Despair upon the World

  A voice smooth and heavy smothered the world, the sheer weight of each word seemed to manifest in reality, pressing down and stifling all the mana, both within his body and without. The temperature dropped a few degrees as the world's mana moved from it's languid flowing state into a state of heightened activity and rigid adherence to a specific model of the world. Wordlessly he walked to the window of that little fancy coffee shop and his eyes widened as he stared at the skies. Black splotches adorned the heavens, writhing and wriggling as they expanded blocking out the light from the sun and casting the world into darkness. Far above the city in the air in complete defiance of gravity stood a man, or a woman, or a dog, or some unknown kind of living creature. It was wreathed in darkness, but the mere absence of light couldn't disguise the sheer oceans of mana that spilled from it's body every second.

  "What the devil is going on," a short mustachioed man, who Banks was having a lovely conversation with just a short while ago, said as he also approached the window. He peered outside, but the darkening sky presented an impenetrable barrier for sight.

  "I don't know," Banks said, partially lying. He didn't deign to go into the full explanation, about what was no doubt a Grand Spell. It was already the forth hour of the third day, nearly midday, the furthest that he had ever gone in the time loop and he had been avoiding the various zombie outbreaks throughout the city as well as isolated pockets of ghostly activity which he had done his best to ignore along with the underlying mood of anxiety among the populace. Despite still having food, water and other necessities and life carrying on pretty much as normal, the sense of worry and fear ruled this city omnipresent. People put on a brave face, but his trip to the market yesterday revealed more than a few empty stalls and even the people who showed up displayed worried expressions, furtive glances and otherwise hyperawareness of the city and their place within it.

  "Why is it dark in the middle of the morning," the man, who had previously waxed lyrical on the mana saturation of exotic silverberries, restated the question previously asked.

  "I still don't know," Banks said looking towards that massive conglomeration of mana high above. The mana seemed to swell and pulse before pausing, a brief interval in which the entire world seemed to hold it's breath.

  Despair upon the Weak

  The same voice restated mercilessly. A weighty proclamation and the world responded. In an instant the mana boiled and Banks felt a ripple through his body before the man next to him collapsed into a pile of flesh and organs. A scream drew his head backwards as the barista staggered backwards, dropping his cappuccino on the floor, while looking at the other occupants who were collapsing into meaty goo. His mana vision easily saw the difference. The waitress had a mana level of around one hundred and fifty while the patrons were all below one hundred. The voice wasn't lying about targeting the weak specifically, his mana vision swept over the nearby areas watching as coherent shadows of mana collapsed returning the mana in their bodies to the environment. While his own mana vision couldn't cover the whole city, judging by the spread of the original darkness the spell might be city wide, especially if the darkness operated as a Territory.

  If that was true, then in those brief few seconds that he had stood up to take a look at the window over ninety percent of the people in the city had been killed. There was a reason that people with that level of mana were colloquially known as city killers. He walked over to a window seat, grabbing an untouched cup of coffee and bringing it to his mouth before grimacing and chucking a handful of sugar in. He could never hope to understand the mind of those who preferred their coffee black and with no sugar.

  Sipping his coffee he stared upwards at the sky as a stream of mana was launched towards an area on the west side of the city towards the mountains, that should be close to the river mouth. His eyes narrowed as that stream of magic was halted in it's tracks before it was dispersed in all directions. Another massive source of mana arose in the west, but this had a different distinct feel, a non-human feel. A feeling of lightness arose within him as he stared into the darkness at the flying beast, and one name came to his mind.

  Winged. Tied with the Scaled for the mightiest of mankind's cousins. Supreme masters of gravity magic easily exceeding human magicians. They were born with a mana level over ten thousand, higher than all but humanity's most monstrous magicians, and only grew stronger into adulthood. They presented entirely as female to his knowledge, except for their height of four meters and pale skin, strong enough that nothing short of the greatest weapons mankind ever created could even leave a mark.

  "What's happening," the waitress with the decently high mana said as she tentatively approached the window, looking upwards into the pitch black sky.

  "A human is fighting a winged beast," Banks said watching as vast quantities of mana formed into a spell before launching towards the Winged. Whatever it was, it didn't hit because the Winged reversed gravity at that moment redirecting the attack upwards. That didn't even halt the being for one second as before the attack was even launched and subsequently redirected, they were already pouring more and more mana into a variety of spells, spells that Banks couldn't make out from that distance.

  "Is the human winning?" she asked nervously.

  "I don't know. I hope not. The human is behind all this shit," he waved his hand getting a stunned look from the waitress. "The beast is less morally repugnant at this time." As he spoke he watched as mana sprouted from the dark human in various configurations and speeds, blasting the Winged with an array of fantastical attacks that Banks didn't envy. She endured it well as gravity warped and distorted twisting space and shattering the spells, twisting the offensive mana into thousands of comparatively safer streams. Even as she did that she didn't stop moving, darting back and forth through the air with such speed it was as if she was teleporting.

