The beast vaporized, and all that remained was a thin book.
Romaine, after brief excitement, took up the book and moved back in the direction he had run from, while not forgetting to stay vigilant.
"Diary of Uganda Elvis of the Northern Slab the Frozen Expanse", Romaine read the title cover on the book.
Turning the page, he read, "At first I thought this world was normal until one night I began seeing a weird aura in the air, which I called Aura, but after finding out its real name by those cloaked figures to be Prysm force".
Turning the page again, he read softly to not alert any creature in the area or those mysterious figures, "One night, I began being able to control a part of the prysm force, color blue labelled the azure branch by these cloaked figures, the next week I journeyed over the walls into the woods and fell. Over the wall, I barely survived, but when in the middle of the forest, I saw a nightmarish creature manifest from a crack of prysm force in the air".
Romaine's breath began to hitch as he read, "Through azure control, I teleported around it, but the one time it touched me, I felt as if my prysm energy drained slightly, though it later recovered after 2 days".
"The Lumen Wraith is what it was called, light-consuming ghosts attracted to prysm force, as stated by the masked figures who appeared for the first time and took it out." Romaine became even more surprised.
He began reading the last paragraph: "Through them I learned about Schema nodes, Pyrsm branches, how one could only possess one color, Prysm-bound our type of people, the 1-in-a-million awakening, sub-prism caverns, schema radiation, degradation, anomalies as they called these creatures, and a lot more."
"My color was multiple, so do I possess various branches?" Romaine thought, almost tripping on a stone.
Romaine was indulged in reading and turned the next page, reading the first paragraph, "On the journey to the Silent Council, as they called it, I was wondering why people don't know about these things when they slipped up mentioning a global wipe to happen in 3 days in which I pieced together that the Silent Authority must be wiping memories globally to prevent information leak to the normal in which I was not gonna be apart of so I ran and the cloaked figures began hunting me mercilessly across the Slabs".
Romaine stopped reading as he saw the multicolored energy from before in the air, and everything became clearer, even seeing the small lizard on the tree 55 meters away.
"Light loses perception by 80% at night, so this means I have powers or prysm energy in my body, and I should move as this when something appears to ruin a character's day in movies and shows," Romaine muttered as he went back from where he came while maintaining vigilance.
Romaine avoided the area he marked when running from the cloaked figures, in case he was gonna get ambushed.
Arriving at the village wall, he didn't immediately throw the hook; he threw stones over the wall, then went a good distance around, then threw the hook and climbed up. Arriving atop the 3-inch wooden wall, he set the hook the other way while climbing down the rope.
He felt solid ground beneath then swung the rope as the energy traveled up the rope and dislodged the hook, which flew 2 feet into the air and fell towards him.
Romaine caught the hook and spoke with worry on his face, "I should hide the hook and rope as these cloaked figures are definitely in the village waiting, and if I get searched and they find these items on me, I will be captured".
He first dipped them into a dirty water puddle the get rid of fingerprints, then dropped them in a decommissioned manhole and covered it back.
"Cautiousness saves lives, I wonder why anime characters or TV show protagonists never realized that", Romaine muttered as he walked through the alley towards the orphanage.
"I jumped through the window, but how will I explain to Miss Amelia about my leaving without her permission?" Romaine pondered, then just shrugged and walked along.
Romaine quickly sniffed himself to ensure he didn't smell too bad as people all around smelled slightly".
Rome saw the orphanage and went around the side, then leapt up, grabbing the ledge with more ease than he remembered, as it was 65 inches high.
"Stronger than I remember must be prysm force", Romaine thought as he climbed onto the ledge and opened a windowsill sill entering his dark room.
Romaine saw Amelia standing, her face displaying an unpleasant mood, but he knew it was too dark for a regular human to see someone 5 meters away in pitch black, so he pretended not to see her and placed down the bag and got into bed.
He was thrown off by the woman in pitch black darkness, but he pretended to go to sleep.
