Screaming pain encompassed every inch of my being as the mana inside my body roiled. My cores felt less than half empty, but they felt strained. A quick inspection showed that they had swollen to twice their normal size. The mana inside them looked like it was boiling.
My pure core was in the best condition, because it was my active core, the mana inside it was able to flow out through my body. Every other core was in danger of bursting from the pressure inside.
The state of my cores was terrifying, but it wasn't my only concern. My body was being torn apart from the inside. The Concepts that allowed me to mimic a living being were strong enough to keep me from immediately dispersing into a formless cloud of mana, but there were limits. The bindings that gave me physical form were fraying, my body was unraveling as I watched.
I had been aware that I would be forced to leave the tier one mana zone once my personal mana reached a certain density. I had known that consuming the mother crystal was likely to push me to that point. I had been warned that normal people had to move on once they tiered up, that they experienced a loss of energy to the environment if they attempted to stay.
I had expected to be uncomfortable, I had even expected my cores to leak mana. I had been mentally prepared to have to run. I had not been prepared to have to outrun the dissolution of my physical form.
My body no longer wanted to respond to me, but I struggled to my feet anyway, all four legs shook from the effort. I was Strong, I was Sturdy, I was Enduring. Most importantly, I was a Survivor. It was only with the support of all of those Concepts that I was able to force my body to obey me.
Looking around, I struggled to get my bearings in the wasteland of ash that I had created. My fire had burned so intensely that nothing remained of the once tall trees that had once surrounded the mother crystal. I felt tiny in the vast, flat expanse that went on for miles in every direction. For a moment I was lost, then I saw the mountains in the distance, and began to run.
Ash flew into the air with every step, stinging my eyes and clogging my airways. My head snapped back and forth taking in the devastation I had caused. Even the mana had been burned away, though it was quickly flowing back to fill the space.
My memories of the time after I unleashed my flames on the world were a muddled mix of rage and hunger, but as I ran, they untangled. A low keening followed in my wake as I remembered what I had done.
Three spirit beasts, and a small hidden tribe of fifteen goblins had done nothing to earn my ire. I hadn't even known they were there until they died, and I began to consume them. They hurt no one, their deaths served no purpose.
Tears streamed from my eyes, and my steps slowed as the knowledge of the murders I had committed weighed on my soul.
A part of me wanted to stop running and allow myself to fade away in penance, but my mind shuddered when I had that thought. My grief was forcibly overpowered by a panicked soul-deep need to survive, no matter the cost. So I ran.
I caught sight of the grove that had saved me from my rampaging mana. I wanted to apologize to them, to thank them. I was their father, I finally acknowledged that. They had deserved better from me than to be created and then left behind after they did me such a service.
Still I ran, I couldn't stop running. Survivor flared intensely, completely overwhelming my conscious mind with the panicked need to get to a place where the mana was dense enough to sustain me.
I traveled for hours. My muscles didn't grow tired, but I tripped disturbingly often. I had to slow to an ambling trot after my attempts at running sent me rolling through the ashes when my paws didn't land where I expected them to. I could have made the trip in minutes if I shifted to my sky terror form, but I still didn't seem to have access to the System.
Eventually my legs gave out spectacularly, sending me crumbling painfully to the ground. When I managed to finally get back on my feet, an arm reached out to stop me, while a hand shoved a pile of mana crystals into my panting mouth. Thorn looked me in my eyes, and the cloud of panic that had seized my mind was dispelled.
The mana crystals Thorn had fed me, though they were all mid-tier one at best, helped refill a small portion of the mana that had flowed out of me. The mana they contained was so weak that Thorn had to shovel hundreds of them into me to make a difference.
My own mana had reached a breaking point, it was at the very apex of tier one. I could tell that something more had to happen to it to truly transition to tier two, but it still gave off enough pressure that it refused to stay contained in my body. The way it pushed to expand outward made it feel like it wanted to fall apart. I did my best to keep it contained, and breathed in great gouts of air as I tried my hardest to pull what was escaping back to me.
“Creator” Thorn whispered, his tone soothing. “I can only guess what's happening to you right now.” He held up his hands as I tried to gather my thoughts to respond. “Don't try to speak, any mana use on your part at the moment would likely be dangerous.”
My companion looked into the distance behind me as he continued to feed mana crystals into my mouth.”Lady Torill will be here shortly. I am sorry we took so long to catch up to you. Leaving Brightwood has become a complicated matter for her. It is only with Belua's blessing that she can do so for the moment. Once she gets here, we can truly help you.”
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My ears perked up at the mention of Torill's name. Despite all the pain I was in, both physical and mental, I felt a burst of joy that I would have a chance to see her one more time. I turned to look in the direction Thorn had indicated, and saw a plume of dark ash filling the air. It was obvious that she was running towards me at an incredible speed.
