6.4 Bootstrapping

I stood up from the anvil and started pacing around the water tower.

In terms of support, Baccus had already stated that most of the Furnace's denizens would help once the plan comes to fruition. Whatever plan that was, it was up to me. So that was another problem I needed to address.

There were a few ways to escape this hellhole. A breakout? From what I'd seen, there were only three exits in the Furnace; the one leading to where I first woke up in, the one where the Dezimals came from, and the other that led to the courtyard of the Aufteilung Class Barracks.

Whatever we choose to pick, it'd be a massive fight one way or the other.

Knowing that, we'd have to arm ourselves, and I doubt that most of my fellow Nenners had any sort of weapons training beyond making them in the first place. I'd have to maybe start teaching a few of them so that they could in turn teach the rest. The question for that then would be who...

My eyes wandered across the surrounding environment, the sea of molten metal and forges glowing a menacing orange as they heated up the air.

The forges... Perhaps using the heat as a weapon... Heat... Energy... Wait...

What was fueling the forges?

Now that I thought about it, I had never seen anything in this place that bore any resemblance to fuel. Was it coal? It would explain the constant soot build-up... But then, when did they put it into the forges? I remembered very well that we didn't even need to add fuel to the fires, only that we used the right forge for the right job... which didn't make any sense whatsoever.

"Lise?" I called out.

"Yes?"

"Do you remember ever changing the temperature of the forges back when we first worked here?"

Lise put a finger on her bottom lip before shaking her head in non-remembrance. "I don't think we ever did, Brother. We just used the forges that were always lit."

"Huh..."

Interesting... The fires and fuel had to come from somewhere... A possible ticket out of here perhaps? Well, probably not if the central thingy... what was the word for it again? I'll just call it the oven. If each furnace was connected to a unifying oven that was just one big massive blaze below us, then snuffing out one and jumping into it wouldn't work...

But still, could we at least use this knowledge to our advantage somehow?

I resisted the urge to slam a fist against the hulking water tower beside me. Instead, I clutched my head in desperation as I couldn't think up of a way to do this rebellion right. Why was this so hard?!

*CLANG!*

The telltale sound of a hammer hitting metal echoed from a nearby anvil, distracting me from the critical task of formulating my half-assed plot for our collective freedom. With the thought of possible catastrophic failure pushed to the back of my mind, I sauntered my way back to the workstations that we set up for ourselves; the crawling anxiety of not knowing what to do still trying to force its way to the forefront of my mind.

It was best not to think about my lack of a plan for the moment. Lise was probably done with her version of the rifle judging by the lack of sound from her direction. I should check up on her and see if her version would even work.

"Hey, Brother," my sister beamed at me as she held out her finished product. "I'm done!~"

"Good job," I responded in kind, smiling as I ran a hand against the rifle's base.

Hefting the rifle up against my shoulder, I briefly studied the make of the Seigels, making sure that nothing was out of place. As expected, there was nothing wrong with the way the Seigels were etched.

Time for the final test then.

I motioned to aim at the same slab of metal that I had meant to hit just a few minutes prior. With bated breath, I placed my thumb on the trigger Seigel, slowly pouring in my Wesen as I carefully watched the rifle in action.

"Is it working?"

I ignored my former apprentice's innocent question as my attention was solely concentrated on observing my weapon's behavior. The rifle radiantly glowed with power, its Seigels working their magic as wind slowly manifested at the length of the arrow. So far, it has proven to be rather stable, though it was still not firing somehow.

Was I missing something then?

"Brother?"

"It's working, Lise," I finally responded, a tinge of pride staining my tone as I lowered the rifle down to my hip. "The Seigels are working as intended, but it doesn't seem to want to fire."

"Maybe it needs something to make the Seigel release the stored wind?" she exposited, both hands now holding her hammer as she walked closer to me. "I don't really get what the trigger Seigel's supposed to do, Bro. I just put it in there since you told me to. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. It's my idea." Frankly, even I didn't know what it was supposed to do. I just invented it by scribbling something that resembled a big dot and hoping that it worked. "Oh well. At least there's progress."

Letting go of the-

*BANG!*

"BROTHER!"

I was shaking. My ears rang as I stared at the dark ceiling of the Furnace. A loud bang... The sound of compressed air reverberating throughout my chest...

"D-Did it..." I muttered as I felt something support me on my side. "'L-Lise?"

"The rifle, Bro," she began, her steps small as she came to assist me. "Something came out of it."

I shook my head as my ears slowly stopped ringing. With a heave, I steadied myself, leaving my little sister's grasp in favor of looking around the area.

"Something... came out of it?" I skeptically repeated. Was I hearing this correctly?

"Yeah," she confirmed while pointing towards the side of the metal slab that I was pointing at earlier. "I couldn't even see it go. it just... hit it, somehow."

My eyes widened. D-did it work then? Did it actually work?!

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