FriendlyDragon This took much longer than I thought it would. It's short, but it was so hard trying to find the right words.
Yuki jabbed a button on one of the screens. A panel of the metal cannon that rose from the ground separated from the main cylinder. As it slid open to reveal the inside of the cannon, mana radiated out, Yuki staggering from the power. The amount and concentration was like nothing he had felt before. Even the generator that powered everything within the guild from the computers to Uriel couldn’t compare.
He gathered himself. His grip around the two gems he held tightened and he stepped forward. The mana engulfed him, swallowing him, as he entered the cannon. Oddly, though, the mana felt cool to his skin. It was clear, so clear that it was almost like it wasn’t there. But its presence all but made up for that.
Turning in a circle, Yuki found the location of the gems that were powering the weapon. They were impossible to miss, shining like beacons, the mana only amplifying their gleam. Elemental mana poured out from them, flowing out into the cannon in a torrent. It joined with the rest of the mana, flowing upwards towards the tip of the cannon.
‘It’s going to fire.’
It was time to act. Yuki’s eyes shut. With a deep breath, he tapped into his own mana. He felt it pour out from him, licking his skin as it wrapped around him. Another breath. His left hand went up to grip something around his neck. A brown and red jewel.
‘Time to see if this works.’
He began converting the mana within himself. Slowly at first, but his pace sped up faster and faster as he went, all his mana changing until it became the attribute of the earth.
‘Not yet,’ Yuki thought, his breaths getting heavier and heavier. ‘It’s not time yet.’
Every little drop that regenerated, he converted as he bided his time. The cannon had finished preparations. But it hadn’t fired yet.
‘Come on. Do it.’
Then he felt it. A shifted in the flow of the mana that surrounded him. It had begun to accelerate upwards. There could be only one reason why. The cannon had begun firing.
With that, Yuki unleashed every bit of the converted mana that had been building up within himself. It exploded out in a rampage, roaring upwards. But nothing happened. It was simply absorbed into the beam.
Yuki had planned for that. Without missing a step, he reached down into the depths of the necklace that he wore and summoned all the mana that had been stored within it for years. He had used some before, but there was still a considerable amount. He converted it all into earth mana and poured it into the beam.
The beam wobbled. Yuki could feel it and he urged it to continue, to get stronger and more prominent. But it disappeared. And the beam remained unchanged.
The mana around him was now accelerating almost too fast for him to keep track of. It roared past him. And now it was trying to go through him. With that realisation, so too came the searing pain that it caused.
He gritted his teeth. Now wasn’t the time to be distracted by such things. He still had a job that he needed to complete. But he wasn’t sure what he could do.
‘I didn’t want it to come to this.’
It was time to do a test. A test of an idea that he had only recently given some thought too. He had no proof. He had no basis. A guess was all that he had.
‘Fuck it,’ he growled.
He raised his hands and opened them, the two jewels he held and the necklace laying there in his palms. Then they began to glow as they began to fill with mana. Mana that wasn’t his.
His idea was simple. He had no more mana to pour into the beam in order to throw it out of balance. He needed more mana in order to do so. Alternatively, he could try to remove a certain type of mana from the beam to throw it off balance. His plan was to do both. There was just a slight problem.
Yuki could only control mana that was his own. Everyone could only control mana that was their own. It was impossible for him to reach out and grab mana floating in the air and force it to bend to his will. So he couldn’t convert it into a single attribute.
The work around for this was the jewels he held in his palms. Elemental jewels accepted mana indiscriminately. They didn’t care where it came from or what form they came in. They absorb it and force it to become its attribute. And that was what Yuki was going to take advantage of.
Currently, the mana that he needed to convert was passing through him, burning him from the inside out. It hurt. Badly. But it was necessary. He thrusted his arms up, his muscles screaming in protest. He ignored them and held them up.
The mana around him that was zooming upwards followed his arms, into his hands, and out of his palms, right into the gems. The gems accepted them hungrily, absorbing the mana like a sponge does with water. Then they spat the mana out once they had finished converting it.
Yuki braced for what was to come.
Mana had an odd attribute. It acted like heat. It enjoyed balance, filling a space completely and evenly. It went from places of high concentration to areas of lower concentrations. That included his body.
The surrounding mana began the mad dash to try and fill the void that the jewels had created. It poured into Yuki, burning and searing him. He was sure he was screaming. His mouth was open. But he couldn’t hear a thing over the cries of his body. The mana wasn’t just tearing away at his body. It was burning his very essence.
As the jewels swallowed more and more of the mana, more and more mana rushed into his body. It raged like the sea does during a hurricane, ripping away at land indiscriminately. Only the land was him.
But like most things, it was only overwhelming at first. The pain began to subside. Yuki opened his eyes and found out why. There was no more land for the sea to destroy.
‘Am I dead?’
