Knights Apocalyptica

“Love is a trick played on us by the forces of evolution. Pleasure is the bait laid down by the same. There is only power. Power is of the individual mind but the mind's power is not enough. Power of the body decides everything in the end and only might is right.”

- T. H. White, The Once And Future King (2nd Era, 1958)

Trekking through the wasteland was only made harder with the knowledge that everyone’s eyes were on Erec’s back. They expected him to deliver on his promise to return them to the army. So he complied the best he could. That meant pushing himself beyond what he was capable of. Every moment not spent trying to find a way to track the White Stag, Erec spent out in the wasteland searching for monsters.

Each occasion he found one was catharsis. He took on the challenge without consulting his allies—honing his edge against the myriad of weak but surviving creatures that roamed. It would be rare to find any that presented a threat to him.

And if it were, then he’d be the first to test it for the people relying on him. No one here was as strong as him.

After every catharsis of battle, he returned to camp hauling the corpse. His tension eased temporarily.

Until he got back to testing with Colin, the more Erec pushed the duke’s son to conduct experiments, the further opposition he got. As much as Colin wanted to be such a pivotal figure in finding the Stag, the more effort went into the task, the harder it became.

Only through VAL’s dogged insistence that they’d find a solution through science’s meticulous and deliberate testing did Eric find the will to press forward. Eventually, they’d get their result if they persisted and followed through.

Erec shook his head as he took long, dragging steps through the camp. All of the eyes on him weighed heavy, no doubt taking in the fact that this time he hadn’t returned drenched in blood. They whispered about him, about his past, his brother, his mother—and whatever conclusions they began to draw, Erec had no way of knowing. It was hard not to care, but ultimately what they thought of him didn't matter, only that they listened.

Erec entered his ‘workshop’ tent and let out a sigh of relief. It was a barren place, set aside for their testing. To one side of his little sanctuary was an assortment of all the spare communication devices they could muster. Each piece of tech had a different range of radio wavelengths. Erec constantly adjusted them as they looked for an ‘amplification’ while testing each glyph configuration. Over the last couple of days, they found two corresponding sets. Data points, according to VAL.

Get enough data on the correlation between the glyph geometry and radio wavelength, and VAL stated it could likely create a model. From there, it could generate an approximate shape for a glyph that would be able to track the White Stag’s signature.

All of the mathematics was beyond Erec, and so was all the spewings of science VAL gave on its methodology and thesis regarding this. It was a low, dull buzz every time VAL tried to discuss it in depth.

Erec sunk to the ground in the corner of his tent. His Armor felt heavy, and for a moment, he let himself go, staring numbly at the knobs and dials on the opposite side of his work area. He took off his helmet and rubbed his eyes.

[You really should get more rest. Self-care is vital to functioning correctly in times of stress. Perhaps you should consider a nap before Colin arrives?]

“I’m fine,” Erec lied, feeling a heavy weight on his shoulders.

The past couple of days kept bringing Gwen's story to his mind. She made it sound like Atlas was all alone while he held up the world, a god with no one around to share his burden. But Erec had his friend—truthfully, it made it harder rather than easier. That responsibility and trust only made it heavier as he tried to keep up his public image and lend backing to their organization. Garin and Olivia were the ones busy dealing with the daily issues. They were the ones capable of inspiring the soldiers.

So, with all their efforts, what he had to do was simple. Look strong. Be strong.

Why was that so hard?

They said he’d done well so far, that the distance between him and everyone else was essential to keeping their feeling of security about him. Better for them not to taste his doubt and fear.

At least he could hide it behind his steel. He didn’t know how long he sat staring blankly. An eternity, maybe.

“I don’t understand them.” Erec shook his head slowly. “I came in, embarrassed Jefferson, and somehow, I’m their savior. I don’t even issue orders that haven’t been run through everyone else…”

[Delegation is essential to leadership, and every person has different forms of leadership. Though, it does feel odd to have this conversation with a simple Researcher. We should begin considering you for the managerial track.]

“Please, no.” Erec shook his head. “I don’t think this is for me, unless I need to. The stress of it is too much.”

[Spoken like a true-blooded researcher. Far more interested in your work!]

