《A god’s crime against humanity》 The Crime ¡±Get up you¡¯re going to be late for school!¡± yelled a young girl with dark brown hair and hazel eyes at her older brother. The older brother simply looked at her with glazed eyes before turning the other way with a snore. The girl looked around the dark blue room with a snort; the room was trashed with crumpled up paper, withered books, and coffee stains everywhere, not just on the rickety desk. Once again she attempts to shake her brother awake, ¡°Danny! I know you stayed up late quite often for the past few weeks but you¡¯re going to miss the bus!¡± With a groan Daniel finally replied, ¡°I know... I¡¯ll get up as soon as you leave Alisha.¡± Alisha refused, ¡°This is the third time you¡¯ve tried that kind of response! That¡¯s it! I am going to pull you out of bed!¡± With a thump and a gasp, Daniel was sprawled out on the floor with his ankle held in the air by Alisha. ¡°NOW GET UP!¡± ¡±I think she¡¯s getting steadily more violent every year,¡± Daniel complained to an empty room. He trudged over to his closet and pulled out a black hoodie and jeans he had prepared yesterday, well at least before he fell asleep. Daniel supposed Alisha was right, but she still woke him up awfully early. He grumbled looking at the clock that said 7:30. He stumbled towards the restroom after setting down his clothes. Luckily Alisha wasn¡¯t feeling particularly cruel so she hadn¡¯t barricaded the restroom. After taking a quick shower and putting his hoodie on, Daniel found himself in the kitchen when he finally woke up completely. His mom disturbed, ¡°Are you sure you should be wearing those kinds of clothes? Ben say something!¡± ¡°I am sure he knows what he is doing, Marcia. He can learn from the consequences if anything,¡± his father answered dispassionately. Daniel grumbled, ¡°Whatever.¡± His mom felt that his wardrobe choice would draw the wrong kind of crowd to him, but he was a loner anyways. Daniel found grouping as pretty meaningless, especially in high school, and he aimed for comfort especially on a rest day. He knew he had been studying for today a little excessively, but before the winter break at the end of the first semester, his history teacher had threatened the whole class with a test on the first day of the second semester that would include parts from several old treatises after his temper boiled over at how inattentive his students were getting and rattled off a dozen titles. Daniel growled, ¡°My results should keep that bag of bones off my back!¡± As he walked over to the bus stop, he let out his frustrations into the air. His neighborhood possessed the same placelessness as any other with quaint houses. ¡°Hey buddy what are you grumbling about?¡± Daniel felt a hand placed on his shoulder. He turned, ¡°I was grumbling about my history teacher who I swear has one foot in the grave from actually seeing the history he talks about but maybe I should complain about how you constantly use me as a practice target for sneaking up on, Alex.¡± The source of his current annoyance was a lanky raven haired girl with dark blue eyes. ¡°Come on you¡¯ve been learning to sharpen your senses thanks to me!¡± ¡°That¡¯s because you would prank me all the time!¡±Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°Wait the birds stopped chirping,¡± uttered Alex apprehensively. Daniel noticed the air was filled with a strange oppressing silence, like the whole world was holding its breath. He wondered at the suffocating feeling. The air carried an almost tangible tension. The pause was broken by a thundering shout that ringed in their heads, ¡°Humans! I, a god, have decided to bless you with chaos! You will have a new world to conquer instead of the current tamed and almost broken world you possess. You haven¡¯t even colonized your solar system so I grace you with a wonderful reset and a chance to seize powers beyond your wildest dreams! I shall overturn your bleak existences! No need to thank me shitty mortals!¡± ¡±What the hell was that!?¡± asked a bewildered Daniel. Alex replied ¡°Don¡¯t ask me!¡± Without even time to take a breath, a roar shook the ground. ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound like any animal!¡± yelled Alex. ¡°Stay back and I¡¯ll go check it out.¡± Daniel watched Alex¡¯s back as she creeped around the corner numbly. A couple seconds hadn¡¯t even passe before Alex came rushing back around the corner. ¡°We have to go warn our families. I saw a giant lizard fighting another similarly huge snake!¡± Still dazed, Daniel scoffed in disbelief; before Alex could plead for him to believe, the fight she claimed she saw came crashing through the fence just a few feet in front of them. The pain from a shard of something scratching his face woke Daniel up, ¡°Sorry, let¡¯s go!