The Rocaloi 'Academy's' Grand Array

Workshop's platform around the mountain. Night.

Ciemnosc arrived before the landing zone of the workshop. The featherless, weird bird with murky-brown colored skin had gently landed him on the landing zone, after which he pet it at least 3 times. After the weird bird flew away, Ciemnosc walked towards the soft buildings of Older Brother and Tini.

He walked on the platform for only about 3 minutes in silence without hurry and with every step being so slow until he saw that Older Brother was coming out of his soft building, which he seemed to more or less be resting in. Older Brother wasn’t really resting though. He was making a few tools that Ciemnosc gave him the blueprints for that the major organizations bested the academy when considering their singular, intricate use.

Just as the Older Brother was doing such stuff while appearing dreamy and about to fall asleep, seeming pretty chill and relaxed while working on those trinkets to learn more about their creation. He seemed to have found out that Ciemnosc was now here, so he started to come out of his soft building while Ciemnosc made a pause a few meters to the left of where that building and waited.

After a minute, with Older Brother getting sloppy and almost tripping down a few times, not just a couple of times, he finally came out the door and met Ciemnosc’s figure in the distance with his eyes.

“Ciemnosc!” He yelled, in case he didn’t notice or heard him open the door, and slightly hurried up to the boy. Ciemnosc remained immobile, looking at the hard-working Older Brother semi-run his way to himself and trying not to look as sleepy as he currently was.

“Hahh, it’s good you’ve come…” Older Brother’s voice was tired but his tone implied the excitement and gladness of having him return. Such a thing naturally had to do with the letters he has been sending to Tini, who directly presented particular blueprints for the ‘expert botanist’ Older Brother.

Though Tini was a great botanist herself, and a great gardener, for someone of her cultivation and age, her only greatest strength was in her alchemy as she was by far the one in the entire academy who could reach the highest possible heights in that profession.

When compared to Older Brother whose attention was on another subject but whose current life makes her current life nothing compared to hers, she was a tiny piece of what Older Brother is in botany, while Older Brother is only slightly better than the current Tini in terms of Alchemy. Of course, she had the brains and inventiveness to try and learn new things and even possibly things that have never been seen before as it is every few generations of their family tree.

If anything, the girl wasn’t only greatly talented and too young, but she was also quite lazy herself and hadn’t learned as much as Older Brother knew she could. In the future, and especially when he died, hopefully of age, she would have to become the one to lead the boy to learn of the world and many other things. Luckily, he would have enough time before that personal sperm bank could be given the green light to have his child born in somebody’s womb.

“I have taken a long and arduous to look at every single blueprint you sent, they instantly stole my attention from my plants. Twice, I almost forgot to take care of my whole collection, I guess I must be really like these things.” Older Brother elaborated, looking slightly down at Ciemnosc who was still somewhat shorter still.

“There is no problem. Anything you wanted to say to me?” Ciemnosc looked up, with tranquility, and said while shaking his head at the start of his words. Olde Brother nodded in response, he scratched the back of his head with his left hand while his right one went over to his Covert Space bag and took out a small medallion with a blue main color and golden at its edge.

The medallion was circular, barely without any deformity, and clearly of old age, perhaps an untold and unknown amount of years that not even Ciemnosc could fathom.

Ciemnosc heard Older Brother’s voice as he took the medallion and inspected it, holding it with both his hands with his Spirit Sense at immediate hard work. “This is the one thing that allows for one to have any possible use of the academy’s grand array. It isn’t for opening a few gaps or exposing or hiding cultivation fluctuations and/or presence. That can be individually done by anyone who is granted ‘permission’ with this medallion. It would otherwise be the worst to have so many things in charge of one single ‘button’.”

“That sounds incredible.” Ciemnosc flatly commented, still too focused on the medallion to give a reaction if he were to give any. Older Brother nodded and added, his face serious while his tone wasn’t so. “Today is my turn to have it, Tini and I usually alternate who can hold it. Only the descendants of the academy’s ‘true founders’ can make use of it. It can also be used by those capable enough, but through the entire history of the academy, that has never happened.”

“While you aren’t one of our bloodline, Ciemnosc, with your great achievement in creation, I believe you will be able to deal with it in a matter of time. So don’t rush it,” Older Brother said, not showing any worry at all for giving Ciemnosc this incredibly important medallion of utmost need for the safety of the academy which was definitely not a small thing.

“Oh, how long do you guys hold it each?” Ciemnosc said, flashing the medallion one last time to Older Brother before casually storing it in his Covert Space bags. Older Brother looked stiff, his eyes glancing at Ciemnosc’s face as if Ciemnosc’s words contained magic that the Older Brother hoped would not be spoken.

“A day, sigh, each.” Older Brother, however, acquiesced and said in the end. His torture and humiliation were clear as he felt life giving up on him. That was when a pouty young girl appeared with an apparently active carnivorous plant ‘hugging’ a bunny plushy with some of its widest leaves. Its mouth was opened quite and it was doubling down from time to time, looking as if it was smiling and dearly holding the plushy with all its love.

