LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 285 - Not So Ghostly
Chapter 285
Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth
Dungeon Factory, Workshop
"So she's your new boss?" Emilia coughed as Alexandra nodded. "I don't see her fighting in the dungeon, no offense."
"Stop being such a traditionalist. Jared has never fought in there, if you don't count the resurrection room, much less gotten a boss room." Said the dungeon core as she gestured towards the butler, who was currently standing by the side of the commotion in the workshop.
Everyone was gathered here, most talking to Ghost or marveling over her new body, once they'd managed to pry CQ off of her, though Alexandra had no doubt the apparition was returning the hug as tightly as she was getting it. Seemed like her daughter loved having her auntie be physical.
"True, I suppose." Emilia sighed. "Still feels weird."
"Well, you were educated that way. That bosses should be, well, bosses."
"Are you sure it was the most effective use though?"
Alexandra gave her girlfriend a mildly reproving glare.
"She needed a new body, I gave her one. Efficiency had nothing to do with it."
"Right, sorry..."
Alexandra tilted her head.
"Besides, she knows magic, almost to your own level." Evidenced upon the fact that she was currently walking in the ceiling, and trying to teach CQ how to reverse gravity, before catching the boss as she got halfway up before losing her concentration and flailing in the air, falling back down.
"True." Alexandra's ears prickled as she heard the advisor's tone of voice.
"Oh my Gods...you're conflicted about her!" Alexandra smiled. "Attracted to her a bit, aren't you?"
Emilia looked away. Too quickly.
"No!" The advisor could practically feel the dungeon core's grin through their links. She threw her arms up. "Okay, maybe! I can be curious you know?"
"Like what it'd feel to bed another version of my self?"
"...Maybe?"
"Well, you came close once."
"S-Shut up! It was an accident!"
Alexandra's grin widened.
"I know. Well, it's up to you."
"You're...fine with it?"
Alexandra sighed.
"I dated Arcadia. By her very nature, she had more partners at any one time than I ever would in my life. I don't care about polygamy." Neither did most of Earth for that matter. The Terran Hegemony War and the rampant genetic engineering that had followed to save humanity as a species from it own weapons had pretty much shattered most traditional social structures, be they familial or otherwise, at least for the newly formed Federation and the UIS. Hell, it was how the Federation was able to be created, rebuilt from the shattered remnants of previous European national identities, combining them instead of having them tear each other apart like in the old, and thoroughly dead, European Union. "However, it is up to her to accept."
"And you're not jealous?"
"Well, I didn't say that."
"Uh uh. So...what's the plan now?"
"Let's test out her abilities, and see what she can do. I'm sure she'll be able to pick what she wants to do afterwards."
"Oki."
"Cheer up! You'll get to see her all exercising, sweaty and-"
"I said okay!" Said the vampire girl, blushing madly.
Alexandra snickered, but fell quiet, before clapping her hands.
"Alright people! Enough playing around! We have some testing to do!"
"Sheesh, alright Glados." Said Ghost as she landed back on the floor.
"Uh uh. And as every evil artificial intelligence, I promise you cake if you comply."
"Chocolate?"
"All three kinds."
Ghost licked her lips, and Alexandra smiled internally. Ghost hadn't truly eaten anything, let alone cake, in over a decade after all.
"When do I start?"
Alexandra snorted.
"Let's make our way to boomtown. The workshop has too much delicate stuff. Alright, let's go!"
*****
"It terrifies me how at ease you are." Said Alexandra as Ghost leapt into the air, sailing through the room and nimbly coming to a stop next to her other self by grabbing onto the railing of the observation deck.
"How so? We were always good at zero-G movement."
"Yeah, but not zero gravity combat. We had the implants for that."
Ghost shrugged.
"It's not all that different, when you're the only one in zero gravity. Especially when you can control said gravity and can adjust for recoil."
"True. So, like your new body?"
"It's awesome! So...so real, yet..."
"None of the issues?"
"Yeah! No period cramps, no indigestion, none of the ten thousand crappy things that affect true humans."
It was definitely weird seeing Ghost giddy like a schoolgirl, but it only made Alexandra smile wider.
"Yeah, lots of stuff everyone would rather do without. And your ability?"
"Seems to be working as advertised." Ghost touched one of the praetorian guards, and Alexandra had to stop herself from jumping as the apparition vanished into swirling motes of light, that then permeated the golem, and a circle of runes appeared above its head, like an angelic halo. "Feels kind of odd though."
Ghost's voice hadn't changed at all, that was one of the weirdest parts. It wasn't coming from the golem's speakers, it just appeared out of thin air. It made sense, a lot of creatures wouldn't be able to talk, but damn.
It was something she was definitely planning to steal for her hologram emitters. After all, it was real sound, not the illusion thereof.
"Well it looks odd as well." Said Alexandra, jokingly, before shaking her head. "It looks like you're becoming a photon smoothie, and then turning a robot into an angel!"
"Eh, maybe I'm the angel of death."
"The discount version then, given your lack of scythe. Angelic intern of death?"
"It will hurt no less when I strangle you in this form."
"You don't have a homing, lightning spewing hammer either."
"Screw Arcadia and her old movies."
"Uh huh. Now, step out of my guard please."
"Sure, sure." The halo vanished as motes of light flowed out of the golem, forming the apparition again. "So, what now?"
"Now? We get you to meet with Allya and Pyn. Our allies need to know they'll be working with someone new."
"I mean, they've worked with me before."
"True, but not really like this."
