Most of the shows of everyone's skills were coming to an end. Those that were interested in showing off their abilities, or had ones that could be shown off in the first place, had already done so. The atmosphere was much different from what you'd expect from this kind of event. Ryan had thought it would be some boring get-together that felt like work, but instead, it felt more like a party where everyone just happened to be wearing suits and dresses.
People were showing off magic like they were 'party tricks', and people were laughing and telling stories and just having a good time. It seemed like this was very different from what Aurora knew these events to be, but it was clearly a lot better at getting people to build links than what the intention for this place was.
Of course, there was still an underlying feeling of people wanting to get ahead of others by showing off their skills, like they were hoping they could prove they were superior or that they could get some kind of opportunity out of it, but that was something that Ryan knew would have been here either way.
And throughout that all, Ryan felt that something was 'wrong'. He was trying his best to figure out what exactly that 'wrongness' was, but he wasn't able to pinpoint it exactly. It was different to the other 'hunches' that he's been having recently. There, he had something guiding him along, he had some kind of idea of what he was supposed to be doing. But right now, Ryan didn't feel like that at all. He had no idea what to do, or rather, he felt like there was nothing he could do, nor that he really needed to do anything in the first place. He just felt that something was 'wrong'.
Maybe it was some kind of weird form of anxiety that he had, feeling like he didn't belong here. But that also didn't seem to be the case, because he was, surprisingly, actually enjoying himself while talking to all these new people. But for now, since this feeling wasn't something he could do anything about, Ryan just pushed it to the back of his mind, trying not to focus on it too much.
However, there was one other person that was clearly going through a lot of emotions right now; Michael. He had been practically glued to Ryan all evening, and though it felt a little awkward, Ryan figured he didn't mind. At the start of the night, Michael felt like just another douche, but clearly he just really struggled with how to show his emotions. With that server at the start of the night, Michael was trying his best not to cry and 'ruin' his shirt even more, and that made his frustrations well up in a way that he started yelling unintentionally.
But Ryan had already gone with him to apologize to that server, and they seemed to appreciate that a lot, especially after Michael explained the situation a bit more. And after that, though being a bit on the quieter side, Michael had been trying to join conversations as much as he could, but now that the 'end' of the skill showcases came closer, he was clearly growing more and more anxious.
"You ready? It looks like it's going to be your turn soon," Ryan pointed out as he looked over at the young man next to him, and Michael, almost startled, looked over at him.
"Huh? Really? Do you think so?" Michael asked, and Ryan quickly nodded as he looked over toward Alicia.
"Yeah, I mean, she looks like she's preparing something right now. Plus, it looks like most other people are done, so it would make sense, right?"
"R-Right..." Michael nodded nervously, anxiously scratching his neck. And just as Ryan had thought, after about ten more minutes, Alicia came up to Michael with a smile. Ryan had stepped to the side to grab himself something more to eat, so he didn't hear what they were saying, but it looked like Alicia had been preparing her barrier for a little while now.
As Michael started preparing himself to show off his magic, Ryan took the opportunity where everyone's attention was drawn toward the Hydromancer to turn to Maximus and Gaia. The two were still outside of their domains, having people huddle around them the whole time. Someone even wanted to pick up Maximus at some point, and after Ryan made it clear that he's not a toy, maybe a bit too aggressively, people gave them all a bit more space.
Squatting down in front of Gaia, with Maximus seated on the golem's hunchback, Ryan looked around to make sure nobody was nearby, "You two, do you also feel this... weird thing right now? Maximus, you felt some kind of 'vibe' off the dungeon, right? Even through a video, you knew that one of Gaia's fragments was there... do you feel something similar to that right now?"
Tilting his head to the side, Maximus tried to think about it for a moment but quickly shook his head. Similarly, Gaia clearly didn't feel anything, but to Ryan, it was starting to be almost overpowering.
"Are you sure? This is really uncomfortable," Ryan pointed out, looking down at the back of his hand. He was hiding Tiar's pattern with his other hand, "What about you? Do you feel anything?"
