In the days after I lost Saber, my memories became muddled, frayed. I spent many hours flitting in and out of sleep, or at least I thought I did. The things I did while awake mixed with the things I did in dreams. In those days, I had vivid dreams. Hauntingly vivid. No one was left to tell me what was real and what wasn't. Perhaps I had cooked and eaten a meal. Perhaps I had only dreamed of doing so. Perhaps I had left the house and found a stranger picking apples from the yard across the street. Or maybe that never happened.
I dreamed of high school, of the days before graduation. I couldn't remember much from that dream, other than that Hei and Saber were there. I think we were having lunch together inside the cafeteria. Ham and cheese sandwiches, with chocolate milk. We never had chocolate milk at school.
When I woke up, I found myself crying.
The only thing left that felt truly real was the radar, and the moments I spent with it in the garage that smelled of diesel and rust. When I took a picture of the parabolic dish, and when I modeled its shape on my laptop with mathematical functions – the various measurements, the equations to add and multiply – those were too technical, too complex to have been the product of dreams. I could never multiply while asleep. I'd spend hours at my makeshift workbench, half-aware and half-awake, laboring like an automaton under the light of the bare and humming bulb.
In the days when I could no longer remember, in the days I could no longer smile, my radar was the only thing left.
Every time I thought about that, it'd make me angry.
Who knew how long I spent on it. Hours, certainly. But I couldn't tell how many days passed, or even weeks. In those days, the radar became everything I knew. I lived for it more than I lived for myself. With every last ounce of awareness I had left, I tweaked the parabolic dish, and I connected and disconnected and reconnected the sensor's circuitry. In the beginning, the metal detector only had a range of 50 meters. Bringing it up to 400 was challenging, but took mere hours. Going beyond that took much longer.
I didn't know how long it took exactly, but I only stopped working on the detector when I ran out of food.
The house had been large, with a well-stocked kitchen. But I had eaten everything, leaving only a mound of wrappers and trash in a corner of the living room.
I wondered what was left for me. Except the metal-scanner on the railgun.
My gun sat upon the workbench, half-dissected, its innards a mess of wires and tape. I had attached parts to the circuit that I no longer remembered. There must've been a couple capacitors added in, I'd wager. Screws and spare parts were littered around it. I picked up the pieces, examining and reassembling everything, hoping I could still remember how to piece it all back together.
I seemed to have remembered enough. Once I was done, only two screws and a single metal ring were left unused. I doubted those mattered much anyways.
I checked the stats on my reassembled gun.
| ARCANE RAILGUN |
| 55 (+40% Arcana Point) magical damage. 2 second reload. 65 meter range. Upgraded special ability: Eye of Odin – By spending 150 mana, you detect all metallic objects in a 10 degree cone in front of you. 512 mile range. 1 minute cooldown. |
The range was massive, mathematically. It had increased beyond my expectations. I waited, internalizing the fact. I thought I'd feel surprise. Or accomplishment. Or closure. But I…I think I felt nothing.
Now what?
I held the gun up, as though it would give me an answer. When none came, I decided simply to use it. I pressed the button near its grip to activate the metal scanner.
For a brief moment, I saw everything. Countless frames of buildings, countless lampposts and signs as far as the horizon could stretch. I saw several sets of weapons and armors that floated in the air, as though worn by humans. All manifesting as blueish lights, before fading away.
Once the minute-long cooldown was off, I activated the radar again, this time in a different direction. I saw the same things as before, more or less. I then fired it a third, then a fourth time.
The fourth time, I found a massive building, far away, with a crowd inside. Among the crowd was someone with a purse of coins, and the most ridiculously oversized sword I had ever seen.
I could remember it, clear as day. That blade belonged to Cirrus. The man who took away Saber's sight. And I saw, too, the metal of his belt buckles and zippers and buttons. Just as I remembered.
A thought crossed my mind.
"Maw of Leviathan," I whispered to myself.
| MAW OF LEVIATHAN | |
| COST: | 0 Mana |
| COOLDOWN: | 10 minutes |
| You create an octagon around yourself of size 3142 sq. meters, designating the area within as the Maw of Leviathan. The pressure of the deepest abyss then crushes targets within for 300 (+200% Arcana Point) magic damage. |
I always thought the shape had to be a neat, equilateral octagon centered around me. But if I learned anything from working on the radar, it was that omnidirectional shapes were among the most inefficient.
Never before had I realized that this ability had no maximum range. Only a maximum area.
I knelt down and pressed my palm to the ground. I sent my mana beneath the earth, imagining a line connecting Cirrus and myself.
Trails of light darted beneath me, leaving iridescent trajectories that intersected to form a magical diagram, a triangle.
Three sides used. Five sides left.
I visualized a second triangle around Cirrus, where I had seen him. Another three sides.
And with the remaining two sides, I connected my triangle to his, with a thin, thin corridor. There I had it: an enclosed octagon.
I clenched my fist, pulverizing whatever was inside the triangle on the other end.
Something as durable as Cirrus would survive no doubt, but I bet he was in pain now. Perhaps a broken bone. Perhaps a bruised lung. Maybe a crushed eye, even. Hah.
No matter. In just 10 minutes, I could cast the spell again. Even if he survived this one, he'd have to survive the next one too.
And the next.
And the next.
