The repeated use of the warp dancer from both himself and Ada made it difficult to track how much time had passed. According to the clock built into his HUD, only another half an hour had passed since the start of their sparring.
But to Dan, it felt like only five minutes had gone by. Since his recent level ups and withholding his use of the berserk, Dan’s corrosia hadn’t drained too much since the start of the sparring. The corrosia bar on his HUD was down to half capacity.
Throughout the course of the back and forth between him and Ada, he had become more accustomed to using his warp dancer in short bursts rather than long stretches. As a general rule of thumb, the longer warp dancer is used, the rate of corrosia use also steadily increases. Unless one’s corrosia pool was massive, a user cannot afford to use the technique for long stretches. While Dan’s corrosia abilities and energy reserves had improved significantly since enhancing himself with the artefact and killing the cult master, he was still merely a practitioner in his supernatural ranking. He didn’t have nearly the same pool of corrosia energy to draw upon.
Dan brought his Conservative up and clashed blades against Ada’s Bloodluster. The impact between the two corrosia-enhanced swords sent a small wave of rippling energy that sent both agents back a few meters.
He wondered if the cutting power of these blades would significantly increase if Dan’s corrosia abilities in general were stronger. Was it possible to feed his own corrosia into the sword itself to further empower it.
Dan held his hand up and Ada relaxed her stance.
“What is it?”
“There’s something I wanna try out,” he said. “Give me a moment.”
Until now, Dan’s corrosia use has strictly been towards his abilities. All of his corrosia had been spent on activating his abilities. He had never bothered trying to conjure up corrosia energy in his hand. Dan held up his palm and tried his damndest to summon some of his corrosia pool into the palm of his hand.
After a long stretch of nothing happening and Ada observing him. Dan tried to think of another way. Dan noticed the HUD readout of his corrosia reserve in the form of a simply violet-colored bar. The bar drained from both sides, meaning that either end of the corrosia bar was now completely transparent with a section or violet that still covered the middle portion.
Clearly, there was a system built into his HUD that was tracking his corrosia reserve. He wondered how he could use this simple fact to learn how to conjure up corrosia energy in his hand for the sole purpose of feeding it into his Conservative to empower his blade even further.
He lowered his palm and looked at Ada.
“Hey Ada, how experienced are you at fighting the Church of Nanotology?”
The Bloodknight placed her Bloodluster back into its magnetic lock on her hip. “Practical real world experience? Not a lot. Most of what I know about the Church comes from our training and Judith occasionally sharing stories. When we were still in training, we were free to read up and watch all the material Kodak has on the Church and the various abilities observed in their ranks. The recent hunt we participated in was the most amount of action I ever had.”
Dan caressed his jaw, then thought of the ritual he saw at an abandoned church performed by a small group of agents. He saw the raw energies that flowed out of the palms of the Church agents before Dan intervened. He thought of his next question. “After you touched one of the atrefacts that gave you the warp dancer, did Judith ever teach you how to summon corrosia energy at will? Not for an attack, but just summoning the energy out in the open?”
“Like how those fanatics were before we interrupted their ritual? She has, but it was severely limited. Even Judith herself doesn’t know everything about these strange powers. I think her performance against the cult master and how much it took out of her speaks to her… inadequate knowledge on such things.”
“Would you mind sharing that knowledge with me?” Dan asked. It was strange to be asking an enemy agent for help.
Ada gave him a blank stare. But she obliged. “Imagine your corrosia pool as an actual reservoir contained within your body. You need to mentally picture it before you can summon the raw corrosia into your hand. Everyone will have a different interpretation of this that is solely unique to the individual. I’m not sure why you’re interested. Beyond learning that, none of us ever found any use for it. According to Judith, she was only interested in corrosia as long as it served to help her destructive output. A rather shrewd way of looking at these strange abilities. Of course, no one dared question Judith on her methods.”
“I would imagine not,” he said. “That bitch is crazy.”
Dan held his hand up once again and followed Ada’s advice on imaging his actual corrosia pool beyond the basic bar on his HUD. He shut his eyes and tried to imagine his corrosia pool as a number of things. A can of soda, a pond, even a spare magazine full of rounds, each round representing a percentage of his overall corrosia.
Strangely, when none of that worked, his mind tried imagining his corrosia as an entire separate organ within his body. Similar to his adrenal glands that would pump adrenaline throughout his body during stressful situations, he tried to imagine this corrosia organ in the same fashion. An organ that would pump corrosia when it was necessary for Dan to overcome a difficult situation. His mind pictured this organ, and he tried summoning corrosia at will that wasn’t just to power an ability.
“Dan, are you alright?” Ada asked. Her tone was level but he could hear the slight edge in her voice.
