Lily
Radahn’s Great Rune was centred around durability and endurance in some way, enhancing my body’s durability even further but focusing entirely on that while also enhancing my mana and making it harder for me to tire, something which I was actually uncertain of because actually exhausting myself usually took too much time already.
And, with my second Great Rune activated, I returned to my office, ready to begin the construction of my teacher’s new body only to find Lisa pacing within it.
“What brings you here?” I asked, certain that my assistant wouldn’t have barged in here in my absence had it not been important. She was one of few people the maids permitted entrance to this place, after all.
“The PRT sent you a message that the Slaughterhouse Nine are in town and they’re going to target your parents if nothing’s done.” Lisa informed me.
My first thought was quite calm, ‘I should be able to deal with all of them except for maybe Crawler quite easily.’ My second thought was my awareness of how much I’d make them suffer for even considering going after my parents. Jack would learn that he wasn’t the only one who enjoyed playing games in which others suffered.
In hindsight, Missy and, or, in all likelihood, just me being targetted wasn’t particularly surprising. Magic, healing potions and dust would have attracted Mannequin’s attention, Jack would’ve potentially been interested in me for any number of reasons his mind could’ve come up with and, if she noticed anything about Millicent, Bonesaw might’ve been interested, too. Of course, I also recently added Elle to the Travelers Guild so that’d have also drawn some of Burnscar’s attention.
“Boss, maybe make sure your parents aren’t leaving this place until the situation’s been dealt with before plotting how to ruin the Nine for thinking about going after your family.” Lisa suggested with an undertone of worry in her voice.
I nodded calmly. “Make sure my parents are perfectly safe. I will see about potentially finding them a less dangerous world to live in in the near future but I believe I should make it very clear what I think of this plan of theirs.” I was smiling by the end but it was not a particularly nice smile. It was the kind of smile that promised a great deal of pain for someone. “Also, make sure Labyrinth is warned to stay inside together with the rest of her friends. In general, minimize the exposure of the guild members to the city.”
“I’ll get it all done but that lost one might cut into our losses and put us on a timer. If we don’t clear Gates after saying we would, the PRT might actually try to use that to pressure us.” Lisa suggested slowly and carefully as if I were about to deny her very reasonable criticism.
“And I am going to tear the Nine into a million pieces quickly enough that there will be no losses. If need be, I’ll just clear the Gates that are most urgent myself.” Unless their lineup had changed particularly much from what I remembered – and the most recent info on them seemed to suggest otherwise – I was perfectly capable of dealing with anyone other than Crawler with ease already.
The issue with Crawler’s just that I had to eviscerate him in an instant if at all possible, leaving no time for regeneration or adaptation. Sufficiently strong gravity sorcery could probably do it but I didn’t actually have a list of all that he had adapted to.
Lisa sighed instead of just getting to work already. “Boss, maybe actually work with the PRT on this. I know you prefer relying on yourself and the guild but this is probably a time at which you ought to work with them.”
Admittedly, she had a point but it still irked me to have to work with someone else on this. I knew the PRT had a solution for Crawler that they’d probably be calling in, anyways. I just didn’t want to ask them to use it. “Any other advice?” I asked despite my urgent desire to find the Nine and tear them apart.
“…You should probably tell your parents yourself. As well as your sister. Before you go hunting a group people are reasonably terrified of, that is.” I could see why Lisa had been hesitant to tell me that because I desperately just wanted to find Jack Slash’s breaking point right now.
Sadly, however, Lisa was correct. Telling my parents to stay in my Traveling Home for the foreseeable future as well as why was best done in person if I wanted to have any chance at preventing them from freaking out. And I might even be able to get Missy to turn a blind eye to any…overindulgence on my part in regards to Jack if I talked to her before hunting them.
And, now that I was thinking about it, Missy and I combined were probably capable of killing Crawler.
“Good advice. Remind me to give you a bonus once this is over. As well as a vacation once everything’s set up and I’ve found a nice, safe world to deposit my parents on.” I told her, smiling.
“I will.” Lisa replied faux-seriously. Oh, she’d definitely do it if I’d forget my promise but she was honestly just relieved by the promise itself. I was working her to the bone at the moment, after all.
