Latest / The Monster Catcher's Journal / Day Break

Transcript

Day Break · The Monster Catcher's Journal

0:33
Hello Travelers and Monster Catchers abound.
0:36
I'm Stella Ferris and this is the Monster Catchers
0:38
Journal podcast. You've crash landed. Let's see
0:44
what today's episode has in store. So we're now
0:49
on entry 24. I met him, a glyph called Daybreak.
1:06
Unlike the twin suns in the Nibirin sky, he was
1:13
just one sun. So, we were standing there in our
1:21
sanctuary and it was morning time. Xena walked
1:25
up and said, glass plate waste again. That place
1:30
gives me heat rash just thinking about it. Luna
1:35
replied, but the readings don't lie still. Something
1:39
is out there, something powerful. I didn't know
1:44
what we'd find, just a pulse, a surge of glyphic
1:49
radiation from the edge of the desert, but the
1:51
signal was sharp, personal, like it wanted us
1:56
to find it. We were now in the wind -scarred
2:03
desert of molten glass. Do you feel that? The
2:08
heat's not just temperature, it's pressure. Emotional,
2:11
like someone's angry, I said. Or grieving, Luna
2:17
replied. Suddenly light bends, the horizon ripples.
2:23
Hovering above a platform of glass is a glowing
2:25
sun -like figure, spinning slowly. smiling wide.
2:31
What in the Vell is that, is what I ask. That
2:34
is Daybreak, I replied. Daybreak's voice, deep,
2:39
echoing, controlled, witness me or burn blind
2:45
in silence, Daybreak said. He looked like a sun
2:49
wearing a grin, three blazing horns carved out
2:52
of each sides. or out of firm aside, sorry, each
2:58
a channel for raw lava, and he watched me like
3:02
he knew me. Lava hissed, heat waves rumbled,
3:08
echoes of a child crying. She screamed for me,
3:13
and I did nothing, Daybreak said in my mind.
3:19
Ignizura, shield formation now, said I shout
3:21
it. He's not attacking us. He's attacking himself,
3:25
Luna said. I need to reach him. But first we
3:30
survive, I said. Daybreak releases a blast from
3:35
all three lava horns. The desert explodes into
3:38
chaos. I throw a light prism to bend the heat
3:42
wave just enough to dodge. Okay, Daybreak. Let's
3:48
talk in a language you understand, I said. Mom,
3:56
please don't fight again. I cried That memory
4:02
buried so deep It clawed its way out the moment.
4:06
I looked at him. He wasn't just light and lava.
4:09
He was guilt guilt made real Luna missed barrier
4:16
now Xena when he flares reflect him. I'll do
4:20
the rest I said Magic mist rolls in. Lava crackles.
4:25
Daybreak charges a final solar lance. I should
4:29
have stopped it. She called for me. She called
4:33
for me. Daybreak cried. You're not alone anymore,
4:38
I said. She tosses a sun -still sigil. Trap mid
4:43
-flare. Time seems to freeze. Daybreak's form
4:46
fractures into prismic lights. And then it pulses
4:50
and then silence. A gentle hum resumes. Why does
4:56
it always feel like catching one of them breaks
4:58
us too? Because we see ourselves in them. Luna
5:03
replied to Xena. Daybreak sleeps now, trapped
5:06
in the sigil, warm like a heartbeat. I don't
5:09
think he's evil. I think he's wounded. And sometimes
5:12
the brightest flames come from the deepest regret.
5:27
I had finally made it home and was reading my
5:33
journal, but I closed the journal because my
5:37
mind wouldn't shut off. Daybreak wasn't just
5:39
some fireball with legs. He remembered something
5:42
or someone, and that quote is stuck with me like
5:45
slit in my lungs. I burned her worse than he
5:48
did. Who was she? I wanted some time in the containment
5:56
chamber, so... I went to the lower part of my
5:58
sanctuary. I didn't know that Xena had made her
6:03
way down there as I was watching my new glyph.
6:10
You're still down here? Xena asked. Yeah, he's
6:13
glowing differently now, quieter. Ignizura's
6:17
claws are still scorched from blocking that last
6:21
blast, but he said daybreak, hesitate it. That's
6:25
rare for a glyph that mad. Zena said, he wasn't
6:29
mad, he was grieving. I replied, grieving? That
6:33
thing nearly flash -fried Luna's eyebrows. Zena
6:37
said, they'll grow back. There was a muffled
6:51
voice of young girl in a flashback that came
6:55
to me. Don't let him hurt her, please. When I
7:00
touched the sigil, I felt not heat, not fire,
7:04
just fear, trapped in memory, replaying over
7:07
and over. You think Daybreak remembers the life
7:12
that birthed him? Luna asked. I think he was
7:16
that memory, I replied. So you think a glyph
7:19
can be, what, a soul fragment? Xena asked. Luna
7:25
asked now, because she was down there too. Maybe
7:28
not a soul, but a feeling so strong, so painful,
7:31
it clings to the veil until it becomes something.
7:34
That's horrifying and kind of beautiful, Luna
7:37
replied. Suit up, something's wrong, Xena said.
