In a dimly lit room filled with moth eaten drapes and books scattered across the floor a man was sitting in a chair holding a cage that glowed with a slight purple glow.

“The worlds are amazing and there are so many assorted sights to take in and pick up. Starting with purgatory, the city of rust is quite the place with everything constantly staying in the state of rust.”

The man sits there talking to the cage for many hours. After a large portion of time had passed the man grabbed a mouse that was running across the floor by his feet with inhuman speed. 'Ah a small rodent. Well anyways it will be good feed for you now wouldn't it?' Holding the mouse by the tail the man drops it through the bars of the cage where it lands dazed. As the mouse gains its wits again it notices the mass of blood that is moving towards it. Panicking the mouse runs away but the cage is enchanted so that nothing can escape. The mouse scratches the walls as the blood approaches. When the blood reached the mouse it slowly covered it starting at its tail and slowly going up its body. When the blood reached the mouse's mouth it poured into it at which point the mouse's struggle ceased and lifeless eyes were slowly covered by crimson.

“Ah you are still you are you? Well in that case, I the great Faust will search for more books and materials to teach you.”

He jumps out of his chair hold the cage and starts spinning around the room holding the cage before him. The blood would have flown everywhere but thanks to the magic it stayed put. After a minute of spinning, Faust places the cage on a counter and he pulls up a chair and starts writing in a journal that sat near the cage.

“Before I forget, I am not sure if you will remember this but if you do its great so that way I won't have to read my journals.

Scholars have determined that spirits or as they are also called souls attach themselves to creatures with a degree of intelligence before they are born. This I agree with, its fact, but I have discovered something else. No scholar has ever stopped to think just where does this spirit come from, this I have found. The spirit is actually a being that died in another world and has forgotten itself. The soul then comes here to the nine hells where it lives for a lifetime, dies and then it returns to its realm. It’s a never ending cycle.

Now, what does all of this research have to do with you my little crimson friend? Well that’s simple, you were found on a battlefield but you aren't a spirit of a soldier that was attached to blood. No it’s completely different. I believe that this is the first time ever that an artificial spirit has been made. That means you are the first of a kind, a different type of soul than any other which allows you to be attached to blood not a living creature. Now we have no clue as what this will mean in the future but as of right now, I just have one question for you. How smart can you become?”

+-+-+-+

I woke up a week ago.

Things are strange, I know a lot of things but I am unaware as to how I learned of that information. When I had first woke up there was a man sitting in a chair with me in a cage. He was reading a story to me about a group of angels who went against god and lost. It is strange waking up from a waking dream, I was watching for years but it is hazy and I can't remember anything and during the dream I couldn't control my body.

On the first day the man noticed nothing and had fed me a rat which I kindly devoured with my blood coating it and dissolving it into nutrition for my blood to keep clean and working. I am unaware as to why I don't get larger or have no waste. It is strange.

The pattern of me pretending to be how I used to be continued till today. It all started when I got bored of him reading a story and I moved to look out the cage.

“Oh my look at this! Quite a bit of unnatural behavior” he exclaimed as he abruptly picked the cage up to his eyes and he stared right at me.

“Flatten if you understand me little one”

His eyes glared right into me and honestly I felt a bit scared of this eccentric man. It took about a few moments and then I flattened.

“Yes yes I knew it! Teaching you for the past decade was honestly worth it.”

I stayed there flattened as I realized just how long I had been not in control of my actions.

“You are intelligent aren't you and self-aware, it’s only a matter of time before you can do more than this my little puddle of blood.”

Wait I can do more than be a blob of blood? That may make things easier than just being like this. Hmmm with this amount of blood I should be able try and become a small goblin or something similar.

