Grim felt himself awakened by a surge of energy that brought him out of the exhaustion. He was holding a mana crystal in each hand. Both were twice the size of his closed fist and were rapidly growing dimmer by the second. Which was shocking to Grim, as these things could completely fill a person with mana almost ten times over if he recalled correctly. How much mana was he pulling in?
That’s when he noticed the hands resting on top of the crystals. His eyes tracked the man’s rough hands up the rest of the body and found a face gazing back at him. It was the face of a middle-aged human male with deep brown eyes, brown hair, and a short beard covering his lower face. A concerned look was on his face. The moment Grim met his eyes the man’s face relaxed and relief spread across his features.
“I do apologize, Grim. I thought I had given you enough mana to sustain awakening your mantra,” he told him sheepishly.
Grim could hardly believe his eyes as he took in the black and red clothes adorning the… man?
“Emperor Maximus?” he questioned disbelievingly.
“Oh… yes. It is I, Emperor Maximus, in the flesh,” the Emperor appeared to forget that this was the first time he had ever shown his face to Grim. “I suppose an Arch Lich of the undead wouldn’t normally look like this but I obtained my lichdom in a fairly peculiar way. Suffice it to say almost all the other lich’s look like you would think. Boney and croney,” he chortled to himself as he removed his hands and the crystals with them from Grim.
Fear began to clutch at his heart as he remembered the masked figure towering over him. The unending advance of this titan of death coming closer and closer so that he could… do what exactly? Awaken his mantra he had said?
Grim felt his mind clear up from its muddled state as he processed the lich’s first words to him. “What did you mean by awakening my mantra? I thought you couldn’t force that from people?”
The Emperor’s face grew a bit mischievous as he got up and sat next to Grim in one of the chairs next to him. The round table they had previously sat at was whole again and the Matrons all sat in new spots. Matron Ember still sat next to Maximus. Sayah’s ever watchful eyes were directly across from him, smiling with her too sharp, too wide teeth. Xena sat next to Sayah, her face had a grin all over it. Bob was still seated to the right of Grim and was observing the entire proceedings.
“Well I can…” Maximus waved his hand around in a lazy fashion, “coax it out with the right combination of stress, soul magic, and magical might. I will say that, for whatever reason, your body seems to be fairly resistant to being infused with mana outside of what you bring into you by yourself. This is how I gave you the improper amount of mana and you passed out as your body attempted to consume itself from mana consumption due to my errr…. Meddling.”
Grim recalled prior teachings with Matron Echo as she explained the magic fundamentals to him. She would always be scribbling or studying in her notebook as she simultaneously taught him. Bones had hung along her dress in a macabre manner. She had worn paint that perfectly depicted the inner workings of her bones across every piece of her body that was exposed.
“The realms we live in are full to bursting with magic, and they often “burst” with spectacular events. Natural elementals are born from such discharges, normally from elemental storms. Mana crystals are also formed from such occurrences. Great shifts in the continent can occur, permanent magical effects, and even spontaneous combustion,” Echo had explained with a scholarly excitement.
“Spontaneous combustion?” Grim had asked worriedly.
“It’s very rare,” She had dismissed his concerns with a casual wave of her mana pen. “Continuing with the topic at hand, the realms are full of elemental magic and power while they are young and in their early stages of life. They practically scream to all the life around them to use these powers. You’ll find elemental magic is quite common to almost every sentient creature. Almost all realms contain very high affinities to the elements so that the caster doesn’t need to make up for any differences during most states of a realm’s life.”
“But how do you use magic in the first place?” Grim had interrupted her. She had the tendency to get off topic as she explained things. Especially on realms at that time, as she had been researching them to write another book.
“Oh right! So, a being is made up of the three fundamentals of life: Soul, Body and Mind. Many think the soul and mind are the same but they are very different,” she had detailed, actually setting her pen down to look at him. Her eyes, an ethereal blue that had haunted you as they looked deeper into your soul. Echo had folded her hands in front of herself, becoming deathly serious.
“Listen closely, my young pupil, for I shall be revealing some major truths of the realms to you now. A foundation that you will build upon on your own to discover the great secrets of our realmverse.”
