Magical Engineering

Vrilk

“It's working! They figured it out!” Vrilk yelled. His voice didn't escape the shield, and only two beings heard it: the moose and the Sword Spirit.

“Good, the main weakness of Jesters, especially in the repossession genetic lines, is that they have no idea anyone could cut through their schemes,” the Sword Spirit replied. “Remember, Vrilk, when this shield drops, we will have one chance, and the moose will not be able to save us.”

Vrilk nodded. He was fully aware of how dangerous their hastily assembled plan was. He was still a little surprised that the moose had a Sword Spirit with him at all, but he wasn't about to complain. He still regretted attempting to attack Mel and Alex. His life had been a lot less dangerous before. But it had also been a lot less interesting.

“Now!” the Sword Spirit ordered.

The shield vanished. Energy poured in, striking the moose Vrilk and the sword spirit from all sides. But just as it had promised, the Sword Spirit immediately went to work, slashing at every attempted attack, keeping much of the oncoming barrage off of Vrilk. Knowing what he had to do and forcing himself to do it were two very different things, but something inside his head was telling him to make these people proud, and that what he did here today mattered more than anything else in his short life.

And so Vrilk ran as quickly as he could toward the floating crystal, only he, the moose, and the Sword Spirit could see. It was the true beating heart of the ‘Best’ and what was giving this entire dungeon its power. The Sword Spirit followed Vrilk, deflecting attacks while the moose stood firm, tanking energy blast after energy blast.

“Now, Vrilk!” The Sword Spirit cried.

Vrilk tossed one of his cards onto the core, knowing it would never hold. It would be utterly destroyed in seconds. But that was all the time they needed.

The Sword Spirit slammed the flat of its blade into the card-covered core, sending it flying toward the open-mouthed moose. And with one large gulp, the cracked core vanished down the throat of his massive moose, turned primal mana beast.

Alex

I was so incredibly tired.Even as the mana orb recycled energy into me, this fight was taking it out faster than it could be replenished. I was doing everything I could just to hold as many of the Jesters’ powers at bay as possible, but I was only one incredibly inexperienced person.

All of my anger had been pushed into hope, a determined bravado to save William no matter what it took. And we had possibly done it. Sanquar had grabbed him and was now making his escape. That mask I had been wearing was gone, and all that was left was the exhaustion of a mother who had given everything she had, and wasn’t sure she had anything left to give.

That wasn’t an answer I was willing to accept yet, reality or not. My friends and family were still standing and fighting as hard as they could. The monster that had haunted us lived. The risk in letting it escape was far too great. What if it came back with greater numbers?

I didn't fully understand what it meant for this Jester to be a corrupted dungeon core, but the looks on the faces of everyone told me it was bad. Mel and Maud looked nearly as tired as I felt, and to make it even worse, John was right. The room was closing in on us.

Debating where to use my limited strength, I saw something strange out of the corner of my eye. Vrilk, flanked by a strange flying sword, just hopped off of the moose. While Vrilk ran, the sword deflected every magical attack that neared.

I opened my mouth to call to the others, not sure what was going on, but before I could, Vrilk had thrown a card over something unseen, revealing a floating orb shape. And then the sword had batted it into the moose's mouth. Had that been the dungeon core? How had they spotted it when none of us could?

The odd singing voice of the mana orb returned to my head. “My partner has helped the mana beast secure the corrupted dungeon core. Now is your true chance. You must kill the remnants of the Jester.”

While I was more confused than ever, I wasn't an idiot. I could piece a few things together relatively quickly. I was my father's daughter, after all. That sword and mana orb had come from the same place. They were both things that had been looted from the invading orcs, so somehow they were connected. Not that it wasn't strange to hear a disembodied voice refer to a sword as its partner, I was in no place to argue. I still had work to do.

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“What the hell did Vrilk just do? And where did that damn sword come from? Wait, ain’t the giant one from the ship?” Mel bellowed his questions across the chamber while I tried to get a handle on my racing thoughts.

Needing to take charge of this, I pushed myself through the confusion. I was the only one who had the full picture of what was going on. “I don't know the details, but I know the moose just neutralized the dungeon core somehow. We have to kill any of the ‘Best’ remnants left,” I called.