Focusing on controlling the blood I slowly form a skinny and spiny arm. Once I finish that I test out the arm. It moves just like I hoped and surprisingly it doesn't require any effort to keep it shaped once I got it made. Once I was done testing the arm I made an opposite arm, this one didn't take as much effort make and both arms required no effort to keep them up. After a short while of testing my arms I started to make my first leg, it was skinny and spiny just like my arm but I added a curved horn to the knee. This was a lot more difficult to make then my arm and took me about 3 days of focusing to get it done

I would have loved to test my leg but I needed another which I proceeded to create. Again it was easier to make but it still took a whole day. When the second leg was done I moved both legs around a bit and then I planted the feet on the ground and tried to stand up. It did not go well as I did stand up but my arms were dragging on the ground as my body was still the soft and malleable blood. I left my legs and arms so that they were arranged in a cross shape while I laid on the floor of my cage and proceeded to create a body and head.

Firstly I focused on creating my body by compacting the blood into a denser structure. I gave myself no reproductive organs as that would be useless. The body or torso matched my arms with how skinny and spiny/bony it is. There was still a mass of blood left so I used that to create a head that composed solely of a round sphere for the head with only two depressions where the eyes would be.

My body was complete and I attempted to stand up. It was difficult but somehow I was able to, I had to lean against the wall of the cage to stay standing though. My balance was a tad bit too bad. Again as a nice surprise it took no effort for my blood to keep this shape. It was about this point that I noticed that the blood that layered on the top was changing into a skin for this body. It was pure white and it slowly started at all points on my body and ended after a few seconds. I spent a few moments observing my body. And it was all white excluding the horns in my knees which were now a deep dark red instead of regular crimson. I was slowly learning to walk around the cage one day when it was suddenly picked up and I was slammed into the ground.

“I was only gone for two months and look at what you've become my little blood.” after that he rushes over to his desk and tosses the cage lightly onto the counter and sits down and furiously begins writing in his journal while mumbling. “The blood has formed itself into a bipedal creature with opposable digits most likely for constructive purposes. The form seems to be based on a story of the doll demons who had featureless faces while having spiny and skinny limbs. I am unsure as to what the purpose of the horns on the knees though, in all honesty they would be a detriment to high sped movement. A better place for them would be the elbows, a lot more use for them there. The most confusing though would have to be the fact that the blood created a skin for itself which has made it turn white. There could be a purpose like keeping the core of the blood clean of dirt and filth.”

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The man keeps on writing and rambling underneath his breath.

While he does that I want to see if there is a way out of this cage. I comb the glowing bars with my hands for any sign of weakness. After a few minutes I found nothing at all and exasperated fall back onto my back as I think of anything I could use.

What comes to my mind is a book called: A Brief Curriculum on Magic Manipulation.

A basic summary of the book would probably be something like this.

Magic is a primordial substance that exists alongside the sciences. Some people have called it dark matter as it has nothing that can be measured by science except for the fact that its mass is in the negative. Magic has been able to be manipulated by all living creatures and soul filled creatures and by using this substance the very basics of science and common sense can be broken.

Manipulation can be very tricky for a large amount of reasons. Firstly living creatures have to develop the ability to do so before they can. Magic starts to gather in a pool that exists in the soul at a very young age. This pool is limited and the magic the creature is able to cast is dictated by the size of the pool. There are ways to increase the capabilities of this pool which can be found in the next book. Well in order to utilize this pool to use magic to manipulate others or personal magicks, it firstly requires an affinity to be determined. Affinities break up into two categories, basic, and complex. Basic affinities are ones like fire, lightning, water, earth, air, light, and dark. Everyone has at least two of these affinities that they are attuned towards but less are in tune with the complex affinities. These affinities aren't well known but the known ones are death, life, time, and chaos. There may be more complex affinities but the requirements are unknown for them to be obtained.

To find out your affinities, lie down on your back and meditate. Focus on one thing only and that is the first colour that comes to mind. Eventually if you are talented enough with magic, an affinity may be formed within you. You will know you have gained an affinity when a tattoo with the symbol and colour for your affinity shows up on your left arm. Don't worry this tattoo will only show when wanted, this is to prevent magic affinity from becoming public knowledge that can be used against you.

