Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (42/?) WiP 1 (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Here's the Work in Progress for Chapter 42 I hope you guys enjoy! :D 

Peace was a fragile thing. Like a piece of fine china or a statue made up of porcelain, it was beautiful and faultless, so long as it remained untampered and untouched.

So when the cracks start to show, or when a slight bump causes a small chip in the lacquer, it was easy to tell that something was off; that something had fundamentally changed.

Though what exactly constituted a crack, chip or nick was difficult to gauge when you were dealing with an interdimensional feudal empire of magic and sorcery.

Context and scale was key here, and whether or not the sudden destruction of an entire building in an idyllic town right next to one of the hearts of Nexian Academia constituted a crack in that facade of peace was anyone’s guess.

Personally though? I couldn’t see it as anything but a crack or a chip, but a complete shattering of the porcelain facade that was Nexian peace.

But then again, it was probably my bias talking. It was difficult to really analyze the situation objectively with just barely half an hour separating me from the incident after all. That, and the dull aching of my right arm, and the distant ringing in both of my ears, still tied me to the reality of what had just happened.

A reality that the students flocking to the window had only the faintest of ideas of.

I didn’t know what brought me to the window, The Solarium Common Room as the EVI was quick to remind me as soon as it’d regained its bearings, because the most logical thing to do at that point would’ve been to cut all of my losses to debrief and reassess back at basecamp, i.e. the dorms.

In fact, the massive common room should’ve been the last place I wanted to be, what with the growing crowd of students in varying states of dress all huddled together near the floor to ceiling window.

But I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t help but to witness everything from this perspective, this angle.

Because it just felt so surreal.

I didn’t know how much of it was my own adrenaline-fueled high, and I didn’t know how much of it was just the sheer whiplash of that teleport back to the Academy, but it felt like with each tentative step forward, I was losing more and more of my focus.

It felt like I was on auto-pilot, like I was seeing everything from this weird third-person vantage point.

None of it felt real, and all of it just felt so… distant.

For the briefest of moments, I felt like I was floating, my consciousness detached from everything around me; unable to really process anything. Everything was just a blur.

With all of the noise, all of the murmurs, all of the whispers, all of them just blending together into an incoherent mess; like I was listening to the muffled sounds of a crowd from a room and a half away.

I felt my breath hitching up, only to be reminded of my breathing exercises by the EVI, which helped, but not by a lot.

It was at least enough to keep me grounded without stepping into hyperventilation territory, and it was at least enough to keep my focus squarely on what I was here to see.

The town, or more specifically, a part of the town that should not have been this bright this late into the night. A part of town that had always been sleepier, and barely lit up compared to the rest of the medieval urban sprawl. A part of town that had no business lighting up the surrounding area like a poorly placed leis-com development smack-dab in the center of some middle-america heritage town.

A part of town that was the source of that plume of pitch black smoke that rose up lazily against a rapidly approaching dawn.

“-was anyone awake when it all started?” I finally heard a voice piercing through the sea of miasma that had been my mental fog, a voice that was loud, commanding, and imposing enough that it not only penetrated through the mumbling crowd, but caused it to practically die down in the process.

The speaker’s identity was promptly identified for me, as the EVI highlighted his form from the shapeless crowd, and superimposed his name and identifier next to the transcribed speech.

ENTITY IFF CONFIRMED: A10 QIV RATOM - BARALON REALM [NEUTRAL]

But in typical Nexian fashion, instead of a straightforward answer or something even remotely constructive, there was always someone ready to redirect the conversation towards some petty exchange.

“As much as I must applaud your barely-disguised opportunistic zeal, there are far less blatant means of ascertaining the sleeping habits of our fellow floor-compatriots, Lord Qiv Ratom.” Another voice from the crowd emerged to directly challenge the lizard man, a voice that belonged to another student that the EVI had logged during orientation day, but that I’d already dislodged from memory.

ENTITY IFF CONFIRMED: A43 AURIS PING - PRONARTHIA REALM [NEUTRAL]

If there ever was proof that physical size doesn’t translate to how much space someone takes up in your brain, then it’d be them. Because I don’t even know how I managed to forget this hulking mass of an anthropomorphized bull, horns and all.

A small clearing had formed in the crowd now, with a completely empty tract of space opening between the lizard and the bull, allowing them unimpeded line of sight.

“And what, pray tell, might I do with such worthless information?” Qiv responded indignantly.

“It was not I who initiated this question with blatant disregard for its ramifications, Lord Qiv. That is a question only you who will be able to answer it. I will by no means draw up excuses for some trivial plot-”

“Ahem.” A voice finally pierced through the sudden bout of bickering, a soft voice belonging to yet another faceless student, that despite being barely audible against the growing argument was somehow capable of stopping it in its tracks. “I was awake, and I believe I saw, felt, and heard the explosion… before I sensed any disturbances in the manastreams.”

ENTITY IFF CONFIRMED: A72 ETHOLIN ESILA - RONTALIS REALM [NEUTRAL]

This answer, for whatever reason, elicited a series of shocked gasps, followed by hushed whispers.

“Seeing and hearing before sensing a mana-field disturbance? What a joke.”

“Oh please, stirring up melodrama for the sake of a brief flicker of attention is not wise you know.”

“Hah! Refrain with the accusations to the content of this one’s character my friend, it is just as likely he speaks the truth… which would indicate that his realm has sent the Academy yet another of below-average stock.”

“Below average is one way of putting it, there exists no possible reality where one senses the physical repercussions of mana, without first sensing a disturbance in the manafields. Only half-blind peasants would be so capable of such incompetence.”

The hot-takes were destined to go on and on, if it wasn’t for the newly emboldened confidence of the one who started this whole conversation in the first place. “You too, Etholin?” Qiv suddenly proclaimed, once more silencing the crowd, eliciting only a sheepish nod from the smaller, sheepish student.

“Yes Lord Qiv, I swear it on my family honor. This was an event unlike any I’ve experienced. This… felt like a devastating release of physical energy, without the requisite of mana.”