B6 Chapter 25: Small Oddities

I peeled my eyes open and sat up. It was hard to tell because of my enhanced vision, but the daylight was muted. Before I could pull up the system, groaning to my right pulled my attention. 

I cocked my head, trying to parse the strange tanglement of limbs. 

“Whaaaaa-”

“Finally! You have awoken,” Zog said as he unfolded himself from the yoga-pretzelball. “Now that you have finished reporting to your god, I shall report to mine.”

“Uhm… Okay? Were you watching over me? Where’s Khrem and Sereza? Teldrin?”

Zog pointed behind me where Teldrin was resting on the bed. He looked fine, sleeping peacefully without making a sound.

“Sir Khrem is in the other room. He feared his experiments would wake the boy up. As for Lady Sereza, she went out to mingle with the crew.”

“Alright. Do you need me to watch over you while you report to Mulshag?”

Zog’s eyes narrowed and he nodded slowly. “I will. He predicted you would awaken with a new power. It was enough of a ripple to border on his domain. Judging based on how my perk is making me feel, he was correct in his judgment.”

I shrugged. “Haven’t looked at my system yet. Did you want me to?”

He shook his head. “Another time. I fear I am late.”

Zog sat in a meditative pose and closed his eyes. Sigils on his skin came to life as a low flame started to surround his body, filling the room with warm light.

He’s practically a heat lamp. I wonder if I can roast marshmallows on him when he’s like this.

Standing up, I stretched and approached the bed. Teldrin’s chest rose slowly while he cuddled against a pillow. 

I clicked my fangs. He looked so small, innocent. If I didn’t know that his clothes hid a toned physique that didn’t belong to twelve-year-olds, I would have guessed he was younger. Perhaps ten. 

Gently, I reached out with my senses, trying to probe his body for changes, but I found nothing outside of an increase to his mana signature. It was strange how nascent it was. Where others would have a distinct blend of mana, Teldrin’s was almost pure in nature without leaving much of an impression. 

It was like a single drop of imitation vanilla rather than the whole vanilla cake. I expected more, like water and spatial and life but I guess that was too much considering he only just absorbed his first skill.

Once he started carving out his mana channels, the more he would become.

Summoning a heavy blanket, I draped it over his body and flopped back onto my beanbag. 

The prismatic dot in the corner of my vision slowly enlarged as I finally stopped suppressing it. It expanded and golden script revealed my status and its changes.

STATUS

Name: Cyrus

Race: Reborn (Felkin)

Age: ??

Tier: 1 Rank: 4

Active Skills:

(T:1 R:4) Summon Familiar: Verdant Healer: (Áine)

(T:1 R:4) Summon Familiar: Resplendent Inferno: (Zharia)

(T:1 R:4) Racial Skill: Dimensional Storage: (Chomperz)

(T:1 R:4) Spirit Lord's Invocation

(T:1 R:4) Summon Familiar: The Dead Will Provide (Erebus)

(T:1 R:4) Summon Familiar: Reflective Coat of the Mirror Beast (Magnus)

(T:1 R:4) Summon Familiar: Storm King's Tempest (Sturmrorex)

(T:1 R:4) Summon Familiar: Shroud of the Astral Archon (Galarion)

(T:1 R:4) Roar of the Spirit Lord

(T:1 R:4) Absolute Authority

(T:1 R:4) Summon Familiar: Felblood Sanguinarch (Zagreus)

Passive Skills:

(T:1 R:4) Etherious Blood

(T:1 R:4) Sovereign-Threaded Soul

(T:1 R:4) Chaotic Resonance

(T:1 R:4) Spirit's Lord's Chorus

(T:1 R:4) Dual-Mind Cultivation

Perks:

Legacy of the Obsidian Crown

Scion of Calstrax

Demonic Blood

Child of Mana

Dread Guardian's Apology

Crystal Synthesis

Devourer of All

Voice of the Tempest

False Dungeon Core

Unleashed Soul (Tempered)

Astral Lotion

Blood Pact (Stage One)

Scion of Eraztis

Devourer of All:

• From gods to abyssals. Lover of candy, blood and divine cultivation resources. You have fed from all and reinforced thy hunger. CONSUME. FEED. DEVOUR. All that can be eaten will be assimilated. 

• The maw awakens and serves to feed your growth. Be it a hand of a beast, to the burning hearts of stars. 

