Chapter 69

Back in the conference room is was quiet with just Jamil and Leona. Jamil was sitting in a chair and Leona was lounging on the nearby couch.

"I wonder what they're making the other three do." Jamil said. 'Now he's just ignoring me, not that I mind I suppose.' Jamil thought as he glanced over to him.

"That radish sprout's talking too much." Leona grumbled.

"What radish? Oh you mean Idia. Now that you mention it, he's more talkative here than at school. Through that's just my impression given that he never shows up to Housewarden meetings in person." Jamil stated.

"That's not what I mean. Look, isn't all this Styx stuff suppose to be top secret? You can't guarantee someone's silence just by having them sign an NDA. Maybe it doesn't matter when they're dealing with Phantoms but he's telling us way too much." Leona explained as he sat up.

"Ah, you do have a point." Jamil remarked.

"And those Charon guys weren't exactly subtle when they blasted through campus to get us." Leona said.

"That's true. Other students might've recorded them and posted the video online." Jamil added.

"I can think of plenty of ways to control information but no mages have ever returned once they were taken to the Island of Woe." Leona sighed.

"Subjects B Leona Kingscholar and D Jamil Viper, we're ready to begin your tests. Come along with me." Ortho said as he entered the room.

"Yeah, sure go easy on me k?" Leona smirked.

Back in the control room the technician was setting the simulation room back up. "Ortho has brought subjects B and D to the simulation room. Instruments calibrated ready to collect data commencing a recording at 2200." The technician informed Idia.

"All subjects have been equipped with testing gear." Ortho added as his projection appeared.

"Okay go ahead and start test one for subjects B and D." Idia sighed as he got up from the chair he had been lounging in.

"Roger, Virtual enemy mode standby. Commencing dive. "Ortho said and the began program began. The 'test subjects' were in the same large blue and gray room and made to battle the same 3 virtual troopers and where done within minutes as well.

"Test one complete, subjects are cooling down within the sims." Ortho said as he appeared again in the control room.

"Subject B and D's vital signs are all normal blot accumulation is within the standard range. Sim has synced with the Lachesis system test two ready to go." The technician informed Idia.

"Okay moving right along." Idia sighed.

"Roger, virtual enemy mode standby. Commencing dive." Ortho said as he disappeared.

"Huh?" Leona asked as he looked around.

"Now we're in the school's botanical garden?" Jamil asked doing the same.

"Heeeyy Leona." Ruggie called out as he jogged up to Leona and Jamil.

"Jamil! I finally found you, you can't just leave me like that." Kalim laughed as he followed behind Ruggie.

Leona just raised an eyebrow and remained silent.

"Sorry Kalim." Jamil sighed.

"Leona you've got til the end of the day to turn in that potionlogy report. Professor Crewel was getting on my case, so I'm gonna make sure you whoa!" Ruggie began but stopped as he jumped back as dust began to fill the air.

"Leona what's your problem?" Ruggie snapped.

"Well I'll be that's pretty slick. They must be messin with my head and projecting an image of Ruggie from my memories." Leona laughed.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Ruggie asked looking confused.

"You were gonna wait til I let my guard down then blast me from behind weren't ya? Nice try." Leona snapped as he fired off another blast.

"I see if this is part of how they're measuring blot accumulation then these guys will probably say all sorts of upsetting things to us. That is rather slick." Jamil smirked.

"Jamil what's the matter? Why do you have that scary look on your face?" Kalim gulped.

"Well let's get this test or whatever over with." Leona smirked.

"Right." Jamil replied his smirk turning more evil.

They battle the Ruggie and Kalim clones.

Back in the control room as Idia watched the battle. "Oof, that was quick. They figured out how the system worked immediately. Leona's probably the kind of guy who always knows he's dreaming. Where's the fun in that? Jamil's stress levels barely moved too. How did these guys overblot? And Vil for that matter?" He muttered.

"Lachesus system desync complete." The technician informed Idia.

"Simulator cool down complete. Transferring subjects to the recovery room." Ortho voiced over the intercom.

"Testing sequence complete at 2245." The technician said as he finished the desyncing.

"GG You can go once the data's backed up." Idia informed him.

"Yes sir." The technician replied as he began to back up.

"All Subjects have been moved to the recovery room. They're fast asleep." Ortho said as he entered the room.

