2020-10-17 17:00:06
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The Least Common Denominator X.V Exponential Value
Deftly sidestepping the enraged Decimal's lunge, I directed my attention back to decipher how the hell his armor worked. The fact that I somehow struck a nerve with the fat joke was somehow curious enough, but it won't help me survive his onslaught if he kept his streak going.*WOOSH! WOOSH!*Dodging two of his swipes, I attempted to put some distance between us as I directed my thoughts towards the annoyingly familiar formula etched onto his greaves.Okay, think... 'f' is equal to 'm' over 'a'... I'm pretty sure that's a formula on a physics book somewhere... What did it mean though? 'f' might possibly mean Force... So was 'm' and 'a' Mass and... Acceleration? Then that would mean that the formula denoted that Force is Mass divided by Acceleration, which was... Newtonian, if I recall correctly... But- Shit!*CLANG! CLANG!*I managed to block two sudden swipes from the Decimal's halberd thanks to the quick courtesy of my instinc
The Least Common Denominator X.VI Exponential Value
"Huh?"What the hell kind of genius was this Flame if she wasn't even the one that made the damn thing? It's not like she was alive, judging from her earlier statement of the chick being a former Prime that somehow rebelled against the Empire.A fact that was somehow still nagging in my head for some reason."I don't care!" I stressed as my headache started to overtake the rest of my body on the scale of eleven. "It's not like she made the damn thing-"*SMACK!*Flesh met metal as my face was greeted by an iron-based backhand from Mr. Tin Can himself. Rolling to my right side, I couldn't even chuckle as now, both of my cheeks were swollen to shit from defending the rest of my skull against more lethal blunt trauma.Hah. I'm starting to not care about myself again. 'Livia's gonna be livid..."On and on, you insult your betters!" the Decimal roared, slamming his halberd down on the ground for seemed to be the
The Least Common Denominator X.VII Exponential Value
"I'll make your death even more painless if you agree, Crimson."I almost choked out a dead laugh at the absurdity of the situation. A whole life and death battle going on all around us... My whole body aching as the fuck beat me to an inch of my life... Hell, I can't even hold my katana straight anymore all because I dissed on his idol or something.For all intents and purposes, I should have been dead a dozen times over.And yet, the fact that my stance somehow, for some reason, looked at least an inch closer to this Lady Flame's stance made him change his mind about all of the shit I threw at the former Prime ever since I knew of her existence. Even now, the Decimal looked like he was practically begging me to teach him Mother's style. To the point that he even used my name as some kind of gesture of respect to me.What the fuck is my life right now?!"W-what makes... you think... I-I'll teach you?!" I stuttered out mid-pants as I assumed a bastardized copy of Mother's left-handed
The Least Common Denominator X.VIII Exponential Value
Essence Rebound: a phenomenon where the Runic Essence on an existing rune is overloaded due to a disruption on the normal rune's functions.Or at least, that was what I remember Rebound to be. I haven't really brushed up on this shit ever since we started fighting for our collective lives.While I'm sure that Father and the rest of the Denominators didn't call the usual big-ass explosive failures with the term, I didn't give a damn since it was my own linguistics anyway. It always happened when I somehow nicked a segment of Runecraft without neutralizing the infused Essence first, or if I hadn't reinforced it yet with the proper runes, always resulting in a critical failure of whatever project I was making at the time. And sometimes, even some cuts and bruises when I managed to do it mid-test due to impatience and overall sloppiness of my usually rushed work.
The Least Common Denominator XI.I Arithmetic Overflow
'Oh! Let's run away from the Decimal that has a rune that can make her run faster than you! Surely that's gonna work!'"Come on, Dirt Eater!" I heard the maniac chasing me shout out as my feet carried me even deeper into enemy territory. "Do more of the advanced moves!""Leave me alone!"I carved through a stray Decimal as I rushed through the oncoming tide of enemies; Olivia's swath of destruction serving as a decent guide for me to follow her. It would've been better if she didn't run off into who knows where, but I had to make do somehow. And I'm sure that she knows what she's doing if she had the audacity to charge blade-first into a wall of factual lemmings- Fuck!*CLANG!*"I won't stop until you cease and desist, Dirt Eater!"My momentum was suddenly moved towards my right side as I blocked this insane chick's heavy attack on my left, causing me to swerve haphazardly towards a group of unassuming Decimals that s
The Least Common Denominator XI.II Arithmetic Overflow
"You're an insignificant Dirt Eater. How hard is it to understand?"I felt my brain explode at the incomprehensibility of my current situation. I knew that indoctrination was a thing, but there was still a part of me that somehow believed in common human decency; that as a person, anyone can have the capacity to feel pity and empathize with someone despite having completely different upbringings."As Denominators, you are all expected to perform in service for the Empire," the Decimal soundly declared as she spouted out what sounded like wholehearted propaganda in my ears. "You should be honored that we are even trusting you lot to give us quality gear, not with your lot's reputation of being lazy and careless when it came to your work."I felt my tears become not of emotion, but of one of rage and anger as quickly as I heard this piece of shit reb
The Least Common Denominator XI.III Arithmetic Overload
It all happened in a flash.In the blink of an eye, the Decimal was suddenly in front of me. Not even giving me the chance to defend myself, she raised her halberd with the clear intention of killing me with it."Die!"Fuck!*CLANG!*I grunted as I caught the halberd mid-swing with my katana, my shoulders buckling as I held the damn thing at an awkward angle. Her speed was a problem that I had to address here and now. But first, I had to disengage!*CLANG!*With a heave, I pushed the halberd off of me before deftly slinking away from the inevitable follow-up-*Crash!*-the halberd crashing onto solid ground while I quickly positioned myself on her backside. My eyes quickly searched for the Momentum Runes, which, as they should be, were still glowing due to their very recent usage."W-What are you doing?!""Gimping you, asshole."Gathering the prop
The Least Common Denominator XI.IV Arithmetic Overflow
My feet dug itself deep into what was once the soot-covered ground as I managed to reorient myself back to the trail of death and destruction that Olivia left in her wake. It was honestly a miracle that I managed to do so in the first place. What with my surroundings zipping past my peripherals as I ran as fast as my legs could carry me.*CLANG! STAB! STAB!*With an occasional parry and stab, I found myself flying through the enemy territory as my pursuit of my wayward sister continued. I was back to cutting and stabbing through Decimals with ease as opposed to that one fringe incident with that cute Decimal earlier. It was a welcome change, seeing as my body still burned due to the thorough beatdown that I received from her.*CLANG! CLANG!*I didn't even look at these mooks as I guarded against their weak-ass attacks. To be fair though, I think it was due to them rushing towards the front-lines that they didn't bother focusing on the one
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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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
