It might seem a simple thing, two spirals instead of one, but the result of that shift in paradigm had been anything but. Not only had it exposed what was most likely a crucial element in how the engraver worked it had also illuminated an entirely new dimension in the construction of formations of all kinds.

Mitch’s mind had become a July Fourth fireworks show, every shell-burst a new idea or question. There had been so many it had become difficult to even sort through them all, his mindscape a confounding cacophony of sulfurous light and sound. However, as with all such events, eventually, the noise had faded leaving only the last few silent lights hanging in the sky. Contrary to such shows though, these were not the last remnants of fading glory: instead, they were the brightest and most difficult to extinguish, those fiery blasts of comprehension which refused to fade.

Those ideational sparks had ignited the firmament of his mind in an entirely unfamiliar way. While the fear of death in failure remained, buried deep within his psyche adjacent to his desire for vengeance, this wildfire was of a more creative nature. The desire to know and create had burned as hot as any of his other motivations.

For several days work had not stopped on a multitude of variations, test after test completed and failed. Rather than frustration though he had felt nothing but satisfaction: another false path had been eliminated. Perhaps only the scientists of the Renaissance could have related to this experience.

The paths of the past pioneers had been untread, their footprints erased: the science being explored was once again brand new. Only unreliable remnants and hints remained as a guide. Every step taken, wrong or right, was a first step.

Aside from the occasional pause for a meal, training with Joel, or sleep (ranked by importance), every moment and every thought had been consumed by crafting and testing.

The discoveries had been fascinating. As far as Mitch could see, mana (he had adopted the term for differentiated energies from the booklets) shared many traits with electricity: however, there were many dissimilarities as well. The most significant was, of course, that mana responded to human will which, outside of comic books, electricity did not. Additionally, metal was not a good conductor of mana: the experiments conducted with metal as the primary material for a weapon had resulted in nothing but a puddle of molten steel and slag accompanied by a unique burn that had been healing very slowly despite the increased recovery rate that developed after the Tollings.

Also, there was some unfathomable element to the formation carved into the engraver. Despite laboriously copying the script with exactitude every reproduction had been a complete dud, and the best results so far had been achieved using simpler geometric constructions. Either some mistake had been made in the script’s reproduction, or the text used to form the construct was irrelevant to its function. Neither could be ruled out at this stage, but due to time limitations focus had been moved to geometric forms.

After umpteen failures, the last touches had finally been placed on what might be the first viable weapon. The primary formation was a version of the one used for forming the condensed mana rods with a few changes. The circle was the same width as the mana rod, and the collectors and conduits (as he had taken to calling the crescents and sinusoid lines respectively) had been bent back to conform to the shape of the rod to facilitate drawing from the cylinder rather than the surroundings. The trigger was essentially a wedge that would break or complete the prime circle: fundamentally it functioned in the same way as a light switch with the prime circle acting as the circuit.

On the opposing side of the circle, there was an open-ended nonuple helix which extended all the way from the primary formation until the end of the wooden rod which formed a barrel of sorts. Why had he chosen nine spirals? Three sets of three; whether working in threes affected anything or not he couldn’t tell, but something about the idea of three as a “magic number” had sunk into his brain from the texts he had been reading.

With the prospective weapon in one hand and a mana rod in the other he left the workshop and headed to what had become the testing range. This was the same area that he had used for testing the mana condensing tubes.

Incidentally, the formation with empty carvings had never stopped spinning. It had also never formed a mana rod. Instead, it had started spewing belmist ceaselessly from either end. Eventually, he had been forced to use a shotgun from Joel’s collection to destroy the array to prevent it from generating an ever-expanding cloud of mist.

After some of the tests had failed dramatically, he had taken to using a sawhorse, clamp, and trigger-line setup where the test weapon could be activated from a distance. Joel must have noticed him setting things up because the younger man approached as he was preparing the test.

“This the one?”

“Should be. I think I’ve fixed everything from the other versions.”

“You know, your confidence is inspiring.”

