Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 157: Return to Leipzig

Isaac’s return to the university went off without any fanfare or chaos, thankfully. He got a high-five from Raul for getting the damn classification system changed back to a ranking system, and some more paperwork had been piled on, but that was about it.

He was only there for a single day, though, so he mostly took care of the paperwork that had accumulated in his absence, met a few of the new additions to the team, and checked in on Andre to see how he was doing. Of course Isaac had also visited him in the hospital, but now that the man was back at work, there was always the chance of nasty memories coming back with a vengeance.

However, it seemed like the [Psychiatrists] had done a fine job. Isaac himself would have liked to visit one, but, well, there were confidentiality issues. And not just the kind where the shrink might start blabbing, because that could be mitigated by some of their [Skills], which would have made the confidentiality utterly binding in a way he could verify. No, the real problem was that they might be made to tell. People didn’t need to know he was from another timeline to want to get at his secrets, which meant anyone he publicly confided in would be in trouble.

Family was sacrosanct, and all but the dumbest criminals could figure out what kind of bloody vengeance he’d wreak if they were touched. And the dumbest ones, well, they’d run into the spooks that watched over them. He’d also made sure to discretely spread the word about how terrible his fury would be. People had pictures of what he’d done to the Demon Lord, and the fact that no one knew just how he’d soundly beaten a certain serial killer made him seem even more intimidating. Fear of the unknown was a truly powerful force, after all.

As for his colleagues, well, the whole world had seen what happened to people who picked a fight with them.

Isaac was in the middle of filling out a form that would, in excruciating detail, explain to a certain bureaucratical blowhard why becoming the official partner university of Seoul National University was a good idea when a knock on the door sounded.

He was surprised by this, as he normally recognized anyone who dealt with him by their footsteps.

Normally, he’d just call in whoever knocked, but normally, he knew who was outside.

So instead, Isaac just got up, walked to the door, and opened it manually, inadvertently scaring the hell out of the man on the other side, who clearly hadn’t expected for it to open less than a second after rapping his knuckled against the wood.

“Yes?” Isaac asked as he looked his visitor up and down, only realizing who was standing before him after the fact. He knew this guy, but as a successful scientist, inventor, and businessman who carried himself with confidence and wore the finest enchanted clothing that money could buy.

That … wasn’t who was standing outside the door. This was a man barely past Level 10, with a mousy bearing and a pair of large glasses prominently placed on his nose.

Daniel Neves Malo, the inventor of the spatial ring, had clearly changed greatly after his success.

“Er, Dr. Thoma, s- …” Malo broke off with a cough, clearly about to call Isaac “sir”, then thinking better of it. Yeah, ripping open the door like that had startled him, coupled with Isaac’s reputation doing the rest to scare this guy witless.

There were multiple ways Isaac could have handled it, from demanding answers to keeping his trap shut and leaving the silence to hang until it got awkward, then waiting some more until Malo finally started talking.

It only took ten seconds for that to take effect.

Malo took another deep breath and started anew.

“Dr. Thoma, first off, I’m a huge fan of your work.”

As tempting as it was, Isaac did not raise an eyebrow at the obvious attempt to butter him up.

“My name is Daniel Neves Malo, and I’ve been invited here to do some research.”

“Spatial storage devices, right?” Isaac asked rhetorically before Malo could continue “I saw the proposal you submitted, I think you’re really onto something.”

While that interruption did manage to serve the purpose of reassuring Malo, the unexpected praise seemed to have also seriously thrown him. Yet a few seconds later, he continued, though he took a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow.

“Thank you. But I’m afraid I … there’s something I need to ask of you. You see, there’s …” Malo took another pause, dry-washing his hands “I’ve been working with your assistants, Ms. Ling and Mr. Nkosi, and they’ve been a huge help. I know they’re your assistants, I can’t depend on them being available. But if you can afford to spare them for even a few hours each week, I can’t even begin to explain how much that would mean. I … I’m well aware of the fact that I can’t make any demands here, that you’re my boss.”

Malo paused the stream of conversation for a moment to take a deep breath, which Isaac took as a chance to get a word in edgewise.

“Don’t worry, they’ll still be available. They’ll still need to do quite a few things for me, but I have no intention to monopolize their time just because I’m back. That being said, I would like to see some of your work. I have some additional resources in my personal stash that might be of use to you.”

As it turned out, Isaac’s assistants had been delegated to the role of gophers when they weren’t training their [Skills], fetching materials from other cities or even countries, or demonstrating their abilities so they could be copied by their the [System Researchers] or the people working on understanding spatial magic.

