Read SETOGIWA: A World On The Brink (Part 1) :: Chapter 8: Awakened Incantation

Awakened Incantation

Hayoku and Zenatori walked out the school doors, and they found themselves at the parking lot. As Hayoku clicked his keys, Zenatori saw a glamorous car in the space.
"Whoa, how did you afford this?"

Hayoku slightly smiled.

"I'm a principal for a school of syneji artists. What did you expect?"

As Zenatori approaches the car, he looks to his left and sees a brown-haired girl with a single ponytail, while her sea-like eyes stand out the most. He found himself in instant shock as he saw Naoko Akari.

She looked at Zenatori reciprocating his feelings of astonishment. Nonetheless, she spoke in her calm and centered demeanor.

"I didn't expect to see you here. What exactly is going on, principal?"

Hayoku sternly told her.
"I'll explain once we get in the car."

After a few moments on the road, Akari sat in the front, while Zenatori sat in the back seat. Zenatori was still left unfazed in this sequence of events.
"So, you mind explaining?" Zenatori said.

Hayoku left out a brief sigh, but knew he owed them an explanation.
"Since you're so new to Zenatori, I took it upon myself to help you gain some experience. As you know, all the cities in Japan are covered in very thick coats of isotonic force by the founding artists to keep automorphs out from entering the cities. It's uncommon, but some automorphs are strong enough to endure the barrier and make it to the cities. But for centuries, the isotonic enclosed city barriers have only been growing stronger. There has been a certain weak spot in the barrier for a very long time now, and automorphs have been able to enter through it scot-free. I want you and Akari to strengthen the barrier and kill the automorphs around it."

Zenatori rubbed his chin and thought to himself.

"All of this sounds pretty interesting. It seems like Akari is going to do most of the heavy lifting."

As Zenatori exited his thoughts, he raised his head and noticed a deepening glare from Akari.
"Don't think you have anything to do," she said in a voice of melancholy.

The three of them finally made it to the destination, and they admired the scene. The area was completely vacant, and the houses around were emptied. The still air was almost eerie, and the silence was deafening. Hayoku briefly walked around the premises and scouted the area.
"Welp, you guys got it from here, right? If anything bad happens, just call me and I'll get here as soon as I can."

Akari looked concisely stunned.
"You're just gonna leave that fast?"

"I don't really have a reason to stay. Unlike you, Akari, I can trust people. You'd be strong enough to put down anything that comes out."

Akari showed a face of displeasure, but couldn't bring herself to disagree with Hayoku. Zenatori took it on himself to acknowledge the scene. Hayoku walked back in his car, and as he opened the door, he said one final thing.
"If anything there is unexpectedly strong, notify me," he then drove off.

Akari let out a deep sigh and spoke.
"It's unlikely there's any strong automorphs due to the fact, not even syneji artists could bring themselves to notify anyone. Regardless, keep your guard up."

Zenatori nodded but said.
"If I find a strong one, what do I do?"

Akari faced her palm out and muttered.
"Relative restriction: relative manifestation."

In an instant, a small orb built itself above the ground, and its greyish properties resonated. Akari explained.
"I'm giving you my relative manifestation."

Zenatori stood questioningly.
"Relative manifestation?"

Akari retracted her hand and signaled Zenatori to follow him.

"A relative manifestation just allows you to either increase the physical attributes of yourself or someone else. In terms of syneji artistry, it's quite an easy technique to learn."

Zenatori felt his body and looked around himself. He could feel the power resonate inside of him. His veins tensed up, and his muscles stretched, he was no longer a weakling. This made Zenatori raise a question.
"So when do I learn it?"

Akari shook her head.

"It's still hard to do for some average guy such as yourself. You're mending isotonic force with your isotonic energy to increase your raw physical output. By giving you my relative manifestation, it should allow you to survive a hit or two, and possibly fight back."

She turnt to the building.

"For now, we should focus on stomping out the automorphs around the area. Once we kill them, we'll likely be able to find the source of the weak spot in the barrier."

"How so?"

"Because automorphs some contain isotonic force, but they are much worse at using it than humans, sloppy even. All we need to do is find one with isotonic force, and I'll use my venerated sights of divinity to pick up its trace."

"If automorphs are this easy to kill, why hasn't humanity killed them off already?"

"Every time an automorph dies, there's a chance it could develop an evolutionary adaptation to counter the thing that killed it and come back to life. That's why the founding artists developed these massive barriers of isotonic force. It's better for us to ignore them rather than to try and drive them extinct."

Zenatori rubbed his chin and thought about everything Akari said. Akari walked toward a building, and Zenatori followed. She opened the front door and said to Zenatori.

"I'll check this one, you go to the other one. Just try not to die."

Zenatori calmly smirked.

"Pfff, survival is my middle name."

Akari let off a small smile and walked into the building. Zenatori turnt back and looked around the setting. Right behind him was a grand facility that likely housed the source of the weakened barrier. As he entered through the door, he greatly observed the surroundings around him and noticed that this was a factory. Everything seemed too new, it was likely recently evacuated. Although the conveyor belts were broken off their positions, everything else was left mostly untouched.

Zenatori noticed another room inside the already huge main room. He walked to its following door, creaked the door open, and saw a deep, stretching hallway. As he walked through the doorframe, he felt the presence of something above him, resting above the frame.

A strong sift flew through the air, and he narrowly evaded it. The sudden ambush caused him to slide through the hallway. Zenatori rapidly thought to himself.

"There's no way I would've dodged that without Akari's manifestation."

As he stopped himself, the monster jumped from its post, crashing onto the ground. It was around the same size as Zenatori, albeit being noticeably shorter. It was white with a hint of red and had extremely slender arms. Its small head and its overlapping stretched skin made this being horrifying to look at.

From that ambush alone, Zenatori was able to conclude that the automorph had a sliver of intelligence. Zenatori was taken aback by such a being and briefly thought.
"What is this thing..? I've seen this in a nightmare."

The automorph reached out its right arm and shook its claw-like hands at Zenatori.

"W-weak... Human," it said, desperately trying to form a sentence.

All Zenatori could feel was shock, and he wasn't able to move his body.

"This thing can talk? Not only that, it thinks I'm weak?"

Zenatori felt a wave of determination and cracked his knuckles, readying his position.
"Heh, I'll show you weak. Come at me, you beast!"

The monster rushed using its hands and legs at Zenatori, and he followed as well. He blocked its incoming blow and attempted to strike it, by it thrashed back with its power.

As Zenatori flew back, he skidded across the ground and felt his body begin to ache. It was inflamed by the hit he took from the ground. He looked back up at the automorph began rushing toward him. He grabbed its arms, halting its advance, and the automorph attempted to bite Zenatori.

Its teeth graze his skin and create a cut on his neck as Zenatori narrowly dodges. He then sends a powerful counter, chucking his fist at the beast and causing it to fly back.

It flew through the hallway and crashed against the ground, and flew back to its spot.

"Wow, I actually hit it!" Zenatori thought with a smile.