Careful Not To Break Reality

Rydel fell into sleep literally the moment his head touches the pillow, and it is then that he realized that he had used his artifact way too much all of a sudden. With a sort of tingling pain feeding back from his left hand and bouncing away from his spinal cord, he could feel the after effect of the usage coming up any minute now.

It was amazing to see how much his physiological enhancements helped with the usage of his artifacts, though he couldn't help but wonder if he could achieve what he did with the artifact naturally, without the help of surgery and enhancements. Maybe it is possible, but it would take him many many years of training, and those are the many years he does not really have.

As the ship rattles slightly when it readjusts its course and started heading back for Wolfana alongside the neutral paths of travel in between territories, Valerie knocked on the doors of the resting quarters and came in finally. She did keep the light off, which Rydel appreciated.

'How are you feeling?' She asked, 'must have been quite hectic, right?'

'Yeah, and it turns out we could have pulled it off without trying to mess with the powers.' Rydel said as he rubbed his temples and tried to get rid of the light headache that came from fatigue. Valerie smiled and sat by the bed side and Rydel continued, changing his mind a little, 'but then again, we might not be able to go pass those waiting for the fully mined vessels without...complications.'

'That's one of the reasons, yes.' Valerie admitted, 'but whatever deal you made with the Wolf Pack Company, it did work in the end, and they did clear out quite a lot of the forces in the end.'

'Right.' Rydel sighed, but then opened his eyes up wide, 'how did you...'

'I saw the computer log of the battle, Rydel.' Valerie answered slowly and calmly, 'and I saw many incredible things you did.'

Rydel looked at her, and then looked up at the ceiling, not saying a word because he doesn't know what to say. Nobody said anything, and Rydel hated the silence.

'Do you have any questions for me?' Finally, after a while of waiting, Rydel asked tentatively, expecting Valerie to be confused at the very least, but angry at the most at the fact that he is hiding something like this from her.

'Nothing that you aren't willing to tell me.' Valerie said, to his surprise. She reached out and c.a.r.e.s.ses Rydel's left hand, 'If you are keeping this a secret, it means its really important to you. I have edited the ship's log to make sure all that's left was nothing suspicious.'

'Wha...why are you doing this?'

'You may not tell me much, but that doesn't mean I can't take a guess.' Valerie continued on, as she lied down next to Rydel and sneaked her way underneath the warm sheets, 'I grew up under an artifact user, so I have seen my share of the supernatural things. And the strange glove on your left hand, is an artifact, isn't it?'

'I must be the worst spy ever.'

'Well, that may well be true.' Valerie chuckled, 'so, why are you here, user of an artifact that looks like a glove for some reason?'

'I'd like to think of myself as a bearer of the artifact.' Rydel corrected her, 'it's not a power, it's a responsibility, to do...good, although I am no longer certain if that's what I am doing anymore.'

Valerie didn't speak.

'I sure as hell used it as a power before.'

'Power is innocent, it's all about how and why you use it.' Valerie said kindly, clearly sensing the conflicts and regrets in Rydel's voice, 'if you are happy with those, you should be happy with your actions.'

'But that's the thing, isn't it?' Rydel turned and looked at her, 'That's the million credit question. I just don't think there is a 'good' and a 'bad' in this world anymore, not in the settled regions, and especially not here. Am I one to change this? Or am I one to contribute to this fact? I don't even know anymore...'

'Maybe that's why you are here, to find this out.' Valerie leaned over and put her hands around Rydel. The feel of her touch is calming and warm, and Rydel simply held her in his arms.

'Now, are you going to tell me why you are here?'

'You already know the deals about artifacts and the users, they are extremely powerful, and Absolute Being, the organization behind the academy has been on the quest to collect as many of them as they can.' Rydel explained, 'Our group had some disagreements with Absolute Being, and in the midst of us saving one of the users, one of our own was kidnapped, and we have intelligence that she was brought here.'

'That's sounds...complicated, exactly how many groups of artifact users are there?'

'It was all quite convoluted, but I am basically here to get her out, but thanks to Lock down, we have been struggling to figure out the exact location, until I realized that you can issue a challenge to the users.'

'Like how I am going to challenge Gold, you plan to challenge your friend? How did you know that he or she is still alive at this point and not lost his or her artifact?'

'She is ridiculously strong, way stronger than Gold before, but I am no longer certain now...' Rydel said, remembering back to the days of his training with Dolon, 'It would be foolish to just throw away someone so skilled at combat as well as using the artifacts. And I doubt anyone would be able to successfully beat her in a challenge to the death...'

'But are you going to kill her though?'

'What, me? No....When the time comes, I am just going to call for an extraction, and we will both get the hell out of here.'

'Just like that?'

'...'

'You know what? That's a ridiculous plan, who the hell thought of it?'

'When you deal with the artifacts for a long enough time, then you will deal with ridiculousness everyday, it's just routine for us now...'

