The bringer of apathy

It's been a couple of weeks now since the contract has been in place. Good news is that Nina has gotten herself a boyfriend, though I'm still a bit cautious. The bad news is that someone has started to take other people's magic away for good. And this isn't the same thing that anti-magic religion does, it completely removes your mana and you can't get any of it back. Somehow your body becomes unable to absorb mana the same way they have always done. Lex has become very worried about this. He said this to me regarding this.

- Have you ever wondered about the connection between soul and magic?

- I have, but I never figured it out. Something I read about this was that soul gathers mana, but I'm not sure about that.

- That's partially true. Soul helps the body to be able to handle the mana inside of them. Soul makes a gateway between body and magic happen and with that, it's impossible to get rid of all of your mana if you don't trade your soul with the spell you are using. Soul always will contain a small portion of your mana. And what happens if you manage to take away all of the mana in the body?

- The soul doesn't work properly.

- Correct. To be more precise. the soul's connection with your body lessens if there is no mana inside neither soul and body. What this person does is that they sever the connection between soul and body and make the soul unable to gather mana inside the body. No living thing can withstand their body being completely out of mana. This leads the people who suffer from this condition wither slowly. As all the cases of this have happened, many end up killing themselves after losing their mana completely.

- How can someone make people kill themselves and continue to do so with an empty mind.

- They aren't empty. If this person is who I think it is, then they see themselves being in much higher status than others.

- What do you mean?

- Long time ago, there existed a man who was a genius when it came to magic. He thought that with magic, he can create a new race of beings that don't rely on magic. He saw that people without magic were the most pure ones that could live. So he researched a way to completely take out people's mana out of their bodies. Eventually he managed to figure something out that even I couldn't do. He managed to sever the connection between soul and body to the extent that no mana would gather on the body of a person, but so that the soul wasn't completely severed from the body. This man did many experiments with many people and he found that almost none of his subjects managed to live through the process. He perfected his craft and decided to do a mass experiment by gathering hundreds of orphans to his research facility and made all of them lose their mana completely. Only two of them managed to hang on to life and continued to live after the experiment. The people without mana were apathetic but held superior strength and intelligence. The two subjects ended up outliving that man so long that I considered that the experiment had improved their health on a long run. The two would end up building families where their children would have extremely low mana or no mana at all. I don't know what to make out of that experiment, but what I can make out is that the survival rate is extremely low. About as low as 0,003%.

- And you let that all happen?

- I was curious about the experiment as well. I never condoned it, but I was indeed interested in the results. I almost stopped him at one point, but decided against it.

- You aren't any better than him, you know.

- I do carry the burden of not doing anything about it.

- And you think that the same man is the one behind this all?

- I believe that someone who shares his memories like reincarnation or possession is a likely candidate. It is highly unlikely that someone has figured out a similar way of doing things. The messages seem to indicate that the person has similar motives as the man I knew in the past.

- Then what do we do about him?

- Of course we need to capture him as soon as possible before he figures out how to do it in a greater area than before.

- How do we go around this?

- We need to find people who he might want to turn manaless. He seems to favor turning people who misuse their magic into manaless people. It's similar to the anti-magic ideology, but more extreme. He might even be inside the religion himself. And though he favors turning bad people to manaless people, he has proven that he does it to other, more innocent people. Luckily the people who suffer from this have been taken to a place they can be looked after, so the mortality rate is a bit less than it was back then. I will get some information so I will inform you then.

- Okay. See you then.

Couple of days pass with nothing happening. Then one day, he told me to go to a certain warehouse in Atlas and keep watch there.

While I was there, I noticed illegal activity brewing in this particular warehouse. But since I was here for the man taking away magic and ruining their mind. These people seemed to be from the anti-magic religion, so I was even more curious now.

