Chapter 51

An Unforeseen Interaction

I stood facing Martin, as he held his spear ready. I watched the electricity arcing off him, as it scoured the sandy arena floor around him. The man looked like a walking plasma ball. He was also significantly higher level than me. Whatever ability he was using seemed to alter the mana around him, causing it to quickly flash into a new form then lose all of its Concepts.

A part of me knew that challenging him was likely to go badly for me, but the Concepts I was channeling would not allow that thought to linger. I slashed my claws at the air in front of me, sending a slicing blade of air through the fifteen or so feet that currently separated us.

When the wind blade got within five feet of him, all of the arcs of electricity that had been surrounding him condensed into a single blindingly bright arc that struck the swiftly moving attack. I felt my connection to the blade fail, as the bulk of the mana that it was composed of was altered, and then dissolved. The only effect it had on the man was a slight jostling of his leather necklace.

My mind shuddered, one of the Concepts in the Aspect I was channeling broke away from me when my attack was so easily dealt with. That was definitely not Dominating, I could not hold that Concept in his presence. I almost lost touch with the whole aspect, the mana inside me seemed to be in an unbalanced state, then somehow another Concept slotted into its place. It was one I was intimately familiar with, even if I hadn't channeled it often, because it came from my own soul. I was a Survivor, I knew I would always be, that even if my body was destroyed, I would survive. Apparently that could apply to my mana as well.

I snarled, pushing mana out of my core to surround myself in a dense swirling shield of air imbued with my very own Concept. It felt more powerful than any other mana I had ever channeled.

Having shielded myself as well as I could, I slashed out with my claws once more. Using mana to imbue the attack with my personal Concept, as well as Slicing and Controlling it with my mind. This time, when the arc struck the blade, while the blade was weakened and wobbly, it managed to reach the bald man. Martin flinched a little as the blade created a long, jagged set of claw marks across his chest, reflecting the form of my weapon. I saw the wounds flash, and smelled a hint of burning flesh as the wounds sealed themselves.

I roared again, temporarily exalting in my minor triumph.

Martin glanced down at the light pink scars that remained, and smirked. "That stung a bit, my turn."

I had just enough time to start throwing mana into the swirling shield of air that I'd created around myself when he stabbed his spear forward, putting his weight into the thrust like he meant it to hit me from where he was.

Lightning shot out of the tip of his spear, I could tell that it expended a lot of its energy making its way through my shield. What remained of the arcing bolt struck me in the chest, the current caused all my muscles to seize. I felt the intensity of it increase as the Stormtouched Spearman continued to channel through the distance to me.

My mind couldn't process anything but the pain and burning, and the shock caused me to expel every bit of mana in my core. I wasn't directing it at all, but I was dimly aware of the mana I had expelled being taken up, and guided by something outside myself.

The current abruptly cut off, I didn't know why, by that point I wasn't aware enough to know my own name. I only knew pain, and my instincts led me to shift my empty air core to my full life core.

I desperately pushed the mana out of that core, completely oblivious to what Concepts I'd ended up with. My heart, I think, was the first thing to be repaired, I am pretty sure it had stopped beating at some point, then my lungs began to work. It all happened quite quickly, but apparently not quickly enough, because just as I was starting to feel somewhat functional again, something stabbed me through the side of my chest, my heart was skewered.

I let out a reflexive pained growl, my blurry vision could just barely make out the figure standing over me, holding the spear that was sticking out of my side. The life mana flowed out of my core like water, continuing to restore function to my body despite the wound that should be lethal.

"Belua's tits, why won't you die?" I felt the man put his foot on my side, and felt the ripping sensation of the spear being withdrawn from a wound that had healed around it.

Now that was a pretty rude way to talk about a lady I had a lot of respect for, goddess or no. So the moment my heart healed, I switched my core once more.

Fire this time, the aggressive nature of fire mana usually scared me, but I felt like I could make an exception this time. I lost my physical form completely, I became the raging, consuming fire.

