—Chapter 17—

—High Tech Armor—

Sen led everyone to the side door of the warehouse. The solid construction told Kellan that Sen was probably right—this was a place for valuable equipment. No one secured a warehouse with a steel door, reinforced walls, and tall roofs unless they had something worth protecting.

The walls of the building had to be thirty feet tall, all without windows. Clouds gathered in the sky, some so black they looked like they were going to a funeral.

Sen motioned to the door. “See if you can use your new ability to mold metal. Open the door.”

“All right,” Kellan drawled.

He walked over and placed his hand on the steel of the door. Instead of bending to Kellan’s will, and molding like clay, he pressed his hand against the surface and struggled. The metal wouldn’t yield. Had it been longer than thirty minutes? I hadn’t thought so.

“I can’t.” Kellan gritted his teeth. “Why not?”

“It’s as I suspected. The building is infused with magic. You can mold metal, not magic—altering the composition of the material used in construction is a preventive measure against low-rank metal mages. This warehouse obviously came from a dimension where magic is prevalent. Places without mages wouldn’t have thought—or been able—to do this. That means the contents of the warehouse, if any are left, will probably be high-tech or magical.”

Sen gestured for Kellan to move aside.

With an exhale, Kellan stepped out of the way. He watched as the eight-year-old-looking man placed his little hand onto the door. Then Sen closed his eyes. When Sen removed his hand, the door slid open with a whoosh akin to a soft sigh. It was like the door was straight from a Star Trek set—perfectly moving on its open and fitting into the wall.

Stale air wafted out of the dark warehouse.

The building clearly had power—the door just opened—but no lights came on. Sen stepped aside and pointed Kellan in. With a few hesitant steps, Kellan moved into the building, keeping his back to the wall.

He held his rifle close, his attention on the metal of the grip and magazine.

I couldn’t use my mold metal ability on the gun, either, Kellan realized. My power doesn’t affect anything magical, just like Sen said.

When Kellan reached a set of light switches, he tried to illuminate the cold warehouse. He clicked the switches into place, but nothing happened. The darkness remained thick. The only light came from the single skylight in the roof, and it wasn’t enough to see anything.

Squeaks echoed throughout the warehouse.

Hundreds. Of. Squeaks.

Kellan held his breath, straining his hearing. What did the sounds remind him of? I’d give the remainder of my shredded pants for a pair of field goggles, he thought, his jaw clenched. If he had night vision, the warehouse wouldn’t be a problem.

Wait. Apparently, I’m an eclipse mage. Something about eclipse magic…

He thought about the powers available to him. He could make things glow, he could create shadowy blades, cause a flash in someone’s eyes, or… see in the dark.

The others waited at the edge of the darkness, all around the warehouse door. Mavis poked her head inside. “Kellan?” she whispered. “Are you there?”

“Yeah,” he said. “There’s no light.”

“Okay. But what’s that noise?”

The squeaking persisted.

“I don’t know.” Kellan rubbed at this temple.

“What’re we going to do?”

I have three arcana. I could purchase the ability to see in the dark—which sounds amazing—or I could purchase the ability to create illumination, which would help the group, but also alert the enemy to our presence.

The dilemma ate at him for a moment, but again Kellan didn’t want indecision to hold him back. Illumination was cheaper—a single arcana—which he’d likely recover quickly, at the rate they were killing things.

When he spent the arcana, another sense of electricity flooded him. He had the ability to make something glow like a torch.

Kellan bent down and searched the floor. His fingers touched something hard—a steel pipe—and he picked it up. His mold metal shaped it oddly, but not too bad. He spent a mana.

Only two mana left.

The pipe suddenly lit up like a bright white glowstick, as though the object were comically radioactive. It was like a lantern flashlight, and Kellan held it high above his head.

The warehouse was a storage facility for metal crates, wooden boxes, and a ton of machinery that Kellan was unfamiliar with. Bits of broken machines were scattered around the floor, but Kellan still couldn’t spot the source of the squeaking.

“You can make pipes glow?” Mavis asked as she stepped inside, her eyes squinted as she stared at the glowing pipe. “Sorry… I just used some arcana in order to do this.”

She held her hand out and flames sprouted from her palm. The fire flickered with a powerful inner heat, and the reddish-white embers provided a decent amount of light. It didn’t compare to the pipe, though.

