Inverse System

The team felt refreshed as they entered the sunny city on the coast of the western ocean. They felt as though they had just been through a deep massage, their muscles loosening up and their bodies feeling lighter, as they blissfully walked through the city.

They looked around, seeing Siren folk plentifully occupying the streets of the city, laughing, playing, and working without a care in the world. They could be identified by the small patch of fish scales on their cheeks, varying in color from person to person. The kids who had Springs played across the alleyways, sliding around using their water Springs.

"Ahhh, this place is great! This kinda feels like when my Spring was first inverted!" Xenia claimed as she stretched her arms out, inhaling the incredibly fresh air that lingered.

"For real! I'm thoroughly impressed!" Reggie followed.

"I agree! I feel much better just from walking past the gates!" Lance joyfully voiced.

Everyone in the group wore a smile on their face and carelessly walked into the city, except the two at the front. Core and Rein looked at each other, fixated with a gaze of understanding, feeling something awry in the city.

"Let's head to the cities guild branch. They can give us details about our client there," Rein proposed as they continued down the path from the city gates, leading them into the city square.

There, they saw a building with a sign hanging from a metal rod that extended off of the exterior wall. It held a sign, portraying a soaring fiery bird, a phoenix. It was the symbol of the Ranger guild.

They entered the building, greeted with a wall of quests and commissions, as well as a list of Rangers registered to this branch. They approached the receptionist and showed him the commission that they held.

"Oh, so you're the kids that were sent here? Welcome!" Said the middle-aged human receptionist.

"You're not a Siren?" Elaine remarked.

"Nope! My name's Craig, I'm human like you guys. Just a long-standing resident of Aquifa. You'd be surprised how many humans actually live here!" He welcomingly laughed, taking the paper from Rein's hands.

"It's surprising to see a guild branch here, only major cities in the continent have an actual branch," Rein stated.

"Yep, Aquifa's one of them. Along with us, there's Tela, Cornear, and Mantos in the ex-Econican region. In Orthlys, there's Kanirah, Naji, Pathuless, and Sahdahwar. Together, we can cover most of the continent with relative ease," Craig explained.

"Anyways, can you introduce us to our client?" Core asked.

"Hmm…" Craig said pensively.

"What's wrong sir?" Lance added.

"The thing is, we don't actually know who the client is," Craig informed, surprising the entire group into a frenzy.

"What?! How could you let the request pass through if you didn't have identification on the requester?" Elaine outraged.

"Well, that's… You see, ever since the war began, the guilds had less control over the requests that are put in and out. Due to the lack of employment on the administrative end, and the lack of care by the turmoil induced by the war, the standards of requests have significantly dropped. I'm sorry, but the requester seems to be anonymous this time."

"Tch, that's ridiculous. How are we supposed to progress on the quest then?" Xenia verbalized as she angrily sat down at a seat in the guild.

"Do you have any info about the request? Anything that rings any bells? Who is this 'king' person they speak of?" Lance interrogated.

"Sorry, but I really don't know anything about this request. The only king to us is Emperor Naar, so I've no clue who the aforementioned 'king' could be," Craig apologetically spoke.

"Here's a better question: You said you were a long-standing citizen of this place, correct? How long exactly have you lived here?" Rein asked, making the group prop up in attentiveness, Craig going into a thinking motion to recall.

"Hmmm, I'd say about 23 years now. Though, I've only been a guild receptionist for 8 years," Craig answered.

"And during your time living here, did you notice any sudden or subtle changes in the city? Anything that looking back, wasn't there before? Think specifically around the time the war began," Rein directed him, Craig continuing to think.

"Hmmm, you know, come to think of it, there was. Right around the time the war started and most of the royal guard moved to Cornear, it felt as if the city's atmosphere was somehow bettering. Slowly over time, it felt like the happiness in the city was increasing more and more by the day, ever so slightly. Thinking back on it now, it's changed significantly since the beginning of the war," Craig recalled, making Rein and Core come to a conclusion.

"Right, thanks for the info Craig. We're gonna go investigate around the city," Core waved at him as he and Rein left the building, everyone else followed them.

"Wow, you knew exactly what questions to ask. As expected of the winner of the entrance tournament!" Lance complimented, impressed by the information he drew up.

"Ahaha, I'm not even surprised anymore," Reggie laughed.

"Well, now we know that something changed around the beginning of the war, but we still don't know if that has any connection to our current commission do we?" Elaine questioned as they walked to the bench beside the fountain in the middle of the city, with a statue of a mermaid spewing out water.

"No, we don't know for sure if the incidents are connected, but Core and I do have a theory. This 'king' that this anonymous commissioner is so desperate to protect… He's probably the reason for this sudden atmospheric change," Rein explained.

"You felt it too right Xenia? You can't tell me that you didn't notice it, your Spring being what it is," Core examined her.

"There was a tinge of familiarity in the air, and it did resemble the point where my Spring was inversed… Wait, don't tell me that means…" She dawned to a realization, Reggie also coming to the same conclusion as the rest of them.

"Uhh, what's with the sudden gloom? Care to explain?" Elaine sat there, frustrated as she couldn't follow the conversation.

"There's no time right now. First, we need to figure out the center point of the change in atmosphere. On your tablets, there should be a communication device that allows us to talk from elongated distances. Lance, since you and I are the slowest in the group in terms of speed, our job will be to stay in the city and gather any sort of intel on our situation.

The rest of you, take out your tablets and press on the map feature. I've marked 4 points that each of you should go stand at. Once each one of you are there, keep moving outward until the furthest point that you feel a change in atmosphere. Make sure to move either up or down from there to make sure that you're standing in the center of the circle, otherwise, it wont work.

From there, use the map to measure the distance between the top and bottom, and the left and right. At the point of intersection between the two lines, that's where our target is," Core explained his plan, to which everyone agreed to.

Core and Lance stayed in the city and asked around the citizens about the source of their happiness. Most of the people they asked had no idea what they were talking about, and the two moved on. But some citizens froze up at the question, and upon further investigation, ceased talking to them and made an excuse to further themselves. It was clear that some people knew more than others, and something was being hidden in this city.

Meanwhile, the other four went to their points on the map. When they arrived at the outskirts of the city, they could still feel the atmospheric change, even through the walls. The only one who couldn't feel it was Reggie, who went back through where they came from, the south entrance. From there, the atmospheric change could only be felt when you entered the walls. As Reggie inspected the point of change closer, he could see small black wisps form up from the ground, then dissipate into the air as they rose.

He informed the rest of his group about his findings as they began using it to identify the points of change. Looking closely, they were able to identify the vertexes of the circle they formed, connecting a line from each person on their map, forming a cross-shaped interception at a certain place inside the city...