Chương 83: The coffee was also looted

Mary stood with her hand outstretched, looking up, an expression of wonder on her face. It looked silly, like she was larping or something, but… There was something magical about the moment. Like she was trying to touch the sky, and it was working. A heartbeat passed, and while Dennis could swear that nothing actually happened, he could also swear that the whole world quieted down for a fraction of a moment, and he heard a quiet chime. A butterfly flew out of her hand.

It was pretty like nothing else, otherworldly and made of pale blue light. It flew slowly, as butterflies were supposed to, yet when he blinked it was already high in the sky. Another moment of distraction, and it was gone. Mary lowered her hand. Dennis released a breath that he hadn't known he was holding. The spell was broken. Not the actual magic–because there surely was magic involved–but… the moment, and everything was ordinary again as they stood outside on the dry pavement, the sun blistering high above.

Mary clasped her hands.

"Wel-p," she said cheerfully.

"Let's get going?"

"That was–" Dennis wasn't sure why he was lost for words.

"That was your skill?" It was weird, to be enraptured so much by what was essentially just summoning pretty butterflies. As far as skills went, it was lame. It didn't feel lame.

"It was a miracle," Mary smiled in mischief, as if telling a joke to which he didn't know the punchline.

"But yeah. It was my skill. The butterfly will alert the guys that we're coming, and bring back their response." She shifted her gaze, looking at the road ahead.

"I really hoped they'd spare a car to pick us up, but they don't use them unless it's an emergency." Her smile dimmed a little.

"A four-hour walk is apparently not an emergency, despite the fact that we're, like, really important."

"We are?" Lily chimed in as they started walking, obviously curious but still doing her robo-Lily thing for some ungodly reason.

"Yeah, I mean–" Mary waved her hand in his direction.

"Ellie is basically the most important person in the world if you want some questions answered, and Dennis is… Well…"

"Cool as fuck," he suggested.

"Cool as fuck," she nodded in agreement.

"That's as good of a classification as any."

"And me?" Lily asked meekly.

"You are… Um…" Mary seemed to be a bit struggling to find the right words, throwing a few pleading glances at Dennis like he could help her out. He replied to her unspoken question with a blank face, not a single thought in his head. It didn't seem to help.

"Also pretty cool?" Lily was not impressed with the answer, Dennis guessed. They set out. Dennis, who didn't particularly care where they were going so it was whatever, mostly busy with internal struggles and having the superspeed to be a hero from anywhere anyway. Lily, who didn't care where she was as long as Dennis was nearby, attached to him like a puppy or something. El'el, who was basically just lost and also needed to stick near Dennis to dodge the holy inquisition.

And Mary, who probably actually wanted the perks of what remained of civilization, with stuff like semi-reliable food supply, community and safety. Oh, and probably to be near her nerd friends. When he thought about it like that, they were basically going to the city only because Mary wanted it and no one else cared enough? Well, fine by him. The scenery of post-apocalyptic LA was quite pleasant.

The air was fresh, there was quite a lot of greenery everywhere, creeping through the asphalt, and it was comfortably silent. Not like in the Echo, where the silence was absolute, but just… calming. According to Mary, they were supposed to expect an encounter with some variety of monster every half hour or so in this part of the city, unless they tried being sneaky. Well, it was according to some city bigwig guy, who told it to Evan guy, who told it to Mary yesterday through her butterfly-radio powers.

They weren't sneaky. Doing that while Dennis existed was fucking dumb, a fact that he was enthusiastically establishing as he walked right in the middle of the street like he owned the place. Nothing attacked them. Not in five minutes, not in twenty, not in an hour. If Dennis hadn't known better, he would have thought that monsters just didn't exist anymore, dead from hunger or a lack of a mana atmosphere or something like that.

Instead of walking through the monster-infested terrain, it was like he was having a pleasant stroll in a park. Remembering the goblin that had hidden in a bush and run away the last time, Dennis had a pretty good theory for why their trek was so peaceful. It's killing intent. I'm killing-intenting them. Winning with vibes. Aura farming. He couldn't stop grinning, thinking about it like that. He held his chin high and made every step as domineering as possible, basking in his own badassery.

