Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) (58 page)

He called up all the times he wished to become invisible.
All of his desire to stay hidden and unnoticed came forth. Without meaning to,
he spent years cultivating a darkness mindset. Now that his mind was settled,
his spirit focused, and his monstrous nature recognized the need, he could slip
back into that mindset. Passive, unresisting, flowing in reaction to the
movements of the proactive, but with a strong and devout purpose. With this
purpose, he directed the seed’s power. Just as he hoped, it jump-started the
Shadow Cloak he scarcely remembered.

It settled around him like a comfortable old jacket. No
one could see or sense him. Holding it close around himself, he left the restroom.

He slipped past customers and waitresses alike on his way
to the “Employees Only” sign at the back of the room. He had plenty of practice
moving unnoticed through crowds, and that was before he acquired divine
invisibility. He moved in, grabbed the spare machine from the back room, and
moved out without anyone the wiser.

Kallen and Emily were waiting for him outside. He
decloaked and said, “Worst case scenario, I blame The Trickster.”

“Yes, that’s who I’m going to blame,” Emily said while
scowling at Eric.

“As will I,” said a tiny voice.

A tiny creature jumped out of the folds of Eric’s
clothing. When its feet touched the ground, it grew into an elven woman wearing
a stylish maid outfit. However, this one was far from smiling.

“Mr. Watley, you are good, I will admit that,” she said
sternly, "but you’re not good enough. You tripped one silent alarm when
you generated your Shadow Cloak, a second when you entered the employee only
room, and a third when you touched my device.”

“Uh...Three strikes and you’re out?”

“Precisely.” 

The word's chilly tone set off threat alarms within Eric’s
mind. Unlike Honey’s, these did not provide him with enough time to act.
Without words or gestures, Honey cast Brilliant Lance and a spear of light
gored him. Such a spell would be annoying to most creatures, but it was terrible
to those of darkness like Eric. If Kallen hadn’t steadied him, he would’ve
collapsed.

 “You’re one hundred years away from fooling me,” Honey
continued. “I’ve met Dakol and, compared to him, you’re nothing but a shadow.
I’ve also met reapers, and you’re as obvious as a knife in the back.”

She took her device back from him with two arms and
pointed at him with a third.

“No chocolate for you!”

Apron twirling, she returned to her tree. Then Tasio
popped into existence in front of it. He made an L with his right hand and
placed it over his forehead.

“Shut up.”

“Have fun at Hariana Inquires.”

At their destination was a yew tree. Its roots burrowed
far and deep like anchors and its branches spread out in curved and crooked
patterns. Striking into the earth, hovering above the ground and stretching
into the sky, they made the tree seem bigger than it was. Some of them
supported smaller buildings from their limbs like fruit. Its bark was dark as
if something exploded around it, several times, and the bark was simply too
tough to burn.

Basilard was teaching me an exploding spell....

"There's lots of cool stuff here," Kallen said
as she led her friends to the front door. "Exploring, discovering, experimenting,
and blowing stuff up! My foster mom has a terrific job...It’s no wonder she and
my real mom got along so well...”

The trio entered a wooden tunnel brightly lit by elemental
stones. Doors extended off into the distance beyond the horizon and hallways
branched off in seven directions. Fortunately, there was a directory encased
behind glass near the entrance. Some of the listings read:
Accelerator
Avenue
...
Barrier Ballistics... Cosmic Construction… Distance Defibrillators...Expanded
Exoskeletons
... It went all the way to “
Zerofinite Zoning
” and
“ZZZZZ
.
”
What caught Eric's eye was “
Medical Mana Mutation
.”

“Why not this one? If this deal goes through, then humans
will be ‘borrowing’ that stuff anyways. Ow.”

Emily lowered her hand. “Didn’t you hear what I said at
the candy store?”

“Emily, stop that,” Kallen ordered. “Eric makes a good
point.”

“But, Boss...”

“No ‘buts.’ I’m a big girl. I can handle it.”

“If you say so.”