¡± The two friends sprinted towards their respective homes. Slamming the door open Daniel yelled, ¡°there are monsters outside!¡± ¡°We all heard the voice son, so that isn¡¯t actually unbelievable strangely. But first let me try something.¡± After ushering his family outside Daniel¡¯s father came outside with a hunting rifle. Daniel started, ¡°You heard what the voice said, conventional weapons might not work anymore.¡± His father replied, ¡°Fine, I guess that¡¯s true.¡± Alex¡¯s family came out around the back in a van, ¡°You guys should fill your car up with food and water also.¡± Daniel asked knowingly dreading the answer, ¡°where are we going?¡± ¡°The city bunker.¡± A bunker was built for every city in America with the international tension rising so high between NATO and Russia. Now they seem to be useful for this crisis. Just when they thought nothing could get worse both cars died. Rather, everything stopped working; phones wouldn¡¯t turn on also. Daniel exclaimed jokingly, ¡°come on! This means I can¡¯t read my e-books anymore!¡± Abruptly the situation got even worse. Daniel wondered, why he feelt a hair-rising fear? He got his answer when Alex howled, ¡°the snake won its fight and heading towards us!¡± Luckily the snake was heavily wounded from the razor sharp claws that were still glinting off light, but slowly and surely the menace was slithering towards them. Daniel¡¯s dad took a shot at it only for the resulting gaping hole to be proven infeffective to stop the snake¡¯s advance. Daniel thought he could see the snake healing visibly. Aex¡¯s father called over, ¡°Ben, my old friend, I guess this might be our last hurrah!¡± Daniel¡¯s father grunted, ¡°Don¡¯t kill us off so quickly Sam, but you might be right.¡± Alex and Daniel simultaneously objected, ¡°We can all think of something!¡± And Alisha latched onto her father¡¯s arm. ¡°ETA for other hostiles is 1 minute. I was looking through security cameras I hacked into but it looks like the monsters pursue every human they see relentlessly. Every single one of them were set on courses towards the nearest human except the Feng family. You will have to hide in the basement like they did while we draw that snake away.¡± Ben fixed a resolute gaze on his daughter, ¡°Alisha can you please let go?¡± Daniel thought furiously for any other way to get through this mess, except there was no realistic precedent for this. With an acute sense of defeat, he reluctantly followed the others into the basement. 1 - Meditation Alex POV Alex woke up with a start. The ceiling was rough cement instead of the usual white plaster of her room startling her but she quickly recalled yesterday¡¯s events. She supposed she should be grief stricken but she felt a confusing swirl inside and wandered into the ¡®kitchen¡¯ for a bite. Her friend Daniel saw her awake and slipped her a piece of paper. Alex gave the scrap of paper a glance and caught that Daniel wanted to talk but without waking up the others. She gave her trademark shrug of confusion to retain a sense of normality. Daniel wrote to her predictably that he just didn¡¯t want to wake the others. What do you want to talk about? Daniel wrote with a pen he kept on him. Just about this year, because I think that would help me relax so I can actually sleep. For starters do you remember Mr. G¡¯s outfit on the first day of school? He was such a Napoleon fan!... Alex simply went through the motions in this talk talking without actually talking. Well writing if she wanted to nit pick. When Daniel asked if their father¡¯s would be okay Alex feigned getting upset. She got up as soon as she heard her friend snoring only to see Daniel pointing at a piece of paper. How long have we known each other? Sitting herself in a lotus position, Alex thought back to the day she learned meditation and the day she met Daniel. The weather was pleasant a big contrast to Alex¡¯s household. Her mother was yelling at his father about how abnormal she was in showing almost such anger. Alex was 8 at the time and her health quite robust other than the fact her face was set in ugly anger after she got in a fight at the playground. The school called home and after half an hour the couple agreed to take Alex somewhere. The drive was a short 5 minutes and they rushed Alex into the courtyard of an old structure. By then Alex realized something was wrong and he looked apprehensively towards the strange man in orange clothing. After a few exchanges, Alex¡¯s parents left abruptly. Seeing Alex¡¯s look the man warmly told him, ¡°don¡¯t worry you have nothing to worry young child. I have seen similar cases to yours in the texts and found meditation to be the most effective in finding yourself.