Martin's bare foot, which had been planted on my side to help him pull his spear out, fell through the mass of fire that I had become. He was off balance enough that he couldn't jump away quickly enough.

I was Clinging to him, I was Formless, and I was Enraged, I was also Hungry, and Unstoppable.

I wasn't aware of the screaming I elicited as I burned the man. I had no idea how he rolled around on the ground, trying to put out the blaze that was consuming him. I'm not sure if I would have felt sorry for the man if I knew, he had electrocuted me, and stabbed me through the heart not long ago, after all. Not to mention that highly inappropriate curse.

It was probably the worst decision I ever made, with no physical form to speak of, I opened myself to whatever it was his ability had done to my attacks. The arena reset, giving Martin the win, after I felt something surge out of the man, into me tearing me apart on a fundamental level. It was the most horrific sensation I've ever endured, it was worse than dying. For just a moment, I felt myself become someone else entirely. So many new Aspects were applied to me all at once, it was impossible to identify them. Sometime during the experience that only lasted a fraction of a second, but felt like it lasted an eternity, something deep inside my very being was torn.

Whatever ability he had that caused his lightning to alter mana, had destroyed me and rewritten me entirely. For that eternally long moment, I had lost everything of who I was, and become mana of a type I hadn't even touched before. Then I was rejected by the world around me, before suddenly finding myself put back together, but something was still wrong.

Having all of your Concepts abruptly changed, and then having the new ones unravel, when you have no physical form? That isn't something you bounce back from instantly, even if, as I found out, it never really happened.

I didn't see the reset text, when I was placed back in my demihuman shaped body. I was technically back in perfect condition, my mana was restored, and all the Concepts that were usually applied to me were back in place. My eyes still rolled into the back of my head, and I still fell over, completely unconscious.

My awareness didn't even recover right away in Belua's realm. I don't know how long it took, I do know that time flows in her realm exactly as quickly as she wants it to. I remember flashes of time spent trying to recover, I remember someone I recognized as Belua, even though she looked human, was holding me, and talking to me, but the words were in a language I didn't understand.

I remember being rocked like a baby, I remember being held while she talked to a person I couldn't see. I remember her yelling something at a person I couldn't see.

Then I finally came out of whatever strange unconscious state I was in. I felt the System's mana suffusing me, which was never a situation that led to happy moments. But I felt nothing except Belua's comfort. So I just laid there and listened to an angry woman not quite yelling at someone like she'd finally gotten through to the manager after being through a series of tech support run around. Thankfully, I understood the language again.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Look, Hash, can I call you Hash? A contractor of mine found one hell of a bug in your System. What? For crying out loud didn't your assistant give you the details? Yeah, wiped clean, the System said it is restoring function, but how can it have given a normal adventurer an ability that could do that? If it hadn't been in a simulation with their real self preserved they would have ended up dead in this life, and a completely different person as a soul with an unearned, and probably not appreciated Authority."

"Yeah, 'fuck'. Oh yeah that's the worry, someone might exploit that for power, not, someone might have their entire being altered with an Authority that doesn't fit their personality at all. It's bad enough for people like me who ended up earning Concepts they regret, but imagine if you ended up with a whole bunch that weren't even kind of related to your actions."

"Do you even remember what it was like to be mortal, jackass?"

It was several minutes before the woman spoke again, when she did, she seemed to have lost every bit of her fire.

"...yes sir, sorry sir, I got carried away sir."

"672 years sir."

"Thank you for the compliment sir, I am very proud of my numbers."

"Ah well, I was hoping you'd consider pushing a fix."

"I know sir, but what am I supposed to do? Yes sir, I'm sure they'll be happy to receive that sir."

"Yes, it's nothing but fair, Thank you very much for your time sir."

I heard the woman sigh, and I heard footsteps approaching me. I couldn't move a muscle. The System was still doing something to me.

