Janus stared at his communicator. His mother, Kaelen, hadn't answered. She was likely in the thick of the slaughter, or perhaps she simply couldn't be bothered with an F-Ranker son. It was always a gamble with her. When he was bullied as a child, she called him a disappointment for being a victim. When he finally snapped and broke a Noble’s son’s nose, the Noble’s family started sending some thugs to break his bones. Although he managed to escape with just some bruises, they kept running after him time and time again.

  She blamed him for not dyeing his hair to blend in. Yet, rumors whispered she had later visited that Noble’s house and left them trembling. She was a storm of contradictions, surviving her own lunacy only because her blood produced the kind of warriors the Empire couldn't afford to lose.

  He sent a short message: “I’m safe. Sleeping at a friend's”.

  After a bath that did little to wash away the bone-deep chill of the Void, Janus went to Lyza’s room. He pushed the door open without thinking and stopped. Lyza stood in the center of the room, her face strained, holding a flickering ball of mana. It was unstable, spitting out jagged sparks of blue; a pale imitation of the "deletion" Janus had conjured in the alley.

  She flushed, and the sphere collapsed into mist. "Don’t you know how to knock?"

  "Knock?" Janus managed a weak smirk. "Is that a type of food?"

  "I'm serious, Janus." Lyza’s voice was flat, deadpan. "I’m embarrassed that you saw me failing. I’ve been training in secret just as long as you have. But you... You felt the hum years before me. You command it like it’s a limb. And I’m not eighteen, Janus, I’ve lied about it too. I’m twenty. I’ve had two more years to get this right, and I’m still a failure compared to you."

  Janus stepped into the room, his eyes softening. "Lyz, don't. Most people never feel the pulse until the Stone forces it into them. Your father said you're already ahead of the curve. You're comparing yourself to a freak. We don't even know what this tainted mana is doing to me. For all we know, it’s a death sentence. If you want to envy me, wait until we see if I survive the year."

  Lyza let out a short, dry laugh. "Pessimistic as always."

  "You taught me everything I know," he nudged her elbow.

  "Fair point," she sighed, the tension leaving her shoulders. "I spend every day waiting for the Empire to find out what we are. Suicide feels like a retirement plan lately. But seriously… I’m still a lady. Knock!" She hurled a pillow at his head.

  "Sorry.” Janus caught it, settling onto the mattress on the floor. “My mom didn't answer, and neither did my dad. I told him we’re dropping by tomorrow. We should sleep."

  Sleep, however, was a distant country. As he lay there, Janus felt the two rhythms in his chest. His normal Mana was a high-frequency vibration, like a wire pulled too tight, while the other thing, the Static, felt like a hole in the music.

  Janus spends a long time lying on his mattress without feeling the pull of his dreams until he gets tired of not being able to sleep and asks. “Are you awake, Lyza?”

  He opens his eyes and instead of seeing the the dim-litted room of his friend, he sees total black. Everywhere he looks is black. Until he looks at himself and he can see himself as if he was on the street on midday.

  “Ah, I must be dreaming…”

  "Actually, it’s a dream projection," a voice said.

  Janus spun around. Theron stood there in his white lab coat, looking exactly as he did in the safety of their old life. "Dad!"

  They embraced, but the warmth felt thin. "Thank God you're okay, Janus," Theron said urgently. "A Hunter used a Mana Sword and leveled the entire block. I lost everything! My home, my communicator. This projection is all I have to talk to you, but I can feel something wrong... is your core..."

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  "Father, what am I? Silas said we're Elves. But there's something else. An Abomination talked to me during the Registration. It gave me something. I can... delete things. Reality just stops working where I aim my mana."

  Theron’s face went somber. "Calm down, Janus. I can feel your cores. It’s... They ARE synchronized. Faster than I predicted. The truth about your cores is—"

  Theron vanished. The silence that followed was absolute.

  "Not so loud, PUP."

  The voice was like a rusted blade dragging across stone. To Janus's right stood a man in a black tuxedo, top hat, and cane. He looked human, but the "skin" was too perfect, like molded wax. Looking at him caused a localized migraine.