'Right, so after you challegned Dolon, are you just going to leave?' Valerie said as she looked at Rydel, who returned her gaze.

'Not if you are planning to come with me.' Rydel said firmly, 'that's one of the reasons I am helping you challenge Gold, and I will make sure it happens before I challenge my friend so that when we make a run for it, you will also be there.'

'Ahhhhhh that's what I like to hear...I can't wait to meet your friends.' Valerie said as she rubbed her nose against Rydel face and kissed lightly, 'Now, as nice as this is, I need to fly the ship. See you in a bit.'

The rest of the trip went by surprisingly quickly and peacefully, and Rydel felt like he has handled the situation fairly well. It would be awesome to show back up on Athena 3 with one more artifact user than was intended before, and it would certainly delay whatever Absolute Being planned to do by quite a bit.

Now, he just needed to make sure either Cellica or Zel or both would be there when he needed them. That should be easy to sort out.

As the ship descends through the atmosphere of Wolfana, Rydel is back feeling mostly refreshed and ready to go. He returned to the c.o.c.kpit and sat in the co-pilot's chair just to hang out with Valerie for a bit. The ship touches down in the space port and the cargo was immediately delivered, and now it's time for them to head to the mission debrief.

It surprised Rydel how much he missed being on a planet with actual laws after those few days of craziness, and he should be able to relax for a few days after paying a visit to the administration building.

'Rold, Valerie, congratulations on your success. You next test, the Test of Brain can be taken any time from now, please return when you are ready to proceed.' The handover was short and sweet, and all they had to do is have their identification scanned and a new line of detail added.

'Well, that was easy,' Valerie looked to Rydel, 'So, do you want to take a few days off, hang around and then come back for it?'

'Might as well.' Rydel shrugged, 'you had a blade through your torso just a few days back, so I say some time recharging isn't exactly unreasonable.'

With that, they left the administration building behind and simply went back to Valerie's apartment in the living area and relaxed for a few days. In those times, Rydel relayed his first combat experience with Gold and talked about how much he has changed both in mindset and his fighting style since the last time he face him.

Artifacts are incredibly powerful, but it is only as powerful as how much one can express them. Rydel knew that he could always become more precise with his movements as well as be more aggressive in choosing the size of size that he could warp, and that means there is still potential for growth. The same must be said with Gold, and his recent progressions clearly indicated so.

'So if that's the case, how can I defeat him?' Valerie asked, trying to formulate a plan of action perhaps a bit too prem.a.t.u.r.ely, but one can never be ready enough.

'You have to think outside the box, from your side, and you have to use whatever limitations on him too.' Rydel said, recalling back to all the training he had ages ago practicing against actual artifact users, 'it's a bit ironic, since those limited by their own physical capabilities will have to surpass whatever limits they had, and those who exceeds the constraints of realities, will be boxed in by other constraints.'

'So I have to fight dirty.' Valerie said, rubbing her chin as she thinks, 'poisoning Gold before hand would have no use, since the nanotechnology enhancements will basically make sure nothing long term will be able to deal any significant damage.'

'But you should be able to damage him with enough power, though the power requirement should be quite high.' Rydel butted in, 'how high though, do you have any ideas?'

'You know those explosive pastes I used? It would barely do anything against those with nanotechnology enhancements.' Valerie said, 'but it should be quite easy to swap it out for something more powerful.'

'Oh yeah, just a side note. Never celebrate too early.'

'Shut up.' Valerie has fully processed why she ended up in the state she was in, and underestimated her opponent at the most critical moment of the fight. But now, she just felt embarrassed for having made that mistake, 'or I will swap out your tooth paste.'

'...'

'Do you know of a way to turn off an artifact?' Valerie continued, pointing at Rydel's hand.

'As far as I know, you can choose not to activate it, but it's not like there is a switch button, for most of them at least.' Rydel picked up his hand and looked at in under the warm yellow lighting and observes the tracks of light running alongside it, 'a better bet for you would be to figure out how to get rid of the nanotech enhancement, or shut that down.'

Valerie paused, and looked over at Rydel, who conincidentally stopped moving as well.

This might be it! The pair might have stumbled upon one of the best ways to beat Gold!

The next few days revolved around Valerie and Rydel learning as much as about the process of the second and final stage of enhancements themselves as they could, in the name of understanding what's going to happen once they passed the second test. And then after that, they then combined the technological knowledge and started building up various prototypes for the kind of device that could shut down the enhancements.

In essence, the enhancement procedure is just a cop out procedure, where instead of replacing the bones, tissues, ligaments and tendons, an extremely high number of nano-sized drones are injected into one's body, and depending on the body weight it could number in the tens of millions and more. Alongside the previous physiological enhancements, it can form protective layers of drones that will help prevent any damage done to the organs or the bodily structures and distribute the energy around. The main benefits lies in the instantaneous recovery, extreme accelerated healing, further concentration benefits and the ability to manifest patches of shields in key areas within ones body.

