COI C193
Dewn didn’t sleep last night. His ignorance to sleep keep going has his eyes had black pigments and eye bags. A little swipe with his medical lotions to his forehead to keep the strains on his head from aching. The medical supplies are a plenty as he places them to the side. Closer by the door as he feels the magic coming from it. Looking down then up to the sliding door, a small gap still flashes to the side going around the door without any noise. He places his finished supplies away from the gap as he can carefully watch out the mysterious light moving.
The hidden entity remained there and the camera is still looking at it. The reset happens and left him into the dark for a short time. It didn’t bother him, and he hears a ping from Tabitha’s device. He looks at it and saw notification of updates. Confused what technology or software he is reading and tries to swipe it off. More and more notifications popped up and no longer for him to see the original screen he had taken. The programs of the vessel are behind her personal programs. A doctor who is in urgent of rescue has manners to never take personal belongings to be seen.
The reset was over and the lights come back up. He checks the computer and able to restore what left off. There, he sees the vicinity is where his team is waking up. Tabitha walks out from screen including with Kiege going to the bathroom. Viste comes back from the shower only wearing some home clothes. Both of them see each other.
Viste asks “You didn’t sleep, did you?”
He shakes his head and she lowers her head and place her hands to grip on her forehead. Then pulled her hand up and moves her hair back. She then gives a strong deep breath
“Sigh* It’s going to be fair though. We are spoiling ourselves here”
Dewn writes on the paper and shows it to her “You are in the luxurious room. Take your time and stay clean for the last time. The infestation will bring back your grime”
Viste bends her magic and sends her message to him obviously “You know you can use the speakers. The vicinity here has one and no one is here beside us”
“Then I’ll send the call for a proper morning announcement”
“Hah, I think you are the one who is doing this as if your wife was here”
“No need for private matters. Let’s talk about what I learn about the contact I have . . .”
Viste reads the end of the message, stops her cheeky conversation, and get back to the topic.
Tabitha can’t believe her experience is like the other adventurers wanting to create. Check points with a resort like hideout, her head is rumbling what it supposed to call as. It feels like an outreach for adventurers when they are trapped in a dungeon. Kiege got out from the bath feeling refresh after giving some care to her skin. Her free exposure in front of Tabitha made her witness the muscles of a body-built woman. Gazing with silence, Tabitha never seen her full naked body. Kiege covers herself after drying her hair, seeing Tabitha eyeing on her as her hands start cracking itself.
“Don’t give me that look. I told you what I hate those kind of women”
“EEP! Sorry, even we are doing body building together at the gym. We are looking beautiful with our lean waist”
“That’s the same line with guys trying to impress a woman. Commenting on looks will attract a lot of attention. If Juela was here, she will immediately slap you for peeping”
“Nervously laughing* I know, the fine lady really hates lesbians. Oh yeah, by the way. Why hating the people liking the same sex? You people seem to know about them and hated them”
“They exist, but they exist so far as nature can provide them to give offspring. They were declared not important people during the war. It was both bad to judge in either view. The children become future soldiers while the gays are not helping for the war effort without leaving their descendants as they left for war. What I learn from the archives, they actually exist in large numbers actually. In reality though, we despised them rather after reading some history about them. All of their efforts did great before, but such legacy ends with their deaths. For me, I hate them because they don’t have consequences when it comes to intimacy”
“. . . What?! Don’t tell me that’s all the hate was coming from. Just sex, there is more to it. It’s love and it have stretch to the limits and go on the possibilities”
“You can’t convince me with that philosophy. Everyone has it, and the end bears differently. Between a man and woman, they brought children as both blessing and a curse. All that matters are legacies to passed down. Enjoying the pleasure as much as they pleased without that kind of consequence. Then when it comes to values those consequences were created by it. And I chose to hate loving between same sex”
Kiege finally dries herself and goes into the other room. Tabitha left behind as she checks herself in the mirror. She removes her towel and show off herself her naked body. She has little muscles, lean body, and checks her back end. She covers herself back again and removes her towel from her hair. Pouting and trying to hide her frustration that Kiege and the others are not too open about those relationships. She didn’t have to argue about it, and hearing Kiege made her want to argue. It doesn’t matter, she likes men too, and defending someone else’s interest really made trying to convince people of this world to accept it.
