Episode Ten – Phantom Pain (part 1)

Manifest: A Shattered Future 

Episode Ten – Phantom Pain (part 1)

 

“We think we should give a press release soon, but… it just seems so daunting! I hate to say it like this, since you guys know I don’t tolerate self-deprecation, but sometimes I feel like I don’t actually know how to do anything other than this,” Annabelle admitted to her friends.

Ockham held Annabelle’s hand for support, but Silvia laughed and said, “I think it’s the same for me! I’m just lucky that no one’s interested in my research.”

“Two reporters stalked me all the way to my lunch spot. They thought they were inconspicuous and got a booth right behind me. Yesterday they got in the parking garage,” Altair groaned.

Elena nodded slowly, but instead she found herself distracted by the laboratory around them. She noticed that a layer of dust settled on the telescopes and charts in the corner of the laboratory. A quiet hum reverberated from machinery on the nearest table. A screen displayed the Fourier Transformation of spectral data as it collected by the second. Four spectral peaks punctuated the data.

Adder laughed and added, “I’ve been approached three times! You know they’re gettin’ desperate if they’re coming after me! I don’t have a brain for any of that quantum astrophysics stuff you do. I just like building simple things with Elena!”

Elena smiled back at her colleague and said, “Adder just put the finishing touches on an awesome heat exchanger! We spent days working on it; we spent all week working on it! I could go on, but… I really want to hear about your research. Ockham! Annabelle! Can you tell us what you found? I promise we won’t tell anyone until you’re ready.”

Annabelle nodded quickly and walked toward the wall, but when she turned to face her five friends, she succumbed to her timidity. Ockham came to her rescue in just seconds, joining by her side so that he could address the question instead. The fluorescent lights of the laboratory shimmered on his glasses as he prepared to speak. Sweat stained his lab coat under his right arm.

“I hope this doesn’t sound condescending, but it’s just because we all study wildly different subjects. There isn’t much overlap between Adder and Elena’s mechanical engineering with our Astrophysics. Not to mention, Altair and Silvia work on electrical projects that would baffle anyone else! So before I begin, do any of you know of dark energy?” asked Ockham.

Altair chuckled and answered, “Of course I do. I delve into astrophysics even if my natural talent tends toward electricity… so it is a hypothesis I learned from a young age. The universe is expanding, and not at a constant rate. Everything is expanding at an accelerating rate… and Newton’s 2^nd Law assures that it can’t come from nowhere. That force, that energy – it doesn’t just appear. It was always there; it’s just dark. Invisible. Can’t be registered. But that motion has to come from somewhere, so scientists suspect there’s a pool of dark energy pervading all space. Is that simple enough?

Though Adder seemed baffled by these words, Ockham nodded excitedly and said, “That’s a great way to put it! But you’re wrong about one detail. You said it can’t be registered. I can’t say for sure that we’re not picking up random noise, but all evidence points… well, if we’re right, then we’ve found it. We managed to detect spectral frequencies that suggest waves of dark energy. These waves move slightly slower than electromagnetic waves, but they are everywhere. Different wavelengths and frequencies, but the speed is always the same. There’s no other explanation.”

“It’s like light. Electromagnetic waves. They always come at the same speed, but different frequencies. That’s why we have different colors!” explained Annabelle with a shy smile.

Ockham smiled at her addition and said, “Exactly! And based on our data, these dark energy waves tend to centralize on four different frequencies. Three of them are still stabilizing, we don’t have enough data yet… but we got the fourth one to converge. I modified an alloy to reverberate at that general frequency, though it’s not perfect. Not yet. But even in its incomplete state… well, you’ll see we’ve done more than just prove that dark energy travels in waves.”

Though Adder looked confused, Altair rose from his seat with fascination. Elena smiled when she saw his enthusiasm, but she quickly directed her attention to Annabelle and Ockham. They walked together toward a hunk of metal left out on a table, and then Annabelle took it in her hand. Elena saw her position it carefully, and a notch on the side of the metal revealed its harmonic node. Annabelle then struck this node against the side of the table, forcing the metal to reverberate in her hand at an audible volume. Elena watched with interest, but then the central peak on the data graph spiked. A series of refractions seemed to span across the air, and a faint red glow shimmered among them. Adder and Silvia both stood up in a state of shock, but Elena stared into the red refractions. She saw the outline of an entity locked inside the light, and it moved its left leg as if to take a step. It appeared to be humanoid but only at a glance – somewhere between a silhouette and a shadow puppet.

