Augmented Aspects [Steampunk], [Progression], [Gamelit]

Finding Out Known Truths

(Mallory)

There was a silence that settled over the group as they all watched the slumbering pixy slip into unconsciousness. For a moment, Mallory wondered if anyone here would ask her about the impending vote that was happening now to determine their future. A vote that would likely have more future impact decisions than anyone could fathom. Fortunately for Mallory, no one asked, at least no one here did, which was a good thing as Mallory had no clue what any of it meant. Which was why just focusing on the current problem, on Cass and her needing to resynchronize with the server was the most important thing they could focus on at the moment, but a future conversation was clearly waiting.

Mallory watched as Cass quickly fell into the realm of unconsciousness, everyone began to relax. Then not wanting to say anything Gwen gave Mallory the hand roll and come on gesture that meant she needed to say what she wanted to know.

The only problem as that at the time, there was absolutely nothing she could say. Rather, there was nothing that she wanted to say, on the off chance that she might awaken the pixie. A pixie who seemed to somehow grow brighter with each breath she took.

Poof.

That's about when Kujo and Umbra both appeared. Kujo went next to Penelope, sitting by her side and let out a slow sad pant. Meanwhile, Umbra went close to Cass her body seemed to move by instincts and reached out with her free right arm and grabbed Umbra from underneath and pulled him close like a pillow. A very squishy pillow that looked like it wanted to fight its way free for a moment, before pausing and settling down to rest.

Silence.

Watching her for a moment, everyone else also paused as they checked her condition. With Kujo next to her, and clearly calming down, Penelope was the first to relax, as stress left her shoulders, despite having to be in possibly one of the most awkward positions. Her legs were spread out with a pixie and now an oversized lap pillow of an Umbra. Her arm was draped over Cass like an impossibly small comfort blanket. Her right hand gently stroking her hair, all while Kujo threatened to lick her face with his overly acid coated slobbery tongue if she didn't keep brushing Cass's hair. Yet, despite all of that, Penelope seemed oddly content with her position, however that comfort didn't stop her from also joining Gwen in eventually staring at Mallory with a come on with it already look.

Realizing that there was not much she could do, she paused and then listed out Cass's quests for the day.

The rewards distributed function was a life saver function for Mallory as a Guild Leader, as it let her settle disputes on what people got as rewards, particularly on shared quests, where one person promises a portion of items received to another individual. This way the Guild leader acting as a moderator could step in as needed.

Showing the first one for context, and making sure to highlight the quest text that spoke about Cosmic Energy, it became clear why Cass had broken out of synchronization for the day.

Then she revealed the remaining quests that were still waiting to be finished.

As usual Cass had a lot of random quests to be rewarded for, the only difference this time was that she seemed to not be in control of the turn in process.

Everyone watched in silence as they watched the screen, all wondering if this would be enough to finally fix the issue and let her resynchronize. How that happened? How someone somehow became unsynchronized was an entirely different question.

Tremble.

Everyone was so fixated on the glowing blue screen of unmoving numbers and error messages, that almost missed the moment when Cass began to tremble and shake.

Only Penelope looking down, and Gwen turning to face her mother let Mallory know that she was in fact moving. Umbra opened his big albino black eyes and looked like he wanted to protest, thinking he had somehow hurt the pixie, but nope she seemed comfortable. That's when the first of the error messages began to clear out.

There was a slight pause as the line then went down to the next list, and she could almost see the problems working out in real time.

Of course, things were clearly going too smoothly as the message seemed to flicker and pause at the completion of Cass's sixth quest of the day. It was clear that the line had stopped, and Cass was still just at three of nine quests completed for the day.

Poof.

Then almost as if answering the unspoken question, Rune-Ulacrum appeared, fear evident on her face as she looked around and then seemed to relax slightly knowing that she had apparently made it.

GRRR!

With Rune-Ulacrum's appearance, Kujo stood up and began to snarl. At first Mallory thought Kujo was mad at Rune-Ulacrum coming and seeming to interrupt Cass's slumber. Yet, looking at the peaceful pixie it was clear that she was still asleep, especially as a slight look of panic crossed her otherwise composed features, as if she was reliving a nightmare.

Rune-Ulacrum was the first to float behind Kujo, even pointing in the direction that she had just come from.

Micro-growl!

By this time Umbra even got in on the action as his hair began to stand on end, making him appear to be a giant prickly marshmallow. He squirmed a bit, but a quick motion by Cass caused him to settle down as apparently even the pup knew how important Cass was getting sleep now.

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For a moment, Mallory wondered if she was going crazy, if she had somehow missed something important. Was she dreaming about Cass dreaming? This was an important question as at the moment nothing seemed to be making sense.

Then the weirdest thing occurred, Rune-Ulacrum held up her hand and caused a Portal to appear. Odder still was that the moment the Portal appeared everyone began traveling through the Portal.

