Looming Shadow: Journey to Chaos book 2 (45 page)

Mr.15 grasped his chin
and tilted it up. All Eric could see was a large pair of blood-red eyes. They
were twin pools of pain and terror. They pulled him under and suffocated him.
When Mr.15 broke their gaze, Eric was weeping.

“Perhaps I was wrong.
At least as far as Evil Eye, your training is flawed. Fighting with personal
pain is stupid because there will always be someone more unfortunate than
yourself. True power lies in primordial fear – the Universal Dread – and its
source in spiritual strength.”

He released Eric,
turned on his heel, and walked out of the room. At the door, he paused.

“Speaking
of the Universal Dread…I hear you're interested in mana mutation. How about
first-hand experience?”

Tsilear’s
mutation rushed to the forefront of Eric’s mind; a corrupted and hideous body
that he could not control. He remembered the desperation on Patrick Lumberson’s
face at the final stage of transformation. The last of his identity was erased
by a mindless and nameless savage. It was a fate as good as and worse than
death.

“As an Otherworlder,
you would make an interesting specimen. I might have to chop you up into tiny
pieces so I can conduct as many tests as possible.”

The door closed and
locked. Eric was alone in the blindingly bright room. Bound as he was, his only
escape from it was to close his eyes and, even then, he could see it.

Over the last five
months or so, he had come to feel comfortable in darkness. As a child, he had
been absolutely terrified of it and would do anything to avoid dark areas, but
after returning from Tariatla, that fear was gone. Night was calm, night was
quiet, and night was soothing. Darkness was like balm to his spirit. So much
intense light all at once was agony, and it agitated the terror of Mr.15’s Evil
Eye.

All he could do was
trace letters on the chair arm with his fingers and hope a certain someone was
vain enough to notice it. Sure enough, a golden-haired and pointy-eared asshole
appeared before him. The only thing more infuriating than his casual expression
was the shades on his eyes.

“You called, my bestest
friend?”

Eric mumbled offensive
things until Tasio pulled the thick gag out of his mouth.

“Okay, Tasio, you’ve
made your point. Now get me out of here.”

“What point might that
be?”

“I was arrogant,
over-confident, and I shouldn’t have told you to stop bothering me. Please get
me out of here.”

Tasio snapped his
fingers and a flash of light obscured his form. When it dimmed, his clothes had
become both tight and futuristic. They had a red and black color scheme with a
gold pin attached near the shoulder. There were no pockets of any kind.

 “What makes you think
I am either inclined or capable of terminating this encounter?”

“Abyss take it, Tasio!
What do you want me to say? That I’m frightened, inadequate, or that I need
you? Fine!
I need you
.”

To his surprise, Tasio
put the gag back in his mouth and said, “That wasn’t as difficult an admission
as I feared it would be. I’ll make some arrangements.”

He disappeared amidst a
stream of curses Eric had learned from
Margret
’s crew
.
After a minute,
Eric examined his confinement as well as he could. Given the floodlights, there
was little he could see, but experimental struggling told him he wouldn’t be
moving without help.

Abruptly, Tasio
reappeared. He was still wearing the pocketless uniform. “By the way, what do
you think of my cosplay?”

Eric death-glared.
Tasio pouted.

“You are no fun at all.
I bet you don’t even recognize the scene we just re-enacted.”

Tasio disappeared once
more. Instead of waiting in the chair, Eric retreated within himself. His mind
traveled to the place between his mind and Kasile's. He made himself at home
atop the statue of his bridge house and discussed possible escape attempts with
Grey Dengel.

There was little to
work with: the collar on his neck sealed his magic, the shackles restricted his
movement, and with the gag in his mouth, he couldn't even spit. After
exhausting those options, Eric brought up the mana claws Kasile used when she
was kidnapped. Grey Dengel pointed out that he didn't know how to use them, and
if he could, he would not be able to maneuver them to cut himself free.
Eventually, Kasile herself appeared, looking smug and pleased with herself.

“Hello, Eric. How goes
the ‘blessed with monstrosity’ research?”

“Well, thank you. How’s
ruling?”

“Good. I’m working on a
necessary evil right now.”

“Taxes?”

