Chapter 104: Soul Casting
Lord Griffon held for several hours, granting the army a chance to recover from the battle. I seized the opportunity to cast several healing spells, recovering enough of my mana by the time we broke camp to completely restore even the worst burns.
As I traced my fingers over the soft, new skin of my shoulder, I couldn’t help but sigh. As predicted, the Sunpurge refused to respond to magic, its surface glowing gently and throbbing at the softest touch. Unlike traditional scars, it left my skin perfectly smooth and whole, yet laced with a series of golden lines and markings. It was similar to a tattoo, or the slave crest for that matter.
Fortunately, it was quite literally skin deep and failed to touch my soul or hamper my movements too much. Riven claimed it would act up if I ever tried exerting myself in combat or hard manual labor, but I didn’t see that sort of thing happening. It wasn’t like I was strong enough to do that kind of thing in the first place, much less now that I was permanently afflicted.
The Sunpurge encircled my shoulder and crept down my upper bicep, igniting at the slightest brush of my sleeve. Upon seeing my discomfort, Riven slit my sleeve down the seam, freeing the area, and promised to ask Lord Griffon for a suitable garment once we returned.
As the march got underway, I took refuge from the murky monotony of the swamp by revisiting our fight in the Core Chamber. The Demons had exhibited a staggering power for their level, casting magic and using abilities on par with our own. The more I thought about it, the less sense the internal casting seemed the sole cause. Perhaps it had something to do with their proximity to the core, or that we were in their dungeon.
Even so, it was irrefutable that their internal use of mana was superior to Enusia’s common external practices. The basilisk proved that as well. Not only did it make interference almost impossible, but there was absolutely a strengthening effect. But, even with the Eyes of Fate, I was unable to properly observe their methodology and came away with only a handful of ideas.
The Sun Magic poisoning my soul took several hours to purge, but the instant I recovered, I began testing my many theories. At first, I attempted to cast spells in my soul using the same techniques for creating the magic circles further away from one’s body. I quickly discarded the idea, however, when it became clear that the soul had no discernible location and existed in a dimension of its own. While attached to my body, who could say if it really existed within?
After cycling through several failed attempts, I began to get the idea that perhaps my premise was wrong. Every time I withdrew mana for a spell, it left me with no discernable way to return it to my soul. And despite their abundant use of spells and abilities, I never once caught sight of the demon’s mana or their magic circles. What if it had never left their soul to begin with?
With that in mind, I began stimulating my mana internally, cycling it around in the same paths as when I trained. The flow was there, yet I could do no more than simply feel the magic. Anytime I managed to isolate a thread of mana, the currents of my soul swept it away, battering through any resistance I offered.