An airship docked at a temporary pier set up in the heart of Greenland. When the holds were opened it revealed tonnes of glittering crystal. The smallest were the size of a fist, while the largest rivaled a small home.
They came in various shapes, which made it easier to use them for an array of purposes. The ship delivered its payload, then lifted off to collect more. A line of ships waited behind to do the same.
The Alliance’s army was also busy. Over three thousand drivers were galvanized to drive their vehicles over to the crystal and assist with the collection. Beast riders helped, shocked by what they found when they flew in close. It looked like some sort of glacier.
However, it differed from chunks of ice in that it glowed with an internal light. Day or night, there was an ethereal glimmer that lit the surroundings. At least the city would never have to worry about darkness anymore.
“Get to work! We need to ship all of this back to the city!”
“Leader Cloudhawk has said there’s enough here to set us up ‘till the end of time. Good days are on the horizon!”
A lot of debris remained around the Source mountain, a consequence of its transference. Among the smaller pieces laying a carpet of gravel, some were several hundred meters tall. They were randomly distributed every which way. A veritable army of people, bearing hoes and picks, clustered the edges.
Load after load of the crystals were brought back to the city. Some were stored in the subspace cube for research, where Hellflower immediately set to work seeing how it could be exploited.
It was important work. While there was no evidence that Source was dangerous, it was still unknown. But time constraints meant they would have to use and study it at the same time. Only with Source could humanity prepare for the coming war. A treasure like this couldn’t be ignored, not when it could shore up the desperately underpowered anti-god forces.
“Boss Hellflower, the test results are back.” One of Greenland’s lead scientists, Bug, approached her to deliver the news. “We’ve only been able to positively identify about five percent of its contents: 1.5% phosphorous, 0.9% iron, 0.73% calcium. 0.51% copper, 0.12% silicon dioxide. The remaining ninety-five percent remains unknown. Based on the physics, it’s nothing we’ve seen before. It… completely alters everything we know about science.”
Hellflower pressed her. “What other attributes have you uncovered?”
“We detected a large number of unstable positrons. They combine in an odd way, producing a radioactive compound that may affect carbon-based molecular structures. During preliminary testing we discovered pronounced effect on the cerebellum.”
The last part caught the attention of nearby aids and made them nervous.
Bug asked her superior, “Boss Hellflower, there is a clear effect on humans who stay near the crystals. It’s all around us now. Can we expect a negative impact?”
Her specific worry was what it would do on a genetic level. Maybe in half a decade everyone living in the Southern Capital would suffer mutations.
Hellflower took the data report and looked at it closely. After flipping through a few pages, she smiled. “Don’t worry. You’re right that the high concentration of energy is radioactive, but the effect on humans is minimal. There’s also no reason to think the impact will be negative.”
Bug pressed her. “Could it have a positive effect?”
“According to what we’ve learned, mental energy cannot be detected by ordinary instruments. We could call it ‘psionic’ energy. The definitive quality of this energy comes from the will of living things, and through it can adjust physical matter.”
Hellflower continued to explain. “I’ve dissected quite a number of demonhunter brains. What I discovered was slight abnormalities… in the cerebellum. Especially strong demonhunters even had microscopic crystal structures in the gray matter. I used to think these were just one-off mutations, but now we know this not to be true. Human will is born from the cerebellum, but not psionic power. That only comes when the cerebellum mutates. That is now their will comes to manipulate the world around them.”
That explained why some people had a ‘talent’ for using relics and others didn’t. If Hellflower’s research was correct, then what they called mental power was really just a mutation. All demonhunters were, in essence, mutants.
What did that mean? If the Source’s power was influencing human cerebellum activity, it could over time give people the power to manipulate matter with their minds.
Why was it that demonhunters typically only appeared in Elysian lands, and not in the wastes? More than likely it had to do with the enchantments gods placed on their realms. Their interference increased the likelihood of this mutation, granting humans the ability to delve into the mysteries of psychic ability.
With the mountain of Source right outside, not only would they have endless energy but also the chance for everyone to evolve. In the future everyone would be given the power to change the world as they saw fit.
“This human girl is correct.”
Belial had been nearby, working on another matter as they discussed possibilities. The one called Hellflower had a keen mind. Her determination about mental power was correct. It was a fine display of her intelligence and thorough research.
Her studies weren’t limited to earthly civilization. Lately her area of study had been mental energy and the humans who wielded it. Knowledge of psionic power and the relics they powered. Already there were considerable breakthroughs, all of which told her that they should not shield people from the radiation of Source. They should embrace it.
So how should it be used?
It was not a tough question for Belial. Over a thousand years he had wandered the world, going from one realm to another. In none of his travels did he encounter someone who knew of Source because why would they? It was everywhere, all the time. As ubiquitous as the air.
It all came from the Temples. Every second of every day it pumped that energy out across the realm. A formless blanket of the stuff that protected the Elysian lands and transformed its inhabitants.
Belial was busy designing a new furnace. This one would use Source as fuel and output mental energy. What it produced would be spread across the southern wastes, reducing the individual load of those trying to use relics. They could simply pluck it from the air as needed.
It was the most straightforward way to utilize this new resource.
Hellflower defined mental energy as this inscrutable ‘psionic energy’. It had a ring to it, he thought. So the tower he would build to spread this power through the land would be called a Psionic Tower.
