(Author's Note: For anyone reading this; You should probably, just saying, skip the second half of this chapter. I won't go deep into the 'why', but just trust on this)
Ever heard of hell? It's a given that you must know about it by now; So that's basically where I am right this moment, or at least the first floor of hell.
"Honestly, does he think I'm enjoying this?"
His briefing was exactly what I expected: 'Residual plane, branched off from hell by accident, just document what you find.' That was it. Don't intervein. Just go in, look around, come back.
Documentation... Right.
A lower rank devil runs towards me with great speed holding onto an iron sword. Even though I could counter, I simply evade his strike by bending away my body.
The blade swoops over me as wind pulls my hair across my face and just as the strike ends, the devil somehow manages to regain control. It continues to launch a flurry of attacks, and my interest starts to pique again as this time, its speed has suddenly increased threefold.
Normally in a situation like this, I would absolutely be decimated with pieces of my body remaining; But I have other plans.
Since this kind of is hell, a place with high mana density, for a Mana Manipulator like me—
The mana hits my core like water hitting dry ground after months of nothing. I don't even have words for it. The shockwave comes before I even decide to release it, erupting outward from the center of my chest.
The devil which had regained its balance pulls back just barely avoiding the shockwave alongside all the other creatures around us.
Now, there is one thing to consider when dealing with devils and monsters alike in high mana density environments, they're known for their extremely high rate of creature generation. Monsters born in these types of environments, form by the clustering of mana which forms mana cores, which then create a vessel with the mana.
The case is same for the devils here with one more thing to note—They have no active consciousness, no will, and no reason for me to show empathy; Unlike some instances...
My left eye bleeds as highly concentrated mana materializes, putting pressure on the eye. Bright glowing marks in a dazzling white following the lining of my veins of my arm appear.
CrimsonBloom; Active.
My soul remains intact but the constitution which makes up my body shifts, and now the mana purity flowing through my veins has reached a near 70%; Which makes skill execution and spell casting a way more efficient.
I catch a glimpse of a few devils grouping up and charging towards me.
Well, that's new.
I set my sights on dealing with that, but suddenly the back of my spine tingles, and not even a second later, I feel a presence behind me as Thought Perception activates.
My skull tightens like a vice, and time slows to my view as I activate Analysis.
A set of black claws slowly fly towards me, judging from the essence of it, I can tell that it's a Skarnill: An Imitation type; Core bound Creature.
A Skarnill. Gran said residual creatures. This is not a residual creature.
My thighs cramp as my body moves faster than it can handle, and I adjust myself into a position where I can grab onto its claws while maintaining a safe distance away from the other lower ranked devils.
Thought Perception dissipates and time returns.
I grab onto the claws, covering my hand in a layer of mana, and throw it against a rock edge.
Purple-ish blood splatters as its bones instantly shatter and its core disintegrates.
A devil in the charging group launches a spear towards me encompassed in fire and the rest of the group continues the charge. Swords materialize out of the mana within them and one devil uses a concealment spell, going under my radar.
So in total there are 6 devils and I have to deal with 1 more invisible to me. Good fucking thing I built Crimson Bloom, not like I would've lost without it.
In this enhanced form, I have a near 20% damage reduction to all types of attacks; Knowing that, I already have a way to deal with the spear devil.
The spear comes flying towards me, my eyes track it the closer it gets, and the second it gets within my reach, I fling my hand in its path.
My hand makes contact with the burning hot spear, and the area only fizzles as the defense from Crimson Bloom negates it.
Bicep muscles on my arm flex harder than they have ever before, and with my strength boosted from Crimson Bloom, I return it in which it fucking came by spinning it around faster than its traveling; Which redirects it to its source with double the force. The spear flies back and as a finishing touch, I give it a nudge by casting "Field Enhance!".
A circle appears in its trajectory, glowing in a lime hue. The rapidly moving spear phases through the circle and morphs the circle like a cloth being dragged. The fire suddenly rages into a hotter, even wilder fire, and most importantly, sends the spear speeding faster towards the spear devil taking out two other devils in its trajectory.
"3 gone, 3 left to go."
The two remaining visible ones seem to exchange something. Not language exactly, more like a frequency transfer between their cores. I sense the frequency reach me, and the both charge at once from the opposite angles.
That’s new.
The one on my left swings low, trying to catch my legs. I step onto the flat of its blade as it passes and use it to push off, buying height.
The one on my right adjusts instantly, which means it was expecting that.
Coordination?
I come down on the right one's shoulders and drive my knee into the back of its neck. It drops. Not dead, the core's still active.
The left one is already on me, blade swinging overhead in a clean arc that's faster than it was before.
I miss my counter.
The bloom absorbs the impact, and the fizzle of contact runs up my arm like static. My forearm aches from it anyway; The damage reduction doesn't mean nothing gets through, just enough.
