Chapter 29 – Life 6 – The Trance

  As soon as I stepped out of my home, I was greeted with questions.

  “Who’s next up to receive one of your armors?”

  “Any comments on the incident near DeeCee?”

  “Is it true they blocked off the Arena just for your team to practice?”

  And many more. I was getting tired of these ‘journalists’ prying into my life, but I would grant them that I had made for a few popular stories over the past few years.

  Even when I was just the daughter of the Five States’ one and only Lightning Caster, everyone asked after me, wondering what my mom’s secret was. Then I awakened from Caster to High Caster in record time, after only killing a single Evolved monster. Not only that, I had managed to combine my Metal with Life, creating a heretofore unknown element that I called ‘Living Bronze’.

  For a while, Living Bronze seemed less powerful than either of the elements that made it up. But after several years of experimenting, I had a process figured out pretty well for making armor that amplified a person’s movements. My best work went to me and my team, of course, but I managed to fit in time for several dozen custom commissions over the past year. Even better, I was getting faster.

  Like all Casters, I got more powerful by killing monsters. Of course, regular monsters were barely a snack at this point, it was the Evolved ones that I really needed. Still, after a brief trip down the coast, I had killed 11 Evolved Monsters (along with a certain bizarre human idiot that the higher-ups, including my mother, had sworn me to secrecy about).

  After that, my Bronze output had increased significantly, to the point where I could make around an armor per week. The individual armors were also improving, with the ones I put the most work into being able to fold ordinary metal themselves.

  It helped that I had designated 4 ‘archetypes’ of armor that I could fall back on. There was the base model, which just tried to alleviate the strain of any motions you made. There were also Amplifiers that not only mimicked your movements but improved upon them, increasing the force and balancing out the weight. Then there were Automatics, which tried to predict when you needed to move quickly and did it for you. Finally, there were the Survivors, the hardest of the ‘standard’ archetypes, which tapped into the powers of Life to heal the person wearing the armor over time.

  Naturally, my own armor and that of my 4 teammates could do all this and more. I had spent enough time with them that I could personalize the armors’ move-sets and make them better able to predict when those movements were necessary. The twin Redsteel Essence wielders relied more on movement during combat, while Silvie had adopted a new strategy of covering herself with Earth and hiding underground.

  Then there was Lambert, who thought he was approaching High Caster status but wasn’t there yet. As always, he enjoyed rushing forward with wild abandon, alongside his own personal greatsword. While no-one knew about the dreams I had of my past life as a swordsman, I did mention to him the theory of infusing massive amounts of Metal Essence into a single object. Lambert was unconvinced at first, but once a certain tipping point was hit, his sword was able to cut through anything besides Evolved materials in a single slice. He was thrilled.

  As for the Arena being blocked off… that one journalist was closer to the truth than he realized. The ancient sports coliseum was considered the perfect place for new warriors to train… but I had pulled some strings to train up some ‘warriors’ of my own.

  I pushed through the crowd of journalists and fell into formation with the group of government bodyguards who were waiting for me. We didn’t think that the strange Fog Essence users who came and found me in DeeCee were planning for an attack… but we couldn’t be sure about anything, when it came to them. Just as their leader had said, there were many secrets in the world.

  We eventually got to the Arena and were given passage once I opened my helmet and confirmed my identity. Inside, I was greeted with the fruits of my last few months of labor.

  Most of the Arena had been recently restructured by Earth Folders. It was now devoid of the tunnels that many new warriors knew as the Corridors. Instead, it was made into something of a maze without an exit, with pathways leading into many closed-off rooms. And in each room… was a suit of bronze armor that had no wearer.

  My latest experiment with my powers had been to automate the very process of monster-killing. We were keeping it secret for the moment, since many Casters would likely revolt. After all, if they couldn’t kill monsters for Essence, wouldn’t they fall behind their Folder brethren?

  That didn’t really concern me, though. People were… messy. Unpredictable. My armor-men, on the other hand, were simple and reliable. The only thing that got them down was situations they weren’t prepared for, and I was getting better and better at filling their metal minds with the relevant information.

  What really helped, I found, was using my armor while fighting the monsters, then transferring a small bit of metal from my armor to that of the others. Some part of my memories, my instincts, got imbued into the metal… a very interesting and unusual effect.

  I began to walk more quickly towards the center of the Arena, and my armor kicked in and began to run at inhuman speeds. Even normal Amplifier armor couldn’t reach these speeds, not without seriously hurting the wearer. My armor, though, was good enough at healing the damage as it happened.

  In short order, I reached the walls above the central holding area that all the Red Mantises were funneled into. The red, pulsing crystal that summoned a mantis every few minutes was in full view. I went up to one of my observer units, essentially a helmet with spider-like legs and a voice box. “Observer, report on the status of the Crystal.”, I said.

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  “Reee-zero point three five percent shrinkage since previous report-reee.” Making the armor speak was still a work in progress, but it was significantly more understandable than it was a year prior. I even noticed certain, long-lived armors developing individual voice patterns.

  As for the more important point… the crystal was shrinking. Killing each and every mantis the thing produced over a short enough timescale seemed to diminish its power. At first, it reacted with the colloquial ‘Hardcore Mode’, spitting out monsters faster than any normal crystal. Working through that point, though… the production rate was now slowing down, if anything.

  “Observer, report the size of the crystal compared to other crystals.”

  “Reee-Size is thirty two point nine two percent of reported data on similar crystal volumes-reee.”

  So, we had gotten it down to under a third of its original size. That was really something worth noting. As far as anyone else had heard, at least in our discreet enquiries, there were no other indications that anyone else had discovered this. I supposed they were all too afraid of Hardcore Mode to try. Or, perhaps, they just weren’t as reliable at killing as my armor-men.

