Chapter 22

Corpse

On the third day, Grey pushed himself past the mist covered trees, deeper into the forest. Here the magic grew even thicker, the air itself distorting reality. Things no longer phased in and out, but even changed shape and form. The trees felt like hard stones, their branches hanging over his head, they towered and swung as like vines.

Every now and then a large branch would swoop low and crash against the earth, before reeling back up like a whip. In this chaotic scene, Grey stayed close to the tree trunks, to avoid getting struck. It took him a few minutes to realize the things were branches, but after a few hours, he passed this area too, with his group of turtles.

Kuu was like a wayward traveler. He would stick his head out, then retreat his head to avoid getting struck. As Grey approached the next area, there was a lingering sensation that nestled in the pit of his stomach. It was an odd feeling. He still could not see, so he did not know what it was about this new area that made him feel so strange, but there was something. Something here. The ground beneath his feet was rocky, there was a wall on one side. He imagined he was in a gorge. This uneasy feeling grew stronger when he went towards his right. Along the wall, it opened up to a cave entrance.

The turtles themselves didn't follow him this far no matter how much he prodded. But there was something here. In this cave. He gave Kuu a gently pet and decided to venture into the cave alone. His hands feeling upon the cold moist rock. He crawled on the ground, to make himself a smaller target for any curious eyes.

A few hours into the cave, Grey discovered the source of his discomfort. His hands feeling upon a wet surface, a soft tissue. A human corpse. His hands patted down the body, feeling upon it. He touched a small knapsack. It was Max. He was dead. The shock ran through Grey's body. He dared not touch it anymore. But...even so....something about it was calling him closer.

The body seemed to have fused with the ground. Parts of it molding into the bottom of the cave. He had a curious and revolting sensation that this was one of the ways magic worked.

"Accept everything. Good and Bad," whispered Iris in his head.

"Sorry, Max." mumbled Grey, steeling his heart. His hands gently touched the back of the human corpse and there he meditated.

The hours passed into a night and there Grey sat thinking about the corpse. How did it fuse into the ground? He sat and listened. In silence of the cave, Grey began to hear a thumping. Thump. Thump. His heartbeat. It moved down to his hand and echoed through Max's body and into the cave.

The cave magnified this sound in his ear. Body fused into the earth. Did this mean that the earth was the same thing as a human body? Grey breathed deeply. The same thing? He felt the skin on his hand and then the hard stone beneath his feet. He pressed his hand down on the ground and his hand sank into the stone.

He pulled up and his hand rose from the ground. There was a terrifying feeling as he pressed his hand down that his hand ceased to exist. As if the earth had eaten it whole. Grey began to realize what Max had found here. He probably went too far and the earth won, eating half of Max's body.

