Weapons of Mass Destruction
Chapter 598: Nothing I couldn't deal with

After a few days, Biscuit starts shrinking from his giga form. It's sad to watch, and I wish he would wake up before he regresses completely, so he could carry me instead of the other way around. But there's nothing I can do. It seems like he ate something and pushed himself too hard trying to avoid slipping into another food coma, which he ended up in anyway, the moment Lissandra found him with Tess.

Part of me suspects he’s actually trying really hard to shrink back to his normal size just so he can be carried around again.

Tess, and yes, I mean the dumbest human on the 7th floor, is also awake. She's still adjusting and spending her days with Izzy and sometimes Sophie, in a house that Sophie grew from one of the local trees. There are others too, housing our individual rooms.

My curiosity is killing me, and I want to pry all the information I can out of Tess, but I get over it and spend time hunting down the mimics that have been appearing in the area.

Currently, it seems Lissandra is letting the weaker ones pass on purpose, not to mention that she disappears every once in a while and does crazy things. Most of the time, I don't even know what it is, but judging from the wavelengths of mana around her and the structure of the skill she activates in the process, it is some scary, scary stuff. Just trying to decipher it makes me pass out for hours at a time.

I think she’s still trying to find what exactly happened and searching for the Progenitor Mimic in the process, which is doing its best to hide while throwing everything it can against Lissandra in hopes of distracting her or slowing her down. The waves keep getting stronger, and they're happening more frequently. But I think it's only a matter of time, and knowing Lissandra, she’s already cut off any means the mimic had of leaving this planet.

Even if she's not as powerful as she was in her prime, I don't think there's any Absolute out there who could overpower her. Like us, she’s been using the regenerative aura of the tournament floor to train and experiment. So while her passives, stats, and traits aren't as impressive as they used to be, I think her active skills are close to the level they were back when she was hunting down Rulers.

One day, she comes across me while I'm training with my Ignition heart and observing my passive. The way she stands there feels almost awkward, but her words aren’t.

"I’ve already spoken to the blonde," she says.

"Yes, but she was much more controlled about it. She’s perceptive and understood the situation right away when she and your bond stayed behind. Waiting was an option, but she chose otherwise. Her decision was deliberate, driven by a simple reason: her refusal to be a burden. Meant to be a statement that she doesn't need to be saved or protected, and that she won’t be used as leverage against her group, even if it means bearing the full weight of the consequences."

I nod, "I should have known that."

"Would that have made you behave differently during the tournament?"

"Likely not. So what will you do now? We made a deal, and now I’ve gotten almost nothing out of it."

Not even for a moment does she seem taken aback. "I have already spoken to the blonde and shared some information with her, including a technique that will be helpful to her. Even though much like you, she doesn't seem to like me, I don’t think she’s dumb enough to throw it away. As for you, I agree that I still owe you. I’m sure you’ve already thought about it and have something in mind for what you want."

"Yes, it's simple: Save Myrra too."

"Little pup, that’s something I have already-"

At this, I interrupt her, "I know you would throw her away if you thought it improved your chances. I saw you kill your disciple, so I don’t have much reason to trust you. I want you to save her, even if it hurts you, no matter the cost. I don’t care if it cripples you, or makes things extremely difficult or lowers your chances."

Lissandra looks at me for a while in silence, with a thought flashing behind her eyes.

"Very well, I promise," she says in the end.

At that moment, she looks as if she is tasting these words and examining the effect of that decision. In the end, she tilts her head and smiles as if amused by it all.

"Do you know the state you’re in?" she asks out of nowhere.

I nod, "Yup. I'm... well, my body is dying. It'll continue unless I increase my Constitution or stop creating new constructs and making modifications to my body. I know it. I've learned enough about body modification to recognize the signs and understand what I'm doing."

"Yes, but it's something that can be corrected with enough focused effort. Your constructs and the modifications you've made to your body are functional, but they’re still far too unstable compared to the system-generated equivalents. If you continue developing along your current path with the same kind of enhancements, I'd estimate ten to twenty years before the structural strain and mana flow inconsistencies either cripple you permanently or trigger cascading side effects beyond your control. That outcome could be fatal. And that's already accounting for your current rate of progress, your healer's improvements, and any external support."

"I know," I repeat.

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"You won't change the way you go about things?"

"Nope."

She shakes her head, and I catch the faintest smile on her face. "Little pup, when you make it out of the tutorial, find a way to survive all this. Then, when you're ready, come find me on Eladore."

"Only if you succeed where every version of you has failed, along with everyone else," I say.