“Sigh* I think I should lay off myself from social media. I almost breaking my friendship”
Tabitha steps out from the bathroom, already dressed. Viste is right in front of her as she was waiting for her.
“You’re being late, we need to head out as soon as we can”
“What happened . . .?”
Ping! A loud notification sounds reach her ears. The sound of excitement, the impossibility of her device is getting signal underneath the sea depths. The speakers announced within their vicinity.
“Sorry for the inconvenience, I have able to access the device through the signal readings of the securities. Now there will be random noise coming inside the vessel. As of now, I’ll be sending my message to . . .”
“AH!”
She screams in excitement. Kiege knows Tabitha’s screams. The excitement thrilled her to ready as fast as she could. Worse than that, she uses her magic card to get it faster. Viste watches her quickly prepared and even tying her hair up. Their conversation last night wasn’t a waste after all. She then leans to Kiege smiling at Tabitha as if they are in Enders Bridge.
Kiege says to her “That enthusiasm will not last long”
Tabitha brings out her wand and her deck all set. Already in the front as the two is getting to move on.
They left the vicinity in a different route. Dewn is on the speakers trying to give routes for them to get to the security room. A slight adjustment where the entity didn’t have the advantage when they are arrived. The tired doctor keep himself awake by the number of pings from Tabitha’s device. Where he sees a glimpse on the screen. Pictures and messages from her city are have some lively conversation. He couldn’t understand what he read, but the emoji keeps guessing him only smiley faces and other images.
The route they are taken is dark. Viste casts on her hand with fire and Kiege lights up her ocesl, lamp, brightens their path. Tabitha was distracted of the idea to check her device, but soon forgot inside the vessel is in ruin. The newly destroyed parts of the pathway and the other parts of the room were torn apart. Robotic parts are spread all around and there are smudges of blood that the sea creatures where here, it only leaves bones and other non-edible guts lying around. They soon stop where they headed are the back-up moving platforms.
Kiege analyze the situation. “These bad conditions are now relying on moving platforms going through the vessel. I am going to find the control panel and bring us to safer route”
Dewn turns on the speaker and said where they at “Your destination is in the other side, just follow the sounds of the speaker and there where you can find your way from the dark. Be careful, some aquatic creatures are already evolving. They seem to be nestling on top of you”
“On top of us?”
Tabitha looks up and casts her magic card to the ceiling. In shock there are creatures are hanging on top, looking at them. The bodies it had are transforming given a sign for Kiege to hurry up.
They are getting impatient as the creatures are using Alga’s light to metamorphosized. They remained stagnant. In order to adapt into the emptiness of mana, the creatures rest in a coma. Which lead to waking up in an insane craving habit.
Tabitha says to Kiege “I don’t think they are not too happy to see us”
“This is not good. Those guys are probably nestling on it”
“What are they up to?”
The platforms start moving, it wakes up and dives down from the ceiling. The creatures who are nestling at top fell down to the moment the heat is release from the platform.
The moving platforms at the top and their exhaust heaters were blocked by them. The creatures fell and quickly transforms impartially. Viste pulls Tabitha away and raises her fist to their guts. The creatures were impaled by her hands then ripped them apart. Many of the creatures keep falling down. Kiege raises her lamp and casts her magic frame in consecutive flashes. It creates a magic circle to boost their defense and resistance. The falling creatures were bounced off from the circle and fall into the debris or deeper to the wreckage.
Tabitha and her team are surrounded by evolved creatures as the descending platform is trying to keep it balance and removing the biomass in its engine and exhausts. Kiege takes one of the creatures and drop it off to the falling debris. The creature burst out a limb and climbing back up to them.