“Boohoo, why speak like this of me? Older Brother? I only care about equality, if we both hold it 1 day every 2 days, wouldn’t that be true equality? I have made progress in my alchemy and have already, surely, caught up to you. Just you wait, you’ll see I’m right! Hmph!” Tini said, holding the pot her carnivore plant was set in with strength but it was all safe and sound.

“Oh hello, Ciemnosc. Tonight, we’re playing with these sisters and brother together, goodbye Older Brother, hmph hmph!” Tini looked at Ciemnosc a few seconds after showing her dominating and tyrannic resolution, smiling delightfully at the handsome boy and grabbing his clothes from his right shoulder before beginning to drag him back to her soft building.

“...” Older Brother was speechless watching them go away, with Ciemnosc not resisting one bit. After looking at their backs for a little more, he was turning around his body when he felt a smallish, thin but really hard cylindrical object in his right hand without him noticing.

‘Ciemnosc…’ Looking down, Older Brother saw a parchment all rolled up. But it in truth seemed to be much more than only one, and they seemed so well rolled up it seemed to hide a lot of such that were particularly longer than what they looked only thinner than most other parchments. Holding it in his fingers, Older Brother could directly tell how tense these parchments were holding up to one another.

He couldn’t wait to enter back into his soft building and… end up falling asleep while reading after months without rest after a ‘blast’ sound was heard from that building in the deep of the night.

. . .

The next day. In front of the monument where the lifelike Calisneia still failed to stop impressing, shocking, and intriguing Ciemnosc.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Last night was all about playing with Tini until the also but slightly hard working young girl fell asleep semi naked around the floor of her bedroom. She was still fully clothed, in her pajamas, but her fabrics were not only thin, they were also pretty loose. And when she fell to the floor, surrounded by her little bodyguards, her tummy was left exposed, her collar revealed a pearl from a certain angle that Ciemnosc had to test out for the sake of science and most of her v-line was also visible.

Just like it would have been for any other living being, it was hell on and in Ciemnosc’s head as he carried the incredibly well smelling young girl, older than himself, to her bed and accommodated her clothes while putting her thick-as-hell blankets to cover her a bit more.

It wasn’t easy, but it was honest work. And to boot, he even groped her butt when placing her on the bed. At first, he didn’t intend for any of that to happen, but she suddenly squirmed with his left, innocent palm palming that little bum that had no extra protection under her pajamas. The pajamas themselves were. They were, of course, inscribed with anti-Spirit Sense array formations and Ciemnosc was nice enough not to show her his true form; not when awake and neither asleep.

After that, Ciemnosc the Violated One began to study once more the medallion of the grand array. From it, he had been feeling the many types of ‘words’ that form an array formation, but also the simplest yet strangest of uses with one’s Spirit Sense, ‘energy’, and something else that he couldn’t figure out what it was. That was, naturally, similar to the hidden ‘something’ deep within him.

However, it wasn’t something like finding his roots and discovering his actual family. It was instead just a kind of ‘lawly’ similitude. Just like the carnivorous plants mutated by the Fire element end up having ‘that’ something as per the records and Ciemnosc’s experiments; it’s in the same way that everyone holds Power Energy but they are all different from each other in Ciemnosc’s many point of views.

Though notes and knowledge about such theories were lacking, almost nonexistent in the world, Ciemnosc couldn’t do anything but once again feel frustrated that despite so much time that has gone by, so much has also remained unknown from all over the world whereas he now really knew how far behind all sorts of ‘cultivation progress’ had been done over the years.

Now, it was no longer a wonder why there was no progress further beyond the 7th realm known in the world. To Ciemnosc, it began to look more like a problem of the cultivators themselves than the original belief that the world was cursed or unfair against them; or testing them cruelly. In a way, it was almost like religion has been for the ‘mortals’ and their wars for popularity.

In that case, it was indeed mandatory that this world’s cultivators were clueless. There was also the fact that everyone looked at this seemingly inexhaustible mine of resources that is the Region from any part of the world. Ciemnosc was just itchy to get to reading again, and the Academy’s Library was just waiting for him to come in and wreak havoc.

… But, right now, as he stood with his arms at his sides and looked at that beyond magnificent statue, Ciemnosc began to comprehend something more; something else.

The statues weren’t just for show, it wasn’t made for the sake of showing their eminences’ faces and glorious selves. They contained, very deep and hidden within the same sensations that Ciemnosc felt coming from the medallion, it wasn’t that he felt them before as well, he only did when the medallion was in his possession. Without needing to be held by him, inside his Covert Space bags, the medallion granted Ciemnosc the opportunity to see through her statue.

Whichever way that such things worked, with the medallion that seemed to not have any array that he had at least some knowledge of and even seemingly holding a kind of ultimate power that makes even himself feel inferior to at the current moment.

Ciemnosc took out the medallion without saying a thing, his right hand holding onto it as he gave it another look. Its golden outline and its middle were all empty and like a cartoonish item that was notoriously highlighted from the rest of the scene and its environment.

