The Inspire mana that had completely filled Alex’s surroundings and drowned out his thoughts no longer held absolute dominion over the environment. The world around him returned to focus, and his senses no longer felt quite as overwhelmed. He immediately noticed that there were still cables of Inspire mana connecting him to David. The man’s power retained a firm hold on him, despite the Inspire mana’s presence being diminished.
The sensory input was the same, he was just better at handling it. His experience in the visions had shown him how to cope with even greater senses than these. The problem was the imbalance between Sensitivity and Perception. The physical world could be perceived, but it felt oddly muted.
“David, is Alex okay?” It took Alex a fraction of a second longer than it should have to realize this was Mr. Stirling’s voice. He went to twist around and look at everyone who was watching them, but David’s Domain held him in place. Alex instead focused on the sight in front of him, taking in the appearance of the man whose life he’d just experienced part of.
The intense focus in David’s eyes had changed, or maybe the connection between them let Alex see through it. Where before David had been a resolute figure, an example of integrity, now he was anything but. A manic gleam shone in his eyes, madness that Alex would have considered impossible to hide if not for the power exhibited in the visions. David’s skin was visibly pale, his eyes sunken with black circles surrounding them. It looked as though he had been awake for a hundred hours, with exhaustion setting in. Had the vision drained him this much? How much of his previous put-togetherness was a facade? How much of his seemingly desperate state was true?
Alex wondered if the other Imprinted could see through the falsehood. He could tell that the illusions were still there, they simply couldn’t fool his eyes. For some reason, David had revealed the core of himself to Alex. The creation of Inspire had been the end of a man and the birth of a lie, and Alex might be the only person who knew the truth. Why? Wasn’t this a risk? Alex’s struggle was renewed as he futilely attempted to break the cables between them. His own control of mana could be best described as the flailing of a child, David suppressed him before he even began.
Would anyone believe him if he spread the word about their strongest hero’s state?
David let out a crazed laugh in response to the question, would the others hear it as a reassuring chuckle? “No worries, Dylan. He’s fine. My mana type got away from me, but he’ll survive.”
There was a chorus of murmurs in the background, Alex struggled to make out his friends’ voices, but his focus was drawn back to David. He continued to fruitlessly resist the influence that was holding him in place. The two locked eyes and David gave him a slight nod of acknowledgment.
“He gained a mana type,” David’s expression as he looked down at Alex belied the regret in his voice. The man looked awestruck by his own accomplishment if anything, “His Connection has stabilized from the insight. As we speak, I am siphoning enough mana to kill most Neophytes out of his body every few seconds.” As the man spoke, Alex realized that it wasn’t just that his Connection had stabilized, it had increased. The mana type he’d gained was strong enough to boost his Connection to a ridiculous degree.
Alex’s mind spun at the news, but he heard David’s voice resonate through the mana in the air, “I need you to stop fighting. You spent nearly a minute in those visions, and the resonance between our souls is slipping. When I run out of mana, the link will break, and I will not be able to create an Ability that circumvents your Capacity problem.”
A feeling of unwillingness welled up in Alex’s chest at the words. His Mana Body was meant to be his, since when could a higher tier design one for you? It flew in the face of everything he’d been taught, what was the point of his path if he was being turned into a clone of David Alvarez? Did the city really need another mage like this maniac?
As he was distracted by his thoughts, his resistance slackened, and David took advantage. Runes appeared across Alex’s body, for some reason forming as tattoos on his skin instead of inside of him.
“These runes are on the outside because they are vents,” David lectured. “Now that you are no longer fighting, I will allow you to see the whole thing.” Alex couldn’t help but wonder whether his vitriol was justified. Wasn’t this New Chicago’s champion?
Alex’s sense of his body was unveiled. He hadn’t even noticed that he couldn’t tell what was happening with the mana inside of him until the restriction was lifted, but he quickly took in a torrent of information.
The partial rune that had threatened his arms was gone, wiped away by David’s inscriptions. He remembered the earlier warning about it triggering a False Enlightenment if he looked too closely. That wasn’t a problem with these runes. They weren’t designed by him, but they were based on insight that encroached upon his soul.
“The Connection to Capacity ratio is an interesting topic. As long as mana is used instead of allowed to build up, the problem can be sidestepped entirely,” David spoke while he worked, “What I am building is an Ability that will do just that, spending mana as fast as your soul produces it. You will need to leave it alone until your Capacity reaches half of your Connection.”
