SIS B4: Chapter 111: Information and Crisis

Daz could feel the vast waves of joy and relief coming from his companion. So much so that he instantly gained some progress in his Ember of Empathy.

[Ember of Empathy [Entry-level] initial mastery increased to 19%.]

"Your hunch paid off?" he asked.

Crusher, or perhaps Petra, Daz wasn't quite sure how she wished to be called. Regardless, she nodded. "Yup. I got eight choices to go through for my evolution. I need to think this through carefully. I'll meet you back at Castle Crowthorne?"

"That sounds fine. I'm happy your plan worked but we will still be having those promised words," Daz said sternly.

He saw her scratching her neck cheerfully. "And that spar?"

"Yes, and the spar," he replied.

"Great! See ya soon then, Uriel," Crusher happily said before she sprung up onto her feet and left Zachary's cell.

Daz ran a hand through his hair and asked the archbishop, "Are any of the cardinals like that?"

"Grace was. She was the one who you... uh, showed on national television?" the man asked back with an unsure chuckled.

"Ah. Glad to be rid of her already then," Daz said as he sighed. "Well, I'm here now. Let's go over some things before I go deal with her further, shall we?"

"Oh, of course. Anything you want to know, I will happily try to explain," Zachary obliged.

***

Daz was disappointed to learn that Zachary truly was rather out of the loop when it came to a lot of important facets of the church. Such as the personal strengths of Mother Danielle, the cardinals, or even his fellow archbishops.

He knew nothing of military movements or of supply lines. He didn't even know where their mythical city was.

Perhaps that information had been brainwashed out of his mind upon being captured. Maybe no one bar Mother Danielle herself knew where it was. Daz had no idea.

Regardless, he at least knew exactly how God's Faith and God's Truth worked, which was a relief. Most of the information Zachary had shared and demonstrated were things New Earth was already aware of though, sadly.

Such as the line of sight rule and the limits of 50 metres. What was new information, however, was that God's Truth - the power to turn things to ash - wasn't effective against a specific group of people working under Larry Billard.

Zachary didn't have much knowledge on the matter but just that alone was enough of a lead for Rose to follow up on.

It also was revealed that the higher one's rank in the Church of Truth, the more things or people could be targeted by both of their unique abilities.

As an archbishop, Zachary claimed he could cut off up to four people from the system at once and he could also turn 16 things to ash simultaneously.

The latter was proven when Daz made him demonstrate with some spare diamond needles. There was no speed decrease whatsoever between ashifying the first object up to the sixteenth.

Apparently, it a linear progression of power as one moved up the ranks. A priest could only cut off a single person and ashify four things.

That means a cardinal could cut off five people and ashify 20 objects or people. This constant changed above the rank of cardinal, however.

According to the Truthian, popes were incredibly strong though only two existed and they completely abstained from the system, making them actually rather insignificant offensively to those like Daz.

In a battlefield setting though, popes could be juggernauts of death and destruction. Daz didn't disagree with Zachary on this.

After all, it was the church's popes who had destroyed Las Vegas and Incheon respectively.

As for Mother Danielle, the Archpope of the church, Zachary admitted to knowing almost nothing about her save that she constantly exuded a golden and holy brilliance.

Regardless, while incredibly useful, Daz had a more pressing matter at hand to settle.

"Did Crusher come through here?" he asked Crosius upon returning to his throne room.

The old advisor nodded as he slowly got up from his desk and bowed his head. "Yes, Your Majesty. She was.. different though. Perhaps I shouldn't be asking this, but did she evolve?"

"Yes, she did. Where did she go?" Daz asked.

Crosius smiled and answered, "To your training courtyard, Your Majesty."

"Of course she did. Thanks, Crosius," Daz replied as he cracked his neck. "You can return to whatever you were busying yourself with."

"I live to serve, Your Majesty," the old man tipped his head then settled back into his desk's chair.

Daz quickly made his way to his personal training area and, as mentioned, Crusher was there though she looked vastly different.

She was shorter now, oddly enough. He couldn't quite tell since at Project Lockbox she had been sitting on the floor but she looked to be around the same height as her former crippled self.

She was still tall for a woman, but Daz no longer had any need to bend his neck back to meet eyes with her.

Her hair was long now too, flowing all the way down to her waist. It was still bright blonde, so nothing had changed there.

She was having a conversation with Dorian who was trying his best to avoid looking directly at her, Daz noticed.

'Did she get prettier or something? I always had a feeling he'd develop Stockholm Syndrome for her eventually but if all it took for him to be unable to look right at her was an evolution, well... that's a bit pathetic,' he noted as he approached.

