I swear I must have been cursed here in Mythica. It feels like the moment something bizarre happens in my life, the entire realm finds out within hours.
Yesterday's incident with the tourists at the coral spot had somehow blown up the Mythica internet, and of course, the truth got mangled along the way.
Apparently, one of the tourists had filmed me while I was being harassed, conveniently leaving out the part where I explicitly said I was an MECCP staff member and not a tour guide.
Instead, the clip started at the point where I, very logically, told them the coral area was off-limits to tourists. The caption? "Beware of Coral Tour Tourist Trap. Tour guide caught scamming innocent tourists."
Yeah, because that's what happened.
Now I was basically a trending topic, but not for the right reasons. I let out a heavy sigh as I scrolled through the comments. Some people were defending me, but others? Well, let's just say they weren't exactly lining up to give me the benefit of the doubt.
"Just great," I muttered under my breath. "Not only have I not solved the coral problem, but now I have to clear my name as well." I could practically feel my chances at earning any credibility here slipping through my fingers.
Dr. Philippe, always the pragmatic one, had advised me to stay away from the coral sites for a while to avoid "further implications," as he put it.
Instead, he assigned me to help out in the lab for the time being, working with Fiona, one of his research assistants—a demigod, no less—to study the dying coral samples.
Maybe by examining the corals under controlled conditions, we could figure out what was killing them.
This should be easy, right?
I arrived at the lab section wearing my freshly donned lab coat, the usual MECCP ID badge clipped to the front pocket.
Upon entering, I was greeted by a long, brightly lit metallic hallway that stretched far beyond what seemed necessary.
Glass-paneled doors lined the sides, each labeled with names and room numbers that I assumed corresponded to different facilities within the research center.
Dr. Philippe had his own private lab, and Fiona—daughter of Apollo, of all gods—was one of the many assistants working here.
I wondered what it must feel like having a famous Olympian god as your dad. Must be weird. Maybe she had a massive Mythigram following. Could you imagine the selfies?
I entered the room labeled with cryptic terms and numbers that says "Coral Containment" and "Danger: Do Not Enter." The place was sterile—pristine, even. The contrast from the chaos of the coral sites was jarring. Here, everything was neatly ordered, contained, and quiet. Too quiet.
I found Fiona near the back of the lab, fiddling with a set of complex-looking instruments. She had the whole demigod thing going on—blonde hair, piercing eyes, the type of person you wouldn't want to cross on a bad day.
"You're late," Fiona's voice snapped me out of my thoughts as I approached her.
She tossed me a pair of gloves with an air of impatience. "Get your gloves on and help me dissect one of these polyps. We're running diagnostics."
"Nice to see you too," I mumbled, sliding the gloves on.
I looked over at the coral in the tank she was gesturing to. It was one of the hard, stony types—a branching coral with tiny polyps that extended outward, though it looked a bit withered.
She didn't seem in the mood for small talk. I peered at the coral she was working on. It looked... sick.
Like someone had sucked the life out of it, leaving behind a dull, brittle shell of what once was a vibrant ecosystem.
"Ever dissected coral before?" she asked, barely glancing at me as she worked.
"Yeah, back in university," I replied, my hands twitching with the nervousness of not wanting to mess this up. "But nothing... magical."
Dissecting coral wasn't new to me, but it'd been a while since I'd done it in such a formal setting. My last dissection was in university, and it was a bubble coral, which was a nightmare to handle. But this? I could do this.
"Alright," I muttered as I tugged on the gloves. "Just the damaged parts, right?"
"Exactly. We need to see what's going on in there. And use the Crystal Coral Lens when you're done," she added, nodding toward the table beside us.
The what now?
I glanced over and saw a few familiar instruments, but nothing that immediately screamed "Crystal Coral Lens." Was that a microscope? I was starting to feel like a first-year biology student again.
Fiona, catching my confusion, rolled her eyes and walked over. "The lens is enchanted," she explained.
"It's made from sea crystals, and it enhances the microscopic view of the coral's internal structure. It can show us down to a thousand times magnification and even detect magical particles. Think of it as your regular microscope but on steroids—and magic."