¡± Young Alex asked, ¡°what¡¯s meditation?¡± The man simply smiled and fell into a strange position that Alex would later learn as the lotus position. He followed suit and had no troubles in copying thanks to his young body. The strange man gentry spoke, ¡°Let your eyes fall out of focus, looking at the space in front of you, and simply breath at first and then start counting your breaths when you are ready.¡± Alex did as he asked and reached number 100 before the the man asked her, ¡°now how do you feel?¡± If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Alex¡¯s hearing felt strangely amplified but otherwise felt no different. Before Alex could reply that she felt nothing, she saw the monk¡¯s face. To any other the emotion display would be worry but to Alex this was a warning sign. Her parents carried the same expression before they rushed him to this strange environment. Instead he asked, ¡°what do you mean?¡± The monk replied, ¡°As per teachings, you should feel a warm emotion that comes from the Buddha¡¯s presence.¡± Alex replied, ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± An hour later the parents came back and with the newly acquired awareness Alex heard his father say, ¡°So?¡± ¡°The girl has remarkable concentration, but it may take a while for her happiness to actually show. Let me recommend specialists.¡± Their were the suburbs. At this point Alex felt relief when mom told her to run along and go play with the other children. Alex introduced herself to a boy with brown hair and hazel eyes, ¡±hello my name is Alex. What¡¯s your name?¡± He simply answered, ¡°Daniel.¡± Having done this before, she replied, ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you. Let¡¯s go do something!¡± Daniel scoffed, ¡°You¡¯re lying.¡± Alex was caught off guard at the unusual response, ¡°what makes you say that?¡± ¡±Do I need to spell it out? I am saying you¡¯re full of shit.¡± Now Alex didn¡¯t understand what exactly Daniel meant but understood she should be angry. Daniel took a step back at the sudden fire in her eyes, ¡°my bad that was uncalled for, but I have always wanted to try saying that. That is actually true for everyone, it¡¯s just that it was so much more obvious with you. Let me show you something.¡± In the present, Alex considered how she quite possibly could have been abandoned as ¡°demon possessed¡± by her superstitious mom resulting in a divorce. Daniel had helped her come up with a script for acting like a normal child, but it was a pain cutting onions to make herself cry.Her dad introduced her to martial arts for her to get her temper under control afterwards. Her current reason for meditation was understanding her emotional confusion. Alex encountered a black diamond like object in her mental space but that didn¡¯t matter because she needed to regain emotional stability. She first thought grief; afterall, she lost her father, but that wasn¡¯t the main emotion. Fury? No, surprisingly. She discovered fear as the main emotion to her dismay, Alex thought that wouldn¡¯t do and grabbed hold of the ember of anger and fed on the fire while it fed on her fear. Usually she had to fight against this but the fear of such powerful entity like the voice must have built up after she felt spent of her anger. The flame found itself centered around the black crystal strangely. ¡±Alex you are glowing blacklight.¡±Daniel spoke with fascination. ¡±I COME BACK TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED BUT ALL YOU SHITTY MORTALS MANAGE TO DO IS HIDE? WELL I GUESS THAT COMES FROM RELYING SO MUCH ON YOUR TECHNOLOGY SO MUCH! WELL REJOICE, I GIFT YOU WITH WISDOM OF WORLDS LIKE YOURS CURRENTLY!¡± 5 cubes fell to the floor, materializing in thin air one by one. 2 - A chance? Daniel POV ¡°Is it safe to touch those chests?¡± Daniel wondered out loud. A nigh-on-all-powerful being wrecked their world but offered knowledgeable out of the blue. Who knew whether this held another sadistic ¡°surprise gift.¡± Alex simply walked to one of the cubes with a sledge hammer she found. Before anyone could say anything she swung down at the chest with impressive strength, a courtesy of her martial arts training Daniel thought seeing the cube shatter like the obsidian it appeared to be made up of. Alisha tried poking one of the fragments only for the remains of the chest to begin morphing, and with a yelp, she ran back behind Daniel. He almost scoffed at his sister but decided he might have done the same. Daniel looked around frantically for any kind of weapon assuming the only kind of outcome would be violence. He groaned at how reckless Alex acted, but he knew that would be her reaction. She seemed to be radiating fury after all. Before Daniel could ask Alex act more cautiously, she charged forward with another vicious swing. She ended up hitting a large book. ¡±Well that¡¯s unexpected.