Lukas Aguilar frowned at the spotless ceiling above him.

For someone that used to welcome the infinite blackness of the starry sky, living in a world where the concept of ‘darkness’ and ‘shadows’ were practically anathema was weird as shit. There were no lights — no neons, no LEDs, nothing at all. Every single surface shone, as if light was falling directly on it. No matter whichever way he turned his face, and however much he squinted his eyes, there was absolutely no shadow.

Anywhere.

No shadow. No darkness. People divided days and nights based on the color of the sky. When the sun was up, the sky was lit up with vibrant crimson and yellow. Even after sunset, the rest of the world would stay illuminated, making ‘night’ nothing more than a velvety black cover to cover the radiant crimson of the morning sky.

Gods, he hated it. He hated it so much that he’d just shut his eyes and embraced the familiar darkness behind his eyelids. At the very least, the damned Eternal Light didn’t reach there. He really didn’t know what he’d do if it did. There were moments when Lukas wished for the darkness of the decrepit cave he had found himself in. Even the pitch blackness of the yokai prison now felt more welcoming than this byzantine, ever-bright, shadow-less world.

If not for his newly gained Omphalos functions, he’d probably have lost it already.

Thinking about shadows and the yokai reminded him of a certain black-haired monstrosity.

Solana.

She had promised that she’d kill him if he ever joined hands with the Asukan side. Granted, Tanya and her folks had taken his dead form to Haviskali without his knowing, but his prior agreement kind of implied that they had his permission. Besides, it wasn’t like Solana was the goody-two-shoes kind either. She might have kept her word about hiring him, but with a literal sword hanging above his head, promising a gruesome death should he ever leave her employment. Also, she had tried to manipulate him into Sinning, making it impossible for him to join the other side. It was this sort of backstabbing politics that reminded him of back home. Humanity might not have had lifeforce or mana or any of these myriad powers, but their potential for treachery and crimes made Solana look like a newbie.

A knock sounded on the door, breaking him out of his reverie.

Prey Found You

Deactivate Created Territory?

Territory Creation. A brand new Omphalos Function he had gained after waking up in Haviskali. A reflection of how his body was slowly changing more and more into an Anomaly. He might still look human, but the changes were vivid if one knew where to look. Increased lifeforce and mana production, increased rejuvenation and physical strength— all of them were impressive by themselves, but the real signs were far more subtle.

Living Anomaly— the ability to ignore Rules that were alien to ‘Earth’.

Territory Creation — the ability to create a… well a territory for lack of a better world,around himself, one where only the Rules of his world existed, and nothing else. A boundary layer shipping on the real world outside, where light and shadow were counterparts of each other, instead of this fraud called Eternal Light.

And of course, Soul Siphon.

Not to mention the Screen, which Lukas was slowly recognising as the interface between his own spiritual existence and the Omphalos within him, was becoming more interactive, more responsive to his commands.

Living Anomaly deactivated within Created Territory

Created Territory Deactivated

And just like that, the shadows around him dissipated, and Lukas got off his bed.

Someone knocked on the door again.

Scanning Registered Prey

Found Matches with ‘Changeling’

Accessing Monster Prototype Array

Accessing species ‘Changeling’

…

Found NULL

RECOMMENDATION

Soul Siphon?

Lukas rolled his eyes.

Recommendation for Soul Siphon of ‘Changeling’ Rejected

Acknowledged.

Gone were the days where he had to play twenty questions to get the Screen to do something productive. Now? It was literally ‘recommending’ him to act like an Anomaly and add as many ‘prototypes’ as he could. The good part about this was that the Screen had become far more responsive to his commands. The bad side? It was an annoying pain in the ass.

PRIME HOST has ignored 27 Recommendations

Possible Lack of Synchronization between HOST and OMPHALOS

Re-enact Babysitter Protocol?

Yeah, that’s what he was talking about.

There was a knock a third time.

