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<01/27/1972 – 21:50 | The Outback {Alpha Zero}, Junon Region, Sprawn Valley>

Just like Claudia said, two hours had gone by before Jane could notice any sort of change in the atmosphere or the environment around her. After peeking at the map again, it was almost useless to try and pinpoint her current location. Her legs were getting somewhat tired, but she ignored the time she has been walking for. After all, this was nothing like Route 96. At least no guards or patrols were around to stop her. Though the path to the Den of Purity was a rather long one, this would be much longer than Route 96. Naturally, there will not be any Leray wielders over here. Hopefully the monster myths were only myths as well, but all in all, something was keeping the General Army from invading this place and taking care of Professor Brightworth.

Jane began to wonder what types of monsters could form anyway. How would they exist in the first place? Were they really transformed from the creatures the Outback used to have just from the dark magical veil? Jane still didn't even understand how that process would work. Apparently, somebody has infused dark magic energy into a land mass this wide, and it's ruining everything north of Lennith City.

The land scape wasn't much to look at though. It seemed for a moment that a few tiny forest patches sprouted up closer to Lennith City, but now there was just nothing. No structures surrounded her in any direction. No large bushes or shrubs populated the flat ground with inclines near her. It was really nothing but dirt, dust, and rocks. Jane would occasionally spot a shriveled up brown tree with no leaves though, like something had dried it out completely. Could dark magic be so bad that is destroys even vegetation? No, that can't be it. Jane didn't notice anything odd about the sky yet. It was defiantly dark out though, Jane would only be able to spot rocks or other artifacts at an indoor vocal range. Soon, stars would become visible gain, if not for the random patches of clouds to mess up the aerial view.

There was nothing to do but keep walking forward. Jane was still wearing her blue and black training suit she inherited from her school. It didn't provide a lot of natural protection and resistances, but it did look awesome for battles. The looks weren't all either. Jane knew how well this suit was designed, because the comfort level was quite high, while the flexibility in the material allowed for quick and agile movements. It makes sense to go with the best possible gear for battle in this situation. The narrow path here was not suitable for another dress sphere anyway. All of this dirt would just get all over the material and stain the clothes.

With nothing else to do, and nobody else to speak to, Jane's mind was running in circles over her memories. It was like watching a movie in fast forward, a movie describing her entire life ever since Danny and Taylor arrived. It wasn't herself Jane cared about right now. Danny and Taylor are still out there somewhere, searching for her while worried sick. Of course that concern would never have formed if things had been different on day one at the academy...

I had just stepped out of the class room, with Eliza as my current teacher. Just another routine combat training in the open empty hallway. I can't believe that was normal for me then. Eliza and the others didn't mind at all, so long as I wasn't invoking magic outside of the dark room. All I did was practice my movement and coordination anyway, all until I get back home again. And that's when Danny and Taylor both follow me out, curious to figure out who I am. I was curious too. They're both new students, but they either didn't give a crap about Leray magic, or they didn't understand it. At the time, option two was far less likely.

Man, the look on their faces when I talked down to them, calling Danny a whip. Taylor wasn't so easy to upset, but Danny always needed to defend his pride. Back then, neither one of them could even invoke magic yet. Despite that, Danny wanted to fight me in a Leray battle, all because I ticked him off.

"Nahahaha," Jane let out a laugh from the moment looping in her head. It was so funny then. You don't challenge people to a Leray battle if you don't know how to invoke magic, or if you don't understand the rules.

All I was doing though was testing them. Danny and Taylor; the new students. Were they really interested in learning about Leray magic? Or was it another facade to discover which persons were better? I didn't get my answer right away, though I feared the worst. Before it was Danny and Taylor, I had to be in charge of training another couple. Those were the real fakers, a teenage dupe squad that was more interested in school popularity than learning magic, in a school for magic of all places. Can't remember which words I used against them after that, but it was enough to get me suspended for a day. And after that happened, nobody came up to talk to me anymore.

Then there was the time just after I bullied them. Danny and Taylor agreed to meet me in the dark room, and I totally confused them both. But they really did get inspired, all because I was a little bit mean to them. Making people mad enough to try harder to learn just so that they can fulfill their secret desire to beat the crap out of you, it works like a charm. Unless they don't care...

I taught them both how to enable their energy scopes for the first time. Well, Taylor did anyway. Danny was always somehow a slower learner than Taylor, but it didn't stop him from getting better. From then even to now, Danny always thinks he can get better than me, and he's always teasing on that he is. I hope he does get a lot stronger though. I need to have a match against them both. That will be so fun!

