《Dropping onto the Abyss》 Rise and shine The day began with the blaring of klaxons. The entire officer''s barracks exploded into a whirl of activity as the officers in steel gray coveralls started to jump out of their bunks and run towards the armory up the hall. I was one of the last ones to the armory, looking for my weapons locker, My name ¡®Aemilius Quintonus¡¯ carved on a gold colored plaque above it. I grabbed my short barreled rifle and sidearm, loading the magazines into both of them as I ran out of the door towards the infantry bunks. Dutifully, I swept the floor, checking rooms and stairwells as more and more officers were equipping themselves with their body armor and rifles. When I was sure the floor was clear, I ran down the stairwell with a few comrades to rendezvous with our regiments. As I got to the floor below, scouting ahead for the other officers, I saw one of the generals standing there with two other soldiers, watch in hand. He stood there and spoke with a higher pitched voice than I was expecting from how large the man was. ¡°Two and a half minutes for the first man to reach regimental quarters, better than the last drill. You¡¯re dismissed, go to the mess hall, you have a formation in 30 minutes.¡± Something felt off looking at him, but I only gave him a reserved ¡°Yes sir.¡± I looked back at him before I walked towards the mess hall, and caught a subtle smirk on his face as he spoke to my comrades. I went to the mess hall and sat down near some other officers. 1st Lieutenant Karian, and Captain Aetos were there to meet me at the table. Seeing the two of them at the same table made for a strange sight. Aetos was older than both me and Karian, he had a receding hairline of jet black hair and a lanky frame, with green eyes. Karian on the other hand has trimmed brown hair, a rather muscular frame, her eyes were naturally brown, but she usually wears contacts that make them a steel blue instead. The two of them greeted me with Aetos'' attention buried in his PDA, while Karian pulled out a set of cards. Karian cut the deck and the two of us played War before she asked me, ¡°Do you have any idea what this formation is about?¡± I responded, ¡°Probably something about the planet Abyss below us. High command has been buzzing about ¡®changes to the atmosphere and weather patterns for the last week or so.¡± Aetos pulled his head out of the PDA and stated matter-of-factly, ¡°It''s another seminar on filter theory or some related finding from R&D.¡± Karian asked, ¡°Filter theory?¡± I sat back and watched as Aetos became visibly annoyed at the question and began to answer condescendingly, ¡°I know you haven¡¯t listened to half of the formations and seminars, but this one is kind of important. Filter theory is a massive breakthrough in mago-science, allowing us to begin to understand how other planes, like The Pool, for instance, work. It has 3 major parts to it, 1. Magical entities cannot pass between the regular material realm and the magical realm due to a metaphysical barrier between the planes. 2. All if not most magical energy comes from Lay Nexi, which can¡¯t be tampered with. The third is the most¡­dubious one, this point states that magic casters use some sort of internal or external power source to cast spells that are localized on the planet, or within their being.¡± ¡°Soooooo, that means stories of Emissaries are just about really powerful mages and not divine entities like some elves claim they are.¡± ¡°They¡¯re a myth, no records exist about mages that powerful in historical archives, nor is anything with reality-bending properties as extensive as the elves describe, even remotely possible. So they¡¯re just a piece of folklore meant to entertain.¡± Karian turned to me after giving Aetos a sour look, ¡°The colonel told me you¡¯re going on a special mission of some sort.¡± ¡°Really? Did you get any details?¡± ¡°A few, you¡¯re making planetfall onto Abyss below us, and¡­.that''s about all I got.¡± A feeling of dread began to creep up. ¡°So, I¡¯m going down to land on the planet our proud Scentific order originated from, then left due to how difficult it is to maintain a political stronghold. Did you see or hear why?¡±Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. She chuckled, ¡°Something about weather patterns, and a changing climate on the planet, you can see it out the window at about¡­3:30 in the afternoon. There was a continent that was a desert only 20 years ago, and now it''s heavily urbanized and has become a lush green tropic. Don¡¯t tell me you were so absorbed in those books of yours you didn¡¯t look out of the window.¡± I responded as calmly as possible. ¡°I¡¯ve barely had time to even relax, I have other things to do than just look out a window into either the dark emptiness of space or the planet below.