Chapter 13: Just A Friendly Sparring Match

Stollos felt like cackling again.

He'd been monitoring the progress of all members of the project as diligently as he could and the moment he'd seen that Sergeant Caldwell's team had started allocating their EXP he'd known he would be in for a treat. And their progress didn't disappoint. Three members at Level 9, one at Level 8 and one who was smart enough to wait for his Bond Level to increase some more before he allocated his EXP.

That last one gave him pause once more. Apparently Private Maxwell had obtained EXP just from being present while Sergeant Caldwell's team had been exterminating the cancer that had befallen Albion. That had not been part of his models. Maybe the resonance Private Maxwell had had with them had been enough to count? He had no idea. It was fascinating nevertheless.

What was even more fascinating, however, was the fact that Sergeant Caldwell's stats were at pretty much the level he would expect of a Lacrima, albeit without the ability to access a Higher form and therefore the pseudo-wings that would come with it. He was beyond curious to find out how high her stats would soar once she went through with the ritual.

Of course, for that to happen he would first need to make her the offer. He had no doubt that she would accept. Even if she turned his offer down initially, she would accept eventually. He had no drive or desire to push her towards it. She was powerful enough to be useful even without it and he wasn't going to risk one of his most promising subjects.

So when he saw her heading out to the training hall he got up, intending to test her for himself. Of course, there was an asinine rule he had to adhere to. He'd sworn never to spar against anyone at the compound without Jeanne and Rachel present. He supposed it made sense. Jeanne could stop and rewind time to an extent, Rachel could heal just about any injury. With the two of them working together there was basically no such thing as a fatal accident. He knew the rule was in place because they didn't completely trust him but he had to admit the thought that he wouldn't have to hold back quite as hard was rather appealing.

So, before he could test Sergeant Caldwell himself he went to fetch the angel and the demon.

**

To Elaine's shock she found that she could now keep up with Ophelia's speed. Her speed stat was more than double that of Ophelia's and she was a good bit taller than the sexy vampire and now the two of them were neck to neck when they raced. This had at first led Elaine to believe that the Preternatural Speed effectively doubled Ophelia's Agility stat but Alexis had instead suggested that the ability might be providing diminishing returns at such high stats since Ophelia had certainly been far faster than a doubled Agility stat could explain back when they'd come to Jordan's rescue. The woman had been a blur even at 16 Agility. Doubling that would put her at 32, six times the speed of a normal human, and she had most certainly been faster than that back then.

This was further proven when they tried arm wrestling again and it ended in a stalemate despite Elaine's Strength being over three times that of Ophelia's.

Once they had these tests out of the way they tried out their new abilities as well as they could. All of them had gained more magical abilities but none of the enhancements had been as effective as Ophelia's. Blood magic became her, to a frightening degree.

Blood magic was the informal name for the combination of shadow, water and metal magic. As the name suggested it was able to create and control blood but the three elements could also be used individually. And especially the combination of shadow and metal was something Ophelia felt very easy to work with. Within moments of testing her new magic out she'd figured out how to create a pool of shadow anywhere within line of sight and then make it erupt in sharpened metal blades. At the same time she figured out that even a few drops of blood spilled on the ground were enough for her to turn into a projectile weapon. And then of course there were the knives. Even just pricking her finger with one of them turned the otherwise unassuming dagger into a brutal curved sword of glistening blood. The blade looked insubstantial but was powerful enough to carve Abigail's Musical Barrier apart in just a couple of strikes. Between that and her ability to shadow leap around the battlefield her potential damage output had skyrocketed.

Alexis' most powerful new ability was Unbreakable, which she couldn't exactly test out in the training hall, so she contented herself with testing out her newly upgraded light magic and her Dominion of Eternal Summer. It created a huge sphere of golden sunlight with no apparent source and Ophelia confirmed that it worked exactly like normal sunlight in that it turned off her preternatural abilities. Aside from that it massively enhanced Alexis' already terrifying light magic. She was now powerful enough to use light speed flashes not just on herself but on her allies as well, create a cascade of laser beams that put even the desperation move of the Demi-Lich they'd fought to shame and could rain down dozens of blades of light around herself.