The momentum of the strike pushes me back. I try to recover, but it’s already on the move.
Dashing in my direction, I cast the spell, “Field Enhance”, and dodge sideways as it swings in an attempt to hit my head.
Using my right hand to ground myself, I spin to get my heading straight. I lock my eyes on it as the devil still recovers from the momentum, drive my right foot forward, and throw myself in a bolt.
The devil turns the closer I get, but by the time I shove my hand into the core, it’s already over.
I push my entire allocate.
When your mana and an object or creature’s mana are at comparable purity, you can disrupt the structural resonance. Essentially, break it from the inside.
The core shatters. The devil drops.
One.
The one I kneecapped is back on its feet, Field Enhance still active, I’m already moving.
It swings twice; Almost with desperation.
I dodge the first and take the second across my shoulder because stepping back far enough to avoid it would put me too close to a rock face. The bloom takes it. My shoulder doesn't love me for it.
I get my hand on its wrist on the third swing, pull rather than push, and direct its own force into the wall beside us. The impact is enough. The core evaporates.
Two.
Which leaves one more. The invisible one.
I stand still for a second. The ambient mana here is dense enough that I can feel currents in it. The way it moves around objects, the micro-disturbances of something displacing it, I can feel all of it.
Like reading air pressure. The concealment spell masks the creature's core signature, but it can't mask the fact that it exists in space.
*[Pulse]*
Nothing. The distance reaches out.
*[Pulse]*
Nothing. I close my eyes, and the entire realm falls silent.
*[Pulse]*
Nothing. The ripple clears.
*[Pulse]*—Reflection
There. About four meters to my left and moving in a slow arc toward my back.
I don't look at it.
*[Pulse]*— Two meters out.
*[Pulse]*— One.
I exhale and activate,
“Resonance Break”
The incantation ends, skill jumps active, and for a moment, my mana links directly to its core. The mana oscillates inversely to the signature of its concealment, and the spell breaks.
The creature flickers back into visibility for half a second, outline stuttering, and that half second is all Thought Perception needs.
Time slows. I see it clearly; Lower rank, thin, sword already raised, expecting to find my unguarded back.
It finds my palm instead, already up and already charged.
Mana drives through its core on contact, and it drops.
I straighten up.
The quiet that follows a fight always feels slightly wrong, like the air hasn't decided it's over yet. I roll my shoulder where the bloom took that hit. It’ll heal.
No way in hell that I’m going deeper in. Literally.
My body returns to normal. My eyes heal; iris back to grey.
The bloom fades, and Crimson Bloom goes offline as my allocate fills back up.
"Gran, I'm done here! Can I get back now?!" I yell.
In response, what I get from Granville is,
"Do it yourself, you should've learnt to rift by now"
"Excuse me?"
What in the hell do you mean I should've learnt to rift by now.
"If you're going to be such a child about it again, then I'll do it for you now. But you better have learned it or else you're just going to have to figure a different way out."
Oh don’t you dare give me fucking attitude after what you just put me through…
I finally start hearing my heartbeat again; Racing.
And how the living hell do you expect me to do that when I have LITERALLY. NEVER. FUCKING. DONE .IT. BEFORE. I keep the thought to myself.
"Maybe if you taught me instead of letting me figure it out, but guess not huh"
"What was that?" "What?"
Space in front of me cracks. Air is sucked in through the fractures, and a rift forms.
I quickly disperse the active mana throughout my body, so I don't drain my replenished allocate when I cross the rift. The marks dissolve into my skin as slight burns leave a mark, and I step over.
The hum of fluorescent lights hit me before anything else. Then the smell; Rubber flooring and old chalk dust.
Drenched in sweat, as soon as I return into the school's sports gym, a man visually in his 30′s with silky white hair and pure white attire scrolling through his phone turns to me, and the first fucking thing this man asks is,
"So with that dealt with, for tonight's dinner, I thought we should ha-"
"Oh My Fucking God, Are You Seriously Not Gonna Ask If I'm Ok For Fuckin- Little- You Sadistic Shit!!"
"Hm?" He just stares for a bit with no reply.
"First of all, that wasn't actual hell, that was just a replica plane that accidentally branched off that had to be investigated. Second, that wasn't difficult for you. We both know that."
The fact that this white-haired piece of shit whom I desire to punch a hole through, takes this so lightly just affirms my anger.
I slow my breathing and reply,
"Yeah sure it wasn't that bad, but THERE WERE FUCKING DEVILS IN THERE AND RARE TYPE MONSTER'S WHICH COULD'VE KILLED ME INSTANTLY. THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A SECOND. DO YOU KNOW HOW FUCKING HARD IT IS TO MAINTAIN THOUGHT PERCEPTION, AND ON TOP OF THAT, WHAT YOU DESCRIBED… DID NOT MATCH WHAT I FUCKING SAW.
