy...delicious...body. She had nearly forgotten the utter euphoria that was drinking fresh blood. And she couldn't help but feel disappointed when she noticed all the delicious food running away from her.
She opened her jaws and the man's body fell to the ground.
And finally, after holding back her vampiric urges for so many years…
...Landfall cackled gleefully as her mind zeroed out into a blood frenzy. The vampire lord chased the fleeing men out into the burning city.
…
"-Wha?"
Evileye woke up to birdsong and a ceiling of leaves.
A streamer of sunlight filtered through the canopy and briefly made contact with her exposed face.
"-Youch!"
She hurriedly sat up and looked around at the trees surrounding her. She looked down to see that she was clutching the desiccated corpse of some poor sod whom she had probably snatched up on her way into the woods.
She put her hand to her forehead in pain.
"Oh no… did I-?
She realised what she had done and panicked. The last time she had entered a blood frenzy, she had accidently used her talent to destroy an entire city.
"Wait...no…"
Thankfully, her talent required mana to be made useful, and courtesy of Rhamnusia, she barely had any at the time.
The last thing she remembered cleary was being shot by a dozen or so of Raeven's men.
"...I can't believe I survived that. I should consider myself lucky that I wasn't shot in the head."
She focused and tried to recollect her memories. Hazy images of devouring humans and fleeing from demons appeared in her mind.
She shook her head and stood up. Her clothes were embellished with seared claw marks. She took off her adamantite plate and stored it in her pocket.
She turned to the desiccated corpse and said a small prayer as she politely reappropriated its cloak.
"I don't think I was out for long, I can't be too far away from the capital.
She pulled the hood over her head and started to make her way out of the woods.
"I need to figure out what happened. Hopefully Lakyus was able to get to musclehead and Tia- Uhawh!"
She tripped and fell over the cloak that was way too long for her twelve year old body.
...
In all honesty, she looked quite silly.
Evileye sat in the corner of the tavern with her short legs dangling from the chair. Her cloak was obviously too big for her so it had been rolled up from the bottom and the sleeves hung loosely and extended well past her hands. She also wore on her face what amounted to a piece of bark with two eye holes punched into it.
But, she had to make due with what she had. Without the makeshift mask, anyone who saw her mouth when she was talking or made eye contact with her would immediately be able to tell that she wasn't human.
However, how she looked was the least of her concerns. She had been learning disturbing information since the moment she had stepped foot back inside the capital city.
She clenched her fists as she continued to listen in on the heated conversation being held in between a customer and the bartender.
"That's right! Jaldabaoth laid waste to the entirety of Blue Rose! I heard he did it all in one strike each too!"
The customer made a fist and swung it into his other plam like the stroke of a hammer several times.
"Bam, Lakyus, bam, Gagaran, bam, Tina, bam, Tia, bam, Evileye. They didn't stand a chance."
Evileye sighed. No ones even mentioned Rhamnusia yet, the only demon people are talking about is Jaldabaoth. Either her highness truly doesn't know about Rhamnusia or she simply said Jaldabaoth did it to help calm people down. It would causes a lot more panic if people knew that there were two powerful demons running around as opposed to one.
She tightly clenched the adamantite plate beneath her cloak. The logical conclusion she came to was that Jaldabaoth and Rhamnusia were working together. Lakyus, Tina, Tia, Gagaran, I'm sorry. I promise I will avenge you.
She hopped down and approached the pair of men.
"Was there any news about a vampire attack last night as well?"
The men turned and flinched at her bark-mask. They looked like they wanted to laugh.
"Sorry little girl, but who are you?"
Evileye was not used to people looking down at her- well, physically yes, but not metaphorically. She wanted to snap back but controlled herself.
"Sorry, just- just please answer the question, it's important."
The bartender and customer exchanged a pair of glances and shrugged.
"Nope, sorry, can't say. Honestly, the ocean could've frozen over last night and we wouldn't have known about it. There was too much chaos and all of that."
"I see…thank you."
Evileye nodded and turned to leave. That story agrees with my clouded memories. It seems like I started to get overwhelmed with helhounds since my mana was low. My path of destruction was probably pretty small and I opted to escape the capital.
She continued to walk in thought as she headed to the door. The men continued to converse behind her.
"Oh yeah! Did you hear about the Grey Wolf? I heard he…"
I can't go to her highness. Rhamnusia was ready for us, so It's likely that he's already infiltrated her intelligence network. I need to take matters into my own hands. For now, it's best that Evileye dies along with Blue Rose. This way, he won't be able to predict my return.
Inberun pushed the doors open and headed down the road.
I wonder if that old hag is still bumming around down south...
I understand that the advantage of alternating current isn't that it is intrinsically better at overcoming resistance in wires, rather, that it's main advantage is that it's voltage can be manipulated much easier than direct current, thus effectively making it easier to deal with when transmitting it over large distances.