Axln and Lyun found themselves comfortably in the archives once again, the book they recovered finally delivered to Jhez. Even the power armor they had brought back was getting quite the intensive investigation, leaving the girls feeling like they had achieved quite the considerable success.

Soon after though, Lyun found she had missed more than several calls on her cell, all from the same person. Reading some of the messages that had come with it, she had discovered that Yhzia’s sister had actually been trying to contact Yhzia for a while now.. and had never been a recipient to any replies. She had even gotten ahold of Ezhyrae and found herself without any straight answers. Ezhyrae had instead simply told her to call Lyun if she really wanted answers, and had shared the relevant number. Of course, in all of the commotion, she had forgotten about that little scene at the start. She had happened to have left Yhzia’s cell at her sister’s house the entire time, and not once ever took responsibility for letting important parties know what had even happened. She might have thought to claim that it wasn’t as if she knew Yhzia’s sister very well, she really didn’t know the woman much at all beyond the pet incident that had kept her away from actually making friends with the woman in the time since. Of course though, the girl would worry about her sister.. and Lyun was the only one who could really explain what had happened that day.

“Hello?” “Oh! Is this.. uh.. Lyun? Sorry, I forgot your name there for an instant. Listen, I’m getting really worried, Yhzia has gone silent for a while now, I’m worried something might have happened. Ezhyrae seems to think you could help me figure stuff out.” “Oh, uh, yeah. That’s.. really quite the story, you won’t even believe a fragment of it.” “Why does it sound like you’re at the food market? Yeah, didn’t that girl just talk about a class report. Are you at the academy?” “I.. uh.. might be.” “Oh, perfect! Can you meet me there?” “This really isn’t a place to talk. Here, can you meet us at the archives? I’ll send the exact room by message, along with some handy tips for directions so you don’t get lost too. I’m going to head back there and I’ll meet you there, okay?” “Oh, yeah, sure, archives, got it. Not a problem at all.” Lyun ended the call Yhzia’s sister had begun in that instant again, almost regretting accepting it. She had just been finishing having a quick snack, this was going to complicate everything. She made sure to provide the promised directions at least, the room specifically being to where Axln was doing some studies. It was probably the best place for them to deal with this mess, and Axln would really have to be a part of this stuff. The girl might be Yhzia’s sister, but technically that also made her Axln’s sister.. in about the same way as how Lyun had an unexpected sister on the other side, too. That reminded her that she really might want to touch base with such a sister too, hopefully before Lyun’s own sister figure started worrying about her too. She quickly made her way to the designated location, discovering a woman standing just outside, having visibly been locked out.

“Lyun, right? Hey-hey! I.. I came as fast as I could, which I guess.. was faster than you. It.. it seems you weren’t inside yet. They kicked me out pretty quick.” “She’s still finishing her exercises, but should be nearly done at this point. I’ll go inside and make sure things are fine for us to talk soon.” “Oh.. oh, yeah. S-sure.” The girl was absolutely vibrating, she had so much energy it was leaving Lyun’s head spinning. The girl was even honestly talking at an energetic speed, having her stutter more than once as she tripped over her own tongue. Lyun slipped inside to find Axln wrapping stuff up. Axln could obviously tell something was up, her quizzical look getting an apologetic one in response. Once the ersatz in attendance was also gone, and everything was organized for a discussion, Lyun let the girl in. She sat there listening to the full tale, depression visibly sitting in on everything else the girl might have had going on, the energy of the room lost. She too confirmed the incredible tale of her new sister, which didn’t end up very hard. With a lot to think about because of such, the girl eventually simply left to collect her own thoughts her own way.

“I’m sorry.. Axln? This is a lot to go over. I know this would be rough for you too, suddenly finding yourself in a brand new family. I.. I’ll get back to you, I promise. Do you have a cell, we could exchange contacts.” “A what? No, actually.” “Really.. A girl shouldn’t have to endure in this society with no window to the outside, I’m surprised Lyun didn’t know better than that. Okay, fine, later you and I will go get you one then from the academy’s grand market, I know just the place. Don’t worry, your big sister Xwyhr has your back! .. I just need to spend some time for myself first.” Xwyhr left at that, leaving Axln a bit muddled. Big sister? She could have sworn the girl was younger than her. Maybe that was just Xwyhr’s expression of responsibility for someone as inexperienced in the ways of this world as Axln. Either way, that had taken quite a lot of time, Jhez would be expecting them. However, when Lyun and Axln arrived at Jhez’s room, they found a typhoon of activity that in no way represented someone waiting for anything.

“Oh, right, Axln. It’s that time already? Everything goes so quickly when things are going wrong.” “Wrong? Is there a problem with the book.” “Oh, funny you should say that. Specifically, the research on the book itself is still progressing reasonably well. We’ve got some translation indexes available, but even that is having a rough time keeping up. Would only be a matter of time.. something we are suddenly running short of. You see, it seems the foundry has become very.. proactive. They are demanding the immediate return of a very specific tome, and aren’t exactly in the position to accept any delays. It seems they have weaponized the wardens and have laid siege to the entire academy, something that has been absolutely unheard of before. There have been claims that the tome was used to sabotage their own property, not only costing millions of qeld in expenses, but they had mentioned that the process had involved the injury of around four hundred wardens, eighty of them in a critical state, five of them already perished. Claims of the individuals they are searching for have escalated from being simple thieves to outright terrorists. They are claiming that their invasion of the academy is thus fully justified.” Jhez looked probably far more tired than he actually was, and Axln seriously couldn’t blame him for it. It was all too obvious that the woman from before was back to taking very high-scale actions, being that desperate for the book.

