Chương 296: Equalizer

How are things? Any sign that we should move?" Amica asked Léon as the scout returned.

"Not yet. No signal and there is still some time before we should start taking initiative on our own," the elf replied with a shake of his head.

"At least things seem stable. I saw glimpses of the other teams making their own entrances, but with the aura scramblers in place I know little else."

"At least we got a decently comfortable place to be holed up," Ceasar quipped.

"I mean, just look at Kite. This guy can find his calm anywhere–" A flicker of light caused all three of Kite's companions to fall silent and look towards him even though Amica had the presence of mind to use her telekinetics to close the shutters on the windows of the room in the isolated, stone-shaped fortress where they were currently awaiting signs to continue their advance.

This was fortunate, as light had started spilling from Kite who sat meditating above one of the cots of what had been some kind of guardpost - now empty after the team's surprise visit - and the light could easily have given away their location to any onlookers from the outside. But what drew all of their attention was the lone streak of gold that had appeared among the otherwise uniform silver, lasting for well over a minute before Kite eventually started to come out of his meditation.

"Congratulations are in order, it seems," Léon noted with a nod, a sentiment echoed by the others.

"My thanks. It– Oh heavens…" Kite said, starting to open his eyes only to quickly squeeze them shut again.

"Ah, perception powers. They tend to be the first without fail, at least until gold and its peculiarities mix up the order, but that is obviously not the case here. And they're still as disorienting as always," Amica said a bit consolingly.

"Well, you would know, given your experiences just before our last leave," Kite replied as he began the process of slowly and carefully opening his eyes in intervals that gradually grew longer.

"It's a bit like my Auntie Dove used to say; appreciate the pill for its workings, not its taste. And from what I can feel so far, I would call this bitter pill worth it." WWJS: Congratulations! Your power [Gaze of Adamance] has reached Gold 0. [Gaze of Adamance] has gained additional effects. - Gaze of Adamance - Special ability. Cost: None Cooldown: None Current rank: Gold 0 Effect - Iron: Provides perfect peripheral vision and increased ability to swiftly process visual stimuli.

Effect - bronze: Gives the ability to see magic and magical effect. May be activated for a cost of low mana per second to provide 360-degree vision. Effect - silver: Gives the ability to perceive auras Effect - gold: Increases the ability to recognize magical and spiritual obfuscation, such as illusions or aura masks. Especially potent effects or effects of higher ranks may be unaffected or only partially affected.

"Well? Don't hold out on us," Amica prompted.

"I believe that it will now help me recognize Illusions and the like more easily," Kite mused, his focus still mostly inward.

"While simply seeing through them outright would be quite the boon, I suspect that it is more a power that lets me see them for what they are rather than the truth beneath."

"Useful enough for me, and I suspect that you will gain a chance to test it out soon," Léon remarked from where he had remained peeking out a nearby window.

"Because our time of waiting is up. There has been no signal that we should investigate why, but be ready to retreat. It might just be interference like this damn aura scrambler, but you never know."

"Then let us leave. My vision is a lot sharper than before, but things have settled down. Already being silver-ranked probably helps quite a lot," Kite said as he rose to take point, Glint floating at his side while Amica, Léon and Ceasar followed in that order.

"The initial information we got was that the actual laboratories were below this complex, so any way down should help us," Amica reminded. Given what they had come here to take down, Kite was unsurprised that he heard a distinct edge to her voice. The group quickly swept through a series of empty corridors, hearing little to indicate further battle nearby from any of the other two teams. They did come across the traces of combat, however, as the walls were cracked, scoured or otherwise brutalized in places.

These traces were especially concentrated around the entry hall where their leader for this operation had entered along with another team of silvers, but only the dead and fallen awaited them, although none of the corpses were people anyone in the group recognized.

"I wonder if these were guards or test subjects…" Ceasar muttered, and Kite was bound to agree. Each of what he assumed had been essence-users had some kind of red veins clearly visible in a bulging network across any exposed part of their body, and upon closer inspection Kite came to reassess that this was some other kind of magical being. Or, as it looked, someone altered into one.. But while his newly ascended perception power let him see this in grim detail, something else had caught his attention.

"Over here," Kite called as he made his way to a seemingly random spot at a nearby wall. As soon as it was pointed out to him, Léon nodded in agreement.

"Definitely an illusion," the perceptive sniper noted.

