Chapter 819 - Setting up the rules (Patreon)

Hera passed a small notebook to Ka'mal. This was the one she was using to write down everything Vulcan could remember about his life as a Spirit. Flint made this for her; it was one of his more simple crafts and one that Hera even learned in the last few days, along with pencils. He showed her how to make ballpoint pens, but it was a lot more complicated. Making an entire pencil using only mana took around 400 thousand mana. When that changed to a pen, due to the various materials and the processing to turn the raw versions into something else, not to mention the ink itself, all in all, without any of the materials, it would take something close to 15 million mana to make. Flint did know about some variations that were considerably cheaper to make, but he didn't have the blueprints himself. 

Either way, the Ophidianite wrote down everything that Vulcan said in the letter, including the stuttering and mad ramblings from when he was starting to lose his reason. There wasn't that much information, just vague mentions of the lab where the Spirit was trapped and some of the experiments. But Hera admitted she wasn't the best interrogator for those things. She didn't know how to help Vulcan remember important details and would generally just ask, 'What can you remember.'

Ka'mal and Luthvrol read through the small notepad, with the elven woman still in the back, just watching. She still would send a signal every now and then to Luthvrol and look at Hera, testing different ways of using that spell or skill in order to hide it from the Ophidianite. Yet, every time, to the Empress, the pulse worked just the same way. A bright flow of mana from the elf to the dwarf. Every single time, Hera had to shake her head, signaling that she still could see it. 

"OK… This does have potential. Especially this bit about it being captured and dragged away. We might have some people who can help with memory recollection, either with skills and spells or just questions. I'm not sure which would be more effective or if the skills would even work on your titled blade," Ka'mal turned to the Empress.

"Honestly, me neither. I never tried to have someone else use spells or skills to mess with their memories." This wasn't entirely true; after all, Sammy did something like that. But since he was a MAZE being, it was harder to quantify if that would count, especially considering the addition of a hallucinogenic mushroom. 

The elven woman stared at Hera and raised one eyebrow before flicking her finger in a very obvious motion. Another pulse moved and reached Luthvrol, who glanced up to the Empress, but she simply looked at the woman in the back, then at the dwarf, and didn't say anything. 

"OK then. We can try that when we get there. But you mention something a berserker form or something. Care to explain it a bit better?" Luthvrol asked.

The Empress nodded, "Of course. Because of the state the Spirit was in, Vulcan, the titled blade in question, is half Spirit and half Daemon. This means he is constantly battling the effects of the daemonic influence. There is a charge bar we have to worry about, and when it reaches 100%, his Daemonic Form is forcibly triggered. That is how he resets that influence, assuming that form. Usually, he can more or less control himself when in that state, but he will be much more aggressive and more prone to hurt others nonetheless. If the daemonic influence reaches 100%, then it's a completely different beast. He will attack anyone who is not me. In all honesty, I think the only reason I'm safe is because of the legacy since it forces my court to be unable to hurt me."

"They can't hurt you?" the elven woman asked.

"No, but we came to the conclusion that there is some nuance. If they are, for instance, cutting me for an operation, they still can do that. Or if I'm being controlled and they need to slap me out to get me out of that state. All that is fair game. They just can't actively try to hurt me in a way that the benefit is smaller than the injury."

"Oh… OK, that is better," the woman nodded.

"Vulcan's daemonic form has a few more issues. For one, remembering what happened increases the daemonic influence faster, and it does come with a mental toll. Second, I can, at any time, recall him. That includes when he is in his daemonic form, but if I do that, the influence won't reset to 0. It would end up at 1 to 15%, depending on how long he was able to run wild. Another thing is that if he has a monster or an enemy to fight, the daemonic influence takes longer to rise. Lastly, and this is a hard rule. If you are questioning him, that will only happen once a day. After spending the daemonic form, he enters a dormant state for a while. He has a skill that can shorten that state every so often, but we won't be forcing him to do it twice in a single day."

Ka'mal frowned, "And why is that? He is a construct, isn't he?"

"Yes, but he is a member of my court and I won't force him to go through his trauma repeatedly. Imagine if you had to relieve torture over and over again," Hera replied with a cold expression.

"Aren't you being a bit too precious with constructs? They are just part of your legacy, not actually people," the elven woman scoffed.

Hera looked up, calculating if the height would be enough, 'Livy, do you mind coming out?'  behind her, a 3-meter tall bipedal dragonoid appeared. She had blue scales that changed to soft pink at the edges of her limbs and back and was wearing heavy armor that seemed to be made out of seafoam.

