"Step in one at a time." The commander said to the recruits. Motioning those at the forefront to start moving. Most of them hesitated, but some summoned the courage, stepping forward to be the first to test the waters.
Not surprisingly, it was those from rich merchant families that took the first step. Everyone watched as a tall guy with his black hair tied in a ponytail stepped forward with confidence, crossing the short distance to the portal. His hair billowed as the energy waves coming from the portal became stronger with every step. He paused right before entering, waiting to see if the commander was going to say anything else, but when he saw that she just looked on, emotionless, he braced himself and stepped right in, his body slowly fading from view.
"Next!" An official called out.
Just like that, the others began to step forward. They probably just needed someone to start the process, as their numbers began to dwindle quickly with each person entering one by one.
Zephyr tried to hang back, hoping to be the last to enter, but it seemed some others had the same idea. A few recruits around him were also stalling. Reluctantly, he stepped forward, knowing he had to go eventually.
He braced himself as he approached the swirling portal, the energy waves radiating from it whipping his hair around. His mind raced through the brief instructions they had received, none of which could possibly prepare him for the unknown. As his foot crossed the threshold, his senses immediately plunged into chaos. He felt an intense bout of weightlessness and disorientation. He couldn't even tell where up or down was as the world around him twisted into a riot of swirling colors, like an abstract painting without any rhyme or reason. His stomach began to turn in nausea.
Then, as abruptly as it had all begun, the sensation of weightlessness vanished. He staggered forward, as his boots hit solid ground again.
"Damn that lady! She downplayed this way too much!" He cursed silently as his vision slowly began to clear, the strange swirl of colors fading away. The experience had felt longer but lasted only a few moments in reality.
"Hoo... thank goodness for the nanites, Zephyr thought, breathing deeply as he felt his body rapidly recovering, by now he'd probably be retching if he wasn't nano enhanced. He tried to regain his bearings and quickly scanned his surroundings, hoping to find any sign of the others who had entered before him.
His eyes were met with a bleak, gray world. The sky was a dull, lifeless shade of gray, flecked with black dust that drifted lazily downward. It blanketed everything in sight. More concerning, however, was the fact that he couldn't see any sign of the others- Not a single person in sight.
"So we didn't end up in the same place. Another thing they never told us about," he muttered as he took a few tentative steps forward hoping to find some clue that might confirm his suspicion. As he walked forward he felt the odd weight of his body. The gravity here was different, he could tell right away. Every of his movement felt just a bit heavier, as though the very air around him was pushing him down. He looked around, trying to see if he'd find anything like footprints, but he didn't.
"Well that settles it," He said as he squinted into the distance where he saw a towering pillar of light that pierced to the sky. "I guess that's where I'm going" he said as he started to move towards that direction.
As he walked, he took in more details. The ground beneath him was cracked and barren, covered with the black soot turning gray, with no grass or vegetation to be seen. The trees around him were pale white, their branches mostly bare and twisted, the few leaves were black, adding to the morbid scenery.
"What kind of place is this?" He couldn't help but wonder as he walked. There was an eerie quiet about it, an unsettling stillness that made the hairs on the back of his neck rise. The farther he walked, the more alien this place felt.
Just as his mind began to drift into thought, an intense feeling of danger washed over him, so powerful that his instincts screamed for him to react. Without a second thought, he dropped into a roll just as a wooden spear whizzed past where he had been standing. It sailed through the air, its force carrying it into one of the nearby trees, embedding itself deeply in the trunk.
"Fuck!" Zephyr cursed, eyes wide in shock as he stared at the tree where the spear had struck. His heart raced as he quickly turned toward the source of the attack. He saw some movement in the distance a dark figure was darting between the trees, trying to make a quick get away.
Rage flared within him as he saw this and without a second thought he scrambled back to his feet, yanked the spear from the tree and chased after the figure. His body, enhanced by nanites, moved with a burst of speed. The creature ahead of him was small and quick, but Zephyr was gaining ground rapidly. As he got closer he began to make out the figure more clearly. It was... insectoid? He squinted, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. 'Something like a two-legged ant?' Zephyr thought as he gave pursuit. The creature's size spurring him even further. "I can take this on!"
'Abnormal activity detected in host's body.'
'Foreign substance seems to be affecting your mental state.'
'Taking preventive measures.'
...
'Failed.'
'Substance seems to be tied to mana. Host's mana core is being affected directly.'
'Switching to other drastic measures.'
Zephyr faltered for a moment as his focus was interrupted by the strange message. But he continued giving chase, disregarding what he had just heard. The creature was within throwing distance now.
Suddenly, a small jolt of electricity surged through his body, shocking him into clarity. His body stiffened as his mind cleared, allowing him to understand the depth of the situation.
He skidded to an abrupt stop immediately, scanning his surroundings with vigilance. The insectoid creature in the distance also slowed, before turning back to face him.
'Shit!' Zephyr froze. 'My mind was being messed with. Could it have been this creature?'
'No… it had to be something else,' he thought as his eyes flitted about.
'These flakes... they've been falling from the sky since I got here!'
He quickly covered his nose with his arm and slowly took off his bag, rummaging through for a cloth to tie around his face to minimize the effects of the dust. He made sure to keep his gaze locked on the creature in the distance, watching for any movement.
'This thing was leading me somewhere, probably to where more of it's kind are—'
Zephyr stiffened as the creature suddenly moved. It turned around and burst further away with even more speed than before.
Zephyr straightened up immediately. 'Shit! I need to get out of here. He grabbed a cloth from his bag and tied it around his face to cover his nose before picking up the wooden spear and scrambling away in the opposite direction.
He didn't hold back this time as he began to run towards the light in the distance on full throttle.
After running for a while, his temper began to flare as his mind wandered back to the creature that just tried to kill him.
'Man... I almost died... and to a fucking insect for crying out loud—'
Jolt
Zephyr stumbled and fell. His body twitched as his mind cleared up again.
Now his back was covered in cold sweat. Whatever this thing was, it was playing with his mind too easily. The cloth didn't seem to be helping much. At most, it added a few extra minutes before he acted up again.
'Aegis, isn't there anything we can do to combat this?' He asked with urgency.
'Negative,' Aegis responded.
'The substance seems to be specifically affecting your mana core, and your nanites have no direct way of interacting with your mana core at all.'
'What? Not even in the least?' He asked.
'Not even in the least host. Your nanites cannot interact with mana whatsoever.'
What kind of concept was that? Zephyr thought to himself. 'My father specifically made something that could make this much changes to my body, but it can't interact with the one most important thing in this world? Did he do it on purpose or was there just no way around it?'
The mystery surrounding his father deepened further, but he pushed it aside, focusing on the immediate danger at hand.
'Aegis, jolt me every five minutes so I don't lose my mind again.'
'Noted.'
Zephyr slowed to a light jog after his frantic sprint from the creature. His body could handle this pace effortlessly, without any hint of fatigue.
He glanced up at the pillar of light ahead as he thought to himself, 'I'm getting closer. Probably about fifteen minutes at my current pace.'