"Nice work Ortho." Idia said as the technician left.

"You too Idia. What do the results look like for Leona Kingshcholar and Jamil Viper?" Ortho asked coming up beside Idia at the control panels.

"They just finished processing. I'll throw them up on the monitor." Idia said doing just that.

"Wow, their numbers are exceptional." Ortho remarked.

"Spoiled or not Leona's still royalty. Totally makes sense he'd have top notch magic instruction as a kid. His casting speed's off the charts and his magic pool is huge. He also knows how to be efficient he tailors his defense spells to match the potency of enemy attacks. He hardly wastes any magic at all. Which means he barely accumulates any excess blot." Idia said as he looked over the results

"It's also worth pointing out that stress didn't have much effect on his accumulation levels." Ortho pointed out on the chart.

"Hm, I dunno if I can draw anything conclusive from that through. I already knew Leona was tough and could handle whatever danger comes at him but it's hard to measure how resilient he is when experiencing inner turmoil." Idia muttered.

"I see what you mean, because he typically exhibits great mental fortitude. When he does experience intense emotions it could cause a drastic spike in blot accumulation." Ortho commented as he nodded his head.

"Stat wise Leona would be a great tank like Vil. But he isn't suited to a leadership role personality wise. None of their personalities are perfect fit for the ideal class, actually. Guess that's why they're the SSR Epic Troublemarkers, lawl." Idia chuckled.

"What about Jamil? What class do you think he'd be?" Ortho asked.

"Mh, he could probably handle any job just fine TBH. He tends to go for efficiency over speed like Azul. Looking at his background, he had no magic tutoring before enrolling at NRC either. He's constantly assessing his remaining reserves it's like he's worried about going OOM." Idia remarked as he pulled up Jamil's stats.

"Ah, so he's the calm and efficient or maybe just stalling and using people as shields archetype as well." Ortho figured out.

"Thing is he's really quick and precise with defensive magic. Maybe that's his specialty since he guards Kalim." Idia said.

"Then it sounds like he'd be suited to a melee DPS role that supports the tank or a healer class." Ortho summarized.

"Yeah, one of those classes you think is for beginners but turns out to be really technical and requires a big brain player to do right." Idia sighed.

"This would be a fun game to level in no matter who played." Ortho laughed.

"NRC the RPG heh heh that doesn't sound half bad." Idia chuckled.

"Ooh, I'd play that. You should totally make it big brother. It could be open world with seven countries to start." Ortho stated happily.

"No way am I doing an open world. The development costs would be ridiculous just for a joke game, maybe if it's a 64KB ROM cart maybe." Idia sighed shaking his head.

"Aw but you could whip it up in no time." Ortho whined.

"Sure, but it'd be a pain so not gonna happen." Idia shrugged.

"Say Idia, what if you invited the other Housewardens to join you in that MMO you play with Muscle Red." Ortho suggested.

"What? No, that'd be nuts. Where'd you get that idea? None of those guys are interesting in gaming. Besides everyone who's had a run in with Styx goes down the River Lethe, no exceptions, and as you know the system can erase us from anyone's memory and from any data." Idia sighed deeply. "There's no point even thinking about making friends with people on the outside. After all sooner or later they wouldn't remember it happened."

Some where else in the Styx HQ compound in a private room Grim was beginning to wake up from his deep sleep. "Myah, lemme go. Ack!" Grim muttered as he tossed and turned. "Where am I?" He asked as he sat up.

"Let's see I remember SDC wrappin up then later that night I got hungry. And I,…" Grim muttered then he suddenly remember attacking Odette. "Why did I do that to Odette? Is that why I'm here? Cuz I scratched Odette up?"

He was hit with another flashback. This one of the attack at the Ramshackle dorm. He could still hear Epel, Deuce and Ace yelling at the troopers who were holding him in an uncomfortable cage. They had fought the trooper then passed out. He could still hear Odette's voice the clearest screaming his name and reaching out for him.

"They were all beat up Ace, Deuce, Epel, and Odette. Am I never going back to the Ramshackle?" He asked as he began to cry.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy it. I promise things pick back up in the next chapter and it's only a few chapters before we see our favorite Diasomnia boys again. So please stick around. I know this chapter and the last weren't super exciting but I feel like they were important.