"Uh, yes? I mean, I'll appear to them as a hologram, how will it be any different? They're still in Darthar."
"They won't stay forever." Actually they probably wouldn't stay for much longer. They intended to meet the duke of Sarth, who was descending with his army to hopefully intercept Sunrise's own force, and then they'd go home. Too many things were piling up in Rebirth that they needed to deal with, besides which it was the seat of their power. "And once they return they'll get back to meeting us here."
"Right. Among other things."
Alexandra smiled.
"Yes, among other things. Get ready to answer some questions from them though."
"Like, 'is it a threesome if two of the participants are the same person?'"
Had Alexandra been sipping a drink, she would have spat it out.
"What the fuck kind of question is that?"
"You know Pyn is going to ask it."
"Gods, I hope not." Said Alexandra.
"Do you want to bet? One favor from the other for whomever wins?"
Alexandra squinted suspiciously at her other self, who usually refused those kind of things.
"Done."
"Excellent! Let's see if our elven friend is as reliably horny as usual!"
*****
"Is that everything?" Said the man, and Orzal Vek, formerly of the Elkis Republican Army, and now of the Order to Restore Humanity, shrugged.
"Everything you asked for."
The man looked at him for a few seconds, as if he was peering into the former colonel's very soul, before nodding.
"So it is."
There was something deeply unsettling about the man, but Orzal could play this game too. And play it well.
He wouldn't have survived with the snakes that were senators if he couldn't.
"Then I suppose you should get loading."
"We should, yes." The man gestured, and his people leapt into action.
Crates were moved, loaded onto carts. Orzal pretended not to notice they were all instinctively dissolving into small, tightly knit groups, used to working together.
Adventuring parties.
The man was still standing before him, looking eerie.
"There is going to be people who come looking for all of this." He finally said, after long seconds of awkward silence, gesturing at the warehouse. "It should be gone before then."
"Tell your grandma how to suck eggs. This will be gone before you are out of the city."
The man recoiled. He had not expected the ex-colonel to react like that. To be fair, neither had he. Betraying the senate and interacting with the Order had made him grow a spine. And start taking shit from absolutely nobody, except maybe his terrifying new bosses.
The adventurers guild representative, for that was what he was, though he would never admit it, even under torture, was used to being the biggest, baddest beast in the forest.
But Orzal knew there were far greater wolves out there.
And they were hungry.
"Very well." Said the representative. "We shall be out of the city by the hour."
"Good. I believe we are done then."
"Not quite."
Orzal looked at the representative, as the tension ratcheted up. Though he feigned not to notice, he was sure the representative could see the Order's soldiers preparing to fight.
After all, this was supposed to have been the end of their interaction. Give the guild the weapons and equipment they needed, then be gone. No trace left.
All trails ending with the guild, and their weapons used to murder dungeon cores.
"How so?"
"We are in need of more."
Orzal snorted.
"Is this-" He gestured at the piles of crates, still being deftly loaded. "-not good enough for you?"
"Not that. We require...information."
Orzal blinked.
"Information?"
"Yes. For the strikes."
"Our help is done. We did what we could."
"I beg to differ. So do my superiors. You know more. And you wish this endeavor to succeed. We need to know the layouts, the full layouts, of the dungeons we will be facing. Not the half assed version we got for our...other attempt."
Orzal almost felt pity for the guy.
His 'other attempt' had failed because the Order wanted it to. Of that, he was certain. Though, he wasn't quite sure how they'd done it, and ensured Crystal survived Sunrise's little commando team. He knew them after all, from his previous visit and contacts with the duchy, which had helped pave the way for the shipments that had made their civil war possible.
They were villains, each and every one of them, with perhaps the exception of the baron of White Sands, who had a semblance of a conscience, for what little of one was allowed to exist in the slaver cesspit that was his homeland. But villains or no, they were no pushovers, and not people to be trifled with.
But then again, neither was Crystal, as she'd proven time and time again.
"You wish for more assistance. What are you prepared to give in exchange?"
The soldiers around him held their breaths.
He had no authority to negotiate. He was just a convenient, and slightly disposable, figurehead. At least to his superiors.
The troops under his command were already starting to trust him over them after all.
But regardless, he was there to serve as a face for this so that other, more precious assets would not be squandered was something to go wrong or the guild representative to have his mind ripped apart by the Custodians in search of information
The representative interpreted it another way. He saw a man prepared to do a concession he perhaps should not have.
"We have in our possession, relics of the Old World, I know you desire them."
"Everyone does. But it may occur to you that we have plenty."
"Not the likes of which my superiors offer. Tell your own that mine have remnants of a Sagitarian planetary defence railgun...and are willing to offer it in exchange for further assistance."
Orzal did not have the slightest clue what that was, nor why his superiors would want it, but he nodded judiciously.
"I will call this in."
"You shall. We will meet again."
Orzal noticed the adventurers had finished loading the carts, and simply waved as the members of the guild left. He then turned towards his own people.
"Alright people, I made a promise to these assholes and I intend to keep it. Sanitize the place, double time!"
He watched as his men scrambled for a few seconds, before making his way to his covert communicator.
He had a report to make. And maybe, just maybe, his new bosses would let even the tinniest of hints through of what the hell was going on here.
One could dream, after all.
Just like he dreamed of taking the Order down. He just needed to find somebody who wouldn't kill him outright for having even touched the proscribed and heretical organization. Someone who would have to hate the Church as much as they hated the Order.
One could dream...