It took some time to wait around, but finally someone suspicious came. Well, more suspicious than the rest of the people there. He wore a cloak and some dark colored armor that also hid away his face. The moment the guards there opened their mouths, trying to tell him to go away, the man charged at them with amazing speed. I don't know which of us can move faster as of now, but I do admit that he could be faster than me. Once he got close to one of the guards, he pulled a magic gun, meaning a gun that doesn't use bullets but uses magic projectiles, put it against the guards head and pulled the trigger. The guard's head didn't pop out like I expected, but I could hear a spectral scream coming from the guard that was shot.

As soon as the guard gave that scream, the man then went as close to the other guard as he could and pulled the trigger. The same spectral scream ensued.

More men came out from the warehouse, after hearing those screams I'm sure. Then the suspicious man started getting close and personal with those men and fired his magic gun many times. What was interesting was that the shots fired against the suspicious man were just bouncing off like they were nothing.

I managed to get three things out of this encounter. One was that the magic gun was modified in a way that didn't kill the target's, but instead did something to them that was most likely what took away magic from the ones it hit. The second thing was that the gun seemed to have a short range or else the man didn't need to get so close to the ones he fired his gun against. The third one was that he was wearing armor that was immune to the bullets shot by those assault rifles. My pistol is most likely useless against this guy, but I also don't necessarily want to get close and personal with him or I risk the possibility of getting shot myself. I need to make up a strategy.

I make an anchor with the sword of time and jump in the action. The man has gotten inside of the warehouse at this point, so I pursue him there. Once I'm in, I notice many people just lying there unconscious. I keep my guard up and keep searching. Then I hear a spectral scream like before, so I go and investigate and see the man finish his purpose here.

I then use the sword of time and strike him in the past with so much force, I accidentally make a gust of wind that almost blows the ceiling off. But once I look at the man, I notice that I only managed to make a dent on his armor. I don't know what sort of armor it is, but it seems to be on a whole other level. I notice small sparks coming from the dent, so I surmise that it is somewhat mechanical. I then notice him coughing a bit, but I'm not sure if it was because of my attack or any other reason.

The man then charges at me with amazing speed, so I try to keep as much distance as possible. We jumped back and forth for quite some time with him trying to shoot me with his magic gun while I tried to strike him in the past with not much success. Not much success not because I didn't land a hit, but because it didn't seem to affect him that much. But then, I saw a small opening, so I concentrated my attack on the hand that was holding the gun. It landed and he lost the grip of his gun. I quickly retrieve it and put it in my subspace. He then thinks for a moment and then disappears like a smoke in the wind. And quite literally I might add. Must be because of some magic or another.

Now that our confrontation was over, I needed to call emergency services to take care of that man's victims. Once I'm done with confirming they will be taken care of, I return to Lex and give him the magic gun. Once I'm done handing it over, I describe the confrontation to him with as much detail as I could manage. He then comments.

- So while you managed to land a hit, it was blocked by the armor. And considering how strong you are, then… Yes, I'm sure it's some form of abyssal ore. And then he just disappeared like smoke… Hmmm… I heard of vampires doing something similar, but… could he be… but then why would he leave his victims just like that? Perhaps some new sort of transportation spell? Or could it even be the… I need to look into it a bit more. In the meantime you go spend some time with your family. I call you when I'm confident in my analysis.

- Okay. See you then.

I leave and go to my house. And wouldn't you know it, my daughter's boyfriend was visiting us and they seemed to be in a good mood. I just smiled and screamed internally because my Nina was about to be taken away from me. But stay cool Nor, your daughter has the right to choose who she trusts. In a matter of fact, it's good that she has gotten over her trauma to some degree. I don't know how well she will handle intercourse, but I just hope she doesn't hurt herself by going too fast. Now Nor, go and talk to the young couple like the father you are. No pressure.

