The effect was immediate.
Serra woke up screaming, her eyes bloodshot, her face contorted in an expression of pure terror. Eric dropped the spent ampoules and grasped her shoulders to hold her down, finding that it was a surprisingly easy thing to do.
Have I grown stronger?
“Focus Soldier! Focus!” Eric said, using his command voice, letting its familiar authority and cadence catch and hold Serra’s attention. “You’re with me! Focus on my voice and SETTLE DOWN!”
“Cap?!” Serra asked hoarsely, her eyes fixed on Eric’s face, tears leaking involuntary down her cheeks. “It hurts, Cap! It hurts everywhere!”
“I know soldier,” Eric said soothingly, taking the sobbing, shaking woman into an awkward embrace. “I can talk you through this shit, but you have to work through the pain, you hear?”
Serra was unresponsive for a long moment, her bruised, broken arms dangling uselessly at her side, her face buried in Eric’s shoulders. Then, with a visible effort, the veteran soldier pulled back, and Eric moved her carefully so she could rest with her back against the wall.
“Good job soldier,” Eric said softly, his throat rough and his hear aching as he noticed the effort it took from Serra to keep herself from crying out. Muscle twitches danced along her clenched jaw, and the pupils of her wide eyes were dilated with pain. “I’ll get you through this, okay?”
“Something’s broken Cap,” Serra said after a moment, in a tone of voice Eric had never heard from her. “None of my augs are responding and my Angel’s offline…”
“I know, and we’ll get to that.” He arranged Serra’s legs comfortably as he spoke, noting the unnatural way they bent. “For now, I want you to focus on the window that should be in your FOV.”
“I see it Cap,” Serra said through gritted teeth as another surge of pain ran through her body. “Don’t make sense but I see it.”
“Good, what does it say?”
“It… AAAH!” Serra suddenly clenched, her head banging against the wall before Eric could move to stop her. “Make the pain stop!”
“I have some of the good stuff, Jakobin.” Eric said soothingly, holding up an ultradrenalin ampoule where Serra could see. The woman’s tortured gaze locked on it like a neo-raptor sighting prey. “Now I can let you have it, but you have to read out that message I asked about.”
“I… I… Okay.” Serra breathed, her eyebrows meeting as she concentrated on the notification window only she could see. “It says ‘Your Gens… your Gens has reached the required parameters for I-I-Integration…”
“Answer Yes, Jakobin.”
“What… It don’t make sense!.”
“Just do it soldier,” Eric pressed, waving the ampoule before Serra’s confused face. “Answer Yes and you get a shot of this as a reward.”
“Done.” Serra growled, a hint of anger entering her voice. Eric saw it as a good sign. As soon as the word was out of Serra’s mouth Eric plunged the ampoule’s needle-tip onto Serra’s thigh. Relief washed over Serra’s face and her body relaxed a little.
A few moments later Serra suddenly jerked her head up to glare at Eric with such anger that the big man had to step back. “What the hell Cap! Now it says ‘Error. Compatibility wildly divergent from expected basal parameters. Revising.’” Her glare took in Eric and the empty ampoule he held in his hand. “What the goddamn hell is going on here!”
“Everything's going to work out, Jakobin,” Eric said, raising his hands where she could see them. “I got you… just rest for a bit before we continue.”
“Alright, sir,” Serra said slowly, her energy expended by her outburst, her eyes still narrowed suspiciously. “I’ll rest for a bit, and then you better be ready with some answers.”
Then the injured soldier closed her eyes.
Eric stood and walked a little bit away, careful to keep a watch on the resting woman.
“How long did it take before your System was activated, Sir?” Pig’s tone was curious.
“I don’t really know, Pig.” Eric kept his voice low so Serra wouldn’t hear. “I remember I had time to drag Serra over here before…”
Suddenly Serra’s body stiffened and her eyes snapped open. Sudden wisps of bright golden light began to travel over her body, outlining her veins, organs and muscles in golden light. Eric immediately rushed over, taking Serra’s limp right hand into his own.
“A-Angel?” Serra mumbled, her eyelids fluttering as she looked out into the darkness. “What?”
“Listen to Angel, Serra.” Eric whispered softly, laying his broad hand on the woman’s sweat-damp head. “She’ll get you through.”
“Sh… Sh… okay.”
A bright golden light began to grow from Serra’s throat area, intensifying until it covered the woman’s entire body, making every bit of exposed flesh shine. Eric watched, ghoulishly fascinated as thick bands of almost translucent, colorless, aether swirled and coalesced atop Serra’s body, sinking slowly into her, filling her trembling frame with light. There was a horrible cracking sound as Serra’s broken bones reset, and some red-tinged steam rose from her sweat-soaked skin. Then there was a flash of light and then it was gone, leaving Eric blinking, and Serra sitting up, her face flush with euphoria.
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“Hellfire!” She exclaimed joyfully, raising her now intact arms and examining them with wonder. “What the hell just happened?”
Before Eric could speak Serra cocked her head to one side as if listening. Was that what he looked like when he spoke to Pig? Eric idly wondered. Serra finished her little internal convo and looked at Eric.
“Angel says I need something called a core?”
Eric smiled.
Eric had insisted Serra make sure she was okay before proceeding.