“
Suitors
. Since my coronation, I've
played host to a series of men who want my hand in marriage and this next one
promises to be the most insufferable of them all: Lunas of Latrot.”

“Lunas Latrot....He's the son of the
Ordercrafter King, isn't he?”

“Yes and he is his father’s son. To honor
his arrival, I commissioned an anti-ordercraft circlet from Dnnac Ledo.”

“I've heard that the most dangerous
ordercrafter is the one that doesn't need ordercraft.”

“
Those
I can handle without trouble,
thank you. Now…” She walked into his personal space and asked, “What are you
doing here?”

“Shouting into the void to relieve stress?”
Kasile stared. “Admiring the statues?” Kasile scowled. “Contemplating my place
in the universe with the absolute peace and tranquility of...” Kasile drummed
her fingers and tapped her foot. “Oh, all right! I've been captured and I'm
hiding out in here.”

A trickster’s pleasure appeared on Kasile's
regal face.

“Well, well, it would appear that the fire
is in the other campsite now. A little bird told me as much, but it sounded so
outlandish as to be a prank. Would you like distracting small talk? Lessons in
basic magecraft? How about a promise of rescue that I have no idea how to
fulfill?” 

“Ha, ha, ha, very funny, Your Majesty.”

“Seriously, there are techniques I can
teach you that may help.”

“Really?”

Suddenly, the void filled with white fire;
holy flames from the demi-goddess standing in front of him. It was reflected in
her eyes and burned on the back of her right hand. The Empty Throne of Ataidar
was the proof of her heritage and right to rule.

“This fire requires a number of passive
abilities to function properly. The first step is soul forging. I needed to
make my mortal soul better able to handle divine power. You know how fires are
used for smelting and creating new things, right?”

Eric nodded.

“Soul forging is like that. You need to
build a fire in your soul, remove the impurities, and reshape it into something
stronger.”

“I can’t use magic. How
would that help me?”

“The Trickster told me
you understand Mana Conversion as theory but haven’t been able to use it in
practice. If you forge your mortal soul into a Razor Spirit, then you should be
able to use it. You could disintegrate the cuffs by turning them into mana.”

Grey Dengel appeared in
the void beside him.

“She speaks the truth.
The reason for your trickster mood was an inability on the part of your mind
and soul to safely comprehend my wisdom and bear my power.”

“You did it
regardless.”

“I figured a soul that
carried my own would be of sufficient strength, or barring that, I would be
able to lift them to such a level in the process. I was mistaken.”

“Eric, are you talking
to Dengel again?”

“Sort of. He’s more
like an imaginary friend now.”

“Anyway, other benefits
include an improved barrier, greater strength for spells, resistance to
techniques like Evil Eye, that sort of thing. It’s called ‘Razor Spirit’
because you’ll lose these powers if you don’t meditate regularly, like how a
blade loses its edge.”

“Sounds like a pain. Is
there any way to avoid it?”

“You could become a
‘Gilded Spirit,’ but for that, you’d need a catalyst for apotheosis. Something
like my divine fire.”

“Does that mean you’re
divine?”

Kasile blushed and
looked away. “Well…”

“
Kas.
”

“No. I haven’t. I
haven’t, okay?” She groaned and threw out her arms. “The Fire Sage won’t tell
me how to do it, speaks in
koan,
and is, in general, an ass.”

“So when you call
yourself a ‘demi-goddess’ or ‘divine queen,’ it’s a lie.”

“It’s not a lie!
It’s…just…not entirely true. I
am
a demi-goddess and I
am
divine.
That’s why I wear the crown. That’s why my mother wore it and my grandfather
and so on. That’s why no one overthrows my family. I
need
to be divine
for the sake of stability in Ataidar. If I’m not, then there’s no reason
another family couldn’t be royalty. One look at Acemo is all you need to see
how dangerous
that
can be. Why, it could convince someone to support
Liclis’ invasion. If they tried that with Ataidar, I’d throw a Holy Flame Arrow
at their fleet. I am divine.”

“Okay, okay, you’re
divine. How about that reforging thing?”

“To reforge
my
soul, I meditate,
contemplate fire philosophy, and pray to Fiol. I imagine that if you replace
fire and Fiol with mercenary and Mother Dragon, then you’ll have the same
result.”

