azorath1234

This chapter is being released today due to Christmas. I'll be trying to write a chapter tomorrow, but I don't know if I'll have time. Enjoy the early chapter

Avery walks into the exam room where Ventus, Lilith, and Desi are, eyes instantly gluing to Ventus’ tails, glazing slightly  “I arranged lunch for you, it’ll be here in a few minutes.” She walks over and grabs Ventus’ injured hand

Due to how unexpected Avery grabbing her hand was, she tries to yank it away. “What are you doing Avery? Don’t grab me without asking.”

“I’m checking your wound. You had no problem with it yesterday. Why would it be a problem now?”

Ventus frowns, her tails lashing against the wall behind her. Mortar flaking off with each booming hit. “It’s a problem because I thought I already mentioned that we aren’t close enough for that. If you want a full explanation, I was too happy being myself to really care about you being a bit grabby. That changes now.”

Avery ignores this as she unwraps the piece of her lab coat that she had used to bind Ventus’ palm, before making a delighted sound upon seeing that the wound is gone. “Interesting, it’s gone. Good, I don’t like seeing you harmed” She then looks towards Lilith and Desi who are staring at her now, clearly seeing the clouded gaze Avery has as she pouts, looking back at Ventus. “Is it because your partners are here that you don’t want to be close? Hmm? Well they’ll be gone soon enough so you’ll be here with me again.”

A loud sound of flesh striking flesh erupts from the exam room as Ventus slaps Avery. “What is wrong with you? You were only a little bit too clingy yesterday. Compared to even then, this is overboard.” 

Avery blinks, raising her hand to the palm mark, eyes clear, before glazing over once more. As she reaches towards Ventus again, Lilith forms a starry barrier between the two. “That’s quite enough, lead researcher. Have some dignity.”

Avery blinks several times, shaking her head as her eyes clear again. “What’s going on? Why was I acting like that? Sure I like you, but not nearly enough to act like that”

Ventus, seeing Avery’s clear confusion, sighs. “I’m glad you’re doing better, but is there another researcher that can do my tests? Whatever you’ve been exposed to seems to be making you obsessed with me.”

Nodding, her eyes slowly clouding over again, Avery answers “Yeah, another awoken, Senta, could help you. You should hurry out of here, I can already feel whatever it is taking over again.”

Ventus starts moving while keeping an eye on Avery. In most possible threads that she can see Avery freezes her in place before attacking Lilith and Desi. The threads where she doesn’t only change because Avery focuses on taking advantage of her.

Seeing all of this, Ventus sends a cable of mana to both Lilith and Desi. The cable is  much more controlled than any she’s done before, not randomly losing mana into the air. As her mana wraps around both Lilith and Desi, she sends them all to the fabric, traveling along it to reach her dorm room.

Lilith blinks at the sudden change in location before both her and Desi bend over, clutching their stomachs as their faces look pale. “Where, urp, did you take us to Ventus?”

Ventus looks concerned when her partners start getting sick “I brought us to the dorm temporarily. At least until we can think of where to go next. Why’d you both get sick though? Avery’s been fine the few times I teleported her, and Lamu was fine too.”

As Lilith and Desi recover, Ventus frowns as she feels something coming. “We need to go, the only place I can think of that might be safe is in the caverns. I don’t have gear for that, but I’ll have to make do. Did you two bring diving gear, or did you leave it behind due to only expecting tests here?”

Shaking their heads they deny having gear, to which Ventus responds “Great. Just fantastic in fact. I’m going to the mess hall, storing all the food, and then going to bring us to the cavern. We won’t have to go far, but with what I was told about the difficulty for abilities to work in the caverns, maybe that’s our only option.”

Lilith shakes her head. “No, she only seems to go after us when you’re nearby. We’ve had plenty of tests done, some just this morning, by her. She was fine during all of them. Not having that glazed look.”

Desi shrugs “I mean I could, but I’d just be a drain on your supplies. I can’t fight physical things until I figure out how to use my abilities.”

Ventus sighs, kisses both of them, tails wrapping around possessively  before saying “Okay, guess I’ll send you to your hotel. Then I’ll go to the cavern and train or something. Hopefully a few days is enough to calm down the problem with Avery. You’ll be gone when I get back, so talk to you online.”