“That’s how they able to hang on the ceiling . . .”
She looks up as the platform is bringing the rest of the creatures down to them.
“. . . We need to exterminate them all before we have to push through”
Tabitha casts her defense cards “Why not go to another route?”
Viste tear its limbs then pushed them off the cliff. “This is Dewn’s instruction. We have to follow through or we will be circling around with these things”
The creatures are evolving and turned themselves into insectoids. The reminiscence of its aquatic limbs remains in their body, while their limbs are made out of spikes and claws molding from their scales and fins. The mana they cast to them unleashed strong pressure of sea water at Tabitha’s team. The spray of water is poisonous as the sizzling water is damaging the steel platforms. Kiege was sprayed by it but there is no metal on her. Her leather equipment and suit were able to resist it even with her gas mask.
A swift of her blades stabbing deep through the robotic frameworks. The runes inflict into the creatures then pushed back after the runes leaks inside of it like a snake’s bite. The glow on its body blinking, signaling Viste to act and grab it and sends it to its group. Tabitha’s magic card spread around them with haste. The enemies leap onto her and she dodges it. The creatures tried to grab her in mid-air, but fell to the ground as she casts her offensive magic cards. The creatures instinctively eat any neutral mana it finds, but the magic card consists of different form of mana forced the damage into ashes.
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Viste grabs the rest of the creatures. She is using her technique. A blaze of magic popping out from the creatures’ body, chain reacting their bodies to explode by her own touch. The creatures’ tendrils tried to grab her, but she grabs it and quickly tuck it breaking its spinal bones with her bending. The static electricity surging in leaving the creature paralyze. Useless and she treated as a weapon, Viste swings it to the other remaining creatures and flails them with chain lightning.
The moving platform is almost reaching at their level. Tabitha keeps playing her cards weakening her enemies as far as her cards shuffling around her hands. She elegantly moving her body with every pincer attack by the creatures’ insectoid pikes. There’s a hit, an unnoticeable hit through her UI. Kiege comes to her aid and casts her ocesl to light away from the unknown magic.
“Come on Tabitha, don’t try to expect to let your resistance tests it”
“. . .” Tabitha went silent
“You gullible little girl, Viste! She gets caught from their magic”
“Hmm?!”
Viste took a stance and used her technique to start bending around her to any creature possessed mana. The twisted nature to break their inner core. The creatures were sent into the air and barraged among themselves like Viste is holding them and crushing them toys banging each other. Kiege casts her ocesl to Tabitha to negate any mana consumed her. Tabitha screams to the pain in her head as the creatures’ spells shattered forcefully. Once Viste senses all the creatures’ mana is under her will, she unleashes soft blow to her fingers as if she is trying to light off the candle.
The creatures fell to the ground as she stops bending. The moving platform is clear and they quickly ride it. Kiege carries Tabitha like a princess while Tabitha clings to her head still screaming from the pain.
“AAH!”
It echoes to the debris and heard other creatures to follow. Viste sees the passage of sea creatures coming through using their magic. She bends the air while Kiege lift up her ocesl and rotate the light to her specific frame. It lights and pushes the creatures back, but some are resisting. Viste took a deep breath, she removes her gas mask in order to use her technique. A lift to only to the mouth and she whistles in a single tune.
It pushes back the rest and also the vessel inside begins burst in by her whistle. With that move creates more leaks. Viste sees what she had done and said Kiege
“Are there any cards that Tabitha used to prevent a massive hole to appear?”
Kiege pulls out her deck and gives it to her. A full two decks right before her hand, she didn’t shuffle but flipping only the upper cards. If this was made by Oue’jhnr herself, the possibility she is using the common artistic cover and secret blind coding, she feels the cards and able to touch dots and bumps. It was very difficult to spot as she is not the holder of the decks.
