Axel slowly regained consciousness with phantoms of pain shooting through his body as his mind tried to catch up with everything. His body seemed to be in decent shape, from what his medical information told him. Axel opened his eyes and saw a white ceiling with small splashes of blood. He then shifted his head right only to see someone covered in cloth nearby, but it did not seem to be the body shape or size of any of his companions.
It was at this time that Axel noticed he was not hearing anything either and just closed his eyes, trying to get a better sense of his body. It felt like his nervous system was scrambled and slowly untangling back to normal. Axel then opened his journal to see what had changed, only to see a list of warnings and messages appear before his eyes.
Update: Integrating Elemental Power Gravitational Field Omnidirectional
Warning: Crimson corruption has reached 10%. Please disengage Berserker.
Update: Novice Core is now at Cycle 2 …. Updating data ….
Warning: Berserker disengaged from Admin Hope. Journal enacting safety lockdown.
Warning: Berserker will be unavailable for 63 hours before safe use is open again
Warning: Admin Hope has activated Core Purge to remove corruption.
Warning: Elemental Power Gravitational Field Omnidirectional has also been purged from the body.
Warning: Novice Core returned to Cycle 1
Warning: All waste materials extracted from the body and released through nearest waste disposal system.
Update: Crimson corruption has returned to nominal levels.
After getting through the list of alerts, Axel pulled up his Journal menu with a thought, easier now after all the practice he had been having while figuring out the interface settings. Axel did notice that there was an extra option of Purge on the list but decided to work through everything to see if anything went wrong from what the Goddess had done.
Journal Menu:
* Health Data
* Core
* Powers
* Index
* Journal
* Purge
Axel opened Health Data first and saw the mess that was his body’s internal state. It seemed the purge had happened as Axel was building internally the channels to use Gravity, but it was canceled, and his body was repairing that damage. From the data, it would take another couple of hours without help for his body to sort this out, and he would be mostly immobile as his nervous system seemed to be shorted out, sending mixed signals throughout his body.
It did look like he would not need to fix his body’s cycle and rebuild as the change was stopped at the beginning of the change. All other health readings looked to be normal to slightly elevated, so Axel closed out his Health Data and opened his Core menu with trepidation.
Core:
* Novice Core: 165 CP
* Core generation: 1.65 CP per minute
* Body Reserved power: 40 CP
* Passive Reserved for powers: 40 CP
* Total Available: 75 CP
Axel noticed that the numbers were slightly higher than before and was shocked. He fully expected to have lost Core Power, but it seemed that not all the material was lost, or because he had accessed more of the proto core, it had increased power output and storage. Axel had no real answers to this question, so he made a note of it and closed this menu.
Axel checked Power and Index, but there were no changes to them while the Journal had a quest.
Quest updates:
* Complete your Second Cycle …. (Completed)
* Re-Complete your Second Cycle
* Leave the Trial
Axel closed out the Journal for now and investigated the new option.
Purge
Description: This is a function to remove excess Crimson matter from the user's body. It can also reset a user to the beginning of a Tier. If used to remove corruption from the body, it will be removed until corruption is removed or reaches the beginning of a Tier.
Warning: The process is painful and could cause the user issues until the body is healed.
Would you like to purge the system? Y/N
Axel told the Journal no and closed this Journal option. If he had to make a guess, this was what Goddess Blessed healers accessed to remove powers from people. Axel started to get more feeling back into his body and felt a warm hand on the side of his neck. After feeling this touch, Axel opened his eyes to see Lyra with a pair of fingers on his neck.
Their eyes met and Axel saw Lyra relax in relief before she put her healer’s face on and began to check him through her Journal. The check-up took about ten minutes, and Axel was starting to hear things again with the sound of rushing air and fire taking up most of it.
When she was satisfied, she said, “Salmar didn’t make it.”
‘Shit,’ was Axel’s only reply.
