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The Least Common Denominator Interlude XII: Lace III
"What's taking them so long?"In the middle of the town hall, Lace paced back and forth across her main office as she let her nerves and anxiety take root. While being the leader of the medical corps was usually a nerve-wracking experience with the constant fight against life and death, nothing could ever compare to the burning dread of not knowing just what happened to the people that you care about. Not that she was worried, of course, but the fact that she had heard nothing from them for this long was starting to make her think that something did go horribly wrong. The last missive her sister sent her was also doing nothing to alleviate the growing fears.The Emperor had apparently laid down an ultimatum on the Prime Thirteen to wipe them all out before the month was over. While she knew that Love wouldn't really care, and would actually defect come the time of the attack,
The Least Common Denominator Interlude XIII: Olivia VII
Olivia was never one to hold a grudge.Granted, she never once had an experience that could warrant such a thing to manifest, but as a child, she never expected herself to be able to harbor such an intense amount of hatred for any object or person without growing tired of it. It was simply too boring to hate something for anything longer than a few days. Maybe even a week if it really warranted such hatred. And throughout her stay in the orphanage, Olivia was content in simply following whatever her betters had told her to do. They were nice people, and the older kids played with her a bunch whenever she wanted.That was, of course, until she was drafted as a Denominator.She didn't even know what the word meant, only that she would be in service of the Empire for the foreseeable future. Taken away from her home and her friends, it was during that
The Least Common Denominator XXVII.I Parabola
The world between the living and the dead had always been some sort of myth to me. Until I actually died the first time and saw that endless expanse of darkness and non-space, I always thought that nothing was waiting for humanity after we've perished from our own scientific hubris and lack of fucks for the future generation. I mean, sure, I was born and raised in a religious family complete with spending a lot of hours being a regular choir member, but despite the constant preachings and hours upon hours of sitting through sermons, the conflicting ideas in the scriptures were simply far too glaring for me to ignore to the point that I was essentially agnostic in all but name. It was kind of scary, having the vast majority of your family and immediate social circle be religious. The moment they realized that I wasn't really a believer anymore, I was pretty sure that they'd ship me to the nearest minister to give me a good talking to.
The Least Common Denominator XXVII.II Parabola
Pain.Complete and utter pain was the first thing that came into my mind as I opened my eyes to the annoyingly bright light of the mid-morning sun. My mouth and throat moved to scream at the unadulterated amount of suffering that I was feeling across my whole body, but all attempts at voicing out my opinions were dashed as I found out the hard way that my mouth was bandaged shut.What the fuck?"You're awake!"I winced at the sudden output of volume to my side. Looking at the source of the screaming, whatever amount of anger and annoyance I had quickly melted as Livia greeted me with the biggest smile I had ever seen her sport in a long time. The tears, of course, I could do without, but it was still such a splendid sight to see despite my whole body feeling like it was lit on fire then thrown straight into a tub of sea
The Least Common Denominator XXVII.III Parabola
"So, we are all in agreement then?"I feel like I'm forgetting something again."How're you feeling, Sis?"It's been a few days since I first woke up in this damn bed, and at this point, it's starting to feel more like a prison instead of the supposed comfort it's supposed to be as I found myself shackled to the same damn room twenty-four hours a day.I gave Livia a brief nod of recognition as she poised the spoonful of liquid nutrition towards my mouth. Even after a few days of recovery, my throat and jaw were somehow still sore enough to prevent me from speaking. I could chew some basic stuff, but it'd aggravate my healing jaw bone enough that I'd be back to square one in terms of recovery if I did it. Couldn't do basic sign language either since my limbs were in an even worse off state than my head at this point.
The Least Common Denominator XXVII.V Parabola
"As the name suggests, there are thirteen members to the Prime Thirteen, myself formerly included."Hoo boy. The obligatory exposition chapter's here. I was honestly waiting for something like this ever since I knew about Love's existence. Although, we already knew about... four or five Primes now including her? Which would leave us with eight more Primes unaccounted for.This's gonna be a reveal and a half, assuming that Love knew every one of her colleagues."Starting from the Thirteenth and Twelveth, Arjay and Arya."I instantly felt my blood boil at the sound of those bitches' names. While they're both- Oh right, Arya's alive somehow. That's gonna be a problem."Aren't they dead already?" Bart asked, his curiosity taking note of the fact that Love spoke in a way that implied that one or
The Least Common Denominator XXVII.IV Parabola
"What's that?"Was this some kind of cosmic joke? I cannot, in good conscience allow them to use that book for planning! I mean, it was true that it'd be a massive help in planning and coordinating logistics and tactical formations, but I was pretty sure that the whole collective was far from ready to conform to disciplined military doctrine!Yes! That's totally the reason! Don't think about anything else!"This, Lady Emerald, is the 'Art of War,'" I inwardly cringed as the former Prime introduced my plagiarized creation to the peanut gallery. "A guide written by Lady Crimson about the intricacies of waging wars and winning battles."Oh my fucking god..."Wait, you mean Crimson wrote that?" Bart asked incredulously. "How do we know that?"Hey now. I take offense
The Least Common Denominator XXVIII.I Supply and Demand
In a world moderated by bloody evolution, power changes hands at the drop of a hat. The right kind of knowledge can make or break anyone smart enough to catch on to the schemes of the world; that one advantageous loophole that can potentially make you life-changing amounts of money and wealth to the point that a literal hundred dollars can turn into millions in a matter of days...Of course, it never happened to me personally. Cause if it did, I would probably still be living in my first life instead of limping across the room like a fucking invalid. Yes... I am temporarily an invalid as my limbs still feel like they're about to crack at the slightest amount of force exerted on them. And I died broke and in debt due to my studies.Joy, right? But then again, who isn't?"So, Sis, this is what we all came up with."
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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