Emil

The Black Shoal was a mess. As the most densely populated district within Isarelle, it was also the district that received the least amount of attention from the Lionhearts and Steiger in the wake of this disaster. The rationale was simple—the commoners and miscreants of the Black Shoal lacked importance compared to the artists, merchants, and visitors in the Arts and Commerce Districts. With the bombs being spread across Isarelle, the Lionhearts and Steiger had no choice but to prioritize due to their limited numbers. The value of people's lives was being pitted against each other. Emil understood the pragmatism of the decision, but he didn't feel good about it.

What the hell is the Belle family doing?

House Belle was the governor of Isarelle, and yet he saw shockingly little of their insignias and emblems as he made his way to the Administrative District. Even if the Noble's Quarter was on the other side of the city, there should at least have been patrols and guards deployed for the festival.

The words of Otto von Belle suddenly echoed in his head.

"Don't wait too long to choose. And when you do, make sure you don't regret your choice."

Emil clenched his jaws at the possible implications. Surely, the man wasn't going to make a political powerplay in the midst of a disaster? Isarelle was his city to govern, and his negligence to defend it against Vigil would do nothing but sully his reputation. House Belle was already on thin ice with the royal family after Liesel annulled her marriage with Prince Rory.

The other possibility was that House Belle was a direct target of Vigil's Borealis. At least four of the bombs had detonated in Noble's Quarter according to a Courier's intel. Based on what Emil had saw earlier, just one alone was probably enough to level most of the Belle estate.

Neither possibilities are ideal.

As he neared the edge of the Black Shoal, Emil saw medical tents being propped by volunteers. Most of them seemed to be affiliated with the Seibert Merchant Company based on the company's logo woven on their uniforms. He also spotted Anna's parents amidst the volunteers, shouting orders and working to distribute the supplies that they happened to have on hand.

He directed a silent word of gratitude towards their efforts.

They aren't as heartless as I thought.

Anna's accounts of her parent's reckless pursuit to grow the Seibert Merchant Company had painted them in a bad light. Maybe she misunderstood them. Or maybe she had been correct all along, and her falling out had changed her parents for the better. Either way, Emil couldn't see the greedy monsters that they had been described as.

He kept an eye out for his friends as he approached the Administrative District. Crowds of people were flooding into the district. More were on the other side of the canal, waiting impatiently to pass through the checkpoints that had been set up by Graf. A fragile order was maintained thanks to the Lionhearts in the area, but another explosion in the vicinity would easily send everyone into a frenzy.

I don't see any of them.

Emil's heart ached. A part of him wanted to go and look for Anna and the rest of them, but he had a job to do. There were seven Borealis that haven't detonated yet and the time was ticking down. He could only hope that they haven't been caught in any of the explosions.

He spotted a Courier perched atop of a nearby building.

"It's Miles," he quickly gave his alias, "Where's Graf? I have information about the bombs."

***

Emil landed before Isarelle's Bank of Ardair branch office. The front entrance was guarded by a squadron of Steiger agents who quickly cleared the way once he presented his identifications.

The interior of the bank had completely changed since the last time he was here. The bank teller booths had been removed to create makeshift rooms and offices. Tables covered in documents were arranged across the ground floor and occupied by frantic administrative staff. Graf was at the center of it all, conducting the operations as he delivered orders and received new information.

"Not pretending to be a bank anymore?" Emil asked to make his presence known as he pushed past some of the admin staff.

Graf immediately turned to face him. "Information control has been turned off to save time. Now speak." His face appeared impassive, but there was a sharp urgency in his tone.

Emil placed samples of the explosive residuals that he uncovered on a table. "Another bomb went off in the Black Shoal shortly after we split off. I found these samples near the epicenter of two of the blast zones. I think it's remnants of the bomb."

The staff nearby flinched and tried to get away from the residuals. Emil quickly clarified that the material was inert.

"Anything unusual about its composition?"

"The core material is Azurite. There's black powder embedded in the material matrix along with some other compounds that I can't identify. But I think the overall structure is not dissimilar to the incendiary devices used in the mining operations within Dannan. Someone with more expertise could probably tell you."

