Arcane Apocalypse

4 – When Reality Comes Knocking

Mia rushed over to the window, somewhat expecting to find a gaping hole in reality just down the road. Instead, all she saw was a regular road as it always had been.

If she ignored all the weird people that seemingly just stumbled out of some cosplay convention. Lizard-like people, many others with furry ears and much more that looked human for the most part.

Truthfully, most of them looked entirely human. Only, most of them seemingly dumped some silly hair dye all over their head. She saw mops of green, blue, yellow, silver and a dozen other colours among them. 

What she didn’t know was why people were just wandering around down on the street.

“This is unreal,” she murmured. Everything was so damned weird it was increasingly hard to see everything as ‘real’. Damned magical storms, mana, system, magic, classes, attributes, and a whole lineup of fantastical beings squabbling on the road.

Mia’s vision swam as a sudden nausea gripped her by the throat. Nothing made sense ever since that darkness covered the skies. Nothing felt real, even. How could all of this be real?

“What?” Mark half-shouted from the other side of the room. Mark, who was now a fucking dwarf. 

That was the thing that tipped over the barrel, the last nail in the coffin that was her barely held together mind.

Mia’s vision dimmed as she stumbled towards the couch. She felt detached. Detached from the world around her, from everything and from what seemed to be her new reality.

Her breathing sped up, chest heaving in ragged gasps. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe. The realisation only made her panic climb to ever greater heights as she frantically tried to take in air faster and faster until her vision dimmed to a dot.

Her mind swam from dizziness as she collapsed. She felt something leathery press up against her cheek. Mia faintly noted that probably meant she managed to collapse onto the couch instead of face planting onto the floor.

I’m hyperventilating. Mia grasped onto that fleeting thought. Hyperventilation results from anxiety and panic attacks.

Mia felt herself calm momentarily, having found something that made sense and she could understand. She knew panic attacks, she also knew what to do when one had one. Intellectually. This was the first time she experienced it for herself.

Focus. Slow the breathing. What was it? … breathe through pursed lips as if you’re whistling? Even though she wasn’t sure she remembered correctly, focusing on a single thing and not thinking about ‘stuff’ was obviously working.

She forced herself to breathe only through her mouth, then forced her lips close, only leaving a tiny gap between them despite how much her body was telling her that she was going to die if she didn’t breathe this very moment.

No! Mia calmed herself. Slow breaths. In and out. In, out. 

She counted her breaths. One, two, three … ten … twenty and twenty-one. Mia blinked, surprised to actually see the ceiling as the darkness that consumed her vision was all but gone.

She grimaced, palm slapping against her forehead. She had a killer headache and her lunch was one wrong move away from introducing itself to her carpet.

“I got a bag!” Mark shouted, stumbling back into the room with a paper bag in hand before rushing up to her and shoving the thing in her face. “Breathe into this!”

“I’m fine,” Mia insisted, a grimace still etched onto her face. “I’m fine.”

“Ya sure?” He asked dubiously, looking between her face and the paper bag. 

“Some water would be good,” Mia mumbled, mostly to get the dwarf out of her hair. She closed her eyes. Just looking at him and what having a dwarf in her living room represented sent her heart into a frenzied rush that threatened to drive her back into another panic attack.

Mia slumped back and just tried to appreciate the silence. Trying to forget for a moment that she was probably going to die in some unfathomably strange way quite soon.

What would it be though? She mused. Yesterday, she would have guessed getting mugged and shanked as the most likely cause of her death, or perhaps due to some natural disaster that came with a vengeance for Europe after having left it mostly alone. 

The rest of the world had earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanoes erupting … and Europe had a magical storm, now that she thought about it.

Today though, as she laid on the couch and listened to the scuffles happening just under her window and the distant shouts coming from the hallway, she didn’t know what to expect anymore.

Maybe she would get eaten by a dragon. 

Mia chuckled, then froze. What if … ?