¡± Alisha exclaimed. David nodded in agreement with everyone else. He felt almost certain that a monster would morph and jump at them with all intentions to rip them into shredds for chow. Alex handed him the book before sitting herself back down into meditation. Daniel snorted, ¡°All this for me?¡± He carefully turned the blank cover only to see lines of gibberish. Well looking closely, ¡°the gibberish¡± looked like a dialect of persian. Daniel groaned, ¡°this is going to take a while.¡± After 2 days he finally managed to create a working alphabet. Dragging Alisha into the decoding made the process of finding consistencies with Persian much faster. Some leaps of logic were required but now on the third day he could finally read the damn book. They were so lucky the basement was flush with food, courtesy of Sam¡¯s apocalypse obsession. He called out, ¡°I¡¯m done.¡± They couldn¡¯t shake their mothers out of grief; but, seeing Alisha get Alex at full attention, Daniel began. First of all you guys are fools for interrupting the morphing process. Where were you raised? In the wild? Anyways, do you wish to burn? this book or read? Daniel yelled, ¡°read¡± and fixed Alex with a withering gaze. It was strange that such an advanced piece of technology would offer the choice to burn something so valuable but he decided he would get back to that mystery later. Might be a translation issue but he didn¡¯t care at this point, his patience turned into vapor the day before. Scientists/scholars/wisemen first started researching Power? in observing a performance? between a captured a monster/aberrant and a criminal. The criminal swiftly lost with a slash that split him in two. Everything? else had no abnormal changes but the thermal data showed an extreme flash of heat that outlined the slash preemptively. After 10 more performances/ executions/ experiments. The scientists have found a consistency between every kind of attack committed by a monster to be heralded first by a burst of heat in various strange shapes. Some criminals died immediately but others who had survived an attack have experienced their internal organs rearranging to create a hollow case much like the storage probably vacuole of plant cells but on a much larger scale? The new storage organ was attached to the end of the small intestine before the large intestine began.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. The first criminal successful in surviving the ordeal displayed the massive strength without an increase in muscle mass that should have corresponded. He made the to need to ¡°psyche¡± himself up to achieve his feats using words he associated with strength. None of the monitors could see outside stimuli leading to the conclusion that whatever phenomenon was happening happened internally. Not even a full day passed after beginning intensive internal monitoring before a clump of carbon was confirmed to be the contents of the new storage organ and the test subject¡¯s feces were confirmed to be devoid of carbon. The clump grew in size before stabilizing when filling up the storage. The carbon appeared to be combusted and expelled as carbon dioxide but there was no explanation for where all the energy was going; there were no obvious energy signatures. On a whim one of the scientists made an energy monitor registering all energies as different colors after nothing seemed to work and upon activation the display showed a chaotic symphony of colors cocooning the test subject. In reminiscence of the principle of uncertainty the colors were constantly changing. The monitor showed how this energy was momentarily mostly converted to kinetic energy supporting the test subject¡¯s muscles. This book includes all other similar test subjects in detail... Daniel crowed with excitement, ¡°We aren¡¯t completely screwed!¡± The whole time his tone and volume increased with anticipation but the final sentence he read was confirmation for him. Alex announced, ¡°then what was the source of my earlier strength? Pretty sure it came from that weird black crystal in my mind.¡± Startled, Daniel ask, ¡°when did you ever get attacked by a monster?!¡± ¡±Remember when I went around the corner? The lizard tore a chunk out of the snake¡¯s hide, flinging a bit into my face. Some of it slipped into my mouth and cut the inside of my mouth.¡± ¡±Then wouldn¡¯t you have felt pain?¡± ¡±Oh I thought I was just cramping from practice the night before, so I pushed through. It stopped when I woke up so I forgot about it.