I was barely able to make out her ash covered form pulling a large cart when I felt something else approaching. I couldn't see it, but I could sense its power moments before it enveloped me. Immense, crushing, pressure pushed in on me from all sides. I yowled in pain as the force ruthlessly pushed my body into a more compact state.
I instinctively fought to push back, but a voice vibrated through my being.
“Be still , cousin. Your mate has opened a contract on your behalf. If you continue as you are, you will lose that body we envy so much, and be unable to pay my fee. Neither of us wants that.”
My body froze solid, and I found myself unable to respond to the spirit in any way. The being's power was exerting its force on my cores in addition to my body. It kept me still and contained. I could not fight it if I wanted to, but it quickly occurred to me that I did not want to.
Not one drop of mana escaped the spirit’s grip. I was far from comfortable, but I would have sighed in relief if I was able to move enough to breathe. As it was, I had only moments to be thankful before even my mind was pushed into a strange sort of stasis.
I never lost my awareness of the world around me, but I felt entirely separate from the goings on around me, and time seemed to speed by.
I saw Torill look at me with concern clear in her eyes as she pulled a cart through the ashes. I was a little surprised to see Ivo and Pierce hop down and have what seemed to be a short conversation with Thorn. I couldn't make out any of the words, but it didn't take long for them to start working together to lift me onto the cart.
I noted that whatever the spirit had done to me had made my true form smaller than I had been in a very long time, perhaps smaller than when I first inhabited my new body. I was able to see that Ivo's belly was at my eye level when he grabbed hold of my front end to lift me. It was, however, evident that I was extremely heavy for my small size, given how much effort the strong adventurers had to put into wrestling me onto the bed of the cart.
Once I was up, they laid me down on my side, and lashed me down with ropes. Once the cart started moving, the world around me faded, and my mind was drawn into a strange black space.
A beautiful glowing human woman in an ethereal white gown floated before me in the not-quite void space. Power radiated off of her in waves, and though her expression was gentle, something about her made me instantly wary.
“Well met, cousin, I have been looking forward to making a deal with you since your mate first mentioned the possibility.”
She floated forward, and gently touched the side of my head, I felt a small jolt of energy pass into me. A bright smile lit her face as I was overcome with intense, maddening, greed. I was hungry, I wanted, needed, to take everything for myself.
Drool dripped from my lips as I locked onto the only thing I could see. The spirit held great power, for a moment my mind spun, trying to think of how I could take some of it for myself. Even in my Concept-addled state, I knew that I was no match for her. It was the only thing that kept me from attacking her, as all of my other Concepts were quiet.
“Oh my, that is quite the dangerous Concept. It must conflict painfully with the kind, protective, hero that I sense in your soul. I can see why you would be pushed to desire its removal. But, cousin, I have been watching you, and hungry has helped you more than the other three combined. Tell me, how do you feel about the other three right now?”
I growled, and answered the powerful spirit's question without having to consider it.
“Those three may as well be Weak, Foolish, and suicidal. If they were not in my way, I would be safer, I would not suffer the burden of guilt that I currently have buried under my need to survive.”
The spirit nodded, and touched the side of my head once more. My mind shifted once more, the terrible hunger fell away entirely. My mind reeled, opened to the memory of the people I had murdered. I froze in disbelief, how had I put them out of my mind? Tears rose to my eyes.
The spirit sighed, and waited for me to process my emotions. After a few moments of watching me, she spoke once more.
“You almost certainly could have done better, cousin. But you saved many more people than you killed with that action, and now is not the time to think long on this. Lock it away once more. We have business to attend to.”
I shuddered, and shook my head, confused.
“Because we are cousins, I want you to make your choice with a clear head. Hungry is an uncomfortable Concept to hold, but without it keeping kind in check, you may find yourself being pushed to make choices that harm you. It has also inspired you to want to grow stronger, faster. It has helped you to consume Concepts more efficiently. It has allowed you to be more forward than you may have otherwise been with your desires in other areas as well.”
The spirit smiled kindly at me.
“The cost for removal will not be dire, but it will not be free. I want you to seek out forsaken demihumans as you did back in Brightwood. I want you to recruit them so that the children attached to them can continue the growth that their host's circumstances have halted. You may not decline to link with any of them. This will be enforced.”
The spirit tapped me lightly on the side of the head once more, and the real world faded back into view.
“You have two days to consider, cousin. This I do only for family.”
The spirit pulled away from me entirely, I was released from stasis to feel the immense pressure of higher tier mana pushing in on me from all sides. I gasped, and gulped down the most flavorful banquet of mana I had ever encountered.
The relief I felt was tremendous, and the new and unique flavors that presented themselves to me overpowered my senses to the point that I thought of nothing but the sumptuous meal that surrounded me for some time.