Mark the Hiss

Markhiss burst from the belly of the sandwurm he’d been hiding in for hours. He flew through the sand, emerging in the center of a full party of surprised tier five assassins. They had been tracking him throughout the night, falling ever closer to his trap.

His aura spread wide, grasping at their limbs and dulling their movements. This group was much more experienced than the previous. They responded calmly and in perfect harmony. Their auras snapped inward, consolidating enough to fend off his assault.

Two fireballs and an ice lance were silently launched his way and he responded by releasing three of his precious daughters. Their shadowy forms spent themselves on intercepting the attacks which kicked up a fountain of sand, clogging the senses. Due to their auras being tucked so close to their bodies, the assassins were blinded and their leader had no chance to dodge as Markhiss Teleported behind him.

The feeling of flesh giving way to his bare hands sent a jolt of pleasure through Markhiss. His fingers tore through the back and stomach of his first victim before tasting cool air thick with sand that clung to his blood-stained fingers. Not wanting the one with the most information to die too quickly, Markhiss flooded his own aura with mana and intent. He called forth his aspect and it filled his mind with a euphoric calmness that quieted the ever-present voices.

The leader gurgled blood as Markhiss’s aspect infiltrated his body from the inside, sealing his manapool behind a wall of inky darkness, “Retreat… inform… traitor Mark, the Hiss!” The man gasped as his skin turned dark, splotched with sickly lesions.

The well-trained assassins bolted without a moment's hesitation, each running in a different direction. Four knives were launched from Markhiss’s offhand as he continued to flood the leader with his aspect. Three of his prey managed to spin in time and deflect the deadly projectiles while the last took the blade to her thigh, splattering the ground with a crimson stain.

Since they chose to flee, Markhiss ignored the lower tiers, his focus mostly dedicated to keeping the leader from killing himself. Markhiss pressed the man’s face into the ground, his other arm still sticking through his torso.

The leader struggled weakly, his life slipping away, “You're… not … get any… from me.”

“Oh, don't you worry about your little secrets. I have my ways of revealing the truth, and they don't require you to be alive. Enjoy your last few seconds,” Markhiss’ whisper held the sweet seduction of madness as it tickled the assassin’s ear.

Feeling the end, Markhiss tightened his grip on the leader's head and injected more of his aspect into the man's brain. When the spasming twitches of the leader finally stilled, he yanked out his aspect which now took the shape of a shadowy young woman. She stood before him, giggling maniacally in the early morning light.

Markhiss smoothed her hair while gazing lovingly into her empty eye sockets, “My dear child, tell me everything.”

Jiran of Madra

Jiran quirked an eyebrow at Vironia, “I'm going to die? It doesn't sound like you're threatening me, so what's that supposed to mean?”

Vironia’s expression maintained a bored, deadness as she picked at imaginary dirt beneath her nails, “This conversation is far from secure. Suffice it to say, not everyone is going to be thrilled with your new inventions and methods.”

“That’s nothing new. If you’re just going to be cryptic without giving me anything of substance, then I have no reason to help you. If you know something specific and I don’t already know it, then I’ll get you one of those weapons to study. Otherwise, forget it.”

Vironia met his eyes for a brief moment, her intention of remaining silent couldn’t have been more obvious.

She wouldn’t have said anything at all if she didn’t want to tell me. Which means I just need to get rid of these pesky eavesdropping auras. Problem is, they’re much too powerful for me to push away. Hmm, there might be a way.

Jiran used Mana Confluence to pull half the mana from his armor and spread it around him and Vironia in a sphere. She seemed unaware of what he was doing until he flexed the energy, commanding it to tear apart the synapses of the framework. A screeching tear filled the air as space was rent, revealing the dark absence that always appeared when the framework was damaged. It tried to repair itself but he maintained focus, shearing through each synapse repeatedly before it could reform.

He confirmed the sphere had no leaks and that it was blocking both his and the ever-present auras of the rankers. Without being able to perceive beyond the darkness, he could only estimate when their momentum would bring them to the eastern front. Having mentally measured the distance beforehand, he used one of his minds to count down from three hundred while maintaining their speed. He noticed their air supply dwindling and used Mana Confluence to steadily convert mana into a breathable mix of gasses.

He couldn’t help but take a moment to try and pierce the shell of darkness with Mana Omnis. All he found was cold emptiness, devoid of all life. Gazing into it, he felt a connection; it was just so… peaceful. Jiran snapped his awareness back to Vironia who was looking at the darkness impassively.

He cleared his throat, bringing her attention back to him, “You can speak freely now, it's expensive to maintain this so make it quick.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Her voice was devoid of emotion, “Interesting. You’re full of surprises, aren't you?” Jiran rolled a finger, prompting her to get on with it. “Merit is part of it. Benefits to the empire are always well rewarded but the pool is limited. What you take, someone else loses. You should be wary of those you bypassed. However, your most dangerous foe is almost completely unknown. They have been operating in the shadows for decades and Mother is positive you will be at odds with them after the introduction of your portals.”

“Are you talking about Silence?” Jiran wondered, remembering the name of the organization Markhiss worked for.

“Ohh, you’re quite well informed for a country boy.”

“Not really. That was a guess. I’ve only heard their name mentioned by chance. I don’t know anything about them.”

