Chapter 84 – Chaotic mana
Matt walked into the laboratory and the door closed behind him.
CLACK!
The sound was small, but inside the laboratory it echoed more than it should have.
Matt went still for a second. The place was still the same. Too much the same.
Long tables of black stone. Shelves full of jars. Drawers with labels written in perfect calligraphy. Red crystals hanging from the ceiling to light up the room.
At the back, a bigger table with instruments Matt remembered never wanting to see again.
Matt felt a strange nostalgia.
Not pleasant. Not sad. Just strange.
That place had been important. There he had separated from Iris. There he had done something impossible. There he had gotten his body back, or a part of his life.
Matt pressed his lips together.
'Don't think about that.'
Nostalgia was a trap.
If he started remembering too much, he'd lose time.
And time was exactly what he didn't have.
Matt turned toward the door and slid the lock.
CLACK!
Then he rested his palm against the wood. Outside, the guards were still there. He couldn't see them. But he knew they hadn't left.
One was probably in front of the door. The other maybe was already moving toward the outer window, just as he had told them.
Matt swallowed and his heart started beating faster.
Matt stepped away from the door and walked over to the tables to open a drawer.
Empty.
He shut it and opened another. There he found small crystal containers, silver needles, clean bandages and a box of special chalk.
Matt took the box. Then he opened the next drawer.
"I need pure mana stones," Matt asked.
"How many?" Noxx asked.
"Three."
Matt kept searching.
He ran a hand over several containers until he found a smaller box, closed with a red seal that he lifted.
The seal recognized his blood.
VMMM!
The lid opened on its own. Inside were several blue and white stones, polished, glowing with a steady light.
Pure mana stones.
The same ones a person could use to absorb mana safely. Stabilize the flow. Recover and strengthen the body.
That was their normal use.
Matt took three and set them on the table. Then he went back to searching. This time he headed for a higher shelf.
There were jars of various colors. Dark red. Gold. Pale blue. Black. Purple. And a gray one with an unstable shine.
Matt looked at it and his expression turned more serious.
"There you are."
He took the jar carefully. The liquid inside was moving irregularly, even though Matt wasn't shaking it.
It wasn't water or ink. It was chaotic mana. A dye used in alteration rituals. Very expensive and dangerous.
Matt set the jar on the table and opened it.
The smell hit his nose immediately. It wasn't strong, but it was unpleasant.
Matt felt a jab in his head, but he took a stick of white chalk and dipped it in the dye.
The chalk absorbed the chaotic mana little by little until its color changed to a dark gray with purple lines.
Matt pulled it out and a drop fell onto the table.
PSSS!
The black stone let out a small thread of smoke. Matt looked at the mark. Then he sighed and crouched down to start drawing.
The chalk brushed against the floor.
The first line came out straight.
Then another.
Then a small symbol on the edge.
The chaotic mana left a dark mark on the stone, vibrating softly.
Matt remembered the previous ritual with Iris. Back then, it was only the two of them. Two souls fused. Two wills fighting inside the same body.
Iris wanted to take him. He wanted to separate.
The ritual opened the soul, marked the division and forced each part to take its own shape.
That time the main problem had been Iris, who didn't cooperate one bit.
She screamed. She pushed. She tried to interrupt the flow. She tried to break Matt's concentration in every possible way.
Matt drew another rune.
His hand trembled a little.
"Now it's different," he murmured.
"I know," Noxx assured.
"No. I don't think you know."
Matt traced a smaller circle inside the first one.
"Before it was just Iris and me."
The chalk kept moving.
"Now there's you."
Another symbol.
"And there's Sun, Moon and Aurora."
Matt stopped and looked at the circle.
The design was starting to take shape.
The souls and bonds inside him were no longer in a simple structure.
Noxx was in his mind. Sun and Moon were connected to him by contract, as was Aurora.
If the ritual failed, they could all die.
Matt gripped the chalk between his fingers.
Before, with Iris, that risk would have mattered less to him.
But now…
Matt swallowed.
"Matt," Noxx called.
He didn't answer.
"You have nothing to worry about."
Matt let out a nervous laugh.
"That's a lie."
"You completed the ritual with Iris before, even though she tried to interrupt in every possible way."
Matt closed his eyes for a moment.
"That doesn't reassure me."
"It should."
"No."
"This time nobody's going to interrupt you. We're going to help you."
Matt opened his eyes and went back to drawing.
The line came out better.
Noxx's voice continued:
"I don't want to disappear. And I don't want you to disappear."
Matt went still and didn't answer.
The chalk moved again.
Then he heard another voice.
"Master, keep going!" Aurora shouted.
Matt looked up slightly.
There was nobody in the room.
Of course.
But Aurora's voice sounded inside his head with an energy impossible to ignore.
"I'll help you. I'll make sure nothing goes wrong," Aurora promised. "I'll also try to make the distribution of powers as fair as possible."
Matt frowned, and a softer voice came after.
"I'll watch too," Moon offered. "If something bad happens, I'll try to step in."
Aurora snorted.
"Moon, don't get too excited. You're a newbie."
"Huh?" Moon protested. "But we both woke up at almost the same time!"
"First, I woke up first," Aurora bragged proudly.
Matt drew another rune.
"That was by very little."
"But it counts!"
Moon made an annoyed sound.
Aurora continued:
"Besides, Matt chose me first when he went into the cave."
"That doesn't mean you're superior."