Able to pick out from the deck she boosted it with her own magic. Viste phases up to the sounds of the dented interior of the wreckage. A strong force field to push the creatures back against the implosion. The moving platforms incidentally bump into the wreckage that supposed to be stationed there, they flew over and able to land on their feet. Kiege began running to the door, and Viste keep phasing up the card as it already using up its effects. The card is for short turn use, and not field card. Viste forces it in before this place will sink in.
They made into the door, then she drops the card down stopping the implosion reaching to them. The door starts closing and the debris almost hit them by a sudden moment. Kiege lays flat against the wall while Tabitha is still in her arms. Tabitha recovers but covers her ears to hear such loud metallic noises scratching and banging into the door. As soon as it stops, Tabitha’s apologized
“Sorry, my UI pops up all of a sudden. Then I got trapped by the creatures’ spell”
Kiege shakes her head. “No, don’t explain to us. We have no idea what are you talking about. Let our healer going to fix you”
“Ok, then would you mind putting me down?”
Kiege sees her being carried in her arms. This reminds her those romance flicks she saw watching with her in her device. Viste obliges and bends the air out from their comforting bodies.
“Ah, it was adapted against you. It means your mana is familiar to them. Even we tried to concealed it, somehow it was able . . . No, I don’t think we can speculate on you alone. Enders were here before, and probably gathering what it learned. We should be moving on. I think I shouldn’t be mentioning about them”
“Them???”
Tabitha watches her have been seriously taken for granted to think about them, and them she wonders made her realize they are people who uses UI too.
Across the route they took, it’s all dark now. Kiege’s ocesl is the only thing given them the lighted path while Viste stops using her fire bending on her hand. Viste bends her hands and feet with steel breaking arts, readying herself to quickly attacked whenever or wherever it arrives with polarizing steel. Kiege stops and pointing her ocesl at the reflected piece of plates close to the wall. Viste throws a fist and breaks the reflected piece. It sparks eruptively and static jolts spreading to the walls. It seems it left a trap, but Viste wasn’t convinced and take a look. After a short investigation, they found out it is one of theirs.
“Why would anyone from Enders left a trap here?”
Tabitha guessed “It’s probably something dangerous was here, like we face from that massive hole we got through”
“The trapped is too small and release volts that no creature had weakness against electricity. This is meant to fight against the robot or the machines”
“EMP, can we take it as a weapon?”
Viste waves away from the idea “Don’t take items that is not belonged to you. For Kinteinnou adventurers are allowed, but not here with the Enders. Sometimes they were there for a reason, even how long or far they are in. They might find something interesting”
Kiege’s ocesl’s guiding light ends to the door as its circling rather trace it through. This behavior they expect that they are near. Yet, they don’t know what it is. Tabitha hears the ping
“You hear that?!” Ping*
“Sharp ears, is that only thing you can hear than all your surroundings you heard before?”
“Kiege, be quiet! Remember Dewn said . . .”
“I know, and you need to stack up your cards. We are fighting an enemy that he didn’t want to waste his equipment”
“I’m ready, but we should be making a plan first before heading out. I see Viste is just filling up a role for the fight. I think it should be our turn to take it down”
Tabitha looks determine, as her passive card has kicking in. The initial effects show how Viste can do. Kiege and Viste are both frontline, and Viste is capable of all roles if she wanted too. It would be better that Tabitha and Kiege should pair together, while Viste will be reinforcing their flank. They open the door and see the entity is patrolling the security room. Kiege moves to the other side and checked again to its movement. It wasn’t patrolling at all. It is impatiently moving and the entity it is more than one of itself. Blending into the dark, the rituals are can be seen as Kiege is slowly sneaking. The sounds of the ping keep going, and the entity keeps distracted.
Kiege brings out her daggers ready to tip the edges and cutting off some robotic limbs. The ocesl starts turning to switch for another frame to cast. Then it stops without properly align with the lighter. It ticks everything she tries to rotate it. Blind into the small dim of light, she is forced to light up and the entity is holding her ocesl by a tip of its fingers. It reveals as a cybernetic creature. She quickly raises up her daggers into its skull, but only smokes impaled and blown upward to where she strikes. She senses something is coming to her side and moves forward.
