Manifest War: The Weapons Within

Carmen, still in her berserker state, landed at the center of the base camp with terrifying force, crushing the ground beneath her feet. The camp already looked fairly destroyed, having succumbed to her massive gravity field from earlier. She sprinted towards the infirmary with great speed, looking for some help.

Carmen burst into the tent and saw Rivell picking some supplies up off of the ground. He turned around and was startled to see Carmen standing there, wondering why her hair was shifting from white to silver. Her eyes changed back to normal as tears began to stream down.

“Ah Carmen!? When did you ge-” He stopped talking as he noticed Sarah’s unconscious body in her arms. Rivell dropped everything in his hands as he sprinted over to them, his heart racing from the sight of his injured friend.

“Need help here!!” He yelled out, getting the attention of nearby doctors. Rivell then summoned forth his Manifest, quickly opening it up and placing his hand on an empty page.

He poured his Core Energy into it and a green, runic circle appeared around them. It glowed incredibly bright as green petals gathered and attached themselves onto Sarah’s body.

“Come on Sarah!! Not like this!!” He yelled, desperately trying his best to heal her. The petals skated across her belly and entered Sarah’s body, analyzing every inch of her body. The giant, blood filled gash on her stomach started to close up and disappear, looking almost as good as new.

Moments later, the color began to come back to her face and her pulse stabilized. She stopped glowing as all of the green petals faded away and Rivell’s Manifest closed itself. Sarah’s injury had been healed, but to their surprise, she didn’t wake up.

Rivell fell onto his back, feeling completely exhausted and panting heavily after using up every ounce of his remaining Core Energy to perform that healing. A doctor rushed over and did a quick examination on Sarah’s body, finding something rather disturbing as he did so.

“Hmm, it seems that her Strand has been damaged. We need to move her to a healing pod right away or else she could die from the loss of all her Core Energy!!” He ordered some nearby nurses to gather her body quickly and they proceeded to move her to a separate wing of the infirmary. Just as they cleared out of the room, Zalthia and the other members of Six rushed into the tent.

“Carmen! What’s wrong!? Are you okay!?” She exclaimed, wanting to make sure everything was alright. Another doctor informed them of the situation, detailing the state of Sarah. Zalthia glanced over at Carmen with a worried expression after getting updated, still playing back the prior events in her head.

“Lady Carmen, are you alright?” Asiah asked with a soft voice. Carmen gave no response, instead she stood from her chair and started to head towards the exit.

“Where are you going??” Zalthia questioned, confused by Carmen’s lack of attentiveness. She paused her approach as she looked over her shoulder, exerting an impossibly high amount of pressure. The level of bloodlust seeping out of her in that moment was almost on par with Azhane Belouis and everyone in that room recognized it immediately.

“I’m going to kill them all..” She softly said in an irritated tone, clearly in a terrible mood. Her voice was totally different in that moment, sounding like she was possessed by something. Everyone flinched as they felt slight fear from her words, realizing that she was beyond serious. She began to walk forward again, but Zalthia stepped in the way to halt Carmen’s advance.

“No.. You aren’t going back out there… It’s finished.” She replied in a serious tone, glaring at Carmen with her vivid eyes.

“MOVE!!” Carmen responded with an almost evil cadence, sounding grizzly and foreign in tone. Then, with a quick and swift chop to the back of Carmen’s neck, Ka-leel of Four knocked Carmen out cold. She slumped over as Zalthia caught her, holding Carmen close. Zalthia nodded at Ka-leel and looked down at Carmen with a somber expression.

“That’s enough.. We don’t need anyone else getting hurt.. No more bloodshed.” She said, brushing Carmen’s hair to the side. The room remained quiet as Zalthia sat Carmen down on a chair. She then turned her attention to Rivell and gave him a slight smile.

“Take her to my tent and stay with her until she wakes up. She’ll need the support of a friend.” Rivell nodded in agreement and he quickly got off the ground, walking over to Carmen. With the help of a few nearby guards, they took her out of the infirmary. Zalthia let out a big sigh of relief as she took a seat, clearly exhausted from this eventful day.

As the sun began to sit lower in the sky, there was a panic occurring at the Lumen and Arista base camp. Soldiers were running around with confused and frightened expressions, wondering what caused such massive gravitational weight to fall upon them. The basecamp was in shambles and despite the military strength these two nations possessed, nothing prepared them for such a random phenomenon.

Inside of the command center, Gabriella Ramos and Leo Vaux’hallah got to their feet slowly, not sure what to make of the situation.

“What was that just now?!? I’ve never felt anything like that before!” Leo remarked, brushing the dirt off of his usually pristine white robes and picking up his priest's hat. Before the Empress could respond, multiple soldiers burst into the tent with fear-filled faces.

“Your Excellency!! We have terrible news!!” A soldier yelled, struggling to catch his breath.

“Well, what is it?? Spit it out boy!” Gabriella eagerly wanted him to get to the point.

“Our scouts just relayed some new information! They report that the Holy Core Saints have fallen. They’re all missing except for Claudia Vandel and Trevor Falmon!!” The High Priest’s eyes went wide with shock, not believing this soldier for a second.

