“Is the Healing Fatigue over now?” Sylthis asked.
Janet had disclosed the limitations of her regeneration to the party, since a [Talent] that allowed for nigh-infinite Vitality with zero cost was just too good to be true. It would break all sorts of the laws that governed magic. Healing Fatigue, the weakness and lethargy that resulted from extensive healing, was Janet’s main concern.
In normal people, Healing Fatigue manifested as status effects that basically prohibited one from utilizing their full power, be that magical or martial. Essentially, a portion of their resources would be rendered unutilizable until their bodies naturally replenished the energies they had expended to banish injury, a process that could take hours to years, depending on the severity of injury healed via magic.
Janet had just regenerated her whole body. That should have imposed a resource penalty that would have taken years to offset. Luckily, her voracious soul could literally siphon those same resources – or their equivalents – from the Realm of Souls, and have them put to use in her recovery.
Sylthis’ food, especially the hogs that she insisted still had the beast’s soul energy within, had helped repay the rest of that deficit.
“Your food helped repay most of the cost,” Janet revealed. She had eaten an entire six platters of the stuff. It still baffled her how much she could stuff into her tiny stomach, but she was not one to complain about unearned boons.
“That’s good to hear,” Sylthis stated, though Janet noted that her voice retained a wary note.
“What’s wrong? Are you worried about the Adventurers?”
“Not the two idiots, no.” Sylthis dismissed. Janet had noted that had little patience for grandstanding men. Brian had gotten on her bad side a couple of times, and though the Cyclopean always presented an affable exterior, she was a lioness in disguise, her canines always sharp and on the ready to rend and tear.
“I’m just worried that you might have healed too fast,” she finished in her signature motherly tone.
“Too fast? It took a whole day!”
“I’m not disparaging your capabilities, Janet,” Sylthis mollified Janet’s flaring emotion. “All I’m saying is that I’ve seen you heal. A deep wound takes you minutes, unless you’re in the middle of a battle then your body uses its own stores of energy in exchange for rapid regeneration. A limb once took you four hours to regenerate.” She looked at Janet, then extended a hand, which Janet took in hers.
“You regenerated an entire body, Janet. Not a single limb. An entire body, its core, mana pathways and brain included.” The seriousness in her voice smothered any excuse Janet might have come up with. “Even one as capable as you should have taken at least three days for something that extensive.”
“But… but…”
“You don’t have the excuse of explaining it away with your body cannibalizing itself to accelerate your healing. Remember, you were burnt to a crisp. I would hazard that even your bones needed to be remade anew.”
What she was saying made sense, Janet thought. She was also not as weak as she should have been. The Healing Fatigue should rightfully have rendered her paralyzed and infirm for weeks on end.
“And you have a frankly unhealthy amount of fire essence floating around in your blood,” the scout added, her eye trained on Janet’s chest. “And before you say anything, there is more fire than shadow.”
“That doesn't sound right,” Janet's expression shifted to match the larger woman's concern.
“Does your Status explain the discrepancy?”
Status
Name: Janet
Race: [unknown] LV 14
Talents: Shadow Affinity (Arcane), Soul Affinity (True), Fire Affinity (…)
Blessings: Gaia and Ionus: [Dance of Dual Elements – Life, Death] (upgradeable)
Class: [Binder of Shadow]
Subclasses: N/A
Resources
Mana (MP): 280/300
Health (HP): 300/300
Stamina: 22/300
Stats
Vitality: 30
Strength: 30
Agility: 30
Endurance: 30
Wisdom: 30
Intelligence: 30
Senses: 30
Willpower: 30
Free Points: 34
SP: 3
Titles
Blessed, Avid Learner, Classed, Head Start (I)
Skills:
General
[Throw] (Basic), [Sprint] (Common), [Cooking] (Common), [Butchering] (Common), [Novice Cartographer] (Common), [Refined Palate] (Uncommon)
Magic
[Meditation] (Common), [Mana Sight] (Rare), [Shadow Bolt] (Uncommon), [Construct Field – Shadow] (Rare), [Mana Manipulation] (Common), [Weapon Cladding – Mana] (Uncommon), [Cutting Edge] (Uncommon)
Class Skills
[Shadow Bind] (2/10)
Subclass Skills
N/A
Spell Book:
(Empty)
Janet’s two levels had earned her a slight +2 to every Stat, which had added up to 32 more free points. The new Uncommon-rarity Skill had also netted her 3 SP. It was barely a dent in the 12 that she needed to purchase [Shadow Authority], but it was a start. Every Skill upgrade and learned Skill would earn her SP, so the 3 were just a sign of good things to come.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
As for an explanation about the inexplicable concentrations of fire inside her body…
“My Stamina just began to recover, but as far as I can tell everything else is normal.”
