After the woman who had introduced herself as Grimoire Scarlet, announce that she could save my life, Minerva and I were put in a space shuttle, heading to the interstellar planet called Vextel. The hospital papers were already signed which would explain why there was no resistance as we left.

“Ma’am, how exactly can you save my brother’s life? Traditional ways won’t work on him.” Minerva asked politely.

I sat at the far end of the spacecraft’s passenger bay, still hooked up on some machines. I stared at the lady who called herself Grimoire Scarlet. When she announced that she could save my life, I held her in extremely high regards, after my sister of course. I still had trouble believing my ears. “Save your life.” She had said. The only person that had stated that ever since my epidemic started. Scarlet seemed to be young, maybe in her early thirties. She seemed to be gentle and motherly, talking to Minerva and I like we were her children. She had scarlet red hair, that was obviously dyed, most probably to fit her last name. Her golden eyes were delicate and calm, but at the same time shown with passion.

“It’s very simple.” She answered. “We will make your brother, Atlas Ryder into the first artificial Prophet!”

“Artificial Prophet?” Minerva asked, confused.

Scarlet nodded. “The first ever. I’m a scientist and my field of research is looking at Mana, Magic, and Stigma. Stigmas being mutated D.N.A strands have fascinated me to no end. Why do people like me have no Stigmas, while others do? Why can’t we all have Stigmas so we can all harness Mana in the form of Magic? Those are questions I want to find answers for. So my team and I have poured years’ worth of time and resources into a project we call The Stigma Helix Project or SHP for short. In a nutshell, the goal of this project is to help people with no Stigmas like me to be able to experience the joy of wielding magic. To create new forms of magic and build fully, functional, artificial Stigma.”

“But that’s impossible! The body or magic may not even accept these false Stigmas!”

“In any normal event, then yes, it would be impossible. But I’ve looked at Atlas’ medical files. From what I could gather, his situation isn’t the norm. Atlas' epidemic is a rare case known as Eater Magic Disorder. It is a rare type of illness known to us so far, so there has been no effective counter-measure have been researched so far. As the name implies, a person’s magic eats away at the person’s body, even after death. So if a family wants to keep the body, incineration is needed, albeit the family will have ash. Eater Magic Disorder or EMD, is caused when the magic a person has is too strong for the Stigmas to control. This is a disorder is usually seen in people that wield Grade 1 magic but were born with too few Stigma.”

I saw her hand Minerva a file that held my medical and personal information. Minerva looked through it as Grimoire continued talking.

“Studies have shown that Prophets wielding Grade 4 to Grade 2 magic usually are born with one or two Stigma, but it is becoming increasingly common to see Prophets with these magics to be born with more. Grade 1 magic users however, naturally are born with about three to five Stigmas, five being the maximum we’ve ever seen in a person. Now, your younger brother Atlas, has five Stigmas, the highest possible amount a human can gain. Well, so far that is. But he has EMD despite this fact which means he is a stronger, deadlier magic that has yet to be discovered. So this is where our man-made Stigmas come into play. We will slice into his genetic buildup into the fake Stigmas so they copy his D.N.A.”

Scarlet walked up to a console, pressing some buttons and a display popped up. It showed an animated step by step of what would happen.

“These fake Stigmas are made using organic tissues and with the help of organic magic so they essentially act like mutated D.N.A strands. Before his magic starts eating his D.N.A strands, we will operate on Atlas, and cure him, Of course, I cannot promise to you, that this will work, I can only give you my opinion.”

“Essentially, my brother will be a test subject.” Minerva stated.

“Well if you phrase it that way, then yes.”

“What’s your opinion on this then? Will it work?”

“Positive.”

Minerva sighed then reluctantly nodded her head. “If this saves my brother’s life, I will be indebted to you.”

“No need. Unfortunately, we only have three Stigmas that are almost finished construction. We will have to hope that his body and magic accept the new Stigmas and hope they will be enough to control his magic. If not, Atlas will most likely die.”

We were on that ship for almost a month. Every time that I would look out the windows, Vextel and the other three interstellar planets loomed closer and closer. I was blown away at how different the interstellar planets looked compared to Nebula. Blue oceans, green landscapes and gorgeous weather. On the day that our ship landed on Vextel, we were lead to a car. Minerva, Scarlet and I got into the car and headed into the unknown. I sat in the back along with Minerva, who was clutching my arm. She gets scared and nervous easily in places she didn’t know.

“We have arrived.” Grimoire Scarlet announced a few hours later.

We had pulled up to a big building complex. People in lab coats, doctor and nurse uniforms were waiting for us at the entrance of the building.

“Welcome to Vextel and your new home Atlas. This is where you will be staying in the upcoming months. We will be conducting various check-ups on you. You will be placed on a diet, and placed on a training regimen.” Grimoire told me.

“For you Ms. Minerva, you’ll be placed in school and adapt to life here on Vextel. You will be able to see your brother quite regularly. I hear that you are a prodigy. You will no doubt be of great help to all of us.”