COMMENCING MATTER ENRICHMENT OF CONTAINER #4.. TEMPORARY STORAGE AT CAPACITY, BRINGING GRAVITON ANNIHILATION DRIVE OUT OF CONTAINMENT FOR REFUELING.]

As the last visitor left of the CAS-7 retrofit site had left for the night the real work had started. A crane moved towards the newly dug well in the center of the compound housing the most dangerous parts of the CAS-7, including the main and backup power plant, and a MK: IX prototype anti graviton drive, which Dax had kept completely under wraps. The fuel for such drive came from the planets lower mantel, about 450 kilometers into the planet where extreme heat, pressure and the planet's magnetic field trapped cosmic radiation in heavy elements over billions of years, and kept them from annihilating themselfs. That kind of raw material had to be environmentally sealed and locked in a containment field that cooled the ore close to absolute zero and bathed in electromagnetic radiation from the second it was brought up from the heart of the planet, until it could be refined and stabilized into fuel pellets just to keep it from from blowing up in a bright light that could cook the surface of a small planet.

Of course as no one from the Kingdom had been told about such dangerous elements being needed, Dax couldn't just publicly transport the goods himself, or beef up the security of Gary's convoys without a valid reason, so from the second it had left his hands Dax himself had been keeping all his attention on the transport in incognito. As the handover of the exotic ore was perfectly timed with Dax's spy satellite being overhead anything that moved and/or had a heat signature was flagged, then a swarm of hidden drones would verify them, and if they could not be verified as non hostiles or moved within 50 kilometers of Gary's transport, it would be wiped out (along with the surrounding terrain) by precision artillery from over the horizon.

[GRAVITON ANNIHILATION DRIVE OUT OF CONTAINMENT, RAISING ALERT LEVEL TO MAXIMUM, REQUESTING FULL SPECTRUM AREA SCAN… TASKING COMSAT-1, ORDER AFFIRMED, a.n.a.lYZING RESULTS…. ERROR, HEAT SIGNATURE DETECTED INSIDE THE WIRE, ALLERTING CHAIN OF COMMAND...]

Having finally noticed the rising heat signature inside the compound originating from the compromised exotic matter container, ICI allerted Dax resulting in the most rude awakening he had ever had.

The following morning Tia did her usual routine. First she overslept slightly, was woken up by her mom, then after eating breakfast and admiring her mother's prized weapons collection she eqiped her red adamant.i.te armor and channeled flight magic and flew towards the CAS-7 retrofit site outside the outer wall of Kingsted.

"What is going on?..."

Nearing the place Tia immediately spotted something wrong. Instead of the place almost crawling with scholars it was deserted except for the drones that normally was on site, and those moved around with a certain panik to them. Landing inside the compound Tia was immediately surrounded by drones pointing loaded and primed gauss rifles at her.

[VACATE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY, THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING.]

"There's something wrong with the newly arrived ore right?"

To that response the drones fell silent, and didn't shoot Tia either, proving her hypothesis.

"Can I do something to help?"

[REQUEST NOTED. DIALING COMMAND, STANDBY…]

After a few tense seconds the drones lower their weapons and one of them handed Tia a black facemask.

"What is thi-"

As Tia was about to inquire about the mask she felt she had seen somewhere before she looked up to see the that drones were gone.

".. Great. Might as well…"

Nervously Tia put the mask to her face, finding out it not only provided perfect vision, but also unexpectedly stuck to her face and she couldn't take it off again. Just before panicking completely she was struck with a light headache and then heard a familiar voice in her head.

["So you want to help huh… Well I welcome it with open arms, even if ICI calculates that you would have no effect."]

"Dax?"

Dax's voice suddenly sounded from all around her, making Tia confused as she looked around for the large qiton.

["That would be my name yeah. It's no use looking for me, I'm currently residing in the archangels sanctuary, do you want to help me with this issue?"]

After looking around the immediate area for Dax hiding somewhere Tia calmed down slightly and took a deep breath.

"If I'm able to, then I would like to help yes."

["That's good to hear, can you still use magic to great effect without that armor?"]

"Yes I can, why?"

["Oh that's perfect, then please strip~"]

"Eh?"

After being forcefully stripped of her armor without explanation by several drones Tia was made to wear some sort of puffy suit that fully enclosed her.

"..."

["The suit is for your own protection."]

"..."

["Do you want to help or nah?"]

"Mmmuu! So where is the problem?"

Like the mature and patiant child she was Tia showed understanding in the face of what appeared to be Dax toying with her. Being guided by a drone Tia moved to the center of the compound where she found the containers that had arrived yesterday, one of them was still intact while the others apparently had been opened and emptied.

"I take it there's something wrong with that one?"

["Bingo~ Apparently the contents have been interfered with somehow and is starting to decay uncontrollably."]

Looking closer at the metallic crate Tia noticed that it was very slowly turning orange.

"Isn't that really bad?"

["It is yeah, if the containment fails the contents could iratiate this whole city…"]

"What interfered with it?"