"Such a useless thought," she says, with her posture straightening, and as her mana dances across her skin.

A few days later, Lissandra leaves to eliminate the Progenitor Mimic she finally managed to locate. The potentially massive pile of eyes, mouths, and tentacles has probably set traps for her, so the extermination could take some time. It might even end with the planet being destroyed, considering the current state it's in.

Put simply, the situation here is not good. Mimics are everywhere, lumorans are few, and the arrays that connect to the other planets have been destroyed, cutting off any chance of mercenary support.

Part of me wonders how I would handle these mimics if I were an Absolute. Another part thinks that to reach a certain level of power, you need to be as confident and bold as Lissandra. One part of me keeps training, another scans the area, and the last one watches Myrra as she says her goodbyes. She and Liss will leave as soon as the Progenitor Mimic is dealt with. If all goes well, that will mark a successful end to our floor quest.

This floor has been interesting... it’s a huge mess, and whatever the system wanted to tell us probably went over our heads because of this walking catastrophe that joined us. That also reminds me that I do now have those thermonuclear warheads my sister gave me. Some brothers might get a pocket knife as a gift, but whose sister gives them a weapon of mass destruction?

"Nat?" a young voice says, pulling me out of my thoughts, and I follow it to look at Izzy.

"Yes?"

"Tess wants to talk with you."

"Got it," I say as I move past her and head toward the house where Tess is still recovering. There are no signatures aside from her own.

I move in, and for the first time in a while, I look straight at her—this time she’s not unconscious. This time, she’s standing proud with her crown floating over her head and already storing primordial lightning, just in case.

I could probably say something about how it’s not really the best idea to train right away, but something tells me that would just be hypocritical.

Otherwise, she’s wearing Earth clothes, from the pile I bought from Gloria, which the girls immediately seized and must’ve shared with her. She’s wearing a set of gray shorts and an oversized white shirt with short sleeves, as if she just got back from the gym. There’s even some sweat beginning to bead on her forehead as she welcomes me with a smile. And her blonde hair has been cut once more, styled such that it barely reaches her shoulders, hanging in gentle waves of gold to frame her face.

"Tess, have you been training?"

"Yup. I got rid of Maya and Soph and did a bit of training in secret. I bribed Izzy to keep quiet about it."

I nod and create a manabloc chair, and take a seat facing her.

My reaction must have amused her, as her smile broadens and she takes a step over to me, reaching out to me as she does so.

I grab her hand, and she pulls me up from the chair I just sat in, then, without any warning, pulls me into a hug. With her superior physical stats, she squeezes me quite tightly, and I hesitate for a moment before hugging her back.

After a while, I feel like that's enough and tap her back, giving the universal signal to let go, but she doesn't. Instead, she continues to hold me tighter.

She isn't crying, and her body isn't shaking; my kinetic senses don't detect anything like that. So I just sigh and keep holding her until she starts acting giddy and begins swaying gently from side to side.

Remembering that it is something she likes to do, I match her movement for a while until she lets go of me, steals the manabloc chair from behind me, and pulls it under her to sit in. Instead of fighting her, I make a new one and sit opposite her.

"I leveled up my subclass to Adept, along with a bunch of other skills. By a lot," she says proudly.

"Congratulations."

"Thank you. I have heard a lot about the tournament. Sounds like you had it pretty rough."

"Nothing I couldn't deal with. I heard you had it pretty rough yourself."

"Nothing I couldn't deal with," she smiles at me, but doesn't expand any further.

I take it all as a signal that she doesn't want to talk about it, so I decide to let it be.

"I also heard you got to see your sister," she says.

"Yes, Victoria is just as lovely as always; the Cockroach even declared her an Absolute Candidate."

"I always thought she would manage that. I hoped I could meet her, but I guess we’ll have another opportunity during the third tournament."

"She still remembers you and even called you a cutely naive blonde."

"Well, I used to be that way back then. Did she bully the others?"

"You know her; there is no chance she didn't say some 'don't take it personally but you suck' kind of things to them."

"That's true, but it might also make them push a little harder. Maybe that was her real intent all along."

"Nah, she doesn't care about them. I love my sister, but I have no illusions about how she sees others."

Tess nods in response, and for a while, we both stay quiet. The whole time, she keeps glancing at me: my face, my neck, my hands, my clothes. I do the same, studying her in return.

The silence stretches on, and I can't help but feel a bit amused by how strange it feels to face her again after these weeks apart and everything we've both been through.

"Welcome back, Tess," I say in the end.

"You'll need a lot more than that to get rid of me," Tess says with a smile.

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