The Fool's Freedom

Alan looked around the third floor of the Tower.

It was quite large and it took only a moment of thought for the outer wall to split and form a window. Nothing fancy, but it was a nice thing overlooking the Sanctuary. He couldn’t make it do many other things, but creating walls, windows, and doors just like that was a nice option to have.

The last two floors would remain for him and Xil.

Perhaps Ashlyn too.

“It’s nice… a bit bare,” Emerson said.

Alan could feel the changes in Emerson better now, especially in the isolated confines of the Tower. Emerson was reeking of death. He had briefly felt the same aura covering the battlefield where the man had spent so long dying over and over again. It was the same feeling. A thousand deaths and one man.

“I’m working on it. Don’t know many people around, but I’m sure some magic furniture makers will turn up. In the meantime—”

Chairs of shadow rose up from the ground and Alan sat on one of them with a sigh. Having the ability to make the mana construct as soft or as hard as he wished was doing wonders for his fine control skills and his comfort levels.

“How have you been doing? Sorry for disappearing like that… I kind of needed to get away and explore.”

Emerson nodded. “I understand, don’t worry. I’m not your responsibility. Even being accepted back as I’ve been is more than I could hope for, after what I did—”

“Oh, shut up, Em. You got brainwashed by a literal foreign god trying to latch on to our world and suck it dry by using you as a straw. I’ll have you know there are quite a few of those bastards roaming about, trying to use people. You won’t be the last.”

Emerson nodded, but the words didn’t seem to have affected him positively.

Ah, maybe I should bring him to Xil, and let him unleash his eloquence.

“Anyway, I’ll be preparing for something quite taxing in the next few days, but I won’t be going nowhere. You’re free to move in. We’ll separate a portion of the floor as a room for you and all that. The mana will grow quite concentrated, which will help with any crafting or hobbies you might pick up. If you have skills—”

“Alan,” Emerson interrupted. “Thank you. You saved me, and you’ve done more than I could hope for. I’d prefer to keep helping Walt with his small business, and maybe keep people in check for Rosalyn. It’s like having a job, and I desperately need some direction in life. My mind is… it’s not good. I died thousands of times, and I killed myself many of those. I used my body as a weapon, I threw myself into jaws and skills, and… if I go out to fight, I might do it again. There’s a call in me.”

That’s fucking horrifying.

“I’m not asking you to fight, just offering you this place. You can do whatever you want though.”

“Thank you, really,” Emerson said. “I just need to reconnect with myself and not be reminded of what I went through. All the habits I built will result in my death if I go out right now. I know I’m different, and I know you can sense it. Death calls to me, friend. And I desperately want to plunge into it one last time…”

Alan remained silent. He didn’t really know what to say or do. What he had experienced in the Bone Lord’s realm had changed him, but it couldn’t compare to what Emerson had undergone. And there were others like him out there too. Hundreds, maybe thousands?

Were all members of the Deathless Legions people who experienced countless types of death? The thought was terrifying. The fanaticism, the madness, the desire for destruction born out of that, coupled with the power of skills…

Things were just on a different scale.

“I really hope you can work through what bothers you. I can’t help, even if I want to. Tell me if you need anything,” Alan finally said.

“Again, thank you, my friend. This helps more than you can imagine…”

I hope so.

***

Ritual: Infused Flesh (Rare)

Slowly refine your flesh using mana, making it tougher and more resistant to magic. The results may vary depending on the attribute of the used mana.

Alan stared at the skill. Its mere existence gave him all the necessary knowledge he needed to proceed with the ritual. It had been a few days now and the Tower was already brimming with what he hoped was enough energy to fuel his ritual to competition.

It was not recommended to do it all at once, although the fewer sessions it took the better.

Alan had waited for so long simply because with his enchanted bones, he had suffered a lot, but this ritual was even worse in theory.

His mana would wash his flesh from the outside after he refined it safely, until it reached his strengthened skeleton, infused it as well, and made his body one whole. The ritual was not so much a separate skill, but more so the next step of what was quite a long and arduous change of one’s whole body, apparently. He didn’t know what would happen the next time, since this step was quite all-encompassing.

And he was planning to add his personal touch to the ritual as well, which would hopefully work out for the better.

What worried him most was the traces of void in his blood, and the shadow permeating his flesh due to him becoming shadowless. He had tried merging the two, but last time that had resulted in his finger being turned into a husk and becoming useless.

The purity of mana was important for the ritual, but so were the attributes. Alan wanted to use both, which would hopefully allow him to awaken his bloodline. The name the System had given it was on the nose as Void’s Shadow just sounded silly, but it represented what it was. A combination of his heritage as shadowless, and what he had stolen from the void dragon.

