“Bismuth, what’s happening?! Where are we?!...” before she could ask any more questions I answered her.

‘Why?’

‘Shut up me!!!’

Jeez I’m annoying.

“We are in our mana sources. Diamond, we’re dead.” I’m a dick, I know. But her face was so funny.

“What do you mean we’re dead?! We can’t die! We’re in the trials! They said we couldn’t die! We can’t die...” on and on she went, but I stopped her. I feel bad now.

“Were not dead. Well, we are, but we’re also not. I can’t remember why we’re not, but we’re not. But why aren’t we? Meh.”

Calming down, diamond glared at me.

“Your not making sense bismuth. We can’t die. The sages won’t let us...” At the mention of the sages a savage look crossed my face. How dare they control us. They risked hundreds of lives just so that they can what, ‘teach us’? Those pathetic douche canoes.

‘Yes! Yessssss! Feed off that anger...’

‘Shut. The fuck. Up. No one likes you me. I’m calling you Kevin. NO ONE LIKES YOU KEVIN!!!’

“Don’t mention those fat, tree hugging pricks again!” I Said with venom in my voice

“One of them is my father, dick head. So don’t go ...” she said with anger.

“And he’s the worst one. Lying to all of us...”

“MY FATHER WOULD NEVER LIE TO ME!!!” As the argument continued we got louder and louder until we were absolutely screaming at each other. After awhile we stormed off.

I sat down, I needed to cool off. I thought about what outie said. He said that my mana source was based on my imagination, and once I envisioned my first ‘element’ things would get much harder. What to do. I want to go back to what I know, which is crystal, but I also don’t. Why go back to a place that will constantly remind me of my failures. I would much rather look for something else, but what. There are a lot of ideas. Space, time, luck. All of these could make me powerful. But in the long run, what I do now will be the base for all of my future transformations. Well, time and luck are good ideas, but what does time look like? and luck? This is hard.

‘Go with what you know. You’ll be stronger for it.’

‘Lucky me, a voice I don’t want chipped in. Why don’t you run away. I’m not giving in to you again.’ I sigh.

‘But i am always correct. And I am you. So listen.’

‘If you are me, then you know that I want you to shut the hell up.’ With that, and some tremendous effort, I closed the voice off.

Mind? No. I don’t want to walk around with a big ol’ head like mega mind.

Why is this so hard. The first time it was so, so easy. I guess that’s also their work.

*sigh*

“Bismuth.” I heard diamond say.

“Yes.” I replied. I turned around, still sitting, and watch her walk closer. Suddenly she reached an invisible wall. She couldn’t cross it at all.

“Bismuth, what’s this?!” Sooo needy.

“I told you, we’re in our mana sources. Our bond was terminated.

When we were under attack I tried to find a way to see mana. I succeeded, but I did to well. I saw a being beyond comprehension. Beyond space and time. And my soul couldn’t handle it. I died. But something saved me. I remember I made it when I made my body. And you had one. But I don’t remember what it was.

Next thing I remember, the being helped me. It said it’d accidentally wiped my mana source clean. Our mana source clean. I don’t know why or how, but that also destroyed our bond. We can remake it though. It said it also destroyed our true names. Whatever those are. Apparently the next name that we truly accept will be our true name.”

She gasped.

“We can choose our true name?! Our bond is gone?! Wait,wait,wait,wait. You saw the being! How are you alive.”

“I’m me.” Yeah, I’m smug, “That’s how I’m alive. Now what’s up with this true name? Why is it so important?”

“Your true name is everything. It is the name of your soul. If someone were to learn their own true name... anyway. There are parts of your soul that are sealed, hidden, or just won’t budge until you know your true name. With your true name...

Put it this way. Every soul is unique. But is also the same. The unique parts, the parts that give you powers and abilities and insights and more are all locked away. To access these, you need a key. The key...”

“... Is your true name. Got it. Oh, also, I guess I should explain some other things to you.” And so I explained the truths about the mana source, about the bond, about everything. Even the nova core and the inBetween. The multiverses one anyway. She was shocked, understandably. She sat down, and thought. After awhile she looked at me and asked in a quiet voice.

“Do you still want me to be your assistant?” Now I was shocked.

“Of course I do! Why are you even asking this?!”

“Because you don’t need me!!!” She shouted. “You know more then me. You don’t have the bond and theirs no reason for me to be here. So why would you need me?” She looked like she was about to cry. I was fuming.

“What is the most important bond?”

“What are you...”interrupting her I continued.

