Chapter 17 I Hate You_Alice The Roaming Dungeon (Relaunch in progress.)

Mania POV

I kept staring at my empty arms for what seemed like an eternity until Atum walked into the room. I spoke without even looking at him "I killed her..."

Atum unemotionally replied "You did, and there's nothing you can do. Mourn her then move-"

"NO! There has to be something you can do!"

"She doesn't have a soul Mania she isn't apart of the cycle."

"What are you talking about you said she had a dead soul?"

"She did, but you destroyed it when you started infusing Death Magic into her body. She should have died at the start, but she stayed alive. What is even stranger is that the souls that returned to me were from the Dungeon Cores that were used to make her. They should have had gotten some kind imprint from her but nothing. I think-"

I can take this anymore! "Can you bring her back or not!"

Atum still lost in thought bluntly said "No."

No. Why does that word have the power to crush hope and rip out my heart? "Let's get Lyssa then leave."

I opened up a portal to a room on the first floor where Lyssa had hidden from my magic. I should praise her for keeping the dungeon from collapsing despite collapsing from exhaustion. As we walked over to Lyssas collapsed form, but then I noticed there was no mana leaving her body. When Atum picked her up, I realized she wasn't just unable to move but was unconscious.

I looked at Atum and asked, "Who is keeping the Dungeon intact?"

Atum was about to answer, but we both felt a shift in the mana. It was weak, but mana was beginning to flow through the dungeon again. It was flowing down towards the last floor, and the flow was slowly getting stronger. Just who was... "Alice!"

"What are you-" I ignored Atum and went back to Alices bedroom and to my relief I was right. The mana was condensing where Alices body had dispersed.

The flow of mana kept increasing steadily for a few minutes, but then something happened. The mana started to convert itself into different elements going through hundreds of combinations. Atum arrived with a now barely conscious Lyssa and observed the spectacle. As the mana flow increased so did the speed of the manas conversion and eventually neither me Atum or I could tell what was happening.

Once the mana flow reached the same amount, Lysaa was siphoning at the start of... My mistake. The mana stopped changing and settled on Death Magic. Atum whispered "Impossible."

I just smiled and said, "It worked."

Lyssa at this point had recovered enough to ask "What do you mean? Is the shrimp gonna come back?"

Atum cut in before I could speak and said "Maybe but that's not what I'm talking about. Mania is she drawing on your power?"

My eyes widened as I realized what he was asking "No."

"What are you talking about?"

Atum with an uneasy look on his face said: "Did you know Life and Death Magic are the only two forms mana that doesn't occur naturally?"

"What do you mean? Your blessed use it all the time?"

"Yes they use it, but they don't create it. In my case Life Magic is the manipulation of the soul and life as a whole. It's a supreme form of mana that can also be used to create life. It's what I used to create the first forms of life in the universe from nothing. Death Magic, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. It destroys everything without resistance or mercy even itself. Mania and I are these two forms of mana given consciousness."

"I'm not getting you. Are you saying that you guys are just sentient mana?"

"Yes, and when we bless people, we allow them to summon a portion of our mana."

"Ok, so what does that have to do with shrimpy?"

"That Death Magic isn't from Mania. What we attempted to do earlier was infuse Death Magic into Alice's body then have Mania sever her connection to it. That would have hopefully allowed Alice to create death magic, but we failed. What we are seeing now is Death Magic forming naturally which hasn't happened since Mania was born."

"So what?"

A smile spread across my face as I said: "She's becoming like me. She's becoming sentient mana."

"And what does that mean exactly?"

I just smiled and brushed her off. Some things are better seen than explained.

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2 Hours Later

Mania Pov

Alices skeleton finished forming over an hour ago, but she was still absorbing mana at a frightening pace. Atum and Lyssa were both keeping the dungeon from collapsing in on itself, and the amount of mana being used was already terrifying from even my perspective.

Another three hours passed before the flow mana stopped in its tracks. Alice body formed into an ebony skeleton covered in a black mist that made her look a humanoid shadow. I'll have Atum recreate her body later, but for now, I should explain whats happening to Lyssa. "She's done forming her body. All we need to do is wait for her to wake up."

Lyssa still very confused about the entire situation and supporting the dungeon asked: "You sure that's shrimpy?"

I frowned and said "Yes. My body looks fairly similar to hers; the only difference is I don't have a skeleton. Alice probably unconsciously created it to resemble her old body."

"You really look that sis?"

"Yes, Atum created this body around my true form so I wouldn't just be a cloud of mana floating around. His body is actually same as mine; he's just made of Life Magic."

Lyssa kept looking back and forth between me and Alices new body, obviously shocked by words. I haven't left this body for a couple of hundred millennia, so she only knows me in this form. I thought I had explained this to her, but I guess it slipped my mind.