Alex went to speak, “But…” He trailed off, surprised that David had allowed him to talk. The shock didn’t last, but he realized the answer to his own question. David was crafting an Ability, those didn’t improve the rank of your Mana Body at Tier 0. He was going to sidestep the problem, giving Alex a chance at survival without putting the city on a one-century timer.
“Your Capacity is too low,” David muttered as he continued to work, “The aura will have to be perfect if it’s going to eject the mana fast enough.”
Alex felt a note of worry at that, but it was quickly drowned out by the sheer amount of sensory data he was receiving.
He turned his focus back to the runes being placed across his body. He tried to follow David’s actions and was surprised to find that he could. The man seemed to almost drag him along with one of the threads of mana that was active inside Alex’s body. There were eight of them in total, but Alex’s mind honed in on the one working in his left calf.
He watched as the thread moved, reminded of sewing as he witnessed its work. Runes were being threaded together in an intricate fashion, and his insight into Inspire gave him an understanding of what they did. David was creating an aura, an Ability that took all of Alex’s mana and tossed it out into the environment. The runes were all nearly identical, seeking to direct the mana out of his body where it could get to Inspiring.
As an Aspirant, Alex would still be perfectly capable of producing unattuned mana. In fact, most of his mana would be like that, since the soul of a Tier 0 refused to be bound to a single type. What Inspire mana he did produce would act as the leader for this ability, helping the rest of the mana fulfill the same purpose.
No thought was given to efficiency, Alex could tell. If anything it was the opposite. The mana needed to be pushed out, and David happily set up the runes in such a way that part of the mana would be exhausted just pulling itself out through the several vent runes he had created to keep the process from taxing Alex.
Normally, ejecting mana from the body wouldn’t cause problems. The vents told Alex all he needed to know about how much David trusted that to remain the case when faced with this much mana at such a low level. Instead of risking injury when the mana passed through his skin, the vents would keep his skin and the outer layers of his flesh from bearing the brunt of the mana that passed through it to escape his body. They also acted as additional suction, helping get the mana out as quickly as possible.
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This wouldn’t be enough? Just how much Connection did Alex have? David’s siphoning was so quick that he couldn’t get any measure of how much mana was entering his body.
As he watched the creation, he was struck by two feelings. The first was something close to awe, David’s work was incredible. The runes were all Tier 0 but did far more than any Tier 0 rune he’d heard of before. It was like every rune took the idea of a Heart Rune, where multiple runes were combined, and forced it to work using Inspire. David had created the perfect rune for the situation on demand.
The runes were so closely tied to his new mana type that he didn’t need any studying, which magnified the awe. This was what people meant when they talked about designing their own runes? Part of him liked the feeling.
The rest of him rebelled. He couldn’t forget that the Ability was necessary. David was acting to save his life while he watched. The runes were right because they fit his type and matched the mana that his soul produced. They were wrong because Inspire wasn’t his insight, not truly. It was like he was watching his body be turned into something else, something that definitely wasn't him.
He could do nothing but watch. Fighting the bile that built in his throat at the feeling. His body was no longer his, it was just a vessel that he inhabited. David had changed it into something other.
His new Connection to his soul made the experience even worse, his soul didn’t appreciate the intrusive presence of Inspire any more than his physical self. It was alien.
His soul, at least, wasn’t changing. The insight was there, but it felt more like a separate entity. It was part of him, but it wasn’t him. The conflicting experiences and emotions filled Alex with an instinctive revulsion and he stopped focusing on his soul. He tried to drown out the negative emotions with the rhythmic pattern of forming runes. Even if it felt wrong, he didn’t want to miss his Mana Body being inscribed.
“Design your own Heart Rune,” David spoke after minutes of work. The man was gritting his teeth in focus, and Alex immediately moved to do so. His focus shifted to his chest, where he started work on his heart. He made it intentionally sloppy, knowing that if it was too efficient it might just siphon mana that needed to leave his body.
Even delaying the mana’s escape from his body might be problematic. There were three vents on either side of his chest to counterbalance the presence of the heart, but he was hesitant to risk it.
“Draw it properly,” David’s voice came. There was a clear strain in his voice, “You can still get a Rare Mana Body out of this.”
The realization spurred Alex back to his task, and he began the process of correcting his mistakes. He hadn’t even realized, but it was obvious. David was creating an Ability so he wasn’t limited with his Enhancements. He couldn’t let them interfere with the aura, but his attribute Enhancements were incredibly unobtrusive to the body. They only complicated the Heart Rune.
Minutes passed as Alex focused on his Heart Rune, drowning out the world around him. Layers were inscribed over each other as he finished them one after the other. Intricacy came surprisingly easy, he’d always known that this was the hard part.
