The Drakyn State Building was a structure which towered into the sky, molded into a haphazard spiral structure. While all the floors remained parallel to the ground, the structure itself resembled a staircase winding into the heavens. A spectrum of colors had been splattered onto the surface, drowning away the dismal gray coating that grated the eyes. Obscured by thick, lush greenery and towering trees, the location of The Building, aptly named, was known to very few.

But, still, there were those few that could find it. And those were the few that knew what to do with it.

Guards were stationed around the periphery of The Building, despite the numerous protection and hiding charms shielding it from harm. No matter what steps officials took to preserve the grandiose dignity of the government building, all spells come with a counterspell. While some spells are only broken through a meticulous concoction of magical feats, some are more simple.

Prince Colton, tucked carefully beneath a shrub, directed a small wooden sculpture of a ballerina with a white stone tucked at the top toward the building. His hand gripped the dark oak handle, and he maintained a close distance to the ground.

“What’s the spell we’re undoing?” Ken Lance hissed as he glared at the glowing tip. “Is this really something we need to use ethreallics for? Shouldn’t we use daemonics? I mean...we are trying to undo a spell created with ethreallics.”

A smirk crossed Prince’s face. “No, watch this. You know how the Auburn Protection Charm requires this kind of motion?” he said, dragging his wand from left to right.

“Right?”

“Watch this.”

Prince dragged the wand from right to left. The change was nearly imperceptible. The thin stream of light like water dripping from a rusty faucet touched against what appeared to be a barrier, pulled taut like a membrane. The portion of the barrier touched by the spell suddenly fizzled, ripples coursing through the membrane like a pebble cast into the ocean. Within a moment, the ripples had carried further down enough to create a small, circular opening in the nearly imperceptible barrier.

“Are we meeting Marina on the other side?”

Prince rolled his eyes as he slithered through the opening. “Oh, Marina? You really think her plan would work? Come on. There’s no way.”

Ken narrowed his eyes as he stumbled after Prince, who’s blue jacket fluttered behind him in the epitome of elegance. “She seemed fairly convinced that her tunnel would be more effective than this.”

“Well, we know for a fact that it’s not more effective. We know this because here we are, on the other side of the barrier, and guess where she is? Not here, clear-”

“You talking about me?” Marina Lana said, lips spread in a wide grin of mirth as she stepped out from behind a tree.

Marina was a short, fat woman with a bob of bright green hair, skin tinted a defined shade of green. She wore a dark black cloak over an ensemble of dark clothing. Prince Colton demonstrated a more refined sense of fashion. His blue coat, fixed with metal fastenings at the shoulders and a collar that looped around his neck, had been crafted from high-quality iceric crystallics. His skin boasted a cold blue tint, while his dark blue hair was fixed under an icy hat. Ken was a human, probably, with a much less interesting character design that will be avoided for the time being.

“Goddamn it,” Prince exclaimed. “You cheated. I know you did. There is no way you honestly got ahead of me. What was your trick?”

“I blasted through the ground with the sheer force of my large dick,” Marina said, clapping Prince on the padded shoulders. “Just drilled a hole in that mother trucker.”

“In the dick, or in the ground?”

“In the dick, actually.” Marina glanced toward the building surrounded by faint,

shimmering distortions that twitched at odd intervals. “We need to keep going. No need to stop now, right?”

“Maybe we should,” Ken muttered suddenly. “Stop, I mean. This isn’t a good idea?”

“Thanks for letting us know before we got this far,” Marina said with a wink. “You’re a really smart man. When are you getting your nobel peace prize delivered?”

“Are you some sort of coward?” Prince scoffed, cocking an eyebrow. “You certainly must be. Or are you going to give us another faulty prediction?”

“That was one time,” Ken snapped. “I had one faulty prediction. Ethreallic divination isn’t a precise science. Mistakes happen. But the probability of our mission failing is pretty high.”

“I’m betting that it’s not as high as I got last night, ain’t that right, ice dream queen?” Marina laughed, giving Prince a high-five.