And who might be the boyfriend that I'm so worried about? Well wouldn't you know it, it's our good old boy Henry. Yep, THE Henry Rondosfn. The boy who got Nina in that whole debacle. But somehow it happened. One day Nina just told me at the dinner table "So I'm now dating Henry now dad." I dropped my fork once I heard that. I still don't think it mentaly a good for her to date Henry. I'm not fully trusting Henry just yet, but even though they are dating, it seems that he still keeps his distance from Nina the best he can. They talk via phone and text nowadays. And when they are in the same room, they still keep their distance. As far as I understand, there hasn't been any form of touching between them. While I'm vigilant against Henry, I respect his approach with this. I hope I won't regret letting this relationship continue.

They are now watching a movie in Nina's room. I feel like they are trying to get Nina to feel more comfortable being close to Henry. Is this too fast? Should I barge in like I planned?

As I was thinking what to do, Rey came with some drinks and snacks for the two of them and told me.

- It is good to be a caring father, but I don't think interfering now is a good choice.

- Is… Is that so?

- So please move aside for now, master.

- O-okay

I move aside and let Rey in. I heard both of the kids say "Thanks" and then Rey left. Even with her eyes closed, I could feel the metaphorical stare she was giving me, so I left to watch the news on the tv.

After a while it got late and Henry was about to leave. I watched the two from a distance. I'm just worried about my daughter, that's it. They said their goodbyes to each other and promised to meet tomorrow. When Henry left, Nina started talking to me like she knew I was watching.

- How long are you going to keep an eye on me? He has left now hasn't he?

- I'm just looking out for you. That's all.

- I know you are worried, but trust me when I say this, I'm fine. If it would hurt really bad to be with him, I wouldn't be with him. We both share a trauma from that incídent, so we can empathize with each other to some extent. I think I love him, so please understand.

- I… I am letting you do as you wish, but you can't stop the worry a father feels for his child.

- Whatever. I'm going to eat an evening snack and go to bed after. What are you going to do?

- I will watch some more tv and then go to bed.

- Don't forget to eat.

- Of course.

- I never know with you. Mary keeps asking how have you eaten lately. I just answer that I don't know since you haven't been home much these days.

- Well I do come home, just…

- Late at night.

- Yes.

- You should learn to let go of yourself a little. Even I can do that better than you. At least better than you do now.

- I get it.

- Do you? Anyways, I'm going now. Goodnight.

And so the night ended. Me getting lectured by my daughter. I think I ought to take some time off once that man has been dealt with.

Couple of days later, Lex was calling for me to come to his house. I went and this was the conversation.

- What is it?

- You sure this magic firearm came from that man?

- I took it from him. Why do you ask?

- I can barely see any modifications on it. Those that I can see mostly just amplify its range and effectiveness.

- I don't know what else to tell you. Perhaps he just uses the gun for amplifying his spell or something.

- That's what I have concluded as well. There were some minor enchantments that seemed incomplete, so they might be part of a spell. It's like the user only has that secret access to that portion since they know the rest of the enchantment.

- Can you decipher it?

- Who do you think I am? I can complete it like it was me who made it.

- But didn't you say that you barely found any modifications?

- I did.

- Aren't you contradicting yourself?

- No. The modification would be that there was something in it that would modify its use to some degree. The enchantment is like a paint job that was put in this firearm.

- What do you want to do now?

- I'm sure the man behind this can make something like this in a matter of days, so the next attack should happen very soon.

- And what do you want me to do about it? I can barely put a scratch on him.

- That's why I asked Aktor to come here, though he is awfully late.

- What for?

- I'm making him do his magic on your weaponry.

- So upgrades basically.

- That is what I asked, yes.

Shortly after, we hear a familiar voice coming from the door. After the door opens, we see Aktor. He and Lex started talking.

- Took your sweet time coming here. Don't you know that time is of the essence?

- I know, I just had my own matters to take care of first. So you want me to upgrade Nor's weapons, right?

- Yes, I already discussed this with you.

- And I told you that there is so much I can upgrade. A tool is only as good as its user.