"Whoa," I said, genuinely impressed. "That's... kind of awesome."
"Yeah, yeah. Just don't break it."
I started working, carefully dissecting the damaged polyps and placing them in the specimen holder.
The whole time, my mind was running wild with questions. How could magic be killing coral? Were these creatures really so different from Earth's ecosystems?
On Earth, corals were delicate, slow-growing organisms, vital to marine ecosystems but susceptible to all kinds of threats—pollution, overfishing, rising ocean temperatures.
But here in Mythica? They had magical energy coursing through their tiny bodies. It was like something out of a sci-fi novel.
As I worked, dissecting the coral sample with care, I couldn't help but think about how similar and yet completely different this was compared to my days back in zoology school.
Part of me was excited—this was zoology on a whole new level. The other part of me just wanted to figure this out so I could stop being the internet's latest punching bag.
I carefully placed the polyp sample under the Crystal Coral Lens and then positioned it under the microscope. As I adjusted the magnification, my heart skipped a beat.
At first, I noticed what Fiona had mentioned—the faint glow of magical particles, though something about them seemed off.
Darker, almost tainted, like the magic was... poisoned?
That couldn't be right. But as I zoomed in further, my eyes widened in disbelief. Tiny figures, no bigger than ants, were scurrying across the coral's surface.
"Wait... what the..?" I murmured. I adjusted the microscope again, increasing the magnification even more, and suddenly, the full picture came into view.
Tiny creatures. No, not just creatures—tiny, armored soldiers. They were fighting each other on the coral. It was an all-out war.
I stumbled back from the microscope, nearly knocking over the tray of instruments beside me.
"Uh, Fiona?" I said, my voice tight.
Fiona looked up sharply. "What the hell, Carl? What did you see?"
"I... I think I found the problem," I stammered, still reeling from the sight. "It's... it's a war. The corals... they're at war."
Fiona's brows furrowed, her expression a mix of disbelief and concern.
Without waiting for an explanation, she stepped over to the microscope and took a look herself. A moment later, she was cursing under her breath. "Gods above…"
"Are those... soldiers?"
"Yup."
"Fighting?"
"Yup."
She turned away from the microscope and immediately pressed a button on the nearby intercom. "Dr. Philippe, we have a Code Black on the coral samples. You need to come down here now."
"Code Black?" I asked, my voice still shaky. "What does that mean?"
"It means it's bad," she replied, her tone flat. "Real bad. A Code Black indicates a full-scale magical war happening on a microscopic level. And if we don't find a way to stop it, the coral will die—completely. Every single one of them."
My mind raced. A magical war? Inside the coral?
That had to be the most bizarre explanation I'd ever heard, but I couldn't deny what I had seen. The tiny creatures were fighting—tiny armies battling over territory or resources, maybe?
But why? Why here, and why now?
Dr. Philippe rushed in a few moments later, his normally calm demeanor replaced by a look of urgency.
He strode over to the microscope, peered in, and immediately straightened up. "This is... worse than I expected," he muttered, mostly to himself.
I cleared my throat. "So, uh... what do we do? How do we stop a microscopic war?"
Dr. Philippe rubbed his temples, deep in thought. "Stopping a war of this nature isn't easy. The creatures you saw—they're probably a manifestation of a magical disease. It causes colonies to become sentient and aggressive, attacking each other until only one remains. If we don't act fast, it could spread beyond just the coral reefs."
I blinked. "You mean... the war could spread to other ecosystems?"
"Exactly."
Great. Just when I thought this internship couldn't get more complicated, I was now responsible for preventing a full-blown magical pandemic.
"So, what's the plan?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
"We'll need to develop a cure—something that can neutralize the magical aggression without destroying the coral itself," Dr. Philippe replied. "Fiona, you'll handle the initial research. Carl, I want you to assist her with sample analysis. We need to figure out what kind of magic is causing this, and fast."
I nodded, though my mind was still racing. A magical war, creatures fighting over microscopic territory—it sounded insane, but this was Mythica. Nothing here followed the usual rules.