Weapons of Mass Destruction

Chapter 920: Please sit

“Sophie, what have you done?” It takes me a moment to realize that what I wanted to say is being said by Tess, who’s currently staring the young girl down.

Being the bigger sister now, Izzy moves in front of her protectively, and from behind her sister, Sophie mutters, “Yes, it's likely my fault. I probably triggered some protocol, either by mind controlling all these people or when we were examining the skeleton. But I was so careful, I always was! I double, no triple checked, I even made sacrificial logic cores that weren't connected to me in any way.”

“Like a virtual machine, disconnected from the internet, that’s your mind in this example?” Min-Jae asks curiously.

It causes Dennis to step closer and put his hand on the Korean boy’s shoulder. “Not now, buddy.”

Sophie doesn't let it distract her. “I will fix it. I just need a little bit of time. I know you want to cancel all this and get out, but I don't know how much it twisted our mental space. I really don't want someone to get hurt, and I really don't want it to hijack our transfer and get into our bodies.”

“It can get to mine, I’ll fuck it up there.”

“Not now, Nat,” Tess says and turns back to Sophie. “Is Tariel the Undying truly alive? Does it have a mind, thoughts?”

“I don't think so. He’s a bit like Blackie used to be, but different as well. Kaiepochjiu’s architecture is different, and they might as well have been built by gods or demigods, but… I, I don't know, it's complicated. Kaiepochjiu are connected to each other, and I think something came through it, maybe a trigger or an order. I don't know yet, as I’ve already said! That's why I need time. At least a day. Until then, be careful.”

The rest of her words fade away as Izzy pulls her into a hug and muffles her speech while saying something about how cute she is.

I meanwhile begin to walk toward the center of the gym, where I pick up a volleyball, holding it and observing my weird skeletal hand.

I'm not left alone as Lily follows beside me with her hands behind her back. I would like to think that I manage to narrow my eyes as I look at her, but my expression options are quite limited at the moment.

“Yes,” Lily says simply, giving me a smug smile.

“What?”

“Yes, I would like you even if you were a skeleton.”

“What?” I tilt my head and continue to stare at her, which causes her confident mask to slip.

“I mean… you know that thing? That question girls like to ask, with the worm?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Some awkwardness slips into her movements as she begins to explain, “How to say it... Sometimes you hear about this obsessive… I mean loving girlfr… I mean friend, you know, and they start asking all these silly questions because they’re really insecure. At least that's what the joke’s supposed to be about. It’s all very insulting, if you ask me.”

“I see.”

“So, then the whole joke centers around the girl asking the boy if he’d still like her even if she were a worm. You know, to confirm he really likes her, and-”

“Lily, Nathaniel is teasing you. He knows exactly what you meant,” Tess calls from further away, where she stands discussing with Sophie.

With wide eyes, Lily looks at me, and I stare at her blankly. Then I start clacking my teeth in an attempt to mimic a chuckle.

Seizing the opportunity, while she’s still stunned, I begin to walk toward one of the exits and open the double doors, expecting to see hallways.

Instead, it opens into the outside world.

First, I see a volcano far off in the distance that’s constantly spewing lava, though it never seems to overflow. To the right is a high school building, on the left is a big circular track, and some distance away is a pyramid.

The sidewalks are framed by sakura trees in full bloom. And for some reason, there’s a river too, and a few empty wooden gondolas floating on the surface, the sort one might expect to see in a Venetian canal. But for some reason, these have orange and yellow flames painted on the sides.

There is a huge lake too, with an aircraft carrier planted in the middle of it. Instead of jets, the aircraft carrier seems to have trees growing on its deck with their autumn leaves on full display.

I want to lift up and fly to scan the area better, but despite gathering enough kinetic energy to decimate a city block, I lift myself no higher than if I had simply jumped.

So not only do I suffer from a severe mana deficiency, but now I’m suffering from the kinetic and thermal equivalents, as testing has confirmed.

With my subminds mostly gone somewhere and now inaccessible, I run a diagnosis on my own. As I’ve been doing since we first appeared here, and now I'm putting even more effort into it.

Where I could otherwise manipulate the mental space to make buildings appear, change areas, and such, it now feels impossible. One of my goals becomes locating whatever might be responsible for it, or whatever we’ve broken, so I can fix it.

Stepping to the side, I allow the rest of Group 4 to pour out. The function for monitoring the influence our thought acceleration’s having on them remains in place, and everyone seems like they’re okay. Still, Sophie is the mind mage here, and something like this would’ve been impossible without her. I can do some fun stuff with my mental space and such, but getting people in and connecting everything would’ve been a bit too much. I just don't have the talent for it.

Once again, I look over the group. Sophie, Tess, and Dennis are in what seems like an important conversation. Maya, meanwhile, looks at her reflection in a window nearby.

Izzy, Min-Jae, and Aaron are sticking together. All of them are of similar heights, and they’re wearing the same school uniforms. Izzy, especially, seems to be happy.

Slowly, we make our way through the campus of whatever I should be calling this place, looking for something that we don't even know how to identify. Almost as if we’re hoping to simply stumble upon it.

