Magic's Violence Record

Chapter 5: Solistice

     Sourcelight walked out of the arena and nodded to the guard outside of the hall.
"Not fighting again today, huh?" The guard asks, nodding with a smirk. "Sucks that Rosè beatcha, you were faring so well. I guess that's expected from a champ, huh?" He jokes.
"I suppose. And no, I'm not fighting again today, sir. I have business I need to attend to. Fill me in on anything important when I return tomorrow." He smiles.
"Will do!" He chuckles, and waves goodbye as Sourcelight walks off.

In the parking lot of the arena, Sourcelight gets into his car. He was going to find a shifting centre and return to the Hall of Guardians to see if he could find anything in the library about this girl, who seemed to be some urban legend.
When he approached the shifting centre, a man ran in front of his car. Sourcelight slammed on the brakes.
"What the fuck? You could've gotten seriously hurt!" Sourcelight yelled out of his window.
"S-Sourcelight! You need to listen! They've shut down the shifting centre because of a threat! It's dangerous to shift right now because it's made its way into the system!" He pants.
"Threat?" Sourcelight says, getting out of his car and approaching the man, who is now evidently one of his coworkers, Plivat.
"I don't know much about it, just that it's a girl. I overheard some higher-ups talking about her. She has to be one hell of a threat to shut shifting centres down in the multiverse. I'm concerned about what could happen. But hey, out of infinite realities, she's not bound to come to this one, right? Just why I'm confused." Plivat rants, brushing his hair out of his face. "But anyway, I was instructed not to let anyone in, not even close to it." He shrugs.
"That's what I'm here for. I need to find out more about that girl. I'd overheard some higher-ups stupidly talking about her in a hall that echoes." Sourcelight grits his teeth in anger. "I can't believe I can't even access a library or anything. So you're telling me I'm stuck in this god-awful reality for god knows how long? Thank Lockien, I guess." He whines and evaluates the centre to see if there's a place with no guardians that he could slip into.
"I see your eyes darting around, Sourcelight. Don't even try to slip in, or I'll snitch. It's nothing personal, I'm just saying she's probably a really good deal and this is probably for a good reason. Don't wantcha to get hurt, you know?" Plivat lectures.
"Don't worry, Pli. I won't. I'll find something else fun to do." He sighs, walking back to his car.
"It was nice seeing ya, Sourcelight!" Plivat waves a very firm wave, grinning as Sourcelight puts the car into reverse and drives away.
After backing out of the centre, he went right, to park in a discrete location so he could evaluate the facility.
"Shit.. even if I manage to pull this off, I don't know how I'm gonna get back discreetly too. I could lose my job." Sourcelight rubs his temples. Sourcelight parks at a gas station just under half a mile away from the center, and darts behind trees, going so fast he couldn't even be seen when looking in his direction. He sees his boss talking in the back of the centre to someone he recognized as the head of all alcamists, Lazuli Alcamy, a direct descendant of Daryn. Slipping behind a tree, he manages to make out a bit of conversation.
"Elyxes are mutations. It's no wonder only troops and ideas of one class and then another aren't working, we need to fight fire with fire. We need another Elyx to combat Solistice." Lazuli says firmly, his voice raspy with age.
"I don't see the problem with Solistice. She isn't mass-destroying realities, she's having fun. She has the mental capacity of a child." His boss, Aretu says in a firm manly voice.
"She also has the capacity to destroy and take over. Our class system will collapse if Solistice continues with her lust for power." Lazuli spits. "Plus, she's eating people vital to us. Captains of fighter teams, Guardian armies, anybody useful to us. Because anybody we need, she does too for power." He glares at Aretu with a cold stare.
"Whatever. Just do whatever it takes to get these centres open again. It's going to have a severe detriment on trade and the economy over some girl." Aretu spat before storming off.
Lazuli sighed before walking into the building from the back entrance. Sourcelight hadn't noticed the back entrance because his view had been obstructed by the two, but lucky for him, he'd figured guardians had been instructed to stay away from the area while they'd been talking. Just then, he'd heard a loud sip from behind him, like someone was slurping the remnants of a Coke jug. He whips around like a deer in headlights, only to spot a young-looking girl and a stoic-looking what seems like an older brother. They both met his eyes, also behind a tree, before fusing and running off, almost childlike.
"They aren't guardians.. not every day you see a shifter/guardian mix. And they seem childish as hell.. they aren't worth my time." Sourcelight sighs, before silently yet quickly making his way to the back entrance of the centre. "Well.. here goes my career."
           Sourcelight slipped into the centre from the backdoor, scanning the area for cameras or people before gently closing the metal door. The room was dark, and he could hear talking in the distance. He had planned to shift to a library, somewhere he could find information on her. He runs to the left, silently and quickly, when he hears his boss' footsteps around the hall.
           He slipped into an open room in the hallway. It was full of desks arranged in a dim room. Quietly, he positioned himself under a desk where he wouldn't be seen. He was a little unsure and was sweating a bit. He heard his boss mumble, before to Sourcelight's dismay, flicked on the light in the room.
           He held his breath as his boss made his way to the back of the room, near where he was. The desks had walls on the side, and he peeked through a hole where he wouldn't be seen. He saw his boss picking up papers, clearly unaware of his company, but he didn't dare breathe.
           When his boss finally left, he quickly gasped for air, going dizzy from the fear and lack of oxygen. Clawing his way up with a chair next to him, he checked the hallway for people, and upon seeing it's emptiness, turned the corner down the hall.
It seemed cleared out. He supposed he didn't even have to shift because there was a library around the corner. It seemed he'd gotten lucky. Maybe he could find void records here.
He stalked over to the back of the library, typically a restricted area containing things like old blueprints for forbidden machinery, forbidden magic, and other things the guardians wanted to hide from the world. You couldn't find this in any normal library, and it typically was guarded. Something Sourcelight knew he would likely find here were void records. Since typically being sent to the void signified a big offense, records were kept in books dated by year. The books contained photos, names, and offenses, as well as a number and the court case that sent them to the void.
The restricted area was massive, and there were lines of shelves stacked with black colored books. An orange sign on the side of the shelf caught his eye. "Void Records." Too easy, he thought, grinning. He decided to take his time and survey the library. He had seen a shelf of urban legends, which caught his curiosity.
"Why the hell would books on urban legends be restricted," He muttered. Looking behind him, he slipped the book into his bag, planning to read through it later. As of now, he didn't have the time.
The restricted section of the library was almost as big as the main section, and you could even get lost just as easily as in the main library. Especially when it was this dark. Sourcelight decided to stay in the front of the restricted area, just for safety precautions. Not only for him but for his job too.
However, after he examined the shelf full of records, he found that he had no idea about her besides the name. Unfortunately, the books were ordered by year, so he might've had to look through every single one. And the books date back to Aeon 80. He sighed and took off his beanie, stuffing it into his backpack and lunging it onto a nearby desk after taking out his cell phone.

"Hey Malice, I'm in reality Phrodite right now. For the tournament, you know?"

"Yeah? How's it going bro? Was that hot girl really all that?"