“Jiyei! Khasar! Are you that far gone?!” I heard a woman screaming at me.

My eyes were heavy and clouded by a dark mist. I could feel a strong surge of power ripping me apart from the inside, an intense heat, as if steam were attempting to force its way out of me.

“Where am I? What’s going on?” I asked, feeling paralyzed, but my voice didn’t sound.

“Kill them!” A voice within my head commanded, gnawing and digging into my conscience.

Unable to ascertain my surroundings, I swung my arms wildly trying to push the mist shrouding my eyes back, but it had no effect. The pain was unbearable and my eyes felt like they were burning.

“Run...Yasvei...Leave this place,” I found myself muttering.

“We can’t stop this. You must go!” Another voice- a young man, shouted.

Looking around wildly, I could feel a sickening energy growing beside me. Whatever it was was just wrong, wronger than wrong. A power that shouldn’t exist grew there, a corruption that seemed to warp the very foundations of natural order. As I looked around I managed to catch a glimpse of the form nearby, the young man that had spoken earlier lie there shrouded in darkness.

Suddenly jumping to my feet I dashed forward, grabbing a young woman, and ran about ten meters from that horrid energy before I was forced to put her down, I felt so weak.

“Now run…please…if we hurt you…” I muttered once again, speech and movement almost completely beyond my control.

Slowly the dark mist shrouding my eyes blanketed them completely in darkness before complete silence fell upon me.

----

I awoke yet again, this time it wasn't anything unusual. It took me a moment to recognize that my mother was calling me. The haze of the dream clung to me like a thick blanket.

“Cian...you're going to be late again,”

My mother was standing at the end of the bed. She smiled at me in such a way that also showed her displeasure with the situation.

“Sorry, I was up late again,” I said groggily as I rubbed my eyes and lifted my head.

I looked up at her, and as our eyes met I looked away. I couldn't tell her what had actually happened last night – Would she even believe me?

“Wash up then come down for breakfast,” she said with a sigh.

“Sure thing,” I said, forcing myself out of bed.

I made my way to the washroom, making sure to check the pendant on my dresser on the way. Everything about it seemed normal–for now. I finished washing up, grabbed the pendant, made my way downstairs, and ate breakfast. I wasted no time getting ready to leave for school this time - it was time to be early, or at least on time.

“Bye, I'm off to school mom. See you later,” I said, opening the door and rushing outside.

“Bye, have a nice day sweetheart,” my mother said, with her signature smile.

-----

“HEY! Cian!!” Alden shouted at me from a few meters away.

I was unaware of how quickly I was walking or the fact that I had already made it very much onto school grounds. My mind was so lost in what had happened last night that I was not expecting to hear Alden’s voice so soon. I jumped back a bit at the sound as I saw Alden walking towards me.

“H-Hey Alden,” I said, stuttering in surprise.

“On time again eh? Going for a new record?” Alden chided.

“Shut-up…” I responded quickly, looking sharply in the opposite direction in mock offense.

Alden laughed the response off and continued. “Anyway, I can't hang this weekend. I'm going out with the family. Boring stuff, sorry man.”

That's right, today is Friday - I normally spent Friday hanging out with Alden but all that happened last night I had forgotten entirely. “Ahh, don't worry about it,” I said, waving him off, a bit disappointed.

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“Well, since I'm not going to be busy this weekend, maybe I can find out more about this 4th World thing,” I said to myself quietly.

“What was that?” Alden asked.

“Oh, uh, nothing,” I replied.

The bell interrupted any further discussion and we both began walking silently to our classes.

As soon as I sat down for my first class, the Teacher began to speak.

“Today we'll have some light discussions regarding Many-worlds Interpretation. Please take out your binders and a pen,” the teacher said loudly.

Smiling awkwardly at the odd coincidence I followed her instructions.

-----

As the bell rang to signify the end of the day, the teacher called out a few commands, and was then drowned out by the rustling of students.

“Don't forget, there's a test on Monday about the material we covered today,” she shouted.

This comment did not concern me though, I was too busy with my own thoughts to care about some test. All day I had been thinking about looking for the jewel, and now I finally had the opportunity.

“Ok, my master,” I heard, my head vibrating with a static-like sensation - was that Cadeyrn’s voice?

I stopped briefly, startled, but quickly recovered. This was proof that last night's events had been real.

“How did you jus-” I started but Cadeyrn's voice cut me off.

