Chapter 117 The Garage

An hour later, Evernya stirred awake in her nest of Evernium. Not ready to move yet from her heavenly bed, Evernya lazily stretched out, enjoying the contact of the silky smooth material on her skin. How could anything be this comfortable? Is it because the clothes have my mana in them? I don’t remember my original outfit feeling this nice, though, but I had other things on my mind then. Well, as nice as this feels, I better get going. I don’t have much time before the entrance exam.

Despite knowing she needed to get moving, Evernya laid in her nest for several more minutes in procrastination before sitting up.

Upon sitting up, a dizzy spell assaulted her, causing her vision to spin. Evernya supported her back against the side of the crate as she adjusted. “My lady, we must hurry. We are almost out of mana.” Kya prompted.

“Out of mana? I noticed the vault was thin, but far from the worst I’ve felt.” Evernya questioned.

Kya explained, understanding her host’s impaired mental state from mana deprivation, “Don’t you remember your mother’s story? She destroyed this land’s lay line in her suicidal act of revenge. The only reason this vault has any mana at all was because of the enchanted items held together by your father’s mana core. With the source gone, you absorbed most of the mana within the last hour.”

Impending suffocation lit a fire under Evernya’s butt, prompting her to climb out of her crate nest at a much slower pace than her entrance. Over a minute later, Evernya flopped out of the crate, landing with a pained thud on the hard stone floor. Evernya groaned as she pulled herself upright, using the crate for support.

Once upright, Evernya stored away her crate nest into her dimensional storage before stumbling toward the cart. Evernya collapsed onto the padded bench at the front of the cart, materializing a purple smoothie from her storage ring, no longer having the energy to retrieve a jug from a crate.

Evernya’s fangs descended as she poured the smoothie down her throat. However, a moment later, Evernya’s eyes sprung wide open. Evernya’s expression greened as she chucked the smoothie before leaning over the edge of the bench to expel the contents of her stomach.

Ten minutes of dry heaving later, Evernya rolled onto her back, spent. What the hell was that? It felt like a disgusting foreign substance entered my body. Did someone poison my smoothies? But the only ones who had access to them would be Aya, Meira, and maybe Maylin. I know Aya and Meira would never hurt me. I even doubt Maylin would either out of fear of her older sister. What happened then?

Feeling her host’s confusion, Kya added her input, “as I was afraid of, your body rejected the changed mana of Sespina. Fortunately, your current supply of purified liquefied mana should sustain you for a while.”

Evernya’s question died in her throat as a sudden urge to gasp for breath assaulted her. Unable to absorb enough mana with one breath, Evernya’s breaths became labored. “Hang on, my lady!” Kya exclaimed.

Afraid for her host’s well being, Kya connected to the control system of the cart, setting the cart to max power. The cart groaned under the massive weight of its payload as it crawled forward. Unsatisfied with the excruciatingly slow speed of under one km/h, Kya hacked into the controls, disabling the limiters before cranking the speed as high as she could. The temperature gauge spiked as the mana powered motor roared. Smoke pumped out of under the cart, but Kya accomplished her goal, forcing the cart over five km/h as it approached the wall opposite of the one Evernya assaulted with her crate nest.

Evernya’s face lost color as the last of the mana sucked into her fangs, forcing her mana core to take over in sustaining her body. Her reserves diminished rapidly as her mana pumped through her mana veins, barely sustaining her body.

Fortunately, a few seconds later, the cart drove to the wall, arriving in another room with thin but breathable mana. Evernya’s expression relaxed as she took deep fanged breaths while her eyes fluttered closed.

As soon as the cart pulled itself through the wall, it jerked to a halt, followed by several loud bangs from the engine under the bench. Kya tried to restart the engine several times, but it refused to start. After a quick diagnostic, Kya gave up, finding the motors fried and several gears shredded beyond repair.

Before her host could exhaust the room’s meager mana supply, Kya sent a mental pulse to Evernya’s brain, causing her eyes to spring open. Evernya massaged her temples, accidentally poking her hand on her sharp horns. I feel like crap. Let’s avoid mana deprivation for the foreseeable future. Before my evolution, I usually only got lightheaded and shortness of breath, but now it’s like a fish out of water. Do fish get headaches after returning to the water? Maybe I’ll ask one of the Mer they may know.

The sound of spinning gears broke her out of her thoughts. Too exhausted to sit up, Evernya tilted her head to the left, glimpsing a robotic arm emerging out of the bottom of the flatbed cart. The arm extended to a crate, pulling open the latches before reaching in to grab a jug of mana. Evernya watched with predatory focus as the jug neared her awaiting hands.

