Chapter 386

  Mixed Team Planetary Positioning

  (Mallory)

  The world was changing.

  Actually, that was the great and tragic thing about the world of Biprism, is the fact that it was constantly changing. A steampunk world filled with magic and machinery that very well could have gone into and through the lengths of the industrial revolution and beyond.

  In fact, from an evolutionary standard, the world of Biprism should have long ago advanced to use super computers and advanced machinery. The only reason why the world hadn’t progressed to such a state was due to its own check and balances that it had implemented from the beginning. By allowing magic to have a corrupting effect on the world as a whole, magic was the agent that prevented super computers and massive technological breakthroughs from occurring.

  Even advanced machinery that was corruption resistant could only weather the magical changes, but never be abundant enough to allow for full-scale changes to happen to the world. That was the great part about this world, the more engineers and mechanical professionals came in, attempting to change the world to a more advanced state, the more the world seemed to fight back and resist that call.

  This was where Dr. Spiritlight came in, for she had an advanced mechanical background, despite her only claiming to have a modest Master’s of Mathematics Degree. It was clear that she was destined for greater events, as her real world informants had managed to find out. Mallory had to admit that hiring the direct family of Dr. Spiritlight who were able to bring these stories of her past to life. For now, she had a much greater understanding of the crazed Doctor, a person who was given a second chance to reach all of their previous world goals, which included getting multiple Doctorates.

  By now, Mallory had to assume that part of the Doctor’s success was largely due to her reaching all three pillars of the triumvirate of success. The first and most important pillar is capability. Capability is often the most underappreciated aspect of any success story but is vital. The second pillar is drive. A pillar that Dr. Spiritlight had in spades, as she was relentless in her pursuit of all things magical. This focus and enjoyment of all things magical is likely what lead to the third and final pillar, opportunity.

  While opportunity is often seen as a chance encounter, or a random meeting, Mallory had her doubts. At least, not when it came to the actions of this world, while such thoughts could easily be dismissed in the real world, this was the world of Biprism. At its core Biprism is a world of magic, which means that it almost has to have a hidden hand guiding events behind the scenes.

  Looking back, Mallory swore that she could almost feel the effects of that divine hand of the world pushing her behind the scenes. Every time things were at their bleakest, she and the people around her always managed to hold on just long enough to survive. For a while they were nothing more than talented nomads roaming the land, as no place truly felt right to her. Was it all a coincidence that everything finally turned around once she decided to go all in and follow the pixie? A decision that she still sometimes doubts, that is until she sees just how powerful everyone who underwent her training has become.

  Only now, after seeing the hundreds of levels gained by even people like Jhonny did Mallory appreciate the fact that Dr. Spiritlight limited her class admission to only Midnight Hunter guild members to start off. At the time, it was a great waste of money, at least at first.

  It wasn’t until Mallory off handedly offered to remove the junk training materials that she began forming a profit as each of the outdated Outsourcers fetch upwards of a million gold coins each. Then when details of her effective training materials came to light, everyone wanted those items as well. Items that Dr. Spiritlight was more than happy to let others get rid of on her part. Items that likely only took her a few hours to mass produce, but were invaluable in keeping the costs for SVC’s development even. Even her month away only helped to increase the cost of her defective or outdated items.

  Now, after being in a fight with Jhonny and the other Qi masters under Dr. Spiritlight’s training, Mallory felt more encouraged than ever at trusting her. Especially after she opted out of the Martial Arts and Magic related fields to try for the Mechanoid battles, battles that residents of Biprism had no chance of succeeding in. At least, no residents of Biprism should have had a chance of succeeding in such events, but while there were no comparisons yet, as so far they hadn’t progressed past the planetary rounds, it was clear that Dr. Spiritlight and Raygunnr had a chance. A chance that everyone secretly, and as in the cases of the Teleiotís, not so secretly, worship her.

  While Mallory has not gotten to the state of worshipping Dr. Spiritlight, she has felt an undeniable want to worship the deeper spirit of Biprism. The spirit that Mallory now finds herself crediting with protecting the Midnight Hunters for all those years when they were lost nomadic experts waiting to find a place to call home. Then the want to thank that same spirit for guiding her to Dr. Spiritlight and following her when others would have faltered.

  In a way, following the crazed doctor was almost a tribulation. Especially as every time the Guild seems to get close to being in the black and showing a substantial profit, that is inevitably when the greedy pixie would strike and earn a world announcement. The only benefit so far being that for some reason Cass has never claimed any of her guild rewards, instead allowing them to draw interest that can be used in the form of loans or other Guild related actions. Even the millions that she spent on Guild purchased goods are a drop in the bucket to her unlocking world announcements every few hours.

  Part of her wanted to dismiss the payments all together, but the underlying system of the world is just. If Mallory wanted the Midnight Hunters to be able to gain credit for the accomplishments of a Guild Member to affect the whole, a sizable price must be paid. To this date the minimum has been a million gold coins per World Announcement, meaning that the world breaking Doctor has been on a tear through the Guild’s coffers.

