'Everything he can? So does that mean there is still something he's unable to tell me?' Emilia thought to Ryu's choice of words and simply accepted the situation without prying further.
Ryu tilted his head to the side with a smile drawn on his face.
"Thanks for not asking me anything more. Haha!"
"You said you were going to tell me everything that you could tell me. So what's really going, Ryu? I want to know," Emilia's intent made Ryu's smile stretch further.
"Okay! It's a deal!" Ryu then started hopping on his toe, balancing himself on one foot as he faced Emilia after one spin. "We'll start from where it all began… the Cataclysm."
"What? Why?" Emilia's confusion was evident from her expression.
"Well, yeah. Pretty sure Whitey never told you how the Cataclysm came to be, right? Not as if all the Concepts in Akasha know about it either. I'm probs the only one who can tell you about it. Though it's just me rambling on, lend me your ears for a while."
The upbeat tone in Ryu's voice couldn't hide the amusement he had.
"As the saying goes, once upon time," Ryu started, Emilia now listening intently to his tale. "Three centuries before the current state of the world, mankind stumbled upon something unknown. Something that could only be considered otherworldly since it was found by researchers in the deepest parts of the earth."
"Not really exceptional since there are streams of energy that flow through the earth. Call them Ley Lines or Dragon Veins, but it's not unusual to find crystallized entities or object where they converge. And because of that, they act as rifts that connect Akasha and Reality. But even then, they're like impregnable doors that can't be opened from the outside… or at least that's how it should have been."
Emilia's mouth parted slightly before closing again, leaving her questions for later, something Ryu seemed to have noticed.
"In any case, the object they found was a sort of artifact," within a single stomp from Ryu, the white void shifted into a scientific installation filled with different kinds of equipment and instruments.
Taken by surprise, Emilia's eyes stumbled upon said artifact.
'This…'
A giant stone tablet with a clear glowing blue crystal at its top and a sigil that pulsated with strange energy inscribed on its surface stood before her.
The sigil was a spiraling helix split down the middle. The left half with a lattice of runes and the right half, its lines jagging, pulsed in rhythmic and bursting intervals as if alive. And at the heart of the helix, a white flare that blurred the lines seemed to be the origin of the pulsations.
"Like any good scientists they were, the researchers were completely enchanted with this new discovery," Ryu continued his tale, taking his time to explain things in detail. "And frankly, who could blame them. The relic produced an energy of unknown origin which was too intriguing to simply let go of."
"Mana…" Emilia muttered, the happenings of the lab following Ryu's tale.
"Yep. That's it." Ryu nodded, hands in pockets as he approached and leaned in front of the researchers that were nothing more than reconstructed recollections of a foregone past. "Some of them though that it might be a sacred treasure from an ancient civilization or even a meteorite of unknown properties that was made into its present shape."
"Others on the other hand thought of a more occult explanation. For them, the relic was some sort of divine or demonic artifact from a civilization of old or an extraterrestrial object."
"To put it simply, the more research was done to determine what it was, the more questions were raised about where it came from," Ryu then clapped his hands together. "Hence, they decided to research the energy emitting from the relic instead of its origins."
Emilia then gulped as the realization from what she was discovering sank into her mind.
"Thankfully for them, researching the energy produced by the relic was the right bet. And of course, it was unlike anything they had ever seen. It was raw power, more powerful, and more diverse than any other form of pre-existing energy."
"Now pop quiz for ya!" Ryu stepped towards Emilia, now face-to-face with her with a bright yet mischievous smile plastered on his face. "What do you think they did afterwards?"
"They…" Emilia's mind slightly went back to her own experience within a lab as her expression darkened, the horrific memories flashing rapidly before her.
"Experimentation," Ryu answered his own question as he realized that Emilia had figured out what he was implying. "Using experimental subjects such as lab rats, plants, and soil among other things, the researchers observed the effects of the relic when a subject is exposed to its seeping energy."
In Emilia's eyes, it seemed as if Ryu's face was shrouded in an unsettling shade though his lips were still curved in a smile.
"And what would you know?" his voice came out enthusiastically. "They were right on the money."
The scene unfolding around Ryu and Emilia followed the masked boy's words eerily as the girl witnessed everything.
"Significant mutation in animals such as increase in physical abilities, uncontrolled raging or other physical changes such as anatomy and special new properties such as poisons from venomous creatures which varied from one species to another."
"Another thing they noticed was the changes in chemical composition of different substances and elements such as hardness of metals, nutritional advantages or dangers of plants, fruits and other food substances, among other changes of different substances and minerals."
"Pretty sick, right?" Ryu then laughed, though Emilia wasn't of the same idea.
"Anyway, due to the exposure of Akasha's essence that leaked through the relic, one day, our dear researchers finally decided that human experiments would be conducted."
The scene changed once more around them.
"And as you can guess it, the human test subjects that were exposed to the relic's energy also showed significant and unexpected changes," the events played before Emilia as she took in every moment.
'So. this… This is…'
"That's how humans gained a downgrade version of Interference Power… What you call Magic."
'This is the origin of Realizers,' Emilia realized silently.
"After exposure, they showed exceptional physical abilities," Ryu simply kept recounting the tale that unfolded before them like the narrator he now was.
"They could reduce a stone into dust with one hand with ease. Leap several meters above the ground after a single jump, and they also manifested an ability straight out of fairy tales."
One of the test subjects created fire from his hands.
"The ability to manipulate and create matter and other elements, an ability that really does fit to be called magical. Whether it was fire, wind, earth and water, they could create and control such things without any problem at all."
Ryu's tone made it seem as if the facts he was stating were the most mundane and unimpressive things in the world.
"But even if they had similar abilities, there were differences in their proficiency and overall capabilities."
"While one group was more proficient when it came to their enhanced physical abilities compared to their control over the manipulation of matter, the other had an easier time with the latter, but with weaker physical abilities compared to the first group."
'Gladiators and Mages,' Emilia labeled the two groups.
"Considering the diversity in effects, it's no wonder that after years of research, those lab coat guys thought that the energy emitted by the relic could alter matter into new substances with different properties and evolve human beings into transcendent beings with abilities unlike any other."
"Unfortunately for them," Ryu started, the scene shifting once more with the relic covered in cables and placed upon a special platform that emitted light from below.
"Their future wasn't going to be a bright one," Ryu added dismissively.
"Next on the list, they tried to extract the energy emitted by the relic and transform it into a new form of reliable energy source. Too bad for them, there is a reason why sayings like Ignorance is bliss and One should not try to impend on the Divine exist."
"Is this…?" Emilia started, Ryu answering her without needing further context.
"Yep. Without any warning, the relic started cracking and with it, a huge surge of power started to damage the research facility."
The machines around them started short-circuiting and exploding without affecting the two spectators, but for the researchers the danger was very much real.
"Even though they tried to stop it, their efforts were vain. It was already too late to prevent the inevitable."
Ryu and Emilia then found themselves high up in the night sky.
"What happens next could only be considered a catastrophe," Ryu said with an almost unconcerned expression and tone.
"The relic completely exploded and with it, a giant explosion that killed everyone in a radius of several kilometers, razed everything to the ground."
What Emilia saw and heard next could only be considered a scene from hell itself.
Houses, buildings, roads, plants, the screaming women, the agonizing men, the frightened and crying children… absolutely everything was reduced to dust while the remnant energy pulsated throughout the entire world.
And it was only then that she understood the horror of what she had only ever learnt through textbooks… How truly horrifying the night that would later come to be called the Cataclysm truly was.