Those scraping noises Liara had heard earlier were definitely not a part of her imagination. The deeper she and Pellas traveled inside the cafeteria building, the more noises she heard, like something was crawling in the walls. She whispered her concern to Pellas and the golem cheerfully replied, "Well of course it is most likely Yabanchi. This is the middle of an incursion after all."
Liara’s mana eye twitched in response to his answer, but she counted to three and suppressed her annoyance. “That’s not very helpful, Pellas.” Pellas was about to make another quippy remark, but a loud groan had Liara shushing him to silence.
Liara and Pellas were in one of the large service hallways, the sterile-looking and wide ones that the cafeteria workers used to push their gurneys full of food and supplies. It was a long building, but they could see the other side of the building from where they were, another side door much like the one they had come through earlier. The groan came again and Liara was sure she knew where it was coming from now.
There were doors all along the hallway, leading to closets, fridges, and other rooms, but the groaning was coming from two large metal doors set in the center of the building. Liara had seen those doors from a distance often enough during her time at the academy to know where they led. The main cafeteria hall.
“Liara?” Pellas hummed and hovered by her head. “Why are you just staring at those doors?”
The Magical Girl’s eyes swung toward the golem and he saw her red mana eye glint for just a second. He knew what that meant and decided to approach carefully. Playing the fool could only defuse his Magical Girl’s emotional instability so much.
“We should keep moving, Liara.” He put his spidery arms on her shoulders and lowered his voice.
“I can’t run again.”
“We did not run, we advanced in a different direction.”
“Call it what you want, but we ran, Pellas. Dr. Holzer is dead and my entire life, all I could do was just ‘advance’ away from my problems.”
Staring into his Magical Girl's face, Pellas reflected on why he chose Liara. Some sentry golems chose their partners based on stats, while others picked their partners due to their attractiveness and the publicity a cute face garnered. When he first saw Liara's profile, he knew that no sentry golem would ever choose her. Even with her minor special ability, her stats were too low. Sure she was beautiful, but every psychological report said that she would be at risk for breaking in the middle of high-stress situations. Yet he chose her nevertheless, not because she was strong, but for her weakness and the potential that could be nurtured.
“I am behind you all the way Liara, count on that.”
The fire behind her glare faded and some of that shy girl still inside of her resurfaced. “Sorry Pellas. I know you’re putting your life on the line too.”
Pellas tilted his body, confused, and replied, “But I am not in any danger.”
“What if a Yabanchi destroys you?”
"I'll just reconstruct myself," Pellas retracted his arms halfway and curled them like he was flexing his nonexistent biceps. “Depending on multiple variables, such as available upgrades, mana usage, and the Magical Girl’s authority level, the time to recreate this shell could be as quick as ten seconds.”
“So, you can’t die? They didn’t teach us that in the academy.”
Pellas stopped flexing and shook his body, "I would not say that I cannot die, but let us just say there is an abundance of Magical Girl secrets that higher authorities do not want to be made known to the general public."
That was a lot to take in for Liara. She knew there were state secrets that were kept from being known for security reasons, but it was eerie the way Pellas suddenly got quiet when he mentioned that fact. She stored away that tidbit to drill him about later, but for now, she had more tangible things to worry about than government conspiracies.
“Can you sneak inside the cafeteria hall and tell me what’s on the other side of those doors?”
Pellas scoffed, “It is not like I’m invisible!”
“Yeah, but you’re a lot smaller than I am and if you die, then you can just come back.”
"Hmm, I see your point." Pellas slunk to the ground, and his eight legs trailed behind him. "Fine. Run if you hear me scream though." The golem started slithering toward the doors, but Liara whispered out to him, "Pellas."
“Yes?” It flashed through his mind that maybe Liara did not want him to go after all.
“Make sure you dim your eye so you don’t stick out.”
“Oh, you’re such a heartless woman,” Pellas sighed and slinked through the doors, causing them to crack open only a few inches. Liara tensed up, getting ready to fight or run, but nothing seemed to be happening on the other side. After a tense minute, the doors slowly cracked open again and Pellas used his arms to gently close the door to minimize the sound.
When he was done, he resumed floating and came up to Liara’s face level and whispered, “Oh, ME-GO, oh my. It is full of Yabanchi in there. Mostly Gardeners.”
“How many?” Liara did not know if she should run in terror from being so close to the enemy or sigh in relief that she at least had an idea what was there now.”
Pellas replied, “Seventeen. All converted Cadavers and there is a Matriarch as well.”
