Sworded Affair

Chapter 177: Starliner

Drifting alone on her flying sword, several hundred miles above the vaguely planet shaped cloud of cosmic dust that was, until recently, a vast ecumenopolis, Emma felt incredibly alone in the world. The System was silent, providing no guidance whatsoever except to remind her that yes, the clock was still ticking down until the Dungeon’s untimely collapse. For a long while, she floated in place, waiting for any guidance that might come, but eventually, for lack of a better idea, she began to search on her own initiative.

[WARNING: This Dungeon is unstable, and will collapse if unbeaten in 9 hours, 7 minutes.]

Floating from one ruined mech to the next, thus began a futile search for anything of value, or a hint at the next step in the puzzle. There wasn’t much left to look at; as the internal explosions that destroyed the mechs left little more than scrap metal, while the bodies of the pilots were no better, their space suits ruined by sabotage to leave nothing useful behind. All the while, small pieces of shrapnel flew through the void, maintaining dangerous velocities in the absence of resistance. Emma was successful at dodging most of this, but eventually, she found herself boxed in.

[Ephemera: Toggle (ON)]

Letting the debris drift harmlessly through her, Emma came to the realisation that whatever had prompted the end of the world in this scenario was very different from her experience in the Hall of Beginnings. There, magic as a whole had become inaccessible towards the end of the defence, forcing her to engage in fisticuffs against a similarly surprised Magus Austere. Conversely, the destruction of the planet below had been accomplished through conventional means, albeit ones beyond Emma’s own understanding.

Even the combined detonation of all the world’s nuclear arsenals in the twenty-first century could not have shattered a planet, after all, even if they could eradicate the human race through a combination of explosive force, radiation, and the ensuing nuclear winter. More importantly, despite the passing of the end, Emma’s flying sword still worked, as did her other abilities, which made her think Eden’s Echo would likewise still function.

Maybe?

That innocuous oxygen mask was her only loot from the previous encounter, which Emma hadn’t thought much about at the time, deeming it a memento or a potential bargaining chip should she encounter the Magus in the present day. Now, floating in space? It hinted at some hidden potential, if only she could activate it. This proved no easy task, as the mask didn’t respond to her attempts to fix it in place, now did manually breathing into it achieve anything, despite Emma’s attempts to mimic Magus Austere’s own movements. Eventually, she was forced to conclude that the mask wouldn’t work for her armoured form, which left a rather unpleasant solution to attempt.

Now, Emma didn’t pull the homunculus out immediately. That would be foolish, since it was only enhanced to be somewhat above human norms. She had no confidence in it surviving for long in the vacuum of space, even without the need to breathe for 10 minutes, thanks to a passive Trait. Instead, Emma began her flight anew, this time searching for the bodies of the fallen in earnest, or more precisely, an intact space suit. Most of the suits she found were in advanced states of disrepair; but there were dozens if not hundreds of pilots floating in the void, and Emma was confident that the law of large numbers would favour her here.

[WARNING: This Dungeon is unstable, and will collapse if unbeaten in 8 hours, 22 minutes.]

Eventually, after far too much time spent in her humble opinion, Emma came across a suit that was miraculously more or less intact. The only destruction came from the total loss of the faceplate and visor, which was still enough to doom the pilot, but left the body itself intact. Not far from there, she found another suit that was shredded all over, but left the helmet intact. Between the two suits, she was about to store them together, closely enough aligned that Eden’s Echo recognised them as a single set.

[Space Suit stored.]

With her bounty in tow, Emma was finally in a position to make a leap of faith. Bringing her homunculus, the space suit, and Magus Austere’s Oxygen Mask out simultaneously, she was able to emerge with a full set of clothing this time. It didn’t fit well, being made to the measurements of an adult in the peak of health brought about by extensive military service, and the Oxygen Mask barely fitting inside the helmet, but it was still better than nothing, and went some way towards fending off the extreme cold of space.

[Status condition: Deep Freeze applied.]

It wasn’t enough by a long shot, not without the electronics on the inside being operational, as with that, there was no heating on demand to counteract what was hundreds of degrees below freezing.

[-20 HP

-20 HP

-20 HP]

But it was enough to keep her homunculus body from going into shock, just long enough to force herself to begin breathing.

[Status Condition: Nature’s Gift applied.

+25 HP

+25 HP

+25 HP]

Emma’s gambit had paid off. Merely wearing the mask with a living body and breathing was enough to activate the magic within; magic painstakingly created by Magus Austere to maintain a body that had been sickly on the verge of death for many decades. Pure life magic flowed through her veins, driving out the bitter cold and overwhelming it entirely, returning feeling to frostbitten nerves and skin within moments. Emma allowed herself to savour the sensation, until the flood of status updates abated and she was back to full health. Only then did she allow herself to look around, and see what was hidden from her until this very moment.

[FILTER (UMBRASPHERE) APPLIED.]

A massive space station, one that made the ISS back home look like a children’s toy, its surface crawling with runes that formed eyes, looking at her in curiosity, alongside a single open airlock.

[WARNING: This Dungeon is unstable, and will collapse if unbeaten in 8 hours, 7 minutes.]