章節 110: Chapter 26: The Unrelenting Fate
Rydel and Valerie both got onto their feet and started running towards each other in order to regroup. So far, Elmyra's abilities from what they could gather involved literally throwing them around almost like how Rydel's glove function, though he suspected there might be another layer to her power, as the manifestation of artifacts are often quite different from the natures of their powers.
Valerie and Rydel has actually been practicing a sequence of combination attacks that will allow them to capture and subdue anyone exceedingly dangerous, be it artifact bearers or not. Those attacks will involve the use of all three artifacts they have in quick succession, and those that have little knowledge of their power will have basically no chance of reacting in time and avoiding it.
They kept a large distance away from Elmyra as they regroup, and it became clear that there is at least some maximal range that her artifacts allow, already making it quite different from Rydel's powers form that perspective.
Rydel nodded towards Valerie and gave her the signal, then he activated her artifacts and reached out. The sensations of where Elmyra already is in space is felt instantly within his gloves, and he closed his hands immediately, warping Elmyra away in the bubble of space that his glove can create. That was easy enough, but he cannot keep anybody there forever. It's about the follow up attacks.
'Ready.' Rydel said as he brings his arms in closer and releases the bubble of space in front of them, dropping Elmyra from it onto the ground. She appeared dazzled by what has just happened, and before she can do anything else, Valerie reaches her hand forwards and locked down the entire region of space in front of her, preventing any movement and slowing down the time in that localized region of space.
Through the past few months of time, Valerie has learnt that she cannot lock things down indefinitely, and the longer a thing is held in place, the more of a stretch it will have on the fabric of spacetime and eventually she will have to release her grasp, though the capturing of Elmyra will be completed way before that.
Then, Rydel deactivates his glove, and manifested lightning rod from his right hand. The blade swirled around in his hand as he visualizes the bolts of lightning and a buzzing sensation pulsed its way through his entire body and concentrated in the Aquarian blade in his right hand. Bolts of lightning encircled the blade's body and dived in and out of it like dolphins in the ocean, and as he pointed the tip towards Elmyra.
'Releasing now!' Valerie said, and she lets go of Elmyra from the lock down as time began to flow again within the regions around her. For everyone else, a few seconds have passed, but for Elmyra, everything seemed to have skipped a beat, almost as if time has been stolen away from her. However, when she gained a sense of bearing after what has happened, she realized that both Rydel and Valerie has somehow suddenly appeared in front of her, and Rydel is pointing a dagger at her with a bolt of lightning focusing at the tip.
Immediately, Elmyra entered into the Space of Uncertainty as her eyes glowed bright orange lights that pulses with her every strand of being. She is seeing now every possibilities, every trajectories of everything starting from the tiniest details on Rydel's blade to Valerie's outreached hands, and even the sweats dripping down the side of their face. Before the combination attack has started, Elmyra actually didn't react in time to dodge any of the attacks when things are feeling weird.
When Rydel grabbed her with the Glove of Summoning and trapped her inside the bubble of space, all she could see is reflections of herself within the bubble of space around her, she could reach out and feel the edges of this space, and just felt like an oddly shaped wall. Then, she suddenly reappeared much much closer to the pair and Valerie is already all over her before she had any chance to react, however, she did have a chance to slip into the Space of Uncertainty.
Though nothing happened as she is completely locked in place, and the sensations of all her existence for those few seconds escape her very own consciousness as if it never existed. She felt something is definitely missing as if everything has skipped a beat, but she can't quite tell what exactly happened. But there isn't any time to contemplate all that as suddenly Rydel has a blade in his hand and there are also bolts of lightning encircling the body of the blade?
What is actually happening here?
Elmyra wished she could spare a moment to think about all that, it appeared that when she try to send those two away she has lost control of her powers a bit, and now it has turned everything into a full on battle, though from the looks on their faces, they have no intention to take her life, but rather trying to subdue her.
However, regardless of what, she will not sit around and get zapped. Now that she has entered the Space of Uncertainty as time slowed down in her perception. She can see the paths that the lightning is going to travel through the air, the bolts connecting with her body and leaving a tiny little burn mark on her clothing. The attack itself would be easy to dodge, but this strange weapon could cause an issue for the both of them.
Elmyra decided to disarm it. Sliding her way out of the lightning's trajectory, she gave the blade's body a gentle tap without actually physically touching it, however, the moment she made any contact, she was kicked out of the Space of Uncertainty as a bolt of electricity shot through her body and sent her flying backwards. Everything returned to real time as the fates are set, and she flew backwards before landing on her butt and rolling over while the initial attack from Rydel's Lightning Rod misses completely.