  Even at times like these, or maybe it would be better to say that especially at times like these, the Doctor has been able to push not just herself, but those around her to do better.

  As time goes on, Mallory swore she can almost feel a faint tugging from the world, a subtle warning to wrap things up early or else she might miss the auspicious moment that is subtly building up behind the scenes. Feeling that same growing sensation of suspense, Mallory decides to forgo drawing out the qualifying match she and her team are in and instead execute a quick exit.

  “Everyone, attack all out,” Mallory cries as her trusty ethereal scythe appears in her hands, a sign that she is finally taking this moment seriously. Everyone else seeing her reaction pause, draw back behind her scythe’s forward attack radius and wait for her to unleash her full power. Simultaneously, the remaining members of Legrand’s primary attack squad halt for a second, this pause, this hesitation is all Mallory needs to unleash her full force.

  Pooling all of her ethereal energy into one devastating strike, she attacks, leaving nothing behind, that’s when she releases her ultimate attack.

  Slicing Sky Scythe Slash!

  An attack so ridiculously named that Mallory mentally calls it S-Cubed, never calling out the attack due to Cass’s confusion of it being the rapper. Gah, even now, caught in the heat of battle Mallory can feel the pixie’s effects on everything. As it was the pixie who taught her to maximize the effectiveness of her strike, as the blade didn’t cut through just one realm of existence, but somehow felt like it could cut through all realms of existence all at once, making the attack both devastating and nearly impossible to dodge.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  The strike, aided by power, determination, and the training provided by Dr. Spiritlight herself, Mallory felt the moment the attack clicked into place, as her ethereal blade grabbed and then easily slid through multiple stacked layers of existence. Then with a swift flick of her wrists, she shot the force of her slash forward to slice through all enemies before her.

  What happened next was death on multiple realms. As a Valkyrie her eyes allowed her to see into the spirit realm, which gave her a second and slightly delayed view of half a dozen fighters being ripped in half and falling to the ground in the mortal realm. While the spirit realm showed the spirits of her foes being forcefully separated and then having the bodies float upwards and dissipate before her very eyes.

  A crude attack that would make it so even the Doctor would have a hard time grabbing the spirits and piecing them together, even if she was right here. The fact that she wasn’t meant that these opponents had next to no chance of survival, a fact that Mallory and her executives had planned out for weeks. Finding the Legrand team with the worst offenders and forcefully sending their spirits onto the next realm. A fact that had to be done by coming to a vote, and making sure that all actions were performed and agreed to without anything being written down, lest the Doctor find out about the vote and try to stop them.

  Everyone had already determined that the Doctor was up to something, that her and her Simulacrums had a plan to save the world. It was clear from everything that was happening that the Simulacrums were all changing the world, all feverishly working in the background to make the world a better place. That was how Mallory managed to get the best and brightest members of her guild to stay behind, to avoid the better uploading conditions to the core worlds as they all put their trust in the Doctor’s actions.

  Actually, that wasn’t true, as words came back about private guild meetings. While Gwen had been allowed to attend, she remained silent, and instead only passed on the words of how the meeting went. In the end it was the words of Melkin, one of her most trusted bodyguards who noted, “we put our trust in Mallory, but our faith goes to the Doctor.”

  After that, all talks of people leaving the Midnight Hunters stopped. While other Guilds posted losses in excess of 50%, the Midnight Hunters only sported losses at around 12%, and of those most were refugees who had less than a year of membership. In all, they were winning.

  Gentle breeze.

  After her slash, there is a pause as the world seems to record and try to dictate what just happened. An effect that Mallory has become increasingly aware of in recent months. Again for a second it feels like her attack might be what is causing the break in the world. Then that pause is filled in by a reverse surge of dead air, or air that Mallory instantly associates with her time in the spirit realm. A scent of death and oddly of life.

  Mallory dismissed the notification, feeling the experience swelling up inside of her, but noting that it was clearly lacking compared to the typical quest rewards. Instead Mallory looked around and saw that in addition to Melkin and his wife, there were quite a few of Dr. Spiritlight trained fighters and magicians who comprised her final team.

  Pausing to lock onto Jhonny, Dr. Spiritlight’s most trusted guard, Mallory paused and locked gazes with him. For his part Jhonny just stared back, but then slowly got more confused the longer he stared back, until finally after an awkward pause he asked, “what?”

  Hearing the question, Mallory paused trying to find the best way to bring up the topic that needed to be discussed. Particularly as it was clear that Jhonny had the ear of the Doctor and could easily sow discontent with how he described the events of what happened here.

  “I trust, you will keep the final details of this battle to the highlights of we won?” Mallory asked.

  Jhonny blinked for a second and then seemed to come to his own realization.

  “What you mean, not telling Doctor Spiritlight that you eviscerated the Legrand enemies making it so they couldn’t even be Resurrected if the Doctor herself was present?” Jhonny asked.

