Chapter 1: A Mundane Infestation

Chapter 1: A Mundane Infestation

Case file 734-G was supposed to be a cakewalk. A promotion-track-starter, the kind they gave to fresh-faced graduates from the State Arcane Academy to get their boots wet. Kaelen Vance adjusted his glasses, the frame cool against the sweat on his temples, and re-read the glowing text on his department-issue tablet for the tenth time.

INCIDENT REPORT: 734-G TYPE: Unsanctioned Mana Manifestation (Lesser) CLASSIFICATION: Glimmer Infestation (Tier 1) LOCATION: Sector Gamma, Oakwood Residential Tower, Apt 13B ASSIGNED TECHNICIAN: K. Vance (ID: 7709)

Mundane. That was the word for it. Glimmers were the magical equivalent of cockroaches—parasitic mana constructs that fed on leaky power conduits in the city’s Mana Grid. They were ugly, a nuisance, but ultimately harmless. A simple Level 1 Purification spell, a bit of paperwork, and he’d be home in time to catch the evening news. This was his first solo assignment, his chance to prove that his perfect scores at the academy weren't just theory. He wanted this clean, by-the-book.

The corridor of the Oakwood Tower flickered under an eerie, inconsistent blue light from failing magi-lamps. The air was thick with the scent of ozone and damp plaster. Kaelen’s gray jumpsuit, still stiff and new, felt like a Halloween costume. He took a deep breath, straightened his back, and knocked on the door of 13B.

A man with tired, bloodshot eyes and a stained t-shirt cracked the door open. "You from Compliance?" he grumbled, not even bothering to look at Kaelen’s ID. "Took you long enough. They're making the lights go funny. Freaking out my cat."

"Sir, I'm Technician Vance," Kaelen said, his voice a notch higher than he’d intended. "I'll need access to the affected area to perform a diagnostic scan."

The man grunted and shuffled back inside, leaving the door ajar. Kaelen stepped in, his boots squelching on something sticky. The apartment was a mess, but his attention was immediately drawn to the corner of the living room. A cluster of Glimmers clung to the wall where a power conduit junction box was located. They pulsed with a sickly violet light, far brighter than the textbook examples. There were at least a dozen of them, each the size of his fist. The System interface in his vision flickered, a cascade of data scrolling past his left eye as he focused.

[Analyzing... Target(s) Identified: Glimmer x14] [Mana Signature: Unstable, Tier 1 (Anomalous Aggression Detected)]

Anomalous aggression? That wasn't in the manual. Kaelen swallowed hard, his initial confidence wavering. No matter. The protocol was clear.

"Sir, for your safety, please remain in another room," he stated, raising his tablet. It hummed to life, projecting a pale blue targeting matrix onto the writhing mass of Glimmers.

His desire was simple: execute the procedure perfectly and file a flawless report. The obstacle, however, was already presenting itself. The Glimmers weren't just passively feeding. As his spell began to charge, they seemed to notice him, their pulsing light intensifying, their collective hum rising in pitch.

"Okay, let's get this over with," he muttered, tapping a sequence of glyphs on his tablet. "Initiating standard procedure. Spell ID: AC-P-001, Purification Wave."

A gentle stream of silver energy flowed from his tablet towards the wall. According to the manual, the Glimmers should have dissolved like sugar in water.

They didn't.

Instead, they flared violently. The one closest to the energy stream latched onto it, and to Kaelen's horror, began siphoning his mana directly.

A sharp warning flashed in his vision. [WARNING: MANA DRAIN DETECTED. MP: 85/100]

His heart hammered against his ribs. This was wrong. This was all wrong. He cut the spell, but it was too late. Provoked, the entire cluster detached from the wall and floated towards him, a swarm of hungry, violet wasps. Their humming turned into an aggressive, dissonant shriek that made his teeth ache.

[MP: 79/100]

His textbook knowledge was failing him. The obstacle wasn't just a few magical pests; it was a hungry pack of them, and they saw him as a meal. He backpedaled, fumbling with his tablet. There was a Tier 2 containment spell, but it was notoriously inefficient and technically required supervisor approval for a Tier 1 infestation.

