It took the shadows longer than John thought it would to break through the large protection bubble. As soon as they did, the shadows quickly crawled along the floor towards him, contorting around both trap rituals as they did.

The first shadow to arrive stabbed at John with two sickles and he barely managed to deflect both attacks with his bracer. He couldn’t remove the bracer, and it was the only thing he wore besides the heal-bug. He was glad he had it, or he’d only be able to dodge the shadow’s attacks within the confined space he couldn’t leave, and the shadows were too fast for that to work out well for any period of time.

Even with the bracer, facing four shadows wasn’t a fight John thought he could win. He thought he’d be able to hold out and give as good as he got if he was fully geared, had both his arms, both his sword and shield, and plenty of room to maneuver. He had none of those things.

John remembered the oath he swore, that he’d not fall until his wife escaped, and he tried to steel his resolve and tell himself there was a way to make it happen, but his mind and heart knew better. His new body was supposed to be what allowed him to face the shadows and win, or at least last in battle against them for some time.

Then pain. Only pain. Thoughts of resolve and not falling and his wife escaping fled John’s mind as light bathed him.

John burned with pain. Enough pain burned through him to put things into perspective. He no longer thought the humming was so bad, or the itching, or the ants crawling around inside of him trying to claw their way out, or the sense of wrongness the ritual caused him to feel.

The burning light that continued to wash over John was far, far worse. Especially as it began to enter him, coursing through his body. The heal-bug on his chest started to squirm. The piece of metal, stone, and a strange sinew Lilly placed in the circle rose off the ground and began to circle him. She said she didn’t know if those components would help, but they wouldn’t hurt.

John felt as if his body was dissipating. He sent vital essence to heal. The weak sunlight of the morning had barely been sapping him, and he had never felt as sapped and as rigid as he did then. His skin calcified as it burned, and the calcified skin blew off him as ashes.

The shadow that attacked him fared far worse in the light than John did. It did burn away. It took some time to be fully destroyed, and John thought all the pain the light caused him was worth seeing one of his enemies be slowly stripped away piece by piece and die. He hoped it felt agony as it did so. The crystals that formed on the shadow’s death were bathed in the burning light and exploded in puffs of powder that caught fire while blowing away.

The other shadows shied back from the light. Two formed a darker shadow and cautiously approached, but pulled back quickly as the light burned it. The darker shadow separated into two again.

John noticed he was screaming. He couldn’t hear it over the thrumming. The light got weaker and weaker until its powerful beam grew less and less so until it barely hurt him.

John cast [Blood Shield] and sent more vital essence to heal. He then used vital essence to increase his speed in anticipation of battling the shadows. He hoped it nullified how drained the sunlight still made him. He also hoped it made the stiffness of the calcification that didn’t burn away less hampering.

Lilly said the sunlight ritual would recharge and release more light until the body ritual ended. John was a little angry that she said the light would cause some pain. It caused him far more than some. He didn’t look forward to the pain it caused when it discharged next, but if he could successfully battle the shadows until it next did, and he could catch them all in it, his vengeance against them would be complete, plus some.

Wishing he had a better means of defense than just his bracer, John accepted he had what he had. He tried to enter into the higher state of awareness, but the thrumming didn’t allow for it. The tingling and itching of his body were maddening him.

As a sole shadow cautiously approached, John barely heard, “We are in you,” sound in his mind. [Flashburst Pulse] flew at the shadow and it contorted around the sparking balls, then it slipped behind John as its companions started forward too.

Doing his best to think through the thrumming, John cast a spell he worked on in his Mind’s Eye. It was a body enhancement using his ‘battle’ concept as a base with his [Blood Buff] laid over it.

Using two concepts in a new manifestation was tricky for even practiced cultivators that grew up in cultivation societies. John wasn’t and didn’t, and the thrumming was a huge distraction. He was relieved to see the result worked in some capacity as he was infused with a feeling of power. His mind calmed and the thrumming became a distant noise, still annoying but not bothering him nearly as much.

As he spun to meet the shadow’s attacks, John thought he wasn’t just moving faster, but smoother, and instead of blocking the attacks, he caught the shadow by the wrist and moved its own arm in the way of the attack of its other sickle-hand.

Now having a weapon of his own, John stood his ground against the three shadows, and though the battle was short and brutal he only received a shallow slice on the side of his neck, hardly noticeable on his blackened and crisped skin. He was impressed with his new manifestation. He cast another spell he practiced, no easy feat while maintaining the new body-enhancement spell.

The new spell was supposed to emanate essence off of John in a small radius. He had no concepts that caused direct damage, but dark ones were not long lived, and that gave him an idea. If he cast the spell correctly, the concepts of ‘change’ and ‘old’ should age everything around him. With both of those aspects being minor, the aging process wouldn’t be quick, but he had limited tools to work with and that was the best he could come up with.