- Just do your thing and be done with it.

- *Sigh* Fine. Nor, hand them over.

I hand him the sword of time and my pistol. He then said to hand him the ammo too, so I did so.

- It's been a long time since I saw this sword. As expected, it hasn't dulled at all, but then again, it wasn't meant to be used as a weapon.

- It wasn't? I've been using it like it was for the past 60 years. Or was it 70? … 80?

- While it is made of good quality materials, it is as sharp as any iron sword with no enchantments.

- So I have been using basically a fancy iron sword for who knows how long.

- Don't be rude, or the sword might get offended.

- The sword gets offended?

- It has… a sort of spirit in it. If it didn't favor you, it wouldn't allow you to use its time abilities.

- And you didn't care to mention this to me at all?

- I simply forgot to mention it. But I must say, it seems much more fond of you than its previous owner.

- You mean Fafnir?

- Fafnir was a holder of this sword, but he was never a user. Its previous owner was defeated by Fafnir. Jorim Akton If I can read this correctly. And it's done. Enjoy your newly sharpened sword of time.

I give it a few swings.

- It feels a lot easier to use, though I have gotten used to it by now.

- And now to your pistol.

- What can you do to it?

- I can make it a lot harder for it to jam or malfunction. Also I can make it lighter and enhance the bullet's speed by some degree. Now it's done. And now for the bullets.

- What are you going to do to them?

- I heard that you will be against armor that was made from abyssal ore. I can add some extra penetration to them and some durability. It would be useless if it burned out just from the impact.

- You certainly have kept a few secrets to weaponry all this time.

It's less of a secret and a matter of understanding and ability. I know the very limits of each and every material in this world and then some more. And that should do it. Now I will take my leave.

- Are you leaving already?

- I'm quite busy with my own things. That and I need to be home at the correct time or I hear hell from it. See ya.

And then Aktor leaves and it's now just me and Lex. I ask Lex.

- Why didn't you talk to him at all?

- One, you were mostly talking to him. Two, I didn't have anything to say to him.

- If you say so. Now have you found a place that could be attacked by that man?

- I have some guesses, so just go to each location and see if you see anything suspicious. But before you go, take this.

- What is it?

- It's a device that will make any transfer technique useless. Well, at least in theory.

- How does it work?

- Hard to explain. In short, it messes with the spacial awareness of the person. That and some other fine details of transfer techniques. Just activate it and throw it to his body and it should stick to him and make him unable to escape. Just make sure he can't escape by foot.

- So cut off his legs. Got it.

- You and your brute ways. Well, as long as it works.

- Okay then. Bye.

I leave to the location that Lex thought was most likely to be attacked. I spent a whole day there with nothing happening, so I went to the next location. It seemed that the attack happened here rather than where I was. So I asked Lex for some advice and he said to head to another location. I did so and spent some time keeping watch in a city called Lau in Tian.

Late at night I saw the man approaching the location. Before he could do anything this time, I took a shot at him and it pierced his torso. I aimed at a non vital part of the body, so it shouldn't kill him. Then I jumped in and slashed his right arm off that was holding his gun. Before he could flee, I threw the device Lex gave me and it managed to attach to him. Then he tried to disappear like last time, but once he noticed it wasn't working. He started to run away and tried to take the device off with little success. I then used my sword to cut off his leg and he fell to the ground. As he couldn't move much any more, I called the local police to arrest him. With the little authority that I have, it made it easier to get the arrest done.

And so I managed to capture the man that was causing so much trouble. There was debate about reattaching his limbs and in the end it was decided that he can have them back. The name of that man was, at least in this life, Lucius Grant. An elf who seemed to hold the memories of the man Lex told me about. He was quite open about why he did it when he was captured. I interrogated him a bit and this is the result.

- Why do you sever the connection between body and soul?

- To make the body manaless of course.

- Why do you want to do that?

