Prologue

"Can we be sure it's all in there?" Hayden asked her for the fifth time, during their venture to the library where, in Crystal's newfound memories, was the place where they can find what they needed, or at least get a lead on it. Just like the other times, however, she did not provide an answer but instead kept going ahead.

Truth be told, she wasn't sure of it herself, but it was the only lead they had. She didn't want anyone else doubting her, not when she too doubted herself.

She skimmed from one rooftop to another with supernatural speed as trails of dark pink energy were released behind her. Hayden and his squad followed not so far behind. While this strategy left her to deal with the immediate dangers that would arise on the frontline, it was Crystal who had insisted on it despite Hayden's disapproval.

She was confident she'd be able to protect everyone and herself with her ability to manipulate energy, something that isn't common amongst the wielder community.

Suddenly she skidded to a stop, she heard the others stop behind her but did not turn around to look at them. Her eyes were focused on the danger that was miles ahead. Hayden walked up next to her and followed her line of sight. His curious look turned to that of concern when he saw why Crystal had stopped. "This is not good, our numbers are not enough, there are about hundreds of those mindless creatures..." Hayden said, but was soon cut off by Crystal, "I'll go first. I'll give off the signal when it's clear for you to enter the library." She said and moved to jump towards the roof of the building in front of her, she hated feeling weak.

Hayden took her hand before she could, which she immediately pulled away and glared at him, "What?" She asked. They made eye contact. Hayden's emerald green eyes held hers, and she eased up a little after seeing the worry and hesitation behind them. He immediately looked away. Crystal stared at the ground, waiting to hear what Hayden had to say.

"I trust you; we all do. But not all of them have trust in your dreams alright? I have trust issues with it too cause how can we be sure what we're looking for is in there just because you've been having visions of it?" Hayden pointed at the abandoned library, miles away, surrounded by which can only be the Hydes, brainless zombies that wield artificial powers identical to energy manipulation, which only Crystal is said to possess in this generation.

"Those Hydes are protecting the library for a reason..." Crystal said and shut her mouth when she realized her point was not valid enough. "Hydes are everywhere." Hayden deadpanned and Crystal shook her head in frustration, he was right.

"What if we failed to find it? Then all that trouble will be for nothing. We would be depleted of our charge, and we might not be able to return by today, we would at least need a day of rest after this fight. Their abilities are just like yours. They're at least half as powerful as you." Hayden pleaded. "They don't have minds, they will be easy to kill, we just need a distraction, I will take care of that while you go into the library." Crystal replied.

Hayden shook his head, "How can you be so sure that you can take care of them?" Hayden asked. "I'll do it." Crystal replied almost immediately, she moved strands of her hair away from her face, giving him a look of finality. Hayden sighed; he buried his face in his arms in defeat. He took a quick look at the library, then to his squad before finally turning back to Crystal. "Fine. Have it your way, but we need a plan, after all, it's just five of us and hundreds of them." Hayden said and looked at the sky for a moment. He then turned around and walked back to his squad.

Crystal just stood there waiting, she knew why they were so hesitant, she knew that they think the flashbacks she has been getting seemed to cloud her judgement, but she needed this as much as everyone else did. If this was the place, there'll be hope in finally restoring Alvanian. It's all a gamble but if she's right...

A yell from behind interrupted her brief thoughts, Crystal realized who that voice belonged to and sighed. Ray was the wisest of Hayden's squad, and his opposition to what Crystal wanted to do made her begin to question herself. Was this the right approach? She could take care of those zombies with her duplicates no problem. But that consumed too much charge, so if it were to fail...

She felt a light tap on her shoulder, and she turned around. Hayden smiled and relayed the plan to her. After a few minutes, Crystal nodded, feeling assured in what she was about to do now that they had a strategy. "Let's move," Hayden announced, and they continued traversing between buildings. About thirty minutes later they were almost there, and once she could see the library clearly, she warped away, leaving pink energy traces behind.

Crystal: I'm going in.

Hayden: Right behind you.

She reappeared in midair few feet above the abandoned library. She gasped as she saw the number of Hydes below her. She couldn't afford to change her mind now. She turned her attention to the library instead, as she glided in midair, it looked like it had seen much better days; the paint was almost gone, and all she could see were the bricks used and the many holes in the walls. Houses were not made of bricks anymore, how old was this place anyway? However, she could soon use these holes to her advantage.

