by John Gold
“Healthy body, healthy mind.”
If you only knew how much that means to me right now…
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Finishing up the bases for the seal takes another ten hours. Femida is obviously bored, taking her stress out on the poor monsters in the area. Judging by the explosions, she’s giving her javelin a trial by fire.
The only part of the enormous seal left is the one responsible for Da’at, with no direct connections to any of the elements.
I’m staring blankly up at the ceiling as I lie on the glass floor. Nothing’s coming to mind. But even without noticing it, I merge all eleven of my streams of consciousness into a brain storm focused on what I know about the Gray Lands. My mind goes empty, I lose any sense of my own body, and I dive deeper into my thoughts.
The demons in Hell mentioned that the Gray Lands are on the other side of the shroud. That means that Hell is part of them—a location within a location. Given that there’s just one shroud for all the nine levels of Hell, it’s safe to assume that the location doesn’t have a clearly defined physical form or portal connection between the levels. They’re all on one plane. I also know that the souls of the dead go straight to the Gray Lands. To quote Hela, at least, that’s what our gods say. So, what do we have? Deity, Life, Mind, Space, and Da’at, where the soul goes after the physical body dies. The physical and mental bodies are linked. Deity, really, is an astral essence that can create a shell in the material world. It’s tied to believers and their souls such that when they lose their physical body, they’re sent to the world of the dead. That means that I need divine energy to activate the key. I think I get it. I’m not sure if this is what the creators of the key had in mind, but I can try to make a tattoo of Sefirot on my body. The kill will be used to make the ink, at least, if it dissolves in blood. Maybe, I just need to stick it in the right place in the seal.
Okay, so where am I supposed to get divine energy? Although… I have divine energy! On the outside, it’s converted to mana, but I usually feel it as a tingling throughout my whole body.
There are two big “ifs” in my theory: using the key and activating it. Screw it! Most importantly, I now know how to describe the relationship between Da’at and the rest of the main Sefirot seal. That’s enough to finish the job.
As I’m drawing out the rest of the elements, I realize why I went to Hell and Leon became a god way back when. They used the same seal, just without the key. All you need is divine energy to open the interworldly portal, with the victim in the area of Da’at responsible for Hell, and the person into whom the bit of divine energy enters becomes a god. Essentially, they lose their physical shell, after which an unbreakable connection to the astral is formed. That’s what sends the soul to the Gray Lands. Suddenly, I have an idea for how to get my terrible revenge, and I know how to make it happen. I’m a walking altar!
The finished drawing is so complex that I have to transfer it over onto an entire roll of paper. The scroll I come up with is enormous, and I destroy everything else I have for the seal. The lab itself gets closed up.
By the evening, we’re stopping by the Sural administrative building for a visit. At least, the second floor, which is where Bor’s shop is. The tattoo artist doesn’t recognize my name, though he certainly recognizes his handiwork.
“Ha! And I thought you were rotting in some jail. Even the gods came looking for you five years ago—everyone wanted to know why you came to see me.”
“What did you tell them?”
“Like I said then, the only reason I’m alive is because I know how to hold my tongue. But forget me—you didn’t stop by to ask questions. Do you have another challenge for my skills and mastery?”
“I’m assuming your skill is up to 1000, and your mastery has grown significantly.”
Bor closes the door and hangs up the closed sign. He can’t wait to hear what I have for him.
“Let’s see it! What do you need me to do this time? Don’t worry, there are a dozen amulets hanging around protecting us from eavesdroppers and seeker spirits. Everything you say will remain between us.”
I drop the meter-long scroll with the world’s most complex seal on the desk.
“I certainly do have another challenge for you, Bor. How much is it going to run me?”
Dear Sagie. To make sure I don’t traumatize your psyche, I’m just going to say that the sum was astronomical to the point that I had to kick a yelling Femida out of the room. I was prepared to pay any price for my ticket to the Gray Lands. And I don’t regret that decision in the least.
I spend sixteen hours every day for the next week in the tattoo artist’s shop. All the little tattoos that have served me well over the past eight years are moved from my back to other parts of my body, and the enormous, complicated seal is tattooed there, covering everything from my neck to my tailbone. From a distance, it looks something like an egg with a triple shell and a jumbled mess inside. After I give the money to Bor, he gives some serious thought to retirement. It would be enough to last him the rest of his life.
I’m glad I had the chance to visit his shop. And it isn’t just that the bonuses from the tattoos increase with his skill. I’m able to pick up a boost to two new attributes, as all of strength, agility, and intellect jump 34%. Sefirot gives me 10%, while the other twenty-four tattoos give me 1% each.
The whole time I was lounging around in Bor’s shop, Femida was hunting at the bottom of the sea. She uses any available minute to make up the difference between our levels and earn money. And I can’t help but respect her for that.
Over the next month, we’re able to earn more money for the ingredients we harvest from the trees at the center of the desert. The flowers, which grow in a world of 25 million damage split into two types, are a huge hit. Femida bumps the price up by 30%, and our customers still can’t get enough. It’s a good thing they don’t know who they’re actually working with. The outfits from the clinic are still doing a good job hiding our names.
