Sitting comfortably in our lair, after I had returned without the Shattered I had planned to bring back as a test subject, I was thinking about my earlier failure. The behaviour of the Shattered and, more importantly, its meaning, was something surprising, I hadn’t thought they had the ability to work at that level. It was easily comparable to the Withered and their structured hive-mind, though with some additional cunning thrown in.

Before, I had thought Shattered to be at the same intellectual level as simple animals, able to chase prey if they discovered it, maybe even capable of lying in ambush in a concealed position but nothing more. Animals, driven by instinct, unable to truly scheme and plan. Sure, the detection area around the town was something fairly impressive, as were the tunnels they used to get around without having to traverse the surface, but both of those were something certain insects could accomplish, like ants or maybe termites.

But to lie in wait, to study my tactics in order to prepare an ambush that used my previously recognised patterns against me? If not for my instinctual unease, it was likely that they’d have managed to catch me. Just imagining the situation sent a shiver down my spine, there was no way I could delude myself into thinking that I’d have been able to survive if they caught me in their initial trap, let alone evade their follow-up. Even just the follow-up had almost succeeded in tearing me from the sky and if that happened, I’d be dead, no question about it. Even a single Shattered at their level would be a formidable foe to face in close combat unless I could use my Mind or Death Magic to take them out instantly. However, that needed a moment or two of focus, even while using Bullet Time.

The big question remained, what was the right path to take in the future? Should I consider treating Shattered differently, now that they demonstrated intelligence beyond what I had considered possible or should we continue as we had and use them as readily available test subjects, their lack of consent be damned? Was there a way to communicate with the Shattered or had the damage of their Souls rendered them into something alien to us, something unable to communicate unless or until their Souls were restored or replaced by the vampiric version? There were so many questions I couldn’t even begin to answer and, there was an additional problem I would have to consider.

If I decided that Shattered couldn’t be used for experiments unless the Shattered gave their consent, would we be able to continue our testing and eventually get Sigmir back? The last few weeks, especially the somewhat questionable experiments we had performed on the willing volunteers from New Dawn had pushed my understanding of the Soul a great deal and now, the experiments on the Shattered had pushed that even further. If I decided that Shattered couldn’t be used, what was I supposed to use to experiment and further my understanding?

For the first time since coming to this area, I took a glimpse at my recent skill and experience gains, grinning when I saw that I had gained points in Mind Magic, bringing it to seventy-two, Soul Magic, bringing it to twenty-three, two points in Astral Mediation, a point in Darkness Magic, which was now sixty-five, while Blood Magic had gained a point and was now fifty. Also, I had gained some EXP, either from the Shattered I had killed or for the experiments we had performed, I wasn’t quite sure, but the combination had been enough to push me to level ninety-one. Last, but certainly not least, there was a point in Darkness Rune Mastery and the skill was now at sixty, giving me access to yet another Rune.

Grinning to myself, I decided to delve into the Astral River and try getting that Rune. There were a few concepts I wanted to get a better understanding of and having the appropriate Rune was the best way to further my knowledge.

At first, I simply let myself drift in the Astral River, feeling the stolid, solemn Earth all around me, the traces of Life springing into the Astral River but also the eternal, unending Darkness of the underground. This Darkness was what I let myself float towards, my mind starting to focus on the concept I wanted to understand, the imperceivable darkness between matter. The emptiness, the endless and perfect void, the epitome of Darkness, where the absence of light doesn’t matter because there is nothing for the light to reflect off of.

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I could feel my focus narrow down, lines of dark fire starting to sear through my mind as a rune took shape and within moments, I realised the rune was part of something greater. Sure, it was a complete rune in and of itself, a rune meaning Space, but it was also part of something greater, something I hadn’t been able to grasp just yet. What that ‘something’ was, I couldn’t be certain but I had a strong inclination that it had something to do with that emptiness or the void I had been focused on. Alas, I would have to investigate and, eventually, I’d be able to understand.

Still, the Rune was an interesting one, though I would need some time to figure out how to use it in my spellcraft. Space, while deceptively simple in meaning, was terrifyingly complicated as a concept. Everything was within space but nothing could alter space, at least not on a scale I could understand. Sure, there was that theory about incredible masses impacting the fabric of space-time or something along those lines, but I could barely remember that such a thing existed, to say nothing of any details. So, how was I supposed to make use of this rune? The obvious answer was that I could use it to improve my magical bags, they were creating a contained Space that I could carry with me, but beyond that? Maybe I’d be able to use it to strengthen my area of effect spells, or maybe I would be able to use space itself as a medium for my spells, just like I had used Mist to carry effects. I would have to experiment with that and see what else I could do with it.

“Mom, I did it,” Luna’s excited voice broke me out of my contemplative reverie, pulling me back into the material world. For a moment, I had to process her words and immediately, I felt a smile curling my lips. So often, little Luna was trying to act like a teenager, thanks to the levels accelerating her physical and mental growth but then, there were times like this when she partially reverted to a giddy child.

“And what did you do, munchkin?” I asked, my grin only widening when she decided to hop onto my lap and snuggle in for a moment.

“Alex and I made a flower,” she explained, before hopping back off my lap, an almost visible aura of excitement manifesting around her.

“A flower?” I asked, not quite sure what to make of this. Luna could make flowers grow with her magic, that was nothing new, but the declaration that Alex was involved made me a little apprehensive. Either of these two on their own could come up with… interesting things, and that was coming from me, but when they combined their ideas, I was growing just a little cautious.

“Mhm,” she nodded, “Remember those ashes we made? We used them as a base and I think I made something that’s truly alive,” she explained, as she pulled me behind her, towards the cell area. Now, my interest was well and truly roused. Normally, Luna had two options when exerting her Life Magic on vegetation, she could either grow something rapidly, to the point that a normal vine could be grown within seconds but those creations were always temporary, lasting a few minutes or maybe an hour if she continuously supplied the construct with magic. Or she could plant a seed in the ground and speed up the growth with her magic, taking hours to grow a plant but the result wasn’t truly permanent, either. Sure, the plant would last for weeks, maybe even months, it was difficult to say without staying in an area, but it wasn’t truly permanent, nor was it really alive. It wouldn’t grow any further after her magic stopped supplying the initial growth, nor did it sprout seeds. Curiously, she could have the plants she grew with her magic sprout fruits and those lasted about as long as they would normally, but even then, there were no seeds inside, resulting in a few somewhat strange growths. Apricots without seeds were.. . weird.

Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long and soon, I was standing in the same room we had used for the last experiment. Now, there were a bunch of fresh earth on the ground, the strange ash-like dust was gone and from the earth, an otherworldly flower was sprouting, unlike anything I had seen before. Somewhat like a tulip, but with a very different blossom, far wider and black as night, with a few slivery markings shaped like tears. Additionally, there were a few slightly odd, crimson seeds sprouting in the middle of the blossom, unlike anything I had seen from Luna’s creations. I had no idea what to make of this, but I was curious what might be going on.