Tiar slowly relaxed, forming a small 'X' on the back of his hand, before that pattern quickly turned into a question-mark. It seemed like Tiar was getting a few more options to express themself.
"I don't know what it is, it's just... 'wrong'. Like something isn't right. Like... no, maybe 'wrong' isn't the right word either, it's just... off. Like something just happened that wasn't supposed to happen. Not like... this."
Ryan wasn't sure if he was expressing himself well enough, but that was the closest that he could get to properly vocalizing how he felt.
"Okay, everyone! Take a step back for this, please!" Alicia's voice sounded through the hall, and Ryan's attention was quickly drawn toward her. A large crowd had, of course, formed around Michael, and the air around him was waving in a slight rainbow hue; that was the barrier that Alicia had deployed in order to contain his magic, as it was clearly easy for it to go out of control.
Curiously, Ryan stood up, figuring that he should just talk to Runar about this later. Maybe this was some weird 'secret society' stuff that he shouldn't need to worry about at all. He walked up to the crowd, quickly trying to find a spot where he could see Michael properly. He was clearly very anxious, especially with everyone staring at him like that, but he was trying whatever he could to prepare himself.
Michael seemed to be looking around the crowd, soon spotting Ryan, who just quickly waved at him. Seeming a lot more ready to get started all of a sudden, Michael closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
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"U-Uhm... I'm a Hydromancer, and I awakened a month ago. I have a lot of mana, but my spirituality stat is really low, so I struggle with using it properly... But there's one spell that I have been practising a lot recently," Michael explained, holding his hands together.
Carefully, he pulled them apart, and a small ball of water formed between his palms. As he moved his hands further away from each other, the ball grew in size. It was a very 'standard' spell, a baseline one that most Hydromancers used for practice. The 'Water Ball' spell was commonly used to show a Hydromancer's level. As it was so basic, it was easy to let a lot of mana flow into it, and they could also play around with it quite a lot if their control was enough. Ryan figured that Michael was planning on showing off how much mana he had by making a particularly large water ball, and that was exactly what happened as well.
The ball grew and grew, and didn't seem to want to stop. Rather, it grew far larger than Ryan was expecting, even considering Michael's mana. At some point, it was large enough to fully submerge Ryan even while he was standing up straight, and even then didn't seem to want to stop.
Every other mage in the room seemed confused; Ryan only had a surface-level understanding of how impressive this was, but those that were actually spellcasters themselves seemed almost taken aback. Even Alicia was showing a level of surprise that Ryan couldn't really put a finger on.
The water ball didn't stop growing, continuing on and on, until suddenly, it started to become deformed. The water ball was pressing onto the edges of the cylindrical barrier that Alicia had placed to contain the water. A shadow was cast onto the concentrating Michael as he stopped letting the water ball expand.
After a few moments of silence, an impressed applause sounded out. Michael was almost startled out of his concentration, looking around as a broad smile formed on his face. He quickly glanced at Ryan, who had joined the applause, and then looked over at Alicia, who was watching curiously.
And right then, something in Ryan's pocket buzzed, and he had a weird feeling about it. He pulled out his phone and took a quick look, seeing that Silvia had texted him. She should be on her date with Fae right now, did something go wrong?
At the same time, within the barrier, the water ball above Michael was forming ripples that grew stronger rapidly. It waved around, and droplets of water fell down onto Michael. Anxiously, Michael looked up at the water ball, and as if that was the trigger, the water ball fell apart. The massive amount of water dropped down onto Michael with a crashing sound that startled everyone in the room, but Ryan's eyes were glued to his phone as he read Silvia's message.
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"This is wrong!" hearing the girl's yell, both Silvia and Fae flinched. They were taken aback, and other people in the restaurant looked over and stared. Feeling the eyes on her, Fae pulled back a bit, but Silvia wouldn't have it.
"Excuse me? What, you've never seen two girls on a date before?" Silvia asked with an angry glare.
