Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 459: Turmoil

Morning fell upon the wetlands, bathing the natural scenery with its graceful light and allowing the hunters to see the aftermath of the siege with their own eyes. As usual, there was no trace of revenants ever setting foot in the wetlands and if not for the damage caused to the Pegasus, they would have believed it was nothing but a dream.

"How bad is it?" Cassandra asked Stella.

"I've only worked on te Mapple corporation zeppelins before and I'm not familiar with this particular design, but it looks far worse than it actually is. As long as the orichalcum wire is intact, the ship can still take flight, I just need to check the engine to know for sure how long will it be until we can depart."

"What are you waiting for, then?" Needless to say, Cassandra acted as the colonel she was with her usual 'no bullshit' attitude that intimidated her subordinates, but Stella didn't seem fazed by it. She was only a volunteer at the army and she knew her expertise in engineering made her immune to any army punishment, her only worry was to get out of the wetlands as soon as possible.

"I wish I could, but without 'her' there's nothing I can do. The hull's purpose is to make the ship aerodynamic, albeit important, it's pretty simple. But the engine, that's a different story. Each engine is designed to match the ship's specs, there's a certain amount of energy that needs to be redirected to the other components.

In summary, without that information it would be easier to build the ship from scratch rather than repairing it." Stella's explanation might as well been in another language, because Cassandra didn't understand a word.

Contrary to her sister, Cassandra was never academically inclined and she lacked the base knowledge to understand the inner workings of an airship such as a zeppelin. What she understood, though, was that in order for the ship to be repaired they needed Medusa's presence and that was a problem.

After accidentally petrifying Nika, Medusa fell into a turmoil. She couldn't sleep, she couldn't eat and she locked herself inside an empty storage room to cry without risking other people's safety.

"Why? What did I do to deserve this? Sam became a heavenly rank and then Uriel did too, I just wanted to be like them." Medusa sobbed in the dark corner of the storage room. All the excitement she anticipated for when she turned into a heavenly rank hunter became horror once it happened and all the joy that came with her promotion dissipated before she could make sense of her trait.

Many times she dreamed of becoming a heavenly rank, one strong enough to protect her friends, and then going back with Uriel.

Inside her mind, the one thing that kept them apart was power. If she was strong enough to face Water warlock, she might have been able to protect Uriel from the start and he would have never experienced that detached phase or at the very least she would be able to save Sam, but she soon realized she wasn't thinking clearly.

"If I was strong enough to face that thing, I'd probably be able to end the war against cryptids by myself..." She let out after reminiscing the almighty cosmic being that used to dwell inside Uriel.

Channeling her new found power into fighting cryptids was the most evident path of redemption or Medusa, but before she could solidify her thoughts into action a knocking on the door took her out from her thoughts.

"Miss Medusa, we need your help to fix the engine." Cassandra said from the other side of the door in a respectful but firm tone.

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"I can't go out until I learn to control my trait, I don't want to hurt anyone." Medusa replied, but only after wiping her tears.

"We can stay out of your way if that's what you need, but our engineer is unable to fix it on her own."

"I said I can't." Medusa replied as a flash of crimson light breached through the gap beneath the door which made Cassandra lose what little of her patience was left. She wasn't afraid of Medusa's trait, if anything, she was envious of the incredible power she displayed.

"Listen, I know you just lost a friend, but that's life. I've lost so many soldiers, good soldiers, I can't even remember their names anymore. In the greater picture, they don't matter, all what matters is the contribution they made. It's time for you to stop moping, pick yourself up and do what is aske of you."

"That's easy for you to say, it wasn't you who killed your soldiers, but I... I..." Medusa's voice broke down before she could continue speaking and Cassandra took the chance to continue.

"It doesn't matter, even if it wasn't an accident, it doesn't hange the fact that if you don't get your ass off that room and fix the engine, we're all dead. We don't know if those things will return tonight..."

"They won't." Luna butted in.

"Luna!? Did you find a cure for Nika? Will she be alright?"

"That can wait, how do you know they won't return?"

"I can... uhm... answer both questions at the same time. I still don't understand the effect of your trait, Medusa, but I asked that soldier to use her trait on Nika and... mmm... it's bad, but that's also good," Luna lingered for a few seconds which made both Medusa and Cassandra want to slap her so she would speak faster.

"Nika has turned into stone at a molecular level. I scraped a few layers of stone and..."

"You did what!? She might still be alive in there and you harmed her on purpose!?" Medusa let out in disbelief. She knew Luna's uncaring nature, but she never expected her to be so cruel towards one of her friends. Though when Medusa remembered Nika's current state was her fault she regretted speaking like that to Luna who was just trying to find a cure.

"It was necessary," Luna replied, omitting the fact that she didn't even consider the possibility that Nika could still feel pain. "Nika's body turned completely into stone and doesn't have a nervous system anymore, which means she can't feel pain or move, but she's still alive... I think.

The good part is, the revenants that were turned into stone vanished like regular cryptids and some of them even dropped flux orbs."

"See? Your friend is fine, she'll be back to normal in no time. Now come out and fix the damned thing." Cassandra hurriedly said, but unfortunately Luna continued.

"I need further testing, but we've seen living statues before. There's a chance she's like that."

"Really?" Medusa asked dubiously, but even she knew that Luna wouldn't say something like that without evidence.

This time, though, Luna chose to remain silent. It wasn't any sort of evidence what made her think Nika would be alright and she just blabbered the first thing that came to mind in order to convince Medusa.

Despite always looking unfazed, even in the most dire circumstances, Luna was never a strong person. It wasn't that she didn't feel pain, but she was unable to communicate it like neurotypical people. She always knew she was different and that was one of the reasons why she chose to follow medicine as a career path and even why she investigated cryptids.

The whole reason why she was so obsessed was to find out what made her different from the rest and try to fix it. She didn't know if she was autistic or if her incapability to communicate emotions was a side effect of her being born in her werewolf form, but she was tired of always relying on other people to support her emotionally.

Now, it was her turn to provide support. Even if it mean lying, even if it meant hiding the fact that all the evidence she found so far indicated that Nika's condition was irreversible and was actually dead.

Luna wished she could mourn the passing of Nika, she wished she could let her sister hold her in her arms and cuddle her to sleep like in the past, but this time was different.

Luna needed to grow, she wanted to grow.

In all of her life she had only met one person that didn't treat her like a broken thing or a filthy monster and she wanted to be the kind of person that deserved to be with him.

'I'll show you I'm not a child anymore, I don't need your protection, I just want your company.' Luna thought of Uriel, the man who found out she was a werewolf and didn't treat her any different. The man who always protected her and even saved her from the claws of a nasty creature that would have done unthinkable things to her.

If she wanted to have an opportunity to ever seeing him again, she needed to grow into the kind of person she wanted to be, rather than fixing the person she had been until then.