“I’m back,” Mark announced in that strangely jubilant tone he had ever since he woke up as a dwarf. He ambled over to her and handed her a glass of blessedly cold water, then scuttled back to the table. 

Mia sipped on it, taking care to do it slowly. What if that full bathtub was all they were going to get for weeks, months, or maybe forever? Electricity was gone and she couldn’t be sure water pipes survived whatever happened.

That reminded her of her phone. Maybe the satellites survived? They should have, right?

She jumped to her feet, almost face planting again — stupid magical body — before snatching up her phone from the coffee table.

It was off, of course. She pushed the power button. Nothing happened, but Mia kept pushing it. 

Disappointment slowly overtook her excitement, and she barely stopped herself from throwing the piece of junk out the window.

“My phone is dead,” she mumbled just loud enough for Mark to hear. He didn’t, being absorbed in his theory-crafting. She cleared her throat to get his attention. “Is your phone working? Mine is dead.”

Mark checked his and sure enough, it was dead too. “I suppose that’s to be expected. What did they say … that the solar flare was like a planet-wide EMP? That wouldn’t really care if a piece of tech was powered or not at the moment. It would fry the circuits either way.”

Mia just sighed. Things weren’t looking too bright. Well … aside from the dubious chance she had at doing magic. 

“Did you find anything interesting on that interface?” She asked, not expecting much.

“Sort of,” he caressed his beard sagely. “It’s overly complicated to be honest. The more deeply I dive into it, the more questions I have. Ah, do you also have a ‘Title’ called Newcomer?”

Mia nodded. “Yeah, there was something about my … Spirit being NULL and then it just gave it to me? I think? I was sort of getting deep fried when it happened so I’m not sure.”

“There should be a Log somewhere for notifications somewhere,” Mark grumbled. “I’m sure there is. I just haven’t found it yet. Anyway, it was the same for me, I think it should have been the same for everyone since Spirit is supposedly the stat that allows us to store and control mana and I don’t think we could do that before today.”

Mia just shook her head. How Mark could just ignore everything in favour of exploring this weird system was astonishing. They had bigger problems … like starving to death and whatever that Rift was. 

Speaking of the Rift. “Do you know what that notification about the Rift was?” She asked.

“Nope,” he said absently, clearly a bit annoyed she wasn’t leaving him to his system exploration. “But if it’s like in the stories — like most things until now about this system — it should be like a dungeon and will probably start vomiting monsters before long if it isn’t cleared … or destroyed or something.”

Mia gulped. She guessed something similar, but she still hoped it would be disproven. What if Rifts were just like air filtration but for mana? No need for monsters or anything, right? That would make sense. Yep. No way monsters were real. Mark was letting his assumptions get to his head.

She got up and huffed, psyching herself up. Their most pressing issue should be food right now, so she would see what she could do about that. Jeff said something about wanting to ration it, so she would head out and search for him to get a better handle on their situation.

A part of her was annoyed that the man so readily assumed leadership of everyone in his building block, but then again, it was his building block and he was now a two metre tall ball of muscles so she thought it unlikely anyone would want to wrestle with him for it.

“I’m heading out.”

Mark mumbled something of an acknowledgement, and she left the flat with a shrug. Maybe he would find something useful by the time she came back.

Out in the hallways, she dodged a few people who were in frantic discussions. A few gave her curious looks, but most quickly dismissed her as she made her way towards the stairs. Jeff would probably be down in the community hall on the ground floor.

“ … -hat do you mean? This is horrible!” Mia grimaced as one woman screamed at a man standing in the hallway. “Look at these. LOOK! Why do I have paws?!”

Mia quickened her steps before she could be a witness to a homicide. She gave a quick glance back at the thirty-something woman, then scrunched her eyes shut.

She wasn’t into older women, but the short brunette with floppy rabbit ears atop her head was just adorable. She could understand why her boyfriend / husband was elated until he got verbally beaten into the dirt.

