[ Mana Sense lvl 10 ]

[ Mana Sense lvl 10; Technician 3/4 ]

Katare shoves the blue box from her vision, mentally hurling it away. What she feared seems to be coming true, then. The panic is now everywhere. Instead of a pinch in her nonexistent guts, her entire being is now drenched in the clammy and acrid bite of panicked terror.

The ship around her has no more mana-related secrets for her to uncover. Every single bit of power in the magical conduits and processes is visible to her senses. Not in much detail, mind you, but she has gotten a feeling for the way this ship seems to use mana.

And to her surprise, the mercenaries around her are also equipped with mana-powered gear. It was only when her Mana Sense skill got near level ten that she started sensing this. Each soldier seems to carry at least one part of mana-powered weaponry. She senses a few knives and swords - like the one that decapitated her by cutting through the entire arcade machine. One man is decked out in mana powered armor, every single weapon strapped to his large frame glowing in her Mana Sense. Most of them have just a pair of goggles, a rifle, a knife, or one of the aforementioned swords on their person.

And truth be told, she just can’t get over the fact that the ship and crew use mana in the first place. For the millionth time, she once again questions whether or not the power she senses is actually mana. Unlike her own magical energy, which has a distinct blue tint, the energy flowing through this ship looks like heavily diluted milk.

Transparent with a hint of opaque white, the power that flows through the crystalline wires is similar yet different from her own. It’s stored in removable batteries and shining cores embedded in gear, and she can’t do a single thing with it. Although she can sense it fine, it seems that her control is limited to the inside of her skull.

Somehow, she remembers being able to influence the power, even outside her brain. Now, there seems to be a hard stop to her control. There is also something else going on just outside her head, but her current frozen-yet-still-conscious state is not conducive to calm and reasoned experimentation.

There is a clock ticking down mercilessly, and it’s a countdown to the beginning of her madness. Once she knew how to listen for it, she started noticing it everywhere. Every single component in the spacecraft is somehow preparing for warp, from the actual warp engine to the small food rehydrator. Every single component needs to know when to warp, as it’s standard procedure to put every single item into low-power or sleep mode just before transition. The warp core will be needing every single iota of power it can access, and all the items on warp-capable ships are designed around that requirement.

One again, Katare hears from a myriad of sources that there are only five seconds remaining. From the warp engine itself to the small processor on the stasis tank holding her, every single electronic item double-checks the countdown with the ship's central processor. She can actually feel it now, the entire ship vibrating with the building energies. The telltale warping of reality began minutes ago. She feels the phantom sensations - simultaneously being too small, yet too large - through the stasis-field she is in, no problem.

The fluctuations in reality rise along with her panic, and then the world stops again.

Except that it doesn’t.

Somehow, she feels that the universe around her has stopped. The sheer stillness of the entire ship impresses a feeling of stagnation upon her that she can’t put into words.

Except for the mana, which continues to flow unbiddenly.

Both inside her brain and the pale flows in the ship continue to move. Inside her head, there is a facsimile of brain activity, her consciousness moving along despite her brain being still. Outside her head, she senses the same slow trickle of mana. Bright spots of power represent battery-like constructs, out of which the mana seeps into the entire ship.

Katare is honestly kind of underwhelmed. The memories of her being stuck in time while Solan’s ship warped around her are hazy, but none the less terrifying. She then remembers that she was likely under the influence of a massive amount of drugs. Following that thread of thought, she realizes that back then, she must have recently been placed inside a new cloned body. She had been suffering from status effects such as Thought Control and Brain Surgery. Going from such a highly controlled and modified mind space to the clinical consciousness that comes with separation from the flesh is bound to have an impact. All those hormones and mood-altering chemicals suddenly losing grasp on a mind did not leave her in a stable mental framework.

All in all, she had been panicking for nothing. She recognizes that she is most likely going to go stark-raving mad if she needs to endure a month like this, but she’ll be able to cope for a few days, right?