Evelyn's newly powered magic could now send out massive bolts of lightning and enhanced by her Vajra she could do it in quick succession without tiring herself out. She also mentioned that she felt confident that she could call lightning bolts out of the sky if it was at all cloudy. Alexis hypothesized that once she unlocked the Masterful Storm Magic skill she wouldn't even need that as she would likely be able to create her own thunderstorms on the go. And once she could do that the skill that gave her limitless stamina in thunderstorms would be worth buying. Of course, there was the slight problem that affecting the weather like that would be extremely noticeable, which was scary now that they knew the Outsiders weren't entirely mindless.

But the ability everyone agreed had the most potential was Abigail's Skill Copy ability. It hadn't really been that impressive back when she'd only been able to give away her own abilities but now that she could copy anyone's abilities onto anyone else it was very powerful. She couldn't use it to give anyone a different kind of magic but together they confirmed that if she handed Evelyn's Font of Soma to anyone else and they used its active component it didn't drain away Evelyn's healing factor so clever use of Skill Copy would turn Font of Soma from an ability that could grant two massive bursts of healing to an ability that could grant two massive bursts of healing per party member. Similarly, Ophelia's Coil Gun could be powered up by Alexis' Charged Attack to inflict damage that was best described as catastrophic. And absolutely nobody wanted to even suggest using Charged Attack to power up the Vasavi Shakti.

Once they had each gotten a good bit of training in they were about to call it quits for the day but before they could pack up and leave they noticed the Professor entering the training hall, accompanied by Jeanne and Rachel, who followed slightly behind him. The way they walked would have seemed demure if not for the way they looked at Stollos. Elaine and Jordan had said that Jeanne looked at Stollos the way a parole officer looks at the allegedly reformed criminal they were responsible for and that was almost exactly how the two women were now looking at the Professor.

Everyone in the training hall paused as the three powerful individuals passed and it quickly became clear that the three were headed directly towards Elaine and her group.

“Professor”, she said, snapping to attention immediately when she noticed that he was headed towards her.

“At ease, Sergeant”, he said. “All of you, really.”

“Is something the matter?”, Elaine asked, relaxing minutely. Her posture was no longer stiff but the three of them coming to her was highly unusual.

“Nothing bad, Sergeant”, he said. “I wanted to ask a favor of you.”

“A... favor?”, Elaine asked dubiously.

“Yes”, he said, then gestured at Jeanne. “I understand Jeanne told you about the Trumpet and the Thorn before, yes?”

Elaine blinked. The Trumpet and the Thorn were iconic and powerful weapons used in Heaven and Hell respectively. The Trumpet was a gilded halberd, unbreakable and able to cut through anything, that acted as a symbol of status, a weapon, a spell catalyst and a musical instrument all at once. The Thorn was Hell's equivalent, essentially a katana with a blade made of plasma, perfect for assassinations as the blade only appeared when swung and the hilt itself would pass through metal detectors undetected.

“Yes, Professor”, she said. “But what--”

“For a good long while I've been trying to come up with an equivalent to them for humanity”, he explained, cutting her off. “It is something of a pet project of mine. I just finished the prototype of my newest design. I call it the Scourge. I would like for you to help me test it out.”

“You want me to take it along on our next trip, then?”, she asked.

He chuckled. “Not at all, Sergeant. I want to test it against you in a sparring match.”

She blinked and looked him over again. Gray hair that, judging by the receding hairline, wasn't long for this world, thin to the point of being malnourished, no muscles to speak of. If she fought this old man she would crush him. “I don't think that's a good idea, Professor”, she said. “Your project has made me pretty strong. I don't think I can hold back enough not to hurt you.”

He cackled. It was a long, high mad scientist cackle that went on and on and on and drew the eyes of everybody in the training hall. “I'm sorry, Sergeant”, he said once he'd calmed down. “But you seem to be under the mistaken impression that I am human. I am not.”

She frowned. Jeanne had said something to this effect but she just couldn't see this man as anyone powerful. Rachel must have noticed her skepticism because she said:

“He's not lying, Elaine. If you two spar then he'll be the one who has to hold back.”

“That is why we're here”, Jeanne said. “Rachel is one of the most powerful healers in the universe and I am versed in time magic. Together we will make sure that nothing bad will happen in this fight.”

