Chapter 111: Chapter 27: Welcome to the Bearers
'No...' realizing the weights of what Elmyra has done in her rage, and connecting that image with the atrocities that he has seen at the farm, Rydel finally understood why Elmyra is feeling the way she did.
'And Infintit...Absolute Being always has a built in system of discarding the bodies post death in their armor so they never leave behind any traces.' Valerie chimes in as the two sat down next to Elmyra, though leaving her some distance as not to startle her as they talked.
'There are a few things that I did not expect here.' Rydel said with a low voice to Valerie, though he doesn't mind if Elmyra has heard it, 'for all of my past encounters, Zero doesn't seem like the kind of person that will just suddenly order his soldiers to do what they just did...'
'But!' Elmyra was about to protest, but Rydel raised a hand apologetically.
'I am not questioning what you saw, Elmyra.' Rydel said, 'that just gives us more information on what Zero is really planning. Perhaps before he doesn't really care about me, and somehow, you are different.'
'Different?' Elmyra looked up, 'no shit, Rydel, I am different.'
'When we awakened our artifacts, none of us were capable of the amount of outputs that you were immediately capable of, perhaps that's what Zero wanted.' Rydel explained, 'what's the nature of your artifacts again? I can't imagine a simple telekinesis warrants such attention.'
'No, it's not just telekinesis.' Elmyra shook her head, 'when I activate my powers, I can see trajectories, but not only for items in space, but in time too.'
'I can see where things have been and where they are going, and I can make adjustments accordingly.'
Rydel and Valerie looked at each other.
'So in other words, to a small extent, I can alter fates.' Elmyra said, now a little embarrassed, 'well shit that sounded melodramatic.'
'No, not at all!' Rydel chuckled, 'I named my artifact the Glove of Summoning, and you can't really beat that in terms of cheese. Though it seemed your naming is closely related to the nature of your power, where as I named it according to how the powers manifested.'
'And Valerie's is Lock Down.'
'Nice.' Elmyra nodded mechanically, 'so do you know why Zero would come after me, apart from me being a murderer of his employees?'
'I am sure he was only interested before you obtained the artifact, but that thing you have completely changes the game.' Rydel said, 'over the past few months, we have had dealings with Absolute Being, and the outcomes were not exactly ideal for them.'
He then manifested the blade made of Lightning Rod in his right arm and showed his left hand, 'I ended up with two artifacts in my body, and Valerie got her revenge. That's plus two for the bearers.'
'The bearers?'
'That's the silly name we gave ourselves.' Rydel said with a smile on his face, 'I was taught, albeit somewhat haphazardly, by my mentor Dolon about how to control the artifact's power as to not endanger those around me or myself, and a year later, her artifacts is now in my hands.'
Elmyra looked at him with a sharp look, and Valerie kicked him in the back of the calves.
'That's not what he meant.' Valerie explained, 'the reason he got the artifact was...shit, because he defeated Dolon in a fight and took it.'
'Thank you.' Rydel turned to Valerie and said sarcastically, 'well it was really complicated, but I am sure that she wants me to have it so that it would be out of Absolute Being's hands! Anyway! Let's talk about what we can do for you.'
'Can you get rid of this for me? Set me free from this power....' Elmyra reaches out with her right hand towards Rydel and hoped that he could do something, but instead, he remained in his stance.
'So far, every time the transfer of an artifact from one person to the next has come through death.' Rydel said, now with a serious tone, 'I am afraid we can't do that, seeing how we have no idea what could happen if we try to surgically remove it.'
'But why do you want to get rid of it?' Valerie asked, 'we can help you to control its power, so you don't have to be afraid anymore. And we have been successfully evading Absolute Being for a long time now, so we can also offer you protection as well.'
'That's free accommodation and food, since we have someone that's taking care of the income!'
Elmyra opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Something felt wrong on the inside, and yet she struggled to find the words to put it all together. Finally, she nodded. Elmyra is fairly certain that she has the artifacts under control, but perhaps the bearers will have some different perspectives, plus she won't be on the run anymore. That sounded like a plan, temporary if anything. However, she could do with some temporary.
'Coming?' Rydel reached a hand out, and Elmyra took it.
Initially, Rydel has thought that Elmyra may lose control of the artifact's power at certain times, so he specifically talked to both Valerie and Elmyra about any potential containment strategies. Elmyra immediately realized that Valerie's artifacts functions exactly like the pseudo-artifacts she saw those soldiers use on Nox 5, and that's when Valerie explained the detailed stories of how she got it, and Absolute Being's plans with the artifacts.
'Though all artifacts may be powerful in their own rights, they still seem to rank them in order of preference, or else they wouldn't have let me do what I did.' Rydel explained, scratching his head as he still couldn't quite figure out what Zero is thinking, 'perhaps they are pissed off now and are gathering more artifacts and users?'