⁂

One part of Katare is angry at herself for thinking that this would be easy. The second part of herself is also angry, but this anger is aimed at the first part of Katare.

The ship has been stuck in the warp-bubble for a few hours now, and Katare is going stark-raving mad. Already, she is having a conversation with herself, and she is appalled.

How can anyone even stand herself? She is a terrible being, a self-absorb spoiled piece of human waste. Both camps think that of the other, and Katare agrees with both of herselves.

If only she could just stop everything. The people onboard have stopped moving, and all the mechanical parts are frozen in time. Only the mana moves, and she is starting to feel like perfect stillness would be preferable to this semi moving world.

Within a few hours of staring at the seeping power all around her, she did learn a few things though.

The way this mana is used is different than Douglas’ - and presumably hers - on a fundamental level. Instead of moving through runes, magical patterns, spell shapes, and magical formations, this power runs through loops. Three-dimensional loops that boggle the mind in their complexity, intrinsic knots that are impossible to follow, and woven patches of frill, staggering in detail and complexity. Nonetheless, everything is made out of basic loops nonetheless.

A sword contains jagged loops, each one narrowing to a line as thin as a hair at the cutting edge of the weapon. She recognized a button at the hilt, one that she believes will increase the flow of mana when pressed.

Armour contains thin loops, a complex weave of chainmail-like flows that fill in the sections of protective gear. Each pistol or rifle has loops of white power around the barrel, the trigger of each weapon connected to the circuit.

The ship itself has a myriad of ever more complex loops, some of the patterns so small and convoluted that they seem a grey blur to Katare’s Mana Sense.

But after hours of staring at the loops, trying to influence them with her Mana Control, and not getting anywhere, she was looking for someone to blame. Her rather tenuous sanity thought it was a great idea to blame the single person that’s around, namely herself!

And here she is, one part cursing, one part yelling names, all of it aimed towards herself.

Another hour passes in this vicious spiral of pointing fingers and dodging the blame. If only she could slow down like those mana loops. Their treacle-like lethargy is taunting her every second. They slow dance is contrasted with the busy, blue blitz and blurring of the mana inside her mind; the white loops move very slow indeed.

They move very slow indeed…

Ignoring the part of herself that’s deeply amused by slowly going insane, Katare holds onto that thought. What if she could slow herself down? What if her mind could stop, to let the mana in her brain follow in the footsteps of her physical brain. She reasons out that the flow of power inside the ship and gear around her is limited by resistors in their mana loops. There are points here and in the mana wiring of the ship where the glowing lines nearly disappear. There are usually right next to other components, and the faintness of those spots seem to be linked to the brightness of the line before and after. The buttons and triggers seem to perform that task when it comes to the weapons and gear, their normal state only allowing a slight trickle of mana through.

Then Katare loses around half an hour wandering about the reason for the small current of mana running through everything. Why can’t the circuit be opened completely, wouldn’t that save a lot of mana?

In the end, she concludes that she has too little information about engineering with mana. She will need to run some tests, but more likely she'll just find someone to run the tests for her. Also, that way of slowing things down will not work for her; she quickly finds out. She simply has no way of limiting the slow of mana inside her brain. There is no single source of power, not a single spot from which the energy flows into her nogging. There seems to be a blue haze over everything, with a glowing nexus of power doing its thing in the middle of her head.

She does start to see what is actually going on inside her head once she starts looking at it, though. There is definitely some kind of flow happening, and there is definitely some kind of underlying ruleset for the flow of that mana.

Mentally closing her senses to the outside world, Katare starts trying for real then. She knows that there is just an eternity of blackness, an infinite void that lacks sensation waiting for her out there. So, she blocks it off. She stops trying to sense all the power flowing around her and starts staring at herself for real.