“Coming” He yelled, and strode towards the door. Holding it wide open, he found Elena lounging against the doorframe, her lips twisted in resigned annoyance and a single eyebrow raised, as if demanding an apology.

“Yea?” He ventured, wondering why the changeling— Elena had come for him. At first sight, one would think that Olfric was the one that held the maximum animosity towards him. But the reality was that Olfric Bergott was a simple person that liked things to fall into neat boxes. And when he encountered something that did not fall into his preconceived notions of reality, he tended to react a bit… aggressively.

That was all.

Elena though…

“Zuken asked me to get you.”

Lukas frowned. “For?”

“To begin your training.”

Lukas blinked. Surely she didn’t mean actual training? Sure, Tanya still might be able to best him in a head-on battle, but she was an exception. Compared to her, Zuken was just… average.

“What kind of training?”

Elena peered around into Lukas’s room, as if expecting someone inside. “I’m not sure of the particulars, but he wants you to get started on the Shikigami Ritual.”

“The what?”

“The Shikigami Ritual,” She repeated “It’s the spell that spiritists use to trap kami and use them as mana-forges for manacrafting.”

Interesting. Maybe he was really being serious about Lukas being spotted.

“He wants you to learn the spell and see if you can Bind a kami to yourself. Preferably one that can perform—”

“Metamancy,” Lukas finished for her.

“Right.”

“And who’s gonna teach me?”

“Mostly Tanya, but Zuken wants Olfric to give you a thorough grounding on the subject.”

Lukas arched an eyebrow. The idea that he’d be taught to wield kami by the same person who lost his own to him was ironic on multiple levels. “Olfric? I thought he didn’t have a kami any longer.”

That vanished any and all expressions from Elena’s face. “That… might be so, but he’s trained in the Onmyodo arts. Most spiritists just end up mugging the spell and performing it, but not him. Olfric really understands what he’s doing.”

Lukas frowned. That reminded him of Inanna’s words. She had mentioned the difference between ‘spellcrafting’ and ‘skills’, promising to revisit the topic later. She had mentioned how a spell was carried out in the mind of the caster, and often employed props to create suitable conditions for performing it. She might have said more, but he hadn’t been in any condition to pay attention.

Having your brain crumble did that to you.

“And I guess he’s terribly enthusiastic about teaching me this stuff.”

“Yes,” Elena seemed inordinately proud that her voice hadn’t hitched at all.

Lukas smirked.

The changeling sighed. “Olfric needs a kami, but as he is now, trying to get one will get him killed.”

“And so Banksi wants him to teach me, so that we both go together and help each other. No, wait, he’s probably roped Tanya into this just to ensure I don’t end up spilling Olfric’s guts after he runs his mouth and annoys me a bit too much.”

“I wouldn’t put it that way—”

“But it fits, doesn’t it?”

Elena groaned. “Just come with me, already.”

“Tell me this,” He persisted, “how does Banksi know that I can even do this Ritual in the first place?”

“He doesn’t, but we can find out if you just get on with it.”

“Fine! Fine!”

Lukas straightened his clothing, feeling Blob— his meowing aqāru familiar— shift around over his chest. Blob wasn’t the most reliable thing he knew, but he could trust the aqāru-slime to instantly react if something tried to physically harm him. How that ‘reaction’ would turn out though was anybody’s guess.

Closing his door from the outside, he joined Elena as she moved down the hallway. If Zuken wanted Olfric to teach him, then he wasn’t going to complain, no matter what the hour. They walked down the steps to the first floor, crossing the armory that contained several sets of chain mail and an enormous number of weapons that Banksi had collected for whatever reason. There were a couple of half-finished furniture projects lying in another. The kitchen however, was bustling with activity.

And then Elena paused on her tracks.

Lukas mirrored her.

“Lukas…. That’s what you’re called, right?”

“Last I checked, yes.”

He wasn’t sure what Elena wanted to talk to him about, but it was certain she had planned it out in her head.

