Looming Shadow: Journey to Chaos book 2 (46 page)

The pair
encountered a dozen more of these misshaped mutants on their way to the
repository. Some had a wing in an odd place, others were scaled in patches,
hairless in places they shouldn't be or other deformities. Based on the
progression of their transformation, the addicts were friendly to the point of
hugging them, ignored them, or attacked them in a monstrous rage. Vaya
preferred evasion to offense, so it was up to Eric to defend them both.

Lacking
both his staff and magic, he relied on martial arts. It wasn't nearly as
skillful or polished as his magecraft, but it was enough to bring down
malformed and scatterbrained beasts.

 Emily
thought I was lying when I told her about my Threan training hall.

When they
arrived at the repository, three people guarded the entrance: a girl with an ax
and two boys carrying staves. All three of them were older than Eric, but still
too young to be called “full-grown adults.” If Eric were his true age, he'd be
older than they were. Their weapons were ready and they looked everywhere.
Beyond them was the door to the repository.

“I have a
plan.”

Eric held
out his hands and called out to the shadows in the corridor. They reached from
their resting places to pool in his palms. He shaped them into a sphere. Over
and over, he chanted, “Hide in night; no sight. Hide in night; no sight. Hide
in night; no sight.” With each chant, the sphere’s blackness deepened until it
was a darkness beyond blackest pitch. Then he threw it into the guards’ midst
and it exploded into a shroud too thick for their light stones to pierce.

While
they stumbled blindly, Eric waltzed in with perfect sight. He poked the warrior
in the eyes, plucked her ax out of her hands, and then slayed her with it. Her
mage friends followed swiftly behind her. While he waited for the spell to wear
off, he looted their pockets. The only thing he didn’t take was their staves.

“Mr. Watley?
Are you there?

It’s
not wearing off? It must be the mana.

Eric
walked out of the dark bolt’s area of effect and told her the three guards were
harmlessly dead. It might have been the poor light, but he thought he saw more
tears come to her eyes.
Definitely not Tiza.
He raised both hands and
absorbed the darkness into himself. Then he examined the door.

It was a large stone
slab engraved with a large rune. By its central array, Eric interpreted a
protection rune and the auxiliary circles contained routines for spiritual
routing.
He's using the rune as a proxy for his spirit to lock the door.
This
guy drove Kasile into hysterics with just a glance and, hours ago, did the same
to him. There was no way he could force the door open. Then there was the
possibility that attempting to do so would alert him.

“Vaya, do you know how
to get in here?”

She reached into her
dress pocket. “It would be malevolent to guide you here if I could not.”

The thing in her pocket
was a jar of red-black liquid. She unscrewed the top and Eric got a whiff of
iron. Then she stuck her right hand into it and muttered words about blood and
lineage and chaotic empowerment. The liquid glowed and she withdrew a blood-red
hand.

“What is that?”

“Blood,” she said
simply. “I bottled it when I was tasked with disposing of the last experiment.”

She placed her right
hand against the stone slab and repeated the words she said before. The circles
glowed and turned, and the stone moved away.

“What kind of
experiment does that?”

“I do not know his
motive, but I know the main ingredient is his own blood, and the blood of a Bladi
is the same as their spirit.”

 The inside was dark
and somewhat musty. Fog drifted in and lichen lit up the room. Piles of loot
were organized and stacked high. There was money to the excess, and top shelf
equipment. There were rare items that Eric wouldn’t be able to afford with a
year’s wages, assuming he could find them. He ignored them and made a beeline
to his staff. The crystal at the top tinted golden-brown instead of the clear
transparency of before and the grey light at its center was now more intense.
Eric grabbed it and it sent happy pulses through his hand that warmed every
part of his body and soul.

“Hahahaaha! We're back
in business!”

The grey light would
enable him to bypass the suppression collar because it was a proxy for his
spirit. He could cast basic magecraft if he brought enough mana into the crystal,
but doing so here could be suicide. Fog filled the air and only in trace
amounts would it be safe for him to cast. Even a mana bolt could de-stabilize
it and cause an explosion. The staff itself was more valuable right now; it
granted him longer range than his fist and the crystal topping it was as good
as a spearhead.

