A Magical Anomaly
Chapter 15 Part 2
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Choice Made:
[x] We have one rift in the old industrial district, an area of abandoned buildings that have yet to be demolished due to being around since the city was first founded.
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Effects:
* -1 T2 Rift
* 20 Prismatic Shards gained
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Dinner is a similar affair to last night.
Lively, warm, and just generally enjoyable for you.
You bask in the atmosphere, passing dishes around as asked and enjoying food.
Mum definitely out does herself whenever she cooks, you're coming to realise this.
Every dish is, at least to your palette, perfectly cooked and seasoned.
Now that you notice it, theres a weird sort of… order to the house. It could be you over thinking things though…
Everything is… surprisingly symmetrical.
Not perfectly so, but mostly so. Every coaster, every napkin, every plate… they're all placed in neat rows or equally spaced.
Its kind of weird now that you notice it…
And you probably won't be able to not see it anymore either…
Hell, the pictures on both sides of the walls are all perfectly straight and equally spaced…
Dad walks up behind you as you stare at a larger picture, one with all four of you sitting on a couch, a different one to the one in your house now… maybe you moved houses?
He puts both hands on your shoulders, and you turn your head to look at him.
There's… he's still grinning like usually does, but the worry is still there.
He stands in a way that seems to almost block something behind him from getting to you....
You really might be overanalysing things now… great.
"How you holding up kiddo?"
You raise an eyebrow, and shrug at him as he laughs.
"What? No stories to tell like your sister?"
A quick scribble on the paper is your answer, a simple nope.
It makes him chuckle as he looks at the paper and then the picture on the wall.
"Still can't believe it's been two years since we left. Who'd have said your mother and I would be here now heh."
…Well if that wasn't cryptic you don't know what is.
You raise an eyebrow at him again, tilting your head slightly in question but he just stares at the picture for a few more seconds before noticing.
"Did I ever tell you how your Mother and I met?"
There's… a lot of pride in that sentence… definitely a story in that.
You go to shake your head, but you get interrupted when mum calls his name.
He smiles at you and winks. Muttering about how 'his mistress calls' before walking over to the dining room again.
You shrug, scribbling a note onto your pad and tapping Lilla as she walks out of the bathroom.
She looks at the note and tells you that she'll tell mum. And so you leave the house into the crisp night air.
The stars are high in the sky, and yet despite all the lights around, they're shining brightly down on you.
You spend a moment just gazing up at them from in front of your door.
Elly pops into the corner of your vision and you turn to her as the moment ends.
She glances at you, and then nods as you start walking.
'I have five locations as of now, all rifts, we won't be able to hit all of them this week. But if you manage to clear all the rifts that appear next week, I shall give you a mutation. Assuming you do not suffer any critical injuries of course.'
You give her some thanks at that and she rolls her eyes.
'It is fine. Humans work best when given a carrot rather then the stick I find. Magical girls especially… just wave something shiny in front of them and they'll dives into the jaws of the angriest beast you can find to get it.'
She shakes her head, an exasperated huff leaving her before she turns to you, a little more serious now.
You think this is lecture/ information mode Elly now.
Mainly because her glasses appear.
'As this is the first time we're actively hunting Rifts, I shall give you a little explanation as to how they work. Most of what I've told you applies. We enter into the Rift, deal with whatever Interloper or creature is inside, and then we break their core…'
You nod at that, sounds like what you did last time.
'Indeed. Though I should mention that any rifts we are unable to deal with in either a week's time, or before a breach occurs, will… upgrade, in their tier. A tier one becomes a two, a two a three etcetera.'
You question why, and Elly gives you a brief explanation.
Something to do with dimensional energy overflowing from the breach or condensing over time to strengthen a rift's presence in the sea of dimensions…
You get that Rifts get stronger over time. That's probably the important information.
'It is. I believe the one near the old industrial district would be the best for now. Something higher tier may be more profitable, but today should be relaxing I would say.'
Elly waits for you to nod or reject, and when you nod she waves her hands.
Reality melts away again.
A new one being painted onto the white canva-
And you fall to your knees in an abandoned parking lot as you heave for breath silently.
What…
Elly hums at you, mentioning how you seem to be more sensitive to spacial transportation now. Then paper shuffles as she mumbles what you assume are theories about your void core.
You push yourself to your feet when the headache fades. A brief swirl of cold and heat mixing in the center of your chest before you feel back to normal.
The space in front of you cracks.