She turned and faced him, meeting his eyes. A tingle went through his head. She had sharp cheekbones, and her bright gray-silver eyes capable of boring through plate steel. Long, brown tresses fell down on either side of her head, accentuating her slender, elfin ears.

And yet⸻

There was something odd about her. In the way she carried herself. She did not have the ethereal, impossible beauty that was Inanna, or the cruel, poisonous allure that Tanya exuded. Instead it was one of those sensations you have trouble remembering afterward, like the last moments of a dream before waking up. The sort that you know you’re going to forget once you awake, and you can’t believe you could lose something so significant, so undeniably tangible.

It was simply a fact, like gravity, that everyone's attention should be directed to her face. Her eyes. An unconscious act performed, oblivious to the fact that their minds were already ensnared. As would Lukas, if not for Level-5 Alpha Condition holding vigil at the back of his mind.

The tingling sensation faded, and the real Elena came into focus.

He looked at her. Her body language. Her mannerisms. The way she asserted herself.

His mind threw up a bunch of contradictions. For someone capable of ensnaring anyone, Elena appeared like she knew what was attractive about her, but didn’t quite get why it was so. At the same time, she had this bubbly, airheaded facade in front of others, but to Lukas, she felt different. Not someone that reveled in her power to manipulate others, but one that thought of it as one big joke.

Lukas gave her an edged smile. “Yes?”

“Why can’t I sense your mind?”

“Excuse me?”

She arched an eyebrow. “You know exactly what I mean. And you know exactly why it is so. I can read your face just fine, but your mind— your emotions. They just… slip away from me, and I want to know why.”

Great, and now she expected him to share the reason behind his immunity with her. Lukas wasn’t sure whether to laugh or scoff at the lack of professionalism that applied.

“You want me to tell you why…” Lukas trailed off, not bothering to hide his disbelief. “When I burst out laughing at you, do you think you’ll be offended?”

The look of incomprehension on her face reminded him of a child stuck in a difficult puzzle. Just a little more and she’d be throwing a tantrum.

That expression made him let out a harsh burst of laughter. “You… want you to… I mean, you really expect me to tell you why you cannot manipulate me into doing what you want? That’s so cute I could just put you in my pocket.”

Elena bared her teeth in sudden anger as she stared at him with undisguised suspicion. “You may think you’re funny, but I know better. There’s something wrong with you.”

Lukas cocked his head. “You’re not really going to get anywhere by trying to intimidate me, you know.”

“We’ll see about that,” Elena replied just as nonchalantly, as if discussing the weather. “Get this through, Aguilar. I don’t trust you. Whatever lies you’ve fed Zuken, I’ll get to the bottom of it. I’ll stop you from taking advantage of his weakness.”

His weakness?

“—and just because you’re an Outsider doesn’t mean you’re safe.”

Lukas narrowed his eyes and activated Tachypsychia, allowing his perception to slow down vastly compared to the reality outside. As the time between heart beats crawled slower and slower, he couldn’t help but observe Elena’s reactions in a new light. There was no doubt that she had gone out of her way to arrange for this little meeting, but whether these actions were a result of her own incapability to tweak his mind, or a reaction from seeing Banksi’s behavior, Lukas couldn’t tell. And with that came a second realization that unlike Olfric, blunt antagonism wasn’t going to work on her. She literally read people's emotions as she talked to them, she had probably played every mindgame around.. No, if he wanted to deal with this mind-bending pixie, he had to play a whole different type of game.

One that Inanna often played with him.

“I see,” He said, meeting her eyes, “You love him.”

He had half-expected Elena to give an explosive reaction to his crass statement. Maybe a blush, maybe a flustered reaction, or an open denial. There was a chance that she’d probably even get angry or worse, attack him, not that it would make any difference.

He had certainly not expected her to gaze blankly back at him and say—

“Love? Why’d you think that?”

But there he was.