We grow one more tree at the top of Erumanti, a volcano. Once our resistance to fire is up to 100%, we head back to the center of the desert to max out our resistance to mental damage. That all takes us about two weeks. The remaining three are spent at the bottom of an enormous underground gorge, where we boost our resistance to cold and electricity. It’s purported to be a great fishing spot in the Far North. And that turns out to be true—Femida goes around collecting the dead fish after each lightning strike. I follow her around and fire electric charges at her. The whole thing happens two kilometers down in pitch darkness under a floating island—very romantic. Working on our resistance together in the unique climes of the Far North…what could be better?
I don’t hold back with the bolts of lightning, firing away with 20-25 million damage so I can turn around and heal the same amount. My resistance climbs faster thanks to the fact that my lightning seals hit me with a 10% recoil. Because of that, we’re able to get our resistance to electricity where it needs to be in just ten days. Femida doesn’t say a word the whole time. All she does is collect fish silently, probably envying them their quick fate. They die in the first second; she has to suffer for ten long days.
Isaac clowns around the best he can. Even the penguins get so tired of him that they kick him out of their waddle, and I can tell he kind of misses Slender.
We aren’t able to get to the North Pole. About a kilometer away, the cold skyrockets, so we stop there and grow an enormous pine tree. I use my panacea spell once every two hours to give it powerful growth spurts. My own strength is enough to heal us both no matter the damage being thrown at us, so I spend my astral source on the panacea.
I like watching Femida spend days training in the snow. Isaac, on the other hand, just has fun. He makes snowmen, build snow forts, and throws snowballs at us. Once every ten minutes, Femida has to put him on so he doesn’t rust and the metal isn’t ruined.
I have two days left until my meeting with the archmage, and we finally have our resistance to col
d up to 100%.
There’s just one more debt I need to pay in Kkhor. Femida decides that she’s going to spend the rest of the time right next to me, though it takes us more than thirty hours running around the astral to find a portal close to Kkhor. Finally, we’re dumped out a hundred meters from the port, so it takes just ten more minutes to get where I need to go.
My favorite supervisor is sitting at the reception desk for the Academy of Magic. He’s wearing the same clothing he was six months ago, and he’s looking just as happy with the world as ever.
“Oh, it’s my wonderful student! You decided to come back for a visit? Maybe, you’re ready to duel for your next rank? You should be a master by now!”
“No, Anri, I’m here to see you. Have you thought about removing your curse?”
The mage smiles sadly, his emotions laced with regret. The curse has his internal organs, his limbs, and his sensory organs occasionally failing, and it’s a miracle that he, just a normal person, has even lived this long.
“I’m only telling you this so it will be a lesson to you. Yes, I’ve thought about it and would love to remove it. But when I was young, I forsook the gods when they didn’t want to heal me. I believed in nothing but strength! In magic and in collaboration, yes, but not in blind adoration of the gods. Then, I grew older and wiser. I wasn’t able to find a woman who would accept me and my curse. My children would inherit it, after all. The entire island I lived on died more than thirty years ago, and Life Magic was the reason I was the lone survivor. Basically, what I’m trying to tell you is this: take what’s offered. Relationships, even with the gods, are built on trust that grows gradually over time. They may one day agree to do for you what you most want in the world. But now, I’m an old life mage with a curse hanging over my head who can but guide young mages along the path of truth and joy. It isn’t much, but it’s a life!”
“Do you want to get rid of the curse?” I hold my hand out, almost as if I’m concluding a deal with the devil.
The mage misunderstands me—he thinks I’m saying goodbye.
“Yes. Good luck to you in your search for the truth.”
“Panacea!” A life-giving warmth floods from my arm. “As a life mage, I already found the truth.”
The pallor vanishes from his face; hair sprouts from the top of his head. Instantaneously, he starts losing weight until he looks around forty. His life mage robe drapes over him shapelessly, and his emotions… Confusion, happiness, real joy. He smiles.
“Anri, eight months ago, right here, I met someone who let me become a mage. He gave me shelter, friendship, and a job. It was you who gave me the ability to realize my dream, the most important goal I have in this life. You’ve shown thousands of mages in the academy the way to the straight and narrow. Don’t think of yourself as useless—you’re just forty! You’re enjoying the moment of your greatest power. I’ve reached the heights of magic, heights no other wanderers could even dream of, thanks to Life Magic. Panacea, the spell I used to lift the curse and heal your maladies, it is highest spell. Believe in your own strength, not in the gods.”
He wants to give us something, but we quietly leave as soon as he turns away. My last debt is paid. Now, it’s time to start collecting.
***
There hadn’t been a single serious crime in Airis Castle over the previous six months. Leon had toughened the penalties in place at the clan’s main stronghold, and Airis had actually become a city. Thousands of locals and other players started showing up. The new measures were precautions taken during the invasion of the undead that helped tighten the bonds the clan enjoyed with the other gods. Trade flourished, and new channels connecting Airis with the other cities were built.
