Chapter Text
12th June 2017. It did not go the way I expected.
Earlier that day, I woke up at approximately 6:16 am in the morn', my close friend Adrian called me. I was in a deep sleep and forgot I’d set my ringtone to full volume. Really shook me up. Huh.
In all honesty? I almost forgot about the trip myself. The deadline set was past 1 PM. I still had a lot of time. So I showered, packed everything, took my car keys and drove straight to pick up my friends. I didn't get to eat breakfast in such a rush, but that's fine, thaumality can provide additional sustainance for much longer.
We were planning to collect sylvas at that field, which I heard from some folks here in our neighborhood, is said to have an abundant presence of diverse sylvas, and specifically the higher quality ones unlike your everyday Arieses.
It was only me, Adrian, Asga and Raiga.
I tried to convince Kinanti and her sister to join, but they aren't as interested in thaumality-related-thingies, so I guess it's just me and the boys then.
It was actually Raiga's idea to go on this trip. As you can see... He is just a regular person, a non-thaumalist. He told me the other day that he wanted to practice it all by himself, but I suggested I could be his personal mentor, and he agreed.
To become a thaumalist yourself, you have to collect all the sylvas available at your environment. They come in various shapes and sizes, and are distinguishable by its emission of thaumalic energy... Which manifests as dim, scarlet flares, and are very light when held even if they look heavy.
Anyways, back to the trip, I drove to Adrian's house and it took me about ten minutes to get there from mine. I can tell he's already so prepared, and excited too, because the moment I stopped by his lawn, he showed up out of nowhere and immediately shoved his face in the drivers side window. That's him for you.
I unlocked the passenger's side door and told him to get in. Adrian has always been my friend since childhood days. He's just four years younger than me, but not the youngest in our friend group.
He's kind of the odd one out in the group;
Always spacing out randomly, rambling about things that sometimes doesn't connect to anything else he said... But nevertheless, he's my friend.
We drove off again to get the rest, Asga and Raiga. They both live in the same apartment complex so I could get them both simultaneously in time, and they both got a room at the backseat. I’d only known these two for five months, but even then, it was obvious they were close enough to kill each other over a bag of chips.
So we drove off once again. Reaching our destination would take two and a half hour from our previous spot. I turned on the radio, just currently trendy music blasting off as usual, not really encompassing my taste. Thus, I turned on the news.
Something about a newly founded terroristic group operating an attack on the south end of Nightfall Park.
It's really concerning on how these kinda groups are on the rise at our city for the past few months, I really wish the government would do something about them.
Well, at least it's kind of subdued, but only for a bit. Among those groups, the most resilient and infamous one may as well be The White Mercenaries, an extremist group trying to ban Thaumality nationwide. The good thing though, the Defense Assembly of this country tried their best to maintain stability and prevent them from causing further havoc.
I turned off the radio afterwards, nothing notable at all, so I continued to drive off for a few more hours until our destination is reached. Long story short, we were there. Me and the boys stepped out with our preparations ready.
The field is located at the further north of the Mitu Shimoyama Memorial Rural, right pass the borders. It is a tremendously vast open field, with many large hills that can be seen from this angle outside the rural's entrance. The field is oddly similar to the one seen on the Aperture XP desktop wallpaper. Beautiful, as it is.
We walked over there, side-by-side. The locals were pretty welcoming and kind towards us. Some even recognized me from an article in The Nightfall Gazette as they asked me about it. Neato, I'd sayo. We then bid them farewell as we went north, and wandered deep into the field.
Several yards across us, we saw a strange structure in the middle of an open meadow; it's a small tower, similar to a watching tower made from a mix of an obsidian-like component for the walls, and a type of wood for its footings. On its top, looked a lot like a crown? There's a strange symbol on it; a sun split in half vertically, and there are two hands reaching down from either side. There's no entrance to the structure as far we know.
Adrian took a picture of it, at least. The rest are as confused as I am upon gazing it.
I took out a sylva detector from my bag, and analyzed it for a bit. Nothing came out. I guess no point in investigating it, or as I thought at the time... So we all went east to look out for a sylva, or at least some useful materials along the way. Long story short... we only got two sylvas; a stabilized Aries crystal and a Dragon's Twig. I mean, both are good for early trainning I guess. I kept them in my bag.
