166. At The Gates of An Urban Complex

166. At The Gates of An Urban Complex

Hotdogs. Sandwiches. Skewers. Meat stuck to a bone. Giant chicken wings. Beef balls that were eaten like popcorn. Fairy floss that wasn’t made from people… And delicious candied apples.

Frost and Jury had quite an appetite. Delicious food from cultures, races, and distant lands whetted their bottomless hunger. No stall was left untouched as the triplets pointed them in the direction of H5’s Retrofitter.

Questions like “Where did the food go?” were arbitrary. Jury always had a large appetite, and she could never say no when skewers were involved. A new savory scent waited at each major intersection, which acted like a miniature plaza.

They took the time to expand their palates, indulging in food from all over the world. Frost gladly stuffed her face, relishing sandwiches, skewers, and their wooden sticks. She was elated to know that her body didn’t crave flesh. Eating just about anything seemed to sate her.

So she had to wonder if eating a brick wall could calm her hunger pangs.

Snap’s back had become a mobile picnic table. Several skewers suddenly sunk into the fluff. Later, only the wooden sticks returned, having been eaten by a mysterious organ hidden underneath the fluff.

“Oi. Hey. Remember that town in the middle of nowhere? Did you count how many children walked through Snap?” Cer sent a sidelong glance to Frost. “Kind of risky if you ask me. I don’t feel safe sitting up here at all.”

“We did multiple headcounts. Snap’s too cute to hurt anyone.” Jury assured as Snap purred in delight.

“Snap’s not cruel…” Ignis said.

“Hey. Watch your mouth. Snap can’t hurt anyone.” Frost said, patting her companion’s back.

At the same time, Cer shoved her hands into its fur, as if searching for Snap’s hidden mouth.

“And I don’t get it. What’s with you and wanting to be eaten?” Frost further pressed, annoyed by the obnoxious wolfwoman.

“Me?” Cer said with exaggerated shock. “I’m just trying to get some info. For future reference. I’m doing you a favor. I’m looking out for you! Tch. How deep does this fur go!? Wait – I’m sinking, I’m sinking –! Snap–! Hah! Is that all you got!?”

Why did Cer sound so happy all of a sudden?

Her depraved, excited voice caused ice to run through Snap’s veins, and in that instant, it stopped trying to pull Cer into its fluffy body. It rejected her on a biological level, and its fight of flight response caused it to shudder so violently that the skewer sticks were spat like whizzing arrows.

Thankfully, Frost and her companions were able to catch them before they could do any damage to their surroundings. AGI was an extremely powerful stat which rendered things like arrows as a laughably slow projectile.

It went without saying that Cer was thoroughly reprimanded. Although, as usual, Cer interpreted it as a reward more than anything else. She was like a certain breed of wolf or dog that would die of boredom if they sat still for more than a minute straight.

“Could you always do that Snap?” Frost asked, stroking its back to comfort it.

“You could never perceive its violent vibrations until now.” Nav spoke on Snap’s behalf.

“Bzzzzt! Brrrr!” Snap purred, saying: “It’s how I respond to threats! And filth!”

Frost pictured a Snap drying itself after a good wash like a dog. She ended up chuckling to herself, finding it funny that Snap had indirectly called Cer ‘filthy’, and not because of her wet-dog-like smell.

Nothing of significance occurred thereafter, aside from the dazzling sights of H5. It did not take them long to reach into what felt like the heart of the city. Snap carefully navigated through the bustling crowds as Res announced that they were close now.

“Keep taking rights at every crossroad. It’s busier than usual.” She added, scanning their surroundings shrewdly. “Everyone’s travelling on foot. Weird. It’s not like the trains are out of order.”

“They might be afraid. If it weren’t for my stats, I would never have touched a train knowing that it can –” Frost snapped her fingers. “– Disappear on a whim.”

“Looks like confidence in the train networks are at an all time low. Been hearing rumors today about a certain train collision one month ago.” Cer revealed. “Not a lot of healers either. I think you’re the only one I’ve seen so far.”

While they were here to explore and immerse themselves in the Nex Megalopolis, they did not lower their guard for even a second. The triplets keenly kept an ear on every word that left the crowd. Whether it be Adventurers, merchants, or the lyrics of a musician – No stone was left unturned.

Frost similarly surveilled their surroundings, finding nothing of particular interest aside from minor scuffles between Adventuring parties. Interestingly, she spotted leashed Dragonid children walking alongside their parents. Those leashes were there to prevent them from flying off, less they wished to meet a quick end.