Over that time, Leon had a new mind mage working in his security service. Kirk was an investigator and scout who was able to apply his skills to his work. It was his job to make sure the clan’s main buildings were free of seeker spirits, and he lost his free time the minute he joined the clan. His mornings were for work, his afternoons for boosting key skills and handling an endless flow of assignments, and his evenings, straight through until he fell asleep, focused exclusively on his skills. He got a quick break in the barracks’ social room before bed.
Leon and Nate insisted that he live in the barracks. It might have appeared as though Kirk had been thrown into slavery or the army, but a wiser person would have understood that it was all for his own benefit. He simply had no time to feel lonely. There was so much work to do that he sometimes just couldn’t get enough sleep, in fact. Nate kept an eye on him—as soon as one job was finished, he was handed another. And no matter how much Kirk wailed about it, he was having the time of his life. He was the detective assigned to a group of experienced fighters, so somebody always had his back if a fight broke out.
Right then, he was updating the protection for the room the treasurers were in. It was supposed to have ten layers of protective magic, and Kirk was only on the first. While even the storehouse only got five, the treasurers themselves got ten layers. Nobody was going to be listening in on them.
The head of security dashed into the corridor. He was agitated, his glance darting around as if looking for someone.
“Kirk, there you are! Go check the main entrance to the castle. There’s a chance we’re going to be hit with a mental attack today.”
“Who? How strong? How many mana crystals should I take with me?”
“The Gordona clan. You just head straight to the gate; everything you need will be there waiting for you.”
A second later, the head of security disappeared into the flash of a portal. Kirk’s group perked up and started to change into their combat outfits. They’d been in their civvies, which made sense—they were in the city, and nobody was going to attack them there. Unless it was a mental attack…
Two warriors slipped on the armor of paladins in Leon’s order. Mirania, a priestess of light, grabbed her battle mage outfit. Even Sit and Radidz, the jokesters, were soon wearing their killer clothes.
Silence hung in the room. The priestess and killers turned invisible, leaving just the two paladins to stand there waiting for Kirk so they could head toward the gate. The dumbfounded kid slowly started to realize that he’d been prepared for exactly that day—that’s why his squad had revealed their true identities to him. Whether he wanted to or not, he was going to have to see what was at the gate.
While they were walking to the gate, the thoughts swirling slowly in his head started to sort themselves out. Something important was about to happen, and the Gordona clan was just a pretext.
Nobody was at the gate. Kirk started checking the castle for seeker spirits and setting up mental first strike shields.
Everything was quiet. It was almost as though the streets had been evacuated, to the point that he could hear the sand rustling and the paladin’s chainmail jingling a couple of meters to his left.
Just in case, he looked around the castle wells to see if there were any signs of a magic siege. Nothing there either.
Silence. Complete silence.
When the mind mage turned around, however, he found himself face to face with the player the whole world was looking for.
“Hi, Kirk. I see you found yourself some new friends. Lots and lots of new friends.”
Kirk replied with everything a mind mage might have in his arsenal: a mental hammer, horror instilled, an astral vampire, and even a canna spear, the ability for the third mastery level.
But his opponent was too close, and everyone there was hit with the shock wave from the powerful astral spell. Only Femida, who was watching from behind Sagie, stood there unperturbed.
Human, Sagie, Mage, Level 2515
“This is presumably ‘Bloody Sagie’s savage attack on Castle Airis.’ Soon, there will be a couple of hundred bodies screaming to avenge the remains of the poor people I killed. Then, a group of eyewitnesses will say something about how I made them watch as I carved up the bodies. Brutal. And there you were, a brave warri
or heroically defending the castle from the attack. Bravo!”
That monologue gave Kirk enough time to save up sufficient mana to activate the two abilities he got for his ranks of scholar and apprentice.
They were reverse shield and soul-sucking. The shield wrapped itself around Sagie…and burst. The snake draped itself around his neck, though it couldn’t bite through the defenseless skin. It was only then that Kirk remembered Sagie’s mental modification and 50% resistance to mental damage.
A column of light struck from the heavens, and a barrage of lightning bolts rained down from the wall. The mages in the castle fired off everything they had. Kirk was protected by a paladin from the shock wave, while a crater formed around Sagie. Both he and Femida, however, stood tall, not budging an inch. The mages stopped shooting their spells.
“What a dilemma. I could kill all of you, but then I’d have people saying that I was the one who attacked.”
“You’re a murderer! I saw with my own eyes how you killed hundreds of innocent people, and I’m going to make you answer for it!”
“You don’t have any clue what you did. You want me to answer for the people I killed? The victims I took? It’s all because of you! It’s all your fault! You’re the one who found Femida; you’re the one who released the beast. All of this is because of you.”
Nate showed up behind Kirk with a suppression group.
“Don’t listen to him—he’s trying to manipulate you. Don’t listen to him!”
Sagie just smiled.
“Kirk, those innocent people you mentioned, do you mean the ones killed by the meteor?”
“Yes! I saw the body of my girl. Do you know what it’s like to bury the person you love the most? What it’s like to see their blood on your hands? You’re a murderer!”
“No, I don’t know what burying loved ones is like—even that was taken from me. Hey, what do you know about the house that was here at the very edge of the castle’s force field? Why was I allowed in when the undead weren’t? After all, everyone says I was on the side of the dark gods.”