We sat down for a bit under the shade of a crooked pine nearby. Raiga offered everyone some of his energy bars, which tasted like cardboard but did the job. Adrian kept staring at the picture he took of the tower, zooming in and out, maybe he thought it's still worth investigating. Asga joked that maybe it's just a random art piece made by a rich hermit with weird taste, and we chuckled. Something about it still felt off though, no matter how much I try to look at it lightly.
Anyway, after resting for about twenty minutes or so, we packed up and kept moving. We didn’t really talk much during the walk, mostly just comments on the sceneries which Asga would take pictures of occasionally. I don't blame him, nature is beautiful after all.
Eventually, we reached the edge of the field, where the ground went down into a rocky stream far below. No sylvas in this area here either. I checked the detector again, and nothing showed up. It was a bit disheartening, honestly. I thought the field would be a lot more richer as I heard. Maybe we're in the wrong direction, or at most unlucky.
We decided to head back due to the lack of progress. Kinanti texted me while we were walking. Just a short message: "Hope you don’t get turned into a newt or something lol." Classic her. I didn’t reply. Not yet.
Adrian asked if we could hang out here again next time. Maybe investigating the tower would be worth it, he said. I said maybe. But truth is, something about it makes my skin crawl, or maybe it’s just because of how out of place it was. Nevertheless, I felt like there's a negative energy surronding it, and I can feel it still on Adrian's picture of it.
My paranoia turns out to not be too far off.
As we all headed back, I sensed something very off with the surrounding area, but it's something I am vaguely familiar with. In the far distance, the same direction of where the tower was; we saw a group of humanoid silhouettes heading towards us.
At first, we thought it was just heat haze playing tricks on our eyes. But the closer they got, the more clear they became;
They are nomadic ghouls, and I knew damn well they have ulterior motives against us.
Their movements were initially slow but deliberate, and with each step they took getting closer to us, the heavier this negative energy became. I figured out this field is their territory, and that tower is their marking.
One of them raised its arm, and a burst of red, sun-like energy shot toward us without warning. We all scattered. Raiga wasn’t fast enough. The blast hit him straight in the chest, sending him flying a few meters back. When we rushed over to him, he was unconscious. But strangely, no wounds, not even a burn. He was breathing, but barely responding. I checked his pulse, and was relieved that he's still alive. But his eyes wouldn’t open.
Without further delaying, I told Adrian and Asga to lift him up and bring him to the car as fast as they could. I followed them from behind while keeping an eye on the ghouls that starts to chase us, albeit slowly.
The ghouls seemed violent, more than any other that I knew. They begun speeding up the chase, so I had to act quickly. I reached into my coat and grabbed a flare of Thaumalic charge, flicked the ignition, and threw it hard. It burst mid-air with a flash of crimson light. The ghouls twitched, recoiled, and then quickly began to retreat from us.
When it was over, I looked down and noticed the red dust all over my arms and shirt, probably from the residual energy. I didn’t bother brushing it off. My mind was in a state of panic.
Suddenly, the sylva detector in my bag turned on by its own, and when I looked into the screen, there were wild signals this time. Not just one or two, but dozens of sylvas all around me, even beneath my feet. Turns out, it was never that the field was barren. The ghouls must’ve scrambled the readings with the negative energy.
I became mildly frustrated. That entire trip was walking blind after all this time.
I ran back towards the car. They had already placed Raiga in the backseat, and Asga was on the phone with a nearby hospital. We drove fast out of the rural. No one really spoke much during the ride, but our eyes said enough.
On the way to the hospital, my phone ringed. It was an unknown number, but I answered to see what their deal was.
Apparently, a broadcasting studio invited me for a live interview, saying I've made headlines lately. I told them that it will be a quick interview, and promised them that I'll recount today's events as I recorded it here on my diary. They took it well, and I hung up.
I looked back at Raiga, still unconscious but at least stable. Asga tried to compose himself, and assertively told me to keep driving. Adrian had a concerning expression as he kept looking at Raiga through the rearview mirror. I looked down at my red-dusted hands, placed on the steering wheel as it is now stained with some of it.
I kept driving.