Step by step, a young boy of fifteen, traversed through forest after forest.
Step by step, the young boy traversed mountain valley after mountain valley.
Step by step, the young boy went without any hint of doubt emerging from his desires, only it was not his desires that drove him. No, it was somebody else's. But the feeble young boy could not countermand the Dominion Magic - Compulsion used against him.
As such, the boy unerringly ran south of where he used to dwell for a very short time.
Yet, regardless of what drove him to such an unyielding trek, one thing remained the same. The boy did not stop at all. Oh, there were moments when he slowed down due to either the geography or something else blocking his way south.
However, nothing ever stopped him.
Not even physical exertion was enough to do so, thanks to the spear shaft he'd been holding onto. No, whenever there came the point when the boy showed true exhaustion, the two-meter-long spear shaft carved and embezzled with iconography toward one unquestionable existence traversing the blue sky above him, would glow golden before dimming as the Glory stored inside the spear shaft transferred to the boy in question.
The boy, on the other hand, being Compelled to one single purpose remained unaware of it even happening or that it was, in fact, him unconsciously drawing on the power stored in the shaft. As such, every time his exertion got sent away, he'd just return back to running through the forests at the full speed his unenhanced body could produce.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how one viewed it, Adamu’s mindless trek south did have an end.
When he was very far away from his cave of safety, the Oath Adamu had sworn to uphold thrice a day reared its presence as a reminder reminding him of the incoming Dusk approaching, thus heralding the arrival of True Darkness to fill every crevice it could get its hand into, metaphorically speaking.
When it did, nothing changed at first. But as Dusk approached closer and closer, the delicate Compulsion pushing Adamu forward displayed the first cracks. Oh, a simple Oath would not be enough to break the Compulsion cast onto Adamu, but it was enough to make the first chink in its armor.
Therefore, when the appointed time arrived, and the Oath was at its strongest, the meticulous balance of single-minded purpose destabilized from within. This allowed the first doubts to arise as to why and where Adamu had been running in the first place. When those emerged, others followed soon after.
It did not take long before Adamu wrested away some of his sanity from the Compulsion cast onto him.
The result? Adamu ceased moving forward and kneeled to announce the Dusk Prayer.
“Praise be to Ina, The Light of the World.” Adam said. “Her Presence in the Sky may vanish from this Mortal's sight, but All know the Truth of her Grace, All know of Her Inevitable Return, just as All know that Her Path of Conquest will triumph over The Darkness.”
With the Dusk Prayer announced, the Oath’s presence dwindled, causing the strength of Compulsion plaguing Adamu to climb back up, only to end up fighting against Adamu, who resisted it with teeth and nails, metaphorically speaking, of course.
However, Adamu did not fight it to break it. No, Adamu had long ago learned that sometimes bending was better than breaking. Additionally, whoever cast the Magic upon him had done it to protect Adamu in their own way. With that being the case, Adamu would not discount the Magic as harmful to his future, but he would also remember that he was neither allowed the option to choose it.
However, regardless of his desires, Adamu did need to reason with the Compulsion because Night was approaching, and Adamu doubted he would make it far through the Night if he did nothing to prepare.
As for how to reason with the Magic of the Domination category? It was reasonably straightforward if hard to execute because one had to be able to logically uncover a loophole in the Magic.
Moreover, unlike how one imagined things being, Domination Magic was actually more about the recipient of the Magic than the Caster of the Magic. Naturally, the caster was essential, as the Caster’s Rank and Skill played a big part in the strength of the cast Magic. However, it was the recipient’s Body, Mind, and Spirit executing the Magic, thereby making the recipient the main component of the spell. Since the recipient was the main component of the Magic, the recipient could alter the Compulsion at its core by being either aware enough of their own thoughts or with Dominion Magic mechanics.
The best option was combining both, of course, and Adamu was quite familiar with both. He did not, however, have the strength to countermand the Magic, as he had no Magic within his fingertips, hence, he had to slowly whittle it away over more extended periods of time through small gestures of reasoned thinking targeted at his own thoughts.
In the end, the solution was simple.
I can not run if I can not see where to run… The statement echoed in Adamu’s head, over and over, in order to convince his subconscious and unconscious self, who, in turn, would convince the Compulsion cast upon him.
Like that, Adamu slowly altered the first paradigm of the Compulsion., the blindly running to the south paradigm.
After enough mental repetitions, Adamu felt the Magic settle somewhat. This allowed him to retain more control, but at the first light of Dawn, it would rear its head back. However, till that appointed time, Adamu had bigger fish to fry, namely, where to seek shelter.
Urgently glancing around, all Adamu saw were trees.
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Instantly, Adamu realized he had no idea where he was and what could be found nearby.
One instant later, one solution reached Adamu’s mind. However, just because it was the sole solution to the problem, it did not mean Adamu’s survival chance had to remain slim. As such, Adamu hurriedly searched his surroundings for the best spot. The result? A large tree with a relatively misshapen lower trunk which allowed Adamu to hide from at least two directions.
Then, just as Adamu wanted to crouch, hide himself, and await the incoming True Darkness, he noted the sensations on his two hands. Blinking a few times, as if only now reminded of them, Adamu stared at the obsidian pocket knife in the left hand and the spear shaft in the right.
Ignoring the spear, for a moment, Adamu stared at his left hand tightly gripping the obsidian pocket knife. Specifically, he stared because he'd been tightly holding onto the sharp edge of the obsidian pocket knife, yet no blood dripped from the said hand. Unclasping the left hand, Adamu quickly examined the obsidian pocket knife and his hand but found nothing conclusive.