"Ok Aarius, calm down, I'm sorry that I sent you to a replica of hell.." "..."
"Anyways for di-" "AH FOR FUCKS SAKE"
I've lost even the tiniest bit of respect I had for him as a guardian.
As this man rattles on about 'tonight's dinner', the phone on his back pocket buzzes.
“Oh I nearly forgot, you kept getting calls, so you probably better check on this” he says, like it's somehow my fault.
Even though I’m in burning pain, I go and pick it up, as he just stands there. My legs honestly feel stiff, but the adrenaline makes it seem invisible.
“Notifications galore” he gestures with his eyes.
A bit confused, I switch on my phone, and I find that my notifications are absolutely flooded,
“Uh”
[Daniel V: Bruh where are you??]
[Hku: YOU ENERGY WASTING 500WATT INCONDESCANT LIGHTBULB, FUCKING REPLY]
[K+ : I will throw your head out of the window if you’re not here in the next 20 minutes…]
Ok, calm down.
I catch the time at the corner of the display, which says,
[10:50]
NOPE I AM FUCKED; FROM THE FRONT AND THE BACK.
"GRAN—”
I stop myself from hyperventilating,
“—Pick whatever you want for dinner, I've gotta go, I seriously have some stuff to deal with. See you at home"
Without wasting any time, I dash out of the door, but just before I leave, using the doorframe as an anchor to my swing, I pause,
"Oh and also."
"Yes?"
"Maybe next time, give me a heads up."
and run in the direction of my class.
The burns hurt like shit, but it's bearable. My muscles ache and tense from my earlier interactions, and closing the door behind me, I jolt out.
The gym settles, and Granville breaks the silence.
"You really left me with one peculiar case, "
A smile stays longer than it should on a face that usually holds nothing. He stands there a moment; Looking at the door Aarius just left through.
He reaches into his coat and takes out a book. Not the kind you carry around. The kind you keep. He holds it for a second before opening it, thumb running across the cover, to where the author's name sits alone on the first page.
"Lord Xarion"
...
Sprinting through the corridors and the hallways, I finally start to feel the fatigue. My body's becoming increasingly sluggish, my legs feel like I'm running through water. There's a specific kind of tired that has nothing to do with your body, but its effects are starting to wear on me.
Burns on my arms, mana marks still fading, and running late to class like I just didn't put my body through literal hell. I don't know what that says about my life. Probably nothing good.
I take a left, and in front of me there's a right turn. My vision dips for a second; Dark at the edges, then back. I shake it off and keep moving.
I round a corner and there's a cluster of students coming the other way, slow-moving, taking up the whole width of the corridor. Too Close! I don't stop. I lower my shoulder and push through the gap between two of them, catch someone's bag on the way past, hear someone swear at my back. Keep moving. My legs were already giving and I just spent whatever was left on not stopping.
The dip comes back, harder this time.
Shit, I'm feeling dizzy.
Black spots appear in my vision, and I can feel my heart racing as the adrenaline tries to keep me up.
I round the last corner. The classroom is at the end of the corridor. And thirty meters ahead, back turned, already walking away; Someone I recognize from the shape of them before I can see their face. The right height. The way he carries himself.
Daniel?
Suddenly the floor comes up.
(A few minutes pass)
God damn my head hurts.
Sensation slowly returning, I feel wrapping around it. A bit cold on the top, and pressure from the back.
Going off of that, I'm probably in the infirmary. Probably… probably.
I can feel my body again and, God do I have a headache.
Opening my eyes, a bright blur makes the headache worse, and a few seconds in, they adjust to the light.
The room looks as if it was underwater and my damn ears keep ringing. I feel lightheaded for a second, but my vision returns along with the dissipation of the ringing.
"Yeah, I was right"
Seeing the soft-white walls, and the tray of bandages to my right,
This is definitely the infirmary.
Out of energy to turn my head, I scan the room with my eyes, and I hear a voice near the door.
"Aarius? Finally, you're awake!"
And that is, Kida?— Already on her feet by the time her sentence ends, like she'd been waiting to move this whole time.
"Well hello there"
She walks over to my side, and I see a familiar face peeking through the door.
"Hikaru, that you?"
The door fully opens, and yes, that is him.
"Christ’s sake, you ok?"
"Sort of, not that sure”
“. . .”
“Did he leave already?"
"Unfortunately, yeah he kinda did, Dan isn’t exactly 'free' now-a-days.”
Can't even remember the last I saw Daniel, it's been years now. This was the only chance I had to talk with him if I'm being honest, we barely talk online.
Sometimes I feel like it was a mistake teaching him mana manipulation. He took to it in fast; Too fast maybe. Last I heard, he'd stopped answering messages from anyone who knew about it. I don't know if that's my fault. I try... not to think about whether it is my fault.