A loud, deafening crack that then swirls open as shards of the sight in front of you break away and reveal a multicolour portal into the unknown.
Reality peels away as you step into the rift.
And you're standing in the exact same place you entered.
You blink in surprise. Looking around for something that's different.
And then reality inverts.
One moment the sky is dark and full of shining stars.
The next, the sky is bright white as black stars dot its surface. The shadows and now bright white, while the lights around you shine with black lights.
Your brain struggles to comprehend the weird inversion of colour for a moment.
But eventually it passes.
You look around for something that looks important inside this space. Like the castle from your last rift.
It's mostly the same… the only real buildings that stand out being the factory in front of you and a tall looking smoke stack behind it.
Its… a little weird how the world falls away from you when you take a step forward.
One moment you're surrounded by factories and roads leading into a recreation of the city.
The next they're all gone, the only things left being the large factory complex and the smokestack.
Rifts confuse you… so much.
But you push forwards.
Another step forward causes the space in front of you to crack.
And then you're not where you started, but in front of a door… a side entrance rather then the main one maybe?
The signs are all in some language you can't read, and when you try to, your eyes start to burn.
You stop trying after a brief effort.
You try asking Elly what it means, but she just replies that its gibberish.
You try the door, and it clicks open, a slow gentle push of it open reveals no tripwires or traps set to go off when you opened it.
So you walk forwards, keeping an eye on the interior corridor.
A metallic screech roars from around a corner, and a… Mesmer comes running around it.
Your eyes meet its face for a brief moment, but you manage to look away before whatever mesmerizing effect it has takes hold.
You parry its claws, and then slam a charge into its chest and core it with relative ease.
After that first one appeared around the corner, more start appearing at regular intervals…
You want to say two or three appear every four or five minutes… you imagine time isn't as linear here as is out in the real world… maybe?
'Technically time here is a two to one split. Two hours here would be one in normal reality.'
You thank Elly as you dodge under a Mesmer, its claws cutting clean through Elly's figure and having absolutely no effect on her whatsoever.
Your fist however, rips a hole in its chest and then a second meets its demise from another charge.
You glance at your fists, noting a… trail of sorts.
The Mesmers all coming from the same direction with each wave.
So you call [Gae Bolg] into being, [Grendel's Arm] melting away as the beam cannon settles in your hands.
It's still as bulky as ever, but you think you're getting used to it now, able to move it around faster and easier than your first time using it.
The weapon growls in your head as a pair of Mesmers appear around the corner.
A spear of red energy punches through both their chests at once as you keep following the trail of soon to be bodies.
The rift is… surprisingly routine you think.
Interlopers appear from a corridor.
You aim, shoot and kill them.
Sometimes it only takes one shot. Sometimes three.
But you don't miss any of them.
Then again, your entire style seems to be based around exploiting moments of weakness.
Huh…
You duck under a Scout as it tries to bash you in the back of the head with its rifle, sweeping its foot out from under it before kicking it over.
[Gae Bolg] rests on its chest, and then blows it to pieces.
Now that you think about it… all of your weapons work best with that style…
[Curtana]'s Sonic cannon form is great for creating opportunities.
Her sword form is perfect to parry and deflect most blows and also create opportunities.
[Grendel's Arm] seems to be more of a direct defense rather than parry weapon, able to take hits and deliver them with punishing accuracy thanks to your fists not missing if you hit something.
And [Gae Bolg] just annihilates anything you hit.
You find yourself outside the factory when you come to your musings. Behind it more specifically.
Some trucks are parked nearby, most with their large container doors closed.
Those don't stay closed for long.
They open as one, a stream of Mesmers and Scouts surging out in your direction.
Golden bolts of energy start flying as you rush to cover, [Gae Bolg] roaring as a Mesmer falls with each shot.
You take a few Scouts when you can, but mainly focus on dealing with the horde of Mesmers surging towards you.
Luckily, [Gae Bolg] is the king of overpenetration. Slicing through three, four, sometimes even five Mesmers at a time with each shot.
And considering that each of your shots kills at least one of the interlopers… you have basically infinite ammo.
The world grays ever so slightly as a bolt of gold skims past your back, and you snap around, beam cannon nailing a Scout that had flanked you.
An internal hum decides that you need more space, so you get on top of one of the containers the trucks were carrying.
More shots from [Gae Bolg] decimate the hoard. Reducing what might have been fifty or so Mesmers to a measly ten.
Those get mopped up as a gold bolt slams into [Babr-e Bayan].
It doesn't penetrate, but the force spins you around as a second hits your stomach.