Not wanting to hear their goodbyes, thinking that it would break her heart, she sends them along the thread leading to the lobby of their apartment, before tracing a thread to the mess hall. Avery storms in, eyes in a glaze. Right  as Ventus triggers her ability to travel along the threads, Avery reaches out. Ice forming around where Ventus had been less than a second before.

Upon reappearing, Ventus shivers, having just narrowly avoided being iced, before shoving all of the food in the mess hall into that pocket of fabric she copied from her echo, and then vanishing once more, right to the entrance to the cavern.

Looking forward and slightly down, she starts to descend, tails flaring behind her with her ears close to her skull. She confidently strides down, her sight observing the fabric solidifying against alteration the further she goes down. 

Half an hour later, her feet start to be sore, due to having gone barefoot. “That letter was right, I need to use my brain more. Being barefoot is fine on smooth stone or grass I guess, but not this rocky cavern floor. The only thing I have are my heels so I guess they will have to do.”

Pulling her heels out of that pocket, she once more is grateful to her echo for teaching her how. Surprisingly though, reaching into, and taking things out of the pocket barely consumes mana, despite being in the cavern. 

Pondering as she slips her feet into the short heels, she can only come up with two things, with both being an option. The first option for it barely costing mana is the fact it’s  a sort of bubble that the fabric flows around. The second is whatever the affinity thing that her echo had mentioned in the letter was.

Walking with much more comfort, she heads towards the cavern she had awoken in. Several hours pass as she gets lost before stumbling across a circular cave with fluorescent lights within, no opening to the sky. Other than the lights, there is a mantis in the middle of the cave. Its body growing as mana rushes into it.

Ventus mutters, “I don’t know what’s going on, but I better be ready to fight,” as she gets into a stance she imitated from TV. Nearly instantly falling over as the weight of her tails drag her down she grumbles. “Well that didn’t work, I don’t know what I was expecting really.”

The mantis, violet and blue vivid throughout its carapace,  now stands six feet tall with three foot long arms ending in wicked scythe-like claws.

Ventus’ eyes go wide as she scrambles to the side, where only seconds later a large gash appears in the stone, the mantis having only swung its arm while manipulating its mana, sending  out a cutting arc.

Unsteady, Ventus can only duck as she sees a claw coming for her neck, some fur from the tip of her tails getting cut off. Blinking, she looks back to see her slightly shaved tail before growling, dropping to all fours, her heels being kicked off. Her tails splay wide behind her with her ears clenched tight to her skull. Clenching her hands, spiked gauntlets form on them, faintly glowing as they suck in ambient mana.

Unclenching her fists as she surges forward, the claws stay. With her eyes glued to the mantis that she is now directing all of her anger towards, she flickers to the side, following a nearby thread using a chunk of mana, dodging a blow. Space ripples around her, though no cracks form as the resistance of the fabric here is higher. 

As  she arrives at the mantis’ side, she swipes down with her right hand’s clawed gauntlet, easily cutting lines into The mantis’ carapace as her claws drink in its mana. Following up, she flips back, striking where she cut with four of her tails, loud thuds emanating with each, before on the fourth, a crack sounds out, traveling so far that Lamu’s group faintly hears it.

Blinking back after her flip just to be safe, she glares at the Mantis. It is making loud noises in pain while thrashing about, slightly panicked as its insides spill out slowly. Hissing, it slices at the one that hurt it, doing a horizontal slice to try and get the offender.

Narrowly getting hit as she approaches, Ventus’ cheek drips her pulsating silver/black blood. Each drip hisses as the tense fabric around Ventus annihilates them.

Getting close enough, she covers her claws in her icy flame, carving into the mantis. The crack widens, causing burnt and frozen internals to spill out of the mantas as it starts to collapse.

Still in a rage, Ventus strikes it over and over with her tails and clawed gauntlets, crushing the carapace into small chunks. The only reason her tails stay clean is that the rippling space surrounding her keeps melting the grime.

Mana surges into Ventus, flowing along her tails, into her body along the channels she reinforced between midnight and noon, before finally entering her brain. Her reserves shoot from half to three quarters full, her capacity having also increased.

The flood of mana brings her back to her senses. She finds herself panting, with  her tails sore from hitting the carapace so many times. Her cheek throbs and her sense of fatigue high. Wincing as she looks back, she blinks in surprise. “I’m surprised my tails aren’t covered in gore. I hope the fur grows back quickly though, the tips look wrong.”