“I can create fire now,” Mavis said, awe in her words. She stared at the fire, half-smiling. “Magma magic, apparently. I can, uh, make rocks on my skin, too. If I want armor rating, apparently.”

Sen pushed his way into the warehouse, almost knocking Mavis over. He glanced around at the piles of boxes and broken machines. “Let’s navigate this junk maze and get to the armor in the back.”

“Do you know what that squeaking is?” Kellan whispered.

After a short pause, Sen frowned. “It sounds like something you should handle, warrior. That’s your lot in life. Handling noises like this.”

Husker stepped into the warehouse, his disgusting trench coat dragging along with it a smell like a second shadow. He kept his head down, his mood still subdued after the incident with the hex.

“Eclipse magic is useful,” he said, staring at the pipe. “Eclipse mages can bend light at will, even around them, granting them invisibility.”

“Don’t encourage him.” Sen huffed. “We want him to rank his body magic first.”

Kellan hated the way Sen seemed to think he could dictate everything. In an act of defiance, Kellan was almost ready to just exclusively focus on every magic but body. “Why shouldn’t I learn invisibility?”

“I didn’t say you shouldn’t—I said you should focus on body magic first. Whichever magic you rank up to D will become your primary magic. No secondary magic can be ranked higher than your primary, which means you can’t rank anything higher. So, if you go to D rank eclipse, but then later want to go to C rank body, you’re going to have to raise eclipse magic first, does that make sense?”

Kellan nodded. “Sure. Yeah. I get it. The first magic I improve is my favorite for life.”

“Good,” Sen said with a hint of smug satisfaction. “I can explain things to you, but I can’t understand them for you—let’s hope you never grow confused.”

The squeaking grew louder and more desperate. Hundreds of squeaks. How many things were in the warehouse?

Mavis, Sen, and Husker all turned to face Kellan.

I guess I have to discover the cause of the noises. Kellan smiled to himself. He used his rifle’s strap to tie the illuminated pipe onto the barrel of his weapon, creating a makeshift flashlight.

Now that I have an eclipse power… Shouldn’t I be able to see the D rank powers?

Eclipse Magic Rank D Cost: 5 arcana

D Rank Eclipse Abilities:

Laser, rank I [3 arcana]

Eclipse mages rely on light, or “laser,” energy in their attack. This power is, weirdly, shared by metal mages.

The mage gains “laser” as an energy type, and may spend a mana to shoot a destructive beam from their hand. The damage dealt is equal to eclipse magic rank + half the mage’s dexterity store. Stacks with other “laser” powers.

Photosynthesis [4 arcana]

Light can be a power, and it can be a power source. In some places, it is the only readily available power source…

The eclipse mage gains an hour of “rest” and 3 mana for every hour they are near naked in relatively high levels of daylight. In obvious blazing hot desserts, they gain 4 mana per six seconds.

Shadow Tools [2 arcana]

The eclipse mage with this power causes the nearby shadows to form into solid objects… Small, precise, and fragile objects.

The mage spends two mana for thirty minutes, can create small tools made from pure darkness. Light destroys the objects.

Eyes of Light and Darkness, rank I [4 arcana]

The mage is simply better at noticing subtle things, whether it be a blush, a shifting of the eye, the movement of a shadow, or even the time of day based on the light.

The mage gains +1 perception.

Sentient Shadow, rank I [4 arcana]

The eclipse mage’s shadow gains a slight amount of sentience as it’s infused with magic. This power makes the shadow have a slight physical aspect, and it moves slightly to help block and hold.

The mage gains benefits when dodging and brawling, but they lose 5% to familiar growth.

Thick Shadows, rank I [Sentient Shadow, rank I] [2 arcana]

The mage’s shadow jumps in the way of all damage, protecting their “person” at all costs.

The mage gains +2 “living shell” to their health. The shell must be broken before the mage can be harmed. The shell is reformed whenever the mage sleeps.

Empower Shadow, rank I [3 arcana]

The mage can “boost” their shadow.

The mage spends two mana, and a mana per round to hold, and their shadow gains increased fortitude. This gives the mage +1 armor rating until their shadow is destroyed.

Dammit, Kellan thought. Sen was right. I’m not even a few ranks into this mage thing, and already I can’t get enough arcana to purchase everything I want. And the cost just keeps going up.