- To create higher beings. A race that surpasses the current races by being more attuned to reality.

- Why do you think that they are more attuned to reality when they can't feel or use mana?

- You wouldn't understand.

- Try me.

- Well… Mana and magic are only one side of the coin. People who feel and use magic are spinning the coin countless times in their lives. Only when you aren't connected to magic can you stay on one side of the coin. The material side.

- And you think it's worth killing all these people?

- If they aren't capable of handling the gift I give them, the opportunity that I present them, then they aren't worthy of being higher beings.

- Why must you force your ideals on others? Couldn't you just have made it peacefully and given people the chance to choose?

- The living people today have gotten accustomed to magic. No one can truly make that choice by themselves if it risks them dying.

- What about the anti-magic religion?

- They are but simple fools who claim to have the true path. But only I hold the correct path to enlightenment. They let their connection to magic stay and taint the body. They let that side of the coin continue to spin on the side of magic. I have done their people a favor by letting them experience the true absence of magic.

- Do you have any idea how many lives you have ruined?! How many families have you shattered?!

- That is the price to pay. They had the opportunity to be better, yet they failed.

- I'm done talking. Shane Decon has a couple of words to say to you.

- Of course he does. Maybe I can convince him of the brilliance of my work.

I leave the room and Shane goes in there after me. I calmly listened from another room, but not much of importance was said. Mainly Shane being unusually angry towards someone else and Lucius trying to convince Shane that Lucius's way was the right way. I could swear I felt Shane would hit him at any moment, but he seemed to manage to hold himself back.

Later judgment was given to Lucius. He is to live 346 years in high security prison for all the crimes he had committed. Personally I think he got off easy, but I don't have a hand to play here. I don't spare any sympathy towards Lucius. He might as well die in there for all I care.

This also was a great opportunity for anti-magic religion to rethink their future. They are even developing new laws just from this incident alone.

I decided to take a break. But when I think about it, I didn't get paid anything from this job. I'm going to ask Lex if I get anything or am I hung dry. Does Nina get paid more than I do at this point? Thankfully I have some lux to spare so I'm not going to lose my house any time soon. I kind of get it now why Aktor really doesn't own much stuff. It is bothersome to keep it with you in our line of work.

Speaking of Aktor, I'm going to ask him about what he's been doing lately. He didn't tell me much last time, but maybe I can convince him to spill some beans.

I go where I thought I might find Aktor, but he seems *Ahem* busy with Eilish at the moment, so I will spend some time in Gamide.

Now that I look closer, I see plenty of other races other than demons in here. Back when I visited here in the past, not last time but way back, there were mostly demons around. I guess times change and cultures collide.

After some time had passed, I went back to Eilish's house. Thankfully they were done by now and I got Aktor to come chat with me. I started with.

- Glad to know you get along nowadays.

- So you heard.

- What I don't understand is that it's the middle of the day.

- Since most of our kids aren't here at this time, Eilish thought that this was a good opportunity to fool around.

- And you just went along with it?

- I resisted at first, but she has a way with words that I can't compete in.

- At least you are tied to one place at least.

- For now.

- For now?

- I'm planning on continuing to experiment with some things.

- Experiments huh. What does Eilish think about it?

- I haven't told her yet. I think she will demand me to come home often, but once I get in the mood, my sense of time just disappears.

- You're going to have a lecture waiting for you then, I assume.

- Yes… Lecture… So what did you come here for?

- Just came to chat. I'm on break now.

- So you are.

- Care to tell me more about your experiments?

- So that's what you are here for.

- That's only just a bonus I'm looking for. Coming to chat with you was the first priority.

- If you say so. But no, I won't share anything with you.

- Why not?

- It's… personal business.

- Personal business with the likes of you is somewhere between you having an argument with someone to the world is going to get destroyed if you don't do something.

- I guess it is kind of like that.

- So you aren't going to tell me?

- Well… I'm planning on making a new race in Inanis.