When the refractions faded and the entity dissolved, Altair swerved to face Ockham and asked, “What the hell did we just see? Do entities inhabit that space? There’s no way.”

Ockham scratched his chestnut hair and answered, “We have no way to tell for sure. But until we got this to resonate, well… nothing we did here affected any of our readings. Trust me, I tried everything. Magnetic fields, electric fields, high temperatures, low temperatures, anything we could think of – no effect. That leads me to believe that these frequencies in the dark energy… aren’t coming from our world. Perhaps not even our universe.”

***

As her dream finally started to subside, Elena lifted her head from her disheveled cot. She quickly scanned the area for Altair, but she could not find him anywhere. The dream lingered in her brain like a memory, but without Altair around, she had no way to tell him her dream. Elena groaned from the uncomfortable pressure of her monoliths inside her jacket, so she pulled herself upright and balanced on her knee. Refugees flooded the space around her, hiding from the night beneath a giant tent-like structure. A couple monks manned tables where they handed out small meals, but many of the refugees seemed catatonic. Elena reached around for her cane, pressed it firmly onto the ground, and carefully hoisted herself onto her feet. Whispers echoed in the space around her, but since she could not locate Altair’s voice, Elena decided to leave.

With no desire to go back to sleep, Elena hobbled her way past other cots. She pushed herself toward the nearest exit, and once she escaped, she found that the monastery grounds were quieter than she had ever seen. Occasional families scattered the outdoor space, and somnolent guards watched over the perimeter. To her surprise, the Adriatic Empire had not taken the opportunity to strike under the cover of night. Still shaking off her sleepiness, Elena staggered toward the nearest Aegean soldier.

Elena said, “Hey, sorry for the random question! Do you know where Altair is? I know he’s not super famous or anything, but-”

“I’m afraid we aren’t allowed to answer that. All I can tell you is that he and Terrance Hale are on a mission somewhere in the city,” interrupted the soldier.

“As in… out there, like out in the occupied territory? In the dangerous territory?” asked Elena.

The soldier nodded and answered, “Please go back to sleep. Nothing will get better from having civilians outside the safe zone.”

Elena nodded and turned away from the guard, praying that her only friend could protect himself. But as she walked back toward the shelter, she found herself frustrated by her inaction. She felt useless at a time when people desperately needed help, so she stopped in her tracks. As she balanced her weight on her leg and her cane, Elena turned her attention toward the monastery itself. A few other young conjurors stood outside the steps to the monastery, and two appeared to participate in a mock battle by setting spells cards down on the ground between them. A single monk stood outside the open door, seeming to serve no purpose other than to deny entrance to anyone who would enter.

“I’m afraid I cannot let you come any closer. A few aggressive citizens have tried to gain access, but we wish to preserve our sacred space. We cannot train or equip conjurors right now,” said the monk.

“I know the hour is probably bad, but Altair vouched for me. I faced a monk. I faced a monk and won! He said he would tell the Elder,” Elena argued.

The monk stopped to quickly examine Elena. His eyes scanned across her body but fixated on her cane. A small smile broke on his face, and then he stepped out of the doorway. The monk said, “I apologize; the hour must have broken my concentration. The Elder monk did ask me to grant access to a woman fitting your description. I can lead you to him.”

“Will he be awake?” Elena asked.

“The Adriatic Empire’s attacks happen most often in the night and morning, so the Elder has taken to sleeping in the afternoon. He will surely be awake,” answered the monk as Elena stepped inside.

Elena’s cane created a noisy clack with every step, but the monk seemed unperturbed as he led her across the monastery’s foyer. When they arrived at a chamber at the far end of the corridor, the monk opened the door and slipped inside, leaving Elena to wait. But instead of taking in the scenery, she reached for her grimoire of assorted spell cards, carefully working to construct a strong strategy.

“You may enter when you are ready,” said a deep voice from within the chamber.

Elena looked up with alarm, shuffled her spell cards back into her pocket, and then opened the door to the Elder’s chamber. To her surprise, the other monk had already left. The Elder monk stood on the stone floor across the room from her, casually shuffling a deck of spell cards in his hands. Elena could see the imprint of five monoliths inside his robe.

“Are you familiar with our customs for practice matches in this monastery?” asked the Elder.

Elena nodded and answered, “Yes, I’ve heard. We start with five random spells, and then we take turns drawing new ones. I played against another monk. He was fun! He was strong. He mostly used earth magic… and the Chain Reactions!”

The Elder monk smiled and said, “That must have been a challenge; he is very skilled. You may begin our battle as soon as you are ready.”

