Pushing himself up with Weber, his sides throbbed where he had crashed against the pipes. His lungs fought to catch up to the needs of his body, still gasping heavily.
Erin stood in front of him, looking down on the dead Abel on the metal floor. Water flooded to the hole where she had been stabbed, turning into an opaque blue. But before the colour blocked his view, Gale saw the muscles and veins already reattaching themselves.
"Why?" Gale forced out through his coarse voice. "Why take the hit?"
Erin turned to face him. Her eyes showed no such emotion of even registering pain. "The final blow needed to come from you. It requires no explanation."
Child of Cev, she said. Perhaps she knew that he stood to gain something from dealing the last blow, yet she wasn't telling him. When he had touched the ice orb she had given him, there was a high chance that she probably knew everything about him already. The pod she was found in was named Dainv Heart Container. That was enough to prove that she was a Dainv.
He wasn't alone.
Now, the hard part was getting into a conversation with her alone.
"There are aspects of this world you do not yet grasp," Erin said, turning back to the facility and stepping over the dead Abel as if it hadn't just almost killed all of them. "You shall understand in time."
Ollie trudged over to them, his Desert Eagle still in hand. Behind him, Kyle and Clyde approached cautiously, guns trained on the dead creature. Lily came over with Rachel, her hand still bleeding where the needle had pierced.
"Is it actually dead this time?" Clyde asked, poking the corpse with his long gun.
"Yes," Erin said. "It is dead."
Kyle holstered his pistol. "What the fuck was that thing anyway?"
"An abomination," Erin said.
"Great," Kyle muttered. "Real specific."
"So what now? Where's this Protection Sector you mentioned?" Ollie asked.
"We must depart immediately," Erin said. "The death of this aberration is not the last, but only the beginning. The Protection Sector increases our chances of survival."
Rachel kneeled beside Gale, holding him up. "No way. Look at Gale. He's about to drop."
Weber dematerialized back into space storage as Gale took Rachel's shoulder as support, trying to get up with her as leverage. His legs wobbled, daring to buckle at any time if he didn't have her shoulders. The adrenaline quickly faded from his body. His heart rate lowered at a rate too quick.
"The red one's right. We can't leave if the rookie's like this," Kyle said.
"Yeah, and the rest of us aren't doing much better. When was the last time we slept? Forty hours ago?" Clyde said.
"Fifty-two," Lily said as she took Rachel's hand and wrapped a bandage around it.
"I hate to agree with the idiots on anything, but they're right. We need rest before we go anywhere. The facility's inner room is secure enough and that thing couldn't break through the door. We can hold up there for a bit," Ollie said.
"Delaying our departure increases risk. However..." Erin glanced at Gale again. "Your physical limitations must be accommodated. Six hours. No more."
"That's the first reasonable thing you've said," Kyle said.
Gale took a step forward, intending to follow as the others started moving towards the facility. His boot caught on a piece of metal debris. The world tilted. His knees gave out.
Rachel caught him by the shoulder. A heavy mental fog rolled in, smothering his thoughts. Once again, the last face he saw was hers, just like old times.
Gale regained consciousness, feeling something soft on his head used as a pillow that disturbed his otherwise good sleep. The best kind of pillow was a nice soft firm rock that was at a good level that didn't make his neck bend. His eyes fluttered open, taking in the view of the pillow, a rolled up jacket that probably Rachel had placed beneath his head.
Rolling over to his back, the domed ceiling above showed a metal panel with spaced out etchings and lines. When he tried to get up, his core muscles ached, probably from being literally kneed and launched by that monster.
On his side, Rachel slept beside him, curled up with her back towards him. The arm with a bandaged hand laid under her head as a pillow arm. Her breathing came in a deep, slow rhythm, expected after the ordeal they went through.
Breath of the Void stretched out, feeding him everything around. Camp was set up in the control room, it was the one place Abel couldn't get through. If he couldn't get through it, none of the monsters they had encountered so far could ever.
Ollie slept near the damaged control panel console. He hid his deagle under his pillow, a rolled up jacket used. Kyle and Clyde slept slumped down by the entrance door, probably passing out right after sitting down. Lily had found a spot in the corner near the large battery that provided some warmth.
They could probably take on hordes of beasts, but taking on something just one level lower than the Blue Moon was something entirely different. The mental exhaustion had taken everyone and claimed them to slumber.
