6: The World’s End
Just as the poison felt like it was going to penetrate her defences, Phantasia came across a corridor bathed in flickering light, at the end of which sat two large metal doors. Behind them she could feel a nexus of corruption that was emanating through crackling tendrils into the stream of mana. Composing herself, Phantasia made a final dash towards the doors. With inhuman strength, she flung them aside and dived into the darkness beyond, clutching on to her memories of Kaori, now just tiny embers caught in a deluge.
I have to stay in control, she told herself, remembering all she had learned from her people about seeing the truth behind illusions.
She stood before a ring of hooded figures chanting demonic verse. In their circle of power sat various young people locked in trance, candlelight flickering across their pale, withdrawn faces. On the floor, marked in blood, was a complex geometric design.
“A magic circle,” she muttered, “How quaint.”
There was a muffled sound, then a knife at her throat. One of the shrouded men stood behind her, his stubbled face smiling with arrogance. From the shadows of the hood his eyes glistened in the faint ethereal light from Phantasia’s white hair. She felt the knife brush against her skin, but its blade was nothing to a faerie. Only the cold malice that came from its wielder’s will had any hope of affecting her.
“How’d you get in here?” he said, “It takes more than a pretty face to open those doors,”
“What are you summoning?” she asked, ignoring his threat. She heard a sob from one of the young boys and dared to open her senses just a little bit more than was safe. He was trapped in a dream-state, locked in an illusion of perpetual fear that corrupted the mana around him as ink would when dropped in water. The circle – and the monotonous mumblings of the shamans – condensed everyone’s fear at its centre, an amalgam of negative energy.
The shaman’s eyes widened slightly. “Guess you’re one of those witches that’s been snooping around,” he said, pushing the knife against her skin, “Clever girl, but stupid. You shouldn’t have gotten in over your depth.”
As he spoke, Phantasia could feel something forming in the circle. A misty, murky entity made from the corruption. Its form was barely humanoid, like a shadow had been given devilish eyes and a hungry mouth that devoured the weakened mana.
“It’s Fear,” he continued, oblivious to her own knowledge, “They give us their fear, and we give them ecstasy. For a short time they can escape the world they hate. A nice little bargain, as I’m sure they’d tell you.”
Phantasia began to feel something stirring inside of her. The flickering embers of Kaori new-found hope began to glow from its heat. “My friend tried to kill herself because of this. You’ll drive them all to death.”
The man glanced across the youths in the room without a flicker of guilt in his eyes. “They want to die anyway, so who cares? No one will miss them. They have no friends.”
“You’re wrong.”