“Just a few days more,” Erec said, inhaling deeply. They were getting near the main encampment. From there, he could relieve himself of command and hopefully have something tangible to report to Boldwick. If they were quick enough, they might prevent this from spiraling further out of control.

Colin strode into the tent, his Armor clanking as he swished his cloak intentionally behind him for a grand entrance. The haughty noble had taken to such flashy gestures. “Shall we get started?” Colin asked.

“Please.” Erec pulled himself to his feet, more than a little surprised that Colin was in a rare good mood.

— - ☢ - — - ☼ - — - ☢ - —

Hours flew by as Colin performed the same glyph, again and again, generating a harsh white light that leaked various colors in the fully formed glyph. Around them, different radio transmitters operated as Erec switched between channels.

VAL recorded data in his head as Colin got progressively more annoyed.

They’d found another amplifying wave, and VAL seemed awfully excited about it. But it hadn’t led to the breakthrough that Erec had hoped for.

A familiar head poked into their tent as the last glyph broke up. Garin took a brief look around as he walked in. “Ah, I see you two are both hard at work again. Any closer to figuring out the weird insight Erec had?”

“No. Frankly, I’m beginning to suspect that he’s chosen to torture me out in the field to relieve his stress. A very vain and underhanded tactic.” Colin said.

“Hey,” Erec cut in, “I meant what I said; this can be a way to find out where the White Stag is—if it works like I think it does. It’ll—well, save lives.”

“And then what? Are you going to charge it with your battle axe in hand? Do you believe that Boldwick will give you leave to follow a trail of magic when you’ve no aptitude for mysticism, to begin with?” Colin responded, his tone tainted by the deep annoyance which typically set in this late within these tests.

The longer Erec spent with Colin on any given day, the more unpleasant the noble boy got. Either their personalities were incompatible, or he’d begun to realize he could only stand him in short-measured doses.

Unfortunate for a friend.

“You’ll be taking the credit for it, anyway,” Erec said.

“You—why, of course, I am the one who constructed the working version of such a glyph. I hadn’t thought of such a thing before now, but it is wise of you to concede to my expertise. How long was it you said again before this will pay off? A couple of days? We may perhaps work on this for the rest of the night if it would accelerate my glory.” Colin said.

Erec didn’t bother to respond as Garin let off a snicker. All it took to reinvigorate the selfish noble was the right motive.

Shame it took so long to put that together.

“Anyway,” Garin cut off Colin from talking about how this success would mark him above any others in the Academy. “Things are going well. People are driving themselves harder after seeing you work, Erec. Jefferson continues to laze about camp, but no one takes his complaints seriously. It’s not like before.”

“That’s good, I suppose. And the possessed?” Erec asked. With how busy he’d been between the testing and scouting, he relied on his friends to closely monitor all the problem areas. Better not to lose the people’s confidence in him by interacting too closely because the honest Goddess truth was that he felt beyond nervous about this whole thing. They couldn't afford for his fear to spill into the camp.

“Difficult to make eat. They grow skinnier each day, but we’re on track to return to the main army in two days. Then it won’t be our problem; either way, it goes…” Garin trailed off.

Yeah, if the worse were to happen, they wouldn’t be the ones who would have to make that call. They lapsed into a morbid silence at the insinuation; even Colin knew better than to say anything.

“Anything I can do to help?” Garin asked, looking around at the tent.

“Yeah—help me operate these radios while Colin does his thing. The more channels we can swap between while he uses the glyph, the quicker we can get our results from testing.”

“Sure,” Garin moved over.

Out of anyone, his friend was the most reliable person Erec had ever met. And as the three of them burned away the night working on the experiment, they worked with an optimistic and filled energy. A youthful hope that they might be the ones to turn things around before the expedition devolved.

As the moon began to sink out of the sky, they had their breakthrough—another data set. Five minutes later, they had a working model.

An hour after that and a couple of tweaks, they’d honed in on the same mana signature of the White Stag—or, at least, the mana it used to interact with the radio waves.

Which led to the second glyph design. Colin began to point out the flaws in the second glyph—the one that would let them track the source of the mana.

In one night, their solution seemed very real, very quickly.

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