¡± She smiled before looking at her watch, ¡°3 minutes till formation, I¡¯ll see you two afterward.¡± Everyone left the room and got to formation in the meeting hall just down the way. Nothing was of interest during the formation, however afterward I was pulled aside by one of the colonels and handed a file and told. ¡°You¡¯ve been chosen for a mission on the planet of Abyss below us, you¡¯ve been chosen due to your interest in old languages as well as history, alongside the survival training you¡¯ve gone through as a scout. You¡¯ll be sent planetside tomorrow morning, a guide will be there to meet you and wait here for about ten more minutes for an actual briefing on your mission.¡±. Before I could ask any questions, he walked away. I read through the file, it gave a picture and a physical description of my guide. He was a human, with dirty blond hair and green eyes, somewhere around 6¡±, wearing a coat made from the pelt of a reptile. I assumed it was from an iguana of some sort. I sat there patiently waiting for the actual briefing to begin, cleaning the weapons I still had on me from this morning. As I was putting the bolt into my rifle when out of the corner of my eye another projector was being wheeled into the room, two infantrymen and 4 officers were carting the projector. Karian amongst them, she took a seat and the presenter began as the projector was getting set up. The presenter spoke quickly and matter-of-factly beginning with the words ¡°I trust that your colonel briefly told you what you¡¯re going to be doing tomorrow morning, as well as the reasons the two of you have been chosen for this mission. Tomorrow at 0300 hours you are expected to make your way to the hangar to load into a drop pod which will store your equipment. Since we cannot risk the natives reverse engineering our ammunition and weapons technology, you will only be issued your sidearm with a handful of magazines. In your rifle¡¯s stead, you will be issued a sword and will be briefly shown how to defend yourself from attacks. You two must keep your origins a secret, the natives have no idea the moon has been terraformed. You have until tomorrow to come up with a cover story and a set of aliases. The reason you¡¯re being sent down there is to investigate a handful of things, first off is a rapid change in weather patterns and cloud coverage. Violent storms have increased as well as a large increase in cloud coverage, we believe this has a magical origin. This implies a massive increase of mages within the last 20-40 years. Considering we can¡¯t look through a telescope at the planet¡¯s surface anymore, and the fact that the increase of violent storms stops us from using probes, that leaves us with a manual insertion. This is where you two come in, your mission is two-fold, document the cultures on the continent of Urotsa under the protection and assistance of your guide. And see if and how the population of mages increased. Insertion method will be via drop pod and landing on ¡®The Great Barrier¡¯ of mountains on the eastern end of the continent. From there you¡¯ll march westward, and you¡¯ll procure a way to get to an island roughly 30 miles away from the mainland. There we¡¯ll send a ship to pick you up and debrief you. Reports are to be made weekly, if a report isn¡¯t made we¡¯ll assume you two have died and weigh our options for retrieval. The main problem you¡¯ll run into is the locals, according to the stories you¡¯ve heard. They are violent, they can be reasoned with, and if you do find yourself in a conversation with any of them keep personal details to a minimum. Are there any questions?¡± Karian asked first, ¡°Sooo what do we do with the drop pod after landing, and how does a drop pod make it through the atmosphere when probes don''t? Faraday cages? Considering how storms seem to be becoming more common.¡± He responded, ¡°Insulation against any outside electrical current, as well as a backup battery to pick up any surplus charge, in case of electricity overwhelming the insulation. The drop pod was made specifically for this mission, salvage the battery once you leave the pod to recharge your radio. The drop pod has a nav computer on it as well, take it apart after you land for the components and leave the pod behind, the natives won''t be able to reverse engineer it.¡± I asked him ¡°What technological level should we expect the natives to be?