Hikaru doesn't say anything. He just looks at the door for a second, then back at me, and leaves it alone. The room is quiet enough that I can hear the wind through the open window.
I look at the ceiling.
He brings out a bag from behind,
“Dan actually bought us some goodies too”
"Damn, that’s cool of him. Did he get me something—"
“You’ll see once you get home”
“…What?”, My face scrunches up like a dehydrated grape.
“Trust the process, you’ll see”
Cold air brushes past me from the open window next to me, and I hold my sneeze in as my nose tickles to relieve itself… Why does that sound wrong.
"Also, we were looking for you nearly everywhere around the school, where in the hell were you?"
"I was pulled away by the sectional head for some reason; Something about 'attendance' issues"
Yeah, I don't know what to say.
Hikaru's face looks unamused, "Not completely unrealistic I guess..."
"You think I'm lying?"
"Not really, just concerned there."
My gaze drifts to the side as I spot Kida in deep thought from the corner of the door frame—Somehow teleported from next to me to there—Leaning back and staring at me. I don't know whether she's aware of the fact that she's staring right into my soul, but I think I just need some rest.
I move my head up and stretch to see if anything hurts.
My finger grazes my forehead, and a sting of pain runs around me as a shiver vibrates down my body.
"D-Don't touch it. It's pretty bad, you scraped your head on the floor you dumbass"
Her face looks concerned as she comes back to her senses; Now covering her mouth as she tilts her face to rest on her hand.
"You could've at least come here right after you started feeling something weird or at least rested for a bit."
Yeah, well, the situation was- I mean… Ok good point.
"Yeah sorry, I'll ke-"
"It’s not— I was worried, okay? Every time you say 'I'll keep that in mind' You Still Do It in the end" She says hurriedly.
Well... Damn.
I let out a sigh and lay my head down.
"It won't happen next time, trust me"
Still visibly worried, she pauses for a second before her expression calms down.
Kida takes deep breaths, and I notice her face slowly... blushing?
She pushes herself upright and makes her way over to me as she leans in closer to my ear.
Her sudden movement makes me catch my breath for a second.
"So in return I want something from you" She says almost too confidently.
Uh what. Wait, is what I'm thinking going to happen? No that's unlikely.
I see Hikaru in the room move closer so he can see between us.
I release the knot in my throat and brace myself for what she has to say. A bead of sweat runs down her neck and she whispers,
"Are you free on Saturda-"
Oh my fucking it's actually happening.
I bolt my head at her, interrupting what she was saying.
"Yes"
I have been waiting to hear that for so long!
Last time I had a shot like this was the end of second year; She was standing at the school gate, and I, not even kidding, spent thirty seconds in my head constructing the perfect thing to say until she walked away...
My face flushes peach red. Her face is directly in front of mine. My heart thumping loud enough to hear.
Suddenly it feels like time's frozen over. The only sound I can hear is our breaths and they're starting to get a bit overwhelming. I don't know what to do, I don't want to move either. My ears feel like they're on fire— is this normal?
From the corner of my eye, I make out Hikaru slowly inching closer for a better view like some fucking wildlife photographer.
"So can we make it a threesome?"
Kida and I both in unison,
"Fuck off"
Kida suddenly backs away and drifts out of the infirmary; Scraping dust off of the ceramic tiling.
"So Ryo, how about the threesome?"
I let out a laugh and reply,
"Yeah, no I'm not into that."
He holds his laugh back as he replies,
"Uh huh, sure bro. Whatever you say"
Does he think I'm joking...
I lean my head back against the pillow and look at the ceiling for a second. Saturday. It's been long enough since I had something to actually look forward to that I'd almost forgotten what the feeling was.
I let myself have it for exactly thirty seconds.
I haven't been on a real 'Date' with Kida forever. Other than when we first met, we never just got around to a whole separate day for a date.
Hikaru leaves the room for a bit, hearing something outside.
And Saturday is just perf- Wait, don't I have that thing planned on Saturday? I mean it would be an issue, but after fucking it up so much I don't have any faith the circle will even work anymore, so I'll just simply do it casually; Without pushing on it too much that is.
He comes back in with arms locked, and a bit confused.
I'll finish that early and start my preparations.
"Hey small question..."
Hikaru's face goes blank.
"Yeah?"
"Remind me what tomorrow is?"
"Tuesday-?"
"No, I meant the date"
"23rd?"
Where's he going with this.
"Mhm, and what do we have at the end of the month?"
"Uh, we have…"
The end of the month?
"Oh! Assess- oh assessments"
"Shit."
Uh.
"You ok there?"
"Mhm Mhm, small thing to note though. Tomorrow specifically… we are scheduled to have chemistry"
Every single organic reaction I never memorized stares back at me from somewhere in my own skull.
Oh fuck
"Oh fuck"