But Erin wasn't asleep. She sat upright in a frozen ice armchair near the two destroyed container pods. She stared at it, unshifting and unwavering. Eerily enough, she barely even blinked while she stared at the pod she had come out from.
Gale slowly pushed himself up, careful not to disturb Rachel. His joints popped as his muscles activated, lifting his body up. He took a couple of steps towards the pods.
By the time he got up and took a few steps, Erin still sat motionless. Her deep blue eyes fixed on the pod. She didn't blink, twitch, or even acknowledge his presence. If it weren't for her slowly rising and falling chest, she might've looked like a statue. Her robes flowed down from the sides of her chair. When he moved his position or angle, the subtle distinct patterns of galaxies on her robes would also shift, as if he was looking at something far away.
Approaching her felt like a bad idea like he was about to be hit with a complete lecture on what not to do by a certain specific staff lady. But the need for answers was heavier than the weight of not wanting to be lectured.
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As he got closer, he felt resistance. He pushed through it, feeling a thin membrane of water yet not making his skin or clothes wet. The sensation made no sense. There was nothing visible in the air, yet he felt it against his skin. Once he crossed through it, the sounds behind him changed. The ambient noise from the group's breathing completely faded. Only when he pushed out the tendrils through the membrane could he hear them once again.
It was similar to what Lily did with the sound sigil.
"The young lamb approaches," Erin said without turning from her fixed gaze on the pod. "Just as he did with Leyruth."
"Leyruth?"
"The one you call the Dark Knight," she said. "Or simply 'knight,' if your thoughts serve me correctly."
"How do you know that?" Gale asked.
"You handed me the knowledge yourself," Erin said. "The orb I crafted was a conduit of knowledge. It served as a tool to learn the tongue of your people, but also served as a tool to extract surface memories."
"So you know everything about me now?" Gale asked.
"Child, I said surface memory. I do not know everything," Erin said, turning her head towards him. "Only what floated at the surface of your thoughts. Your immediate concerns. Your recent memories. Your fears. The Eclipsed."
"Those are private."
"Nothing is private between mentor and student," Erin said. "What matters now is not what I know, but what you will tell me. I require the current objectives you have been assigned by your OS."
"Why should I tell you anything?" Gale took a step back.
"Because I am the only one who can explain what you truly are." Erin stood. She stepped toward him, stopping just out of arm's reach. "I will teach you how to be a Dainv, child of Cev. I will show you how to wield the power that sleeps in your blood."
"And how do you plan to do that?"
"In Dainv culture, mentor and student exist in pairs. No more, no less." She looked at him with those same unwavering and unemotional eyes. "I will guide you in the ways of your power, teach you to harness your essence with proper technique rather than the crude methods you currently employ."
"What do you get out of it? Why help me?"
"Everything." Her hands clenched, yet she still showed no emotion on her face. "The annihilation of the corruption is our sacred duty. It must be eliminated at all costs. And you are the sword that will carve through the flesh of corruption."
Her figure appeared to become taller than his, and the background seemed to disappear from the corner of his eyes as she continued to speak.
"The children of Cev, born from the crucible of necessity, bear the responsibility of being born of the power. Accept the connections that you are given and grant yourself power to stand tall in the dark forest of the universe."
Her clenched fist released itself, and her voice took on a softer tone. "Although I am a child of Vianne and you are of Cev, it doesn't matter, for you are the last Dainv that bears the blood of Cev."
She literally did talk like the knight. Now he was wondering, if he finds other Dainvs, are they all going to talk like her and the knight?
"Fine," Gale said, opening up the OS interface. "My mission is to exterminate the corrupted in this place. Find the city's energy source which we haven't activated yet, and create an exit rift."
"Continue."
"There was a hidden mission to find you, which I completed when we freed you from the pod," Gale said. "There's another hidden mission I haven't figured out yet. And an ongoing one to find Vianne's fragment."
"The path forward requires sacrifice," Erin said. "We must obtain three Origin Cores from the undamaged sectors to power the rift aperture system."
"You mean the things in the Core Chambers?" Gale frowned.
"Exactly. Current intact Cores are located in Harmony, Prosperity, and Protection sectors. There is Abundance sector that is still operational. But we need only three cores to achieve our goal." Erin's fingers traced hexagons in the air, leaving a trace of light that showed him a symbol for each sector. Each symbol embedded itself in his mind, telling him that each one symbolizes and is defined by the name that she had just uttered.