“Zuken is my employer,” She repeated, the blandness now mixed with resolve, “And it’s my job to ensure his well-being.”

Huh. What side of Elena had he cracked open now?

“And you think that I mean him harm?”

“In what way is my opinion relevant to the truth?”

“Is there any way it isn’t?” He shot back.

She let out a soft, musical laugh. “You think you can worm out secrets about my business with him?”

“Was that what I was aiming for?”

“Are we going to stand around answering each other’s questions with more questions?” She demanded.

His smile widened. “Would you like that?”

She lifted a hand, capitulating. Lukas inclined his head slightly, a gracious victor. He had grilling hours of excruciating wordplay with Inanna on his resume, and she was a grandmaster of this art.

Elena gave him a look of pure calculation. “I would… like to know why Zuken trusts you?”

“Why not ask him yourself?”

She eyed him without actually looking at him.

“He wouldn’t… tell me.”

His mouth twisted at one corner. “Ouch. That must have hurt.”

Elena gave him a look of pure calculation. “Did you psychomance his mind?”

Lukas arched an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“Don’t play dim. I’ve seen you stiffen and your pupils move superfast from time to time. You can slow or speed up your inner perception. Obviously you have some skill in Psionics.”

Lukas was impressed. His instincts were right. There was a lot more to Elena than what meets the eye.

“Lifeforce. Pyromancy. Metamancy. Regeneration. Psionics.” She counted. “Anything you can’t do?”

“Can’t vanish myself off this world, apparently. It’d be nice not to deal with twenty thousand questions for once.”

“Aguilar!” She replied sternly.

Lukas blinked, and smiled. “Ah so you do know my full name then. Fun.”

Elena narrowed her eyes. “I can’t believe I have to ask this. Can you die?”

Lukas shivered as the feeling of blackness enveloping him like a blanket came to mind. He couldn’t help but also think of the time Quonnan had him possessed. Or the time Olfric had injured him. Or that time when Ryu had nearly skewered him with those fiery swords of his.

Oh hell.

“I don’t know,” He heard himself say, and it was an honest truth. After all the misses so far, he had no clue anymore.

Elena stared at him blankly. “You don’t know?”

“It didn’t take the first few times I died,” Lukas explained lightly, scratching the back of his head. “I guess, I can, maybe. I don’t intend to test it out though, if you don’t mind.”

She nodded slowly.

“You know,” Lukas replied, “I’m a ‘live and let live’ kinda guy. All this antagonism, it isn’t scoring any points with me. Whatever it is your employer wants with me, he can have it, but not if he, or you I suppose, keeps trying to step on my feet. I’ve already told him what I need, and we have an agreement. As long as he sticks to his part of it.”

Elena gave him an irritable look. “Fine!” She said it like it was the vilest curse imaginable, and turned her back on him. “Follow me.”

So he did.

“Does it feel any different?” Tanya asked.

“Is it supposed to?”

“It feels a little weird the first time around. But you’ll get used to it.”

“Oh.”

He was trying out the brand-new wristbands that Zuken had gotten for him. He had seen Tanya and the others wear it on their wrists, but had chalked it off as a fashion accessory. Apparently it was way more than that.

“What do these even do?” He demanded, looking at the bands on either wrist. Jet black, with seven ornate spirals of silver running through them. Tanya had a similar pair, only hers was gray with five silver spirals. He fairly remembered that Banksi’s bands had a dark, chocolate brown matrix while Olfric had prussian blue ones. Elena? He doubted he had ever seen her wear any.

“These are fractals,” Tanya explained, showing off her own. “You see, our bodies aren’t exactly great at conducting mana, and end up getting poisoned or worse, directly affected by the conjured mana we produce—”

The memory of Quonnan incinerating her own host body came to mind.

“—so we use these fractals to amplify mana in our stead, allowing them to take the stain we cannot. Make no mistake, even with these, one can only channel so much mana before our elemental balance goes awry. That’s… not a pretty sight.”