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  An unbelievably colossal amount of mana formed in one of her hands and Banks gulped down his saliva as he could feel the power from here. Even in pitch back darkness, even all the way down on the floor far beneath the fighters in the sky, he couldn't mistake that. The penultimate form of gravity magic, the spell known as Black Hole. Banks watched with eyes wide as that little orb of chaos seemed to absorb all the nearby mana before she flung it towards her opponent, space and distance collapsing until it appeared at sight of the being in an instant, and was immediately neutralized. He blinked, before cursing his inability to get a proper look. From his perspective on the ground he had absolutely no idea how the dark magic user negated the spell, but he bet it was really, really cool. The two continued their dance of magic and mana and Banks watched it frowning, before his attention was distracted again.

  "Should we do something?" the waitress asked.

  "You want to go up there and ask them to stop," Banks said sardonically.

  "No," she practically yelled. "No, that's not what I mean. Like should we take cover, or call somebody."

  "No amount of taking cover is going to protect you from that," Banks said gesturing with his thumb. "And unless you got a god on standby, I don't think you're going to have luck getting some help. Actually prayer might work," he said after a moment's thought. "Hope you've got a good god lined up." He could never pray himself, gods could sense the sincerity behind words and he had little sincerity when it came to those semi-sentient forces of nature. The waitress seemed to obey as she took a seat at a nearby table and clasped her hands and started whispering to who the fuck knows.

  He turned his eyes back to the battle only to watch as the Winged had closed the distance, entering melee range with the dark magician, before with a massive implosion of mana the two of them rocketed into the sky. If he had to judge it was some form of anti-gravity magic removing both of them from airspace. A few moments later white cracks spread among the sky, branching out and providing light that illuminated the battlefield before light burst through the darkness, rays of white tearing through the dark territory and eventually returning the night to day.

  "Hey look your prayers worked," Banks said calmly to the waitress. "Would it be considered impolite to ask for another cup of joe." The waitress didn't respond, instead leaning into her hands and whispering more fiercely and Banks considered hopping the counter and making another cup himself before he froze. Five massive mana signatures spread throughout town, not distinctly lower than the one in the sky. A wave of mana so fierce, so condensed, so evolved it was like drowning in mercury. He shut his eyes blinking before wiping away the tears of blood that fell, as the five mana signatures tapered off. His mana vision was completely fucked for the moment, that unrestrained mana had burnt out something in his eyes. Thankfully he wasn't blind, but his sight was nowhere near as clear as it normally was.

  "Is it over?" the waitress asked her head lifting from her position on the table. It was a good question. There was an eerie silence, besides the two of them it felt like the world was dead. You would expect crying, wailing lots of noise and violence, but instead the world seemed to be cowering, as if afraid to make a move.

  "No," Banks admitted as he donned an apron, slipping behind the counter and making his own coffee. "That much power doesn't just up and disappear. Do you want anything?" He gestured vaguely behind him to the collection of beverages and beverage accessories.

  "You can't be behind the counter," the woman said. It was an automatic response. No real thought behind it, a doomed attempt to relate to normalcy. Banks just stayed silent as he prepared a foamy attempt at coffee for him and for her, picked a tea with a long and elegant name, hoping it was one of those that calmed people down. Silently he placed the tea, back on the table and took a sip of his own coffee before frowning.

  "I'm not good at this," he admitted quietly to himself. It quite frankly sucked to a frankly baffling degree. He must have fucked up the instructions royally if this was the result.

  "My parents," the young waitress said, suddenly looking at him. "Will they be okay?" Why was she asking him? Was it his cool demeanor that prompted her to believe that he had all the answers.

  "Did they have mana cores?" he asked.

  "No," she whispered, her voice hoarse. "I was the first one to attend an actual magic course in my family."

  "The spell targeted everyone without a mana core," Banks stated, firmly trying not to add any unnecessary brutality. "Against that level of power there was no defense." Her face went blank at his words, before slowly crumpling into an expression of sheer grief, great heaving sobs hitting her all of a sudden causing her whole body to shake.

  "I didn't get to..." she started, words barely able to escape his lips and Banks hesitated, debating whether to provide comfort or to look away. He wasn't good at these things, if he cared about somebody then he would much rather prevent the foul event from occurring in the first place, which he was not normally powerless to do. Even now a great portion of his brain, the logical part, told him that this might not even happen. This could be a mere temporary current that fades away, she's not a real person and this loss isn't real. For a long time he sat there awkwardly taking sips of his coffee, trying to find the words or will to change the situation.

  "I have to see them," she said after a while, standing up while wiping her eyes. "My parents live on the east side of the city. I have to get there."

  "Okay," Banks said. "Good luck." It was a bit of a toss up whether she would be able to get there. If a single one of those mana sources ran into her then it would kill her in an instant, or if she ran into a horde of zombies or if she wandered across any of the other problems in the city, but he doubted staying here was much safer. Perhaps a tad less likely to trigger a random encounter.

  "I want you to come with me," she stated causing Banks to frown and take a sip of his godawful coffee, before putting it down and contemplating the proposal. He might help actually be able to help her, and he doubted it would violate his agreement with the mirror monster. But if the alternative was sitting down and suffering through another cup of coffee.

  "Make me a really good cup and I'll take you wherever you need to go," he said after a moment casually pushing the travesty of his creation to the side. "This really is a five coffee morning."