¡± ¡°Feudal or arquebus level, the most advanced units use muskets so you won¡¯t have to worry about being out-ranged, however, you should get acquainted with sword and knife fighting while on the planet surface. If there aren¡¯t any more questions you two are dismissed¡± He walked away before we could ask anything Before going off on our way to continue our daily routine we asked each other why we were chosen for this mission. I told Karian because of my survivalist background and that I knew the closest approximation to their languages. She told me that it was because of her background in engineering, allowing her to put the construction techniques of the locals in excruciating detail, as well as having some second-hand knowledge of the cultures to help us blend in. The cover we came up with was a pair of travelers from the terraformed continent, assuming no one knew anything about it we could make anything up about it and not fear correction. Chapter 2: Descent towards the Abyss After I was done with my duties for the day, I spent the entire night laying in bed staring at the bottom of the bunk above me. I couldn¡¯t sleep, no medication could help me as my mind raced through the possibilities of what I¡¯d see down there. I was kept awake with a feeling of despair and an admittedly morbid excitement. Questions like: ¡®Isn¡¯t it impossible for a large demographic of mages to increase in such a small amount of time?¡¯,¡¯ What classified the planet as too violent to the point we had to leave if they were so primitive?¡¯ rattled through my mind. I was stuck in a trance with my thoughts, I was pulled out of bed by two infantrymen at 0320 and dragged to the hangar. It was empty, most of the ships that would have been here must have been sent on missions. Near the launch pod deployment depot was Karian and several other officers stood there to meet me with a plastic folding table in front of them holding swords, knives, some sort of leather-like armor, and a long-range radio. The Lieutenant colonel at the table scowled at me for my delay before going over our equipment: ¡°First and foremost, if you look at the magazines to your sidearms you¡¯ll notice that the rounds have a shell casing instead of a solid propellant. This was done to allow you to hand load your rounds after expending them on the planet surface, however, you will most likely only have access to black powder which will foul up the rifling. Cleaning supplies were given with your rations, both of which are already on the pod itself. Though the most important is the padded armor that was made for this mission. It¡¯s made out of flax and kevlar, it can protect you against slashing and stabbing attacks, as well as ballistics, but don¡¯t rely on it too heavily. I strongly recommend getting your hands on chainmail or plate armor when you reach whatever passes for civilization down there. You also have your swords and knives, its spring steel with rune hardened obsidian. A lot of strings were pulled to get these made, Do, Not, Lose, These, they¡¯re one of a kind and are probably one of the most effective swords on that planet. Otherwise you¡¯ll be paying for it for the next 20 years. You have a radio to use between the two of you, and the drop pod has two travel packs in it. Before your departure, Colonel Jacobs will show you a handful of techniques to defend yourself with your swords, watch his footwork, and put it to memory.¡± A half-elf took his place, his yellowed eyes focused on a hastily carted training dummy. He swung the sword as he took a wide stance, walking forward with an overhead strike, and several other guards and strikes, all of which were very fluid and quick. We barely were able to copy his stances and strikes before the ships returned to the hangar, signaling our departure. We loaded ourselves onto the drop pod and I looked at Karian, the look in her eyes when the door sealed shut behind us was of a prisoner on death row. I grabbed the travel pack and loaded the radio into it. I was going to ask her how she felt about the mission now that we¡¯re in the pod. The deafening sound of the pod being loaded into a launch capsule cut me off. We braced ourselves against the wall of the pod, and after what felt like an eternity the temperature of the pod began to rise. Reentry was rocky, to say the least, lightning hit the side of the pod several times causing it to shake violently. The nav computer went out several times on the way down, before hitting the ground like a meteor. I opened the door, and Karian ran outside of the pod and began to dry heave. I looked around making sure no locals or predators were around, my pistol in hand. The air outside of the pod was cold and humid, I could faintly hear the sound of a guitar being played somewhere below our position. I grabbed a digestive tablet from our rations and gave it to Karian with some water. We landed on the mountains as expected, I motioned for Karian to scrap the pod while I would go scout out the area. Surprisingly the landing wasn¡¯t as damaging as I thought it¡¯d be, there were plenty of cracks but nothing fell off. The area we landed in was rather flat and wide, I found a path that leads downhill, and after Karian grabbed the battery and nav computer she joined me near the path. I asked her ¡°Do you have a name ready?