Grim had leaned forward with excitement as she tutored him. He had always enjoyed absorbing the knowledge of her lectures. It felt as if he were exploring the universe without even having to leave the grand library that they sat in.
“Mana is all around us, except in extremely rare and dangerous places. It is the building blocks of everything on our physical plane. The mind, and our will within it, are what allow us to manipulate mana. Our mind connects us to the very fuel of creation that is both stored within us and bleeds from the realms around us.”
“So how does the mind connect us to mana exactly?” Grim had asked, feeling a little out of his depth.
“Think of it as a mouth inside of your consciousness. It devours the mana around you to fill the stomach it is connected to. The stomach then digests the mana as you use it to manipulate reality and then it repeats the cycle as necessary.”
Deeply disturbed by this image of another mouth on his head, Grim had tried to clarify again, “So it’s like a gate inside my mind that opens wider when it needs more to fill itself? It channels that into a reservoir to be used as a power source for when we need to use the mana to do something?”
“Yes, exactly,” Matron Echo had confirmed before continuing. “This is where we learn more about the tiers of magic that we have as they are classified loosely. As I was saying earlier, the mana the realms love for us to use is elemental in nature, as it's the building blocks they use to develop their realm. The fundamental elemental magics of fire, water, earth, and air are what we call the first stage of magic or common tier. This doesn’t mean they are necessarily weak but they are easily accessible to everyone as they require very little affinity and willpower to manipulate.”
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“The following tiers of magic are separated by their complexity more so than their power. We call them the world, reality, and celestial tiers of magic. Each tier of magic can be touched upon without a developed mantra but doing so would severely weaken the effect you would have with it, if you could have any effect at all that is.”
Grim had been puzzled at the new term, “What is a mantra, Matron Echo?”
She had moved back in her chair, lost in thought, as she had replied, “Ah yes, dearest me… I really should come up with a teaching schedule to better organize my thoughts. I feel as though I am all over the place with this. You are my first student though, so this is bound to have some flaws!” Echo had laughed and started to scribble down in her book again.
“A mantra is a way for mages and people of the magical arts to solidify their will so they may manipulate mana into a more concrete and reinforced way of thinking. It is a saying infused with mana that is, in a sense, engraved upon the mind so as to better manipulate mana into the desired form. It is often a way for us to align our affinities with magic to better fit what we believe in.”
“It can also change as we move through our life. You won’t always have the same goals in life either, so don’t feel afraid to come up with one and fine tune it later. The only catch is that it has to be something that defines our very being. It often defines our goals and beliefs, or how we feel we stand in the world around us. So if you ever find yourself not in tune with the magic at your disposal, then it may mean that you need to change up your mantra a bit and really reevaluate your goals or beliefs.”
“So how do we go about coming up with our mantra?” Grim had questioned. He had felt as though he had no purpose in life besides training and learning.
Matron Echo had looked at him with her painted face and chuckled at him before saying, “It’s something you’ll have to learn yourself. That is how you will truly grow stronger in your magic and in your life.”
If that’s the case why did the Emperor just wake mine up? And how can you wake up a mantra? I thought you had to build one? Grim thought to himself, back in his present situation. Then his eyes widened in shock as another thought struck him.
“Ahhh, you do realize it,” Maximus noted happily. “Excellent, I see that awakening your former mantra from your old life has proven to be beneficial in multiple ways. Hence, how I was able to cheat a bit when it comes to helping you.”
He smiled at Grim and continued, “I had your teachers run some tests for me. They couldn’t figure out why you were being so mindless and unintuitive with a lot of your techniques. You have very rarely shown any initiative outside of what has been drilled into you. I began to wonder whether it was because of you being so young in the mind yet, or else if it was because of something more nefarious.”
Grim felt a little miffed about being judged so harshly but felt that it was a fairly astute assessment of his mediocre skills so far. There was also just so much to learn in this new world that he had felt as though he were an animal caught out in an advanced magical civilization.