It turned out that Sensitivity this high made things simple, he had such a firm grasp of everything that was happening that inscribing was a walk in the park. He moved quickly, fully prepared to smash Becca’s record. Just how high were his attributes?
Then, suddenly, he heard a grunt of pain. His eyes opened and he saw David in front of him, “Hurry,” the man commanded, “The aura is almost done, but I can’t keep going for much longer.”
Alex redoubled his efforts, working to finish things as quickly as possible. He made a mistake while drawing the Power rune and was forced to double back and fix it. Cursing the lost time, he sped back up again only to make another mistake before completing the lousy thing.
Frowning, he wiped away the incorrect rune and started over again.
He was on the last attribute rune, Sensitivity, when he heard a thud. His eyes opened, and he faltered in his task as he saw David had fallen to the ground. The man didn’t move from his spot, apparently unconscious after overdrawing himself to inscribe runes inside another’s body. The effort of doing so after the already costly experience of powering Alex’s vision had proven too much for him.
Before Alex could think too much about the repercussions of David’s fall, his entire world was drowned in pain. He began to fall to the ground next to the other man, every nerve on fire as the mana in his body proved significantly too much for his Capacity. He realized that he was about to die.
He turned to look at his friends, but before he could begin to turn his pain vanished. A pair of strong arms caught him.
“I’ve got you, son.” Dylan Stirling said. None of David’s strain was reflected in his eyes as he took over the duty of siphoning Alex’s excess mana. Alex was healed so quickly that it didn’t even feel like a wave, he was dying one moment and completely whole the next.
Right, they had backup.
“He was not exaggerating,” Mr. Stirling mused, “That aura he designed for you was ejecting more than ninety percent of the mana, and you were still fatally injured in hardly a second. I’m sorry for not reacting quicker, David falling unconscious wasn’t expected.”
Alex wondered why it wasn’t when the man had been so clearly struggling, but didn’t ask that question, “Did he finish the aura?”
“I believe so,” Mr. Stirling replied, “Now, are you ready to accept the prompt?”
Alex started to nod but came up short, “Let me finish the Heart Rune. My soul attributes aren’t as high as they were in the surge, but I can still pull it off.” Thanks to his Connection, all of the soul attributes were already unlocked.
“You don’t need it,” Mr. Stirling replied, “You already have the soul attributes, and you already have a Mana Type. Just spend a few months in the library or with David after entering the path and design a Legendary Mana Body.”
Why hadn’t he thought of that? He’d been so distracted by the thought of an Epic Achievement that he hadn’t stopped to realize that the Enhancements were useless to him.
Alex shook his head, “I already have a draw rune, with no distributor. If I stop now it’ll create a heart blockage.”
Mr. Stirling furrowed his brow, and looked directly at Alex’s chest, “Ah, so you do. Why did he have you designing a Heart Rune? I didn’t even notice it amid this aura.”
Mrs. Stirling came over, “Dear, I’ll take over with Alex. Check on David.”
Instead of arguing, Alex got back to inscribing. The work was slower now, without his boosted Sensitivity. He was less precise but still precise enough. The main thing lost was time, especially because of how tired he was now.
“You’re suffering from buff exhaustion,” Mrs. Stirling stated as she helped him remain seated, “High attributes come with an increased ability to recover from their use. Now that you don’t have the higher attributes, your body is struggling to regain energy.”
Alex took in the information but didn’t bother nodding. He tried to blink the exhaustion from his eyes but found that it didn’t work. He continued to inscribe, finally finishing the Sensitivity rune.
His focus shifted to the distributor. This was the rune that would send mana that was siphoned into his heart out into his body. Thanks to the aura, it would then immediately leave.
As he drew it, Alex noticed some similarities between the distributor and the runes David had used. He came to a realization. If he altered the design to work with Inspire, he could make the aura more effective. It wouldn’t be a large impact, as most mana would never make it to the heart, but it would make a difference. If his body was going to start melting whenever a Tier 3 wasn’t around, he would take anything he could get.
The adjustment was made, with Mrs. Stirling none the wiser. The woman didn’t study Tier 0 Mana Bodies well enough to notice the subtle changes, nor was she particularly familiar with Inspire to see through his alterations to suit the mana type.
Alex was so exhausted that he didn’t realize his oversight. It was an easy enough mistake since the basic draw and distributor weren’t enough to qualify for the Achievement he’d sought.
Every part of the Heart Rune was an Enhancement.
Alex summoned the prompt with a thought, too tired to even read the words. “Yes,” he said aloud.
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Alex Moore pulled off his plan.