And that happens just a few moments later.

Moving at the highest speed I am capable of, I reach into a shaking bush we happen to be passing by, grab whatever’s hiding in there, and pull it out.

The moment I see that bleached red blanket full of holes, I know what it is and shake Sneakythaniel in my skeletal hands.

“What did you do? What did you do? What did you do?” I keep repeating.

“You dumb brute! We did it! You did it! Ask yourself, you senile bonehead, you rattle bag, you walking chicken wing!”

I pause just for a moment to pull him close to my face. “What did you do as we entered here? You did something in my status.”

“I won't tell because you’re being rude to me!”

I can see in his eyes how stubborn he is, so I just turn around and put him on the sidewalk.

“Is that what Nathaniel looked like as a child?” Aaron asks as he steps closer and ruffles Sneakythaniel’s hair.

“So cute,” Lily mutters, and for some reason Sneaky gives her a long look and smiles at her.

It almost makes her rush forward to squeeze his cheeks, but then everyone else realizes it too. Sneaky is as tall as Sophie is currently, and they look between the two of them.

“It's weird to see a face so similar to Nathaniel’s smile,” Dennis notes.

“But he smiles a lot, especially as he makes fun of you in his mind,” Sneaky says, surprised.

Before any more information that could be used against me can leak, I start pushing him along as we all begin to walk again.

“Where are the others?” I ask him.

“Somewhere around, being busy. They’ll reappear sooner or later,” he says, then takes a few quick steps and jumps up to slap one of the lower-hanging branches of one of the sakura trees.

In the rain of pink petals, with the lake and the aircraft carrier making a background for him, he turns to me and says, “Dumb bonehead.”

Then the heavy rain of petals covers him, and he disappears entirely, causing everyone to look around in surprise. With most of our senses not even working properly, he is just gone.

I ignore the few members of our group that seem bummed out about it and continue to walk, with our attention soon switching to the other people appearing all around us.

Some are wearing school uniforms, others have weird clothes, and a few even wear armor. My mood sours further as I start recognizing faces every now and then.

A schoolmate from ten years ago, an annoying kid I met a few times on the way to school, a guy from the gym, one of the guys who kept trying to hit on Victoria.

Sophie starts recognizing people too, the two of us are the main architects of this place after all.

“I think for now it’s pulling from Nathaniel’s and my shared subconscious,” Sophie says to the others. “It also seems to be degrading, so as it goes on it’ll probably start reaching deeper into our minds before advancing into yours.”

She rubs her face with her palm. “It isn't dangerous, not currently and not as it is now. Even like this it should hold for a few weeks, but that's only if nothing changes. Don't talk to me for a while, I need to concentrate.”

The people walking around us and passing by act like everything’s normal. They form groups, talk to each other, laugh, eat, or swim in the lake. Their density continues to increase as we approach the school, and I hear shouts of excitement as some of them go on to play outside or just laze on the lawn.

“Skeleton Gwyn,” a firm voice sounds from behind me, coming out of nowhere, causing our entire group to stop and turn toward it.

There, a man in a perfect suit stands. He is tall, with long golden hair, and under his round glasses are two violet eyes with golden circles around the pupils.

“I have to say I'm disappointed in your lack of punctuality. Have you and your friends forgotten about your class on basic thaumic principles?” Magi Elian scolds, snapping his fingers and causing the area around us to change as we’re all teleported away to reappear in a classroom, each seated behind our own desk.

I'm in the back row near the window, and in front of me sits Lily, who’s currently looking around confused, just like everyone else. And there are other students around us as well, filling all the desks other than the one immediately to my right.

“Next time, I expect you to take your studies far more seriously. As for those of you responsible enough to submit your homework, congratulations. It’s been a considerable amount of time since I last witnessed such an inadequate attempt at mana wavelength modification, particularly the two submissions that attempted a modulated buffer loop.”

Passing in front of the board, he takes a piece of chalk and writes on it in large, beautiful letters, “Professor Magi Elian.”

“As you should already be well aware, I demand you treat this class with the exact same seriousness I bring to sharing my extraordinary wealth of knowledge with you,” he says.

On the edge of my vision, I notice Sneakythaniel also seated behind one of the tables. Noticing me looking at him, he waves at me, only to get hit by a piece of chalk that Elian throws his way, causing him to squeak in surprise.

The Magi acts as if nothing happened and continues talking, “Before we begin, I’ll be introducing a new transfer student. I expect you to maintain flawless behavior and extend whatever assistance she requires.”

The door to the classroom slides open and a new figure appears. Brown hair, two red eyes, one of which has a golden circle around the pupil.

And two short, pointy horns.

“Welcome, Miss Vega. Further introductions are unnecessary, this class has suffered enough interruptions already. Please sit next to Skeleton Gwyn.”

And in that moment, two voices rise up in a shout.

“What the fuck have you done?” mine, as I stand and point at Sneaky.

“Master!” and Vega's, as she rushes toward me and pulls me into a hug.