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We moved back downstairs below the manor to a room with a gathering table that rose from the floor. The table was round, with Tymon and Damien to my right and Michael, Arne, and Naomi circling from my left. I placed my holo-bracelet on the center of the table while we waited for Za'Fia to join us. She stayed upstairs a bit longer to safely melt all the ice Naomi had created up there.
When she finally joined us downstairs, she predictably moved to sit beside Tymon, but Damien was already there. We all watched while stifling laughter as Za'Fia passive-aggressively coaxed Damien to scoot over. Tymon, oblivious as usual, tried to offer her his seat instead, which made me giggle a little, but Damien finally moved a chair over, allowing Za'Fia to sit between them. Once they were settled, the light atmosphere became thick with solemn tension as the discussion of Viraa's countermeasures began.
"So, what's this about countermeasures?" Michael initiated.
"Viraa, you know a way to deal with them?" Za'Fia inquired.
"Will it make us stronger?" Arne leaned forward in their seat.
"Yes, I believe I know of a way to tend to our current dilemma—to even your odds," Viraa replied.
"And how's that?" Za'Fia asked what we all were thinking.
There was a brief silence before she answered, "We make Alissia our trump card."
The others looked confused, and my eyes slowly grew wide as I responded, "WHAT!? Me!? What can I do? I can't fight them!"
"Not yet, you cannot, but you have the potential to."
"Even if that's so, what about the rest of us?" Naomi spoke from Arne's side, who seemed as if they were just about to ask the same question.
"I have a solution for that as well: I will release the limiters I have placed on each of your ascension marks," she stated matter-of-factly, stunning the others. "Doing so will allow you to use your full, uninhibited strength and power, but I surmise most of you will still struggle against Avarice's brigade of transmuted klevonians."
I caught Arne struggling to suppress their growing excitement.
"Also, once I lift the restrictions, it will undo any augmentations I have engraved into the marks, such as your reincarnation processes. This means you all will age even slower than you are already used to. The marks will no longer sap your vitality over time, so should you not meet an untimely death, you will live your remaining lifespan of nearly 990 millennia."
I watched as Michael and the others, one by one, let that sink in. While Michael and the others seemed to understand or accept Viraa's reasoning behind limiting their strength, Tymon and Arne were confused about such a decision and looked at it regretfully.
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"That's...no. Why limit us?" Tymon dissented as he stood. "With our full strength in store, I wouldn't have...we could've prevented everything before it escalated."
"Yes, perhaps you all could have, or perhaps the same sequence of events would have occurred, or even worse, perhaps more of you would have grown cruel, believing you could live forever among the weaker humans. Thus, while limiting your lifespans, I took the precaution to restrict some of your power as well."
Tymon sunk back to his seat as he thought about that. I sympathized with him. If I'd known most of my trauma may have been avoided had someone not restricted my strength, I'd be torn up about it too.
"So, how do we release our limiters?" Damien asked, pressing onward.
"I will show you that now. Naomi, would you care to be part of the demonstration?"
Naomi bolted from her chair excitedly and appeared next to me in a blur.
"I don't mind," she beamed. "Just make sure it doesn't hurt."
"This will not hurt a bit, I promise. Lisa," Viraa spoke, "please place your hand on Naomi's ascension mark."
I complied quietly and placed my right hand on the back of Naomi's left hand where her snowflake-shaped ascension mark was grafted. After holding it there for a few seconds, I began to feel a surge of energy run through me to the mark before connecting to something within Naomi that I could literally feel snap–no, unlock.
Naomi dropped her hand and stepped back as her power flared incredibly. The temperature dropped dramatically as everything was encased in hard ice, which would've frozen me, too, had Za'Fia not emitted enough heat to thwart it.
Judging from what I sensed, Naomi was now more powerful than Za'Fia but still wasn't quite as powerful as Michael or even Tymon before he left us. Still, that was quite the jump from being the least powerful a moment before.
"This is unbelievable!" Naomi commented, amazed.
"As you can see, quite a bit of power is still being unutilized within each of you, and it's a simple process for me to give you access to it. Shall we continue?"
Eager to unlock their full strength, Arne was next to follow. Then Michael, Damien, and finally Tymon. Each of them was highly pleased with their new power. We were all astounded by Tymon's amplified power in addition to the power he'd arrived with. If not for Avarice's presence, we wouldn't have needed a trump card to finish things off.
"This is great and all, but how are we supposed to make Alissia our trump card? I'm assuming that'd mean she's supposed to be even more powerful than us," Tymon stated as he clumsily drew in his energy. None of them could draw in their energy completely. I guess it'd take even more time for them to adjust to all that power.
"Your presumption is correct. I intend for Lisa to be made more powerful than each of you. Due to her connection with me and possessing my pneumarian DNA, she should theoretically be able to hold the collective power from each of you so long as her body is strong enough to withstand it."
"No," Michael rejected. "That much power inside a human would kill them."
"Normally, yes; however, Lisa has shown the prospects needed for this to succeed. Each time she consumed the JANUS drug, she retained the boost in power it gave her and also made her body stronger. This proves that she has an incredible evolutionary potential. So long as her body is not overloaded, she can adjust to the change. Once the collected energy synchronizes with her own, she will emerge much more powerful–neither pneumarian nor klevonian, but not entirely human either—an anomaly."
"How do you plan to accomplish this without it overstressing her body," Tymon asked.
A slight tingling sensation began to throb in my right arm. As its intensity grew to an acute burning impression, I lifted the short sleeve of my shirt to reveal a dark mark that resembled two infinity symbols made perpendicular to each other that had appeared on my shoulder.
"This is a specially augmented mark designed to store all the power you give her," Viraa explained as it cooled. "After I teach her, she will be able to draw on that power at a pace she can handle until she can safely access all of it."