Manifest War: The Weapons Within

The silence was deafening as Carmen took a seat in front of Azhane’s desk, awaiting an explanation for her sister's sour moods. She became increasingly more nervous as Zalthia leaned against the wall, crossing her arms. Azhane cleared her throat and began to speak.

“So... After what happened today at the festival, I think it’s pretty clear you don’t have control over your Manifest. According to Sarah, a similar thing happened when you first became awakened. You go completely berserk and lose sight of everything around you. It’s concerning.” Azhane said with a worried expression.

“But I don’t know why though. The only thing I can remember is me trying to use its ability. It felt like I tried to use energy I didn’t have or something and it was really painful. After that, everything is a blur.” Carmen replied, looking down at the floor with a somber frown.

Zalthia turned her attention towards Carmen and offered her thoughts on the matter.

“I don’t know, but it could be that your Manifest doesn’t fully accept you as its master yet. I had a similar issue as you back in my early days, though not nearly as intense.” She said with a slight sigh.

“You couldn’t control your Manifest??”

Carmen was surprised to hear this, having had no idea someone as skilled as Zalthia encountered such problems.

“Nope. The damn thing just acted on its own and wouldn’t recognize me until I got much stronger. I pretty much had to force my will onto it before it submitted to me.”

“Ohhh, I never knew that. Is that why you fight without using your Manifest now?” Carmen questioned with great curiosity.

Zalthia shook her head and stopped leaning on the wall, her demeanor becoming more serious.

“No, my Manifest’s ability is too dangerous to use on people. I only ever use it in dire situations, I’d much rather use a crafted weapon instead.” She replied, still not fully revealing why she rarely summoned her Manifest.

“In any case.. We need to figure out the cause of this before it happens again. We won’t always be around to knock you back to normal.” Azhane added, standing from her desk and changing back into her original dress.

Zalthia agreed and turned her head over towards the door, sensing something. She walked over and quickly opened it. Sarah and Rivell stumbled to the ground, falling over each other. They nervously laughed as their eavesdropping was swiftly thwarted.

“What are you guys doing?” Carmen asked with great confusion.

Rivell stood up and bowed to Azhane before speaking up.

“I think I know someone that can help answer some questions about Carmen.”

Azhane and Zalthia glanced at each other with intrigue before fixing their gaze back to Rivell.

“And who might this person be?” Azhane questioned with great curiosity.

“My Aunt is a shaman in Siestro. She’s very wise and knows quite a lot of stuff. Even the Ocean Goddess will refer to her for guidance about various issues or topics.” He replied, explaining further about how knowledgeable his auntie is.

The two showed great interest in this and asked if they could bring her here to discuss things. Rivell nervously laughed at the question while shaking his head.

“Ahh, probably not. My Aunt is kind of weird about leaving her house. Besides taking trips to the underwater city, she’s pretty much a hermit. If you want to meet her, we’ll have to go to her home in Siestro.” Zalthia briefly thought it over before reluctantly agreeing.

“Hmmm… I guess we have no choice. How soon can we set up this meeting?” She asked, wondering how all this was going to work. Before Rivell could reply, Azhane cut him off.

“I think before we have you all make a trip to Siestro, you should train for a bit first. It’s pretty clear to me that you three are fairly incapable of fully defending yourselves. I’m not sending you all anywhere until I am confident in your strength. Especially with this ‘Boundless’ situation cropping up.” She commented with an authority filled voice.

The trio were taken aback by her harsh words, not expecting the Queen to be so direct. Carmen began to look confused and posed a question to Azhane.

“Boundless situation? What do you mean?”

Azhane briefly explained what happened at the All-Nations Summit, only telling enough information to give them an idea of the problem.

“So, seeing as how we don’t know what their plans are, it could be dangerous to send you all out right now.” She said, hoping they understood. Upon hearing this, Carmen's brows began to furrow.

'I wonder if those two men that attacked me were linked with the Boundless.'

Carmen couldn't help but make a connection between the two, finding the timing to be a little too perfect.

“Couldn’t you just teleport us to her house?” Sarah asked, reminding The Queen of her abilities. Azhane closed her eyes and sighed, feeling slightly annoyed by the question.

“No, I cannot. If I’ve never been to the location in question, I can’t teleport there.”

"Oh, I see. Sorry..."

“I would assign a member of Six to escort you, but they’re going to be tied up soon. We need them to be watching over different regions of Volaire, keeping the citizens safe from any potential threats. So… It’s gotta be you guys going on your own, which is why I suggest a few weeks of training.”

The trio started to feel nervous, surprised at how fast things were moving for them despite their lack of experience as Vestas.

“Who’s going to train us? You?” Carmen asked, not knowing who else would take the time.

“Not me, but someone that can whip you all into shape rather quickly. I will contact them once this meeting is over.” Azhane replied with a smirk.

The group looked at each other and shrugged, not knowing who she was referring to.

“It’ll probably be a couple days before they can get here, so in the meantime, rest up and prepare yourselves.”