“Administration is taking great offense to all of this, but they know the academy isn’t exactly outfitted for an actually weaponized conflict. Administration is even of the belief this is way bigger than just some terrorist thing with a book, that this is actually some great conspiracy to force the academy into the foundry’s control. It’s an act of war. I fully agree, even knowing a bit more than administration does. To me, it looks like the foundry wants to control the veil itself, and is using us as a stepping stone to that goal. However, I have no idea how we might stop them. You even mentioned you were chased in the other world too, there might not be anywhere you can simply run to. I’m sorry.” Jhez looked absolutely defeated. Lyun and Axln both ran outside, hearing the commotions build up outside. Making their way toward the perimeter of the academy, they could see the endless battalion of siege weaponry, instruments mounted upon a variety of thick ebony transports of a vast slew of designs, with a scatter of uniformed troops all but glowing in their elemental armor. Both girls turned to look at each other, realizing that they were about to be responsible for countless losses at the academy. Some of them were even reasonably close to the two at that point. Even so, there was absolutely nothing that could stand up to the might of the foundry, it was absolutely unparalleled. This really was futile.

“Bloody hell, is there anything that can stand up to a force this size.” Axln cursed their misfortune loudly, a cry that did not remain unheard. Lyun jumped aside as a vortex opened beside her, an act she recognized as a rift gate. There was no rift receiver here though, so this was already unheard of. “Inheritor, it appears you are being threatened with a considerable show of force. Do we have your authorization to deploy a suitable response?” “What? Luna? What are you doing here?” “I apologize, but I have come to personally receive your instructions. Do you wish to deploy a suitable show of force in response?” “Oh, uh, sure. If you can defend the academy here, I would be very thankful.” “Acknowledged. Deploying the colossal. Activating spire strike emitters. Destroyer pods on standby. Rift sequencer is fully operational.” Luna was saying a lot of things that Axln didn’t understand, but it didn’t take much to figure out the general idea.

A falling star passed from the citadel in the distance, the comet striking down in the open field between the oncoming force and the academy. Standing up from the impact crater was a towering monster with an array of weaponry. The largest of the siege weapons they were facing could simply be stepped on by something this huge. Several of such actually took to firing upon such an imposing figure, all of the shots rippling off of a shield the thing possessed harmlessly. Visibly aptly named, the colossal then turned towards one of the weapons that had fired upon it, a volley of missiles ripping the thing to smoke and shards, two of the others splitting in half as a beam of light sliced right through them. Several other crafts moved into position to overwhelm the one imposing figure as the star lit once again in a rain of light. Beams of pure might struck down upon eighteen of such crafts at once, vaporizing them.

“Enemy is not responding to an initial show of force. Scaling up demonstration. Activating Destroyer pods, Rift sequence in progress. Charging Fortress core weapon in preparation of another escalation.” Luna clearly wasn’t even done with this. Just as suddenly as she had herself appeared, the field was scattered with countless other larger rifts opening all over a few instants later. Destroyers? To Axln, the entire selection looked far more like some kind of super tank. Several of the battalion let loose upon their enemy in a photonic burst of elemental destruction. At this point, a lot of the rear forces were trying to make themselves even more of a.. rear force. Axln meanwhile was getting worried about how many lives this might be costing.

“Luna, uh.. maybe it might be nice if some of the demonstrations did not result in lives lost.” “Twenty seven enemy casualties have been identified. Accepting conditions for demonstration. Deploying the core where no casualties may result for an initial shot. Selecting an appropriate destination. Target found. Core deployed.” Axln was actually starting to feel terrified by Luna at this point herself. No wonder there were concerns of their making use of the citadel.. the bloody thing was a serious super weapon. This wasn’t ever as qualified as when the next strike hit. A blinding purple flare surged the skies at this point, a violet beam much larger than the size of the entire academy striking harmlessly at the armada’s flank, a purple flame which burned even in the void erupting on empact. Not even ashen dust was left where the strike connected. That single strike could have obliterated everything.

Very hastily, the entire enemy force made a prompt withdrawal. Soon after, even Luna’s forces were gone too.

“Please remember that all fortress defenses are at your call at any time. As inheritors, the entire fortress is at both of your commands. Is there anything else I can help you with at this time?” “... bloody.. hell…” Luna left Axln absolutely speechless beyond that, at a total loss for anything else. Lyun was only cluing in that she too was being included in the whole inheritor thing. Wait, that means all of that power she had just seen, that was all hers too? A power that surpassed even the foundry, this was insane. That would make the two of them viable as the two most powerful people in the world.. in regards to their military might at least. However, turning around, they quickly noticed quite the crowd staring at them. It seems they might have developed quite the reputation with their demonstration, all so unexpectedly.

