Project Seraphina [LitRPG, Magitech, GL] -
2.72 The Aftermath III
With the threat of the Order of the Wilds gone for now, a number of the adventurers have headed home, to see loved ones, friends, and others. A few, including Kristil, have stayed here because they have nowhere else to go. Stefan and Lindsey are off at the capitol again, liaising with the useless politicians who didn’t have to witness all the horrors, all the fighting and death and blood and gore firsthand, but still get to decide policy as though they did.
We take it easy the rest of the day, or at least as easily as anyone can, having seen and experienced what we have. Plenty of crying by both of us. Plenty of holding each other and seeking comfort in one another’s arms. Plenty of grieving on both of our accounts as we try to keep ourselves together. A very, very long soak in the bathtub follows in the late afternoon. It ends up being cut short not by my desire to leave the warm, soothing embrace of the heated waters, but by the need for others to use the limited number of tubs in the facility.
Despite resolving myself and mentally partitioning Theo as merely the man who was once my father, I’m still forced to come to terms with the fact that both of my parents are dead. And that, even if resurrection magic were a thing that exists, it’s something far, far beyond Chloe, let alone me.
I’m alone. No parents, no grandparents. No aunts or uncles or cousins that I know of.
I shake the thought. No, that’s wrong. I’m not alone, and I’ve never been alone. I have Mrs. Jacobs. I have Lindsey, and to a lesser extent, the rest of my teams. The people I’ve fought alongside against the many challenges that we’ve faced and overcome so far. And of course, Chloe. My best friend, my partner, my soon-to-be lover. Always Chloe. Now and forevermore.
Some time after dinner, Chloe and I cuddle up on a small cot in the room. It’s hardly late by any stretch of the imagination. Barely eight in the evening. But we’re both exhausted. Physically not so much, but we’re emotionally drained.
Chloe nuzzles into my chest. “Please don’t let me go,” she whispers.
I nod. “I’ll protect you.” The reality of this most recent morning has shown that I still have a very, very long way to go before I can fulfill that promise. But I’ll never stop trying. Not as long as I draw breath, or my circuits still draw current, or whatever might be appropriate in the future.
She falls asleep in my arms, and I fall asleep in hers soon after.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay any longer?” Stefan asks. “I don’t want to come off as begging or anything, but we could use the both of you to help keep things safe around here.”
“I’m glad we were able to help,” Chloe says. “But after yesterday, I need some time to recover. Time to process it all and try to understand myself better. And I need to do my Level 32 class change before the System gets too pissy with me.”
Lindsey, Stefan, and I all share a giggle. We’ve all been there. Been too tired to process a level, too busy to sit down and waste an afternoon within the recesses of our mind. And yeah, the System is omnipresent and all. But sometimes, it acts so damn needy, as though it is the highest, grandest, and most important thing in all of the cosmos, and we should all do what it wants, when it wants, and without any regard for our own lives, schedules, or biological imperatives. Worst thing is, it might actually be the most important thing in all the cosmos right now. The only thing worse than petulance is petulance backed up by sufficient gravitas.
“Are you not coming back as well?” I ask Lindsey. “Figured you’d want to go home and catch up with Alana a bit.”
Lindsey moves a bit closer to Stefan and allows him to wrap his arm around her waist. Guess one of them finally decided to make a move. Was only a matter of when, given their sexual tension was so obvious even I could see it.
“I will in a couple of days. Right now, I want to make sure the situation here is stable and make sure our elected leaders don’t do anything too reckless.”
I nod in understanding, thinking back to my words with Chloe yesterday. The people of Red Clay City— hells, the people throughout the entire world— need some sort of assurance that everything is going to be okay. And right now, after having addressed the most pressing threat to the city, I can think of no one more suited to providing that assurance than the two of them.
“We’ll be fine on our own,” Chloe says. “Good luck to any monsters or otherwise that try to stop the two of us!”
I grin, matching Chloe’s warm smile. I don’t like the way she’s tempting fate like that, but honestly, the vote of confidence is reassuring.
It’s hard to believe that barely three months ago, we were just kids in high school, where the most pressing issues we were facing involved studying for exams, paying for college, and trying to navigate the day-to-day life of any ordinary kid. And now, here we are, flying around on mechanical wings, fighting against monsters, defeating misguided cults, and planning a trip into the vast expanse beyond our solar system. We’ve come so far, and together, with Chloe by my side, I feel confident. Confident that we’ll rise above the next challenge that we face. Together.
Having finished breakfast just before saying our goodbyes, we step out into the cool morning breeze. The gusts are going hard today. The dawn is tinted red with cloud cover, a sign of a rare early summer shower building on the horizon. Chloe takes my hand in hers, climbing up into her favorite seat between my outstretched arms. I spread my wings, preparing to take flight, only to be stopped by another friendly voice.
“Are you two leaving already?” Kristil asks. “Thought you were going to stay another day or two. Or at least until lunch.”
“Storm’s on the horizon,” I say. “I doubt getting caught in it will be good for my wings.”
