Modified Freedom

Sensing the change in the atmosphere clearly from the different countenance coming off Yumi, Ourias subtly shifted his weight back in preparation for a defensive position. The new hair and eye color made him wonder what the change in her meant. Everything he saw was new. Nothing in the many reports said anything about such a transformation.

However, something else bothered him even more than the visible changes. ‘She’s talking to herself. As though there were others to carry a conversation. Is this the true appearance of her power? Has she held this back as a trump card?’ So many questions remained unanswered.

“Who are you?”

Chapter 244 – Modified Freedom

She grinned a little watching the subtle changes in his face. ‘He’s not completely sure of himself, but he feels strongly enough about it.’ It impressed her a little with his deductive skills. “Realized already? You’re more observant than the last one, though it’s not like I’m trying to hide it. It’s as you’re thinking. Doctor Sumiko at your service.”

Things only got more complicated for Ourias. She seemed like she looked down at him. The superiority was clear, but also just a sense of maturity earned from years of experience. An unsettling combination. “Doctor? You’re a teenager.”

Sumiko shook her finger a little at him. “At this age I had earned my first doctorate degree, so it’s still appropriate to call me Doctor.”

‘She’s acting like this is not even her body, like she’s borrowing it. What sort of power is this? Will it change the powers she’s been shown to have?’ Questions only compounded on top of new questions. It never seemed to end. Even if it did end, there seemed little chance for clarity at the conclusion. The girl was more of a mystery than a moment ago. “You’re saying that this isn’t your real appearance and that you’re older. What are you?”

Looking around at her body for another quick check, Sumiko nodded. “It’s been a while since I was a teenager and I looked quite a bit different than her. The rest I’ll leave up to your imagination. A woman needs a little mystery.” She winked at him just to accent it, though it completely lacked any sort of charm. It was clearly not her sort of forte

More mystery wasn’t something he needed. He wanted some answers, but he had to settle for what he had. ‘In the end, this doesn’t affect things any differently. She’s still an intruder that must be stopped.’ If she was a different person from the other she faced, there remained a chance for him. “Since you are not the same person, I’ll ask you. You seem like a reasonable and logical individual.”

It made her giggle a little. She foresaw it. He played too cleanly into her perimeters. “Flattery’s not going to change the situation. Her goal is my goal, so while you may be thinking this has nothing to do with me, it still does. Besides, threaten and boast as much as you want, there’s nothing you can do to stop me from entering your city.” The expression in her eyes suddenly shifted, becoming serious and ready for a fight. Play was over. “And I assure you, I don’t boast. It’s the simple truth.”

Ourias ground his teeth together in response to her answer. He feared it to be as much, but hoped anyway. If fighting could be avoided, it was the best. Protecting the Capital was their mission, but it was up to him to determine how to carry it out. “I’ll protect the Capital! You won’t pass!”

“You’re doing a bad job of that, judging from those two fighting,” Sumiko remarked, pointing out Rheia and Saki’s battle on the Capital’s walls.

“She won’t enter the Capital, any damage to the wall can be easily repaired. There won’t be any deaths while I stand!”

Sumiko suddenly disappeared. Appearing at the side of Ourias, she leaned closer to him. “So you’re that type. There’s always bystanders, innocents caught up in the middle. There will be deaths, even if you don’t know them, even if they aren’t reported, even if you didn’t see them die.”

The Atlantean jumped away from Sumiko, clearing out his personal space. “The earth transformed into hardened spikes lashing out at its foe.” In front of him, the grass transformed into a darkened mass that stretched out for Sumiko becoming spikes. She disappeared again, never touched by the attack. “You know nothing about death!”

Dropping back at her original spot, Sumiko appeared to Ourias’ sight. Her face darkened drastically in response to him. “Making assumptions is very bad. You’ve painted an image of me in your head already based on what I’ve told you, but you couldn’t be more wrong. I’m very familiar with death, more than you.” The white barrier around Sumiko shattered into hex pieces. Hexagon shards spun around her. Each piece blended together, speeding up to appear like a ring around her.

She began to float closer to Ourias. Her presence had completely changed. A strange darkness seemed to surround her. It wasn’t a menacing appearance. It wasn’t evil, even if it could have easily been confused as one. Just reality, cold hard, unforgiving, unbending, inflexible, unrelenting reality.

It was truth.

Blunt as a hammer. “I have another name, a name those that survived call me, Doctor Death. Uncreative, but no less accurate. Billions have died by my hands. I caused the near extinction of an entire civilization. So trust me when I say I know a few things about death and reality. Blindness to reality doesn’t excuse you from its consequences.”

The woman’s presence actually unnerved Ourias in a way that he didn’t think possible. Ignoring the fact that he was an adult, the things he saw in the academy felt like staring in the heart of evil at times. The cold and merciless life almost seemed like they designed it to prepare him for the future. His future, one of blame and prejudice. He thought he understood, but one look into Sumiko’s eyes was enough for him. He was certain he saw the blood of billions in her eyes, ever flowing for all eternity unable to be washed away. Yet staring at her, he didn’t see any of the same darkness he felt from within the Capital. She was complex and nothing made sense anymore to him.

He knew nothing.

Cold chills ran through his spine. Ourias already felt like he lost to her without the fight even starting. An indescribable weight crushed her, yet she still moved as though it was nothing. It should have been crushing her. Resolve was the only thing he could see.