Taking stock further, she feels a flow of mana flowing from her brain to her heart, and from there into her hands, which then feed into her gauntlets. Stemming the flow, her gauntlets waver, the ambient mana keeping them around longer, before they fade back into Ventus’ hands. Nodding, she drops to her butt before crossing her legs. “I need to learn how to fight properly. Maybe my echo could help me with that by sparring, but I need to get my reserves full before I can attempt to. With how thick the fabric is here, I doubt I could do it at the normal cost.”

Meanwhile: Lamu, Vincent, and the rest of their squad are rushing towards  where they heard the noise, Vincent in the lead.

“That was combat. Especially all of those slams. Whatever it was is probably vital to our research. No one else was meant to be down here after all, so I doubt it’s one of ours. Get your mana ready.”

As they approach, they feel the mana in the air twist violently before rushing the way they’re going, and sounds of fighting pick up again. Vincent sighs and slows down “I get the feeling it’s an ally sir. What are your orders?”

Frowning, Lamu continues forward “We continue on. If they’re still fighting then they may need assistance. Be ready, but choose your targets carefully.” 

Wrapping his body in mana, Lamu surges forward. His entire body is enhanced, allowing him to react to the twists and turns of the cavern without needing to slow. Behind him, Vincent keeps appearing and disappearing, Each step accompanied with a burst of wind,

Back to Ventus, she managed to summon her echo, though her entire store of mana gets locked up, a headache surging.

Echo Ventus looks around before wincing as she sees Ventus’ tails. She walks over,, letting her power gently travel along the fabric, the flow accelerating in the localized area of the original’s tails. Fur quickly regrows as, for the original’s tails, weeks pass. Nodding in satisfaction, Echo lets the flow resume its normal pattern. 

“Why’d you bring me here Ori? With your tails in such a shameful state?”

Ventus blinks at the nickname before nodding “Ori, for original right? Makes sense. As for why I summoned you. Please teach me how to fight properly. I lost control. Had the mantis been stronger, I’d probably have lost  more than just some fur. Can I call you Echo then?”

Echo Ventus nods. “For now you can, once you can call out more, you’ll need to figure out a different name. I’m glad you’re finally using your brain though. So Ori, what have you manifested so far? That way I can figure out where to start.”

Ventus sighs, holding her head before answering, “I was on all fours darting around, weaving between the attacks. I know how to keep the gauntlets out now. They’re wickedly sharp by the way, easily cut the carapace of that mantis. I was able to flow that icy flame in my chest into them, as well. My tails are decent for combat, plenty of force, though I’d like a way to keep them clean. I can travel along the fabric, short distances aren’t really a problem even in these caverns, but I can certainly go further outside of them. Finally, my mana’s flowing smoothly, your note made me think of how to grow stronger, which led to me following my mana flow..”

Taking a moment, the original adds “I guess I did make wind blow before, but haven’t done it since due to not having a need for that. Hmm, I did learn how to make that fabric pocket, but that was taught by you Echo.”

Chuckling, Echo shifts her mana outfit to a gi, easily covering her entire body, compared to how Ori needs to thin the fabric to accomplish the same. “So Ori, you’ll want to change, or else you may expose yourself while you practice what you instinctively grasped. Yes, we fight on all fours,. Is it embarrassing? Yes. Do our instincts care? No, it actually leads to something.”

Thunder booms outside, causing Echo to jump. “Anyway, each point of contact lets us shift directions as we both read the threads and anticipate what is out of our line of sight. Our ears are perfect for this, we can track enemy locations by sound. Mana has a distinctive hum, though you’re probably still blocking that out right now.”

Ventus sighs “I guess it’s mana cloth or whatever it is for me then. I didn’t pick out much if you recall.”

Flowing her mana into the fabric, it shifts and writhes before forming a track suit, shifting between black/silver and silver/black. Blinking, Ventus notices it is a bit thicker than it was before. Pushing that thought to the back of her mind, she then focuses on her hearing, asking, “So Echo, how do I stop filtering the hum of mana?”

Shrugging, Echo simply says “It’s an image thing. I just thought of moving volume sliders, and it worked. Yours should be similar, since you’re me.”

Closing her eyes, she pictures a bunch of volume sliders. Comparing them to the sensation of mana she finds one. It is muted, so she raises it, hearing a static hum as she does so. Raising it to a comfortable level, she opens her eyes. Her ears twitch as she dives to the ground, the air behind her having imploded as the fabric was changed. “A warning next time Echo, what if I hadn’t succeeded?”