Elena nodded and drew five spells from her deck. She nervously gazed across them, but then she moved them to the hand which held her cane. After reaching in her jacket, Elena retrieved a violet monolith and struck it with her cane. It began vibrating with a hum, and then she dropped it as a vortex of violet light erupted forth. The Elder monk watched with intrigue as a silhouette solidified inside the convergence of violet light.

As soon as the Summoner of Cyclones emerged from the violet vortex, it forced its hand to glow. Elena watched as one of the spells in her hand transformed into another, but then she passed a different spell to her sorcerer. She compelled her sorcerer to advance as far toward the center as she could, but then her opponent took over. To Elena’s surprise, the monk chose to begin the battle with his green monolith. He struck it with a small hammer, forced it to reverberate, and unleashed his sorcerer.

“Your conduit is strong, but I think you will find that my own has the power to match. Alchemist of the Chain Reaction, approach your enemy and prepare your magic,” declared the Elder.

After passing it a pair of spell cards, the Elder monk compelled his sorcerer to race toward Elena’s Summoner. She straightened her back when she heard the name of her opponent’s sorcerer, and she realized that she would likely have to contend with a strategy similar to her last opponent. But when the two sorcerers came within striking distance, the Alchemist instead cast a spell from the card it held closely.

Elena watched with worry as a scourge of fire swept across the clearing, burning the Alchemist but engulfing her Summoner. And while her sorcerer ultimately withstood the fire magic, Elena saw a second spell card materialize in her enemy’s right hand. Just like before, it had procured a new spell to cast later in the fight. At the same time, a faint glow emanated from the Elder monk himself.

“Hold on! I’ve seen that glow before! I’ve seen that glow on someone else. He was… a very bad man, and he used it to hurt someone I care about. What is it? What is that glow?” Elena demanded.

Unmoved by her emotional reaction, the Elder reached for his violet monolith and answered, “It is an energy called aether. The truth is that you should not trust anyone who claims to understand it entirely. All I know is that certain spells create this glow, almost as if it empowers me to take some action. But in truth, I have only ever used it to help my sorcerers cast their own spells.”

While Elena still reeled from the memory of the day she lost Romulo, the Elder monk struck his violet monolith with his hammer. Elena found herself intimidated by the Elder’s aggressive approach, but she curiously inspected the geyser of violet light. In just a matter of seconds, a fearsome sorceress emerged from the light and ignited the dim room with a fiery glow.

“Princess of Swirling Cinders! Rise and rush. It is your duty to silence the Summoner’s magic. You know what to do,” commanded the Elder.

Elena’s eyes widened with recognition as she saw her opponent’s sorceress materialize a card. She searched the sorceress for a sign that it recognized her as well, but she saw no sign of reason or familiarity. Instead, the Princess of Swirling Cinders rushed into the middle of the battlefield, stepped within striking distance of the others, and cast her fearsome spell.

The Elder monk declared, “Princess! Use your Enlightenment on the Summoner of Cyclones. He will be defenseless if he cannot cast air magic.”

A powerful glow then engulfed the Summoner of Cyclones, and though it did not seem wounded by the spell, a white glow illuminated the sorcerer. Because he was baffled by the glow, he did not react when the Alchemist of the Chain Reaction struck it with an alchemic burst. The Elder monk then pressed his advantage and compelled his Princess to finish off the defenseless enemy, but Elena compelled her sorcerer to save itself at the last second.

Elena yelled, “Astral Rejection! Cast your Astral Rejection!”

=

The Summoner of Cyclones unleashed the magic of its spell card and stopped the Princess in her tracks, narrowly saving himself from a fiery fate. However, the same astral cloak which stopped the attack then settled on the sorceress, binding her in place. Elena felt her arms tremble with anxiety at the tension of battle, but when she glanced up, she saw that she had impressed the Elder monk with her technique.

“I bound your sorcerer with Enlightenment, but you still managed to cast a spell. That is unique! Most sorcerers become defenseless when stripped of their usual magic,” said the Elder monk.

“Thank you, thank you! But that doesn’t mean my Summoner will be okay. He can only conjure spells of his usual magic… spells he can’t cast anymore,” Elena answered as she drew a card.

Despite her concerns, Elena still used her sorcerer’s ability to transform a spell in her hand. But even though she improved her hand and had other monoliths ready to deploy, she focused first on her now-defenseless sorcerer. She compelled him to strike the Alchemist of the Chain Reaction, but the Elder monk intervened before her Summoner could attack.

“Alchemist, stop that strike. Bind him with the Chain Reaction!” commanded the Elder monk.