Emily pulled the lever and the floor vanished beneath
them. The trio fell on a trampoline that bounced them straight back up and through
a short-range portal. They now stood in a ceramic reinforced hallway, where a
sign proclaimed “Medical Mana Mutation -->”

After throwing up in his mouth, Eric asked, “Why is there
a trampoline there?”

“This is a clubhouse for elven mad scientists,” Emily
said. “Why do you think?”

A roar greeted her words.

Following the arrows led the trio to the outer rim of a
deep pit. The room was painted black and metallic grey machinery hung ad hoc
along its walls. The pit itself was a startling white. Above the pit, four
lasers were poised. Their main bodies extended to the upper four corners of the
room, descended to the four lower corners, and treaded along the floor to
connect with the pit's boundary. All of them were streamlined, sleek, and
pointing at the
thing
trapped within. It was a...Eric couldn't tell what
it was.

It was big, furry, feathery, and had scales. It had
tentacles; some dripped liquid that stained the pit and others that gave off
gas. It had limbs growing from limbs, far too many mouths, eyes in places it
shouldn't, and not a few horns. It was the most bizarre thing Eric had ever
seen.

"What
is
that?"

"The result of our experiment; we call it an HPLC."

From behind a crystal panel at the other end of the room
came the matriarch of the Enaz family. Instead of the lab coat Eric had met her
in, she was wearing a new one, and this one was stained with mysterious fluids.
Some of them were moving as if they were alive. She smacked one with a spoon
and put it back behind her ear. Her hair was tied back into a bun that left two
tails to either side, and the tips were bloody like stingers. The light of her
eyes was bright and manic and her grin was not in the least maternal. His
grendel instincts were clear: threat!

"We started with a normal monster and use the Lance
of Ciaphas," she pointed to one of the four rays poised above the pit,
"to induce mana mutation. Then we watch the poor thing transform in wild
and horrific ways. Eventually, they turn into these things.” She gestured to
the creature oozing to the far end of the pit. “This one is variety number 2960518.”

"You can
create
your own mana mutations?"
Eric asked.

“How
else
can we research it and come to understand
the process? We see it happen, we measure the results, and then we cut it open
to see what it makes it tick. It’s much more efficient than what the temps do.
Why, we chuck sapients in there to study the mental effects too!”

Eric and Emily’s eyes widened. Nunnal’s hands flew to her
mouth.

“Oops. I meant to say we
chucked,
past tense. We
don’t do that anymore. The others were all volunteers and because of their
noble sacrifice, we now have technology to return them to normal. So...what’s
that thing humans say? ‘No harm, no foul’?”

Is this what she’s like when Annala isn’t around?!

"Has it really cured anyone?" he asked.

“Yes, but not nearly as many as it
should
have,”
Nunnal said. “That stupid Council and everyone else in this village—present
company excluded, naturally—is too afraid it will be stolen and used against
us. If elves would meet a human or two, then they’d learn that most of them are
nice.
Officially,
it’s only cured one person since I made it.”

"Who?"

"Me," Kallen said.

Since she entered the room, she had been rigid and alert.
She avoided looking at the pit yet didn’t want it out of her sight, so she
settled for staring at the wall and looking from the corner of her eye. Emily
stood in her blind spot, as if she were in battle.

“This is where I regained my sense of self.” Kallen made a
nostalgic spin to look around the rom. “This is where Nunnal became my second
mother.”

Nunnal put her hands on her hips. “You only call me ‘Mom’
when you want something.”

Kallen coyly replied, “Well, now that you mention it….”

The HPLC roared a second time and rammed the opening of
the pit with five of its horns. They clashed against a screen of white that
held steady no matter how many times it was gored. After a few clashes, the
thing sloshed along the bottom of the pit, inflating and deflating in
exhaustion.

"What's powering this field?" Eric asked.

"It is,” Kallen answered. “The material of the pit
drains the occupant's energy and uses it to create a force field. No matter how
it struggles, it’s impossible to escape."

The HPLC spat acid at the opening, which was deflected by
the barrier and slid down the slides to sting the HPLC itself. Kallen shivered
and hugged herself. Emily put an arm around her and directed her towards the
exit.