¡± Daniel was at a loss with Alex. He knew she was abnormally strong but this was at another level. Looking at the other chests Daniel said, ¡°we don¡¯t know what those other chests will do so let¡¯s try hitting them at a later date when we are in a safer situation.¡± Alex chimed, ¡°fine by me.¡± Daniel was about to call it a night except he felt strangely hot and also like he was cramping. His last thought was how it would suck to die from basically a monster part cutting his face a little. 3 - Realization Alex POV ¡°We aren¡¯t totally screwed!¡± Daniel yelled enthusiastically. Alex herself almost despaired at the overwhelming odds, so this situation must have been worse for Daniel who relied on his knowledge. Alex had to suppress a yawn though. Even if Daniel finished his decoding within three days, the day neared its end. Daniel thankfully suggested to call it a night, so even he got caught up to by exhaustion despite what seemed like boundless excitement. Alex settled down for more meditation only to see Daniel collapse. One second he embodied health the next¡­ Alex didn¡¯t want to entertain the thought. For now she needed to do what she could for her best friend. ¡°Alisha what do you think happened? The only damage he took was a cut on cheek which we addressed, so¡­¡± ¡°Yes, I skimmed through the experiments but his condition displays the same symptoms. Irregular breathing, contracting muscles that you would call cramping, and his veins are faintly glowing. The problem is that I think we need a defibrillator; the writer mentioned the need to restart the heart of some of the subjects except we don¡¯t have any. We have 3 days to catch a charge from lightning.¡± Alex felt impressed by Alisha¡¯s calm attitude and ability. What was she? An eighth grader? She didn¡¯t look it, calmly gathering wires, rods, and two metal plates after grabbing the inert defibrillator. Alisha roared, ¡°don¡¯t just stand there! Help me get these outside!¡± Alisha¡¯s call for help shook Alex out of her reverie. She still had to check outside before they made any rash decisions, so she had Alisha wait while she peeked outside. Her house had stayed intact fortunately; as she looked around, there were no signs of any recent activity. Her dad and Ben, Daniel¡¯s dad, must have succeeded in drawing away all the monsters. She called down that the cost was clear and helped carry the odds and ends up the stairs. The neighborhood looked strangely fine but with no activity, giving off an eerie ghost town feeling. The wind chimes that some of the Neighbors owned didn¡¯t help. Alex broke the silence, ¡°We have to find the tallest point around, right?¡± Alisha nodded mutely possibly scared of drawing monsters, but she suggested, ¡°we should go to Mr. Bricken¡¯s house.¡± They walked in silence with the occasional blood splatter making them wince. After 15 minutes of nerve wracking walking they stood in front of what could be considered a mansion. Alex whistled, ¡°I never understood Bricken¡¯s obsession with making his house larger. I heard from your brother that Brickens simply wanted to show off his wealth, but seemed pointless.¡± Alisha grunted, ¡°Well his ¡®pointless¡¯ archaic displayment of wealth helps us a lot.¡± They entered without the usual ceremony required by Mr. Bickens. Alex thought that was one of the main reasons he had no friends in the immediate neighborhood. Well the person was dead most likely. She hoped no bad luck came from marching right in. Just as she thought about uncomfortable possibilities, Alex found one of the worst standing right around the corner.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The monster seemed to be what used to be one of Mr. Bricken¡¯s dogs, and the unfriendly bulldog had become 500 pounds of fierceness, ugly and hungry. With a growl, he leapt at them with startling speed unfitting for such a monsterous size. Alex saw the rods Alisha held clenched and knew what she needed to do. She could simply use the mutt¡¯s momentum, because in a normal match she would have even laughed at such stupidity. Wrenching one of the rods away, Alex plunged one end into the ground angling the tip towards the charging monster. Already in the air, the stupid beast couldn¡¯t stop from skewing itself. Not waiting to see the monster die, Alex grabbed another rod and with a roar she shoved the tip through the roof of its mouth instantly killing it¡­ or so she thought. The monstrosity was still struggling even though by all rights the thing should be dead two times over. The fact it was suspended in air by the two rods was buying them time. Was there nothing she could do against these monsters? Alex was perilously