“Well, you’re not alone in your ignorance. We have a few leads, enough to know they’re part of a much larger organization. They survive by relying on the weaknesses of the emperors. Weaknesses that you have resolved almost single-handedly, which again will put you in their sights. There’s no way they’ll let you live after what you’ve done, after…” She reached out and stopped just short of dipping her finger into the darkness, “What you could do next.”

Jiran released a deep sigh while scratching his chin, “Well, thanks for the warning. I… honestly couldn't care less about who in the empire is trying to kill me. I have too many concerns to worry about what-ifs. Either they’re weaker than me and I crush them, or they’re stronger and I do whatever I can to escape while saving my friends. That doesn’t mean I haven’t already taken precautions though. Anyways, thanks for the warning.”

“You're quite welcome. It would be challenging for us to grow closer if you died too soon.”

If not for Mana Omnis revealing her increased heart rate, Jiran would have no clue she was even capable of feeling emotions, “Us growing closer isn't going to happen, but I have to say, you're not what I expected after talking to your mother. We’re here. Please stay off the front lines over the next few days. Empress Mesalay would skin me alive if you got hurt.”

Her heart rate spiked again though it didn’t show on her face as she deadpanned, “To think you'd care so deeply for my well-being. And the spear?”

Jiran nodded, all too happy to not owe the creepy girl a favor, “Sure, I made them. There’s a material inside the formations that can hold significant amounts of mana. If you’re interested, I can make one for you later.”

“I suppose a simple warning that your life is in danger fails to qualify for more details about this mysterious material?”

“Nope… What I need now more than anything is allies I can trust. And as you can see, I treat my allies very well.”

Jiran could practically see the gears of her undeniable intellect whirling behind her eyes, “I’ll take that under consideration. Don’t forget your promise.”

“I won’t, I’ll let you know when I’m ready to make you a weapon. It doesn’t have to be a spear,” Jiran stopped shredding the synapses. Space stabilized instantly, revealing the eastern front beneath them. Without a farewell, he pushed off the framework with his aura, rapidly leaving Vironia and her guards behind. Before moving too far, he refilled his mana from the abundant donations below with Enthralling Touch.

He found a secluded space beneath the shadow of a sand dune two kilometers from the front line. After observing the Forkaras’ skills, he had an idea of how to make a weapon formation that suited their particular style. The problem was the way their mana was converted to wind long before it reached their weapons. To power the formation, pure mana was needed. This meant the weapons would first need to convert their elemental wind back into mana, which was something he was only able to do with Elemental Castigation on his own elements.

I know formations allow me to impart any of my skills’ functions at a roughly thirty percent loss in efficacy and efficiency. I doubt it will be as easy as adding the skill. Formations are like putting a miniature me inside a box, if you feed that box elements from another source, it shouldn’t be able to convert them.

Will it work if I use their mana and aura to entirely power the creation of the weapon formation? In essence making them the creator of the skill?

Not wanting his secrets divulged, Jiran first created another sphere of ruptured space to block out the ranker’s auras before constructing the prototype smithing formation. Mana Confluence worked in conjunction with his aura to pull in and convert enough sand to form a one-meter tall and two-meter wide box. The cover was secured to the back with hinges and he easily lifted it to reveal a spear-shaped molding in the center of a flat shelf. Hiding beneath the mold was an empty space that took up the majority of the box’s interior.

Satisfied with the overall shape, Jiran sent his awareness into the empty area, filling it with multiple pairs of laterally aligned sheets of graphene. He connected the paired sheets with a pressure release valve that would only connect the paired sheets when the pressure inside the box reached a certain threshold. For the last step, he carefully sealed one sheet in each pair with a thin layer of metal before leaving his mana, aura, and intent inside it.

If he was right, his deposited mana and aura would act as a storage for his intent, which would be transferred to the empty sheets when the valves were released. In theory, when the Forkara injected their wind into the box, it would collect inside the empty sheets until enough pressure was built to open the valves. At that point, his intent, which contained the essence of his skills, would slowly infect the elemental wind and impart it the ability to convert itself to pure mana. The smithing formation would then use that mana to create the spear.

Since the formation inside the spear would be created with the Forkaras’ mana after it had gained the conversion effect of Elemental Castigation, it should allow them to convert their own elements back to mana.

He wasn’t sure it would function, but if it did, it would undoubtedly be very mana-intensive since his understanding of what he was doing was severely lacking. Jiran considered asking Lostrifar for advice, but the stubborn researcher in him had enough pride to at least attempt it on his own first.

The spear itself would be formed of metal made from pure mana. While creating the smithing formations for the Timberlings, he discovered that purifying and reinforcing existing metal wasn’t as efficient as creating it from scratch. The haft of the spear would contain the formation that converted elemental wind to mana. That energy would then be fed into the spearhead’s formation which would be filled with graphene sheets separated by an empty space. On one side of that space, the formation would create heat, and the other, cold. With one side heated and the other cooled, air pressure would form in the middle and be released through an incredibly thin gap in the blade’s edge.

Thanks to his understanding of the elements powering the formations, the amount of air released from the blade would be tens of times more efficient than a Forkara could pull off. As a final touch, he injected several fail safes into the box’s materials that would cause the entire thing to revert into sand if anyone tried to access the underlayer or remove any of the graphene sheets. Similar failsafes were built into the weapons, though with different triggers.

With his preparations complete, he shot a flare into the sky, calling for Dokkuun to come and test his newest toy. A toy that had the potential to turn the Forkara into a truly elite force.