“I hear you,” Lukas replied, glancing at his own pair of fractals. “But looks aside, I can conjure mana just fine by myself. So why am I being forced into these?”

“Because, even an ordinary pair of fractals increases one’s mana output by twenty percent.”

That stopped him short.

“And these?”

“Close to ninety percent,” Tanya replied, the smug little thing that she was, “But these are the most expensive of the lot, and not everyone has Zuken Banksi sponsoring them.”

But Lukas was already ignoring her. He could almost double his mana output just by wearing these? And considering what he was currently capable of—

Maximum Mana Output

6325

Yeah. This was going to be fun.

“And I imagine the number of spirals are—”

“Proportional to your output.”

“What about the colours?”

Tanya gave him an impish grin. “Fashion statements. It takes a rare spiritist to manipulate more than one element. Not all of us can be Outsiders, can we?”

Lukas arched an eyebrow at her but said nothing. He had seen Tanya effortlessly manipulate Frost to do her bidding, despite having a wind kami at her command. But there was nothing to be gained from letting the others know that.

“You’re supposed to be a metamancer,” Elena chimed in, her airheaded mask back in place. The expression melted into her face so well that it was almost impossible to think she could be anything else.

“And that’s why the black color.”

“Why don’t you try it out?” Tanya suggested.

Lukas shrugged. Reaching out to his mana was always an instinctive process. To this date, he hadn’t quite understood how he managed to eject flames, or craft ether for that matter, without so much as charing his body. He had seen Quonnan literally immolate herself, but nothing of that sort had happened when he had instinctively channeled fire, even for the first time.

Maybe it had something to do with the Ley Line Network? Time would tell.

Lukas tentatively reached out to his power. He felt the familiar frosted coldness of Ether, and the cold, brimming power that came with it. Just by holding that power, everything felt more… real somehow. While not the true power of creation that Anomalous Energy was, Metamancy could be used to materialize some very cool things.

His first instinct was to try and reconstruct one of those vatuatil daggers. He had lost all of his pairs in the final battle with the Crypt. Then his mind had shifted towards Olfric’s sword, but he didn’t want to give the guy an even bigger head. Finally, his thoughts revisited Inanna, and the exemplary weapon of an ax she wielded with impossible dexterity. The things he had seen her accomplish with that weapon were simply mind-boggling.

But Lukas wasn’t an ax user, and no matter how cool it’d look, he simply could not make optimum use for it. No, he needed to craft something that he could use, and preferably something more than melee weapons. Crafting arrows and a bow sounded useful, but he had no training in Archery, though he supposed he could cheat using Shatterpoint Intuition. Maybe a gun? His grandfather did own a Smith & Wesson 460, capable of firing six .44 magnum bullets one after the other. In a world of monsters, it would be exactly the kind of weapon he’d need. Why, with his increased strength, he’d face no problems firing bullet after bullet like action-heroes did in the movies. It would be…

“...stupid,” he finished, realizing how utterly close-minded he was.

He exhaled. “All this learning to harness potential, and I jump to technology the first chance I get.”

Guns? Why would he need them? He could develop his kinetomancy to hurl anything, from tiny projectiles to bladed weapons at bullet-like speeds or faster. Seismic Sensing was his answer to locating his targets within his range. Shatterpoint Intuition could add missile-homing technology to his projectiles. Metamancy ensured he could conjure an unlimited number of weapons, which would dissipate the moment they ran out of juice, leaving zero residue. And last but not the least, his own reserves and these fractals would ensure he could keep firing for hours. If he could develop his abilities further, he’d be able to conjure a larger number of projectiles and launch them all at once.

Now that would be impressive, don’t you think Ina—

He paused. A waft of loneliness hit him all over again. Frowning, Lukas silently watched as the rest of the weapon disintegrated into motes of silver that evaporated into the air.

“Lukas?” Tanya demanded.

