Janus did not elaborate on how he cheated. Even after Lyza complained, he simply gave her a small, tired smile. “It is just so boring, and it was not really my own effort. That is why I did not care much about the spar. But I will tell you this: it is related to the powers I told you and Cyrus about.”

  Janus spent the rest of his day moving as little as possible due to the lingering pain in his body. He lay on his bed and focused his mind on his hybrids. His seven bodies were currently assisting Dr. Simon in building the first human mobile suit, utilizing his deep well of dwarven knowledge.

  Every Dwarf knew how to build and maintain their mobile suit; their lives depended on it. Most suits were passed down through generations, requiring descendants to replace parts, reforge plating, and improve the energy veins that traveled through the Core. Warrior dwarves tweaked their machines daily. After absorbing years of memories, Janus was intimately familiar with the maintenance of a suit, even if he had never physically held the tools himself until now.

  Helping build a mobile suit from the ground up was a daunting task. Janus lacked the foundational knowledge required to forge a machine from nothing, but his collaboration with Qana was bridging that gap. He provided the intuitive mechanical logic of the dwarves, while she provided the human engineering. Together, they were making rapid progress on a prototype that merged both worlds into a single, cohesive blueprint.

  “I have to say, it is truly excellent to work on this with you, Specialist Vane,” Dr. Simon said, looking up from a complex wiring harness. “I usually do not have peers at my level to discuss these things with. Having you here, bringing knowledge humanity simply does not possess yet, is wondrous. I feel like we are making history. The first human mobile suit!”

  “Now that you say it like this, it really does seem wondrous,” Janus replied. “Can I request one thing, Dr. Simon? Can we drop the titles? Just call each other by our names. I spend so much time using these clones that I need something to make me feel more human.”

  Dr. Simon made a sad face, though she did not look away from her work. She kept her hands busy with a pair of pliers. “I did not know you were feeling like that. Of course we can. But if High Commander Marek comes by, we go back to Specialist Vane and Dr. Simon.” She set the tool down, wiped her hands on a towel, and turned to one of the Janus hybrids. “I am Qana Simon, but you can call me Qana.”

  They shook hands, a small moment of normalcy in the cold lab.

  “It is nice to finally be able to call you by your name, Qana,” Janus said.

  “Yes, it is good to be a little informal,” she answered.

  “Was High Commander Marek always so high-strung?” Janus pried, curious about the man who held his leash.

  Qana chuckled. “Janus, we barely started talking like friends and you are already prying into the life of the High Commander? That is dangerous territory. But yes, he has always been focused on the job. I have never seen the man take time off. That is the problem with being so damn competent. People are always messing things up across the bases, usually because of nepotism, the cancer of the Empire. High Commander Marek is the one who has to investigate and punish it all. Last week, Jonas even had to go to Primordia to help deal with some idiocy involving the Elves. Just imagining him going through three teleporters and two world portals is infuriating.”

  Janus was caught off guard when she used the High Commander's first name. he wondered. He quickly scolded himself. The dwarven memories were spoiling his mind, making him think about social gossip instead of survival.

  Janus got ready for sleep earlier than usual. When he arrived at his quarters, he saw only Lyza there. He did not even have time to reach his bed before she spoke.

  “You used the other bodies to give you power, right? Was that the cheating?”

  “Yes, that is partially it,” Janus admitted, glad his friend understood part of it. “I can control seven bodies at the moment. During the fight, they all stopped what they were doing and helped focus on the battle. I can't use their Mana because they only have the Abomination Core, but seven brains focused on moving one body is kinda overkill.”

  Janus continues. “Let me show you how I used my levitation magic on my staff.”

  Janus activated the summoning magitech sigil on his hand, and his golden dwarven battlestaff appeared out of thin air. The long metallic shaft hummed as its sectioned cylinders hovered at each end in a magnetic lock, vibrating with a faint teal light. The weapon floated for a moment before flying slowly toward Lyza. She caught it easily with one hand, feeling the slight magnetic resistance of the floating parts, her face full of understanding.

  “I could hurt someone with this if I was lucky, but I would never be able to do the damage I did in the battle. So I constructed magitech to do what I did, but better.”

  Janus opened his hand and the staff went flying back to him really fast, until he caught it.

