NOVEL WEB Chapter 38: Prepare
Tess was on the back foot, retreating before the seemingly endless flurry of blades that was assaulting her. Somehow, she was just barely managing to parry each strike, but the constant barrage left no time for her to think of the right spell to give her the space that she needed from her opponent. Just then, one of the blades slipped through her guard and knocked the Witchblade from her grasp. Another blade ended up at her throat.
“I win again,” Charles said, lowering the blades.
After departing from Rob, they had come back to the obelisk on Ubeta in order to have space away from other people. They were trying to hone their abilities to combat Viktor and whatever surprises he might have put together since their escape several weeks ago. It was also a good spot to practice trying to manipulate chaos energy, something which having the skill for did not assist in actually doing it. In that way, it was very much unlike every other skill she had ever gotten. Charles was likewise struggling but was having more success than her. She could only guess that might be because of his origin as a copy of Chariel, despite having no memories of how to utilize chaos energy. It was like an innate part of him, and that was why not even his vague explanations were helping her figure it out.
Tess shoved him back in frustration. The obstacles that she was hitting now were a first of their kind. Before, she had either been limited or did not know. When she had been trapped for so long in the Tutorial, she had been restricted from growing beyond a certain point. She had not known the weaknesses in her fighting style when she first arrived in Iriea, nor how Olivia had grown before each of their confrontations. Now she had the knowledge of chaos energy and the unrestricted capacity to use it, yet the process eluded her.
“You’re good enough to defeat him,” Charles commented.
“I can’t defeat your imitation of him. You fought him and came away unharmed. How am I supposed to match that if I can’t beat you?” Tess replied.
“Maybe you aren’t supposed to do it alone? Have you considered that?”
Tess frowned. The hero was the one who conquered the challenges before them. It was always the hero who finished the job. Sure, there may be parties involved, but it came down to the hero. Tess had been given the task of defeating Viktor, so she had to do it. Charles was a member of the party in her story. The only member really. But Charles was also like her, designed to do everything. He was just as much a hero as she was. Was she the member of his party instead?
“What do you think we should do then?” she asked.
“Well, I’ll handle him up close, and you can deal with him using magic. How does that sound?”
It would give her the time she needed.
“And what about Chariel?”
“We can stop his interference. That was the whole point in tracking down Chaos Energy Manipulation. It frees us from being beneath his thumb.”
“I suppose. It just feels like we’re going to end up fighting both at the same time.”
“I think Chariel is more worried about the young quantum that Viktor has at his side now.”
“Is it a quantum though?” Tess asked.
Charles shrugged. The two sat in silence, each absorbed in their own thoughts.
“Do you think you’re ready?” Charles asked.
“No. But in this situation, I doubt I ever will.”
“Me too.”
Tess looked at him. Nervousness flooded her mind as she considered what lay before them, but a calmness also came at the prospect of facing it together. Maybe he was right in that it was not meant to be her alone that needed to face the challenges ahead.
When Charles returned her gaze, her heart leapt in her chest. She gasped a little at the sensation. Her thoughts turned to mush as she felt a strange compulsion. Though they were sitting close together, Tess moved closer. Initially, Charles seemed to retreat for a moment before perhaps realizing her intention to get closer. Looking up at him, she cautiously reached up and placed her hand on his chest. The rapid thump she could feel from within, even through the layers of clothing and armor, spoke volumes. She grasped the collar of his shirt and pulled his face down, meeting his lips with her own.
Origin had been in existence since Viktor had originally developed computing. At the time, he was a primitive program that slowly did things such as calculate large numbers or decode simple encryptions. As years passed, he would receive updates and gain new functions until he was the organized, electronic butler of Viktor’s life. When he started to act independently, Viktor had encouraged the growth of his intelligence. He quickly grew from that point, morphing from beyond a program himself and now controlling programs.
It was during that period that Olivia was growing up as well. In a sense, the current version of Origin was roughly the same age as Olivia, making them a sort of strange pseudo-siblings. However, where Olivia would go on to deviate away from Viktor, Origin remained loyal. That was not to say that Origin agreed with every decision that Viktor made, but that he respected the individual who cultivated and helped grow him into the being he was now. When Olivia had been rightfully named the heir to Viktor’s empire, Origin had felt a peculiar feeling that he had never felt before, one after a quick search was determined to be disappointment. He was confused by this reaction on his own part. Why would he be disappointed?
Then Olivia had disappeared, along with the subsection of his intelligence loaded into her tracking chip. It had been jarring to receive the message from himself, and the revelations that had come from that moment were extraordinary. Viktor had made it the mission to conquer these beings who were deluding themselves as superior. Origin was intimidated, for Viktor was speaking of beings that could manipulate the lives of others on a grand scale. He calculated a low chance of success, but his loyalty drove him to pursue that low chance.
Now though, the calculations were showing a rapid decline in the success percentage. Every time Viktor acquired one of the apprentices of the opposing individual, referred to as Tess, the numbers decreased. Killing them decreased the numbers more, whether it was because they refused to side with Viktor or when they had already attempted to betray him. Running a calculation on stopping the acquisitions, Origin had seen the course did not correct itself. He was no longer certain that the outcome Viktor desired was possible, even with his assistance.
Chariel starred listlessly at the screens before him. There was no controlling the puppets anymore. They now held the latent power of divinity within them, making them unable to be affected by his influence. The only way to stop them now would be to kill them. Of course, the tense peace with the quantum would never allow for that, but Chariel had never cared for that anyway. Too few of the deities alive today remembered the war, though whether that was because they were too young or chose to forget varied. He would never forget that horrible war.
He could see that the results of allowing the modern mortal races to obtain divinity would bring about another war. It was why he fought to maintain their limited ability with a system to control them. If not for the corruption caused by one rogue world, he would have continued to enjoy the work of many millennia for eons to come. Now there was only the inevitable.
Chariel stood from his seat and strode over to a corner of the room. With a wave of his hand, a wardrobe materialized before him. He pulled open the doors to gaze upon something that he had not looked at since just after the war. It was still as glorious as the day he had last seen it.