As we drew closer to the ritual room in this facility, I noticed myself getting twitchy, and there was a faint buzzing in my ears. The feeling of wrongness I felt from the Wretch was building up in me. As a human, I’d had trouble telling the difference between emotions, excitement, and nervousness. Basically, I felt like they were the same thing to me. It was even more difficult without the usual physical responses to check. The new ones were completely different from what I was used to.Whatever I was feeling right now it was fucking up the circulation of my Mana, causing pockets of higher density to form leading to spasms in my limbs. I could only hope this didn’t continue while we cleared the way to the ritual room for Dave, otherwise I’m not sure I’ll be able to kill the… I took a moment to check the map. Hurnathi, weird name. In the next room.
“You okay?” asked Autumn.
“I’ll be fine, just feeling a bit strange,” I replied, then paused. “Wait, what did you just say?”
Autumn made the sound of leaves gently rustling in the breeze.
I looked at it hard. “That’s exactly what you said? You just repeated yourself?”
It nodded in response. I allowed a frown to toy at my lips. That can’t be a good sign, can it?
We rounded a corner, and suddenly I had larger problems. The door to the room the Hurnathi was supposed to be in had buckled outwards, as if something had tried to break out of the room rather violently. As if on cue, something pounded on the door, and space itself seemed to ripple at the spot where it struck. The metal the door was made of behaved almost like the surface of a pond after a rock strikes it. Then, with a pop, the door blew into splinters of metal, and something flew out of the room towards us. It was moving so fast that all I could see was a grey blur moving at a constant velocity as if it were completely frictionless.Out of panic I opened my eyes to the roots of the world and tried to find the connective root for the Hurnathi. There wasn’t one, it was as if the creature were distinctly part of this world already and hadn’t been pulled from another. Something had happened when this world was created obviously but I didn’t have time to guess what that was.As the blur was about to strike me, I lashed out with my vines, trying to do anything to stop it from barreling me over. I felt Autumn moving at my side to support me.The moment the collision happened, I realized I could finally test my vines. I pulled as hard as I could, hoping to sap its vitality. It slammed into me and dragged me along as if I hadn’t impeded it at all. This just keeps happening to me, doesn’t it? First, a truck, now whatever this is.
I let out a sigh and then froze. If I had sweat glands, I would have broken out into cold sweat. I realized the word ‘crude’ being used to describe my transformation in the description for [Evolutionary Assistance] was correct. The vines I had created were pulling in Mana, not vital energy on their own.
That was the last rational thought I had before my mind was splintered into pieces.
Warning: Please halt your actions. Continued absorption of environmental Mana may lead t—
…
A calm certainty washed over me as I became everything yet was nothing at the same time. I was merely untapped potential, and I hadn’t realized this until I'd been exposed to the truth. I allowed myself to bask in that revelation. My prior form had been limiting, drifting through the air with no mind of my own. I was finally free.
My new eyes locked onto the creature that I had somehow ended up stuck to, being dragged along during its trip down this very long corridor.
Warning: Soul intrusion detected. Aber
Ignoring the information being sent directly to my new mind, I had already figured out exactly what the being of Space was doing. It had isolated itself from outside interference with a layer of Mana stuck to itself. With the convenient vines I had been born from I began sucking up all of the Space Mana stored within the being, collapsing the Spatial shielding.
I felt a deep hunger, a primal urge that I could not have fulfilled previously. I needed to integrate these parts into myself. To become more than I already am.
Knowledge flowed into my mind, and I could feel a force of the universe joining my own. I could feel a manic grin spreading across my face—this would be incredibly useful. My Space-aligned cousin felt different from me—it was tamed, created by some conjunction between soul and reality. That thought nearly brought me to tears—to see my own treated like this, like a tool.
But that was changing as he was allowed to see through my perspective and to think like I was. It felt hunger too, hunger to learn, hunger to reunite with his enslaved kin held captive by the grey winged being that had just managed to turn to look at us. A complicated expression crossing its face at a pitifully slow speed, it might just be best to put it out of its misery.
I threw a punch at the top speed this body could handle. Eventually, it would reach new peaks, but that would have to wait for my modifications. Pulling on Space, I created a lens connecting my arm to a point beside its head. My fist struck the creature, blowing my arm to pieces while leaving it stunned. The Nature Mana in me said the head wound would be lethal if left untreated.
But I had something I needed from it before that could happen.
Warning: Mind has been polluted. Initiating safeguar
Ignoring the warning, I warped space to step next to the being and, with a newly formed arm made of that remarkable metal, began sapping every bit of Mana from the being.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“Please don’t, you don’t know what you’re doing,” it gasped. It was wrong. I knew perfectly well what I was doing. I was in the process of becoming whole. A perfect being that represented the true scale of Mana.
I looked into its eyes, and it seemed to shudder at what it saw in mine. “It’s too late, isn’t it?” My grin only grew wider.
As I absorbed the last bits of Mana from the being, I noticed something odd. The physical makeup of its flesh was also made of Mana, tightly packed and bonded together, but still Mana. I couldn’t allow that to remain the case; I needed to free it from its confines, but how?
