Chương 54: Mana After Death

Enzo swung the coat around his shoulders and pulled it on. The batteries clinked in the coat pockets, glass against stone, stone against fossilized wood. His spellbook went into the inside pocket, snug against his ribs. Then he grabbed his cane and stepped into the hallway. They'd left the woman at the guild hall under guard and gone home to get some rest. When his mom had woken Enzo, telling him there was a member of the Watch looking for him, he'd asked her to notify Sumi and Val as well.

The hallway was dark, the house quiet. Murph had gone out with the hunters earlier, and she'd left before dawn without him hearing a thing. Down the hall, a door opened. Sumi stepped out, dressed, her wrapped arm tucked close. She looked like he felt. Rest had been a lie. Enzo stopped. Neither of them spoke for a moment.

"You don't have to," he said. Sumi shook her head.

"We need to learn what we can." It was exactly what he'd been telling himself. It sounded worse out loud. He nodded and gestured down the hall. Sumi closed her door behind her and went ahead of him down the stairs. His mother was on the couch in the living room, facing the cold fireplace. She turned at the sound of his cane tapping on the floor, looking at him over the backrest.

"Is Sharon going to be okay?" He could see the hope in her eyes. She'd asked the question already knowing, and asked anyway, because some part of her was still holding the door open for a different answer. He also hadn't known the woman's name until just now. Sharon. She'd probably interrogated the guard and learned what was going on. Enzo shook his head.

"I'm sorry." His mom nodded. She turned back toward the fireplace, and her head dipped, just slightly, the way it did when she'd decided not to cry in front of her children. He stood in the archway a moment longer. She'd always felt everything. Every stray dog, every neighbor's bad year, every funeral within three blocks. He and Val had their father's way of going quiet and getting on with it, but their mom carried other people's weight like it was hers to carry.

She was strong in her own way, but they'd been careful with her since the rain. Filtered what came back through the door, kept the worst of the road and the hospital and the rift as vague shapes she didn't have to look at directly. And none of it had mattered, because the world hadn't stayed outside the walls. He should say something. Pops would have crossed the room and put a hand on her shoulder and somehow that would have been enough. Enzo didn't have that either.

He'd inherited the silence without the part that made it work. He turned and followed Sumi out the front door. Val would be down shortly. She would do what he couldn't. Kenzo was waiting for them outside the guild hall, arms crossed. He pulled the door open and trailed after them. The guard waited inside.

"Sir, we stayed out of the room as ordered, but she's definitely making suspicious noises."

"Thank you," Enzo said, moving past him.

"You can head back. We'll deal with it."

"Are you sure, sir? Maybe I should go in first?" Enzo turned back, eyebrow raised.

"Why?"

"Uh, well, because we were told keeping you safe is our number one priority." Enzo frowned.

"Who said that?" The guard glanced between them.

"Frank, sir. He said that without mages, we won't survive." Kenzo stepped up beside the guard and patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry. I'll keep the big boss safe." The guard looked up at Kenzo, hesitated, then nodded.

"Got it. Uh. I'll leave it to you." Enzo watched the guard leave, the door closing behind him.

"That was weird." Kenzo headed deeper into the building.

"Nah, bro. People think we're going to save them from the apocalypse. And you more than me." Enzo and Sumi followed.

"Doesn't explain why he'd want to go first into a room with an Eater." Kenzo shrugged.

"It's moot anyway. I'm going first." Enzo sighed. Kenzo stopped outside the door, and for a moment, it was quiet. Then the door slammed against its frame. The Eater screeched on the other side, louder than Enzo had ever heard one, and crashed into the door again. And again. Sumi took a step back. Even Kenzo flinched. Enzo's grip tightened on the cane, but he'd been expecting something. The Eater was sensing them. Three mages and their reservoirs, and a coat full of mana batteries.

"Go," Enzo said.

"Before it wakes the neighborhood." Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. He pointed a finger at the door.

"Lock." The mechanism clicked, unlocking. Kenzo grabbed the handle. He waited, head tilted, listening. The Eater hit the door again. Kenzo slammed the door open with his full weight behind it. Wood cracked against the Eater's face. It staggered backward. Kenzo rushed through the doorway before it recovered. One big hand closed over its face, fingers spread from jaw to temple, and he lifted the Eater from the floor.

Kenzo carried it across the room with one arm and slammed it against the far wall hard enough to rattle the window. Enzo slipped in after him.

"Telekinesis." Arcane mana snapped into place. Formless bands of force pinned its shoulders to the wall. Enzo poured more mana into the spell, and the magic spread, securing the Eater's legs and arms, too.

"I've got it." Kenzo glanced back at him. Then he pulled his hand away, and the Eater's head whipped forward, teeth snapping shut on the air where his fingers had been. Enzo turned to Sumi.

"You're up." She stepped forward and reached toward the Eater. It barely paid her any mind. Its eyes were fixed on Enzo as it struggled against the magical restraints. Sumi's fingers made contact.

"Diagnose." Her Diagnose was built from his Analyze spell form, but she'd stripped the generalist framework and rebuilt it around biological specifics and mana structures. They were hoping her spell would offer internal insight into Eaters, because he knew his own would just tell him it was an Eater. Sumi turned to him.

"It's a cultivator-type, but the rest was information we already knew. It's bleeding mana. Most of the organs are already breaking down, too. Oh, and the mana waves were destroyed as they approached its heart."

"Eaten?" Kenzo asked. She nodded.

"I believe so." She frowned.

"But the uniformity didn't match the heart itself."