Broken flasks of chemicals unleashed ethereal chains which prevented the Summoner’s strike. Elena winced when she realized the failure of her attack, but then she noticed that her enemy had done more than just foiled her. When the magic of the chain reaction faded, a new spell materialized in the Alchemist’s hand, and the Elder monk glowed with a brighter luminosity than before.

“I see. You’re farming your aether, just like I’ve seen before. You’re building to something. That’s your real strategy, isn’t it?” Elena demanded.

The Elder monk smiled and answered, “You are very perceptive, but you have a weakness – one of which I was already warned. Your strength is that you learn from the past, but your weakness is that you are also chained by it. Our spells and our sorcerers are a means to an end, but a weapon is not vile just because it is used by a vile man. Certainly not when that same weapon can be used to protect yourself and the people you love.”

“I came into this world without knowing anything. Only one person cared about me, and I watched someone kill him with the same-”

“Would it have hurt any less if he used something else? If you close your mind off from a strategy, then you are condemning yourself to the same state as your friend. The truth is that your enemy will not abide by your restriction. Your enemy will bring a knife to a fistfight, yet you still plan to lock one hand behind your back. There is no sense in that,” said the Elder monk.

Elena sighed and narrowed her eyes in contemplation, but she did not say anything. Instead, she gazed across the battleground and reached for another monolith, but then she stopped. She conceded play to her opponent, and then he drew a card to start his turn.

“I believe I will start this turn by casting Chain Reaction: Air,” announced the Elder monk.

The Alchemist of the Chain Reaction forced a beaker to materialize in its hand, and then it crushed the beaker to unleash a small cyclone. The whirlwind carried across the battlefield and encircled the Princess of Swirling Cinders. The wind became so strong that Elena had to narrow her eyes, but even in the windstorm she saw the Elder monk glow brighter. Just as before, a new Chain Reaction spell materialized in the Alchemist’s hand after the gale dissipated. The monk’s sorceress had returned to her monolith, but then she took a resolute step forward.

“Alchemist, take out the Summoner of Cyclones!” commanded the Elder monk.

Elena gritted her teeth and looked away as an alchemic explosion engulfed her sorcerer. When the strike subsided, her Summoner of Cyclones had shattered. But to her surprise, the Elder monk compelled his Alchemist to advance. It stepped almost directly up to Elena before stopping, and then the Elder monk ended his turn.

Elena drew a card and then reached into her jacket, quickly considering her options as she scanned across her monoliths. Without many options, she sighed and ultimately struck her blue monolith, unleashing her fearsome Underwater Illusionist. As soon as her sorcerer emerged from an azure vortex of glowing shards, she passed him two cards and compelled him to cast a fearsome spell.

“Maybe I can… take your advice. I’ve never cast a spell like this. I’ve never done anything like this! But Romulo gave it to me before he died. I saw someone else do something like this, well… your monk, actually… so I think I can too. Let’s do it. Underwater Illusionist! Cast the Swift Statue Made of Ice,” Elena declared.

But at the same time that the Underwater Illusionist invoked its magic, the Alchemist of the Chain Reaction cast its spell. The Elder monk yelled a command in the background, and in just a matter of seconds, an icy cloak embraced her Underwater Illusionist. Despite the spell which bound her sorcerer, a summoning circle still appeared at the edge of the battlefield. White light shimmered inside the circle until a fragile monolith ascended from thin air. In the flash of light which followed, the Swift Statue emerged from the summoning circle and stepped onto the battlefield.

The Elder monk admonished, “That was a fearsome spell, but I fear it will be your last. My Chain Reaction Frost will temporarily bind your conduit’s magic.”

Elena grunted as though this had fractured her strategy. As the glow emanating from the Elder monk grew even brighter, Elena passed a second spell to her Illusionist, but it would not give her back the card that it already held. Instead, Elena compelled both of her sorcerers to advance, and when they stood side-by-side, she compelled her Illusionist to pass one spell to her statue. The Swift Statue Made of Ice then swung its mighty axe at the enemy, but the Alchemist unleashed another spell to defend itself. Once again, it unleashed a chain reaction which bound the enemy and stopped the strike. Once again, the Elder monk’s glow surged in brightness, but a new card did not materialize in the Alchemist’s hand.

“You should be proud of your performance, Ms. Estrada. You managed to break the chain reaction! Maybe you will be free… but my Alchemist still lives. Perhaps the reaction will begin again,” warned the Elder monk.

“You want me to think you’re defenseless, but I won’t fall for it. Underwater Illusionist! You know what to do,” Elena answered with a wide smile.

