Rainer collapsed as he appeared with two Werewolves in tow. In the underground goblin city, Furtak stared at them with wide eyes, having just sat down to eat.
“Rainer, you should hear-” Kara started excitedly speaking of her Trial before she then noticed the pain Rainer was in. Her mother wasn’t that much better off, her Wolven body slowly lying down as Faerie-Fire covered her. It was only with Luna’s help that Vera quickly recovered. The Demonic Prince she fought had infused Aura into her wounds. They may very well have been fatal without proper treatment.
With nearly all of his concentration, Rainer held his rampaging energy pools under control. Rather than getting better with time, the situation worsened. It seemed that with every passing second that his Arcane Power and Mana collided with his Void Will more and more, the two sides in an ever-growing feedback loop.
“Rainer, what happened?!” Kara worriedly asked.
“I’m fine for now... Furtak, I need a wide-open space, please.”
With a thought, Rainer called Amer again, himself leaning on a humanoid Kara as she supported him. She was quiet, guessing at the magical nature of the issue Rainer faced and knowing she’d be of little use. Rather than bothering him with questions, she only sought to support him.
The Devil appeared with his Avatar once more, wondering what Rainer could still need his assistance with.
“I need your help. Looks like I’ll be asking for those two extra favors,” Rainer chuckled, doing his best not to moan in pain in between his words. It was getting harder and harder to control his energy pools. Slipping into [Sleep Learning] and asking for Talvara’s help as planned wasn’t an option. And it wasn’t as if there was anyone here who could manipulate either Void or Arcane to help control his energy. Assuming such a thing was even possible.
Amer regarded him for a moment before nodding. Having this powerful — though perhaps mildly insane — Mage further in his debt was a hard offer to pass up. Perhaps he’d finally get his hands on the mimic [Void-Traveling] at the end of it? There were few things in this life that interested the Devil more than that. After all, it was a dream of many [Devil King]s to steal the powers of Void-Lords and reach a stage beyond, and Amer, despite choosing the path of Classes rather than Monster, still shared that desire. A spell to travel through the Void was a perfect replacement for that.
“You need only ask.”
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Rainer glanced over Kara’s village as all its members rushed to the spell circle. With the energies in his body going out-of-control, he wouldn’t risk [Void-walking] so many people, which left the task to Amer. He managed to lessen the pain by using his Aura to help control it. It let him function mostly normally even if regular spell casting was out of the question.
They brought whatever they could carry, which was quite a bit when they shifted to their Wolven forms. Theodore had already found a place for the tribe of Werewolves to settle, quite a distance away from the Goblin City. And far closer to the Forbidden North than even the more adventurous explorers would tread.
Rainer had contacted him and Elru, knowing the dark magic expert could be helpful, and he hadn’t been far from the Goblin City.
Apart from his Aura, Rainer was already barely able to use anything else. A constant cycle of the Void Will devouring his Arcane and Mana, and the opposite happening in turn. Back in Furtak’s home, Rainer had already drawn an Avatar Ritual circle. Gunthar, Elru, Furtak, and Sarah all worked on trying to figure out a way to put all his Void Will into the Avatar, rather than just sharing pools of energy. He had, of course, shared all the runes he knew related to the Void.
Once they finished evacatuing Kara’s village, Amer and Rainer would join them in that effort.
That was the only way Rainer thought he could solve the situation. Other than having Sarah rip both his Mana and Arcane Power out of him. That was always a back up plan. His Arcane Power and Mana were connected closely enough that it was unlikely she could take one without the other.
A distant roar and a minor spatial fluctuation at the front of the village changed his attention.
Kara shifted alongside her mother as the two went to fight the Demonic Prince who just arrived. Without the other three, this would have been the perfect opportunity to kill the enraged bear-like Demon.
Of course, Rainer could barely keep himself from being torn apart, let alone fight anyone.
Red runic lines glowed on Kara as her mother took the brunt of the fight. Kara danced around, inflicting deep wounds that even his enhanced Demonic Vitality had issues dealing with. The [Aura Blade] on her claws cut through even his powerful Aura. Any attempt to attack Kara would be met with her mother blocking him.
[Half-Demon/Half-Wolfkin, Female, ?e-??-Wol-
Rainer grimaced as he felt a slight headache. All he had gotten was a garbled message for her 2nd Tier Class. Perhaps it was her rune enchantments interfering? The sheer power radiating off them was far stronger than before.
Whatever Kara’s class was, he’d have to ask her. As [Demonic Werewolf] represented her very bloodline, and not just her class, a change in it would be significant. And perhaps unheard of.
“I’m ready, Rainer,” Amer said.
Rainer nodded, using [Soul Detection] one last time to check if anyone was left in the village, before looking at the several hundred Werewolves behind him.
In a massive fluctuation of space and time, the group behind him vanished after a few dozen seconds. The enraged roar of the Demonic Prince echoed near the entrance of the village, doing nothing to stop it.
