In hindsight, Lukas supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised.

Literal Gods or not, the people in this world seemingly had no problems twisting history to suit their own interpretations, and more often than not, their own egos. He had heard a brief recalling of events of the Great War between the Yokai Kingdom and the Asukan Empire, with Solana painting the Asukans as war-crazy barbarians that couldn’t live with themselves upon realizing how becoming an Oni was a drastic step towards their own evolution.

On the other hand, the tale Olfric was weaving couldn’t be any more different.

One of the benefits of growing up with a religious academic was the ability to see through the curtains of various dogmas and find patterns among them. The concept of Transmogrification, or ‘God-Eating’, was common in religions back on Earth. He briefly thought of how Christianity had fused the Sun-worship of Romans, the Jewish Sabbath and so on. He thought about the constant recurrences of the concept of the Great Flood in several religions, or Gods asking their Chosen Ones for Sacrifice in the name of faith and so on.

And now, he had found something similar here in this world. Here, where Gods existed and were real, the people, their followers— were all too willing to rewrite history to suit their own opinions. He could not, in this sense, blame Olfric or Solana for this, because it was only natural for them to believe their ancestor’s words and dogmas as the ‘truth’.

“As I was telling,” Olfric went on, “Using the Eternal Light, we purify these malevolent spirits and bring them under our control. The Ritual allows us to purify their unnaturalness, and bind them to our own, granting them the benefit of growth and potential in return for—”

“Being a mindless tool for the rest of their life?” Lukas offered.

Olfric scowled. “Sharing the use of their ability as a mana-forge. The kami are poisonous creatures, and they can twist our elemental balance into complete disarray. The Ritual, empowered by the divine light of the Great Goddess, keeps them subdued, and allows us to employ their forge, while granting them the potential they never had.”

Two different versions. Compared to Tanya who seemed to stick with cold, neutral facts, Olfric’s explanations were tilted in favor of Asukan supremacy. The belief in the holiness and purity of Eternal Light, something that drove the cruel, malignant darkness away and ensured a world of purity and order.

It definitely fitted the classic trope of Good versus Evil. Hell, they even had a freaking goddess of ‘Light’ in their favor.

And at the same time, the arguments he was using were the same as the ones employed by fanatics to justify their misdeeds. There was pride in his bearing, the clarity in his eyes, and the absolute, serene certainty of his voice as he painted history in favor of his own kind. Hitler must have looked exactly the same when he had justified the mass-killings of jews at the onset of the Second World War.

Be careful, Lukas, he told himself. You don’t know which version is right.

There were always three sides to every situation. Ours, theirs, and the truth. Often, the ‘truth’ turned out to be stranger than either of the other two. And as a lawyer, it was his job to seek the ‘truth’, and not fall into the prejudices of either.

“And how does that work?” He questioned, silencing his own thoughts. “Tanya was telling me about the types of kami out there.”

“There are a hundred different types of kami out there,” said Olfric, “but spiritists mostly go for two types. A marid, or a tengu.”

“Just those two?” Lukas inquired. “From what Tanya told me, neither of them would be what I want.”

Tanya had described the Marid race as rebellious, and prone to being lone predators. Marid tended to display traits for Aquamancy, Aeromancy or Terramancy, which probably explained why the majority of captured kami belonged to that category. But their extreme affinity to those elements also came with extreme incompatibility with metamancy. Only marid with a Level-3 skill or higher could display minor metamancy, and even that was limited to gaining a temporary physical shell at best.

The marid he had fought and siphoned in the Crypt came to mind.

MONSTER PROTOTYPE: MARID

APTITUDE

LEVEL

SOUL CAP REQUIRED

Possession

1

50

Water Creation

2

500

Water Manipulation

3

5000

Pressure Modulation

2

500

That reminded him. Now that he had infinite Soul Capacity, transforming those ‘Aptitudes’ into ‘Skills’ would be no-brainer. He had no use for Possession and he already had Pressure Modulation listed on his Schema, so it was only the other two that were really useful.

Having a Level-3 skill at manipulating water would be wonderful.

Now only if he managed to get that done away from spying eyes.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

As for the Tengu-kind, Tanya had described them as docile terramancers with some minor aeromancy and absolutely no affinity for metamancy. Zuken’s own kami, Avriel, was apparently a tengu, and no, nobody had any idea how it looked in real life.

Neither type would be of any reasonable help for his ‘metamancer’ status.

“Neither can a ghoul for that record,” Tanya chimed in, “Ghouls are infamous for their shapeshifting, but that’s it. You’d have better luck with being a monster tamer.”

Or directly siphoning them and gaining their skills, but there was no need to tell her about that either.

He posed a question to her. “Are you telling me that there aren’t any kami that specialize in metamancy?”

Tanya clenched her jaw. “Only one, I think. But even talking about them is a bad habit. Creatures of fire and ether, malevolent beings that embody the worst traits of the emotional spectrum. Rage, jealousy, hatred, fear. Unlike other kami that prey upon physical hosts to grow, these creatures possess others to cause carnage and terror.”

She met his eyes. “We call them ifrits.”

Lukas narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t as well read on Islam as he was about the other religions, mostly because of the language barrier, but he had of course, heard of this particular creature back on earth. Dating back to pre-islamic cultures, the ifrits were regarded as cruel, self-serving demons that lacked the fire component out of the five elements. But Tanya’s description did not seem to match the one he had heard.

“And these fellows can use metamancy?”

“Yes.”

“That’ll be enough,” Olfric declared, looking vexed, though his displeasure seemed to be focussed more on Tanya than at him, “The Empire frowns upon ifrit-kind and any bremetan that falls under its corruptive influence.”

