Epics of Noche 5, Reflection

EON CH 31

ONE PUNCH.

1777, APRIL 10th, SUNDAY 8:07 pm.

Noche walked up to Trio, who grinned and cracked her knuckles. The blonde's eyes flickered down to the gesture before backing up.

"So what did you want to try?"

"Noche, when you left the asylum, you were about half gen, right?"

"Yeaaaah?"

"From what I understand, you regain all your drive when you resurrect. I take it you've spent and regained a lot of drive climbing this mountain?"

"That's correct."

"Well I want to gauge where your augment is now."

Noche blinked. Surely her augment couldn't have increased that much... Could it? Granted she did use a lot of drive fighting her clones. She lost track of the number of times she used all her drive in a single attack to kill a reflection. Since she could regain it all with her next resurrection she had no reason to hold back.

"Alright. How will you test me?"

"I'm gonna punch you."

"Punch me?"

"Punch you."

"Right."

"No, I don't think you understand. I'm going to punch you – with all my might."

"Oh. OH!" Noche blinked rapidly. "You mean the mythical punch that could destroy the world."

"That's the one," Trio nodded. "If you're still at half-gen, it'll kill you. Buuut, if you're three-fourths or higher, you should survive."

"Alright. Yeah. Why the fuck not? Go ahead."

Trio pulled her arm back and her grin widened. "Cool."

Noche prepared herself as Trio's drive energy gathered in the air around her. It seems the general was insulating the atmosphere to prevent the dangers of a shockwave, or explosion, or sheer force from escaping out everywhere.

The fist came faster than Noche could perceive – one moment she was staring at Trio and the next she woke up in Limbo.

"Well shit. I guess that answers that."

"Yeah, congrats," Dia said.

"FUCK! Do you gotta sneak up on me like that!"

Dia snickered. "You're still alive. Unconscious, but alive."

Noche stared at the tar harpy before looking down at her body.

"You haven't been resurrected in a new body, yet. You're only here mentally," Dia said. "Remember when you got decapitated, but your grandfather kept your body alive with Grim gel."

"You mean when I was in that coma?"

"Yeah. Back then you were stuck in the yellow room as a mental projection."

"But Galloway said I died."

"Well you did, but people have died and been resuscitated before. I mean, haven't you ever heard of a defibrillator, or seen a hospital drama where someone is declared dead and then comes back to life?"

"You're saying I died temporarily back then?"

"Correct. Because your body died, you woke up in Limbo, however your old body was resuscitated and you were stuck here cause you didn't know the way out. Not until Galloway came and made that deal with you."