Jane struggled to remember what happened the next day. She wanted to fulfill some other promises that she made them, closer towards today, but everything fell so far out of whack! It's not like she could just walk back home, find her friends, and return to normal. With this stupid crest on her hand, nobody will allow Jane to take part in Leray battles legally ever again. She'll be considered a dangerous criminal, and this Brightworth guy is the only one in the world who can change her back.

But not everything was so bad and messed up. I can't believe how easy it was to get those two to train with me later that day. Anyone who knew me after that other incident would have never agreed to that. When Danny and Taylor agreed to be my friends and train with me from then on, I could see the worried and confused look on faces around us. People were so surprised, but they didn't dare say anything to them or me about it. I guess it did fit the time though. I was the crazy lunatic too deep into Leray studies, and the new couple was here to join me. That's probably what they thought.

But that's not what mattered then. They really wanted to learn how to invoke magic, and I didn't hesitate to help them. I made Taylor and Danny both learn Radial Stars first, the most useless weakest attack spell ever known to mankind. Actually Water Blast is the weakest spell, but it could still be effective in certain situations involving fire, more effective than Radial Stars anyway. I even let them in my home that night, introducing them to my family, except for Iona, who is never around anymore.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

All I cared about later that night was the moment I caught on to the fact that Danny was in love with Taylor. Oh it's so juicy! Those two are made for each other and don't even realize it. Though in hindsight they do sort of act like brother and sister. Even I thought they might be related when I first saw them. Same age, same height, different everything else though. And that unforgetful look of embarrassment on Taylor's face every time I brought it up. She knows what I'm talking about...

As the days passed, everything just got better and better. Danny and Taylor were learning more, and so was I. They were even more excited to see me too. I can't lie though, they were my favorite people of the day as well. I wish I could figure out what that fight was about though. We were training in the forest on a weekend, and everyone was getting a lot better. Next thing I know, Danny and Taylor's little talk makes them come back with Taylor in tears. Both of them were depressed. Taylor couldn't even look me in the eyes! They still never told me what it was about! Or maybe they did and I forgot again.

Then there was that horrible time when I had to take them to Blue Port Town for their first time. How terrible it was then! That's when I made the mistake of using that unknown spell bomb. I still don't remember who the guy was who gave it to me. I barely saw his face through the magical robe. There were people chasing him, just as he left the orb in my hands and darted back into the woods. I didn't listen to the part where he said it was very dangerous. Instead of waiting to find out, I made Taylor battle me illegally just to use the orb on myself. What a stupid and terrible mistake that turned out to be. It's the reason I'm walking around in this hell hole right now.

I never really understood the part though with the bright blue energy beam shooting from the sky - no, the moon - and slamming into me. I don't remember that part; it's just what Danny and Taylor told me after I woke up. I can't believe what I did to them though. The disappointed look of betrayal and depression on their faces after I came to... They knew I wasn't telling them everything I remembered, even if they never figured it out. I had to hide this symbol under my sleeve, hoping they would never learn of it. But that was the very first time I had ever disappointed my best friends for real. Even after I recovered, they still forgave me, wanted to tag along for the ride as I made way to Junon as fast as I could to dispose of this crazy symbol. Still, I had no idea then how much it would affect my endurance level. All I knew about this tattoo then was that it existed. The effects would be unknown and invisible to energy scans.

But hell. It's hard to get rid of something when you don't even know what it is. I tried my hardest to find out what the symbol meant, and what the spell bomb actually was about, but nothing in the library matched. Then I had to leave Danny and Taylor at Tilsit Port. That... That was not my mistake. It was that asshole who shot magical attacks at me for no reason at all. He chased me all the way onto that malfunctioning boat, forcing me to leave my two best friends behind. And here I thought the crime rate had been diminished.

Then there is Claudia's class I have to worry about now. None of them better think about following me in here. I still can't believe Alyssa changed so much like that. It sort of reminds me of myself in a way. She's so intense, but she just wants to do the right thing; all of them do. Whatever the case is, I've got to reverse this spell bomb. I've endangered everyone with this stupid crest on my hand. I won't let all of that danger be for nothing!

I can do this now. I've had extensive training, and I can pull up a pretty awesome shielding aura with such little magical energy. I shouldn't have anything to worry about right here. But as soon as I'm out of here, I'm off to look for my two best friends. I'll break down mountains if I have to in order to find them, all so that I can say how sorry I am for the lies and the mess I dragged them into. I won't let them come to any harm though. They've protected me more times than I can try to count. It's time I returned the favor.