“Cadavers? What’s that mean?” Liara thought she had an idea, but it made her shudder to think of it. Unfortunately, her grim imagination was proven close to the truth when Pellas described them.
“That Yabanchi you killed with the spear, it was a Gardener. A minor psychic variation, more of a parasite really, but if they successfully brainwash a host, then they latch onto their victim’s head and take full control of the nervous system.”
Seventeen "converts" meant that seventeen people had died then. Liara probably did not know any of the victims that well, if at all, but she felt like crying anyway. It was like some kind of perverted prank, that she would live and so many others would die. Fire mana swelled in her chest and she practiced the breathing technique that all students learned in their first year. The heat spread from her core to her fingers and toes, and she felt a cooler sense of calm cycling the mana in and throughout her body.
“Alright. So, I’m guessing a Matriarch is some kind of mama Gardener by the name?”
“Correct! They are a more mature version of the basic type, but unlike their smaller children, they cannot convert hosts. They are usually hidden in Yabanchi strongholds and kept for breeding. Aside from being bigger, there is not much difference between the types.”
Liara tapped her foot and glanced back and forth between the exit at the end of the hallway and the cafeteria full of brain-controlling monsters. One was the sane choice, but the sane choice would also be the bitterest. She had no idea why she was so bloodthirsty, when just this morning she was trying to be ignored by everyone around her.
It was so confusing for her. Doing the 'right thing' was not always the 'right' thing to do. In her life, she was always defined by the former and she paid for it with humiliation and bruised self-esteem. Smoke would have come out of Liara's head had Pellas not spoken up.
“If I may suggest a course of action, you are low on points. We should move on and gather strength before taking on so many foes.”
Suddenly, it clicked and the course of action became clear. Liara smiled at Pellas, her grin unsettled him.
“So if I get points, then I can get stronger. Buy more weapons, upgrades, and even attribute ampules.” She was speaking to herself, but Pellas replied anyway.
“Oh yes! It seems you paid somewhat attention in your classes. If we can find weaker targets, then you can farm them for the daily bonus and their cores.”
Liara finally broke out of her trance and looked at the self-pleased golem, pointing at the cafeteria doors. Her reply made his arms droop and his eyes brightened in alarm.
“We found weaker targets Pellas. I’m going to kill every last Yabanchi in there.”
----------------------------------------
Liara had snuck inside the cafeteria kitchen with Pellas and successfully snuck back out. She was still trembling from the near-death experience that would have certainly ended with her dismemberment without Pellas' intervention, but the intelligence she had gathered was invaluable.
Getting through the doors had been the easy part, Pellas had assured her that the doors led inside to an empty kitchen area that was separated from the main hall by a serving bar. Nevertheless, Liara’s heart hammered as she slowly crawled into that kitchen and then to the bar.
It was Pellas' idea to use his eye like a mirror since he could change its surface to a metallic sheen smooth enough for Liara to see the reflections and then she would not have to poke her head up.
Looking through the mirror, she saw that the hall was indeed filled with Yabanchi and they were ghastlier than any of the others she had encountered thus far.
Most of the enemy converts were victims who had been students, the color of their dresses indicated that they were all sophomores. Maybe classmates who were taking a lunch break together in between classes. They were dead now, their lives made a mockery by the quivering mass of eyes and limbs that rode their heads like macabre jockeys. These terrible marionettes walked without making too much noise other than the occasional groan and the scuffle of shoes squeaking as their limbs jerked and spasmed to their new masters' commands.
Their marching was not without purpose, as each of the Gardener Cadavers made circles around one beast occupying the center of the mess hall.
Pellas had called it a Matriarch, but Liara called it a nightmare. The flesh of this Yabanchi was brown and withered and the multitude of eyes covering it were either closed or milky pale with age. Instead of having many limbs, it had just one, a long arm with four fingers that looked like they could wrap around Liara with ease. It certainly had the strength to lift a man, since Liara watched it casually pick up a corpse one of the cadavers had dragged in front of it.
A single giant eye opened at the top of its body and next to it a hole expanded. This toothless maw made a sucking noise and deposited the corpse inside. When it was halfway in, the hole tightened and the sound of a raw crunch made Liara gasp in disgust and horror.
The noise had attracted attention.
One of the cadavers broke off from its circular march around the Matriarch and shuffled toward the kitchen, toward Liara.
Pellas had pulled himself down when the creature started approaching and looked to see what Liara would do. When it became apparent that her best idea was to just continue to hide there and hope that it would go away, Pellas decided to do something.