¡± She responded with ¡°I was thinking of using my actual last name. There¡¯s no reason not to use our names, though yours is a bit of a mouthful.¡± ¡°It''s not that big of a mouthful.¡± She sounded out the syllables ¡°Ae-Mi-li-us Qu-in-to-nus, 8 syllables all together it needs to be shortened.¡± ¡° Lius and Quin are one syllable each, it''s 6 altogether.¡± We started to walk down the path, weapons drawn. ¡°My last name is only 2 syllables by that logic, Kar-ian, even then your first and last name is still 3 syllables each, you need a shorter name.¡± ¡°You can pronounce my name easily, Aemilius.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean they could pronounce it, our guide has a 2 syllable name, and we¡¯re on a feudal planet. Literacy isn¡¯t common on feudal worlds, therefore you need to shorten it.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll come up with one later, we¡¯re getting closer to the guitar.¡± I peered around a corner and found the source of the music. It was a man that looked like our guide, however, his skin was a bit bluer than the picture I was shown. As he quickly strummed on his guitar I looked at the camp he set up. A campfire that oddly didn¡¯t emit any smoke, cooking some sort of meat on a spit above it. The man seems to be playing for a crowd of one: a cobalt blue fox pup. Karian started to climb the rocks around this area to get a better angle on our ¡®guide¡¯. She signaled to me after getting to a better vantage point, whether or not he noticed her I couldn¡¯t tell. She signaled for me to move and I walked around the circumference of his camp and made myself known by clearing my throat. The man dropped the guitar, and his skin turned back to the ¡®normal¡¯ olive color. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. He looked unintimidated as he sat there with his hands in the air as he asked me in a local tongue ¡°You¡¯re the tourist?¡± I asked him ¡°Before I answer that, who and what are you?¡± He only chuckled ¡°I am Titus, and what I am is the guide that was assigned to you by ¡®High command¡¯. Though I¡¯m called ¡®Emissary-born¡¯ by most of the locals.¡± He only seemed to relax more after saying that. ¡°If you¡¯ll stop pointing that weapon at me, we can get started on your mission, and more importantly; breakfast.¡± I gave him a look of disbelief before I spoke, while not letting my new found hunger betray me. ¡°Make 3 plates of that roast, any sudden moves, or any spell I will shoot.¡± ¡°I have no doubt you will, and I suppose you want me to eat first?¡± I nodded and he only laughed as he cut 4 pieces of meat from the roast, the extra went to the blue fox pup. I gestured for Karian to come over and she made her way over cautiously with her pistol drawn. She sat down away from us as ¡®Titus¡¯ took the first bite, and after swallowing fell backward breathing heavily and made a choking sound, before falling silent. The fox pup stopped and spit out the meat in its mouth before biting at his hand. Karian and I silently panicked. Karian checked his pulse and tried to perform CPR while I went to estimate how long it¡¯d take to reach the bottom of the mountain. I called to Karian ¡°we could probably reach the bottom by the end of the day. How is he?¡± She responded, ¡°He still has a pulse, but he¡¯s not breathing.¡± After saying that Titus sprung back to life laughing, he stopped when he saw the tired and annoyed look on our faces. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about that, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.¡± I translated for Karian and she rolled her eyes resisting the urge to chew him out for it. I grabbed one of the rations in my pack and shared it with Karian while Titus and the pup ate the meat. I asked him ¡°First off, why is that fox blue, I thought they were supposed to be orange, black, white, or grey.¡± He held it up and it spat water in our general direction before saying ¡°It''s magic.¡± ¡°Uh-huh. Second, ¡®Emissary-born¡¯, Emissaries are a myth. How do you procreate with a myth?¡± ¡°I assure you sir, they¡¯re not a myth, one even acts as an advisor to the tsar to the northwest.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe you.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll prove it to you when we get to the north, it''s about a month¡¯s journey from here.¡± I looked at him skeptically ¡°You have a month then.¡± ¡°Do you two want to make a wager?¡± ¡°What¡¯re the terms?