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!"

MokouFriedChicken

Mid-chapter POV switch; a first for the LCD. It was needed, unfortunately. 

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• 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

• The Least Common Denominator   Interlude XXIII: Arya III

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• The Least Common Denominator   Checkpoint V

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• The Least Common Denominator   LIII.I Radian

  How long has it been since this wild journey of mine started in this fucked up world? Four years? Five? I had completely lost count of it all alongside my own age the longer I tried to live on for the sake of my sister. Then again, me losing track of my own age at least made it easier for me to delude myself that I was still young. Already, I could feel the existential crisis that age gave me back in the old world; the fact that we're all going to die one way or another putting a damper on my already sour mood as I tried my best to navigate Livia's safe house without getting lost again. "Where the fuck was it again?" Well, at the very least, I could still remember that it had already been a week since that disastrous run-in with that plant Num named Tourniquet. And while I knew that wasn't her real name, it was still fun for me to say that word over and over

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• 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

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• The Least Common Denominator   

  Interlude XXXIX: Grigori

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• 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