Echo Ventus laughs before lowering herself to all fours. “You’re me Ori, so I knew you’d get it quick when you knew what to do. Get ready, we’re sparring now. I’ll teach you the spatial barrier for your tails later, but you won’t be able to practice it right now since your mana is locked.”

Ventus sighs, getting back to her hands and knees. “Let’s do this Echo. How do I use our gauntlets though? My mana is all locked.”

Echo Ventus lunges towards the original, gauntleted hand swiping across her neck. Thankfully echo’s gauntlets share the same property of not hurting Ventus as the original’s, meaning they can’t harm her.

Jumping back, the original narrowly dodges three tail strikes, wind whistling as one nearly grazes her ear. “How do I use them Echo?”

Her echo leaps towards her, striking again before jumping back, “You’ll figure it out. Think of your fight with the mantis while you dodge. We’re working on your ability to dodge even when tired Ori.”

Blinking, her ears flicking like mad, the original Ventus starts moving as her echo attacks even more fiercely. Quickly darting in and out, she is warping the fabric around her blows. For a normal person it would make the attack harder to predict.

Lamu manages to get to the cave when Echo has her clawed gauntlet at Ori’s throat. Ori is struggling to catch her breath, tails hanging limply due to no energy as she is covered in sweat, track suit somewhat translucent. 

Whether it is due to the nature of being an echo, or if she’s really just that good, Echo has no sweat on her.

“What in the name of all that is holy is going on here Ventus? Both of you answer one at  a time.”

Vincent catches up, whistling upon seeing Ventus, more specifically her top, before his face goes blank. He backs away with his arms up repeating  “I saw nothing, I definitely saw nothing.”

Lamu looks back before sighing and tossing his coat over the original “You broke my man, now talk. You first since you’re not out of breath.”

Echo blinks, before laughing. “Oh that’s cute, you think I take orders from you Lamu? The only one here who can even attempt anything like that is the original. Even then that’d just be closing the connection, which I could do myself.”

The original groans “Yeah yeah I know Echo. You can go for now, sleep with your versions of Lilith and Desi, you lucky Kitsune. As for you Lamu, don’t mind me, I’m going to eat and take a nap down here. Avery’s going crazy when near me, so I need to wait a bit before going back.”

Echo blinks before grimacing “Avery huh? Horrible situation, but you’re doing the right thing until you find the cause. Can’t tell you more than that or the universe gets angry. Oh, and Ori? Good work, you are learning much faster than I did. We’ll focus heavily on endurance tomorrow so eat well and then guide your mana. No sleeping for you, you hear me?”

Ventus groans as her echo dismisses herself, mana flooding out of the lock. “Well I guess no sleep for me, As for what we were doing, you probably can guess a bit from our conversation, but Avery is acting very possessive and clingy, while seeming drugged. Only while around me though.” A pause before, “I guess she did mention knowing what direction I was in. So uhh yeah, that’s why I’m down here when I’m supposed to be getting tests done.”

Sitting down, she takes a deep breath before continuing, “As for fighting. When I found this place there was a normal sized preying mantis that then grew to around six foot tall. It was able to slice the air with its mana, and I killed it. Actually that's how I got the cut on my cheek. How’s it looking? I hope it doesn’t scar?”

Lamu sighs, taking it all in. Blinking as he looks at Ventus' face  “What cut on your cheek? And your clone thing. Why did you bring it here?”

Ventus blinks, hand flying to her cheek only to feel smooth skin. She shrugs, wincing at her sore muscles, before answering “I want to get stronger. What better way than a future version of myself teaching me the basics, and then refining them myself?

Chuckling as the rest of his squad finally filters in. “We’re resting here, There’s only one way in or out so it should be fine with a watch.” He then looks to the single female member of this squad. “Alex, lend a uniform to Ventus please. It’ll be large on her, but she’ll need the bit of protection it provides if she’s staying past tonight.”

Camp is set up. Ventus brings out some of the mess hall food from the pocket to the delight of the tired squad. Then the squad takes shifts while Ventus shivers, feeling the flow of mana into her tails increase slightly as the density rises.

Outside of the caverns, the moon begins to enter a lunar eclipse.

In this time, the egg that fell from the crack in the fabric grows larger, pulsing slowly as a black form is seen inside. Several other eggs  are nearby, each secured in the same way and growing. The eye that had been watching is gone though.