“Lara, honey, I’m sorry,” the man in question said weakly. “But they really do look amazing on yo-“

Mia grimaced. While she agreed, that was clearly the last thing the woman wanted to hear. Even Mia could tell that much. Rest in peace, random person.

“OWW, those claws HURT!” She caught the man shouting just before the stairwell door closed behind her and cut off the ensuing argument.

About two hundred people lived in the block, at least by Mia’s estimation. Of that number, she barely saw two dozen as she made her way to the ground floor.

She had to stop midway through and lean against the wall to take a few deep breaths. There were people she recognised, people she remembered entering the elevator with and others she saw with their children playing in the tiny park behind the apartment block.

Most of them even looked the same. Well, six out of ten did, the rest … Well, the lucky ones only had new vivid hair colours or strange eyes,  — like her — but some weren’t so lucky.

Finally, she reached the ground floor and made her way over to the little community room. It had a long table at the side that could fit a dozen people. The walls were covered in shelves filled with various books, tabletop games and some boxes filled with toys for the younger children.

Not that many made use of the room, now was the first time Mia had seen anyone other than Jeff or the occasional teens smoking something their parents wouldn’t approve of in the room.

Mia stepped into the room after a moment of hesitation, though no one noticed it yet.

“Why would we do that?” One man said, his voice raised into an angry growl. “And who gave you any right to demand such a thing from us? You are just a landlord, not our damned king.”

Jeff took the words stoically, hands crossed as he seemed to weigh the man’s words. 

“Would you rather let others starve while the government gets their head out of their asses Thomas?” Jeff asked. “It could be weeks before any aid arrives, if it does at all. Who knows? What else that ‘system’ and its magical storm did to the world? For all we know, we aren’t getting any aid and the rest of the country is a pile of rubble.”

“There is no way,” a third man, scrawny and hunched, cut in as he paced up and down the room. “Could it be some experimental weapon? Some aerosolized drug that makes us hallucinate?”

“Shut up Bert,” an older woman smacked the scrawny man on the head. “Sit still for a damned minute.”

Looking halfway between embarrassed and annoyed, the man slumped down into one of the creaky chairs while continuing to mumble to himself.

The older woman’s eyes drifted over to Mia. “Come sit girl, no need to stand around like that.”

Mia did so in a hurry as a dozen pairs of eyes turned on her. She quickly found a most interesting spot on the wooden table and began observing it in detail. 

Yep. Sure looks like wood. She fidgeted for a moment as the people around her got back to arguing. 

Apparently, Jeff had some sort of emergency lockdown installed and now the only way to get out of the building was either getting him to open it up or to jump out of a first-floor window — since the windows on the ground floor were barred.

People didn’t like that. They didn’t like that at all.

“We need to buy up as much non-perishable food as we can Jeff,” Thomas said. “So open up the damned door before every supermarket gets looted down to the foundation.”

Jeff just shook his head. “I can let you out. Once. But I’m not opening the doors again until things calm down on the streets.”

“We will starve Jeff,” the older woman said tersely. “We can last a week, maybe two. Then the food in the freezer melts out and spoils. Locking us in is needlessly cruel.”

“It … we can revisit the issue after those two weeks passed,” Jeff said, taking a metaphorical step back for the first time since Mia had known him. The man was what they called a ‘hardass.’ “But keeping the doors open in the first week unless there is police or the military outside is out of the question. Damned thugs are already breaking through windows just down the street.”

“Who do you think you are?” Thomas growled, causing half the people in the room to shiver. His eyes glowed and his pupils lengthened into a slit. “Why do you think we should obey you?”

Mia shrunk into her chair, trying to appear as small as possible. She felt a prickling sensation at the back of her neck while her stomach twisted into a knot.

He was dangerous. She knew that deep in her bones, and not in the way she understood. The group of shady thugs that tried to mug her just hours ago certainly didn’t make her feel like this.

Jeff stepped up, towering almost a head above Thomas and gazed down at him, utterly unimpressed. His own eyes didn’t glow, his voice didn’t make her skin crawl either.