Where’s everything
else…?

He pocked Culmus'
dagger, zipped up the Mage's Freedom vest (for all the good it would do him),
and fit his staff into its sling on his back. Feeling combat ready again, he
finally noticed the loot to every side. He smiled like a mercenary. After
pocketing everything he could reasonably carry, he left with his companion.

“Dragon's Lair Rule
Number 7: Not all that glitters is gold, so grab the stuff that does whenever
you can!”

Fighting the occasional
monster and intoxicated sapient was much easier now. Where before he could get
into a scuffle even if he hid himself, now he dominated every battle.

His stomach growled. It
was then that he remembered how long it had been since his last meal.
Maybe
universe dew isn’t enough. This is confusing…
I could eat the
monsters...
He would have if he knew their species. Monster meat could be
poisonous and these were saturated in Fog.
Breathing it might –
He shook
his head. The Fog would only dull his hunger. The last thing he wanted was to
end up like the degenerates littering the halls. Then he turned a corner and
encountered something worse: a girl with an ax and two boys carrying staves.

Eric
pressed Vaya to his chest and shouted, “Trickster Teleport!”

The
nearby shadows enveloped him and he disappeared from sight. The trio shined
their lights in his direction and the stones lit up the entire pathway, but
they didn't see him. They rushed forward, thinking him invisible, and, in doing
so, left themselves open. Their goal was to prevent him from slipping past or
slipping away, so they spread out and checked everywhere at once. This allowed
Eric and Vaya to trip them, steal their weapons, and kill them.

“That was
too easy. Whatever happens, we keep out of sight. Alright?”

Vaya
nodded. Eric wrapped shadows around both of them and they moved on.

In the next hallway,
they spotted a
third
trio
.
This one was also two boy mages and
one girl fighter and they looked just like the last two Eric killed.
A
triple set of triplets that work together in the same place with the same
skillset or a mage cloning the same three people? It would explain the lack of
training; I’m fighting infants.

Every third passage was
guarded by one of them and Eric dealt with them the same way every time: disorient
and slay. The trios were expecting a mundane mage. They scanned areas quickly
in order to move on to the next. Their light element stones passed over each
inch of every corridor they passed because they believed his invisibility was
useless in the face of their light magic.

They were wrong. Before,
he had to invoke the Dark Veil, but now, he only had to think and the shadows
would hide him. He was an enlightened Razor Spirit and so his invisibility was
a step above that of textbook spells. It was part of him, as effortless as his
own barrier.

I shall call it the “Shadow
Cloak.” This collar was supposed to weaken me, but instead it's aiding my
escape. If my magic weren't sealed, they'd be out in force instead of these
passive patrols.

That is the essence
of darkness. In classical thinking, it was called “yin,” a passive element. It
works indirectly and subtly to great effect, but only if the user possesses
sufficient chaotic thinking. Since you are a trickster, it works well with you.
Darkness has always been near and dear to a trickster’s heart, but then again,
so has light.

Are you saying that
Kallen is –?

Am “I” saying it? I
am little more than a passenger on your train of thought. If anyone is saying
it, then it is you.

He bumped into Vaya and
knocked her over. Immediately, he apologized and helped her up. He apologized
again
when he saw the scrapes on her knees and hands. Then he trailed
off when he saw them heal. The skin patched itself up like Annala's did when
she got a paper cut.

“That's not important,”
she said to pre-empt his question. “This door is different from the others. I
think it may be an exit.”

The door before them
certainly had more runes. There were runes for protection, runes for sealing,
runes to cause alarms, and more he didn't recognize.

Do you recognize
them?

I was never privy to
the Bladi clan's secrets and, if I was, you haven't read far enough for me to
know if I was or you haven’t meditated enough to access the knowledge.

“Let's try opening it.”

Vaya shifted nervously.

“Don't worry. If
there's something dangerous on the other side, we shall vanish like thieves in
the night. I promise I will protect you from anything inside.”