He felt almost nothing. His body was gone. No, it was still there, but it was merely a faint outline.
‘I’m. Mana.’
He had no flesh. He was simply mana. Then the soft whispers began to fill his nonexistent ears. They sang a familiar song. Many songs. Each voice a little different. Yuki listened to them, their harmony calming him.
‘I remember.’ Realisation struck him. ‘The elements.’
This was their song. He listened to it, feeling their meaning. They told him their experiences, their struggles, their joys. He listened to it all. It was like listening to a close friend.
Then they asked him a question. Or really, a request.
Our queen. Are you ready?
Queen. The word reverberated in Yuki’s head. Who was this queen? Yuki didn’t understand. Ready? Ready for what?
Pain flashed through his head. No, her head. Yuki had been stripped down to her very essence. She gritted her teeth, trying to dispel the pain. Then a shock went up her spine. The kind of shock when someone was staring at you. Or something.
Yuki’s eyes cracked open. A pair stared back. Two giant elongated eyes with thin black slits for pupils. Their irises were silver with flecks of every color of the rainbow.
A rumbling voice rang in her ears. A woman’s.
Release me.
Those two words resonated in Yuki’s mind, shaking her to her very core. Her chest tightened more and more, until she felt as if she was going to implode. And then all was still.
“Yuki,” a soft voice whispered into her ears. It sounded sorrowful and pleading. “Open your eyes. Please.”
‘Akira.’ Yuki remembered that voice.
Her eyes fluttered open. Her stomach clenched, but the eyes that looked back were a soft brown. They warmed her, comforted her. They felt safe.
“Yuki?” Akira asked, her voice louder. “Can you hear me?”
Yuki nodded, the motion sending spikes of pain down her spine. She gritted her teeth, swallowing her growls.
“Oh thank god,” Akira whispered, leaning down and hugging Yuki. “Thank god, thank god.”
Yuki suppressed her growls again. The shifting had aggravated her pains again. But even with that, Yuki felt something warm envelope her chest. Relief. Safety.
“Akira,” Yuki said in a hoarse whisper. “We need to go.”
Akira heard her. She gave Yuki a small nod before lifting her with two arms. As she did, Yuki noticed her surroundings for the first time. Everything was destroyed.
‘Mission completed.’
Yuki turned her head and buried it into Akira. She could feel Akira’s warmth. It relaxed her.
‘Thank you,’ Yuki thought. ‘For being here.’
Then her consciousness faded.
FriendlyDragon This took much longer than I thought it would. It's short, but it was so hard trying to find the right words.
Yuki jabbed a button on one of the screens. A panel of the metal cannon that rose from the ground separated from the main cylinder. As it slid open to reveal the inside of the cannon, mana radiated out, Yuki staggering from the power. The amount and concentration was like nothing he had felt before. Even the generator that powered everything within the guild from the computers to Uriel couldn’t compare.
He gathered himself. His grip around the two gems he held tightened and he stepped forward. The mana engulfed him, swallowing him, as he entered the cannon. Oddly, though, the mana felt cool to his skin. It was clear, so clear that it was almost like it wasn’t there. But its presence all but made up for that.
Turning in a circle, Yuki found the location of the gems that were powering the weapon. They were impossible to miss, shining like beacons, the mana only amplifying their gleam. Elemental mana poured out from them, flowing out into the cannon in a torrent. It joined with the rest of the mana, flowing upwards towards the tip of the cannon.
‘It’s going to fire.’
It was time to act. Yuki’s eyes shut. With a deep breath, he tapped into his own mana. He felt it pour out from him, licking his skin as it wrapped around him. Another breath. His left hand went up to grip something around his neck. A brown and red jewel.
‘Time to see if this works.’
He began converting the mana within himself. Slowly at first, but his pace sped up faster and faster as he went, all his mana changing until it became the attribute of the earth.
‘Not yet,’ Yuki thought, his breaths getting heavier and heavier. ‘It’s not time yet.’
Every little drop that regenerated, he converted as he bided his time. The cannon had finished preparations. But it hadn’t fired yet.
‘Come on. Do it.’
Then he felt it. A shifted in the flow of the mana that surrounded him. It had begun to accelerate upwards. There could be only one reason why. The cannon had begun firing.
With that, Yuki unleashed every bit of the converted mana that had been building up within himself. It exploded out in a rampage, roaring upwards. But nothing happened. It was simply absorbed into the beam.
Yuki had planned for that. Without missing a step, he reached down into the depths of the necklace that he wore and summoned all the mana that had been stored within it for years. He had used some before, but there was still a considerable amount. He converted it all into earth mana and poured it into the beam.
The beam wobbled. Yuki could feel it and he urged it to continue, to get stronger and more prominent. But it disappeared. And the beam remained unchanged.
The mana around him was now accelerating almost too fast for him to keep track of. It roared past him. And now it was trying to go through him. With that realisation, so too came the searing pain that it caused.