A thin smile crossed her lips. "I also know of the other hidden mission you have referred to as well as the location of Vianne's fragment."
"How do you know where Vianne's fragment is?"
"Because I placed it there myself," Erin said.
Of course she did. She knew everything about this world or planet or tomb.
Erin continued. "It resides in the Solace sector, which is a dead sector, already corrupted by the abominations. The journey there will test even your abilities. I assume retrieving Vianne's fragment is non-negotiable as stated by the OS."
"You're right." Gale sat down cross-legged. "But what about the other hidden mission? What did you mean?"
"It's a sword. One of Cev's eight swords. The only one that was delivered in this tomb." She stepped closer, bending down to meet his face. "You are currently only in Attuned Core Class, which is pitiful for a Cev warrior of your age. Have you allocated any of your Origin grains to the four main core parts?"
Gale shook his head. "I have 236 Origin grains unallocated."
Suddenly, this felt like he was back in the orphanage, interrogated by Ms. Molly after doing something he definitely did not do. He sighed. Something in him already knew it was going to end up like this anyways.
For the first time, Erin's lips curved into something resembling a genuine smile as she straightened herself. "236 unallocated grains is a boon, young lamb. Allocate them all to Mind."
"Why?" Gale sat up straighter. "Why not Body?"
Erin scoffed. "And be a standard barbaric Cev Dainv? How barbaric. Put them all into Mind."
"That doesn't answer my question," Gale said.
Erin sighed, the first time she actually had some sort of frustration. "By increasing Mind, you will unlock more abilities rather than merely boosting brute force capabilities, which is already high for your bloodline. The skill named 'Manifest' needs to be unlocked. It was one of the key ingredients that brought about the mightiest Cev warrior that ever existed."
Gale hesitated, "And I should just trust you on this? I don't even know you."
"Your distrust is expected but irrelevant." Erin's face returned to its unemotional neutral expression. "I am the last Weber. The knowledge I possess is not found in your primitive Earth texts or systems."
Guide. Gale mouthed.
[Awaiting instruction.]
What's your take on allocating all my Origin grains to Mind? And is what she said true about that mightiest mighty Cev warrior?
[Mind enhancement increases essence reserves and essence control capacity. Current combat style relies on precision and tactical awareness rather than raw power. Mental capacity improvements would enhance your current abilities more effectively than physical enhancements. Recommendation: Proceed with Mind allocation.]
[Found in Vianne's Amazing Knowledge Base. Master Lucid ranked as #1 in the Cev Warrior rankings. Master Lucid's build heavily leaned on the Core Part: Mind. Erin's assessment is correct.]
"You needn't hide your communication with the Guide," Erin said, head tilted at him. "It is a gift from Vianne to her children upon their coming of age. An inheritance that should be celebrated, not concealed."
Gale scowled. "Is there anything about me you don't know? Any little privacy I might have left after you poked around in my head?"
"Your annoyance puzzles me." Erin tilted her head the other way. "The orb served as a more efficient approach than hours of tedious conversation. I extracted what I needed to know in seconds. The alternative would have been inefficient and wasteful."
"That's not…" Gale bit back his retort. He wanted to bang his head against the nearest wall, but even that would probably give her more "data" to analyze. This wasn't like dealing with Ms. Molly at all. This was worse. Far worse. Because beneath all of this invasion of privacy, she was right. That was probably the most efficient.
Gale sighed and opened the OS again. Now it didn't seem so mysterious anymore now that there was a walking encyclopedia that he could just ask that's a bit more helpful than Guide.
"You're certain about this? All 236 grains?" he asked, even though he'd already made his decision.
"Certainty is absolute," Erin replied.
Gale tapped the screen.
[230 grains consumed. 6 grains remaining]
[35 in Mind Core part achieved.]
[Skill formation detected...]
[Manifest Lv. 1 unlocked.]
[Essence Reserves: 1500 ? 1960]
Something inside him expanded, but he didn't know what. When he looked at the etches on the door and the lines that ran past the walls, somehow they looked even clearer than before. His awareness sharpened, and somehow, the range of Breath of the Void extended as well as the original corruption interference that limited it before. He looked at the new skill that had formed on his OS.
Analyze.
[Manifest]
[Type: Skill]
[Description: Allows users to Manifest those that are in the voidal plane... for a cost.]
[Essence cost on ACTIVE SUMMON: 25 Essence per second]
[Essence cost on PASSIVE SUMMON: 0.25 Essence per second]
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