23.5

February 14, 2070, at 1419

Heywood, The Glen, Basketball Court #2

“That’s creepy as fuck.” Padre said, glancing at Crystal lying stretched out beside him on a bleacher. “Total invisibility now instead of just being unseen by electronics. What a nightmare. So? Are you going to turn Arasaka into a bloodbath?”

Crystal shook her head negatively. She’d shifted her clothing to something that approached normal. A T-shirt reading, “Death is the next great adventure.” Tight pants, long sleeves, half-finger gloves, and shades completed the attire. The fact was, no one could see her. After consuming the relic and killing the monks while she gained no experience, strange other things had occurred.

Crystal’s personal Shroud didn’t even pay lip service to direct sunlight anymore.

Crystal was a true phantom now. One who couldn’t be seen, touched, smelled, tasted, or heard until it was far too late. In addition to the upgraded Shroud was the twist on her Feats. A screen that resembled something from a dragon-class game was now taking proud place on it. She glanced at the screen from the odd overlay before she glanced at her original Feats.

Feats: Spell Sniper (Doubles Cast Range, Cover Penetration), Shadow Touched (Grants Disguise Self, Invisibility), Fey Touched (Grants Comprehend Languages, Misty Step)

They remained unchanged. Even without Nota saying a word, Crystal Moss was no idiot. She clearly could tell that eating the artifact had done something incomprehensible. Beneficial as far as she could see, but still outside understanding.

Her best guess was the artifact had been a thorn in the side of the world at large. In exchange for ‘eating’ it, in other words, destroying the device while possessed by her Patron, Crystal had been rewarded.

It was interesting to see that the new addition to her Status considered her human.

“Or perhaps there are major advantages to humans, and that’s why it is pre-selected for me?” Crystal thought. Looking through the various races, she immediately noticed Vampire wasn’t on the list. “Even in reality, I’m an outlier? Or is it my race?”

“Padre, what am I?” Crystal asked as she looked through the Classes. Even though there was an option for Warlock, she wasn’t allowed to select it. The world didn’t want her doubling down on her Patron. “Also, don’t worry. I know there’s no end to the roaches. If I killed a thousand, ten thousand would come out of the woodwork, right? No, I’m thinking of a neater solution.”

“Good. What kind of question is that? You’re a fighter, of course. Crazy solo.” Padre said with a smirk as his favorite team scored a basket.

Looking at her choices, Crystal nodded before finalizing them. Instantly, it felt like someone had slammed her head with a sledgehammer. Knowledge poured into her mind as her body was altered on a fundamental level once again. She was no longer just a Warlock.

No, she was a Warlock-Fighter now.

At least according to her Status. Techniques for slashing with the edge of her weapons poured in and settled like a stream depositing into a lake. Her self-learned hodge-podge of knowledge became an ordered library of thought.

Since she had focused on single-weapon fighting, the integration of how to fight without anything in her offhand was titanic. The versatility of having nothing in her offhand multiplied her power. It was more than a simple one plus one equaled two. “It is more like exponents, raising the power to the next level.” Crystal thought as her mind recovered quickly.

She could tell that the monks from before were nothing but fish on a chopping board now. Her new knowledge even told her the technique they used to block her sword.

Varaja.

A method of shielding a monk from the filth of the world. Applied, it gave the air around the individual a hardness akin to a psychic diamond. The power was projected out from the soul according to her new innate knowledge.

Padre glanced at Crystal, noticing the silence had lengthened. "Hey, you okay, chica?" he asked, genuinely concerned.

She blinked back into the present. "Better than okay," she replied with a smirk. "It's like I just downloaded an entire martial arts library into my head."

Padre whistled, impressed as he turned his attention back to the basketball game. "Sounds wild. Do you feel physically different, or is it just the knowledge?"

Crystal flexed her fingers and rolled her shoulders. "It's a bit of both. My body instinctively knows what to do with the techniques now. They feel... natural. Like the best type of chip."

She stood up and stepped away from the older man, taking a deep breath. She motioned with her hand, and her longsword manifested, shimmering with dark, light-drinking colors. With a fluid motion, she began a series of movements, demonstrating various techniques, from slashing and thrusting to parrying and dodging. It was clear to Crystal she was on a whole new level.

Padre couldn’t see her, but his sixth sense wasn’t broken. "Feels like death is practicing next to me. Tone it down, eh?"

She halted her movements and dismissed her weapon. The air around her seemed to shimmer with power. "Varaja," she whispered. She extended the power around her with a focused thought, creating a near-invisible barrier above her skin. The ambient noises of the world outside dulled slightly, and the area felt charged with energy.

At her request, Padre reached out to touch the barrier but retracted his hand quickly. "It's like trying to touch solid air. From what I can see, you still don’t show up on sensors, though," he commented.

Crystal nodded and thought. “It is a technique that isolates. I’m willing to bet on a million to one odd it isolates my magical emanations. A way to prevent from being tracked. As expected of my Patron, she closes the gaps in defense without even blinking.”

“So, do you have it?” Crystal said, turning her attention to Padre. While she didn’t mind visiting, this entire affair was business. Business and bragging.

The fixer’s eyes darkened as he nodded, “It is exactly as you claimed.” A file passed through the air between them before being disseminated by Fluffyfeathers after a security check.