“He took too many internal wounds for his blessing to heal, and I was empty from my fight with the Shatter,” Lyra said in a small voice, not stating that they had used the earlier healing gems on Axel. “I don’t think he tried to dodge many of the blows in his fight.”
“He also took a blow for Aria, that was a fatal one to the heart when the Zone Walker was making a go on each of us when it was trying to escape,” Lyra reported with as little emotion as possible. “He survived for a time after the fight and told me that if he was going to pass, it would be best if he killed the ones who took out his friends.”
‘I thought something like that happened when we arrived here,’ Axel said with a soft sigh. ‘I noticed the corpse and the way he was acting.’
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“He did leave one last gift for you.” Lyra then took out a piece of beast skin that had a map burned into it. “This is the area that the Tormentor frequents if you still want to hunt it.”
‘Well, since the Goddess decided I needed a purge mid-cycle upgrade to fix a self-imposed problem, I think I may need to hunt that,’ Axel replied.
“You could also take the Zone Walker orb. Salmar did not use it as he didn’t think he would survive the upgrade,” Lyra told Axel and placed the blue-green orb next to him. “Also, we needed to burn that set of clothes and use a water gem to clean you. A purge leaves very distinct smells and leavings, but it did give Aria a chance to practice her new fire.”
‘Good to know,’ was Axel’s only reply to that, and being glad he brought three sets down with him. This was the second one down, so he had only one spare set left.
‘Well, I am still not moving for a bit, so is anything else happening?’ Axel asked while trying to move his head with little success as his right eye began to blink at that signal.
“Well, I have gathered Salmar and his old team’s Journals, but we are unlikely to be able to remove the bodies,” Lyra began to explain while trying to make Axel more comfortable. “Aria is working with Sky using her Aero and new Fire together. Sky thought that she could, with a bit of time, make me a temporary weapon as I used my new Vibration powers and destroyed my old one.”
‘And that is why it’s not recommended to try new powers while in a Trial,’ Axel said in his best Rex voice.
“You have been out for about six hours, and we are at about the halfway point time-wise if Salmar’s watch is still correct,” Lyra ignored Axel’s comment. “Sky took in her orb to have more power available in case anything happened.”
“Axel, I upgraded her Journal,” Lyra admitted.
‘Good, I think she is trustworthy, and the Goddess would want to be able to talk to more people. We just need to be careful, not hold it only to our use,’ Axel agreed with Lyra.
“Also, you freaked her out there when you activated whatever you did as none of us could contact you,” Lyra said in a fearful voice. “Also, the way you looked when you beat the Titan, it was almost like you were not in there. You scared me, a lot.”
‘I accessed my proto core with only my base ability, but I went over the safety limits and was being corrupted by the overwhelming power. It was only all of you yelling into my head that snapped me out of it,’ Axel admitted as his mouth went dry, and when he tried to look away, he looked up—damn jumbled nervous system.
“Aria knew her hero would break free,” came a cheerful voice from Axel’s left.
‘While you scared me, I know you would not hurt your friends, Axel,’ Sky’s mental voice came shortly after. Sky then moved a new blade across Axel’s vision to Lyra. The hilt still needed a wrap, but it looked like a fine blade, though Axel had no idea how they would quench the blade in this situation.
‘Not my best work, but with my metal control, it should work well until I can forge something better,’ Sky then grumbled about it being a waste of good metal.
“Axel! Axel! Aria with Sky has made so much progress with her fire!” Aria exclaimed while moving into a position to put Axel’s head in her lap “It only took burning half a hallway before the blasting stopped being way too high on the output!”
“Good job,” Axel said in a forced happy voice “That was way faster than your Aero skills sharpened from training.”
‘She was using Aero to control the fire.’ Sky cut in as Aria was about to keep going ‘Damned to the Crimson if I had ever seen anything like it besides in an enclosed furnace.’
‘I look forward to seeing it when I can move,’ Axel then frowned at Aria while trying to smile. ‘Sorry about that, nerves still acting up.’
