Chapter 45: A Change of Path

[System switching to backup power]

[Warning]

[Exceeding below the fifty-percent damage threshold]

[Activating life support systems]

[Warning]

[Deactivating heads-up display]

[Exhausting heat]

[Warning]

Jakob swings the greatsword at the beluaman. The beluaman raises the ground, forcing Jakob to use the grappler stake to swing around the beluaman's attack, using the momentum created by the weight of the greatsword to hasten the swing. He turns around to smash the greatsword down on a 15m belua.

"Still alive, J," Helga called, "you are making Dona worry."

"Got to buy time, Hel," Jakob flattened the greatsword to block a root spire. He grappled on the 15m belua, threw the greatsword, caught it, and pummeled a belua pouncing at him. Landing on top of a belua, he stabbed the greatsword's tip.

"Your suit is a mess," Helga said, "the amount of repairs it'll need is going to cost you. Nonetheless, the ether forge, and the combat data you are giving us is enough to cover this. Had your self-destruct online?"

Jakob did not answer. He instead change to a one-handed swing, his free hand slamming against the belua trying to bite his neck. He catches a belua by the neck, clenching his hand to spurt blood from the belua's neck. The beluaman uses the surrounding environment to its advantage.

The multi-arm beluaman was not an easy opponent when he had to worry about the beluas rushing at him. Jakob's suit allows him to maintain his heart rate. To slow down his perception of time, allowing a precise action that gives him the ability to fight and think better.

Every breath exhausted him. If was not for the suit guiding his arms when he freezes. He would had been killed by the horde around him. He heard only the sounds of sticky mud and the rain meeting his suit. His arms ached. His world lost its color as he continues to use his bulletime.

The multi-arm beluaman lashes out a spear made from the roots of the spires. The beluas impaled and without mercy, the beluaman sucked up the ether on their skin, nourishing the strength that the beluaman lost. However, the beluas were gone around him. This did not give Jakob a sense of relief. The fifth-layered beluaman increased in strength.

The sixth layer of ether was in front of Jakob. The beluaman took early steps, but the power has improve compared visibly.

"Sixth layer of ether," Helga said shocked. "You got to run now!"

"It's okay," Jakob said. "I just have to fight harder!"

Jakob did not feel fear. He felt like he was simply back in time. This was his limit right here. Beyond the sixth layer, he was confident that he could not fight the etherians. Even then he was sure that etherians who he have bad compability with was unwinnable to him.

Nevertheless, he did not fear this beluaman. He was feeling better. Stan Blackwells lived and the information about the outside world, the world beyond Aured City was not lost. The discovery was early. So early that Jakob could not understand what happen.

Nevertheless, he fought at this moment.

                                                                    ***

How could he know that his actions of saving a group of Outriders from a pack of belua would change things? How could he know that his actions in eliminating Dion Bismark would be part of the reason why they made excuses to go to the fields of Gharasu? How could he know that the group he save that day would come and retrieve the person that holds access to the databanks inside the steelfort?

Jakob did not know. Nevertheless, his actions sincerely cause a reaction. That reaction cause something to happen. It allowed things to move forward to a certain direction that he did not know. Fate does not easily change, but who said his fate here would be the same?

He was like a lever in the side of a railroad track. One pull could change the railroad track to a different direction. Jakob did not change it alone, no, that would be presumptuous. He was merely the lever that changed the railroad tracks to a different direction without knowing a single thing about what he was doing.

Things would have been different if he did not kill Dion Bismark early. Jakob knew what would kill Stan Blackwells, and he acted here as if this would be the place of his death. It did not matter to Jakob. He fought without knowing why. He was hopeless. That was truest feeling that he was sure of inside his heart. However, he was not heartless or emotionless enough to abandon things.

Jakob hated how he was seeing hope. He hated how he was forcing himself to fight a sixth-layer of ether beluaman. His bones are creaking. His muscles are aching and his suit is tearing to pieces as he fights with his dear life. Jakob wanted to believe, but at the same time, he was a tired old man inside.

The greatsword that belonged to Blackwells shattered like glasses in front of the beluaman. Jakob threw the greatsword, and draws the vibrant blade from his sheathe, sharpening the blade with ether, the edge of the blade itself slicing through the neck of the beluaman.

The beluaman lost is ether control. Jakob did not stop to think. He plunges his free hand inside the neck of the beluaman, pulling the still breathing heart of the beluaman out of its body. He was about to crush it when he realizes that his suit had lost its power.

[Ejecting energy core]

He took the beluaman heart inside his suit without thinking. The beating heart of the beluaman gave power to the suit. As he drags the suit away from the beluaman's corpse, he heard Helga voice in shock.

"The suit is being powered by a beluaman's heart?"

"It is."

"So you know why we collect the belua parts then?"

"It was obvious from the start, you know? Why do you think I gave you folks the ether forge?"

"Still, that could fetch a really good price."

"Too bad then," Jakob said. "I am going to use it for this suit. You don't have any objections, right?"

Helga did not answer for a second. "No, but we will have to get data from it. You wouldn't mind?"

"I need repairs at least. But I want to keep this heart."

"For the ether don't you?"

"Yeah," Jakob uses the suit to channel the ether energy from the heart to the vibrant he was holding. He had the suit have the functions of the vibrant blade just in case. It was a gamble, but seeing the heart still beating in the suit's chest plate, he was sure that it was working.

"Well, another job well done, Flatline," Helga said. "I'll redirect the Karnifex to your location. It would be best to contain the mystery for now. You'll be valuable."

"Good thing that the Commander and Anastasia softened that beluaman. I wouldn't have been able to kill the bastard."

"But it was still you who killed it. The Boss won't forget this merit, Jakob."

Jakob did not reply. He shakes his head, turning the communicator off. He moves his barely functioning suit to the direction of his hometown. He wondered if the old town was going to be part of the fort outpost the Recon Korp is going to establish. He had thoughts of walking towards there, but the sound of the Karnifex rid that thought off him.