A New Beginning In A Mana Apocalypse

"Is everything alright?" Karen asked concerned.

Kayda looked over at Karen then nodded. "Yeah." she replied simply. I felt a bit sad for her but there was nothing that I could do for her.

"Do you understand how to change the twisted into awakened?" Kayda asked me.

I shook my head. "I know that is what the information is for, but I need to digest it to understand how I can do it." I replied.

Karen frowned. "Turn twisted into awakened? Isn"t that impossible after a few minutes?" Karen asked.

"I thought so too." I replied remembering what I discovered when I had changed Rebecca back from a twisted immediately after she had changed. The way the magic worked, it didn"t seem possible. At least I had no idea how it was possible. I needed to take a look at the information the observer gave me to understand what I missed. "The observer contacted us again. The knowledge is a reward."

Karen nodded then frowned. "So we have an option now? t.i.tan or awakened?" she asked.

I nodded.

A sharp pain stabbed through my head interrupting the conversation.

My eyes widened as I concentrated and realized that one of my wives was hurt. I moved quickly on my way to the door as I figured out which one it was and where she was.

By the time I ran out the door pa.s.sing Megan and Monica on the first floor with Karen and Kayda were rushing behind me asking what was wrong, I knew it was Grace and she wasn"t far away.

"What is it?" Megan asked rushing to catch up.

"Grace." I replied irritibly as I sent questions to Grace to see how she was doing and rea.s.sure her I was coming. Unfortunately I didn"t get any reply.

"She is alive, just injured." Emy sent to me mentally rea.s.suring me.

I knew that already. "What is going on?" I thought back mentally.

"I am…unsure. There is a crowd gathering so be careful." Emy replied, I could hear the confusion in her voice.

I frowned Emy had her tendrils everywhere so she could keep an eye on our home and any potential problems. She couldn"t track everything, but keeping an eye on her sister wives was one of her priorities.

I sped up to get there faster.

It wasn"t very far, not really, but with my worry added to not knowing what was going on, it felt like forever before I reached the crowd that had gathered around Grace"s position. I heard yelling and ranting, while from Grace I was still only getting pain and fear.

"Move!" I shouted angrily shifting into my t.i.tan form so I towered over everyone getting a view of Grace being held by the throat by a blonde man with a crazed look on his face. I didn"t recognize the man but I felt that there was something off about him. I felt a really unstable energy coming off of him.

Hearing my thunderous voice the crowd parted quickly, the man who was holding Grace glanced over. His eyes were what drew my attention. One was a normal brown eye while the other was bright red, not the same as Kayda"s old red eyes, they were brighter and gave off a different impression. Seeing me approaching the man holding Grace quivered a look of fear on his face. Yet he didn"t release my wife from his grip.

"Release her!" I commanded angrily as I reached them, my hands reaching out to Grace.

The blonde man quivered and stared at me angrily but he grudgingly released her into my waiting hands.

Grace coughed and cried as she was released and fell into my oversized hands. I moved her away from the man quickly and placed her gently beside Megan, Karen, and Kayda. Monica hadn"t followed us, but she had Ca.s.sy, so that might have been for the best.

So concerned for Grace I didn"t feel the growing energy from the man who had injured her.

"Daryl!" Kayda shouted a warning drawing my attention back to the man. Both of his eyes were now bright red and the aura around him had changed, it was stronger, and even more crazed. He was gathering fire energy into a ball between his palms his eyes glowing brighter as the more energy gathered.

Unfortunately the man"s control on what was quickly becoming an immense amount of energy, was shaky. Wisps of energy flew off the energy ball placing the audience at risk.

I had no idea why this man had attacked Grace, but it was also clear that he was not right in the mind. Moving quickly I gather my own energy and formed a s.p.a.ce tunnel to a new s.p.a.ce pocket above the man"s head then lashed out with a fist hitting him solidly in the torso flinging him ten feet back. I held back a bit for fear I would kill the man without getting answers. I needed to know what was wrong with him and why he targeted Grace.

With the impact on the man a great deal of the fire energy he had been gathering was released out in an explosion, I triggered the opening of the s.p.a.ce tunnel to suck that energy up into the s.p.a.ce pocket reducing the impact of the energy.

Some of the energy was retained by the man who continued to draw in my energy even after being knocked away, and some of the energy had formed a shield to block my attack. It wasn"t enough to stop me, but it had burned my fist.

My own regenerative abilities kicked in and quickly healed the skin abrasion.

I approached the man quickly my increased size letting me take a single step before reaching him. A shield of fire energy now protected the man as he continued to draw in more energy oblivious to the fact that he was laying on his back. His face had lost the crazed look and now seemed to be completely emotionless.