Seeing the various regions of her brain for what they are goes rather fast. Categorizing the sections of her mind takes her only half an hour after she starts taking it seriously. Many parts of her brain lack mana activity and some half-forgotten lessons cue her in on what is what. The motor skill part of her brain is glaringly empty once she identifies it. Her spine is shortened, and she manages to recognize a Neural Interface plate capping off the nerve bundle after some study of that area. The rest of the sensory brain clusters are similarly devoid of mana activity, so she forgoes those areas.

One part that does shine brightly, much to her surprise, is part of her audiovisual center. This area pulses with each thought she has and glows with every new attempt to map her brain. On second thought, this mental effort only lighting up this area faintly, it makes sense. A person’s visual imagination is rooted in their visual center, and Katare has been doing nothing but visualizing.

That’s when she realizes that the mana is just copying what her brain would normally do. This energy is somehow introduced here by Douglas, the skeleton somehow influencing her brain, half a galaxy away. She vaguely recalls something about ingress points, but her mind doesn’t seem willing to bring up more details at the moment. Mentally shaking her head, she decides to put that mystery off for another day.

Instead, she doubles down on understanding her own mind. Things make more sense now that she has a baseline understanding of what is happening. The highest concentration of mana is located in the center of her brain, right on top of the midbrain. The mana there seems to be just storage, though. Very little neural activity is happening in her brainstem or in the center of her brain. The majority of the action seems to be happening in her cerebral cortex, the outer layer of grey matter, and the place that houses her consciousness.

That done and established; she resumes attempting to slow down the mana inside her head, just so she can spare herself the terror of being forced to stare into the void.

Katare has a few more bouts of becoming a crazy person, but in the end, all six of her personalities agree that they really should resume with their unmoving mind training. This only happens a few more times before all her effort finally pays off, and a new blue screen pops into view.

[ Mana Control lvl 2 ]

[ New skill generated; Still Mind lvl 1 ]

[ For generating an entirely new skill, +5 lvl, skill limit set to III ]

[ Still Mind III lvl 5 ]

[ Meditation lvl 2 consolidated into Still Mind III lvl 5 ]

[ Still Mind III lvl 6 ]

And suddenly, Katare knows peace. She knows now, with full confidence, that she will be alright. The Meditation skill had previously shown her how to breathe and relax. None of those tips had been applicable to her situation in the slightest, so she had ignored them. The skill thus had never leveled, as she had assumed that a proper set of lungs were needed for proper practice of the skill.

Now, she knows that had she persevered, she would have ended up with a skill similar to the newly created Still Mind. Breathing right, sitting in a correct position, making sure that you aren’t bothered by physical distractions, all of that is just entry-level stuff.

[ Mana Control lvl 3 ]

[ Still Mind III lvl 7 ]

The true way to meditate is to have an empty mind. The true way to generate more mana is to not think, to let the brain cells be still and silent, to place the mind in a low power state.

At least, that is what Katare is now glimpsing from the stream of tips and information that she is receiving. And slowly, with each new realization, Katare does just that. Instead of furiously trying to find new ways to stop her brain activity, Katare just lets it all go. No longer does she attempt to find a way of doing, for searching for the path prevents one from seeing it.

A small part of Katare is not happy about the way this entire thing is going. A part of her rational mind rebels at the stupid way this information is delivered, filled with superstition and esoteric nonsense. If only the blue boxes would have delivered the information in a better way, then she could have avoided a lot of this nonsense.

Then that thought also drops away, and the blue mimicry of Katare’s neural network that overlays her frozen physical brain slows down even further. Her consciousness slows down to a halt, letting time speed on by as she meditates deeply. The ship she is in blasts through half the galaxy at many times the speed of light. The energy siphoned from the power collection station orbiting at the edge of the Tomat Vault world system helping it speed along, reducing a trip that normally would have taken years to a mere month.

