Chapter 552: Winding Toward a New Steel

Directly approaching Quinta had clearly not worked so, feeling vaguely creepy the entire time, Kai arranged for them to meet "accidentally". Like all noble Irunian women, Quinta engaged in regular weapons training, so Kai found out her schedule and then arrived there first for his Physique training.

The first day she didn't arrive - not even a hint of her, though that would have been her usual time. On the second day Quinta frowned when she saw him, but she trained in the far corner: a set of simple longsword exercises, very similar to what he'd seen from Tusquo. Normally he might simply let things develop, but the second month was draining away and Omilaena didn't have forever.

Fortunately, he didn't need to do more: on the third day Quinta marched directly up to him.

"How do you have B-rank Physique?" she demanded.

"There's no easy answer to that," Kai said while upside-down in a handstand. "For me, the only effective method has been journeying to other places and learning new training techniques. Sometimes it's using different energy, sometimes different exercises."

"And I suppose you'll offer to teach me?"

"Do you want me to?"

"No."

"Then I won't."

Quinta hesitated a moment, then let out a breath. "Alright, fine," she said, her tone much less steely than usual. "We can talk about whatever is so important to you. But turn the right way up, this is silly."

Kai abandoned his exercise - which wasn't getting him to B-1 anyway - and flipped back to his feet. Ordinarily a conversation like this might have been awkward, but Quinta had a nearly lethal aura around her that left no question that everything was professional. Since he had some experience with prickly women, Kai decided to keep playing it that way.

"What do you want?" Quinta asked.

"Do you not believe that we want to help Irun?" he asked in return.

"No, I believe in your general integrity. My husband vouched for you, and you have been working dutifully since you arrived."

"Then I don't know what other answer I can give you. I mean, you already adopted the Ironpath Physique that Omilaena developed, and you know we hope to strengthen the technique. My wife wants to draw some of your blood, to see if it contains anything that can strengthen other Irunians. If you don't believe that's for the best, I doubt we can convince you."

"It isn't that I believe you're treacherous." Quinta folded her arms and scrutinized his face. "It's simply this entire arrangement that I find distasteful."

That was an open-ended statement Kai wanted to ask about, but it seemed unwise, especially since she was finally opening up a little. Whatever she meant, it still sounded like an obstacle, and she didn't seem to be volunteering. Well, he had an alternate prepared...

"That's your choice," Kai said, "but could you recommend anyone else who would be willing to give some blood for Irun?"

"Hmph." Quinta seemed deeply annoyed, but she started to give him some names and locations, which he hastened to memorize. As soon as she was done, she glared pointedly at his place in the training yard and then left on her own.

This lead proved more productive than any other he'd followed: with just a little teleportation borrowed from an elite, Kai leapt to several locations around Irun. Tusquo went with him, and his word alone was enough to convince several venerable old warriors to donate some blood.

It was nice to travel with Tusquo again, especially when the two of them could fall into old rhythms. Unfortunately, it wasn't always that smooth, and Kai felt like they didn't have as many real conversations as he'd hoped. The problem was that, even though they were both older married men now, they'd gone in such completely different directions that Kai wasn't sure what they even had in common on that front.

In the end, he was able to deliver several vials of blood to Omilaena. She was immediately intrigued and sank into another fervor of work, trying to analyze what past Irunians had done to improve themselves. Kai was actually curious about the details himself, but she seemed too intensely focused to talk about them.

And then, when they next spoke, Omilaena was demanding to go see the Insanity again.

Since she had done so much for them before, and they had the approval of the elites, the Irunian elders allowed what would normally have been an absurd request. Kai reflected again that having this position of authority had value that no amount of raw power could equal - he couldn't afford to surrender it to Yuinafal or any of the other elites.

They entered with a small group - Zae Zin Nim, Tusquo, and Quinta had come along - and they met an even larger one. A whole host of Irunian elders had come, including Pourila, Sheiri, and many others he didn't recognize. For a while Kai wondered if Omilaena had just made all the plans on her own, then as she stepped forward, he realized that she still needed their approval.

"I can't restore the strength of your primary metal," she said without preamble. "That would require an equivalent source of power. However, as I see it, the problem is that granting new abilities is always an extractive process, reducing your original source. This is in contrast to an individual growing their abilities, where their metal strengthens itself."

"Generations have tried to do the same with the metal pools," an old man said. "All have failed. They either accomplished nothing, or further drained the source."

"And I concluded that I can't do better than they did, but that isn't the only solution." Omilaena gestured down to the pool of metal. "The key is what I said before: once extracted, the material is transformed into an ability that can strengthen itself. I am moderately confident that I'm capable of adding a layer to the process: creating a self-strengthening source that others can take from."

This set off a chorus from the normally-staid elders, from disbelief to objections to hope. Kai glanced over at Zae Zin Nim, who raised her eyebrows just slightly. Apparently this was new to her too, so Omilaena's thoughts must have gone in a new direction.

"To be clear," Omilaena said loudly over the other voices, "I cannot produce a power that would grant Irunian abilities. However, based on my research into your ancient lineages, I should be able to produce a secondary pool, one that will enhance Irunian Physique. The key facts are that it will be self-regenerating and that you won't require my further involvement if you take care of it."