Scary. Truly terrifying. Even so, Grey had a good feeling that this place had to be a very special. He couldn't explain it, but he felt empowered in here. As if something was pushing him up, the vastness of the cave, making him feel much larger than he really was. He sat and thought. And passed the rest of the day in meditation.

~~~

As he slept, Grey felt a pain at the back of his neck. He groggily woke up. His hands feeling his neck. He touched something wet and warm. Blood. His senses snapped to attention and the fluttering of wings spread out before him. Hands. Legs. Neck. Everywhere his body was exposed there were bite marks, oozing out trickles of blood.

There was no pain. Just a trembling. He crawled towards the side of the cave wall. His hands shaking. Blood made everything slick and slippery. He felt noxious and weak. He leaned against a rock and sat there. He touched his arm. Blood. Everywhere. A winged thing came up and  clawed his face. He screamed.

He tried to cover his face, but the thing would not relent, slicing into his arms, his hands. Blood fell like water droplets. Angry and confused. Fury began to swell up in Grey's chest. What is this thing? Why does it keep attacking him? Stop hurting me. Stop hurting me or....His thoughts formed into one collective motion. Or I'll kill you.

Grey's hand moves forward, ignoring the blistering pain on his fingers he grabs the thing by its neck. It's wings fluttering. An primitive rage surges forth. His teeth open. Grey bites into the neck of the creature and sucks its blood. His mouth breaking the spine of the thing. It shudders for a moment, it's wings kicking up a frenzy, but then it drops lifeless as Grey began to eat it whole.

His rage subsiding. Grey breathed deeply. The dead creature in his hand. He didn't feel bad about killing it. He had been the type of kid to be afraid of killing animals, but this time it felt right. He got hurt. So he hurt them back. Slowly, Grey heart began to change. And he felt strangely...good.

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~~~

Days passed. Grey no longer kept track of the hours. He could only listen to the chattering noises of the winged creatures in the cave. They avoided him now. He was dangerous. Every once in a while a winged creature would try his luck, but every time Grey would eventually grab its neck and snap it into two, and have his meal for the night. Grey did not bother to cook them. There was no fire, so Grey ate these things raw. The blood trickling down his mouth. He became even more aware of the laws governing the world. Creatures were part of this world. They were made up of several different elements. Earth gave a person their form. Water gave motion. Fire gave energy. And wind gave meaning.

Grey's aura began to shift in the cave. The bats gave off a peculiar sound whenever they attacked. It was a melodic sound, the kind of music you would listen to while you were sleeping. The sounds of a soft violin. He listened to this and meditated further. Creatures had different auras based on their personalities. So what kind of person did Grey want be?  Strength. Power. Will. He had to become strong. For himself and for those he cared about.

At this realization, Grey's aura changed. No longer a vapor that came out of his body, it condensed into waves, taking physical shape it pressed down around him. The mana collected into his body around his heart. An orb no bigger than the length of his pinky formed. A mage's second heart. A Magic Core. The body creates the mana, the mind gives it purpose, the magic core makes it reality. Grey felt the core in his body. As if a weight had been attached to his heart.

It was an uncomfortable feeling. He felt as he stood up and walked around that he could not run without it tugging on his insides. As he thought about the implications about his magic core. He heard a new sound coming from the cave. It was a deeper sound, not as quiet as the winged creatures. It was deep crescendo that would rise up and go down. The sounds of a bell and a chorus of people, humming softly. Grey smiled, realizing the direction the music came from. It was his music. He had done it. He had awakened.

~~~

Grey sat in the cave and began to experiment with his newfound awakening. As he had expected. His blindness was interfering with his magical formation. It came out a mess and couldn't sustain its form. Even if he brought the magic closer to his body and said a few words of power. The magic would only last a second before dispersing.

"It's because I can't see the shape," mumbled Grey.

Can't see the shape. So he couldn't form it correctly. Grey touched his surroundings. Max's dead body was still there. It hadn't decayed. Instead it lay there unchanged like the earth. Grey had a curious idea. He touched the body, remembering the sensation he had felt when his hand sank into the earth. He could feel the body through his hands. He could feel Max's body. Could he mold it like the earth? His heart suddenly froze up. He took his hand away and shook his head. A ghastly image came to his mind and his curiosity died immediately.

Even if he did something like that, it would be too much. His heart began to weigh heavily on the fact he was desecrating his friends body and ripping monsters apart with his bare hands. He slapped himself. If he tried to remember the bad things, surely he would become depressed. Had to move on. Couldn't dwell on the past. Be more logical. Cold. Unfeeling. He took a deep breath and gently felt the scabs on his arms and legs. The blood from the attack a few days ago had clotted up. Don't think of the body as a separate thing. Humans are not special. His eyes clouded. His mind drifted. Feeling the skin on his hands. He felt blood running through his veins.

Grey breathed out. His aura came out at once, a musical chorus. He no longer needed to breath in and out to sustain it. Rather, as long as Grey willed his aura would remain outside his body. This was the true sign of an awakened mage vs an initiate. Grey began to play around with his aura. He directed it towards the rocks and the air and then finally at himself. He tried to force his aura back into his body.

To see if he could feel himself as he did the rest of the world. There was an intense pressure. He felt some of the scabs open up. The aura sank in where the wounds were. The blood taking back in his aura. Though it was a small amount. When Grey released his aura again. He heard a slightly different noise. One of the notes of his aura had changed, a little bit. To a normal person, they would have not noticed, but to Grey who was blind. He clearly heard a different noise.

Grey curiously took a rock and made a small wound on his hand. He opened his aura and the energy sank into the wound, leaving a small portion of its energy behind in his body. It was truly a small amount of energy. As he inspected again, he felt it was barely anything. He didn't feel any stronger. His aura had hardly changed, but that same note had changed ever so slightly. What was this?