Mitch didn’t reply but checked to make sure that the trigger was in the off position before he loaded the mana rod into the breach and screwed on the cap. Nothing immediately blew up, which was a good sign.

There was a rock protrusion nearby which may or may not provide any form of protection against catastrophic failure, but which the two men chose to believe would offer them a chance of survival providing that they were on the opposite side of the promontory relative to said failure.

Once they had ensconced themselves within the area they had decided, correctly or otherwise, was their safe zone, Mitch pulled the line attached to the trigger. He was not sure what to expect, but silence was not among the possibilities. After yanking the cord a few more times to make sure that it wasn’t a fluke both men cautiously came out from behind the rock. Based on the quietude each was expecting next to nothing, but they were greeted by the sight of glassed rock. It was not quite molten, but everything beyond about a meter from the tip of the weapon had been fused in a way that seemed to indicate an extremely high temperature.

Steam rose from the path of the weapon as water in the air was vaporized by the residual heat. There was a divot in the stone between the tip of the weapon and the wall of the quarry that expanded into a hemispherical indentation in the vertical stone face of the quarry. The damage faded quickly from the center of what must have been an intense beam of energy. Everything within a sixty-degree arc from the end of the weapon had been affected in some way. Slag dripped down the wall and pooled in the divot left by the energy projected by the armament.

The central ten degrees suffered the most significant damage. Beyond that, the effect faded rapidly resulting in a dome being carved in the wall and a divot in the rock of the ground. Overall the path the weapon cut looked like a flashlight beam had been turned up to eleven. The most important detail was that the weapon itself was still intact.

Mitch was left with one conclusion: success. It may be something of a blunderbuss, but the weapon appeared to be functional. He let out an irrepressible shout accompanied by a jump and a fist pump as though his favorite team had just scored a clutch touchdown. American football had never been his thing, but he now understood how fans had felt before professional sports had collapsed after the first Tolling.

**

It worked.

Joel had been fully expecting either a dud or a bomb after the last few rounds of tests, but everything seemed to work out according to plan this time. The weapon didn’t even appear to have been damaged. The lightly glowing scar in the granite acted as a testament to the potential of the prototype.

Despite a rash of developments after Mitch’s discovery the week before, his own project was unable to offer anywhere near the destructive potential that had been displayed a moment ago. At the deepest point, nearly three inches of rock had been either melted or vaporized. Even his energy beam did not approach that level. It was both heartening and frightening at the same time. If he used this as an example, given time to prepare, he was unable to see a scenario where techniques like those which he was developing would be able to challenge someone well versed in the creation of formations.

He felt almost too shocked to celebrate. While the long-term potential of his form had yet to be explored, Mitch had managed to create both arms and ammunition to stand against the mutants in a short period of time.

Mitch’s advancements seemed exponential while his own seemed linear. He refused to feel inferior, but it was a near thing.

**

Mitch’s excitement lasted right up until he opened the breach to remove the mana rod; the rod was over half gone. In total, at least by Mitch’s estimate, there had been about five seconds worth of firing time between all of the trigger pulls. Assuming that estimate was accurate then, guessing based on what was left, about three seconds of firing time remained.

This was nowhere near the yield he had been hoping for. It seemed his assumptions about the energy density of these mana rods may have been excessive. Either that or there were massive inefficiencies in the formation; neither of those things was good, and together they meant that this test was not nearly as much of a success as he had initially thought. He had three options: increase the efficiency of the formation, make a less thirsty weapon, or produce several butt tons of mana rods.

As he continued the inspection more bad news revealed itself. While the barrel had not lost integrity, it appeared to have been a near thing. The wood in the barrel was scorched black, and the salt had started to melt out of the lines. It may have been able to survive the remaining three seconds of firing time, but that would have been the limit. At least the back half survived unscathed.

Mitch took a few deep breaths then grabbed the latest failure and strode back to the work area. Although it was much better than anything that had come before, it was back to the drawing board. Again.