Home / Fantasy / The Least Common Denominator / XXIX.III Return of Investment
XXIX.III Return of Investment
Author: MokouFriedChicken
last update Last Updated: 2021-02-05 17:00:42
*DING!... DING!... DING!...*

My mind ground to a screeching halt. The knells of watchtower alarm bells echoed from outside my room as the rest of the village seemed to have caught on to the sight that the former Prime was seeing. All of a sudden, the peace was shattered. This was real. They were really here ahead of our estimates.

"Uhmm... Could you repeat and verify that, Lady Love?"

I was pretty sure it hadn't even been an hour yet since Topaz broke the news to me. Unless I fell asleep on the cold, hard wood, which I wouldn't, there was absolutely no way that an hour had already passed. At best, thirty minutes had elapsed so far and-

*I have visual on the Imperial Army,* Love's voice sounded completely at ease through the line. *I estimate at least a thousand strong in terms of Decimals and Numerators. I do not have e
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    *U-Understood, Sis!*I let out a sigh of undeserved relief as I returned my attention to the circuit I was trying to finish. The battle was clearly just getting started; if the fact there was only one Prime on the field at the moment was any indication. I sure hope that It's someone we're bound to recognize and possibly defeat. As we are now, even with Love on our side, I'd wager that we'd only be able to beat Rene. That Lord Inferno guy back at the library literally almost cooked us to death despite our own Prime fighting side by side with us. If that was any indicator of our current strength, then we were totally screwed."Love, status?"Placing the final rune onto the circuit, I poured in my Essence to activate it as the former Prime's voice echoed from behind me. *The western front is battling with the enemy. The northern front is still holding

  • The Least Common Denominator   XXIX.V Return of Investment

    Blinking away the sweat and tears off my eyes, I reoriented myself towards the window as the ongoing war outside has gone tits up in the worst way possible. We were breached way too early; the eastern front being left to die as a result of my own carelessness. And here was a fucking Prime right on our doorstep, threatening mission control in ways that I hadn't even expected to happen so early in the game.I was so fucked- Scratch that, WE were so fucked.But did that mean that I was just gonna roll over and die because of it? No. I was more spiteful than that.I leaned in close to the rune functioning as my microphone, my lips sputtering as I tried to infuse as much disdain into my words as possible, "H-How about... no..."Each syllable took a lot out of me, the strain of powering the grand array exacerbating my already

  • The Least Common Denominator   XXX.I Olivia: Final Solution

    Everything was going to hell and back right now.Olivia hadn't meant to shun her sister's correspondence earlier, having been too busy with her own part of defending herself when the older woman called for her. Each agonizing second not responding to her only increased the anxiety in her heart as Big Sis's tone became more and more tired and defeated with each message.It only made things worse when the Prime she was trying to fight off taunted her with his know-it-all attitude and annoying calculations."That's what you get!" the Den shouted at her opponent as she stabbed her Resolve straight through the fucker's abdomen, the blood and guts oozing out of the prick giving her a sense of sick satisfaction as she drove her sword in. "Leave us alone!""A-as expected. You think... I didn't plan for this?" the white-haired P

  • The Least Common Denominator   XXX.II Olivia: Final Solution

    All around the village, an ominous silence permeated her surroundings as the town hall was engulfed in a bright glow. Enemy and ally alike stood in stock attention as they trained their gazes solely on the vast amounts of Essence coursing through the tall building. It was like a star was born on earth; the searing glow of unrestrained essence blinding everybody in the nearest vicinity as the circuits around the village glowed an ominous bright blue.The Grand Array was coming to life, and it was going to take everyone in its range with it."No..."Staring at the glowing building, the grief and despair Olivia was feeling were enough to rock her to her knees as her sister's essence pulsed all throughout the village. She knew exactly what was going to happen. That she would surely perish if she stayed this close to the town hall as she was now.

  • The Least Common Denominator   Checkpoint III

    In a world of Numerators and Denominators, one should always assume that one would be stronger than the other. It was the natural way of things; the Numerator will fight in the front lines using their Elementalism and increased essence reserves, as the Denominator supports said Numerator from the sidelines by crafting weapons and armor that would enhance their partner's fighting prowess. It was the way the world had worked for millennia, unchanged by the passage of time or even the innovations of those that came through it. It was inconceivable that a Denominator would be able to stand toe-to-toe against a Numerator, much less even defeat one in combat. In the history of the Numenorian Empire, only one person had managed to defeat a Numerator, even more so, a Prime; someone that had the caliber to level armies on a wave of their single arm.And that someone was a Denominator, of all people.&nb

  • The Least Common Denominator   XXXI.I Indeterminate

    The freezing cold of the north was something I had never experienced in my life. Living in a tropical climate did that to people. Add the fact that we were smack dab at the center of the middle class, and we were just barely able to put me through medical school while also simultaneously managing to sustain our fairly conservative lifestyle. No time to travel to the colder regions if there was no need for it... Then comes my NEET ass buying a fully specced out PC out of my own pocket as a reward for surviving high school.Okay, we were loaded, but coming from poverty to riches did oh so many wonders to both myself and my parents' spending habits.So where was I... Oh yes... It was cold as shit at the moment and I didn't know why. Where was I anyway? The last thing I remembered was somehow dying a glorious death in a way that I had no recollection of ever doing in the first pla

  • The Least Common Denominator   XXXI.II Indeterminate

    It didn't make any goddamn sense whatsoever.Laying on a fucking cot for what I could only count as a whole goddamn week had given me a lot in terms of information and piecing together just what the fuck was going on around me. An hour in on that barbaric technique that they called 'treating,' my mind already raced on the fact that my situation was far from what was expected for a suicidal doctor living in the city. I should've been in a proper hospital, maybe even in my old place of work since I technically didn't quit the staff yet. Waking up in what amounted to a fucking rug on the dirt inside a damp, freezing cave was the first sign that I wasn't in fucking Kansas anymore...I then proceeded to black out from the pain. The whole treatment thing was too much without at least some sort of sedative running through my system. Sue me."Ughh..."

  • The Least Common Denominator   XXXI.III Indeterminate

    A whole month has passed now, and I was kind of acclimatizing pretty well, all things considered. My silent act had essentially made sure that the twins hadn't realized that I wasn't their vaunted 'Leader' yet, but I'm pretty sure it was only a matter of time before they realized something was up. Just from the way they talked to each other with me being present suggested that they fully expected me to understand what the hell they were talking about despite my silence. And while I could understand some of it through context clues and the like, I still wasn't fully getting the scope of just what the hell happened to Crimson and her friends for them to resort to living in a shoddy cave in the middle of the forest.Yes. I had actually recovered enough to start moving on my own again. Granted, I still had an improvised cane to support my movement, but it was a miraculous recovery all things considered what w

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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

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    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

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    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

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    Interlude XXXIX: Grigori

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    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

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    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

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    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