She could not detect any instruments or abnormalities that would allow a rogue flyer to be eliminated. Nothing was out of the ordinary when she set her sights to the blue skies.

“Don’t try looking for them. Maybe you can see them, but I doubt it. It takes a special kind of eye to perceive them.” Cer explained.

They then turned into a tighter strip, and Snap was therefore forced to follow from the shadows. Adventurers roamed these areas in higher concentrations due to the number of armament, blacksmiths and potion stores that lined its streets. Before long, they descended into an underground section where primitive furnaces made from brick cooked steel for the short-statured Dwarves.

These Dwarves pummeled away at red-hot steel in front of the faces of potential buyers. It was like an underground auction house.

This wasn’t their destination of course, but it was interesting to see. They even had a healer on standby. Some Adventures were none the wiser and were burnt by what appeared to be normal steel.

“It’s never the red one’s that’ll get yah!” A Dwarf laughed from the belly hysterically. “Smiths ain’t ever gonna burn themselves on a red piece of steel! It’s the normal lookin’ ones!”

They ascended a flight of stairs at the other end and pushed further into the backstreets of the city in search of their Retrofitter. The paths they took made little sense and were confusing more than anything. They shuffled through alleyways, climbed ladders, ascended stairwells, and even needed to leap across an exposed waste line that dumped the city’s waste into a similar pit she saw in the City of Diamonds.

It also reminded her of the pit that the Complex Heart hovered over.

At this point Frost wouldn’t be surprised if they required a magical umbrella to open a brick wall just to progress any further.

The triplets further explained the mysterious fortresses that allowed Caldera Industries to enforce their rules.

“They call them Sky Fata Morganas.” Res joined Frost’s gaze into the boundless skies. “Long ago people called them the Fairy Mirages of the Skies. No one really knew where they got the name from. But an old Atelier used to manage them until Caldera Industries wiped them out. Those ones are some of the oldest floating fortresses we know of.”

“They’re there to protect the Nexus and Atlas.” Cer took the lead, walking backwards with her hands cupping the back of her head. “Don’t mistake it for peacekeeping. Why would those tall Dwarves want to help people that don’t even belong in the Nexus?”

“When you hear thunder but don’t see a flash, then you can bet your stars that someone’s been struck down.” Ber cracked her knuckles. “It’s awesome that you can watch someone get hit and then hear the crash of lightning after.”

“And I wouldn’t bother trying to look for them. But you can faaaaintly tell where they are. If you see a dragon or someone combust into flames far into the sky, then you know they were really close to one.” Cer twirled on her heels, loosening her tie as she began stretching her arms in preparation for their encounter. “Besides. Their Gravity Engine shenanigans does weird things. Have you seen how objects bend when they’re close to one of their Cores? How does that even work!?”

Gravitational lensing. There could be no other explanation, although…

“… How hasn’t this world been eaten up yet?” Jury’s thoughts paralleled Frost’s.

“Because I apparently haven’t been here for long enough.” Frost joked, harping on her false destructive prophecy.

Handheld black holes? Physics? She didn’t even try to wrap her mind around how it worked. Tests must be easy in Elysia since every question could be explained with ‘magic’.

* * *

They eventually arrived at a secluded urban complex. ImpulseWorks personnel littered the place, all armed for potential threats and trespassers that had no right to see a Retrofitter. These people were no more than Impulse Defenders, and their levels ranged wildly from as low as 10 to 90.

They were ill equipped as far as Frost could tell. The black brick path transitioned to a light magenta, which marked the territory of the Retrofitter. Their group was not alone either, as others flocked to the main entry way waiting for their turn to be assessed by the Retrofitter.

Frost was confused. Why not let them wait inside? The urban complex stretched for as long as a kilometer from one end to the other, so why make them wait out here by the main gates?

Cer only grinned. Despite her short height, she met eye to eye with one of the ImpulseWorks personnel. His instantly went pale, like they had just seen a ghost. That person bared the title of Impulse Defender Captain instantly motioned with their hands, and at once, all 60 of his men pointed their bulky, magical firearms in the direction of the crowd.

“MOVE! MOVE! GET OUT OF OUR WAY OR WE’LL SHOOT!” He shouted at the top of his lungs, shocking Frost as she tried to make sense of this, only to have Res tap her shoulder and shake her head.

“Leave them be. Looks like something happened while we were gone.” She said, sharing a few nods with several of the men who she recognized.

And they similarly recognized her all too well.

Not as a mere Blessed, but as one of the Moons of the Nexus.