“Oh, sure. I have a prototype ring right here.” Malo said, fumbling around as he retrieved said ring from his pockets, getting his fingers tangled up in the process.

Oh dear, he really was incredibly nervous. But he did get the ring out and practically threw it at Isaac, who caught it without difficulty.

As the small band of metal with an inset “gemstone”, which was really just a synthetic mass of a dozen different spatially aligned alchemic materials, all carefully arranged in patterns that drew on humanity’s admittedly anemic knowledge of magic runes.

Isaac opened it with a thought, or at least he tried to, that is. What would have been enough to open his old spatial ring didn’t garner even the slightest bit of reaction.

So, he gathered his will and focused on it, yet once again, no reaction. Simple mental commands were simply useless.

On his third attempt, Isaac manually gathered his mana and hurled it all at the damn ring, earning himself a small flicker above the gem, but nothing beyond that.

And then, finally, he grabbed his mana, pushed it in, and held it there until a proper connection to the pocket space was finally established, letting him sense the small amount of storage volume within, maybe a liter at the most.

Isaac sighed. He hadn’t realized these rings had ever been this user-unfriendly, though he really should have. Of course, an interface that easy to use had been the result of hard work and research, not how it had been in the beginning.

That’s when he noticed that Malo was staring at him with a look of utter astonishment on his face.

Isaac raised an eyebrow.

“How did you do that? I thought only [Mages] could … wait, are you a [Mage]?”

Isaac suppressed a chuckle at the puzzled expression as he answered “That’s actually not the issue. Directly manipulating mana is what’s needed to use this ring, and it’s an ability that can help [Mages] grow stronger and vastly empower [Elementalists]. I’m probably one of the only sword fighters in the world who’s trained that ability.”

“Oh.” Malo nodded “It just seemed so obvious how to do it …”

“If you can do something, the ‘how’ seems so obvious that teaching others how to copy you seems impossible, doesn’t it?” Isaac suggested.

Malo nodded again, looking grateful.

“Now, it seems like you’re on a promising path with your research and as promised, I have a few things for you.”

An inscribed core appeared in Isaac’s hand and immediately vanished as a massive pile of materials poured out of thin air and landed in the bag that had materialized in his hands.

Dozens of Space Elemental Cores, bits and pieces belonging to more corporeal monsters with spatial powers, some metals Isaac knew to have spatial magic affinity and some that didn’t, but were included anyway so it didn’t look like he had unnatural knowledge. His collection would still help but do so without revealing knowledge he’d rather stay secret.

And then, three dozen Aspects appeared on the nearby table.

“I’ll give you the Aspect of the Lesser Hydra, and two more of your choice. If you need XP to slot them, I’ll gladly help you fa- …”

This time, Malo actually fainted. Less than Level 10, dump Stat Fortitude, yeah, still affected by normal human issues. Isaac caught him before he’d even begun to sag, though.

It wouldn’t even have been a big deal … except Bailey had noticed that someone’s health status had changed with his [Aura], run over, and that mess had taken forever to untangle, with how many people had gotten startled due to the professor running through the building at top speed.

Eventually, though, things calmed back down and Isaac got a portal to Leipzig after saying goodbye to everyone.

Overall, it had been a good day, and knowing that the spatial research was progressing well was a relief, but seeing Bailey take an early leave so he could “get some space” hurt.

***

Isaac stepped through the portal into a ludicrously fortified room in the main police precinct of the city of Leipzig. It was a truly ridiculous choice that only made sense to a bureaucrat, as there was no reason that a hostile teleporter would choose the designated long-range portal spot as their target. Sure, if there were a city-wide teleport blocker involved, that would be a different conversation, but there wasn’t.

But Isaac would have been understanding of the fact that people needed to feel like they were doing something … if it hadn’t been for the fact that it took ten bloody minutes for someone to let him out, despite the fact that he’d announced his arrival time days ahead of time and called ahead right before teleporting.

‘If you’re going to lock your visitors in a room for your own peace of mind, the least you could do is make sure they aren’t left alone long enough for them to seriously consider cutting their way out ‘cause the walls are too mana dense to be easily phased through ’

“I’m so sorry Dr. Thoma, a thousand apologies …”

And now he was getting an apology spiel straight out of the “servant of an insane despot” playbook. Urgh. Understandable, but still … urgh.

The path out of the building led straight out of the building, having been designed to go through any sensitive areas. In essence, it was the idiot cousin of the standard [Portal]-rooms that could be found in airports and train stations in cities other than Leipzig.