John batted his shadow-weapon about, praying his aging-manifestation would show some results, barely managing to avoid the sickle attacks of his enemies.

Something large darkened the area of the missing wall, and John saw it looked like a giant black blotch. In between swinging his shadow weapon around, he quickly cast [Flashburst Pulse] at it. As the spell was being cast, with the blotch-monster being so close, he could finally feel it, and it was the strangest thing he ever felt.

The creature tried but failed to unbind John’s spell and [Flashburst Pulse] hit the big black blotch three times in a row, rocking it backwards but doing no noticeable damage. The blotch turned into four of the dark shadows, and those four dark shadows turned into eight of the regular shadows like the three he already fought.

“We are in you,” one or more of the shadows said into John’s head. He again nervously prayed that the new manifestation he cast started to show results, but the shadows around him moved and fought as they always had and showed no sign of aging or slowing.

Right before the eight new shadows could enter the fight as they contorted around the two trap rituals, light discharged, and John was again bathed in searing pain. He couldn’t maintain the manifestations through the pain, and he screamed soundlessly as the humming returned and his enemies had pieces of themselves burned away.

The eight new shadows merged into four darker shadows. Four darker shadows merged back into a big black blotch that jumped into the burning stream of sunlight. Pieces of it didn’t fly off, and the light didn’t destroy it. His hand became empty as his shadow-weapon was destroyed and his manifestations ended. The crystals from the three destroyed shadows burst into flaming powder that blew away, and the blotch covered John’s upper body and most of his arm.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

[I AM IN YOU. YOU ARE MINE]

The big black blotch began to feed on John. Not only did the essence in his dantian begin to be sucked out of him, but his speed enhancement from his vital essence ended, and his vital essence began to slowly flow into the blotch too.

John chomped down onto the blotch, but biting through it was like a normal human trying to bite through a rhinoceros hide. The skin was slick and thick and wouldn’t break, though it wasn’t hard like the skin of Ukaraaz or Garioch or the snake-woman he drained the day before.

[Flashburst Pulse] already proved to be ineffective against the new monster but John still twisted his hand around to cast it at the blotch. He couldn’t see the results of the spell as he continued to chomp and chew on the thick hide. [Blood Shield] wouldn’t cast. His hand started to shake nervously as his essence and vital essence continued to be sucked out of him.

On reflex alone John tried imbuing essence into his armor and cap to initiate the essence and reflect-shields before finding nothing to imbue and remembering he was naked. The sunlight ritual continued to burn what skin he had exposed, and his fingers refused to move on his exposed hand. His legs nearly buckled from damage and weakness as the light continued to burn them horribly.

No, John screamed silently. He remembered back to the basement of the three witches. Something had already tried to drain him in a similar way. He won that contest then and he’d do so again. He began to fight back against the blotch. Just as when the statue of Kazthun was draining him, he pulled back against the draining. And he pulled.

Ignoring all the pain that racked his body, John felt another failed unbind as he recast his new body enhancement and the thrumming noise became distant again, and he continued to pull and pull. With every bit of willpower and force he could muster, all the frustration and anger and nervousness inside his heart, he pulled. With that titanic pull the flow reversed. What was inside of the blotch started to flow into John.

As loud as John could, he tried to scream into the blotch’s head that he was in the blotch, and the blotch was his. He had no idea if it worked and the blotch heard him, and he pulled and pulled and took everything he could from the blotch.

The creature’s skin became brittle. John’s teeth finally broke through the hide, and he drained the blotch that way too. Just as his vital essence was capped up and he went to strengthen himself with it, the creature became no more.

The sunlight beam weakened again. John looked for the crystals to knock them out of the light and save them from being destroyed. He couldn’t find them. They weren’t on the ground or anywhere else and he was sure they weren’t destroyed by the light. That’s all the thought he put into it. He hurt too much to care. He sent vital essence to heal and worked on himself with [Blood Heal]. With no more danger to face, his body’s tingling and itching and burning took up all the spare thought he was capable of at that moment.

Please be over soon. How long has this lasted so far? John looked through the missing east wall. He was frustrated to see how much lighter it was outside and Lilly’s claim body rituals lasted only a few minutes proved to be false, at least in his case. He wanted it to be over badly.

With the new body enhancement helping to clear his mind and make the thrumming less intrusive, John was able to enter a shallow sort of meditation, and retreat in on himself.

If John remembered his ability to sense outwards was extremely reduced, he still may have entered into meditation to get a momentary relief from all that ailed him, but he would’ve thought to pay more attention to his surroundings. He entered into it like his senses were as they usually were and would alert him to threats.

John first became aware of danger as acid burned his already crisp and blackened skin. Two fungus moth-men flew through the missing wall, each carrying snake-women in one set of their strange limbs. The snake-women were released and started slithering in different directions as John cast [Blood Shield] right after feeling into his enemies and being violently rejected from all four of them.

