The Lighthouse

'—up! Wake up! Goddamn it, this bastard…' Magnus 2.0 cursed.

He had been trying to wake up his original for the past two minutes. As soon as Magnus had hit the surface of the lake, he straight up passed out. One of his Titles, [The Bringer of The Sea's Wrath], had a passive that enabled him to breathe underwater. Therefore, without even having to consciously make a bubble of air, his mana would automatically move to accommodate his breathing.

Problem was, there was nothing stopping his body from sinking to the bottom. The fact that he didn't have any trouble breathing also caused his body to perceive the situation as if he wasn't drowning or in any danger, thus refusing to give a signal that he needed to wake up. At any other time, this wouldn't have been much of a problem, since his toughened body was also able to withstand the pressure of the deep. It would've been fine for him to just wait at the bottom of the lake until he naturally woke up on his own.

However, now was not just any other time. There were people out there who needed him to gain consciousness soon and help them out. Magnus 2.0 kept glancing at the private message sent by Matt's mother.

[Mei Liu: "Help! We've been attacked!"]

[Mei Liu: "Magnus! We can't hold them for long!"]

In panic, Magnus 2.0 had hastily come up with a crude narration for the Script, trying to manipulate the water so that his original would remain afloat. Swimming from the bottom all the way to the surface would take time, after all. They needed to get to Mei's location as soon as possible.

ʳ Due to the strong familiarity his mana held toward the element of water, it moved on its own to help keep its owner stay on the surface. ʴ

By writing such narration, Magnus 2.0 was able to prevent his original from sinking. However, that was about as much as he could do. Before that, he had tried to force Magnus to wake up by literally writing it on the narration. However, the system gave a never-heard-before response to this.

[The host does not have sufficient Authority Points.]

At this message, Magnus 2.0 was flabbergasted. He was just trying to wake up his original. It was supposed to be a pretty simple narration. Why would it cost more than 800 AP? What was so special about Magnus waking up? When he asked the system this question, the only reply he got caused him to don a grave expression.

[By waking up the host's Protagonist, the host will alter a very significant natural course of Fate. This will result in an entirely new Reality. Therefore, the price for the manual narration is 1000 AP.]

Which meant it was a Key Moment. Key Moments were important instances where even the slightest alteration in the series of events would give birth to huge changes, shaping up a whole new path for the Protagonist. It was either this way, or that way. This way, as in the 'natural course of Fate', as the system put it. That way, as in Magnus would begin treading a path that was totally different than the one Fate had previously had in store for him.

Magnus 2.0 was able to imagine what sort of huge changes this current series of events would entail. And even though he had a likely guess, he still didn't want to accept it, due to its devastating nature. Moreover, if he failed to stop this 'natural course of Fate', the Key Moment would happen without his intervention. As a result, there were bound to be many changes that would affect his life and the future of everyone around him in an unfavorable way, as opposed to ones that would make their lives easier.

Magnus 2.0 was at the end of his wits. The sudden upward spike in AP cost was really frustrating. Even just narrating his original to remain on the surface of the lake costed him 700 AP. This meant he still had a chance, however small, to save Mei and the others.

Magnus 2.0 then decided to contact TJ.

'Dude! How are things on your side? Are you okay? Is everyone okay?' asked Magnus 2.0, barely suppressing his tone of urgency.

'Yeah, we're just about done over here.'

'Good. Now please get to Mrs. Liu quickly. They're in danger.'

He then proceeded to tell TJ about his current problem and sent him the address of Mei's location, copy-pasted from the woman's previous message.

'Contact me when you finally get there,' he said before hanging up. He needed to preserve his AP, after all. And phone calls cost 5 AP per minute. That said, if he was able to save Mei without relying on manual narration, he might be able to recover his total AP in the blink of an eye. Better yet, if TJ, as his Protagonist, was the one to do it, he might even gain a DP windfall. It would be an alteration of a Key Moment, after all.

Oh, but then again, Magnus was his own Protagonist, as well. So it would rain DP either way.

In any case, all Magnus 2.0 was able to do now was wait for his original to regain consciousness. He might also have to spend a bit more AP later after this sleeping beauty woke up to help him replenish his Mana.

'Agh! Not being able to do anything is making me want to scream. Right, you know what? That's exactly what I'm gonna do now. Perhaps that will jolt this idiot awake.'

And so, Magnus 2.0 proceeded to yell his figurative lungs out for the next few minutes.