“...” Passing it over to his left hand, Ciemnosc walked forward and ignoring the reminders of Tini’s teasing warnings of not touching a female without asking first, and the like, Ciemnosc held the medallion in his left hand and placed his right palm on the lower right shin of Calisneia’s statue.

Pshift~.

The moment his right palm came into contact with the statue’s ‘skin’, Ciemnosc’s left hand felt a very fleeting, brief, and ephemeral heat that seemed capable of putting the hottest of sensations all over his skin. So far, the most he had felt endangered by simple things such as the temperature of an object like when he was melting materials at forging and when concocting at alchemy, and that was nothing that even his hair had to fear for whatever reason.

Ciemnosc could credit that to his All-Devouring Force Chronicles and it having reached the 2nd stage, and even the 1st stage in which he was already immune to the little flames and lava-hot liquid of several things when working in his professions of Craftsmaking in general.

But now, his left hand; feeling that one hotness for just a moment, he felt the danger if that thing was to fully go out and heat up for more than a couple of seconds where even his bones would be directly melted into tiny particles which he might not even get to see even with his current augmented capabilities.

“...” Ciemnosc looked at the medallion in his left hand, turning his head away from the statue. And just at that moment, from his right hand, the solid and metallic-like surface of the statue’s ‘skin’ turned entirely different. Changing its feeling to that of as if Ciemnosc was in the middle of an ocean of herbs, prickly leaves, and thin but powerful roots capable of destroying his body without even touching him, simply obliterating him with the shock waves in the air that such roots would make at whipping towards him.

‘Gasp…!’ Just as Ciemnosc returned his head to the statue, and was looking up for whatever reason, his eyes met the pale white and gold shine that came… through her statue’s eyes!!

Ciemnosc only had time to gasp not even with his mouth but within his mind only, his heart beat like never before and his blood pumped as hard and fast as his dark Power Energy, which was showing all around his body now and seemingly forced out by the statue.

His dark Power Energy didn’t have a change though, it was as if it was just impossible for whatever force was overwhelming Ciemnosc just wasn’t capable of altering or changing anything about his strange Power Energy.

Then, Ciemnosc began to feel his Spirit Sense played with as if he was a mere child who was more innocent than ignorant of the world and an evil woman had found her way to kidnapping him and ruin his life. Only, Ciemnosc didn’t feel any pain or torment, of any kind. Instead of any of that, he felt his Spirit Sense tickled by a foreign Spirit Sense, pulled, pushed, flattened, hit, and struck as if to test its resilience and even mixed with that other.

Before Ciemnosc had time to even deep within his heart of anything at all, he felt that ‘something’ once again.

“!!!” Ciemnosc’s eyes opened, widely, his point of view that of facing the floor and with his body doubling down while his left leg was as if pushed to the back and his right leg was still shuddering the brunt force that he still wasn’t feeling. Ciemnosc himself was already getting confused and apprehensive of such prowess, when he felt his ‘that something’ just touched by whatever was playing with him without himself having any way of resisting even as he tried to just attempt retaliating in any way possible.

Like a nightmare as he heard and felt his body either being buried ‘alive’ or burned ‘alive’ and he wasn’t capable of moving, Ciemnosc underwent changes all over his body in an instant but he felt everything as if he was slowly experiencing the life of mortals time and again over and over and over again!

… … … … PUM… … … …

However, in the very same iota of an instant that the foreign force made contact with his ‘that something’, there was a total silence within the entirety of Ciemnosc’s within. Darkness and silence as one, the force that was before seemed completely gone all of a sudden, just as Ciemnosc barely noticed that his ‘that someting’ was being approached by that foreign force and he was fearing the sensations that it has given him before.

Just as he expected to be sent into ultimate pain and suffering, endless torment and terrorizing fear; he felt nothing. Not even an ounce of what the foreign force was making him feel was felt, nothing of what he thought could’ve happened did that; happen.

‘... … …’ Waiting and waiting for something, anything, to happen, Ciemnosc eventually became confused even more as everything within him was silent as if the foreign force from before never existed and it was just him getting crazy again. Just without anyone’s images and just the feelings getting to him directly.

Ciemnosc’s eyes were closed before he knew it, he was hyperventilating in the ‘outside world’ while within him everything remained dark… Until that foreign force appeared once more.

But this time, it was… slow.

It appeared to have been… weakened… somehow. And it even moved without the slightest trace of strength, trembling all over as it made its way to Ciemnosc once again. This time, however, it did all of its might to avoid going anywhere where it had tracked Ciemnosc’s ‘that something’. Due to that, Ciemnosc now knew where to look when wanting to experiment and discover… just what the hell was that.

Next, slowly but surely, Ciemnosc suddenly realized that the foreign force was extremely excited now. But, ever since the ‘silent implosion’ that occurred within him, it had already turned excited. And only when the foreign force made its way towards his Natal Spirit, so slowly yet visibly moved to… perhaps know more… its excitement enhanced to astronomical levels.

The foreign force finally reached where Ciemnosc’s Natal Spirit should be… should have been.

…