Blonde: "Those are the heartstone products, they're what we're trying to stop. John and Lucida are inside the northern dorm, all the dorms have antimagic systems. Andrew's near the west dorm being in trouble, P'orihc and some other guys are inside this building. I'm Noel, nice to meet you. Can you fight?"

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Girl 1: "I dunno. Probably keeping her somewhere separate from us. She's valuable to the project. If something happens to the current Mother, they can use her to make a new one, though it'll take a while to pile on new spirits. I'd bet she's in the same building as Mother."

Noel: "Cool."

She peers the corner of the building.

Noel: "Chrys! I mean, Aucupe! Tell Andrew to give this lupus a view of the area!"

The blonde points towards the white feathered beast on the short watchtower.

Noel: "That's Chrys, she likes being called Aucupe. She's with us."

Suddenly, an image pops into your mind - an overhead view of the facility grounds.

You can see the combat map!

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Girl 1: "Some of us can move mana, some of us don't even know how to use our magic. None of us need our magic suppressed for our own safety, though.

I don't know if the building has antimagic systems like the dorms, I imagine it'd have at at least a partial or emergency system."

Noel: "You don't know what this whole thing is about?"

Nope.

Noel: "In a nutshell, this facility is experimenting on girls to make weapons. Those armored ones are the weapons.

I hope you can fight well, because I can't and Ki'stha here just went brain-dead."

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You grab a brigandine from the armory and then ask a guard where the courthouse is before heading off.

It's close to the center of the city, but a bit more to the west with a large open grassy lawn in front of it, plenty of space for the crowd that's already there, waiting.

Joining the crowd at its edge, you wait with everyone else until a small group of people walk up the steps of the courthouse, one of them moving up to the podium there. Lord Elizabeth.

She looks over to someone to the side who flashes a thumbs up, and then turns to face the audience, speaking with a magic-amplified voice.

Elizabeth: "Hey everyone, thanks for coming out. Things have been a bit rough lately, and I'm not happy to say that it's about to get a lot worse.

A leviathan has appeared to the west, between Magusalto, Venari, and Teleiat. Along with a witch queen, a large dragon, and a giant humanoid construct, and they're all fighting.

There is some good news - Vranhal, Esthen, and the Second have agreed on a ceasefire and a temporary alliance to handle the situation. Most sniper teams have already been positioned on the west side of the wall. Both Vranhal and the Second are organizing scouting teams to get a better idea on what's going on.

To ensure an adequate production of food and supplies, Vranhal is being placed under full military control, effective at noon.

We've been through some tough times, but we've been successful so far. Let's keep up that track record."

She walks away from the podium while someone else steps up to ask everyone to calmly disperse, walking not running.

Tuhota: "Leviathan sounds bad."

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Iikua soon returns with Tabi, the latter looking down at the ground as she walks. On the end of the forest where Stalhnacht went, there's a large barren valley where there used to be trees. the metal witch still visible and extracting earth and plants from the land.

It looks like Ommel is going to say something, but she simply smiles at Tabi.

Iikua: "Is the witch still eating land? Does it have any seeds?"

Kuva: "If it doesn't, maybe it'll get 'em later.

So, what's the big plan? We're far away from the leviathan and the construct or whatever. Guess we're setting up a long-term home in the witch core?"

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Girl 1: "Uuuh. I'd say 'no' but I think 'I don't know' would be the safer answer."

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The three of you locate a stairwell a few steps away from your location, leading up and upper and lower level. Taking the stairs down one level, they end with a locked metal door.

Black Mage: "Guess it'd be too convenient to leave everything unlocked."

The blue mage crouches down to view the keyhole, pulling some thin metal rods out and fiddling with the lock.

Blue Mage: "Well, at least it seems standard."

A few minutes pass before the barrel of the lock turns, the blue mage successfully opening the mechanism.

Blue Mage: "There we go."

The door is opened, revealing dimly lit arcane machinery.

Black Mage: "Alright, let's find an off switch instead of randomly smashing stuff. Unless if you want to do that, I'm cool with smashing."