close to despair when she remembered that she actually managed to puncture the monster with only her strength. Did it have something to do with what that book said? Alex usually timed a burst of anger in the image of a flame with every hit in fights, in matches or on the street, but that image helped way too much recently. Also with the sledge hammer a simple image shouldn¡¯t be capable of enhancing her strength to such an extent. Ignoring the struggling beast, Alex sat herself down into meditation on the spot. What if she tried scaling up the image? She focused on her emotions already aflame with anger and instead of calming down like usual she fed the image everything she could think of: her frustration at her powerlessness, her best friend in danger, the ¡°Gifter¡± wrecking her world, her father having to sacrifice himself, everything became fuel for her inner flame even the strange crystal was fuel. Alisha stammered her first sentence in a while, ¡°Alex! What do you think you¡¯re doing?!¡± Alex almost lost her hold on the ¡°flame¡± at Alisha¡¯s outburst. She felt startled when she opened her eyes to see herself outlined with blacklight. Taking advantage of her confusion the monster tried to slash Alex with its claws uncaring about worsening wounds as it broke the rods. However this was fruitless because the attack felt telegraphed in the extreme... a faint outline of blacklight foretold the attack! With all the monster¡¯s attacks being telegraphed so obviously, Alex was able to deal several blows at various vulnerabilities. She even began to feel she was practicing on a training dummy albeit a live one. Even so the beast still hadn¡¯t given up and Alex¡¯s sharpened instincts for danger became very useful in the next crucial moment. After a rather fun minute of bashing away and just letting loose, she noticed that instead of the usual slashes the faint outline formed a strange structure in front of its mouth. Her instincts screamed that was bad news so Alex struck the monster¡¯s muzzle upwards hoping to disrupt. After that split second a stream of flames gushed out of its jaws. The struggle continued for another minute but even the monstrous vitality gave out from the sheer amount of damage Alex dealt. The fire attacks were a pain but she found that she could dodge or disrupt the... well spell structure by simply punching through that because her own... aura seemed made of the same stuff, her punches muddled and messed up the structure. One time the fire stream backfired even, and with an anguished howl the monster finished its death rows. With the fight ended, Alex made her flame dissipate like normal. Seeing how her mental flame wasn¡¯t just her anger, Alex thought she would have a harder time cooling down but her worries were unfounded. Except, the exhaustion hit her like a freight train mixed strangely with hunger. ¡°You won finally?¡± Alisha peeked from a neighboring house at a collapsed Alex surrounded with the smoldering remains of the house with the carcass of the beast in front of her. 4 - It鈥檚 a start Daniel¡¯s POV ¡°Jesus how much are you going to eat? You¡¯re going clean out our stash at this rate!¡± yelled an irritated Alisha. Daniel felt puzzled about hearing his sister yelling at someone else and not him in the morning but his thoughts were interrupted by an incredible amount of aching pain. At the sound of his grunts of pain, Alisha came over, ¡°you remember how we read up on all kinds of things so you know what a defibrillator does? Well you are probably feeling like a horse kicked you in the chest from the jury-rigged defibrillator. You woke up for a second but fell unconscious.¡± Daniel felt the tension in his body relax thankfully with a strange feeling in his stomach. The feeling must be from the¡­ second stomach forming? Ugh he wanted a better way to refer to it but that could be postponed. Daniel retorted with a smile, ¡°No I feel like someone used me as an anvil.¡± Hopefully his sister felt a little more at ease. Daniel looked up and saw Alex stuffing her mouth at a pace just like how the admonishing he heard his sister described. Seeing him stare at her, Alex uttered with her mouth full, ¡°what?¡± Daniel figured this was a symptom from her¡­ storage organ forming but remembered how her table manners were ghastly even before. A combination of the two then since her manners managed to actually get worse seeing the scattered empty cans. Daniel shuffled over to grab a can himself and motioned for Alisha to bring the book over. Might as well find what else he could discern from the contents. Alisha broke the silence, ¡°I think we should name the energy that the book mentions as mana. The stuff seems to function the same way anyway.