“Never mind. These fractals seem to work just fine,” he tried to digress. What else was he gonna say? That he was suddenly reminded of the Goddess that used to live in his head?

He didn’t meet Tanya’s eyes but said, “Tell me about this kami business again.”

Elena cocked her head in Tanya’s direction who nodded.

“Kami are spirits. Apparitions that have spiritual bodies and a consciousness so alien that it’s almost impossible to understand them, except for the most rudimentary impulses. Beings from a world that runs parallel to our own, and yet beyond our perception.”

That gained his attention. Tanya was talking about the Haze. A world with broken laws, existing only as an endless labyrinth traversing across the entire world. A dimension through which the yokai could travel from anywhere to anywhere, disregarding geographic or political boundaries.

“If their world is beyond your perception, how do you catch them?”

Tanya smiled. “There are… spots, where our world meets theirs. An intersection that traverses both worlds and yet belongs to neither. Places that are so saturated with mana that most bremetans would suffocate within an hour. It’s where you can find wild kami. Their zone of power, their dominions.”

“A borderland,” Elena surmised.

“Borderland,” Lukas repeated, as if hearing the word for the first time.

“There’s more. We have locations in the real world that we call Wells. Through these Wells, one can enter and exit a particular borderland. And if you know how, you can lure a kami out of a borderland—”

“And then catch it when it’s on this side of the world,” Lukas finished.

“Yes,” Tanya affirmed, looking at him with interest. “Kami do not have soul capacity. They do not grow, evolve, become anything other than what they were born with. That’s why they need to possess physical creatures. So that they can use the victim’s soul capacity to promote their own growth. We take advantage of this behavior, lure it out, and then capture it, binding it to ourselves through the Shikigami Ritual.”

Lukas had come full circle. The Shikigami Ritual— this must have been what Solana had referred to back then. One that utilized the power of the Eternal Light and forced the kami into servitude, allowing Asukans to utilize them as tools that allowed them to do the impossible.

Manacrafting.

Solana told me I could get a kami of my choice after I killed the anomaly. Something to keep in mind for later.

He regarded the two women before him. “What about the elements? I assume every kami can use a single element then?”

“Yes and no,” said Tanya, tilting her head. “Most kami can, upon given soul capacity, develop skills for multiple elements, with varying degrees of affinity. But in the end, it doesn’t matter, because a spiritist would choose a single route and progress along that.”

“So it’s a matter of choice.”

“And soul capacity,” Tanya reminded him.

That too. He could progress in any element he wanted, but unless he had the required soul capacity to burn, his choices meant little.

In that sense, a kami that had attributes for Fire and Ether would fit him best. Fire, because that was what he had maximum experience in. Ether, because it was versatile and made him stand out.

Show me information on kami.

Scanning Index for ‘KAMI’

Searches returned TRUE for Monster Prototype MARID

ContInue?

No.

Acknowledged.

But that got him thinking.

“So… are all kami the same with just elemental differences?”

Tanya snorted. “The thing is, our own history is filled with multitudes of spiritual creatures that fit the description of ‘kami’. By Wind, some of the old legends mention about the kami having their own gods. And then there are folk tales about nightmarish creatures that stalked these lands before the Great Goddess illuminated the world with her Eternal Light and rid the world of shadows and dark creatures.”

Elena stood up. Something about her posture felt stiff. Too stiff. “I’ll go call Olfric. He can continue with the Ritual while you finish talking about the types.”

Tanya paid her no mind, except a casual one-shoulder shrug.

With a single, inscrutable glance in his direction, Elena turned around and left.

….

“She doesn’t really like you, does she?” Tanya observed.

“We all can’t be winners,” Lukas replied, turning his head to see Elena vanish past the door of the room. Something about her behavior bugged him, but he wasn’t able to put a finger on it. Deciding to ignore it for later, Lukas turned towards his more affable, aeromancy expert.

“So, you were saying?”