36 Chapter Thirty-Six: Resistance (1/2)

The Six Guns LeoFraust 79570K 2022-07-22

The group of people that Jack/Siran met keep Siran with them. However, they were not quick to trust him. They tied his arms together with a rope that kept his hands behind his back. They made Siran walk in front of them so they could not only watch Siran's every step, but also watch his hands. They didn't know what he was and was not capable of.

”It's kind of hard to know where I'm supposed to be going” Siran says, ”...when you're supposed to lead the way and I'm supposed to follow you. I can't exactly follow you if you're not in front of me”.

”Can't you just locate the beast” the man who first spoke to Siran says, ”-er Naris, whatever you called him?”.

”What? No...” Siran replies in confusion, ”do you think I have a GPS in my brain or something that'll just lead me to him?”.

”I mean... kinda” the man replies.

”Unbelievable” Siran says, ”look, there's five of you altogether. Why don't one of you lead the way, and the rest watch me? I know you don't exactly trust me, so whatever works”.

The group talked amongst each other in secrecy for a short moment, before the same man who was talking earlier walks up to Siran. ”I'll lead then. You stick next to me”.

They continued walking aimlessly for hours in awkward silence. Eventually, Siran asks the man ”What's your name? Or should I just call you 'dude' from here on out?”.

”Mason” the man replies.

”Just Mason?” Siran asks.

”Mason Phelloma” Mason replies, ”but that'll just be Mason to you”.

Siran thinks to himself while loudly saying ”Hmmm....” until eventually, he says ”alright, Mason. Where are we going from here?”.

”No idea” Mason replies.

”... you've gotta be kidding me” Siran says. ”I just got here on this planet, I have no idea where Naris was last. Shouldn't you guys know that?”.

”Most forms of communication have been shut down” Mason says. ”In terms of information, we're in the dark. We only know what we see at this point, with the exception of proximity transponders. We call these Walkie-Talkies”.

”... Neat” Siran says sarcastically ”So you look like you've seen combat. Have you seen Naris in person?”.

”In person?” Mason asks, ”no I haven't. I've seen him appear all over the news during the first two days of the attack in America. But shortly after that, all television broadcasts were shut down”.

”What makes you so willing to fight back?” Siran asks. ”You look well prepared, so where did you get your experience?”.

”I was in the military” Mason says. ”United States Marine Corps”.

”Oh wow!” Siran says, sounding impressed. ”By the way, you have rifles... but do bullets even work on Naris?”.

”Dunno” Mason says. ”Probably not”.

”Then you'll need another form of defense” Siran says. ”I can teach you magic”.

”Oh no” Mason says, suddenly stopping and forcing everyone to stop walking as well. ”We're not releasing you”.

”And if I told you I can teach you even with my hands tied behind my back?” Siran asks.

Mason thinks to himself before asking ”Does magic even exist? I mean... I guess it's possible if something as terrible as Naris exists. But even so, you sure you could teach stuff even while being held as a prisoner?”.

”Sure” Siran says. ”I don't see why not?”.

”What are you planning?” Mason asks.

”Just trying to help” Siran replies.

”Why would you help us?” Mason asks.

”Because I want to” Siran replies.

”But why!?” Mason yells.

Siran just thinks for a moment before he says ”it's not that I particularly care about... humans. I do, however, like this world. If humanity is the best bet to saving the world, then I'm fine with that”.

”Well...” Mason says as he thinks and scratches the back of his head. ”You have been strangely cooperative. I guess we'll give it a shot”.

Thereafter, Siran spends night after night trying to teach his methods to Mason and the rest. They picked up on magic a lot faster than Siran did, but at the same time it was also easier to access Endoindustria and channel it because of the broken seals. One night, in the middle of a lesson, another group of people found their camp. However, these people were a group of looters. They didn't come to help, they came for their supplies. There were six of them, and before Siran and the rest knew they were approaching, the looters had already pointed their guns at them.

”Don't move!” One of them shouts, ”give us everything you have and no one gets hurt”.