"How long will it take for her to wake up?"

"I'm not sure, but I might be able to wake her. It all depends on whether I can influence her body or not. Atum what do you think?"

Atum still observing Alices new body said: "It's worth a shot but be careful we don't know how she'll react when she wakes up."

I smiled and nodded at Atum in response. Shifting the mana in her body should be easy enough, now wake up Alice I won't hurt you ever again.

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Alice POV

I-I opened my eyes t-to see Mania's hand on m-my head chest. W-What happened t-to me? Did w-we die? G-guys what happened to us? G-guys? An-answer me. Pl-please I need to k-know wha-what happened to us. W-why aren't y-you talking pl-please answer m-me! I ca-can't move Mania h-help me! Agh Mania, what a-are you d-doing to me!? Pl-please stop i-it hurts! Why are y-you doing t-this to m-me!? St-stop! STOP IT!

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Mania POV

I disturbed the mana making up Alices body several times, and she still hasn't shown any signs of moving. Perhaps a different area the body would be more effective maybe the head. As I placed my hand on her head, I felt a tremor run through my body. I thought she was trying to communicate with me, but that idea was thrown aside by something remarkable and dangerous. Alice exploded with death magic destroying her house and knocking everyone across the floor. Atum was just fast enough to protect him and Lyssa, but this situation was terrible. Alice could be seen trying to move her body, but she was stiff almost mechanical. "Atum take Lyssa and go! I'll come get you when I've calmed Alice down."

Atum nodded and went up to the first floor of the dungeon with Lyssa. "Alice you need to calm down there's nothing to be afraid of."

With a sickening crack, her head turned towards. Alice is probably just terrified right now I just need to- "Y-YOU KILLED M-ME!"

"Alice let me-" She cut me off by sending a wave of Death Magic towards me. I countered by sending my own magic to negate hers. At the same time, she appeared at my side and kicked my waste. Another crack resounded as her foot connected with my waist. Attacks this level won't move me an inch, but she isn't doing to bad. She has the raw power, but no finesse and her skeleton is too delicate. But that's a problem for another day. I grabbed her arms and pinned her to ground and said: "Alice it's ok, your ok, we succeeded."

Alice stayed still for a minute, but her words ripped my heart out "Lier y-you killed m-me. I h-hate you! Ne-Never c-come back!"

Holding back my ears I tried to say "Al-"

"LEAVE!"

I'm sorry Alice I'm so so sorry. I bit my lip and said, "Atum is coming down to help don't attack him."

I'm nothing but a failure.

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Narrators POV

Alice laid on the ground where Mania had pinned her waiting for Atum. A few minutes after Mania left Atum walked out of a portal with a neutral expression on his face. He looked down at Alice and asked: "How do you feel any pain?"

Alice's voice sounded hoarse as she said "I f-feel numb. I-it's hard to m-move and s-speak."

"You'll get used to it. Your body isn't moving the way you want it to correct?"

"Y-yes."

"Your body is made of mana now, so you need to manipulate the mana that makes up your limbs in order to move try it."

Alice did as Atum said and was able to sit up but her body cracked with every movement. "Good next time focus on the joints instead of the entire limb. The cracking sound is probably from you breaking bones. Just be happy they're made of mana if it were your old body you'd probably have paralyzed yourself. Now then Mania asked me to recreate your old body around your new one, but I doubt you'll be able to keep yourself from destroying it."

"W-what do y-you mean?"

"You're made of Death Magic so you'd destroy the body in an instant. Lucky for you, you should have the ability to control how fast your mana corrodes things. Manias body works in the same way, but I'm not expecting a newborn like you to able to have the same level of control as her."

Atum created a rod of Life Magic and said "Once you can keep yourself from destroying this faster then it can repair itself I'll create a body for you. This just a minimum requirement so it will still cut into your old bodies natural health regeneration, but as you get better at controlling it the penalty will disappear."

Alice spent the next few days trying to better her control her bodies mana, but it was slow going. Atum gave advice where he could but kept saying that she should let Mania teach her, but Alice refused to see her. A full week passed before she was finally able to keep her mana from devouring the rod of Life Magic. Atum didn't seem to mind the amount of time it took and observed Alice's progress. She was able to move and speak much more efficiently than before, but she was still stiff.

Atum smiled and said, "You did it faster than I thought you would be."

"How long d-did you think I would t-take?"

"At least a month but I guess your experience manipulating other forms of mana helped you. Now then I'm going to create your body now it won't take to long since I spent days repairing your body during Mania's original plan. But I would recommend you spend a day or two getting used to moving again. Now just stay still and concentrate on keeping your mana in check."