“Will you keep your voice down?” Ken hissed.

“Oh, you sorry little man,” Prince sighed, shaking his head, his expression suggesting that Ken was a pitiful rat shivering in the corner of the freezer he became trapped in. “Didn’t we tell you that we put invisibility charms on ourselves? Invisibility charms come with noise suppression.”

“I still don’t understand how you did it,” Ken said. “What crystallic combination did you use?”

“Not rosearics, of course,” Marina said with a grin, half-lidded eyes flashing with mockery. “Not the magic of mental manipulation and distortions.”

“Goddamn it!” Prince said in a dramatic, booming voice. “Kennethin, won’t you get it together?”

“My name really isn’t Kennethin.” Ken’s fingers curled into fists. “Can’t you two take me seriously for once?”

“Absolutely not,” Prince and Marina said in unison.

“Who even put this spell on us? Neither of you are experienced with rosearics.”

“Rohan gave us rosearic crystallics charged with the spell,” Marina said, for once releasing the cruel mockery from her voice. “We packed your crystallic carrier with a bunch of charged crystallics.”

Victor’s Basics of Practitioning

Charged Crystallic: A crystallic that is charged with a pre-cast spell. While spells can be cast on the spot with any crystallic, the most powerful, successful, and common spells are cast with crystallics already charged with a spell. Charged crystallics are typically carved with symbols that activate certain powers of crystallics.

Note: A crystallic that is charged with a spell cannot be used to cast another spell. Practitioners at the highest skill level often prefer using uncharged crystallics.

Crystallic Carrier: A container that holds crystallics charged with certain spells. Typically, crystallics in a container have passive properties, while crystallics stored in active containers like staffs and wands (or even on hand) are used for spells with controlled detonation.

“It would have been nice if you had told me about this sooner,” Ken grumbled as the trio trekked forward, carefully treading the unpredictable path toward The Building.

“Just follow our leads. That’s all you need to do, my fine feathered friend,” Prince said.

“Are you being racist? I’ll — Marina, look out!”

If Ken’s warning had come a moment later, it would have been too late. Marina had instinctively dropped to the floor as a green substance whisked passed her, splattering onto the ground. The substance fizzled and bubbled, consuming the affected area like acid, withering the grass and cracking the stones.

Prince took a step back, shock flooding his body.

The creature which had emerged from the forest towered twenty feet into the air, rivaling the lofty treetops. The body was a mass of muscle; scallic, limbless form coiling upright like that of a massive snake. Instead of a face there was nothing but a maw — the head was nothing more than a slit cleaving through the enormous tube of a body, crowded teeth lining every available space of the mouth, coiling into the roof of the mouth, overflowing into the throat. As the creature approached, an inescapable high-pitched tone pierced their minds.

No, not their ears. It wasn’t something they could hear.

Their minds.

With the sound came a foreign terror. Yes, adrenaline and fear burst through their bodies, but this terror was not one generated by their bodies.

Victor’s Basics of Practitioning:

Intro to Eneric and Anti-eneric Zoology Study

Anti-Enerium Beings: Most beings with a body composed of anti-enerium are able to artificially generate varying levels of terror and madness into their victims. While mindless beings like the wormthorn giant cannot create lasting damage with their terror generation, the effects can be catastrophic to the untrained practitioner.

“What is this?” Ken exclaimed, panic contorting his expression beyond recognition. “I can’t move...I can’t…”

“Get it together,” Prince snapped, striding in front of Ken, wand brandished towards the wormthorn giant. “This beast cannot see or hear us. The only perception this damn thing has is smell.”

“S-smell?” Ken stuttered. “Oh my god...It is going to kill us.”

Without warning, the creature lunged toward Prince. He had no time to think — his arm shot up over his face instinctively. The wand was fitted into his back pocket, out of easy reach. A thick sheet of razor-sharp ice penetrated the wormthorn’s maw, slicing through the scales into the mouth. The sloppy execution of the spell caused a backfire that sent Prince flying into a tree.

“Prince!” Marina cried out as she watched Prince’s descent.