Outside of Katare’s knowing, the reality frame around the ship resolves itself at the edge of the Evengi system right on schedule. The pair of humanoid pilots controlling the ship are startled as they observe a light show. Their sensors go haywire for a few moments as they observe a massive power spike on basically every frequency they can measure. The fact that this happens the moment they appear in the system causes quite a stir. The only person on board the ship that doesn't shit their pants a little is Katare, who is still peacefully practicing her Still Mind skill.

The two pilots make a few bets on what might be happening. Then one of the mercenaries overhears the two pilots talking, and the betting pools grow to include the entire crew.

The sapient holding Katare’s stasis tank wins the bet. His guess of ‘some stupid locals trying to get through the Histaff quarantine’ had been unanimously ridiculed at first. Spying on the report channels turns out to be easy. Figuring out that the massive laser show had indeed been a local group of survivors trying to get off-planet easier still.

Nobody truly enjoys the outcome of the bet, though. The events surrounding the report are just too weird to make light of. Somehow, an entire planet dropped GalaxSec base has been launched into orbit.

The trip towards their home ship - the core of the Purgatory and the headquarters of the Order - takes them a few days. During that time, they do some more digging, and the events that have transpired in this system are weird at best. A few of the crew find them unsettling and terrifying, truth be told.

Random snippets of rumors keep popping up, and wild claims of an entire high-spec merc crew getting iced appear time and time again. That this group is rumored to be from Ancheevi only increases the general feeling of unease on the ship. The official statements of the entire team being sent back alive and well are viewed with due skepticism.

And so it is, that with a tightly stretched veneer of tension unsettling the entire crew that they arrive back at their home base. The composite segments have long since departed from the Purgatory's core, going about their tasks of refueling, patrolling, scanning, mining, or exterminating.

The team is debriefed according to protocol, and the number of slip-ups about shady dealings somehow stays below noticeable levels. Each member spins a fanciful tale, in which they themselves are the hero of the mission. Their mission target is processed and put into short-term storage. Not a single mana powered sensor manages to pick up on the fact that Katare’s brain is full of silent power.

She's carted off towards one of the most secure places in the universe, all the while having the most powerful and peaceful sleep she’s ever had.

⁂

[ Still Mind III lvl 11 ]

[ Mana Control lvl 10 ]

[ Mana Control lvl 10; Technician 4/4 ]

[ Technician class; all relevant skills are max lvl. Please evolve class or pick a second class ]

“…because my conscious needs to be clear, this is truth. This task, I take upon me and my organization, this majestic work of unthanked and unloved labor, for this, I need to keep a clear head. For this, I need to keep my Order for Regulation of Dangerous Extra-natural Resources strong and leading. Therefore, I take it upon myself to talk to all the people that end up as unfortunate victims, such as yourself.”

Katare startles awake. She was having a wonderful dream. She had been sunbathing on the surface of a sun, tracing her hands through gorgeous corona’s. She remembers the delicious pop of some snack in her mouth when her warm bed had started monologuing in an immensely pompous manner.

“And so it is, with every single person that I directly order put to death, that I converse with them about the reason for their demise. To pay for what I must do, so explain the pain I go through each time I need to order such a heinous act. It is with much grief that I had to order you taken, and with much grief is it that I will order you locked up for the rest of time, as you shall be given not another second of life. Blame me, blame my forebears, blame Solan for meddling with a power he does not understand. He too, he too shall slumber without being given another second.”

Katare tries to open her eyes, only to find her body refusing her commands. The shards of the surreal dream fade into nothingness as her memories trickle back into her sluggish mind. Things and events start to make sense as she starts taking in her current situation.

She feels more than sees a bearded man standing in front of her. She isn’t sure if she is still in the stasis container, all she knows is that her brain is moving and firing once again and that it’s dark as shit out. She opens and closes her eyes a couple of times, and apart from the faint sensation of dry eyes rubbing over raw eyelids, nothing else happens.

