I had to act, and act fast. Deimos was no mere supernatural creature, as you may have guessed, but a force of nature. A force of nature with the ability to induce pass panic and terror in people for no good reason. A force of nature who fed on people's fears that he amplified to feed himself. That in turn would make him more powerful.
True, a rampage by Deimos would produce a lot of magical energy in the world around, true. Whether I would be to harness it was another matter altogether. Besides, how would it affect other humans around me? What was the council even thinking?
First, I had to calm down, and think. I had dealt with a lot of crazy stuff in the last year, like university. This wasn't going to be much worse by comparison. Now, the first thing to do was to start monitoring the news. I turned the TV on. I simultaneously started looking for any traces of a mass panic online. Neither medium indicated anything of the sort. Was it outside the country? Deimos should have started doing something by now.
I kept monitoring the news, but there was no indication of anything like that. Finally, what happened was I fell asleep in front of the TV until I was woken up by the alarm. I seriously considered skipping lectures, but then I realised - Kathy was there. I couldn't possibly monitor all media, and my knowledge of this world was still limited. Kathy was already convinced I wasn't from this world, and if she did spill anything, chances are, no one would believe her. She would make a good ally.
By some miracle, I made it to university in one piece and in time. There was a short break during the first lecture, but I decided against speaking about it to Kathy at the time, because of two reasons - one, I slept through the lecture and woke up halfway through the break, and two, Kathy would want an explanation ranging from fifteen to thirty minutes long by my estimates, which wasn't possible during a ten minute break.
We usually had lunch together. This was starting to make me a little nervous. I hadn't checked the news properly in hours, and Kathy wasn't sitting near me. I pushed these thoughts away forcefully - they were just the sort of thing that would make me vulnerable to Deimos on the off chance he was hanging around here.
"What's up, Murdoch? you look a little nervous," said Ryan suddenly.
He was also one of my classmates - one who preferred to remain quiet most of the time.Why had he noticed my existence? Why had he bothered to comment on it? Was I becoming paranoid? No, I couldn't allow this. I was making myself the prime target for Deimos. Perhaps it was a good thing - but then, who would be able to stop him? Renard? No, he would be way too busy with his own schemes.
"Yeah, you look really pale," said Kathy, "did something happen?"
"No, no, nothing at all," I said, "I need to go to the library. Bye."
I ran away as quickly as I could - perhaps too quickly. The others stared after me. I didn't care. I had to get somewhere and check the news. Trying to team up with Kathy wasn't worth my sanity. I got to one of the library computers, and started browsing the news. All the news appeared to be political so far.
I was reaching this conclusion when I felt someone put their hand on my shoulder. Understandably, I reacted, the way I knew how to - by getting into position to cast a spell, before realising who I was facing. It was Kathy.
"Oh, it's just you. What are you doing here?" I asked.
"Are you going to tell me the truth? I know something's going on with you..."
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you as well," I said, "look, let's go somewhere a bit more private, okay? I get nervous when surrounded by people under these circumstances."
She looked slightly amused, but agreed. We met outside the library. She was waiting for me to start the conversation, obviously, so I did.
"First of all, you were right about me..."
"I knew it!"
"And, look, don't panic, but the council back home has released a supernatural entity into this world. It's dangerous, and I want your help finding it out, quickly. I've been here for about an year, so I'm not very good at looking for the news I want to find, plus I can't monitor everything all the time..."
"So, can't you use like, magic to find it?"
"No. I'm all out of magic. Wait, did you just believe everything I said, just like that?"
"I know you're not a liar. So, what are we looking for?"
"Mass panic, terror, or possibly one person or the other attacking people like crazy, perhaps?"
"Mass panic aside, I doubt the news will report anything like that. Are you sure this thing is in the country, to begin with? No one's going to report..."
"No, I'm not sure. Look, Kathy, just keep monitoring the situation, and if anything crops up, call me. You have my number, right? If you see anything of the sort, don't get involved. I might be able to use the magic leaking off it to do something, but don't fight it alone, or you might be possessed as well. Do you understand?"