Axel then realized that he should not be able to talk with this nerve issue as his mouth was moving but not saying words when he felt Sky brushing his mind. It took a long moment for him to come to the fact that Sky had kept a thought link and transfer up or at least put one back up when he woke up. This touched him as Axel knew how hard this was for her to do with others not of her race or a telepathy power.
‘Thank you, Sky,’ Axel sent and stopped trying to talk with his mouth while his body was messed up.
‘You're very welcome!’ Came Sky's loud reply came in a happy voice.
‘Sky volume please’ Axel begged as his head pounded
‘Sorry’ Sky sent back much more silently
After this, everyone seemed to have run out of things to say and lapsed into silence for a time. After a while, Lyra handed out food from her pack and helped Axel sit up and drink some water. When Axel could move and talk Sky shut the link down with a tired sigh. Axel during the downtime memorized the map and hoped the shift had not moved his prey or that his prey would not be as tough as this last fight was.
After being able to move Axel went through several exercises to make sure his body was moving right and gathered everyone together.
“Let’s say our last goodbye and get moving. We are likely to be cutting it close as we have a lot of distance to cover and with how the journey here went we are likely to be slowed down.” Axel started and had Lyra take the front with him, Aria in the middle of the group and Sky holding the rear.
After the quick planning session and Axel handing the map to Aria, he walked over to the five cloth-covered figures and kneeled while he prayed to the Goddess to take them into her embrace. After this moment of silence, the group broke their temporary camp, gathered weapons, and began to move in the direction that Salmar mapped for them.
Just as the group began to move Aria started to wave at things in her face and turned a little red. She looked at Axel and said, “The Goddess wanted me to remind you that it is rude to pass out while she is trying to warn you.”
“Warn me?” Axel asked while thinking hard about what she was saying “My memory was a little fuzzy and overwhelming pain makes it hard to think about it.”
“She passed to Aria when she was upgrading that there are people hunting us from other novice groups that had come down at the same time.” Aria relayed to the group “Also we are in more danger than we assume and should keep on the lookout.”
“As helpful as that warning is, does not change anything for us right now,” Lyra said after a little thought “We didn’t know about other groups down here but I am not that surprised as what twelve to fifteen groups can go down at the same time from the Vanguard locations in the city?”
‘It is twelve as the Tower drops three and there are nine other locations that drop one group each.’ Sky said in everyone’s mind ‘It can double as all branches can drop two but those extra tend to go to the Adept Trial.’
‘Also, the branch locations do Gem runs while cycle upgrades are forced to go through the Tower,’ Sky finished ‘It is so that controls can be done for the list of controlled power.’
“Well Aria you keep your ear open, and we will try to stay sneaky but at least it will not be people too far above our level. Let’s get my orb and get out” Axel then began moving forward as they had a timetable to keep.
The trip was quiet and while the group ran into one or two small patrols of crimson they were just a pair of Wind Serpents that were killed before they knew anyone was there from Aria and Sky. The second was avoiding another Iron Titan that looked much smaller than the one Axel fought but he didn’t want to deal with it, but Aria wanted to show off her new fire, thankfully she was outvoted by everyone not wanting to deal with her new ability in a hallway.
The group made great progress when they arrived at the room marked on the map. In the room was a humanoid being that had a large well built upper body, blue-grey tinted skin, and strange robe-like clothing. It also had nothing below the waste, after its large belt with intricate buckle but earth-like dust that swirled in a small tornado. The Crimson was living up to its name as it through around the room a pair of Shatter with just gestures of its hand.
“Alright he has the ability to directionally control gravity,” Axel explained while the group hid outside the room “The Iron Titan just releases its gravity all around it while the Tormenter can push or pull gravity on objects or people from different directions.”
“We will need to spread out when we get in there. I will try to make myself the biggest threat, but it will be up to Sky and Aria to kill it before it kicks my ass too much,” Axel began to lay out the plan “Lyra you are the backup in case it flings me at one of them. Its weak point is that buckle on the belt, it's where its essence is stored.”