A tall chalkboard was slapped up against the wall, two podiums dragged, screeching into position, and chairs galloped onto the ground in front.  The spectators scurried into their seats, as the challengers approached their stations.   

The ancients planned an impromptu debate for the topic of a soul.  Who could blame them, it was previously an intangible thing of fiction, now might possibly be tangible and existing in reality.  For me, this was just an interrogation.  I approached my podium, while Tamara stepped up to hers using a chair.

She spoke first, staring down at me, “You hypothesized mana is made from the essence of a soul, what evidence suggests this?”

I wasn’t sure either, but I just started talking, “My time inside the Sea of Feelings showed me the experiences and emotions of millions of people.  I witnessed their lives from their point of view, even my own daughter’s…”  

I bit my lower lip at that last part, a bit angered that my family is being held hostage up there.

Taking a deep breath, I continued, “Every death that was in relation to my existence, is added to my conversion points.  I’m not sure if Harry or Dean mentioned it, but I am stuck in a survival game, each time I rank up, I am transported to another dimension I call the ‘void’.  An orange screen terminal allows me to ‘convert’ these points to resurrect an ancient, such as you, for example.”

I leaned in, staring up at her, “You must have come from somewhere right?”

The crowd erupted in whispers.  Tamara, staring at me, looks down for a moment, perhaps thinking.  She motions the crowd to quiet down, then turns back towards me and speaks, “That still does not correlate mana with souls.  We could have been trapped in cryosleep chambers, that you awakened and teleported us from.”  

I shook my head, and rebutted, “What is the last thing you remember before arriving here?  You were probably living your life on Earth, and all of a sudden you are here now.”

Someone in the crowd raised their hand, and Tamara asked them to speak. 

“Hello, my name is Astrid.  I was outside when the ‘event’ happened.  There was an apocalyptic explosion that appeared to come from the moon.  An enormous wave approached Earth, then my skin went tingly.  The next moment, I appeared here instantly with everyone else,” she spoke standing up, but quickly sat down embarrassed.  

Others chimed in from the audience, expressing they witnessed the same event.

But, the moon?  What was happening on the moon?  

A man raised his hand, and quickly started speaking, “I signed a non-disclosure agreement, but I don’t think that matters anymore.  A few years back, I was assigned to a top-secret military project, where we needed to build a command module that could interface with another technology we had never seen before.  We were given specific ISO standards for the device to survive in space on the moon.  Partial schematics of the interface were provided to our team, which appeared to be advanced technology beyond our understanding, and we were all highly renowned scientists in different fields.”

That didn’t seem out of place.  The United States had a moon base there, so did China, India, and Japan.    The population on the moon was around three-thousand people, with advanced research occurring daily, similar to the research happening in Antarctica.  

However, he continued, “What was eerie about the project was it required us to fit a human inside the module, where the interface had to physically connect to the thymus gland, which is responsible for providing T-cells for our immune system.  A mysterious civilian, rather interesting character with long black hair dressed with a long elegant coat, would come to inspect our prototypes with a five-star general, and demand changes to specific parts we developed.  One time he seemed upset, and his eyes flickered gold with a red border.  The others didn’t believe me, but I swear on my mothers grave, that I saw it.” 

Goosebumps rose on my arms, as a chill went down my spine.  Why does this character sound familiar?  Digging through my memories, I could not remember.  The damn eyes, it must have been a demon.  

I interjected, "Interesting that you bring up the eyes.  At the King's docks, I fought a Viscount who attacked me, and he had glowing purple eyes.  He died from fire in the lungs, but after his last words, his body glowed bright and then completely turned to ash.  I ranked up, and noticed I was given over one-thousand conversion points…"  I paused, unsure if they would believe me.

"I hypothesized he was a demon, who can both live for thousands of years and collect souls."

Tamara started jumping on her chair and fell off, making a peculiarly loud thump on the floor.

"Demons are a race in this world!" She stood up gasping out.

It seems I wasn't the only one confused as whispers grew in the audience.  If they are a known race, then I can't tell if this complicates or simplifies things. 

Scrambling to get back on her chair, she continued, "I couldn’t find any maps, but their empire is surmised to be in the Americas. They are the only known superpower, exerting their influence on other nations.  The demons from the Demonus Empire were specifically complained about in the diplomatic communication I found in the letters filed near the king’s office."

What the fuck.  Superpower?!  Did they take over Texas too?!  If the modern world heard about this, I don’t know whether they would laugh or cry.   And if demons can live forever, their technology must be lightyears ahead of this primitive kingdom.  Is magic our only defense against them?  But, they can use magic too!  Bundled with technology, they could wipe any nation off the face of the earth instantaneously.  

The atmosphere in the room was growing dreadful, everyone had frightened looks in their eyes.  The demons must have a goal for not enslaving these primitive nations.  We must discover it at all costs. 

I stared off into the distance looking at the stations, trying to understand the kinds of experiments happening at each. There were mostly just scraps of metal and glass with some modern looking instruments on a few tables, with notes scattered everywhere. It occurred to me there were no plates or cups anywhere.  I always had some evidence of food or drink when I was working late nights in my home office.   How long has it been since I’d eaten or drank any water?  I wasn’t hungry or thirsty at all.  

I broke the silence, “What have you all been eating?”

“”Ha ha ha”” a few laughs sprung from the audience.  I turned to look up at Tamara.

She smiled and said, “We have not eaten a single thing since we arrived.  It appears our bodies no longer need physical sustenance, but can endure purely on mana.  It has been a blessing! My research time is no longer bogged down by having to eat!”

Incredible.  I had always felt eating was a chore sometimes, but something doesn’t feel right about this.  I’ll experiment eating for myself later.  

Tamara closed out the impromptu event, as it seemed we needed a break from the influx of information.  The crowd began to scatter back to their stations to continue researching, while I met up with Harry who was standing next to Dean.  

“Dean, thank you again for your help back at the King’s docks.  Do you know if Marsha found her mom, Maria?” I spoke up first.

“You’re welcome.  Yes, she did,” he calmly replied back, nodding his head slightly.  

Harry anxiously waited to speak up, but finally bursted out, “Did you know I had a hard time calming down the people of this city, when night became day, and a huge fireball rose into the sky?!”

I turned, pretending I didn’t hear him, when I spotted Danny hiding behind Dean.  Shit.  I caused that incident because I offered revenge for failing to save Mark.  He seemed to have gained confidence, as he jumped out from behind Dean, in a victory pose. 

“Thank you mister, for trying to save Mark.  But don’t worry about me, I’m Dean’s new apprentice!  I will work hard to grow strong and protect others in my brother’s place!”  He proudly spoke up, as he started flexing and a light blue aura appeared on his shoulders.  

Smiling, I said encouraging him, “I have high hopes for you, and great choice picking Dean as your teacher.”

Kids always have a bright light in their eyes, like the world is theirs for the taking.  I would always encourage Allie to try new things, learn as much as she can, and don’t forget to have fun doing it.   I missed her, but this world is getting scarier by the minute, and I have no clue what to do next.