Then again, those other cities hadn’t had a horrifying serial killer caught in them. On the surface, Leipzig had come through that fine. But scars weren’t necessarily visible.

As Isaac passed through the lobby, he spotted a familiar person. Short, build like a brick shithouse, a heavily reinforced extendible baton made from the toughest and most expensive of materials hidden under a jacket that was likewise far stronger than its mundane counterpart. The rest of the outfit was improved in much the same way, with wires and spider silk threaded throughout, the whole ensemble basically being ready to go charging into a drug dealer’s hideout in.

“Good afternoon Herr Polizeirat.” Isaac greeted Habicht “It’s been a while.”

“Yep.” Habicht said, “How does it feel to be the number one cause of coronaries in intelligence circles?”

It took a hot second, but Isaac realized that they hadn’t spoken in person since he’d caught the spy at his sisters’ school.

“Was it really that bad?” he asked.

“Oh, absolutely. Ol’ Jonatan tried to hide it, but he was right in front of me, I have the [Skills] to counter his, and I know him well enough to see through most of his bullshit.”

“In other words, you haven’t missed a single instance to remind him of me and how badly I scared him,” Isaac commented dryly.

Instead of a laugh, Habicht replied with an appraising stare, the privacy field already expanding “You got social [Skill], didn’t you?”

“What gave it away?” Isaac asked they began to walk through the streets of Leipzig, though their “walk” was still fast enough to overtake cars on the road.

“You’ve always been perceptive, but more in the ‘genius detective’ way, not so much in the social sense. And you’re a lot harder to read now.” Habicht flashed Isaac a malicious grin.

“How about you drop by my office one of these days, and see how badly you can spook the spook?”

“Wait, you’re still working next to each other? I thought that was a temporary solution.” Isaac asked.

“So, did I. But apparently, he thinks that having easy access to me is worth putting up with my ‘principled rants’.”

Ah yes, those. Isaac had gotten one of those after he’d fought the Children of the [System] at the Bodensee. No one could have proven that, but Habicht had suspected and strongly hinted that he was alright with what had happened. That sometimes, there were situations where the rules didn’t cover everything. And that Isaac should be more careful when he’d been gone after those jackasses. He could imagine how one of those directed at an annoying intelligence agent would go.

“I see. But are you sure I should be dropping by your office before the trial is over? It might look like collusion.” Isaac said.

“We’re talking now.” Habicht pointed out.

“We’re also working. Dropping by as a prank or for a job interview is a lot different and could look a lot worse. There’s a reason the formal job offer has been delayed.”

“Maybe. But honestly, you’re practically an arresting officer in this case. I don’t think there’s anything I could tell you to bias you against her any more than you already are.”

“Yep. But will the media communicate it like that? The difference between the truth, and the truth the public receives …”

“… is a pain in the ass, I know.” Habicht sighed “We’re here, by the way.”

In this case, “here” was the jail where Arianne Krebs, the monster slayer, rested her head nowadays.

Getting in was a simple matter of Habicht flashing his badge … followed by what felt like hours of intense security scans.

But they ended soon after, and then the pair were following the warden deeper into the prison.

“As you can see, we’ve already earned our nickname ‘Gleipnir’ ten times over. There’s enough mana invested in these walls that even a true Ephemeral monster could not phase through safely, let alone a human using a cheap knock-off using an Aspect. And that would require them to gain an Aspect in the first place, which won’t happen. We’ve been able to prevent every attempt at smuggling one in and no one can summon in here.”

“How do you do that?” Isaac wondered “It’s true that there’s a mana surge associated with summoning a monster, but detecting it is almost impossible for the equipment available at the university, bleeding edge magitech. What’s your secret?”

“Vandalism.” Warden Schwan said with a smug grin “More specifically, we’re checking for the circles. The inmates aren’t allowed to draw on the walls or floor, so if they try, it gets noticed. If they use the library books, the librarian will raise hell. And so on, and so forth.”

“Couldn’t they use their clothing?” Habicht asked.

“Not without potentially nuking themselves. Cloth doesn’t stay rigid, and the circle can get ruined by an errant gust of wind and poof, mana aberration.”

“Mana aberration?” Schwan asked.

“Mana forced into an unstable form, it’ll either rip your face off or blow it off when it reaches the end of its lifespan, a few seconds after appearing, and all killing it will do is make it blow earlier,” Isaac said.

“I’m surprised I haven’t heard about those before,” Schwan frowned.

“Firstly, circles are incredibly forgiving, so blowing yourself up is pretty hard. And secondly, these things leave no trace of their presence other than the destruction they wreak. It doesn’t really get talked about outside general ‘be careful and exact when drawing out the circles’.”