He turned towards Lukas and stressed, “Even with the Holy Eternal Light, it is very difficult to control an ifrit’s wickedness. You will not make any friends by having an ifrit at your command.”

Lukas almost smiled back. Nobody said anything about commanding one. He was simply looking forward to absorbing one. Maybe one of these ifrits? If he got his hands on a powerful one, he could upgrade his pyromancy and metamancy both in a jiffy.

But if he couldn’t get an ifrit as a kami then⸻

“If I cannot have an ifrit too, maybe I’m not made for this metamancer business. Maybe I should tell him—”

“No!” Olfric interrupted. “There is something else.”

Elena did a double take. “There is?”

Lukas almost didn’t notice the sudden stiffening on Tanya’s part.

“There is one more, albeit a very rare kind. It’s called a Jann, and they’re regarded as the most dangerous kind of kami there is. They’re destructive beings that manifest a single element, but their affinity is impossibly high. It is… possible that you might find a jann that’s an expert at metamancy.”

“I sense a but.”

Olfric gave him a mirthless grin. “Not one. Several. Jann are impossibly rare, and only found in the most dangerous of borderlands. And most importantly, the soul capacity required to even bind a low-level jann is more than what most Asukans could muster.”

Lukas subconsciously pressed forward. “How much?”

Olfric shrugged. “Four digit figures, at minimum. There’s a reason the number of jann in the entire Empire can be counted in one hand. But I think that’s enough preamble on kami types. If you want to Bind a kami to yourself, what you really need to focus on is the Ritual.”

“And how do I do that?”

A thin smile tore its way through Olfric’s lips. He touched the air in front of them with a single finger, its tip glowing with pure lifeforce. He dragged the finger slowly through the air, leaving a thin mist of lifeforce behind, forming a perfect, five-pointed star.

[https://i.imgur.com/OghSOP1.png]

“Five points,” He intoned, “Each signifying each element. Fire. Wind. Earth. Water. Ether. Exactly in that order. A perfect balance of all five elements signifies a healthy functioning of the physical, mental and spiritual state of an individual. But a kami,” He paused for emphasis, “is by nature, a symbol of varying affinity towards the different elements, and ends up making this structure look like, say…”

[https://i.imgur.com/mtkDaYu.png]

He twisted the structure to an even bizarre shape, and kept on tweaking it further in all directions. “The point is, the more twisted this structure is, the more it signifies an elemental imbalance. Since every element also affects our mental and spiritual state, having a twisted structure could manifest in the form of different attributes. Water, for instance, is associated with thought, defensiveness, adaptability, flexibility, suppleness and magnetism. But an improper rise in water-components can nearly destroy the positive effects of Fire and very much weaken the aspects of Earth.”

“So if a water-type kami gets hold of you and possesses your body…”

Olfric flinched, if only for a second. “Yes. If a water-type kami possesses a person, then what is what will happen. Which is why, the Shikigami Ritual adds this.”

He joined the open-ends of the pentagram, forming a pentagon at the center, and drew a perfect circle around the entire structure, forming what people would describe as the pentacle, the symbol of Satan, or a Yantra, depending on whom one asked.

[https://i.imgur.com/S56pJpz.png]

“Using the power of Eternal Light, we place two impediments upon this structure. The first,” He said, pointing at the circumcircle, “is the Elemental Constraint, limiting the Elements from going out of control.”

Olfric paused for a moment, looking strangely conflicted. “This… isn’t an ideal solution since it does nothing to stop a particular element from shrinking, but if the other elements are kept within the accepted range, the chances of shrinkage are minimal. As for the other,” He pointed at the pentagon in the middle, “this is the Spiritual Constraint, one that keeps the kami isolated from the Host, unable to intentionally manipulate the Host’s emotions and mental state.”

“A prison.”

“In essence, yes.” Olfric looked like he had swallowed a bitter pill. “Through this Ritual, any bremetan can bind a kami to themselves, by sacrificing a portion of their soul capacity. Mind you, your soul capacity must be proportionally high, or else you’d be consumed by the kami from within. Not even the Eternal Light can save you from that.”

“Consumed…” Lukas mused. “You mean, like possessed?”

He might have been seeing things, but something flickered in Olfric’s eyes. “Not… not possess. Kami twist the emotional spectrum. It can render your soul unstable but if you can… if you can somehow amalgamate it into a second boundary layer, then perhaps…”

Tanya cleared her throat.

“...sorry,” Olfric croaked, “I was just… thinking. Anyway, it’s dangerous. Very. Dangerous That’s why the Shrines always mandate the capture of weak kami with Level-1 skills,” Tanya chimed.

“Where do fractals come into this?”

Olfric pointed at the circle again. “A fractal directs to the Elemental Constraint, and… drinks from it, bringing out way more mana than is physically possible for the bremetan body without adversely affecting itself.”

“A shortcut then.”

“Essentially. Good fractals are notoriously expensive for a reason.”

Lukas nodded. “What’s next?”

“Next is we try to gain entry into a dangerous borderland. That is one thing that Banksi cannot provide us at this mansion. And any Clan that boasts a Well would rather go to war than unveil it to others. Fortunately, we have a solution that might allow us access to some of the most dangerous borderlands in the Empire without starting a war, which is why starting tomorrow, you and Tanya have a job to do.”

Lukas arched an eyebrow. “And what, pray tell, is that?”

Tanya looked at him with a pleasant grin. “How would you feel about joining me on a tour of this town?”

Lukas beamed.