Seeing they had no chance of finishing off the Demonic Prince, Rainer first grabbed Kara’s mother in a Void-walk, before grabbing her. It took all his focus not to lose himself just [Void-walking] these two. It was good that he had asked for Amer’s help in moving the rest of their tribe.
The blood-covered Demonic Prince was left alone in a deserted village, having only the wooden houses around him to unleash his now impotent rage.
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With Kara’s grandmother at the helm, it didn’t take long for the Werewolves to get settled. Other than some ground rules not to hunt certain types of monster related to Delilah, as well as Goblins, there was not much else for Rainer to do. He returned to Furtak’s home with Kara and her mother shortly after a few other tasks.
“We found the runes relating to the various energy pools one might have,” Theodore started, as he pointed to a section of the blood-drawn circle.
Rainer nodded as he looked it over. He recognized a few, but there were far more he didn’t. He could guess what some of them referred to, like an untouched Will rather than a Void one. But there were just so many.
Who exactly created this ritual? He started to wonder if this was a Divinity-related technique to let themselves descend. That was the only being he could fathom creating such a magical ritual. And some cultures did consider the Soul, the ‘Divine’...
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“And here is where they are repeated. From there-”
“Let’s all draw our own versions and compare,” Rainer interrupted, “We’re in uncharted territory, and I’ll only have one shot at this. It’ll be better than just haphazardly working together.”
“Agreed.”
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A few hours later, Rainer had already finished his verison, and was merely waiting for everyone else. That his [Blood Ritual Mastery] had increased to level 6 in the process of modifying the Avatar Ritual was a good sign. Maybe. He had undoubtedly made a working, more complicated ritual, but there was no guarantee it wouldn’t kill him.
So he spent time with Luna and Kara to keep his mind off of things. Though as he had no intention of dying, nor did he even consider that possibility, he instead played around rather than anything like a goodbye.
Kara looked on as a chuckling Rainer fled from Luna. The Fairy was taking ‘revenge’ while Rainer was currently unable to use any magic. She used bursts of Mana to tickle him relentlessly while he did his best in using his still high-attribute body to dodge. Although she got the feeling he let her win on occasion.
“Your father was the same way you know. No matter how dire the situation, he was unflappable. And you have two of him,” Vera said. She may not understand what exactly was happening, but she did know her future son-in-law couldn’t use magic for some reason. It wasn’t hard to piece together that something serious was going on.
Kara sighed and nodded. It was unfair how much belief Luna had in Rainer compared to her. Even if the world is ending, the Fairy wouldn’t even notice so long as she was with him. That her blind belief in him always proved true certainly influenced the matter.
“How’s the bracelet working?” Vera asked. Kara’s trial award could change everything for her tribe.
“Rainer said he couldn’t see through anyone with the exception of his best sight skill. The same one that he uses to copy enchantments,” Kara said, playing with a silver chain in her hand. It was her only Trial reward and had several restrictions. Its primary purpose was to hide one’s Demonic Aura, even while transformed. Making it either seem normal or like a common monster when they were shifted.
Kara had chosen this as her reward precisely so that her mother wouldn’t have to hide in the North anymore where it was unsafe. That it worked even while transformed was a pleasant surprise.
“Do you think he’ll be able to make more?” Vera knew what this could mean for their tribe. No Demon liked living in the cold north, but if they went anywhere else, the rest of world wouldn’t stand for it. Even though it likely meant they couldn’t empower their children with the rite of passage, Vera didn’t mind that. She never liked using it outside of wartime.
“I don’t know, he hasn’t gotten a good look at it yet.”
“Now's as good as time as any. I’m sure he’ll welcome the distraction.”
Kara looked once more at Rainer and Luna, the latter of which was now using water magic to splash the former. He seemed exactly like the type of person who could use a distraction.
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After catching a pouting Luna and placing her in between her ears, Kara sat next to Rainer as he looked over the bracelet. He could still use his Arcane Aura, which meant [Arcane Revelation] was usable.
This was the first time Rainer truly analyzed an enchanted item with system-given restrictions on it. He saw far more than he did in the past, even more so given his recent advancements in enchanting.
He had originally thought the restrictions were related to the system, and perhaps couldn’t be recreated, but now he knew that wasn’t the case. Rather than restrictions, they were sacrifices. Had it not been for all the ‘forbidden’ books he read on sacrificial magic, Rainer doubted he would have ever realized this. At least not easily. He reaffirmed his desire to recreate and store all the books he had to temporarily discard.
He wouldn’t share the proper steps to sacrificing a virgin with just anyone, but he wouldn’t destroy the knowledge or leave it in his head alone. At the very least, he could also create books that outline the ritualistic knowledge that was involved rather than the evil process itself.