A horrible shriek, a Screamer by the sound of it, echoed from the other side of the cafeteria. The assembly of Cadavers jerked up and most of them sprinted towards the sound, ready to tear whatever made it apart. This included the Cadaver that had been approaching Liara, so when she saw the opportunity to get away unseen, she took it and ended up back in the hallway, hands still shaking and hardly able to control her hyperventilation.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
When she finally found her voice, she asked, “I take it that was you? How did you do that?”
Pellas glowed pink, obviously pleased with himself, “It was my mimicry ability. Just had to tap a little into my primal self, shout like one of those horrid Screamers and the rest is history!"
“But it sounded like it was on the other side of the room.”
“Throwing your voice is the first thing they teach us in Golem school, my dear.”
“Really?”
“No. Silly human, you would believe anything I tell you, wouldn’t you?”
Though the golem was snickering at her expense, Liara was grateful that he saved her life. Not only that, but the usually formal spoken bot had used a contraction for the first time in speaking to her. Maybe he was getting more comfortable with her, if his kind could even experience that emotion. Whatever the case, he was proving to be useful.
She smiled and patted the golem on top of its spherical body like a dog. “Thank you, Pellas. You’re one of a kind.”
“Heh, literally though, no two Magical Girl golems are alike. We try to have our form match our partners.”
“Don’t tell me that’s why you look like a spider.”
“Wellllllll.” Liara cut off Pellas before he could answer. “Don’t answer, I think I know what you’re going to say.”
"Well, you asked," Pellas beamed, though he was happier that it appeared like Liara's mental state was stabilizing than he was of any of his inane jokes. It was not that he loved jokes, he appreciated them, but they were just another tool at his disposal to keep Liara in fighting condition. Laughter was just another medicine that did not cost them points.
“Joking aside, did you learn anything from that little endeavor?”
Liara looked back at the cafeteria door and then at Pellas. He expected her to admit defeat and move on with him, but she asked a question instead.
“When the Yabanchi mana disruption affects a system, is the energy gone or is it still there?”
"The system is rendered inoperable, but the energy is still flowing through its circuitry. Usually, when a Yabanchi invasion is repelled, most machinery turns on as usual."
Liara’s hand was cupped under her chin, ideas raced in her head with this confirmation. “What about the fire system? Does it run off mana? Is it affected?”
Pellas was confused by this train of thought, "No of course not, It is an emergency system. In an event like this, a chemical backup would detect a sufficient fire's heat and activate the water sprinklers."
Liara paced in front of Pellas, and spoke to herself, “Which would make a fireball attack less effective against them.”
"Yes! Not only that, but I doubt a fireball cast by a magical girl of your authority level would kill more than four or five of them at once. Besides, burning them all out would be cliche."
“It’s a good thing I don’t plan on burning them out then,” Liara shrugged and leaned into Pellas, whispering her idea, and the more that the little golem heard, the more he wondered just how crazy humans are.
----------------------------------------
Setting up the ambush was easier and quicker than Liara had hoped. When she and Pellas had snuck back inside the kitchen, none of the Cadavers had noticed her this time. Still, she felt like her heart was going to come out of her mouth, but she had faith in the plan, even if she did not have much faith in herself.
Most Yabanchi were stupid, little more than beasts who acted on the instinct to kill. Pellas warned Liara that the Gardener Cadavers might attempt to use their lesser suggestion ability on her, but he agreed that they were more likely to rush her and attempt to rip her apart in their current form.
Using Pellas' reflective eye, Liara looked one last time at the cafeteria hall. They were all still there, seventeen shuffling corpses and one big blob. Fortunately, there was nothing else either hiding on the ceiling or flying around, that would have proven to be a major hindrance to their plan that she did not need.
Pellas lowered himself down and whispered in Liara’s ear, “We can still leave. You do not have to do this.”
Liara wanted to nod and crawl on her belly out of there, but something else was grabbing the controls in her head. It demanded justice for the girls killed by those monsters and she would see it done. The look in Liara’s eyes must have been enough of an answer, since Pellas said, “Very well, no going back then. The electricity panel is where you said it would be. There does not appear to be any damage to it.” That was good, if that panel had been compromised, then they would have had to abort the plan.
Liara used the mana circulation breathing that they taught the students and reflected in her mind her stats like Pellas had taught her. Old notifications were there, points and monster kill updates. When she had killed that second Mylock, she had gotten ten points for slaying it and fifty for the daily bonus. The next notification was when she slew the Gardener, which was another ten points.