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Chapter Theme Shift: The Cloud at a Distance ~ Phobium

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Just as she continued to distract herself with the thoughts rolling around in her head, Jane noticed that the ground beneath her, including everything else began to shift in color and tint. Her own arms and hands were lighting up more than usual, but not in a glow. The light source was coming from above her. Jane inched her head up at the sky, noticing how fast the transformation had taken place. The sky was already a deep blood red, as was the small unconnected clouds rolling by. The deep coloration actually made the entire atmosphere change to this demonic hue, casting that light down below.

What the hell is this? It was like staring into the depths of hell. She had nothing to compare the visual sensation to at all, but there was nothing like it in anything she could have imagined. The rocks, the dirt, the air in front of Jane have all been transformed by the creepy red radiance from above, intensified by the fact that the full moon was the same color, all in the brightness. Jane had to look away because of the eerie feeling it gave her so soon. That red glow in the sky gave off this scary sensation of energy, an evil feeling that couldn't be described by anything without involving the emotion of a deep fear, if not terribly beautiful in its own way.

Out of nowhere, the slow moving yet strong brushes of winds became the temperature of some sort of inferno. In mere seconds, the sensation of winter had transformed into the interior of an active volcano. It felt so warm and hot everywhere, whether the wind was blowing or not. As the ground lit up a lot more, Jane could suddenly see only a mile ahead, with some mist or red fog stopping her visual distance there. Jane then realized that by the nature of this strange design, the red sphere above in the sky wasn't the moon, but rather the sun! Though it was much more possible to look up at it this way, the visual sight of this had her heart sinking in seconds. Is this what Claudia meant about the legally defined dark zone of Alpha Zero?

The path was still revealed; Jane was standing on it, but everything was so different now. The warmth, the red glow, and the additional low pitch booming sound that never ceased for a split second gave Jane the strongest hint of danger she had ever felt so far. This was it! This is the technical dark zone, otherwise known as the Alpha Zero. The sight, the warmth, and the low pitch noise, this resembles something close to a deep bass boom of heavy radiation! Jane knew that couldn't be true. If radiation poisoning is the cause of death in this place, then it would even go as far to kill Brightworth as well. If he is the cause of this, the death of that dark magical user would also lead the diffusion of dark magic just as quickly. So he must still be alive! Whatever all of this is, it's just the side effect of dark magical infusion on a massive level. This is why dark magic is so illegal.

Nothing about this place screams safety, or "come on in!" The flat ground below Jane expanded outward into arrays of random inclines upwards and downwards, like a valley's path that has natural shallow hills, but all of the vegetation, the grass, the birds, and the other animals were absent. In every direction, what was supposed to be grass or a scenery of nature was just some sort of dirt and dust mixture of dark grains. Rocks and boulders populated some of the empty spots, and Jane even managed to see what used to be a few lone trees. It's like combining a tree that loses its leaves come winter with a tree that had been scorched to the ground and lifted back up without any life. The tree was neither dead nor living, just a black spiral bark with a few branches sharp at their tips. All of that mixed with the physical effects of this redness and this intense heat only made things worse. This is what Claudia meant. From this very moment onward, the Leray veil of protection that spans over all of Sprawn Valley is no longer protecting Jane Venn. It doesn't reach into Alpha Zero, because infusing land with dark energy prevents the protection zone from affecting that specific area.

The difference is easy to make out after all. When a person infuses dark magical energy into the ground to create a small zone of dark magic, that zone is actually an anti-life agent. It kills every living thing that is not human over a period of time, like poison designed for plants and small animals. This right here is the result of that damage. The sky turning red though, that's a new one on her. Jane had never heard of anything like this before in her life time. Maybe the sky wasn't actually red. Maybe it was the whacked out magic altering her very perception of the sky. Whatever it was invited anything other than comfort.

Jane glanced back behind her, unable to locate where the city of Lennith was anymore. Her visual distance field was impaired by the additional appearance of a red fog in the area, though it only went so far as a mile or two, meaning the fog wasn't thick. Jane had already come this far, and now that map should be able to help her. An imaginary line was drawn on the map to show where the boundary is between the Leray zone and the Dark zone. Jane has to be standing right on that line right now. Any more steps could be deadly, leading her into a fiery pit of lava, or into the lair of some unknown, never seen before, bloodthirsty monster. Or maybe this heat will just melt the skin from her bones. Jane wiped away the sweat from her forehead, noting how hot it became so suddenly. It wasn't like anything alarming, but the heat was enough to make breathing a bit more challenging, and sweating a constant. With a few more deep breaths and a heavy heart, Jane marched forward, carefully looking in all directions for a sign of anything.