Talyra’s assessnt of him was swift and physical; as an archer, she scanned him from feet to head in about two seconds. She seed satisfied with what she found, exhaling through her nose in a manner devoid of any social nuance, rely a body processing information that had been tense.
Aisella looked at him with a look that said she was diagnosing him. She held it for about four seconds before saying, "You were in the secondary approach to the western district when the main detonation happened."
There was no question.
Rex nodded. "Well, yeah, just doing sothing usual as always."
"The force propagation at that position would have been approximately forty-two percent of source intensity," she said. "Given the field work you were doing on the secondary approach, you absorbed a significant distributed load."
"I’m aware," Rex said.
"You need to sit down," she said. "And relax. Let provide so healing to help you feel better."
Rex stared at her.
"You’ve been running at significant output for over an hour," she said, in the sa even voice she used for all of her honest assessnts. "The fact that your system handles regeneration doesn’t an the energy expenditure has no physical consequence."
"Sit down... my eyes can’t lie that you’re feeling exhausted."
"Alright, I honestly needed that," Rex said.
Rex sat on the low stone wall at the edge of the intersection. He knew that when Aisella spoke to him in that voice, he should take it seriously.
He also knew that she was right about the cost, which had been a significant factor in their decision-making process regarding the upcoming project.
Nerith was standing a little away from the others, which was in line with what Rex had seen of her positioning throughout the engagent. She had beco a part of the group but was still figuring out how much of a part she was.
She had her arms hanging loosely at her sides and was looking at Rex with the sa look he had seen her develop since the Avatar’s rescue in the market district stalls. It was still trying to figure out what to do with the information it was getting.
"You were in the western district," she said.
"Close by," Rex said.
"The blast ca from the plaza," she said. "That close."
"There were people between my position and the periter who hadn’t cleared," Rex said, which was true and was also the most useful version of what had happened to offer in this context.
Nerith regarded him as if she were reflecting on soone she had been re-evaluating, realizing that the reasons behind their actions were valid. She remained silent, but her expression shifted to one that was calr and more contemplative.
’Yeah... that nature-looking face can’t lie at all...’
’I’ll be going for you soon to see what it feels like fucking nature.’
Rex put it in a file with the notification he had received forty minutes earlier about the level of desire and thought, "Two weeks is more than enough."
...
Valentina arrived at the western plaza forty minutes after the absolute ceiling release. This duration reflected the ti it took the headmaster of the Grand Academy to travel from her office tower to the western district, which was partially obstructed by damage and ongoing ergency response efforts.
It also marked the ti Apollo needed to transition from pressing his forehead against the stone to kneeling upright. While this interval was a minor improvent in his self-assessnt, it was a significant change in how he appeared to anyone observing him from outside.
Valentina appeared as soone who had endured hardships and was not trying to disguise it. She had co to the plaza not out of obligation, but by choice—a choice made with the sa resolve she applied to decisions that were likely to be difficult yet essential.
She stared at the plaza.
"Oh my goodness..."
And then she stared at Apollo with a worried look.
She looked at the structure in the northeast corner, which Theo’s unit had marked and was guarding while they waited for soone with the right skills to check it out.
Then she walked over to Apollo, who was kneeling, and stood next to him.
"Apollo," she said.
Apollo looked up at her. His face bore the marks of having been pressed against fractured stone for an extended period, along with the additional signs of soone whose system had been operating at its absolute limit and had now dropped to baseline.
This resulted in a physical exhaustion that felt distinct from conventional fatigue, although it was just as visible.
"Lady Valentina," he said.
"I..."
Valentina looked at him for a mont before sitting down beside him on the stone. She didn’t do this to make it easier for him to talk; rather, she believed the conversation would be lengthy enough that standing would be a waste of ti.
"Tell what happened," she said.
Apollo told everything he could so that he could at least fix what he had just done.
He started from the mont he had positioned himself in the plaza after the alarm, which was the mont the engagent began from his perspective, and he went through it in the order it had happened, including the opponent, the identity reveal, the engagents with Zeraphyra and Vireth, and the specific sequence that had led to the absolute ceiling release.
He didn’t add his own opinion or make up a story. But he told the whole real story in order and let the events speak for themselves.
Valentina didn’t say anything while she listened to it all.
She was quiet for a mont after he was done, like when she was not sure what to say but was putting her thoughts in the order she wanted to talk about them.
She said, "The Undead Bringer."
"Xavier called himself that," Apollo said.
"So it really was Xavier Xenworth," she said.
"Yes, Lady Valentina..." Apollo clenched his fists. "And he acts like that because of Mordecai’s doing."
Valentina took a brief look at the structure in the northeast corner. "Soone with Apostle-level sensitivity needs to look at that construct’s divine signature."
"Elizabeth is the right person."
"Yes," Apollo said.
"What you did tonight," Valentina said, and the way she said it had the quality of soone who had decided exactly how to say sothing difficult and was saying it in that exact way, "saved this city from a coordinated undead assault of a scale that the city’s defenses were not equipped to manage independently."
"Yes," Apollo said, and the word had in it all of the things that word can carry when it is acknowledging sothing that is true but is also entirely beside the point of what the person saying it is living through.
"What you did tonight also destroyed a significant portion of this city’s western district, injured or killed a number of people who were not part of the engagent, and demonstrated that your activation, at its current ceiling, constitutes a threat to civilian populations when uncontrolled."
Apollo looked down at the ground with a pissed look on his face.
"Yes," he said. "And I don’t deserve anything after this..."
"It’s all my fault..."
She looked at him for a second and then said, "The city council will et tomorrow morning."
"What I tell you now is what I plan to recomnd, and I’m telling you this ahead of ti because you deserve to know the truth."
He looked at her.
"W-what...?"
"I am going to recomnd that you be remanded to the Academy’s restricted quarters for a period of assessnt," she said. "During that ti, experts will look at your system."
"They will answer the question of whether what happened tonight is a risk that keeps happening or an event that can be contained and handled."
"I... I understand," Apollo said. "I guess apologizing won’t change anything I’ve done for today..."
"It is not a punishnt," Valentina said. "Or rather, it is not only a punishnt..."
"It is also the only response that addresses the actual problem, which is not what you intended but what your system is capable of."
Apollo shook his head once.
"Yes... I’m fully aware of that, and I don’t deserve any gratitude just because I can’t control myself when fighting my enemy."
"I don’t want this to ever happen again if I ever fight with Mordecai."
"The families of anyone who was killed or seriously injured will receive full support from the Apostle network," she said. "That is already in motion."
Apollo said, "Thank you," and those two words ant more than they usually did, but they were the only ones he had.
Valentina stood up from the stone, and the motion had the quality of soone returning to administrative function after a necessary pause.
Then, from the direction of the eastern approach, ca a voice that was not Theo’s and was not any of the knights’ and not any of the people Valentina had arrived with.
"Wait just a mont, Lady Valentina!" Rex called out.
Rex walked into the plaza.
He had observed the situation from a distance for about three minutes before deciding to act.
During that ti, he realized that Valentina had made her choice, Apollo was prepared to accept it, the knights were maintaining their positions, and the crowd gathered at the plaza’s three accessible entrances was large enough and attentive enough to serve as an audience for anyone wishing to address them.
While he walked, he tried his best not to show a smile because he knew that this situation was a massive win for him already. What he was about to do would alter Aethelgard’s perception of him and the respect he commanded.
’With this mont... I can take one massive step to any destination I want.’
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