“Boss, let’s leave.”

“Not until we get something.”

“You need something?” Nunnal asked.

“Ah...yes...I was hoping to get upgrades for my ship.”

“Ship,” Nunnal mused in a thinking position. Then bloody
hair tails elevated. “Ship! I have just the thing!” She grabbed a random aid
and said, “Get the thing for my daughter.”

“Yes, Director.”

He ran off without asking for more information. Eric
assumed he was used to it.

“While we wait, I’d like to see your true form. I’ve never
seen a grendel up close before and it could make for fascinating research.”

 
“No tests! I got enough of that from the humans.”

“Fair enough.” She said it easily and gently enough, but
Eric could tell she was disappointed. “How about you revert until the gift is
ready?”

Eric nodded and reached for his grendel identity. He grew
taller and bulkier, encased in metal-like skin and a few other changes. Nunnal
grinned like a certain captain and ordered every form of photographic and image-recording
technology brought to her immediately. Several aides then followed her as she
toured the lab with him.

The adjacent room had wall-to-wall monster cages: all of
them constructed with exotic materials and reinforced with magnificent runes.
Emily identified each one of them and rattled off facts like their monster rank
classification and how many people had mutated into each one. Kallen joined in
with how she used parts of them in her life as a field agent. Eric was more
conscious about the threat they presented.

“Isn't it dangerous
to keep monsters in the village?"

"Absolutely," Nunnal said. "That is why we
take precautions. We need them for the Festival of Arin’s Ascension. If the
summit deal goes through, we’ll have more mouths to feed.”

"There are all kinds of delicacies," Kallen told
Eric. "Tougai pudding, Siplic roast, Nsuopi taste fantastic in soy sauce—”

The chimera had an astounding degree of knowledge about elven
festival food. She also spoke fondly of it. Despite lacking a Seed of Chaos,
she had more of an elven identity than he did. He supposed being raised here
would do that.

"Kallen!? What are you doing here?"

 Approaching them was Ralm with a trolley. Although he
wore a lab coat and googles, his burden was not in the least scientific. It was
laden with coffee, doughnuts, and other snack foods.

Kallen frowned. "Why shouldn't I be here? My foster
mom's your boss."

"I didn't mean it like that! Why do you have to take
everything so personally?"

"You
make
it personal, like you did with
Nilo!"

"
One
flight with a
friend
and you make
it sound like I made out in front of Annala!"

“Don’t treat me like an outsider, Ralm. I know what a
private flight between teenagers means among elves.”

“Then you should know it’s not only for couples!”

“
Is that
what happened
?” Eric asked.

“It’s complicated.”

 The Right Hand of the Grendel rose high. “
Is that what happened!?”

“Eric!” Nunnal shouted. “The poem.”

Eric clenched. Then he hummed a tune and began to sing.
"Am I sapient or a monster? Hope
or Despair? Where have I come; where do I go? The Trickster grins. The
Trickster grins. The Trickster grins."
He unclenched.

“Feel better?”

“Yes.
Ralm, I’m sorry for my lapse in self-discipline.”

The elf boy shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. Elves hit
each other all the time when we’re angry. It’s always funny until someone gets
hurt, so for us, it’s always funny. Abyss, we were just about to blow the HPLC
up for fun. Wanna take a shot?”

Eric looked to Nunnal, “
Can I? There’s a new spell I’d like to try out
.”

“Go ahead. There’s plenty more where that thing came
from.”

 Eric rushed back to the pit room and the others followed.
Pulling out his spear, he twirled it around and stomped the ground. "
I'll vaporize it instantly
."
He pointed the crystal down at the beast that defied description.

"
Oh
Spirit of Flame, release thy primal power onto mine enemy
." The
crystal grew red. "
May
fire and heat consume them utterly! EXPLOSION
!"

A red/orange bolt shot from the crystal and collided with
the abomination. A great pillar of heat and flames gushed from the pit and
scoured the lab's walls. Just as quickly, it was pulled back into the pit and
the force field glowed red fire. When it stabilized and the dust cleared,
nothing remained but ashes leaking shadows.