A sudden wave of heat hit his palm along with a sensation that felt like insects crawling all over his hand. He opened his eyes and saw violet energy swirling around in his hand. What Ada had told him worked.
Dan still held his Conservative in his left hand and so he swapped hands. The moment his corrosia-rich palm touched the hilt of the Conservative, Dan heard a crack from his sword and saw the blade instantly begin radiating with glowing energy. A small portion of his corrosia bar drained.
“Holy shit,” he shouted. “Ada are you seeing this?”
“I do,” she said astonished. “That’s amazing.”
The blade flowed and rippled with Dan’s own corrosia. The violet shade from his palm that transferred to the sword had settled into a strange dimly-lit white field that enveloped the blade. Dan performed a few test slashes and jabs and the sword made an audible voom sound everytime the blade cut through the air.
One of Dan’s slashes accidentally formed into a strange small wave of cutting energy the impacted against the floor and left a mark. Dan stepped closer to the mark in the floor and crouched down, observing the cut to be several centimeters deep.
“That’s… that looks like a miniature version of what Judith and the cult master could do with their energy blades,” Ada whispered. “They could both send cutting waves of energy from their blades that will slice through anything.”
Dan looked back at his Conservative and saw the white field of energy fade away. The empowering effects of his own corrosia had run its course.
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Dan began laughing to himself. “That is so fucking cool. Ada you’re amazing.”
Without even thinking, his body already moved and he rushed over to the Bloodknight. He put his sword back into his scabbard and wrapped his arms around Ada for a hug.
“Seriously that was awesome,” Dan said, releasing her from the sudden hug. “I only wish Li was here to see that.”
Ada looked at him and gave a brief smile before her face changed back to her usual blank expression.
“Does this mean that you’ll consider joining Judith? She is your only option to help you progress further with your abilities in terms of corrosia and magic,” she said.
Dan’s excitement was shortlived and the sudden question immediately put things into perspective. While it would benefit him to have more formal instruction in controlling his corrosia, having Judith as his teacher made his chest tighten and his stomach turn inside out. He also considered something that almost made him regret getting so close to Ada.
“Ada, I’ll be honest. There’s no way I can do that,” he said. “Honestly, I wouldn’t even be surprised if this training session was all just some elaborate scheme to manipulate me into finally accepting Judith’s offer and joining her.”
The Bloodknight frowned but then returned back to her blank expression. “If that was the case, I wouldn’t have knocked out the guards outside of your cell or had to use my warp dancer to evade guards and cameras on our way here. I brought you here on my own accord, Dan.”
Even in the short time he had known her, Ada had never lied to him. And out of all the Kodak agents he had encountered, she was the most likable and sensible of the bunch.
“Do you honestly plan on committing yourself to Judith and the Bloodknights? You know my stance already, and that means we’ll be enemies,” he said.
Ada lightly exhaled and glanced down at the floor. She gripped the hilt of her Bloodluster tightly. “We wouldn’t have to be if you joined.”
“You know that’s not happening Ada.”
“The life of a Bloodknight is all I have,” she said. “I have nothing else. After Cammy died, it was next to impossible trying to make new friends.”
Dan remembered the brief period between his mom’s death and his encounter with Michael Cynosa that led to his recruitment into the Alpha Corp. That period where he had no one else but himself to rely on. No family or friends he could count on. He imagined that Ada assumed her position as a Bloodknight was the only thing she had left in this world. But that was simply untrue.
It was a longshot, but Dan figured he would try talking some sense to Ada and get her to truly think about her options. “You said that it was next to impossible for you to make friends. But that’s bullshit Ada. What about us? I mean, we’re past being total strangers and maybe even enemies. The way you hugged me and leaned on my shoulder earlier. You don’t just do that to anyone. And back when we got out of the sewer, I saw you trying to reach for my hand.”
Ada didn’t respond. Instead, she continued staring at the ground while her fingers repeatedly stretched and curled around the hilt of her sword.
“I can’t give up the bonds and friendships I made with my people back in the Alpha Corp,” Dan said. “But what the two of us have right now, you would be tossing that away if you continue to serve Judith. Is that what you want out of life?”
Ada’s expression and her nervous handling of her sword hadn’t changed. So Dan pressed further.
“Do you even know who Judith really is? When you were sent out to scout the area, I had some time alone with that psycho. She had a younger sister who was disabled and she jumped at the first opportunity to abandon her to become an agent. And when that same sister was considered dead weight to society, Kodak ordered Judith to “euthenize” her. And she accepted it. That’s right, she willingly chose to kill her own sister in her sleep. And she was so eager to tell me this story, trying to convince me that pursuing power was more important that caring for your people. That is the woman you’ll be taking orders from if you stand by her, Ada.”
When Ada finally looked up at him, she threw him an unexpected curve ball.
