PHANTASIA (3 page)

Magnus soon caught up to him, and they walked in the type of silence amiable to close friends, a quiet that did not beg to be filled. Red took to staring at his feet as they went, studying the tiny wings on his shoes that were designed to grant speed. They were functional, but tattered like the rest of his gear, scraped together using manuals and secondary materials. As he mulled over everything Professor Kep had said, it occurred to him that he was walking aimlessly.
 

“We’re going to the library,” Magnus interjected, as if he had read his mind. “West Library, so we have a long walk ahead of us. Everything else is going to be too crowded.”
 

“Is everyone going to be there?” Red asked, referring to the other three members of their team. He hadn’t seen them since their last training session three days ago, and suddenly realized how much he would miss them after Academy was over. He had grown accustomed to their presence through the years, it was something to always look forward to.
We may still end up in each other’s presence
he thought hopefully.
 

“Yup, a thorough review of our plan for tomorrow. We have to go over creatures we might hit, everything peculiar about desert terrain, and a painful number of field test details that are probably going to bore you to death.”
 

Red nodded with a smile. He returned to staring at the floor and after a long moment, thought of the professor’s last statement. The possibility of coming face to face with a Xenosite had never felt so real to him until then. “Hey, what do you think of the possibility of communicating with a Xenosite? Do you think its possible? Queens are supposed to be sentient, do you think we could share our thoughts with them?”
 

“I don’t,” Magnus laughed. “I try my hardest not to think about any of that. Anyways, best not to busy your mind with these things before tomorrow, you want a clear head. Remember you’re aiming higher than the rest of us.”
 

“Well, you want to get in too,” Red replied. Magnus didn’t bother responding and instead took out his microAI to check something, leaving Red to drift back into thinking about the lecture. The existence of sentient Xenosites was already confirmed. He tried to imagine them, queens, how they would think, how they would act, whether it would be possible to communicate with them. They would be totally alien to him, he couldn’t fathom how different their minds would work.
Would they dream and will as humans do?
he thought to himself.
 

And then there was the possibility of human infection. If such a thing ever occurred, it would result in a more powerful and smarter version of themselves. An objectively superior, more evolved form. Judging by how humans treated their own unequals, the invasion suddenly made an absurd sort of sense to him. But the idea of such creatures was still disturbing. He imagined them, humanoid and sentient, wielding weapons and powers just as people do. Controlling the elements, bending physics and nature, engineering tools of destruction, and systematically colonizing the universe under their singular hive mentality.

He shuddered at the thought. Remembering what Magnus had said, he shut down his train of thinking, but not before glimpsing at how that path would end for humans — that imaginary omnicide that lurked underneath the outcome of the invasion. And not just for humans, but for all sentient things. He imagined how gemini must feel about it, but gathered that they would probably just project their sorrows away, and that would be that. But elves, they were more in tune with nature than even humans. They had to be aware of what was happening. Still, besides very few joint efforts, it was every species for themselves.

“Yes, but I’m not as obsessed about it as you are,” Magnus finally said, replying to Red’s previous statement after finishing a message on his microAI. He snapped it shut and slipped it around his wrist, but took it out an instant later after another message came in. “I’m okay with just graduating Academy. To be honest, I’m not even sure if I want to fight afterwards; not after seeing
that,”
he added, referring to the demonstration they had just witnessed in class. “Can’t say I’d mind living my life out quietly in Areopa. You could too you know, as my guest. It wouldn’t be so bad.”
 

“Yup, wouldn’t that be the life, fiddling with rich foods on a cloud all day.” Red laughed. For a moment he agreed, it wouldn’t be so bad, living his life out in a city floating in the skies of Avalonia, but knew that he’d feel unfulfilled for the rest of his life. He had come to Crest for a reason, and he had to make sure not to forget it.
   

“It’s not so bad,” Magnus replied, thumping his stomach as if he was imagining being there right now. Red laughed at the gesture and nodded sarcastically. “But anyways, I think you know what you want. It’s not going to be easy you know. You’re going to have to work harder than you ever have before, and it won’t end at just qualifying either. You have to go to Areopa to actually compete
in the qualifiers. I’ve seen the talent there, it’s mind blowing. Can’t say I’d mind going though, I haven’t been back home in forever.”