He gritted his teeth. Now wasn’t the time to be distracted by such things. He still had a job that he needed to complete. But he wasn’t sure what he could do.
‘I didn’t want it to come to this.’
It was time to do a test. A test of an idea that he had only recently given some thought too. He had no proof. He had no basis. A guess was all that he had.
‘Fuck it,’ he growled.
He raised his hands and opened them, the two jewels he held and the necklace laying there in his palms. Then they began to glow as they began to fill with mana. Mana that wasn’t his.
His idea was simple. He had no more mana to pour into the beam in order to throw it out of balance. He needed more mana in order to do so. Alternatively, he could try to remove a certain type of mana from the beam to throw it off balance. His plan was to do both. There was just a slight problem.
Yuki could only control mana that was his own. Everyone could only control mana that was their own. It was impossible for him to reach out and grab mana floating in the air and force it to bend to his will. So he couldn’t convert it into a single attribute.
The work around for this was the jewels he held in his palms. Elemental jewels accepted mana indiscriminately. They didn’t care where it came from or what form they came in. They absorb it and force it to become its attribute. And that was what Yuki was going to take advantage of.
Currently, the mana that he needed to convert was passing through him, burning him from the inside out. It hurt. Badly. But it was necessary. He thrusted his arms up, his muscles screaming in protest. He ignored them and held them up.
The mana around him that was zooming upwards followed his arms, into his hands, and out of his palms, right into the gems. The gems accepted them hungrily, absorbing the mana like a sponge does with water. Then they spat the mana out once they had finished converting it.
Yuki braced for what was to come.
Mana had an odd attribute. It acted like heat. It enjoyed balance, filling a space completely and evenly. It went from places of high concentration to areas of lower concentrations. That included his body.
The surrounding mana began the mad dash to try and fill the void that the jewels had created. It poured into Yuki, burning and searing him. He was sure he was screaming. His mouth was open. But he couldn’t hear a thing over the cries of his body. The mana wasn’t just tearing away at his body. It was burning his very essence.
As the jewels swallowed more and more of the mana, more and more mana rushed into his body. It raged like the sea does during a hurricane, ripping away at land indiscriminately. Only the land was him.
But like most things, it was only overwhelming at first. The pain began to subside. Yuki opened his eyes and found out why. There was no more land for the sea to destroy.
‘Am I dead?’
He felt almost nothing. His body was gone. No, it was still there, but it was merely a faint outline.
‘I’m. Mana.’
He had no flesh. He was simply mana. Then the soft whispers began to fill his nonexistent ears. They sang a familiar song. Many songs. Each voice a little different. Yuki listened to them, their harmony calming him.
‘I remember.’ Realisation struck him. ‘The elements.’
This was their song. He listened to it, feeling their meaning. They told him their experiences, their struggles, their joys. He listened to it all. It was like listening to a close friend.
Then they asked him a question. Or really, a request.
Our queen. Are you ready?
Queen. The word reverberated in Yuki’s head. Who was this queen? Yuki didn’t understand. Ready? Ready for what?
Pain flashed through his head. No, her head. Yuki had been stripped down to her very essence. She gritted her teeth, trying to dispel the pain. Then a shock went up her spine. The kind of shock when someone was staring at you. Or something.
Yuki’s eyes cracked open. A pair stared back. Two giant elongated eyes with thin black slits for pupils. Their irises were silver with flecks of every color of the rainbow.
A rumbling voice rang in her ears. A woman’s.
Release me.
Those two words resonated in Yuki’s mind, shaking her to her very core. Her chest tightened more and more, until she felt as if she was going to implode. And then all was still.
“Yuki,” a soft voice whispered into her ears. It sounded sorrowful and pleading. “Open your eyes. Please.”
‘Akira.’ Yuki remembered that voice.
Her eyes fluttered open. Her stomach clenched, but the eyes that looked back were a soft brown. They warmed her, comforted her. They felt safe.
“Yuki?” Akira asked, her voice louder. “Can you hear me?”
Yuki nodded, the motion sending spikes of pain down her spine. She gritted her teeth, swallowing her growls.
“Oh thank god,” Akira whispered, leaning down and hugging Yuki. “Thank god, thank god.”
Yuki suppressed her growls again. The shifting had aggravated her pains again. But even with that, Yuki felt something warm envelope her chest. Relief. Safety.
“Akira,” Yuki said in a hoarse whisper. “We need to go.”
Akira heard her. She gave Yuki a small nod before lifting her with two arms. As she did, Yuki noticed her surroundings for the first time. Everything was destroyed.
‘Mission completed.’
Yuki turned her head and buried it into Akira. She could feel Akira’s warmth. It relaxed her.
‘Thank you,’ Yuki thought. ‘For being here.’
Then her consciousness faded.
