They all took a step, and Marshall was out front swaying dangerously. The sounds of the vibrant forest almost too loud to all of them. The town was gone, the monsters were gone, and the crack in the sky wasn't there now. Yana felt cold sweat tickle his back as he recalled that grin, but now it was like nothing had happened.
"Soooooo, I am going to assume that I am not the only one who remembers all that madness in the town...that is up ahead again?" Marshall coughed out, now sitting on the ground with his head in his hands. Yana didn't disagree with the position and quickly copied him. Pyra just leaned against a tree looking very ill.
"I remember it." She mumbled through her hair.
"As do I." Yana agreed, "Things like this happened back in the Hold near Mother, but never so large in scale. I thought it was just the facility under it causing people to forget for a while and move. This seems similar but far larger and potent." The other two glanced at him.
"Wait, this isn't your first time?" Marshall's face was green beneath the fur, which had receded slightly after his upgrade. Yana shook his head slowly so the spinning wouldn't get worse.
"I wasn't affected by it before and was able to watch the results. I think if I had the Orb active we wouldn't have been affected this time either." He explained, holding his staff so the Orb pointed at the lazy clouds. The day had certainly moved forwards from when they lasted remembered.
"If I am hearing you right, the System is moving people around and making them forget?" Marshall asked, one hand lifted up in the wait sign. Yana took a deep breath before nodding slowly again. The nausea was lifting as the moments crawled on, but Yana also wondered about the whole series of events. How much could any of them trust what was going on. From the very beginning the System was affecting them and altering everything about and around them. Mana was the building blocks of everything, and since it could control that how much of his own actions could he trust at this point. It was an odd series of thoughts that kept running in a mad circle in his head until a hand shook his shoulder.
"Brother," Pyra looked down at him, a hint of worry in her eyes, her grip tightened on his shoulder, "We should keep moving. If this is the System than it is scared of us moving forward. It wants us to question, because then it wins." Her logic was flawed and Yana could see several ways he could argue it, but he didn't want to continue down that dark spiral. In a way it made sense for the System to be scared. The Orb seemingly had the ability to break it's hold in places, and the three of them were now immune to it affecting them again. In fact, the facility beneath the Hold couldn't alter reality, but only the perception of it. Hopefully, such a limitation would be present for the System as well, or it would have a very limited control over such things.
In the end it didn't matter since they had, as a family, made the choice to see this through. They would make it to the Gates of Madness and find the System's core. As long as they didn't keep doubting they could make it. Hardening his Will, Yana stood back up and released the Orb's power.
"Let's keep going." He said, as the Orb pulsed with stolen mana.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
----
"Hmm, and here I thought that Yana would be the best one of the bunch." The white smile said to itself, "Well, I suppose I shouldn't disregard either child of that Core, but still insightful." It traced the aura of the Realm with it's claws before closing it's white eyes. Opening a pair of slited red eyes in a large broken room. Vents laying on the ground with chunks of concrete while broken tiles made a mosaic of the past. To just call the room large would be an understatement once, but with over half the room buried by a crumbling mountain. It was a suitable size to be called such, and it's prisoner was part of the reason for the size decrease.
"Things are now moving a pace." The red eyes looked back at the black arch it curled around. It's presence seeming to bend the air around it's frame.
----
Guildmaster Jaina was having a bad morning. They had gotten reports of an anomaly in the town after everyone had woken up late. Everyone finding themselves where they remembered being, but time had been lost for all of them. It was hard to tell for certain how much time, but events like this were a matter of grave importance for the Adventurer's Guild. So, Jaina found herself locked in her office writing the same letter several times to send out. Unstable Mana Events or Areas could appear anywhere and they had all kinds of different reactions on people. A bit of lost time could just be the surface of the issues they would find down the road.
Luckily they had the testing tablets that could be used to find any traces of unstable mana left around. They would stop displaying status when in the presence of unstable mana, so were a cheap way to find any. You just had to stay away from such places for a few days and it would be safe. Common practice around the Capital and the Gates of Madness near it, and part of the standard training for all Guildmasters.
Though the events had never occurred so far away from the Door, which most scholars agreed was the source of such events. She had been hearing about the uptick in rebellions in Varithfall as well as the total collapse of three dungeons in the far east. They certainly lived in dangerous times, which meant more work for the rank and file adventurers. And, also a lot more paperwork and letters for her.
Finishing up the writing she took the letters downstairs to mail, and ran into a party of three newcomers getting tested. The two men were unremarkable aside from one being a beastkin, who looked like he had lost a lot of fur recently. The woman was far more striking; ash gray hair that was dyed crimson at the tips, a body most women in the capital would pay good money to have, and a pair of green eyes so clear they could be glass. Her own gaze was caught by the striking woman for a moment, and she watched her place her hand on the testing tablet.
"Alright miss Pyra...Pyromancer, level 50... Excellent stats," Harold nodded enthusiastically, though Jaina couldn't tell if it was her status or looks that had him so enthusiastic, "Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild. With your party-" Jaina didn't stick around the hear anything more. It was good they were getting some solid mid level adventurers though, and they would be of excellent help around the eastern regions of the kingdom. Where the majority of monsters flowed in and attacked the walls.
When she returned the party was gone, and she waved at Harold.
"Well, did they have a position in mind?" She asked and Harold nodded.
"They wanted to know if we had a group doing a dungeon delve into the Gates or some place closer to the Capital actually." Jaina's face fell at that, these were some of the usual glory seekers then. Sad, since they had the levels to make a difference.
"Well sign them up to travel to Masire, I know they are always looking for Canaries for the Gates." Harold nodded sadly, Canaries didn't live long but they paid very well while it lasted. He stamped and started writing travel papers. Jaina thought she saw something on the bookshelf, a crack but when she got closer there was nothing there. No crack, no wide, white smile. No white eyes that seemed to emanate glee and madness.
Shrugging her broad shoulders she went back into her room where she heard a tick.