NOVEL NEXT Sabbatical – Chapter 217: Second Wind
Adelita pulled the dagger out of the woman's neck, a flick of her wrist removing the blood from the blade. "Another one gone," she said, her eyes settling on the almost lifeless body of Jester. "It's only a matter of time before one of them tells me what I want to know, and you will have to watch me go through every, single, one."
She offered the man a toothy smile as he tried to speak. "No, no, you don't have to tell me. I already know everything you do. You are here to suffer through a fraction of what I had to endure, nothing more.
"Speaking of which," she added, pulling a bottle of red liquid from one of her pouches, "it's time to prolong your miserable existence again." Then she grabbed Jester's head, forcing his mouth open and pouring the contents of the bottle inside. "This should be familiar. You remember doing this to me, right?"
Adelita stepped back, her tail flicking back and forth, and looked at the coughing man. "Come on! You were always so happy after the beatings, where is your enthusiasm? You have to live the pain! Your words, not mine."
The man remained quiet, causing the Beastkin to shake her head. She had hoped that Jester would have offered a little more resistance than he had, but that was probably for the best. The joy she found in hurting the man was… unnatural. Understandable, perhaps, after everything he had subjected her to, but Adelita still considered the feeling to be dangerous; something she should not allow herself to be dragged deeply into.
She let out a long breath and vanished into the shadows that covered the room. Finding people affiliated with the Order of Inaru was getting harder and harder, but she would not rest until they were all dead; even if that meant approaching some deity's new toy for help.
Adelita could not claim that her opinion of any one divine was high, but this All-Mother character just seemed like bad news to her. If a mortal noble could already do this much harm, how much could a Goddess of the divine do?
With a shake of her head, she stepped out of the shadows in the kitchen and grabbed one of the many bottles that now filled every available surface. The Vinmaier family had a lot of money and while she was only able to get her hands on a small part of it, it was enough to buy a lasting supply of essentially every potion and elixir she could ever need. Until her second Class got into the hundreds, she would have to rely on them.
"Speaking of which," she said to herself, glancing out of the window, "it's time to get some levels."
///
Eleanor fell face first onto her towel. Somehow the impact didn’t hurt, but she chalked it up to everything else in her body currently burning. Playing a few 'relaxing' rounds of volleyball with Caethya and Aperio was anything but; not that either of them looked the least bit tired.
"That was fun," the All-Mother said, throwing the ball up and catching it, if the sound was any indication. "I can see why they have all the nets for that here. Though, I would argue that making it higher and the field a few times larger would make the game even better."
Eleanor summoned the strength to roll onto her back, her eyes flicking over to the duo of deities — Well, not quite. That both of them seemed happy set her at ease while simultaneously being very worrying. A 'fun' duel in the city seemed just as likely a choice for them as a quiet afternoon in a nice cafe.
"They'll figure that out once people adapt," Caethya replied. "Then they might also change what the field is made out of so you can finally hit the ground a bit harder." The Demigoddess stretched herself and let out a satisfied sigh. "When will the next people get magic?"
"In a little while," Aperio replied and seemingly stared through the nearest building. "There are a few mortals where I am not quite sure if they should be in this wave or the next." She tapped her chin. "I try to balance the power each mortal will receive so they all end up about the same, but preparing some of them to actually be able to use mana is a little more extensive than I had anticipated."
"Prepare them?" Eleanor asked, sitting up and propping herself on her elbows. "What do you mean by that? Sounds so… clinical. Like you are running an experiment."
"While that is not what I am doing, I can see why you might think that." The woman moved closer, somehow bridging the not insignificant distance between both of them in a single step. "I can show you what I do, if you wish."
"What does that entail?"
"Just using a bit of my mana to adjust your body," Aperio replied with a shrug. "It would seem that the years without sufficient mana on Earth has caused your bodies to… decay, in a way. The problem is that anything I touch has a tendency to turn out a little stronger than intended.
""That's an understatement," Caethya commented as she sat herself down on her own towel. "I'm still waiting for people to discover the money you made. That will be hilarious."
"What did she do?" Eleanor's eyebrows scrunched together in thought as she tried to figure out what could be hilarious about the fact that the All-Mother had just made money.
"Well, we needed some local currency, so Aperio made some," Caethya replied. "Turns out, those bits of paper she created are stronger than any other material you guys have."
As if she could guess her next question, the All-Mother let out a sigh and held out her hand, a simple one-hundred dollar bill appearing in it. "There you go. I still do not see what is so funny about this. I also need your answer on whether you are fine with me showing you what I am doing or not."
"Just don't turn her into another Goddess when she eventually agrees," Caethya said with a giggle. "I think this world has enough deities to last them for a good while."
Eleanor took the bill from Aperio's hand. She could not find anything off about it until she tried to rip it. She had seen it spring into being before her very eyes — it was fake money. Destroying it shouldn't be a problem. The only issue was that no matter how hard she tried, the money did not tear even a little.
