Chapter 22

Once Mike was healed he didn't take long to regain consciousness.

Unfortunately for him, Chewy was still holding him down. I personally couldn't blame the man for his girlish scream. I was sure I would be pretty terrified to wake up and find a monster sized labrador holding me down. Or maybe it was the dog's oversized teeth that caused him to panic. Whatever it was, within moments of waking up Mike gave a rather lady-like screech.

Chewy immediately backed away from the man, his mouth opening in what I approximated as a smile with his tongue hanging out.

Before Mike could calm down he was violently knocked back onto the floor as Rosa barreled into him. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly while crying.

Mike recovered quickly then hugged his wife while trying to sooth and calm her down.

"What happened?" Mike asked once Rosa's crying had died down enough that he could hear the others.

"You were changing into one of those twisted monsters." Micheal told him. No idea how or why, but you were. Daryl figured out a way to change you back."

Mike stared at Micheal for a long moment as he processed all of that.

"It's the anger." Delilah spoke up. "Powerful emotions are usually the trigger for the change in the unawakened. Here in this world it appears that anger is the trigger."

"So if I get angry again I will change into one of those monsters?" Mike asked, his face turning pale.

"No." Delilah replied. "The transformation is a form of awakening. "Even though you didn't become a twisted, you have still awakened and are no longer susceptible to the normal transformation trigger."

I frowned at Delilah, her wording made me wonder if there were abnormal transformation triggers.

Mike sighed in relief. Before he gently pushed Rosa away so he could get up off the floor then pull her up onto her feet. Once standing he faced me and held out his hand. "Thank you Daryl." he told me sincerely.

I took his hand and shook it. "It's fine Mike, I really didn't want to kill someone I knew." I replied.

Mike turned pale again but just nodded.

"Master?" Enya called out softly but I just shook my head. I wasn't ready to face the implications involved with how the twisted came to be. I did what I needed to do and that was all I was ready to think about.

"As an awakened you can obtain abilities." I told Mike then quickly walked him through the process of creating a random ability with the wisps he already had within his mana heart.

When Mike was concentrating on creating an ability I was finally able to witness the phenomenon the girls had teased me about. Mike's arms really did flail around as he interacted with his mana core and all that was within.

"This should take him a moment." I told the others then reached out and gently grabbed Rosa's arm. Feeling my touch on her arm Rosa turned from watching her husband to look at me in curiosity.

Without asking for permission I activated my mana sight and looked into Rosa. Like Mike and myself Rosa had a mana core just above her navel. Unlike me or Mike hers was white. I was confused for a moment as white wasn't a color that Enya had listed off, until I realized that it signaled that she hadn't awakened yet. With that in mind I pushed mana into her. The mana flowed up from my mana core into my arm, into Rosa's arm then down into her mana core. I watched carefully as white mana core began to glow brighter and brighter.

"What's happening?" Rosa asked worriedly.

"Helping you awaken." I replied.

"That isn't how you are supposed to do it!" Delilah complained.

"She's married." I replied as I rolled my eyes.

Delilah snorted. "That man owes you his life, a little kiss from his wife could barely be called a down payment on that kind of debt." the shadow fairy grumbled loudly enough to be heard by everyone.

I shook my head then stopped pushing mana into Rosa when her core was shining brightly enough that it was starting to hurt my eyes. I didn't remove my hand from her arm though as I watched warily. After a few moments Rosa groaned then her mana core changed colors from white to yellow. A moment later Rosa cried out in pain. As soon as she did I pulled at her mana core. As soon as I did mana rushed out of her as if a damn had been opened. I absorbed all the mana that flowed from her until it stopped then removed my hand from her arm.

"Any idea why it does that?" I asked Delilah.

"It is an artificial awakening master. A lot of energy is needed to trigger the formation of the mana heart, but a newly formed mana heart can't handle that amount of mana resulting in the overload of energy you witnessed with her and the other woman." I nodded to myself finally understanding what had happened.