This same fact haunted the two of them all the way back to Jhez. You could tell he had gotten the latest reports too, stuff sent directly from administration. Apparently, the entire secret was exposed after that, administration being completely aware that the two of them were the ones hunted by the foundry. However, this in turn garnished them the support of the entire academy. It was clear that everything that had happened was simply a result of the foundry being scared that there was suddenly someone discovered to be a threat to their prosperity. The fact that the two girls were even willing to stand in the defense of the academy against the foundry made them local heroes. Luna meanwhile had actually remained on the surface, disclaiming that she was looking out for the interests of the inheritors. Axln was quick to interpret that as Luna was making sure that Axln’s friends would get protection and her enemies would get retribution. If the academy treated the two of them well, there would be no problems. She had to admit, that left her feeling especially uncomfortable. She was always used to being the lowest rung, just another conduit. On this side, she would have to deal with the uncomfortable fact that people would be taking her role going forward, that any who inconvenience her would be then quick to apologize in fear of a harsh retribution.

“Okay, Luna, let’s at least make something clear. I know you’re here to have our best interest, but I would like you to at least be aware that we should be fully capable of dealing with our own small scale incidents. If my life or health is in danger, you can save it. If it is in danger because someone is intentionally trying to cause harm, you would ideally still just scare them away without causing harm in turn. If anyone is just being a bother, I’ll probably just take care of them myself, no help required.” “Acknowledge, harm is not to be delivered without explicit authorization. Automatic permission to address concerns are only valid in situations that threaten life or health.” Axln sighed, honestly missing machines that had a much more life-like thought process like her nanites at that moment. Even so, people originally believed very little intelligent thought would be possible in a nanite as well. Maybe this was just going to be yet another long process.

On matters of long processes, Axln returned to her studies. However, her head feeling as clouded as it was, she was finding it easy to get distracted. Inadvertently, she had switched to simply reading the latest passage with her circlet, her eyes not even looking at the same passage. She just wasn’t in the mood for the long way right now, she already had a key to translate with, it would just be easier to read things like this. Even Jhez was using the same approach, making a key for their book instead of actually learning the language. In the middle of that thought, Axln paused completely. Of course, why was she wasting Jhez’s time doing translations for her if he had already obtained an appropriate key for her. The key would only translate that old elven to the modern language she was still learning, yes. However, she had already perfected that conversion, the reading she could accomplish from her circle was guaranteed accurate. They had wasted enough time trying to simply read that book, she would have to complete the reading for herself, a much quicker solution that would finally get people off her back about it.

Getting her hands on the index along with the cryptic book, she started making optimum use of her circlet to the task ahead. First, she scanned over the entirety of the index. Helpfully enough, it appeared most of how writing had occurred in the past hadn’t changed very much, it was almost the same style. There were a few different characters, things that represented new sounds, or old sounds that were lost. Sentence structure was probably the most complex thing, but the meaning of words had the largest selection of changes. The fact that it was a language based upon another language though, so carefully, it was much easier to track than her original efforts. It probably helped that she had already done another language tracking at this point too. However, it was still plenty of work, the index alone was making her tired. Even so, she was absorbed into her work, she had worked under these conditions countlessly in the past. She could keep going a while more.

Lyun however was getting worried, having heard about the whole ordeal. It still concerned her that the book there had her name on it, it left her feeling as if she should be present for everything. She walked in while Axln was still double checking the index, testing herself by guessing what an elven word should be, before she checked it. She had done programming in languages before, such archaic stuff was still being taught, but only in this world had she gotten to program a language instead. Feeling very confident in her results, she set her attention on the book at last, Lyun edging closer as it was picked up. Axln opened the book to the first page, and watched as the words spread across the page. Then, just as suddenly, her enhanced vision picked up the words hidden within the words.

This book was never intended to be read by a simple human, it required the pristine vision of an elf to read it properly. However, Axln had in fact been artificially given such a potential. The book itself was not intended though to be read by a simple elf either, it had been even further protected in that. The book of the veil was only designed to be read by one in tune with the veil, one who could grasp things at a level beyond the fabric of the world itself. Originally, it was designed so that the only reader was one chosen, who might get a response from the world itself.. but this wasn’t Celese anymore, and no one was simply chosen anymore. More so, the book had been touched by elves of both the celestial storm and the astral flame, it had become something far greater than just a worldly artifact. There was just one more seal remaining, and as the infatuating glow of the book drew Lyun closer, her gloved hand began to shine. In response, it’s pair shone too, connected to the reader unlocking its secrets. The entire room went a pale white as the pair were themselves stuck reading the book, unable to turn away. The pages of the book flipped on their own, and even Lyun seemed exposed to what was being said while Axln noticed she wasn’t actually picking up exact phrases with her circlet anymore, she was more reading the book itself, not the words upon it. Pages flipped faster and faster as the book presented itself in full.

However, the book was not its pages, and as the pages ran out, it was the world itself that flipped next. At that point, they were seeing the page as the world, a blank white canvas at first impressions, but one they were firmly printed upon.