'What the hell?' Rydel had his mouth wide open and couldn't believe what has just happened. What seemed like a simple subduing has turned into something completely unexpected, as Elmyra flickered out of sight from his initial attack before reappearing by his side being zapped by the Lightning Rod. Seems like she was trying to do something to it.
'What the hell?' Elmyra rolled onto her butt and asked, 'what the hell is that weapon?'
'That?' Rydel asked, swinging the blade in the air, 'what were you trying to do?'
'I was just going to disarm it.' Elmyra said, 'but somehow it still hit me despite my artifacts being active?'
'You know about artifacts?' Rydel said, looking over at Valerie and wondered if they had even mentioned that since begining their conversation.
'Yeah! Zero from Infinity told me!' Elmyra said, 'aren't you with them?'
'The big technology company? No!' Rydel said, 'you attacked before we had a chance to respond.'
'...Sorry.' Elmyra apologized and lowered her arms as she fell onto the ground, 'so are you the other group of people Zero talked about?'
Seeing that Elmyra had no more intention to attack, Rydel also withdrew the Lightning Rod back into his right hand. Valerie still had her guards up and remained tense, but really nothing can severely injure Rydel, not even being thrown aronud by Elmyra.
'Tell me more about Zero, and let's hope he is not who I think he is...'
Then, Elmyra told Rydel and Valerie about everything that happened, and when they compared notes about what they know about Zero, and pretty much confirmed that Zero is indeed who Rydel think he is.
'Infinity too...' Despite the further confirmation, and the intuition that Absolute Being has a lot more layers than what was shown in Absolute Academy, Rydel still had trouble contemplating the idea that Zero is also behind the single biggest technology giant in the galaxy. Is it time to boycott the War Games?
'Anyhow, I am just glad that we have found you first before he found you again.' Rydel said, now reaching a hand out towards Elmyra who's still sitting on the ground, 'we don't really want to lose anyone else to them.'
To his surprise, Elmyra didn't move an inch. Instead, she buried her head in her arms and said with a low and sad voice now that the sense of threat and danger has passed, 'do you know....of any way to remove an artifact?'
Rydel and Valerie looked at each other surprised, neither of them have ever seen anyone that even thought about giving up the artifacts, as most are absolutely thrilled about the prospect of wielding such a huge amount of power. Something is wrong here, and from the way Elmyra has behaved so far, Rydel can tell that there is once a normal person behind all this, and its just the recent circumstances that made her how she is now.
'Did...something happen?' Rydel asked, knowing full well the answer.
Elmyra looked up towards them.
Elmyra looked up towards the screen.
All she could feel is her heart pounding faster and faster. This family is using the equipment from Inifnity, and there has been a malfunction, which lead to a squad of maintenance droids being sent to Old Venus five days ago, whom are projected to arrive today.
If the dagger grants her power over fate, then why has fate chosen to go against her in this way?
Elmyra swallowed hard as she tried to remain calm despite the news, though her attempts are particularly good. Pa who's waiting outside immediately noticed her and asked caringly, 'are you okay, Elmyra?'
'Yes, yeah. I am just suddenly a bit sick...' Elmyra explained away her paleness, which could actually make sense from Pa's perspective.
He nodded understandably and moved out of the way, 'Have you seen anything that stands out?'
Elmyra was about to deny it all, but then she knew that Pa would find out about the deployment of Infinity's droid maintenance squads with one click of the button anyway. Pretending that she didn't see it might actually arouse more suspicions. Weighing her options, she finally said with a casual tone, 'Infinity has said that they have deployed a squad of maintenance droids here, and they should arrive really soon.'
'Ah that's good news.'
'Yeah...Yeah.' Elmyra faked a smile as she walked passed him back towards the room. She didn't give Dan any notice as she paced passed the boy who is now working through some paperwork. After she escaped back into her room, she quickly flicked the lock on and slid down the doorway onto the floor. Trying not to make any noise as possible, Elmyra dig her nails deep into the base of her short black hair in frustration and screamed silently. Infinity was a company that nobody has ever paid any attention to, seeing it's technology is literally in every corner of the galaxy, however, for someone that just crossed the boss of Infinity not that long ago, there are simply nowhere in the galaxy for him to hide. Everywhere she goes, the shadow of Infinity looms.
Perhaps the only place that she will be safe will be somewhere completely desolate and uninhabited? Or one of the now abandoned colonies? But even if she knew where she would be safe, how could she possibly get there?
How can she move around without being spotted?
The door was knocked and the voice of Dan came through, 'Elmyra? Are you okay?' He asked with a concerned tone.
