Chapter 31
Humanity’s Awakening
Ethan crouched and stuffed his hand inside a dead zowolf’s abdomen, digging out the tiny pearl. The pearl represented a minimal form of the ‘interdimensional currency’, money that could be used to trade inside the Tunnels. While just having a few pebbles would quickly be akin to having a few cents, for the initial wave of trading, they were more than enough.
However, there was still quite some time until then. As it's been just above four months since the Descent, Ethan calculated that the first trading Tunnel was likely four more away. However, what was imminent was the publication of knowledge–tonight, 8 P.M. sharp, the internet would be flooded by a world-rending tsunami: Magic is real and you, too, can have it!
The timing was rather perfect as the scale of Tunnels and Kaynul invasions would pick up almost immediately, providing a lot of opportunities. In reality, for the time being, they were death traps. Magic was like grease for the eyes, a silent deceiver; people found themselves faster, stronger, better, and smarter than ever before and hubris set in as it does. Another wave of death would follow, lessons going unlearned, and both Tunnels and Kaynuls would be put on the 'no touch' list for anyone outside of the military.
Naturally, it did little; there were always brave and self-proclaimed strongest to rush forward blindly to the future they would never achieve. This was also why he was somewhat relieved to see Ronald and Tara return later that day just as the sun began to shift toward the horizon, preparing to fall asleep.
He immediately noticed that the atmosphere between the two was rather sharp, and Tara’s curt greeting and ‘I need a shower’ were enough to tell him something went wrong. No, Ethan immediately knew what went wrong–as he’d known when he sent her to the city. As she retreated toward the bathroom, Ronald sat on the couch while Ethan sent Layla and Tian to watch their cartoon in the bedroom.
"Who'd she fail to save?" Ethan asked, getting them both a beer and sitting opposite the young man who had a bitter smile on his face.
“Everyone? I don’t know,” he sighed. “She wouldn’t talk to me at all ever since we left the city.”
“What happened?” Ronald slowly told the entire tale–from infiltrating to the plan to use Jenine as a double to them leaving the club without trying to get in.
“Where’s the kid, by the way?” Ronald asked, noticing that Elijah was nowhere to be found. He suddenly looked sharply at Ethan while the latter chuckled lightly.
“He’s jogging. Says he’s inspired. Frankly, I just think he feels stuffy with just the two of us here.”
“Can’t say I blame him. So, what will you do about Tara?”
“Do about her? Why would I do anything about her?” Ethan shrugged. “She’s who she is, Ronny. Aren’t you, kiddo?”
“Don’t call me kid,” Tara appeared from the hallway, drying her hair with a towel. Her eyes, stained ever so slightly in crimson, shifted between Ronald and Ethan, eventually electing to not sit with either, going to the kitchen and setting a pot of water for coffee. “Do you think we made the right call? Leaving?”
“Absolutely,” Ethan said.
“Why do I sense a ‘but’ somewhere in there?” Tara asked.
“This ain’t a hivemind and you two ain’t my limbs,” Ethan said, taking a sip. “You can do whatever you want.”
“... it just felt like shit,” Tara said with a sigh. “I felt like those politicians who campaign promising everything, and then they get into the position of power and they’re all like ‘well, actually, I can’t do it that way because bla bla bla’.”
“Because that’s exactly how it is,” Ethan said, glancing at her. “At everything. Good intentions are always broken by the weight of reality.”
“Haah, fuck,” Tara grumbled. “It pisses me off.”
“How did supply hunting go? Any luck there, at least?” Ethan asked and, as soon as he did, Ronald’s downtrodden expression lit up like a candle.
“Oh, that went fine,” he said. “More than fucking fine. We got everything and more. Tara managed to even snag an extra generator as well as a washing-fucking-machine!”
“... well, I guess you two can busy yourselves with construction for a while.”
“Shit, if it means never having to wash my undies by hand ever again, I’ll do it with a smile,” Ronald scoffed, taking a sip of beer while Ethan and Tara laughed ever so slightly. Just as she was about to say something, their phones started blowing up with one notification after another. While they stood confused about what was happening and took their phones out to check, Ethan simply glanced at the clock: it was one past eight… and it was beginning.
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“Holy shit!!” both Tara and Ronald exclaimed at the same time. “There are legit hundreds of articles being published about the ‘phenomenon of Awakening’. Do you see–ah,” when the two saw Ethan simply sipping beer, no phone in sight, they sighed. “Of course.”
“What’s happening?” Ethan asked innocently.
“Right, it’s an alien invasion on top of everything else, and aliens are sadistic doms with whips who prefer thirty-something dudes who happen to look just like you.” she said.
“... you think you’ll scare me by talking about women with mommy energy?”
“No, aliens. Not women, aliens.”
“Mommy energy ain’t reserved just for people, Tara.”
“Oh, go fuck yourself.”
“From the sounds of that news, I just might never have to again.”
“... pfft, ha ha ha,” Ronald crackled in laughter while Tara stared at him for a moment before also breaking down.
“Goddammit.”
