Chapter Twelve: Montage
Monday.
Late afternoon.
After school ended, Morgan decided to skip club practice and head straight home for once.
Haruka had given him the okay.
Since he'd been helping her out almost every weekday since joining,
… when he said he was taking a break today, she allowed him to go.
Unlike what anyone would think, she wasn't a slave driver.
While the day might not be as usual without him around, she would however manage for the day.
Now…
Morgan was back home.
Slipping his bag off his shoulder, he let it drop onto the edge of his bed with a soft thump.
Unzipping the bag open, he pulled out the horned circlet settling in an hidden compartment of his bag.
Immediately, Morgan slipped it on his head, putting it on.
His field of vision was filled with several holograms.
At the bottom left corner was his heart rate in bpm, body condition, as well as smaller metrics like blood sugar, and so on.
Beyond that, there were other widgets like how they were displayed on mobile phones:
weather, time, and the like.
[Pulse Monitor]:
- [HeartRate - 72bpm]
- [Body Condition: Stable]
- [Blood Sugar: 95mg/dL]
[Widgets]:
- [Weather: Sunny_25C]
- [Time: 17:23]
In addition to that was a navigation system like a map at the bottom right corner.
[Navigation]:
- [Location: Tengu City - Residential Area]
- [Map]
"Anima, sync with brain waves."
[Synchronization on]
- Connecting with Neural_link (Realizer)...
[Frequency: Alpha_10Hz]
[Coherence=92%]
[Signal Strength: Strong]
Morgan felt a jolt at the back of his neck.
Literally a chill down his spine in that sense.
That was how it worked.
While the Realizer was physically connected to the nerves leading into his brain,
the Animusphere intercepted and interpreted the signals transmitted through that link.
[Systems All Green]
As the connection stabilized, a chip-like icon appeared in white, then it changed into blue.
"How many minutes can I maintain operation?"
[Factoring…]
[Max Operation Time]:
- [04:59]
[Safe limit]:
- [02:59]
Only that much.
Morgan's brows creased; hence, he wasted no time.
Heading to his wardrobe, he grabbed a hoodie and slipped it on.
Then, with a quick ruffle of his hair, he pulled the hood up, letting it fall over his eyes.
With how Morgan positioned it made the horn-like edges pop-out faintly from the sides.
He did all of this to mostly cover his identity.
Naturally, Morgan had thought better of it.
Even if his face was concealed, his identity was practically public record.
His height, build, and hair color were all traceable data points.
Not to mention, his build would make narrowing it easy.
If at all he were to be traced, they would start from that point, he'd reckon.
Then again, he agonized more on it.
Refracting and reflecting light to make himself appear invisible or give himself a different appearance.
In the end, the concept was a work in progress.
Plus,
In hindsight, stacking all of this was practically the same as applying a debuff to himself.
His operational limit was already short to begin with.
Every added function only drained the timer faster.
"Activate concealment."
Slowly, Morgan slipped his left index finger towards his lips, and as soon as he did, something weird happened.
In Morgan's vision, nothing changed.
However, when one looked at him from a third person's perspective, one would see a glitch light filter covering his face.
"Territory …deploy."
Like a normal territory,
One could deploy their personal domain which at its base is about three meters around them, forming a sphere.
He'd thought about shrinking it to just around his body to form a thin layer around him.
But that itself would be far more troublesome.
So, for now, he kept the sphere of influence at its normal range.
Giving a silent command, he willed it to respond.
His foot began to lift off the ground, suspending him in the air.
Inside one's personal Territory, control extended to nearly everything within its bounds:
Gravity, humidity, temperature, weight.
Essentially granting one godlike prowess.
However, one needed an essential piece of equipment, called a wiring suit.
Were Morgan to have this, it would have boosted his capabilities many times, including his operation time.
"Alright. This is easy so far."
After a second, Morgan deactivated everything.
He stepped out of his apartment, heading toward the back.
Just right behind his apartment,
Rather, just right behind the lined-up apartments that formed a circle, Tengu City spanned the forest as far as the eye could see.
Tengu City was like that.
Residential districts behind the city were elevated from ground level, much like a sloppy hill.
And behind everything was forest as far as the eye could see.
… but that was not all.
Acting like a boundary was a wall around the city, encompassing it all.