Mental waves began to bombard John as he cast [Flashburst Pulse] at a fungus moth-man, scoring a hit. He cast it twice more as acid quickly ate through his [Blood Shield]. The third cast was wasted, hit nothing, and blew through the north wall into what looked to be sleeping quarters.

The fungus moth-man that was hit twice by [Flashburst Pulse] was down and flames flickered and died out on the dark one’s strange skin. John knew it wasn’t fully dead as it remained whole. More fungus moth-men carrying snake-women flew through the missing wall.

Some sort of disk whacked John in the face as he madly cast [Flashburst Pulse], and the disk penetrated into his cheek and eye. More acid bathed him. He recast [Blood Shield] and the first attempt was unbound. He tried again, that time remembering to try and infuse his ‘protection’ concept into it. He was not sure if it worked. The shield dissipated nearly immediately, and he cast it again, trying to get relief from the burning acid.

Another spell was unbound, then a disk hit John’s abdomen and he nearly lost his feet. He looked down and saw another in his chest he didn’t even know hit him. He sent more vital essence to heal and managed to do a little quick work with [Blood Heal] before casting [Flashburst Pulse] at a new target.

[Ultimates] couldn’t be practiced within the Mind’s Eye. Since John had to replace the bad one he had, he couldn’t think of a better situation to do so.

As John began his attempt at creating an [Ultimate] while being bombarded with mental waves and splashed with burning acid, a disk cut his left leg off below the knee. As he fell forward, he was surprised to see a large cloud of orangish-black lightning kill most of his enemies as Lilly rolled by, a strange device in her hand releasing beams of light that killed a fungus moth-man in four shots, blasting through its essence shield. He saw that device before when it was pointed at him.

Then John’s one hand hit the ground, and he pushed himself up in time to see Lilly running to the second personal protection ritual, the fifth ritual in the ritual chain John fueled earlier. His wife kicked the block preventing John’s essence from activating the ritual as she dove into the circle, protective whitish-purple light covered her just in time to stop acid from hitting her.

Only one fungus moth-man remained. John was hit by acid one more time before he killed his remaining enemy just as more sunlight began to bathe his body in burning pain. He struggled to sit up and bear it, giving praise to his wife.

John’s body began to shake as he pulled the disks from his face, chest, and hip as burning light continued to bathe him. A distant part of his mind noticed the heal-bug was gone and he hoped his wife wouldn’t be mad when she found out her expensive gift was lost or destroyed.

Maybe I’ll find it when this ends. I hope my eye grows back quickly. I hate missing an eye, thought John.

Then John stopped thinking much. The shaking that racked his body increased, and he shook uncontrollably. The itching started to drive him mad. It felt like something was growing over all his skin as his head cracked against the floor. Unconsciousness finally put an end to the infernal thrumming.

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Light hit John’s eyes as something was ripped off his face. “Get up, sweetie. We’re not out of the woods yet. Help me get all this shit off you. What the hell is this stuff? I’ve never seen anything like this. I can’t believe we had to fight all the dark ones we were getting you your body to fight while you were getting your body. Well, not all the shit.

“And just so you know – that chaos-storm was my only ace up my sleeve. Every high-tiered resource I use now fucks us down the road since this planet is complete shit and I can’t replace anything. I already collected the crystals while your ritual was finishing up.”

Dazedly, John followed his wife’s commands. Or tried. He had a hard time doing anything being completely covered in some sort of thick crust as he was. He first noticed his left arm was back, and he ripped the stuff covering it off to see if a real arm was beneath. He saw the skin and his heart lifted. He then noticed his eye was back too, and his missing calf and foot.

With Lilly’s help, John quickly removed the rest of the strange material covering him, and he stood tall. He realized he felt great. He felt as he did when he was infused with vital essence and a body-enhancement manifestation at the same time. The sun no longer sapped him. He tried to figure out exactly what else was different when Lilly threw a large and shiny black-bag, what she called a trash bag, at him, or tried to. It landed on the ground a short distance in front of her, well short of John.

“Goddamn, I hate having such a weak body. And I just strengthen myself too. When we get the chance, I’d appreciate it if you took me farming. Get your shit on, quick. We got to get the fuck out of Dodge. That means get out of here. That other thing’s still around. I can sense some other Golds too.”

John equipped all his gear as fast as he could. As he geared up, he asked, “Do I look different? I feel different.”

Lilly smiled. “You’re looking mighty fine, cowboy. Besides the missing eyebrows. I won’t lie, you look weird being bald. You know how ascension makes you more attractive? So does having your body refined. Enter your Mind’s Eye. Tell me what you got as we head down. We’re going to have to walk and talk. Or run and talk.”

John didn’t know ascension made people more attractive. He didn’t think it did for any of the higher-tiered demons he met, or Gar’tar, and especially not for Sunshine. He felt his head as he put his cap on, confirming he was completely bald.

John then entered his Mind’s Eye.