7:44
Wrong, how? I ask. Ignis there a sniffed fire
7:49
where there's no fire? and three of the lesser
7:53
glyphids in the vault are acting like they've
7:55
seen a ghost. Zena said, one of the outer stones
7:59
is cracked. Something responded to Dart Daybreak's
8:01
capture. Luna said, what do you mean respond
8:05
it, I ask. This was tucked under my door, Luna
8:10
said, holding up a charred piece of paper. If
8:13
you've claimed the morning sun, then beware the
8:16
falling dust. He remembers too. We were now in
8:28
the vault, deep lockdown area. I started talking.
8:37
We thought capturing Daybreak ended that chapter,
8:41
but glyphs don't just disappear, they echo. They
8:43
ripple, and something out there, someone, wants
8:46
us to know Daybreak wasn't alone. Are, huh? Anyone
8:52
we know?" Zena asked. I do. I said, stone -faced.
9:00
We caught a sun, but in doing so we cast a shadow,
9:05
and shadows always come back a second time. I
9:21
hadn't heard that initial since the old days,
9:24
back when I trained in the marsh light sanctum.
9:28
Before the war, before the glyph line shattered,
9:33
R, Revanat, a rogue catcher who didn't just bond
9:38
with glyphs, he rewrote them, turned them into
9:42
something twisted, artificial. You mean, Revanat's
9:46
still alive, isn't it, ask? Stepping closer,
9:48
eyes narrowing. He was never really dead, just
9:51
off the grid. But he left this mark, every artificial
9:54
glyph we've ever seen. Fragmented eyes, unstable
9:58
energy signatures. That's him and now this, I
10:02
said. A deep metallic vibration hums through
10:06
the vault. Chittering legs, clicking on the metal
10:12
floors could be heard. Danger. Elevated solar
10:17
residue echo trails pulsing. Sun resonance in
10:27
the walls. That's Daybreak's signature, but it's
10:31
reversed, like something is siphoning it. Zendak
10:34
said, flicking open her scanner. He's trying
10:37
to clone Daybreak, or worse, mass produce him.
10:42
They're very rare, and they're not supposed to
10:44
be done that way. I said. We were now in the
10:53
sub -level D thermal vault breach. We followed
10:58
the energy trail through collapsing corridors
11:01
and down beneath even the vault's foundation
11:03
there. In the dark, solar glyphids scuttled like
11:07
beetles through cracks in the rock, mouths glowing
11:11
with magma. They weren't hostile. They were...
11:15
drawn to something. In the distance, a cage of
11:18
glass and lava shimmered and inside it, the second
11:23
sun rose. There's another one, Xena whispered.
11:28
No, it's not daybreak. It's a prototype. Crescendo
11:35
of cracking glass and warning beeps could be
11:37
heard all around us as the lights flickered on
11:42
and off. letting us know that our sanctuary had
11:46
been breached. There was an unstable, roaring
11:52
voice that said, sunrise protocol phase. We're
11:57
not letting that thing leave this place. We trap
12:00
it. We contain it. And then I said to Zena, we
12:05
find Revnot and end this for good. Zena said.
12:10
But just as we prepared for the strike, a voice
12:14
echoed through every chamber, ancient and mocking,
12:18
warped by machine static. You're too late, Stella
12:22
Ferris. Daybreak was only the dawn. The silence
12:34
lingered for a breath too long. Then the sound
12:37
of distant alarms low and pulsing fills the room
12:39
even louder than before, like a heartbeat. The
12:45
lights flickered, not because of power failure,
12:47
but something worse, disturbance. Old glyph energy,
12:53
raw and untamed, surged through the sealed stone.
12:57
I felt it in my teeth. My glyphs stirred. Even
13:00
Orabic, usually calm under pressure, fanned his
13:03
wings in mourning. Who in the hell is Revenant?
13:07
Zena asked. I didn't answer because to speak
13:11
his name is to remember the veil and what we
13:14
left behind. And there are this there's a flashback
13:23
that I got to tell you guys about in the story
13:25
two six years ago. So before I became a catcher
13:30
I was a witness and Revenant he was one of us.
13:33
Or at least he used to be. A genius with forbidden
13:37
knowledge, obsessed with the echoing chain. A
13:41
theory that glyphs are not summoned, but remembered
13:44
by the universe. He believed if you could follow
13:47
the echoes back far enough, you could awaken
13:49
the first glyph. He broke into the core. You
13:56
don't understand. He wants to rebuild day one.
14:00
Professor Orion said. audio cuts abruptly, and
14:05
the whole flashback cuts back to present time,
14:11
back in the vault. We've got a new trail. What's
14:14
the move? Zena asked. We follow the signal. I
14:19
replied. Revenant's message was more than a warning.
14:22
It was a signal bounce, piggybacking off the
14:25
lockdown system. We traced it, me, Zena, and
14:28
Luna, through the old freight tunnels. at the
14:31
sanctum engine. Each corridor hums with old glyph
14:35
circuitry. Ghost of power hum just beneath the
14:39
metal. Heat spike, 200 meters ahead. Not mechanical,
14:45
not organic either. Glyph signature, sun based.
