Chapter 99: Bigger Issues

"I sparking hate all of you…” Xani didn’t mean what she said, but in the moment they’d figured out the system to create a perpetual storm, she felt the words more true than they ever had or would be again.

Autumn, Moriarty, Auto, and Xani had all worked on breaking down the system that powered the platforms within what they had now learned through the APK, was in fact, the Adroit Academy climbing challenge, and not the school at all.

Xani wasn’t mad that it had taken them all coming together to figure it out, but because of how they were inspired to figure it out.

She’d tried to pull them together, asking questions, bringing each person's individual skill and expertise to the forefront which didn’t work.

Nor did a walk through the platform held within the underbelly of the climbing challenge, which she’d assumed was a guarantee on sparking their interests, and an eventual bloom of creativity.

Instead what did it for them was a video of Arson, Khalif, Micro, and, in Xani’s opinion the puppy of a cultivator named, Oscar that followed her friends around, getting smacked around by a wolf unlike any she’d ever seen before.

The video started with Jill and Jane, snatching Oscar from the air before he could fall into the mouth of the massive wolf. The living hand constructs flying fast enough to break the sound barrier was the only thing that stopped the teeth from separating the young man into two pieces.

Arson could then be seen pointing his hands toward the beast's mouth a rooftop away. The arial view showed his hands filling with a golden white fog that concentrated, before a sound like a revving generator could be heard.

Two beams of the gathered energy pierced the distance, punching into the side of the giant wolf’s head; the impacts like two twin waves crashing into a mountainside.

The beast was able to stay upright, due to four additional legs that told Xani that the creature was no mere beast but a demon.

Mana beast were animals influenced by mana. Whereas Xani knew only demons could grow unnatural limbs such as the extra set seen. Having access to credits had given Xani the only resource she’d lacked to learn as much as she wanted. She gained the resource only to realize the vastness of what she wanted to gain.

Arson’s attack washed over the creature in a continual gush. Small crystals of ice forming where Arson’s attack was concentrated the most.

Though the creature seemed unaffected at first, as time drew on, the tide of battle changed slowly.

The longer the beams stayed on the beast as Arson ran from rooftop to rooftop, the slower it became. Khalif eventually able to engage the creature, his knives falling from the sky, Micro carrying the young man in the air above. Xani thought this odd, until Khalif was dropped.

This moment was the trigger for many things. Jill and Jane to swoop in wielding Arson’s weapon. Oscar to jump on the creature's back from a nearby roof. Micro summoning two blades as she dove behind Khalif.

The roar was cut off as Arson’s weapon was slammed in a sweeping uppercut blade first into the mouth of the demon. A powerful yank from the constructs causing the creature to wail as its mouth was held open.

Arson realigned his aim toward the sides of the demon's mouth as it thrashed in a scramble to free its head. The same energy from Arson’s beams now pouring out of the weapon, freezing the inside of the creature's mouth.

Even Xani’s eyes had widened at Khalif landing inside the demon's mouth. The young man hooked the end of a climbing rope around one of the teeth that stood taller than himself. As if they’d done it before Micro made it to the tossed rope and grabbed it as she flew under the demon’s mouth, in-between thrashing claws. It was then Oscar’s turn to act and Xani believed he would fail as he took aim, only to be surprised. Oscar stood on the creature's back, and with a roar of his own punched down with everything he had. A pressure point at the back of the demon’s head punished with the strike, and the creature nearly crumpled with Micro underneath it and Khalif still in its mouth, only for Jill and Jane to hold the creature up the blade still holding the demon in place.

Arson closed in then, focusing the means of his attack near its neck and head. Oscar seen in a split view jumping from the demon’s back, and racing toward its hind legs.

Arson landed on the street level they all fought on and strafed the demon, shifting the beams primarily toward its torso, as Micro flew circles around its head.

“Wow, that is truly some incredible teamwork,” Auto had said as they watched.

“That is what our brother makes possible,” said Autumn.