Graf picked up a sample and gave it a cursory glance. He then beckoned for one of the admin staff and handed her the sample to investigate further.

"Knowing Vigil, I suspect the locations that they've selected are not chosen at random," Emil stated, "Do you know all the locations of the blast zones?

"More or less. But you'll need to fill in the latest attack on the Black Shoal," Graf said as he brought out a map. He quickly circled the areas where the explosions took place. Based on a count of the sites, Emil realized that another bomb had gone off in the Commerce District after he split off from Graf. Now there were six bombs left according to Kleine's accounts.

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Emil added his own entry and then stared at the map.

"Well? Any patterns?" Graf asked impatiently.

"…Can you bring a map of the Canticle? Preferably drawn on a translucent sheet and matching the scale of this city map."

To his surprise, an admin staff immediately returned with what he wanted. Emil asked the assistant to lay down the translucent map of the Canticle directly atop of the map of Isarelle.

"The reservoirs," Graf muttered. The pattern wasn't perfect—not all of the blast sites corresponded to the location of a reservoir within the Canticle, but more than half of the explosions did align with the hypothesis. It was enough of a lead for Graf to make a decision.

But why are they doing this?

Setting the bombs off atop of the Canticle reservoirs had to serve some strategic purpose for Vigil, but Emil couldn't see anything that made logical sense. They were missing something. A key detail.

"Let me work out their intent. I will assign agents on standby to evacuate the areas," Graf said while pointing to one of the reservoirs that hadn't been attacked, "You should head to the Arts District right away."

***

The map of the Canticle and the bomb sites gnawed at the back of Emil's head as he rushed across the rooftops of the Administrative District.

Something doesn't add up.

He thought about the residuals that he uncovered. Given that Vigil's Borealis also used black powder, Emil made an assumption that their design was based on the incendiary devices used by Dannan miners for blast mining. If his theory was true, then Borealis should have had a fuse to control and trigger its detonation.

That would explain how the bombs could detonate remotely without the Vigil members being present in the vicinity.

The next issue, however, was the sequence of the explosions.

If I remembered correctly, two bombs in the Noble's Quarter went off first, followed one in the Arts and Commerce Districts. Then two more detonated in the Noble's Quarter. Melody's broadcast finished right after. Then three went off in the Black Shoal and one more in the Commerce District.

The sequence appeared random. Logically, if Vigil was using a timed fuse, then the bombs placed in the beginning should have detonated first. Given that the initial explosions occurred in Noble's Quarter, then all bombs within the Noble's Quarter should have detonated before the ones in the Arts and Commerce Districts.

Unless multiple Vigil members were spread around the city, planting bombs individually.

That was a possibility, but then there was another problem. The fuses used in the Dannan incendiary devices could only delay the trigger by tens of seconds. Extending the delay to minutes was a non-trivial task since the risk of the fuse ignition spluttering increased as the length of fuse got longer. Creating a longer, reliable fuse simply wasn't feasible with current technologies.

Kleine was inside Thanatos. Melody was within the broadcast tower. That leaves Nagi and Karni. Unless there are more Vigil members, I don't see how they could have planted so many bombs across the city just between the two of them. Especially without being seen.

Karni might have been able to remain inconspicuous given her stature as a small Gharian woman, but Nagi was a goliath of man and someone of Eastern descent. There was no way he could be missed even if amongst the busy crowds of the Aurous Festival.

Wait—

A spark of realization suddenly came to mind.

Karni's Gift, Rat King, allowed her control over rodents. The exact capabilities of her Gift were unknown, but Emil was sure of at least two characteristics. One, she could transform the creatures into ravenous monsters. And two, her range of influence over the rats was vast, even defying Exalted common sense.

Emil fired the Pulsar.

A Courier showed up immediately.

"Spread this everyone heading to the reservoirs—Vigil might be using rats to carry and trigger the bombs remotely! They have an Exalted named Karni who is able to control rats from long distances!"

The Courier vanished to deliver his message just as he arrived at one of the remaining reservoirs within the Arts District.

