Vol.4 Ch.54 – Reborn IV
Chapter 54: Reborn IV
“I hope you've all had a good night's rest,” the Lieutenant General said as he strode into the mess hall, and it wasn't lost on Abigail that he was looking at her as he added: “Even if it was more tumultuous for some than others.”
She shifted in her seat. Apparently half the compound knew how stupid she had been, how much trouble she'd made for everyone. But she refused to cower. She would own her stupid, impulsive decision. She was alive and she wouldn't spit on the kindness of the people she had to thank for that.
“Today, you will set out for Buffalo,” he continued and as he spoke the two angels, Kaja and Omega, entered the mess hall, followed by Jeanne and Rachel as well as the Professor. “To reiterate: Your goal is to liberate the city from the Outsiders that have taken root there. Furthermore, there is a resistance group located within the city. If you are at all able to make contact with them, try to recruit them to our cause. Our communications department has been keeping sporadic contact with them but there has not been any contact recently. Any hint that they are still alive would be appreciated.
“Two points of interest are the college library, where Caulder is suspected to have planted Outsider writing, and the children's hospital, which our intel suggests Caulder is using as a warehouse. Should you find any sort of gateway leading to a pocket dimension inside, securing this gateway is your absolute top priority.
“A reliable source has also informed us that a Necromancer is on the loose within the city. Sergeant Caldwell and her squad will be accompanying the angels Kaja and Omega to seek and destroy this Necromancer. If any others see this target, do not engage. Avoid if possible and relay his position to Sergeant Caldwell. According to our experts,” he nodded at the two angels, “Necromancers are a threat similar to the Red Rider you've all fought.”
A collective shiver went through the ranks of the cadets. The fight with the Red Rider was still fresh in everyone's mind. Abigail just hoped she'd give a better showing than in that fight, where she had only just been able to keep everyone around her alive.
One of the Awakeners raised his hand and the Lieutenant General nodded at him. “Sergeant Wright.”
“Sir,” the Awakener said. “What is so bad about Necromancers? I think we can take a guy who can summon up zombies.”
The Lieutenant General didn't even bother replying himself. He simply nodded at the two angels and Kaja took over.
“Necromancers are living conduits to the Outside. Their powers are derived from the Outer Gods. While they can create undead minions, that is the least they can do. They can summon Outsiders, wield Darklight the way I wield light magic and have a thousand other tricks besides. While it is theoretically possible to strike them down with a single decisive hit, if a Necromancer even notices you you'll be lucky to survive. On top of that most of them have ways to make themselves tougher, if not outright immortal. Please, if you take anything away from this, let it be this: Do not engage the Necromancer. Leave that to Omega, Elaine and me.”
Well, at least the two of them hadn't yet been told of what she'd been up to last night, Abigail thought. Either that or they had been told but still didn't consider her Elaine's equal, a darker part of her mind added but she shook herself out of it.
“Then what are we going to be doing?” the Awakener asked.
This time the Lieutenant General took over and explained what each team would be doing in particular, though Abigail tuned out everything that didn't pertain to her team. Not that she really had to. Her cognition had expanded to the point that she could have paid attention to everything while keeping up a conversation and writing a new song in her head but she made a conscious effort not to. Not that she didn't care but as it turned out, going from a normal human mind to this superhuman cognition was disorienting, just like... Huh.
Evelyn had a skill that gave her a 360° field of view but she couldn't use it because it was too disorienting to use. But Abigail's cognition should be able to keep up with the information overload. Normally that wouldn't matter but she did have Skill Copy...
She focused on the skill and then looked at Evelyn, willing herself to take the Thousand Eyes.
Her mind was instantly flooded with more visual information than she'd ever perceived. Her eyesight had been enhanced to a terrifying degree already, but getting a perfect field of view on top of that was too much. Or rather, it should have been too much. But it wasn't. Her processing power was so high that it took barely any effort accommodating the added information. She wouldn't want to have this in her head all the time but in the heat of battle she already knew this would save her life one day. Now, if only the Lieutenant General could stop speaking so she could test out whether she could walk without falling over like this.
**
“That girl...” Omega muttered as Kaja and him walked out of the mess hall again.
“You've noticed it too, then?” Kaja asked.
He didn't even give a grunt in return. Yes, he had. There was a second Lacrima now. That gorgeous brunette practically vibrated with power. But Kaja knew something must have gone wrong with the ritual. Both Jeanne and Rachel looked haunted. Rachel was better at hiding it than Jeanne was but to Kaja it was still obvious. But there were only two outcomes for Lacrima: Success or a fate worse than death. And the brunette didn't look like a multi-limbed abomination, so...
“Well, that system Stollos came up with is really something,” she muttered.
“Saved her from oblivion,” Omega muttered. He'd come to the same conclusion. The ritual had gone wrong. But Elaine, as the girl's Awakener, had managed to turn things around.
“That changes everything we thought about the Oath,” Kaja said. She was more or less just thinking out loud at this point. “One of the reasons the Council has always been against the ritual was the price for failure.” She could feel the grunt of dissent bubbling up in Omega so she amended: “Of course I know that was just an excuse and that it's about not wanting there to be a ritual that could make humans as strong as Cherubim, but now that we have bigger things to worry about he really did eliminate the only point of contention we had left with the ritual.”
“Still too risky,” he grumbled.
“True,” Kaja said. “The Awakener might not always be able to turn things around. But so far at least Stollos' new method has a perfect success rate. Now, if only we could get that haunted look off of Jeanne and Rachel...”
He grunted.
“I suppose it must seem silly to you,” she mused. “A bit of pointless grinding of flesh on flesh and suddenly a human is a demigod.”
He exhaled and the sound told its own story. It wasn't like he was a cold bastard who ignored her on purpose. He simply wasn't wired that way. He had admitted to her once that he wished he could give her what she needed, but he just couldn't. She didn't want to fault him for it, but sometimes he made it hard. Sure, he wasn't wired that way, wasn't interested in that kind of relationship. But he wasn't exactly a bundle of sunshine to be around in any other way, either. He was a rock she could lean on when things got harrowing. But rocks were cold and hard.
She shook herself out of it. She had to put her game face on. They had a Necromancer to catch. She would have time to crash out later.