"You said 'moderately confident'," one of the elders objected. "You're asking us to risk our nation on an uncertain theory?"

"You already risk your nation every incursion. I'm not lying to you and claiming I have a sure thing, because that would be absurd. There's no way to do a trial run when it's all based on a singular source of power."

Tusquo spoke up next, and none of the elders or elites seemed to think this was out of place. "You said the new pool would regenerate itself, but would the process of creating it be non-extractive?"

"Unfortunately, no." Omilaena turned to stare at the Final Metal and shook her head. "There's no way around needing the source. However, it shouldn't drain much more than ten Irunian warriors or so, and it has the potential to help far more."

"How confident are you in that potential?" Sheiri asked, arms folded tensely. "What are the chances that you create the pool but the result is limited, or worse, stunts our growth?"

"If you let me work from the source, relatively low. Trust me, avoiding any stunted results was one of the major obstacles to my work."

"Does it have to be?" Pourila spoke up and some of the other elders reacted in surprise, but she moved forward. "I agree that our young warriors should have the best paths set before them. But for many of us, we have long ago reached our limits. We would be willing to accept methods that would stunt growth we are unlikely to see anyway."

Up to that point Omilaena had been all business, but that caused her to smile strangely. "I'm afraid I don't have solutions like that. I could use chakra methods to strengthen one person far above current levels, but it would drain the source considerably. Not the equivalent of ten tests, more like ten thousand. I could share the details, but I assume you're not willing to sacrifice Irun's future that way."

The elders agreed about that and, after a dwindling series of questions, eventually approved the project. Those who were only politicians departed, leaving Sheiri to arrange some details, as well as Pourila, who seemed to be the steward of the hidden location. Tusquo and Quinta remained as well, speaking to one another in low voices that he guessed was the equivalent of Irunian excitement.

Meanwhile, Omilaena walked up to Kai and Zae Zin Nim with a bit of a sheepish expression. "Sorry for not talking more, but I wasn't sure this could work until recently. And... there's one thing they didn't ask about. I need to do this directly, using my own body as a focus, and there's some risk."

"How much?" Zae Zin Nim asked promptly. "Could we reduce the danger?"

"What I told them before was unfortunately true: there's no way to test something like this. The basic methods are common enough in chakra, so that's not a problem, and I have tons of experience with Irunians now. What could be rough is trying to use them on something this powerful."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Kai asked.

"Oh, don't worry yourself so much. I have a contingency." Omilaena flipped a syringe around her fingers and handed it to him. "Most likely, I'll walk out all confident and sexy and you won't need it. But if I react poorly, take me to a dry location and jab me with this. I melted down all my work on my own Physique so far, so there's no better stabilizer than this."

Even though Zae Zin Nim still seemed distraught by the idea, they both saw that Omilaena was too determined to be put off. Besides, if they wanted unprecedented power they needed to take some risks, and the Irunians really needed this.

Some of the local experts made preparations while others built a portal to a cavern at a less secure location, where they created a pit for the hypothetical secondary pool. Omilaena sat down to meditate, in a far more somber way than normal, which put Kai on edge. Usually she was utterly confident before her experiments, or at worst filled with restless energy, so he didn't like this reaction from her.

All too soon, it seemed like they were ready. Omilaena gave them both a brief kiss, then walked to the pool.

At first it rejected her, since she had already taken of the source once. But that was one of the earliest problems she'd solved, so Omilaena bent down to inject some of her own metallic chakra. Once she had weakened the surface, she plunged into the metallic pool and disappeared.

For several terrible seconds, Kai imagined just never seeing her again.

Then she resurfaced... but it was the back of her blue dress, drifting lifelessly in the pool. Zae Zin Nim let out a cry and reacted first, leaping forward, and her qi rebounded violently from the pool's defenses. Kai followed a split second behind, and since he'd already taken the test once, he was able to walk out onto the metal.

He scooped up Omilaena and saw that her eyes were flowing with the same liquid metal as the pool. That might have been normal, but she coughed and spluttered, metal flying from her throat. It looked like she was choking, maybe drowning, and her soul seemed to be trembling dangerously.

"Make way!" Kai's shout broke through all the shock and the Irunians hastened to obey. He used his full speed to burst through the portal to the other chamber, laid Omilaena down in the pit, and then stabbed her syringe directly into her heart.

As her power flooded back into her, the coughing and spluttering ceased. Her body went completely still, but Kai could feel her soul stabilizing, so he breathed a sigh of relief. His instincts had been to try to suck the metal out of her, or attack, or something else futile, but he'd known that the best he could do was follow the instructions she'd left, and it had worked.

Or so it seemed.

Omilaena stabilized, but she didn't wake up. Instead she lay still, her eyes still open and covered in liquid steel. Blueish-silver metal began to leak from her skin, and though the Irunians cried out happily, it looked uncomfortably close to blood for Kai's peace of mind.

She had said that she intended to walk out sexily and confidently. As Omilaena lay there, beginning to float on the metal that drained from her body, she looked like she might not walk at all.