With no other choice, he put the obsidian pocket knife in the leaf bag hanging from his neck and instead focused on the only logical option left, the spear shaft in his right hand.
Then, he examined the spear shaft for a moment, but nothing new came up, nor should have, as the Runic Protection Patterns for the Enchantments were not meant to protect Adamu at all, only the spear shaft.
Pondering on it for a few more moments, it clicked in his mind.
Focusing on the spear shaft, Adamu sought the Waking Trance. The moment his vision blurred and cleared, at the same time, he sensed the connection, the shaft's Energetic Aura, the Tree Field Resonance vibrational synchronicity already in effect going between him and the spear shaft.
The Tree Field Resonance was at its base level because Adamu had not stood on the solid ground long enough to grow larger. That and his outrageous footwear, which somehow survived all the running Adamu had put them through. They were made out of soft bark, tough bark, leaves, and vines, thus preventing the grounding effect from occurring in the first place.
Either way, it was the base vibrational resonance that mattered, not its size.
As such, Adamu theorized that as long as he held onto the spear shaft, he would always be in the Tree Field Resonance vibrational state, even if not consciously aware of being so. Either way, that meant that during the Miracle-induced crafting session, a bond was created between Adamu and the spear shaft, thereby allowing Adamu to draw on the Enchantment from the get-go, even if the item itself had yet to be finished.
“The question is, for how long the inherent protection will last?” Adamu voiced out because he remembered the spear shaft drinking the rest of Ina’s Glory out of him. “I wonder if the Enchantment will refill on its own? If not? Would a Prayer be sufficient for recovery? Ah… Who am I kidding? Of course, it will. I just have to be prepared to channel Ina’s Glory again.”
Shaking his head, Adamu examined the speech shaft in detail while waiting for the Night to arrive.
The most obvious to the naked eye, meaning the outer runic patterns, were essentially as he had designed, with only the embellishments venerating the Sun in the sky being new to him.
Although not remembering doing them was bad enough, making them in the first place was even worse, for it meant that the fervor of piousness inside him became stronger than he wanted it to be.
“Hmph…” Snorting once, Adamu ignored it and promised to fix it later.
Being satisfied with the outside, Adamu examined the inside of the spear shaft thanks to the shared connection of the Kyrilian Field Synchronicity.
Having experienced, used, and crafted many Magical Items before, Adamu knew exactly what to look for, so even without Magical Perception and energizing his Golden Eyes, he recognized what the connection meant.
“Spirit Bounded?” Adamu understood through his examination. “That… was definitely not the plan. It was supposed to be a simple Magical Item, not a lifelong companion. Wait… That would explain why I named it Sun Bearer to begin with.”
Ceasing that line of thought, Adamu tried to recall why exactly he'd made that decision, but all that came to him was Ignore, Bury, Deal, Later.
“Ugh… Fine. Worst case scenario, I make a new physical shell and transfer the Name to the new spear.”
Done with the preliminary examination phase, Adamu noted the Light density around him and sat down cross-legged to meditate because he'd need a lot of thinking in the next few moments because there was a clear distinction between making a simple spearhead, and a spearhead worthy of being a Spirit Bound Magical Item.
The initial goal Adamu had was to separately carve the shaft and the obsidian pocket knife and just attach them, thus, two Magical Items would complement each other. The main reason was the actual size of the obsidian pocket knife in his possession. It was simply too short to become a true spearhead.
Only now, things were different. Now, Adamu had to think much more long-term. That meant adding symbology. That meant the spearhead could not be a simple spearhead anymore, sporting a simple sharpness enchantment.
No, it had to complement the spear shaft at the Profound Laws level.
It was that level that Adamu’s mind sought while meditating when True Darkness arrived.
When it did, and all Light got swallowed up, two things were certain for Adamu. He no longer saw the world around him, further mellowing the Compulsion cast on him, and that his newly crafted spear shaft glowed faintly in the dark, only not enough to light Adamu’s surroundings.
The glow came from the golden Runic Pattern because a part of the Runic Pattern was active.
However, that would not do, as any light would become a beacon when everything else should be Darkness. As such, Adam stood up, took off the cumbersome footwear, and lightly planted his feet into the soft ground. Then, he focused on Sun Bearer and willed the Protective Enchantment to shut off.
Instantly, the spear shaft dimmed till no light emerged from it.
As a consequence of the withdrawal, Adamu noted an instant shift to his natural vibrational resonance. Not liking that fact, as it meant he would once more become a natural beacon for the creatures roaming the darkness, Adamu manually achieved the Tree Field Resonance Waking Trance.
Thankfully, the more Adamu used it, the easier it became to achieve it.
Now, all that was left was waiting, maintaining, and hoping with all of his heart that he might be able to resist the stupefaction cast on him every Midnight.
So far, Adamu had no luck on that front, but today would either make or break him depending on the enchantment placed on the spear shaft, either running out of energy or overcoming the stupefaction cast on him.
In the end, if the stick ran out of energy and failed to break the stupefaction, his sole hope rested in the hands of the five-year-old boy, somehow managing to finish the creatures coming for him. Only Adamu doubted the chances of that happening if the current part of the forest resembled anything to the one in front of his mountain cave.
Either way, Adamu in the Tree Field Resonance Waking Trance held on the spear shaft before him and slowly waited for the appointed time.
In the meantime, Adamu ignored the sounds reaching his ears and went over the possibilities for the spearhead when one thought jumped forth, thus enabling different branches of reasoning to combine effects and manifest a proper flow of logic that would give him a decent obsidian spearhead for the immediate future.
If Adamu survived the Night, that is.