¡± Daniel would have to confess he did read fantasy novels voraciously himself but that idea slipped his thoughts. He replied almost jokingly, ¡°then our storage organs would be referred as mana cores? A little inaccurate seeing how the stuff in our guts are literally black diamonds, but the name is acceptable I guess.¡± Hearing those words Alex choked on her food spewing, ¡°We have diamonds in us?¡± Daniel laughed, ¡°the lowest quality though.¡± Alisha commented, ¡°so the carbon in your mana core is combusted and then from there converted to mana. The wisemen realized this when they fine tuned their monitor spells to detect even sudden spikes of heat, so the split instances of combustions were caught. No wonder you two need so much more food and water.¡± Daniel lowered his head in embarrassment, because he had dismissed any words that translated to fantasy words. He had automatically assumed there to be an issue of translation when absurd words like ?magicshowed up. Ignoring that moment of embarrassment, did that not mean that they could surpass the stupid god¡¯s understanding if technology could be combined with the spells? The ¡°wisemen¡± managed to reach such heights with simply their brains after all, what if their technology could take them even higher? Daniel had to end this line of thought before he became too wishful. Instead he needed to apply himself to the now.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. A smile split Daniel¡¯s face when he read the next paragraph. Gleefully Daniel asked his sister, ¡°are you up for creating a new language?¡± Alisha¡¯s weak smile turned into a frown, ¡°after I rest for a bit! Do you know how tiring it was to rig that defibrillator? And then you drag me into researching again!¡± Daniel had to admit he was working his sister a little too hard, but magic would soon be at his fingertips. Seeing Daniel crestfallen Alex asked, ¡°why would you need a language? And can you tell me why I passed out after fighting with the beastie I mentioned?¡± Daniel thought over Alex¡¯s second question and decided to answer that first since that would have the shorter answer of the two. ¡°We read more into the book and the test subjects were found to require the time to grow their mana cores into completion to safely use them. You overused your mana core and when yours wasn¡¯t even complete. Just wait one and half or two days. And for the reason why I want to create a language? The book mentioned the need to associate spell structures to words we don¡¯t use normally like from dead languages or else we can be casting them in our sleep, and the book had a recommended spell language. The problem is that everyone else including that ¡°god¡± are going to know this language. Huh, considering how each word has only one meaning isn¡¯t that pretty close to computer languages? If computers could be used to support spell casting wouldn¡¯t that open the door to spell structures of complexity not even dreamed before? And you are falling asleep aren¡¯t you?¡± Alex yawned, ¡°ah, you noticed. It was a long day you know. After my fight I woke up to your sister hitting me awake, but thanks for clearing up my worries about falling asleep after every time I fight. I guess waiting three days won¡¯t be a problem.¡± Alex climbed under her covers with another yawn. Daniel smiled to himself about the possibilities. Thinking back, he recalled how he did a project on the element of carbon. He learned there were several allotropes for carbon but what stood out was how similar the spell structures were to the amorphous allotrope. Both had patterns at the micro level but on the macro level the pattern never included the whole structure. When he remembered about allotropes he saw several other similarities like how the structure of carbon nanotubes were used in delivery of some spells. After tossing and turning he picked up the book and and began reading once again. Only a few more minutes passed before his eyelids grew too heavy and he nodded off. 5 - Revelation Alex¡¯s POV ¡°Have you tried meeting up with the Feng family?¡± Daniel asked seemingly as an afterthought. Alex had forgotten about the Feng family completely and so had Alisha she supposed. Before Alex could offer an excuse, Alisha beat her to the punch, ¡°we were too busy trying revive you. And what are we going to do about food?