“Stamina regenerating means that you’ve truly gotten past the Healing Fatigue.” Sylthis echoed Janet’s thoughts. “What about the Fire [Talent] though? I’d hate to have gone through all that…” she gestured towards the billowing ash clouds from the eruption, “only to find out that the [Talent] was sacrificed to bring you back from death.”
Had her soul really digested and used the Lava Spewer’s [Talent] to heal her? Janet had to check. The dots in her Status were no help, as they could mean anything.
“I’ll be going into Meditation,” she warned Sylthis before she activated the Skill.
Unlike all the other times that Janet had entered the realm of mana, she did not pause to admire the chaotic flows and learn from the harmony of interactions between the elements. Her heart was pounding at the thought of having to hunt for another [Talent].
The Spewer had been perfect. Its Mysteries promised a bright future regarding the spells and synergy of abilities she’d possess with the element. Getting anything that could compete would take too long, an option made even more untenable now that contact with the Adventurers had been made.
Without giving the mana landscape a second thought, she allowed her consciousness to plunge into the Realm of Souls.
The first thing that came to mind was that the realm looked all wrong. The flows looked sluggish, and for some reason Janet felt as though her awareness was having to fight to remain alert, as though the Realm suddenly had a tranquilizing effect.
First though, Janet focused upon her soul. The area of blackness more lightless than the darkest nights seemed normal. The band of shadow was also almost fully closed, indicating that her First Circle was just weeks away from completion.
As for fire… There it was! On an opposite “pole” from the shadowy band, a vermillion strip had taken shape. It was still quite tiny, barely 1% the size of the band of shadow, but it was all the evidence Janet required to know that her third [Talent] had taken root.
As for why her Status depicted it as undetermined, diffuse streams of red energy were flowing from all around the realm and into that band, making its color appear more vibrant and its contours more pronounced.
Janet did not remember that happening with Shadow after her Awakening. Perhaps it was a fruit of the environment?
Curiosity taking hold of her, Janet turned her attention to the immediate environs of her soul, before her sight extended even further outward.
Her imaginary breath caught in her imaginary throat. The sight was one of absolute carnage.
All around her were souls. Red, very distinctly fire-attuned souls that must have belonged to the millions of ants her ‘accident’ had liberated of breath.
The horrifying thing was that since the souls had become detached from their physical forms all at once, the Realm had become suddenly saturated. The souls were dissipating as was natural, but at a very, very slow pace.
All around her were half-dissolved souls that released stupendously dense amounts of reddish energies into the realm. As far as Janet could tell, the area around the canyon had become like a cup of water into which sugar was been constantly stirred in. At first, the crystals had dissolved easily. But with the point of saturation having been quickly reached…
The energies ebbed and flowed, wavered and swayed within the uneasy equilibrium they had arrived at. Souls still released their energies, but only when the flow favored such action. When it didn’t, they remained stagnant, akin to half-deflated balloons suspended in an area of such pressure that no more air could be released.
The picture filled Janet with dread. She’d heard tale of what happened when a massacre happened and countless souls were dispatched all at once. Such places became breeding ground for natural undead. Souls of the dead, unable to disperse, coalesced into monstrosities of amalgamated anima animated only by magic and a hunger for indiscriminate destruction.
Janet shook her imaginary head to halt the spiral of ominous thought in its tracks.
The ant souls were numerous, yes, but luckily most of them had been feeble and weak. The energy concentration was nowhere close to the levels where undead would begin to emerge.
But yet, another question arose. What was making the energy ebb and flow like tides upon a sandy shore? The energy system was quite enormous, so anything that was capable of causing it to move…
‘Oh!’ A thought came to mind. ‘The regeneration of my body! That must have taken a sizeable chunk out of this mess, and perhaps set the energies to motion.’
