Chapter 15: 13- New Things, New Problems

The day after Marik and his master had returned from their yearly day trip they did their planned role swap.  Marik spent most of his time teaching his master how to use multiple sorceries at once.  He trained him in the same ways and methods he had trained himself.  His master had set aside most of his word to solely focus on being trained by his pupil and Marik only had enough time on the side to spend barely a few minutes on each thing in his training menu.  It wasn't enough to improve any but it was just enough to make sure that nothing got too rusty.

After just a little over three months his master finally succeeded.  It took using two spells to help and only last for the fraction of a second but he had definitely used a split second of light sorcery while keeping flames surrounding him with fire sorcery.  Another week was spent with his master trying to catch up on lost work while Marik wrote out various ways that all the known sorceries connected to one another.  He left a few out, of course.  He felt no need to give away all the answers to anyone who might come across the list by accident some day.  His master decided to reward him in celebration by fulfilling some of Marik's requests.  They went to town with his master covered in an illusion spell and talked to an acquaintance of his master's who made medicines out of strange things.  Marik almost call him an alchemist but the man started complaining about alchemists almost as soon as they entered the shop.

They ordered a bunch of magic candy, which his master they could later imbue with specific memory pieces using a certain spell.  The memory would then be given to whatever person ate the candy and once the candy was gone there was no worry of someone else getting the memory as well, unless they ripped it out of someone's mind directly of course.  After that the two of them walked around to see the sights and try some foods that neither recognized.  When evening came they headed into a dark alley that his master assured was deserted, opened a portal, and went home.  

After that was a month where they taught each other.  Marik continued to help his master learn to use multiple sorceries and his master taught him the bare basics of all the sorceries he could.  Marik was also handed a book full of beginner and novice spells as well as some helpful tips and tricks for magic in general.  The author of the book was blocked by an ink blot.  His master finally admitted after a day that he had written it but still didn't want Marik to know his name for some reason.  After all of that his master took him back to town to pick up the candy they had ordered and walk around some more for that social interaction Marik needed.  Marik checked out a weapon shop and found a cheap throwing knife that was close to being thrown into the scrap bin.  Apparently the shop's personal blacksmith was there because they could hear hammering coming from out back.  Marik talked to his master off to the side as quietly as possible about an idea he had for the knife and his master reluctantly agreed to buy it, so Marik had the shop adjust a few minor things that only took a matter of minutes before they left the shop to walk the streets some more.  After also having his master buy a strip of the toughest cloth possible they finally went home again.

Marik started getting back into his old routine with a few new things added.  His master also finally got back into full work mode.  They both set aside some time between dinner and evening studies to help each other when needed but otherwise their life started to return to normal.  Marik started trying to learn a few spells that seemed like they might be helpful in figuring out how to get to a recognition inhibition spell.  He also took some time to plant a spread of all the various times he had seen someone using rope darts, weighted sashes, chain whips and anything similar into the candies while also sewing the modified throwing knife, cloth, and a decent smooth and round rock from the river together to create a good training weapon all for Sai.  He left a few candies to the side which he filled half with some medical knowledge and the other half with either safe-ish ways to injure oneself of actual memories of intense pain, magically enhanced to the point where he was almost reliving the pain as he transferred it, all for Kiara.

At a point where they had both started to relax again in their normal routines, his master came back from one of his trips with news of some bandits.  Apparently they had been waylaying people going to and from the small town he had just visited.  His master thought this might be the chance for Marik to kill someone as he had asked.  Marik took a deep breath and nodded his assent.  That evening he followed his master through the portal and found that they were a just far enough inside a forest that they could see the small town nearby but still far enough that it was doubtful anyone in the town would be able to see them even in full daylight.  His master offered to lead him to the bandits but Marik decided to try and finally put his tracking skills to use.  It took a while as they traveled along the roads before Marik finally a spit where it looked like either a cart or carriage had been attacked.

He followed the trails that led deeper into the forest.  Eventually he saw a small group of tents surrounding a shoddily built hovel.  Marik took a deep breath and glanced at his master for support.  His master nodded only once and gave his back a light push.  Marik threw on all of his sorceries except for the lightning muscles and snuck up to the bandit camp.  There were two woman and a young girl being gangbanged in the middle of a cleared spot between one group of tents that he scouted.  He felt bad about not trying to rescue them immediately but he wasn't some kind of light novel hero who could rush into the middle of such a thing while screaming just and expect to get out of it all in one piece.  He thought he was still relying on his darkness blur too much as it was at the moment.  He continued scouting around for a couple minutes more until he felt he knew the general positions of all the bandits.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  Once he started this there was no stopping.  If he messed up he would most likely die.  He was ready, though.  This was something that needed to be done in multiple meanings.  He started with the only guard on watch, using his claws with just enough lightning sorcery to not cause an arcing to slit the guards throat from behind.  He had killed someone in cold blood.  That someone definitely deserved it but he had still killed.  Not letting himself think too much about it yet he moved on while trying to put his thoughts elsewhere at least for the moment.  For instance, he had just made an interesting discovery.  Apparently shoving a strong electric current directly into someone's throat causes them to seize up for a moment in a way that they don't make noise.  The guards throat had yet to be fully cut out and he definitely tried to scream out yet seemed to stiffen instead.

