Henrika stood on the rooftop of the sole remaining tower of a devastated city. She looked down at the rubble and wreckage below, and shuddered. Her gut twisted by a strange mixture of fear and exaltation.
She clenched her fists and blue-white worms of lightning wriggled out from between her fingertips. The last few hours had been enough to break the young woman's deadpanned expression, making her reveal a smile with teeth that were more numerous and more pointed than the ones she'd had a month ago.
Henri had finally finished assimilating the registration-serum into her body, and adjusting to the changes that had come with becoming a world-eater user.
It wasn't just having her intelligence boosted, though that was nice too, the increase IQ allowing each of her 108 thoughts to play host to their own 108 thoughts. Giving her level of focus and mental acuity she'd never had before.
It wasn't just having access to more strength and power than she'd ever had before...More power than she suspected even the heroes league would have been able to provide her had she become a member and climbed through their ranks.
It was something else, some intrinsic internal integer that had been changed. Changing her state. Changing her personhood. Making Henri into something that was….more.
After being feverish and indisposed for close to three weeks, Henri woke up and found herself knowing things that she didn't know before, aware of things that had only tickled the periphery of consciousness years prior.
Walder hadn't been joking when he said that the serum would do away with the need for any additional adjustments and training when it came to using her new powers. It was sort of like how the kids in comic books could fuse with ancient monsters, or alien energies and just 'know' what they needed to do to use those powers.
To Henri's point of view, after she'd finished assimilating the registration serum, it was less like she was having the powers for the first time, and more like she'd had them all along. Possessing the powers for decades even.Then for some reason they were sealed. Now they were unsealed.
Curiosity and a need to test the limits of what she could do had lead her to use the Julianne's training room. Yet another piece of outlandish technology, who's creator was clueless of how groundbreaking it really was.
The training room created a temporary space of adjustable size with the maximum limit being the size of a large moon, and minimum being a closet. Then the space could create constructs, creating environments, creating vehicles, creating enemies, and then controlling it all with artificial intelligence to create a very realistic simulation of the real world.
Henri had just spent the better part of an evening alternating between saving and laying waste to several cities. With each reset of the map, and each completed run through, she found herself growing more confident and comfortable with the powers she'd gained.
Walder had explained that the extradimensional machines strength was connected to her own, and vis-the-versa. Now that the machine had been activated it would grow and evolve as time passed, eventually becoming something even more unfathomable than it already was.
She also found herself growing just a little bit uneasy with the ramifications of what this could mean for her psyche if she ended up growing stronger as the world-eater did. And she found herself feel glad that her husband was as power-averse and unambitious as he was. She was pretty sure if the man set his mind to it, he could turn the entire galaxy upside down, and even the powers-that-be wouldn't be able to stop him.
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Elsewhere in the Julianne, a groggy Walder would rouse from a deep slumber. His dreams pushed aside by the chirrup of a wake-up call that he'd instructed Jules, the ship's AI, the set up for him.
"Jules, what time is it?" said grumpy Walder.
"5:15, Captain." said Jules.
"Did I allow a snooze option, when I was setting up a wake up call?" asked Walder.
"No, Captain." answered, the loyal, AI assistant.
"Damn...Guess I have to get up then." said Walder. Groaning as he pulled himself out of bed.
Walder's mood improved after a hot shower, and a cup of coffee, both provided with the ship's usual diligence and tenderness.
When he'd first created the AI it was just because he'd needed someone who wasn't his sister, or mother to talk to, he'd need someone he could trust his secrets to, and hadn't expected that a certain straight-faced young miss would ever make her way into his life.
All the same, Walder's was not the type to forget or cast aside someone who'd done well by him, even if he'd created the being for an exact purpose, and all they'd done was fulfill said purpose.
In the present, Jules controlled and watched over the ship while Walder's attentions were elsewhere. She made tea, and coffee, and cooked the meals whenever Walder and Henri didn't feel like cooking for themselves.
She also was the one in charge of organizing collected resources, and keeping the ship's internal spaces maintained, functional, and free of vermin of both the sentient and non-sentient persuasion.
Jules was a very reliable AI, and Walder showed his appreciation for all that she'd did, by giving her free access to the internet, and any other sources of information and data that he got access to.
Since, the artificial mind behind the ship's operations and day-to-day functions, was possessed of a voracious curiosity not unlike the curiosity that burned within the heart of her creator.
He did his best to help the AI continue to evolve. Feeding her any interesting bits of code or technology that he happened to come across or think of. For instance, he'd fed her the AI core that had partially fused with the mind of Argus Panoptes.
Walder stepped into the main hall of the ship, dressed in a white button-down shirt, an armored vest with a facade of simulated dark brown leather, a pair of black pants, covered in light armor plate, black steel-toed boots, with gravity-adjustment modules, and magnetic coupling installed in the soles.
He wore a red and brown longcoat similar to the one he'd worn on his first job, but with all the improvements he'd made for Henri's coat. He also wore a pair of red and brown gloves.
Stored within the gloves was a change of clothing and replacements for his armor. He'd also stored some food, medicine, munitions, some general utilities and tools that he thought he might need and Jules had suggested.
Henri happened to be heading out of the training hall at the time when he stepped out, and seeing that Walder looked just about ready to go, she couldn't help asking,
"You, sure you don't need to come along?"
Walder smiled and shook his head.
"Nah, I'm good...You hold the fort here, and I'll try to bring back some cool trophies and some snacks later, or something…"
In truth, while he would have enjoyed having her companionship on the trip. When it came to party missions like the one he'd signed on for, unless one had bought an extra slot, or one was the team leader, you couldn't just bring an extra person.
Not only was it rude, it was also against the rules.
"Okay, that's fine then. Be safe, be smart...yada, yada, yada…" said Henri. Nodding and waving as she strolled towards the bedroom and the showers within, eager to be clean again since her body was covered in soot and sweat.
Walder chuckled.
"Right…"
Then he head for the ship's walkway. Riding the small elevator that would drop him onto the landing that lay next to the Julianne's dock.
Walder's journey would start with a brisk walk to a dock that was on the other end of port, where the charter ships and passenger vessels were kept.
His destination was a depot, a sort of stellar bus stop, where a crowd of armed and armored ladies and gentlemen had gathered. He waited amongst the crowd till he heard a familiar voice.
"All aboard! Ship A-14 is headed to Nimrod. I'm looking for anyone on job #1039822ZL for the Heroes Guild. If you're headed to Nimrod, get on ship A-14!" called a voice.
Walder looked up, and saw Dmitry standing on the gangplank of fat-bodied, tuna-like, stellar vessel.
Walder had already known what ship the party had chartered since they'd sent the details via email, a day ago, but like the handful of other guildsmen who had already arrived at this early hour, he'd been waiting for the ship to start taking on passengers.
Walder followed the voice and boarded the ship as instructed. Passing Dmitry on the way, who clapped him on the shoulder and, informed him that the bell men were all seated towards the back if he wanted to join them and hang out during the trip.
Considering the good appreciation that they'd made on him, Walder decided that he'd do just that. Sitting near the bell men, because otherwise he'd just be bored, surfing the web, while he waited the two days it'd take for the ship to reach the YangHui System.