Stygian Mage

It took him some time but Soren was finally able to check out all the changes that had occurred after his breakthrough. Although each change made him excited and happy, one particular thing had made him especially ecstatic. That was the new effect of his Bloodline Talent which was related to the evolution of his Soul Form. From what Isaac had done that one time to save his life, Soren was aware that his Soul Form and his Bloodline Talent would have this ability in the future. But even if he already knew about it, he was nonetheless exultant to finally have it. This ability meant that he now had an alternate method to increase his power.

Apart from that, the effect of the Mana Essence also surprised him. While he had expected a huge increase in his stats because of the Mana Essence, he had not imagined that it would be this much. That was because he knew that the value of the stats across a Rank was not the same. It meant that the value of a stat at Rank 1 could easily overshadow the same value in that stat; for example, a Rank 1 Initiator with a value of 10 in their ‘Strength’ stat could easily subdue and kill a Rank 0 Initiator with that same value in the same stat.

No wonder there’s a big difference between each major rank.

Soren remembered how a Rank 1 Initiator could suppress a Rank 0 Initiator with just using their aura. It all made sense to him now that he saw the difference in quality caused by the Mana Essence.

…

“Congratulations, Master,” Isaac said as Soren finished checking everything out.

“Thanks, Isaac.” Soren smiled and replied back.

He then took one look towards the confused fox and continued, “Now, all that’s left is to break the—AHH!”

As he was finishing his words, Soren abruptly shouted out in pain and grabbed his head with both his hands. His vision also became blurry as flashes of broken images suddenly went through his mind. These images were of the people that he had never seen before; the images of places that he had never been to before.

His headache kept increasing in intensity as more and more images appeared in his mind. Soren had no idea what was happening. The only thing he knew right now was that he wanted this pain to stop. His head felt like it was going to split into multiple pieces. This was even beyond what he had felt during his torture sessions.

Was this the Curse Spell? Had they already cast the Curse Spell on him?

Thoughts like these kept appearing in his mind, making him even more terrified.

Is this it? Am I going to die now?

He knew that once the Liston Family found out that he had escaped, they would instantly activate the curse to kill him. So, if this was the curse, he had no chance of surviving it. Even if he had broken through to Rank 1, he still couldn’t survive the Curse Spell. That was because while the Blood Contract they had used was indeed Rank 0, the Curse Spell was not. The spell only needed a link to the target. As such, they could easily use a Rank 1 Curse Spell; the Blood Contract was merely that link. And to make sure that he truly died, they were obviously going to use a Rank 1 Curse Spell; or maybe even a Rank 2 Spell.

Seeing Soren in so much pain, the little fox beside him also started barking and yelping with all his might. Although he had no idea what was happening, he could tell that Soren was in extreme pain. When he had lost his father before, he couldn’t understand what was happening. The concept of death was something that he just wasn’t able to comprehend. But the fact that his father did not return no matter how much he waited made him grasp the reality that he was not coming back, ever. Now, seeing Soren in so much pain generated that same fear inside him. He felt scared that he would lose Soren too and then he would truly become alone in this world; he was scared of being left alone. Soren had already become a pillar of hope for him, as he had for Soren. Understanding the concept of death might still be beyond him, but the repercussion of death was something that he had felt firsthand. He had already experienced being abandoned twice; by his father and his mother. He didn’t want to experience it the third time.

At the same time, Isaac was also quite flustered as he kept scanning Soren’s body to find the cause of this situation. But alas, he found nothing. After all, Isaac was only able to do what Soren could do; with more stability and consistency, of course. So, if Soren did not have the ability to stop the curse himself, Isaac didn’t either. Nonetheless, that didn’t stop Isaac from trying whatever he could to find and stop the cause of the supposed curse. His Master’s life was on the line, after all.

…..….

The severe headache kept tormenting Soren for quite a while. As Soren was thinking that he couldn’t survive anymore, the pain abruptly ended. Although Soren didn’t know what the cause of the headache was, he was now sure that it wasn’t the curse. The reason behind his thinking was simple: he was still alive. If it had been the curse, he would have died without even being able to resist.

