Chapter 117: Ascension
In the history of mankind, only one person has ascended his magic; the tales said his strength had tripled after his power-up. In search of a way to cover his biggest weakness, this story was the one that had gotten Ray’s attention the most. The obstacle on the way was that no one ever knew how to do it.
His first actual information about the matter came from Famine; she had told him that everyone’s magic had a different way to ascend.
After receiving blood of fear and hunger, his magic still remained the same, only stronger; that meant the ritual needed had to be something much more fundamental.
"If blood magic is decided from the moment I was born, then no matter how many changes I go through, I’m still a human!" His thoughts were finally reaching the only conclusion that could work: "I must be reborn!"
At that time, right after he let go of Jade, the key to his ascension was clear as day; the problem was he didn’t have much time.
Or did he?
"What happens if I live like a parasite, inside my parasite?" The thought seemed irrational but possible. Despite that, he held the disappointed aura around his body; if he wanted to do it, half of it was going to be his acting.
He sent a message to the only person that he could trust that had the power to take him out if his plan worked: Save me at the right time.
"If he reincarnates from my body, in that planet there should be resources that can make him regain his levels, and the nearest one is my body!" With that he got to work; he made a copy of each of his memories, mixing them with his blood and hiding them as well as he could.
"They are just a chain of thoughts; how can they reproduce me?" His doubts grew; even if the plan succeeded, the chances of his soul returning were so slim.
As always, he searched for his solution in history, and soon he found it. The first models of artificial intelligence were made based on the human brain; the ones in the current era were much more complicated, but Ray didn’t need them.
One by one, the thoughts started to get connected, shaping a small brain in his blood system; it could barely reach the comprehension skills of a child, but Ray only needed it for one task: survive.
As a secret revealed itself to him, Ray found a way to hide inside perfectly. All he had to do was to just let the whole world know where the Pohn planet resided, and the parasite would be too busy to sense him.
Silence.
Without any emotion, Ray wondered in the empty void; he had died.
"Death is boring." He didn’t know how much time had passed. With no emotion, he waited; none of his senses worked any longer.
No one knew exactly what happened at the door of death; the chances of him turning into a devil were high, but at that point he was no longer Ray; he would have lost all of his memories and personality.
So he awaited and waited and waited. Time had lost its meaning; there might have been years passed in the world, or just seconds.
Unlike the last time, his mind didn’t think about his mistakes in life; this time around he had tried his best. If the plan succeeded, a new page in his life began, and otherwise this would be his end.
He stayed calm, having no control over his own future was devastating, but still he had done his best; his ability to think slowly left his soul as he traveled through the void.
Not much remained from him, only a thin soul without any strings to the real world. "Guess it didn’t work; it was a fascinating life after all." With that he prepared himself to be pulled into the door of nothingness.
Suddenly something pulled him back, not his own body but a new vessel.
You have ascended your magic; your new body will be ready soon.
With the new massage of the system, Ray’s soul returned into the veins of the parasite. His magic felt different, but there would be a time he could test them later.
The parasite still was in the middle of the fight, and Ray just stayed there, waiting for the system to do its job, and soon a force took him out of his host.
In essence his magic was still blood magic, but even as a newborn he could sense the difference, with dark hands making a defense around his body, he finally sighed out of relief.
"I did it... I fucking did it..."
The elves seemed to be way more advanced civilizations than them, he cheked their bodies and equipment, but the biggest thing that got his attention were two things: first the anti healing, it could have been the strongest weapon on earth by miles and the second the piercing magic. Orcus was strong, but against an armor that the parasite owned, it couldn’t do anything.
His old body too seemed to be in their hands, but he couldn’t care less about it anymore; already his new powers seemed to have a much stronger aura than his blood magic.
The only thing remaining was Orcus, and Ray let it remain in the hands of the elves; if he took it back later, much information about their civilization could be memorized inside that weapon by the time.
After a brief conversation, the dark hands teleported him back to where the Famine resided in hell.
"How much time has passed on earth?" Less than half an hour had passed since his death, but on a different planet it could have been centuries on earth. "Hope not."
While being teleported, he checked his system, and the first thing he saw made his eyes go wide.
The number written in front of his level was 8!