There was something really wrong here.

I grit my teeth and thrust my hand through the shield burning myself as I did so I could cover the man with my hand. Most of the new energy he had gathered exploded out again but I sucked up the majority with the s.p.a.ce tunnel. With my hand in contact with him I looked into his inner s.p.a.ce.

Instead of the normal interior of an awakened which I a.s.sumed him to be, all I found was fire. His core was a blazing ball of fire with no other abilities.

This was wrong, very wrong and even more dangerous. Instinctually I shaped the mana from my core into a straw then drove it into the fire core and sucked the fire mana from the man.

I loud painful scream erupted from the man as I held him down and drained the fire mana from him until he was completely empty. As the man pa.s.sed out I withdrew from his inner s.p.a.ce my eyes wide as I felt the fire energy I had withdrawn squirming inside my own inner s.p.a.ce trying to gain a foothold within my own inners.p.a.ce as if it was alive. I accessed my own fire ability in an attempt to gain control of the energy.

The energy that had been trying to pry its way into every ability it could reach recoiled as if injured then tried to flee from my inner s.p.a.ce. The change in att.i.tude was so fast I wasn"t able hold onto it before it wriggled out of my grip like a slimy fish.

Opening my eyes I saw a fiery red energy float away from me. Rather than allow it to run I shifted the s.p.a.ce tunnel to suck it up as it had the previous fire energy, then closed the tunnel behind it. I wasn"t sure if sending it into a s.p.a.ce pocket full of fire energy was a wise idea, but it was safer than allowing it to attack someone else.

With the initial threat dealt with I turned my attention back to the man who had been infected? Maybe possessed was a better term.

He didn"t look good.

"Caly I need you." I mentally sent out to my wife as I shifted back to my human form. The toga like garb I wore in my t.i.tan form easily shifted back into the clothes I had been wearing earlier. I had yet to figure out how that worked but I was still grateful for it.

I leaned back over the man touching his chest to sense his inners.p.a.ce. It was desolate without a hint of mana anywhere inside even his core had disappeared. Unsure what else I could do I pushed a bit of my own mana into his inners.p.a.ce.

His inners.p.a.ce absorbed the mana quickly using it to heal the desolation. By the time Caly arrived his inners.p.a.ce had been greatly restored. I hadn"t used much mana as I feared what overusing the mana in my core would do to him. I had no intention of accidently changing him into a t.i.tan.

Caly reached my side then knelt down over him touching his side to get an idea of his injures. "Severe mana depletion, a few broken ribs and some bruising." Caly rattled off professionally then started to use her healing ability to fix the ribs.

I stood up and looked around. Several beasts had appeared under the command of Nala pushing the audience back to give us room. My sister had joined my wives and was watching me with bright eyes. It was obvious she knew something.

I gently caressed Caly"s hair then headed for my sister. Her gaze was bright and excited as she stared at me.

"What was it?" I asked her.

Annitte smirked, "Guess." she told me.

I grit my teeth, now was not the time for her games.

Clearly Annitte realized I wasn"t in the mood for her antics as the smile quickly faded from her face but I pushed past her moving to Grace"s side. She was still wheezing a bit but seemed a bit better.

"Are you alright?" I asked her gently.

"It burns." Grae murmured weakly grabbing my hand and placing it on her chest looking at me with pain filled eyes.

I closed my eyes and glanced into her inners.p.a.ce. It almost looked the same as when I had seen it after curing her, just stronger. The difference was there as a red mist floating around her abilities, it wasn"t the same as the fire energy in the other man, at least not yet. I siphoned that energy out of her into my own inners.p.a.ce while activating my fire ability again. The red mist tried to draw away from me but it didn"t have the strength to get away. The red mist was drawn into fire portion of my elemental ability filling the image of the fire elemental. When the energy was gone I felt a hunger from the ability as if it wanted more but it calmed down quickly and returned to normal after a moment.

With the fire mana removed from her Grace was finally able to relax then pa.s.sed out.

I could feel from through the bond that she was alright, still a little hurt, but mostly exhausted.

Rea.s.sured that she was fine I looked back to Annitte who was looking down at me seriously.

"Fire elementals." she told me.

"Huh?" I asked her.

"It was a fire elemental, somehow it inhabited that man and was trying to take control of him." she replied. "Given the way it was acting I would guess it was a newborn filled with a need to feed on more energy without any concern for the trouble its actions were causing." she told me.

I stared at her stupidly for a moment then sighed. Couldn"t this have waited a week or two until I resolved the issue with the twisted?

"Daryl, the observer is calling us again." Kayda whispered to me.

I groaned. One thing after another.