Chapter Four: Magic?

That didn't mean it would last long.

Just as it plopped through the portal, he was there. With all his weight behind the Pen, he brought it down onto the head of the nightmare fueling monster.

When the tip of the Pen met the monster’s skin, he thought he’d meet similar resistance before punching through, but he was wrong.

Fortunately, wrong in a way that benefited him.

The tip of the Pen pierced the slimy membranous layer of skin with almost no resistance and sank into the shadow-mist body. He stabbed twice more, surprised that it stopped moving.

The monster had never even been able to use its tongue. Aiden had capitalized on the advantage of surprise to end the fight before it had even truly begun.

“What was that thing?” a student close to him asked fearfully.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Aiden numbly responded. When the form dissipated into smoke, two more Essence Orbs remained. “Oli, pick those up.”

As much as he wanted to get stronger, he refused to be greedy. He wouldn’t unlock his Nodes at the cost of leaving Olivia defenseless. She was his best friend, only real family, and his greatest ally and supporter.

She placed a hand on both Orbs, gasped as they slammed into her gut. A soft moan escaped her once her body assimilated them.

Her eyes lost focus, and he imagined that he looked similar when he’d undergone the process. A bright silver light flashed from her eyes, and he wondered if the Central Node activated or if it was one of the Attribute Nodes.

As he watched, her eyes flashed yellow. Immediately after, she refocused on him.

“Magic is real,” she said in complete disbelief. “Aiden, magic is real.”

He nodded.

“Do you think we could bring back mom and dad…?” Hope tinged her words and wetness clung to the corner of her eyes.

As much as he wanted to get sucked into that hope, he wouldn’t let it happen. He shook his head, “I don’t think so, Oli.”

“Hey, you two! What’s going on?” Ms. Briggs, the second-year math teacher, asked.

Screams from the hallway interrupted him before he could formulate a response.

“There’s no time to answer,” Aiden responded as he followed Olivia to the door.

They peered out into the hallway, gaping in horror. Olivia froze in front of him as she watched the inky shadows cling to the students. The monsters capitalized on their inability to fight back, lashing them en masse with their tongues.

Every student fell to the ground, the shadows wrapping around arms and legs as the tongue lashings continued to flay them.

They screamed and begged for someone to save them, but there was nobody to answer their cries. Above it all, Viktoria’s was by far the loudest.

“God, no! Why? Help, someone help!” But, her voice was silenced when another tongue-lash smacked her in the face.

All was still in the hall…

The silence was unnerving.

Aiden wondered why the monsters didn’t move from where they were, but he only needed to wait a bit longer for an answer to the unspoken question.

Dread gripped Aiden as the students literally sank into the ground. He thought the monsters would’ve taken their fill, eating his classmates whole like Mr. Feriger.

But no. The ground ate them instead.

And then it spit them back out seconds later.

Every person that sank within the floor returned as another round, obsidian, red-eyed monster with stubby arms and legs. He pulled Olivia back into the room and slammed the door behind them.

Aiden winced at the noise, but his brain broke. He couldn’t process what he’d just seen. It made no sense to him at all. How had that just happened?

Neither of them moved, horrified by what they witnessed. The teacher grabbed their arms and pulled them out of the way of the door. With a quick swing, it was wide open.

Three tongues wrapped around Ms. Briggs and wrenched her instantly limp form into the hall. Aiden immediately threw his entire body into the door, and Olivia didn’t hesitate to help him.

A rotund body stuffed itself into the doorway before they could shut it, but they didn’t stop trying.

Turning to look over his shoulder, Aiden screamed at the other students. “Help us or we’ll all die!”

The monster’s tongue lashed wildly into the room, edging ever closer to Aiden’s side. Olivia was closer to the wall, having got there after him, so she didn’t have to worry much about getting hit. Having felt the power behind its paralyzing gunk once, he wasn’t in any rush to experience it again.

They needed help…

The sound of chairs crashing against the ground caught his attention. He didn’t risk sneaking a peek for fear of easing up against the furious fight for control of the door. His fingers crossed in hope that help would arrive soon.

Sure enough, two pairs of shaky limbs squeezed their way through and gained purchase on the door. Now that they had help, Aiden acted.

Before he could convince himself otherwise, he quickly grabbed the slick monster arm and heaved with everything he had. The tongue hit his side, but he continued to pull it through the doorway.

He groaned as its slimy body slowly but surely slipped ever closer into the room, its slick skin playing to his advantage.

With a sharp lurch, his efforts bore fruit, but he belatedly realized an issue. He still held it and stood in the way.

