While Dei could sense the monster lurking just out of sight, coated in Darkness mana, the trip back to its den was actually less tense than the first time. It was true that they were in more danger now, with it supposedly partially unsealed, but he now knew what danger to expect, and it gave him a sense of security to understand where the threat came from.
Eventually, Clever and Dei made it back to the broken wooden door, spotting the edge of a blue tendril as it was pulled through. Placing Clever on the edge of the hole, he phased through and picked him back up on the other side.
In front of them, Dei could see nothing. The absolute pitch black darkness was strongest in this room, and they could hardly see a few feet in front of them.
Despite that, both him and Clever had a solid visual on what they were working with, using their respective detection abilities and sharing their findings with one another.
It was a perfect semi-sphere of a room, the floor absolutely flat while the walls were evenly curved. Nothing caught his eye, except the large indent in the middle of the room, filled with enough water to fill a pond.
Dei saw more than that though. The water in the pond was chock-full of spiritual energy, and so close he realized that all the water was the Embodiment of the Flow. Several tentacles of water rose up from its depths, wrapping around one another in the center as a knot of Spiritual mana coalesced into a vaguely humanoid shape.
“Please do not be afraid, I mean you no harm” it sent to both him and Clever.
Looking closer, Dei saw how the Spiritual energy in the creature was wildly uneven. Certain parts were reinforced to absurd degrees, such as the limb that grabbed onto him earlier, but most of it was almost devoid of Spiritual energy entirely. In these parts, Dei was absolutely positive he could tear through it, dealing significant damage to its soul shape as he disrupted it. At full strength, Dei imagined it would be like fighting Gargeth. The strongest concentrations of Spiritual energy hidden deep within it, while you fight off its weaker limbs that it can stand to lose. It would steamroll him every day of the week, if it was back to full strength.
Now though? It could hardly form its own shape, drawing on every bit of strength it had left to give him something to look at.
After studying it in silence for a few seconds, he responded.
“Yea, I can sense that. Thanks for not attacking so far. I suppose we should start at the beginning. I’m Dei, a human using a projection. This is my friend” he said, motioning towards Clever.
Clever introduced himself as an emotion involving triumph through intelligence by outwitting his enemies.
“I am Fendrascora, an Embodiment of the Flow.”
Dei nodded at their words. “The first thing we need to discuss is how you ended up here. I got the general idea from reading your soul, that you were defeated and sealed, but I want to learn more than that. I will read the memory of how it all happened, send it to Clever here, and then we can talk from there. While it’s true you can tell us it on your own, I would like to have the factual story, taken straight from your memories. Not only this, but it would be much faster to just get the entire memory in seconds.”
Fendrascora sent back a reluctant agreement. It didn’t want him to get the unfiltered story, but it wouldn’t stop him. “Please just continue listening to the story, even after you see my mistake. At least until the moment I am fully imprisoned” it requested of him.
“I will see when I’ve read it” he said. He didn’t want to agree to anything before getting all the information.
Privately, he messaged Clever “Keep an eye out, I might be vulnerable for a few seconds as I process all this information.”
Then, without further adieu, he scanned Fendrascora’s memories, jumping to where it all began
* * *
Darkness. Flowing riptides pull at my form, but I fight. The rival elemental attempts to disrupt me, but I stay defensive.
Time after time, it releases attacks that I deflect into the water around us. I am pushed back again, and again, but I do not panic. It is older than me, but I have a plan.
When everything is in position, I deflect one of its blows into the riverbed. The resting monster awakens, severely harmed yet enraged. It tasts the mana that hit it, and locks onto my enemy. Quickly, I hide myself as the monstrous fish surges forward, snapping at the other elementals loose form.
Taking its attention away from me, the elemental and monster fight until they both tire and prepare to escape from the other, but I catch both off guard with well-placed, full strength blasts. Both enemies are extinguished, and I collect my spoils.
From the elemental, I take its essence, far more concentrated than mine, boosted by treasures over time. Its strength is now mine.
From the fish, I take the treasure it guarded, one that helps it command the lesser of its kin. The plan has worked well, I can now become greater, and control my lessers.
But I am not content, not yet.
* * *
Three subordinate elementals stand behind me. Two of water, one of darkness. The darkness hides us from our target.
Humans.
The clever landwalkers carry treasures, time and time again they pass these waters with their incredible valuables, yet they never get close. Hesitant are they to garner the attention of the depths, but I keep all other beasts away. It is not the treasures they carry now that interest me, but those they might bring.
Over time, they learn that these waters are safe. They swim and drink, no monsters attacking any of them. They build up their village around the safe waters, a rare commodity, and do what I have always wanted them to: grow their crystals.
Long ago, I sensed the power emanating from these human villages, and I wanted that for myself. The issue, however, is that these humans are cautious. They will not make the crystals that give off power if there is danger, and they only grow the crystals after their villages are impossibly defensible. I must already be inside the village, after it is sealed, to take their crystals.
