Day 3
Mana Spirit POV
This sensation is something new to me. My body quivers as I twist mentally, just on the edge of grasping something enigmatic. Understanding is just on my fingertips, before moving out of reach teasing my desire for it.
Do you think I'm speaking in metaphors? I'm being literal.
The earth mana club in my hand seems to be the source of this weird sensation. Looking closely, it seems to be leeching into the arm and hand. The mana even dyeing my clean white arm a terracotta brown. It is exactly like the sparkly mana except this doesn't feel like acid burns. In fact it feels great.
With every pulse of the underground source the earth mana spreads deeper into my body. Then it starts to encroach on my main form... for a moment it stains my body entirely then I'm back to normal. Arm's clean. The sensation passes. Shit. Not enough?
I ram my arms into the ground, leaving craters.
Demon guy jumps at the sound, distracted from his gloating. Good.
There.
I feel the up-welling mana from the soil and grasp it. Siphoning it off from the mystical valley.
Not enough. I don't get enough to do whatever it is I need. I push deeper, drawing at the energy. It pours into me like a landslide, all of the energy of the valley itself channels deeply into my core self and it is still too little.
Demon guy is screaming something at me. Too busy to care.
Finally my right hand touches the source of this energy. I clutch it with both hands and draw it out from underneath the valley, several miles deep. From inside this pebble sized object I sense feelings of joy. When it is taken from the ground, all I see is a pea.
Demon guy mutters something, but I don't care about him. He tries to snatch it from me.
Taking this crystallization of mana would be very hard, because I've already drained it dry. It collapses into dust as he reaches out.
I seem to have absorbed something extra as well, it's soul perhaps? Well, I don't feel it moving but I think it is definitely alive somewhere inside me.
As I drain the seed I reach critical mass. Finally with a tearing sound an arm ejects from my side. And what an arm it is. Vines, soil, rocks... these are what make this arm real. The mana of earth as a living limb.
It entwines fingers like roots in the dirt and like any other limb would, waits for orders.
The thing that blows me away is that this arm really is me, as much as any of the other arms. I feel the flow of earth mana and through this medium I sense what it is I have gained. It is nothing less than what my arm displays; earth mana as flesh. To control it, to emit it, to absorb it... as easy as flexing my fingers.
Narrator POV
The valley's qi just faded away as Mon De stared at the strange craters. He couldn't understand how this was possible, even as he watched the scene something even more absurd happened: a seed appeared from the deep hole.
This was not just any seed, this was not even a top grade god rank treasure... it was more.
Tales of the eldest immortals held this item in esteem as a holy item, it was a World Seed. A natural treasure above all others, for with it a person could harvest a world tailored to their needs. To find it one would need to delve deep under an up-welling of abnormally stable earth qi. However it could not be captured, or used as it was able to move through rock and soil like a fish in water. It would only be destroyed if forceful methods were used and it would not allow a person or monster to come within five miles of it.
Legend has it one offered itself to a humble bumpkin with extreme karmic merit.
Mon De was so far beyond surprised by the appearance of the unprecedented treasure, he even cried out begging for it to be given to him... only for it to crumble into nothingness...
The spirit had captured and then destroyed it. He couldn't understand any of it.
He was dimly aware this was a very unfavorable sign. The invisible thing had been a nuisance but it was a feeble wretch. If it had gained even an iota of the might that could birth a new universe, how much more potent would it be?
Mana Spirit POV
Man, this is pretty weak stuff.
I mean I tried to create a fist of stone the size of a small planetoid to flatten this twerp but it didn't work. Well... it did but it's still a few thousand years from complete as it soars through space. Damn it. It seems I can do anything with this power, but on a geological time scale. In other words, he'll be dead long before I can hit him with a mountain.
Tch. Focus on what I can do in the NOW.
Mr Bristles is fading away as he bleeds to death. With my hand of pure earth mana I infuse his wound with deep regrowth and regeneration effects. Neat. I'm a healer! I try to pass him a little of my mana, but he squeals as I push it in. What?
Demon guy is frowning at this. Shit, he noticed.
He raised that curved knife again...
I yank the ground out from under him. Literally.
Tumbling onto his ass as the soil moves underfoot like a wave he displays an ugly glower. He yells at me, but I don't have any reason to listen to his nonsense. If it's about the soil, then here, have it back.
The second wave of soil is less of a surprise, he jumps over it with some amazing agility... until I have it rise... I hear him gasp as it knocks the air out of him. It isn't a gentle little tap after all, it's a landslide moving with the speed of a fastball.
I think he broke his ankle too. He's trying not to cry. Aw, poor little demon guy... was I too rough?
He snarls and cuts his own hand on the knife, which begins to hover with a black glow.
Oh no, what's he planning now?
He points at Mr Bristles and the knife moves suddenly with speed like a bullet.
At least the direction is linear. A slab of stone should stop it. Eh? It can dodge?
