"Damn...!"
Keni panted. Despite using his remaining magna for protection, it couldn't halt the bleeding from his head.
'I thought this place was safe! Nobody told me that there's a monster that scary! Just look at that! How can that thing supposedly get here!'
***
< 8 hours earlier... >
"So everything happened because of the Rift, huh?" Keni mumbled. He had been replaying the same video for half an hour now.
After finishing the Manas Link procedure, Keni was busily swimming in an ocean of information. He read news related to Tagum City, learned the definition of Tripper, the existence of Magna, and the Pangeia event.
Despite six months' worth of footage flooding his mind, he could absorb it all in just a minute's worth of real-time reading.
["Notice: Attempt #536, Syncing Manas Link with Nexus Partial."]
'Ahh, right. I still couldn't find any info about this Nexus thing...' Keni wondered. He sat on a bench outside the lab building.
'Even though I understand that this Manas link is some kind of user-friendly interface for survivors, there's no information about Nexus Partial at all.'
[ "Advisory: Host is advised to keep Nexus confidential." ]
'And there it goes again... Every time I get curious enough to ask someone, it tells me to keep it a secret... Well... now that I think about it, this voice has been with me since I woke up in that alley.'
Keni sighed. The reason why he kept replaying the Rift footage was to find answers to his questions.
'Yeah, right. "All questions will be answered," my fat butt.' He was annoyed. Pico and the receptionist's words echoed in his ears. Despite the detailed information provided by the Manas Link, they weren't enough to satisfy Keni's insatiable curiosity.
["Answer: Magna Detected. Type: Reinforcement."]
Instead of wasting further time, Keni had been busy manipulating his body's magna. A thin sheet of magna enveloped his body, emitting a yellowish glow.
'So this is how Pico did it.'
Suddenly, a sharp knife materialized in his grasp. It shone brightly like a flame, leaving his body vulnerable.
The technique was called a 'Magna blade.' Self-explanatory, but the Manas link provided information and a how-to tutorial.
'This could come in handy. It's a perfect solution when I need a sharp tool for self-defense.'
Keni focused his concentration on his open hand. The blade reappeared almost instantly before vanishing from the other. Furthermore, it hovered above his palms, defying the pull of gravity.
'And If I do this...!"
The blade shot forward at sonic speed, piercing the soft soil beside his shoes. It promptly vanished before reappearing in his palms.
"Man... I feel so awesome..." Keni couldn't suppress the childlike smile spreading across his face.
Yet, there was no reason to remain smug. After practicing the Magna Blade and Reinforcement, Keni reviewed the news regarding the Pangeia event.
<'Accessing information.'>
The panel opened automatically by command.
'I still couldn't believe that the entire planet became a single continent again.' Keni focused. Flames and clouds played over his retina. 'And to make things worse, this transformation lasted just a week. Who knows what calamities have occurred for the past six months.'
<'Accessing Information related to Tripper.'>
'So there are others like me who vanished after the Rift... Trippers, huh? It seems I reappeared later than the rest.'
After the Rift emerged on Earth like a nightmare: strange creatures joined the planet's biodiversity. This included the witch Keni encountered six months ago, including the drake and humanoid demon in Tagum City.
'Hmmm. It's odd, though...' Keni licked his dry lips. 'Back then, the Nexus told me that demon was a human. It may have looked like a monster, but it was clearly capable of speech...'
["Answer: It was clearly a human. Would you like to access the report?"]
"..."
Keni blinked. If he wasn't mistaken, the Nexus was clearly offering him information. Despite its monotonous voice, its words were like a blessing to his ears.
"Yes?" Keni muttered. It startled the person exiting from an automated door.
["Answer: Extracting report..."]
Within an instant, the world around him faded into a murky darkness. The sound of cars, people, and machines also went mute after the Nexus answered.
'Fudge...' Keni cursed. He couldn't help but feel something terrible was about to happen.
Suddenly, Keni felt his body zooming like a bullet. And in a place where nothing exists but darkness, Keni screamed like an annoying limpkin.
"Fudddge!" A long string of profanity echoed behind his paraphrased curses.
["Answer: You have arrived inside the Nexus Archive."]
Without warning, Keni crashed onto the shadowy ground. Maybe because everything was an illusion, the fall never hurt him despite its forceful impact.
When be looked around, a solitary bookshelf was standing amidst the darkness. Despite the obscurity, the bookshelf was distinctly visible.