"What do you mean?"

"The waves made contact with some parts of the heart, so it's not the heart itself causing the disruption." The Eater inhaled. Some of the mana pinning its chest to the wall bulged. Then a thin stream of it was sucked into the Eater's waiting mouth. Enzo felt the drain, though it wasn't going to be an issue anytime soon. The amount of mana he could pour into the spell far outweighed whatever the Eater was doing. But the fact it could do it still remained. He activated Mana Sense.

The world shifted into shades of purple. And black. Even with Mana Sense, the dark tendrils reaching from inside the Eater's mouth and latching onto the mana pinning it to the wall were nearly invisible. Shadows of shadows, almost. As he watched, the arcane mana touched by the tendrils cracked. It was then absorbed into the tendrils, before flowing into the Eater's mouth. What he'd taken as lungs sucking in air and mana was not what was happening at all.

"Use Mana Sense. You need to see this." Kenzo and Sumi shared a look, then turned to the Eater. A moment later, Sumi took a step back.

"What is that?" Kenzo shook his head.

"No, bro, I did not need to see that. I could have kept punching Eaters for the rest of my days without seeing that." He rubbed his head.

"Damn, Eaters have Cthulhu-like tentacle-monsters inside them? That's messed up." Enzo released Mana Sense.

"No. It's just mana."

"But it's writhing, bro. Ew. Look at it." Sumi nodded emphatically.

"You too?" Enzo asked, turning to her.

"I draw the line at tentacles, Enzo," Sumi said, though the corner of her mouth twitched.

"But you're right, it's obviously another mana type. Maybe death or decay? I wonder if we can use it…" He shook his head.

"No. And I'm classifying this as forbidden knowledge or something. We do not share this with anyone outside of our inner circle."

"Why?" Kenzo asked.

"Think about it. It's eating mana. That's probably its inherent property. We have no idea what will happen if a mage stores it inside their own reservoir." Kenzo's eyes went wide.

"Oh shit."

"He's right," Sumi said.

"Besides, it might not even be an affinity we have, because something clearly changes when a mage dies, causing them to become Eaters. The mana type might require death as a catalyst…"

"I doubt it will remain a secret though," Kenzo said.

"There are going to be lots of others out there experimenting on Eaters like this." Enzo nodded.

"I know, but I don't care if other mages Eater-fy themselves. Only ours." He turned to Sumi.

"If you decide this needs to be researched, fine. I trust you to be smart about it, but I don't think it's a priority."

"Oh, no, I agree," Sumi said.

"Maybe in the future." She paused.

"In the very far future, when we don't have so many problems to solve."

"Good." Enzo turned back to the Eater, still pinned to the wall. Its eyes remained trained on him despite happily slurping at the mana restraining it.

"How do you think they sense mana? It can't be the same as us. It was able to detect us even through the wall."

"Kenzo's footsteps aren't exactly quiet," Sumi said.

"Hey." Kenzo turned to her.

"You're spending too much time with Val. She's rubbing off on you." Sumi blushed. Enzo shook his head.

"It would have heard the guard, too. But it didn't give itself away until we were on the other side of the door. I think it felt the mana somehow." He reached into his pocket and held up the perfume vial with his blood in it.

"And the Guide says carrying these draws them." The Eater's eyes snapped to the vial. Enzo waved it lazily through the air. The Eater's gaze tracked it even as it continued eating the mana restraining it.

"It almost looks tame," Sumi said quietly. They watched it in silence for a few moments.

"Alright, let's wrap this up." Enzo put the vial back in his pocket. He waved Kenzo forward.

"Grab its shoulders." Kenzo stepped over and pressed the Eater's shoulders against the wall. Enzo moved closer, and placed a hand at the center of its chest. Then he released Telekinesis. Immediately, the Eater tried to lunge forward, snapping and biting, its arms reaching, but Kenzo kept it pinned in place.

"Analyze." — Tier 0 Eater (Sharon) Type: Arcane, Water,??? Description: A recently reanimated cultivation-type Eater formed through failed mana gene activation. Mana reserves elevated beyond expected baseline for a newly formed Eater, consistent with recent feeding. Unknown secondary mana type detected, concentrated near the heart. Warning: This is an Eater. It is close to achieving Tier 1. Galactic law mandates its immediate elimination. Failure to comply constitutes a Class-1 violation. — Enzo almost laughed.

He wondered if the Guide would report him to the Galactic Police. Then he frowned. Telekinesis was an expensive spell, but for it to be almost Tier 1 was deeply concerning. Granted, it had been snacking for the past minute or two, but that still felt far too short a time. Unless it was related to the atmospheric density and the already existing mana in its reservoir. Enzo envisioned the original Spear, a single thread of sharp-tipped, hardened mana.

Not the new one that looked more like it belonged in an action movie.

"Spear." The thread punched into the Eater's chest, and what remained of Sharon went limp. Kenzo helped her down slowly, where she slumped sideways.

"What about the other idea?" Sumi asked. Enzo looked at the body on the floor. When Frank had told them that maybe they needed to figure out how to identify mages, Enzo had floated the idea that maybe they should open up an Eater and examine the heart and brain to see if there were identifiable differences in those that had mana reservoirs. Except Sharon's child deserved whatever chance they had at closure. He shook his head.

"Not this time." Then he turned and left the room. Sumi and Kenzo followed a moment later.

"What now?" Kenzo asked.

"I need you to gather the others, before Signe sets out with Pops." He paused.

"Mary and Robert, too. And get Frank to send someone to… collect the body."

"Got it."