She nodded and placed
her blood-gloved hand on the rune. Circles flashed and rocks rotated. Diagrams
rewrote themselves and lines of power flowed. This was the most involved
unlocking sequence they had seen yet. The door slid aside and they stepped
inside.

This was a vaulted
chamber bigger than a joust list field. A large green crystal hanging from the
ceiling illuminated every corner. It dispelled Eric's Shadow Cloak the moment
he stepped into its light and, more than that, it stung.
This must be more
light elemental magic. What’s it doing here?
There was no exit here nor was
there any Fog. There was nothing except rows upon rows upon rows of vats.

They were made of the
same rock as the mountain. They grew out of the floor like the mess hall tables
in the Dragon's Lair. It could have been his imagination, but the layout of the
vats resembled the tables, up to and including an elevated portion where the
Dragoness would sit. They were of varying heights and widths, but most of them
were roughly five feet by five feet by seven feet. All four sides of each vat
were cut away and replaced with a thick sheet of glass strong enough to hold
gallons of liquid mana. Before Eric could wonder what material could be strong
enough to do such a thing, he recognized the vats' occupants.

This room housed an
endless line of the same trio he’d killed nine times before.
Each one
had a sign declaring their name and number: Kazuma number 50, Haru number 86,
Sosuke number 257, and so on. He strolled one length and found them in all
stages of development, from infant to child to teenager and adult. He turned
his attention back to the elevated portion and jumped up to confirm his
suspicions. He found three young adults and all of them with different hair
colors – blue, blonde, and orange respectively. Unlike the others, there was no
trace of red anywhere.

“These are the
primes…He’s preserved them with liquid mana like cucumbers in pickle juice…”
The corners of his mouth twisted up. “Fascinating! Horribly unethical and
horrifically dangerous, but still fascinating. Kas will want to hear about
this.”

From this vantage
point, he spotted a second field of crops and these were an altogether different
breed. They were monsters. Specifically, they were chimera of all shapes and
sizes and species. They were held in stasis or restrained via enchantments, but
all of them were injured and freakish. The one thing they had in common was
their red eyes, and if they had any, red hair.

“This guy is more
depraved than I thought. He clones his archenemy’s students for use as test
subjects for mana mutation. Kas will
definitely
want to hear about
this.”

Vaya ran to his side
and said, “Mr. Watley, we must leave. This place is not the exit. There is no
doubt that Mr.15 will return shortly.”

“Not yet. If this guy
has anything valuable on mana mutation, I need to get it.”

“Very well. If it’s
that important to you.”

“Just like that?”

“A lady is mindful of
the needs of others.”

Eric shrugged and
continued walking about the cages, but with a focused intensity. He watched
their movements, examined them with Magic Sight, and discussed his findings
with Grey Dengel. After ten cases, he noticed that their behavior was not
identical. Some were more aggressive than others and some were hungry enough to
eat themselves. He saw one or two that lay in place without a care and others
that looked scared.

The same person
raised the same way in the same environment and by the same person….would he
recycle the soul? No, Bladicraft can’t do that, which means these things are
soul-less? Of course! Bladicraft is based on blood, not souls, so it would
still work and they can’t use magic in this place anyway…The problem is that he
has necrocraft and his Bladicraft is supposed to be sealed. A variation in
souls could explain the difference. This would cross out biological factors in
the cure and rest on the psychological.

“Impressive, isn't it?
I spent the last seven years building this facility.”

Eric raised his staff,
but Mr.15 was faster. He snapped his fingers and the ceiling crystal flashed.
It made Vaya see spots, but it made Eric feel like he was flash fried. He fell
to the ground and curled into a fetal position. Mr.15 chuckled at his
instinctive attempts to cover himself in darkness.

“Here I bring back the
dead in one meaning of the phrase. By the power of my blood and the blessing of
the local representative of Death, I restore those who have left this world to
this world. You have no doubt seen my work in the former half of the chamber.”

He snapped his fingers
and three fresh clones jumped from their pods to kneel at his feet.

“What is your wish, Father?”

Mr. 15 patted them each
on the head and turned back to Eric.

“Here I have rebuilt
the Bladi clan. I even have my own heir.” 