Zalthia walked over to the door and opened it, motioning for them to leave. Sarah and Rivell bowed their heads to Azhane before following Carmen out of the room.

“Man, they weren’t kidding when they said your responsibilities shoot up once you get awakened and become a Vesta.” Rivell remarked as they walked down the hall.

“Yeah, makes me feel super anxious about what’s to come.” Carmen replied softly.

The group headed up the staircase and went to their respective rooms, getting some much needed rest after this eventful day.

The sun ascended over an unoccupied region of land, just southeast of the Olun Kingdom. The unclaimed territory was extremely isolated and flat, having nothing more than a small wooded area off to the side. The Boundless King, Briddle, walked along the loose, gravel filled ground followed closely by Karris, the young girl, and three other subordinates. He stopped and knelt down, running his hand through the sandstone colored pebbles.

“So tell me, did you find anything of interest in the city?” He asked softly.

The two hooded individuals that attacked Carmen stepped forward, quickly responding to his question.

“Yes, Lord Briddle. There was a girl with a rather familiar energy about her. We tried to make contact, but got interrupted.” One of the men said with a raspy voice.

“Oh? What did she look like?” Briddle asked with playful curiosity.

“Silver hair, red eyes..” He answered simply.

'Hmmmmm, interesting.'

Briddle stood up and smirked before turning his attention towards the two men. He curiously looked to the left and then to the right, as though trying to locate something.

“Well… Where is she?” He asked, cocking his head to the side.

“We tried to capture her, but ran into issues. We had to flee the scene.” The other man swiftly responded.

Briddle’s expression quickly shifted to that of great annoyance. He walked forward and placed his hands on their shoulders.

“Sooo... You failed? That’s what you’re telling me?” He coldly questioned with a dark frown.

“Y-yes, Lord Briddle.”

They slightly flinched and hesitated as he peered into their eyes.

Briddle looked them up and down, not saying a single word. His silence sent shivers down their spines and they felt fearful for their lives. He softly sighed before finally speaking up.

“You’re lucky I’m in a good mood right now... Don’t fail me again. Got it?” Briddle said while menacingly glaring at them with his dark eyes. They quickly nodded and promised to do better next time.

“Now, where were we? Ah, that’s right!” Briddle said, now grinning with a big smile.

He walked back to his original spot and held his palm upward. A black, wooden wand with symbols etched all around the base emerged. Briddle’s Manifest, Construct’s Splinter, glowed a deep black as it was eager to do its master's bidding.

Briddle aimed the wand towards the ground in front of him and suddenly, the whole area rumbled and shook violently as a massive piece of land started to liquify and rise up. The light brown ground transformed into an elaborate palace.

The scale of the building was absolutely staggering and despite the size, the details were incredibly intricate and precise. The rest of his group looked up with shock and awe, amazed that this man could craft such a building in mere seconds. The ground stopped shaking and the construction of this beautiful, sandstone palace completes.

“Brings back such memories.” Briddle said as he gently caressed his Manifest, admiring the immaculate craftsmanship of what it just made.

He looked over his shoulder and told the group to follow him inside. They nodded and walked with Briddle to the lower chambers of the palace, navigating the massive hallways and labyrinth-like corridors. After a few minutes of walking, the group found themselves in a large open room.

There were giant statues of odd looking beings, clearly not human, along the walls. In the center of the room was a large circular pool that was illuminated by a skylight above. Briddle stepped up to the empty pool and turned to Karris.

“Well, let’s begin the ritual shall we?”Briddle gave a sinister smile to Karris, motioning for him to get started.

Karris bowed and averted his attention to the third subordinate, a pale skinned female with black hair. She wore a simple maid outfit and was carrying around a wooden box. The woman stepped up from behind the two robed individuals and placed the box on the ground next to Karris. He opened it up and took out five objects of various shapes and sizes. The Raven Chalice, Beads of Oman, Key of Open Hearts, Devry Scale, and Feather Script.

He carefully placed them all onto the ground in a very specific manner, making sure everything was perfect. Once placed, he stepped back and aimed his hands at the objects. As he forced his Core Energy out, the five objects glowed brightly with great intensity. The room flashed white and seconds later, the objects had combined into a single piece. On the ground lay a rolled up scroll with a multitude of runic letters on the front, indicating that this object was from an ancient time period.

The letters glowed a dull gold as it slowly rolled itself open, inviting Karris to make use of it. He knelt down and placed both hands on top of it, forcing more of his energy into the scroll. After a few moments, the ground shook violently and suddenly a geyser of black water fired out from the bottom of the empty pool.

A dark fluid began filling the massive pool and the scroll started to shine brighter and brighter. Karris forced more of his energy and the water curiously reacted to it, flexing and shifting as though it were molding something together. Suddenly, five dripping shadows emerged from the waters.

These shadows were black and formless as they rose slowly from the murky depths. Briddle smiled as the forms started to take shape and become more human-like, their features growing more defined with each passing second.

The forms glided across the water and made their way towards the group, changing the closer they got. The amount of Core Energy permeating from the forms was incredible, making it clear that whoever they were summoning forth was terrifyingly formidable.