“Yeah, I’m planning to wait for the storm to start before I do my class change. I figure if I do it in the middle of a thunderstorm, it might supercharge my choices."
“We’re both wishing you the best with that, and everything else. In any case, time for us to get going. Chloe’s itching to get back home, and quite frankly, I’m almost as eager to get back there myself.”
Kristil giggles. “Don’t have too much fun, you two.”
Chloe winks at Kristil. “No promises.”
"Oh, and before you go, I want to give this back to you." She offers her hat, the one Chloe had given her a good while back. "It's yours, and I want to make sure that it's returned to you, now that we're parting ways."
"I– Thank you," Chloe finally says, putting the hat back on.
“It’s been great meeting you and everyone else,” I say. “I hope to see you again soon.”
I set Chloe down and offer my hand to Kristil. She shakes it, then pulls me into a hug. Chloe joins in, and the three of us share a warm embrace, my wings wrapped around the three of us. A moment later, we break apart, Chloe eagerly jumping back into a princess carry, courtesy of yours truly.
“Don’t be strangers, you hear! And we definitely will be seeing each other again!”
“I look forward to it,” I say.
“Come visit sometime!” Chloe says. She waves goodbye before wrapping her arms around my neck.
And with one final farewell, I take to the morning sky, the westerly breeze at my back, and we’re off. Higher and higher we fly until the guildhall looks like a tiny brown dot among a field of trees interspersed with the edges of suburbia. The main portion of Red Clay City is to the southwest. Wide, but not too tall, with only a handful of buildings reaching even five hundred feet tall. But one— the Tower Gauntlet of the city— dwarfs all others, being larger even than the one back home.
“Something wrong, Sera?” Chloe asks.
“These Tower Gauntlets. I think they’re our key to getting around the world.”
“How so?”
“I’ve been thinking back to the time we ventured into ours. It was heavily spatially modified. The inside was far larger than the outside, and that basement. I think it’s a teleporter of some sort. Maybe some way to travel between each of them easily.”
“You think?”
“When we popped out of that basement exit, we were on the far side of town. What if all of the Towers are connected?”
“I feel like this is what Alexey was talking about when he mentioned the dangers of relying too much on speculation and conjecture and not enough grounding on the knowledge and information you do have.”
I laugh. “Yeah, I guess I’m getting more than a little ahead of myself. Still, there’s a lot of technology locked up in those towers, and I think it’s our best way to move forward.”
“We’re going to take a few days of rest first.” She states it flatly, leaving no room for further question or discussion.
I nod, raising no objection. She needs time to rest, to process, to grieve. And though I might be able to shunt it aside thanks to my having more experience thanks to my past life, I need some time to rest and grieve, myself. That doesn’t mean I won’t plan to do some minor experiments and artificing, but from the safety of home, not on the battlefield.
[Overland Flight] shows its versatility as we soar over the landscape, surveying the new Earth with a bird’s-eye view. And honestly, ‘breathtaking’ doesn’t do it justice. The part of the world that came from the old Earth is… beautiful, but ordinary at the same time. Lush trees, small towns and the occasional farmhouse. Lots of fields of… mostly wheat and barley, I think, maybe a few acres of maize every now and again.
But the new areas added to the world by the System are nothing short of breathtaking. A massive natural lake not filled with brackish river sediment, but with crystal clear water the likes of which I’ve never before seen. A large mesa seemingly in the middle of nowhere, adorned with a castle straight out of a medieval fairy tale. A massive cave mouth, one that leads into a dungeon perhaps. But the moment I so much as look at the thing for more than a moment, my [Angelic Insight] starts flashing major danger signals. Something is in there, and I better pray to the goddesses that it decides to remain in its cave. For if it chooses otherwise, only they might be able to save me.
Still more miracles lie before me. A chasming waterfall from a river that I don’t remember existing. Some islands even higher in the sky, perhaps holding dungeons of their own. An area of perhaps twenty-five square miles that looks haunted, for lack of a better word. In that area, the sky itself seems dimmer. Trees are fetid, twisting masses lacking the greenery of the surroundings. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some bog witch hexing the area, considering how gothic the whole area looks.
But, true to my promise with Chloe, I ignore the burning inquisitive spirit within me which compels me to stay and investigate. Instead, we continue flying off to the northeast, following the interstate closely, but not too closely.
Just as before, there are supply convoys on the road, maintaining the flow of goods between the various cities and states. But, unlike the last time, there are actually some civilian vehicles between them. Not sure if these are bigwigs or just ordinary travelers, but I suppose it’s good either way that there’s some semblance of normalcy returning to the area.
Before long, I spot the Tower Gauntlet cresting over the horizon, a sign that we’re finally starting to get close to our destination. The stormclouds from before continue to encroach, but we’re moving just fast enough that we should make it back to Chloe’s place before they arrive.
And sure enough, half an hour later, as the sky turns from blue to gray and the fierce gales force me closer to the ground, we arrive over the too-familiar neighborhood of fancy suburban McMansions and bland HOA-enforced uniformity. We’re here. Home at last.
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