Plank Sinatra
Krayzikk
The WorldIntroductions are made, and there’s an hour or so of time to kill under fluorescent lights before doctors return to check IVs and examine each candidate. Eventually, after a half-day of lying around, the girls are released from care and taken back to their dorms. The journey isn’t exactly pleasant, each having to get used to the aching pain and dizziness that comes as they readjust to moving on their own. There’s at least some relief once they make it to their dorm beds, a much more comfortable resting place than the hospital cots.
The next two days get better, but it comes slowly. The aches and nausea persist, as does the overwhelming lack of energy. The most offensive part of it all is that their Armagus seem, for the moment, entirely useless. No matter how much effort they make the small stones seem lifeless and dull, bereft of the magic that they were promised.
By the third day they begun to return to something resembling normal, just in time for the mission briefing in the assembly hall. A holographic map of the city is on display at the front of the room, slowly rotating under the touch of a uniform-clad woman at the front of the auditorium.
“The exercise will take place in the Palmyra Military Exercise Zone, or M.E.Z. There, under controlled conditions, your Armagus will be activated.” A pregnant pause, and the officer continues: “This activation will require the presence of a Void.”
Quiet whispers ripple through the crowd of assembled young women.
“We will be lowering the diffusion of Nox in the exercise area to a level sufficient for the manifestation of low-class Voids. Your Armagus, an anti-Void weapon, will respond accordingly. The exercise will be supervised by military personnel to mitigate the danger to yourselves, but I won’t lie to you: Any encounter with a Void has the potential for disaster.
This is your first real trial as an Ars Magi, prepare yourselves accordingly. Ignis aurum probat.”
𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚖𝚢𝚛𝚊 𝙼𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝙴𝚡𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚒𝚜𝚎 𝚉𝚘𝚗𝚎
𝙰𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝙳𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚌𝚝
𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟷𝟻𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟷𝟽 𝙰𝚅
𝟿:𝟶𝟶 𝙰𝙼
Masuzu Chie, Crystal von Caelestis, Rivka Sokolov, Selma Rosmarie
Music: Tension
“Three. Two. One...”
The voice is small and static-laced, a quiet buzz from the earpiece you’ve been equipped with.
“Now lowering diffusion level. Nox levels rising.”
You stand in the middle of an abandoned street, rows of empty buildings hemming in on all sides. This is Military Exercise Zone, an older part of the city abandoned and later reclaimed specifically for Imperium purposes. It’s a ghost town, not a single soul dwelling within. The only sign of movement are leaves blowing in the chilly afternoon air, dried and brown foliage that rustles quietly down along the narrow streets.
The candidates have been broken into groups of five, the girls finding themselves together once again. Your companions wait in an observation tower some ways behind the exercise area, observing you the same way you did them during their respective turns.
But now, it’s just you.
“Nox levels still rising.”
Something is wrong. It’s like static in your brain, gentle at first, growing louder as time goes by. Things begin to feel fuzzy and indistinct.
“Manifestation of Voids detected.”
They look similar to the thing that attacked the Laurus. Humanoid, impossibly thin, inky black, geometric patterns etched along the flesh. Black clouds of Nox roll off their bodies as they take shape, three in total, seeming to blur and twist into existence out of the air itself. Air that is becoming steadily thicker as small wisps of Nox begin to form.
They advance.
The static is worse now, the world around hazy and indistinct. Hard to focus.
And then you feel it. A single point of clarity, something bright and powerful just barely within the grasp of your consciousness. All you have to do is reach your mind out and take it.
All you have to do is change.
The next two days get better, but it comes slowly. The aches and nausea persist, as does the overwhelming lack of energy. The most offensive part of it all is that their Armagus seem, for the moment, entirely useless. No matter how much effort they make the small stones seem lifeless and dull, bereft of the magic that they were promised.
By the third day they begun to return to something resembling normal, just in time for the mission briefing in the assembly hall. A holographic map of the city is on display at the front of the room, slowly rotating under the touch of a uniform-clad woman at the front of the auditorium.
“The exercise will take place in the Palmyra Military Exercise Zone, or M.E.Z. There, under controlled conditions, your Armagus will be activated.” A pregnant pause, and the officer continues: “This activation will require the presence of a Void.”
Quiet whispers ripple through the crowd of assembled young women.
“We will be lowering the diffusion of Nox in the exercise area to a level sufficient for the manifestation of low-class Voids. Your Armagus, an anti-Void weapon, will respond accordingly. The exercise will be supervised by military personnel to mitigate the danger to yourselves, but I won’t lie to you: Any encounter with a Void has the potential for disaster.
This is your first real trial as an Ars Magi, prepare yourselves accordingly. Ignis aurum probat.”
𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚖𝚢𝚛𝚊 𝙼𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝙴𝚡𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚒𝚜𝚎 𝚉𝚘𝚗𝚎
𝙰𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝙳𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚌𝚝
𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟷𝟻𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟷𝟽 𝙰𝚅
𝟿:𝟶𝟶 𝙰𝙼
Masuzu Chie, Crystal von Caelestis, Rivka Sokolov, Selma Rosmarie
Music: Tension
“Three. Two. One...”
The voice is small and static-laced, a quiet buzz from the earpiece you’ve been equipped with.
“Now lowering diffusion level. Nox levels rising.”
You stand in the middle of an abandoned street, rows of empty buildings hemming in on all sides. This is Military Exercise Zone, an older part of the city abandoned and later reclaimed specifically for Imperium purposes. It’s a ghost town, not a single soul dwelling within. The only sign of movement are leaves blowing in the chilly afternoon air, dried and brown foliage that rustles quietly down along the narrow streets.
The candidates have been broken into groups of five, the girls finding themselves together once again. Your companions wait in an observation tower some ways behind the exercise area, observing you the same way you did them during their respective turns.
But now, it’s just you.
“Nox levels still rising.”
Something is wrong. It’s like static in your brain, gentle at first, growing louder as time goes by. Things begin to feel fuzzy and indistinct.
“Manifestation of Voids detected.”
They look similar to the thing that attacked the Laurus. Humanoid, impossibly thin, inky black, geometric patterns etched along the flesh. Black clouds of Nox roll off their bodies as they take shape, three in total, seeming to blur and twist into existence out of the air itself. Air that is becoming steadily thicker as small wisps of Nox begin to form.
They advance.
The static is worse now, the world around hazy and indistinct. Hard to focus.
And then you feel it. A single point of clarity, something bright and powerful just barely within the grasp of your consciousness. All you have to do is reach your mind out and take it.
All you have to do is change.
