This room feels like the kind of place where something is going to happen. Like you’re constantly on edge, anticipating the unknown. Even so, every step is met with zero repercussions. I can see no sign of traps or enemies.

The stillness is stifling.

I avoid the book for now, examining the lights and each of the doors in turn. I have a faint worry that the doors will fly open all at once and we’ll be swarmed by robots, or something equivalent. With that in mind, I head to the light first. The sconce I approach is beautifully ornate, seemingly carved with the smallest of chisels… or, more likely, earth magic. Regardless, the swirls and patterns that adorn the smooth stone seem designed to catch the light and glow slightly from the reflection. The inside of the sconce is covered with Light runes. I’m not sure what’s powering them, but a quick survey with my Energy reveals little. Content to let it be for now, I move on to the doors.

Each of the doors has a set of runes along it, spanning its width. The layout is similar to the bookshelf-turned-door that got us here in the first place, but the runes themselves are different. It seems as though the initial runes are very similar, if not the same, but beyond that, they differ widely. Even between the three doors, that initial section is most of the commonality. I make sure to examine all the doors before picking one at random to… ‘test’. I push Energy into the door, only to find that the runes don’t change in the slightest, even after I push in 40 points of Energy. I step back, confused. I felt my Energy go in, but where the runes lit up slightly with the bookcase, these runes didn’t change at all- Oh. Right at the exact place I pushed Energy through, the smallest fraction of a rune emits the barest light. It lingers for only a few more moments before fading to the same darkness as the rest. That’s going to take a lot of Energy. A fuck-ton, in fact. Some quick mental math and approximation leads to an estimate of about 50,000 Energy to open. Fucking what!? Even chugging Energy potions, I’d be nowhere close.

“Yeah, I really dig standing around in silence. This is super fun and interesting.” Annoyance flashes through me, but I suppress it. She expected a fun dungeon full of loot, and instead, we got… some weird Energy bullshit. I’m pretty happy, but she can’t really do anything to help.

“I hear you. Wanna check out that book? Maybe they actually wrote something down instead of just pouring a piece of their soul into it.”

“...What?”

“Nothing, just… try and figure out what the book is all about.”

“If this kills me, I’m haunting the shit out of you.”

“It won’t- probably won’t kill you.”

“You really need to work on your bedside manner.”

While Lauren moves to investigate, I continue with my experimentation. This door is beyond me, so… maybe the others aren’t? The runes are different, so maybe the Energy requirements are as well. The next one fills more than the first, but not by much. Easier… ok, cool, that’s a trend I can get behind. The final door fills almost halfway before I have to stop.

Ok. 100, 1,000, 50,000...ish.

Result: fuck me.

“It looks like an inventory. The rooms are labeled: Armory, Library, and… the last space is blank? Anyway, it kinda details the contents of each room, along with some warnings. I think your traps will be on the way to getting to those places. How goes the lockpicking?”

“Fucking terrible. I can’t open any of them until I more than double my Energy pool.”

“That’s rough. The armory seems like a fucking cool place. I don’t know what half of this stuff even is, but it all seems to be geared around using Energy in combat. The library has research on some more… well, it says ‘eclectic’ uses of Energy. Obviously, the unlabeled room has no description.”

“Let me see.” Sure enough, the book contains an empty space where the last room is supposed to be mentioned, and a bunch of blank pages where the details should have been. A bit of Energy reveals why.

The moment I push Energy into that spot, I feel an overwhelming sense of dread, with ironclad purpose. The feeling of total annihilation, and new growth in its place. A god taking something apart and putting it back together, differently. No fight or resistance of any kind.

Just like that, the feeling fades to nothing, and I do my best to blink away the horror I just experienced. I’m not sure exactly what the last door contains, but I think it would break this world if it got out. The one who opens that door will be unstoppable…

And Calminus wants it to be me. Or, at least, a human. I find myself staring at the door without having intended to, and quickly tear my eyes away. Lauren is looking at me funny.

“What?”

“... You had a really scary look in your eye just a second ago. What’s behind that last door?”

“...”

“Amadeus?”

“It’s… something powerful. An ability that let this species resist the system for long enough to ensure it wouldn’t fall into the hands of the things that run it. It feels… bad. But I think I’m going to have to use it… eventually.”

Lauren looks at me for a long time without saying anything. “It’ll be awhile before we even have the choice. Let’s take it a step at a time, yeah?”

“...Yeah.”

“For now, let’s head home. This place is useless until you can unlock more of it.”

I nod, barely paying attention. My thoughts are firmly stuck on that last door, and the unimaginable power locked behind it.

All I can think about is how badly I want it.

---

Our egress is mostly unhindered. Those few moments we had clear sight on the Shadow Men really culled their numbers, and though I hear a bit of faint laughter, nothing attacks us. From what Kaythe conveys, the monsters watch us, but don’t make any move to engage.

Which actually reminds me of something I need to figure out: how were they revealed? Light had suddenly appeared while I had Fortify active, but Fortify only affects my physical attributes, so it couldn’t have been that… I think? I’ve never actually watched what happens to my Energy when I have Fortify active. I divide my attention between continuing to run back towards The Barrows and watching in my Energy view with Fortify on. As I expected, my Energy, predominantly golden, flashes brightly and is consumed to increase my physical abilities. On a whim, I try focussing on burning green Energy, but it doesn’t seem to have a meaningful impact. The result is the same with red. Huh. Well, maybe because it all has the common progenitor of golden Energy, it all acts that way when burned… but Light doesn’t have that commonality. I can’t turn Light into anything else.

The same bright flash from before illuminates the area around me, before fading as I lose focus.

“Are you trying to alert everything around us that we’re here?”

“As if some shitty Carnines could take us. Forget that, I figured out the light thing I did before.”

“Well damn. So, what does it actually do?”

“I… don’t know. I mean, it dispels illusions? Or, at least, whatever those things were using to conceal themselves. I think the fog was also an illusion and that didn’t get removed, so…”

[Higher tier Skill discovered for Secondary Skill: Fortify. Upgrading to rare Secondary Skill: Energy Combustion (Active) - Energy within the body of the user may be consumed at will to greatly amplify its normal effects, at the cost of efficiency.

Current synchronization: Self - Augment physical statistics temporarily; Light - Leverage user’s Will against deception based skills.]