"Ah. Wait," Pietro said. "There is one last thing I forgot to do."
Jaune looked up. "What is it?"
Pietro tilted his head slightly. "Your aura. It is very low, is it not?"
Jaune hesitated, then nodded.
"Yeah," he admitted. "It's… bad."
The admission felt heavier than it should have. Between the Centurions and the sustained real world suppression law, Jaune had burned through nearly everything he had.
"If I had to put a number on it," Jaune continued quietly, "I'm sitting at about seven percent of my real world maximum."
Weiss' eyes widened slightly. "Two percent? That's not going to do anything against the Centurions..."
Jaune nodded. "If this were the dream realm, I'd be fine. I'd still have most of my aura left. Over ninety percent, easily. But here…" He trailed off, clenching his hand once. "Well... the real world doesn't give refunds."
Blake frowned. "Then the plan against the Centurions isn't going to work."
"Yeah," Jaune said with a thin smile. "I guess, I'll just have to... wing it when I meet the Centurions. I know if I try to be even more efficient in how I use my weakness rune, I might be able to sustain it all the way to Penny's body."
Pietro shook his head. "No. That simply will not do."
Jaune blinked. "Doctor?"
Pietro leaned forward slightly in his chair. "Do not concern yourself with that problem. I will resolve it."
Blake and Weiss exchanged confused looks.
"You will?" Weiss asked. "How?"
Jaune did not say anything. His eyes narrowed as something clicked into place. The answer was simple, and it had revealed itself during Pietro previous explanation.
Pietro raised his hand and the room changed.
Jaune felt it before he saw it. Aura, vast and dense, began to coalesce around Pietro like a gathering storm. It folded inwards, compressing, stacking and layering itself in an impossible way. Pietro was doing something with his rune.
The air grew warm and heavy. Charged with runic energy.
Both Blake and Weiss took a half step back, eyes wide. Even Jaune couldn't help but swallow, trying to whet his dry throat.
Pietro spoke calmly as the power gathered. "Sacrifice is a very powerful rune."
Jaune felt his heart pound in his chest.
"Being a meta rune," Pietro continued, "many of its applications are conceptual. They are limited primarily by intent, comprehension and by aura quantity."
He glanced at Penny briefly, then back at the three of them.
"You already know that I can permanently sacrifice my own stats to preserve or partially revive another Rank Two. That was how Penny survived."
The aura intensified.
"But there is another function," Pietro said. "One that does not permanently cripple me. Temporary Sacrifice."
Jaune's understood.
Having two meta runes himself, Jaune knew just how dangerous their effects became when their effects bent rules.
Temporary Sacrifice.
A controlled self destruction that would probably rewrite allocation rather than existence.
"What I am doing," Pietro said, "is temporarily sacrificing my aura reserves to reinforce yours."
He extended his hand toward them and Jaune felt it hit him like a tidal wave.
Aura flooded into him, not gently or cautiously, but with an overwhelming force. His reserves refilled instantly, the hollow ache vanishing in a heartbeat.
100%
Then it kept going.
200
400
800
1000
Jaune gasped as his aura expanded, stretching outward as if his internal limits had been rewritten on the fly.
His stats, if it were possible to see the system in the real world, it would categorize them as,
Aura: 10
Will: 10
Body: 10
Dream realm levels.
Jaune could feel it. That familiar weightlessness. That clarity. The way the world sharpened when his body and soul aligned perfectly.
Weiss cried out softly as the same energy rushed into her. Blake's experience was the same. She sucked in a sharp breath, muscles tensing as her senses exploded outward, every sound and movement suddenly crystal clear.
The room trembled faintly.
Jaune could still feel the invisible laws of the real world pressing against him. But it was odd. It was as if the laws of the real world were already recognizing that he was already under suppression.
It seemed sacrifice acted as a bug-like ability. Almost like a glitch that threaded the line of authority.
Pietro lowered his hand at last.
The aura storm ceased as abruptly as it had begun.
Jaune stood there, chest rising and falling, staring at his own hands as faint aura light danced across his skin.