Screw the rules. His desire now was just to not get drained dry and become a cautionary tale for the next batch of academy rookies.

He frantically traced the more complex glyphs for a Stasis Field. Tendrils of violet energy, thin as wires, shot out from the swarm and latched onto his arms and chest. The drain accelerated.

[MP: 52/100] [MP: 41/100] [WARNING: MANA RESERVES AT CRITICAL LEVEL]

The world started to gray at the edges. His spell fizzled, half-formed. His knees felt weak. He was going to fail. On his very first job, he was going to be overwhelmed by the magical equivalent of rats.

Just as a Glimmer lunged for his face, the apartment door slammed open with a force that shook the floor.

The air instantly changed. The oppressive humidity vanished, replaced by a sudden, sharp cold. The smell of ozone was overwhelmed by the scent of a coming storm. The Glimmers froze, their aggressive shrieking turning into a terrified chittering as they recoiled from the doorway.

Standing there was a woman who seemed carved from granite and fury. She wore the same department jumpsuit as Kaelen, but hers was covered by worn, scuffed tactical gear. Her dark hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, and a faint, residual-magic scar glowed like a malevolent ember over her left eye. The ambient mana in the room didn't just bend around her; it fled from her.

Kaelen’s interface struggled to even quantify her presence. [ANALYZING... POWER LEVEL DETECTED... ERROR: SIGNATURE EXCEEDS TECHNICIAN-CLASS SENSORS]

This was Lyra Thorne. He knew the name. Everyone did. A Field Enforcer. A legend. A monster, some whispered. She was the department’s blunt instrument, the one they sent when things went catastrophically wrong.

What was she doing here?

Lyra’s gaze swept over the scene—the cowering Glimmers, the half-collapsed Kaelen, the flickering lights—with an expression of profound boredom and contempt. She didn't even glance at him.

"Pathetic," she clipped out, her voice like gravel.

She raised a hand. There was no tablet, no complex glyphs, just a casual gesture. Raw, untamed lightning, white-hot and crackling, danced between her fingertips.

With a flick of her wrist, an arc of electricity shot across the room. It wasn't a spell; it was pure, refined power. The bolt chained between the Glimmers, and in a series of popping sounds and puffs of foul-smelling black smoke, they were all gone. The entire encounter, which had brought Kaelen to his knees, had taken her less than a second.

The result was immediate and absolute. The threat was gone. Kaelen sagged against the wall, his mana slowly beginning to trickle back, the relief so profound it felt like nausea.

"Report, technician," Lyra commanded, her sharp eyes finally landing on him, pinning him like a bug.

"I... Technician Vance," he stammered, pushing his glasses up his nose. "It was supposed to be a standard Tier 1 infestation, but they were... aggressive. They resisted the Purification protocol."

Lyra snorted, a harsh, dismissive sound. She pulled a heavy-duty scanner from her belt, a piece of pre-System tech that looked both ancient and brutally effective. She swept it across the wall where the Glimmers had been. It whined, a needle on its analog display twitching wildly before slamming into the red.

"Of course they resisted, kid," she said, her voice dripping with scorn for his by-the-book naivety. "You were trying to mop up a puddle while ignoring the burst pipe."

The turning point. The job wasn't over. It was just beginning.

Kaelen stared, confused. "What... what do you mean?"

She turned the scanner's display towards him. The screen showed a schematic of the building, but deep below them, in the foundation, a malignant, chaotic symbol pulsed in stark, blood-red relief. It was a chaotic knot of energy he had never seen in any textbook.

This was the surprise, the moment his simple, mundane world cracked open.

"These things weren't the infestation," Lyra said, her voice dropping to a low, dangerous growl. The glowing scar over her eye seemed to brighten. "They were the symptoms. Downstairs, deep in the building's guts, someone built an unregistered, corrupted mana source. And whatever it is, it's leaking."