Crusher spun around and grinned upon seeing him. "Yo, Uriel! Like the new look?"

"You did get prettier. I thought you might have considering his state," Daz answered as he pointed a thumb at Dorian.

"Hey! This is weird is what it is. She's barely got any muscles on her now and she's shorter than me! She. is. Shorter. Than. Me. That's fucking insane!" Dorian protested. "Do you have any idea how jarring that Is? I expected her to become Rimmy sized or something, not to become a normal-looking person!"

Crusher laughed as she jabbed her elbow into Dorian's waist. "Hey, I ain't normal. My Ember of Clarity makes it pretty fuckin' clear to me how my face makes you feel, Ahab. I don't mind goin' on a date late, y'know? Well, assuming grumpy ass over here doesn't lock me up."

Dorian put his mechanical palm on his face. "You know what, I'm done with your teasing. So what if you're ten years older than me and an annoying bitch 95% of the time? Let's go on a date. Whatever."

Crusher's laughing only worsened. "Sounds like a plan. Maybe you can show me what that special arm of yours can do, eh? I don't expect you to be able to please a woman but I've got hopes for that tech."

Daz shrugged, ignoring the emasculated Dorian who seemed poised to retort.

He rolled his shoulder and summoned Hamson before saying, "The discussion regarding your behaviour can wait. Wanna tell me about your evolution or shall we just fight and I'll learn as we go?"

Crusher's grin spread. "I like the second option. Not here though. I'll destroy the whole castle. Hell, maybe even the whole city. I ain't no terrorist cultist, mind you, but I don't wanna hold back against you."

She then spun on her heels and pushed Dorian lightly, sending him flying across the courtyard. "And I do have muscles, you cheeky fuck. They're just more compact. That goes for all of my muscles. You'll learn that later if you impress me on our date, haha."

Daz frowned. "Can you fly now? If you can, let's fight over the ocean. Not much permanent damage can be done there if we're just displacing water. A spirit I control can cancel out any tsunamis and the like we may unintentionally create."

"Nah, I can't, but I've got merit points. Gimme a sec," Crusher said.

Dorian pulled himself out of the wall he'd been forced into as he groaned. "That'll bruise. Fucking barbarian..."

Despite his words, Daz couldn't help but notice the man was full of affection and a sense of longing that seemed close to being fulfilled.

'Stockholm Syndrome is an interesting thing,' the reaper noted.

Crusher stuck her tongue out and began focusing. A second later, she took out her keychain-sized hammer and made it grow large enough for her to stand on its head.

"This can fly now like your shovel. Should do the job well enough. If I let go I'm going down like a sack of bricks though," she said with a shrug.

"Good enough. We're fighting because you asked. Don't blame me if I exploit that new weakness of yours," Daz said.

"Trust me, you'll need the edge," Crusher laughed.

***

Daz ended up using his car to fly them out to the centre of the pacific ocean. Honestly, it was a pretty awkward ride. Mostly because Dorian tagged along.

Crusher had opted to sit on his lap which, while amusing at first, had only led to annoying Daz due to the raging feelings of lust and shame Dorian exuded during the entire trip.

Daz left Dorian in the Ridomochi Final Model and set it to track him. He couldn't damage the car unless he used Hamson so he doubted Crusher could threaten to ruin the vehicle with collateral damage either.

"Any rules you want to place?" Daz asked. "I can't use my clones nor Rimmy since they're integral to New Earth's stability. I also have an instant death skill that Mu barely managed to dodge once by coming close to sacrificing his skull companion. It's been upgraded since then too."

Crusher laughed from her soul. "Still looking down on me? Okay. Just use that shovel of yours and your crystals. Whatever else, really. I'm gonna hit ya and I'll hit ya hard. Don't think that fancy new armour of yours will keep you safe."

"So be it," Daz replied.

He summoned his briefcase and took out 46 diamond needles. Sadly, Daz hadn't had the time yet to order a gem-lined inner suit so he was still using four of his young sentient gems to move in the air.

"Do you still have your rebirth skill?" he asked.

"Worried about killing me?" Crusher grinned. "Yeah, I've got it."

"Good," upon saying that, Daz controlled Hamson to lop off Crusher's head.

She moved her hammer quickly and with grace. Crusher easily slammed the flat part of Hamson's blade with enough force to actually dent it.

Daz's control over the shovel broke as it shot straight up into the air, so heavy was the impact of Crusher's opening strike.

"My turn?" she asked as she, without moving, swung her weapon once more.

Daz was a bit confused. How would she hit him when they were still dozens of metres apart from one another? Surely some sort of trick was being played on him here.