The ground above the reservoir was beside an open-air amphitheatre. A dense crowd occupied the area as they shuffled towards the Administrative District. The air buzzed with nervous energy like a taut string threatening to snap at the slightest of pressure. Still, Emil was surprised at how orderly they were until he spotted a familiar figure directing the traffic.

Delilah was running up and down the length of the crowd, shouting words of encouragement and making sure that the people remained calm and placated. She was accompanied by a few other associates of House Belle—likely affiliates of the Isarelle Opera Company who she worked with for her performances.

Time was ticking. Emil pulled off his mask and ran towards Delilah. The night gear that he was wearing right now might have demanded an explanation, but he had no time to spare. He had to get the space above the reservoir cleared up.

Delilah nearly fell to her feet when he landed beside her.

"E-Emil?! You're okay!"

"I need you to get the crowd out of this area." He drew out the rough edges of where the reservoir would have been. He then leaned in close to whisper for her ears. "We suspect another bomb might there. So, please, make it fast."

Delilah's face turned grave. She looked like she had a lot of questions, but she immediately swallowed her apprehensions and complied. With the help of her associates, the crowd gradually pulled away from the ground above the reservoir. Each second that passed gnawed at Emil's nerves.

Seismic Sense triggered once he had enough of a clearing. Mana crawled along the surface of the paved ground, scanning for abnormalities and perturbations.

For a while, there was nothing unusual in the area. Emil wavered, wondering if he was wrong with his judgement.

"…!"

A rat scurried out into the open. The casualness of its appearance caught him off guard. Emil's associations with Karni's Gift were the large, monstrous abominations. Not a tiny creature scampering harmlessly onto the field.

He almost felt silly for yelling a warning until he felt a crackle of mana in the air.

Bulwark activated on instinct, materializing a dense circular confinement around the rat. Emil stomped the ground as well to cave in the space where the rat stood. A second later, the rat began to grow. Mana surged to fuel its transformation, but the amount radiating outwards felt oppressive.

Dangerous.

Just as Emil's walls were about to close up, a storm of blue light suddenly burst forth.

"Bastion!" he shouted into oblivion, his voice fading into the thunderous explosion. Emil poured his will and desperation into the stone constructs, fortifying them with mana. Even then, the stone's integrity was fracturing as the explosion threatened to swallow everything whole.

Desperate, he stomped the ground again. More stone structures rose around the circumference of the blast in quick succession. If he couldn't contain the explosion with one set of stone constructs, then he'll slow it down with quantity instead.

The first set of walls collapsed. Then second. And then third.

The explosive force seemed relentless and never-ending. The haphazard constructs barely put up any resistance. Everything was being devoured in an instant. Milliseconds passed. Emil was running out of space before the energy of the blast reached the crowd.

He screamed with an animalistic rage. Terror stirred his will to live. Fury burned in his chest at the injustice of the situation. Blaze flickered for an instant. Emil wringed out everything he had for a final stand.

The last set of constructs stood before the explosion.

The walls shook at the impact.

And stood.

The flood of azure light ceased, dimming into the characteristic blue haze that always lingered in the aftermath of Borealis's explosions.

His ears were ringing. His head throbbed from symptoms of Overclock. His limbs ached like they were about to fall apart. But Emil did it. He stopped the explosion.

When he turned to glance at the crowd, his heart dropped.

Rather than jubilation and relief, the eyes staring at him were trembling in terror. Fear was etched on the Ordinary's expressions. Whenever Emil met someone's gaze, they shuddered and flinched. The reactions confused him. Why? Why were they looking at him like he was the villain? He stopped the explosion, did he not?

It took a second for him to realize that the people around him hadn't escaped the blast unscathed. Collateral damage. It came from the stone shrapnel from his constructs flung by the explosion. They had struck individuals within the crowd. Blood soaked the ground. Some of the injuries were too gruesome to watch even by Emil's standards.

A child began to cry. A mother cursed him.

Indignation spread like wildfire.

Emil could only watch as the crowd turned against him.

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