Kiwo's heart rose to his throat, the dark grey sky was making him on edge. He once again looked out the window and noticed Rii hadn't moved for a while. He was about to ask if everything was alright when suddenly, they ran outside, passing right by Kiwo.
Rii looked deep into the sky, like they were searching for something. They stood still, shivers coming down their spine. Rii recognized that aura, it was the scary man's aura, the one in charge of the facilities, the 2nd boss. They remembered the man's piercing green eyes and unconsciously became more tance. Kiwo reached his hand to Rii's shoulder and they snapped out of it, feeling ashamed that they were in such bad shape after having felt just 1 out of the 5* bosses. They couldn't fathom the idea of how terrible they would feel if they met face to face.
Kiwo took Rii back on the balcony and sat them on the single chair. He turned his back towards them, facing the forest and sat on the floor, seeming to be meditating.
The sound of the winds was strong, filled with a weird kind of mana. It wasn't wind magic or any kind of spell. It felt like a disruption in the natural mana of the plaket*.
- Alteration magic… Kiwo mumbled under his breath, his breathing was becoming rushed, almost like he was drawn to the mana, taunting him.
Alteration magic is a powerful forbidden magic, it can control the flow of mana in a person's body and identify it, making it easy for a person to be tracked if the user was strong enough. It was banned because it caused curses to surface once it was used. Hurting the user's magical core, turning it grey*.
Rii clenched their chest, just where their core was situated. It hurt like crazy. The reason for their suffering was once told to them by a scientist, Abolov was his name. He told Rii that the Boss' magic was something close to mind control, but not quite mind control and that it didn't work on Rii for some weird reason. But it didn't have absolutely no effect either, since it was still a powerful magic, Rii's core reacted as a sort of shield and took on the magic that was trying to control them. That was why their core hurt way more than usual.
Kiwo finished his analysis of the mana in the air and stood up, massaging his temples when he saw Rii in pain, he rushed over and kneeled down to take a look at them. He suddenly thought of something and quickly put two fingers in front of Rii's core.
"Oh Mihon! I haven't done this in a long time…" he thought before closing his eyes again.
Only, once he did, he found himself in complete surprise. Rii's core was complicated and messy, in complete turmoil. There were tones of lines of mana coming out of their core and it really didn't look stable, Kiwo even started to question how Rii was even able to live with all off their five senses up until now*, but then realised that there had been a mistake in his thinking.
Kiwo was ashamed but he had actually tested the theory that they had lost some senses before today and the result was like this: their sight wasn't completely there, their sense of smell wasn't far from being completely gone, their sense of taste was at most so-so, their sense of touch was meh and their sense of earring was untouched.
Kiwo felt a little hurt when he confirmed that theory but decided to talk to his parents about it to see if maybe they could help, seeing as his father Kiyi was an archmage who specialises in mana manipulation. He gave Kiwo two potions, one to help stabilize Rii' score and one to stop their leaking mana from interfering with their body and mind. Those two bottles were the ones that he had received previously this morning.
Kiwo took back his hand, fortunately Rii wasn't affected by any of the magicim the air and was most unscaled. He decided to take Rii back inside and made sure to cover the house with a protective barrier that his dad Mael gave him when he visited 2 eras ago[4]. After all, who knows who or what could possibly be using Alteration magic.
Rii rested on the couch until they had fully calmed down, helped by a big cup of tea Kiwo had given them. The man rested on one of the kitchen chairs, enjoying his tea too, completely unscaled by the outburst of forbidden magic. Rii was intrigued.
- Why is it that you weren't affected by the magic? They asked.
Kiwo placed his mug on the kitchen table. He lifted his hand to his chest and grabbed a thin silver chain. He showed Rii the black stone on the tip of it.
-It's because I'm protected by this enchanted obsidian. He said.
Suddenly, he seemed to have an idea, rushed to the trapped door and went up to his office, grabbing something. He went back down and walked to Rii, he smiled brightly like he had had the best idea ever.
-Tadda! Now you won't get hurt by that magic ever again, or any sort of cursed magic for that matter. He said as he put a silver necklace identical to his on Rii's neck. They were surprised, "how kind" they thought as they looked at the stone, fascinated.
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1-There are four facilities, but five bosses, because the 1st boss is the big boss of all the facilities so he overlooks everyone. The 2nd boss is the boss of facility B, the 3rd boss of facility C etc...
And no there is no facility A, however it did exist at some point but it got turned into a hall of knowledge for the scientists.
2-The word is basically like if you took Earth and dismantled it, the 'plakets' are like continents floating in space, like if you took the middle of a planet and let the rest float in the dark.
3-Alive people have colorful cores, full of mana and living energy, however if you are struck by a curse or other misfortune your core will turn grey and you will be rendered useless, like a sack of meat.
4-The core and the flow of mana in a person's body is connected to every single thing in their body, whether it is muscles or even emotions. But what it is mostly connected with are the five senses. So what Kiwo was worried about was Rii's core overtaking their senses and damaging them.