“Now, please relay my orders to the guild and set up a meeting with the PRT for tomorrow morning. Unless there’s anything else, that is?” I told her, plotting and scheming vengeance for plans that the Nine hadn’t even gotten a chance to enact.
“Not that I can think of. I’ll make sure the guild’s warned and will stay inside. Some might go out to get their families but most of them already live here with them.” Lisa replied before walking off.
That left me with the undesirable task of having three highly emotional conversations in a row. ‘I could make it two if I talk to Missy first.’ I thought to myself, smiling widely at the realization that I could just…shove the conversation with either mom or dad onto her. I’d phrase it differently, of course, but that would work perfectly for me.
So, for now, I just sent a text to mom and dad telling them that there’s something going on that required them to stay at home for their own safety and that Missy and I would explain things to them soon and then I walked off to where my sister was.
Missy
“So you’re finally back from wherever you went?” I asked Lily after she invited herself into my room, about to make a joke until I noticed how serious she looked. “What happened?”
“Apparently the Slaughterhouse Nine are in Brockton Bay and interested in targetting our parents.” Lily answered bluntly and, if not for Omniglot, I wouldn’t have noticed how completely and utterly furious she was.
If it had been anyone else, I’d have been just as angry but the Slaughterhouse Nine were terrifying. The PRT had tried to get rid of them but every attempt, even the ones that dealt with literally everyone except for Jack Slash, failed to get rid of its leader and the guy who twisted many of the current members into the monsters they were today just ended up surviving to make more monsters out of people.
And the current roster included the Siberian, Crawler and Bonesaw. Each one of those was incredibly dangerous on their own already, not to mention the fact that it was strongly believed that Bonesaw had contingencies placed in case of her death.
“Do you have a plan?” My twin, despite everything, was a good schemer and the abilities of many of the Nine were known unless their roster had changed recently.
Lily smiled but that fury didn’t go away. Lily was merely controlling it. “First of all, our parents will stay here. I will talk to dad about it while you make it clear to mom. Neither one of them can leave until the Nine are dealt with.”
“Sounds good so far.” I wasn’t looking forward to that conversation but Lily was right about it being necessary.
“We will also not take anything made out of glass out of our inventories anytime soon. Nor will guild members leave unless they absolutely have to. As for the plans to kill them all for daring to come here, we can discuss those once everything else has been done. I have ways to deal with all of them, though Crawler will require both of us to work together.” Lily explained before a slightly manic look entered her eyes, some of that boiling fury rising to the surface. “And, Missy, it’s fine if I take out my anger on Jack Slash right? Because I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to resist once I have the chance.”
I considered shaking my head, telling her no, setting hard limits. But Jack Slash apparently wanted to go after our parents and he’d hurt and twisted countless people before that point. I didn’t know just how far Lily’s sadism went but, if anyone deserved to experience it firsthand, it was him.
“Doing this wouldn’t change anything, right? You’d still restrain yourself against anyone else?” However, I was still worried about Lily because I didn’t know if she’d be able to go back after letting go just like that. She’d never been good at telling herself no and it only got worse if she’d said yes previously.
Lily nodded in response. “I play with my enemies sometimes but that’s as far as I go and I don’t draw it out that much. Giving Jack what he deserves won’t change a thing aside from letting me relieve a whole a lot of stress.” She promised.
“Then go ahead.” I gave in, sighing. “Just, please, don’t make me regret it. And don’t do it where I can see it.” I probably could and should’ve argued for some limits on what she could do and for how long she could have her fun with him.
I wasn’t feeling particularly charitable towards the insane bastard who probably would’ve involved our parents in some kind of sick game, though.
Taylor
Getting into the part of the castle Lilian lived in was difficult but not impossible as long as one managed to get permission from Lisa. She did warn me that our boss was probably in the middle of explaining things to her family and disturbing her was a terrible idea but, with no idea of when the Slaughterhouse Nine might begin their attack, I had to rush.
“How can I help you, Taylor?” Lilian asked, closing the door to the room the maids had directed me towards when I’d asked them for her location, having apparently wrapped up whatever business she’d had in there.
And my boss looked…calm. In a really, really unsettling way, that is. For one, she was smiling but it didn’t reach her eye and it never even so much as twitched. It was as if Lilian had just taken a picture perfect smile and fixed it in place.
For another, there was a fury in her eyes that was kind of hard to spot but still visible.