The Professor nodded. “They won't let me spar with anyone unless they're both present to make sure nothing happens. Believe me, Sergeant, you will not have to hold back at all. So, are you willing to help me test my prototype?”

Elaine bit her bottom lip as she thought. She was more powerful than she'd ever even fathomed now and her biggest issue right now was that there was no opportunity for her to test out just how strong she was. Fighting against someone as strong as they all seemed to think the Professor was would be a golden opportunity.

“Alright, I'll take you on.”

**

At the mention of a fight between the Professor and one of the Awakeners everybody present made room and sat back to watch. Those in the training hall made sure to call everyone they knew and soon enough the entirety of Project Divinity was in attendance.

Elaine really hoped the Professor wasn't quite as strong as Rachel and Jeanne seemed to think he was because if he was this might end up a little humiliating.

At Jeanne's urging Elaine had donned her armor for the fight, minus the helmet. She'd been hesitant until the Professor had shrugged out of his white doctor's gown and revealed that what Elaine had taken for a black shirt and black pants was actually an armored jumpsuit not entirely different from the body armor all the cadets wore on missions. Was the man always wearing armor or had he donned it just for this match?

Either way, once they had sufficient room to themselves Jeanne activated a force field about 150 yards wide, leaving just enough space outside for the spectators. The only people inside the force field were Elaine and the Professor as well as Rachel and Jeanne, who acted as both referees and medical team.

When everything was set up the Professor reached into a pocket space similar to that of a Ring of Holding and withdrew the weapon he had wanted to test out, the Scourge. It consisted of a sword and a glove. The glove was a weird thing, made of interlocking gears and power cells, and it looked like it had come from the set of the first Iron Man movie, like one of the prototypes the protagonists had built in that cave. The sword, meanwhile, looked like nothing so much as a giant box cutter, the blade having the same telltale segmentation as that of a utility knife. The guard wrapped around the handle, protecting the wielder's hand, and it was red, further solidifying the similarities to a box cutter.

“No remarks about the aesthetics, please”, he said as he noticed Elaine's scrutiny. “This is just a proof of concept. I will rework it to look like a proper weapon once it has proven its usefulness.”

“Sure”, Elaine said. This situation was weird. She had to fight him and had to take it seriously but something inside her still balked at the idea of bantering with her superior.

“Are you ready?”, Rachel asked loudly enough to make sure both of them would hear her.

“Yes”, the Professor said.

“Yes”, Elaine said.

“Begin”, Jeanne called out.

Elaine had been ready to rush him but when he didn't even move she paused. Instead of attacking her he simply twirled the weapon around, muttering things like “balance is off, I need to weigh the handle” or “should have oiled the glove more”.

So instead of rushing him she let him finish examining his gear while she pulled out four crystal swords from her Ring of Holding, letting them float behind her.

Finally he stopped examining his gear and faced her again, as if she was finally worth acknowledging. “Ah, the crystal blades. You've become rather famous at the compound, did you know that?”

“Huh?”, she asked, the picture of wit.

“Awakener Elaine Caldwell with the crystal blades”, he said. “And I have to admit, it is rather impressive how many of them you can control. But are they as strong as they look?”

“I can show you”, she said.

“Then go ahead”, he called and finally took a fighting stance.

She dashed towards him, expecting him to pull out some sort of projectile attack all the while, but he simply let her approach. Once she reached him she swung one of her blades at his center mass and he intercepted it with his weird box cutter blade. She was now so strong that against any other person that strike would have sent them flying.

The Professor didn't even budge. His sword arm didn't move an inch.

“I actually felt that”, he said, sounding impressed.

“Well how about this then?”, she asked and grabbed another blade before swinging it at him.

This one he intercepted with the hand wearing the power glove. He could have let the blade glance off the back of his hand but instead he caught it in his gloved hand. He squeezed, there was a barely perceptible glow from the glove, and with a loud crunching sound he crushed her crystal blade into a pile of carbon.

She stared at it in horror. Those were crystal blades, as sturdy as actual, literal diamonds. And he had just crushed one of them like it was made from spun glass.

“How strong is that glove?”, she asked, not quite able to keep the tremble out of her voice.

He smiled. “That is the question, isn't it? But I'll give you a hint: The glove's purpose is more defensive than offensive.”