The whining noise the wormthorn emanated only grew louder and more jarring. While the ice blades had slowed the monster’s lunge, the creature expressed no sign of distress. Trickles of black blood snaked through the scales, but he reacted as if he had not felt the damage.

Ken, who had not moved from his spot, screamed as he watched the monster rear its head, or mouth, or whatever it was toward the sky, bracing for another attack.

Marina, two green stones closed in her fists, dropped to the floor and pressed her knuckles into the earth. Cracks burst through the grass surrounding the monster, shattering in a glass-like formation. Within a second, the earth’s fragment rose from the earth -- the wormthorn was airborne, the piercing noise flooding their heads with a fierce intensity.

“What are you doing!” Ken exclaimed. “The monster will—!”

Just as Ken had predicted, the creature launched itself back onto solid ground, catapulting its face into Marina, crouched in a vulnerable stance.

A strangled cry escaped Marina’s lips as she dove to the side, the tooth slicing through her skin, a burst of dark green blood springing from her exposed wound.

Prince, who had regained his consciousness quickly after slamming into a tree, returned to his feet. He ripped the white stone from the weapon, but before he could make the swap, the creature lurched forward, launching itself toward Ken. Without a trace of hesitation, Prince forced the black daemonic stone into the wand and pointed it at the creature. He rolled the stone into the correct position and whipped the stick toward the monster.

A stream of black light sprung from the tip of the wand, slicing into the monster’s back. This time, the creature responded. The high pitched sound vibrating in their ears grew unbearable. Ken collapsed, keeling forward onto his knees and closing his palms around his ears.

“I can’t take this anymore,” Ken sobbed. “I’m so scared...I’m so scared...Please,

someone help me!”

Prince sprinted across the field toward Marina, who had fallen forward, blood drenching her cloak. “Marina, Marina! Are you —?”

Wham!

The blind wormthorn’s snout crashed into Prince. A strangled yell escaping his lips, he crumpled to the floor, profanities on his breath.

“What the hell is this thing?” Marina exclaimed as she, with one hand wrapped around her wounded midriff and one hand pressed against the earth, forced a dirt wall to rise from the ground like a zombie.

If she had waited a second longer, she would have died.

The monster’s fang-swollen jaws sliced through the wall, raining debris onto Marina.

“Do something! Ken, help us!” Marina demanded as the creature struggled to escape the wall, slipping unceremoniously with every tug.

“I can’t help...I can’t do anything. I’m so scared. I can’t do this. I can’t do anti-enerium beings. I just can’t, I…”

As the creature writhed and throbbed in Marina’s wall, the noise climbing octave after octave like an overambitious mountain climber. Suddenly, Prince was there. With another flick of his wand, a black fog burst from it. This fog sent black projectiles, the end sharpened like a blade, into the creature. The jaw unhinged and wailed through the sky, the telepathic shrieking sending Marina back to her knees, one bloodied hand clutched against her ear, the other pressed against the earth.

Another wall erupted from the earth as trails of ice began scampering up the spine of the worm, that writhed desperately to free itself.

Then came another lunge. As the worm flew toward Ken, who shrieked, a wall erupted from beneath it. Except, this wall did not stop. The height of the wall continued to rise, and as the worm began writhing its way down, another wall burst from the earth, slamming into the worm as it rose fifty feet, sixty feet, seventy feet, eighty feet, a hundred…

Just as abruptly as the worm rose did it plummet to the ground that was stolen from beneath it. With a final earsplitting cry, the monster collapsed into the earth, sinking several feet into the moist dirt. The impact sent vibrations coursing through the earth, but Marina maintained her grip by digging her fingers into the ground.

The ringing noise abruptly vanished from their minds, as did the manufactured terror.

“You couldn’t have done that a little bit more subtly?” Prince yelled. “There’s no way we haven’t been found.”

“We need to go back,” Marina said, hand pressed against the wound slashed through her shoulder.

“Are you injured?” Prince said as he fumbled to rise to his feet. “Is that blood?”