“I’m starting to see why you all would follow him. His crown made me think of him as arrogant, as most with it hide it from the world, but being here now, seeing how the bridges he forced me to build are helping the CityNation, I almost feel lucky that he picked me to be here after your suggestion, cousin,” said Moriarty. The young man had said the words grudgingly, transfixed by what none of them knew was Arson’s party’s third attempt at containing the creature.

The only thing between failure and success for their group, had been use of Jill and Jane, which Arson battled using during pivotal moments for unseen reasons. Reasons that quickly made themselves known.

“If we worked half as hard as they do, I’m sure we could solve this in no time. It's not like we don’t have all the pieces right in front of us. Maybe we could start small and build a boulder sized replica?” The question from her best friend Auto started the shift in the discordant attempt that was their own group's teamwork.

What is happening right now.

Xani couldn’t help but smile as they worked at building the replica of the platform, the pieces coming together easily as they used the APK, viewing the platforms from many angles as they worked.

Moriarty formed a bowl from stone, making multiple smaller bowls from water resistant metals, that sat with space within one another. While Auto created water systems that used pressurized tunnels and kinetic energy using downward flowing water channels. All built to flow toward the garden bed at the center of the miniature platform stage he worked on.

Xani inscribed runes on every piece of available space she could to connect each section from one to another. As well as installed a mana stone base to the outer stone bowl.

Xani’s use of the Propeller Palm Drones made lifting the entire replica, hollowing out the stone bottom, and drilling the holes the roots would travel through to weave into the mana stone base, a simple task.

Finally, Autumn using the smallest piece of root from the tree from the crashed tower below the climbing challenge, created a sapling to transplant. The task taking as long as the rest of the work combined.

They all split their attentions between watching Autumn weave roots through mana stone, and their third viewing of Arson at work, still in disbelief of what they were viewing.

A feat as minor as suppressing a demon, made to be more grand by their culture than even miracles were perceived to be in some realms.

“You guys think they are really going to eventually pull this—“ Auto was cut off as a multi colored lightning flowed through the scythe in the creature’s mouth. The collected ice broken, before the demon lifted its body and smashed itself bodily into the ground, before it barrel-rolled, kicking Oscar through the air as it thrashed wildly.

“Knowing Arson, probably, although I don’t know why they didn’t kill it when they had the chance,” mumbled Xani.

“What do you mean,” asked Auto. Xani laughed at Auto’s question, glancing at Moriarty momentarily before she responded.

“Arson’s obviously sandbagging for some reason, must be why he isn’t using that new mana lightning to dust that demon, don’t know what that beam is either, but he may need that thing alive for some reason, I don’t know.”

“I agree,” added Autumn. Moriarty’s solemn nod was enough to convince Auto.

Xani hated to admit it to herself in that moment, even as she watched Arson fail for the third time, she still believed the task at hand for him was simple. Even as he visibly struggled before her eyes and fled for billions to see.

I will catch up to you little brother…

Then Autumn finished weaving the branches atop her newborn sapling, completing the replica. Autumn stepped back as the replica summoned a small storm above itself, rain running town the branches, down the tree, into the roots that permeated the entire platform.

Power thrummed through the mana stone base as it filled with water and a collection of nature and natural manas.

The platform lifted a yard off the ground and their entire group gasped at the sight.

There is no way this worked the first try…

“Someone take a picture before I die,” said Autumn. Auto’s flatscreen already in his hand to start filming.

“I have to thank you all for letting me take part in this, especially you for making the continual use of my skills necessary for the completion of this project, Xani,” said Moriarty with a nod.

“Yes, beautiful, I appreciate your help with the machinery. This was an amazing process, thanks to you,” said Auto, side hugging her, unable to take his eyes off the floating platform in front of them.

“Yes, thanks to you, I have learned a new way to weave roots and branches that may forever change how powerful I can become,” said Autumn finally, the only one able to look away from the platform as she spoke to her. Though she also immediately looked back.

Xani looked around at their smiling faces, and smiled herself. Happy about her accomplishment in a way that she hadn’t been before.

It wasn’t a moment after she had the thought that the mana stone that they used overloaded, and shattered like a shrapnel grenade and nearly killed them all. Too small too handle the amount of power flowing through it, their entire replica falling to the ground into two pieces.