“Speak to me without opening your mouth. I'm communicating telepathically so I can hear your thoughts, the ones intended to communicate to me that is,” Cadeyrn continued.

Making sure to keep my mouth shut this time I replied, “I see... Well if that is the case then let's go.”

I continued my telepathic conversation with Cadeyrn the whole way to my father’s shop.

“Basically what you’re telling me is that the 4th World is a world that we enter in our dreams?” I asked with moderate skepticism.

“Correct. When humans sleep they acclimate to the natural energy flow of the 3rd World, your world, in order to maintain an equilibrium. Humans have a natural psychic ability we call ‘quanum’, not often controllable, that can subconsciously alter the world around them. Dreaming causes the limiter the human brain places on that ‘quanum’ to be temporarily lifted, and when that happens one person’s dream can have devastating consequences for the entire world. Possibly by coincidence or design, we don’t really know, the 4th World exists alongside the 3rd World as a funnel for humanity’s quanum to prevent it from leaking and disrupting the universe,” Cadeyrn replied.

“That’s…a lot to take in…and you say you’re a 4th World dweller? So what are you exactly?” I inquired.

“I am referred to as a Dratmana. A being from the 4th World that volunteered to be transformed into an important tool for Guardians. When a designated Guardian is in close proximity to a quanum medium their quanum is naturally channeled into it. Once a link is established we are able to manifest ourselves,” Cadeyrn responded.

“Volunteered…? Seems a little odd but alright… I understand that you called me a Guardian of the 4th World but what I don't understand is what exactly that is,” I stated bluntly.

“A designated Guardian of the 4th world is decided based on a reincarnation lineage of humans with incredibly potent quanum, a process typically governed by Xiphias but it isn’t an exact science either. The human soul occasionally reincarnates, there is no minimum or maximum amount of times this can happen and for some reason, the quanum potency is maintained. Furthermore, the original guardian’s direct descendants qualify regardless of quanum potency. Occasionally new souls with low quanum potency can qualify as non-active guardians where they handle clerical and administrative duties for The 4th World Guardians. New souls have enough energy to sustain Dratmana for a number of years before being retired,” Cadeyrn stated.

“Wait, what do you mean retired? And if my parents had a Dra- the medium thing, does that mean they were guardians?” My head was starting to spin, so many questions were popping into my head I could barely keep walking.

“A Guardian is retired once they lose their quanum capacity entirely. New souls have an abundance of quanum capacity but no established replenishment. When a new soul becomes a Guardian they do not have the time required to establish a replenishment system and therefore lose the ability to use it once depleted. While some Guardian’s are able to more freely control quanum, most Guardian’s have a quanum capacity which. This is the amount of quanum they can control before they lose control of it. To answer your second question, I sensed no quanum from either parent so one can assume they were new souls. This however raises another question relating to reincarnation lineage. Neither of your parents are descendants of the original guardians but your potency is incredibly high. This is a matter worth studying,” Cadeyrn said quizzically.

We were both silent for a brief moment when Cadeyrn continued as if sensing my next question.

“The main job of a guardian is to maintain the balance of quanum. As stated before, strong quanum can have adverse effects on the world creating dangerous distortions which often result in monsters,” Cadeyrn continued telepathically.

“Monsters are real?!” I exclaimed aloud.

“Due to quanum, anything can be real,” Cadeyrn stated matter-of-factly.

After what felt like an eternity the shop came into view and we quickly made our way around back. We entered through the back door as it was the only one that required a pass-code for entry instead of a key. Father wasn’t there, he would normally make his deliveries around this time, so I knew I didn’t need to rush.

“I can feel it, it's very close,” Cadeyrn stated.

And to my surprise he was right, I didn’t have to search for very long. Remembering that I had been paying attention the day before, I went for the box I recalled father having tucked away. Pulling out the box I noticed a small jewel hidden in cloth that somehow must have escaped his view.

“Ahaa, I found it!” I shouted loudly in excitement, grasping the jewel in my hand.

“Good. The jewel is essentially a subsystem of my core functions and can be named whatever you wish,” Cadeyrn stated.

I thought for a moment before calling the name, “Inazuma!”

While not terribly creative, it was the name of a character in a game I had been playing. 14 year olds did that sort of thing.

The jewel responded after an extended pause that almost seemed like disapproval with the name. With a mechanical, and almost robotic feel it spoke.

“System active. Name acknowledged…Inazuma, armor activating.”