Weiss steadied herself, eyes wide as she flexed her fingers. "Law breaking. This is… insane."
Blake swallowed. "Meta runes... "
Pietro smiled, a solid, almost proud grin. "It is temporary."
He looked noticeably weaker now. His breathing was heavier, shoulders slumped, but his eyes were sharp.
"This state will last for approximately one hour," Pietro said. "Make use of it."
Jaune looked at him.
Pietro said simply. "That is what Sacrifice does best."
The three of them nodded, understanding the unspoken urgency. An hour was nothing. An hour was everything.
Weiss straightened. "Is it just going to be the three of us?" she asked. "Us and Penny? Or will another team be assigned?"
Pietro shook his head. "It must be only you."
Blake frowned. "Why?"
"If a large group of awakened storms the research facility," Pietro explained, "Arthur will abandon his current objective immediately. He will focus on eliminating threats instead."
Jaune's eyes narrowed. "Meaning us."
"Meaning everyone," Pietro said. "He is still a Rank Two and he's also an intelligent man. He will not hesitate."
Weiss clenched her jaw. "So a small team keeps his attention less focused."
"Correct."
Jaune tilted his head. "Wait. You said his current objective? What did you mean? Is he not going to grab the mimic Creation rune?"
Pietro nodded calmly. "He is. But first, Arthur has to breach the defenses surrounding the mimic of Creation."
Jaune hummed. "Defenses?"
"Yes. To use the rune, special permissions have to granted to researchers. Permission that only Ironwood or Fria can grant."
"...Who's Fria?" Blake asked quietly.
"She's the other Rank 3 of Atlas, but she's not in the kingdom at the moment. Too complicated to explain and it doesn't have anything to do with this situation. Beside, this isn't something you have permission to know."
Blake nodded her understanding.
"So essentially, he's brute forcing it."
"Precisely," Pietro said. "Ironwood himself designed the safety systems surrounding the mimic. They are robust and very difficult to bypass. Even for Watts."
"How long will it take him?" Jaune asked.
Pietro considered for a moment. "Long enough that he cannot afford distractions. But not so long that he will fail."
Jaune exhaled slowly. "So if we go in quietly…"
"He will likely deploy Centurions to intercept you," Pietro said. "Not himself, due to his focus on the rune."
A slow smile tugged at Jaune's mouth. "Which is exactly what we want."
"Yes," Pietro agreed. "You will destroy them, clear the path and reach Penny's prototype body."
Penny floated closer, her expression focused. "Once I am complete, Arthur Watts will no longer be a threat."
Jaune met her gaze.
"Hopefully." Pietro added quietly.
The word lingered.
Hope was not certainty. But it was enough.
"Now please, for the love of God, go and stop him before it's too late. We're wasting a bunch of time here."
Jaune straightened, feeling the borrowed power hum through his veins. "Right, sorry." Jaune apologized.
"Let's go."
.
.
With Penny leading the way, they moved quickly, back towards the eastern research wing.
The sight of it still carried the scars of the earlier battle. Scorched walls. Buckled support beams and sections of the ceiling that had been destroyed. Oh, and that massive hole in the floor, leading to broken lower levels. This was the same wing where operatives had fought the Centurions tooth and nail, where the air had once screamed with alarms and collapsing steel.
The tunnel entrance lay at the far end.
Or what remained of it.
The opening had collapsed inwards into a mass of concrete, twisted alloy and pulverized composite panels packed together like the aftermath of a controlled demolition gone wrong. It was not subtle sabotage. Clearly, Watts had wanted this path buried.
Jaune stepped forward without a word and focused his power.
The world answered.
The rubble shuddered, then softened, as if its edges were tired of holding shape. Solid matter lost its argument with existence, dissolving into a thick, gray slurry that flowed sluggishly across the floor.
Weiss followed immediately, lifting her rapier and tracing a tight, precise arc. Water surged forward in a controlled wave, sweeping the slurry aside and washing the path clean.
Jaune glanced at Weiss, then Blake.
They had both been much quieter since Pietro's demonstration.