The girl shook her head, and the glass flowers on her antlers clattered together, "No, no, not that! That's not... you, you're just... it's all wrong, messed up!"
Silvia could feel her stomach drop, "Th-That... what do you want from us? Just... leave!"
"No! You need to come with me, I need to fix this!" The girl reached out and grabbed Silvia's wrist, trying to pull her away from her seat. Startled by the ridiculous strength in this girl's body, Silvia tried to hold onto her chair and the table, but the girl was much stronger than her.
"Wh-What are you- Don't, I-" Silvia looked over at Fae in fear, but the changeling had already jumped up. She tried to tear the antlered girl away from Silvia, but the girl just slapped her away.
"I'm trying to help! You're all messed up as well, but not as much as her! The threads are all tangled up, with this, this..." the girl slowly reached above Silvia's head. She couldn't see what was going on, but she could feel that something was happening. Like some kind of deep dread.
"No! Stop it, get back!" Silvia yelled out, trying to push the girl away. With an angry stare, the girl practically growled.
"I'm trying to help you! What can't you understand?!"
Silvia stared into the girl's eyes. She seemed almost scared, when she was the one that was assaulting Silvia. It didn't take long for other customers and workers of the restaurant to step in, pulling the girl away from Silvia.
"Let go of me! I need to fix this, I need to-" kicking and screaming, the girl threw her arms around and hit the people that were holding her, but Silvia just dropped back down onto her seat, confused and shaking.
Fae immediately came and held her, trying to block Silvia from having to look at that clearly insane girl. Silvia pulled her in closer, burying her face in Fae's dress.
The girl was brought away to a place where they didn't have to see her, and Fae slowly squatted down in front of Silvia, "Are you okay? Did she hurt you?"
Slowly, Silvia looked down at her wrist. It felt sore and hurt a lot, and was already growing red, "A little bit... but it's not that bad."
"Should we go? I'll bring you home," Fae immediately suggested, as tears welled up in Silvia's eyes.
"I just wanted to have a good time with you today..."
"I know, I know... But that was really scary, right? I get it if you want to rest for now."
Silvia slowly shook her head, as Fae carefully patted the elf's tears dry, trying not to mess up her makeup too much, "Could I... could I still come to your place? I don't want to keep locking myself in my room..."
"If that's what you want, obviously we can. Come, I'll pay and then we can go. I'll call us a taxi," Fae suggested, and Silvia slowly nodded her head.
"O-Okay... I'll go to the restroom first, if that's okay..."
"Of course, I'll come with you and-"
Silvia immediately interrupted Fae and shook her head, "No, I... I just need a moment, okay?"
Hesitant to leave Silvia alone right now, Fae looked at the elf's face. Seeing that she was serious, Fae nodded and agreed, and Silvia was quickly led to the restroom by one of the waiters. The employees were all apologizing vehemently, but Silvia couldn't really focus on any of that right now.
She made her way into the restroom, and beelined straight for one of the stalls. Without a moment's hesitation, she dropped onto her knees and vomited up the dinner that her and Fae just shared. Whatever that girl just did made Silvia nauseous like nothing else Silvia had ever experienced before. It was like motion sickness dialled up to 1000%, and she couldn't help herself but be a bit scared.
That girl was strong... so maybe she was an Awakened? So maybe she used some kind of weird skill on Silvia, or at least tried to. It didn't seem like she was able to finish what she was trying to do.
After a little while, Silvia stepped back out from the stall. She still felt sick, but it was a little better now. Slowly, the elf stepped up to the mirrors, but was confused by what she was seeing.
Her eyeliner and mascara was completely smudged and had created long streaks of black down her cheek. Silvia's hair was messy, and her lipstick was almost completely gone. She looked like a mess, but that wasn't what she was focusing on.
Instead, she looked at her eyes that were glowing in intertwining shades of blue and pink and red, as she felt a sharp stinging as if someone had stuck a needle into her eye, but it wasn't painful either. It was exactly how Ryan had described.
A glowing, translucent window flickered into Silvia's view.
Silvia had awakened.