- An alien race. Sounds exiting.

- It is.

I saw Aktor smiling.

- But why not just do it here?

- I'm planning on making them… a bit more different than the rest of this planet.

- How so?

- I try to make them withstand the power of origin. At least more than any other race does.

- That sounds like a tall order.

- It is.

- But why are you doing that?

- Well firstly, it's fun for me to create life. Secondly, it's for… well… when the end of the world arrives.

- End of the world?

- Yes. Well, when I say end of the world, I mean the end of Norbul and the abyss. After the world ends, only origin will exist. Do you know how the dome around Norbul stays in place?

- Something about the energy of the origin.

- Yes, both the edge of Norbul and the sun let the power of origin go through. When the two meet, they will push each other to keep the dome as it is.

- Why is this important?

- Well, the most likely end to this world comes when the sun can't function properly any more. So when the sun stops spewing the energy from the origin, the dome will shrink and eventually collapse.

- But wouldn't the energy of the edge keep the dome steady without the sun?

- No. The way you understand it is that you blow the air to a balloon and that expands it. Your blowing is the energy of origin and the rubber is the edge of the dome of Norbul. But if something came succing air from the inside of the balloon, the balloon would shrink on itself. If the sun disappears, then it will create a suction phenomenon that would collapse the dome of Norbul. And when it would do so, then everything inside the dome would come out and be exposed to the power of origin.

- So basically, as long as there isn't any suction in the middle, Norbul will stay as it is.

- Correct.

- Now that I think about it, wouldn't Low survive the collapse?

- Her body would but I don't know about her mind. And if it did survive, then what would she do then?

- What did you imagine those other creatures to handle it?

- They would be able to live in origin like in here. Perhaps they'd even be able to witness the new birth of the next kalpa.

- Kalpa? What is that?

- It's simply a fresh start for the world.

- I see. I'm surprised that Lex wasn't the one that told me this.

- It's more on his field of expertise in terms of energy. But it is my expertise in terms of the dome and the sun. Though the sun was created by me and destruction.

- Speaking of, do you know what Relse is up to?

- No clue. Last I heard, he was having some scuffle with Sa'at. Something about his child on Ikujää or something.

- A child of demonprince. I guess I have something to look into later. But now I'm on break so I don't plan on doing anything. Yet.

- And I'm going to go do experiments. Some time soon.

- Good luck with Eilish.

- Thanks. I guess I'll need it.

Then we heard Eilish talking to us. Well, more to Aktor than me.

- Well well, an interesting conversation you are having. Care for me to join in?

- E-Eilish? You were listening?

- Well, I've been in this house the whole time and I've got nothing better to do. So care to tell me more about your experiments.

- That's…

- Titus.

- Yes?

- I think we two need some alone time.

- I… escort Nor out right now.

And so I was kicked out of their house. I pray for that man.

I went back to my house and I saw that Nina wasn't there. Perhaps she was still working. I look at my phone and see that she will come late this time. I decided to watch some news in the meantime.

I see that there are reports of anti-magic religion extending their peaceful time to ten years instead of six. This was due to the damage caused by Lucius. I personally don't get the reasoning, but I take it nonetheless.

There was also news of a powerful demon in the Ikujää. It is said that he is even a match for the current northpoint. Maybe even better. It appears that he could absorb all the heat in a 1,8 kilometer radius. His physical power is also quite commendable according to reports. No one knows who this person is, where he comes from or what his intentions are. My guess is that it's the child of Sa'at that was put in Ikujää. I need to investigate this matter myself later.

And around the time when midnight came, I heard a car coming to drop Nina home. I greeted her together with Rey but she didn't seem to be in the mood for small talk. She seemed quite tired from the work, so Rey helped her get to bed as soon as possible. I hope nothing serious has happened to make Nina work so hard. I will ask her tomorrow since we're both free then. I go say goodnight to her and then go to bed myself.