Chapter 359 (2/2)

Silence descended on the table. Randidly knew his ability to sense and manipulate Aether was unusual, and Lyra certainly had cheated her way to getting there, but it was hard to hear the well disguised, but still obvious, yearning in Mrs. Hamilton’s voice. It was a sobering thing, and brought her back down firmly on the ground as human.

Randidly twisted his mouth wryly. After everyone treated him like this, he should know better than to be in awe of another. With enough hard work, anything was possible. Even running a town like Donnyton.

Randidly glanced to the side, looking at Glendel. The man simply sat, his eyes open, his gaze changing rapidly, shifting. Randidly turned back to Mrs. Hamilton, who cleared her throat.

“I… must admit I have a question, and I suspect the answer, but… I’d like to hear it from you.” Her gaze was heavy, and her voice was now low and sad. “Lyra… is not herself. I fear… We found her today, but she won’t speak...”

She didn’t continue. She didn’t have to.

“For now… I believe that Lyra should be back to herself. I suspect…” Randidly hesitated. How much truth…? But then he looked at the hard edge to Mrs. Hamilton’s gaze. Perhaps as much as possible so she is prepared. She was the one who knew best the state of the town, and could take certain measures, if the worst were to happen. “A renegade element, a Creature from outside the System, has for a long time endeavoured to manipulate me, using my… variance from the norm as a tool to its own ends. Apparently to hide from the purview of the System. That Creature has captured Lyra, and has been posing as her for these last several months.”

Mrs Hamilton closed her eyes and released a long breath. After a moment of hesitation, Randidly continued, “However, the Creature has currently taken the two Champion’s Regalia and run into the Raid Dungeon. To what end, I’m not sure. In the meantime, I came back and freed Lyra, and she used that to… tell me some information about things I haven’t quite figured out. I would appreciate your insight on these things.”

Humming, Mrs. Hamilton nodded her head. She stood, and walked to a cupboard, opening it, and removing, of all things, a gun. She twisted and pointed it at him. Randidly blinked.

“Hold out your hand,” She commanded. “I’m going to shoot you.”

Randidly almost laughed, but held it in at the last moment, noticing the seriousness in her gaze. Was she really going to just shoot him…? Was there a point…? Randidly held out his hand to the side.

The bang of the gunshot was surprisingly loud in the small house, causing him to wince. Then the world exploded.

Coughing, Randidly staggered back, feeling abruptly wan and drained, but otherwise unharmed. As the bullet had hit him, he had saw how a strange, pale white flame started at the impact point and rushed over his whole body, leaving him feeling… extremely strange…

Randidly staggered, falling to his knees. Then he grimaced, realizing the issue; most of the Aether in his extremities had gone, burned away. An annoyed roar came from his chest, as Neveah noticed the predicament, and Aether gushed out of the Crossroads and surrounded him once more. Then he drew it closer to his skin, keeping it so there wasn’t as much leaking out.

Being hit like that by an enemy… would be catastrophic. He would need to practice controlling his Aether to deal with it.

“We call it Talumurite. Well, the geologists who discovered it do. Most people just call it cocaine glass, or if they are talking about using it, they say they are going to get, randid. Cute, right?” Mrs. Hamilton said, returning to the cupboard and producing a small, white grey crystal.

“I don’t know if you’ve seen the notifications, but a rare mine spawned in our Zone, as a “reward” for reaching the Champion portion of the System. We found it near the Skeleton Knight’s headquarters, on our side, which is why we fought so hard for it. Alana has spent the last month securing it and the surrounding location. One of the things we found inside of it was Talumurite.

“With most people,” She continued. “Talumurite acts as a catalyst to vastly increase their Stats and the strength of their Skills. The cost is a bit of time bedridden afterwards. Based on what we have seen… it makes them burn their Aether hotter, as it were. But that is due to whatever impurities the System’s Aether provides, it controls the chain reaction, somehow. However… I first noticed it when Alana would injure herself when she tried it. Her Aether… it simply burned too fast. Left her weak. And I wondered, if it worked on her Aether, could it work on your Aether…. Or something higher up in the System…”

Mrs. Hamilton returned to the table, sitting down, and gesturing at Glendel. Without a word, he fetched another cup of tea for her, which she delicately sipped.

“That was my working theory,” Mrs. Hamilton said frankly. “That some sort of inspector from the System had come down and taken control of Lyra, using her body to view us, spy on us. It being a totally foreign entity that is doing it is… troublesome… but it clears up some other problems.”

She offered Randidly, who was shaking slightly, staring at the crystal in awe, a small smile. “If it worked on you… might it do the same on her?”