It was probably also a tactical means in terms of assigning AST and JGSDF units to one area.
Dividing each area so their military units could quickly respond to threats, that is:
Spirits.
"Let's fly."
Muttering that, once more, the Territory's matrix opened once more.
This time faster than when he activated it in the room.
And when he did, his feet slowly levitated off the ground sending him upwards.
Without wasting time, he scaled over the wall and past it, flying deeper into the forest.
Doing this while weaving between branches and leaves until the city's outline was far from view.
Eventually he settled into the woods.
"Here's enough."
About four to five hundred meters from the walls guarding Tengu City, he stopped.
He didn't explore deeper since that wasn't on the agenda, just enough for him to get practice without drawing prying eyes.
It was here.
He turned off his recognition filter, leaving his hood still covering his face.
Above all, to save operation time.
Yet, even with that hood covering his face, those antenna-like horns from the circlet still peered out.
That aside, however,
Morgan pocketed something, bringing out silverware, letting it suspend in the air as he controlled it.
... with his right index finger pointed forward.
From around three meters surrounding him, visible greenish-yellow balls of light slowly appeared.
They lit inside that invisible domain, and nothing past that three meter invisible domain.
Yes. This was Morgan making the invisible flow of mana visible.
In reality, the world's mana was blue in nature; however, his personal will had changed the colors.
He was seeing a different color.
Yet, more odd than that was the small silverware in front of him.
The greenish-yellow balls of light were being absorbed into the silver material, which in turn coated it.
Morgan lamented.
"Since I can't interact with mana now, how about letting a medium do the job for me for now."
… he remembered, other sources of magic, in other words, required a medium to cast magic.
For some, it might be a staff; other some, a wand.
If treating mana was to be thought of like alchemy, then it made little sense.
Well, little.
Yet, whichever way one looked at it, there was a possibility it could be true.
And the proof was right before Morgan's eyes.
The surgeon's silver scalpel that had been with him was what was absorbing the mana.
Yet, despite the apparent success, a frown creased his face.
"...why can't I hold mana then?"
Though temporarily, that silverware was indeed holding mana, absorbing it.
But for him, he couldn't even interact with it.
While he could draw them to himself or move closer to them.
Upon contact, however, they dissipate.
He'd modeled the concept after a black hole,
the scalpel serving as the point of attraction within his Territory.
Of course, doing such a thing reduced his operation time by a margin.
But he was too deep in his thoughts to care.
Almost infuriatingly, he retracted his territory and grasped the scalpel in hand.
Turning towards a row of trees in front, he swung the scalpel in hand towards one of them.
Whoosh!
A crescent greenish-yellow light burst forth from it, heading towards the tree.
The crescent light cleaved through it.
Grghh-crack!
Crunch!
The tree was tumbling over; however, in the next moment, Morgan flashed away after calculating the trajectory of the fall.
He waited there.
If anyone had seen this, they would believe the tree would have fallen on the male.
The falling tall tree suddenly stopped three meters from him.
Morgan lifted his right hand, his index and middle fingers pressing together as he slid them downward.
The suspended trunk shuddered once, then—
Shhk!
It split cleanly in two, the halves drifting apart before crashing down on either side of him with a heavy thud!
Leaves fluttered down as dust and bark rose around him.
[Limit Reached.]
[Forcefully cutting the link between transmitter and receiver.]
[Realizer offline.]
[Animusphere: Systems on Standby]
[...Results]
- [HeartRate - 110bpm]
- [Body Condition: Stressed_Injured]
- [Blood Sugar: 72mg/dL]
The usual interface appeared once again.
Its functions were even more diverse,
with him being able to use it as a smart device, as well as connecting it to his phone too.
But right now,
"Kuh!"
A sharp hiss escaped him as his knees buckled, and he dropped to one knee.
His back felt static, like he'd been shocked briefly by electricity.
He clutched his body while wincing.
"Thanks to splitting the load, I can think well, but my body freaking hurts."
Especially his back, his spine.
The recoil, despite that, was still manageable.
Regardless, his mind was in a different place.
'No need wasting my time mulling it alone, Sensei might know a thing or two.'
Morgan huffed.
"Anima, send a message to Elric-sensei. Tell him I want to schedule a meeting with him."
Within his vision, a box appeared, along with the confirmation.
[Confirmed]
[Notification Sent...]