Afterwards, he and Pig had then gone through Vashanks’s Ring and found some necessary items. Pulling out one of several barrels labeled Lake Ferenseid Water, a pile of workroom rags and several bath towels, Eric decided there were enough materials available so that he, and Serra if she wished, could clean themselves off from all the filth they had accumulated from the dragon’s demise. Using four large earthenware pots filled with rich, dark soil, several bamboo poles, two large sailcloth tarps, and a length of wire, Eric and Serra built a makeshift partition where they could wash themselves down. Afterwards, each of them had changed into human-shaped clothes that they had found within one of the many wardrobes stored in Vashanka’s Ring.
Eric had selected a pair of long, soft cargo pants made out of some tough leathery fabric and a loose, light-blue cotton overtunic while Serra had opted for a pair of supple leather pants, a plain white blouse and a long, insulated jacket. As to why a dragon like Vashanka had a collection of clothes for both men and women in his storage ring, Eric decided to just be thankful and shelve that mystery for later.
He also mentally noted that his ‘for later’ pile of things to consider was getting pretty large.
So, it wasn’t until roughly twenty minutes later that the two soldiers, now dressed, cleaner, and somewhat more relaxed, found themselves sitting cross-legged on several spread towels facing each other, ready to look through the available choices for Serra’s first Core.
Eric and Pig had looked through Vashanka’s Ring and produced the eight Legendary-grade and above cores now laid out in front of them. Aside from those eight Eric still had fourteen lesser-grade Beast cores and six larger Cores that Pig had identified as Dungeon Cores, which apparently, was not the type of Core Serra needed.
Fascinated, the two humans handled and examined the cores Eric had laid out, running their fingers over the varied surfaces while Eric read out the information that was given to him by his Dragon Sight ability. They methodically went through the entire collection, discussing each individual core, and putting aside those that seemed unsuitable for Serra. After about half an hour, despite their lack of knowledge regarding which cores were specifically better choices, the pair had narrowed the field down to three stones; two Legendary and one Epic core.
Eric picked up one of the last three cores.
The fist-sized object was an irregularly-shaped chunk of softly glowing white crystal, shot through with veins of orange and grey. Without prompting a white glowing tag appeared above the core, detailing its properties.
Starscale Shredder Core (Legendary Beast Core)
Aspects: Light, Force, Metal
Pig had modified the tag after Eric had received the original notification which had read:
You have obtained a Starscale Shredder Core (Legendary Beast Core).
Aspects: Light, Force, Metal
Do you wish to make this your Gate Core? Yes/No
The ability to modify information tags and its increasing facility at doing so were some of clear benefits of Pig’s recent ‘upgrading’ and one that Eric had told his AI to practice constantly. The more advantages they could accumulate during this early adjustment period, the easier time they would have with as their abilities progressed and they grew used to the System.
“Pig says that higher Tier cores may yield more unique Archetypes, but only when all three slots in our Gens are filled.” Eric hefted the core he held, looking at its depths with his Dragon Sight. He could see pale white, very pale green, and greyish aether swirling around and emanating from the core, and figured these were the various affinities mentioned in the core’s tag.
“Angel says the same.” Serra had taken to the reality of their situation much more calmly than Eric had thought she would, which showed him just how much he had underestimated her. He had known her for four years, trained her and gone on nearly a hundred missions with her and yet here he was, still thinking she was going to freak out like some sort of High Court arista. Eric made another mental note: His companion was a hard operator just like him and he should start thinking of her as such.
Serra reached out and picked up the smallest, yet heaviest of the cores they had.
The tag on it read:
Lushendi, the Flame of Raz (Epic Celestial Core)
Aspects: Fire, Destruction, Light
It was the only Epic-rated core that the ring had contained. Serra’s interest had been drawn to it ever since Eric had placed it down on the towel before her. The core itself was shaped like an elongated tear, very smooth and colored a clear red, with a tiny flickering flame within its depths. Soft, barely perceptible waves of heat radiated from its center.
“This feels right for me.” Serra whispered, looking into the core’s depths.
Eric watched the slight smile playing over his scarred comrade’s face and gave an accepting nod.
“You should slot it then. Pig says it’s the highest core grade among our stash, so it should be better than all the rest.”
“You think I should?” Serra asked, tearing her eyes away for a moment to look at the last core on the towels. This was an icy black stone, round but with a slightly lop-sided look, with a salty, coppery smell. Its tag read:
Thousand-Year Nixie Core (Legendary Fae Core)
Aspects: Fear, Dream, Water
Eric just spread his hands at Serra’s question, passing the burden of choice back to her.
They both could sense the pent-up power in the Nixie core, feel the tentacles of cold, creeping fear trying to grip at their minds whenever they looked at it. It was a frightening, terrible core that also called to something within Serra.
“I think… I think I’ll choose this.” Serra finally said, cupping the Lushendi core in her long-fingered hands.
With a smile of encouragement Eric gestured for her to do so, even as he swept the Nixie core back into his bracelet.
Solemnly, Serra pulled the core she had chosen close to her chest.
“Yes.” She whispered, and the core disappeared.
Serra inhaled sharply as her short-cropped hair suddenly blazed with bronze-colored light. She exhaled softly, expelling a plume of smoke before opening her eyes. A brief flash of golden-red flame flared within her pupils, and then everything was still.
“This is amazing!”