So I wait. Under these waterways, I hide and protect them from the larger threats. Over time, a long time, they fortify it. They seal the underwater ways, preventing others from getting in, and my quiet job of defending is done. Instead, I only hide with my expendable siblings.
A long, long time goes by, and the crystals begin to grow beautifully. I see them, so close, yet still I wait. There are more, more crystals the humans can make.
* * *
Eventually, a powerful one appears. The man, old and carrying a staff, glows with magic. I know I would struggle to fight him in my form. After I absorb the crystals, he will be no match, but for now I must evade him.
He casts spells on the water, scanning it for threats, but I have always lived in the water of their village, it feels too close to mine and my siblings' bodies. The spell fails, and he does not know it. I continue to wait.
* * *
Hundreds. Thousands of glittering treasures in the shape of these magical crystals grow above me. The “Shaman” as I have learned from their language is constantly on the watch for monster signatures, but he never spots me. My energy in the water is detected, but attributed to a phenomena that keeps other beasts away. It is considered a blessing, and I grow fond of these humans. Long ago, when the journey started, I had intended to kill the vulnerable humans for experience. With my new perspective, however, I will choose to spare them and merely harvest their crystals. Once I consume a hundred, my power will surpass even that of the shaman. At two hundred, I will rocket out of the imaginations of any puny creatures. If I consume them all?
Only the deepest of beasts will slow my strength.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
* * *
The time has come. The humans have completely stopped growing crystals, and the energy emitted from them is now the purest I have ever seen.
I wait, patiently, as night falls. The crystals dim, and the humans sleep. Tonight is a night when even the shaman rests his eyes, lowering his guard slightly.
Under the guise of my darkness subordinate, I creep around the cave, taking the crystals, one by one. Through my willpower, I skip those that still glow slightly, and I take until I am saturated with magical energies.
Finally, I consume the last vulnerable crystal, and I slip back into the waters. With my subordinates.
The plan is finished, I am done, and it has worked better than I have ever imagined. I did not need to sacrifice my subordinates to escape, and the humans are none the wiser.
Uncaring of tripping their alarms, I quickly break through the underwater wards, never meant to repel an attack from the inside, and slip away.
* * *
A time goes by, and I believe I am safe… but enraged humans begin to seek me out. At first, I believed it was because I took their crystals, yet I visited the cave again… and saw only destruction.
The houses are flattened, the shore is pulled deeper into the water systems, and many human bodies litter the area.
Shame fills me as I realize that, once I left, monsters sensed the residual magic of the crystals and came to search for them. They found nothing but an easy meal, and massacred them.
I run away, deeper, and hide.
* * *
Another batch of humans find me, but I run away. Never do I kill them, not since the first batch, as the shame I feel for hurting those that once praised my efforts to keep monsters away. I run, and run, and run. I cannot go too deep, or even my strength will fail.
I realize now that the crystals were not worth it. They boosted my power to a certain level. I have risen above all my siblings I know of, but only to the third evolution. My body requires more and more energy as it grows stronger, and this I did not account for.
I cannot go deeper, but still I run from the scorned humans.
* * *
I sense an incredible treasure above me, with a strong connection to the Flow. I pull myself up through the opening, into the waters of a still lake. I see a smooth riverstone, floating on the surface of the water, and leap for it-
But it disappears from my grasp.
Sensing the trap, I turn around, but the ground beneath me is sealed completely. I am cut off from the Great River.
Ready to fight my way out, I spot a familiar figure above the water.
The old Shaman that once guarded my village. Our village.
“You are a monument to my greatest failure.” he declares in my mind “Understand my pain.”
Launching a psychic attack, images flash past my eyes of monsters storming from the supposedly safe river. Of innocent, weak, humans being ripped to shreds. Not even the smallest are spared of the monster's wrath.
It does not end there though… days, weeks, months of shame pass as the humans I once guarded spit in my face, cursing me in the name of the dead. I cannot argue with their rage, as I agree that the failure falls entirely upon my shoulders. If only I was more cautious, if only I was better, the humans would have been spared.
Something clicks in my mind, and the world begins to fall into place. My body weakens, yet my ability to think has become stronger than ever before.
I understand now that I once took the place of this Shaman. That I was the protector, and my greed caused me to throw caution to the wind. I am a monster no longer, yet I know I will never become a human.
The human senses this change in me, and scoffs. “Now, for the first time, you become introspective of your actions. It is too late. You will suffer for all eternity in this stillness. I know your kind, I know that you despise stagnating. This will be your torture. For the rest of your life, until you choose to kill yourself, you will sit in absolute darkness and silence, completely stagnant. Goodbye.
The walls close in around me as the excess water is drained, only my body remaining. The stone becomes perfectly smooth, and the world is plunged into darkness.
I sense the human leave, and I am forced to contemplate.