It was then that he felt the force of a mountain slamming into his side, caving his armour and chest in. The wind howled in agony as massive waves were created on the otherwise calm ocean.

Daz spat out a massive amount of blood as he rocketed through the air. His Defence, Constitution and Regeneration were barely keeping him alive.

'I didn't even have the time to get a warning from Survivor's Instinct,' Daz thought as he ignored the pain.

Crusher laughed furiously. "Hahaha! And that was only in my smallest form! I'm going from one a hundred in a sec, Uriel. I really wanna see if you can take me at my strongest!"

Daz's eyes narrowed. His body was quickly healing though his armour was taking its time.

'That wasn't her new peak? So her evolution allowed her to retain her Titan form or something? What exactly did she evolve into?' he wondered as he prepared himself.

He didn't want to just stupidly give her time to transform as he assumed she was trying to do though. Even if they were sparring, he'd be a fool to disadvantage himself like that.

He regained control over Hamson and sent it out along with his army of 46 needles to assault her.

Daz controlled the godly shovel to cut her limbs while the needles tried to stab her from all angles. The diamond weapons only bounced off of her skin, frustratingly enough.

She was also easily swatting Hamson away just perfectly enough to not allow it to touch her or to damage her hammer. Each time with enough power to loosen Daz's telekinetic grip on it.

Crusher was also slowly growing larger and larger as the seconds ticked on by.

Daz frowned. 'She's far stronger than previous. All it took to win a spar before was Hamson slicing off a foot or something. Now she has to speed to keep up with it. She has the precision too to avoid having her hammer get destroyed in the process.'

He continued to pepper her with Hamson. If nothing else, it was keeping her on the defensive. Meanwhile, he changed tactics with the needles.

Daz controlled them to try to stab her through her weak points. Namely, her nostrils, eyes, ears, and her less visible entrances.

It was dirty but this was a de facto fight to the death. Honour had no place here.

"Oi, that's not fair!" Crusher yelled as she tried to use her non-hammer wielding hand to rip the many needles out only for it to get threatened by the blood-red shovel for the dip of focus.

"Ahh, whatever! Like these needles can kill me! My organs are just as tough as my skin is!" she roared.

The woman then began using both hands to fend of Hamson. She was large enough now that even with Reika coating the shovel's blade, it wasn't able to give her any fatal injuries.

Daz used Death Beams and Grip of Death to put more pressure on her. The beams did less than his needles, in truth.

The Grip of Death, however, was able to easily grasp her soul. He tried squeezing it only to find it, too, was immeasurably tough.

He was stuck. If he wanted to do any more damage to her he'd need to use Laughing Skull, Reflective Chains of Justice, or Rimmy.

Two of those could leave her permanently damaged while the last was busy healing his citizens in both body and mind back at Fort Home.

He needed her to slip up. One false move and Hamson would end this. A swift slice of the heart or brain would likely kill her and trigger her rebirth. She was simply too focused on defending those areas though.

"Mofolo, Reika, use your combined powers," Daz ordered.

The spirits obliged. As Crusher grew, and grew, and grew, even taller than her previous 20 metre tall Titan form, the seas of Atlantis stirred.

Reika and Mofolo combined their abilities and numerous portals began appearing all around Crusher's gargantuan form.

She was too big now to properly deflect all of Hamson's attacks so some of the rifts even opened directly in the skin the tool had shredded open.

The seas of Atlantis poured forth from these rifts and battered against the woman, threatening to consume her.

'Hamson can cut her now that she's so big, but because she is so big, it can only do so much damage before she mmediately heals. That passive regeneration is ludicrous. The rifts are keeping some of her wounds open though... Just how big is she going to get?' Daz wondered from as far as he could be without losing control over his crystals.

The woman was easily 100 metres tall by this point and still growing.

Daz's body and armour had both healed completely at this point but his mind was ringing with warnings. He could genuinely die here if he wasn't careful.

Even though more and more rifts kept assaulting Crusher with the Seas of Atlantis, she just grew and grew and grew. Eventually, though, she did settle at the unbelievable height of 250 metres tall.

She then plummeted down, seemingly having let go of her hammer or cancelled its ability to allow her to fly.

The pacific below split as if by a god, obscuring everything from view as she descended into it.

Daz couldn't see anything thanks to the water that was not only rising up to the sky but also showering him and pressing down onto his body with enough pressure to make resisting it a struggle.

He quickly activated his Soul Vision and then every fibre of his being told him to run as he heard four words cut through the torrent of cascading water.

"Fist Of The Gods!" a voice boomed as if from the heavens, threatening to wipe Daz out from existence.