He snapped again and,
to Eric’s surprise and shock, Zettai stepped forward. She had changed since she’d
left Basilard's company.  

Most of the area of her
irises had shifted to blood red and the root of every hair on her head had
turned color. Some patches were fully red and some pink. Other patches had
fallen out entirely, leaving those areas bald. The skin of her face had a red
tinge that resembled blush and other sections were that of a decaying corpse. Her
eyes stared blankly into the distance. Not a hint of emotion crossed them, not
even when a surge of red light rippled across her body.

She wore a blood-red
gown with a tight bodice, full skirts, and coal-black petticoats. A black and
red sash created a bow at her waist and was decorated by runes of the Bladi
clan. Red and black spiraled gloves covered her arms up to her shoulders, where
it met red gauze that encircled her upper chest and neck. Underneath the gauze
was more decaying flesh. Her ears were pierced with charms resembling
BloodDrinker and a tiara-like headpiece held a long and transparent black veil
in place.

“Lady Zettai, please
greet our honored guest.”

The girl spread her
skirts and sank into a deep courtesy. As she straightened, her legs spasmed and
folded under her. Mr.15 spoke words in a language no one present understood and
a sickening noise was heard from underneath Zettai's silk and ruffles. She
gracefully rose to her feet without the slightest change in expression.

“What the abyss did you
do to her!?”

Mr.15 snapped again and
the crystal flashed a second time. For the second time, Eric was forced into a
fetal curl; the damage was starting to show on his skin. Light elemental energy
was torment to someone aligned with darkness. For someone who spent the bulk of
his life avoiding notice, it was even worse.
It’s only mana…It’s only
mana…It’s only mana!

Eric clutched his staff
and devised a plan.

“As I was saying,” Mr.15
began again, “with my heir, my children, my new home, and my groundbreaking
research, I am poised to replace the degenerates stationed in Ataidar. All I
need is the sword,
my sword
, my BloodDrinker.”

He snapped and spawned
a transparent screen in midair. It showed Basilard trekking through the mountain
and the Fog. He was flanked by Nolien and Tiza with Neuro picking up the rear.

“Soon it will be here
and I will no longer need you. I could put you back in your cell, but you’ve
come to the only room in my facility that would put you at greater disadvantage.
Thus, while we wait, I would like you to witness the revolution of Medical Mana
Mutation?”

Just like Dengel;
get them talking about themselves and they'll go on for ages. I need time.

“Yes, I’d love to hear
all about it. It’s why Her Majesty Queen Kasile sent me here, after all. I’m
sure she would want someone of your brilliance and vision at the Summit.”

Mr.15 snapped his
fingers and activated the crystal a third time and, this time, Eric screamed
without reserve. Even as an enlightened Razor Spirit, the same weapon striking
him three times was unbearable.
It’s only mana! It’s the same as darkness. I
can use it.

“Foolish boy, I am not
so old and senile that I can be easily flattered. Furthermore, I have already
received an invitation. Whether he calls himself Nulso Xialin or Harry Butchin,
he is the biggest name in Medical Mana Mutation, and certainly the most
infamous. He has tickets to spare.”

“So that freak was
behind this the whole time, huh? I thought ordercrafters hated mages.”

Mr.15 snapped and the
three current clones formed a chair for him to sit in. He made himself
comfortable by lying back into Sosuke’s breasts.

“I’ll tell you a story,
little shadow. Some weeks ago, the Royal Mage of Ataidar sought help from the
Bladi Chief for treating mana mutation, and he was refused on grounds of
heresy. A generation earlier, a different mage by the name of Harry Butchin contacted
the previous, and still rightful, chief of the Bladi Clan. Together, they
pioneered a
human
solution to the problem, but then an elf came along
and soiled their efforts with her chaotic technology. Their project fell apart,
but their partnership did not. The Bladi Chief aided him in his flight after
the elf ruined him, and the new ordercrafter preserved the Bladi Chief’s life
after a vicious usurpation. To this day, they continue to work together for
profit, progress, and revenge.”