'A book?' Keni's brow furrowed. A single tome rested on the bookshelf, seemingly forsaken and neglected.
Gently, Keni raised the solitary book. It resembled a thick dictionary, its cover plain and uninteresting. Had it been artistically embellished, it might have resembled a fancy tome for scholars.
Nevertheless, aware of not judging a book by its cover, Keni opened the sturdy front. Within its pages, the aged paper held script characters that revealed:
'Manas: A Biography on Pyrons'
Observingly, the script was penned in an unfamiliar script. But whatever sorcery was at work, Keni could read and understand it, strangely.
The words encouraged him to turn the pages with growing anticipation.
'Is it possible that the demon is a form of transformation?' Keni speculated. If magna enabled humans to shift their shape, then it would have been a powerful technique to master.
'I can't wait to see how that works...'
But seemingly mocking him, the thick pages remained stubbornly empty beneath his fingertips. Perplexed, he flipped through them, hoping for more.
"What...? How could this be everything? Why in the world is there only one page after the title...!"
Keni vented his frustration, scratching his head in annoyance. Regrettably, he was left with just that solitary page to satisfy his curiosity.
[ Pyrons ] — Refers to entities richly infused with flame-based Magna.
[ Pyrons ] — This category encompasses humanoids, often resembling the demons of the current world, as well as other species significantly saturated with the elemental attribute termed Fire.
"That's all?" Keni murmured. He expected a detailed account of his encounter back from Tagum City.
["Answer: At present, Nexus Partial is unable to generate a comprehensive report."]
Keni nearly let the book slip from his grasp. The monotone voice reverberating in the darkness startled him. Realizing, he had also been eager to uncover details about the 'Voice.'
There was nothing to lose if he tried. "Can I access information about Nexus Partial?"
An echoing silence greeted his query. The book and its shelf abruptly dissipated as soon as he spoke.
'Shoot... Was that a mistake?'
However, within moments, a burst of light illuminated the void. A radiant orb materialized briefly before disintegrating into shimmering specks.
["Answer: Plot Locked. Unable to access current information. Memory Fragments required."]
The last time Keni heard something was locked was when he awoke six months ago. But this time, it provided a detailed requirement to unlock.
"Ummm. Access information about Memory Fragments?"
Keni couldn't help but feel like a character inside a novel. What with a locked plot and inaccessible information to him.
'Don't tell me I am inside one,' he mused. The last thing he wanted was to encounter a paywall to access information.
["Answer: Accessing Memory fragments."]
Instantly, a single figure was projected like a hologram beneath the dark floor, facing Keni.
Towering two meters, the figure revealed masculine features that made Keni jealous. Moreover, its body was covered in overgrown hair, almost appearing like moss, wearing only a tattered loincloth.
Inside Keni's head, a stream of information began flooding.
[ Boi Chavez ] — Fragmented Memory #01. Grants access to the fundamental principles of Magna. Current expertise includes Reinforcement, Acrobatics, and Object Manipulation.
["Question: Would you like to synchronize with this memory?"]
Abruptly, a translucent panel materialized before him. Unlike Manas Link, it only hovered in front of the holographic figure, glowing yellow.
["Answer: You will be teleported to a safe area for the memory sync."]
The sight brought Keni smirking like he discovered a treasure. Without a moment's hesitation, he enthusiastically replied, "Yes."
In an instant, his body was enveloped by Reinforcement Magna. The sensation was akin to being pulled along the ground before he found himself amidst a grove of trees.
'Hmmm.' Keni touched his forehead. A viscous fluid was dripping freely from his hairline. And when he attempted to look around, he found himself surrounded by muddy vegetation.
"What the fudge!" He screamed. But before he could move around, something echoed from the background.
["Warning: Canceling Memory sync."]
["Warning: Magna Detected. Type: Gate."]
Suddenly, everything receded into a blanket of smoke and explosion. Keni realized he was back on the bench, but the surrounding structures were being destroyed.
Then, a sudden blast hurled him away before he could react with a reinforcement. A trickle of blood streamed down his forehead.
"Damn!" Everything felt like a deja vu.
When he glanced above, a colossal statue stomped through the buildings as if they were twigs. In its wake, a massive hole was ripped open in the ceiling of the underground city, exposing thick layers of steel, gold, and obsidian-like material before the surface.
Whatever was happening, everything looked like a battlefield around him.