“You argue that Judith isn’t the most virtuous person and perhaps you’re right. But the man you revere so much, Michael Cynosa, isn’t who you think he is either.”
Dan’s eyes widened as he took a few steps closer to her. “The hell? What are you talking about?”
“Judith is a blunt, straightforward kind of woman. Everything she does, she proudly advertises it. Her actions are out in the open for all to see. But Michael is a different type, he moves in the shadows, putting elements into place and pulls strings. Is he any more trustworthy than Judith?”
Ada’s question lit up the tiny hints of suspicion Dan has had toward Michael. But he would either shove it aside or something else more immediate took his attention and he wasn’t left with time to ponder on his suspicions. But his encounter against the cult master and the fanatic’s mention of Michael left him confused and wanting answers.
“You said a while back that you heard of Michael’s name before,” Dan said. “How?”
“Judith has mentioned his name on more than one occasion,” she said. She took a few steps of her own and now both were standing in front of each other. “It was always in a scathing or derogatory manner. Nothing out of the ordinary if you’re speaking about a hated adversary. As a result, most of the full Bloodknights already know who he is thanks to Judith. He’s a dangerous enemy agent who must be killed on sight. But it’s strange that even Judith sometimes loses her temper when his name is brought up. She calls him the ultimate liar and deceiver. Judith hates a lot of things, but Michael appears to be on the top of her list.”
Dan blinked. “Wow. So Michael has some haters. That’s quite an accomplishment.”
“It goes beyond that,” Ada said. “There’s gaps in this story since it’s all hearsay, but after Judith’s disastrous mission into the Dead Zone, Judith and Michael at one point came to some kind of secret agreement and Michael went back on his end and deceived Judith. As a result of that, the few remaining survivors from the Dead Zone mission, who were also friends of Judith, were killed. Since then, she has held a grudge against that man.”
Dan stared at Ada, but it was more accurate to say that he spaced out and his eyes were just staring through her. Even though she said this story was a rumor, his mind was still running in circles figuring out how it could be remotely possible. Michael’s association with a cult master of the Church was already suspicious enough. But him being a top Alpha agent having secret relations with Judith who was an enemy, coming to some deal or agreement and then betraying her? How was this even possible?
“This is… I don’t even know what to say,” Dan said.
“I don’t understand much of it either,” Ada said. “But the man you said who saved your life, he too also has dubious traits about him that you should consider.”
Dan rubbed his eyes and then massaged his forehead after hearing all of this. He recalled when Jane explained to him that Michael has experience frequently operating outside of the Alpha Corp’s territories. Now, he truly contemplated what such a job would entail.
“Judith is the strongest woman I’ve ever met,” Ada said, cutting through Dan’s thoughts on Michael. “Dan, to refuse her means death. For myself, and for you if you refuse her offer to join.”
Dan squinted at the young Bloodknight. “I’m only in my first year as an agent and I’m becoming stronger everyday. I’ve overturned all the odds before even with Judith’s “help.” She’s a psycho and she’s super powerful. But I’m not just going to roll over and cave into her demands. I’ll fight that bitch no matter how crazy people will think I am.”
Ada’s expression was blank, but then softened as if her face went from stone to putty. “If that is truly how you feel, then… I’ll miss you.”
The young Bloodknight walked towards Dan and wrapped her arms around him. “It won’t be the same once we’re enemies again.”
He could feel even through her armor that her arms were shaking. Dan wanted to escape with Li and get the hell out to return back to his friends and fellow agents. But he couldn’t deny that he had… something with Ada. Ultimately, she was an enemy agent. But after killing enemies together and privately opening up to each other, she never felt like an enemy. This fucking sucks, he thought.
Ada pulled back from her hug and both locked eyes with each other. Dan stared into her silver irises that shined in the midst of her blood red sclera common among all Kodak agents. Neither of them said a word, then Ada moved closer while closing her eyes.
Whatever she planned was interrupted by a sudden flash behind her and she abruptly pulled away. Behind her, Judith has teleported into the arena and stood with her arms crossed. She looked down at Dan then glanced at Ada.
“Wow, laying it on thick aren’t we Ada?” she said amusingly. Judith wore a smirk on her face. “I guess any salesman has to do what’s necessary to sell. I like your initiative Ada, though next time, you better fill me in first. I would have enjoyed watching this entire secret date of yours with our boy here.”
Ada regained her composure and stood with a straightened back and her facial expression returned back to its blank state. She gave Dan a brief sideways glance before her eyes pointed down at the floor. Dan kept silent, wanting to let Judith make her assumptions about this unauthorized action on Ada’s part. It would be shitty if Ada got into trouble over this.
“Now then, let’s get you back to your cell and you can think a little harder on your decision,” Judith said.
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