After Soren completely sobered up, he suddenly realized that there were some new memories in his mind now; albeit, they were completely fragmented. He was a complete stranger to the people in these memories; yet, these memories seemed very familiar to him. He felt like he had somehow lost these memories before and was only remembering them now. A weird sensation enveloped him as he realized that he might have somehow forgotten a big part of his life. Also, the most uncanny thing about all this was the fact that if he had not recovered these fragmented memories today, he would never have realized that he had forgotten something; for him, his current memories did not have any gap.

Of course, in his mind, the reason for all this was definitely the radiation from the Space Crack. Traveling from one world to another had truly messed him up. Not only his ‘Vitality’ had been severely damaged, but he also had lost a big chunk of his memories. And the worst part of this was that he had no idea what he might have forgotten.

Fortunately or unfortunately, though, he was at least able to tell that the broken memories he had just recovered were only a part of the whole thing.

Of course, he was aware that while losing his memories was a big deal, he needed to stop dwelling on it for now. Although recovering his memories was important, surviving through his current situation was more essential. He could look for a way to recover his memories in the future, but for that, he had to make sure he remained alive first.

And so, Soren stopped thinking about these memories and focused on his current situation.

He had already broken through to Rank 1, so the only thing he needed to do now was to break the chain binding his soul. The weird thing about this Contract was that while it was called a Blood Contract, it actually affected the soul. So, if someone were to break the Contract, they would suffer from soul damage. And if their soul was not strong enough to survive it, there was only one outcome waiting for them; death.

That was why Soren could do nothing about it when he was a Rank 0 Initiator. But it was different now; he was a Rank 1 Initiator now. Although he would still suffer from soul damage, it would at least not kill him; he just had to bear the consequences. To speed up the healing process, he had even bought a Rank 1 Soul Recovery Potion.

…

Soren released a long breath as he tried to calm his anxious mind down. He was now about to break the chains. To break free of the Contract, he first had to sense the foreign Mana that bounded his soul. Of course, this was the easy part.

As Soren focused his mind towards the nucleus of his brain, he sensed a chain-like structure covering his soul there with multiple sharp ends stabbing in it. This was the chain that he had to break. And so, he started the process. Although the task was accompanied by dire consequences, the process itself was quite simple. All Soren had to do was ram his Mana onto the chain until it broke down. This was very similar to what he did when he was breaking through to Rank 1.

….

….

….

The process continued as Soren kept ramming the Mana from his Mana Core onto the chains. At first, the chains seemed unbreakable. But after a while, small cracks started forming in its structure. These small cracks brought a smile on Soren’s face as he sped up the process even more. The amount of Mana he had now was no joke. While the size of his Mana Core had not changed much, the amount of Mana in it had increased by a huge amount. The reason behind that was, of course, the transformation of the mist form of Mana into the liquid form. Not only that but the addition of the Mana Essence, also known as the Essence of the World, had also increased the quality of his whole being by a significant amount; that also included his Mana. The change in a major rank was the breakthrough from a lower life level to a higher one. This was the reason that a lower-ranked Initiator could never stand against a higher-ranked one.

….

….

The small cracks had now become quite large. The whole structure of the chain looked like it could break at any moment. The dark Mana from Soren’s Mana Core still continued to ram against it with tremendous force. Every hit caused Soren’s soul to shake which made him feel dizzy and nauseous. But he endured it all for the end result. This much discomfort was nothing when compared to what he had gone through because of this Blood Contract. He was determined to break it no matter the cost.

.…

….

….

The chains cracked even more as his Mana slammed onto them. It was on the verge of breaking. But Soren was also covered in sweats at this point. The more he rammed his Mana onto the chains, the more pain he felt in his soul. He was having a hard time trying to resist the urge to vomit and just faint. Of course, he knew that if he chose the easy path right now, he would never live to see another day. He had to endure it no matter what.

…

Soren kept ramming the Mana onto the chains regardless of the pain caused by it.

…

One after another, the wave of Mana kept hitting the chains like a systematic rhythm.

…

…

BANG!!!!!

And it shattered with a huge sound which only Soren could hear. The broken pieces of the chain then transformed into the gray mist of Mana and came out of Soren’s orifices.

He was now truly free.

But he didn’t even have the time to celebrate as the consequences of such action soon followed. The pain became so much that Soren went into trance for a while. Although he was still conscious, he couldn’t even speak as he just fell down on the ground with an unfocused eye and a blank mind. Seeing his state, both Isaac and the little fox became concerned as they tried to wake him up; in their own ways.