Its mouth widened as it flew toward him. He got up close and personal with those rows of teeth, but its tongue still flopped and whipped around wildly. He did the only thing he could think of.

He let his legs go limp and released his hold, ducking below it as it flew over him. Its momentum carried it in a long arc, slamming onto two desks and sprawling out on the ground. It thrashed madly, attempting to roll its rotund frame over and use its stubby arms to get back up.

By the time it managed to do so, Aiden was already there. The Pen pierced through the slimy membrane and gored the shadow guts. It went down hard and fast, dissipating into shadows to reveal the only thing left of the monster: two more milky Essence Orbs.

Not wasting the opportunity, he touched both and allowed the energy to slam into his gut, relishing in the revitalizing warmth.

He could get addicted to that rush of energy. The monsters, though? He could pass on those.

(Two) Essence assimilated.

View Essence Map now?

Yes.

No.

Yes, yes, yes. A million times, yes.

Apparently, that was good enough for whoever or whatever watched over him.

Now that the Orrery wasn’t steeped in darkness, he felt more comfortable.

The doom and gloom that accompanied everything already wore him out, but unfortunately, things had only just begun. The hooded figures had something to do with everything going on. Those eyes, the timing...

It could be a coincidence.

Highly unlikely but possible…

Except not at all.

Things weren't clear as of yet, but the way the figure hungered for him outside the gate left no question in his mind.

Turning his focus upward, he noticed the Essence Orbs he’d assimilated above him. The two Orbs floated in the endless sky, hovering in a translucent container he hadn’t noticed before.

The container was fairly large, and the Orbs continued to shift between a misty liquid and solid matter. The two barely took up any room within.

Wasting no more time, even though he had plenty of it here, he approached the Durability Node.

Despite the dread, the fear of uncertainty, and all the horror shenanigans of the day, he still found a spark of excitement when he approached the Node.

Just as the etchings did, he hoped that he could stand against his enemies without fear of death or failure. He didn't want to die, but more than that, he didn’t want Olivia to be left alone.

Clenching his teeth, he grabbed both sides of the Node…

And waited.

He wasn’t entirely sure how the heck he’d made things work last time. He was pretty sure that it had been an automated thing. The Central Node had to be activated for anything else to function.

Remembering his experience with the notifications, he focused on Orb. Focusing as hard as he could, he imagined it floating down and locking in the center of the Durability Node. He didn’t even realize he’d closed his eyes until a rush of empowering energy flowed over him.

His bones ached, his skin toughened, and his whole body felt far sturdier. The energy that coursed through him was like the biggest adrenaline rush he’d ever felt. He felt he could run a marathon, navigate an elaborate obstacle course, and finish it all off with a ten-mile swim.

He felt absolutely wonderful. He wanted to try and do those things, take on the world, have it throw everything that it could at him. It was euphoric and severely distracting.

He needed to do the next one, but he was reluctant to move from the Durability Node. Belatedly, he realized a notification had appeared in front of him.

Durability Node activated!

Attribute Nodes Active:

1/5

Four Attribute Nodes required to unlock personal Status!

It made sense. All the Nodes reminded him of stats from games he’d played, so he ignored it. It was weird, but he wasn’t going to mull over it now.

Not when he had another Node to activate.

Forcing himself away from the addicting energy exuded by the active Durability Node, he bee-lined for the Arcana Node. As much as he should probably pick up Power or Alacrity, there was just no way he could pass on the chance at being able to use magic.

It wasn’t something that he wanted to wait for either. He could always unlock it after the others, but he refused to. His reasoning?

Magic.

Like, passing that up would just be idiotic.

What would he immediately gain from choosing the Arcana Node over the others now?

That was simply too much to consider because…

Magic.

Any given person in the same circumstances would choose magic, hands down. At least, it seemed like a no-brainer to him.

That made him intensely curious as to what Olivia had selected. With two Orbs, she definitely unlocked an Attribute.

He placed his hands on the Arcana Node and closed his eyes, repeating the same process. The Orb descended through the translucent container where it clicked in place.

More energy flowed through him after it clicked into place. The world warped around him, giving way to another unknown world bathed in shadows.

An orange flame crackled to life, illuminating. It burned brightly and carried a great radiance of vibrant energy, its purpose twofold.

First and foremost, it brought destruction. Given fuel to power its growth, a flame could reduce everything to ash. The sooty remnants acted as fertilizer for regrowth, giving life to something beautiful in due time.

Secondly, it provided energy, heat, and light. As dangerous as the world was, fire was humanity’s only friend for too long. It beat back hard winters, allowed the cooking of meat, and stemmed off the unnerving unknown of a moonless sky. That went a long way.

Fire. Without it, his world would be nothing.