“No, it’s actually bird shit,” Marina said. “I’m fine. It’s not deep.”

“I’m sure they were alerted to our presence...Damn it, I had no idea these monsters were in here,” Prince said. “Nobody told me, or I would have been more prepared…”

“Oh shit, where’s Ken?”

The darkness shrouded the notable landmarks. The wormthorn was an indistinguishable mass — the trees were blemishes in the sky the color of ink soup. Prince and Marina began frantically scouring the grass until the moon glinted off of the feather’s lining Ken’s skin.

It wasn’t mentioned before, but Ken has bird feathers. He isn’t as important as everyone else, so he doesn’t deserve a proper description. In fact, most of the characters weren’t properly described. Their appearance was merely alluded to.

“Ken…?” Marina said, approaching the smaller mound splattered over the ground. “Are you good, Ken?”

Ken sprung up from the floor, breathing heavily, eyes flashing wildly about the scenery.

“Is it dead?” Ken demanded. “Is - is it dead?”

“No, it’s taking a nap,” Marina said.

“What?” Ken burst out.

“There’s no way to know for sure, but the ringing is gone,” Prince said, hoisting Ken to his feet. “That means it’s probably dead. Do you want to go back now? We won’t blame you if you do.”

Though Ken gratefully accepted Prince’s assistance, he pushed him away at his final comment, lip curling in disgust. “Sure you won’t. I know what you think of me.” His voice trembled like leaves quivering in a fierceful wind.

“There’s no need to be a little bitch,” Prince snapped. “We need to finish what we came here for. And we don’t need you for that.”

“Damn, you have a way with words,” Marina said, rolling her eyes. “What we mean is that this is your chance to turn back if you can’t deal with these wriggly guys.”

“That thing was more than just a wriggly guy. But I can deal with them. I’ve just never...Whatever. What are you talking about? I’m fine. I’ll keep going.” His unsteady legs suggested otherwise, but neither Prince nor Marina pressed the matter.

The incident with the wormthorn did not seem to alert The Building security systems. The obfuscation charms worked like a charm, believe it or not. After Marina wrapped a bandage over her wound, they pressed forward.

“We can’t go back anyway,” Ken said as he trailed behind the more experienced Practitioners. “We need to retrieve the Cessation Sword. I don’t understand why that exists, anyway, but that’s the only way to destroy the Parasite.”

“Well, I mean, the Parasite is a devil possessing a human, right?” Marina said. “Do you know where a devil get’s its power from?”

“The dark gods. The anti-enerium eldritch, as some would call them,” Prince replied. “Devils are servants of hell — direct servants of the incomprehensible beings that have created this magic that we have.”

“So, you know, what if the devil has different plans than the god it bows to?” Marina said, crossing her hands behind her back. “The god needs a way to destroy the devil if necessary. Gods can’t directly influence the living world, you know. Only through suggestion and with devils.”

“That doesn’t make sense to me. Even if they can’t directly influence the living world...I mean…” Ken crossed his arms. “A god that decides to reign targeted destruction in one location...I don’t get that. Most gods are just passive, aren’t they?”

“We can’t all know everything,” Prince said. “That’s something that we’re investigating too. All we know is that we can kill the Parasite if we find the Cessation Sword, kill the Devil’s Fragments with the sword, and then stab the Parasite.”

Ken wrapped his arms around himself, shrinking from the blinding darkness. “And how do you suppose we do that?”

“Do what?”

“Just stab an infinitely powerful being ruled by a god? You’ve tried to do it before, haven’t you? And you failed, right?”

Marina froze. She turned around to face Ken, her apathetic eyes ablaze with fury. Prince’s cocky expression became unreadable, emotions shrouded by a mask of detachment.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Marina said. “Don’t ever speak about that time again. You weren’t there. You didn’t know what happened.”

Ken’s righteous annoyance melted into wide-eyed shame. “I...but…”

“You have no right to say anything. For all intents and purposes, those years are lost. We don’t want them back.”

Without another word, she whirled around with enough time to see the snout of a dragon inches from her face.