Her maw of a soul was still inhaling copious amounts of the fire-attuned soul energy, as was her gradually stabilizing [Talent]. The latter seemed to be refining itself without her conscious input. She couldn’t help the tiny smile that curled her lips as she emerged from meditation.
“I take it things are progressing well?” Sylthis asked. Her eye was trained on Janet’s glabella. It appeared she’d been doing so the entire time Janet had been inspecting her inner realms.
With an even wider smile, Janet reported her conjecture on what had happened. She especially put an emphasis on how her [Talent] was getting better…
“The flows,” Sylthis interjected. “I want to know about the flows.”
“What, the cycling of the energies?” Janet’s voice was laced with a seed of ire. Didn’t her friend want to hear about her exploits? “Why do you even care? Mana, the elements, the Realm of Souls… they’re always in motion.”
“Except in this particular case, that motion seems aimed at allowing only a very constrained natural dispersal of the souls.”
“What are you talking about?” Janet tilted her head and narrowed her eyes.
While she understood a bit about what she called her native realm, most of that was conjecture, like a merman assumed Reality to be wet and governed by currents and waves, since their entire lives were spent in the water. Perhaps Sylthis was about to expound upon her world?
“I have seen massacres, Janet. Real fields of Death where billions have laid their lives down to protect the continued survival of this Sphere and its inhabitants.” Her voice was hollow, as though all her heart had been sapped by the memory of events past. “Hundreds of millions above Fifth Circle, and countless more just below that threshold.”
She looked into Janet’s eyes, her singular pupil somehow tracking both of Janet’s and drawing them in like moths to a flame. And what a bright flame they held! “And even then, little one, their souls managed to move on.”
There were few things more terrifying to Janet than passion. It animated mortals to feats of courage that allowed them to take down beings far greater and more terrible than even their imaginations could conjure up, despite suffering countless casualties. Feats like the slaying of her sire.
For the first time, Janet found herself wondering what drove Sylthis. The singular glimpse she caught in the scout’s eye told her it was something momentous, or world-shatteringly traumatizing. Or both.
“You… you want me to check it out some more?”
“Please.” The Cyclopean’s smile was wooden and rigid. This was an order.
For the second time, Janet felt the onset of dizziness as she once more entered the realm. Was that due to Sylthis’ intent drilling into her glabella, or something even more sinister?
Anyway, Janet diligently set her ‘sight’ upon the sluggish lapping motions of the thick strands of soul energy. Nothing seemed to be amiss. The only other soul in the vicinity was Sylthis’ eyeball-shaped soul, and as per usual, Darius’ soul was nowhere to be seen.
Far into the distance and to her left, Janet detected what must have been the Adventurer troupe. She could even differentiate between the two adults and their charges. One of the children caught her attention, since their soul was an alluring metallic grey, and stylized chains covered in runes were clasped around the orb along its longitudes and latitudes.
What kind of cultivation method…
Wait, the waves!
That far-off look allowed Janet to observe the ripples over an extended range. In that view, their flow was not as even as she’d assumed at first. Every subsequent undulation was just the slightest bit weaker than its predecessor.
A quick look at how the same flows weakened as they crossed her ravening maw of a soul, and Janet reached an infuriating conclusion.
Something was eating her food! Some jerkwad was stealing what was hers, and right under her nose no less!
Her eyes shot open, forcing Sylthis’ head to jerk backwards.
“Something out there is eating the souls!” she growled, pointing towards the direction of the ash clouds.
“Janet, I don’t think…”
“Some idiot is stealing what’s mine, Syl.”
“Are you laying claim to all souls now?” Sylthis chuckled.
“I killed the ants,” Janet stated, her voice colder than the polar caps. “They are mine.”
It was at that point that Darius emerged from his tent. “I was awake all night modulating your healing, you know? Don’t you think I deserve some peace and quiet for that?”
Janet turned her heated gaze towards her mentor. The usually greyish orbs were a shadowy black peppered with red spots, like flaming stars in a lightless night.
“What’s got her all riled up now?”
“I think she found our demon,” Sylthis answered.
“So… hoarder’s instinct?”
“More like some version of a Right of Conquest,” the Cyclopean explained. “She believes that all souls dispatched by her hand are hers, and only hers, and the demon might have encroached upon that.”
‘A demon, huh?’ Janet felt the irrepressible hunger from her soul tick up a notch. Some things needed killing, no questions asked.