Mr.15 checked the
screen tracking Basilard’s team and found them fighting a Ceihan Rhino mutated
to giant size. The only one not covered in blood or gore was the girl, and only
because her dress automatically removed such things.

“I take it you two are
the heroes of that story?”

Mr.15 gestured to
Zettai.

“Why not? I saved this
damsel in distress from a life on the streets, didn’t I?”

“I bet you kidnapped
her instead.”

“That’s not at all
true. I only kidnapped
four
of my potential heirs.” He laughed and the
clones laughed with him. “In truth, I’m not so vain as to believe what I’ve
done is heroic, but Nulso is another matter. He thinks giving me an elf in
exchange for you will make the world a better place.”

Eric’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”

“While the Fog of this
mountain is tremendous, it is not infinite and my power needs will grow with my
operation. If I had an elfin slave, then I would have all the energy I could
ever need. Nulso promised me an elf in exchange for you, which is one reason
why I haven’t killed you yet. He’ll likely use you to get a collar on that elf
girl he moons over in our calls.”

All this to get his
hands on Annala. I need to learn Chaotic Starlight fast, but I can’t do that
unless I survive. If I could just provoke him a fourth time…

“He’s a pervert and a
creep. Based on that outfit you put a little girl in, I’d say you were one too,
and a pedophile to boot.”

Mr.15 laughed instead (his
clones obediently laughing with him) and settled deeper against Sosuke.

“I prefer something
more developed. As I was saying, our plan will make both of us happy. It will
satisfy our revenge and promote our agendas as pioneers in the field of Medical
Mana Mutation. This makes the Mana Mutation Summit the perfect opportunity to
reveal ourselves to the world.”

Vaya emerged from her
hiding place and said, “Exploiting high-level political events to gratify your
ego is not polite.”

Both Mr.15 and Eric
looked in confusion. She blushed and looked away.

“A lady points out
breaches in etiquette. There were twenty other breaches that I restrained
myself from correcting, but that one last was too grievous to ignore.”

Mr.15 sighed and stood
up. “Children, please escort her back to her room and administer the usual
punishment.”

The trio approached her
while she crossed her arms in defiance. When Sosuke and Kazuma reached for her
arms, she pulled them apart, slashing the both of them in the chest. Then she
kicked Haru in the balls and followed up by stabbing him too.

“A lady defends herself
when necessary.”

Eric patted himself for
his daggers, and when he found none, he laughed uproariously. Mr.15 face-palmed,
but then joined in Eric’s laughter. This made Eric stop and Vaya inch toward
the exit. Mr.15 abruptly appeared behind her and grabbed her hair.

“As the good book says,
‘The Trickster grants favors to people he laughs at.’” 

Vaya quickly moved to
stab his wrist with one dagger and cut her hair with the other. Mr.15 prevented
both actions by blasting her with his spirit, disarming her and severely dazing
her.

I could summon him,
but he’s more likely to pull my pants down and leave…

“Do you understand this
line?”

Eric glared. “Don’t
tell me you’re his choice as well.”

Mr.15 shot him a sour
look. “It means ‘irony.’ My Bladi children are bred to be warriors. I
personally tend to each one of them. I created this girl to be a delicate
flower and did nothing more than upload memories and program survival skills.”

Vaya’s struggling
ceased. The shock of his words sent gears turning in her head.

“Yet this one defeated
three of mine. I suppose her greater age could be a factor; she grew up more
naturally than my own children did. She looks fifteen, but she’s actually six,
while my children look twenty when they are truly three at most.”

All color drained from
Vaya's face. “Did...Did you...I'm...I'm not...”

“Yes, you’re not real. I
made your body from DNA that your ‘father’ provided me with and then I
laboriously searched for just the right soul to match it. I found a little girl
about your age and experience, and plucked the soul right out of her. She was
such a sweet and innocent thing;
adored
her father. It was simplicity
itself to implant all the necessary memories. “

Eric was sorely tempted
to vomit and then rub Mr.15's face in it. He couldn't believe what he was
hearing.
This guy's a sociopath! I'm at the mercy of a sociopath...Maybe I
should call Tasio…