The rest of the party followed slightly behind, being the meek followers that they were. It was a bit awkward when he sometimes took a wrong turn, not actually knowing the way, but Mary was kind enough to point out when he did so and wise enough to do that in a way that didn't break the fantasy. It had been a long, long time since he had a chance to unwind and play-pretend to be a speedster or, in this case, a badass with killing intent. Really, when was the last time?

When he just got his hands on Muramasa, pretending to be a samurai? That was ages ago. His fear aura worked on monsters. Probably even better than on humans, since monsters listened to their instincts more. What was the deal with it again? El'el called it 'the pressure of his Soul', which was fucking weird considering how low the stat was. Come to think of it, hadn't he forgotten something, lost in his own badassery? Right.

"Hey, El'el?" he called out without turning around. She made a sound of acknowledgement from behind him.

"What's the deal with my Soul?" he asked casually, still marching.

"Like, specifically. You didn't really explain anything the last time I asked." The woman didn't reply for a while. He glanced back. She was looking at him intently, as if trying to bore a hole in his back.

"Hello?" he repeated.

"Anyone home?" Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. She flinched, startled, and looked away. Was the fear aura doing things again? He thought that the elf was immune.

"I am sorry," she said.

"I was lost in thought."

"So?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What are your thoughts?"

"I must preface this by saying that I don't actually know the answer. I have never seen anything like you," she said.

"That said…"

"Go on."

"Would you be willing to accept a scanning spell?" she asked.

"It is… somewhat invasive, but I fear that my senses are not enough on their own in this case. Also, I would like to ask you a few questions pertaining to your experiences with… that, to help me build a better understanding of what I am looking at. We would have to make a short stop for me to do an examination, it is not a walking activity."

"Can't this wait until–" Mary started speaking.

"We can make a short stop," Lily said hastily.

"I'm a little bit tired. Not used to walking so much."

"We can rest a bit, I guess," Mary didn't protest much.

"I can carry you," he blurted out without really thinking. Both Mary and El'el looked at him weird.

"What? She had walked more in the last hour than she had in the entire past month. And even if she's much heavier than she looks, I'm kinda used to it."

"I would prefer to use my own two legs, thank you very much," Lily replied sternly.

"And stop calling me fat. I'm not fat. Let's make a stop."

"When did I call you fat?" He denied the accusation, as was the right thing to do with any accusation.

"That never happened." Lily looked at him like he killed someone and she knew where he hid the body.

"Do you want me to remind you?" she said calmly, looking him dead in the eye. Where was his fear aura when he needed it?

"I can. I kept count, you see." Now that was just psychotic.

"Oh, would you look at that, a convenience store!" he turned around, shouting.

"With a convenient shade! Let's go in, rest our legs, and perform a kinda-invasive soul surgery!"

"Scan," El'el corrected him.

"I am not capable of soul 'surgery', as you call it. It's a feat that very few are capable of. You cannot just modify a stat like that. They're ancient."

"Whatever!" he enthusiastically agreed, going inside. While the convenience store was obviously looted, just like most places they saw, whoever did that wasn't crazy enough to steal the chairs, so after a few minutes they found themselves comfortable. Lily was actually resting, relaxing in a shaded corner where the heat wasn't that strong. He wasn't sure why it surprised him.

A part of him thought that the whole 'I need to rest' thing was a ruse to speed up his soul exploration, considering the girl's weird obsession with it, but another part pointed out that she had literally told them that she was tired, and there was no reason to doubt that. Mary brought out a thermos, pouring tea for herself and the girl. He and El'el sat on the floor, facing each other.

She was sitting cross-legged, kind of like during a meditation, and after a moment he copied her because it looked cool and felt appropriate for the moment. They were doing magic, after all. The elf took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. Glyphs started shimmering in front of her, doing that magical dance where they split and combined, creating a soup of meanings. He couldn't keep up with it without his buff, but it still seemed much slower than what he remembered from his fight with the High Authority.

