Stella opened her eyes slowly, then began to blink rapidly, bringing herself back to reality. Sweat dripped from her brow, a clear indication of the level of concentration she had been under.
“Any progress?” Marcus asked as he took a sip from a water bottle before throwing it to Stella.
“It’s hard to keep the core from becoming deformed every time I try to add any more mana into it,” she said calmly, trying to hide the frustration in her voice.
“Are you still going to keep the shape as is?”
“Without any theory, I don’t want to risk it.”
Marcus frowned a bit. Stella was the cautious one of their group, but that was only by their standards. She was equally willing to follow anyone around and get in all sorts of trouble, just like the rest of them were. In fact, more than once, she had gotten into a troublesome situation on her own.
It was why he was frustrated at Stella, and he didn’t hide it. This level of hesitation wasn't normal for her. He got up from his chair and began to remove his shirt, ready to force her to push through whatever was bothering her.
“What are you doing?” Stella asked, puzzled. “I’m not really in the mood.”
Marcus chuckled a bit. “Neither am I,” he said, noticing a bit of disappointment in her expression, which only caused him to smile. “We don’t have theory, so let’s create some.”
Stella raised an eyebrow. “You’re not seriously suggesting that I...”
“I want it around my heart,” he said, sitting down with his legs crossed, turning his back toward her. “Make it look like a gear. It'll be cool.”
Stella paused, surprised. “Safety word?”
“Please don’t blow my heart up.”
Stella leaned close to Marcus and spoke softly into his ear, “That’s no fun.”
Stella closed her eyes and pressed her hands against Marcus’s bare back. She then began to sense the mana within him.
Slowly, Stella began to feel how mana moved within Marcus, she became aware of its chaotic nature. His mana had no defined path, it moved without purpose. It gathered, moved forward, hit something, spread, and once again gathered, repeating the process. The way it moved reminded her of her own mana before she had formed her core.
When she made her own core, it had been a desperate act, she didn’t have the luxury of thinking about design. She went with the crudest method she could think of, clumping all of her mana together, forcing it to stabilize.
It had worked for her, but she was now seeing the inefficiencies of such a method. The crude shape made any attempt to enhance it or add new layers incredibly difficult. There was no way to build upon it.
It was like trying to add more pieces to a clump of wet sand—either the addition failed to stick or the original lost pieces of itself in the process. Rarely, if at all, did the pieces combine successfully.
So, while she was reluctant to do it, she was happy to actually be able to see what a “proper core” would look like. If she could create a more structured core within Marcus, it might provide the insight she needed to improve her own. Stella smiled at the thought, her reluctance fading as curiosity took over.
“I’m starting now,” she said in a calm voice. “Tell me if you feel anything, okay?”
“Always do,” Marcus replied, trying to sound confident, though he felt just as scared, if not more so, than Stella.
Stella began to gather Marcus’s mana near his heart. The process was a long one, that lasted for what seemed to be hours.
Unlike her core, which was only made of a significant portion of her total mana, she wanted to condense all of Marcus’s mana, leaving nothing behind. That meant that she had to wait until his mana got close enough to his heart for her to grasp it.
She could have spread her focus and gone to grab all the mana manually instead of waiting for it to come by itself, but she didn’t want to risk any of it escaping her grasp. The smaller the area she had to concentrate on, the lower the risk that she would make a mistake.
Marcus coughed a bit as he felt some discomfort near his heart but otherwise said nothing. Stella, trusting that Marcus would say something if he felt at risk, continued what she was doing.
With the entirety of Marcus’s mana within her grasp, she began to stretch it thinly. With the current level of mana they possessed, it was nowhere near enough to create something like a gear-shaped ring around Marcus’s heart.
With her current level of skill proficiency and the available mana, the best she could do was a very thin ring.
She explained the situation to Marcus, and he grunted in response. Taking that as a sign to continue, she did.
Stella connected the thin strands of mana around his heart, slowly distributing what she had within her grasp as evenly as possible. Again, this was a task that took hours.
Mana traveled slowly, and even though she was directing it, or at least trying to, she had to do it with an extreme level of care.
As she worked, blood began to pool within Marcus’s mouth. The mana surrounding his heart began to create pressure. A phenomenon that neither of them had expected.
Even though the ring was more than ample enough to allow his heart to function properly, the concentrated mana began to exert a certain amount of pressure. Marcus took note of the phenomenon so that he could tell Stella later, when he didn’t have blood in his mouth.
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Stella now shifted her focus to solidifying—or better yet, stabilizing—the shape of the mana. Once again, she used her own core as an example of what not to do.
Her own core was solid, mana would enter and exit like usual, but there was a delay that she had noticed only when she had completely emptied her mana pool.
For Marcus, she aimed to create something different. Instead of a solid figure, she envisioned a design that would flow smoothly, easily taking in any new mana and quickly integrating it. At least, that was the theory.
She spread her concentration over the entire ring, pushing it forward, making it spin.
The amount of blood within Marcus’s mouth had become too much. It began to spill out, traveling through his lips and flowing down his neck. The pressure that the mana ring was exerting was increasing the more the flow speed increased.
“You still ok?” Stella asked, pausing for a moment, waiting for a response.
Marcus, determined not to disrupt the process and still feeling like this was within his limits, nodded.
Stella noticed that his nod was not only forced but strained, his body involuntarily shaking as he tried to contain the pain. He was so focused on ignoring it that he probably hadn’t even noticed how obvious it was that he was in pain.
Stella, trusting Marcus completely, continued what she was doing. She was nearly finished. While she hadn’t achieved all that she wanted, she had done all she could.
Her own mana was already nearing its limit, and any further adjustment would need to be made when she was much more proficient than she currently was. So, with a last burst of effort, she gave the mana ring one final push and released her grasp.