“What’re you waiting for?” Sen asked. He clapped his hands once. “Come, come. Those noises are irritating, and I want them dealt with.”

Kellan moved forward, and to his surprise, Mavis hurried after him, her flame in hand. She offered a smirk, and he acknowledged it with a quick nod.

“You’ve got bare feet,” she whispered. “You’ll need some backup. That’s me.”

“Thanks.”

Whatever awkwardness had come between them in the trailer park had faded. Kellan continued forward, stepping around a machine the size of a large house. In the lowlight of the warehouse, with only his impromptu flashlight and Mavis’s fire, he couldn’t tell what the machine’s original purpose was. Maybe it dug in the ground? It had “claws” and a small driver’s seat.

The squeaking became louder.

Mavis and Kellan reached an intersection of boxes and broken equipment. Shattered guns—rifles, shotguns, and even a few empty magazines—were scattered across the floor. To Kellan’s disgust, blood was smeared across the concrete. The splatters were consistent with a struggle…

And then a body being dragged.

Red blood. Not black. Which meant it was fresh.

“I’ll go this way,” Mavis murmured, motioning to the left of the boxes. “This place is huge.”

Kellan shook his head. “We’re not splitting up.”

“Aren’t we supposed to be hurrying? We can search the whole warehouse quicker.”

“I don’t care. Haven’t you seen a horror movie? C’mon. Get your head in the game, soldier.”

Mavis half-snorted and laughed. “All right. We’re a team.”

“Okay, then we’re going to the right.”

“Why?”

“That’s where the squeaking is coming from.”

Mavis replied with a single nod. Together, they headed around the boxes and broken equipment. Kellan took point, his rifle held close. Technically, he’d use a different gun for close combat encounters, but the Mk-17 SCAR was still suitable for close firefights.

More boxes. More machines the size of houses. The further they went in, the more Kellan’s blood pressure rose. And the squeaking just kept getting louder—and angrier. Like the buzzing of bees.

Kellan didn’t speak, he just glanced at Mavis and mouthed, “I’ll go first.” Then he walked around another set of metal crates and lifted his rifle.

The sight shocked him. Kellan stumbled back, his shoulder hitting one of the giant grates. The sturdy storage unit didn’t move—he just slammed into it.

Rats.

Hundreds of rats.

They swarmed over bodies. Dead bodies. People of all ages. Adults. Children. No clothes, just chewed flesh, blood, and dirt. It reminded Kellan of holocaust pictures he had seen in high school.

The rats chewed at the bodies, ripping apart the flesh. Everything soft on the corpses were devoured first. Eyes. Guts. Brains. The insides of the bodies were strewn across the floor. The black-furred rats fought each other over the organs, playing tug-of-war with human tissue.

The bodies… They reminded Kellan of his time in Syria, a recent memory he didn’t wish to relive.

Kellan stepped back around the boxes, his body stiff, unable to breathe. Calm down, he repeated to himself. Dr. Hanley gave you relaxing exercises for a reason, dammit. Just calm down.

“You okay?” Mavis mouthed, no voice, her brow furrowed.

He nodded. “Y-Yeah,” he whispered, his voice shaky. “I don’t think we need to worry about the noises. They’re just rats. Let’s just… go the other direction.”

Together, they left the scene of the rats, but Kellan couldn’t block out the noises they made. Mavis and Kellan returned to the fork in “road” and continued to the other side of the warehouse. Pods and lockers were lined against the metal walls. Although there was foreign writing on everything, Kellan recognized military equipment when he saw it.

The pods had full suits. Head-to-toe sleek equipment, like some sort of space marine under suit. The lockers had weapons and armor that Kellan recognized. Vests. Leg guards. He understood what to do with everything there.

His eyes flared to life on some of the objects. Magical items. Most just provided armor rating, but a few added to dexterity or fortitude.

More squeaking drew Kellan’s attention. He pointed his rifle and flashed light on more rats gathered around a locker. He couldn’t see any bodies, but the red on the floor told him there had to be something nearby.

“I don’t think we’re in a horror movie,” Mavis whispered, staring at the rodents. “I feel like this is a twisted comedy, where someone just wants to see our reactions.”

“Oh, this is a horror movie.”

“Yeah? How do you think it’s going to end?”

