Related Chapters
The Least Common Denominator L.I Equilibrium
Balance. A balance in all things, yeah? There was some sense of status quo in the way the world works. From the natural water cycle to every other food chain out there, nothing is ever lost in the middle of each process; the world maintaining the same base matter and ingredients in its system only in a different manner or form. Perhaps there would be some loss of energy along the way, but overall, nothing was ever lost in the grand scheme of things. Even income inequality worked like this, unfortunately. Money needs to be scarce to have value, and thus the poor and the rich exist to keep the rich rich and the poor penniless to keep the value at a rate that would help the economy. And while I wouldn't portray myself to be a harbinger of balance in anything, I was still a big advocate of fairness in an unfair world.And the explosion that echoed from the front door was just the inequality balance I needed t
The Least Common Denominator L.II Equilibrium
Livia flew off in a burst of wind.*CLANG!*Sparks flew as her blades met the handle of the Prime's war hammer while I was stuck watching from the sidelines, but that didn't mean I should just let my sister do all the work now, can't I? She had the strength and speed that I could never hope to achieve without years of constant training to stand toe-to-toe with a Prime. Meanwhile, I had thought myself capable of thinking up of various bullshit to get ourselves out of shitty situations. Leaning on my staff as I paced around the battlefield, I kept my eyes peeled for any sort of opportunity that would present itself sooner or later.That was the time that I had to strike.*CLANG! CLANG!*Livia rushed through with reckless abandon as her blades flew against the Prime. The Prime, meanwhile, stood
The Least Common Denominator L.III Equilibrium
My mind whirred at the implications of what this Prime just revealed to me. Did he mean that he taught Mother everything she knew? Or was he just a tutor of some sort? What was his relationship with her? A former superior? Did that mean that he was in the upper echelons of the Prime Thirteen? Or was it-"Calm your head, Little Eul," the Prime shook me from my thoughts as he laughed out loud. "Keep your head straight and fight hard."I blinked at the man that actually just gave me sound advice. A part of me was really starting to like the guy, but he still trapped Livia in a dome of earth. I couldn't just let that slide for my own sake. Also, "Little Eul?"That was my mother's name... So he really did know her before."Eul was your mother, correct?" the Prime pointed out as he put his fists up. "You're practically her sp
The Least Common Denominator L.IV Equilibrium
I paced around the small hill, knowing that going up there with no plan at all would be tantamount to suicide. The Prime had the high ground, but that didn't mean that it was impossible to beat him despite his overwhelming advantage against me in speed, strength, and experience...Okay. Maybe it was impossible, but that didn't mean that there wasn't a way for me to get through this."C'mon, Little Eul!" Lord Stone called out to me with his arms spread out. "You're mother would've swung at me already!"I snorted, "I'm not my mother, Sir!"There was no need to rush when I knew that Livia was just stuck inside her dome. She was safe in the meantime. Meanwhile, I was burning daylight trying to think up a way to approach the guy without eating shit in five seconds. Let me take my sweet ass time, dammit.