The points were interesting, but Liara wanted to reflect on her stats and mana arts. Her mana had fully regenerated to three hundred and thirty, but a fireball would eat most of that with its cost of three hundred to use. She wished she could see her health like it was a video game, but Pellas had assured her that between the healing items she bought earlier and her natural vitality regeneration, she was at peak condition. That meant that there were no excuses, she would be as ready as she ever would be.
She looked at Pellas and nodded. “Do it.” The golem sagged and nodded back. Slowly he floated ever so slightly above the counter and activated his mimicry ability. The two of them had argued which noise would best attract the monsters’ attention and though Pellas thought it was a bit dark, he finally acquiesced and agreed that Liara’s suggestion would be the most effective.
A girl’s scream of terror ripped out from the other side of the cafeteria hall and every Cadaver bolted to attention. It was nearly perfect, as the Yabanchi tore through the scattered tables and chairs to find the human that made the noise. Yet nearly perfect was not enough. Two of the Cadavers stood by the immobile Matriarch, looking in that direction, but not running toward it.
Liara had thought that might happen and jumped up and over the counter, into the hall. With the two Yabanchi in the middle of the cafeteria like that, speed and aggression would be the deciding factors. Heat built up in her core, hot enough that she felt sweat building on her brow in seconds, but that heat would only boil in her chest for a moment until she directed it to her palm. A bright light built up in her right hand, like she was cupping it over a powerful flashlight, but instead of a harmless torch, Liara felt like she held the power of a small sun in her hand. It begged to be released and she obliged.
The Cadavers in the center of the hall had heard her scuffling and turned around, seeing Liara. They stiffened and looked like they were about to pounce toward her, but Liara had already thrown the fireball and started running toward the electric panel. The fireball sailed through the air like a softball, its power contained by Liara’s authority, and went right over the heads of the two Cadavers. She did not aim directly at them.
When the fireball detonated it was halfway between the high cafeteria ceiling and the floor. It sent a powerful shockwave that knocked the Yabanchi down, which was a useful outcome, but what Liara really wanted happened next. The fire safety system activated in response to the sudden, extreme heat.
It was like a rain storm materialized in the cafeteria hall, spraying everyone inside and covering every surface in water. The Yabanchi looked confused for only a moment, but when they saw Liara by the electric panel, they started running towards her, slowed down only somewhat by the slippery floors.
Liara had a panic moment when she pried off the cover of the electric panel, a flame strike had taken off the lock on it, but she did not know what to grab when she was looking inside of it. Pellas had followed her and did not relieve the anxiety with his shouting. “They are almost here!”
Liara gritted her teeth and struck the exposed board and wires with her last flame strike. When her hand briefly met a fat yellow cord, she felt the jolt of electricity pass through her, but she had learned how to safely redirect electricity mana in her body during Freshman year. That was the cord she wanted, but she hesitated, unsure if she could direct so much electricity at once.
"Liara!" Pellas screamed, but without looking back, Liara grabbed the hot end of the yellow electricity cord and redirected its current through her body and down her leg, onto the wet floor of the cafeteria. Redirecting mana currents was another one of the basic practices they put freshman students through. Hours of breathing and focusing on her mana flow meditations paid off as Liara felt like every hair on her body was raised and some of her muscles started twitching, but she knew from the sensation that she was holding enough power to burn a person's eyes out if they were not redirecting it correctly. It was working.
Gaining more control over her numbing body, Liara turned her head to look at the hall, and her breath caught. The closest Cadaver was only a few feet away, but it had collapsed mid-reach. They had all collapsed.
Unlike Liara, the Gardeners did not know how to redirect electric mana or mana of any kind. Their hosts' bodies were slumped on the ground, their hearts had been long stopped, and no cardiac arrhythmia was the result of their fall. It was the lack of connection to the parasitical Gardeners that interrupted the puppetry, the many-eyed things were smoldering, and whatever alien nervous system they had was overwhelmed by so much electricity at once.
Liara would have let go and slumped in relief, but she heard a loud screeching noise. It had come from the center of the room, the Matriarch was a little bit closer. She watched it and felt more than just electricity numb her spine, as the single giant arm of the Matriarch dug its fingers into the ground and dragged itself toward the Magical Girl. It was staring at her with its single, giant eye and for the first time, Liara saw intelligence in one of the enemy's gaze. Malevolence mingled with hate was common enough in a Yabanchi’s eye, but what nearly sent Liara running for her life was the glint of glee. Its children had burned and died in an ion fury, but it did not seem to care, it looked happy to see her. Another human to devour.