---

TJ closed his Status Window, satisfied when he saw he had reached Level 4. If he had defeated the ammit all by himself, he would've gained a lot more XP, allowing him to perhaps shoot straight to Level 5. Or 6 if he had also been allowed to slay all the harpies without sharing the numbers with everyone else. Regardless, he was not disappointed with the current gain.

He glanced at the remains of the ammit. He was the one who had dealt the killing blow by basically spamming [Death Flame] on it. That also resulted on the skill leveling up once.

It was then that he received a call from Magnus 2.0. He then quickly understood the predicament his friend was in, so after the call ended, he immediately told everyone they should go to Mei's and the Wangs' location. TJ was never someone who liked to sugarcoat things, so he bluntly said the woman and her group were in danger, much to Matt's and Summer's distress.

"Wait, what happened to Magnus? He should be able to reach her faster than us. Is he still fighting that dragon?" Owen asked.

"No, dad. The dragon's dead. However, he's currently…kinda incapacitated."

"What? But he just called you!" Matt said in a panicked tone.

"He did, but…" TJ shook his head. "It's hard to explain." He then turned and started walking away, not bothering to explain further.

The others decided to drop the issue and soon followed after him. They had people they needed saving right now, after all.

---

The air smelled salty, so…oceany. It was neither cold nor hot, and the wind blew so gently, stroking Magnus' pale skin. Suddenly, the wind picked up, messing up his hair.

He opened his eyes and raised one hand to flick his bangs off his eyes, only to notice a slight incongruity. He stared down at his hands. They were tiny; a child's hands. Those very hands then gripped the metal railing in front of him. Due to his height, the railing stood as tall as his chest, when it should be as short as his waist if he had the body of an adult.

For some reason, Magnus was currently standing at the top of a lighthouse, looking like his eleven-year-old self. He didn't remember how he got here, or even what he was doing before that. He didn't remember anything. However, he could feel that by staying here, he was wasting precious time. Time he could've used to do something important.

Right, that was it. He knew he had something important to do. But what was it? His mind drew a blank.

He turned to the side and lifted one hand. He observed as the yellow light from the lighthouse constantly brushed against the back of his hand. In the lantern room, the lamp spun in circle, over and over, projecting a bright beam that penetrated the darkness for miles into the distance. Like a beacon in the middle of the eternal night that wrapped the ocean.

The lighthouse itself stood unyielding at the center of a small island. Ferocious waves kept relentlessly crashing against the rocky shores, producing a rhythm of loud cymbals that filled Magnus' ears.

He turned to lean against the railing. His eyes swept over the landscape of the stormy sea around the island. Well, sort of stormy. The waves were wild, but they weren't that brutal, yet. Plus, even though the wind was rough, there was no rain. Through the curtain of darkness, he spotted several ship navigation lights spread out all around the island. The bodies of the ships themselves weren't quite visible. The only sign they were there was the lights.

As minutes passed, the wind blew more violently. The waves were rocking the ships as if they wanted to flip them upside down and break them apart. The perilous sight before him disturbed his heart, somehow. He didn't know anyone on any of the ships. At least, not that he could remember. However, his heart ached every time they looked like they were about to be swallowed by the sea.

Until suddenly, he noticed one of the navigation lights flicker. He whipped his head in that direction at the same time as the lantern light shone upon what looked like a huge black tentacle coiling around a figure, which Magnus thought to be the ship's deck.

As the beam from the lantern light left the scene, Magnus could only hear loud cracks and booms that echoed against the crashing waves. A moment later, the navigation light vanished.

It was no more than four seconds later that Magnus witnessed the same sight of another ship that lost to the might of the tentacle monster. He began to wonder how such a monster appeared. Where from, and why. Until he looked up and saw the night sky filled with storm clouds. However, hiding behind these thick clouds, briefly revealed by occasional streaks of lightning, were many round-ish swirls that came in pairs. They looked like…giant eyes, all staring down at Magnus and his lighthouse.

They gave him chills. Perhaps, they were the culprits behind the emergence of the tentacle monster.

He realized then and there, that while this lighthouse acted as a beacon for the ships to help navigate their path, it was also a beacon for something else. Something…horrendous in nature. And the ships, they couldn't stand a chance against this frightening force.

Magnus turned around to face the lantern room. He couldn't help but think, was it a mistake to turn on the light? Should he have kept it unlit?