Jhonny was the first to pop through, "where is she?" Jhonny asked, his eyes darting around wildly, before looking down to see Cass resting on Penelope and surrounded by Kujos. Yet, he wasn't assured until he saw Rune-Ulacrum and went over to her.

Next out were Gabriellaz, and Valeria who went right to stand next to Cass's other side. Next were Mallory's own bodyguards Vickard and Melkin, followed by almost every Qi soldier that Cass had ever trained, even the ones who watched from the shadows as tagalongs. Then Raygunnr, a robotic death machine that now seemed to glow with one golden and one blue eye came through the Portal. Seeing the death machine and the way everyone was completely serious, caused Mallory to suddenly tense up in anticipation.

There were muttered speeches, but for the most part everyone was quiet and moving in a fanning formation around Cass. Everyone was standing a full foot or two away from her, even though she was clearly the person that everyone was here to protect.

"Okay, what is going on here?" Mallory yelled, well she did the equivalent of the way one would yell in a Library, which meant lowering her voice to help it carry further.

"We are on the lookout for the monster," Vickard reported.

"What? What monster? How?" Mallory hissed, this whole thing still making no sense.

Then before anyone could say the Portal began to close, but not before a second Cass Simulacrum appeared.

Seeing this Simulacrum, Mallory instantly understood that this one was somehow new. A fact that was apparent in the fact that this one did not have any nice clothes. In fact, this one just wore the standard starter gear that one might get when choosing a wizard class. At this point, Mallory began to understand that the experience Cass had gained had let her level up enough that she now met some threshold to gain more Simulacrums, a fact that was beyond terrifying.

But there were other concerns at the moment, for right now Mallory was more concerned with why the equivalent of the elite Midnight Hunter's Military force was suddenly assembled and taking up flanking positions all around.

"What is going on?" Mallory hissed out, trying to keep her cool, but by now the need for silence was almost over as Cass, that is the real Cass was still passed out, apparently unresponsive. Realizing that she was apparently so tired that she could sleep through this, the equivalent of a military force breaking through made Mallory suddenly worried about the girl. Maybe she was right to not want to synchronize if this was the issue.

"We received word that one of the cursed Immortals is coming here," Vickard explained.

"An Immortal?" Mallory pressed, clinging to any sign of normality that could come from this otherwise absurd scenario.

"Yes, remember the roof incident?" Melkin piped in, trying to help.

Hearing that, Mallory could only nod, remembering full well the infamous roof incident. The one where Cass decided to blow a hole in her new schoolhouse, to avoid teaching her Bloodline Evolutions classes.

"Yes, I remember," Mallory hissed.

"Well, if you remember there were three spies that were also part of that class. Three Legrand spies," Melkin stated.

At that Mallory did remember, as recognition flashed on her face for a moment. Then calm resolve hit her.

"Yes, I remember, Charlaine the personal assistant was one, wasn't she?"

"Yes, we have reason to believe that she is now back," Vickard added.

"She?" Mallory inquired.

"Yes, she. Appeared at Timult, and has been making her way here," Vickard added.

"Do we know she is coming here for Cass?" Mallory asked.

With that Gwen piped up, her eyes clearly reading a message of some kind.

"Oh yes, she is apparently muttering something about finding Cass and bringing her back, bringing her back…" Gwen trailed off.

"Okay, where is she now?" Mallory asked.

There was a look of panic that crossed Gwen's face.

RWOOF, RWOOOF, RWOOF! Kujo barked out loudly, his voice deep and deafening as the apex predator of the area. An apex predator who was now being challenged by someone, or something encroaching on his territory.

"Right here," the voice of a somewhat familiar voice called out, her breathing ragged and her appearance disheveled as fever blisters seemed to form, pop, and heal over on her body at random times. It was clear that just being here was painful for her, yet she seemed to be okay with that fact.

Slice, slink, slash, stab, pull, thrust.

What happened next was an exercise in perfect coordination and cohesion. As one, the martial students all began attacking and hammering at the monster that had been Charlaine.

Yet, with every strike, every slash, the monster still crawled, rolled, and forced its way forward. Body parts were cut, only to be healed up as she continued to crawl and move her way forward. At first she went towards the floating pixies, but they just flew over and around the piles of guards that were relentlessly making their way to try to stop the slow moving sludge that had a mind of its own.

"I'll get you, I'll get you, I'll get you, then I can go home…" The monster hissed and shrieked out as it slowly inch by inch made its way forward. Despite the relentless damage, it was clear that when the system said a being was Immortal, they truly were. Mallory knew from the reports that Cass had claimed to make her and two others quote unquote Immortal, but the details of this were not very clear.

While it was obvious that the monster in question did not have much actual strength, it didn't need any.