The bracelet itself wasn’t complex or powerful enough to hide the Aura of Demons, yet the sacrifices woven into the enchantment, the ones that prevented any other Demons other than Werewolf-types from using it, along with Kara herself, filled in the blanks. In fact, one of the sacrifices had a distinctive feeling to it. It was also the most powerful. Perhaps in the moment denying herself the right to use her own reward was the most powerful sacrifice she could give to the item.
If he could place a sacrifice on a spatial ring, it would increase the size without affecting the complexity. In fact, he could enchant a spatial ring that wasn’t complete enough to actually work, and then use a sacrifice to cross the gap. It could make impossible enchantments possible.
He knew it wasn’t so simple in practice. He didn’t even know where to start without something to copy, but it opened up a whole new avenue for his enchanting.
Sacrifices…
Rainer thought, and then quickly ran out of the room towards the Avatar Ritual and the rest of his companions. Without access to [Sleep Learning] he only had one shot at the Avatar Ritual. He’d make it count.
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It was several hours later that the group had finished comparing their own results. It was all a bit similar, with only Rainer’s having a major difference. Sacrificing a portion of his Lifespan to ensure the ritual’s success. It wasn’t a significant amount for the [Archon], but it was enough to make anyone else wary.
That his addition of the sacrifice increased his [Blood Ritual Mastery] to level 7 once he finally wrote the ritual made him even more sure of his idea. He knew that it was ritual magic’s similarity to enchanting that allowed the easy levels, but it still helped his confidence.
Rainer sat in his newly drawn Avatar Ritual circle, Mana Crystals surrounding him. Amer and Gunthar stood to his left and right, ready to help protect his Soul if need be. No one had any doubt that placing his Void Will purely in the Avatar might take more of his Soul with it than he could bear.
“Sarah, if this goes wrong…”
Sarah nodded grimly. The last thing she wanted to do was strip Rainer’s Mana from him. The bad dreams from doing it to people she hated were enough for her, let alone the memory of doing it to someone she loved.
Rainer gave one last look towards Kara and Luna before starting the ritual. Mana swirled as the crystals around the ritual circle were quickly consumed. A body of flesh and magic formed across from Rainer. He split his Soul with ease, letting the unimportant part enter the Avatar, still connected to his own.
The ritual proceeded as it would any other time. Even the separation of the Void Will showed no issue as it easily fled from his body. Tick after tick, the maximum amount of Void Will Rainer could store counted down. He ignored the couple losses of Lifespan that flashed across his face and focused on the ritual. Compared to his total, it wasn’t worth mentioning.
Just as he was about to relax, the last amounts of Void Will leaving his body changed the situation. They tore and grabbed at his Soul. Rainer grimaced as the situation spiraled out of control.
He flared [Arcane Invigoration] as he himself grabbed at and healed the lost parts. The Void Will left in his body seemed to ignore the ordinary parts of his Soul and instead focused on the [Sleep Learning] space. He quickly realized he couldn’t protect all of his Soul.
Rainer didn’t know what to do. Amer and Gunthar’s help was almost useless. More and more of his Soul tore away. Some pieces entered the Avatar and others just disappeared. Soon, it outpaced the amount [Arcane Invigoration] could heal. He needed to make a choice.
Ever since he identified the [Sleep Learning] space as being a part of his Soul, Rainer knew how important it was. It had become an integral part of his Soul. And he had an unknown feeling that if he lost it, he wouldn’t be himself anymore.
So he abandoned the rest, shoving out the Void Will the best he could, letting it take what it wanted. Except the parts of his Soul attached to his [Sleep Learning] space. His last thought of continuing to use [Arcane Invigoration] were all that was in his mind as darkness took him.
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“Rainer! Rainer!” Kara shook him as he blinked his eyes open. [Arcane Invigoration] still ran at full power as his Soul healed from its catastrophic state. Luna’s flame helped him reach normalcy very quickly. He realized his bet wasn’t wrong, and felt nothing missing as his Soul healed with the [Sleep Learning] space as the center.
“I’m fine, better than fine,” Rainer said, glad to have his magic back under his control. He could still Void-walk with Mana, so the only power he really lost was his few Void related skills.
He stared across the room at his Void-Will filled Avatar. It seemed the sacrifice added to the ritual corrected an oversight they’d missed, as the Avatar only had Mana, Arcane Aura, and Void Will, lacking Arcane Power.
The Avatar’s skin leaned closer to ashen grey rather than Rainer’s own paleness. His eyes were two swirling pools of darkness, lacking anything resembling a human’s eye other than the general shape. The Avatar’s ears were normal, confirming Rainer’s guess that Talvara chose the elven form for her followers rather than it being natural.
But there was something more alarming than his Avatar’s appearance…
He couldn’t control his Avatar. And even more so, he just recalled that no part of his Soul was missing. There should be some unimportant parts that were impossible to heal as they supported the Avatar. And yet his Soul was whole.
The ‘Avatar’ chuckled at Rainer’s shocked face before speaking without any input from the ‘Main Body’.
“We really fucked up this time, huh?”