* * *
For earning my sapience, I am granted knowledge of the world. A being, higher than anything I understand, calls itself “The Mother.” It grants me a name, “Fendrascora.” It says that I have grown close to humans, and will have a slight natural affinity for them. It changes some of my ways of thinking, making me better suited for human societies. I learn their mannerisms and am granted knowledge of their thought processes. The Mother tells me that, should I choose to take a human form, I will be a female.
It all hurts. The more I learn of these humans, the more I come to regret my actions. I wish I was only an elemental now, so I would not have to spend this time lonely. Yet my innate human affinity yearns to rejoin a society I’ve never been a part of.
I curse The Mother, I beg her to take the knowledge from me and return me to a simple water elemental, yet she ignores my pleas. She no longer has her attention on me, and in the darkness, I sit.
Thinking.
* * *
Dei gasps as the memories abruptly stop coming. There were many more, a long time spent in solitude, but he chose to leave those alone. The memories, being in Fendrascora’s shoes, were already painful. It- No, she, spent a long time alone. Fendrascora wants only to escape.
Sighing, Dei sends a summary of it all to Clever, who takes it much better than Dei; most likely because he didn’t have to live through it all.
He looks back to Fendrascora, who wilts slightly under his gaze. While she is around the size of four buildings, she looks like a beat dog to Dei, and it only increases his desire to help her.
She killed a lot of humans, but he couldn’t find any anger within him. She was only a simple monster at the time, not understanding of her own actions, yet she still regretted it. The moment she gained sapience, a proper thinking mind, the shame was almost too much for her to bear.
There were times in his previous life when he’d said things he couldn’t take back. Done things that drove others away from him as he proved to be too unstable.
His hadn’t led to anybody dying, or any overall harm, but that didn’t mean it was better, just that the stakes were higher in this world. If he’d lost his cool in his previous life, what would happen? He’d hurt some people, but others would stop him. What happened when, say, a level three hundred Shaman lost their cool?
Death in the hundreds.
Fendrascora was a big monster at the time, unknowing that she could deal that much damage to such a supposedly secure barrier. In her mind, there was no future of the town being raided, as she’d never looked outside of the scope of herself. Instead, she acted on instinct.
“What you did wasn’t okay, and it resulted in uncountable deaths, but you should be forgiven for it. You never intended to hurt so many, and it's clear that you’ve suffered for a long time because of your decision. I know it's not up to only me, but as a human, I forgive you.”
He felt sadness and relief flood through his Identify as an immense weight on her mind was relieved, if only slightly.
On top of that, a second feeling came through that was hard to describe. It wasn’t an emotion per-se, just a need for contact. Fendrascora was horribly touch-starved, and wanted a hug.
Dei almost laughed at the request, especially with how embarrassed she was about asking, but agreed, flying over the water to meet with the main collection of spiritual energy, the humanoid shape of water in the center.
It was almost completely featureless, almost like a mannequin, but he could see that she’d fallen to her knees. He just wrapped his arms around her as she buried her head into his neck.
Her body felt cold and rubbery, but he didn’t mention anything about it. He quickly felt tears falling onto his knees, and resolved to sit here with her for a while.
* * *
POV: The Biting Flesh Trap of Allure that Dei Used to Kill the Wraith
A long time ago, the Flesh Trap came to possess a large amount of high quality Soul and Spirit mana. Using that, it had to pick which of its affinities to resonate that Soul mana to: Heart, Blood, Bulb, or Sloth.
She could not resonate to Heart, as there was no affinity between Soul and Heart. Bulb and Sloth did not interest it either. She resonated with both, but it was Blood where her interest grew.
She felt blood all around her, she lived off of it, she needed it. What if she could do… more with it.
The concept she wanted to reach was distant, but she already made significant progress. The Soul mana was all but dry now though, and she needed more. The deep, hidden affinity between Blood and Soul would become her affinity.
The vessel for precious Soul mana sat close by. The Flesh Trap monitored its emotions using Heart, sensing that it was feeling distress. She could sense the vessels link to somewhere far away, outside of the barrier that guarded them, but the barrier blocked her view from what the vessel saw.
Now would not be the time to request a trade, but the Flesh Trap could prepare. It was clear that the vessel required a weapon, and was willing to pay the Flesh Trap in Soul mana to become its weapon. The Flesh Trap began her work of manipulating herself using the Bulb affinity. It decided that its future would not be among her siblings, but in the hands of its vessel until she garnered enough Soul to reach the hidden concept. She would transcend her siblings, she would be better.
To ensure she would become a better tool, and to make it easier for the vessel to wield, she began to manipulate her body with its Bulb affinity, growing her roots and tying them together. If she did it right, the structure of the roots would become strong enough for the vessel to wield her blade without harming itself. The Flesh Trap sensed the vessels displeasure at their previous agreement, and seeked to rectify that in her plan to earn more Soul mana.
The handle would take a long time to create, and she would expend much energy to do so, but she was overfull from her previous dinner anyway, and the goal was greater than any expense.
She would get her Soul mana.