"Thank you." Rosa said, giving me a smile.

I nodded to her then looked over at Mike who had finished what he was doing inside his own mana core. "With the both of you awakened you shouldn't have to worry about turning into a twisted. I wouldn't attempt to fight a twisted if you run into one, but you should be fine to go home and check on your son." I told Mike.

Mike nodded. "Thank you again Daryl." he told me then took Rosa's arm gently and led her out of the restaurant.

I watched them go then looked over at Micheal and Chewy.

"So what was that about?" Micheal asked. "Have a bit of a crush on Rosa?" he asked me teasingly.

I shook my head. "While I like Mike, he is far too jealous and quick to anger, I wanted to be sure Rosa could take care of herself in case anything happens." I replied seriously.

Micheal sighed then nodded. "Yeah, not a bad idea." he agreed.

"We need to go too. Check up on the girls and head somewhere safer." I told them to change the subject.

"Safer?" Micheal asked.

"If the twisted are originally people then we need to find a place outside of the city. With two waves in two days, I can only think that even more twisted will appear." I told them.

Micheal nodded then led the way out the door with Chewy following behind me.

"Are those energy waves the reason people are becoming twisted?" Micheal asked once we were outside. Mike and Rosa weren't in sight. The traffic on the road had picked up a bit, but it wasn't bad, and wouldn't stop us from crossing.

I stared at the cars that passed us for a moment finding it odd how much had happened in the apartment building and restaurant yet all those cars were driving by without knowing anything had happened. Despite the fact that a twisted corpse was still lying on the apartment lawn.

Delilah's reply brought me out of my silent contemplation. "Yes, and no." she finally replied. "To be honest I don't have a full understanding on how or why it happens, just that it does after a world's gates begin to open. There are many theories out there, but none have been proven completely true." she replied as we finally crossed the street and headed for the apartment building.

"Such as?" I asked curiously. "The most commonly accepted is that there is a spirit that inhabits the mana that enters the world, and it is that spirit within the mana that reacts to the strong emotions and causes the transformations." she replied. "As no one has been able to sense the spirit within the ambient mana or mana waves, it remains unproven."

I frowned, curious as to why they even believed in that idea if there was no proof but then I remembered something else I had wanted to ask her about. "Delilah is there any way to improve my mana capacity?" I asked her. "I don't like feeling as exhausted as I do after using my mana." I told her.

"You are talking about the exhaustion you felt after the fine mana control you used with Mike, or after pouring your mana into Rosa to awaken her?" Delilah asked.

I stopped in my tracks as I stared at Delilah in shock. I had just done both of those, back to back, and I still felt fine, no hints of the exhaustion I had felt after awakening the other woman or using the dark fireballs. How was that possible?

Delilah giggled as she watched my expressions change. "It isn't that you don't have enough mana capacity Master. With your core you have more than enough to use your mana for several hours straight without feeling the loss." she told me.

I frowned at her, was she implying that I had imagined the exhaustion?

"It's your body master. It isn't used to channeling mana. With the initial change from awakening and the improvement to your physique your body is adapting quickly, but it still needs that time to adapt to the amount of mana you have been using. The more you use your mana, the faster it will adapt. Given all the mana you have used today I am sure you have already come a long way in adapting, unless you really have to go all out, you shouldn't feel that kind of exhaustion again." she reassured me.

Micheal had stopped to listen and seemed ready to ask me something then thought better of it and continued on toward the apartment.

I followed after him while Chewy followed me. As we reached the door a new thought occurred to me, how was Chewy going to travel with us? With his size he wouldn't be able to fit into anyone's car. I shook my head. Micheal had probably already come up with a way to make it work already. He had brought Chewy with him.

We headed inside to see how everything was going. I was curious what the neighbors had decided, I also needed to get their names. I couldn't just keep thinking of them as the noisy neighbors.