Atum started to create her body but immediately ran into a problem. The dense mana that made her up her bones devoured her new body immediately despite Alices control. He thought for a moment and decided that he would make a buffer zone of dense mana between Alices Death Magic skeleton and her flesh. It would end lowering Alices mana regeneration, but he figured the need for the buffer would lessen as her control became stronger. After that things went quickly, her organs were all augmented or replaced by UMRD, but they were still simple enough for Atum to recreate in minutes. Atum finished the job in under an hour, with the majority of the time was spent isolating her bones from the rest of her body. Atum recreated her clothes and threw them to her "Ok we're done, Alice."

Alice created a mirror out of ice and looked her body up and down. Everything seemed normal except for her eyes. Her irises were still rainbow in color, but the sclera like her pupils was pitch black. They were both creepy and beautiful at the same time but didn't make them look any less off-putting. After putting clothes on, she asked Atum "What happened to my eyes?"

Alice smiled realizing she could speak normally again as Atum responded "I'm not sure why that happens but its the same for Mania and I. I don't bother changing it, but Mania suppresses it to make her eyes look normal. As your control rises, you'll be able to turn them back to normal. But honestly I don't see the point, and in your case, it might prove beneficial since you rely on intimidation so much to fight."

Alice thought about it for a minute and ended up agreeing with him. "Is there anything else I need to know before I go find Ery."

Atum nodded and said "Yes first off I had to isolate your skeleton from the rest of your body using your mana. So until your control rises, you'll have a penalty in both health and mana regeneration. Also, I made a skill called The Weakness of Flesh that will allow you use mana bodies full power and don't worry your "outer body" will reform once you deactivate the skill. Also be very careful of mana based attack while used your mana body. Mana based attacks are the only way to hurt and kill you in that form. Everything else will be explained by the system, any questions?"

"What happens if I get killed in this form?"

"Well, it's just a shell so nothing really but I made it, so The Weakness of Flesh will activate whenever your health reaches zero. Just don't get killed in that form. Anything else?"

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"No, I'm going to spend the rest of the day then head back to the capital."

Atum nodded and said "Good you should rest a bit you've been through a lot. I'll start reinstalling the system now. And one more thing the elf you call Ery is at your first entrance."

Alice nodded and said "Thanks for the heads up I'll see you later."

"Goodbye, Alice just do me one favor don't blame Mania to much for this."

With that final statement, Atum walked through a portal and Alice went back to her house to rest.

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Alice POV

When I woke up, I was greeted by a series of notifications.

System Reinstalling...

Calculating Changes...

Multiple Errors Found Requesting Admin...

Admin "Atum" Override Activated...

System Reinstalled

Skill Gained- The Weakness of Flesh

Shed your weak outer shell and show your true form to the world.

Active Effects-

Release your true body.

You have a limitless reserve of Death Magic magic to call upon. Amount summoned at once will be increased a skill level rises.

Passive Effects-

Will automatically activate when health reaches zero.

Death Magic can be combined with other forms of mana. Warning Death Magic will destroy other types of mana if you allow it.

Immunity to non-mana based or infused attacks.

When not activated your health regen is reduced by 1 per second, and your mana regen is reduced by 5 per second. These penalties will be lowered as skill level rises.

Alert- Skill Mana Touched Removed

Warning- "Journey of the ^($?~#&" 50% Complete

Admin "Lyssa" Message- Hey Shrimp I know you're mad at Mania but don't blame her too much. I made you level 8 so buy Shrine Creation for 8,000 mana. It'll still leave you extra mana so don't be a little shit and do it.

The first two messages were what I expected to get. It was kind of funny to see Atum skimping out on the description at least he explained everything to me in person. What really sucked was that the penalties for The Weakness of Flesh were worse than I could have imagined my health regen was cut in half and my mana regen by a third. I either need to level up quickly or train this skill soon. At least I have a war to fight which should solve the problem. Another thing I need to is to try mixing Death Magic with my other forms of magic like the skill said I could. It'll be probably useless until I level the skill up but either way, it'll be interesting to play around with.

The last two messages were the ones that I had mixed feelings about. The first one was about that was about the glitched out Journey Lyssa gave me. I was halfway done with it, and honestly, I didn't know whether to be worried or happy about it. For the most part, the things Lyssa gave have been beneficial but that crazy bitch is just too unpredictable. The last message just really pissed me off. They are telling to forgive the person who fucking killed me! First Atum and now Lyssa is spouting this bull shit! They should try doing before they talk about me forgiving Mania. "What you think guys?"

"..."

"Guys? Come on this isn't cool answer me?"

First Mania fucks me over, and now these guys aren't talking what is with this bull shit!? Fuck it I'll buy the stupid skill but they better not expect me to use it!