Last Updated:
2021-04-26 07:00:19
Previous Chapter
Related Chapters
The Least Common Denominator LI.VI Number Line
C-Cinq surccuu- what? Third Branch? What the hell did that all even mean?!"Speechless? You savages are usually so full of themselves whenever I do this," the newly-named Jospehine de Tourniquet hung her head in false exasperation as she seemingly shook her head at us. "Surely you have heard of the... Five Branches... if I'm translating this to your inferior language correctly..."While all of this was going on to her own fucking convenience, the wicked branches never stopped being heat-seeking missiles for us as they continued their warpath for our blood. The first few rays of the sun revealed the branches' light brownish color and red-tinged tips, but that didn't change the fact that Livia and I were still fighting for our fucking lives here!"Five... Branches?!" I panted out just as I deflected yet another rock-hard branch with my blade. "What t
The Least Common Denominator LI.VII Number Line
My legs moved quietly as I exited the foliage; fully expecting that the woman's guard was down due to her obviously large hubris. Her back was still turned as I slowly approached."Give up!" Josephine called out, a tinge of hatred coloring her tone. "Accept your betters!"Her thick accent didn't faze me as I made myself small behind her. I was in stabbing range right now, and if there was any a time for me to do this, then now was the fucking time.Rearing my sword back for a stab, I held my breath as I quickly thrust the sword straight onto her back-*THUD!*What the-"Did you honestly think I never felt you coming, Numérateur?"My eyes widened as a wall of branches suddenly appeared between her and my blade. The Firebrand lod
The Least Common Denominator LI.VIII Number Line
The world exploded in a flurry of splinters."Grab on!"Letting go of the vine, I hurriedly shielded Livia away from the shards of wood that threatened to eviscerate us. Covering her body with my own, what felt like millions upon millions of shards embedded themselves onto my back; my screams filling the air with the pain of a thousand needles before I quickly gritted my teeth and righted myself again to absorb the impact of our fall.Livia, of course, screamed at me for my suicidal actions."What're you doing?!" my sister protested as she did her best to fight me from bracing the impact. Not that it would make me change my mind."I'm saving your life!" I shouted back as I felt the breeze of a freefall shearing across my bloody back. "Now keep still so that it won't be a waste of my time!"
The Least Common Denominator Interlude XXII: Ica III
"Pardon my French, but you fucked up, Master.""You think I don't know that?!"Ica was never one for being patient with her Master's idiocy. Well, that was what she first thought, at least. She had been shaped by her Master's own ideals and self-image; her personality coming from her Master's repressed and atrophied perfectionist tendencies if the phoenix recalled. She never tolerated failure, even in her thoughts. And that was perhaps the reason why she was harsh on her Master's self-destructive tendencies.But then again, her Master was an absolute idiot."Oh, I know," Ica frowned, her fiery hair practically glowing with power alongside her currently gray suit. "But you could've easily found other solutions if you weren't such a drama queen.""I am not a drama queen!"
The Least Common Denominator LII.I Division
War and peace. I knew I shouldn't be musing, but I couldn't help but think about all the things that happened so far for us to be in this fucked up situation in the first place. From the sudden death of my parents in the hands of the Primes to my enslavement as a Denominator; to meeting Olivia, to our first rebellion and exodus from the Furnace, all the way to the establishment of the village and its subsequent fall; a lot has happened in the years that followed the abrupt end of my peaceful life. Was it a punishment for being a shit doctor in my previous life? Or was it just an effect of having horrible luck? I didn't know, and frankly, I wish I didn't have the urge to think too much about it. If all else, I should be focusing on the now instead of musing on the events of the past.Then again, I probably would do anything else if I could escape the blinding pain that came to the forefront of my mind as s
The Least Common Denominator LII.II Division
Like a Beyblade on crack, I spun forward with blades drawn out to my sides; my arms protesting each hit that I landed as I drew closer to my sister. Each rotation I did was akin to a weed-whacker; my arms flailing around on my sides while I let my blades do all the work. It wasn't graceful, and it sure as hell wasn't what Mother taught me on how to fight with dual blades, but if it was something I could do in spite of my shitty condition, then it was as effective as any technique out there that I could use."Get outta the way, Livia!"My body felt like it was on fire as I practically flailed my way to my sister's side; my own control shot straight to hell as I did my best to steer my body towards the plants that threatened to skewer her. Well, it was us now seeing as I was actually having my own share of branches to clear now. I guess the French fuck finally noticed that I was
The Least Common Denominator LII.III Division
The ground beneath our feet quickly turned into mush as the torrential rain poured down from above us. And to think that things wouldn't get any worse, the gods just had to piss on us from way on high with this natural disadvantage on my fucking element!Okay, think... I don't have the Essence to spare to keep my flames alight amid this fucking downpour. Maybe for a second or so, but after that, the rain would extinguish it without me pouring more Essence to keep it from dying out. By taking the side route, I had hoped to get away from this French fuck's effective range, but it seemed like I just made it harder for ourselves at every turn we took, and more branches greeted us like it was my goddamn birthday."Stick close!"Newly formed mud splattered on my legs as I haphazardly led ourselves through this bramble maze of a former camp. Even dodging
The Least Common Denominator LII.IV Division
In the blink of an eye, a torrential wave of water flew right over us, hitting our would-be killer and washing away the branches that threatened to skewer us. I'd chalk it up to a miracle if it weren't for the implications surrounding the attack that just happened.A Prime finally decided to notice the commotion here.Only a water Numerator of a considerable caliber was capable of doing such a feat. While I knew that the blue bitch was tailing me back when I was still with the twins, I highly doubt that this would be her doing. The most likely scenario was that the Empire finally noticed the gigantic fuck-off tree sitting right in the heart of Imperial territory. It was practically screaming to get checked out, and this was probably the nearest Numerator in the area, possibly someone that was stationed in a nearby city."Step away from the two of t
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