“Oh, that's all?” Mel roared back. But despite his angry words, he did seem to redouble his efforts. The rain of lightning rapidly intensified as Mel's colors shifted faster than ever. More of the Jester clones were falling.

“Mel, you moron! Knock it off before you kill yourself!” Yorela screamed, intercepting one of the lightning blasts on its way back to Mel. “If we have the dungeon core neutralized, there's no reason to keep risking yourself like this.”

“Kill the damn things faster, and I won’t have to!”

“Dammit, Mel! This is exactly why I said you couldn't be in charge!” Yorela screeched back. Despite that, she still charged into a group of the remaining Jesters.

“Guys, the walls are still moving. So whatever we're doing, we’ve got to do it fast,” John added.

“Let's just focus on taking out anything left of the ‘Best’ and get back to the ship. Sanquar has William. We have what we came for. Now we just have to figure out how to get out of here alive,” I called out. While it was the best plan I could come up with at the moment, I knew Mel, Yorela, or Dad would have something far better. But I wanted to see my son.

Following through on my own command, I pushed every bit of mana I could back into my Bird Song. The music rang out louder than ever, forcing more of the Jesters onto the defensive. The combination of the music and the loss of the corrupted dungeon core was rapidly weakening them.

Another benefit of the song was the look on Mel's face. Some of the pain had disappeared, and the energy no longer looked quite as damaging as it returned to him. I didn't know exactly how much it was aiding him, but it was enough that my worry for the old man had lessened. A renewed determination welled up inside of me that everyone here was going to leave alive.

“Alex, how long can ya hold that up? I don't know why, but that song feels like my tree. I feel like a kid again, and dammit, none of ya are going ta die here!” Mel roared his speech louder than I had ever heard him before.

“As long as I need to. We're all leaving here alive,” I called back, fully agreeing with his sentiment.

“That sounds good and all, but unless we've got a way to stop these walls, we need to get moving now,” Maud added as magical energy shot from her. Lightning and fire found their homes in several more of the Jesters.

Each of Mel's magical attacks was followed up by one of her cats mauling anything that still stood. The strange spectral sword flew back and forth across the battlefield, rapidly dispatching every Jester it found. Vrilk was back on the back of the moose, who had gone into a mad trample.

Finally, I felt my power starting to wane. There wasn't much left I could push out. The walls were moving even quicker now. While there might have been a Jester or two still hiding for us to clean up, it was worth our lives trying to find them. We had to escape.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here!” Yorela yelled, echoing my own thoughts.

Everyone broke into a mad dash back toward the ship. How I'd managed to find the energy for that last run, I had no idea, but the thought of holding William again had pushed me forward. Somehow, against all odds, we had saved him.

The tunnels narrowed as we ran, rooms and chambers crashing into a nothingness behind us. The ‘Best’ had been kind enough to leave us one last gift. As we reached the ship, a scary thought hit me. What the hell would happen to the chaotic space around us as the dungeon collapsed?

“Squidlen wants you in the helm immediately,” one of the crew yelled as we boarded.

“Yeah, not surprised. We got a new giant problem, I'm assuming this ship can’t escape whatever is about to happen when this chaos dungeon collapses, fast enough,” Yorela replied.

“You're damn right we got a new problem. And it ain't one I've ever had to deal with before, so I'm really open to ideas if you could all get your asses to the helm,” Squidlen's voice erupted from all around them.

One of the rarer spatial events within chaotic space is a true tear. They've only been recorded a handful of times throughout history, and each of them was recorded after the fact. It isn't believed that any being could actually survive one as it occurred.

Because of this fact, the exact cause of them remains unknown. It is likely something similar to the formation of a black hole, but unlike a black hole, the resulting phenomenon expels highly charged mana while taking nothing in. It's also unknown just how long these tears last, as all of the recorded ones still continue to release their mana.

It's theorized that some of the highly charged mana belts that exist within chaotic space were the result of these tears, but as far as I have been able to determine, no one has attempted to map these belts to see where they connect and originate. This is understandable, given the extreme danger from the monsters that populate these areas.

One of the biggest unanswered questions about a true chaotic space terror is: what exactly is on the other side? For space to tear and something to flood in, it must have torn in something. So what exactly is this membrane of chaotic space that ripped open?

Natural Disasters by Jacob Bobert Cramwell