“I believe Lisa let you in here for a reason and that said reason wasn’t to stop me from explaining to my father why he won’t be able to leave this place anytime soon so walk with me and explain what you want as we do. You have until we reach his room to either finish explaining your reason for coming to me or make me believe that your business is important enough to postpone that discussion with my father.” Lilian declared when I didn’t respond immediately, beginning to briskly walk away a moment after she finished speaking.
Hurriedly, I followed her. “My dad’s in the hospital and suffering from the eternal slumber disease. If Shatterbird attacks and he’s still in there, he’ll die. I was hoping you’d be able to do something about that.” I got out as quickly as I could manage.
“And transferring him on short notice would cost quite a lot of resources on top of requiring my personal attention.” Lilian argued apathetically, walking on without even pausing to look at me.
I swallowed, feeling even more pressure now. “You said I could be an S-Rank, right? Once I reach that point, I could reimburse you.”
That, at least, made Lilian hum in response. “A better proposal, at least, but just offering potential isn’t particularly viable. If you fail to ever reach it, that’d have made this a terrible investment on my part.”
“Then what do you want?” I replied, frustrated and desperate.
The question actually made Lilian stop for a moment. “I’m going to make you a single offer right now. There will be no negotiations, is that clear? You will either take it or leave it because I do not have the time to waste on arguing about the price right now.” My boss told me, those glowing eyes meeting mine and making me gulp as it felt like some strange pressure enveloped me.
Despite that, I knew I could just say no. I could walk away, knowing that it’d take just one attack from Shatterbird and my dad would join the many other eternal slumber victims to have been visited by the Slaughterhouse Nine and died simply because Shatterbird announced their arrival.
Instead, I gathered my determination and nodded.
“Alright. Simply put, I believe I can copy the multitasking your magic gave you and it’d be quite useful to me. If you are willing to let me attempt to do so and it succeeds, that alone will have paid for your father’s transfer. If it doesn’t work, I will still expect you to pay off half the cost of the transfer. You may tell me now if you want to agree to this deal or not.” Lilian explained before crossing her arms and looking at me expectantly.
I had already decided what I’d do but I at least wanted to know what I could expect from that vague process so I asked, “How do you think you can copy that?”
“By keeping my aura in contact with yours for an hour or so. The time period required to awaken your aura, based off of other tests I’ve done, wouldn’t have been enough but I believe that this should let me copy your multitasking.” Lilian told me.
“Then I’ll do it.” There might’ve been more she wasn’t telling me. Considering how much of a hurry she was in – and I could actually understand why, this – I fully expected that to be the case. But, if having to keep my aura in contact with Lily’s for an hour so was all I had to do, I’d do it.
My boss nodded in response, that smile still unwavering on her lips. “Tell Lisa to arrange everything with a hospital of a good quality and to pay however much is necessary to get everything set up in it as quickly as possible as well as to contact me once she’s done. Afterwards, stay ready for me to call on you because I’m pretty sure I will need you to come in with me to make things go smoothly.”
I nodded firmly. “Anything else?”
“No.” Lilian shook her head. “Now get going. I need to explain things to my own father before taking care of yours.”
I didn’t stick around after that, sending a message to Lisa to forward Lilian’s orders so her assistant would hopefully be able to work on it quickly.
Lily
The reason why I was unable to copy much of this world’s magic were what I called ‘innate traits’. Traits such as Taylor’s multitasking or her awareness of the bodies of those her mana came into contact with. The latter, I could emulate through High Probability but the former was something I was only barely able to begin to mimic via the increased processing power from various perks such as High Probability and Man of the New World as well as Skilled Development letting me work on actual multitasking.
The issue was that, while I could process just about all the information I could ever need, I couldn’t think in countless streams of thought at once.
“And you are distracting yourself rather than facing your father.” Tenkuu Niwa pointed out.
Sighing, I raised my hand to knock on the door. It was my castle and I certainly didn’t bother knocking with Missy half the time but it’d have felt weird to enter dad’s room without knocking beforehand.
“Come in.” Dad called out from inside.
I took a deep breath before grasping the handle and opening the door. “Hey, dad. Thanks for not going out yet. I know I was a bit vague but I promise it was really important and, really, I’m starting to think that Earth-Bet might be way too unsafe for you and-“
“You’re rambling, Lily.” Dad told me calmly, hiding his worry well enough that, were it not for the Force and Omniglot, I’d have missed it. “How about taking a deep breath and explaining what exactly is so dangerous this time?”