“Stop talking nonsense!! There is no way that is possible!!!” One of their generals' stepped to the front of the group and confirmed the report.

“I’m sorry, Your Holiness, but it’s true. We have retrieved Claudia Vandel’s body, she’s breathing but completely unresponsive, and.. Um.. Sir Falmon is.. Well.. Nigh unrecognizable.. And as for the other members, they’re nowhere to be seen. We can’t even sense their presence anymore…” The general looked down at the ground with a saddened expression, feeling terribly sorry to report such somber news.

Leo dropped his hat onto the floor again, completely stunned by what he was hearing.

“I-Impossible… Who could even do such a thing?” He continued to softly mutter to himself, struggling to find the words to explain this ridiculous situation. Gabriella looked over at him with an angered expression.

“Get a hold of yourself! Soldiers fall in battle everyday, this is nothing more than a slight setback. We will continue our advance!” She said, trying to get Leo riled up again. He turned his head towards her slowly, still donning the same blank stare from before.

“Y-You don’t understand, that was our last trump card… Other than soldiers, we have nothing left to send… We’re finished..” He stuttered, having no idea how to proceed in this battle.

“And? We will send every soldier and resource we have left to continue this war!! Don’t you dare back down and cower to our enemy now!” She screamed out, growing more irritated with the High Priest and his lack of fight. She then turned her attention to the general before giving new orders.

“Prepare our men and get ready for another strike within the hour! We will show them the true might of Arista and put fear into their hearts once again!!” Gabriella barked.

The general hesitated, knowing that his soldiers were still incredibly exhausted from their prior battle, and he looked at the High Priest to hopefully say something against the order. Leo remained stunned and silent, being of no use in this situation at all.

“GO!!” Gabriella yelled with a rage filled scowl, exerting her Core Energy to new heights. The general and the other soldiers immediately bowed before exiting the tent, swiftly putting her orders into action. The Empress sat back down in an absolute fit as she contemplated what to do next

Back at Volaire’s base camp, night had fallen and many of the soldiers were taking a much needed rest. However, Carmen had woken up in an unfamiliar tent. Her eyes darted around slowly as she grimaced at the slight headache she had, rubbing the back of her neck gently.

“Ow, what happened to me and why am I back at base?” After a brief thought, images of Sarah getting injured flooded her mind. However, to her surprise, everything after that moment was a complete blur. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember anything beyond that point. Just as she was about to get out of the bed, someone entered the tent.

Zalthia approached as she noticed that Carmen was awake. She gave her a warm half smile before taking a seat next to her on the bed.

“Where is Sarah and Caleb! Are they alright!?!?” Carmen exclaimed, desperately hoping to hear some positive news. Zalthia nodded slowly before responding.

“Yeah.. They’re fine and thanks to you, Sarah will live.” A wave of relief and emotions washed over Carmen, taking a massive weight off of her shoulders. She began to tear up and moments later, burst into a heavy cry. Zalthia brought her in close for a hug, gently comforting her little sister the best she could.

“There, there, it’ll be alright. It’s over now..” She softly said as she rubbed Carmen’s head.

“T-they never would’ve gotten hurt if we had just stayed put.. A-Azhane was right about me. I still haven’t g-grown up yet.. W-why is it so hard for me to listen!? I’m so stupid!” Carmen replied with another loud cry, blubbering through her shaky words.

“Hey, don’t blame yourself for what happened, you hear me? Anything could have happened at that moment. All that matters is that everyone made it out alive and that you grow from this. Worry about nothing else right now…” Carmen continued to cry and feel terrible about what happened, wishing things could have gone differently. Zalthia stared at the fireplace, letting out a soft sigh as she rocked Carmen.

A long while passed as Carmen had finally calmed down, causing Zalthia to end her warm embrace. She sniffed and wiped her eyes before asking Zalthia a question.

“What happened after Sarah got hurt? Were you guys the ones that brought us back here?” She wondered, still having no idea what occurred. Zalthia was confused by this question, raising her eyebrow as high as it could go.

“Wait.. You don’t remember what happened??” She quickly asked.

“No. Last thing I remember is seeing Sarah laying in my arms unconscious… Everything went dark after that and then I woke up here. No matter how hard I try, there’s nothing else I can recall.” She replied, tapping her chin lightly.

“Hmm, I see… Well.. You went berserk again.” Zalthia stood up from the bed and walked over towards the fireplace, stoking the fire inside.

“I went berserk? Like, when I didn’t have control over my Manifest??” Carmen asked, growing more curious with each passing second. Zalthia stopped stoking the fire and shook her head before facing Carmen again.

“This was nothing like your prior outbursts. You were.. Different.. Kind of hard to explain.” Carmen was perplexed by this statement, still not fully understanding what Zalthia meant by “different.” Before Zalthia could further her explanation, a general entered the tent and requested her presence for a debrief.

“We’ll have to talk about this later. Get some rest, kiddo.” Carmen nodded as Zalthia exited the tent with the general following closely.

“Zalthia seemed really weird just now. Did I do something bad out there?” She thought to herself as she laid back down, staring at the fabric ceiling. She contemplated their conversation until she ultimately fell back to sleep, continuing her rest from such a long day.