Xani got up off the ground slowly as the rest of the others did. Before she looked around, and bursted into laughter. Feeling both a balance in the Uni-Vare, and hope that they actually could complete the project before them.

"Now to begin the real testing," thought Xani, as the rest gathered looked to her in that moment for guidance.

“Oh, don’t look at me now,” said Xani.

“I sparking hate all of you…”

…

Arson received a list of places where Xani thought Troy could be, and though he thought he’d narrowed down his options to a few, one option that he assumed she wasn’t located, kept drawing his attention.

What is the Adroit Academy Auction House?

Arson practiced his forms, a compilation of the dead arts he’d learned since his childhood within the dump, angered by being forced to flee from the 8 legged wolf demon.

They’d nearly contained it 6 or 7 times. The series Lane was developing on their failures, was viral, and they hadn’t even caught the demon yet.

Definitely can’t kill the sparking thing…

Arson spun, summoning his weapon into his hands, channeling new energies through the blade. Waves of violent frost sliced through the air with each slash of his weapon. A scythe art he decided to never use again, slipping into the forefront of his mind as he worked off his aggression.

He was mad that Troy was gone. Mad that Almarine still hadn’t shared whatever it was that she was hiding from him. Mad that his mother felt as if she couldn’t talk to him about her feelings for his father. Mad that he himself was not powerful enough even while restricted by the system, to protect the innocent of Maelstrom.

Since when was it your job to protect the innocent anyway, Arson… You're no hero, just a Cultivator. Remember that, and you may survive all this.

The CityNation was on high alert. Their society had been attacked, and if the Oligarchs knew who’d done it, they weren’t sharing the information.

This alone was odd… They weren’t a militaristic society by far, but their new emperor was considered a walking monolith of war and dominance. So retaliation was more of a requirement than an option.

Arson’s head spun at the things on his plate, his weapon growing heavier with every thought that passed through his mind. Then his mind trailed off once more, a coliseum being built within his mental space the only ease he felt within his current day to day.

Even as he built it though, additions were being made mentally for things he had no immediate use for within a coliseum.

After a while, Arson realized what his mind was doing and he stopped moving entirely, calling Xani to share the epiphany he was having before the idea and its potential could be lost.

“Hello, busy as embers right now, how may I help you?” Arson barely opened his mouth before Xani cut in again.

“No, no no no, no,” said Xani.

“You don’t even know what I am going to say.”

“I don’t have to know what you’re going to say, you got that excited as sparks look on your face that tells me one of two things, you are either about to make things harder for me, or you're about to make things harder for everyone. Either way, the answer is no…”

“Even if it's guaranteed to get us selected for the coliseum competition, and make you untold amounts of credits if we pull it off?” Xani’s sigh was heavy and long, her hologram gesturing for him to go on above his watch.

“Our coliseum is so big that we would only get to use it for the rare event, the fact that we are making it mobile, offers us even more opportunities, that being said, we are more than just the future owners of an event plaza, we are the future owners of what I am hoping will be the biggest auction house in all of the realms, don’t give me that look, just think about it for a moment,” started Arson, pacing in the open area he used to practice.

“If we build an auction house that seconds as a coliseum, it opens us up to having sales all across the CityNation, and maybe even across the realms if we can get the realm traveler business licenses. Our inventory is growing the more trash we buy from across all realms, and we can even invite the top sales groups to sell items at any event we host, as normally they would be locked out by whatever vendor decided to buy the rights to control who sells at each convention, game, or party being held,” said Arson, able to see by Xani’s widening eyes that she was quickly becoming more agreeable to the potential changes she knew would soon be forced on her.

“So… what do you think?” Xani looked over her shoulder and yelled at the others with her.

“Stop what you're doing, idiots, your brother and cousin has made our jobs harder with an amazing idea, and beside the base platform, we probably have to start over!” Xani looked back at Arson and smiled before she shrugged at the groans heard coming from behind her.

“Anything else? If not, send over whatever designs you have and I will get them started?”