  “And by touching you, I activated my staff to recognize your Mana signature as the target. It's called Mana Targeting, something the Dwarves love using. Without all this, I would've lost pathetically to him,” Janus said. He was interrupted by his roommates arriving, almost all at once. He realized Thimba was already in the room, tucked away in her bunk. Janus felt a jolt of horror, wondering if she had heard their conversation. He wondered how neither he nor Lyza noticed her there. Was she using a stealth skill to stay in bed? However, knowing her shyness, he doubted she would gossip about what she heard.

  Janus lay down to sleep. He noticed Gridus looking menacingly at him from across the room, but he ignored the bully and closed his eyes. Soon, he heard a familiar, rasping question.

  “When are you going to heal yourself?”

  Janus sighed. “Why do you always appear like this, Bob?”

  “PUP. I think the way I appear is perfectly normal for an Eldritch,” the creature answered.

  Janus looked around. He was in the same place as before: a realm of complete darkness where he and Bob were visible as if shadows did not exist. It was a dream projection. He noticed that Bob's waxy skin looked more convincing now, more human.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “So you are telling me the name of your people is The Eldritch? What about Abominations?”

  “Abomination? Such a crude, human word,” Bob said, his grin widening. “You see a shape that does not fit your eyes and you call it a mistake. We are the ELDRITCH. We are the architects of the UNREAL. Your world is built on Real foundations: stable, boring, and limited. My world is built on dreams, possibilities, and pure volition. It is the very fabric of the Dream Realm. But your soul, Janus... it has been dyed by the Unreal. You are an Eldritch Elf, a bridge between what is and what can only be dreamed.”

  Janus felt a surge of shock. “What? No, I am human. Or at least half-human. What are you talking about?”

  “Ha! Let me prove to you by teaching you how to scan your soul, PUP. You know how my kind of help may HURT.” Before Janus could protest, Bob pressed his fingertips to Janus's forehead.

  The world shifted around him. For the first time, he felt no agonizing pain from his connection to Bob, only a localized, slight discomfort. Janus felt his consciousness sink into his physical form before expanding outward into a vast and bottomless space. The sky was a brilliant blue, stretching over endless green grass. Instead of a sun, two massive globes of energy hung in the air. One was a steady blue, pulsing with speed. Janus recognized it as his Human or Elven Core. The other was a glitched, flickering sphere: his Eldritch Core.

  “It is impressive to see them like this,” Janus said, breathless. “But how does this help me?”

  “PUP,” Bob said, his voice straining. “By entering your Soulspace, you can interact with your essence. You can Sear Sigils onto your soul, just as I did when I carved the portals into your being. And you can find other alterations, like that curse over there.”

  Bob pointed toward the blue Elven Core. At first, Janus saw nothing. Then, he noticed a growth. It looked like a lump or a wart on the beautiful sphere. It felt wrong, like a chokehold on his potential.

  “It is a curse bestowed upon you,” Bob explained. “Dissolve this, and you will evolve into a being closer to your potential. This practice will also teach you how to Sear things yourself. Do you not want power?”

  Janus knew he needed it. He reached out and touched the lump. He tried using Unmana, but it simply clashed against the Core. He closed his eyes and focused. The problem was not the lump itself; it was that the fibers of the Core were tied in a knot, slowing his Mana to a crawl.

  Janus began the painstaking work of unknotting the fibers of his essence. It felt like hours passed as he untangled the mess, his focus narrowing down to the microscopic chokehold on his power. Suddenly, the tension snapped and the knot began to unravel on its own. The unsightly wart vanished into nothingness, and Janus felt a massive surge of strength rush through his spirit. His Core, once a steady blue, began to spin with such violent velocity that the blue light shifted into a brilliant, blinding white.

  “So cute. Your appearance CHANGED,” Bob said, startling him.

  “What changed?” Janus asked.

  “You will see. I think you will need to use that helmet you made for your mobile suit, at least for some time. Now, I must go. Being away from the Dream Realm for too long is dangerous for us. I do not have a Real Core like you. Remember your potential, I seared some Sigils on your Eldritch Core for a reason. If you want to talk again, use the last Sigil I Seared in your Core when you summoned the Maw-Watcher. It makes the wall between our worlds thinner. But–”

  Bob’s voice was severed as the Dream Realm dissolved.