Weiss still moved with crisp efficiency, but there was a tension in her mind that had not been there before. Like someone standing on a high ledge and refusing to look down. There was also something else there, hiding in her emotion. Ambition? Motivation? Jaune wasn't sure.
Blake's silence was different. More thoughtful and heavy. Her gaze lingered on the tunnel ahead, as if she expected it to blink first.
Jaune wondered what was truly running through their heads. Just because he could sense their emotions didn't mean that he could read their thoughts. Though, he did have a good guess on what they might be thinking about.
It was likely that they were both thinking about Pietro's Meta rune. Those types of runes had a way of doing that to people. Once you saw how rules could bend and how authority itself could be threaded, it became difficult to trust the floor beneath your feet.
Jaune, tactfully, decided not to ask. Besides, this wasn't the time. Now, it was time to focus.
As the last of the debris was cleared, Penny hovered forward, pausing just long enough to confirm the path was open.
"Tunnel integrity is compromised but passable," she said. "Estimated structural stability is acceptable for rapid traversal."
"Good," Jaune said. "Press on."
They dashed forward.
The tunnel stretched long and narrow, curving slightly as it burrowed deep beneath Atlas. Ordinarily, this route would have been serviced by a specialized transport system. A magnetic rail train designed to ferry personnel and sensitive materials between research facilities without ever surfacing.
The tracks were gone.
Twisted metal rails lay torn from their mounts, sections bent upward like broken ribs. Farther ahead, the remains of the train itself blocked the tunnel, its armored shell cracked open, interior components exposed and gutted.
Someone hadn't merely disabled it. Rather, they had destroyed it.
Jaune slowed, eyes scanning the wreckage. "Watts."
Blake nodded. "He's buying time."
Jaune couldn't help but be wary seeing the train. If they failed to get to Penny's prototype body in time, if Watts decided he could spare the time to kill them... if...
Well, there were so many ifs. They were running on borrowed time, hope and luck. Jaune could only pray that one of them held up long enough.
They cleared the obstruction the same way they had, the entrance. Jaune turned metal into pliable nothing and Weiss swept it aside, with Penny mapping the safest path through the debris field in real time.
They ran.
The tunnel pressed in around them, lights flickering intermittently as backup power struggled to maintain illumination. The air was cool and sterile, carrying the faint metallic scent of machinery. Footsteps echoed, three heartbeats moving in unison.
Time stretched.
Collapsed sections appeared again and again, each one deliberate. Support beams severed. Ceiling plates dropped at choke points. It was sabotage with a strategist's signature. Not enough to fully collapse the tunnel, but enough to slow anyone who followed.
Jaune and Weiss worked in tandem without needing to speak. He softened and she swept, over and over.
Twenty minutes passed, just like that. Twenty minutes of running, clearing, and pushing deeper into the earth.
Finally, the tunnel widened.
The walls opened into a vast subterranean chamber, its ceiling lost in shadow. Floodlights lined the perimeter, bathing the space in harsh white illumination. At the far end stood the reinforced blast doors of the second research facility.
And something else. Jaune, Weiss and Blake slowed to a stop.
Standing between them and the facility doors was a Centurion.
But not like the others.
This one was massive.
Its frame was broader, thicker and built like both a humanoid and a walking fortress. Heavy plating overlapped across its body in layered segments, each section etched with faint runic channels that pulsed dully with internal power.
One arm ended in a reinforced shield integrated directly into its frame, wide enough to provide full frontal cover. The other terminated in a heavy rotary cannon, its barrels slowly spinning as the machine came online.
Its head was smaller, recessed into the torso, protected by angled armor designed to deflect rather than absorb. A single crimson optic burned to life as it locked onto them.
Jaune's gaze narrowed.
The Juggernaut Centurion.
He had only seen it once before, at the Schnee family mansion. Though... it seemed like the one in the mansion was the more family friendly version.
This one was... real scary looking.
Blake broke the silence. "That's new."
Weiss nodded. "That's not it's regular design."
"No," Jaune said quietly. "Guess this is the full militarized version."
The Juggernaut took a step forward and fired.
.
.
AN: Advanced chapters are available on patreon