For a moment, the mana ring spun at a moderate speed, but soon it slowed to a crawl. Stella had anticipated this and continued to concentrate, ensuring it remained in motion.
Finally, after watching for almost an hour, she decided that it was enough to conclude that it wouldn’t stop.
“Done,” she said, her voice much weaker than intended. She wanted to shout and celebrate that she had created such a marvel using only her imagination and inferred knowledge, but she was too weak to do so.
Marcus, feeling that he could finally let go, spat out all the blood that pooled within his mouth, with more rising up as he did.
Stella would have reacted, but she passed out, as did Marcus, his strength only lasting him enough to make sure that no more blood was rising.
----------
Lydia had been told to make sure that nobody entered Stella’s office. She had no idea what Stella and Marcus were going to do, but she didn’t really care. Stella had more than proven herself as an adequate... Mayor? Is that what she is? What about the scary one? What is he?
Her mind wandered back to the incident from a few weeks ago. At the time, she hadn’t had the opportunity to properly process everything that happened since it unfolded so quickly. But afterwards, when she was within her own hastily built cabin, she could do nothing but think about all the major events that she had gone through.
How the monsters appeared from the offices inside the bank, ignored by everyone, including her.
The brutal deaths of the security guards at the hands of the monsters. The troll’s deafening roar as it rampaged through the streets, attacking men, women, and children.
But the most unsettling thing was without a doubt when she heard an otherworldly voice invade her mind, guiding her to gather others and then guide them all to the sewers. She followed the command not out of belief but out of desperation.
Then came her journey to Solace, during which she lost two good people she had barely gotten to know. And finally, Eric and his cold warning.
She cleared her mind and returned to the present, reminding herself that she was in the middle of a conversation.
“I really need to talk to her.”
“Stella said she didn’t want to be disturbed,” Lydia answered sternly. “Tomorrow should be fine.”
“I don’t think you understand what I’m saying,” Caleb said with clear irritation in his voice. “I need to talk to her now. Just tell her it’s me, and she’ll answer.”
“She’s busy,” she said, while trying to push the door to Stella’s office. “See? Blocked. She doesn’t want anyone to disturb her. Now leave, I have my own stuff to do.”
Caleb made a face of annoyance, clearly about to say more, but ultimately he left without uttering another word.
Lydia eyed him suspiciously and made a mental note of the encounter before leaving Stella’s office. She headed to the garden, intending to meet with Sam.
As she walked, she smiled at the sight of people moving from one side to the other, working diligently. The food from the garden, while limited in variety, quickly contributed to bringing the city refugees back to their feet.
Upon arriving at the garden, she saw Sam covered in dirt. It appeared he was trying to relocate some of the plants as they were crowding each other, their stems and roots becoming entangled.
Sam stood, stretched, and quickly caught sight of Lydia near the edge of the garden.
“What brings you here?” he asked as he approached her.
“Just wanted to know how things are going,” she answered, her gaze still fixed on the garden.
“Not much to say. Most of the trees have been cut down, the ground has been prepared, and now we’re just trying to separate the roots and stems so that they can grow properly.”
“That sounds like quite a bit,” Lydia said with some surprise.
“Puh! It sounds like more than it is,” Sam said, gesturing with his hand and dismissing his work. “On another note, when do you reckon we can head back to the city?”
“Don’t like it here?”
“No, no, nothing like that,” Sam said, waving his hands. “I want to go to some of the stores and markets,” he added with a hopeful expression. “Maybe some tools,” he continued, looking at his hands.
“I thought there were some tools here,” Lydia said with a confused expression as she pointed at some tools that were laying around.
“Those are for gardening plants and the like. This garden requires something bigger, more heavy duty, and specialized.”
“I’ll ask Stella tomorrow, though I doubt she’ll have an answer.”
“Sounds fine to me,” Sam said. As silence began to take over, he continued, “Welp, better get to it.”
Lydia said her goodbyes and made her way back to the central area of Solace. She felt somewhat aimless, as she mostly did what Stella told her, and she was currently occupied.
As she walked back, resting at various points. She observed some people, trying her best not to make it obvious, and began making mental notes of their behavior.
By the time she returned to the central area and after eating an early dinner, her curiosity got the better of her. She headed back to Stella's office to check if she was finished with whatever task she had been occupied with.
She knocked on the door multiple times and got no response. Concerned, she made her way to the workshop, only to find it empty. Finally, she checked their personal cabin and found neither Marcus nor Stella inside.
Growing increasingly anxious, she went back to Stella’s office, this time knocking harder. Just then, Connor, who had been busy clearing up the surrounding monsters, saw her attempting to force the door open. He asked her to get back and tackled the door open. What they saw inside horrified them.
Marcus and Stella were lying on the ground, surrounded by blood. In their haste and worry, neither Lydia nor Connor were able to see the scene clearly. They failed to notice that the blood was entirely Marcus’s, and that Stella was just sleeping due to exhaustion.
Connor quickly picked both of them up and hurried toward their personal cabin, careful to avoid drawing attention to himself in order to avoid misunderstandings.
Lydia reached out to David, someone they knew Stella trusted to a certain degree, and tasked him with cleaning Stella’s office. Now, all they could do was wait for both Marcus and Stella to wake up.
----------
Deep within the forest, under the cover of night, a figure was on their knees, their trembling hands flipping furiously through a weathered book. The book itself seemed to pulse with life, its cover plain but adorned with bizarre, glowing symbols that pulsed, reminiscent of the hidden symbols with the incursion platform.
The desperation that the figure felt was clear, growing with each frantic turn of the page that failed to offer what they wanted. Each new page brought another wave of frustration, until they finally slammed the book shut, unsatisfied.