¡± He smiled ¡°500 gold, if I can¡¯t prove it you two get 250 gold each. If I win both of you pay me 250 gold. By the time we get to the north you should have the money to pay up.¡± I translated for Karian and I could see a greedy look in her eyes. She grabbed a book from her pack and flipped to a page before saying ¡°Deal.¡±. ¡°Are you sure?¡± She only showed me the page on the conversion rate between Scentific Soldi and gold by the ounce. ¡°Of course you¡¯d write that down.¡± ¡°Are you going to say no to 6000 Soldi?¡± ¡°...No.¡± ¡°Then tell the man we accept.¡± With a sigh I told Titus ¡°My superior officer, and I accept this wager.¡±. He nodded and wrote down the terms in a book he had with him. He started to pack up all of his stuff ¡°First things first before meeting the locals,you need magic or money. When we get to the bottom of the mountain, start hunting for wolves, and try to stay silent.¡± I gave him a look of disbelief ¡°Seriously?¡± ¡°Yes. Seriously, wolves will try to knock out a human rather than killing it. Their pelts go for good money, and they¡¯re a general pest. Just watch out for any traps when hunting them.¡± ¡°Traps?¡± ¡°Yes, the wolves and to an extent foxes have a tendency to dig a hole, then cover it with leaves and branches, and lie in wait for a deer or another creature to fall in. Before you ask me ¡®why?¡¯ it''s a way to make money dependably, and it allows you to blend in with the locals.¡± He finished packing the camp and held the fox pup in his hand. ¡°How does that help me attain magic?¡± He began to walk down the path ¡°You¡¯ll see, now let us get a move on, you don¡¯t want to be up here when the sun goes down.¡± I quickly translated for Karian and she had me ask Titus, ¡°What¡¯s up here after dark?¡± while we followed him. He responded ¡°A number of things; namely dragons and over-militaristic cat-men.¡± Karian asked and I translated. ¡°What makes bipedal cats any more dangerous than anyone else on this planet?¡± His next words made my heart drop to my stomach. ¡°They¡¯re industrialized, and are about as technologically advanced as your order was before leaving this planet. As long as you don¡¯t break curfew, or try to raid one of their caravans, you don¡¯t need to worry about them. Speaking of which we should probably pick up the pace.¡± And with that we all double timed it down the mountain. Chapter 3: hit the ground We set up camp at the bottom of the mountain and took shifts guarding the camp. I was poked awake by Karian with a stick. She said to me as I took the stick from her ¡°Let¡¯s go hunting for one of those magical creatures.¡± ¡°With all due respect, why?¡± ¡°The radio and battery died last night, if we find an electric rabbit or something we might be able to recharge it.¡± I stood up ¡°May I take a look?¡± She grabbed her pack and pulled out the radio and battery. ¡°Attach the radio to the battery, see if it charges, there¡¯s no damage to the battery, it died.¡± I did so and I checked over the battery when the radio didn¡¯t charge. I sighed and she ordered me to grab my stuff and set up snares. I grabbed my knife, and thinking back on the scout training I had, I made the snares. Karian and I set up the snares along rabbit trails. I was setting up a snare when I stepped to the side and a part of the ground gave way, leaving Karian to catch me. She pulled me back as the branches and bits of shrubbery fell to the bottom and made a loud thud accompanied by the loud cracking of branches. We started to move away, but we were cornered by two wolves who converged on our position. Both were oddly colored, one was almost albino white, and the other was blue. As Karian and I prepared our weapons the blue one arced lightning between its teeth before releasing a charge onto the ground, kicking up dust in the process. The two of them disappeared, I could see some of the grass around us being disturbed as if something was walking on or through it. ¡°Karian, Look!¡± I cried out pointing at the movement, the two of us prepared and aimed our weapons. Karian shot at one of the wolves before me, she missed. I aimed and took a shot at the other disturbance and the blood spatter told me I hit it. Karian cried out something I couldn¡¯t make out before I was hit by a bolt of electricity from the side, knocking me down. Karian fired several times and tried to drag me away before getting hit by a beam of light. I sat up and another bolt of electricity hit me in the chest, and I shot in the general direction it came from, my vision blurring. Karian got hit by something and the last thing I heard was ¡°I¡¯ve been blinded!