As soon as the jug contacted her hands, Evernya poured it down her throat with animalistic ferocity. Unlike her previously attempted meal, Evernya moaned into the jug, enjoying every drop. Within a few minutes, the four liters of mana disappeared down the fanged girl’s throat, never to be seen again.

Rejuvenated by the mana coursing through her veins, Evernya sat up, taking in her surroundings. She found herself in another large storage room, this time filled with rows of vehicles, most of which look on the verge of falling apart. Her eyes scanned the dozens of trucks, cars, and several other unknown vehicles straight out of a futuristic sci-fi movie that line the left and right side of the room. Damn, if only I came here thousands of years ago. This place would have looked like one of those crazy car collection videos, but now it looks like an underground junkyard. I doubt anything here has any chance of running without major overhauls, and even then, I’m not sure.

Despite the futility of it, Evernya’s curiosity prevailed as she hopped off the bench to investigate the room. Evernya walked past several rusted beefy trucks with wheels taller than her petite body. She stopped to inspect a sports car resembling a modern Porsche resting on corroded bare rims. Curious what color the car was, Evernya ran her finger down the dust-caked hood only for her finger to remove the black paint revealing flimsy metal underneath. She trotted to the driver’s side of the car and grabbed hold of the door handle, but with only a light pull, the handle popped off. Unable to see through the crusted windows, Evernya moved on.

After trying to open several car doors, Evernya finally succeeded on a four-door sports sedan, a half a dozen cars to the right of the Porsche look alike. With a loud ear flattening creak, the door opened, revealing a musty but intact black leather interior. Evernya sat in the driver’s seat, finding the key in the leather-wrapped center console. As expected, upon turning the ignition, nothing happened with whatever powered the starter long since dead. After a cursory scan of the interior resembling a typical luxury sedan like a Mercedes or BMW, Evernya became bored, prompting her to move on.

Evernya left the driver’s door open, sparing her ears as she continued down the left side row of vehicles. Unfortunately, all the remaining vehicles consisting of SUVs, midsize trucks, and sedans shared the same dilapidated condition.

Finished with the left side, Evernya moved on to the more interesting right side. It almost hurts seeing so many expensive vehicles rotting away, but at this point, there is nothing I can do. Sure, I could store them away in my dimensional storage, but I doubt anything is salvageable, and if it was, I could probably get a working vehicle on par for much cheaper, though I may be wrong since these vehicles are from a different era. Maybe the futuristic flying cars or spaceship-like vehicles on the right side fared better, though I doubt it.

The first vehicle Evernya approached had similarities to a spaceship, but like the others, the black composite outer body showed its age. One finger poke was all she needed to know it was beyond saving as she left a dent in the flimsy material. Past the spaceship, Evernya came upon several flying cars out of the Jetsons. Unfortunately, all three flying cars were convertible, leaving the interior exposed. Evernya glanced at the disintegrating cloth and leather seats before moving on.

With fewer vehicles on the right side, Evernya quickly reached the opposite end, finding nothing worth saving. “Why leave so many vehicles to rot? Couldn’t they have thought of some way to preserve them?” Evernya questioned.

“Your mother installed preservation systems, but from what I can tell, they quit thousands of years ago. Your mother didn’t expect your return to take over 60,000 years, so, unfortunately, a lot of your inheritance lost to the test of time.” Kya replied.

Evernya scanned the room one more time before asking, “Any chance something survived? If not, we better move on.”

Kya compared the inventory list with the room scanning for anything salvageable before responding, “according to the list, there may be one vehicle tough enough to survive, but I don’t see it here. It should be next to the high-altitude hovercraft that looks like a spaceship, but I don’t see it.”

Curious, Evernya returned to the dented spaceship to investigate. After finding nothing around the craft, Evernya looked inside the crusted window, spotting something cloth covered in the storage area near the back of the craft. Evernya circled the vehicle, trying to come up with a game plan. How should I go about this? I don’t want to waste much time since I have no idea what’s even in there, but if there is even a slight chance at obtaining a functioning vehicle, it will be worth it.

Unable to find any door latches, Evernya sprouted her personal sapphire can openers and got to work. Evernya cut with her right pointer claw on the left side of the vehicle near the back. Unfortunately, she quickly realized her claws weren’t long enough, despite cutting through the outer body like butter. Damn, this fragile can is harder to open than I thought. If only I could use Nekomata, but the risk of sucking the sparse mana is too high. I suppose I could send a force blade, but what if I destroy what’s inside? You know what, fuck it if it can’t survive a few measly force blades than it isn’t worth retrieving.

