Ch #8
"Clock of Fantasia"
Sitting against the shelf, Kai looked around. Everything seemed hazy around him.
‘Probably the blood loss’
Struggling to get up Kai remembered how he had ended up here. The beast hadn’t died from the mana explosion. The entire cavern was probably going to cave in soon. Thinking of the golden eyes of the beast staring at him caused a shiver to run up his spine.
‘It won’t escape will it? Probably not. The professor had said the cavern was thousands of meters below the academy. The weight of the earth alone should bury it alive. That might have been what the professor was thinking as well…’
The books around Kai were similar. He was sure this was the place he had woken up when he first entered the trial. But some things were different, for one he couldn’t see the book scribbled in blood. But that opened up an entirely new train of thoughts. Before he could entertain that train of thought a crashing sound in the distance caught his attention.
‘Sounded like glass breaking. Something came in through the windows?’
Kai quieted down, clutching his necklace. He was in no shape to fight and the necklace was already two thirds empty. Slowing his breathing and shifting his weight a little he tried to peek in between the shelves to see what it was.
The dark rows and the swaying light from the lamps did not make it easy. Kai heard the rustling sounds as something moved in between the shelves. A low clicking reverberated through the library wing.
‘There! What is that!’
The monster had a nightmarish appearance with 2 pairs of elongated skeletal limbs and long tubular head with no eyes. it’s body covered by a sleek, black chitinous exoskeleton that gave a distinct glaze under the lamps light. A pair of leathery wings tucked behind its back and a long flexible tail behind it swaying making the rattling sound he was hearing.
The monster crawling around the floor opened it’s mouth, a pair of retractable jaws visible inside making a distinctive clicking noise. It moved it’s head around clicking as if looking for something,
‘Almost like… SONAR!’
His eyes widened at the realization. Kai had no time to react at all as the monster slung it tail towards Kai from afar. Kai only heard a whistling sound before feeling something puncture his bowels. Before the monster could attack again Kai threw an extra charged Fireball at it while propping up a barrier to keep whatever the monster had shot at him away.
‘Damn it! Everything's hazy again…’
Looking at his punctured guts and blood reminded him of that winter in the outer walls. Her white face against the red snow creating a morbid yet breathtaking spectacle. Kai could still feel her gripping his small arms and stuffing them with a warm little soul, he could still hear her wispier to his ears ‘Run.’
“Where am I going to run now mother…”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The monster had dodged the fireball flung hastily at it. Still the fireball hitting the shelves exploded forth, the shock-wave causing the monster to be blown to the side. Rattling it’s tail it flung multiple spikes at Kai, staying far from the fire now spreading through out the library.
The spikes struck the barrier bouncing off. Seeing it’s prey still and the heavy smell of blood spreading. The Monster moved closer cautiously clicking its jaws, ready to jump away the moment it felt something. Coming close enough it raised it’s tail swinging at the leg of it’s prey. The tail punched straight through.
The barrier was gone. Seeing it’s prey not move the monster opened it’s jaws, the clicking sound intensifying. Just as the monster was about to bite off the head, the limp bloodied hand on the cold floor moved.
‘Ignis’
A blazing inferno aimed straight at the monsters face. The entire room was lit as though a piece of the sun was inside. The only thing remaining of the monster, a molten slumped over exoskeleton and a glowing orange shard.
{You have Killed a Rank 2, Gold core, Primal Abomination}
Kai through his half closed hazy eyes had seen the monster come towards him. He knew the next attack would be his last. He could barely form a thought at the moment. Gambling with his chances he dispelled the barrier. He had already lost all sensation in his body. He could only barely feel his arms. Pulling all the mana in the necklace he stuffed it into the symbol for fire and released it at the very last moment, sealing the fate of the abomination.
‘Take that you bastard…’
Kai was burnt and charred all over, his arm missing. The fire had cauterized his wounds stopping the bleeding, but with the significant blood loss he was slowly losing consciousness.
‘so this is how I die’
The heavy explosions had rocked the walls and the shelves had gotten blown apart, the bronze door again revealing itself. The timepiece had fallen off the hold and rolled over into the pool of blood.
{Do you wish to bind the clock of fantasia}
“Yeah?”
The pool of blood swirled around the timepiece, the core shard and the exoskeleton merging with it and hungrily absorbing the surrounding blood. The timepiece glowed and entered Kai as he slipped into slumber.
{You have completed the trial of the tower retrieving the clock of Fantasia}
At some point Kai had woken up. He was in complete darkness, surrounded on all sides by seemingly endless mana. He could see himself even in the darkness. All his wounds were gone like they never existed. No scars, no holes. he was back to wearing the government issued body suit he had left earth in.
‘Would have liked my patch work of a coat now’
Looking around he was now wearing his ever familiar coat, taken off of a once dead man in the slums. Kai was bewildered at the sight of it just appearing with a thought.
‘What is this place’
“Hello? Anyone hear me?”
{…}
{Welcome to the records Dormant Kaiser}
{Congratulations for completing the trial}
{Calculating performance…}
A mechanical almost human like voice sounded in Kai's’ mind. The darkness faded around Kai as the scenes of his exploits in the trial played in front of him. Only this time he was watching from another perspective.
{Class assigned}
{Calculating mana for core…}
The overabundant mana in the surrounding rushed into his body. Kai felt a warm feeling rise all over his body. Mana flooded his muscles and veins and condensing in his chest. Suddenly a searing hot pain rose, as if someone had stabbed a red hot scaple into his heart.
{Excess mana… mana overload}
{Core shell cracking}
{Shell implosion imminent}
Kai screamed in the void, fainting again as his entire body twitched continuously, pulsing with mana. Distressed at his pain, the surrounding mana rushed inside tightly binding the shell. Still unable to hold it together, the shell merged with Kai’s heart under the guidance of the mana and the records.
{Core mutating..}
{Variant core shell created}
{Connecting to the Tower}
***
Dormant Kaiser
Class: Fantasia Logia
Profession: ---
Core: Bronze(Heart core)
Attributes: {Moerei}; {Mark of the raven}
Artifact: {epoch},{clock of fantasia}
***
In a vast meadow, a bunch of rabbits grazed on the abundant grass. All of a sudden, a boy appeared in the sky falling on the grass, scaring all the animals away.
Kai had made it to the 1st floor of the tower.