¡± from Karian before she hit the ground, and I blacked out. I woke up back at camp, Titus was cooking some sort of stew. It smelled too sweet and I felt like I had to vomit again. Karian was groaning in pain next to me, I felt butterflies in my stomach. My vision flipped between 20/20 and 20/200, and I tried to ask Titus ¡°What happened¡± but it only came out as a slurred mess. He somehow understood and I had to fight to decipher his words. ¡°As a result of your body not being..¡¯adequate¡¯ for a sphere to make its home you¡¯re suffering a stroke as it makes its augmentations.¡± ¡°Aumentaons?¡± ¡°You¡¯re growing more neurons and nerves leading to your brain, in about a day you¡¯re going to hear a small voice in your head that isn¡¯t your conscience. It will fill you in on everything. Just when you feel like you can move, I highly recommend reading something or playing a brain training game. Like Solitaire for instance, and start an exercise regimen.¡± ¡°An¡¯ Kari?¡± ¡°She¡¯s blind as a bat right now and is undergoing the most severe migraine she¡¯ll probably ever have.I stuffed her ears with cotton so it doesn¡¯t get worse. Though for her I recommend sunbathing or just being out in the light in general.¡± I dry heaved as I was going to ask him a question, after dry heaving for what felt like aeons he gave me some water and I blacked out again. I have no idea how long I was out. Throughout the unconsciousness, and as I woke up, all I can remember is hearing ¡®wake up, wake up¡¯. The voice sounded similar to mine though as if I was talking through a fan. I felt a new sensation I hadn¡¯t felt since my days in training, starvation. I looked around to see Titus roasting a boar on the campfire. The look on my face, or something else must have given away my hunger as Titus cut me a massive chunk of meat off of the beast. At first I hesitated, but something forced me to take the food he offered, and nothing could have tasted better. As I ate I noticed electricity arcing between myself and the plate, but I didn¡¯t feel pain from getting shocked. I asked Titus after I finished eating ¡°Why is electricity arcing off of me? And I heard a voice when I woke up, do you have any idea what that was?¡± He responded while playing with the fox pup. ¡°Like I said, it''s a sphere, in layman¡¯s terms, the wolf fried you so thoroughly elemental energy was added to your soul. Which allows you to cast elemental magic, in this case electricity.¡± ¡°Uh¡­ uh-huh.¡± ¡°It''s an easy form of magic, in your case just focus, exercise, and get shocked in order to fully manifest your sphere. Also,¡± he tossed a small pouch at me and I caught it ¡°this is from the animals you caught in your snares.¡± I looked inside and there was a collection of gold coins and a collection of strangely colored pearls, of purple, green, yellow, blue and red. I asked him, knowing well I was breaking protocol but curiosity got the better of me. ¡°Ever since I was young, I was told stories about the natives of this planet, some from the two or three elves that lived down here, and the rest through old records. The stories and records paint the image of a planet, or more specifically a continent full of backwards, primitive, violent, overambitious, and self-destructive savages who default to superstition rather than logic and research. How..accurate is that assessment?¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°Disregarding the several hundred thousand exceptions, rather accurate on a broad scale. There are a lot of overambitious people, especially sphere casters. We, on a planetary scale are technologically primitive, however magically speaking we could do basically whatever we want. For instance this lush green forest was a large hate filled desert once upon a time.¡± ¡°How can a desert of all things feel any emotion, especially hate. It¡¯s a landmass.¡± ¡°When the desert becomes a minor deity and decides to hate most of the people living on it, and decides to play into a thousand year old gag. It learns to feel. From what my father told me, one Romelian legate decided to learn rune smithing and make magical objects to terraform the desert. Though this was after an apocalypse glassed it. If you go north you¡¯ll still find some glass that didn¡¯t get turned into soil.¡± ¡°Uh-huh.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t believe me at all, do you?¡± ¡°It''s just folklore. First off, a desert being a ¡®deity¡¯ and having the intelligence to feel any sort of emotion, is plain absurd. The ability for someone to use runesmithing to terraform a portion of a continent in any reasonable amount of time, is complete fabrication. The amount of mana needed for such a project would be impossible to obtain, without distorting reality itself. Even then, where would someone even get the source of all of that mana, considering no one can tap into Lay Nexi.