“I’m going to die. Sen is definitely going to die. Husker will probably go tragically. Sen’s sister is probably the killer, let’s be real. But you—you’ll live. You’ll just be haunted by all our deaths as you return to college to try to piece together your broken life.”

Again, Mavis smiled. “But we have magical powers.” She held her hand up, the fire still flickering. “That doesn’t happen in horror movies.”

“Haven’t you seen The Shining? Magical powers mean we’ll probably die faster, and because we went insane. If we ever get out of here, and make it back home, we’ll have to have a marathon of all the classic horror flicks.”

“Sounds like a date,” Mavis said, her tone a mix of hope and melancholy.

Would they make it back?

The squeaking grew in agitation, drilling into Kellan’s thoughts. And while he enjoyed the conversation with Mavis—and the ease at which they could talk about nothing and have fun doing it—the rats swarmed around the locker as though they were trying to tunnel through it.

Kellan pointed his rifle around until he found a shattered portion of the floor. Rats were pouring into the warehouse through the crevice, climbing over each other to get inside.

“Let’s get Sen and Husker, get our equipment, and then get out of this place,” Kellan muttered. “Knowing the Nexus, the rats will be filled with diseases, or more sentient worms, or hexes.”

As if the dimension wanted to prove him right, the wall moved. It pulsated, as though alive. The metal warped, and shifted, and Kellan didn’t want to take any chances. He grabbed Mavis and yanked her back around a few crates, his heart beating fast. When he chanced a glance, he didn’t need to shine his light to see what it was.

It was an Eye of the Arbiter.

The gross half-flesh, half-machine object had appeared on the wall. Its iris shone with inner light, like a red LED. With slow and calculated movements, the eyes scanned the nearby area, stopping only on the pile of rats, examining the rodents for a long sixty seconds before disappearing back into the wall.

Then it was gone, just as quickly as it had come.

“What was that?” Mavis whispered.

“The Arbiter, apparently.” Kellan took shallow breaths. “His eyes can appear on any surface with electronics—which guess I means the walls of this hellhole.”

Mavis sighed. “Is is one big Snafu.”

“You’re telling me.”

Without wanting to drag anything else out, Kellan guided Mavis back toward the entrance. The warehouse was “secure,” but they weren’t really safe.

Sen and Husker waited patiently at the front door—no conversation between them. The moment they spotted Kellan, they moved forward.

“Did you handle the problem?” Sen asked.

“It’s just rats,” Kellan replied. “For some reason, there’s a stack of bodies in the building. I have no explanation for that. I haven’t seen any people here. Just a crack in the ground that I suspect leads to the outside, and one of the Eyes of the Arbiter. The rats are using the hole as an entrance.”

Sen sneered. “Bodies? Must be the locals.”

“Show us the bodies,” Husker said. “I can smell the difference, even when they’re dead.”

Smell the difference?

Kellan shook his head and led them through the machine graveyard. The angry squeaking led them just as much as the bloody path. Even before they reached the corpses, Husker stopped and snarled.

“They’re locals. Ten of them.”

“Why?” Kellan asked. “Who would pile a bunch of bodies here?”

Sen rolled his eyes. “Remember when I wanted you to kill Coke-Head? I’m not the first person to have this idea. Sometimes, outsiders who are familiar with the games come to harvest some of the stray locals. Those inbred mages and half-mages are easy pickings. Sure, they only give you a single arcana if you’re lucky, but when they barely fight back, most don’t mind getting their hands dirty.”

The rats continued their chorus of anger and feasting.

“This way to the armor,” Kellan said, leading them away before he had to see the carnage a second time. “Keep an eye out, though. If someone was murdering a bunch of a random people, he’s probably nearby. The blood is fresh.”

Sen, Husker, and Mavis stuck close. Mavis’s fire illuminated their faces like an eighteenth-century church oil painting.

Despite Kellan’s fear, they found nothing else. They arrived at the pods and lockers without incident. The rats continued flowing from the crack in the ground, heading toward their mysterious locker, or rushing for the pile of bodies on the other side of the warehouse.

No more Eyes of the Arbiter.

“Ah, thank the north star,” Sen said with a smile. “This is exactly what we need!” He hustled over to the armor and weapons. “We’ll take whatever we want, and then head straight to the palace.”