She started to free fall towards the Hydes below her, as both her arms charged with dark pink energy.

Once she got within range, she blasted the Hyde right under her. Her energy shot from her arm and exploded on the head of the Hyde as it came clean off, leaving pink energy traces in the air. As soon as her legs touched the ground, she formed an energy blade on her hand. Pink energy particles wrapped around it in a shape of a blade and solidified in a millisecond, before she swiftly turned around and blocked the attack of a Hyde who had a blade of his own. Another Hyde appeared from behind her and punched her back with enough force and power to blast her to the sky.

As she flew, spikes of dark pink energy formed out of thin air and shot to the ground at rapid speeds, as if they had a mind of their own, clearing the ground under her once again.

She warped away before she could touch the ground and reappeared in midair, closer to the library, under her was a crowd of Hydes. Soon everything went in slow motion as she fell towards the crowd. Her instincts kicked in as she used one of the Hyde's heads to jump back into the air, gaining momentum once again.

However, she still wouldn't be able to reach there in just that leap. Warping again would not be the right approach as she needed to save as much energy as she could to make her duplicates.

Blasts of purple energy whizzed past her, but she wouldn't be able to dodge them as she was in midair. She thought quick and created a barrier in between herself and the Hydes firing at her. She landed on the barrier with a thud and remained there as energy blasts rained on it.

This gave her an idea.

She looked towards her destination, one of the holes she had picked in the walls of the library, and focused. Platforms of energy formed on her path for her to use as a quick and safe way to get in the hole. As soon as another blast whizzed past her, she jumped to the next platform and started leaping from one to another before finally making a jump to the hole and rolling till she hit a table that was in front of it.

Soon after she entered, she had to dodge three more blasts of energy from the Hydes below, one grazed against her shoulder, but she quickly retreated to the right side of the hole and caught her breath. Five duplicates immediately appeared next to her, each looking identical to Crystal, just like clones. Creating them consumed a lot of charge, but she wouldn't be needing much anymore. However, this all depended on how long they would be able to fend those Hydes off. The duplicates all warped away, leaving traces of pink energy behind. As soon as they did, she could hear more intense fighting, the screams of dying Hydes also made thinking much harder.

After a long minute, she fired off a blast to the sky, giving them a proper destination to port to. She quickly moved out of the way, knowing what was to come in the next few seconds. Moments later, a bolt of lightning shot from the hole, through the table and into one of the shelves, spreading dust and debris all over the narrow room. As the dust cleared, she could see the rest of the members of Hayden's squad, except the lightning elemental known as Amadh, standing there. Amadh was kneeling, and she knew why. Travelling like that on his own consumed a lot of his charge. So, bringing three more people with him would take a toll for sure.

Amadh could feel her gaze on him and turned to her with a grin, "Looks like our little plan gave us one more thing to look at." He spoke. Hayden turned to him, "What do you mean?" He asked. Amadh simply pointed at the shelves as the dust cleared entirely, Crystal followed his finger and saw what he meant. While there should've just been a hole in the shelf from what the elemental had done, there was a hole in the wall behind it too, which he had not created. "Hmm. Looks like you're right, there seems to be something hidden behind these shelves, and we found it way sooner than expected." Ray said. Hearing Ray, of all people, say this gave Crystal a little hope, but she didn't show it.

Crystal stood up and blasted the remainder of the shelf under the hole, so they could enter. "Give us a warning next time, will you?" Amadh said, still panting. Crystal nodded slowly as an apology and entered the hole. "Guess we're not wasting any more time," Amadh commented as the others but Hayden followed her. Crystal turned to Hayden, "I'll come after he's better." Hayden said and looked down at his squadmate, "We'll be quick." Amadh added when Crystal didn't move.

She nodded and walked down the dark staircase; others followed suit. She eventually came to a stop and felt around her. She lit her right palm with pink energy and held it up, giving them more clearance. She could immediately make out a door, just a few more meters below her. She disappeared, leaving energy traces behind. "She's so impatient." Lucien, the last member of Hayden's squad, commented. He tried the doorknob and the door pushed open, "Who would leave the door open when it's supposed to be hidden?" Lucien asked. "Hmm. It doesn't seem like it was unlocked, more like the lock had given away." Ray explained, examining the lock.