I felt a hand stroke my head, and a voice full of sympathy said. "I'm sorry hun, I've done what I can, but that had to be quite terrible."

"It's okay, I'm just really confused, I feel weird, it's like these last couple weeks were a dream." I heard a little girl say.

"One of the people who created the System is looking at your logs, they won't contact me again, but they promise they'll give the commands that they determine you need to get back to normal. Which probably means you're going to feel pretty weird in a couple seconds." Belua stroked my head again. I felt my own hand reach up to grab her wrist.

"Please stop that, I bet it makes other people feel better but I really don't like it." I heard the girl say again, this time I felt how my chest vibrated as she talked.

I would have been disturbed, but Belua's Concepts began to hit me more strongly than before, and they had already been affecting me quite intensely.

"I'm sorry, I thought you enjoyed it." I heard Belua say, with sadness in her voice.

"I'm not a cat you can just fucking pet." The little girl in control of my form said, angrily.

I wanted to tell her to calm down, but I was slowly losing touch with what was going on.

My mind was falling into a strange sort of slumber when a voice brought me back to consciousness.

What have we here? Wow what a mess.

I tried to respond to the strange voice, but I found myself absolutely incapable of doing so.

I know, right?

How did they manage to tear like that?

I don't know, they only have their original Concept so it's not the normal split due to conflict.

I wasn't sure what was going on, exactly, it seemed like they were talking about what happened to me?

Take a look at the case note. That'd put some stress on it, but it wouldn't tear like that if they hadn't already started to split on their own.

Oh man, look at the readout, that young lady sure invested in this one. Let's see, she had them install a bunch of learning modules, and some behavioral enhancements. She sure wanted to make sure the newbie could do the job.

I really wanted to growl at the voices in my head, talking about me like I wasn't there.

Well there's the poor kid's problem, that's way too much Conceptual weight for a new soul.

It's within tolerances, or the System would have stopped it.

Do you think if we stitch them back together they would heal back into one whole being?

Sure, sure as long as it doesn't get stressed too bad.

Should we ask the contractor what they think?

Yes! Tell me what's going on! I mentally roared at them.

Eh, if you want, I think I'm going to leave this to you, you know I can't stand mortals.

They obviously still didn't hear, or didn't care.

Come on, Hash, they are just people, we used to be people too, I still try to remember that.

You do you Randy I'm going back to sleep.

I'd definitely say the second guy didn't care.

Alright Hash, I guess I know why you called me, that little lady was right, you are a jackass.

I've been called worse.

I'm going to pull them out so we can have a little chat, you enjoy your nap, I swear you sleep so much I bet your people have forgotten about you.

Pfft, I set the System to auto deduct whatever they need, they don't know the difference, and I don't have to deal with their whining. It's why I started the project in the first place.

Figures, well, if you don't want to be exposed to the whiny mortal, be quiet or get out, I'm setting up the visualization for the extraction. I want them to be comfortable while I explain things.

Right, you're such a coddler the default void space works just fine. We ran tests, the incidence rate of psychosis from short term exposure is negligible, and Jace wrote a System package to fix that anyway.

They are never the same afterwards, and you know as well as I do that too much mental meddling is negative in the long term. Look at our case here, the System practically built a whole new personality for them, and it caused a rift with their old self.

Bah, worst case there we get another split soul, they come with some great advantages. I kinda wish I'd done it to myself, I'd be less bored. And think about what it would be like if you could have split at the start, before you started growing into a mass of Concepts, you'd almost be free.

I'll consider offering to split them.

I don't care, I'm just envious.

Sure, if you say so. Well I've got the set ready, don't worry I'll make sure the kid knows about their opportunity.

Visit my realm sometime this century, Randy. Bye.

I felt a familiar pulling sensation as soon as the one called Hash said goodbye, at least it wouldn't be the void this time. I couldn't wait to ask that Randy guy for a ton of clarification.