Now with an affinity the first basics of magic is to create mana channels to your hands. This is achieved through meditation and trying to force the mana for your pool to your hands. This is a dangerous process and should only be done for a short period of time per day. Otherwise the mana may blow up inside you either crippling you or downright killing you instantly. Since this is a very likely possibility, it would be best to create the mana channels for at most one hour a day. This process is most likely going to take at least 1 month to 1 year based on the person and if it’s done safely.

Once the channels have been created mana can be pushed into your hands where it can be manipulated by your thoughts. Still be careful, magic is a volatile substance that if handled incorrectly will result in an explosion that will cause massive destruction or drain the caster causing extreme magic exhaustion. Now only draw out a small amount of magic and will it into a ball, if this is done correctly a small ball with a purple colour will appear in your hand. If not done correctly there is a high possibility that too much mana was put into the ball which will cause the caster to faint from magic exhaustion.

This is the beginning of magic manipulation and if done correctly this method for creating a magic light can be modified by the user for a multitude of purposes. This can be anything from offensive magic, defensive, entertainment, enchanting, alchemy and research, or change the properties of an already in effect magic. To do these types of magic manipulation it is quite easy, a few examples being; adding an explosive effect to a magic light by filling it with compressed magic power; creating a defensive wall by spreading out the mana and reinforcing it; changing the colour of the magic light can be an entertainment; filling an object with mana so that way when doing it’s intended purpose, magic is added; alchemy and research is a gray area and requires lots of trial and error; out of all these though, changing the properties of magic is quite difficult. Changing already set enchantments or magicks requires a high level of skill, intelligence, and patience since it requires a small stream of mana to be injected into the magic and then a battle of wills to change the set effect. It is a very slow process which makes it useless in any battle situation.

After I finished my recollection of the books contents I sit up and start planning my course of action. Firstly, I will learn how to use magic, then I would escape this cage and this crazy man, and lastly, I will explore the Nine Circles of Hell.

So starting with my first task, I fall onto my back, close my eyes and started meditating to find my affinities. The only colour that came to my mind was blood red crimson. I don’t know how long I was meditating before something strange started to happen to me, my body became light and felt like I was being lifted off someplace. Next thing I knew, I was standing in the middle of a raised platform in front of an altar with nothing on it, in a perfectly white temple. The stone that made up the temple was extremely white with no blemishes and no cracks.

In front of me was a white altar with the only thing that wasn’t pure white in the room, a small, battered, blood red book. When I reached out to grab the book, a moment before I reached it, it suddenly opened and a large screech echoed through the room deafening me. The walls of the temple started to crack and blood poured through staining the white temple red. I looked at the book really quickly and inside all I saw was a drawing of a humanoid monster. The monster started to move and looked right at me and the entire page turned black except for a toothy smile that stayed white. It was at this point that the cracks had reached the roof and chunks started to fall down, I was too paralyzed by the entire situation that I couldn’t avoid the rubble that came falling down onto me.

I woke up in a flash with jump. Before I even realized I was doing it, I was checking my body for any damage. Thankfully I hadn’t been hurt in anyway but on my left arm by my wrist there was now four fading tattoos. I guess that experience must have been related to the magical affinities I am in tune with then. The first tattoo was of a flame so obviously fire affinity, second was of a red droplet so I guess this may be a unknown complex affinity for blood, third and fourth tattoos were mysteries to me that I could even guess. The third tattoo was a black silhouette of a person standing, it wasn’t dark or death affinity because dark is always a black square and death always has a skull. The fourth tattoo was just as great of a mystery because it was just a line, that s all, nothing at all like any of the symbols of the known affinities. This is honestly a surprise, I thought that I would only have two basic affinities but having the blood affinity isn’t really that much of a stretch now that I think about it, but the other two affinities those are a strange mystery. Since I have no clue what they are I guess I will just train the ones that I know.

Well I won’t get anywhere if I just sit around here thinking so let’s get started on those mana channels.

+-+-+-+

Here we go a second chapter in succession, Woot! Sadly it might take a while for the next chapter but its coming.