Luminary Institute

80: Mystery Crystals

The moment she made this observation, Angelica jogged over towards Titus’s side of the battlefield to confirm the presence of the crystals. 

It’d take too long to dig them out of mine, since I killed each monster with a single hit to their weak spot. Even worse for Nyssa since the monsters are compacted into cubes. Albion would’ve transformed the crystals into ice. Ryker and Celeste would’ve incinerated them. Orin nature’s powers kill from the outside without disturbing the body.... 

As she ran towards Titus’s side of the battlefield, she made a mental checklist of who’s areas would be worth checking. After running through each member and their powers, she settled on Titus, Electra, and Seraph’s sections. 

Halfway across the battlefield though, she flipped and twirled in the air to cancel all her momentum. Coming to an acrobatic stop, right beside Seraph and Kael, she ignored the teasing eye roll from Seraph. 

“Yes, I’m still using the inefficient but flashy way to stop, sue me,” Angelica brushed her shoulder off. “I have something actually important though. So you two, come with me, I’ll explain on the way.” 

Without any further context, she bolted off, outpacing the acceleration of modern sports cars as her body created a gust of wind. 

“I guess we go?” Kael tilted his head. His hands wandered to his swords. 

“Yes, we go.” Seraph nodded with a solemn light now in her eyes. “Angelica doesn’t joke about these things, and we should go fast or we won’t catch up.” 

Kael took off, running across the uneven battlefield as his swords began floating out of their sheaths and into the air. Seraph flew right beside him as they chased after Angelica’s shrinking figure. Together, they managed to catch up right as Angelica came to a stop. Both out of breath, they shook their heads at Angelica who seemed... unfettered, as if she had just gotten up from a couch. 

“Al... right...” Seraph put her hands on her knees as she looked up at Angelica. “What’s up?” 

“I was just looking over my area of the battlefield to make sure there weren’t any stragglers,” Angelica crouched down, brushing aside the piles of ashes and chunks of burnt flesh. “When I discovered a lot of these strewn across the ground. Crystals...” 

She dug one out of a piece of flesh and held it up for the two of them to see. Its size seemed... diminutive at best. Half-opaque, half-transparent, it had an aquamarine-like sheen to it. Shaped like an oblong pearl the size of a coin, had a couple jagged crystalline outgrowths. “I have a couple ideas as to where they might sit in the body because I saw a lot of them strewn on the ground in my area, and I only hit monsters in a handful of places. So what do you two think?” 

“Seems... problematic,” Seraph murmured while stroking her chin. “That’s not a natural part of biology for sure. You’re probably the best surgeon here though, Angelica. Orin is also... decent. He had to be medically trained to work on animals back when he did research.” 

“We should confirm their presence in all the animals first though... is that why you’re starting here?” Kael looked around to a field of ash dotted with bits of burnt flesh. “This is probably the best place to start.” 

“Yeah, I was going to collect as many crystals as possible and store them away for research purposes,” Angelica pushed her hair back. “Especially since this could lead to a bigger discovery that the students under me could submit as completion of their mission. From the behavior of the animals though, I do worry this could uncover a plot larger than they should be involved...” 

“Cross that bridge when you get there,” Seraph pat Angelica on the shoulder. “You’re a far better teacher than we ever had back then. I’m sure you’ll do fine. Just ask for advice, and ask for support if you ever need it. If it truly gets dire, I’m still in contact with my family.” 

“Thanks, though, if I'm contacting the royal family of the Lionheart Kingdom, this is a multinational emergency,” Angelica rolled her shoulders while standing back up. “And I'd rather this not be that complicated.” 

Instead of continuing their conversation, she walked off while pulling a disk out of her back pocket. It unfolded and expanded into a half-metallic, half-leather satchel. She popped open the flap and began going to work, collecting crystals one after another. 

Kael, jogging off to enlist everyone else’s help, left Seraph to help Angelica in this area of the battlefield. After calling everyone to the center, he explained the situation and their deliverables. After taking some opinions and surveying the students of how they could contribute, he began assigning people to teams. 

“We need to bring as many bodies as we can from the battlefield back to the Hunter’s Association. Once back there, we can begin dissecting, even enlisting the help of some specialists back at the association to learn more.” Kael had explained while facing the group. He went on to explain his original plan, having Mira and Orin create nets to carry a select few back. The students, once he finished, interrupted with an idea of their own. 

“Have Albion work with Mira and Orin to create the strongest net and largest net that they can. Then have Nyssa transform into a giant dragon and have her carry it back to the Association.” 

“That’s... so much energy...” Nyssa yawned, her head already beginning to bob after the battle. Thus, the first team, dubbed the “rest team,” had been created, consisting of Nyssa, and Nyssa alone. Transformed back into a cat, she slept on top of Celeste’s head as Kael assigned the rest of the teams. 

Albion, Mira, and Orin went off to one side as the “net building team” and went to work right away. Electra, Kael, and Conrad set off towards Nyssa’s area as the “crystal extraction team” with the goal of cutting through the compacted blocks of flesh Nyssa had created to recover more crystals. Titus and Celeste joined Angelica and Seraph in the “crystal collecting team” while Ryker and Kallix created the “transport team,” working together to bring the best carcasses from Angelica and Conrad’s sides of the battlefield. 

---

After a couple minutes though, the Crystal collecting team ran into their first issue. Angelica sighed, looking into her satchel. “I’ve run out of space in my bag, what now?” 

“We should’ve really brought more supplies,” Seraph massaged the bridge of her nose. “I remember we’ve run into this problem before, what did we do... ah, Orin.” 

“Ask Orin for more bags?” Titus repeated out of confusion, having just walked into earshot with Celeste. He pointed towards the center of the battlefield. “He already anticipated the problem, there are extras over there.” 

“Genius, genius,” Seraph laughed, flying away after telling Angelica to sit tight.