The pain was intense but was also satisfying. It was like the smoldering ache of torn and tired muscles after a good workout. It burned, and yet it relieved an itch that I didn’t know I had. Energy poured through me with the intensity of a pump forcing hot water through cold veins, reinvigorating, and giving life to what I hadn’t recognized as dead.

I screamed from surprise and from pain, but it was a quiet scream that barely passed my lips. My body shook, and my muscles felt fatigued and weak. My eyes couldn’t focus, and everything around me became a haze of colors and spinning light.

“What is happening?” I asked.

“Quiet,” said Telvy. “You’re ruining my concentration. Do you think mana surgery is easy? You wouldn’t want me to mess it up my first time, would you?”

I couldn’t see her, but I heard a tisk as a faint and blurry form shook its head. “Could ruin my confidence for years.”

“First tim…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. Instead, I found myself retching as clutched at my stomach. “It burns.”

As the pain increased it brought with it a feeling of strength and energy. My muscles felt twitchy and restless, like they needed to be used or else they might burst. My whole body began to vibrate as if building up to something, they energy was growing but it had no way to be released.

When it felt like I couldn’t contain it anymore, it stopped as if nothing happened. I relaxed and slumped to the floor.

The first thing to return was my vision, but it was different than it had been a moment before. Everything was more vibrant, and I could see shades of color that hadn’t been there before. Even the tiniest objects, such as the screws in the railings around the deck of the ship, could be seen in perfect clarity.

Strength flooded my limbs, returning to me a sense of confidence that I hadn’t realized I had lost. The world had turned into a nightmare, and only the enhancements of the system had allowed me to face those terrors on equal ground.

Calibrating…. System Initializing. Basic Stats… Adjusting….

Lines of text scrolled down in front of my eyes. The words came fast, and I barely had time to pick out a few of them as they disappeared beneath my field of vision. I saw the first signs that my skills were returning when the blue glow of mana became visible in my hands.

I could feel and see the mana around and within me. The blue glow stood in sharp contrast to the deep black tinged with flickering red that represented the skeletal lines of eldritch energy that I had built up within me.

The air around me was almost empty of both types of energy, but Tyldy was like a beacon. The Peacekeeper mage was a raging inferno of blue and green flames that spun around her like a wild storm. It was a beautiful sight, but humbling. Every spell I had ever cast would not equal a tenth of the energy the woman held within her.

More notifications began to appear, but I set them aside for a moment to open my status screen. As the translucent screen appeared before me, I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding.

It was back. I was back.

Augustus Finn

Class: Hierophant of the Elder Ones

Level: 14 (3/11)

Health: 95

Stamina: 90

Mana: 204 (306)

Vitality: 21

Endurance: 18

Strength: 16

Agility: 17

Reaction: 17

Intelligence: 40

Will: 28

Perception: 30

Focus: 8

Phys. Resist: 7

Ma. Resist: 7

My stats were exactly as I remembered them, other than a small bump to endurance.

I had a theory that exercising without the system enhancements had allowed me to grow my endurance. I was starting to think that in many ways the system was a crutch I needed to learn to walk without. It was certainly true that having it kicked out from under me had left me helpless.

My body didn’t get powerful when I fought and ran, because it did not struggle. The only thing that grew stronger had been the benefits of the system. Only by being without the system had my own body been able to grow more powerful. Despite that, any ‘human’ gains would come much more slowly than anything granted by the system.

If I wanted to survive I knew I would need everything I could get - system or not.

The momentary feelings of resentment towards the system quickly fled as I remember the sense of emptiness and longing that had accompanied its absence. I quieted my shaking hands by balling them into tight fists, and turned my attention back to the notifications.

My imprisonment represented many lost opportunities for growth, but I had still gained some skill levels during that time. I had gained a single level in physical fitness, proving that hours spent doing calisthenics had not been entirely wasted. I had also gained two levels in a new utility skill, meditation, but at the time I found the description to be rather underwhelming.

Meditation © - You have delved the mysteries of your own mind and learned to grasp at the secrets that reside within. While meditating you have learned to block outside distractions, thereby increasing the effect of your mental stats and increasing your rate of mana regeneration. Cannot be used in combat.

I could see the potential for training my spells and control skills, but I suspected I wouldn’t have much down time in the near future. It felt as if the world would never give me a peaceful moment to train, and I had squandered what few opportunities I had been given.

I had also gained two levels in Eldritch Mimicry, perhaps due to my repeated attempts to gather and shape the energy during the brief times I had access to it during my imprisonment.

