In the chaotic void, there is a beast called the Devourer. It might surprise you to know that this beast was once a worm. Worms are amazing creatures with high regenerative ability. Like the worm, the Devourer has five massive hearts, and each contains a Soulscape capable of sustaining life. Seeing it up close really is terrifying, but nothing can prepare you for when it feeds. It only has one weakness—light! Flood it with enough light, and it becomes paralyzed.
~Balor, The Primordial God of Chaos
“Lily, get back in my Soulscape,” Crow whispered desperately, and she didn’t even pout or fight against him. She quickly and obediently returned to him. The moment she disappeared, the chest settled down, and once against looked as if it was an ordinary chest.
“What happened?” Mara asked quietly since Crow was whispering.
“I’m not sure, but avoid that damned chest.”
“The one that is clearly a trap?” Mara snorted.
“Yes, that one.” Crow rolled his eyes. “Don’t even touch it with mana sense. It’ll activate it.”
“Oh.”
He was curious, there was no doubt about that, but for now, he avoided it and took a book off the shelf. There were dozens of them, all the same size, shape, and even the same spine. It was apparent they were part of a set, or maybe journals.
Mara inspected the jars and bottles and then looked over at Crow, who was fully engrossed in his book.
“Only you would ignore all this treasure to read some books.” Mara shook her head at him.
“A weapon can break, they can make more pills, but knowledge is priceless,” Crow replied. It was an old argument between the two of them.
“Fine. What is that book about? What makes it priceless? Let me see.” Mara walked toward him.
Crow’s grin slipped off his face, and the book disappeared. It was the first time Mara had ever seen Crow act that way, so she became suspicious. She noticed the books seemed to be part of a series, so she grabbed one before he could react. The moment she opened it, her jaw dropped, and she looked up at Crow with wide eyes.
“You pervert!” She finally shouted when she could speak again. It was loud enough that it echoed through the halls, and Crow was sure Acco had heard it too.
“That-you see-I didn’t—I wasn’t sure how to tell you that this place is the abode of a legendary pervert. I wanted to mess with Acco.” Crow’s voice grew quieter and quieter as he spoke.
Mara burst out laughing and had to admire Crow’s creativity. Had the boy actually reached this place… she laughed even harder until she was pressing on her sides and wiping tears from her eyes. It took several minutes for her to recover. During that time, she kept reading the book she grabbed.
“This master is quite interesting. I wonder how many women fell victim to his methods. I mean, developing something like this… how does anyone even get—regardless. It would have taken him countless years, and I’ve never even heard of this Sutra word. What does it mean?”
“Sutra is like a rule or scripture, usually related to philosophy,” Crow answered while reaching for another book. But Mara slapped his hand away.
“How audacious! He claims he has created an entire Sutra on relations between a man and a woman? This is…” Mara’s voice trailed off as she kept reading, but she was still alert enough to slap Crow’s hand away when he tried to reach for any books. After about thirty minutes of reading, Mara clapped the book close. “Okay, I’m convinced this man might be a genius. This mommy is taking all these books, and you better not fight me on this, pervert.”
Crow felt wronged. She was taking all the sex books and claimed he was the pervert? What the hell was happening with his life?
“Oh, and those and those and those.” Mara pointed at several jars of pills. “You are not allowed to have them. Those are aphrodisiacs, and you have enough women. No seducing more.”
“What!? You are too much. Besides, you seduced me!”
Mara’s eyes narrowed as she stared at Crow, and he swallowed hard in response.
“Whatever. Take all of that old pervert’s stuff.”
“Good. Good.” She smiled sweetly after that, and Crow nearly wept. It wasn’t that he had much interest—no, that probably wasn’t true. He felt a lot of this stuff was worth a ton of money. A dozen books on the philosophy of sex, including positions and pleasure zones—people would pay a fortune for something like that.
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Crow went through the books and separated out all the sex ones. He’d be damned if he was giving up all the books. He gave her all the sex books, which left me with three on the observance of stars. He wasn’t overly interested in astrology but knew some Scholarly Talents focused on them. Donating them would hopefully get him some benefits.
After dividing them, Mara coughed and snapped her fingers at him.
“What does that mean?” Crow didn’t understand what she wanted.
“The other book, the one you hid…”
“Oh, right,” Crow replied, completely forgetting he hadn’t removed it from his Vortex Pin. He handed it over with a guilty look on his face.
“Take all the oils on the third shelf,” Crow told her. “They are mentioned in that book I just gave you.”
Mara patted him on the head. “Good boy, you can have the rest of the loot.”
“What rest? Damn woman, you nearly took everything.”
Mara pointed at the chest in the corner with an evil grin on her face.
“You are…” Crow stopped and looked toward the chest again. A symbol on the side of it reminded him of something. Digging into the recesses of his mind, he quickly scanned hundreds of books that he memorized without actually comprehending the content. “Somewhere…” he muttered to himself.