"Your new power?"

"Yes, this segment seemed to be flickering slightly, as if I could see the imperfections hiding it," Kite confirmed. Seeing that the others had noticed his approach, he did not wait before sending a dispelling wave that caused the illusory wall to flicker and distort. There, a ramp led downwards into yet another tunnel, and once they passed inside it was clear that they had escaped from the reach of the aura scrambler, because up ahead awaited full spiritual mayhem.

"We move!" Kite called, not hesitating as he started running while trusting that Léon would spot any other dangers that were hidden nearby. At the foot of the ramp a red, half-translucent barrier awaited them that blocked entry into a more extensive underground room beyond.

Through the haze of the shielding Kite could easily make out struggling forms as the other Gauntlet team roamed the expansive room in a controlled formation while fighting off a greater number of silver-ranked assailants whose auras felt off as they shuddered with vibrant life to such a degree that it seemed to have reached a fever pitch of madness. More spectacular, however, were the two gold-rankers also fighting inside the room.

Kite couldn't make them out in their entirety, but the fact that the room was still relatively intact meant that they both seemed to have a vested interest in limiting collateral damage.

"Kite! Can you disrupt it or shall we try to push through?" Amica asked after using her telekinesis to rip off a wall panel that hid the arrays of the barrier. Taking a look - that was helped to a pleasantly surprising extent by his freshly ascended perception - Kite nodded.

"Fifteen seconds. Make your preparations." The others did, unseen force winding up, lightning crackling and shimmering lenses being conjured into existence while Kite took a few more seconds to confirm that he had gotten the pattern correct. The arms of his mantle appeared and he swiftly used a trio of Disrupting Strikes at pinpoint locations in the complex network of the array.

Then, around three heartbeats later, he did the same once more before slamming the head of his staff into the distorting lines of the formations and let Void-Sunders-Firmament tear the destabilized pattern to shreds at just the right timing for the mana feedback to collapse in upon itself instead of detonating outwards. The moment the barrier dropped in a puff of mana vapors, Kite gave a silent prayer of thanks to Fortune for having spent so much time around Braid.

As the masked man had once said, it was a lot easier to learn how to best disassemble formations and arrays than actually construct and maintain them, at least if one had Kite's particular powers at their disposal. Kite felt that he had become quite decent at the more creative aspects of the craft, but it was rarely that that was required of him during contracts with Gauntlet. Even before the barrier had completely disappeared, Léon, Amica and Ceasar took their first shots.

Pinpoint beams of light or chokeholds of force found their targets among the pursuing crowd of people at the heels of the other Gauntlet team while larger groups of them found themselves trapped in lightning cages of various sorts. It was the runic and his prison confluence which shone the brightest in that initial assault that shifted the balance in the battle raging in the underground laboratory, crackling lightning washing over those caught within his powers while also working towards the rest.

During their many contracts together, Kite had learned that the reason so many of the runic's restraining spells looked like these lightning cages was due to an essence power of his prison conference, which synergized very well with some of the spells from his lightning essence as well as one of his evolved racial gifts that increased his proficiency and potency with that element in particular.

This let the otherwise mostly control-focused power do a lot more actual, straightforward damage than one might think, and Kite, Glint and Amica used the showers of sparks and arcing lightning as cover for their own advance. Kite conjured a few barriers to further corral the mad people with the glowing red veins which Amica promptly utilized as she started slamming people into them and kept them there until they either broke free or fell unconscious due to mana exhaustion.

With that done and Glint supporting the telekineticist, he then turned his attention to the battle between gold-rankers that mostly took place high up, close to the ceiling. One of the pair engaged in the combat was a runic man Kite suspected to be Marlon Cronal, the very gold-ranker that Gauntlet had been sent to investigate and later apprehend.

At least he suspected that said runic could be found somewhere beneath the rolling mass of mutating flesh with glowing red veins that stuck to the ceiling like a terrifying slug while sending tendrils of muscular flesh and blasts of corrupted vitality towards his foe, who moved much more nimbly and with great speed as he rappelled around the open space upon animated lengths of enchanted cloth while other pieces of magically hardened and sharpened fabric cut some of the incoming attacks to shreds.