“Julio has been a bad little boy,” Crystal said, her voice hissing. “Will there be any backlash from removing such a tumor?”

At the negative shake from Sebastian Ibarra’s head, Crystal’s eyes flashed crimson. “You ever heard what the original purpose of the Valentino’s was?” Padre said as his team scored another basket.

“I think it was something about beautiful girls?” Crystal said. It hadn’t been something she’d looked into extensively, to be honest.

“Close it was to sleep with all the beautiful women in Noir City,” Padre said with a gentlemanly smirk. “Once a year, the gang gets together to brag. Hey! Don’t look at me like that. The girls do it too!”

Crystal rolled her eyes and said, “No wonder we’ve never risen to take over the city.”

“Taking over a city is hard work. We aren’t interested in that.” Padre said with a casual wave. “Anyways, that’s why we don’t expand much out of Heywood. Sure, we influence Pacifica, but we aren’t ruling it with an iron fist like the Tigers do to Maelstrom’s old territory.”

“This relates to Julio; how?” Crystal asked, annoyed.

“Sleeping with a beautiful woman it’s a sacred act. Getting the deed done with skills is one thing.” As his eyes moved into shadow, Padre said, “Getting it done with brainwashing is quite another. Campo was very displeased. Very. Palacio is no longer protected. Neither are his accomplices.”

“Ah!” Crystal said, lightning understanding flashing in her mind. “He can’t take out the trash, though, because others in the food chain supported it, weren’t they?”

Another file more considerable than the first arrived. Crystal looked over it, her eyes darkening as a list with many names appeared. “All of them? This is like a third of the entire gang!”

“All of them have Arasaka leanings, too,” Sebastian said in a low voice.

“It’s like the Meatman version two,” Crystal said, her eyes growing colder.

“Corporations are never clean,” Padre said with a sigh. “There’s always someone in the food chain that wants to take advantage without paying a price.”

“Handling this will cement Campo’s influence rather well, won’t it?” Crystal said with a raised eyebrow.

Padre grinned at her tone, “Six birds with one stone. Is that anything new?”

Crystal sighed and vanished with a leap off the bleacher’s back end.

She moved through the city unseen, unheard, untouchable. An ethereal being in a world of solid matter. Once limited to her Warlock's skills, her powers had expanded, blending with those of a Fighter. Her movements, a dance of deadly grace, combined the finesse of her magical training with the martial prowess of a seasoned warrior. Crystal watched the city tick as she arrived at her current temporary home.

She plotted her next move in her secret hideout, a renovated warehouse hidden among the city's sprawling structures. Arasaka, the mega-corporation that held the town in its iron grip, was their primary target. While Crystal had the power to decimate their ranks, she knew that such a direct assault would be futile. Arasaka was like a hydra; cut off one head, and two more would take its place.

"We need a different approach," Crystal mused, her eyes reflecting the faint neon lights outside Rabbit’s RV interior. "Something that hits them where it hurts, without causing collateral damage."

"No nukes?" Rabbit said, sounding vaguely sad.

"No! No nukes!" Crystal said firmly. She was rather curious about where Rabbit's recent obsession with nuclear strikes came from, but it could wait.

Fluffyfeathers nodded, accessing a holographic screen. "Competition is ruthless in the corpo world. Money, specifically profits, are where they bleed the most."

As they worked together, formulating a plan, they were interrupted by a soft chime. A message on their secured network. A video feed showed a woman in a military suit in a small tent.

“Is this thing even on?” The woman complained to an aide off-screen.

“It’s on,” Crystal said with a smirk.

The woman’s eyes widened briefly before narrowing. “This is General Kress of the New United States of America. I got this number from an unreliable source inside Noir City.”

Crystal waited patiently. As a Solo, she wasn’t opposed to helping one side or the other in the conflict as long as the benefits were good enough. “What can I assist you with, General?”

“It is only a matter of time until the Free Cities are crushed.” General Kress said with an implacable tone. “However, once victory is attained, order must still be maintained. The gangs are a blight upon the city. We want to commission the removal of the leaders.”

Crystal’s eyes grew chilly even as her voice became honey-sweet. “Of course, General, I don’t mind contributing to the cause as long as the price is right.”

As the negotiations commenced, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Do they think I’ll just turn my back on those who aided me? What a moron.” Crystal thought with disgust.

Eventually, a list of targets was worked out. It was no coincidence that all the names on Campo’s information were added under the pretext of loyalty to Arasaka. It seemed that General Kress had a rather vindictive hatred for the main competitor of Militech.

Crystal didn’t plan to decapitate gang leadership in the city, but being paid for her vendetta was fine. NUSA’s stance rubbed her the wrong way entirely. Even the Corpos didn’t try to control everything. That way lay madness.

She was even more confident that Arasaka's intervention was on the way. Mayor Rhyne didn’t strike her as the type without a plan.

If they genuinely intervened, it would depend on the President’s choice. Without the relic, she had no hope of getting through Arasaka’s defenses in the Net. It would mean a long-protracted conflict.

That type of fight was expensive.

No matter how it was sliced, President Meyers couldn’t sell a long war, even with Unification. History had already written the ending for such money pit endeavors. All the current lengthy conflicts had a profit far above retaking the Free Cities.

No, if Arasaka could grind this offense to a halt, Unification would stall.

Perhaps forever.