The Least Common Denominator L.V Equilibrium
I tilted my head in confusion, my victory utterly shoved to the back of my mind as more pressing matters threatened to swarm my thoughts. Congratulations? Pass? What the hell did I pass? A test? An exam?"I see that you're confused," the Prime nodded to himself as he stood over me. "Well, ask your questions and I shall explain them!"How forthcoming... But that didn't mean I didn't forget the reason I fought so hard in the first place, "Before anything, let my sister go.""Your sister? Oh! Olivia, was it?"Without any more prompting, the muscle-bound man sauntered his way to his war hammer. Removing it from the earth, the dome trapping Livia finally lifted revealing a wholly scared, yet utterly mad young girl. The grip on her blades was bleeding, and her eyes held a manic glint in them that I had only seen in a mirror o
The Least Common Denominator L.VI Equilibrium
"First up, stop calling me Lady," I pointedly demanded. "I'm not one of your Primes just yet."Grigori snickered in his seat, "Oh, of course, Little Eul. I suppose the same will go for Littlest Eul over there?"I rolled my eyes at the Prime's designated nickname for Livia, "Yeah, sure. Whatever."I felt my fingers tremble from the anxious energy that I was feeling. I was getting rather impatient and I knew it. I gotta focus and get all the info I could get out of this man before running for the hills.I guess I should put the train back on track, "So, my earlier question?"Last I recalled, Love pointedly said to us that the Emperor was more than capable of holding a mean grudge. And while I might have been able to slip under the radar during the first few months of my then-rebellion, the amo
The Least Common Denominator LI.I Number Line
Purpose: something that I never had in my previous life that resulted in my eventual demise by my own hand. While most were easily content with just staying alive and calling it a day, I was stupid enough to go higher and tried to find something that I was decent enough to do for the rest of my life without killing myself. Of course, we all know how that turned out, but I guess I just didn't try hard enough, in my opinion. Perhaps I was meant to be a doctor despite my hatred of responsibility? Or maybe I was actually supposed to be that one perpetually tired doctor that's somehow good with her job despite not really wanting to do anything with it? Either way, it was too late to speculate such things now that it had already come and passed.Besides, I had a better purpose of living leading me in the front right now."We're almost, Sis. Just stick close."
The Least Common Denominator LI.II Number Line
Okay, Crimson... Think... Let's survey the area and see what the hell were our options in this fucked up situation...Peeking out of the foliage, our current position was one of relative safety at the very least. Foliage all around, albeit kind of dry in terms of temperature and humidity. The camps were firmly in the center of a clearing surrounded by dry forest, counting to at least ten to fifteen campfires interspersed throughout the area. The surrounding forest connected to our current hiding spot; forming a circle of treeline around the proverbial death zone, while our apparent end target according to Livia was on the opposite side of the clearing which I could actually see was a real path complete with a trail...Okay? Now what?"Can't we just follow the tree line and avoid all of this entirely?" I whispered out."
Latest Chapter
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.V Cotangent
I don't even know what's happening anymore..."Huh... That looks far too complex even for you, Crimson," Phillipe snarked at my work. Technically Anne's as well, to be honest. "A square rune with that many parts? I don't think that'll work out in the long run.""You and me both," I rolled my eyes with the sarcasm of an overflowing dam. "Seriously, why are you here?""You're being annoying."I raised an eyebrow at the blunt delivery of his oh-so-important announcement. Giving him the best sarcastic inquisitive eyes I could muster, I let out a scoff as I began whatever this talk was going to end up as.'Right behind you there.'You always are, Ica. "And?"Phillipe smirked at me as if he knew exactly what I was thinking, "You're wasting
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.IV Cotangent
"Let's go crazy..."With a borderline manic whisper, I let my imagination cut loose as my hand moved on its own. Traps within traps, earthen sigils meant to sprout at a moment's notice, the world was my oyster as the goodies slowly accumulated with each stroke of my charcoal.'Don't get too carried away, Master.'I know. I'm not dumb enough to overload the thing before it even came to fruition.And that was the biggest risk to such a massive array as well. With so many moving parts, any wrong line or overlapping rune will pretty much make the whole thing explode. I couldn't stress it enough, even to myself. Do not make this thing more complicated than it already is.'And yet here you are having fun with it.'Don't test me, Ica. Or maybe I'll just assert me being
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.III Cotangent
Fiiiineee... You win, my precious Ica.The stuttering that ensued at the back of my head was like a soothing tune as I looked over my work. The communication arrays were gonna stay, as would the Essence storage runes at strategic parts of the palace grounds. Hmmm.... Wouldn't the communication arrays be two-way anyway? So why even bother with surveillance runes like last time?My hand moved to remove the minor additions I added on the dirt parts of the grounds, leaving me with more space to work with in terms of... well... anything, really. What kind of runes would even work on shaky ground? Dirt couldn't hold anything beyond the basic types of runic arrays. Anything more complex than a three-layered circuit would blow up instantly from the strain. I could maybe run- wait... why not just do that?The charcoal streaked across the outskirts of the pa
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.II Cotangent
*ruummbbllee...*The sound of a sputtering engine echoed from behind me as I drew up yet another set of circles on the board. While I kind of put the general purpose of the massive multi-circuit array at the back of my head, I really should try and solidify that stuff properly before making the main control array, shouldn't I...'Good thing you remembered that, Master.'I grumbled through the dull pain I was feeling at my knees as I focused myself back on the doodle that was supposed to be a defense system for the palace grounds. It was far too small of a circle, now that I thought about it. The size of the drawing did little to help me ascertain the types of circuits that I drew on it in the first place. Squinting even further, it felt as if I was reading my own handwriting from how jumbled and nonsensical it all looked with hindsight.