Caught within his hesitation, Ourias didn’t see the attack coming until it was almost too late. Hexagonal discs flew at him, narrowly missing their target. He fell flat on his back to avoid a lethal strike. However, he realized a second later that he wasn’t safe yet. They turned around to come back for him. “The semi-opaque discs suddenly became like water and evaporated into the air.” Before even reaching him, Sumiko’s white discs turned to a white liquid, but barely started to fall before turning to vapor.

“You have a very interesting power there. It’s a lot more flexible and intelligent use than others that I’ve seen.”

A bit of surprise came across Ourias’ face. She had figured out his power already, but that wasn’t what surprised him. It was a natural thing to figure out after a couple uses of his power. He knew how transparent his power was to others. Out of any of the powers, it was the simplest to understand, but none of that was the problem. ‘She shouldn’t be able to understand me. I purposely adjusted the Field for that reason.’

“I can understand Atlantean Greek. I figured it out a while ago, so while your clever trick worked on her, it won’t fool me.” She found it an interesting complication to his power. He actually divided his speech into two groups. Normal conversation was translated, but anything related to controlling his powers remained in Atlantean Greek. It was only something that could fool a foreigner. “Controlling anything you want within your Field is the most logical use when you’re dealing with the unknown. Though making it speech driven is your flaw.”

The shock boiled off Ourias after her expectation. It only made things fair. “You can’t change what I’ve spoken to pass. There is no flaw.”

“You’re confident in your power. I’ll reveal to you the weaknesses.” The hexagonal discs materialized around Sumiko once more. Their movements became so fast that they appeared in multiple locations and then disappeared. “The first flaw requires you to speak for an action. If you can’t speak in time, you can’t negate my attack.”

Ourias remained standing, despite the attack made by Sumiko. It moved too fast for him to see, but nothing happened to him. A large stone hand appeared in front of him. Smoke trailed off the hand from the attacks made. “My power isn’t so simple.” Traced back, the arm led to the earth where a mound raised from the flat surface. The mound grew larger, taking on a human-like shape.

“A golem,” she noted. She saw the very clear contradiction, but understood everything he did had rules to follow. It came to her quickly. “You can set actions in reserve that have conditions for activating. Clever, planning ahead. I’ll grant you the point for covering for your flaw, but you can have only so many stored actions you’ve made. It’ll be exhausted eventually.”

“But you don’t think I haven’t foreseen all areas of weakness.”

Sumiko grinned at the challenge. ‘This is going to be a little more effort than I gave him credit for. Doesn’t change anything. I can still see the victory!’ Little changed for Sumiko. Adjusting a move, realigning path, it was all just a simple step.

Testing out the golem, more discs appeared around her. They flew directly at the golem. She watched it carefully. The actions and movements were important to her. Nothing from the attacks seemed to harm the golem, but she didn’t care about any of it.

Amidst her investigation, Ourias didn’t remain silent. He already started an offensive against her. Black bands materialized around her moving in to restrain her. However, she disappeared before it got close to her. ‘I need to stop that speed of hers if I’m to do anything in this fight.’

A silver metallic sphere appeared in front of Ourias. It darted forward almost becoming a blur. Sumiko evaded it, but saw that it turned around quickly. It wouldn’t leave her wake for long and kept pace with her. She began jumping around with bursts of speed. Her discs just bounced off it, when she tried to destroy it.

“However, the metal sphere suddenly disappeared, moving faster than her sight, slamming into the woman with enough force to draw blood.”

As commanded, the sphere acted as spoken. Sumiko lost sight of it, unable to dodge the new speed it presented. It embedded itself in her stomach, nearly folding her over it before throwing her out of control. Clouds of dirt coughed up from the earth as Sumiko’s body pounded, skipped and carved through the land, eventually coming to a stop.

Smoke slowly drifted through the space waiting on Sumiko. Her figure finally appeared through the veil of debris. Stains and dirt seemed the worst to have happened. Sumiko made it back to Ourias undeterred by him. “So you can modify it as well, not surprising.” A drip of blood suddenly streamed down her lips, as a delayed reaction from her restraining everything. ‘That hurt quite a bit. He did make that line directly to cause injury.’ Her hand wiped away the blood from her chin.

Stretching her hand out towards the golem protecting Ourias, she closed her hand. The golem suddenly compressed under an enormous weight into a super-dense sphere. It fell to the ground leaving a bit of a crater. “I learned enough from that.” All of the hexagon discs around her stopped moving. Each piece began to move quickly into position reforming the barrier around her. “It’s time that I finish this little skirmish of ours.”

Defense from Sumiko made it clear to Ourias. ‘She’s preparing something. That barrier is pointless. She knows it. So why?’ It felt like an invitation to a trap. Ourias didn’t know what she planned, but he felt certain he could deal with her.

“A long thin needle flew through the air piercing her barrier, striking the joint at her shoulder disabling her left arm.”

The needle ran through each of the three layers of Sumiko’s barrier barely even slowed down. Tiny holes remain behind with particles of white light falling like dust. However, the needle hit another hex deflecting off it. “Your power only works on things at the moment you create it. If I create something new after your command I can still cancel your action.” She raised two fingers to him, calling back to her note of his flaws.

‘She’s very intelligent and quick to adapt…’ The woman pushed Ourias into a corner more than anyone else had ever done to him. ‘I’m going to have to get more creative with my words.’

“The needle appeared inside the barrier at point blank range, it was impossible to dodge the strike. It immediately struck her shoulder.”

Nothing happened.

Sumiko then suddenly added a third finger. “This is where things end.” Her other hand raised up as white particles gathered to her palm quickly forming into a sphere of energy. A beam shot out from the sphere. The grass bowed down from the force and speed of the energy. It sped towards Ourias, defenseless.