“Ah, I see.” Schwan nodded “Anyway, I have more to tell you. We do weekly checks of everyone’s XP and Level status, so if anyone manages to somehow summon despite everything, they’ll get caught.”

“And how do you deal with the XP gains from acting in accordance with their [Class]?” Isaac asked.

“We make sure they can get as little as possible. It’s difficult with [Jailbirds], [Masterminds] and other [Classes] that can work well in here, but it stops most of them.”

“What about Mrs. Krebs?” Isaac asked, “Her [Class] is meant to be judgmental, isn’t this the exact kind of thing that it would excel at?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” Schwan said “We’ve managed to come to an arrangement involving her throwing all the Stat she had when we started verifying Statuses into Perception and that if she ever truly increases her Level from this point onwards, she’ll be sedated and kept in a medically induced coma until at least three guards hit Level 50. A judge’s decree to that end is already prepared and signed.”

“Then why haven’t you already done that?” Habicht glowered “You haven’t seen her fight, if she gets out, you’re all done for.”

“Perception. Using that would inevitably cause a public outcry, and we might be forbidden from using it later. Right now, it’s still legal, and using it before we have to could do more harm than good.” Schwan sighed.

“Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner.” Habicht muttered in a less than complimentary tone “It works, it’s better than living in a dictatorship, but God, so many people feel qualified to stick their noses in where they don’t belong.”

“Democracy is the worst form of government …” Isaac said with a fatalistic air about him “… except for every other form of government there is.”

Schwan nodded “Churchill, right?”

“Yep.”

It took a little bit longer, but eventually, both Habicht and Isaac agreed that the jail would likely hold her going forward, at least so long as Krebs didn’t get her hands on an Ephemeral Aspect of get somewhere near Level 40.

“I’d like to [Inspect] her,” Isaac said.

“Phrasing.” Habicht sighed.

“Pay attention to my inflection.” Isaac shot back.

“Her cell has a walkway above it, with a one-way mirror to ensure she doesn’t see you.” Schwan nodded “I’m assuming your [Skill] can work through one of those?”

Isaac nodded and they soon arrived back at the cell. It was a single “free-standing” cell surrounded by open space on all sides in a larger room, with stilts propping it up. Using his [Aura], Isaac had also spotted cameras that gave the guards a view of every square centimeter of the cell, ensuring that nothing got past the guards. It was also a huge privacy concern but, well, superpowered serial killer.

They headed up onto the catwalk that lay over the top of the cell, allowing guards to view the inside of the cell without having to rely on hackable electronics.

“Aaaaand she’s staring at us. Again.” Schwan sighed “The cell is meant to be soundproofed, but it’s still not working.”

Isaac nodded, not wanting to speak out loud to avoid her from recognizing his voice. It might work, it might not, but it was still preferable that she didn’t get furious right here and now, what with the person who’d tossed her in here within a few meters of her.

“We’ve been checking her Level, and it hadn’t gone up,” Schwan said.

‘But she’s 10 Levels higher than when I fought her’ Isaac typed out on his phone ‘I’m guessing there’s something we’re not seeing. That being said, her Stats have mostly been allocated to Perception. I don’t know what her game is, but it could be worse.’

Schwan grimaced, again.

“Once she is convicted, we’ll get a pretty hefty addition to our budget. Then we can beef up security and make some additions so we can start holding more …”

“Supervillains?” Habicht suggested. Schwan just groaned and shook his head.

“Don’t start with that. All the petitions to rename this place after certain comic book jails are bad enough.”

‘I wonder why.’

Once they were all outside the jail, Isaac, and Habicht headed back into the city and checked out the courthouse. It had likewise been ludicrously upgraded in preparation for the upcoming trial, but this time around, there were gaps that would need to be filled.

Of course, the pair of them weren’t the first people to do such inspections, but they were the highest Level ones and they had [Classes] and Aspects that could allow them to escape a locked room more readily than a [Civil Planner] or [Security Consultant] could, meaning they had far great insight into the matter at hand.

After that mess had been handled, Isaac finally headed out to his hotel room, at one in the morning. What a clusterfuck. But things had been handled, the trial’s security and prison cells were up to snuff, he’d passed a couple of important [Skills] onto Habicht, further deepening his connection with law enforcement, and so on.

A good day, but an exhausting one. Isaac collapsed into bed, asleep the moment he hit the pillow.

Yet the moment his eyes fell shut, he suddenly found himself elsewhere, an empty white void. What. The. Hell.