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The Least Common Denominator LVII.III Westgard Rules
I watched as Livia wielded the piece of charcoal with a practiced proficiency. Scribbling on a part of the board that had little to no notes written on it, my sister seemed to have drawn something that wouldn't look too far out of place from an actual rune. Not that it was a known rune, I think, but from the way she punctuated it at the end, I'd think that it was more of a schematic than anything else."There," Livia beamed at me as she placed her piece of charcoal down. "This will be a part of the solution."Raising an eyebrow, I trained my gaze on the seemingly finished schematic as I wracked my brain to even piece together what the damn thing even was. I knew that it wasn't a rune, not with the way that it seemed to overlap constantly over itself. The way it was presented made me think that it was like... a set of gears?"I haven't managed to ma
The Least Common Denominator Interlude XXIV: Lace V
"Well, that was to be expected~"Lace didn't really know what she expected when she'd learned that her Leader had come to their place. While Love had warned her that such a thing was bound to happen sooner rather than later, she at least expected some semblance of a difference in terms of improvement regarding Olivia's mental state. And while the younger Den was no longer a raving lunatic that would attack her and her twin at the mere sight of them, she could still feel the unbridled animosity the brunette had for anybody that wasn't her precious sister."She didn't try to kill us, at least," Lace nervously chuckled.Looking at the remaining occupants still at the table, Lace sighed at the monumental task left for her due to Leader's absence. Already, Arya was shooting passing glares to her twin; the latter shooting her own glares back without a ca
The Least Common Denominator LVIII.I Coefficient
I have no idea what I'm doing.Well, I did, but I sure as hell wasn't confident in whatever half-baked plan my brain would ever come up with. While the logical part of me gave me some assurances in terms of probabilities and such, the pessimistic part of my brain would never stop nagging me about that one critical part that could end up causing a catastrophic failure. Then again, when had I ever not thought about the possibility of failure in every single thing I've done? That was just the way my depressed brain worked, I guess; making me a nervous wreck most of the time. Would it have helped if I actually had some semblance of positivity in me? Probably.Unfortunately, I was pretty fucking stubborn in terms of refusing to change."So, are we all in agreement?"In the grand scheme of things, my strange obsession about m
The Least Common Denominator LVIII.II Coefficient
I say that we're gonna let this place rock, but for all intents and purposes, it was kind of a lame thing to say now that I thought about it. I was letting my weeb side come out again; not to mention that my entire fighting style was blatantly ripped off of a character action game, as well as my weapons for that matter. To everyone else, I was the antithesis of a focused warrior; an ADHD-driven maniac with too many weapons on her back. In my mind, however, I just knew that I was accumulating an ungodly amount of cringe energy the more I think about these things.The weird and outright frightful stares weren't helping it either."Stick close, yeah?" I whispered as I navigated us towards our target. "They're probably still trying to find the right place to really kick the distraction off.""I know, Sis..." Livia whispered back. "I'll follow your lead
The Least Common Denominator LVIII.III Coefficient
Minutes passed. Then an hour, and yet the tension was still as palpable as a massive tumor as Livia and I waited for the Addends to disappear. While our view of the compound was somewhat obscured by the fact that we had to hide still, what little information we did get was more than enough for us to know that the time was not yet at hand at all. The rooftop we were waiting on was somewhat built to our favor, at least; a door leading inside the building closed by the side as an array of boxes littered the place. That and the smell of dried fish permeated the air to the point that it honestly felt like I was at a wet market. To be honest, it was kind of nostalgic. But to reiterate, the place was a perfect vantage point for us as we crouched behind a stack of boxes that reeked of salt and the sea. I'd guess this was a dried f
The Least Common Denominator LVIII.IV Coefficient
"Sorry, Livia..."To think that my sister had such a weak stomach that she had wretched instantly as soon as the fish touched her tongue... It was kind of embarrassing if I was really thinking about it. But since this was Livia, then I guess I was just in the wrong for forcing her to eat the damn thing in the first place."I-it's not- UGGhhgEeghehhsg..."With another retch, Livia liberally painted the floor of the rooftop with her vomit as I rubbed her back and held her hair up for her. It was bad enough that I caused this to happen to her. It was the least I could do to make it up to her."UUGHGhehg...."My sister's pained heaves filtered through the air as I winced with how chunky that last one sounded. It absolutely sounded like she was vomiting her organs out with how hard her stomach wa
The Least Common Denominator LIX.I Cubed Root
"Time~ Old dry winds go by~ Lone air comes quietly~"The monotony of idleness was something that was rarely truly appreciated, in my opinion. Usually taken for granted or practically ignored in favor of work or other responsibilities, the act of doing absolutely nothing and simply basking in the quiet ambiance of your surroundings was kind of relaxing in terms of destressing. Granted, you'd have to be able to forget or ignore the pressing matters of whatever work you're currently putting off or the impending demise of your entire species, but otherwise, it was an entirely valid way to waste your life away without feeling like complete shit."Time~ Old dry winds go by~ Uncertain space~ you~ need~ to fill in~"It was nostalgic, in a sense; just leaning on a wooden crate with my ass on the ground, sitting beside someone you really care about as you bo
The Least Common Denominator LIX.II Cubed Root
With a careful aim, the stone arced through the air as it flew towards its target. Truth be told, I was fucking nervous. I was never the best thrower of things even back in the old world. Maybe, at best, I'd hit their armor and that'll be enough. But knowing just how bad I was at this, I could only expect the worst in terms of how things would play out.*ping...*I winced as my projectile made contact with the guard's armor. Based on how faint the impact sounded on top of not even eliciting some sort of reaction, I could only imagine that the damn Decimal didn't even feel the damn thing make an impact on his suit of armor. But then, shouldn't they hear it at least?I kept my eyes peeled as the Decimal visibly looked around the area before their helmeted face slowly locked onto my general direction. Kneeling down and picking up the rock that I just
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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
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