“Try it,” Jeff said softly. “See what happens.”

The tension in the room was suffocating and besides the two men, no one dared to speak. 

Thomas snarled, and Mia almost didn’t catch the moment he moved. He took a half step back with one leg, just a split second before his fist snapped out towards the larger man’s stomach.

So fast. Mia paled. She thought herself quick, but all she could do was to follow the soaring fist with her gaze as it sunk into Jeff’s flesh.

Jeff grunted. He reached down and wrapped his fingers around Thomas’ wrist before the other man realised he wasn’t down for the count.

Thomas tried to move away. He pulled and struggled against Jeff’s hold, but the man didn’t even budge. Then he squeezed and Mia heard a wet crack.

Thomas screamed, his eyes flew wide and tears streamed down his cheeks as Jeff let go of his mangled hand. 

The shorter man stumbled back and collapsed to the floor, staring at his broken hand with a stupefied expression.

“Martha, would you get a medkit and help him out?” Jeff asked, his gaze lingering on the hand he used to crush Thomas’ wrist. 

The older woman who previously invited Mia to sit rose, she gave both men a contemptuous look. “Just this once. Anyone else who gets themselves beaten up for something moronic like that can help themselves.”

“Thank you,” Jeff said, then tore his gaze away from his hand and turned around. He clenched his fist as he made eye contact with everyone at the table. Well, everyone who didn’t avert their eyes like Mia.

I should have stayed in the flat. Mia lamented, taking slow, measured breaths. Her heart was still trying to jump out of her chest, but she had to keep cool. Who knows what would set Jeff off? Did the lightning fry his brain too? Did he get turned into a bloodthirsty demon?

Mia glanced at his curving goat horns and his rippling muscles. Only the blood red skin was missing. She gulped and averted her eyes again.

“If no one else has any objection,” he said. “We will go along with my plan. The gates stay shut. We will have to take stock of what food and water we have then make sure no one starves or thirsts. Anyone I find making trouble, stealing, breaking into others’ homes will get thrown out onto the streets.”

People shuffled uncomfortably. Mia noticed more than a few were less than happy with that arrangement, probably because Jeff just collectivised all of their food and water so casually, but they all just took a glance at Thomas and bit their tongues.

“Let’s start with those of us here,” Jeff said. “I have twenty litres of water, enough dried jerky to last one person half a year and a crate full of various canned foods. I will be putting all of that into our communal food and water reserves.”

Many calmed considerably when Jeff so easily included himself and one after the other they too spoke up. Then it was Mia’s turn.

“Ehm,” she cleared her throat and continued gazing at the table. “We filled a bathtub full of water just before the clouds arrived. Other than that, I think the only non-perishables we have are a handful of instant noodles.”

“Smart,” Jeff gave a slight grin. “Quick thinking. Well done, next?”

Mia breathed a sigh of relief and sank into her chair. Regretting taking that first step out of her flat for what felt like the thousandth time. 

Did I just get conscripted to join a commune? She mused. Then she thought about the outside world, where magical superpowered people were probably looting every building they could get into. Beats being out there I suppose. Especially if Mark was right and monsters prowl the streets.

She shook her head, that was stupid. Of course there wouldn’t be monsters … wait. We have levels. If there aren’t monsters to kill to get XP like in the games, how are we supposed to level up?

The answer was obvious, but it was also terrifying. A pit formed in her stomach and Mia felt sick as her thoughts spiralled.

Power was gone, water was gone, and satellites were also probably gone now that she thought about it. They must have been the first things the solar flare fried. There was no oversight. The city’s police department comprised at most a hundred or two people. 

Mia would have liked to think that morality would win out, and just because murder awarded a bit of extra power, people wouldn’t sink so low. This was the middle of Europe after all. It would take more than that for people to devolve into anarchistic savages.

She glanced at Thomas, who was just now getting his wrist set by Martha. 

Fuck.