'I am just a little sick, and I want to rest for some time.' Elmyra replied, and rolled over onto the bed. Her heart was still pounding, but at least she has some time to hide away and not risk being spotted by the cameras carried by the droids.
She stayed in her room for as long as she could, and her window luckily provides a direct line of sight towards the mines which allowed her to see exactly when the squadron of droids descended from the sky in a tiny shuttle. She peaked only through the gaps in the curtains and a single human engineer jumped out of the cockpit of that ship followed by a few maintenance droids. Pa was there to greet them, and soon they have all headed down into the mines to sort out this issue.
Elmyra tried her best and remained still and quiet in her room as if she is taking a few naps to recover, and perhaps she could just wait here until the system is fixed and Infinity will pay a little less attention to this innocent little farm.
The work continued all the way until the evening, and though the shuttle has left a few hours before sun set, the squadron of droids were actually left behind for some reason. Elmyra inquired about that fact during dinner, and Pa explained that it's to deal with any sudden changes in the system conditions just in case. Things are already running at a fraction of its operating capacity, but still things could still go wrong in the snap of a finger so better safe than sorry.
'And the engineer said he will return soon with new components for the system, so hopefully everything will be fixed and sorted by then!'
Now flipping her perspectives, is she being overly paranoid? Is she freaking out for no reason? Elmyra swallowed hard once more and stuffed down the stew. Now it tasted a little too salty and rough.
For the next few days, Elmyra simply stayed in her room for as much as her can, and the return of the accumulated stress actually did a good job of ruining her physical health, as she did indeed get a sore throat from...something.
The medicine was quickly offered, and it went away in half a day. However, Elmyra knew that she could not stay here forever. Everyday, she sees the maintenance droids working in the mines as the deep rooted issues have surfaced and it turned out quite some engineering work is to done.
They are here to stay but they will stay out of our way for the time being, as the damage they are seeing is actually quite deeply rooted. More maintenance droids will be sent here to speed up the progress, Pa said, and Elmyra didn't even want to look at him in the eye as he said it. She cannot stay here for much longer, and she needs to figure a way out of this as soon as possible. For some reason, she can feel that the longer she stuck around, the harder it would be for her to leave.
The daily schedule is for the maintenance droids to work through as much of the tunnels systems as they can in the morning, renewing parts and performing necessary jobs while being quiet and shut down in the evenings. So if she wants to leave without being seen, it would have to be in the evenings, and then Elmyra chose to leave the next day, and the family accepted and respected her decisions too.
With the pack of supplies in her hand, Elmyra is ready to leave. That's when the new drop ship from Infinity arrived.
Pa went outside to greet the arriving squad as Elmyra cursed underneath her breath at the unfortunate timing. However, Pa didn't return for a long time, and Ma went out to check.
Elmyra tried to hid away from the windows, but Dan, now confused and a little worried, also opened the door, that's when a squadron of soldiers dressed in white armor pushed him to the side and marched towards Elmyra.
'Elmyra Zin, you can no longer run from the law!' The soldier declared, 'you fugitive!'
'What the hell are you doing?' Dan asked angrily, but shut up immediately as one of the soldiers stood right up over him, the giant figure blocking the lights right above.
'Dan, calm down.' Elmyra raised a hand and tried to calm down the young man, though the shaking hands showed that she is not exactly in the best shape too, 'they are not from the police. They are from Infinity!'
'Infinity?' Dan's confused look meant he hardly believed the tale, 'what are you doing here then?'
'Elmyra Zin, come with us, or this family pays.' The soldier laid it all out squarely, 'you have three seconds, and any resistance will result in their immediate death.'
Elmyra Zin froze in place, though her minds raced through all of the options. She knew if she is careful, she may be able to fight however many people's been deployed. The family has treated her well, and seeing she might not be in immediate danger, the priority is to get them out of this safely. Making up her mind, Elmyra decided to stop running. She has recovered from her last fight, and perhaps now all she had to do is to repeat what she did last time.
The soldiers elected not to make physical contact with her, but instead moved out of the way and let her walk through the door outside, where Ma and Pa are held at gun point. They looked mortified with sweats and tears rushing down their face. They had this certain look, and Elmyra knew that nothing she said with ever change their minds about her.
It's time to go.
There were at least two squadrons of soldiers dressed in white, with a few of them even equipped with the pseudo-artifacts. As Elmyra is brought onto the ramp, and captain made a signal, and lights flashed from the rifles before three bodies dropped to the floor.
At the same time, he raised a hand towards Elmyra and went ahead to knock her out, but the last thing he saw were the glowing eyes of hers.
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