  "What do YOU think? Could I walk the streets in this?" the creature asked, tipping its hat. Its smile was a horizontal tear filled with needle-teeth.

  "Where is my father?" Janus demanded, pulling himself up. "Leave me alone, monster. Send me back to my father. We have things to…"

  The creature didn't move; reality simply skipped a frame. It was suddenly centimeters from Janus’s face. It pressed a palm against Janus's forehead, and a pain so intense it felt like his soul was being shredded through a grater silenced him.

  "I am starting to LOVE your world," the creature hissed. Janus felt his internal organs disintegrating, then reforming, then unmaking themselves again. "So few people can talk to me on equal footing. I LOVE that you think you can defy ME. It’s... AMUSING."

  It released him. Janus collapsed, gasping for air he didn't technically need in this void. "What do you want?"

  The creature paced around him. "YOU. I want YOU. Your father is a royal pain in the ass, intruding in my domain. You can talk to him face-to-face in the waking world for all I care, but he is never coming back here. This is my DOMAIN!" It stopped, looming over him. Janus felt his skull throb in time with the creature's booming mental voice. "I want to HELP you, PUP. Yes or no? Answer properly."

  Janus looked into the maw of the creature. It was a devil's bargain, but he was an F-Ranker freak in a city of monsters. "I want... whatever help I can get."

  "GREAT!" The creature clapped. The sound was like a thunderclap. "You can call me... BOB."

  "B-Bob?" Janus stammered.

  "Not B-Bob. Just Bob,” the creature repeated, the name sounding like a wet slap in the silence of the void. "It's short. It's round. It's... harmless. If you tell the Empire a Rift-Godling gave you power, they will kill you. If you tell them a 'Bob' gave it to you, they'll think you're just another F-Ranker losing his mind."

  “Now, about those cores. You have two, you know. Your Elf friend couldn’t notice it because you only have incompetent people surrounding you. But you FINALLY have a powerful ally. ME. You are so lucky to have MET me…” The smile widened, stretching the "skin" until it began to tear at the corners.

  "Go... to hell..." Janus grunted as the pressure began to mount.

  "Tsk. The youth. So ungrateful. I’ll gift you another boon.”

  Bob turned his palms toward Janus. The high-frequency hum of his Elven blood and the jagged Static of the Void collided. A new pattern, human spell Sigils, were Seared into Janus's mind. It was complex, with a format and meaning he had never seen before. Then, the knowledge of the Sigils is also forcefully inserted on his mind. It’s like he received dozens of hours of training in a split second.

  “What… is this? A sacrificial magic?” Janus asked, still gasping for air.

  “It’s a little quid-pro-quo from me. The Empire has already noticed an anomaly in the Mana inside the Plaza. They’ll look for you, and you need to get very powerful quickly. Use this magic I taught you on other Cores or magical objects, and you will absorb its power. But be careful when using the power of my Domain, it can uncreate things while sucking them dry.”

  “You know, some people WORSHIP me just for a fraction of what I’ve given you. Even in Varkas, your world, there are people who would kill just for a GLIMPSE of me. Now, to save your life from a swift death, join the MILITARY. They won’t look for you there. At least, not for a while. Also, it will be GOOD for you. Now, leave. You're exhausting."

  Janus felt as if a string had pulled him back at super sonic speed, getting further away from the Creature. He screamed as he wanted to ask some questions before he tore through the void.

  He opened his eyes to see a swirl of vibrant green mana. He was shivering, naked, floating in the center of Lyza’s room. Or what was left of it. The furniture had been sucked dry, turned into grey ash and splinters. A thick, grey gas was pouring from his pores, being held back only by a shimmering emerald bubble maintained by Silas and a terrified-looking Lyza. The 'Static' still clung to his skin like a second layer of clothing that wasn't there, making the air around his body hum with a sound like tearing silk.

  Janus looked at the ruin of the bedroom, then at Silas's glowing and ancient Mana.

  "Eh... sorry?"