Kathy nodded. She didn't seem concerned at all, which worried me a little. Did she even believe me? Was she leading me on, recording the conversation to go laugh at me later with friends? If that was the case, it would be her loss. They would know I was telling the truth when I warned them about Deimos. But what if this got out? I would be a wanted man here as well.
"It's going to be alright," said Kathy, suddenly, "You've dealt with this kind of thing before, right?"
"Y-yeah," I said, "we have ten minutes until the lecture. I'm going to check on the news until then."
I couldn't keep checking the news during the lecture. The tension, sleep deprivation, and post lunch sedation effect all took hold all at once, and I fell asleep shortly after the lecture began. Still, it was a terrible nap. I had nightmare after nightmare, and almost woke up screaming in the middle of the lecture hall. Luckily, I was fully awake before I could actually scream. The nap had been only ten minutes. I looked around the class in confusion. It was then that I saw Ryan. He was staring at me intensely.
He was the first one to notice my escalating panic during lunch as well. I inevitably jumped to the obvious conclusion. I had to be sure. If it was Ryan, he was only possessed. Still, if he was possessed by Deimos, I would be able to draw in some magical power. There should be some hanging around the area.
With my right hand still on the desk, I put my left hand under the desk, and tried to gather magical energy on to it. At first, there was no reaction, but soon, I started gathering magical energy. It wasn't a little - I could feel it surging through my arm - a felling I hadn't felt in about a year. There was no mistaking it. I kept going - I wanted to see exactly how much energy I could gather. I was watching the entire lecture hall intently. No one seemed to be reacting to it - not even Ryan.
The supply dried up pretty soon. I had gathered enough magical power to regain some base level powers, hopefully. A spell to locate Deimos would take more power than I managed to gather, but this confirmed my suspicions. Ryan was likely possessed by Deimos.
Now, I was wide awake. I was barely paying attention to the lecture, but Ryan seemed quite focused on it - a significant anomaly given his nature. There was a short break during the lecture, and I went out with the others as usual. So did Ryan. I didn't try to speak to him, but I watched his quite intently. The break was quite short, and the lecture resumed son afterwards, and I watched Ryan all through it.
Once the lecture finished, Kathy dragged me out by the arm. That was definitely going to get me teased to hell and back afterwards, but there was no reasoning with Kathy in this mood - because she was definitely worried about something.
"Stop staring at Ryan. Everyone's starting to notice it," she said, the moment she dragged me outside the class, "What's going on with you?"
"Did you notice anything odd about him?"
"What? No, I didn't notice - wait, are you trying to say he's whatever you're looking for? He doesn't look particularly terrified or panicked..."
"But he's good at sensing it - at least he noticed me panicking rather quickly. That's odd, don't you think, especially given the type of guy he is?"
"It's not that odd," said Kathy, "pull yourself together. This is getting ridiculous..."
"I know for a fact that Deimos was in that classroom," I said, "or, at least..."
"What's going on with you?" asked Ellis, "you were glaring at Ryan the entire time. Did something happen?"
This was another of my friends. He wasn't really the type that would notice a lot of things.
"Wait, he was?" asked Ryan, "I didn't see - I mean, I noticed he was worried, but then I forgot all about it - what's going on?"
There was one way I could find Deimos, once and for all. It was risky, but at that time, I was desperate. I switched to my language.
"Deimos, I want to talk to you, alone."
None of the three people around me reacted. Kathy looked slightly puzzled, and Ryan and Ellis stared at each other. He was either disguising himself well, or he wasn't among the three people here. I tried absorbing magical energy again. There was a little of it around, but it wasn't enough to confirm the presence of Deimos. Perhaps he had already passed by here and left the class. I pushed the three around me out of the way and rushed back into the lecture hall. It was nearly empty. I got to my seat. There, I tried checking for magical energy again. The levels were residual. Either he had left, or he was hiding his presence very well.