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.I Cotangent
Plans upon plans upon plans. I feel like I'm repeating myself whenever I say that I'm obsessed about things going right, and if not, to have plans to be able to properly react to the failure. Fool-proofing something small was easy. Doing it again for something on the scale of a war, however, was a completely different beast. The number of variables at play, hundreds to even thousands of moving parts to look over and take into account. The time, the weather, morale, even individuals that might have other ideas and could stray from the plans put into place... It was so much to think about that hours or even days of pouring over the relevant information wouldn't be enough to take everything into account into one's plans. And even if you think you somehow managed to achieve this impossibility, there will always be something so monumentally out of left field that could just absolutely destroy any and all plans along with its sub plans and
- The Least Common Denominator
Interlude XXXIX: Grigori
GRIGORI⬛⬛⬛*RRRRRUUUMMBBLLEEEE!!!! RRRRUUMMBBLEEEE!!!*"What's wrong, Lord Stone?! Finally getting tired in your old age?!"Grigori grumbled in annoyance as he found himself standing his ground in his self-made fortress. Truth be told, the former Prime expected his fight to be over over ten minutes ago. However, he severely underestimated his enemies' hidden tenacity and downright stubbornness."I'm just getting started, kid!" he boisterously replied. "I'm far from being done!"Still, even as he said those words, Grigori was beginning to feel more tired than he initially expected. His reserves were starting to run dry from the constant back and forth that the combined forces of Lords Breeze and Inferno were throwing at him. And that's not to mention the current
- The Least Common Denominator
CIV.IV Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛"So Lord Iron truly took care of the problem?"Olivia held her breath as she found herself taking in the state that the young Num was just found in. Broken, battered, and bleeding all over, Tesla had clearly taken a beating of a lifetime as her head lolled in her unconscious state, her face marred with cuts and bruises as her white hair was stained brown with dried blood."Damn... I guess the ranking in the Prime Thirteen's not a joke, huh...""Lord Iron's the Sixth, after all. Lady Static's the Thirteenth...""Fuck..." Olivia swore under her breath, her teeth gnashing as she watched the Imperials gawk at her fallen friend. "How the hell do I get her out of there safely..."The warrior Den tuned everything out as she focused on the unenviabl
- The Least Common Denominator
CIV.III Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*c..crackle....*The faint sound of electricity seemed to crackle from the distance as Olivia stood in the middle of her self-made carnage. The lack of common sense that she was witnessing honestly made her feel more irritated than amused as she slowly walked towards the panicking commander. Olivia had places to be, and possibly someone to save depending on whether or not Tesla could somehow relay to her that she was okay."No matter," she sighed. "You idiots wouldn't understand, I guess.""No!-"*SLASH!*With a quick step, the commander didn't even stand a chance. His sword fell with an unceremonious clang onto the ground as his head rolled off his neck like a piece of meat. Olivia didn't flinch as the idiot's terrified fa
- The Least Common Denominator
CIV.II Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*CRACKLE! CRACKLE! KRAKATHOOM!*Olivia ran through the streets of Mathema like a woman possessed. Wreaking havoc across every Imperial contingent she came across, lightning followed her path as she relied on Tesla's ever-encompassing presence to deal massive damage on the enemy while despite being outnumbered by at least a hundred to one. She knew that Her Sister would no doubt disapprove of her current tactics, but if it worked, then why bother changing it?"If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?"*KRAKATHOOM!*"AAHHH!!!!""IT BURNS!"With a smile on her face and blood on her blade, Olivia uttered her Sister's own words out loud as a reminder. Lightning crackled behind her, screams of her fallen enemies saturat