'Seems about right.' Valerie said, and Elmyra nodded in agreement.
'in any case, we have enough people in our base that can protect you.' Rydel said, 'Valerie is one hell of a fighter too.'
They have set a course for Athena 3 as well as sending a transmission to Zel in the galactic capital about the news of a new recruit, and everyone is quite excited about it, so much so that Cellica has also taken an annual leave from her work and also returned.
The journey back to Athens 3 couldn't have gone by any faster, and they arrived back at the colorful mining planet in less than a week through the travel lanes. As the ships descended through the sky, Rydel saw Elmyra rolling her eyes at the scenery of the planet.
'Is something wrong?' Valerie came from behind him and asked, as she wrapped her hand around Rydel.
'It's just... I have had enough of mining planets, you know?'
With the whole squad back together, Ol took the duties of introducing everyone to Elmyra while Valerie and Rydel took a day to clean up the ship that's been through quite a bit. Elmyra looked around the room at the many individuals and are almost a little overwhelmed by how much things she is seeing right now.
Going around the living room, we have Ol, the bearer of the Scroll of Truth that could grant you any answers you seek, so long as you ask the right questions. Then there is Torelamri who's surprisingly patient today sitting on top of a high seat that brings him to eye level with the rest. He is the bearer of the Crystal Clock and possesses some measure of power over time in a localized region, though not even Ol know much more about it since he is always locked away in his room and working of various items.
'Me being a craftman.' Torelamri pointed towards his chest proudly, 'no fighting.'
Then, there is Zel Frin, the ex thief that has had an interesting backstory with the bearers, who possesses the Pocket that allows him to slip into a parallel pocket dimension. Next to him is Cellica Uleric, who is looking at Elmyra with great interest, though her black eye bags showed that she needs at least quite a bit of rest in the Aquarian recovery pods. Adding to that, Rydel and Valerie, then there is a total of seven artifact bearers around, and much more than how many Absolute Being has underneath their control as far as they know at this point in time.
'I understand if all of this may seen quite overwhelming, Elmyra.' Ol said, his low and echoing voice sounding rather pleasant to Elmyra's ears, 'but we are all here to help you control the artifacts. You can feel free to stay as long as you wish here, and then we will be able to train you to mostly control that power. Please make yourselves comfortable, and we can assess your power.'
Elmyra nodded blankly, and Ol then showed her to her room as the rest gathered by the bar. Torelamri quickly excused himself and went back to work, hoping to return in a later story arc. Vel, Valerie's little sister already went back to her room and hopped onto the communicator apps, apparently she has met a boy near the capital area. Zel and Cellica may not look eye to eye initially, but they seem to be sharing a drink at this moment and having some quiet conversations, possibly about their mutual love for Aquarian Shocker, which is a surprising fact they discovered about each other.
They were waiting on Rydel and Valerie to return, as they were the only two that knew about the powers of Elmyra. Now with her out of the room, they can freely talk about this issue.
The cleaning, packing and maintenance didn't take as long as Rydel imagined, but this is indeed a borrowed ship, so it will have to be returned sooner or later. Rydel and Valerie sped through the relevant procedures as fast as they can before they left it alone for good. Then, they returned to a round table of people that had all of their eyes locked onto them.
'Here.' Zel pointed towards the two pre-poured drinks sat on the bar table, 'now, tell us about Elmyra's artifact.'
'If what I am hearing is correct, you had some sort of a small fight with her?'
Rydel and Valerie shared a glance. He was at least quite surprised that they have started talking about it so soon, though Cellica has always been the one that's gets worried, and being paranoid is kinda what Zel eats for breakfast.
'Yes, when we first encountered each other.' Rydel nodded in acknowledgement before sharing more details of the fight and what Elmyra interprets as her power. They talked about she could flicker and alter both herself and things in and out of their previous set trajectories, to use her own words, 'in both space and time'.
'Is it just me, or have powers been getting crazier and crazier as this goes on?' Cellica looked around jokingly, 'you know, we started with a pair of eyes that can look quite far, and a electricity generator.'
Rydel chuckled as Valerie looked at Cellica with intrigue.
'What did you see when you saw her activate her powers?'
'I saw a massive outburst of energy.; Cellica explained, recalling her various memories, 'the artifacts give off a certain signature when they were activated or used, though I cannot consistently monitor everything across the entire galaxy, at times those events will be brought to my attention as a tingle in the back of my head.'
'That was how I found Rydel when he activated his, but frustratingly the same things are not easily replicable, for some reason.' Cellica shook her head and continued, 'I can also track artifact usage, especially those with a higher intensity or are very close. That's how I spotted Zel when he was trying to steal the high energy stablizer.
Rydel chuckled again as Valerie looked at Zel with intrigue.