["It's quite possibly mana."]

"Are you not sure?"

["Nope. But those containers block out any known interference, and with the exotic particle you people call mana being present I'm pretty sure that's the course for my current problem."]

"So you want me to remove the mana? I'm afraid that's impossible."

Canceling out the constant flow of mana was impossible as far as Tia knew, you could weaken it temporarily sure, but removing it completely would be an entirely hopeless endeavor.

["Is it possible for you to cool it down instead?"]

"... I can try…."

Walking a few steps closer Tia started to gather mana from the atmosphere while she taught about what kind of spell to use.

"Nnn!"

Finis.h.i.+ng up her chant Tia violently altered the atmospheric pressure, heating the air above her a few degrees, making it rain.

["I don't think rain is-"]

"I'm not done!"

Quikly invoking her next spell Tia took control of the downpouring water, gathering it up in multiple spheres that she slammed towards the crate as it violently turned to steam. Continuing on with that method for about 5 minutes Tia slowly realized she was making no progress.

"Is it helping?"

After dosing the canister in cold water continuously Tia asked about the effect it was happening.

["No, sadly not. The core temperature is still increasing, but if you can keep that up for another hour I can deal with the problem."]

"Another hour? Impossible."

Feeling the drain on herself after only a few minutes of continually casting the spell, Tia was not naive enough to claim she could keep it up for another hour, let alone 30 minutes. With her mind rus.h.i.+ng to find a better solution while she covered the area in steam Tia's concentration stated slipping, and along with it the spell itself started to fail.

(Think think THINK! I know I can do this!)

["Thanks for trying Tia, get away before it's too late. I'll seal it underground, that should stop most of the radiation."]

(Radiation… Heat…)

"I got it!"

Canceling her current spell Tia started gathering an even more ma.s.sive amount of mana from the air as she ran towards the crate and pushed out her hand.

(Heat is vibrational energy in atoms, then isn't just a matter of stopping that vibration? To remove heat from something is the most basic part of ice magic, I just need to reconfigure the spell structure for what I've learned about atomic theory.)

Pressing her other hand backwards Tia prepared a spell structure that could transfer the heat energy away with a type of spell that was truly original.

"FREEZE!"

With her utmost ability Tia targeted not the container, but what was inside. Sapping away the vibrational energy of the area in front of her Tia cracked the container completely open with the sheer force of her spell as whatever was left violently flash freezed, rendering the exotic material inside inert as Tia herself pa.s.sed out from the strain.

"WHAT THE f.u.c.k WAS THAT!?"

"Hii! the f.u.c.k Dax!?"

Seemingly out of nowhere Dax stood up in the middle of a meal with Terra and Alice and shouted out into the air, scaring Terra that flinched and dropped her food mid meal, Alice however weren't spooked as she had long since noticed that Dax was doing something else.

"I'm sorry, I need to deal with something immediately."

Leaving with those words Dax's head filled with information from the event in Kingsted as he tried to rationalize it.

(Render the full event from all available sensors, give me a 10 second before and after the event at maximum available resolution.)

(DATA PACKAGE DOWNLOAD REQUEST REGISTERED, FACILITATING HIGH SPEED PRIORITY DATABRIDGE, RELAYING THROUGH COMSAT-1.)

Walking out of the room Dax sat down in a corridor and shut his eyes as he entered a completely white world that was quickly layered with increasing detail.

(ICI show me what the f.u.c.k just happened.)

As the event replayed ICI tagged multiple irregularities with bright red warning tags that would normally indicate corrupt and/or incorrect data.

(It looks like the very conservation of energy of being broken?…. That can't be right.)

Dax witnessed the exact moment Tia had violently removed heat from the area and flash freezed the exotic container and somehow rendered it inert.

(ICI retacks the monster core structural a.n.a.lysis to top priority and set up a new research directive to study and try to manipulate the mana particle, turns out being able to just cancel magic spells won't be enough.)

(DIRECTIVES CONFIRMED.)

Falling silent Dax watched the replay over and over again as he wished he understood theoretical quantum particle physics as well as the Avoxaian sisters.

["Mmmm my head….. Did it work?"]

Hearing Tia wake up trough his active sensor link Dax switched his vision back to the CAS-7 compound.

["It worked wonderfully Tia~ Thanks for the help."]

"Nnn, you're welcome"

Helping Tia on her feet Dax with a drone he secretly scanned her body through contact.

["Are you okay?"]

"I think so? My head hurts a bit from over using magic, but that's about it."

["That's good then, by the way what was that spell earlier?"]

"I have no idea.."

[You have no idea?"]

Staring into the empty air for a bit with her sleepy eyes, Tia eventually started formulating a somewhat more valid response.

"I tried to make a more advanced freezing spell with the new knowledge I've learned from you, but somehow it took way more mana than I expected so I pa.s.sed out?"

["So you're not even sure yourself?....."]

"Mmm."

["I see…. Do you want a new job where you can play around with knowledge like that all day?"]

"Eh?"