"Her hands, she has been blessed by the Void Hag," Rune-Ulacrum began saying. Hearing her speak, Mallory turned to look at her and almost cursed out then and there saying she knew they could talk. But before she could say anything, Rune-Ulacrum continued speaking, clearly reading the mind of the monster that was Charlaine. At least that is what Mallory assumed was happening, as the purple lines of energy that formed from the darting about Rune-Ulacrum to the Immortal and apparently indomitable Charlaine seemed to show this deviation of power clearly to Mallory. Seeing it, Mallory was once again impressed by how much she had learned from her friend, just by being around her. Before she had only the vaguest sense that magic was being cast, but now she could see and interpret some magical signatures. In this case, she was aware of mind magic, and what its effects looked like, something she had to practice against.

"If she touches Cass, or any of us, we will be dragged back to the Void Hag's realm, especially now while her connection to there is still tangible."

With that the efforts began to work faster, yet it never seemed to stop her. Calling forth her Ephemeral Scythe Mallory also added a few slashes to the monster, her blows slicing off arms that broke apart and then reformed almost instantly. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to stop the relentless motion of the monster that had one undeniable quest.

The Simulacrums even decided to use Telekinesis, which worked for only a second, before Charlaine used her own claws to swipe away her body parts that were being held in place and continue moving forward. Folding around the hold like some melting goo monster.

Yet, everyone continued to strike out, even as they grew closer to Penelope. By now Umbra had rolled to his stomach and was clearly ready to pounce. For her part Mallory continued to slash ineffectively at the relentless monster.

That's when the two Simulacrums seemed to have come to a consensus, as they both nodded to each other, then with one command Rune-Ulacrum called out, "now Kujo."

As they spoke, a giant glowing Portal appeared out of nowhere. Inches in front of the crawling Charlaine. Having witnessed this exact attack before, Mallory knew this was how Cass had cut apart the giant Legrand centipede monster. However, she was fairly certain that this would not work again, mainly due to how slow Charlaine had been going and how she now seemed to try to swim around the outline of the portal.

Fortunately, Kujo had been prepared for this, as he dashed forward, momentarily phasing through reality as he charged through throngs of guards and warriors that slashed at Charlaine. Only to reappear as a muzzle that clamped down on Charlaine's neck, before fully emerging from his alternate dimension, where he then charged forward.

It was a testament to both how short of an attack window that Kujo provided, appearing literally inches away from the Portal's surface and the skill and precision of the attackers not to strike at new objects that appeared, that Kujo managed to pull Charlaine's body through, before she could protest.

Telekinetic Push.

This time Gwen provided a Telekinetic push to help shove Charlaine's body through the Portal, all to have it then collapse a second later, as yet another plain dressed pixie appeared floating through the quickly closing portal.

Silence.

There was a long pause as everyone just stared at the area where a Portal once stood. A portal that Kujo had gone through but apparently, he had not come back yet.

"Kujo?" Mallory found herself asking.

"Shh!" Penelope hissed, drawing everyone's attention, before pointing to the still open blue quest text that Mallory had set as auto display so she didn't have to keep focusing on keeping it up. This resulted in the box staying still, despite her moving to try to help slay the Immortal monster.

With that everyone let out a quiet sigh of relief as they looked from the screen, to the still slumbering Cass. Mallory did the same, only to then be concerned by the fact that now three Simulacrums were here on Guild territory?

Mallory watched the clock, seeing that they were now only 18 minutes away from midnight, when the counter continued to go through showing more quests had been completed.

Next was the Daily Quest being completed and rewarded, which had a cascading effect on the final quest of the day. A quest that offered Cass experience and other bonuses just for sleeping.

Then even that quest showed it was completed.

With that the queue cleared up and showed nothing left to be done.

"HOOORAHH!" Vickard cried out in excitement at the notification. At his cry everyone else began crying out with their own excitement.

For a moment, Mallory wanted to yell at them all to stop it, as they were going to wake up Cass. But just as she had the thought, Mallory realized that the whole reason to be quiet, well quieter than shouting with raucous victory was already over. Cass had turned in all of her quests, and most importantly she had officially resynchronized herself with the server. Again she felt she had to ask how that was possible, but decided to hold off on that for the moment.

Especially, as Cass chose that moment to begin to wake up.

"Wha, hmm?" Cass cried out as she stretched her arms and began to move. Umbra who had been held in place as an involuntary pillow used this moment to run off.

"What? Why are you all here?" Cass asked, sitting up and staring around at her students. "Is it time for classes already?" She asked groggily.

With that everyone just laughed. Cass just looked confused, then turned to Mallory and shrugged. "I guess you were right."

"What?" Mallory asked, completely taken aback by the random statement.

"I said, I guess you were right, that I had nothing to worry about," Cass replied, still stretching and clearly waking up from the deepest of thirty-minute naps possible.

Mallory opened her mouth to reply, but then just held back her comment. Particularly as everyone began laughing again, at that exact moment.