  I looked at the crystal more closely. Something about it… disgusted me. Not just the red light that pulsed through it at different frequencies… but what it represented. These things had wrecked our world. Caused the Apocalypse. It had been over two centuries since they fell from the moons, and they still caused trouble. We were only just now coming back on our feet, and we didn’t even know where they came from in the first place. Why can’t they. Just. Go. Away?

  Before I knew it, I joined my armor-men in fighting the mantises. The armors seemed to understand my intentions and left their isolated rooms to join in the larger fight. No longer were the mantises given time to find their way to the instruments of their destruction. No, we brought the fight right to them. They were summoned through whatever cosmic force brought them here… and were summarily dispatched minutes if not seconds later.

  I fought for some time. The logical part of me figured that my armor had enough data on these simple monsters. The emotional part of me wanted the crystal shrunk to the minimum as soon as possible. All parts of me agreed: this thing had to go.

  I had fought like this once before, the combat-trance that first let us understand that the crystal was shrinking. But now, my armor was better at healing me. I didn’t hunger. I didn’t thirst. I only fought.

  I was a little more aware than before. I didn’t fight off any humans who tried to come near me. I only pulled them aside, briefly explained, and then went back into the throes of combat.

  Eventually, I noticed some armor-men who fought better than the rest. No, not armor men. Armor. My teammates were here! Good, we can fight together. The crystal shrunk ever more.

  Later on, many others joined in. Martina, my mother. Byron, the Storm Caster. Others whose names I didn’t know, or at least didn’t remember. We all focused our abilities on one thing: killing monsters.

  There were some instances of human attacks hitting other humans. Inefficient. I diverted some of my armor-men to position them such that all of us were only hitting mantises.

  There were noises, many noises. I ordered my helmet to tune them out. I did notice a few Casters who started using Combined elements. I supposed all this fighting was good for them. Even a few Fire Folders evolved, having absorbed the pitiful abilities of the mantises themselves.

  There were, every now and then, Evolved mantises. Redsteel. Light. Bluesteel. Fog. Even a strange greenish flame that we extinguished before allowing it to do anything. Strange thing, that.

  Finally, of course, Magma. That one was the hardest to combat, since my armor-men didn’t have the high melting points that Redsteel did. Something to consider for the future. The Storm Caster helped with that, freezing the thing in its tracks. I should really get him an armor when this is all over.

  Noises, from all directions. Ones that I couldn’t block out, not with my current armor. I looked around. The Arena seating had been repaired and was now filled with a crowd. Some people I barely recognized, many others I didn’t. Light Casters were projecting close-ups of our fight to all of them. A crowd… cheering us on? Here to see our victory?

  Good.

  We kept going. Some fighters fell away, others came forward. A cycle, kept in perfect harmony thanks to my armor-men. We… we were doing this. The crystal shrank to the size of a table, then a chair, then a fist. I expected more. A second Hardcore Mode. But… nothing. The crystal shrank to nothing. The final batch of mantises were dispatched, and then… there was silence.

  I told my helmet to stop covering sounds, just in case. Still, silence. And then, an eruption of sound. The crowd. It was hard to take, but I managed. The sounds grew and grew. Light folders made a light show reminiscent of Pre-Apocalypse ‘fire-works’. It was… impressive. Beautiful, I supposed, as I came out of my combat trance.

  Then, the sounds got louder. And louder. The lightshow grew and grew. Wasn’t this… too much?

  Then I saw the screaming. The running. What was-

  The moons. All six were in the sky at once. That’s… impossible.

  Unless-

  A piercing screech. A shape in the sky… no, two of them. This couldn’t be happening, right?

  A red crystal dropped down and found its place, right where the old one had been. But just as I had time to take that in, a yellow one hovered right above it. What the-

  The crystals dissolved into some form of liquid. The two pools merged into a toxic-looking orange color. Then, a new crystal formed, larger than any I had seen before.

  An Evolved Mantis was the first thing summoned. Magma, I noticed. I attempted to find Byron, knowing that he was helpful whenever these ones showed up. Okay. Okay. We can do this. Our battle group reformed. So, what if this crystal was bigger? We could destroy it, just the same. And its ‘double’ nature? Maybe it could summon, what, enemies of two different types? That wouldn’t be so-

  Oh.

  Oh no.

  Another Magma Mantis appeared. Only a minute later, another. Byron struggled.

  No, no, no.

  This crystal…

  Another Magma Mantis. Byron was unable to catch it in time. It ran at speeds unlike its un-evolved versions and began to burn the walls of the Arena.

  It summons an Evolved monster. Every time.

  My armors tried to help Byron. They began to melt into puddles of liquid. The Magma Mantises that had escaped grew in number. They were almost through the walls that had, for two centuries, held the mantises in. Byron tried to corner one of them with the help of one of the Fire twins. It feinted left, then went straight through the opening the move created.

  They were smarter than normal, too.

  They were through the walls. I saw flickers of flames in the distance. The screams, so many screams. There were people who lived right outside the Arena. I had seen them as I had gone in, every day.

  What were we going to do? A wave of some of the most destructive monsters known to man, coming again and again and again…

  And what about the myths of Greater Evolved monsters? Supposedly, if a lucky Evolved monster was left alone too long, it would achieve even greater power…

  The Islands of Japan had been lost to one, long ago. The thing that did it may even still be alive today. But now, right in the middle of the Five States… there might be another. How long before it happened? A year? A month? …a week?

  Had I… was this my fault? This… it was too much for one person to bear.

  An Air Folder came down from the sky, said everyone was trying to regroup in GreatLake. Said she could take me there. I weakly nodded my agreement.

  As we flew away, the city burned.