Maybe because it wasn't a combat spell? Or she was less skilled? Could also be her 'lessened' state.

"Tell me," she whispered quietly, her eyes still closed.

"What do you know about your… condition?" It was an eerie sight, as magic still danced around her. He felt like he was being scammed by a fortune teller. Everything felt too mysterious, when magic was involved. Despite them sitting below the 'Premium Coffee' sign, which felt like it was supposed to ruin the mystery of the moment, Dennis couldn't help but feel that he had to be honest here. Like something important was happening. Not like he was going to lie in the first place, but…

He felt like deflecting wouldn't be right either, even if some of his thoughts weren't meant to be said out loud. It made them feel more real, and he didn't like that.

"The fear aura is new," he decided to start with things that he didn't mind sharing. Pure, boring facts, and his speculation.

"My Soul is at two now, according to the System. Got the point just today when I woke up. You told me that the aura comes from the stat, and that doesn't make sense with how low it is." She hummed, without saying anything. Just listened. She was attentive, but he wasn't sure that she actually listened to his words. Was she reading his mind or something?

"Focus," she whispered.

"I can't raise it with free points," he continued, shifting in place nervously.

"I don't actually understand how it grows. It was zero, when the System came. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to grow, like, a lot of times, but it kept slipping back and staying at zero until…" He was studying the floor tile in front of him with unprecedented intensity.

"A thing happened. Personal revelation, I guess. So I thought, okay, the thing grows with personal revelations or something. But it didn't. And… I don't get where the second point came from. I didn't really do anything for it, I think."

"Your Soul was exhausted," she muttered, looking at something with her eyes closed.

"Tell me about that."

"I've got a skill at level nine," he said.

"It's actually the one with the shroud. I can use it to… squeeze my Soul for mana, I guess. Overused the thing during my fight with the other elf." She frowned, and he could almost feel her concentration slipping.

"Skills don't grant mana," she said.

"Mine does."

"Nonsense. What does the description say?"

"Major resistance to scrying and precognition. Minor fate manipulation. Minor Soul enforcement." Apparently, he had said something wild, considering how El'el's eyes opened in shock and the glyphs around her started destabilizing." Holy shit," she whispered, looking at him wide-eyed.

"Your spell's getting overcooked," he noted. He kind of enjoyed using cooking analogies for spellcasting. They felt appropriate.

"Ah! I am sorry– Right–" It was somewhat adorable, how she tried to bring her focus back under control, almost stuttering. Did he imagine it, or were her cheeks pinker than usual?

"I– That is a very High Path. I can see how Soul enforcement would give you more mana, though I would strongly advise against using it like that…" She was mostly muttering to herself, almost as if trying to change subjects. Was she embarrassed? Was it embarrassing to lose control of your own spell? He would bet money that it was. A weapon for later.

"So, the Soul thing?" he steered the conversation back.

"Do you need anything else?" He kind of hoped that she didn't.

"How did you function before the start of the System integration?" she asked.

"How did you act, I mean? Were there any differences in how you behaved yesterday, while your Soul was exhausted?"

"Um…" Okay, she was going in an uncomfortable direction.

"Not really? I was always… focused."

"Always?" A beat of silence passed.

"Not always," he admitted quietly.

"But for a long time."

"And before that?"

"I was… not." Dennis felt a ball of dread coming up his throat. He didn't know why.

"What do you–""Drop it, Ellie," Lily said quietly. Somehow, he forgot that they weren't alone.

"I'm pretty sure you already have a good guess about what he means." The magic started dissipating before El'el somehow grabbed it and concentrated the whole thing in the palm of her hand.

"I apologise," she said.

"I think I do have a good guess, yes."

"So what's the verdict?" he asked dryly.

"Would you mind if I show you?" she asked.

"It's hard to convey with words." He shrugged. El'el counted that as an agreement. She leaned forward, and tapped his forehead." Look," she whispered. It was a lot like looking in the mirror. He saw battle. He saw swords.