“Because if I am correct, unless you lied to me like the sages, that would be the one between the dungeon and there assistant. We are still bonded. I don’t care if we kno longer have a bond between our mana sources. We are together, and we will be forever. If anything, this makes us stronger. Now we can make the third bond thingie. I think we should name that bond a different name by the way.” She looked laughed while sighing in relief. I laughed at her and said

“But first we should form our first element and our true names. Remember, your first element is your most important.”

The fairy nodded. Now it was back to me and thinking for an element.

‘Crys...’

‘Shut the ever loving crap up Kevin. No one likes you. I actually hate you so much it physically hurts.’

I shut Kevin out. Finding my first element is so hard. Let’s first think of my true name. It has to be a name that I recognise. I can’t just spout out some nonsense. It has to relate to me.

At first I scraped my mind for names. Everything from Alexander to Dominic. The issue with these were their meanings. I definitely don’t protect man, and I’m no saint. And then I thought, do the meanings really matter. Can’t I make my own meaning. That could work, but the issue is again, the fact that their meanings were ingrained to deeply in my head. So if I were to make my name have its own meaning, I’d need to make a new name.

Basing myself of that, I thought of names such as enigma, deviant, and so forth. Nah.

Next I thought of shortening them to igma, or ant, but, nah.

So then I thought about combining them, but they all sounded stupid.

And after awhile, I just stopped. All of this was so hard. Your name represents your being, the key words there are ‘your being’. It shouldn’t matter what it means. And since I don’t like what it means, I’ll make a new meaning for it. With this thought, I felt myself being drawn towards the name Alexander. I don’t know why, but it felt right.

As soon as I named myself, I felt, something. It was like a water to a thirsty man, food to a starving one. It was an experience that no matter how hard I try to explain you just wouldn’t understand. It was just so, satisfying. I knew something had changed.

And when I opened my eyes, I saw a light being emitted from my ‘body’. It obviously wasn’t my true body, just the space my mind was occupying at the current moment. When I looked up, I saw diamond looking at me in awe.

“You found your true name.” It wasn’t a question. I nodded anyway.

“It’s Alexander.” I Said. She laughed,

“I better catch up then oh dear Alex.” Alex. I like it.

I saw her close her eyes again. It’s weird. I had a body and she still has one, but when I discovered my true name, that sloughed off. I now have a light. Meh.

‘Now let us make our forests of crystal’

‘KEVIN SHUT UP! Why are you so focused on that anyway. If you are me then you should know I don’t want that. So why don’t you be useful.’

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

It shut up. It’s a miracle!!! Woot woot. Internal celebration.

Now back to the element. Let’s focus on what I really want overall. What I want to be is a sneaky, badass, assassin, magic-wielding, death giving, miracle making, best dungeon ever man. Now, I’m pretty sure I can do that with any element, but I need my first one to count. Mind, space, time and luck. Let’s look at those.

Luck would be powerful. Imagine an unlucky trip in the heat of combat, or a lucky strike that just slides between the ribs or hits a vein. That’s incredibly powerful. The issue with this, however, is what goes up must come down. A lucky strike could be followed by an unlucky trip. How do lucky wisps come in to play.

And the wisps, well I’ve got a thought on those starter races. I’ll explain that later though.

As well as that, how do you dig out a dungeon with it? Make the rock unluckily fall? Well actually, you could make yourself lucky enough to hit a fault line that runs the length of you corridor or something. I don’t know, something about luck doesn’t stick with me, but it could later. I mean, luck is technically probability. Controlling probability sounds dope, but making the chance of an adventurer dying 100% sounds like a lot of mana. That’s a very late game element, and I can’t afford to play late game right now.

Space is awesome. Become a portal wielding badass. Make the edge of portals sharp and have them chop off necks. I can think of a lot of things like this. But star already has space. It would be easy, sure, but I’d rather not. It’s complicated, but I really like her. I also like the others. I plan on going out to meet and help them with my bountiful, awe inspiring knowledge later. I’d rather not complicate things by stealing her element. I know it sounds stupid but it’s me. And me is me. So shut up and stop judging me.

Time is also cool. Slow it down, speed it up. That’s pretty cool. Stop time and push there attacks at each other. The issue with that is the amount of mana. Another late game ability. And while I can think of multiple ways to use it, i need to remember, the bigger the change of effect, the more mana. That’s a shit ton of mana to stop time. Or even slow it.

Last but not least, mind. I was thinking of this so I could primarily split my mind into multiple pieces so that I can cast multiple spells, learn multiple things, do multiple actions all at once. Even just giving myself eidetic memory would be powerful. I could use it to effect others minds, even control them at later stages. A lot of mana though. But what happens if I think smaller scale.

For luck, I don’t know, maybe probability, chance, just small scale changes?

For space, smaller portals. Maybe non-living targets. Dimension magic. Constellation magic

For time, I also don’t know. Just smaller changes. An area instead of the whole world.