Elena compelled her sorcerer to race across the battlefield, charge toward her enemy’s green monolith, and then strike it with its shimmering lance. This strike fractured the connection between the Alchemist and its monolith, but both remained intact. Just seconds later, the Underwater Illusionist raced back across the clearing and returned to guard its own monolith.

“It was smart that you chose to keep your distance, but I know you know that you will not stay safe forever. Please meet the centerpiece of my onslaught – my Captain of the Luminous Sky,” declared the Elder monk.

Elena watched with wide eyes as her opponent struck his red monolith with a hammer and forced it to reverberate. In just a matter of seconds, a fearsome warrior emerged from a shower of red light. Vibrations pulsed across the battleground as the Captain of the Luminous Sky took a forward step.

Though she looked visibly intimidated by the newest warrior, Elena slapped her right hand onto her forehead as a salute and said, “Cap’n!”

The monk tilted his head with confusion, but he dismissed it and compelled his Captain to advance. At the same time, he instructed his Princess to step aside so that she could safely protect the Alchemist’s monolith. Immediately afterward, the monk compelled his Alchemist to face the Swift Statue Made of Ice.

The Elder explained, “You gave away too much on your last turn. You panicked when I stopped your Illusionist from casting a second spell, so instead you passed it to the Statue. If it were some form of protection, you would not have cared. That means I know your statue is defenseless.”

As the Alchemist of the Chain Reaction prepared to strike, Elena smiled and said, “I hoped you would fall for it! Statue! Cast your Vengeance from the Deep!”

The Swift Statue Made of Ice unleashed a blast of ice magic which quickly transformed into fearsome tentacles. The appendages enwrapped and restrained the Alchemist, but not enough to stop the attack. It still struck the Statue with an alchemic explosion, but the damage was minimal. Accepting that he could not make another move, the Elder monk ended his turn. Elena drew her next card and quickly considered her options. She passed a card to her Underwater Illusionist, and then she compelled it to cast that same spell.

“Illusionist, end its defenses! Use Extinction of Hidden Magic,” Elena yelled.

A swift bolt of plasma shot between the Underwater Illusionist and the Alchemist of the Chain Reaction. Both sorcerers dropped their only spell on the ground, leaving the Alchemist completely defenseless. Elena excitedly struck it with both her Swift Statue and her Illusionist, and together they forced the enemy to shatter. The Elder monk watched with an impressed smile as his green monolith finally stopped shaking.

He said as he drew a card, “You should be proud of yourself! Many of my opponents have fallen to just the Alchemist itself. Your skills have already impressed me, but I think you will find that that isn’t enough to defeat me. Observe! Captain! Advance and attack!”

“Cap’n!” Elena exclaimed again with a smile, but her joy collapsed as she watched the Captain close in on her statue.

The Captain of the Luminous Sky then swung its mighty sword, and though the blade failed to shatter the Swift Statue Made of Ice, a ferocious gust of wind descended on the battlefield. The powerful wind knocked Elena off-balance and brought her slamming down to the marble floor. By the time she struggled back upright, she saw that the wind had pulled her Statue far downwind. It stood defensively in enemy territory, within immediate striking distance of the Princess of Swirling Cinders. Elena felt a nervous tremor course through her body when she realized that her statue would shatter in seconds.

“I didn’t even get to show off its speed,” Elena complained.

But the Elder monk shook his head and said, “I fear you have bigger problems to face first. Princess of Swirling Cinders! Cast this spell. Perform the Ceremony of the Destroyer.”

 

“What is this?!” Elena demanded, unable to suppress her terror as the Princess of Swirling Cinders danced an ominous dance.

The Elder monk answered, “Most of our spells are cast between our sorcerers, but the Ceremony of the Destroyer is deadlier than that. Its magic does not stop at your Statue; it instead targets you. I apologize if this move seems underhanded, but it is as I said before. We cannot neglect a tactic if it could mean saving someone else.”

Elena watched with worry as the Princess of Swirling Cinders unleashed its fiery assault. It struck her Statue with enough force to shatter it, but a dark magic then coursed across the battlefield. Elena braced herself and stumbled backward, nearly tripping her cane in the process, but the darkness did not engulf her. It instead coursed into her jacket and surged inside the red monolith which she had not yet used.

“What just happened?” Elena asked as she inspected the red stone in her jacket.

“I severed the connection between you and a sorcerer which you have yet to deploy,” answered the Elder monk.

Elena realized with shock that she had only ever used her red monolith to manifest a single sorcerer. That sorcerer was Romulo’s favorite – the Alchemist of Astroconvergence.