“Shh,” he pressed his finger against the lips as the front doors opened, Elijah walking through. The boy was heaving and panting, his shirt a shade darker from sweat, hair glued down as though gelled.
“Oh. H-hello,” he greeted Tara and Ronald, having not expected them to be here.
“Hi,” Tara said. “Sorry, I just had a shower. You’ll have to wait a bit for some warm water.”
“That’s okay.”
"Hm?" Ethan frowned suddenly, unbeknownst to the other three. Tara had just finished making coffee while Ronald walked over to Elijah and started chatting with the boy. What caught Ethan's attention was a feeling–something was amiss. It took him a few moments to register what, as his conscious mind was catching up to the subconscious find, but when he did, his frown deepened further–the density of Mana… increased.
It was quite minute; in fact, the only reason Ethan even caught it was because he was beyond sensitive to any changes in Mana. In the future, as in the present, even, the best way to prevent a possible tragedy was to look for changes in Mana density. It usually meant that there was either a new Tunnel, a new invasion, or just something that shouldn’t be. The reason Ethan was frowning was very simple: there was nothing in his memories that coincided with this increase in Mana density.
The increase wasn’t localised–it wasn’t as though it was only this way around the lodge. No, when there was a definite change in Mana density, it usually meant that it was in an extremely wide net. As far as Ethan’s memories went–as unreliable as they were–there was nothing on this day that should spark such an increase. And it wasn’t due to the likely extreme number of newly-Awakened. If anything, the Mana’s density would have decreased if they managed to have any impact.
“What’s wrong?” Tara was the first to notice that Ethan was frowning. The latter stayed silent as he got up, heading toward the doors. “Ethan, what’s happening?”
“Stay inside,” Ethan glanced back at them. “Keep the kids safe, no matter what. Ronald, you’re with me.”
“Y-yes,” Ronald quickly put the can of beer that he was teasing Elijah with down. It was likely the first time Ethan had ever used his actual name to refer to him–which spoke volumes to the fact that something was definitely amiss.
The two rushed outside into the night, the song of the crickets dying, the wash of the moonlight barely tangible. Ethan looked around for a few moments before moving deeper into the mountain with Ronald right behind them.
The deeper into the mountain he went, the denser the Mana became. The change was so small, however, that even Ethan was somewhat doubting himself–perhaps he was simply conjuring up something that wasn’t there as life had gotten quite boring.
But, once the two cleared a hilly climb and glanced past the thick stack of trees, his doubts were dispelled. Ethan’s heart froze and his pupils dilated as he stared at a rather familiar sight, yet one that shouldn’t have happened. Not just now, but not for another few years.
"No fucking way," he mumbled. Ronald stared at the same sight, but he was mostly confused. He noticed a similar swirl in the distance to the one Tara and Ethan went through, though with the added difference of a strange, purple miasma drifting about the portal. Another strange part was that whatever miasma touched, it died like it was poison to anything living.
“What is it?” Ronald asked.
"..." Ethan stayed mute. His heart, calm through everything, stirred, adrenaline pumping. It was a Tunnel, swirling and spinning in the howl of breaking spacetime, but it wasn't an ordinary Tunnel. It was a Tunnel that, if not cleared within a specified time, would crack and break… and monsters would come pouring out, flooding the world.
“Ethan, what is it?” Ronald asked again, fear beginning to grip him. He’d never seen Ethan so out of sorts before.
“... a fuckin’ anomaly,” Ethan growled, grinding his teeth. “There ain’t no free lunch, I guess. Fuck. Let’s see… deep, twilight purple. Bah, at least we have some time. Eleven? No, twelve days. Twelve days to teach you and Miss Justice how to fight, and twelve days to Awaken that kid properly.” Ethan rambled on, though clearly more so to himself than Ronald who simply stayed silent.
All of his calculations, after all, were just thrown in disarray. The appearance of a possible Field wasn’t on any of his Bingo choices as the world was simply beyond ill-prepared to tackle an actual invasion. In fact, Ethan’s mind swirled with a much, much darker idea. Run.
If he chose to take the kids and run, he would likely be able to get far enough away in twelve days to avoid the worst of it. However, if he did run, the city would fall–and everyone in it would die. Not just the city, its surroundings, smaller towns and surviving communities, and eventually other, neighbouring cities. Such was the plague of a Field. It was not static, like a Tunnel. No, he shook his head. He couldn’t leave. The world would change far too much from his memories if he just left. All his future knowledge would start to mean far less than even right now, and that was his primary advantage in this hellscape.
He’d have to fight and somehow, some way find it in him to close the Tunnel. There was a reason why he felt trepidation even if, optimally, everything worked out before entering the Tunnel–the kids got better at fighting, and Elijah Awakened to his previous Class. The issue was very simple: most Tunnels had, at most, a hundred monsters. Their strengths and varieties changed, but their numbers were, across the board, similar. Potential Field-spawning Tunnels? There was never a way of knowing.
The Tunnel may have just a few dozen monsters like any other… or it might have a few hundred, or a few thousand. The only way to find out, in the end, was to walk through the maw of the beast and see firsthand whether heaven or hell awaited.