I had been working with small amounts of the energy, and I had been all but blind to it. This had forced me to improvise and increase my ability to sense and control the energy without being able to ‘see’ it. I had gained a deeper understanding of the energy, finally realizing that eldritch energy was not all the same.

The energy seemed to have different textures and emotions depending on the source. The black and red energy I was used to seeing in the world represented madness and sought corruption and chaos. It warped and changed everything it touched, but it did not destroy.

This was different from the loathing and rage I had sensed from the heart, or dungeon core, that Sebbit had shown me. That energy had sought only to destroy and inflict pain. It cried out for revenge, and would drag down anything it came into contact with.

I could sense that there was some deep secret hidden in that knowledge, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out what it was. I stood thinking for a moment, but I was quickly brought back to reality by a deep feminine voice.

“Finn, did I break you?” said Telvy. “We’ve got work to do, and I’m going to need you ready to go.”

“Yeah, no problem. I’m fine… just a little overwhelmed.”

I pushed my knuckles together with a loud crack before pushing my chest forward and stretching my elbows behind me, creating an audible pop. “Ahhh, that felt good. I’m tired of being cramped up, I’m ready to do some work. What do you need me to do?”

“Good,” the tall archmage reached out with a single clawed finger and ran it along the edge of my jaw. As the finger stopped under my chin she tilted my head up until our eyes met.

“Look around, do you see the dome above us?” She tilted my eyes up further until I was looking straight up.

“Umm, yes. I see—”

“Good, that dome is being controlled and it must have something supplying it with energy at multiple points. A common penta-hybrid formation based on the theories of High Mage Malak is possible, but I’d bet my teeth we’re looking at a seventeen-point formation with an oscillating origination point.”

“I thought you spoke English,” I said. “Just tell me what you need me to do.”

“Backwater mages,” she sighed as she shook her head. “Just find the areas with the largest concentrations of eldritch energy and prioritize areas with unusual amounts of movement or fluctuation. Tell me if you see anything strange.”

I looked out at the dome. It was so dense with energy that I had been able to see it in the physical spectrum even without my skills and class – now, it was ablaze with color and patterns. Snaking chains of symbols lit up the sky, with the black and red energy serving as a backdrop.

The symbols seemed to be flowing around the dome in a spiral pattern that led upwards towards the apex of the dome. As these symbols reached their end they would swirl in tightening circles before being consumed by an incredibly dense spot at the very top of the dome.

As I turned around I could see several other areas where the energy was concentrated almost as thickly.

Each of these areas were evenly spaced from each other, and from the Yorktown. They seemed to be the origination point for the long chains of symbols that were flowing around the dome. The energy in these areas seemed more volatile than the rest; constantly expanding and contracting and even changing in color and speed.

“There,” I shouted as I pointed straight up. “All the energy is being fed there.”

“Can you see where the energy is being fed from?” Telvy asked.

“Sure, umm… there are eight points. And I think another eight smaller points as well, but it’s hard to tell. The closest is right there,” I pointed directly in front of me at a spot roughly half a mile, or just under a kilometer, away.

“Good, we strike immediately,” she said. “Ladies, form up and prepare for evac.” The three large Peacekeepers that had been flanking Telvy stood up taller and holstered their rifles behind them. They then each crossed their arms in front of their chests and waited while standing perfectly still.

It had the grace and precision of a well practiced routine.

Telvy turned toward me. “Don’t worry about how you stand, just don’t struggle. Got it?”

“Umm, sure?”

As I finished speaking Telvy was lifted into the air as the chains that were wrapped around her torso began to unravel and twirl beneath her like a tornado of steel. Long red hair spun out behind her like a flag that was fluttering and struggling against a heavy wind.

I could feel myself buoyed as a spell took hold of me and I gently rose up from the ground. Small pebbles floated up from cracks in the concrete deck below my feet, and the air filled with the haze of dust and debris.

“What’s going to happ—” I began to speak when a chain shot out from the tornado of metal that surrounded Telvy. It spun around me, wrapping around my waist and chest. The three Peacekeepers in black armor were quickly bound in the same manner.

“Telvy,” I protested. “You’re not doing what I think —” she didn’t even give me a chance to finish before she was flying through the sky like a meteor. The chain binding me to her tightened instantly and I was dragged behind, yelling profanities the entire time.

As we cleared the deck of the ancient aircraft carrier I felt my stomach lurch as we began to speed downwards toward the earth.