She looked back at the All-Mother, noting the faint smile on her face. "What did you do to this? I think I could set it on fire and it would be fine."
"I simply made some of your currency without much care towards making it as weak as the actual thing," Aperio replied. "Perhaps you can see now why it takes time to prepare the mortals?" The All-Mother sat herself down more properly, crossing her legs, somehow not even shifting a single grain of sand. "It takes more effort to not make them stronger than the average than you think."
Eleanor's eyes flicked between the All-Mother and the dollar bill in her hand a few times before she held it out to Aperio. "I think I will never understand how that works."
"Perhaps." Aperio waved her hand, the money she had made simply ceasing to exist. "But you do not need to, either. My offer to show you still stands, but you are free to refuse."
"I want to know, but it just seems… weird." Eleanor scratched the back of her neck and shifted slightly on her towel. "Outside of healing — which rarely ever happens — you don't really use your mana to… well, adjust the body of another? Not in that way, at least."
"I see," the woman replied, leaning back slightly while folding her arms in front of her chest. "I could try to use words, but I am fairly sure the concept will make little sense to you. Simply showing you what I do will also be detrimental for your mind, I fear."
"You could show me and I’ll try to explain," Caethya said. "Though, I'm not sure I'll be able to make sense of that either. Your mind is a little beyond my comprehension at times. Well, most of the time, if I am honest, but I think that is to be expected."
"Yeah, comprehending our world is hard enough, can't imagine how understanding the one that made all of it would be easier."
The All-Mother narrowed her eyes slightly, opening her mouth to speak only to close it a moment later. Instead she simply sighed — a weird, ethereal noise that caused a shiver to run down Eleanor's spine — and shook her head.
"It is what it is," she eventually said. Her voice, just like the sigh before, sounded just a little bit more otherworldly than before. "In any case," she continued and turned to face Caethya, "I think there is more relaxing to be done, no?"
"You make it sound like work," the Demigoddess remarked with the slightest of giggles. "But I am sure we can find something to do. Should probably let Eleanor rest a little, though. I think our game was a bit much for her."
"It was," she replied, letting herself fall backwards again. "I think I will need a break."
///
Jacob looked around the main street of Riverburg, trying to see if he could spot anything out of the ordinary. So far, it seemed like any other rural town. Though it focused perhaps a little bit too much on tourism for his liking.
One thing that stood out, however, was the fact that everything seemed to be business as usual. The news of what had happened in upstate New York had spread around the world in a few minutes, so he doubted it wasn't known to the people here, but they still seemed to not have a care in world. Or all the cosplayers had powers to begin with.
It was a silly idea, of course, but a few of them at least had probably believed they had them before and now found their suspicions confirmed. But even then, there should be a little more reaction to it. When he had left his home, there were already protests in progress demanding to know what was going on and why the government had hidden this from them. Jacob himself doubted there was much of a conspiracy going on here, but he too would like to know exactly what was going on.
"Now how do I find her?" he mumbled to himself, his eyes wandering over the various characters that wandered the streets. "Certainly picked a good place to hide."
Going by what he had seen on TV, however, finding this woman should still be relatively easy. There weren't many seven foot, muscle-bound Elfs around, after all. At least I hope so. The extent of the woman's abilities were largely unknown, but teleporting oneself and others around in addition to a presumed immunity to bullets would be quite the power combo. Something many people would abuse the hell out of.
With a shake of his head, Jacob joined the flow of people moving down the street. As he had no real plan on where to go, he had decided to simply start with the biggest, most important-looking building he knew the woman had visited. Perhaps he could get a name to the face there? That would help in his search, not that even Jacob himself was certain why he was looking for her in the first place.
"Answers, I guess," he mumbled, ignoring the glances that came his way. "But will she even talk to me?"
Before he could think much further on the matter, a window appeared before him, looking much like his [Status]. All it said was that the 'Second Wave' would commence in just under twenty hours. If he had to guess, this would mean that more people would awaken to some manner of power; perhaps even a dungeon or two if things happened to progress similarly to a few of the stories he had read over the years.
How many waves will there be? He assumed that everyone would get a power at one point or another, but with some eight billion people on Earth, that would probably take a while. This probably also meant that whoever was behind all of this was probably not almighty. Or they simply made it to seem like they weren't, or there was another reason Jacob could not even begin to comprehend. I just want some answers.
Before he knew it, his feet had carried him to the tallest building in town. It was also one that many people had seen the mystery woman disappear into for a good while, so it stood to reason that he might find some clues inside.
Jacob paused at the entrance, noting the weird sheen that seemed to be present on every window as well as the door itself. He had not seen anything like that before but if he had to guess, it had something to do with the mana that also fueled his newfound powers. Its presence meant he was on the right track, something he was very much happy about.
After taking a deep breath, he pushed open the door and stepped inside. Hopefully he could get at least a hint here, even if he still wasn't quite sure why he was searching for this mystery woman as hard as he was.