Marik calmly went from tent to tent, taking out all of the sleeping bandits one by one.  Then he moved on to the isolated ones.  Then he moved over to the hovel.  As long as everyone left alive was enjoying the show then he should be okay.  He opened the door carefully and saw two beds, each against its own wall, with men sleeping in them and a woman chained to one of the beds sleeping on the floor.  Marik cursed inside his mind but continued moving, more out of fear of stopping than anything actually happening, and hoped that the woman just stayed asleep until he was done.  He managed to rip the throats out of the two men while barely making a sound before heading back out the door, making sure he gently closed it behind him.  He focused his wind sorcery on his ears a little more to make sure nobody had left the entertainment circle yet and was glad he did.  In bandit had wondered off towards the nearest tree, probably to relieve himself.  Marik circled around the hovel the long way so as not to be accidentally spotted by the remaining group and snuck up on the pissing bandit.  The bandit, unfortunately, noticed his approach so Marik didn't think he could make as clean of a kill as he had with all the others until now.  He immediately poured some lightning into his leg muscles and leapt forward acting as though his hand were a spear and letting his sharp claws pierce through the man's neck.

Blood spurted out and coated Marik's hand with blood.  He quickly moved to catch the falling body and eased it to the ground.  He looked at his bloody hand and let curiosity, with maybe a tinge of that insanity, overtake him and licked it.  It was actually a little good.  His other memories helped him reason that maybe some of his wolfish heritage played a part in that similar to how he liked less cooked meat so much.  He licked his fingers until they were moderately clean then snuck up as close to the remaining group as he dared to with out getting caught.  He wove Rapid Thinking on himself and made sure all of his sorceries were active.  Just as he reached the first bandit on the outside of the circle he upped the lightning on his claws to the point where there weren't only arcs between his fingers but where the arcs were audibly crackling.  There were three bandits on each woman and two on the girl with seven surrounding them.

The first died almost at the same time the crackling was heard.  The second only barely noticed movement out of the corner of his eyes before he went down.  The third realized something was wrong and then blood started pouring out of his neck.  The fourth at least managed to turn a bit before Marik reached his throat and gripped the wind pipe to take with him, leaving the bandit with a missing throat behind.  The fifth one had already assumed a combat stance but received a face full of blood and throat meat lightly charred from the lightning filled hand that had been holding it moments before.  Then his throat was also removed.  The sixth one was ready for him but Marik ducked low and came up behind him while throwing the charred throat meat at number seven's face before turning around and thrusting a spearhand into his stomach since he guarded his throat.  Lightning coursed through number six's veins causing him to stiffen up for a moment, a moment which Marik used to pierce his neck from the side with his other hand before removing them both from the now dead bandit's insides.

He intended to go after seven again but group gangbang had dropped their toys to the ground to start focusing on the more pressing issue of the moment.  Marik jumped back lightly to dodge an incoming, careful not to push off to hard with the lightning constantly stimulating his muscles.  A sudden cramp or fall could both be fatal at the second.  As soon as he was sure the kick was dodged he jumped back forward with a decent amount of strength in a pouncing manner with each hand aiming for a different part of eight's body.  One hand got eight in the face and the claw of his ring finger pierced his eye, the strong electric current boiling it almost instantly.  Marik jumped a bit and brought his legs up then kicked off the body of the still alive but screaming in pain eight as hard as he could making him and eight fly away from each other.  Eight fell into his fellow bandits behind him while Marik flew past seven, barely managing to make his claws reach far enough to slice through the bewildered bandit's throat as he flew passed.  Marik hit the ground and did a shoulder roll into a standing position then used that momentum to start running in the direction of the trees.