”You'll get nothing!” Mason says with his hands on top of his head.

”But Mason!” One of the others say, ”it's not worth risking our lives”.

”We'll risk our lives if we go without supplies” Siran says in agreement with Mason, ”don't give them shit”.

”You asked for it” The looter says as he loads his gun. Siran squints his eyes in fear and frustration. He thinks hard about ways to protect himself, and then remembers what he learned from Naris about digital magic. He creates a wall behind them of digital magic, the digital shield, and the bullets bounce off of the shield. The looters jump back in surprise. As Siran stands up and turns around, the looters cower in fear due to Siran's black and red glowing eyes. His appearance struck fear into them, and immediately, Siran uses a speed buff spell to lunge at the man who shot the gun. Siran planted his feet firmly in the looter's chest, knocking him onto the ground.

”Don't kill them” Siran says to himself, ”they won't trust you if you start killing humans”. The rest of the looters run away in fear as the one who was knocked down scrambled to get back up and run away as well. As Siran walks over back to where he was sitting, he thinks to himself ”I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I casted a spell without a charm. How'd I do that?”.

”That was impressive” Mason says, ”if you could do that at any time, then I guess you could've done that to us long ago”.

”Think you can trust me now?” Siran asks. ”Because my arms are really sore from being tied for so long”.

Mason and the rest agree to untie Siran and Siran continues to teach everyone magic. They spend nights together while traveling. Each night spent, they all became a little closer. At first they went from not trusting each other, to moderately uncomfortable with each other. Before they knew it, they were almost like friends. Eventually, they came across a large camp like area that served as a giant shelter for people. They went there to take shelter and found lots of more people from the military there acting as guards. At first, they pointed their weapons at Siran, but Mason showed them his military ID and introduced Siran as a 'reliable asset'. To prove to them that Siran would be useful for humanity, Mason pulls out a small paper charm and uses magic to create a fire in his hand that he could easily control.

”He's here to teach humanity how to wield magic” Mason says, ”and this will give us a fighting chance against the beast called Naris”.

”Naris?” One of the guards asks.

”Siran says that's the beast's name” Mason adds.

Months pass as Siran rigorously tries to teach everyone what he can about magic. Eventually, all of his teachings are documented and passed around from military base to military base. The bases acted as the only current long distance form of communication, by soldiers personally passing documented information to other bases by riding to new places on helicopter. After another year, the information was shared around the whole world. The network of military bases also tried keeping everyone up to date on all of Naris's recent activities, but no one has reported any sightings of Naris. At least, no one that had seen him lived to tell about it. It is eventually reported that a super volcano had erupted in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and a new land mass had formed there. The new land mass was still hot and smoldering, but a new continent had been born. It was also the first news of anything about Naris, as it was also said that Naris had caused the volcano to erupt during his attempts to reshape the world with his magic. Another few months had passed and it was now March 22nd, 2022. A shipment of people were brought over from Honolulu, Hawaii. There was formerly a military shelter in Honolulu, but it was attacked by Naris and few people survived. One of them was eager to meet the man who brought magic to the world. Her name was Angela Mahina. She held a grudge against Naris and wanted to know all she could learn from Siran in order to take him down. Upon arrival, she pushed her way through a crowd of people demanding the man named Siran. Eventually she had found him, although he isn't exactly hard to spot. When Siran had met her, he did not expect the reaction that he got from her. When she found Siran, she stomped angrily towards him, collapsed at his feet and began crying.

”Please help me” she cried, ”that bastard took away my home and my family. Please teach me everything you know about magic so I can pay him back! Please!”. She pleaded and pleaded with Siran, although Siran had already decided long ago that he would help.

”Sure” Siran says softly, ”I'm sorry about your loss. I'll help however I can”.

”I'm sorry to hear what happened to Honolulu” Mason says as he puts a gentle hand on Angela's shoulder. ”I lost my family too, so I know how it feels. But we can make it through this, can't we Siran?”.

”Absolutely” Siran says.