Liara was pouring as much electricity as she could from the panel, but it was not enough, the Matriarch's girth provided plenty of insulation and Liara's body could only transfer so much of the power at once. Inexorably, death came one heaving slide at a time.
"Liara, you did your thing, but we need to leave now!" Pellas was scrambling around her head, waving his arms in her face, but Liara was transfixed by the Matriarch's eye. She wanted to agree with Pellas, to run away with him, a mission mostly accomplished, but her legs would not move. It was like the electricity had numbed them, but it was a deeper problem than that. They belonged to someone else now.
As the Matriarch kept dragging itself forward, it took Liara every scrap of her strength of will to not let her feet carry her towards it. Pellas saw that something was wrong and asked her why she was just staring at it, when she explained her feelings, he reeled back.
“Oh no, the Matriarch is using her power of suggestion on you!”
"Kind of figured that out Pellas," Liara ground her teeth, not mad at her golem, but trying to bite the inside of her mouth. The pain helped in her battle with the impulse, but if this kept up, she would lose and be devoured by that thing.
Pellas lowered his voice, “I think I can help, but I need your permission. May I use my suggestion ability on you too?”
It was not lost on Liara that Pellas seemed to always present these kinds of questions whenever she was in a dire situation, but like before, she did not have much of a choice. "Do it!"
Pellas’ eye strobed and he spoke, “Don’t move.”
On the invisible scale between Liara’s mind and the psychic commands of the Yabanchi, Pellas’ lesser suggestion ability was like a small drop, but it was enough to tip the balance. Liara’s legs gave up from under her, stopped in their mad desire to walk towards the Matriarch and she lay there, held upright only by her grip still on the electric cord.
“Oh no!” Pellas groaned and floated over her head. “Get up! Get up!”
Pellas’ new commands did not reach her, for the young woman’s mind had settled into an equilibrium of outside commands and inner desires. She stared at the approaching monster and decided to listen to neither of them. She would make her stand with or without the use of her legs.
"Come on then. Go ahead and take me." Liara's voice cracked with barely contained rage and the Matriarch finally dragged itself within range. The four-fingered hand greedily grasped for Liara, its single eye shone in triumph, and the Yabanchi’s body swelled in anticipation.
Liara let go of the yellow cord and took the retractable spear out of her pocket. With a mighty stab, she jammed the end of the spear into the sparking mass of wires in the electricity panel and pushed the activation stud. The tip of the spear shot forward and jabbed into the giant, reaching hand, inches from Liara’s face.
The Matriarch’s eye lost its gloating flair and the tremendous orb rolled to the back, revealing the white of sclera. The whole mass of wrinkly flesh trembled and the mouth of the creature opened up with a gasp. Liara had to shove her fingers in her ears as steam whistled out of the Matriarch’s mouth like a whale’s blowhole and its body started to deflate.
Thousands of volts of electricity fried the Matriarch from the inside out. Connected to the electric panel directly by the borrowed spear, the Yabanchi died in a collapsing heat of melted organs, deflated cavities, and a burned-out eye. The last thing to fall was its arm, which Liara barely dodged, pulled back by the sudden collapse of its owner. The spear lodged in that hand was just as blackened as the flesh around it. Disfigured and broken, it was no more of use to Liara or anyone, anymore.
Losing her spear was the last thing on Liara’s mind and she kept looking back and forth at the kitchen and the cafeteria doors. She was certain that something was going to jump out, attracted by the sound or smell, so when something touched her shoulder, Liara smacked it with her reinforced hand.
Fortunately, she did not have mana to use a flame strike on her target, because it was Pellas, but the little golem did not seem to mind. He was bouncing in the air and hugging his Magical Girl. It took Liara a moment to register what was saying, but then it hit her.
“You slew them all! You did it, you won!”
Liara looked and saw that the Cadavers and Matriarch were no longer a threat, but she did not feel like celebrating in the carnage. Liara just stood there, the only one left, knee-deep in the dead.
Liara’s Stats
Strength 9 Constitution 9 Reaction 10 Authority 11 Mana 0/330 (1 rpm) Mana Art Specialization Flame Strike (15), Fireball (300) Augmentations Reinforced mana hand, Mana eye Golem Upgrades Basic Medical Suite, Mimicry, Lesser Suggestion Special Abilities Minor Vitality Regeneration