After getting into the trees he made a sharp turn left and continued running until he thought he was far enough, then turned left again to come out of the trees and towards the hovel.  He could hear the bandits screaming out curses and obscenities, still lost in their confusion and refusing to separate too far from one another.  He ignored it and ran around the hovel and towards them again.  Nine and ten didn't even notice he was coming up until he was already between them with each of his hands stretched out to his side and grabbing their throats.  He threw his boiling projectile meat at the faces of the two next closest bandits.  Eleven dodged so he juked past eleven and stabbed twelve in the throat.  Time seemed to be speeding up slowly, meaning his Rapid Thought spell was wearing out finally.  

Eight was screaming still while lying on the ground.  The other four all stared at him like he was some kind of creep who had stumbled into the wrong neighborhood but nobody wanted to get near.  Marik took the temporary lapse to drop all his lightning sorcery so his muscles could relax and his fingers could be licked clean again.  He continued staring at them as he licked his fingers and claws one by one.  Two of them shivered, one looked like he had seen something that should never be seen, eleven gave him a look fill with pure hatred, eight continued screaming.  Marik continued to lick the fingers of one hand clean while he used the other to apple Rapid Thinking again and began walking towards eight.  He reached eight just as Rapid Thinking got woven then, while still licking the last finger clean, he activated his muscle boosts again and stomped down on eight's face as hard as he could without losing his balance, causing his face and skull to cave in.  The two shiver brothers faltered and took a step back at that.  Marik finished licking his fingers and arced lightning between them again.  The scared one ran.  Marik chased.  Marik was faster.

Marik's hand pierced the rabbit bandit's side, grabbed whatever insides it could, then yanked them out.  The shiver brothers gained a last spurt of courage and charged at him.  Eleven started trying to chase after them to catch up and do a full group assault with all three of them that were left but he was too far behind.  Both of the shiver brothers threw wild attacks that Rapid Thinking made easy to deflect.  Lightning coursed through their bodies causing them to stiffen up just enough that Marik was able to leap forward and simultaneously pierce both of their throats.  He set himself and got ready to take out the last one.  Eleven slowed down and assumed a fighting stance against him as he spat.

"The stupid fucks.  Least they coulda done was ta keep ye busy whiles I got my axe."

Marik slowly approached, looking for any opportunity to leap forward.  Eleven shifted slightly; Marik leapt forward.  Suddenly Marik was flying sideways and he had brief image of eleven bringing his extended leg back under him.  Marik hit the ground and rolled a bit.  He started to push himself up when there was sudden impact under him and then he was floating slightly in the air.

"Ye fuck.  Don' think Ima let ye go after ye pulled all this shit.  Ima enjoy breakin all yer bones one by one.  Git ready fer a long long night o' pain ye lil bastard."

Another kick caught Marik in the face forcing him to fly off a little ways again.  Rapid Thinking only just now started to fade again.  Marik's thoughts sped up a little more anyways.  He needed to throw eleven off just for a moment.  Anything would do.  He didn't really have any ranged attacks though.  Memory fuzz or Fuzz Flash were the closes things and were both useless in this situation.  Maybe quick transfer could be used somehow?  He didn't have anything to transfer though.  The only thing in his hands at the moment was a little bit of blood and the lightning sorcery arcing across his fingers still.  No time to think anymore, though.  He crafted the spell faster than ever, trying to throw his lightning in as the target to send but feeling the spell start to falter.  He brought his middle finger and thumb together, focusing all the lightning and wind he could into the spot while he designated the location to transfer to as the same space occupied by eleven's approaching head.  The spell was still having trouble accepting his sorcery as the thing to transfer.  Of course it would, because he was using premade materials from around him to craft the spell with instead of the materials he already had available with sorcery.  He let the spell go away and started again, crafting it even faster than before.  He knew the where, he used his darkness sorcery and what little of space sorcery he had to as the materials and crafted the 'what' that he was sending as the lightning and wind sorcery ball in between his fingers.  The target to send to was having trouble now, though.  He needed a slightly better designation so he used the targeting from the memory fuzz spellweave and pointed at eleven's head.  He brought his middle finger and thumb all the way together while till keeping his index finger pointed at eleven's head and at the moment the spell should have activated he snapped.  Some kind of subconscious idea said it helped create friction and static enhancing the lightning sorcery, some part said the sound would support the wind sorcery to create something like a miniature sonic air burst, and some silly part it was just the cool thing to do.

There was no sound from his fingers snapping, so some part of his thought seemed to be right about that at least.  Eleven was standing still.  Then blood started to slowly drip from his eyes and ears before he collapsed like a puppet with strings, dead.  Marik rolled over onto his back and breathed in before letting out a long sigh.  For the first time in a very long time he also accidentally let loose some of his piercingly high voice to accompany the sigh.  Luckily he seemed to let it out so high that he was fairly certain that most creature or people still around wouldn't be able to hear it.  Soon his master's face appeared, looking down at him.

