Chapter 43: Starry Night
At the moment he heard the name she gave the small crystal, Gut didn't know how to react, nor did he expect she to swallow it whole. He stood rooted there, a meter away from her, on the edge of the crater this new machine had made.
"Y-you…" He said while stammering, not sure of what to say.
She turned to look at him after hearing his wavering voice. This was the first time she had heard him being so indecisive, so lost as to what to do and that made her somewhat happy. She was finally seeing a face he usually didn't show! It was a little victory to her own self, a victory against what, no one knew.
She started feeling funny on her belly so she tore her sight away from him.
<Oh damn, it's starting faster than expected, I'll have to concentrate for a while."
It was currently dark outside, the process of creating this new crystal didn't take long, but what ensued would take around a day, from what White Prism had told her.
"Hey, I'm going to be still so I can digest this, or else I will explode or something like that, take care of me, ok?" Without waiting for his answer, she sat where she was standing, in the middle of the crater.
He didn't comprehend what implications her act had had, but understood that if she didn't do what she just told him, her fate would be worse than what she had gone through last time. She had just consumed the remains of a machine that could destroy everything in a one-meter radius, after all.
Getting in the crater, he held her in his arms, trying to not move her body as much as possible. He then took her to the big car they had come with. Placing her body between the back seats, where space remained so the people using it would put drinks or things to entertain themselves. He secured her body with some belts and ropes, she looked like someone who was going to be his prisoner or was extremely dangerous. In the way she was seated, though, she looked like a god who had been chained by the sins of its people.
"An unheard new type of energy… What is she creating? Does she want to become a god or something?" He shook his head, expelling that thought.
Before going to the front seat, he noticed that her disguise was also gone, her freckles were on full show and her bust was showing a little through the lab coat, all her restrains gone. He decided to first disguise her and do something about her breasts.
Once in the Crystal's Space, she saw that nothing had changed, everything was still in its colorless state. Strangely, she couldn't feel her body, she felt heavy and without much freedom to move. Frowning, she called for White Prism and asked if there was something wrong.
INTERFERENCE WITHIN BODY – MUST SYNCHRONIZE
Reading her answer, she nodded, <right, it should cause interference until I accommodate it to my body.> It was something Prism had told her before, as the energy it emanated during its production was too big for her, she needed to digest it as she would with normal food. One first needed to digest the food before taking any action, after all.
Calling forth the External Projection, she saw herself bounded by some ropes and belts. Panicking a little, she wanted to get out but remembered Gut was with her, nothing should happen to her if he was around, she thought. She then noticed the range the projection had, it was much smaller, coming close to half a meter radius.
"Hey, are you okay?" She asked Prism with worry on her voice.
MUCH ENERGY USED – MUST REGAIN
"How?"
YOUR OWN ENERGY – SHOULD GIVE
"I see… Yeah, you fed from me, no? Heh… Can we still do it?"
One 'image' showed before her, before slowly fading, meaning it was an affirmative. It was easier on White Prism to show this kind of image than to construct words in here, Charlotte didn't know why, though.
She started on digesting the Charlotte Eschette's Crystal Core, CECC for short. When she looked at her body again, she noticed it had that blackish glow she had seen before and after the machine disappeared. What she had to do now, was to absorb it like she did with the brown spots, to 'eat' it.
"So I was absorbing it, I was absorbing the remnants of the energy I used and went to hang around my body. It's a pollution to the soul and body."
White Prism had told her that, Prism didn't know it at first, but after she repeatedly 'ate' it, Prism noticed how her max capacity of keeping that energy was augmented, albeit for a short while. Whereas with the digestion of the CECC, that capacity wouldn't be diminished with time, it would only augment until Charlotte's body couldn't hold more, like a bucket getting bigger and bigger, Charlotte would only need to recover it after emptying it.
She couldn't eat the remnants directly, they had to somehow exit her soul, finding another vessel and adapting to it, changing its nature of simply being leftovers, before she could ingest it.
If Charlotte didn't digest it, her body would start to suffer deformations on her cells and basic structure, the same way as radioactive energy did to a healthy body. It was akin to her suffering from a bomb, an atomic bomb without explosion.
She started to eat and digest it.
*****
After an unknown amount of time, she stopped, all the glow around her was gone, but she was sure there were still more inside her.
Going out of the Crystal's Space, she noticed she had become weaker and slimmer, once again.
*Sigh…
She was aware this was going to happen, that was the reason she didn't continue. Prism had reminded her of the state of her body, stopping there.
"You became malnourished again…" Gut spoke from a chair next to her.
"Yeah… I had to, or else I'd die." She answered feeling impotent at her once again decaying body.
"Is it that dangerous?"
"Well, yeah, I could've done the same with time, but we're pressed on it right now." She paused to think about what was next. "How long was I like this?"
"It had been fourteen hours." He answered honestly, not continuing with the previous subject.
"Can I have dinner now?" She smiled weakly.
"You want to continue?"
"Yeah, well, I have to, as fast as possible, you know. Right now, I have something akin to poison in me, so I need to extract it as fast as possible?" She tried to explain what was happening inside her.
"Poison… Then, why did you eat it?" He was surprised at how she described it.
"Hehehe…" She lightly scratched her cheek. "You know what they say, if poison can't kill you, it'll make you stronger."
"That has no meaning in this situation." He shot down her analogy.
"Nope," she shook her head, denying his words, "if not in this situation, then it wouldn't mean anything at any other time. After finishing with this, there won't be any dangers of this happening again, ever."
"Really?" He was still incredulous at her words.
"Yep! I swear!" She smiled with gusto.