……..

Around an hour later…..

Soren woke up from his trance as he felt a sharp pain coming from his soul. It was so much that he finally couldn’t control himself and vomited his guts out. Of course, the only thing that came out was water mixed with his gastric juice; he hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday. But regardless of that, the feeling of his guts coming out of his mouth was definitely not pleasing.

The pain coming from his soul continued to mess with him but he finally got used to it after a while. This was the first time that he had experienced this kind of soul damage. While he had suffered from soul damage before, it had never been this severe.

After finally gathering his wits, Soren tried to open his status screen to see if there had been any changes. But the moment he opened the status screen, his vision went red as he felt something warm flowing down his cheeks and his lips. He touched his face only to realize that he was bleeding from his eyes and nose; even his ears started bleeding soon after.

Isaac!! What’s going on?

“Scan is already in progress, Master.”

“….”

“…..”

“Unable to find the cause.”

What? Is it related to my damaged ‘Vitality’?

“Unable to confirm it, Master. But it might be that the damage to your ‘Vitality’ has become worse because of the shock that your soul just suffered. Though, it is just a conjecture at this point.”

Isaac stated his speculation which actually made sense quite a bit in Soren’s current situation.

“So, it has become even worse now,” Soren said with a helpless expression. He was truly powerless regarding this situation. This was something that he could only deal with in the future when he would have enough power to do so.

And so, regardless of how much he was concerned about his ‘Vitality’ damage, he had to let it go.

….

Soren first wiped his face with his dirty shirt and then opened his status screen to check up on any changes.

 

His life was truly hanging by the threads right now. This was the first time that his ‘Health’ stat had become so low. Soren would have to recuperate for a long time for this kind of damage to heal by itself. Using external means could decrease that time by a lot, but it all depended on the quality of said external means.

So, without wasting any time, Soren decided to use the potion. The faster he started to recover, the better it was. He had some unfinished business to deal with, after all.

………

The moment Soren had broken the chains surrounding his soul, a deep howl filled with rage had resounded in the Liston Family’s Mansion. As the other party related to Soren’s Blood Contract, Ervin had realized that something was wrong the moment it was broken. He was very much aware of the consequences of such a situation. He had tried his best to avoid it, but, in the end, he had failed.

Although he was pretty much sure that his worst nightmare had arrived, he first needed to confirm it. And so, messages were sent, calls were made. Even after confirming from the servants at the Black Chamber that Soren was not in his cell, he sent Faron there to make sure of it.

After reaching there, Faron found the tunnel that Soren had used for his escape. Seeing the escape tunnel and the empty cell, it was finally confirmed that Soren had not only escaped from the Black Chamber, but he also had broken the Blood Contract. This was the worst situation possible for the Liston Family and anyone related to it. The only thing they could do now was to search around the jungle, hoping to find his traces.

………

While that was happening in the town, Soren ate the frozen potion and waited for the effect to start. Although his pain had subsided quite a bit by now, the discomfort was still there. He also knew that he was extremely vulnerable in his current condition, so he really wished for the damage to heal quickly. With the extent of his soul damage, he couldn’t even cast a weak spell like <Spark> right now. So, he had to first heal his damage, only then he could think of anything else.

In the beginning, he had decided to just leave after breaking the Blood Contract. But after being tortured for more than a month, and also losing his eye, he had decided on a different course of action. Of course, revenge was only a part of the reason. Apart from that, he also wanted to make sure that no one alive could connect him to the red-haired man that he had killed after coming to this world.

Just the fact alone that the red-haired man had an Initiation Stone with him despite being an Initiator proved that he had some kind of an Organization or Family backing him; it proved that he was bringing the stone back with him to that Organization or Family. And without any information about their strength, Soren didn’t want to get on their wanted list. So, he had to destroy any clues or witnesses that could connect him to the red-haired man.

But, with all said and done, revenge was, in fact, his main motivation in this situation.

….

Time passed by as the potion started to take effect. A cool sensation spread from Soren’s stomach which made his mind clear and also reduced the pain by a lot. The potion was of the Low-Grade quality level, so it couldn’t heal his damage by a lot. But it could, at least, reduce the pain and the discomfort he was feeling.

His soul had been severely damaged, so it was going to take some time for it to completely heal. And so, the only thing he could do now was to wait.