I did as he’d advised, still trying to figure out exactly how to word this in a way that wouldn’t make dad freak out before eventually giving up. “The Slaughterhouse Nine are in town and, according to the PRT, after you and mom.” There really was no good way to phrase that.
Dad was silent after that but I could feel his growing terror as the words sank in. I could also see his worry and the moment in which he realized why I wanted him and mom away from this world at this point.
Eventually, however, he began to calm down. “Well, at least you did the smart thing and are hiding out here. If what you told me about this place is true, the Nine should never be able to enter.”
I stayed silent, suppressing the urge to fidget like a child badly hiding that they fully intended to break a rule.
Of course, dad knew me well enough to go very still in response, his worry returning with a vengeance. “Lilian Biron, you are not going to fight those monsters!” Dad told me firmly, standing up so he could grab me by the shoulders and look me in the eyes, terror and worry clearly visible in his.
“I can get rid of them all! And you know I wouldn’t be willing to go out there and fight them if I weren’t sure that I’ll win!” I argued.
“But do I?” Dad asked far too calmly. “You haven’t had your magic for long and, while I’m aware that you would’ve fled from Leviathan if Missy had been more reasonable, I don’t know if you would be as reasonable with everything else. Lily, I do not understand hunter business. I have no idea how strong you are in the grand scheme of things. I just know I don’t want either of my daughters anywhere near those kinds of monsters.”
I…didn’t know how to respond to that. I had slain a demigod, one who had held the very stars in place, a beast from the stars that had summoned meteors to devastate an entire city and several dragons among various other things.
Dad knew none of that. Missy and I had distanced ourselves from our parents bit by bit as we delved more into our hunter lives. Oh, we still spent time with them but it was no longer as frequent, nor did we talk as much. We purposefully didn’t tell them about the things we’d fought because it’d have worried them.
And now dad was understandably worried because he didn’t know what I had fought already or what I could do. He had heard me talking about some magical theories at some points but he hadn’t understood a word of what I’d said and I hadn’t really tried to teach back then, either, just to share some interesting parts of the magic systems I’d studied.
“If I tell you about a bunch of the things Missy and I have beaten, will you be less worried? I know it might not mean much to you but, well, we do have a good amount of experience already and I want you to be able to trust me when I say that I can judge whether or not we’d be able to beat the Slaughterhouse Nine.” I offered, already trying to figure out both where to start and how to censor some stories so they wouldn’t give dad a heart attack.
“I can’t make any promises but I’d always be happy to learn more about what you two have been getting up to.” Dad replied, a fragile smile on his lips as he clearly realized that there was no way to talk me out of this.
Tenkuu Niwa
Lilian was not as ready as she herself believed. The Chains, disgusting as they were, weren’t even the problem. No, this problem stemmed entirely from Lilian and would remain a hindrance for as long as it wasn’t fixed.
‘It will disrupt her other training but…her survival takes priority. Her chances of survival will increase a great deal more if I can begin to get rid of this problem now rather than later.’ I thought to myself, deciding that I’d invite Lilian to join me in her inner world later when she’d normally be practicing with the Force and, to lesser degrees, her other powers.
Lilian may have discounted the Nine already but I saw the likelihood of her defeat to be much higher than what she estimated it to be.
‘I might have to get a bit rough with her, too.’ I’d avoided it in our previous spars but I needed to hammer in this lesson before Lilian could sink back into old habits. Much as I didn’t want to do anything that might risk the survival or wellbeing of my wielder, I’d have to take the small risk of me messing up to decrease the risk of this problem ending Lilian’s life in battle.
“Your philosophy, your habits, your ideals, your uncertain priorities. My dear wielder, you certainly ensured I’d have my work cut out for me.” I sighed, focusing on planning out tonight’s training for now.
Lilian would grow as she desired. Now, if she could acknowledge that she wasn’t perfectly aware of how best to grow, that’d make my job a whole lot easier already.
Welp, that’s it for Arc 4, Spirit. One interlude and maybe some omake (since I’m feeling like writing some) and then we’re moving on to Arc 5, Blood.
As always, I hope you enjoyed and let me know if you have any feedback