• BE WARNED, GLUTTONY BEARER: TO CONSUME ALL IS TO INVITE CHAOS.

What the hells, Cal? What did you do?

I thought back to the time inside Cal’s realm. I hadn’t consumed anything suspicious…

Oh. 

It was the ice cream. 

So how did some strange dessert consume one of my perks and evolve it?

I shook my head. “Know what? Never mind. Not going to question it. Just wish he would tell me before loading me up with another sin. Sheesh.”

How did that even work? I was technically a demon. My heritage was wrath, so what did that mean with the new perk?

I slapped my cheeks and blew out, letting my head drop as I sank deeper into the beanbag. I could already see a difference. More than just what the perk said, I ran a thumb against my chest and cut through the bandages.

Layer by layer, they fell away, revealing the glowing tattoo underneath. I spread my finger and listened to the heartbeat underneath my skin. 

Khrem was right. I wasn’t cold, but there was no body heat. 

I shifted my hand upward, moving to where my passive’s tattoo intersected with another. I still felt no heat from but when I looked down, the tattoo formed a clean circle just above my heart. The lines of prisma glowed extra bright, almost burning until I willed the tattoo to dim.

Now that I could actually see my skin, the shifting object underneath the surface pulsed in time with my heartbeat, a half dozen roots sprouting outward toward the rest of my ribcage.

The last time I checked, the roots were only at five. That was perhaps two months ago. They were growing. 

When I first noticed it, I pointed it out to Eraztis, but he was a dead end. The jerk would usually answer most of my questions, but there were exceptions. Usually, the ones about Cal and godhood were ignored. 

I didn’t know what the strange thing over my heart was about, but it was yet another oddity.

One in a long list.

Flexing my mana around myself, the world turned grey just above my skin. I held it steady, picturing it as a command to hold reality still. The skill responded with ease. A kind of instinctual flexing and steadiness that shouldn’t exist. 

Trying to expand the feeling outward was when the energy started to waver. Picturing it as a balloon expanding outward ended with the inevitable pop. The mana retreated, and the air started to flow.

I braced, ready for the feedback to send ripples of itchy pain throughout my torso, but none came.

For good measure, I flushed mana throughout my body. It radiated from my core, starting just above my sternum, before I forced it to follow the human body’s natural blood pathway. Down each limb and back up, I broke the cycle by running the mana through my throat, then ears and finally eyes. It settled back into my center.

Throughout it all, I tried to carefully probe for any blockages. Even the slightest twitch, a snag, or resistance could have pointed out where I was still damaged. However, after running the cycle for a second time and finding everything smooth, I finally relaxed.

So my soul really was repaired. I owe Ysanna and Cal a thank you. I was getting really tired of that itching.

Removing my hand, I glanced toward Zog and then the door.  I needed to check my soul realm for the final check, but I said I’d watch over him while he communicated with his god. I doubted any of the crew or the captain would be so stupid as to launch an attack but I gave my word.

Mana rose to my command and flowed into my chest as a miniature tornado made of laughing disembodied lips appeared in front of my chest. I cupped Galarion as he formed and poked his side.

“Master! You had tasty dreams! Devour?”

I lifted the glowing blob of screaming faces to eye level and gave him a playful shake. His laughter echoed around the room in a distorted static.

“How about we unpack what I saw tomorrow and we’ll see what you can copy and eat. How does that sound?”

Galarion exploded and reformed as a glowing thumbs-up. “Deal!

“Good. Now do me a favor and watch the room while I’m checking things out inside. If it’s not Khrem or Sereza, alert me. If they have hostile thoughts, subdue them. No mind erasure!”

Galarion returned to his usual form of cuddly, chibi squidling and nodded. He floated upward and toward the ceiling where he flattened across it’s length. A gigantic, ominous red eye with teeth inside it’s pupils blinked once before fading into the wood.

I shook my head. Just another oddity.

Closing my eyes, I slowly shut off my senses and allowed my consciousness to fall away. When I reappeared inside the soul realm, I expected to see a world split by two. A ceiling of pink energy and a lake of blue representing my mana.

After all, if what Cal gave me was enough to rank up all of my skills and refine my mana pathways, there had to be residual energy.

Stretching out my senses, I readied for a landing atop my island but instead found myself floating.

What?

What I saw wasn’t a sky of pink or red energy. And below wasn’t the obsidian island engraved with golden runes. 

I took in the sight before me and my avatar’s jaw slipped wide open.

“What the fuck?”