With her mind made up, Evernya released a force blade as weak as she could. Said force blade cut right through the vehicle, coming out the other side before hitting her range limit. Evernya eyed the thin two-meter tall cut with surprise. Well, there is no way around it. My control is shit, but at least I got a substantial power up. Before I probably would need to try to create such a big cut now, I have to minimize the damage. If I don’t, I’ll probably cut the whole damn vehicle in half. Actually, why don’t I do that? It’ll be a lot easier to extract my target.

Evernya launched another force blade this time, letting it fly without trying to weaken it. In a blink of an eye, the craft split down the middle, transected by a clean cut. Next, Evernya telekinetically pushed the front half, accidentally flinging it with a lot more force than she intended. With a loud crunch causing Evernya to cover her ears, the front half of the craft impacted her range limiter, crumbling into an unrecognizable pile of metal.

Unable to resist her curiosity, Evernya entered the back half to inspect her prize. Evernya pulled away the thin gray canvas-like cover, revealing her prize. Upon setting eyes on the cleaner but still dilapidated motorcycle, Evernya’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. One poke caused the black peeling fairing to fall off the frame, revealing the small tarnished engine underneath.

“Well, this was a waste of time,” Evernya grumbled.

“Maybe not, my lady. Grab a few jugs of mana and fill up the tank,” Kya suggested while looking over the specification of the motorcycle.

“Are you sure it’s worth it? I need the mana for myself.” Evernya questioned.

“Yes, if I’m right, the bike may be revivable,” Kya assured.

“I hope you’re right because after drinking Meira’s smoothie, I doubt I’ll be able to eat or drink anything aside from those jugs,” Evernya commented as she made her way back to the cart.

“I told you we should travel beyond the barrier. The changes in this area’s mana aren’t compatible with your body. I’m not even sure you can breathe the air.” Kya harped.

Evernya froze mid-step, turning toward Kya’s avatar, following her to her left with wide eyes. “What do you mean, I won’t be able to breathe!? How the hell will I even make it to the barrier if I wanted to?”

With a self depraving smile, Kya replied, “I’m sorry, my lady, but I don’t know. From the samples I’ve analyzed, I think you should be able to survive but at a lower efficiency, but I’m not sure. Worst case, we could fill a tank of mana and have you transported to the barrier like a fish in an aquarium.”

Evernya put off possible fish tank imprisonment in favor of the current objective. She tilted her head upward to survey the stack of crates, trying to find a solution. After a few seconds of staring, Evernya felt the urge to hit herself for her stupidity. Why didn’t I store the crates sooner? I could have avoided a lot of trouble.

Evernya trotted around the cart, storing away each crate a few at a time before jogging back to the bisected craft. “Why didn’t you have me store away the crates in the facility? We could have avoided using the cart, saving us a ton of time.” Evernya questioned as she materialized a crate in front of the back half of the craft.

“I’m sorry, my lady, but I can only say your dimensional storage would not work at the facility,” Kya replied with an apologetic expression.

“Another of my mother’s orders?” Evernya inquired with only slight annoyance in her tone.

After receiving a nod in response returned her attention to the current task. While eyeing the crumbling motorcycle, Evernya asked, “so what do I do?”

While staring at the motorcycle’s specs, Kya responded, “from what I can tell my lady, all you need to do is fill the twenty liter tank and if the motorcycle is revivable, it will do the rest.”

Evernya pulled the latches on the crate, releasing the seals, only to realize she was way too short to look inside. Fortunately, the edge of the back half of the craft was less than a meter away, giving her a convenient stool, boosting herself high enough to see inside.

“It’s a damn TARDIS in there. There must be hundreds of four-liter jugs in this crate alone.” Evernya whistled through her fanged mouth.

Unable to resist herself, Evernya snatched a jug, downing the glowing blue contents. Topped off, Evernya regained her control, grabbing two jugs before turning toward the decrepit motorcycle. Evernya found the key in the ignition, pulling out to unlock the gas cap. Unfortunately, the thousands-year-old key snaps in the keyhole on the gas cap. Using her claw, Evernya turned the lock far enough for the gas cap lock to disengage.

Evernya cringed as she opened the brittle composite gas cap, revealing a rusty tank below. With an expression of mourning, Evernya poured the two jugs into the rusty tank before returning to the box to grab the other three.

After filling the tank to the brim, Evernya pushed the cap closed before using her claw to twist the lock. “This better work. Otherwise, I’m blaming you for wasting twenty liters of precious mana,” Evernya commented with her arms crossed, staring at the motorcycle.

Kya remained quiet as she too watched the motorcycle intently, trying to spot any changes. Ten minutes passed, causing Evernya to become increasingly impatient, summoning her AI’s clock seemingly every minute.