She took that to mean that the glove wasn't all that powerful and it had mostly been his own inherent strength that had allowed him to crush diamonds in his hand. Then again, the glove hadn't been bent out of shape by crushing diamonds with it so it had to be stupidly sturdy even if it didn't amplify the wearer's strength too much.

She shadow leaped away, grabbed another sword and cast a spell to repair the one that had been broken as she engaged him again. Again she clashed blades with him but this time when he tried to grab one of her blades she pulled it away, then had to scramble backwards when he tried to make a grab for her throat. If that hand could crush diamonds it would mangle her throat in a single squeeze.

She considered how to get past that glove but as she thought about it she remembered something. That sword. There was no way it was just a blade. She wondered if it may be supernaturally sharp. if it was then the sword she'd locked with it would have had a gouge in it from where the box cutter had bitten into it, but she had already confirmed that it didn't. But there had to be something special about this blade. It just looked off. The segmentation reminded her of the blade of a box cutter, only thicker... oh. Was that it?

Once her fourth blade was repaired she decided to try something else. Instead of engaging him up close she sent the blades at him as projectiles. As she'd expected he batted one away with his sword, then tried to grab a second one out of the air with his gloved hand. Before he could grab hold of it Elaine made it twist and circle around to come at him from behind. While he dealt with that the other two were coming at him as well and once it stopped spinning through the air she sent the one he'd batted away with his sword back at him again.

Soon he had four crystal swords circling around him like pissed-off wasps, constantly darting at him and if he batted them away they just circled back around to try and stab him again. Any other opponent would have been annoyed but the Professor was chuckling with glee. Finally he found his moment and spun his sword through a horizontal arc that batted away all four swords and then spun on Elaine again.

He raised the blade for a vertical slam even though the two were separated by a gap of around fifteen feet and the sword was barely four feet long. But as he swept the blade down there was a barely audible clunking sound and the blade flew apart into segments held together by a steel wire running through their hollow insides. The newly extended blade had no trouble closing the fifteen foot gap between the two combatants and Elaine rolled out of the way of the attack.

This was exactly what she'd expected would happen. That was the weapon's trick. The question was how long it would take to revert back into a sword. If it took too long to reassemble that would be a major weakness she could exploit. But clearly he'd had the same idea because there was a loud cinching sound as the wire retracted and reassembled the segments into a proper blade.

“Cinching mechanism works without a hitch”, he muttered in approval, then raised his voice and said: “I didn't expect you to dodge that attack.”

“I already suspected that there was something off about the weapon”, she called back. “The segments gave it away. Maybe try to camouflage them on the final model. Some bogus mystic patterns etched into the segments should do the trick.”

“Hmm”, he began to think. “Not a bad idea. I could carve enchantments into the weapon, kill two birds with one stone...”

She relented in her attack for a moment as he thought, wondering if there was even a point to this fight. He clearly had his combat data for the weapon. Then again, she was well aware that she hadn't even managed to hit him yet.

As he was still deep in thought she began to wonder. Jeanne had clearly been observing her during the trip in Albion, almost as if she was grooming her for higher things. Was this what he was doing as well? He seemed rather preoccupied with his weapon right now but from the way he'd so effortlessly blocked all her attempts to hit him she had to assume he was testing her in some way.

Finally he stopped futzing with his weapon and all but confirmed her suspicions when he said: “Your control over your crystal blades is rather impressive, I must say. You are far more powerful than a normal human but even so, the way you can control so many weapons at once is impressive.”

“Thanks”, she said. “So I'm guessing you had an ulterior motive when you asked me to spar.”

He chuckled. “Was it that obvious?”

“Not on its own, but after the way Jeanne behaved during our trip to Albion this duel feels a little suspicious.”

“Well, I did truly want to test this weapon out against someone competent”, he said, “but I won't lie to you, it wasn't my only reason for this fight.”

“So what is it you want?”, she asked. “I'm already an Awakener. What else could you want me for?”

He gave her a wide, slightly deranged smile. “If you can manage to land a blow against me I might tell you. But there's no reason to waste my breath if you can't meet my expectations.”

Elaine gave him a wolfish smile. “You're on.”

And then she started to get serious.