"You called, boss?" Livy said with a smile, her head scraping against the ceiling. 

"Does she look like a simple construct to you?" Hera asked before getting up, "There is a bathroom in the adjoining room. Feel free to talk to her and see if she is not actually a person," the Empress left the room without waiting for a reply. The rest of her team looked worried but agreed with her methods. They all had some reservations when first hearing how her titled blades were like people, but only after actually seeing them did any preconceptions about how they should treat them go out of the window. 

"Well… I'm not sure this changes anything since, according to our intel, you can communicate with her mentally. But still, it's a pleasure miss…?" Ka'mal put out a hand for Livy to shake.

Instead, she just slapped his hand in an aggressive greeting, "Livy, the Leviathan. I'm the muscle and the strongest member of the court. At least when no one is being buffed to hell and back," she huffed.

"Wait. Who got stronger than you with the buffs? Lurize?"  Vash turned to Livy.

"No, I think it was Nimbus. Wasn't his strength higher?" Roan suggested.

"No, no, no. Crimson had the second highest, " Skyler added.

"You're wrong. It's Viper who has the second highest. The twins' attributes are not the opposite of what you expect them to be," Flint replied.

"All of them, OK!" Livy huffed, "Everyone can get stronger than me with that new buff, but I'm still leagues better than anyone on our regular states. And if you want to talk about awakened forms, then mine is also stronger than any of them," Livy crossed her arms in a huff. Her face turned into a pout. 

The agency members were looking a bit surprised. They didn't expect a construct to be this expressive and be able to not just handle a conversation but have their own personality. And even show jealousy.

"How can we know this is not a trick? I mean, Hera could be outside telling you exactly how to move like this," the woman stepped forward.

Livy raised one eyebrow,  "Well… I guess you can't? But we can have full conversations with the entire court out. With every single one of us talking with a different person. Even if Hera is controlling us all and telling us all what to say, just the ability to do that is already impressive, isn't it?" 

"Well… I think that believing you are actually a person is better. If Hera could do that… I think she would be scarier," Luthvrol admitted.

"True, and we do have a few people who can pull that off. But only with illusions, not with physical beings. And…" Ka'mal gestured to the ceiling that had a small dent where Livy's head was pushing against it, "Still, do you mind if we talk a bit? Just to make us understand things a bit better.

"Sure. I kind of don't like you since you don't seem to believe Hera, and miss dark and broody back there kept trying to test the Empress. But she asked me to talk, so I will."

"Don't you have to do what she says?"  Luthvrol asked.

"Only if she gives me an order, which wasn't the case. This was an ask. If any of you starts acting like a dick, I'll just shut up and wait for her to get back," Livy replied with a smirk.

"Livy! We are trying to help them," Neria gasped.

"What? They started it. I'm just telling them how I can finish it." 

"Can you tell where Hera is right now?" the elven woman asked. 

"I can. And usually, I wouldn't say anything, but I think this is important, and she wouldn't say this to avoid looking weak. But she is in the bathroom splashing water on her face. Hera said there was a mental toll, and that doesn't stop on Vulcan. She can feel our emotions, and something that intense also bleeds out to her."

With a nod, they started to talk, asking the Leviathan various questions, from simple things like how she fought. Little by little, they started to see her a bit more like an actual person and changed it to more personal questions like her taste in movies and food. After a few more minutes, Hera came back.

"... - Fighting games are my jam. Hera even got me a personalized controller, which is just a big one since my hands are too big for the regular-sized ones. I kind of wanted one of those Fight Sticks, that mirror game cabinets, but to order one in a large size was harder to find, and we would have to wait for a couple of months. I don't think we ever got around to that," Livy said, speaking a bit more openly, but she was facing the team and not the agency people.

"Actually, I did order that one, but we had to leave and then everything started," she glanced at Livy and spoke only in her mind, 'I ordered it a bit before Becca showed up. But it didn't arrive before Dad and the rest of the people of Boothudurn had to leave.'

"Can't you check online?" Ka'mal asked.

"We can't," Hera replied, not wanting to give any more information.

"OK then. I do believe I understand the situation. If you are willing, we can take you to one of our… I don't want to use the word lab because of its connotations in current events, but it would be a specialized office building. Would that be OK?" Ka'mal asked. 

"I can explain things to Vulcan, but I need to warn you that I'm not sure how well he will handle things. Things might not work out great at the start. Or we might need to change the location for those interviews," Hera added.

"That can be arranged," Ka'mal nodded, "Do you have any more questions or requests? I can't actually say where we are going to go. Not here at least," no one said anything and they just waited, "OK then. We leave in the morning!"