  Mallory just nodded, realizing that there was nothing more she could add to that.

  “Of course I won’t tell her. We are trying to save the world, but I thought we all voted that we didn’t have to save all parts of the world. Just the parts of the world that were worth saving,” Jhonny replied.

  Hearing his reply, Mallory just nodded once more. Again the odd tingling sensation that something was about to go wrong was building in her mind, but she felt she had to do make sure this possible concern was over. While Mallory knew that eventually she could talk her way out of this problem if it was brought up, she would prefer to deal with this particular topic of eviscerating the worst of the world, after the world is saved.

  “If you are curious if I, or any of us will bring it up to the Doctor, then the answer will be a resounding no,” Jhonny added.

  Now it was at this point that Mallory started to get confused, but as she turned each and every SVC registered student who managed to get a starting spot on the Midnight Hunter’s Mixed Team Combat squad all nodded in agreement.

  “You would lie to the Doctor?” Mallory asked.

  “Lie, never. No if she asked if you ruthlessly eviscerated the enemy forces so that their spirits were destroyed in a matter of seconds and unable to be Resurrected then we will have to answer yes.” Jhonny states, pausing just long enough for that thought to sink in, before he continued.

  “That said, if she asked how it went, we will also reply truthfully. That you saved us all with overwhelming force to ensure we could all make it home safely and help represent our world in the next round of trials,” Jhonny continued.

  Exhale.

  With that Mallory let loose a breath she didn’t know she had been holding as she realized that they were all on the same page. They all wanted the same thing to not just save the world, but to save the best parts of this world, while removing the worst parts like cancer before it is allowed to manifest further.

  Then after a second, Mallory feels the need to double check and ask.

  “So you mean it, you aren’t going to tell her? But only reply to the specific answer she asks?” Mallory poses.

  “What of course, if she asks us why, we will all reply with the truth as to why we didn’t tell her to begin with.”

  “The truth?”

  “Yeah, we will tell her that as the Spy Guild Master we will assume she already knew and that it wasn’t worth wasting her time by retelling her the same truth,” Jhonny replied a slight smile forming on his lips. At that comment Mallory’s mouth dropped open as she realized something that was supposed to be a secret.

  “Wait, you knew?” Mallory began, then turning to face the other SVC team members, she found that no one seemed to be confused by the comments made by Jhonny, that’s when she opened her question up to everyone. “You all knew?”

  “That Doctor Spiritlight is the Spy Guild Master for the World’s End Spy Guild? Yes.” Jhonny begins and pauses for a second before clarifying. “Don’t get us wrong, we would never know based on her actions, but after the hundredth shady person dressed in rags who has no proclivity towards magic or Qi asks for ways to get on Master Spiritlight’s good side, we can all see that there is something she is hiding.”

  Hearing Jhonny, she realized why there was never a mission failure notification for Dr. Spiritlight being outed as the Spy Guild master to a non-guild member, as she never gave her position away, it was due to the failure of Guild members themselves, which would affect their guild rankings, not Dr. Spiritlights.

  At this, there was only one more question that Mallory had, which she finally asked, “what did you tell them that she liked?”

  “We told them she liked breakfast,” Jhonny began.

  “Oh and sweets with whipped cream,” Gabriellaz added. Hearing the comment from the female Qi fighter on the team, Mallory paused. Then looking at her, Mallory’s mouth went wide as she remembered the last time this exact SVC student tried to give Dr. Spiritlight whipped cream, in an event that ultimately ended with a classroom’s roof being completely destroyed and Mallory being somehow forced to always take over the Bloodline Awakening classes.

  “You!” Mallory hissed out, pointing a finger at Gabriellaz, who just smiled a coquettish smile at Mallory. Mallory opened her mouth to say more, but that is the moment the world seemed to come to life around her and force her into action once again.

  Seeing the message, Mallory felt the tension that had been building in her shoulders release, letting her know that this was the moment she had hurried to meet. Realizing that it didn’t involve Dr. Spiritlight, Mallory paused and was about to speak to Gabriellaz some more, before the system stepped in and let her know this was important.

  The time clicked by in her mind. Mentally she knew not to use the Guild Perk that would pull the person to her, as she could only use that once a day and it was best to save those for Dr. Spiritlight and her antics. Also, since it directly involved Penelope, it was easiest to use the ability to Teleport to any guild member.

  Grabbing the guild ability, she activated it and found herself waiting for the Talent to kick in. As she waited, she turned to Gabriellaz and pointed her finger, “we will talk again!”

  Gabriellaz paused at the sheer level of determination released by Mallory’s words. Then she was gone. Only to appear before a scene that would trigger nightmares in her mind.

  Appearing at the new section of the world where Penelope was apparently causing trouble Mallory appeared before a frozen wasteland. Seeing the realm of nightmares before her, all Mallory could think was, “not again.”