In the days after I lost Saber, my memories became muddled, frayed. I spent many hours flitting in and out of sleep, or at least I thought I did. The things I did while awake mixed with the things I did in dreams. In those days, I had vivid dreams. Hauntingly vivid. No one was left to tell me what was real and what wasn't. Perhaps I had cooked and eaten a meal. Perhaps I had only dreamed of doing so. Perhaps I had left the house and found a stranger picking apples from the yard across the street. Or maybe that never happened.
I dreamed of high school, of the days before graduation. I couldn't remember much from that dream, other than that Hei and Saber were there. I think we were having lunch together inside the cafeteria. Ham and cheese sandwiches, with chocolate milk. We never had chocolate milk at school.
When I woke up, I found myself crying.
The only thing left that felt truly real was the radar, and the moments I spent with it in the garage that smelled of diesel and rust. When I took a picture of the parabolic dish, and when I modeled its shape on my laptop with mathematical functions – the various measurements, the equations to add and multiply – those were too technical, too complex to have been the product of dreams. I could never multiply while asleep. I'd spend hours at my makeshift workbench, half-aware and half-awake, laboring like an automaton under the light of the bare and humming bulb.
In the days when I could no longer remember, in the days I could no longer smile, my radar was the only thing left.
Every time I thought about that, it'd make me angry.
Who knew how long I spent on it. Hours, certainly. But I couldn't tell how many days passed, or even weeks. In those days, the radar became everything I knew. I lived for it more than I lived for myself. With every last ounce of awareness I had left, I tweaked the parabolic dish, and I connected and disconnected and reconnected the sensor's circuitry. In the beginning, the metal detector only had a range of 50 meters. Bringing it up to 400 was challenging, but took mere hours. Going beyond that took much longer.
I didn't know how long it took exactly, but I only stopped working on the detector when I ran out of food.
The house had been large, with a well-stocked kitchen. But I had eaten everything, leaving only a mound of wrappers and trash in a corner of the living room.
I wondered what was left for me. Except the metal-scanner on the railgun.
My gun sat upon the workbench, half-dissected, its innards a mess of wires and tape. I had attached parts to the circuit that I no longer remembered. There must've been a couple capacitors added in, I'd wager. Screws and spare parts were littered around it. I picked up the pieces, examining and reassembling everything, hoping I could still remember how to piece it all back together.
I seemed to have remembered enough. Once I was done, only two screws and a single metal ring were left unused. I doubted those mattered much anyways.
I checked the stats on my reassembled gun.
| ARCANE RAILGUN |
| 55 (+40% Arcana Point) magical damage. 2 second reload. 65 meter range. Upgraded special ability: Eye of Odin – By spending 150 mana, you detect all metallic objects in a 10 degree cone in front of you. 512 mile range. 1 minute cooldown. |
The range was massive, mathematically. It had increased beyond my expectations. I waited, internalizing the fact. I thought I'd feel surprise. Or accomplishment. Or closure. But I…I think I felt nothing.
Now what?
I held the gun up, as though it would give me an answer. When none came, I decided simply to use it. I pressed the button near its grip to activate the metal scanner.
For a brief moment, I saw everything. Countless frames of buildings, countless lampposts and signs as far as the horizon could stretch. I saw several sets of weapons and armors that floated in the air, as though worn by humans. All manifesting as blueish lights, before fading away.
Once the minute-long cooldown was off, I activated the radar again, this time in a different direction. I saw the same things as before, more or less. I then fired it a third, then a fourth time.
The fourth time, I found a massive building, far away, with a crowd inside. Among the crowd was someone with a purse of coins, and the most ridiculously oversized sword I had ever seen.
I could remember it, clear as day. That blade belonged to Cirrus. The man who took away Saber's sight. And I saw, too, the metal of his belt buckles and zippers and buttons. Just as I remembered.
A thought crossed my mind.
"Maw of Leviathan," I whispered to myself.
| MAW OF LEVIATHAN | |
| COST: | 0 Mana |
| COOLDOWN: | 10 minutes |
| You create an octagon around yourself of size 3142 sq. meters, designating the area within as the Maw of Leviathan. The pressure of the deepest abyss then crushes targets within for 300 (+200% Arcana Point) magic damage. |
I always thought the shape had to be a neat, equilateral octagon centered around me. But if I learned anything from working on the radar, it was that omnidirectional shapes were among the most inefficient.
Never before had I realized that this ability had no maximum range. Only a maximum area.
I knelt down and pressed my palm to the ground. I sent my mana beneath the earth, imagining a line connecting Cirrus and myself.
Trails of light darted beneath me, leaving iridescent trajectories that intersected to form a magical diagram, a triangle.
Three sides used. Five sides left.
I visualized a second triangle around Cirrus, where I had seen him. Another three sides.
And with the remaining two sides, I connected my triangle to his, with a thin, thin corridor. There I had it: an enclosed octagon.
I clenched my fist, pulverizing whatever was inside the triangle on the other end.
Something as durable as Cirrus would survive no doubt, but I bet he was in pain now. Perhaps a broken bone. Perhaps a bruised lung. Maybe a crushed eye, even. Hah.
No matter. In just 10 minutes, I could cast the spell again. Even if he survived this one, he'd have to survive the next one too.
And the next.
And the next.
