Beast Gacha System: All Mine

Chapter 427: Transparent Arc

Igor had never run through a corporate office before. He had walked briskly, he had power-walked, but he had never run. Not in the Vasiliev headquarters or in any of the overseas satellite offices.

He always felt that in his line of work, running was for people who had failed to plan ahead. Yet here he was, his polished leather shoes skidding on the marble floors of a high-rise conference center somewhere in Asia.

His tie flapping over his shoulder, his lungs burning as he careened past startled assistants and bewildered security guards. Clutched in his hand was something that was about to change everything. A tablet.

The boardroom doors loomed before him, massive things of frosted glass and brushed steel. Igor didn’t knock or pause since he couldn’t afford to. He hit the doors with both palms and burst through like a man fleeing a burning building.

"Sir—"

Twenty faces turned toward him. Board directors in immaculate suits, senior executives with their neutral expressions.

Then, Arzhen Vasiliev himself, seated at the head of the table, his suit jacket draped over the back of his chair, his shirtsleeves rolled to the elbow.

He was in the middle of a negotiation, a delicate, high-stakes discussion with a Japanese delegation whose representatives were now staring at Igor in confusion.

Arzhen raised his hand, just small movement. It was dismissive, fully expecting to be obeyed and had never been disappointed.

"Sir, please—" Igor didn’t stop. How could he? He had served Arzhen Vasiliev for a decade. He had never once disobeyed a direct order. Until now.

Arzhen’s eyes narrowed. The temperature in the room dropped by several degrees.

His hand moved again, this time toward Oleg. He was already stepping forward, his massive frame uncoiling from the corner of the room, ready to remove a problem from everyone’s presence.

"Sir—" Igor thrust the tablet forward. His hand was shaking like his voice.

Because he had just seen something that couldn’t be unseen.

The tablet’s screen glowed.

On it, a helicopter’s camera feed showed a dam. It was massive and grey, and at first glance, you couldn’t see anything wrong with it, except the hundreds of small ant-sized people surrounding it from the bird view perspective.

That was when it happened.

Standing on top of that dam was a woman. Her long blonde hair billowed against the wind, as she extended her hand—

Wha—

I—

—A hundred billion cubic meters of water folded into itself, retreating from the concrete, compressing itself into a wall of liquid that defied every law of physics and reason.

Everyone who saw the footage, not just Arzhen, stood up with horror.

"W—"

All of them had the same reaction.

What kind of force—

Who—

The footage was grainy, shot from a distance, but the figure was unmistakable. The pale, holy face. The blonde hair.

Silence.

The boardroom was completely silent.

Igor’s voice, when he spoke, was barely a whisper. "This is... unmistakably Madam, Sir."

***

"I need to make an arc, but I can’t see shit," Cecilia said, doing advanced magical calculus in her head while simultaneously holding back an inland sea and was rapidly running out of patience for the universe’s limitations.

"I need to see the target. My mana is strained just to control this water, so I can’t scan upstream with it."

Arkai was no longer capable of being surprised. The fact that Cecilia had just casually mentioned she could scan the entire area upstream if her hands were not tied simply skipped across the surface of his mind and sank without a trace.

He had reached the point beyond shock and awe. This dizzying vertigo from watching his pregnant girlfriend rewrite the laws of physics was bad enough already. He was now operating on pure get it done energy.

"ARWRRROOOOO—"

Without saying anything, Arkai howled, releasing the first wave of sonic barrage. The sound tore from his throat, then he howled again, a series of distinct, pitched calls that rippled through the air and echoed off the distant ridges.

Cecilia saw a stirring above them immediately at the edges of the reservoir.

"I just told them to bring us live feed from the news helicopter above. If it is not enough, they are getting us drones too," Arkai said.

Cecilia flinched. "Those are n-news helicopters?!"

"It can’t be helped," Arkai was panting now, his massive wolf chest heaving. "I will... ha... ha... tell them to burn everything away later if you want some privacy. I need... one more bottle, please..."

Cecilia leaned forward and fed him another vial of mana potion, her fingers brushing against his fur, her touch lingering for just a moment.

That was when she saw them, a small team of werewolves sprinting toward them, their movements fast and sure-footed despite the treacherous footing, carrying something in their hands.

A tablet. And something small and spiky with antennae protruding from its edges.

"Oh my god," Cecilia giggled. "They are bringing WiFi repeaters down here—"

"Cece, I am scared, please focus—"

"Sorry."

Cecilia hadn’t actually thought this would work. But apparently, she might be able to finish that ’get viral’ task with this. She had wondered how she was supposed to achieve that.

But now, with a news helicopter circling overhead and a wall of water hanging in the air, she might actually have a chance.

The notification that she had completed the task had not come out yet, though. Perhaps there was some specific requirement attached to it.

She thought she couldn’t care less about privacy right now. She was wrong. She clearly wanted to finish that system task as soon as possible, because she had no idea how else to do it.

When the team approached and showed her the tablet screen, Cecilia recognized them.

Would you look at that. Jorig, Stic, and Bram? It had been quite a while since she had seen them.

"Thin, stable arch," Cecilia whispered to herself, her eyes fixed on the screen.

She began to shape the water, the massive, compressed wall of it, into something that resembled a limb. A reaching arm of liquid that stretched toward the sky, bending slowly, aiming for the temporary dam upstream like a colossal, transparent bridge—

Ah. Cecilia frowned.

The news helicopter, which had been broadcasting the footage live to millions of viewers, suddenly cut away to another angle.

"Alright. How about the drone?" Cecilia asked flatly. She just decided that the news was no longer a reliable source of information.

"It is on the way, Ma’am. Our drone specialist will be here in a minute."

"I’m already wasting so much time," Cecilia whispered in frustration.

She materialized another four-star magic stone from her chest, a gem the size of a human head, and let it fly into the sky above her. "I can’t believe I’m forced to be this creative now!"

The magic stone exploded. It unfurled, like a flower blooming in fast motion, its mana spreading outward in a perfectly circular field that blanketed the entire area. A web of light, a way to see without eyes.

Cecilia closed her eyes. "Thinner..."

The wolves who had brought the tablet had their jaws somewhere in the general vicinity of the dam bed. The massive wall of water and the arching limb stretching across the sky. But that wasn’t all.

A human-head-sized magic stone detonating into a scanning field like something out of a myth. Even Arkai, who had reached the point beyond surprise, felt his heart stutter. "Cece, you..."

"Thin arch..." Cecilia finally got her area scan through the magic stone as its mana spread across the terrain. She just needed to connect it with the mana she controlled, and she had the general topography of everything.

The temporary dam, the werebeaver construction, the pumps, the ice magic users, the evacuation zone, the distant shimmer of the river downstream. All of it mapped in her mind.

The only problem now was... would the temporary dam be enough to contain this much water?

The werebeavers had built fast, but not that fast.

"Thinner..." Cecilia whispered again, her eyes still closed, her will pressing against the water.

Arkai pushed forward, his claws digging into the stone, his muscles screaming. His eyes flickered to the tablet screen, where the helicopter had returned to shoot the aerial view.

He watched the water flow beautifully in a thin arc over the sky, a liquid bridge suspended between the broken dam and the temporary reservoir upstream.

It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Massive and delicate at once, a roll of water being gently poured into a smaller basin like a goddess tipping a pitcher.

"It can’t hold that much volume," Cecilia determined. "I need—"

Help.

But who? How? What—

CRACKLE—RUMBLE—CRASH—

GRRRRRRRROWWWLLL—

Cecilia’s eyes flew open.

Behind her, the dam collapsed completely.