Part Forty-Two

At first, everything felt hazy. Her mind swam, locked away behind a labyrinth of thoughts and memories. It wasn’t until she felt a reassuring warmth rub against her head that things began to clear back up, allowing her to eventually find her way back to consciousness.

Kalia sat up in bed, still feeling the ill effects of last night, but fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, things wouldn’t stay so calm for even a second. Now that she was conscious again, the World System took this chance to give her several notices that had developed overnight.

::Individual has met requirements. Unique Skill: Yin Yang has Awakened.

Individual has acquired Normal Skill: Abyss Magic Rank F.

Individual has acquired Titles: Esoteric, Violator, Affront to Nature.

Individual’s Alignment has shifted to: Magic.

Individual has gained the Abomination Archetype.::

“W-WHAT!?”

Numerous changes had occurred to her overnight, and the sheer surprise she felt at this moment was enough to cause her to faint again. Though it wouldn’t be for long. She had just yelled out loud after all.

***

I’d been outside watching Regis skulk after a bird that had gotten too close to the cottage when Alicia yelled for me. Apparently Kalia had woken up, freaked out about something, then passed out straight away. Then she began panicking when she woke back up. She certainly knows how to be a handful.

Alicia had called for me once she’d gotten Kalia to finally calm down and explain what was going on, and boy was it a doozy. Somehow, someway, Kalia had become able to use Dark Magic, something we’d all been told was impossible. Life and Dark Magic were supposed to be locked away at birth. Only those born with natural affinities for those branches could use them. But by somehow doing so, she’d gotten a smorgasbord of new additions to her Status.

“…This can happen?”

“I…I don’t know! I was sleeping, and when I woke up, the System just told me all those things were there, and they really were when I checked! Plus it called me an Abomination! That’s incredibly rude, not to mention how hurtful it is when I didn’t do anything to cause it! And not only that, but my mana feels weird now, like I’m more aware of it or something.”

She was certainly being rowdy this morning. And since it was less than twenty-four hours since her breakdown, I felt rather perplexed at the sudden change. I’d expected her to be more shaken up after what happened, though maybe this was better. It certainly beat having to deal with someone who’d been completely traumatized.

“I used to think Michael was just complaining when he said that the System was half-assed or whatever it was he’d say, but now I’m not so sure. This is-.”

“Ahem, if I may interrupt you there? I’m sure you’re confused right now, but so are we.”

“Ah…this is about last night, isn’t it? ……Do I have to?”

“Kalia, we’re worried about you. I know we haven’t known each other long, but…I feel like this isn’t something you should hold inside. Doing that… well, it strains the mind and body in ways you wouldn’t expect. I just don’t want you to hold this in and regret it later.”

…am I weird for feeling like that could also be directed at me? Eh, I’m probably just overthinking it.

“Alicia…it’s not that I don’t want to explain it, I just don’t know how. There are so many things I just don’t understand, and they all came to a head last night. But…if you want me to, I’ll try my best.”

Wait, she’s actually going to? Well I’ll be.

***

[Kalia’s POV]

People say that truth is often stranger than fiction, and I’d say that’s a pretty accurate statement, especially these last few months. Even I don’t fully understand what I experienced, or why it happened, so how can I explain it to them?

In this case, the truth was rather simple. Five months ago, during the advent of World Decay, Kalia had been in London with some friends on what was supposed to be a short vacation, only to get caught up in the madness that began that day. When monsters first began popping into existence, things had derailed with unsurprising speed. Kalia herself had witnessed several people be killed right in front of her, though those memories had faded due to later events.

Kalia was quickly separated from her friends, and wound up running around, completely lost. In all honesty, she should’ve died that day, but fate sometimes likes to play cruel tricks.

She’d soon run into an absolutely massive creature with the same blue skin and hollow eyes as the Phantasm they’d seen yesterday. The creature had been surrounded by dozens of monsters and people, all mindlessly following it, and when it noticed her, it tried to do the same thing to her. She’d ran from there, but not before the spell it cast managed to tear at her mind, causing her to black out up to the point where she woke up with Braddock’s group.

She’d quickly realized that she’d been lucky, and had tried to put the incident behind her while also supporting her rescuers in any way she could. But unfortunately, these things have a way of never letting go. She’d been plagued with nightmares ever since, though she’d attributed this to trauma. It wasn’t.

She’d since put the puzzle pieces together, realizing that what she’d seen that day was likely a much stronger Phantasm. She was of course correct, though she wouldn’t realize exactly what she’d seen for quite some time.