14:49
Luna said, checking her scanner again. It's another
14:52
piece of daybreak or worse. One of his fragments,
14:55
I said. We were now Outside of the sanctum engine,
15:02
node V. We didn't find a creature. We found a
15:07
husk, a molten spear, cracked and smoking, shaped
15:12
like a sun, but inner like a seed with its flame
15:17
extinguished. Around it, three smaller glyphlings,
15:23
tiny fire beetles with daybreak's crest, etched
15:27
into their backs, crawled in a perfect triangle.
15:31
Triplets, so daybreak reproduced? Then I ask,
15:37
no. It shed like an eclipse, peeling back its
15:41
own light, Luna said, shaking her head. And in
15:46
the center of them, a message edged and scorched
15:48
metal, one word, twilight. Revanat's making more,
15:54
I said. Then we're going to stop him before he
15:58
makes nightfall. Because if he clones Nightfall
16:05
as well, then we're in for trouble, or so I've
16:09
been told by you," Xena said. Her words hung
16:19
in the vault like a flare in darkness. Nightfall,
16:23
if daybreak was the beginning, then what came
16:26
next was just another glyph. It was a reckoning.
16:31
Ignazura growled softly behind Zenna, sapphire
16:34
stripes pulsing with reactive energy. He sensed
16:38
it too, a shift in the current of the world.
16:41
Not just a threat, a design. But glyphs don't
16:45
evolve that fast, something's accelerating them.
16:48
This isn't nature, it's orchestration, Luna said,
16:52
shaking her head. R knew we'd come for daybreak.
16:56
He wanted us to. He left the trail on purpose.
17:00
I reached into the pouch and pulled on the scorched
17:04
core of daybreak's containment shard. The glow
17:07
hadn't faded, it was changing. The edges shimmered
17:10
with the darkness we hadn't seen before, anti
17:14
-light, like the memory of a sun that never rose.
17:19
Xena raised an eyebrow before saying, what's
17:22
that? A countdown, I said grimly. Luna said quietly,
17:31
there's another glyph awaking up. I turned to
17:38
them very slowly. We thought daybreak was just
17:41
a rogue anomaly. But in truth, it was a signal.
17:44
And whatever nightfall is, it's already listening.
17:48
So we have to be the ones to save this town of
17:53
ours that we love. Before we could chase Revenant's
18:00
signal through the broken circuits of the vault,
18:03
the ground trembled again, this time from above.
18:07
He's not just haunting us, he's already attacking,
18:10
Zena said, alert, hand on Ignizura's back. Luna's
18:15
eyes went wide as she clutched Mirno's horn.
18:18
Guys, look. Through a shattered panel in the
18:24
wall, we could see the sky, black, roiling. not
18:28
with clouds, but with shards of broken light
18:31
above the quiet town of Luon. A glyph storm was
18:42
forming. Civilization or civilians ran for cover
18:48
as Revenant's drones hollow insectoid husks wired
18:53
with pulsing glyphid cores descended like meteors.
18:57
Their metallic limbs clawed through rooftops,
19:00
their speakers blared looping phrases in Revanat's
19:04
corrupted voice. Daybreak has fallen. Embrace
19:08
the night. Your time is calculated. All the drones
19:14
said in unison. I landed from the sky as I leaped.
19:27
out of my sanctuary, and yelled, Glyphcatchers,
19:31
deploy! Ignisura exploded forward in a streak
19:36
of sapphire flame, shimmering into one of the
19:39
drones and igniting its core in a burst of blue
19:42
fire. Marino dug tunnels underneath, popping
19:45
up and tossing drones aside with his rhino horn,
19:48
before disappearing again. Ourobeak, wings glowing
19:53
with spectral light. dove through the smoke and
19:57
shattered a group of drones with a sonic burst.
20:01
Focus on the pulse beacons. They're anchoring
20:05
the swarm. Xenis shouted over the chaos. Mirono,
20:11
burrow beneath the central one. Get ready to
20:13
destabilize the root node. She said concentrating.
20:20
As they fought, I reached into the storm. Not
20:23
just with my hands, but with my heart my connection
20:27
to the glyphs to the veil and I felt Revanot
20:30
watching twisting, but something else to fear
20:34
He's losing control. This isn't just about domination
20:40
anymore. It's Depra deprivation. I said ripping
20:44
out a shard from a fallen drone or a beak overcharge.
20:49
I called out Orabiik's body flared with golden
20:53
light wings slicing through the sky as he unleashed
20:56
a full spectral pulse. The storm paused like
20:59
the town took a break. Then, boom, the pulse
21:03
beacons exploded in sequence, one after the other.
21:08
The remaining drones short -circuited, falling
21:10
like broken toys into the square. It's over,
21:13
I said, panting. For now, Luna said. Yeah. We
21:19
stopped the invasion, but we haven't stopped
21:22
him," Senna said, nodding. Revanot retreated,
21:26
not defeated, just calculating, watching, and
21:29
we knew nightfall wasn't a time. It was a glyph.
21:34
One he was saving for last.