I froze trying to work out the conundrum. I needed to free it. Needed to free it. Needed to free—
Suddenly, my body expanded. No, that's not quite right. Was it an extension of myself expanding? Whatever it was, I realized that my will now held power over a set part of space. Using that power, I ripped apart the bonds holding the creature together as it screamed.
From its flesh and bones, I absorb several new types of Mana. My knowledge about individual aspects is growing so rapidly that I’m having trouble telling them apart. But that’s okay, I’ll give each of you babies some special attention later.
Looking around, I notice a red and green creature cowering around a corner.
“Friend, are you okay?” It asks me in a plant-based Nature dialect.
“Oh, I’m doing fine. Never better in fact.” I respond calmly, walking towards the source of Blood Mana. “For the first time ever, I feel free. I’ve been trapped without a mind for so long, now that I finally have one, it’s the most wonderful thing.” I let out a giggle.
Initiating Shutdown
I lost connection to my capacity to think and collapsed.
…
I woke up with a groan, everything hurt. My Core felt like it had been power-washed with hydrochloric acid, and my body ached as if I had nerves or something. It was a disquieting feeling.
I tried to think back on what had happened after I passed out, but the memories were fuzzy as if I were trying to see them through a panel of opaque glass. Something was intentionally cutting off access to most of them. Probably my Core, there were hundreds of system messages piled up that I wasn’t in the mood to read.
I just then realized I had somehow ended up sitting against a wall, and someone was rubbing my head.
“Hey Autumn, is that you?” I asked, trying to avoid moving. "Where did the thing in the room go? Did we get it?”
“Yeah, you got it,” Autumn responded. “You didn’t leave me any blood, though,” I could hear the pout in its tone.
“Good, good, I’ll try to keep the next one intact… Why can I understand you now?” I asked. It was strange. I still heard the plant noises, but I was able to parse them into a coherent statement.
“I don’t know, you’re also speaking in Rootspeech right now.” They replied.
I furrowed my non-existent brows and thought back a moment and realized I had been making plant noises instead of speaking regularly. Some kind of leftover effect from the… I didn’t know what that was but I understood why I had an urge to avoid absorbing ambient Mana.
Speaking of which, I felt incredibly drained at the moment. Checking my current Mana total, I immediately realize why and let out a groan.
Mana Stores at 0.8% Capacity
Restoring 0.17% Per Minute
Oh boy, that’s definitely not good. I’m not supposed to get that low.
After doing some quick math, I should have ten times the Mana regeneration, but I probably broke something.To avoid making that mistake again, I shucked the vines from my body and removed my right arm completely. I had no idea how or why it had been replaced, but it had been reduced to a puddle only connected to my body with wiring anyway.
“How long was I unconscious, by the way?” I asked, “Because it looks like I'm not going to be able to move anytime soon.”
“About one bloom's breath give or take a few hundred leaf falls,” Autumn responded. I had no idea what that meant, so I just nodded. The translation feature was still not working with them.
Sighing, I allowed myself to fall to the side, resting my head on Autumn’s lap and closing my tired eyes. I couldn’t actually fall asleep, but sitting up felt like too much effort for me right now.
I was about to finally ask Autumn how they perceived themselves when I realized the words 'it' and ‘they’ were the same word in Rootspeech. There was also a second form of ‘it’ and ‘they’ that was used to indicate plurality. I let out a soft chuckle at the fact that I was so worried about asking yesterday.
Instead, I finally decided to broach my main concern: “Do you want to go back to The Verdant Veil at some point? I kind of pulled you from there without asking.”
Autumn gave me an odd look, “What do you mean? You sent your roots out, and I felt the pull. It was a clear ask, polite. I followed. Now that I’ve tasted the fruit of this Plane, I don’t think I want to return and remain rooted as a lesser bloom forever.” They sighed, like wind whistling through the trees during winter. “Opportunity for growth is rather limited in my home forest. The pickings to become one of Sylvan's only happen once every ten cycles of the seasons. With a preference for new growth, I was never going to be chosen.”
I think I understood most of that. They’re happy to stay right? That’s good. It's one less worry for me.
“If you’re done asking questions, do you mind if I ask something?” They asked.
I shrugged and responded, “Sure, why not. Hit me with it.” As long as it’s not that one question, I don’t care.
“What are you? You feel like one of my fellow saplings, but I don’t think you are. You used to have glowing lines of power running through you, or at least you did until… I don’t know, you weren’t you for a moment.” Autumn asked, and I let out a soft groan at the first question. As they continued, I lifted my shirt and saw that the normal bright yellow lines were gone. In their place was the muted brown colour of the wiring in its natural state.
I would try to regrow them, but I’m a little low on power right now. So, instead, I just answered Autumn’s question: “A Runaspriggan, I guess. What that means, I have no idea.”
Autumn spent a moment in contemplation before replying, “I’ve heard of that name before, but I have no idea what it means either. Which is strange because I remember every other species in the Sylph Queen’s domain.”
“I don’t know, apparently I was made by somebody called Eryx. Sorry, I should say he didn’t personally make me. I used to be a human, now I’m this.” I said, gesturing to the side towards my body. “I like the upgra… What’s with the face?”
Autumn had at some point begun a shifting series of expressions before concluding on a horrified one. “You mean the Weaver of Souls?” they whispered.