"And he modified me."
Moon went quiet for a second.
Then she said:
"Show-off."
"I'm a realist."
"Show-off."
"Realist."
Sun spoke for the first time.
"Moon, calm down."
"But she's showing off," Moon complained.
"She's being Aurora," Sun answered.
"Exactly!" Aurora celebrated, as if that were a victory. "And unlike you two, who were on Matt's nightstand while he rested, I have many days of intense study going over Matt's memories."
Matt stopped and the chalk stopped touching the floor.
"What?"
The room went silent.
Aurora didn't answer right away. Matt looked up, even though there was no one to look at.
"How did you get access to that?"
Aurora cleared her throat.
"Master, we're running out of time..."
"That doesn't answer."
"Surely it's less than three minutes before those guards start knocking on the door and being annoying."
Matt narrowed his eyes.
"Aurora."
"The circle, master!"
Matt finally let out a low laugh.
"This is a disaster."
"But a controlled disaster!" Aurora replied.
"That doesn't exist."
"Of course it does!"
Sun spoke calmly:
"Master, Aurora is right about one thing. Time is limited."
Matt breathed in deeply. Then he crouched down again and finished drawing the outer line. Then he marked three points around the circle and placed a pure mana stone on each one.
The stones glowed immediately.
VMMM!
The white and blue light started running along the runes. The chaotic mana of the chalk reacted at the contact. The dark lines trembled, but didn't break.
Matt observed the circle.
It was working.
Too well.
That made him uncomfortable.
Last time it hadn't been like this.
Last time, the moment he set foot inside the circle, Iris's pressure almost forced him out.
Not now.
Matt frowned, but he stepped into the circle. The light climbed up his legs and he felt an unpleasant tingling at his ankles. Then at his knees. Then at his chest.
Matt sat down in the center and crossed his legs. He took a mana stone in each hand. The third stayed in front of him, aligned with his chest, and he closed his eyes.
"Don't distract me," Matt asked.
"Understood," Sun accepted.
"Yes," Moon murmured.
"Let's go, master!" Aurora shouted.
"That's distracting."
"Sorry."
Matt breathed.
Once. Twice. Three times.
The sound of the laboratory started to fade.
It didn't disappear. But it became less important.
Matt concentrated the mana from the stones into his hands.
The energy entered through his fingers.
Cold. Steady. Pure.
Then the chaotic mana from the runes responded from the floor. It climbed up his body in thin lines.
Not as energy to strengthen him.
Not as magic to attack.
It was something else.
Matt clenched his teeth.
'Steady.'
He breathed again and visualized his soul.
At first he only saw darkness.
Then a light.
Not outside him. Inside.
A wide, shining, irregular presence.
Matt moved closer carefully and swallowed.
His soul was no longer like before.
In the past, when he was fused with Iris, everything was white and red. Two colors mixed. Two presences fighting. Two wills tangled by force.
That had already been horrible.
But now…
Now his soul shifted colors.
White. Red. Blue. Gold. Orange.
The lights crossed one another. Some parts were separate. Others weren't.
The red ran deeper, spread across several points. The blue moved more calmly. The gold shone intensely and restlessly. The orange felt hot. And the white was still there, covering everything irregularly.
Matt felt his throat go dry.
'This is a lot worse than I expected.'
Matt tried to move toward one of the zones where the red and blue were touching. Not to cut. Just to understand.
The moment his will brushed against that part, pain ran through his body.
Matt opened his mouth and covered it with a hand before he could scream.
"Mmmph!"
The pain climbed from his chest to his head.
The mana stones in his hands trembled.
VMMM!
Matt squeezed his eyes shut.
He couldn't open them.
If he opened his eyes, it all went to hell.
The circle would break. The flow would cut off. And if that happened with the soul open, they could end up worse than before starting.
Matt breathed through his nose with difficulty.
'Damn it.'
"This looks complicated," Aurora commented.
Matt tensed.
Her voice sounded too close. Almost next to him.
Matt felt the urge to open his eyes.
He didn't.
He couldn't.
"Aurora," Matt let out through his teeth. "Where are you?"
"Next to you."
Matt gripped the stones harder.
The pain started coming down.
Slowly. Very slowly.
"Can you see this?"
"Yes."
Noxx spoke after:
"So can I."
Moon whispered:
"It's... really big."
Sun stayed silent.
That worried Matt more.
"Sun."
"I'm here," Sun assured. "I'm just observing."
Matt breathed again.
He tried not to think about how bad everything was.
He failed. But he didn't open his eyes.
"I can't separate all this without knowing where to start," Matt admitted.
Aurora made a thoughtful sound.
"Yeah. Separating so many souls tangled together looks pretty complicated."
Matt almost let out a laugh, but the pain in his chest stopped him. The circle kept vibrating beneath his body.
The runes were active. The pure stones were holding the flow. The chaotic mana kept opening small contact zones between the colors.
There wasn't much time.
Outside, the guards were probably already wondering why he still hadn't come out. Iris might have already reached the banquet. Or she might still be in some hallway being suspicious of everything.
The queen…
Matt didn't want to think about the queen.
Not now.
Matt focused on the lights again.
White. Red. Blue. Gold. Orange.
"Aurora."
"Yes, master?"
"Which soul do you think I should start separating with?"
Aurora went silent. Then she started to laugh. A clear laugh. Confident. Too happy for the moment.
"Isn't the answer obvious?"