Eric shrugged. He sat down, crossed his
legs, and cleared his mind.

And so he thought, breathed, and
contemplated. He cleared his mind of all other thoughts and focused solely on
the wisdom of his guild’s founder and the way of life of the mercenary. As he
focused, his mental form glowed and arose. The light of the area dimmed in
proportion to the glow and the glow became like a fire.

Grey Dengel appeared next to him and,
unknown to Kasile, stuck his hand into the flames. Every time Eric exhaled, the
flames reached further up Grey Dengel’s image and incinerated that part of him.
Every time Eric inhaled, those astral ashes entered him and settled within him.

“So
that’s
how the Zero Finite Principle
works.” He opened his eyes. “In retrospect, it should have been obvi….Kas?”

He was alone in the void. Not even Grey
Dengel kept him company. He looked around and found a statue of Grey Dengel
between the one of Basilard and the Dragon’s Lair. After some time, he sent
another call to Kasile and she reappeared.

“Awake, are you?”

“How long was I meditating?”

“It’s been a full day. How do you feel?”

“Pretty good…Not
hungry. Maybe I
am
subsisting on the dew of the universe…”

“We can talk about it
later. I need to attend a meeting about the renewal for bread and milk
subsidies. If you’re not free by the time it’s over, I’m sending the black
ops.”

“You’re joking, right?”

Kasile smiled
winningly.

“One jail break, coming
up.” 

Fully conscious again, Eric was relieved to
find that Mr.15 hadn’t decided to cut him up yet. Instead of questioning his
good fortune, he focused on the task at hand. According to the Mana Conversion
Principle, it should be possible to turn solid objects into mana because at a
fundamental level, they were already mana. He looked at the cuff on his right
wrist and focused. He thought about the MC Principle and imagined it was gone.
Then it
was
gone.

Only a band of transparent mana circled his
wrist. His hand was free. He repeated the process on the other three cuffs and
it was marginally easier each time, but when he tried the sealing collar, he
failed. He pulled out the gag and was about to ask Grey Dengel when the answer
came to him.

Its function is to control mana. Thus,
it controls itself with a power greater than my own. In other words, this
principle doesn’t work against mana controlled by another spirit.  

“Abyss. That means I can’t disintegrate
monsters. It should still work against the door.”

He put his hands against the door and
willed it into mana, but it stayed solid. He breathed, focused, and tried to go
back into the meditative state from earlier. Then the door became mana and he
fell through it without realizing.

“Ahh! You startled me.”

Standing outside the door was a teenage
human girl. She had blonde hair made dirty by dirt and grime that appeared to
be fused to the individual strands. It came down to her shoulders, so she wore
it in a ponytail. She wore a dull red dress a size or so too large. Altogether,
it was an uncanny resemblance to Tiza.

“Let me guess; you’re Vaya Kloac.”

“Yes, I am.” The girl curtsied. “You must
be Eric Watley.”

 “Yeah, what are you doing here?”

“I came to save you.” She jingled a
keychain to prove her point. “I was trying each one of these when the lock
disappeared and you fell through.”

“Tasio sent you, didn’t he?”

Vaya blinked. “Tasio? I have no
acquaintances by that name. A white-haired boy with pink eyes told me a friend
of his was locked up in here. He begged me to save this friend, then he died of
a grievous injury.” She dabbed the corners of her eyes. “A lady honors last
requests.”

Aio, how many times have you ‘died’?

“Alright then, let’s
work together. If you could point me in the direction of the repository, I’d be
grateful.”

“The repository? Yes, I
can lead you there. A lady helps those in need. I found it the other day.”

This girl’s knowledge
of the tunnel system was impressive. Even in places where the Fog was thick
enough to obscure his vision, she never seemed lost. She didn't fear the Fog
either. While Eric controlled his breathing to keep his intake to a minimum,
she breathed it in as if it were mundane air. Her black-red hairstreaks
shimmered in sync with the rise and fall of her chest.

Something
dropped on top of her and she nimbly dodged it. It lunged, but Eric kicked it
into a wall, then followed up by caving its skull in with a heel stomp. It was
only after the fact that he realized it was vaguely human.