Chapter 60: Clarity (Part 2: Finale)

Scritch-scritch!

[ The Plague Section ]

[ Root: Ministry ]

[ Magnitude: I (!) ]

[ Stored: 1 Day, 2 Minutes ]

[ Available: Broad Recognition (!) ] 𓂃🖋

"Broad Recognition."

[ Broad Recognition ]

[ Price: 1 Minute ]

[ Sense the presence of Plague particles within fifty meters. ]

[ Grow Broad Recognition? (Y/N) ] 𓂃🖋

"Yes."

[ Broad Recognition has been grown. ] 𓂃🖋

As soon as the notice surfaced on the sheet, Milo became aware of company he could not see.

Nothing moved, yet the silence had acquired a presence, as though someone had been sitting quietly beside him all this time.

They were here.

Before Off could become another whispered litany, he bit down on his tongue and forced out a question first.

"Am I sensing the particles I’ve switched off, too?"

[ Correct. ] 𓂃🖋

Relaxing his jaw, he let out a deep breath.

Just like he thought. Feeling them didn’t mean they were doing anything. He could worry if somebody started showing symptoms.

The only available skill seemed to have been Broad Recognition, but the Magnitude indicator showed an exclamation mark.

"Magnitude?"

[ Magnitude II of the Plague Section ]

[ Price: 1 Hour ]

[ Cross to Magnitude II? (Y/N) ] 𓂃🖋

"Ye... hold on. I’ve got a Day stored. That’s three Hours, right? Each one is worth three of the last?"

[ Correct. ] 𓂃🖋

"So I ate twenty-two omens to have someone agree with me. I’m starting to think Consultation wasn’t worth all the excitement. Couldn’t you have agreed with me before?"

[ Confirmations are necessary when a single slip can lead to a catastrophe. ] 𓂃🖋

"Since when did you get so personal?"

[ Since Consultation. ] 𓂃🖋

"Fair. I want to cross to Magnitude II."

[ Magnitude: II (!) ]

[ Compatibility with Plague matter increases. Grown skills without a fixed limit strengthen. ]

[ New growth is shown. ] 𓂃🖋

From what Milo could understand, each Magnitude worked a little like the Innate Column’s part about passive increase in sturdiness.

But of course, what excited him more...

"New growth?" ℯ

[ Available ]

[ — Reach: 1 Hour (!) ]

[ — Broad Recognition II: 1 Hour (!) ]

[ — Concentration: 2 Hours (!) ]

[ — Convulsion: 3 Hours ]

[ — Breath Rend I: 4 Hours ] 𓂃🖋

"Okay, there’s a lot to tackle here..."

Since whatever designed this had chosen to make a Day equal to three Hours, it quickly became apparent that Milo would not gain the amount of strength he desired.

Reach extended his command of the particles to a hundred meters. Broad Recognition II let him sense them that far away, while Concentration gathered them in one spot. Useful, surely, but he wanted something that would make another person regret coming after him.

Convulsion and Breath Rend I looked much more promising on that front.

[ Convulsion ]

[ Induce a single respiratory spasm through the Plague particles within a chosen person. ] 𓂃🖋

...

[ Breath Rend I ]

[ Conjure a directed gust carrying a pressure ripple. Those struck are left winded. ] 𓂃🖋

Naturally, he couldn’t afford either.

Those were the Host’s abilities. A higher version of Breath Rend likely produced that smile-shaped ripple. Even reading the description, he remembered his lungs refusing him air while the Plague itself seemed to grin.

Since he couldn’t see II anywhere, it had to be blocked off by another Magnitude.

"I already ate twenty-two omens... how much is six more, really?"

[ An increase of roughly 27%. ] 𓂃🖋

"That’s not what I meant."

The gaps in the trays were obvious already.

Six more wouldn’t make the theft any easier to notice.

Milo ate six more and acquired Convulsion.

The company stayed as he hurried back for the last cart, only to vanish at the storage-room doorway.

With the room feeling abruptly too empty, he gasped.

Backing out to the corridors brought the presence back. Whoever carried the particles had to be in the west wing, within reach here but not a few steps farther.

"Ugh. They’re only particles. Why does it feel so awful when I can’t sense them?"

[ They mean more to you than air now. ] 𓂃🖋

"But I’ve never liked bacteria or viruses. It only started happening after I got Broad Recognition."

[ Their presence frees you of a burdensome feeling. ] 𓂃🖋

...

Milo hauled the third cart to the pickup point, its wheels squeaking with each spin.

It had taken him ten or so minutes to swallow the omens and interrogate the sheet. Compared to what he’d endured consuming the Warded relics, this was child’s play.

He laid the keys on the tray and buried them among the crystals.

Ollie had implied that Milo couldn’t be the ghost because he never did anything sloppily.

Leaving the keys here was so thoroughly stupid that it ought to count as evidence in his favor. Eve, meanwhile, still called the omens almonds. Nobody would expect her to steal thousands’ worth and remember to tidy up afterward.

The quiet classroom upstairs would supply the rest of his alibi. He just had to get there first, rig the clock half an hour back, and drag Layla in under the excuse that it was the only spot where they could hear themselves think.

She would notice the hour.

Later, when Henry discovered the missing omens, she’d remember that no, sir, Milo couldn’t have done that because he was with me this whole time!

She wouldn’t even have to lie for him. That was the beauty of it.

When he opened the door, however, a boy and a girl had spread their books over two desks.

Someone had found the space.

Milo paused, glancing from their notes to the clock before smiling.

"Morning. What class are you two from?"

"Studies," the boy said. "Why?"

"Perfect. Awesome. My friends from Field need a room, and I said I’d find them a couple of people who could help with the theory. How much have you covered? Don’t worry, they’re not harsh at all!"

Luckily, that discouraged them. Claiming that they hadn’t finished their own, the girl and the boy stepped past him out of the classroom and went hunting for a different spot.

Milo closed the door, slid a desk beneath the clock and climbed onto it.

The legs wavered until he shifted nearer the middle, where he waited for the last tremor to soothe before lifting the clock off its nail.

He worked the gears on its back until 13:20 became 12:50.

Satisfied, he rose onto his toes, feeling for the nail with the clock’s back just as his shoe slipped.

The desk lurched out from under him, and the clock left his hands.

Skrrrrrt... creeeeeaaaaak.

WHOMP!

His chest struck the wooden edge, folding him in half.

He squeezed his eyes shut and covered his head, waiting for the clock to assault him next.

After a few seconds without the second crash, he risked a look and found the clock hanging where he’d meant to put it.

"Succe..."

The door opened on Layla’s pink coils, interrupting a celebration he could hardly explain.

With the desk digging into his ribs and half an hour missing from the clock, he smiled.

Her presence too freed him of a burdensome feeling.

The clarity and the awareness of not being lonely anymore—he felt it more strongly with the girl than he ever could with Broad Recognition.

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⋆˚࿔ Coming right up: "Clock" ... ⤵︎ [!]