You wince at the force, dropping to the side of the crate and finishing off the last of the Mesmers.
You peek out from around the container… and see no one.
Which means this thing is hiding… great!
Well, you should be fast enough to react.
So you do the stupid thing and walk into the open.
The whir of a Scout rifle makes you look up towards the edge of the roof.
A scout in a white cloak is prone on it, blending in surprisingly well even though its normally white body is a pitch black thanks to this rift's weird colour inversion.
Which doesn't affect your stuff oddly… huh
The bolt flies towards you, and you move enough that it skims off your pauldron, whizzing off into the open air in some random direction.
You fire Gae Bolg at the scout, and blow its head off.
It then stands up.
You're rather happy you didn't celebrate as it leaps off the roof, no head on its body and a blue core shining from its center… an already cracked looking one.
You dodge the first bolt, and the second, the third slams into the ground in front of you as you blast one of the Scouts arms off.
You pull the trigger to do so for the second, but Gae Bolg hisses angrily instead.
Vents pop open across its barrel as a miniature fireball erupts around you.
The air heats into a roaring inferno that scorches you a little even through [Babr-e Bayan]'s barriers.
Huh… Apparently [Gae Bolg] can only be fired so many times without a break. Good to know.
The flames and haze vanish soon enough as something tells you to duck.
The ruined rifle of the Scout swings by your head as you jam [Gae Bolg] into one of its legs.
It topples as you switch out [Gae Bolg] from [Grendel's Arm].
Two charges take out its remaining leg and arm. Rifle flying off into the distance as you narrow your eyes and try to figure out how to get the Core out of it…
Unfortunately… it's embedded deep inside of it… and there aren't any convenient ribs for you to pry off to access the core on this.
So you sigh as you toss the scout a little bit away.
No point in wasting a charge.
[Gae Bolg] snaps into place. And you blast the Scout with it.
A shard of blue light explodes from its corpse, your purple core flashing to existence just long enough to absorb it as you feel… a little fuller?
Maybe more whole is the right phrase?
Hmm…
You step away from the corpse as you ponder the feeling, the space around you warping and breaking apart as glass starts to shatter under your feet.
The noise becomes that of asphalt as you step back into normal reality. Still wondering about what the feeling is…
Something screams in your senses, a hundred voices whisper shouting for you to block.
You don't hesitate, [Grendel's Arm] melting onto your hands faster than ever before as something crashes into them.
The force makes you step back a couple times, adding a twirl to force whatever hit you away as you scan your surroundings.
Same parking lot as before.
Nothing seems amiss…
And then something shifts behind you.
A moment of precognition shows your back getting ripped open, so you dive forwards.
When you turn back around.
You see Azure standing there. Blade already out as she glares at you.
"I knew that Rift warning wasn't a malfunction. So it was a trap huh?"
You blink a few times… trying to piece together her logic…
But you don't get to think long as she surges towards you again.
You…
[x] You need time to think and plan this out… you definitely weren't planning on fighting her so soon. Slam Grendel into the ground and use the shards from its blast to create a smokescreen. Letting you pull back and try something else (Try what?) (50% Success chance) (50% Chance of Minor Wound (Minor Cuts) x 1d3) (-1 Grendel Charge)
[x] Seriously? Not even a day of rest? Well then, might as well show off a new trick. Use Curtana's Sword form to parry and block her blows, show her what a Villain's sword mastery is truly like, maybe even teach her something if you can (61% Success rate) (50% Chance of Minor Wound (Minor Cuts) x 1d2) (-25% Curtana Charge) (Graceful Deflection Activates) (+20 Crit chance)
[x] Yeah… no. You're not fighting today. Use Curtana to try and stun her. That should give you an opportunity to get out of here without hurting her too badly. She's a Blue, she can probably heal herself. (60% Success rate) (50% Chance of Minor Wound (Minor Cuts) x 1d4) (-20% Curtana Charge)
[x] A thought occurs… why is a Blue rushing in towards you… isn't she a mage type? That seems… kind of stupid… Though, maybe if you hold out long enough, you can get her to monologue at you. Learning her history sounds fun…. Maybe. (Guaranteed Success) (Guaranteed chance of 1d4 Minor wounds (Minor Cuts)) (-25% Curtana Charge) (Graceful Deflection activates) (Roll to crit for a riposte when she finishes) (+20 Crit chance)
[x] Use your cores to do something?
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
[] Which core? (Do what with it?)
[x] Something else?
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