"What... What?"
Globb looked around in confusion. He registered the question, but he didn’t understand what it meant. He subconsciously reached for his tool belt. Usually, it would have something to soothe him, but his eyes went wide with panic when he didn’t feel it.
He thrashed, and only then seemed to finally realize that Grey was still holding onto his arm.
It was at that moment that Globb’s eyes glazed over. He seemed to receive new information as he stared at the iron jaw on Grey’s face.
"Ha... hahaha..."
If Globb noticed the tool belt on Grey’s hips, he didn’t say anything about it.
"You succeeded. You really succeeded."
Tears welled up in the gnome’s eyes. He tried to blink them away, but they only came faster.
"Thank you, thank you so—!"
Grey tried to pull Globb away, but he was a step slow. A blade pierced through his leg and lodged its point into a groove between the cobbled stones of the road. It was like he was pinned to the ground in the most humiliating manner possible.
Globb wasn’t very tall to begin with, but as he shrieked in pain and was forced to a knee on the ground, his frame only became smaller.
"Gnome, are you aware of your crimes?"
"Hey! Wait!" Grey tried to say something, but a palm slammed into his chest. It felt like there wasn’t even the slightest delay between his feet leaving the ground and his back slamming against an opposing wall.
His head spun, the sounds in the area becoming unclear and impossible to decipher.
He collapsed to the ground, trying to pull himself up, but his limbs weren’t listening to him at all. To make matters worse, the Looping Necklace was somehow exacerbating the symptoms, looping his feelings of nausea and confusion again and again until he heaved up the acid in his empty stomach.
Grey’s eyes blurred. He tried squinting to see what was happening, but he could just barely make out shadowy forms and nothing else.
But he could almost feel what was happening.
A sword raised.
A sword fell.
Something rolled to the ground, and his palm became slick with something wet as he tried and failed again and again to stand to his feet.
Slowly, the Looping Necklace finally seemed to catch onto a positive feedback loop instead of a negative one, and he could begin to make out the details in his surroundings.
Why?
He didn’t understand. He hadn’t even made a convincing argument, and when he tried to explain himself, he found himself flying through the air. It was like the Holy Knight was looking for any chance he could take to chop Globb’s head off.
Grey’s blurry vision finally cleared, and he saw the decapitated head of the technician. Blood seeped out from the neck, the gnome’s eyes not carrying the slightest bit of powerful emotion.
It was almost like... he was resigned.
The heavy stomp of boots stopped in front of Grey, and the Holy Knight reached down, pulling on the belt and ripping it free. The strap snapped, and Grey got a nasty burn on his waist from the bastard’s efforts.
Unfortunately—or maybe fortunately in this case—Grey’s legs still weren’t working properly, so his temper was slow to react.
"This will be confiscated. According to the rules of the Holy City, spatial items are under restricted use of Her Holiness and may only be issued on special order."
"Give me... what’s... inside... then..." Grey wheezed out.
Something clanged to the ground in front of him. A small dagger—Eli’s weapon.
There was more inside. Grey knew there was more inside. Let alone the raw materials, there were all his spoils from the previous battles.
’This fucking cunt...’
Grey looked up with what strength he had, his eyes burning as though he were trying to cut through the helm that hid the owner of those emerald eyes.
Surprisingly, there was another feedback loop that formed.
—
[Name: Captain Terran]
[Vector Class]
—
BANG.
A foot kicked Grey’s nose in. Or rather, it tried. His iron jaw and Skrill Mask held up pretty well, though it was also clear that this Captain Terran knew who he could kill with ease and who he couldn’t.
It seemed that Grey was right about those "rules" after all, though his current state wasn’t as helpful in proving that fact as he hoped.
"Learn who you can and can’t scan, boy."
After saying this, the Holy Knight turned and left.
’The tome is in there...’ Grey wanted to stop the knight, but it was useless.
"Esteemed Knight, sir. If I could just—." Joaquin was pushed out of the way, nearly stumbling to the ground.
But like the good boy he was, he lowered his head and didn’t make another sound until the Holy Knights were long gone.
Finally, Grey’s legs seemed to be working well enough for him to stand. He took hold of Eli’s dagger, feeling a familiar jolt and shock when he did.
His chest felt like a bulldozer had run through it, and his head was absolutely ringing. Luckily, though the Looping Necklace had surprisingly made the initial symptoms far worse, it was now clearing them far quicker than they would have otherwise been.
Grey shook his head. ’The tome, the shin guards, the magic staff, the cloak...’
There was a reason Grey had put them in the Weapon Space instead of using them. Well, he had never expected the tool belt to be taken away in the first place, and he certainly hadn’t expected Globb to die for it. How could he have known that spatial devices were a controlled commodity here?
The real reason he had was because he had a hunch that all this Accepted and Rejected Type mumbo jumbo held a bigger meaning than he knew. He had known that Joaquin was observing from a distance and wanted the chance to take him off guard in case of a sudden attack.
So he didn’t want Joaquin to know that he could use multiple forms of Types.
After reading the introduction, Grey was very glad he had made the choice. He knew now how impossibly rare it was to have more than one Neuronal Frame. He also knew that this was the reason Prometheus had chosen him.
Grey raised his head and finally met Joaquin’s eyes.
Bloody murder turned his irises crimson for the briefest of instances.