“Crow?” Mara asked but received no response. She sighed and walked over to the table with the skeleton. While he was busy doing his mind thing, she saw a flash of something near the hip bone. “Sorry, dead person. Just want to see what…”
Mara pulled out a belt buckle, but she wasn’t disappointed. The metal was old and dented, but she sensed a fluctuation of power from it. Flipping it over, there wasn’t any indication of what the object was or might have been. Outwardly, it looked like garbage, but its craftsmanship was superb. Mara couldn’t tell if they were deliberately trying to disguise this powerful item or if someone nurtured trash to the point it became a treasure.
“It’s a protection treasure,” Crow told her as he looked over her shoulder. “It might once have been a Soul-Linked item, which is why it’s still here. Only after the flesh of the body rotted away would it reveal itself. However, it lost its spirituality. Still, keep it on you. It’s a good treasure—if you can nurture it back to its original state, then it’s an amazing treasure.”
“How do I do that?”
“Just keep infusing it with mana. Not a lot, just maybe five to ten minutes a day. Not only will it recover, but it’ll store your mana to use while shielding you. However, the object will only activate when projectiles are targeting you.”
“How do you know this?”
“Formations,” Crow said as if it explained everything. “Treasures, ones built for certain purposes, also use runes, sigils, and the like. Ever heard of talismans?”
“Yes. One time use pieces of paper or tokens that have powerful spells within them.”
“Close enough. Talismans are similar to formations because they are designed using Runes. Although, their power comes from the use of beast cores crushed into a type of ink. So basically, they are single-use formations. A treasure is like a talisman, but instead of beast cores, you use your own mana to activate the formation. It is a reusable formation essentially.”
“Wouldn’t spells be formations?”
“Aren’t they?”
“No,” Mara responded decisively.
“The activation of the spell is different and doesn’t use runes, but there is a pattern to it. That pattern must be drawn in whatever method you choose before it can activate.”
“You’ve thought about this way too much,” Mara said and blew her hair out of her face.
“That may be, but it doesn’t mean I’m right. At the core of all techniques, spells, formations, and whatever power—exists a pattern required to make it work. We expound on the Truths of all existence, and these truths give us insight into gaining power. Numerous methods exist to bring the power of our Source into this world, to become gods. Still, few think about where that power actually comes from.”
“Awesome,” Mara sighed, wondering why he was the one person that made her look forward to each day. Half the things he said she probably could understand but didn’t want to bother. He thought way too deeply about everything. Sometimes life was just about living, and it was something she tried fervently to teach Crow. In fact, it became her mission to make sure he saw and experienced things that he couldn’t comprehend by reading his stupid books. “Now, tell me why you went all blank—actually, no. Tell me about the box. I know that’s why you went stupid for several minutes.”
Crow chuckled. He wouldn’t have zoned out like that if Mara wasn’t there to protect him. Processing the things he memorized could be done without tuning out the world, but it was much slower.
“Well…” Crow put his forehead against Mara’s because it was the only way he knew to silently communicate with her. *Remain calm. Never talk about that chest again. Have you ever heard of the Twelve Artifacts of Chaos?*
*No?* Mara replied but felt by Crow’s behavior that it wasn’t simple.
*They are artifacts that bring calamity to the finder, not just that person, but the sect, continent, and even planet they lived on… all destroyed. To be fair, the Triskelion Archives didn’t have much on these artifacts, and I only stumbled across them on accident. We can never talk about that chest—ever!*
*Why don’t we just destroy it?*
*The book mentioned that five of those artifacts were destroyed in the past, but I don’t believe it. I’m not even sure they can be destroyed.*
*Why not?*
*Because it stated that one of the five destroyed artifacts was the Devouring Box. I’m pretty sure we are both looking at it.*
*Seriously? What does it do?*
*It devours. I think it devours energy. It ate my mana sense earlier.*
*What are we going to do with it?*
*I’m taking it. I’ve figured out how to partition part of my Vortex Pin, so I can keep it away from my other items. Since the thing is about the size of my foot, it should be easy to keep it hidden away. Besides, I want to test it out and see if it can absorb spells or techniques launched at it.*
*I don’t think this is a good idea.* Mara told him, but her eyes were riveted to the chest.
*Me neither, but I’m not leaving it here either. It’d be better to hide it away and never talk about it again. If the upper realms discover that we’ve found this thing, they’d probably wipe out the Druid Order for good this time. Maybe I should shunt it off into the void in the future.*
Crow wanted this item, but he was no fool. Between being unfated and this box, his unfated status could only be considered troublesome. A chaos artifact in this tower was like seeing the storm clouds gathering on the horizon.
“Fuck,” Crow muttered and pulled his head away from Mara’s so he could approach the chest.