“You’re right,” Red nodded as he clenched his fists. He had to qualify, he had to perform as best as he could in his field test. No, even better than that. It was the reason he had worked so hard to come to Crest in the first place, what he had been working for all his life. The thought of failing never occurred to him, but maybe that was a good thing. “WEAPON,” Red whispered.
 

“WEAPON," Magnus nodded.

Chapter 2: Beyond the Colored Vei
l

Red and Magnus waited for the rest of their team in front of the West Library, passing time by admiring the dome architecture of the entire section and the unending rows of books, materials, and items that clung to glass shelves high above them. The edges of the shelves were lined with rails, used by lifts that carried people around the various collections. From afar, the lifts looked as though they were suspended in mid-air, floating around ceremoniously to take people to their destinations. The quantity of materials to read or study in the West Library alone was staggering, but only represented a fifth of the Academy’s total collection. The real attraction here were the terminals — massive training rooms equipped with imaging devices that allowed teams to simulate arenas, terrains, and even engagements with different hostiles to prepare for various scenarios.
 

 
The outside benches were littered with clusters of seniors who were cramming in as much information as they could about the Alloy Desert, the barren and metallic sahara that surrounded Echidna City and that would host their field test. The peculiarities of the desert stretched from magnetic tornadoes that shred apart objects caught inside their radius, to plants that grew large enough to resemble entire oases, and survived the desert by digesting creatures that fell asleep amidst their noxious aromas. Not everyone made it out of their field test alive, at least three to five students were reported missing or killed in action every year. While aptitude in combat and high physical endurance granted a team a good degree of flexibility, meticulous preparation was the true key to survivability.
 

 
“What are you staring at?” Red asked, noticing how fixed Magnus’s eyes were on the roof as they paced back and forth. But the question wasn’t open for long; soon enough, he too noticed the rainbow on the round arch. The rain had stopped momentarily. Its left overs now collected around the middle to form a brilliant prism of colors that melted back and forth through each other as they walked up and down, creating a mesmerizing illusion. The effect gave the glass dome a dream-like quality, as if another world existed beyond the ceiling of the one they inhabited.
 

“Wish I had time to come here more often,” Red lamented. “Hate reading school stuff, but to be able to learn anything you wish…” He stretched his hands upwards and gestured towards the thousands of books above them, imagining what it would be like to spend a lifetime freely exploring all of their contents. He never enjoyed research the way it was presented at academy, but learning by free will was an entirely different experience to him.

“You should see the elvish library in Areopa, it stretches out to infinity. Makes this place look dainty, if you can imagine that,” Magnus replied. “They say its bigger than the city itself,” he added wondrously.
 

“I thought you’re not allowed in?” Red asked. He’d never been to Areopa but had heard enough about its treasures and customs from Magnus. It was considered the global capital of their planet, Avalonia. Areopa was a colossal kingdom composed of five teracities — two human, two elvish, and one felion — that were all built high above the clouds. On a clear enough day, the entirety of their solar system was visible from any point in the kingdom. Red’s real interest in Areopa lay in the fact that it hosted the qualifiers for WEAPON. Not much was known about MegaCORP’s secretive project, beyond that it was an elite and experimental army, equally feared and praised throughout all seventeen planets. It was a group that all young combatants obsessed to be in. It was one of the few inter-species collectives, consisting of humans, elves, gemini, narzoas, and factions from several other races.
 

“You’re not, but you can get a close enough look from the outside,” Magnus replied. And I know of a few people that have been permitted to enter; they make exceptions. But not even the elves are allowed to go too deep. There’s a myth about a demon of sorts that haunts the aisles. I don’t think anyone’s been far enough to confirm for centuries. Elf superstition if you—” his sentence was cut off by the scene ahead of them. Butz was approaching, trying to get his familiar, Linx, off his head. The Aeyz Cat was balanced perfectly on top, jumping to avoid Butz’s attempts at taking him down, and then landing back without the slightest hint of effort. Red and Magnus couldn’t manage to hold in their humor and burst out laughing.

