Chapter 344: Crack in the Restriction

Starfire at the very edge of the realm fluttered and then set into a rigid lattice as the first probe came through.

Aeloria was already in motion before the last of the residual shockwaves rolled out over the inner isles. Nyx came up on the threshold a breath later, tendrils of living dark curling outward in a broad, warding veil. The two of them took their places side by side without argument, gazing out over the place where something had tested the outer seals.

Lucifer was aware of the impact through the Divine Blood Core a fraction of a second after they were.

Clean, deliberate, and far heavier than any of the stray pressures he’d been feeling in the years prior. He left the training platform immediately and swept across the distance at an accelerated pace, coming to a stop several feet back from where the two women stood.

"What was that?"

Aeloria did not turn to face him. "An external probe. Of high order. It was running a progression scan against the defensive layers."

Nyx’s jet-black gaze remained fixed on the outer dark. "It was not a random scan. Something has a vector now."

Another impact landed before either of them could respond.

This one was narrower, more focused. It scored the reinforced boundary lattice at a single point along its outer seams, and drove a fine hairline of a fracture through the material. Starfire seeped out through the widening gap in a thread of light before Aeloria cut it off with a brief flourish of her hand. The damage stopped there, but the mere fact of it at all altered the taut pressure in the room’s interior.

Lucifer’s aura of dominance pushed outward in a slow, steady pulse. "That was not a test probe. That was a test of strength."

"Correct," Aeloria murmured. There was an undercurrent of tension in her voice. "The individual on the outside wanted a measure of how much force the seals would bear before they began to show strain."

Nyx cast a sidelong glance at her. "Then they have their answer. The next test will not be a probe."

"Then stop speaking to me as if I am still bound by the same limitations," Lucifer rumbled. "If the exterior pressures have already damaged the outer boundaries, then the isolation strategy is failing."

Aeloria turned her head to regard him at last. "The isolation strategy has not failed. It has merely shortened the predicted lifespan of its continued viability by an undetermined but non-trivial amount. That is not the same thing."

"This may become the same thing the moment they determine this is the level of force they need to apply in order to break through entirely," Lucifer countered. His crimson eyes stayed locked on hers. "You told me I was stronger than all the Progenitor Lords combined. You also told me I was not prepared for what was waiting outside this place. One has nothing to do with the other so long as the forces on both sides remain within their designated parameters."

Nyx’s own dark aura rippled out subtly. "He is not incorrect. Containment has been viable so long as no single force possessed a clear vector of approach. Now that it has one, the idea of delaying further advancement through isolation within this restricted domain is essentially an admission of defeat."

Aeloria’s expression did not change, but the coils of starfire surrounding her hands grew tighter as she turned her attention back to the repaired breach, reinforcing the seam with a secondary lattice along its length. Nyx was watching her again. Something in the woman’s posture suggested contemplation.

Lucifer was silent for several seconds as he observed Aeloria in turn. "How long do we have?"

"I do not base projections on single events," Aeloria said evenly.

She did not refuse the next question. "The adjusted value?"

Aeloria was quiet for a fraction of a second more than one might have expected.

"The current state of defensive arrangement will not hold against a continued application of ordered force comparable to the second test. If the opposing force chooses to apply such an option, the period of continued viability falls within the range of measured days, possibly less."

Nyx crossed her arms over her chest. "Then the pretermination phase is accelerated. There is no longer need to observe progressive advancement. He moves into the upper limits of what this place can force from him, and does it with immediacy."

Lucifer turned his gaze back to Aeloria. "And then what?"

She met his eyes directly. "Then containment ceases to be a viable primary option. We will have to make a determination as to whether or not to continue to allow the domain to isolate itself until further advancement becomes a necessity, or to take direct action in opening an egress on our own terms."

It was an uncomfortable prospect, one considerably more distressing than any of the lectures concerning gradual ascension she had given during the past three years. The starfire expanse which had formed both the crucible and the prison of his training was beginning to show a true weakness at its seams.

A second, more delicate pressure tested the outer boundary, this time lighter than either of the first two, almost like a fingertip dragging across the outer surface - and then withdrawing just as rapidly as it had come.

Nyx’s expression was unreadable, but her tone was not. "They are aware of the decreased integrity, and they will not be long in coming to take advantage of it."

Aeloria was already considering that possibility, turning away from him briefly to rearrange the secondary lattices along the outer perimeter before resuming her focus. Nyx remained as she was, arms folded, a small part of her awareness fixed on the distant dark with no interest in concealing the fact.

Lucifer was not inclined to indulge in further discussion. "Then by all means, demonstrate."

There was something almost like relief in the sound of her voice as Aeloria replied. "Good. Now let us begin, properly."

The platform beneath them shifted and reformed, starfire weaving into dark glass and back again in a more complex pattern than any which had come before, its outer edges forming a thick and rigid wall of containment. Some of the lingering pressures from the recent test impacts still lingered in its depths like a low-grade fever.

"Begin," Aeloria told him.

Lucifer stepped onto the newly-formed dais of the platform, feeling the pressures of authority build around him in layered pulses of blood, shadow, and starfire. The first sequence required considerably more exertion than it would have in months past, and he gave it his full effort.

Behind him, Aeloria and Nyx both held the greater part of their attentions out toward the dark, where a test force had already probed the boundary materials and left an imprint for them to follow.

The long restriction was not yet over, but there would most likely never be another interval quite like this again.