Ryker Lansar, Kite's erstwhile instructor, was quite distinct in his fighting style and the various pieces of enchanted fabric used seem to only have grown in both scope and complexity since his ascension to gold rank. When Kite had heard of his mentor's success he had hoped to be able to congratulate him in person, and as long as they all lived through the upcoming minutes, he suspected that he would have his chance.

Seeing that the other Gauntlet team went on the counter-offensive as reinforcement started whittling down the numbers of the test subjects haunting them, Kite instead took a risk and started harassing the blob of flesh in the ceiling with projected dispelling attacks. At first, Cronal seemed to mostly ignore these small strikes given their lack of physical impact, but from the information they had of the man he was anything but stupid.

It didn't take long for him to realize that some of his attacks were actually dispelled by the silver-ranker below and that the mana Kite was eating out of the man's reserves would start adding up sooner rather than later. Thus he started taking Kite into the equation as well. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Blasts of corrupted vitality started flying Kite's way, but given the distance and his dispelling power's innate ability to disregard rank disparity, Kite managed to dodge or fend off all of them which also let Ryker go on the offensive as there were less hazards for him to contend with. There were no screams of fury or the like when great chunks of corrupted flesh were severed, but the cold intensity of Cronal's aura rose to further and sharper heights.

Ryker was completely unfazed though, keeping up pressure, as did Kite even though his contributions were far more modest. Still, every boon or other similar effect removed pushed Cronal further and further towards the brink, and it seemed like he knew it. With a pulse of mana that felt unpleasant and filthy to Kite's senses, streams of red energy suddenly started flowing from the mad test subjects that fought frantically across the underground laboratory.

They started weakening visibly, and it did not take much for Ryker to figure out what was going on as he went further on the offensive. It didn't take Kite long either, but he took a different approach.

"Dissolve the Patterns of Power!" Kite's dispelling wave could not target the whole laboratory from where he stood, and he probably would not want it to as that would mean hitting the other members of the strike teams as well. But he did manage to aim the dispelling wave towards a dense cluster of red streams that were floating up towards Cronal where he clung to the ceiling, and the effect was instant.

The previously solid streams were dispersed into slowly fading clouds as the gold-ranker that was to benefit from them rocked back as if struck. With a furious, wordless yell - the first sound Kite had heard him utter since entering the laboratory - he dove down towards Kite like a fleshy comet, only to vanish from sight the next moment.

"Void!" Kite felt Gate of Nihility almost destabilize immediately upon impact, but almost was the key word there. The barrier - that remained Kite's most potent defensive means - managed to hold while also delivering the very damaging feedback that came with physical contact.

And while it still obstructed most of Kite's upward view, he did see the manifold streams of glowing cloth that appeared and seemed to fill the whole upper part of the room for a moment before suddenly turning and converging on to something behind the dark aperture. Or someone. Kite could feel the pulse of pain and fear going through the still heavily projected aura of the gold-ranker that seemed to be behind whatever experiments were going on here, then it destabilized into something barely cohesive.

Gate of Nihility dropped just in time for Kite to see the man at the center of the mass of flesh impaled by streamers of cloth from every direction before they had pierced through, dug themselves into the floor and drawn taut. Given that they barely shifted at all beneath the efforts of the still struggling gold-ranker, the cloth seemed more like long stakes of metal, and the little motion that could be seen ceased when Ryker appeared next to the struggling man and snapped a suppression collar around his neck.

This, along with Ryker's nod of acknowledgment Kite only saw through his expanded field of vision as he had already turned his attention elsewhere. Due to his intervention, some of the extraction of whatever corrupting energies were at play had been interrupted, leaving some of the test subjects still rampaging at the heels of the silver-ranked adventurers. But with the diminishing numbers of foes, cleaning up proved short and brutal work.

Kite used his force walls to further corral and separate a few of the people with glowing red veins for collaring and further study, and only when the violence had truly died down did Ryker start making the rounds and address the two teams.

"Fine work," he said, tone as gruff as it had always been.

"Any trouble outside before you joined us?"

"No Sir," Amica replied, seeing as the question was addressed to her.

"We kept a watch on the perimeter but no other reinforcements for our targets seemed to be coming, we waited the agreed upon time and then came to find you."

"As I said, good work. Made it easier cleaning up this mess. I can confirm that our captive here-" Ryker said, gesturing to the still impaled gold-ranker "-is indeed matching the description of Marlon Cronal, and while corrupt isn't part of his known essence set, he certainly looks to have been experimenting with it." The tied up gold-ranker tried to call something, but Ryker had already made his animated length of cloth wind around most of the man's body, mouth included.