A strong swipe into the needle against the wall. The rituals cutting through the wall leaving curses and ripped portals casting magical spells around Kiege. Kiege resists it and able to take some pieces of the cybernetic robot down to its exposed flesh. The cybernetic creature is screaming with unimaginable rituals bursting forth in front of her face. She blocks it with ocesl. It wasn’t enough as the stubborn nature of the spirits feed on to the cybernetic creature into ignorance and keep attacking her. The spread of the rituals is damaging her, giving marks and taints slowly hurting her.
Tabitha comes with aid unleashing her cards consecutively. The struggle was fierce for the creature as the magic rays down with colorful lights. Shamanism rituals among the lights shift it to its breaking point as it favors the spirits to her. Its cybernetic body reactivate and casts an emergency shockwave, forcing them back against the wall as the room itself comes alive and help it. The two hanged against the wall as the creature tries to recover. Kiege’s strong arms were able to break free from the haunting and throws at it cutting off its spine. It fell to the ground, crawling itself away from the fight. Tabitha drops one of her cards on the floor, the filthy dirt familiar is summoned and hunt down the cybernetic creature.
It reaches to it. Its body covered by the dirt. Mending to together as all the materials become dusts as its flows on the floor. Dewn opens the door as it is cleared. Tabitha receives her device keeps pinging with notifications. Her smiles keep shining on her device and quietly hid into her hands. The fight is over. Kiege sends the signal to Viste. Viste approaches after she is hidden and impressively pleased to see those girls able to fight against an archscience creature, yet Tabitha acting differently when she receives her device.
Kiege tell her “You don’t want to know . . .”
A sign language that both of them see. Dewn looks at Tabitha looking glad and they look bruised, injured, and their equipment in shreds. There is no time to lose as they need to take the detour before everything inside of the vessel begin to infest itself. Dewn pulls Tabitha’s arm and throw his baggage into both Viste and Kiege
“We need to hurry, I made too many distractions to certain areas to give a clear path. I found more of them are coming”
The feeling of the quiet place they are in. After they pass through many debris and fights coming from both machines and creatures. The results turned into the cybernetic workshop. The left overs of scraps and chunks brought together to create the cybernetic creature. They know such a thing for a long time now, but. The archscience prioritized the rituals. Dewn has no medicine to cleanse the curses of the old. To heal a curse is to use other uses of mana. In Rune Isles, there are nothing pure in this apocalyptic region.
They made it into the detour. A path that should’ve been blocked because of its massive mechanism broke down and leave a dysfunctional mess. Then they saw one of the Enders, it is the same Enders who had contact with Dewn. He picks up a powerful rune stones and quickly say to them.
“I am bringing your team into a vortex. Remember what we have agreed while you went full moon working”
Without a chance to respond, they were suck into the vortex and appeared to the control room for the data. Dewn hoped that Tabitha has something he wants for the Enders to know.
Viste applaud to Dewn’s effort. “Claps* Wow, you helped Tabitha not going double the effort and give her closer to her goal”
Tabitha was busy focusing on her device flipping one after the other as she going out of proportion to see that her device has the same internet services. She wasn’t surprised but rather curious.
“Yeah, how do you know that my internet is capable to use this vessel?”
“I didn’t, I spoke among the Enders while we are initially inside the vessel. If your device has the certain rumors attacking to the dead servers, then I think I can explain if you help me with this”
They are in the safe area, where the Enders left a strange clue left behind. It is more of a meme post like any other. It made Tabitha confused by the look of it. This world doesn’t have that kind of art style. It is manga art style and it is posted in a meme. It was recorded as a file made inside the vessel. For how many decades had passed, the date shows that she can’t familiar with, but the one who made the meme had provided specific details that it was here since the lockdown in summer. She starts remembering about the Dexter Guild, but she promised them not to mention about their collaboration. She asks
“How did my people get here?”