“So, after taking a far closer look at your soul, I noticed something quite peculiar… chains. It seemed as though your soul had been chained up and restricted. You’ve been held back from releasing your full potential. Possibly, so you can be relegated to a specific path at the whims of whoever wanted to use you before we found you. A powerful tool to be easily wielded and manipulated by the owner,” Maximus detailed to him.
Grim felt a certain relief fill him as he took time to digest what the Emperor had told him. It meant that he had been held back by something outside of his control and knowledge. It meant that this could be another new beginning for him. He could explore those wondrous reaches of the realms and become himself in his own way. This changed everything!
Maximus chuckled and continued, “I can already see the life growing in your body. The light that your teachers told me was hiding right under your eyes. Well,” Maximus spread his hands as if to bequeath a great honor. “I still have that opportunity for you. In fact I’m going to put you up to it with some help. So let us not delay upon this manner anymore as this is of the utmost importance for the Unbound faction.”
Grim felt caught up in a whirlwind as this being had gone from mysterious benefactor to enraged tyrant and then revealing himself to be a benevolent master in what felt like mere minutes. Unsure of what to say he simply nodded along with him. His past grievances with this mission had been gagged and thrown behind him as this new sense of wanderlust and exploration took control of his foremost portion of the mind as he settled in and listened with growing enthusiasm to the Arch Lich.
“We have discovered a new realm reaching its permeable stage. The realm’s spirit has gained enough sentience to evolve into its second tier of being. We term this as an adolescent or post primitive stage. The realm spirit has gone into hibernation and so we have created anchors to the realm so as to bind it to the realmverse. This is a crucial time for us to explore, start communications with whatever denizens the realm may hold, and become the most influential faction of this realm.”
Maximus briefed him as the gravity of the situation allowed for the feelings of uncertainty and fear of failure to begin to undermine his thoughts of exploration and self-discovery. A familiar weight began to settle on Grim’s shoulders as he felt this seemed to be far too big for just him to do. However, the way the Emperor put it, it sounded as if he would not be going about this alone.
“What is my purpose for this then? It sounds like you have a group already assembled for this mission. How do you see me playing a role in it?” Grim questioned.
“Ah yes, to be perfectly honest with you, I’m sending you in as an advance group that is to determine the course of how we deal with this realm. I am going to attach you to an established group of realm scouts. There you shall act as my hand and the embodiment of my will throughout this endeavor.”
The smile Maximus wore reminded Grim of a Chaos Walker who had just thrown an extremely vexing piece into your midst and was waiting for the, well, chaos to ensue. It did not assure him but he was still riding the high of his new mantra. He nodded along with this.
“How will I communicate with you then? I assume I will need to if I will be acting in your stead?” Grim asked.
Maximus slid a coin from nowhere across to Grim. He caught it and looked upon the coin. Black and gold appeared to constantly mix together in a flux. It depicted various scenes of beings casting off one form of restraint after another. A person could study the scene for decades without finishing the rotation. One could even conjure up certain depictions if they knew of any specific event in the becoming of an unbound.
These were the calling cards of the Unbound faction. They were also a gateway into The Unbound establishment for those that wished to go. Rare pieces of power that some beings gave up everything for. Maximus folded his hands in front of his face before continuing.
“You are allowed to return for each opening ceremony of The Unbound. After giving a report to the reigning Matron, you will be issued another coin and given the choice to be sent back to the realm until the next opening ceremony. If you require any other guidance, you may speak with Bob whenever you wish. I’m sure you will find that he has a great head on his shoulders,” the emperor finished with a snort.
Maximus spread his hands, waiting for Grim’s reply. This seemed as though Grim was just supposed to tag along and make sure everything went in the Emperor’s favor. He knew it was too easy, but it was also a way for him to stretch his proverbial wings and discover more of himself. It was too good of an opportunity to not give it a shot.
“I should be able to handle this as long as the team is experienced in this.” Grim determined.
“Oh, they are quite experienced, though a bit eccentric. I have no doubt in their capabilities to accomplish the job on their own. However, this is about you learning to come into your own.”
Maximus met Grim’s eyes with a sad smile, “I wish for your adventure into the unknown to be fruitful. Though I warn you that you may find witnessing the upheaval of a realm tests even the coldest of hearts.”