For mind, oh baby! Illusions, luring, self improvement or body magic. There’s a lot, but so is there for others.

For attacking power I would never consider these. I would go for fire or something. But for tricks. Illusions seem the most powerful. With illusions I can hide things, make things seem more then they are, all of that type of thing. Other then that, my creatures could send in false attacks and would be experts in deception and sneaking. I’m up playing it, I admit, but I really want illusions.

‘You don’t need mind magic to cast multiple spells.’

‘KEVIN... Wait, why?’

‘You have me. And soon you’ll have more of me. A voice in your head isn’t just psychosis. Well, it is, but we are much more then that. We are your coping mechanism, sort of. The being took things from us, but the things he took were random. As your mind notices these things it compensates by adding a voice. We can control you, your mana, your everything. But not without your help. Think of you as the queen ant, and us as the workers. Do you understand?’

Finally, Kevin was being useful.

‘Yeah. NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP KEVIN.’

I still hate him though. Kevin kept quiet thankfully. Now it’s time think again. Illusions. I have to be practical about this. Technically they can’t, and won’t help. They can’t attack they’re discovered semi easily. But, I can use them as traps. Imagine a pitfall with an illusion on top of it, sure death. Or a room filled with arrow traps, and yet it looks empty. It’s deadly, but not in your conventional way. It’s perfect. Now I need to think of how to attach it to my body as a transformation, and how to represent it in my mana source.

I think it’s easier to attach it to my mana source. But again, how. If I were to make a, I don’t know, labyrinth? Yes, a labyrinth. But not just any labyrinth. If this is to be the foundation of my mana source let’s go BIG! A labyrinth that exists in its own dimension, that connects to everything and can be entered from anywhere. A place of ever shifting walls, floors that aren’t floors, fires that won’t burn. But not just that. The most dangerous part of the labyrinth is you mind. Everything you think of comes to life in the form of an illusion. For in truth it’d not even a labyrinth. What you expect is what you find. If you expect to find a cave filled with nothing, that’s what it will be. If you expect a vast wasteland filled with Eldridge creatures, there you go. If you want treasure, you get it. If you find an empty cave, but think how boring it is, you find something, interesting.

It can be entered from anywhere in my mana source, it twists your thoughts into the worst possible thing. Imagine a unicorn, well they have those sharp horns for a reason. You feel pain, pleasure and more. And it’s main purpose you ask, well that’s the beauty of it.

IT DOESN’T HAVE ONE!!!

Hahaha. It’s purpose is whatever you want it to be.

Wait, what’s happening? Why am I getting so heated.

‘Because it’s perfect! Absolutely perfect. To torment and torture creatures is it’s purpose.’

‘No. Nononono. That’s not it’s purpose. It doesn’t have one. It moods to your thoughts.’

‘No it doesn’t!’

‘Yes it does!!! Who are you? What are you?’

‘Why I am you.’

‘Oh, ooooh. I’ve been through this before. Your not Kevin.’

‘I’m here.’

‘Shut up Kevin. I guess i need to name you to. What do you represent.’

‘Your need to cause pain.’

‘Well, fuck off. I don’t like pain, i prefer strong discomfort.’

‘HOW DARE YOU!!!’

‘You sound girly, your names Gwen. Bye Gwen.’

‘No. No, you can’t shut me out!’

Just did bitch. That’s concerning though. If a voice can pop up at any time it won’t help. I’ll have to find a way to protect myself from it all.

Now that I have the way to represent illusions in my mana source, how do I represent them in my body. I’m not making a labyrinth body.

Let’s focus on one clear idea first.

My old body. Not the crystal one. The human one. 6 foot one. Thick, black heir shaved short on the sides and kept long on the top. Uk Size 11 feet. A small bit of definition and a flat stomach from the rugby I played. Wide shoulders. I was amazing. Why did I not have this as my original body. They spoke some bullshit about my body being the ‘perfect vessel for my soul’, but it’s not. Why did I focus so hard on changing it. Another question to torture... ask tiki for. Definitely not going to torture tiki. Not at all.

Anyway, my old body formed in front of me, and now i needed to add some extra, aspects. First things first, claws. Retractable claws, but still claws. One minute I’ve got normal hands and then, BAM, claws to climb walls. But that leaves traces. Damn.

Scrapping the claws idea, i thought of the way geckos move. They have little suction cups, don’t they. Nah, don’t want to look like a freak.

What about secreting some sticky fluid at will. That sounds pretty dope. I’m super normal and then, BAM, climbing walls like spider man. Yeah, I want that.