What followed was Ryker giving out a few more orders, some of which sent Léon and Ceasar back up top to keep watch while Amica and a few others started packing up both prisoners and other pieces from the laboratory deemed interesting to the Magic Society, who had been the one issuing this particular contract while this time also leaving it to Gauntlet to perform the operation on their own.

This left Kite and a few others standing guard in case unforeseen troubles arose, which led to Ryker eventually stepping up next to Kite as his stern eyes constantly swept the underground laboratory.

"Teacher. Good to see you," Kite greeted without taking his own eyes from his duties.

"And congratulations upon reaching gold rank. Sir Ilmaril had told me, but I had hoped to be able to give my regards in person." Riker only nodded in response to the congratulations, but Kite liked to think that he saw a hint of satisfaction and pride in his teacher's eyes.

"How are Christine? And Mtanga? I haven't met either of them yet since I joined Amica's team."

"Last I heard, Christine is doing well. She got transferred to another branch and will spend a few more years with trainees. Her own choice, though that will still keep her active and hopefully advancing too. As for Mtanga… He fell during a contract one year ago. A gold-ranker at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Oh…" was all that Kite could manage as his first response. Ryker's face remained stern and stoic, but it was clear from the man's tone that he missed his friend and colleague. Kite did too, memories of the man's bright and pearly smile flashing before his eyes. He had hoped to one day introduce Braid and Mtanga, thinking that they might find inspiration in one another for their rituals. But now… now there were suddenly only stories left.

Apparently sensing Kite's inner turmoil in his aura, Ryker surprised him by clapping a hand to his shoulder even though he still did not look Kite's way.

"Keep sharp and focus on the now. We can drink to his memory once we are out of here. You too are drawing close to gold, and the task group will need you to stay focused on that path."

"My homeland too," Kite murmured.

"Things have been… escalating. If I want to make the most difference…"

"Then what have you learned here?" The sudden question interrupted the train of thought that Kite had been about to slip into; a place of worries and sense of inadequacy that was hard to shake some days. He did not know if Ryker had sensed it or if it was simply his normal way, but Kite gratefully took the opportunity to center his mind and spirit.

"There is a distinct worth to what we do," he began, letting his mind associate freely as that was usually the best way for him to find his way through the half-formed thoughts and impressions that often occupied his mind these days.

"I am proud to charge into where things are the thickest. Where things are complex, even… stained, as they often are. Today, against Cronal here… Daring to step up, to meet that might… I am glad to be part of it." Kite meant every word and felt that they kept resonating with him much like it had done for some time. While things were rarely clean cut in these cases, he suspected that it was connected to his resolute essence and his determination.

It was a mix of altruism and egotism, with Kite having grappled with how to handle that he felt very good at being the one to handle things where the Adventure Society deemed that his path was needed, to be considered an elite and authority in his own right, not solely for the people helped.

The resolute essence didn't seem to have had much problem progressing either, proving that Kite had already been quite aware and in tune with the concepts, proven by his perception power actually managing to reach gold rank where it would otherwise have been hampered had he not. But on top of that there was something else, and as Ryker had actually turned toward him with a stare that clearly conveyed 'go on', Kite continued his thoughts.

There had indeed been something else, something when he had moved to support Ryker. Suppressing some of the man's magic and being able to fend off some of those blasts of corrupted vitality… there–"It felt good. To disrupt. To shatter his magics and… somehow close the distance?" Kite ventured, albeit more haltingly as the thoughts were raw and rather unprocessed.

"It was as if his power didn't matter as much as it should have. That I was the… Equalizer…" That was when he trailed off even further though, his thoughts sweeping him up in a tide of memories, emotions and impressions that was connected to something important. Thus, Kite barely noticed when Ryker gave him another nod before leaving to continue making his rounds.

"Guild Master, good to see you."

"Likewise, Branch Director Temren," Walker replied as he entered the huge office with its impressive view over Heavenward. At a gesture from his host, he took a seat in front of the desk and started producing several sealed scrolls which he arrayed between them.

"I brought the latest batch of intelligence, summarized personally by our archivist."

"That priestess of Knowledge?"