A match was lit and placed into a lamp, and Amelia then sat on a wooden chair, her face unpleasant, but her mind deep in thought.
Amelia took up the bag he had placed down and looked inside it, seeing only rations and nothing else, no compass, hook, or rope present.
Sighing in relief, her facial expression eased slightly, but she muttered. "It's not him, but the rope is missing, so it's one of the kids".
Romaine deep in thought, "Shit, luckily I sneaked around and opened the windows of two others before I left".
"Sleep tight, tomorrow is Demarkization after all", Amelia said as she got up and left the room, her cold face returning as she left.
Romaine reached into his shirt and took out the dairy.
"Before I get into information and the silencers, which are the cloaked figures, first is the branches of Prysm called spectral, and the basic things I know about degradation," Romaine read in his mind to not cause noise.
He read the names and details of the branches of prysm: "Crimson – Life, blood, vitality, Azure – Space, motion, Amber – Light solidification, Viridian – Biology, toxins, Violet – Mind, perception, Opal – Probability, Eclipse – Anti-energy, nullification. Crimson Prism-bound has red energy, azure has blue, amber is white, but some emit silver, and even rarer is yellow, viridian is green, violet is purple, opal is Gold, and eclipse is black".
"Crimson users are uncommon; only 1 in 5 prism-bound have it, azure is 1 in 15, amber is 1 in 2, viridian is 1 in 12, violet is 1 in 30, opal has 1 in 55, and eclipse has 1 in 75, with prism-bound being 1-in-a-million and the world population at 840 million, only 840 Prism-bound are alive today by my estimates of the year 1304", Romaine read surprised at the low number and the year of the book.
"This guy is old. I wonder where he is today, and the current world population is 960 million, so 900+ Prism-bound are alive today", Romaine thought to himself.
Continuing to read, "Schema nodes are part of a world system called the great schema. This is the backbone of the world. What it is: A cosmic, half-conscious system embedded in the fabric of Prysmora that: Generates anomalies, Mutates regions, Creates rare abilities, Alters biology, Produces random "events."These events range from harmless, surreal phenomena to devastating reality collapses".
"Schema radiation is the energy that does all this through the squared Metallic boxes with holes at the middle of each side, leading to a prysm crystal which generates way more than just electrical energy, as originally stated by Researchers, but I suspect this is another ploy of the Silent Authority," Romaine read, getting grossed in the book.
Continuing, "Venturing through the Prism crack in the ground after killing a Night spawn, travelling roughly 380 thousand meters down, barely surviving reaching layer 1, where horror entities became more frequent, and I encountered schema nodes locked in the air actively spinning".
"I touch one that seemed drained, and it fell to the ground. Also fun fact: Did you know the southern slab is the birthplace of humans? Anyways, back to the topic, the schema nodes hold knowledge about generations, the way they work, and how to use them".
Page flip and he read again, "Schema nodes take up a lot of Prysm force, so don't suggest trying unless you're an advanced class Azure like me. For the next thing degradation".
"Every use of Prysm Force risks Degradation—a progressive, irreversible corruption. Prysm Force, used only when needed, is what kept me from degrading faster".
"Stages of Degradation: Stage 0 – Pure ~No corruption; abilities are stable", Romaine read as his breathing became ragged.
Continuing with realization filling his eyes, "Stage 1 – Fracture ~Minor physical changes; subtle mental fog".
"Stage 2 – Contortion ~Significant bodily mutation; voice distortion; nightmares bleed into reality".
Romaine read the next sentence, fear basically leaking from him, "Stage 3 – Aberrance ~The user partially becomes a Night-Spawn. Their Prysm force warp semi-uncontrollably".
"Stage 4 – Collapse ~The individual becomes a Mirror Walker, an uncontrollable horror entity, a deer-like mix between a human hunted by Silencers." Romaine suddenly had a full realization as the picture of the horrifying creature from earlier popped up in his head.
With a muffled voice, he muttered, "That mirror walker from earlier was the full degradation of Author Uganda Elvis."