¡± Alex figured they had to fix this issue soon considering hers and Daniel¡¯s appetites pretty much doubled since they gained mana cores. Ugh she didn¡¯t have to think so much in school! Just regurgitating answers had been sufficient for her classes; the most she put actual effort into her thoughts was during in fights, deciding what her next move would be. Then again gathering info was vital probably. ¡°We should meet up with the Feng family just for the sake of finding out what they know,¡± decided Daniel. Alisha sported an embarrassed look, following her brother up. Alex considered staying behind considering she wouldn¡¯t be able to fight effectively until midday, but she dismissed the thought out of boredom. Seeing the interaction should be interesting at least. Alex felt the walk as a bit anticlimactic. This was her battle lust talking but for someone who lived for the excitement of fights, needing to go for three days without a single fight felt awful. Luckily today would be the last time she needed to hold restraint; Daniel had spent yesterday reading muttering something about allotropes or something. The Feng family¡¯s house possessed the most individuality, so seeing its remains was rather unfortunate. Daniel and Alisha gestured where each of them would dig and proceeded to search through the rubble. Alex knew not to mention the possibility of the Feng Family¡¯s being dead. The process was silent, punctured occasionally by requests for help from each other. Alex saw Alisha struggling with the remains of a bookcase and plodded over to help. Whispering "1, 2, 3," they heaved the giant scrap of wood away, revealing a steel door. Alisha scurried over to get her brother while Alex tried getting to get the door open. Alex gave up by the time the siblings came over. Besides what did she expect? Alex already suspected this would happen, and the door would barely budge. Alex¡¯s patience was spent, after they waited for the Fengs to come for hours. Alex gestured for them stay back before grabbing hold of the handle. With a grumble she decided to make a proper attempt. Igniting her mana core was a simple matter, this would become its natural state according to what Daniel read from the book. Alex sighed thinking how she would have have to consider this as her new state of ¡°normal.¡±If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Wrenching off the door became a simple matter, only taking a second to tear the door off its hinges. Alex decided she could get used to super strength, but she had to dodge a stab from a silhouette clenching a gundao, a bladed staff. Parrying the next stab to her left, she darted forwards, closing the distance to deal a blow of her own to their head, forgetting the immense strength she newly gained. The blow shattered the attacker¡¯s jaw with a sickening crunch and the attacker, now a corpse, hit the wall behind creating a shallow crater. ¡°Please don¡¯t kill me!¡± A sniveling girl cried out with a weapon of her own now on the floor. Alex growled, ¡°Better make it worth my while, why did you people attack us? After his first attack you should have realized we were humans!¡± ¡°You mean you don¡¯t know?¡± The girl, the daughter of the Feng Family Alex thought, questioned strangely. ¡°Downloading the info into your heads should have at least told you that! That stupid ¡®god¡¯ only gave those books to us so he could keep track of us and spectate a battle royale. I didn¡¯t make the same mistake to ¡®consume¡¯ the book, so I didn¡¯t get a notice to fight you guys to the death when I saw you. You did consume the books right? What with your inhuman strength...¡± The girl continued on about how horrible her life had become. Alex didn¡¯t ask for a soliloquy, yeah that was the term, but the first part was useful. ¡°Shut up! I don¡¯t need your life¡¯s story,¡± yelled Alex. The girl was getting on her nerves with your whining. ¡°So¡­ are you going to kill me?¡± Alex retorted, ¡°You told us what we need to know. Just don¡¯t follow us back. Since I killed your father, I won¡¯t be able to trust that you won¡¯t stick a knife in my back no matter what you say.¡± ¡°Come on! Haven¡¯t I stayed that I only ever liked my mother, and I wouldn¡¯t survive long only by myself. Even if I managed to kill you, I would only lower my chances.¡± Daniel interjected, ¡°She has a point, you know. We can use her as extra labor at least.¡± With that unpleasantness, their party gained another member. They ran into a cat monster but that was easily handled by Alex. The cat was simply overgrown and tried treating her like a mouse, but simple elbows into the joints of the paws it attacked with nullified its attacks and a minute of constant blows to its head jarred and finished it off. Alex even fought a giant grasshopper, but the size it gained was detrimental with it only being able to barely survive with so gigantic of a exoskeleton, making the fight boringly easy. Getting home took a while longer from the monsters and all but Alex and the others successfully made it back.