BXBX NOVEL Chapter 229: The cloud
To an extent, it was likely the noises of various skirmishes taking place throughout the forest that made him realign his focus. After all, the fact he was in another world now was a matter of importance… but not urgent.
And the battle going on all over the place was both of great importance and considerable urgency.
"What\'s up?"
Happy to switch my thoughts away from the grimdark reality of how quickly things went south while from when I left, I turned to the man… And then took a few steps closer, as I realized he didn\'t exactly mean to speak to the wider public of our group.
"What\'s up?" I asked again, this time in a much fainter voice.
"Can you buy us a minute or two?" Makary whispered while his eyes darted all over the clearing and the face of the forest that surrounded it.
"I don\'t think anything is going to happen that quickly," I muttered before turning my head and giving Fay a quick glance. "But yeah, I should be able to do that. What for, though?"
Makary smiled before raising his hand and beckoning at one of his picturesque friends. Then, as the man moved to one of the massive bags they brought with them, Makary raised his hand to his mouth to hide a small chuckle.
"I hope you didn\'t think I would come here unprepared."
Following this somewhat ambiguous statement, Makary turned away from me and watched in silence how the feminine-looking subbordinate of his pulled down the zipper of the bag and started to pull out strange, glass bulbs filled with some sort of perfectly black dust sealed inside.
Once he gathered all ten of them, the man continued to pull out several different devices, each stranger and more futuristic than the one before.
And then, as if to disregard the effort someone put forth to seal this strange dust, the feminine man grabbed the nearest of the glass bulbs… Only to smash it against a nearby rock, shattering the glass into a thousand pieces and scattering the black dust all over the place.
Black dust…
That rose in the air and quickly created a thin cloud of mist before fully dispersing on the winds.
For the next few moments, the feminine man continued to shatter one glass bulb after another, leaving none of the ones he pulled out safe from its shattered fate.
"The cloud will disperse evenly in the next three minutes," the man spoke and raised his head from the devices he was doing some magic on, reporting to Makary a mere minute after the entire process started.
"Do I even want to know what did he do?" I muttered under my nose, not exactly sure how to feel about the magic of technology.
Strangely enough, the magic of aura… felt closer to my soul than the magic-like wonders that the scientists of my own world came up with.
"That thing?" Makary\'s smile grew even wider.
Ever since things started to pick up pace, his face grew to fill with all sorts of emotions he didn\'t really want to share with the world before.
\'Maybe he\'s one of those?\' I thought, equally taken aback as I suddenly got interested in the man. \'One of those born too late to explore the world and too early to explore the universe?\'
The spirit of pioneers was something quite natural to the man. It was what pushed humanity to advance as a civilization, discover and conquer new frontiers, spread out…
But ever since the colonial age came to a definitive end, there were hardly any places left for humans to settle. Over the course of the next few hundred years, even those few places got taken care of, leaving absolutely no frontier for the humans to explore and brave through.
There was no frontier left… Unless one took my ability to open a portal to another world into account, giving humanity as a whole a brand new world, all for them to explore. And Makary, as the first recipient of this blessing was clearly living through every moment of it, now that he grew to accept it as a reality rather than a bunch of drivel spouted by a half-sane youth.
"You don\'t need to worry about it," Makary sighed as he attempted to brush the topic off. "This is pretty much what he called it," he pointed with his chin towards the feminine man. "A cloud.
Or a device that will upload the nearby layout of the space and locations of every living being into the local cloud," he added enough context for his words to make sense while pointing his hand at one of the devices his feminine subordinate continued to fiddle with.
And before long…
"Direct perimeter just uploaded," the feminine man reported. "Diffusion rate, roughly five meters per tick."
"Good," Makary smiled once more and nodded his head to the man before turning his eyes back to me. "Now we are ready," he announced. "After you."
In the end, it was me and Fay who were the only ones knowing our way around this place. And with the ongoing battle all around, we were also the only ones capable of properly discerning a friend from foe.
"Target at two hundred meters," the feminine man reported while sporting one of the devices on a special strap that allowed him to carry it around on his stomach, freeing his hands while keeping the display always just a glance away. "Not moving, seems to be breathing…"
"Keep me informed," Makary ordered before turning his face back towards me. "Shall we?"
For a second, I hesitated.
\'Should we leave this gate behind? Just like that? Unprotected?\' I battled with my thoughts.
Knowing my system, if something were to happen to the structure it created from the living trees…
"Well, we need to risk it if we want a biscuit," I muttered to myself.
With a decision made, I moved over to where Fay waited in silence for me to decide on the course of action.
"For now, we will have to rely on you to keep us safe," I spoke.
And even though I was leaving the safety of the entire group in the hands of my beloved… I didn\'t feel bad about doing it at all. Sure, the thought of Fay putting herself in line of danger for my sake was revolting enough to physically affect me…
But with Madam\'s presence still well-etched into the air of the forest, there was hardly anything I had to fear.
"Sure thing, hon," Fay smiled, turning into her kitsune form the very moment her lips widened into a slight, cheeky grin. She then proceeded to ignore the startled noises made by Makary\'s subordinates as she continued to beam the light of her smile down my greedy eyes. "Leave it to me!"
"Great," I smiled and nodded my head before turning my eyes over to the feminine operator of the black, dust-like cloud. "Where\'s that target you mentioned?"
"Three hours past the standard axis..." the man reported right away, only to then raise his eyes to me, bite down on his full, clearly painted lips, and raise his hand up to point the direction instead. "That way."