'However, when I saw Elmyra's usage a while back, that was also different. Another thing I have been trying to practice is to identify the subtle differences in the wavelengths of energy signature each different artifacts give off, but identifying them individually is incredibly difficult. Going back to topic, that was one of the biggest release of energy I have seen, and I don't think it's only about the intensity and drive of the usage too, since I have seen you went all out in your first fight with Dolon.
'No offense, Rydel, but the energy you gave off in your first fight compared to Elmyra's from galaxy's away is like a candle to a moon.'
'I thought you were going to say candle to the son there.' Rydel retorted, 'not too bad.'
'What are you talking about?' Elmyra's voice came from the door, and everyone from the little circle turned around to look at her. She has changed into a new set of normal civilian clothes, and her natural beauty has finally shown through. She had some time to clean herself up, and now her dark black hair finally reveals its shine.
'We are just talking about what we can do for you, Elmyra.' Cellica finally spoke up, 'now if you are ready, do you wanna come with us and show us what you can do?'
Elmyra nodded mechanically as she blushed. When she is dressed like this, it is hard not to keep looking at her, though every one in the room showed respect and restraint. The clothing provided by Ol was designed to fit comfortably, even if one has to use his/her artifact. They went into the training room, one that Rydel has not been in in a very long time, and all of them except for Cellica sat far out in the background and watches.
'Don't worry, Elmyra, we are all here to help you.' Cellica said as she rests a hand on Elmyra's shoulders, 'by the way, I love your hair.'
'Short hair are nice, right?' Elmyra returned a smile and gestured towards Cellica's own blonde short hair, and she winked back.
'Now,' Cellica took a few steps back and raised her voice a little bit, 'Rydel has told us a little bit of your powers, and if you don't mind, we are going to run some tests. Could you tell us how you activates it and what do we have to do to see its powers?'
With the blink of an eye, Elmyra entered the Space of Uncertainty.
'So cool.' Zel said with his jaws on the floor at the sights of Elmyra's glowing eyes, 'now that's a superhuman look!'
'Wait until you see what she can do.' Rydel said.
Then, he felt some movements beside him, and Ol took a seat next to the three.
'Just...throw something at me.' Elmyra said, looking around the room and seeing everything stationery. There is no movements in space and time apart from Cellica's body, and then she can see lines of light tracing the paths of Cellica's hands as she called over a droid and grabbed a soft ball from within. Then, she turned to her side and threw the ball casually towards Elmyra.
Immediately, the trajectory of the ball is revealed once it entered in motion, and she could see all the possible landing spots of the ball, whether it would make contact with her body or simply fall towards the floor. However, to most effectively demonstrate her power, she will go for a rather 'spicy' alternative. With a light swipe of her finger against some light resistence, the ball suddenly changed direction mid air and flew towards the four people sitting in the stands. Before it made contact with anybody, it was froze in place in mid air by Valerie before she caught it with her hand.
'Consider me...intrigued.' Cellica nodded with a curious look on her face, 'what do you want to do now?'
'More balls.' Elmyra said, then as Cellica threw as many balls as fast as she can until her arms gave in, Elmyra showed that she could very easily alter the trajectories of those balls without any effort, deflecting them everywhere as if there is a shield generator on her body. However, after she manipulates the balls, they also have a variety of exit velocities and positions.
'Alright, Rydel, you do it!' Finally, Cellica's arms gave in, and she ushered Rydel to come, 'I am sure you have had enough fun with changing things in space, let's see how you could do it with time.'
Elmyra nodded as Rydel stepped to the spot where Valerie's standing.
'Alright, so if you can see the trajectories of those balls in time, then even when I am moving them with my artifacts, you can still keep up?' Rydel asked, reaching a hand towards the already collected balls before giving the diligent ball droid a pat on its head.
'That's my interpretation. Last time you used your artifact it was different though.'
'Well, I supposed that's because I used it on you. Watch out!' Rydel said as he tosses a ball and sends it flying towards Elmyra. The first ball was a normal throw, and so is the next few throws. Elmyra altered those balls easily like before without any issues. At least she is already nailing down the consistency and magnitude of her adjustments already, that's quite impressive.
Then, Rydel tossed a high one and a fast one shortly after. However, in the Space of Uncertainty, Elmyra can see where both of them are going, and she can use her powers to change both of them at the same time. However, something is off about the trajectory for both of them. She can see there current path that lead directly to a hit on her body, however, there are also tiny strands of light that indicate a small possibility of it...completely zig-zagging away and appearing behind her?
Elmyra have never seen a trajectory like that before, though she is unaware that's what the trajectories looked like when she is influencing it. She tried to alter it with her hand, but those strands of light has disappeared. Then, she felt a hit on her chest followed by her forehead as she was knocked out of the Space of Uncertainty.
Rydel and Elmyra both stood there without a words exchanged. Then, their eyes met and their sights locked onto each other.
'I think I know how your artifacts work.' Rydel said with a slight smile on his face.
'Me too.' Elmyra nodded her head, 'do it again!'
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone