Chapter 31: 30. Restless Gaze

The chill of the ravine’s air ran deep. Jake wasn’t particularly freezing or shivering. However, the ambient temperature of the underground cavern was certainly lower than he was used to. The floor, made of stone and lacking in any form of a protective layer, only added to that chill. As he sat beside the water, staring at the reflection of the walls and towards the black depths far beneath the surface, he was unsure of how to proceed. Up until now, he had a purpose, direction, and motivation behind his actions. After arguing with Yae and coming face to face with the fact that all of his efforts were practically worthless- he found it hard to grasp the idea of pushing on.

He wasn’t particularly against continuing his sword training or his magic training but unlike his prior battles, facing the Maedra directly was proving to be far more of a difficulty than he had initially expected. He could continue, struggle, and eventually overcome the Maedra like he originally planned, which would put him through plenty of more tough hurdles to get over. Or, he could abandon this place. The tunnels were a winding mess but he still remembered the way out. All he would need to do is pluck a ticket giving him passage into the correct tunnel and then slip away. Relying on magic, he could blast his way out from there. The Maedra were nothing to a wall of fire and wind magic.

And yet…

He couldn’t quite put his feet into motion. It wasn’t his pride keeping him in place nor an obligation. Leaving would be so easy, so simple. Returning to the surface, the sun, and his Auntie, would mean never having to fight a rough battle down in the Ravine’s walls ever again. Yae, Tul, and Xul would eventually forget him. The Scout Association would drop his name off their books at some point. His name might linger on Mur’s board for a while, but it would eventually disappear over time. And Pharos Squad would fight the Maedra without him, as they always had. It would be so easy. So easy to just run away from it all.

The one thing keeping him from doing that, though, was a lingering set of sixteen eyes he felt in the depth of his consciousness. A set of eyes that glowed a faint yellow, with two able to change in color. He could feel Him, sitting there in the dark, watching with silent patience for Jake to make his decision. He would never speak again, but Jake could feel the chittering of His fangs as He watched.

Jake could run but what would Chul think of him if he did? They had fought their way through a horde of Maedra, battled two Maudrakes, and Jake had committed so much time to this place. He had dedicated life and limb to this village already to learn how to fight and defeat the Maedra. While he wasn’t particularly exceptional at it, now that he’d faced them, he was learning. Becoming a hunter that could slaughter the Maedra would continue to be a hard path to take and the effort he would have to put into it would be immense, but it was possible. After watching Mora and the Warriors, Jake knew it was possible. Leaving felt like a coward’s way out.

Curling his hands into fists, he took in a slow and deep breath. He was defeated, but not broken. The Maedra had scared him and had put doubt in his mind. It was now his job to overcome it. If he wanted to be the adventurer his Father was and to go beyond the sands to those glorious places in the north, then this was just a pebble in the road he would have to kick aside. His father wasn’t a hero or someone everyone knew and loved. He was just a normal man who loved to travel and fought for money along the way. Did he, too, struggle with these moments? Did he ever fail a task or come up short on an adventure? He had never spoken of it but he had always warned Jake to never get in over his head. Words that could only be fully spoken from experience.

The boy sucked his teeth and kicked a pebble into the water. Then, he placed his hands on the ground. Using Rock magic, he molded the floor and smoothed the rock around him. He kneaded it like dough and slowly created a small dome he could sit inside of. This closed him off from the outside, save for a small hole in the top and the front towards the water. He then created a fire pit in the middle before placing a red rune at its base. He ignited the flame to heat the air and waited until his new hut had reached a comfortable temperature.

The incessant thinking was getting him nowhere, so he stopped mulling over the what-ifs. The Maedra had bested him once and he wasn’t going to let it happen again- that was all he needed to accept. He needed to find a way to better himself and he needed to find a way to properly train to beat them. His target, the Maudrake that had killed Chul, would be impossible to defeat at the pace he was training at. It would take years to conquer that beast if Jake didn’t come up with a new way to fight, or a more efficient way to train. His prior training focused on volume and speed. The goal was to fill the air with attacks and to hit as much as possible, ultimately exposing the mana crystals for his sword.

The issue was the trade-off. Sure, Jake had increased the number of attacks in the air. But to compensate for that increased volume, the individual strength of each strike had plummeted. His inability to kill off the Maedra left him vulnerable. As a result, his pride was now hurt and his sword was now broken.

The Maedra fought without any care for their well-being. They existed only to eat mana and feast on flesh. They didn’t react to pain or injury. They didn’t feel fear or sense danger. There was no regard for their own lives in battle so they threw themselves forward not with courage but without knowledge of anything else. Jake had tried to meet their strength and had been overwhelmed. So, he just needed to get stronger. That was the basic rule he needed to follow. Whenever he faced an enemy that was bigger or faster- he would need to simply overcome the challenge.

Up until now, he had stepped up to those challenges, adapted to them, and found how to conquer them. This moment would be no different. The question was only how. Practicing the efficiency of his spells would only get him so far. He could train them until his steps through their activations were near perfect but he had been doing that already and it wasn’t quite enough so far. He could perfect his sword swings and completely dominate his opponents in a mock battle, but it meant nothing if his combat techniques were too weak and too slow.

He needed to not just elevate his casting ability but the power behind his spells. From how sword, he would need to increase his physical ability. To achieve those goals, he would need to rethink his casting and further develop his body.

Jake escaped to the Library, once more taking advantage of the slowed time within its walls. As he emerged from the sigil and stepped into the pale room, he immediately set his brain alight with thoughts and theories. His spells were foundationally too slow and too weak to be a threat to the Maedra in quick, close-quarters fighting. At a distance with a wall of Warriors in front of him, his magic was powerful enough to change the tide of the battle. If he had distance and put his entire being behind his spells, it was also sufficient as shown by his victories in the tunnels when he was looking for Chul. On his own, without assistance or spacing, he was weak. Vulnerable.

Either one of two things needed to happen; the base power of his spells needed to increase so the distance factor wouldn’t matter, or he needed to utilize spells that could be effective up close. Rock magic was powerful no matter the distance but it required a secondary element to be useful. Spikes, pits, and modifications to the surface of the walls could be done in isolation but they were inaccurate. Many of the Maedra Jake had attempted to skewer with a mess of spikes survived. They were injured and maimed but they had nonetheless survived and continued to attack.

Spells that combined two elements generally took twice as long to use. It was precious time he didn’t have. So, he needed single-element spells. The Ball spell was strong but it required the distance factor, as the balls needed to accelerate and reach high velocities to be dangerous. Wind Bullet was effective but it too required the distance factor. Increasing the initial velocity of the spells was possible, and it would ensure the spells would be up to speed practically as they left his palm, but that cost an excessive amount of mana in return. Gathering more mana behind the spells meant more time… which meant he was still at the starting line of his problem.

Inside the practice room, Jake held up his hand and summoned forth a ball of each element. He broke a piece of the floor so that he could use the wind to make the stone float. Then, he spun the elements around slowly in a circle. Each element was powerful when used properly. Each element had others it could naturally be paired with to increase damage. Each element had a weakness that limited what spells it could be used for. If he followed the baseline fundamentals, then the only deciding factor of power lay within the spells themselves and not with the elements.

Spells had a base of three pieces; choice of an element, choice of shape, and choice of action. The Ball spell was the most basic example; Wind, form a sphere, fly forward. Within the three pieces were the variables the Magician tinkered with and adjusted to mold their mana to perform the desired action: increase speed, increase size, form in the shape of a sphere, form in the shape of a cube, spin right, spin left, explode on impact, fizzle out after three seconds of flight time. There were hundreds of different variables the magician could plug into the spell. One spell could have dozens of variables fed into its activation sequence. As long as enough mana was supplied to meet the requirement needed to sustain the variables, the spell could be cast.

This led Jake down to the next spell requirement- mana. Mana was the foundation of all magic. The amount of mana pumped into a spell decided its strength. Too little and the spell would be weak or it could even fail. Too much and the spell might cause more destruction than initially desired.

While Jake wasn’t exactly lacking in the mana department, he felt something else to be lacking. His accelerated growth had certainly given him strength but it felt unrefined. He lacked the necessary knowledge, depth, and skill to properly utilize what he had. The boy had been given every tool necessary to defeat the Maedra properly. Yet he had come up short when it mattered. He needed to further refine his ability, his magic casting, and his spells.

The question was how to do that. Should he continue spell casting? Would repetition further help him with this issue, even though he’d already spent countless hours doing just that? Or should he cultivate? Cultivation would always net positive results over time, but just how much would he get out of it at this point? Or maybe he could learn new spells. If he read through other books, he might find a new spell that could fit his need in the tunnels.

The boy gnawed on his finger, chewing the nail and the flesh as he stared off blankly into the practice room, the elemental balls swirling slowly in front of him. He was uncertain of how to proceed. Too many routes, and too many options. Not enough information on the potential result. He could ask the fairies or Yir, but leaning on them too much he felt would stall his growth. If he couldn’t find solutions and answers on his own, inevitably he would become reliant on them to think for him. This was a problem he needed to solve on his own.

“The issue isn’t with the spell…” Jake muttered. He reached out and poked at the fire ball, causing it to spin more rapidly. “The spells are strong enough as they are,” he mumbled. Indeed, the spells were capable of killing the Maedra. He had done it before.

“Spacing?” He mused. The boy walked up to one of the Maedra targets, placing himself at the same distance he had been in the tunnel. Then, he launched the fire ball at the target. The ball struck the target and dented it, but failed to accelerate enough to punch through it. However, there was plenty of damage to the target through burns and melting of it. Just, there wasn’t a hole. Jake created another fire ball and launched it at another target. This time, the ball punched through.

Spacing certainly was a problem, but Jake couldn’t always expend the extra mana to accelerate a spell right from the beginning. It would add time to his casting. When facing so many Maedra, he didn’t have that luxury. He could mass-cast, but then he’d have the problem of hitting those among his team.

“So, it is the spell,” he rumbled. He turned his eyes to the other elements and stared at them. The Ball spell was the foundation. It was the first, entry-level step into magic. Jake had relied on it for quite a bit up until this point because of its versatility. Maybe this was its limit. The Maedra were too advanced of a foe for too simple of a spell. In such a short period it seemed he had outgrown it.

“But the idea still works,” he scratched at the back of his head and pressed his lips firmly together. The ball spell as it worked well enough at a distance, though. So it wasn’t entirely useless. The amount of mana needed to use it was low and if Jake learned a new, higher-level spell, then he probably would lose efficiency.

The Wind Cone was a step up. He had modified the Wind Ball spell to increase its punching power and it accelerated even faster than the typical ball spell. It utilized the same foundation, the same variables, and the same amount of mana, and he could mass-cast it. The only difference was the shape. It was also something he could replicate across the other two elements, Water and Fire. Manipulating their shapes was simple enough. Jake also could increase their rotational velocity by applying wind magic to them. But, again, he would lose time. Jake needed the spells to be ready from the start. Even with his powerful mana, he was losing that efficiency at the beginning. He hadn’t expected such a problem.

Jake found himself gnawing on his thumb again, his eyes narrowing in frustration as he created a cone for each of the three elements. He didn’t try it with Rock magic, as Rock magic only utilized physical objects. Unless Jake prepared well in advance, he would never use anything similar with that element. So, along with the three element Balls, Jake stared at the three element Cones, watching them each spin beside one another.

He was missing something.

Something dreadfully important.

…

…

…

!

“Wait.” Activation.

Jake was having problems with the activation portion of the spells. Which meant there was a variable he wasn’t adjusting. He could control the shape and the size of the spell. What if he applied more mana into the activation portion and added the additional variable of rotation speed? Indeed, rather than change the spell after he made it, why not just do it before?

Jake paused and stared at his reflection in the Water Ball. “...Am I overthinking everything?” It was too simple of an answer. Too basic. He felt rather stupid for not seeing it, especially after he’d already looped around that thought before.

The boy sighed and canceled out the spells in front of him. As the small rock fell, the boy caught it on his foot and balanced it on his toes. With a tap, he kicked it across the space and into the wall on the opposite side of the training space. He was thinking too far ahead, thinking too much about problems he shouldn’t even be bothering with.

Magic was about two things; spell mastery and mana control. The spells were never the actual problem. It was how the Magician utilized them. Jake could tinker and play with a spell all he wanted but if he never worked either on himself or the foundation of the spell itself, he would get nowhere. Looking beyond those two steps had been a waste of time. He had missed such a minor detail. He would need to remind himself of such in the future, or he’d find himself falling into the same thinking trap again.

The boy let out a sigh and returned to the casting platform, stepping up to it so he could stare down the training lane. He eyed the various targets and considered just what he wanted to do. First, there was the mana portioning for the spell, then the adjustment to the spell itself. With the added variable he didn’t expect much change in terms of the creation aspect. Extra mana on the front end of his casting should do the trick.

A minor adjustment with some extra mana certainly did it. It was a rather quick and meager solution. As the next time Jake created a Wind Cone, he applied that additional mana upfront as he formed the shape of the cone. The Wind Cone itself was already rotating, as that was how Jake learned to keep the shape he wanted. All Jake did was apply twice the amount of mana to that portion of the spell, which in turn increased the rotation speed.

The moment the cone appeared in front of Jake, the boy could feel the wind lick at his cheeks and could hear the whining of the wind as it coiled over itself. He could see the contrails over the cone. White crests over the waves of violently screeching air. Again, a minor adjustment. Yet the effect had been just what he was looking for.

Jake triggered the spell. It snapped, the air cracking next to his chest as the cone ripped through the target. Jake flinched a bit. He hadn’t been ready for the violent launch. The result, though, was what he wanted. While he was a good distance from the targets now, the initial velocity was what he would need in the tunnels. The sped-up rotation gave the cone three times the initial speed of the original and Jake felt he could apply even more speed to it if he needed. He would just need to remember to do it at the beginning of his casting, not after. 

Before moving forward, Jake tested his adjustment on the other two elements. The Water Cone spell failed to maintain its shape, ripping apart as he increased the rotation speed. It seemed that after a certain point, the water simply could not hold itself together. Even with wind pressuring it and clamping it in place, the water would just spray everywhere.

The Fire Cone spell was similar. However, if Jake increased the temperature of the flames and slightly elongated the cone, the flames would maintain the necessary shape. The heat needed to be high enough for the flames to burn blue and the speed needed to be double that of the Wind Cone he had first made. The Cone also needed to be one-and-a-half times as long. The extra length kept the flames from being snuffed out by the wind. The heat would ensure the Cone maintained the melting and burning power over the distance the cone would fly. Again, minor adjustments to make up for the change to the spell.

It was interesting to see how the elements were reacting to the minor variable changes. Jake was being reminded of their different traits again and it gave them each a bit of character. No spell was universal in use across the elements, except for the most basic ones. Among his many mental notes, Jake would make sure to remember that as well.

“Always more to memorize,” he sighed as he mass-cast a bunch of Wind and Fire cones. He filled the air around him with the spells before launching them down the lane, obliterating all of the targets at once. As the new targets began to reform, the boy stepped down from the casting platform and returned to the study room.

While he had made a step forward in his spell casting, he did not trust that it would be enough. The solution was never so easy in magic. Thus, while he had made some advancement in his casting ability he would also make sure to advance his cultivation. With the increased load on one of the spell variables, Jake would need to increase his mana control to keep the casting time down. He had added precious seconds to the casting time. Time he already didn’t have.

Jake sat down in a huff and leaned back against the wall, crossing his legs as he let out a long and slow exhale. He shut his eyes. Calming his mind, easing his breathing, and letting himself relax, Jake slowly eased into a meditative state. The world around him faded and his mana flow slowly bubbled up into the front of his mind. He stared down at it from a distance, watching the mana within him flow through the tubes he had created for it to follow.

After his initial creation of the flow tubes, his mana had grown fairly calm. Further cultivation increased his compatibility with the foreign mana source his body had been given and his mana eventually became less feral to him. After improving his mana through the adaption of Dragon’s Blood, he had lost a bit of that control over his mana. Shortly after, Jake lost even further control with the addition of Chul’s Mana Source. Now, it was raging within him again.

Jake had control over it. The remnants of his original mana remained within the new mana and he was still able to call it forth with ease to feed his spells. Yet when left alone and when Jake didn’t need it, the mana in him was chaotic and violent once more. It pushed and squeezed at the tubes, seeking a way to exit the foreign body containing it. Jake found the nature of the new mana to be quite odd.

However, he understood the problem. His original mana was diluted and far too thin within the makeup of the new mana. Jake hadn’t quite tamed Dragon’s Blood in the short time that he had control of it. Even though he could use it, it was still very dangerous and volatile. Now that Chul’s Mana Source was in the mix, Jake’s mana flow was practically full of Monster mana. The only reason he could use it was likely because his mana was foreign in the first place. Otherwise, he doubted he would be alive to witness the mess going on inside of himself.

He could still use the mana to cast, that was no problem. However, the problem was the danger of leaving the mana flow alone. He had a feeling that if he left things as they were he juggled the potential for Mana Poisoning to occur. Or, even worse, an explosion within his mana flow should the mana within him backfire. Without total control of his mana flow, he risked losing said control if he tried to use too much of it at one time.

He could feel it ever so often as the stress on his mana increased. The ebbing of it. The shaking. Whenever Jake reached the high point on his spell casting, his mana would balk and struggle against him. He would also lose focus and lose his firm grip over it. From what he was learning, the weaker he became, the stronger the mana’s influence inevitably would be. If he wanted to change that he would need to strengthen his control. To reach that end, Jake decided to focus on the process of how mana was being created within him.

The first step was looking at his mana source. He found that his mana source was absorbing not just Life Essence floating around him but it was also absorbing the mana from the World itself. The result was a thick mixture of Dragon’s Blood. His body wasn’t able to turn Essence straight into Dragon’s Blood- it required mana from the outside world to complete the mix. That was where his control was coming from. It was a binding of his mana with the mana of the outside. If Jake isolated the intake, restricting the outside world’s mana from entering his mana source, then Jake noticed his mana would be produced naturally.

Thus, the resulting blend wasn’t naturally occurring mana. It was an adaptation his mana source had made due to the influence of rana nearly taking over his body. The mana source was capable of working with or without the outside fuel but had developed to process mana in both ways.

The mana produced from Jake’s mana source would then be directed down to Chul’s mana source where it would be recycled and sent back into the boy’s mana flow. The mana generated from Chul’s felt ominous. Interacting with it directly made Jake’s skin crawl. It was cold and hungry. It felt far worse to deal with than the rana that had threatened to kill Jake before. While there wasn’t any intent to attack Jake, it certainly felt poised to do so. It would react to Jake’s call and allow Jake to interact with it, but nothing more. Jake attempted to cultivate it, only for the mana to outright ignore him. It didn’t bend to his will nor did it follow his instruction to develop further. As if his fingers were running through flowing sand, he couldn’t grasp it. The mana was there to help him survive, nothing more. It kept the Dragon’s Blood in check, protected Jake from outside influence, and enhanced his spell casting. Nothing else.

When Jake choked out Chul’s mana source, blocking the flow of his mana down towards it, the mana source reacted on its own. It began to tug at Jake’s mana flow, threatening to find another source to feed it. After a few more moments of watching the second mana source struggle, Jake began to feel sick. His stomach tensed and twisted. He felt his grip on the block waver and his head grew light. The mana flowing through his body vibrated within his flow and began to prod around at his mana source. It felt as though the mana was searching for the reason for the block.

Once it found what Jake had done, it tore open the blockade to fix the feed. Jake couldn’t hope to resist that strength. The flow reestablished, Jake’s health renewed and the pain in his stomach subsided. The mana source wasn’t there to help him, it seemed. From Jake’s view, he saw it more as a parasite. It used Jake to survive and live. In exchange, it was granting him the ability to utilize the generated mana. However, if Jake attempted to starve it, then it would turn on him.

“Quite the gift, Chul,” Jake chuckled as he waited for his mana flow to stabilize. If he wanted to progress further with his mana control, he would need to subjugate the second mana source. Either that or he needed to find a way to overpower the produced mana. There was the idea of feeding the produced mana back through his mana source in a sort of dual filtration setup, but doing so would require his mana source to work double. On top of that, there was the chance he could create a never-ending loop that would inevitably run out of fuel. If that happened, his actual mana flow would empty at some point, leaving him with nothing left.

Jake first needed to fix the mana being output from his mana source. The resulting Dragon’s Blood wasn’t much stronger than his mana on its own. It was the combination of the two at this point that helped empower it. Jake would need to cultivate his mana to reach its level of strength. Was such a thing even possible?

The boy eased out of his cultivation and his eyes slid open. After collecting himself, he eased up to his feet and stretched, waking up his muscles from their sleep. He returned to the Library’s main atrium and began his search for one of the fairies. He found one, not who he was looking for, but asked them to find Fena for him. After waiting a short time, the fairies returned.

“Ah, you again. How may I help you, Mr. Furrow?” Fena landed on the railing, folding her hands neatly behind her as she peered up towards Jake.

“Do you remember a short time ago when Yir had me visit a Dragon’s Vein?” Before he started with his actual question, Jake made sure to remind Fena properly. The fairy nodded. “Is it possible to cultivate my mana to be as powerful as the Dragon’s Blood from the Vein?”

The fairy raised her eyebrows, staring at him with a bit of a surprised look. “Normally, no. The rana that leaks out of the Veins is far beyond the power of mana on the surface. Mana on the surface is more diluted and significantly inferior to the raw rana beneath the surface, especially the rana found near the Veins.”

The fairy leaned forward. “Are you having trouble with it?”

“I am.” Jake nodded. “I was able to gain control over it and I was also able to use it but-”

“But it’s still fighting you, isn’t it?” She cut in, placing and tapping a finger against her lips as she stared at him. Jake frowned and nodded again as she stared at him. She let out a faint hum before the finger on her lips lifted away from them. “Is the Dragon’s Blood all you’re having trouble with?”

Before Jake could answer, Fena’s eyes flickered to the color green. She barely got a look at his mana before the fairy jumped backward, her wings lifting her away from him. She conjured up several spells and glared down at him.

“Myr?!” She shouted.

“Whoa!” Jake held up his hands. Before he could move again, he found himself bound in place. Powerful anchors locked his feet to the ground and his hands fell to the railing as strong cuffs, fueled by light held him firm. “Fena!” He shouted.

“Silence, mongrel!” She retorted, her hands moving as several dozen spears of light appeared beside her. “YIR!” Her voice boomed, echoing through the atrium as she amplified her voice using magic. The atrium erupted with motion, several fairies appearing to look at the commotion. One of the patrons emerged as well, watching from several floors up.

Yir descended in a rush, diving down to where Fena was floating. “What is this?”

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“He’s a Myr!” Fena scoffed, her eyes narrowed as the spears of light closed in on Jake. The boy flinched and clenched his teeth. Yir stared at him for a moment, then looked at Fena.

“I’m not sure who’s more trouble. The actual Myr or you young fairies.” Yir reached over and flicked Fena roughly on the forehead. Upon impact, the mana in the air dispersed. The bindings around Jake’s legs and wrists vanished, as did the spears floating in the air. “He is not a Myr, Fena.”

“But-!” Fena tried to argue only to bite her tongue beneath Yir’s glare.

“On with yourselves!” Yir shouted into the atrium, waving off the other fairies and glaring at the other patron to go away. One by one the curious eyes dispersed. “Do you know what a Myr is, Fena?” Yir folded her arms over her chest as she stared at the other fairy.

“They’re users of Dark Magic from the northern regions of the Overworld.” After giving her answer, Fena was promptly zapped on the nose. Yir sighed.

“Yes, but no.” Yir fluttered over to the railing and landed on it. “Myr are Seraphim who use dark magic. Does Jake look anything like a Seraphim to you?” Yir eyed Jake warily for a moment. Then, her eyes changed color as she checked his mana. “Oh, I see.”

“See?!” Fena shouted. Yir pinched the bridge of her nose as she took in a deep breath.

“Explain, Jake. Why is it that you have Myr’s Mana flowing in you.”

“Is that what this is?” Jake looked down at himself, staring at his hands as he briefly felt out his mana flow. It balked at his touch, clearly agitated. Jake figured that was because of the light magic that had been cast against him.

“He doesn’t even know?” Fena muttered, only to be zapped again by Yir. Apparently, she’d lost the rights to the talking stick.

“Correct. Now, where did you get it?” Yir asked, once more prodding for information. Jake scratched the back of his head and shrugged.

“I cultivated the Dragon’s Vein mana, the rana like you had told me to do. Shortly after, Chul and I were attacked by a Maudrake-”

“A what!?” Just as Fena’s eyes widened and she spat out her words of surprise, Yir zapped her again. This time it was enough to cause the fairy to drop out of the air for a few meters.

“A uh…” Jake watched Fena fall away. “Maudrake… Chul died, I almost died, and once I finally got back to him I found a mana crystal left behind. It was where I thought Chul had been killed, so I took it with me to the village of Ewana. It was a village of Oryks who had found a place to live within the Ravine. In the village, I looked at the crystal more closely and found some kind of power sphere in it. It was being held in by a bunch of sigils and barriers, so I broke them and used my mana to absorb the sphere. Turns out, it was a mana source and I was able to filter the Dragon’s Blood through the mana source. It started producing the mana I have now after using the Dragon’s Blood as fuel, I guess.”

While Jake left out a significant amount of detail about everything that had happened to him, he figured he would leave the minimum amount for her to understand the gist of everything. Fena had found her way back up amid his explanation. She remained quiet and Jake could see the intrigue on her face.

“Yir-” she muttered. Yir nodded.

“I know,” Yir’s hands fell to her sides. “First, the Maudrake. You found it in the Ravine?”

“Two, actually. Chul killed the other. The second was immune to magic so it bested him.”

“And you haven’t seen it again?” Yir raised an eyebrow, her hands finding her hips. Jake shook his head. “Okay. These Oryks, you say they have a village in the Ravine?”

“Yes.” Jake nodded again.

“Where?” When Yir asked, Jake opened his mouth to answer. Only, he didn’t know exactly where it was. There was no map and he didn’t know how to measure distance after that long of a trek. He could give a bunch of general directions but overall, the village was far too deep beneath the surface and well hidden. It would take either a trained guide or luck to find it.

“I’m not sure, but it’s pretty deep.” If she pressed him, Jake would certainly give more information. However, he wasn’t quite sure how to even do that. The number of landmarks were few and Jake would need to retrace his path to give accurate details. After everything that had happened, the trip down was more of a blur.

Yir tapped a finger against her hip a few times before she seemed to move on. “This second mana source. You pulled it out of a mana crystal?”

“Yes, Chul’s.”

“Are you certain it was the Arachkin’s?” Yir asked, her eyes narrowing a bit. Jake nodded, resolute. There was no other being that it could have belonged to and the mana he felt within the crystal was far too familiar to be anyone or anything else. “So you say you absorbed this second mana source and it’s not producing mana inside of you?” Yir lowered her eyes to his chest and then peered into his mana flow.

“Yes.” Jake kept his answers short.

Yir stared at his stomach for a long time, her eyes moving from his stomach to his chest and then back down as she thought quietly to herself. Jake felt uncomfortable beneath that gaze of hers and Fena seemed uneasy as well. The awkward tension in the air was finally broken when Yir’s eyes returned to normal.

“Can you use magic?” Jake nodded. “Can you cultivate?” He shook his head. “Do you feel sick?” He shook his head. “Can you use your mana?”

“No.” At this, Yir’s lips pressed together and she let out a sigh.

“It seems your friend has left you quite a pesky gift behind.” The fairy folded her arms over her chest again and stared up at him. “You need to perform a Binding Ritual.”

“A what?”

“Lady Yir-” Fena opened her mouth, only for Yir to threaten her with a zap to the nose. The other fairy hesitated only for a moment before continuing. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Our little Apostle here has been through quite a bit. It isn’t any more dangerous than anything he has already done.” Yir lowered her finger, canceling the lightning magic she had coiling around its tip. “The Binding Ritual is something used by certain magicians to bring magical beasts and animals under their control. It’s a subjugation ritual, in other words. But you will be using it to bend the mana source within you to your will. Otherwise, it will remain a constant threat to you. You won’t be able to wrestle control from it as you did with the Dragon’s Blood. The ritual, however, will work as a pact between you and it.”

“Lady Yir, doesn’t the ritual only work for living things? The Arachkin is already dead.” Fena seemed confused by the decision. Yir smirked and raised a finger, pointing it towards Jake’s stomach.

“The Arachkin’s body is dead but its soul is not.” The fairy smirked, looking up at Jake with a devilish look in her eyes. Jake’s jaw clenched shut as he felt a cold sweat drip down his spine. “You have two choices, boy. Bind the Arachkin’s soul to your own and bend it to your will, or expel it from your mana flow.”

Jake felt his heart tighten as his fists squeezed. As he considered the weight of her words, he once again felt something staring at him from the back of his mind. Those sixteen eyes were still there, lingering just beyond his thoughts. He could feel the presence again, weighing down on him from beyond his reach. Jake had already grown used to those eyes, The eyes of the dead. While he knew who they belonged to, he never spoke of them. Never thought of them, and lived his life beneath that ever-watchful gaze. Chul may have been gone but he was still watching, nudging the boy along. To take this next step, Jake would need to finally put those eyes truly to rest.

“Will anything change?” Jake asked. Fena looked at him oddly, but Yir’s expression softened.

“You know the answer to that already, boy.” Though she had just been so firm. Her voice was soft and tender. Jake frowned and lowered his eyes, staring at his stomach. He placed a hand against his belly and closed his eyes. He took in a long, deep breath. Then a second. Then a third.

When he opened his eyes, Yir was still staring at him. Waiting for his answer.

Jake grimaced. “What is this Binding Ritual?”

“As I said, it is a subjugation spell. It generally is used to bring the subject under the control of the magician. Usually, it is done with the consent of both parties and is done with the use of a blood pact of some kind. Most magicians these days use soul contracts instead, as they are less painful and far less intrusive. Soul contracts allow more freedom of the bound and can hold several more parameters to them. While blood pacts are resolute and tend to turn the target into a mindless servant of the magician.”

Jake didn’t quite like the idea of the blood pact. “What will we use for this? Chul is already dead. Will we need to use Necromancy?”

Yir shook her head. “No, but we will use a Dark sigil. It will work like a Soul contract but with the subject already dead, it will instead separate their soul from the mana source and leave it to you entirely.”

“So we’re going to forcibly separate Chul’s soul?” Jake blinked, a bit surprised by what he’d heard.

“Correct.”

Jake bit the inside of his lip and he felt his emotions stir within him, uncertain of how to take this choice.

Yir picked up on his reaction and narrowed her eyes on him. “You don’t like that, do you?”

“I would rather a different option,” Jake muttered, He gripped his shift, his fingers pressing lightly into his stomach. Yir huffed and shook her head.

“Unfortunately, my boy, there isn’t one. If he was still alive we might have options. In your case, there are none. It’s either the full binding or purge.” An ultimatum. Either fully absorb the mana source or get rid of it. There was no in-between, no graceful way to end things. Jake either had to sever his friend or abandon the gift he had been given.

Jake could already hear the words of Chul, telling him what choice to make. They had come this far together and the Arachkin did everything he could to give Jake a chance at his dream. He gave everything in the end and his dying moments, he even made sure to leave something behind. For Jake to throw such a gift away felt as though he would be spitting on Chul’s final words. The boy had no options and that hurt even more than truly making the decision himself. It made him wonder if Chul was aware of Jake eventually having this problem. Did he make his choice to leave behind his mana source knowing Jake would do this?

“Always so thoughtful, aren’t you?” Jake ground his teeth together and took in a long breath through his nose. As he exhaled, he released the grip on his stomach.

“Fine. What do we need to do?” He looked up to Fena and Yir.

“Come with me. Both of you.” Yir lifted off the railing and led both Jake and Fena into the study room. Upon entering, she motioned for Jake to go to the practice room. She then placed a barrier over the entrance of the study room and planted Fena at the door. “No one is allowed in, understand?”

Fena nodded and assumed her guard position. Yir flew after Jake, creating another barrier to seal off the doorway into the second room. “Sit in the middle of the room.” As she layered on multiple barriers, Jake made his way to the spot where he’d been directed. Yir joined him shortly after. 

“Sit.” Jake sat. “Hands.” Jake held out his hands. “The ritual is going to be between the two of you. I will use your blood to form the sigil and then you will use your mana to activate it. Once active, it is on you to bring the soul under your control. Understand?”

“How do I do that?” Jake asked. Yir smirked.

“That depends on the two of you. The soul may be docile or they may be violent.” Yir shrugged. She held up a hand and used a blade of light to cut open his left hand. The boy winced, his stomach whirling as she drained him of a small amount of blood. The action was quick and Yir healed the wound swiftly after she was finished.

Using the blood she’d extracted, she drew a large marking on the floor. It had five peaks to it with several lines interlocking. She then laced several peaks together, creating a broken circle around the outside before fully encircling the sigil twice. Along the lines, Yir wrote several Words of Power in Seraphym but even though Jake could read the language he failed to decipher the words she had written. He found it to be odd. He did want to ask what they meant but judging from how Yir was behaving he doubted she would answer him.

The sigil was finished quickly and Yir moved away to the casting platform Jake used. She sat down on top of it and placed her hands by her hips, gripping the ledge of the platform as she stared at him. “There are a few risks to this process.”

Jake assumed one of them. “The first is death.” Figures. “If the soul on the other end chooses to fight and you lose, your soul will die and they will take over your body.”

Well, Jake knew he couldn’t kill Chul even if he tried so he hoped the Arachkin wasn’t up for a brawl.

“Second is something called Shattering. It’s when both souls fail to return to the body. In that case, the souls both die and your body is left without anything occupying it.” That sounded even worse.

“Next, if the other soul is familiar with this process and prepares accordingly, they could cause your two souls to swap and you could find yourself stuck in their body while they run off with you. This tends to only happen if you are performing this ritual with another powerful mage, or with a Myr.” Good thing Chul was well versed with magic. That really settled Jake’s conscience.

“Last, the spell might fail altogether and you’ll just die outright.”

“You’re not making this sound all that great right now, Yir.” Jake rumbled. The fairy shrugged.

“It is better to tell you now rather than have you be surprised on the other side. Especially if the last thing happens. That would be a bit of a shock, wouldn’t it?” Jake rolled his eyes as Yir smiled at him. “You’ll do fine. If the two of you were friends, then you should have no issues.”

“Should?” Jake furrowed his brow.

“Should.” Yir nodded.

Jake sighed and stared down at the sigil. He then looked towards his right hand and the mark Chul had left behind on it. “You better not kill me, dammit…” Jake muttered to himself as his hands lowered to the floor.

Just as he was about to touch the sigil, Yir spoke up. “Remember. Subjugate. Do not barter.”

Jake glanced up at her, curious as to why she’d told him that. Not paying it much mind, he placed his hands down and triggered the sigil. The mana within him flowed outwards, pouring into the floor and following the lines she had marked. The sigil glowed a dangerous blood red, the Words of Power flaring to life. When the sigil was full of mana, it throbbed with a sinister aura.

Then, Jake felt his consciousness slip.

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