I try to grab it as it moves, throwing dozens of walls into it's path to slow it down. But just putting my hands near that black stain makes me feel ill.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Sealing Mr Bristles inside a cage of rock isn't a viable solution. At this, the knife actually decides to pierce the stone, breaking through... how can iron even do something like that?
However I have it now. In driving through the rock I've coated it, sealing the knife inside a nice solid block of what I believe is quartz.
Problem is, demon guy has been free all this while and he's shooting those ghost arrows again. And no amount of rock is going to stop them.
Focus.
First stop the arrows and stall any further attacks.
I step in their way and slap the little ghostly guys guiding the arrows down like gnats. Having three hands gives me a lot more breathing room in this situation, since not only can I defend I can counter attack.
Narrator POV
Mon De stared frustrated as his arrows failed to strike the enemy, fully realizing this had been the work of that stupid invisible thing the whole time. As he struggled to free the flying dagger from it's prison his arrows flew to keep the enemy occupied.
Internally he seethed in rage, how could this humiliation be any worse? To see his precious treasures, each more valuable than the last get destroyed or captured by this hateful thing...
A rational person would have given up by now with an intangible enemy this frustrating, but Mon De being the arrogant sort doubled down.
He summoned his clone.
Normally it was off tinkering in his dantian trying to create undead abominations from the various soul-destroyed monsters and people that Mon De (original) created in his path through life.
It was extremely impressed with the opponent it sensed. Mon De (clone) was more sensitive to qi and mana and could tell the difference between the two, as he practiced pure necromancy as his form of ascension technique.
Several creatures flew out of small freckle-like markings on the clone's skin, growing into truly massive creatures larger than the boar.
A hippo zombie with the head of a skeletal dragon and the torso of a lion, a creature stitched together from fifty human hands, a hairless three headed bear and various other monstrosities.
An arm made of rock burst out of the ground, striking at Mon De (original) as he sat up on the ground, with a broken leg and fired arrows.
Three of the smaller zombies, were sacrificed to block the attack using innate defence techniques, physical armor and earth qi disruption. The arm broke through them completely, smashing the unliving puppets into ruined lumps of decayed meat.
The remaining three zombies however were extraordinary.
The Ball of Hands (affectionately known to Mon De (clone) as Light Work) spread several minor seals onto the hand which shockingly stopped it.
The dragon-hybrid meanwhile advanced on the cage holding the half dead pig monster and simply headbutt through the barrier of rock.
As for the three headed bear... the injured Mon De rode it, launching a steady barrage of arrows at the target.
Now Mon De felt he was winning... right up until the rock crumbled. From inside the rock he heard a cold, angry snort.
“Puheee!!!” [Boar]
Mana Spirit POV
Whoa...
I had no idea what was happening when I gave my porcine pal a taste of what I had just eaten... Earth mana in pure, overwhelming form. Mmmm. Tastes like chocolate.
Ahem... (clears throat)
So back to reality. It nearly made the big guy fly apart at the seams. To call it an overdose would be to call inhaling a river a mere sip. If it hadn't been the pure healing kind he really would have been made into pig slurry.
Phew. Too close for comfort.
However it did make the poor guy a little... tuckered out... uh, a repeatedly rupturing everything will do that...
So he's sleeping it off.
But I couldn't leave the guy there, he's just a sitting duck. So I took over.
He didn't mind that, mostly because I absorbed all the extra energy still trying to escape.
So... finally I have flesh!!!
Woooo!
Inside here I can feel just how much I need to fuel the big guy. After all I'm pure energy.
Okay, sure he's eating me... but no more than a pet dog does licking it's owner. It's nothing.
Actual translation via pig vocal cords is: “SKREEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!” as the world shakes from the equivalent of an earthquake around 6 to 7 on the Richter scale...
Narrator POV
Mon De and Clone stare in blank shock as the immense pulsing Earth qi takes root in the world around them. Their pupils narrow and both reach the same conclusion; all or nothing they must have this spirit creature and bleed it dry. This is their greatest opportunity: while it has a body it can be contained...
What we learned:
Many hands makes Light Work...
A knockoff of Ammut the devourer of the dead? (Egyptian Mythology reference)
A Barely Bare... Kuma?
Mr Bristles may be a little different now...
Side Note:
World description
This world is a surprisingly large one, even by Xianxia standards. If I were to describe it in detail it would be in appearance: like a Jackson Pollock painting. Spatters of oceans here, forest there, continents here, there, everywhere... a few alternate dimensions and underground cities here, some time distortions there... a giant skeleton instead of a planet here, some random pocket planes and prison universes there... Isn't that Disc W*rld? (No, it isn't... please don't sue.) Oh yes and flying overhead, preparing to crash in a few millennia a giant fist shaped asteroid...
As for the local region: a deep inland region of a smallish continent... a few times the size of Asia.
Oh, almost forgot... apologies for the delay on this and Labyrinth I've been busy writing on other stuff I'm doing as a personal project.