"I heard what sounded like a whistle.  No, wait.  That was your other voice, wasn't it.  No worries, boy.  You've done what you came to do.  I'll send you home and take care of the rest."

His master opened a portal as Marik shakily stood up and walked through it.  He heard whispers of 'souleater' from the two women who were apparently conscious but he ignored it for now and decided to ask his master about it later.  After he went through the portal he didn't go inside and rested against the outside wall instead.  He was covered in blood and guts and stuff and didn't want it in the house, which was a sentiment he though his master would also appreciate.  He fell asleep before his master returned.

---

"Master, we have a serious problem."

"What is it, boy?"

"I can't use my sorcery or magic anymore."

"Ah.  I see...wait.  What?!"

"So I ended up doing something weird at the end of that fight a couple nights ago.  Since then I can't use sorcery or magic."

"What did you do?  How can something cause someone to lose access to sorcery and magic?  I see no particular problems with your soul.  No more than is normal for you, anyways."

"That's the thing.  I have a vague idea of what I did but I want to do some experiments to test everything out first.  I came up with a few ideas about how I lost those abilities but I may need your help.  Do you trust me, Master?"

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"I do trust you, boy without more details..."

"I may ask you to some weird things over the next week for my experiments.  Please don't question it and just do it.  If I'm right it could be a huge problem if I tell you anything.  That's my leading theory anyways."

"Very well, boy.  Let us see where this leads."

"Then I need you to get ahold of something, whether spell or item, that can erase a memory so thoroughly that there's no trace of it left even in the soul.  You may have to use it on yourself after this."

---

"How do you feel, Master?"

"Hmm?  When did you get here, boy?"

"I was here the whole time, Master.  What's the last thing you remember?"

"Hmm?  You asked me to get a way to erase my my memories as thoroughly as possible to use on myself."

"I see.  You did get such an item.  We've spent the last week running as many experiments as possible and testing a lot of things.  It turns out my worst fear and best theory was mostly right.  What caused me to lose my sorcery and magic was knowledge.  If I tell you too much from this point on, it's possible you could lose most of your sorcery and magic as well.  It was one of the last things we tested before you wiped your own memory.  You greatest sorcery had dropped to the level of a toddler who had just learned their first sorcery and it took you almost an hour and about five tries to even do one Create Water."

"What?!  This is...I don't know what to say.  To have lost all access to the mystic arts after working as hard as you have..."

"Well, that's not entirely true.  It turns out I might have accidentally created a third art."

"..."

"..."

"Boy.  You need to stop with these monumental achievements of yours.  I can only hide so much for so long."

"Well.  There is a little bit of good news this time.  I highly doubt most people would ever want to learn this new art unless they're stupid, crazy, or both.  It's requirements seem to be quite terrible.  You need certain level of proficiency in both sorcery and magic, typically requiring years of work to get to, and then you must be willing to throw all that work away since once you learn this new one you can never use the other two again."

"That...does it make for a bit of a deterrent.  This is still something that we will have to be careful with, though."

"I understand that, Master.  So, now for the important part..."

"There's more?"

"Do I get to give this new art a name?"

"*sigh* Don't do that to me, boy.  What did you want to call it?"

"Well.  In my past life there was this word, arcane, that was use for what's called mystic here so I was thinking of using that.  Arcane arts and arcanistry.  What do you think?"

"And this is basically what this new art would have been called had it existed and not merely be imagined in the other world?"

"Well, probably not exactly, but most of the other words are already being used in some language or another.  I figure out of the few that aren't using the one that fits best for describing the art and modifying the word slightly for what it is seem the best way."

"Very well.  So how does...no, sorry.  If I ask that I'm trading that dangerous realm, I believe.  What all can this new arcanistry do?"

"Well, considering it's been in existence for less than two week, not a whole hell of a lot yet.  Knowledge of sorcery and magic can still help me grow it, though, even if I can't use either of them anymore.  I'll also try and be very careful about giving you information that can lead to arcanistry, so feel free to keep asking me things like you used to and if I think it's getting too close to the edge then I'll let you know."

"How wise of you.  Very well, boy.  We shall generally act as though little has changed.  So, what now?  Since I apparently just had my memories wiped, I don't know what time of day it even is.  Then I must figure out the day itself and what I've missed.  What will you be doing in the interim?"

"As far as your memory stuff goes, I think you left a skeleton journal to give yourself the important without the dangerous knowledge.  I need to try and figure out more of this arcanistry though.  Now it's almost like when I first started all over again."

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