Thursday, October 2, 2014

Page 842

A few of the bridges that they used had small settlements attached to them--quaint houses clustered around pit stops or refueling stations, even the occasional odd-looking tree. And in the areas where there was currently no flooding, Hector could often see wharfs or boathouses in the muddy grass, tied to the bridges via long chains and cables.

Bridge maintenance must have been a pretty popular and steady job around here, he figured.

Soon, night arrived. Knowing that they wouldn’t be near Luzo until almost morning, the Najirs decided to rest up while they could. Hector was of a mind to do the same, but he had a bit of trouble falling asleep in spite of how exhausted he felt.

He had ample company in Garovel and Qorvass, though. Jada and Imas’ reapers were off elsewhere, perhaps scouting or talking to people in other cars, and Axiolis had decided to remain in Rheinhal, as that was where his servant was.

Do you mind telling us what Asad’s ability is?’ asked Garovel. ‘It seems we’ll be fighting together after all. Hector’s is iron materialization, in case Sazandara didn’t tell you.

Ah. Asad’s is also materialization. In fact, he is probably the most powerful materializer among the Sandlords.

Hector eyed the tattooed man’s sleeping face. He’d figured Asad was crazy strong, but still.

I’m glad he’s on our side, then,’ said Garovel. ‘What is his element?

Not an element,’ said Qorvass. ‘A compound. Silicon and oxygen together.

Oh! Quite the rare servant you have.

Heh. Indeed.

If I’m not mistaken, that’s an inherited power, isn’t it? Unique to the Sandlords?

It is. And you might say that it’s also why we’re even here in the first place.

How so?

Zeff Elroy inherited the unique compound of the Rainlords. Hydrogen and oxygen together. I highly doubt Asad and Zeff would have become friends if either of them had different powers. When they were younger, they were both treated rather specially, which is an experience not many people can relate to.

“W-what does that mean?” Hector asked. “‘Treated specially?’”

They were the “darlings” of their respective peoples,’ said Qorvass. ‘You see, their abilities aren’t just strong. They have immense cultural importance. They are seen as confirmations of their bloodlines.

A couple thousand years ago, their powers would have granted them the right to rule over all their brethren,’ said Garovel, ‘and the public would have viewed them as divine beings.

19 comments:

  1. Kensei Seraph - StaffOctober 2, 2014 at 2:00 AM

    Looks like I'm going to be back to reading each page as you release it for now.

    Thanks for the page.

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  2. Hey, the formula for sand/silica is SiO2 (Silicon dioxide). Did you mean for Asad's compound to be that? Silicon Carbide is cool too, (abrasive/sharpening stone). Just wondering.

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  3. Kensei Seraph - StaffOctober 2, 2014 at 2:47 AM

    Wait, that means sand and water are differentiated by just 1 molecule!
    This changes everything.

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  4. If someone has a compound materialization power does that mean they could create their elements separately so just silicon or just oxygen.

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  5. So, is he using silicon dioxide or silicon monoxide? It's not really clear.

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  6. Well, we've seen Zeff use his special hand sign to create them separately when he was fighting.

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  7. Not true. Zeff only created water in different states during that fight.

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  8. Ah, sorry. It'd been a while, and I remembered he used hand signs to do something special, which in my mind I was thinking of hydrogen and oxygen separately to make an explosive material. Turns out it was just to make water jets.

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  9. As thematically appropriate silicon dioxide would be, the fact that silicon monoxide reacts with free oxygen to create a "rust" made out of silicon dioxide would look awesome in a battle, not to mention that it's black and glossy. Much more intimidating than glass.

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  10. Ha ha ha HA! I called Sandlord Silica as soon as it mentioned that Zeff's power was historic!

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  11. With the coming fight, hectors iron may not be as useless as asad's brother believes. Iron bonded with water creates a weakacid, perhaps they can soul empower their elements to greater acidity, but I doubt that. I trust you however, mr frost to make whatever ability combinations at play here sufficiently epic to keep us satiated.

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  12. Water and methane also differ by just one element. So?

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  13. Water and rust, water and carbon dioxide, water and lithium oxide, etc.

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  14. you know, planes and a giant falling sphere seems epic to me. If H man can make it big enough, I don't believe there is really anything that can be done about it. Also, if i remember right, he can go really big nowadays. Terminal velocity can be such a b word.

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  15. except, you know, he's only eight years old or so in terms of power, and limited to about half a minute of taking hits a day.
    Also, servants are immortal, right? Why aren't any of the "divine being" rain and sandlord ancestors around?

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  16. Either got killed, or decided to stopped being a servant.

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  17. Actually, yeah, that should have said oxygen, not carbon. My bad. Thanks for the check.

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