She shot two blades at him, their movements spaced out so that he wouldn't be able to block both at once. While they were still in flight she light speed flashed behind him and summoned the Vajra, Indra's weapon. The Vajra was a weird, ornamental club made of copper. It crackled with electricity and would enhance lightning magic cast through it but even just whacking someone with it would deal devastating damage.

She knew he was tough but still she went for his shoulder rather than the back of his head, but just before her strike could land he twisted around and blocked the Vajra with his sword. She was gratified to see that the savage strike with the heavy club at least made his arm budge a little. An instant later he wound up with the gloved hand and tried to backhand her.

If that attack landed it would break whatever bones it struck so she shadow leaped out of the way and came out of the attack thrusting one of her crystal swords at his side. He twisted with a surprising amount of grace, just enough to avoid the stab. She activated Oracular Visions to try and stay ahead of him and it allowed her to twist the sword around to hit him after all but he managed to just catch her blade with his gloved hand before it could land a scrape over his body armor.

They stared at each other for a moment and he gave her a big, genuine smile that made him look not at all like an aging researcher.

“You're much better than I expected, Sergeant”, he said. “That was almost good enough.”

She jumped back before he could hit her. “Almost only counts in horseshoes and human sacrifices”, she countered.

“True enough”, he said and examined the crystal blade she'd almost cut him with. “These are truly well designed, you know?”

“Thank you”, she said. She was starting to grow frustrated. He was clearly toying with her.

“Did you know that Soul Shards don't just color the elements a mage can use but also how they use these elements?”, he asked as if he was giving a lecture.

“How do you mean?”, Elaine asked. She was only half listening, the rest of her mind preoccupied with trying to find a way past his defenses.

“You see, not all lightning magic users throw solid bolts of lightning, but all those with Soul Shards of Zeus do”, he said.

“Fascinating”, she said. “But why are you telling me this now?”

“Because while there are many mages with air and earth magic, only a select few of them come up with the idea of creating crystal swords”, he said. “Do you know what Soul Shard they have in common?”

“No”, she said, and she realized she had a way to beat him.

“Well then you'd best try to hit me and maybe I'll tell you”, he taunted.

And she knew she would.

She shadow leaped at him and came out of it wielding two crystal blades crossed in front of her. He blocked the cross slash effortlessly but she let herself be pushed back and sent two blades at him to harass him while she light speed flashed behind him to strike him with the third blade, which he parried with his sword once again. Once more she grabbed a weapon and thrust it at him and once more he was there to intercept the blow with his gloved hand except this time she'd thrust with Areadbhar.

The enchanted spear sank through the metal of the glove and encountered no resistance as it did, managing to bore a shallow hole into his hand.

Instead of wincing in pain, though, he smiled. The smile was at once overjoyed and utterly deranged.

“Yes!”, he called out. “Yes, that's it. That's the ingenuity I wanted to see. The effortless combination of your own powers and those granted to you by your Shard Bearers.”

And he cackled, long and hard.

Elaine backed off a few paces, not dropping her guard much. Something about him had shifted. She had done what he'd asked of her but she could tell whatever this test was, it wasn't over yet. If she'd spent more time around angels and demons she might have sensed his power soaring.

“Now then”, he said, then held out his gloved hand.

Without Elaine willing it one of her crystal blades shot out and landed right in his palm. She hadn't told it to do that and her mind was racing at the implications. Then her heart started to race as well when she realized she couldn't recall the blade. It wasn't because he was holding it too tightly, the blade was simply no longer responding to her magic.

“There is only one god who uses earth and air to create blades of crystal”, he said. “Typhon, son of Gaia. He who once began a rebellion against Olympus, to bring down Zeus' tyranny. Does that sound familiar to you?”

She gulped. It did. Back in Albion she had been consumed by the thought of bringing down the tyrants subjugating the town. “Yeah”, she croaked out.

“A giant wreathed in crystal armor who fights with conjured crystal weaponry. A god of rebellion, of fighting against unjust oppression. A god, one might say, who is needed now more than ever”, he said. “And do you know how I know this?”

She shook her head.

“Because you are not the only person in this room with one of Typhon's Soul Shards.”

Her eyes widened.

He howled: “Rebellion Storm!”