“Your sister wanted you to gather armor from reliable places,” Husker growled. “You shouldn’t have spent so much time following the Alex Kellan—you should’ve given that up when I told you months ago.”

Sen snapped his fingers. “Enough. We made our decisions. This is where we are now.”

“This is junk left over by everyone else. You should’ve listened to your sister and just done things right.”

“This is better than nothing, isn’t it? Gather the armor. Put it on. Only magical items, though. If you wear non-magical gear, it’ll be destroyed within seconds during the games.”

Husker flattened his ears against his head, displaying anger like only a canine could. “The magical items will all be cursed, mark my words.”

“We’re going to make it to Zenith, aren’t we?” Sen rubbed at both his temples. “I swear to the dark stars that if you don’t stop chiding me about these decisions, I’ll fleshcraft your mouth shut while you sleep. Do you understand me?”

Husker never responded.

“I’m going to search around,” Kellan said as he backed away, his tension still high. “I’ll stay close. Call out if you need me.”

While Sen and Husker tore the lockers apart, Kellan glanced around the darkness, shining his magic-enhanced pipe at every corner. The rats continued their march on the corpses, but when Kellan flashed them with light, they scattered around, their red eyes alight with murder.

“Warrior! Here now. We have the perfect armor for you.”

Kellan returned to them, silently wishing he had picked up the Pierce the Darkness ability to see in the dark. At least then he would be able to spot whatever villain was lurking nearby.

When Kellan returned, Sen was waiting for him with a tiny rectangle of black held in one of his kid-like hands. “Look at this,” Sen said. The tiny rectangle was barely the size of a Band-Aide. “You’ll like this. It attaches to your spine, and enhances eclipse and metal magic. Perfect for you. See? I know what I’m doing.”

Kellan stared at the magical object and allowed his analysis to determine the significance.

Magical Item [Armor]—Shadow of a Dying Star

Uniform armor worn by the stealth gunners of the Flestiss Dominion. Sturdy and reliable, this piece of armor attaches to the mage’s spine and requires a mana to active. Once activated, the armor covers the mage completely and grants +2 “living shadow shell” armor defense, and +2 armor rating. The mage can deactivate the armor at will. It’s also cursed.

Hurray. Another curse for me. How pleasant.

Kellan exhaled and mentally shrugged. Might as well. We’re either winning or we’re all suffering the consequences, apparently. And while Kellan wasn’t a fan of randomly taking detriments, he couldn’t think of another way to acquire armor and weapons. Sen was his only source of information, as much as he loathed to admit it.

He snatched the armor from Sen. The moment he touched it, another whispered voice filled his mind, like a ghost was so close it was scraping its teeth on the shell of Kellan’s ear.

“Will you wear me?”

Kellan nodded once.

“I will grant you protection, and the ability to slip through shadows. But as punishment, you will lose at a game of chance. The dice will not fall as you want them.”

“That’s it?” Kellan quipped. “No doom or gloom? I don’t have to pay with the blood of my firstborn child?”

“It will happen when you least expect it. A chance encounter will not go your way.”

While Kellan hated everything about the curses and hexes, he at least knew now that the curses were a one-time occurrence. He would lose one “game of chance” that involved dice. Couldn’t he just avoid dice?

But I don’t know jack shit about the Nexus Games. Maybe they’re entirely played with dice.

“How often will we be rolling dice in the Nexus Games?” Kellan asked, giving Sen a narrowed glance.

“Never,” Sen stated. “At least, that’s never been one of the challenges in the past games.”

Kellan held his breath.

“Do you accept?” the ghost-like voice asked, a mere whisper in Kellan’s mind.

“I accept.” And then Kellan brought the tiny square to the back of his neck and pressed it against his flesh. He waited for a few seconds—wondering if he had done it right—when the pressure of needles entering his flesh caused him to shiver.

When he removed his hand, he rotated his shoulders.

The armor… felt cold and powerful. A steady sensation ran down his spine.

And then a siren pierced the quiet of the outside.

“Registration for the Nexus Games will soon close,” a metallic and robotic voice blared throughout the area. The thick metal walls muffled the words, but they couldn’t drown them out. “All outsiders who fail to register within the next twenty minutes will be branded a menace. The Justices and Pestbyters will remove you from the city—dead or alive.”