What could I do? I stuffed the books back into my bag as fast as I could, and brushed past the three of them, without talking to them. Right now, I could not. I made it back to my room in record time. I wanted to be alone, I wanted to think. What could I do now? How was I going to get Deimos to reveal himself?
I was sitting on my bed, thinking, when I heard a familiar voice. I had heard it in the holding cells next to the lab ever so often before, so I recognised it right away.
"Did you miss me?"
"So you finally showed yourself. Tell me, who did you possess?"
"I'm not stupid. I just came to tell you something. I will possess you. I will make you suffer. You had your turn making my life hell, and I will do the same to you."
"Go ahead and do that," I said, getting to my feet, "this time, I will make sure no one but me can set you free."
"All in good time," he said.
"We need to talk..."
By then, Deimos was gone. During the conversation, I had managed to acquire a good amount of magical power leaking off him. True, it was nowhere near the levels I had back at home, but with this, I wouldn't be completely helpless. In addition to that, I knew I was his target.
So, what would Deimos do to hurt me? What did I fear the most? I feared nothing much, really - not in this world. While I was friends with Kathy and all of them, I didn't care for them. I did care about my grades, but the exams weren't an immediate threat, and anyway Deimos would have to possess multiple professors for that to work. He could try to injure me physically, but he had made no such attempt. How was he going to hurt me?
I was pacing up and down in my room when suddenly, Another hologram appeared in my room. It was the head of the council, finally making contact with me. I stopped in my tracks, and waited for him to speak. I wanted to hear what he had to say for himself.
We glared at each other for a second, and then he decided to speak.
"I believe you are aware of the situation, at least partially."
I said nothing. I didn't even bother to nod in agreement. I waited for him to finish what he was saying.
"The keystones are all gone. Phobos is free in the city. He had caused minimal damage so far, but the chaos keeps spreading. I want you to come back as soon as you. For that end, we have released Deimos into the world you're in now, as per your request. You can use the energy he will leak to regain your powers, and return. You will return, contain Phobos, repair the keystones, and then you can go back to that world to recapture Deimos."
I didn't say anything.
"What is your reply?"
"I will do what I think is right."
"The right thing to do is to save your country from this disaster, like you did..."
"Please don't waste my time. The discussion is over, President. Please close the hologram."
He didn't - at least not right away. I glared at him for about a second, at which point he did turn it off. It was then that the reality of my situation came crashing down on me again. I crashed on my bed, and stayed there, staring at the ceiling. I don't know how long I stayed that way, and I don't know when I fell asleep like that, driven by pure mental exhaustion, with the room's light still on. All I know was that I was still there in the exact same position I went to sleep in when the alarm went off in the morning the next day.
I forced myself to go to lectures the next day. Deimos would be there, surely. I was already on the lookout for his presence as I entered the campus. I could feel the residual energy left behind as I walked in to the building. I certainly felt his presence in the lecture hall. He was definitely there, and he had apparently grown in power.
I did get a few strange looks from Kathy and co when I walked in, but that was expected. I nodded to them as I took my seat. Kathy came and sat next to me. Before she could speak, the lecturer came in. I was glad - I was convinced Deimos would possess someone close to me, and I needed time to study the situation.
Now the magical levels were back to residual levels. I was listening to the lecture, but scanning the rest of the class at the same time, while drawing in the magical power I could. I still didn't have enough for a search spell, but with my improved baseline sensitivity, I was starting to sense that it came from the front row, near Ryan and Ellis. Now I had to figure out how to draw Deimos away from them.
I never got so far. The moment the lecturer announced the break, Ryan suddenly leapt onto his chair and jumped over it, right at me and Kathy. I knew what it was right away, but before my conscious mind could process what was happening, I had jumped to cover Kathy, and both our chairs fell backwards, leaving the two us, and now Ryan on the floor. Ryan rolled off, and immediately got to his feet, brandishing a pen in a perfect ice-pick grip.
------------------------------------END OF CHAPTER TWO-----------------------------------------
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