Obviously the drones have to run on some sort of fuel, and that results in one having to regularly and quite literally fuel up with foods and even injections, but for most, being able to eat more often and still perform at their peak is one of the greater p.l.e.a.s.u.r.es of living.

It is still an expensive procedure in this day and age,, but the benefits are so large that many tycoons and rich people have underwent this procedure to stay young and energized despite what their age actually is.

Then, apart from the basic research, Rydel also went ahead and gave Valerie a taste of what its like to fight against an artifact user. This is the first time in a while when Rydel could actually exercise the freedom that comes with the extra power, and it would also be valuable training experience for Valerie, despite the differing nature of his artifact with Gold's. Thankfully, Valerie would have already had an advantage given her understanding of the mechanics of Lock Down thanks to her dad being the previous user, and that knowledge would be crucial in the upcoming fight.

'Remember, use the knowledge as a weapon, not a constraint.' Rydel reminded, now posing as an old and grizzled weapons master guiding the fellow apprentices in the ancient arts of fighting against a glove that can bend the very fabric of space, 'you knew only off your father's limits, but not Gold's, and those does not necessarily have to be the same.'

'Oh, just shut up and give me an actual challenge?' Valerie contineud on her aggresive moves, forcing Rydel to continually evade backwards. This is just the usual Rydel, and she was expecting a lot more, or all of the efforts of clearing out the living room would have been a waste of time.

'Is it challenge you seek, My young apprentice?' Rydel laughed ominously while looking closely at her right hand striking his head and her left hand stabbing his torso. With a simple and quick activation of his artifact, he gained control over the blade in her right hand and warped it away from her before immediately knocking back the blade on her left while keeping his fist closed.

Using the turning motion he is currently in, Rydel delivered a spinning back kick into her stomach, making her fall backwards onto the ground and then releasing the blade he kept within the pocket space and pinning it on the ground next to her.

'What the hell...' Valerie looked at her empty right hand in shock before turning to look at Rydel, who's giving her a helping hand getting up, 'I swore I had a firm grip on the blade, and yet it was gone.'

'I call this the Glove of Summoning, because before I knew what it is actually doing.' Rydel showed his left hand, 'really I was warping things in and out of this dimension, or rather creating bubbles of spacetime around the objects I want to move.'

'So maybe it should be called the Warp Glove? Glove of warping? The Warper?'

'Huh none of those names sounds good.'

'...you are right.'

The fight continues, now with Valerie slowly trying to figure out the various weaknesses and limitations of Rydel's power, as it became increasing harder and harder for Rydel to snap away Valerie's blades from her hands as the fights goes on. She began to sense when he activates his power and immediately took her blades away from the region of space that would be warped.

From Rydel's perspective, every time he felt the outlines of Valerie's blades, she then immediately pulled her hands away, like a fish slipping out of Rydel's grasp. It is incredibly annoying, but Rydel kept those feelings buried underneath the proud he felt for Valerie's rapid progression.

'You know, the power set is actually really similar to Lock Down, they both target pockets of space and lock down whatever things that goes in and out of it.' Valerie said as she finally landed a hit on Rydel and cause him to let out a grunt.

'How exactly does it work?' Rydel asked, realizing that this is the question both him and Cellica has been thinking about quite a lot, and yet neither of them realized that the best person to provide such answer has been staying by Rydel's side all this time.

'Father never told us, but I have a few ideas...'

After a few days, the two came to an realization, and soon an agreement that further training against Rydel would become less and less effective, especially given how having the nanotechnology enhancements on top of the artifacts would basically change the whole game for both of them. Those few days getting their minds away from the crazy ventures within the realms of the Black Pegasus was indeed welcoming, however, and now they are finally somewhat recharged and ready for the next test.

The Test of Brain.

'What is this? an IQ test?' As Rydel now stood alongside Valerie within the administration building waiting for the briefing for the Test of Brain to begin. Valerie tried to pull some strings behind the scenes in order to get an easy mission for the Test of Skills, which is why Rydel wasn't there to accompany her. However the whole thing turns out to be everything but that, so they might as well do things through the normal channels this time.

'I have no idea...' Valerie said, moments before the door slides open and they were called into the room.

'The Test of Brain is set as the second test of the four final tests of the Absolute Academy. The main focus is to find out how you use the knowledge, wisdom and skills you possess and apply them in a difficult setting for the optimal outcome.' The administrator was an AI hologram, not too dissimilar to One back at the Absolute Academy. He spoke with a monotonic voice and didn't give the pair any time to pause and think.

'You are to go to the server housing planet of the Wolf's Skull, and your tasks is to find the reason why multiple of the artificial intelligence programs have gone mad, and solve the issue.'

We are doing what now?