Dewn closes it and said “We don’t know, only we need to know is what happened to the demon trapped in the dead server”
“A demon? There is a demon inside the server”
“It was a request from the Enders. It was troubling for them that the cybernetics are adapting on its own. The demon never uses spirits as it will lose its potential to collect important components and other materials needed to preserve the vessel, I mean all the scattered vessels using AI. They begin to break apart. It doesn’t matter for us, but they want the information before it truly dies once and for all”
Tabitha sighs in relief without showing to them. Dexter Guild did something about it. The relying on her accounts to access their city servers. It does make sense but less so when the meme is created in this isolated vessel. She can’t help herself and took off her things, her body is burning and aching all around as the curse was not properly wipe off. Viste personally thank the two for being the tank of the curse. Now they have to be thoroughly wiped clean using Dewn’s expertise. He checks around the facility to find any available space for them to recover.
He prepares a bath for them, putting all necessary ingredients he brings not from the vessel but his own personal resources. Viste helps by bending the scraps parts and turned into comfortable bath tubs. She didn’t put up sheets to curtain them from view.
Dewn has concerns “Why won’t you give some private curtains?”
“I would, but I will be the one will nurture them”
“Get a curtain and I let you tend the patients”
“You are really a good healer”
“I don’t make fun when something won’t be that easy to remove. Mana is the natural sustenance of our beings. Even you two lacked, but you have to resist it within you”
The baths are ready and Kiege quickly dips in as Dewn turns around.
Tabitha was shocked “Kiege, you are undressing in front of him”
“Sorry, but I can feel the itch of that scourging curse”
“Well, why not let’s . . .”
She was about to remove her clothes that hide her mana. The exposure finally lurks through her body with curses. Her skins turned pale and feels like something is touching her, her veins are moving ruggedly like the hands’ touch through her blood stream. It was very creepy feeling and at the same time confused her sensation. Being molested or clogging her blood streams.
Tabitha follows Kiege’s pace and throw all her clothes and get in quickly. Both scream in relief as the unbearable feeling of the curse puts the both of them in the bath. Viste steps in touch their shoulders. The bending of mana flow soothes into their bodies. Kiege has little mana. Tabitha has her boundless mana freely without control. Viste checks their veins through their backs. Tabitha felt Viste’s touch to be sexual, in her head, and suddenly imagine those adult content advertisements she saw at the convention. She remembers Yui grabs her down to her height and blocks her vision from seeing it.
Viste can sense Tabitha’s body aroused by her touch. She knows that citizens have dirty minds, and she is in the middle of the curse. Tabitha’s veins are clogging and Viste needs to stop it before all Tabitha’s limbs are numb leaving only her torso and head able to move. The curse paralysis to poison as time goes on. Finally, the bulge of their flesh mounds closer to their limbs. Viste massaged it and hears Tabitha in pain and the mana flow is mixing together with the curse. Viste holds her head as the rest of her body is submerged in medicinal water.
Dewn hears the squirm as lies down on the ground rasping his voice as he dazed himself to sleep. “Good, let them rest until they can get out from the tub or until the medicinal bath dries up”
Kiege hears him, and tries to get out from it. She can’t, the curse manifests itself greatly as it molded inside of her. Shamanism is no joke, especially combined with archscience. The way it releases one of many curses that should be judge justly according the spirits’ presence. It was handmade and left them into the voided spirit.
Tabitha stays in the bath mentally feeling embarrassed as she connecting her bind with Archivist exponentially. Finally, Archivist is able to reach her with the boosts of the medicinal bath.
“Tabitha, it’s better you shouldn’t to keep your bind aggressively, please”
“Why? I can finally sense you awake”
Archivist shows a part of her memory watching porn. Tabitha gritted her teeth while Viste holds her resting head. Viste feels Tabitha is struggling from the pain, but actuality that she is in the bind screaming to Archivist through their mana together envisioning uncontrollably with really nice adult content from the convention.