And the power of the dragon was something he craved. At least the immensity he had felt, not the exact skills. He was not quite excited for another race change. What had happened with becoming Shadowless was more of a mental thing, not that physically invasive, and he still felt human enough. The voices in his head hardly made him think of himself as something different.

Even [Empty Vitality] had a bigger impact.

Alan set about a few of his remaining mana stones, having bought a few more just in case from the System store. Their price was trivial to him, but so was the mana. He had warned all that would listen not to bother him, not that they could in his Tower.

Hopefully, nothing weird would happen while he was undergoing this.

The ritual started simply enough. His breathing slowed, and his mana churned. It exited all his pores and poured into the ritual circle he had drawn on the floor. There were a few other symbols on the walls too, coupled with a barrier of mana. The ritual needed an enclosed space and a lot of time to finish, so Alan had considered the Tower an important investment.

Its reserves instantly joined the effort and slowly Alan’s two types of mana started taking over and ‘infecting’ the ambient mana released by the Tower and the mana stones. He exhaled some of his own mana and absorbed a portion of ambient mana to speed up the change and then repeated the process. His body was the furnace that refined it, while the mana he expelled would prepare the attributeless one. The process took a long time, but it was the first and simplest step.

It was much later that Alan opened his eyes to a world of chaotic energy. Shadows and pieces of void swam about one another, refusing to become one, like oil and water. This was the first hurdle and he wasn’t looking forward to the consequences. If he was not careful, all the mana currently surrounding him would rush into him, and he would undoubtedly die.

It was many times that he could hold or safely handle, but it was also part of him due to the ritual and his ‘infection’. That’s why an enclosed space was important. If he tried this outside, all the world’s mana would be too much to handle, and the very first step would’ve been his last.

Here, he could somewhat control the quantity, and it had taken him only a day or so to refine it all and make it his.

Even more of the mana stored by the Tower poured out, forming a small layer over him to protect his body from what was to come. One of the features he was very happy about.

The storm of raging elemental mana was connected to him, and he felt every single part of it similar to how he felt [Shadow Creation]. There was no question that the mana had to be used now.

However, combining both elements inside his body—which was one way to do the ritual—was out of the question to him. The two didn’t work well together, but thankfully the skill had given him the knowledge of what to do.

What he was doing had also a bit of a personal touch added to it. He was planning on both completing the ritual and resolving the incompatibility of his mana types in one fell swoop.

Here goes nothing.

The first slivers of shadow and void touched, and the force they created made the whole room shake. It was not an explosion, but more of a vacuum. Alan felt the pressure push at him, but the Tower protected him.

Over and over, grain by grain, he forced them to merge.

And over and over, it failed.

This is not how it’s supposed to go… Maybe? Alan ground his teeth in frustration.

His will spread out, pure and unconstrained by mana. It was a different type of force. It was him, his control, his very presence. Like an extension of his soul.

This time around he used it almost like a fist and forced the two types of mana to merge, but the reaction was even more violent. The voices in his head suddenly exploded with noise, then went silent.

“Shadows consume to exist and grow. They’re the balance between light and dark. The void only consumes, but it consumes all.” A beautiful voice whispered. “What else is there, that you have control over? What do you steal and use, since you’ve lost your own? Satiate them, and allow one to triumph.”

Alan’s eyes grew wide. She was there, with him in this moment. Her will was encompassing and gentle, but he knew that was just an illusion in his mind’s eye. He quickly understood what she meant.

He had just healed the guy and yet… No. This was too important.

Sorry Cole.

He pulled only a little bit of the restored vitality. Cole’s life force had grown the past couple of days, but all that was taken away now. Alan felt unbelievably cruel for doing so.

Thankfully it took only a little bit of life force. He channeled it through his mana pathways, careful to not let it manifest as the destructive energy of [Sacrificial Attack]. Just allowing vitality to pass through him was somewhat comfortable. A warm feeling unlike any he remembered.

It permeated the room and it was infinitely weaker than the two other elements present. He focused on the flow of all the energies, on their dance of avoidance, of their movements. Then, he allowed his mind to sink into a state of absolute emptiness, devoid of thoughts, voices, and instincts.

The energies all around were all that mattered and with the introduction of life, the shadow and the void changed.

And one triumphed over the others. It was not a union, nor a merger. It was consumption and assimilation.

The room was filled with thick mana, as dark as the darkest corners of the universe. It was darkness, and it was not. Almost as if it had a mind of its own the mana churned and then settled, awaiting to return to its master.

All was not done, as now another consumption had to take place.

Alan welcomed the smallest amount of the new mana, introducing it to the still separate energies in his body, then pulled some more life force out of Cole, and allowed the process to repeat just under his skin.

The agony that followed was something the Bone Lord could’ve only dreamt about inflicting.