Except for three sensations, the world is a perfect void yet again. Well, actually four things, she muses. The amount of mana around her is just insane. The same milky transparent power surges through a super complex maze of channels, junctions, gathering points, and many other forms she doesn’t recognize. This would be one sensation, were it not for the bearded man formed of white power standing right in front of her. The second full sensation is that fact that her brain seems to be working again, as she can basically feel her neurons firing. And then there is sound, as she hears the glowing man talking nonstop.

Short cropped hair, a muscular build, and a beard that covers half of his majestic chest. Then there is a face that looks like it has seen the end of time, shadowed eyes, and one hell of a package. For some reason, even though this person might very well be wearing clothes, none of them are picked up by her Mana Sense.

“And so, Katarenin Auchinfon Peezes Tomat, it is with great lamenting in my heart, with much sorrow on my mind, that I consigned you to die. Nay,” continues the bearded man in a self-aggrandizing manner. “I ordered you dead. Just to do what must be done. Just so that the scourge of mana can keep away from this place. Just so this galaxy can be home to mortals instead of immortal tyranny. For this is my task, this is the yoke I bear.”

Katare is sure that she would have been staring at the man with her mouth open. She then realizes that she is actually doing that, and is briefly confused by the sensory feedback she gets from her open jaw. She then remembers that the bionic body she is wearing has miniature energy cells spread across the entire frame. It thus makes sense that all the synthetic muscles, sensors, integrations, and processors in what is left of her head still works.

This explains the sensation of opening and closing her eyes, the flapping of her jaws, and the fact that she can actually hear again. She really wishes that last one wasn’t true, though. She has heard a lot of sanctimonious bullshit in her life, but this one takes the cake.

The glowing figure is obviously filled - or made out of, she can’t tell without seeing him with her eyes - with mana. The same mana that is flowing around her even now, seeping through masses of pipes, wires, and looping formations. The same power that was present in the gear carried by the crew. The crew that crushed an entire planet worth of defenses, broke into her apartment, and cut off her head. Or cut off her body? Her body was technically cut off from her head, and her perspective resides in her head. Why in the warp is that status effect called Decapitated? Shouldn’t it be something like Disembodied?

“Empires with god-emperors that last for an eternity. Forty thousand years is nothing, gone like a whisper in the wind, yet their ancient corpses on their thrones refuse to die. No matter how much the people cry out, no matter how much they bleed and suffer, their dying curses go unheard. I cannot, no, it may not happen here. This shall be the one haven for the everyday man. I, the Grandmaster of the Order, am the bastion against the Outer Horrors, I am the bulwark that keeps out the plague of that which deems itself above nature and corporeal law. I never falter and never slumber. My vigil is everlasting, but, alas, it is limited.”

Yeah, the blue boxes definitely should have marked her as Disembodied. Now she feels even more sorry for the poor saps that got decapitated. From the perspective of those people, that status effect is very much wrong. Being told that your consciousness is just something that's lopped off of your body is just rubbing salt in the wound at that point.

And Katare really hopes that the guy can shut up sometime soon. The tale the guy is rattling off is very nice, and she admires the delusional lengths that he must have gone through in order to get to that point. From a psychological standpoint, something very interesting must have happened to the man for him to believe that he is the sole defender of this galaxy against outside forces. Everyone knows that there is no life in other galaxies and that intergalactic travel is as impossible as it is impractical. Even the most sophisticated of warp drives need reference frames, need some form of matter around them to warp. The pure and exact vacuum in between galaxies is just not conducive to any form of transportation.

As the man keeps talking about stupid stuff, lost in some form of self-aggrandizing delusion, Katare starts thinking of ways how to get the hell out of here.

She then realizes that the thundering noise that she has heard this entire time was not through her ears. Instead, the roaring sensation is so all-pervasive that she initially thought it was background noise. The moment she realizes that there is an infinite amount of digital information flowing around her is the moment her migraine is back with a vengeance.