Finally, after fifteen minutes, the first signs appeared. The motorcycle itself remained unchanged. However, the surrounding hull of the craft disintegrated, causing Evernya to scramble away.

Unable to contain her curiosity, Evernya peeked back inside the rapidly thinning hull to find the particles shooting toward the motorcycle. With each passing second, the walls of the hull thin to nothing as the motorcycle remained unchanged, despite absorbing most of the hull.

A few minutes later, all that remained was the floor as the motorcycle, having eaten its fill, stopped absorbing. Several more minutes passed before the first changes to the motorcycle presented itself. The once tarnished engine gave way to an identically designed shiny black engine before a matte black fairing materialized. The seat similarly transformed into a new seat wrapped in a familiar, beloved fabric replacing the previous discolored and cracked seat. The once unreadable display restored itself into a beautiful colored digital readout displaying the typical tachometer, speedometer, gear indicator, and several other relevant information.

Twenty minutes later, Evernya ogled the beautiful brand-new motorcycle standing upright without the aid of a kickstand. The restored motorcycle resembled a small sport bike, like a Kawasaki ninja 400. Matte black covered a majority of the small motorcycle aside from several sapphire accents, such as a thin stripe running its length, starting near the handlebars following the line between the tank and the fairing to the taillight.

Excited, Evernya hopped up onto the platform and swung her right leg over the bike. To her surprise, despite her short stature, she stood flat-footed. After several minutes of investigating every nook and cranny of the beautiful motorcycle, Evernya stared at the now blank readout with confusion. Unlike typical motorcycles, she couldn’t find a key or even a keyhole to turn on the ignition, nor was there an ignition switch. Along the handlebars, all she could see were black levers for the front brake, clutch and the twist throttle on the right handlebar with turn signals on the left.

After giving her host several minutes to figure it out on her own, Kya explained, “it performed several upgrades to increase security such as mana input ignition and AI pairing support.”

Evernya made an ‘oh’ expression before pushing her mana into the handlebars. A moment later, the screen lit up stating, ‘Welcome back Evernya, do you wish to claim me’ with a yes or a no option. Without a second thought, Evernya touched the yes option on the screen.

The motorcycle hummed in happiness as it sprung to life. The display turned to a typical digital readout with a tachometer and speedo before a near-silent rumble vibrated under her crotch, sending an almost pleasant but subdued vibration through the seat.

Wanting to play with her new toy as soon as possible, Evernya scanned for a way off the platform. Fortunately, as if expecting this issue, she found a ramp at the back of the platform, allowing her to roll the motorcycle backward. With a bit of reluctance, Evernya swung her leg off the motorcycle before rolling it backward down the ramp while keeping her left hand on the front brake.

With nimble maneuverability, Evernya weaved the motorcycle between the platform and the decrepit convertible hover car to the center alley next to the open crate. Evernya ran her foot under the bike, looking for a kickstand, but after finding none, she carefully positioned it upright, trying to mimic how it was standing on the platform. The motorcycle balances itself out, standing perfectly upright on its own, allowing Evernya to turn toward the crate.

Evernya grabbed another jug for a snack before closing the crate and storing it away. While sipping her mana jug, Evernya surveyed the garage looking for any exits but like the vault before, all she found was solid black walls. “So, how do we get out of here? We have to hurry. We only have three hours until the entrance exam, though from Meira’s previous timetables, I’m sure we have a bit of wiggle room. Despite her apparent laziness, Meira seems to love arriving early, so if she says 7 AM, I’m sure we could even pull off 9 AM.”

Kya displayed a serious expression on her avatar before replying, “are you sure you’re ready, my lady? Once we leave here, I doubt we can ever return. Despite the appearance of these vehicles, there could be several salvageable components.”

After a quick scan of the dozens of vehicles on each side of the garage, Evernya asked, “are you sure they will fit in my dimensional storage? Is it even worth throwing them all in there?”

Kya’s expression turned far away for a moment as she performed calculations before responding, “according to my calculations, you will have plenty of space. As for the usefulness, I can’t say without more knowledge about the outside world, but the materials alone, even in their less than ideal state, are probably worth something to the right person.”

I suppose at worst I could probably sell them to some scrapyard for some spending money, so I may as well drag them along for now. Evernya thought before wandering around the garage, storing away every vehicle while casually sipping on the last bits of her drink.

After completing her lap of the now empty garage, Evernya returned to her humming motorcycle. Before she could ask the next question, Kya said. “To leave exit through the center of the wall opposite the one we entered through.”

Evernya reluctantly slipped off her comfy bodysuit in favor of shifting her natural armor to protect herself while riding. The scale clad Draecath hopped on her motorcycle, shifting it into first gear before slowly rolling toward the spot Kya’s avatar was pointing.