"Indeed. She has been a great boon to our guild and to our shared cause, working her essence powers hard enough to reach bronze rank long before I thought it possible for someone who is essentially a clerk," Walker explained with a chuckle.

"And the rest of your members?"

"We have more silver-rankers now than ever before. It is honestly a bit humbling, seeing that some of the more active ones will probably surpass me soon enough. One example is the trio that contains one of the portal-users we invested in. They are all silvers now, but show no inclinations of wanting to leave for greener pastures. Grain, especially, keeps working himself harder than almost anyone else. And Soul…"

"The Blessed of Warrior seemed to be doing fine last I heard. Has anything changed?"

"Not per se, at least not beyond her leaving."

"Your rather calm tone tells me that this isn't a worrying development."

"We at least managed to get her to stay for the second Northern Tournament," Walker shrugged.

"Many of the people who make the journey do it specifically for her, and we did not want too many disappointed, adoring essence-users on our doorstep. But after that she went off to gods know where to 'seize the next step of perfection'. Her words, not mine."

"Sounds like the guild might have another competitor for its first gold-ranker then. Assuming they can both succeed. I did receive a message from a contact regarding Kite. While he seems to be struggling with some of his insights, it seemed to be nothing beyond the expected for someone with a path and personality like his. They even seemed quite optimistic about his prospects."

"While little Kite has always been good at keeping calm, he has also been one to worry and take a lot upon himself. I can only imagine what his inner struggles are centered around, but I also find myself with a lot of faith in him. You should have seen him as a teenager, Branch Director. On one hand he was as much a ball of moods as anyone else, but somehow also still managed to sound like a sage elder at other times. Introspection is a familiar companion to that one."

"Gauntlet should at least be able to provide him with perspective to further fuel those tendencies," Anasta agreed. The pair spent another hour with Walker giving a more in-depth report of their long-term plans for the north.

As things were proceeding as smoothly as could be expected when fighting against the influence of Discord and their allies, they agreed that keeping things stable and unified remained their best course, with Obsidian Crow remaining on retainer by Anasta while she kept him stationed close to guild territories. With his web of shadows and the guild's more expansive information network these days, they could preempt more than their fair share of moves against them.

"What of the capital then, Director?" Walker eventually asked when his report had drawn to a close.

"Anything new we should know since your last missive?"

"Unfortunately, things keep getting harder for us here," Anasta sighed.

"This is a lot due to the sects getting more and more up in arms against one another. You have perhaps heard of it?"

"We have noticed it a bit up in the north too, but not nearly as much as you seem to be describing."

"Just these past three months we have had two actual border disputes resulting in gold-rankers clashing. No deaths so far, but it feels like it is only a matter of time before someone slips up or simply goes too far. I have tried to levy several punitive measures, but to little effect.

The problem with us acting is that it merely plays more into the narrative that Discord seems to have managed to weave into local culture over the past decades; that we are outside interlopers trying to take control over them, hindering their rights to protect their honor.

As for our operatives in the capital, there have been some positive developments when we have managed to take out some more of what we believe to be agents of Discord along with some local allies, but as of last month a new gold-ranker started acting within the capital which meant that we have to be a lot more careful of where to deploy to not risk losing any more silvers."

"Do you think that you will be ready, then? When the time comes? We all have our part to play, but I believe that yours might be the most important one. We can be as ready as can be, but without knowing exactly where to direct our attention…"

"Believe me, Guild Master. I am quite aware. but…" Anasta said, looking thoughtful.

"Our talks of Soul and Kite just now have given me an idea. One that several of my peers within the Adventure Society as well as plenty of clergy among the churches might take great offense at, should they come to know about it. So I hope that this matter stays between us. And Lady Knowledge, of course, who I hope will send a clear message in the upcoming days if she means to smite me, should I go forward with this."

The last part of the message was spoken out loud into the room, seemingly to nobody in particular, but Walker still bowed his head in reverence when Anasta referred to the deity. And as she told him of her plan, he found himself nodding along.

"If she can succeed, she might be just what we need," he agreed.

"Those scars aren't nothing, that's what anyone with an aura sense around her could tell. And I do understand your caution in the matter though. Strange times sometimes call for… unconventional decisions."

"Quite true, Guild Master. Quite true indeed," Anasta said grimly.

"But I have found that we always live in strange and often dangerous times. It is merely a matter of whether you are stuck in the middle of it or not."