As for the cause of her breakdown, it was actually a mix of suppressed trauma, and the aftereffects of the spell that had been cast on her. Said spell was a superior version of the [Domination] spell that had been cast on Michael, though this one was capable of dominating the target’s soul, ensuring that there could never be any resistance. And while Kalia had resisted its effects, such a powerful spell was bound to leave scars, even if they couldn’t be seen.

So when the Phantasm had cast its spell, all of that suppressed trauma had been brought back, along with some of the effects of the original spell, causing Kalia to have a traumatic breakdown. Combined with the lingering damage to her soul, it should’ve taken days for her to wake up, if she ever did. So even though no one was aware of it, Regis had basically saved her life. Not bad for a little fox.

But of course, there was no way for Kalia to know all this. And while she’d guessed at a bit of it, it was all speculation. She had no proof of any of it, nor was she certain of her theory. And she couldn’t even begin to guess why her Mana had undergone such a drastic change. Everything she knew said that mortals should be incapable of using both Life and Dark Magic. After all, both of those attributes were polar opposites of one another. Besides some of the rarest beings in the multiverse, using both was normally impossible.

Anyone who knew a bit of magical theory knew that using the opposite of one's natural affinity was incredibly difficult. Take Fire and Water magics. A naturally-born Fire mage would still be able to use Water Magic, but it would take them almost eight times the effort of learning Fire Magic. The same principle applied to all schools of magic, except Life and Dark. The two were too dissimilar.

This was a little-known fact, but non-Life and Dark mages could try to cast those spells. They could go as far as learning the theory and Glyph patterns, but they couldn’t manifest the effects of the spells no matter how much they tried. Their mana lacked the necessary qualities required to make use of Life or Dark Magic spells.

It was this knowledge that caused Kalia to become so flustered upon waking up, and would also cause her much trouble down the road. It would be quite some time before she would figure out exactly what happened to her.

***

“You…met a Phantasm before? Seriously?”

“Mn-hm, just before I met Gwyn and the others. I didn’t know what it was then, but it’s obvious now. Those Puppets looked just like the people and monsters it had been gathering, only they looked to have had their vitality sucked away.”

I was shocked. To think one of us had met one of the enemy so early on. I never would’ve guessed this back when we met, though it may have been obvious in hindsight. At the very least, it should’ve been apparent to me that something was wrong with her. The way she’d acted back in the Siege Dungeon was a good example. At the time, I’d just thought she’d had a nightmare, but perhaps it had actually been related to whatever spell had been cast on her.

Actually, is this why she freaked out when I used [Soul Resonance] in the infirmary? She said that she thought the spell may have affected her on a deeper level than she thought. Hm. I guess it doesn’t really matter. At least we now know some of what’s happening here.

“So, I think it’s safe to say that England’s fucked.”

“…Did you have to say it so candidly?”

“Pfft, what’s the point of sugarcoating it? These Spirit things are gonna wage their little war, and anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby will get caught up in it. Unless someone does somethin', there ain’t anything that’ll change that.”

“I hate to say it, but she’s got a point. As far as the Committee’s concerned, we’re just a bunch of vagabonds who skirt around the law. So long as we don’t have any proof about the Spirits, they’ll never take us seriously. And even if they do, it might take too long for anything to actually happen.”

Though I didn’t mention it, there was one way to get the Committee’s support. And while I imagined that it would take some effort on our part, it could eventually result in them organizing a significant search effort. However, actually going through with this would cause me a number of…difficulties, and there was even the chance that we’d all get wrapped up in the Committee’s activities, something I was completely and utterly against. Doing so would effectively castrate one of our greatest advantages, the fact that we had no real responsibilities.

No, just no. I refuse to get involved with them. If I was going to do that, it would’ve been better to just do it from the beginning. Doing so now is just jumping on the bandwagon.

“Haaaah, so I suppose that means what? We try to fight the Spirits on our own?”

“Why not? We’ve killed one already, why not more? They’re not unkillable, even the shadow should be able to die. And while we may not have the power to do so now, we do know an easy way to get it.”

“Classes, huh? I don’t know. Clearing Dungeons is one thing, but waging war against beings far more powerful than us? It seems reckless.”

“I’m not saying we do it now, or even any time soon. Just a thought for later. For now, we should probably focus on getting out of England before either more Phantasms or the shadow find us.”

“A good suggestion. We should probably find a boat and cross the channel while we can. Bournemouth or Southampton would be a good place to start, though…”

“Hm, we already know the shadow's influence reaches that far. It could be dangerous, but I feel like staying here too much longer could be even more dangerous.”

“Yeah, let’s get searching.”

As everyone made to stand up, I felt like things were finally starting to fall into place. Soon, we might finally start to get a handle on World Decay and the System.

Or we could all die. Hard to say.