¡± He only held a cocky smile as he said a phrase in a completely foreign tongue and snapped his fingers. The trees near us began to fall, hundreds of leaves fell on my face and disintegrated as they landed, many of which fed the flame and made it burn brighter. With my surroundings illuminated, I could see the once mighty oaks,pines and juniper trees around us shriveled into mere parodies of what they once were. Titus laughed as he took a look at my shocked expression before containing himself. ¡°It takes a lot less energy than you think. For instance, that legate, Draculus terraformed this massive stretch of land with the same amount of energy as you would need to power a city for a year. That wasn¡¯t his crowning achievement either, he stopped a cycle of apocalypses and achieved apotheosis. He did this by tapping into a lay nexus¡­..setting up a massive runic circuit¡­..and created a field that reaches into The Pool and trapped a god in the plane, cutting him off from his believers, forcing him to leave this dimension entirely. I can show you one of Draculus¡¯ workshops if you don¡¯t believe me, and have you look through some of his more mundane notes. The field or ¡®dome¡¯ cost 2 pocket dimensions, and something like 100 psionic creatures as well as a good portion of the lay nexus¡¯ stored energy. That wasn¡¯t enough to distort reality either.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t sound too convinced in that story.¡± ¡°I promise you. It''s all true! It''s just that saying it out loud in a very condensed form, makes it sound... improbable.¡± ¡°Or... It''s just a folk tale, spread around by your ¡®people¡¯ to create some semblance of a culture.¡± He looked at me with a look of what could only be described as pity, before saying ¡°tomorrow we¡¯ll go into town, and I¡¯ll prove you wrong.¡± ¡°It''s nothing but superstition made to keep a bunch of loosely related people together. No matter what ¡®evidence¡¯ you may have, it¡¯s not going to convince me otherwise.¡± ¡°Keep that sentiment to yourself when we get to town, we¡¯ll be there for a day before hitch-hiking our way northward. For now I recommend that you start exercising, and getting acquainted with your new sphere. There¡¯s a creek a few hundred feet behind me where you can be left alone.¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather stay here.¡± ¡°Suit yourself.¡± I started to take a look at the radio and tried to charge it using my new found ¡®magic¡¯. It sprung to life, briefly playing music before dying again. The voice spoke up again ¡°We need to become more powerful before jumpstarting the..radio.¡± I thought I was going insane before I remembered what Titus said about a small voice. I thought to myself ¡°I¡¯m assuming you¡¯re the ¡®sphere¡¯ I have?¡± The voice responded with ¡°Yes and my name is Electra. And I should make myself clearer, at our current state we need more electricity to start generating more of our own. The easiest way to do this would be to fight another electrical creature, head on.¡± ¡°Seriously? I¡¯m not going to fight another electric wolf, or whatever animal and risk dying. Especially when Karian can¡¯t finish the mission on her own.¡± ¡°The other choice available to you is to ask that man over there to hit you with a blast of electricity.¡± ¡°That¡¯d call attention to our position.¡± ¡°And a bunch of trees falling around us didn¡¯t?¡± ¡°It¡¯d kill me!¡± ¡°It won¡¯t, I¡¯ll absorb most of the energy. Besides, it would help you blend in and you really need to shorten your name. Emil might work when introducing yourself.¡± ¡°..Have you been rooting through my memories?¡± ¡°I¡¯m stuck in your mind, what else can I do? Before you go and deny me my manifestation, think for a minute. You get to have real,flexible magic. You¡¯ll have an answer to a lot of the stuff locals down here are doing,while keeping you and Karian safe. And if that¡¯s not enough, you could get rapid promotions,be a major asset on the battlefield, and get some stories to tell everyone back at base! Everything you ever wanted, and more.¡± I mulled it over, the more I thought about the possibilities the more clouded by ambition I became. I stood up quickly, which startled Titus and asked him a simple question, trying my best to keep my tone and voice as emotionally neutral as possible. ¡°Titus, can you create electricity?¡± ¡°Yes,I¡¯m guessing you want me to shock you. I must warn you it¡¯s not terribly efficient.¡± I nodded He started to do a bunch of hand gestures, before pointing at me and releasing a massive bolt of lightning at me. My body froze as I was hit, I stood there completely fine and was told by electra. ¡°Not enough, you¡¯re going to need to be struck by lightning all night at this rate.¡± ¡°Then I shall.¡± And so I was.