Now the thing I’ll secrete, that’s something else. I decided to make it come from the bottom of my fangs and feet. It’s super sticky, but only enough to hold my body weight and a half? Yeah, round about one and a half mes. As well as that, when it’s not in contact with my skin, it dissolves, completely untraceable. And as it secretes at will, it won’t stick me to others.

Now that’s me. Boring I know, but it’s me. Worst case, I add air and get wings. Meh.

Now I need to add illusions. I decide to simply make my skin colour be able to change, like a chameleon. It’s automatic and controlled. When my body thinks I’m in danger, poof, gone. Yet I can still make myself disappear or different colours.

That’s my body and my mana source. As I was about to put them into play, I saw a bright light in the direction of diamond. I look towards her and see a bright light.

“True name?” I ask.

“Yeah.” She responds. It’s simple, but when you experience it, it’s... you’ll never understand.

“It’s Erin.” She continued. I nod.

“Nice to meet you Erin, now it’s time you make your first element and body, then we’ll connect our sources to make the bond.” She smiles, I think. I smile, turn around and create my labyrinth and body. The labyrinth is strange. It’s not actually anything. It’s a small cube with intricate carvings on it, and yet I know that that’s the labyrinth, the source of my illusion magic. It might not look like much, but that cube can trick the senses to feel, taste, smell, see, hear and more. It’s amazing. I turn to see Erin done. In the place of her orb of light is her body. The original one I first saw. All that’s changed is her wings. Instead of the dragon fly type ones she first had, they had changed into long wings made from light. Sometimes the light was a soothing blue, a warm orange, a soft white... it never ended. Behind her was a land of shifting orbs of light. Every colour was represented, and made gentle. It was beautiful. The orbs weren’t even orbs. Some were cubes, others cones, others just rays of light. It was an ever shifting landscape of pure light.

She looks at the cube and laughs.

“Very impressive.” I laugh too.

“I know right. Yours as well.” We both burst out laughing together.

“What is it?” She asks.

“Illusions.” I answer. “It’s based around what people think. If someone saw it, it could be a cavern, a forest, a fire breathing dragon and more.” She nods.

“So,” I ask,” what changes did you make to your body?” She looks at me smug.

“Nothing much, just made it so that I can change my wings shape, size and colour.” She demonstrates by having her wings bend over her before changing colours. It looked exactly like an orb from he mana source.

“As well as that, I can shoot projectiles from them.” And so she did, swinging her wings forward, a small toothpick of light shot out before being stuck in the barrier between the mana sources.

“I have to collect them afterwords though. They are my wings after all.” She flew toward the toothpick. When she was about half a meter away it flew towards her and merged with her wings.

“Impressive. But not as cool as mine.” I grin. I change my skin to perfectly represent the void behind me. Her expression was priceless.

“Illusions, of course.” She replied.

“Yip. I can also climb walls, ceilings and stuff without leaving a trace.” She laughed.

“Of course you’d do something like that. Now to the important things. How do we form the nameless bond?” I nod turning serious.

“I don’t know, but if you can explain how to make the other to bonds, maybe we can formulate a way to do it.” And so she explained.

Basically, an equals bond was as simple as connecting mana. Once you’ve done that, you pull your mana sources together until they connect.

A master/servant bond was less complicated. It was a battle of wills. You connect your mana all the same, but instead of connecting your mana sources, you have to take control of your opponents.

After this, we thought and discussed several things. It took awhile, but eventually we decided to do the following.

We decided to connect our mana sources, but not pull them together. Instead, we’d make a tunnel using both mana types, with the express will not to connect. We couldn’t think of anything else.

With a nervous laugh, I sent a tendril of mana from my box towards her. To me, it looked like ever shifting, transparent plastic. She sent her mana towards mine. Hers looked like light, obviously. When the to connected, I felt my mana source try to connect to hers. I squashed every attempt, but it was difficult.

The very nature of my mana source was illusions. Sometimes it was invisible, sometimes I couldn’t sense it, only see it.

I battled with my mana for a long time. I’m not sure how long, but I do know it was long. When it finally stopped trying to connect, I let the tunnel complete. When I looked over to Erin, I saw her standing there with a smug look. The retard thought she was better because she had an easier mana type. *sigh*

“Took you a while.” #he said, before walking through the tunnel, into my mana source. I just sigh again.

“Looks like we’re connected, it’s time.”she sighed this time. We both started pushing our mana outside of wherever we were. In the next second, we formed in front of our dungeon core. I look at her and nod.

We had discussed it while we were in the mana source. We’ve got a lot we need to do. We looked at each other. She said

“Good luck. Don’t die. *sigh* I’ll inform them all. What do we do if they don’t recognise us?”

“For House Enigma.” Was all I Said before I set off. There was a lot to do.