"… Okay, I believe you. We part in two days, then." Standing from his seat, he continued. "How much do you want?"
"The normal three is okay. Isn't it too soon, though?"
"We have delayed plenty already. Even if there is no ensuing war, there is still danger in the world."
*****
Two days later.
They were now on their way out of Narmaisesses. It was night and Gut was driving without any lights on, relying only on the night vision of his eyes. They had to go out from the south first before deviating to the north again. The normal road to Paversia was guarded by the military, stopping anyone without the required documentation from going there, like them.
Charlotte had digested it almost completely, her body recovering a little as well. She
could already walk, but couldn't exert herself to any arduous movement, lest she would faint.
He kept on driving, it had taken a long time for them to get in the right track again, Gut kept on changing directions, saying the military was up ahead and turning around. Charlotte didn't see anything though, she just felt herself being jolted to the sides from time to time. They weren't on a road after some time. She didn't know at which point they started on the wilderness.
At some point, Gut said that they were on the Free City of Paversia's territory, having left the Igny's area of influence behind, and with it, the military keeping check of anything going in and out.
"So much for a normal blockade, huh?" She said after the situation was clear to her.
"It is normal, Paversia is a closed off city, after all." He said with a tired voice, he obviously had been on high alert, looking for trouble coming their way and avoiding it.
"Is that so?" She said indifferently, her head hurting because of the bumping wilderness they were traveling on.
"Yeah, though only the external forces keep it at check, on the inside there's no military."
Charlotte didn't know where they were, so it wasn't her concern to know the direction. If it was at least a road, she would pay enough attention. Moreover, it was still night.
Riding some more, Gut stopped, saying that they would sleep right there, in the wilderness.
Not having much of a choice, Charlotte went to the back seats without going out of the car, preparing her turf for the night.
"Why do you not come out and see the sky, it is beautiful without so many lights polluting it." He suggested, standing out of the car and looking to the sky, at the stars.
She wasn't tired at all, just hurting in her joints, so she did as he suggested, going out with a blanket over her and gazed at the stars, her mouth fell to the floor.
"... It's the first time I see Andromeda's tail so vivid…" and without needing special lenses or the like." She whispered, keeping her eyes on the serpentine like trail of the stars she was seeing.
Inside a city, one would normally need special lenses or specialized equipment to see the night sky without problems. In the sky, the stars made a curved road, like the tail of a cat. This was the reason it was given that name by the ancient people. On its base and if the tame was right, one could see an agglomeration of stars, not on this night, though.
"In the cities, there is too much pollution, too much light that will not let this sight be seen..." he paused for some seconds, searching for the right words to continue.
"Yeah," She concluded the wait, "it truly makes one wonder..."
"If there is some life out there?" He asked trying not to sound rude towards the girl's words.
"No," she shook her head lightly, "about how the others are faring."
"Oh? Care to explain?" He asked with interest in this girl's fantasies.
"You're more of a dreamer than I thought, if you asked that. Hehe."
"I was, before everything crumbled before my eyes. Why did you say so?" He went back to his previous question, not wanting to talk about his past.
"... Well," she decided to humor him, "there's life out there, I firmly believe so. There's no question about it. The real question is how they live. If they are the same as us, humans, or different. If they live in a similar or a completely different planet than ours, like in a diamond shaped world. What they named their home. Was it like ours, Louvyia, the gift, or if they named it after something silly, like water or earth. What they do for a living, do they make wars, or do they stay in their homes, reading stupid stories or about science. I wonder, how much different are they from us and our traditions of war and peace. Just that."
After finishing her monologue, silence returned between the duo. Feeling the cold wind of the north, they both felt at peace, in an intoxicating stillness.
"You know," Gut broke the silence, again, " I was an artist before, a body painter."
"What," she looked away from the sky, incredulity in her eyes, "you jest, it can't be true!"
"It is true, it has been fifteen years now since then, there has been a lot of changes in my life since then."
Charlotte remembered the small picture in his room, back in Gercy. She decided to remain quiet, to let Gut continue with his story.
"It was around that time that I met James, he was an oddball even then, I did not know he was from Paversia, but my grandfather did. My grandpa was a hitman in his younger days, and James came to ask him something of that time, to answer to a certain promise. It was the start of everything..." he paused, organizing his words. "After he did James bidding, some months went by. Then, some enemies of his past found him. They were not enemies he made while doing James' task, but found him because of it. We were going back to, Louneville, the northern city of Gercia, my grandfather, my wife, my little girl and me. They put some explosives on the road, making the car fly off of it. They all died, and if not for James, I would be dead, too. He was waiting for my grandfather in that city, wanting to contract him for another job."
"I..." she didn't know how to comfort him. She was never one with cute and sweet words that could soothe the heart.
"Do not worry, I have come to be in peace with it." He smiled sweetly at her.
That smile was identical to the one she had seen on his face that one time he made his disguise and she had made fun of without knowing better. It made her swallow her words.
"I told you this because I have grown fond of you, I keep thinking that maybe you are the reincarnation of my daughter, or what she could look like if she had grown up normally." He looked at the sky once more.
"Pff hahah, you know, you know I'm twenty-three, remember? There's no way I'm her reincarnation!" She didn't laugh at his story, but at his silliness.
"Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting you are that old."
"Hey!" She said with a pouting face, she had tried to make it look angry but couldn't.
"It is getting late," it was close to 3 in the evening," let us sleep for a while before continuing."
"Oh, wait." She said before looking at the starry night once more, she wanted to etch that beautiful sight into the depths of her mind. After looking at it she turned around, "Let's."
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