Butz Silo was a short and scrawny falconer with sub-par combat skills, but a talented strategist whose sarcasm and presence were always loved. Butz was originally classified as a techie, a class that specializes in using weaponized mech suits for combat, but like Red, resented his classification and opted instead to train a familiar — the path to becoming a falconer. He had made a reputation for himself early on at Academy by offering to do written assignments in exchange for coin, an endeavor that paid handsomely and afforded him the opportunity to pursue a pricey classification. Training a familiar required a tiny fortune, with expenditures ranging from food and medical care to armor and combat provisions.

Butz barely made his way through the cuts that occurred each year at Crest, working twice as hard as everyone else to pass the rigors of physical endurance. Just earlier this year, he had passed out in the middle of a training simulation far above his own level, a challenge he unnecessarily took on. Where Magnus was physically gifted but a nerd deep down, Butz was mentally gifted but a soldier deep down. The two often bemoaned each other for wasting their natural talents. Prior to academy, he had been recruited aggressively by universities, but had decided early on in his life that he would become a soldier.
 

Butz’s familiar, Linx, was a stage 2 Aeyz Cat — a difficult breed to tame, but powerful and impressive in combat with an extreme penchant for agility. Aeyz Cats bent circumambient light while they stalked prey to become nearly invisible, had a strange habit of howling like wolves to alert others of danger, and enjoyed pentachromatic vision,
 
extending their ocular perception to ultra-violet and infrared. Butz often wondered what it would be like to perceive the world through Linx’s eyes — seeing everything in ten times more color and depth than humans ever could. If Aeyz Cats were able to grow into their later stages, their silvery fur acquired a spectral aesthetic; an attribute that often attracted an artistic set of owners who believed, sometimes wrongly, that they had the determination necessary to nurture such a powerful familiar to its later stages. But for this very reason, prolific hunting of Aeyz Cats has turned extinct the most mature members of their breed.

“It’s not funny guys,” Butz whined. “He never listens to me, and he won’t get off my head now.” Butz swiped again at the space above him, but the cat maneuvered flawlessly around it, and then looked down disapprovingly at its owner.
 

“Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten such a hard to tame familiar,” Red remarked. He always thought there was something alluring about familiars in the cat family; their manners were mysterious and aloof, just watching them was entertaining. He once read that to properly tame them, you needed not only a powerful and dominant owner, but one who was appropriately balanced and foremost a master of themselves. As they grew into powerful beasts, their feral instincts required a nirvana-like discipline to properly control.

“Yeah, and at the rate he’s growing, he’ll be stage 3 in just a few months. If he’s not tamed well enough by then, you’re gonna end up as his dinner one day,” Magnus laughed. Linx licked the top of Butz’s head more hungrily than lovingly right after the comment. Butz sighed in desperation, giving up any hope of freeing his head. “Well I guess I have a hat now,” he said optimistically as the other two howled with laughter again.

“Oh, they’re already inside by the way,” Butz said, ushering Red and Magnus to follow him through the entrance. The height and design of the library’s doorway added a grandeur aura to its foyer. The heads of various critters lined the top of a long mantle that hung high above, representing the achievements students had championed at Crest. Two of their own were among the decorations — the heads of a boorish looking Danube, a four legged hairy beast that had nothing on its body besides an enormous mouth, and a much more prominent looking River Harpie, a creature that Red and Magnus had spent a week deep-diving into a freezing lake to find. River harpies were scaly humanoid creatures that looked like a cross between a Landshark and an elf, and were capable of hiding themselves in complete camouflage while underwater. It was rumored that once, long ago, before hunting Dragons was a breach of imperial code and a highly ostracized practice, the head of a Crimson Reaper lined the mantle as well, and overshadowed everything below it. There were twenty six types of dragons, each one identifiable by their distinct shade of color. Crimson Reapers, whose hides always glowed a blood red, were notable for their infinite resistance to heat and their radioactive vision.