Doors like this were only seen in history books, nowadays doors didn't even have knobs, they slid open from either a biometrics scan or if the owner is in front of it. These types of doors were not used from about half a century ago, during the 2060s. And even at that time doors that had knobs were not unlocked by keys, no, this door was manufactured somewhere around the 2020s.

"I have sensed two signatures here, both energy manipulators," Crystal said, her voice tinged with a little excitement. The room had lever switches, instead of tap switches, which she immediately flicked on when she entered. It was a surprise the lights even worked, the ceiling light seemed to be about a century old, with cobwebs around them. The light was dim, but it was enough for them to look around the room. "And here I was thinking we were in the wrong place considering this room," Lucien replied shortly after. "Hmm. I agree, Specimen Crimson Cytron was discovered way later than when this room was created. It was discovered around the 2050s. And this may have been created or at least last used around the 2010s to the 2030s." Ray replied.

Crystal shook her head, "This room is way too tidy to be used a hundred years ago, it seems to be used last at least ten years ago, perhaps less." Crystal said. Energy manipulators... Here... Why?

Right when she said that Hayden and Amadh entered the room, "What did we miss?" Amadh asked. "This room is cleaner than Lucien's," He commented with a laugh, much to Lucien's dismay.

Crystal ignored him and followed the traces of foreign energy until she came across a box. It was pearl white and had a button on the centre. It was too clean to be true. Hayden came next to her, while she bent to get a closer look at the box. Crystal felt around it and saw it had been embedded with a spell, but it soon broke when she touched the box. Was she meant to touch it? Or maybe this spell had already worn out? "Hey, those types of chests were last used around twenty years ago," Hayden said, now convinced with Crystal's visions, as he too bent to get a closer look. "It does seem so..." Crystal said.

The others rushed towards them, looking down at what Hayden and Crystal were examining. "That looks too new for this room," Lucien spoke and looked around. "Yeah..." Hayden replied and moved his arm towards the box. "I can't touch it," Hayden said and glanced at Crystal. "How?" He asked with a raised eyebrow when he saw that she was touching it. Crystal just shrugged and pressed the button.

The chest split from the middle, and then parted ways as the interior of the box lit up to reveal a gemstone in the middle written in cursive English, which Crystal couldn't read, and two jewellery-sized boxes on either side of it. "Garnet." Hayden read. Something about the name felt familiar, Crystal couldn't click on what it was.

"Is that what we're looking for?" Amadh asked. "The label doesn't say so that's for sure." He added. "It could be that this was another alias for Cytron, or that this is just another gemstone," Ray said. Hearing it from Ray made a lot more sense, Crystal looked closer at the boxes now. One was labelled as 'Lincoln Blaze', and the other as 'Calvin', the last name however wasn't visible. "Blaze..." She whispered.

"Hmm?" Hayden asked and looked at the boxes too. "Oh. This could just be it." Hayden said once he recognized the names of the two people. "Hey isn't that..." Amadh asked. "Yes, Lincoln Blaze, he was a Cyber wielder, not a natural wielder like us. The first to be infected by the Cyber Plague, or at least he was one of the causes of the Cyber Plague." Ray explained.

Crystal nodded, remembering what she has been taught about the Cyber Plague. And how big of a part it played in what they wanted to do. "I'm, however, not sure about this person" Ray added pointing to the box labelled as 'Calvin'. Viewing what he had said, Crystal took out the box labelled as 'Lincoln Blaze'. Hayden saw this and nodded; he opened his mouth to say something but was cut off when purple energy blasts shot across the room.

Crystal put the box back and turned to attack. However, there were only two Hydes, and Amadh had killed them immediately by zapping them rapidly giving them no chance to attack. "Now, where were we?" Amadh asked with a cocky smirk. Lucien shook his head with a smile and turned to Crystal. She, once again, picked up the box labelled as 'Lincoln Blaze' and opened it, a bright light shone to her eyes, and everything went blank. She could feel her consciousness drifting elsewhere, as some holes of the memories that were not her own started to fill up, and her memories drifted far, far away.