  Janus snapped his eyes open in his room. He felt light, as if a rusty engine had finally been oiled and its gears replaced. He stood up, and nothing looked different until a strand of hair fell in front of his face.

  It was white.

  Startled, he grabbed a metal plate from his bag to use as a mirror. His hair was a brilliant, shimmering white, more beautiful than any natural color. But then, his heart stopped. He even let go of the metal plate in shock, catching it telekinetically before it hit the floor. With trembling hands, he touched his ears. They were elongated and sharp.

  Janus floated to the bed of Lyza and covered her mouth, shaking her awake. “Psshhhhh! I need help!”

  Lyza woke up, her eyes bulging at his new appearance. Janus kept his hand over her mouth until she calmed down. She quickly reached into her bag, shoved a hat onto his head, and whispered for him to follow her. They snuck out to a private training room.

  “I will teach you how to hide your ears,” she said, still staring.

  “What about my hair? I look like an old man,” Janus hissed. “People will think I am trying to pretend I went through Aetheric Calcification like Thimba.”

  “Stop complaining! Do you know what white hair represents in elven nobility?” Lyza pouted. “Why do you have to have everything I wanted?”

  “Are you really complaining about me having everything when we were friends with Rick?” Janus joked, trying to ease the tension. “I was just the mascot he kept around. I am only starting my journey now.”

  “No, Janus,” Lyza said, her voice small. “What I mean is that you are a better Elf than I am, even though I have known about my heritage my whole life. My parents trained me to be strong, but you just realized what you are and you are already more incredible than me.” She looked like she was on the verge of tears. “White hair is associated with the highest nobility. You are probably a lost prince. I do not even know how to talk to you. Should I call you Majesty?”

  Janus saw how serious she was and stopped joking. “Okay, I will not ask you to bow. See how well I treat my subjects?”

  “My god, if you continue, I am telling the highest-ranking officer I can find what we are. I would rather die than listen to your jokes.”

  “This is the death of humor, I tell you!” Janus cried out dramatically.

  “So, if you do not want to learn anything, I am going to bed,” Lyza said, turning towards the bed.

  “Wait, sorry! Please, Master, teach me how to survive,” Janus concluded, bowing.

  By the time the sun rose, Janus had finally grasped how to create the illusion to hide his ears. This was Elven magic, and the concept of Harmonic Resonance

  To cast this illusion, Janus couldn't just visualize a shape. He had to hit a specific octave and hold the note perfectly. Elves excelled at this because their high-frequency Mana could reach these high notes naturally. Their souls functioned like delicate, high-tension string instruments. For a human to attempt this was like trying to play a complex, rapid sonata on a heavy brass horn. Human Mana was too heavy and low to reach the required pitch. If a standard human Core tried to vibrate that fast, the internal friction would cause a Mana-overheat or even cause the Core to shatter under the stress of trying to force slow, sluggish Mana at impossible speeds.

  Janus, however, was a unique case. The Sigils seared into his Eldritch Core remained silent and heavy, but they did not interfere with the resonance of his Elven Core. Because he possessed both, he could allow his Elven side to vibrate at the necessary frequency without compromising his primary power source. He felt the hum of the resonance in his chest as the air around his ears finally began to shimmer and bend to his will.

  “Thank god today is the weekend,” Janus said, leaning against a wall. “The white hair is growing on me, and the ears are concealed. I just need to practice the casting. Elven magic is very different from what I am used to.”

  “It may be different, but your Core is better attuned to it,” Lyza said. “I bet if you recreate the human levitation magic in elven terms, it would be stronger and cost less Mana.”

  “Probably. But I need to rest now. Also, Bob told me to heal myself the same way the Maw-Watcher did. I have to use Unmana to unmake the damage to my organs.”

  “Janus, before that,” Lyza said, her voice turning resolute. She grabbed his arm, squeezing it tight. “I feel too weak. We train in human magic, and I feel everyone is getting stronger faster than me. I do not have an edge in battle. I want you to try to recreate an Eldritch Core in me. Be damned the consequences.”

  Janus tried to dissuade her, but he saw the fire in her eyes. There was no changing her mind.

  “You know what?” Janus said softly. “Now I also want to see if I can do it, too.”