116 Unwilling Teacher, Unwanted Student Part 2 (1/2)
Zane had achieved his goal, he easily procedured a rank 4 resource (Desmond) and the greatest cost to own it all was his pride. With great fortune in hand Zane began searching the inside of Desmond's body. Zane had placed his hand on Desmond's shoulder to begin his harvest as well as to ridicule Desmond.
It took mere moments for Zane to find his prize. Desmond's soul was beautiful to look at, but their was a horrid aura surrounding his soul. Zane was sick to his core just looking at how badly Desmond had been managing his soul. Desmond's soul was being influenced by the wills of the souls Desmond had consumed.
As the wills inside Desmond's soul conflicted it would lead to disastrous results for Desmond both physically and mentally. After thinking for a brief moment Zane took the best course of action and began harvesting Desmond's soul. Desmond had no idea what Zane was doing to him until Zane began taking apart Desmondas soul. Desmond let out an inhuman screech the moment Zane made the first slice.
Every instinct in Desmond's body made Desmond want to get away, but Desmond couldn't escape Zane's grasp. As Zane took pieces of Desmond's soul Desmond felt felt worse pain then when he cut off his own skin. It reminded him of when his soul exploded. The process was almost unbearable and when it was over Desmond felt as though hours had past while in actuality it had only been 10 seconds.
Desmond slumped over when Zane was finished. He heaved loudly and his body was beginning to sweat profusely. Some parts of his body were going limp as he found it difficult to control his meat suit while suppressing the other spirits inside of him. As Desmond struggled to keep himself together Zane quickly inspected Desmond's soul fragment.
Zane had expertly avoided every part of Desmond's soul that was facing corruption. Taking only the the purist parts of Desmond's soul which he promptly stuffed into his bird cage that vanished into the darkness of Zane's coat. As for the many wills Desmond had influencing him Zane left those alone. The corruption of Desmond's soul wasn't his problem to confront it was Desmond's. Plus to Zane the corruption of the many wills Desmond faced inside of him only benefited Zane because it ment Desmond would have to rely on him or Seraphine to help.
The purity of Desmond's soul while important to his plans was of little consern because Zane could cleans those impurities any time he wanted.
\”Help me\”.
Desmond saw what Zane had done and he excepted it because it was the price he had to pay for magic. While Desmond did accept it he also looked at the piece of him which he felt a strong connection to with sorrow in his eyes. The fragment contained Desmond's memories, his hopes, and his dreams. While Desmond was willing to give and do anything for magic this was the first time it dawned on him what his words truly ment.
That was simply the first of many tough choices Desmond was going to have to make. Desmond was gonna have to continuously give pieces of himself to Zane and by the time Zane had had his fill Desmond didn't know what would be left of himself or if he would even have the same obsession?
Zane seeing Desmond on the verge of breaking down took out a fist full of soul gems filled with purified intermediate level souls and crushed them in front of Desmond's face. The souls inside the gems floated up into the air, Zane was going to carefully feed the soul's to Desmond, but Desmond seeing many defenseless souls floating around felt hungry. Then as if upon instinct he unhinged his jaw and sucked all the souls in front of him into his mouth.
Desmond devoured the souls just like he did all the others aiding in the repair of his own. Zane viewed the way Desmond ate souls and was intrigued. Zane knew Desmond's soul mutated, but to what degree he did not know. The abilities Desmond displayed were possessed by different kinds of specters and creatures. It was rare there was something that possessed a mutated soul fire, devoured souls the way Desmond did, and shrieked like a banshee.
Zane was able to unveil more secrets about Desmond when he inspected Desmond's mouth. The inside of Desmond's mouth was perfectly normal. It was hot and moist with not a single tooth in sight. Zane was amazed by the sight before him because no matter were he looked Desmond's mouth was in pristine condition.
\”Incredible there's absolutely no damage inside your mouth. So that is your mutation, your soul fire altered your body during your transformation and now you can turn your body partly etherial. This is a great starting point for study\”. As Zane finished inspected Desmond he was certain Desmond was worthy of being grade 4 material.
Desmond after having his mouth violated by Zane right after Zane had his way with his soul let those matters go and focused on what was truly important to him, which was being fed.
\”More souls, please give me more souls\”.
Zane knew exactly why Desmond wanted more souls that's why his reply didn't beat around the bush and got straight to the point. \”No, I will not give you anymore souls to eat. Besides when you have to repair your soul you should never eat them\”.
\”What?\” Desmond was visibly pissed that Zane wasn't going to give him more souls. He was even more pissed hearing Zane wanted him to stop eating souls entirely.
\”Are you mad? Do you have any Idea the immense verity of flavors a single soul contains? It is the single piece of heaven I have found other then magic and demi-humans on this world I can't give that up\”.
Zane scoffed at Desmond's short sited foolishness then said, \”the souls that you eat make you stronger indeed, but they also corrupt you. After you devour one soul you will only wish to seek out another soul to consume. It is a bottomless pit of despair that will have you turning just as dumb and single minded as the normal wandering souls out in the world. If you had a way to fight off the wills of the souls inside of you that would be a different story. But after a while the same problem will arise again\”.
\”I can battle the wills inside of me?\”.
Desmond wasn't oblivious to everything he knew their was something wrong with him. He also knew about the gaps in his memory, lapses in judgement, along with the other problem that had been slowly arising since he started eating souls. But since Desmond had no way to fix the problem he left it as is.
\”Of corse you can, there are many different kinds of wills in the world and each are useful for different things. For instance star will is useful for deductions and thinking, fake will can manipulate others, so subtly the person you use it on will not know they are being influenced unless you tell them. Deliberate will can engrave a will's effect deeply into a target making it difficult to remove. A malicious will can cause harm and if done correctly kill a target\”.
Desmond's eyes twinkled after hearing such things. It made him speak like an eager child, \”how do I control wills, teach me\”.
\”You use wills every single of the day of your life. Every time you think or move you create and destroy them. You have just never utilized them to their maximum potential. An example of you using wills above normal is when your casting spells and giving them shape. As for me teaching you about those things I will not\”.
Desmond thinking that he heard wrong said, \”what did you say?\”.
\”I said I'm not going to teach you any thing I have better things to do\”.
Desmond couldn't believe what he was hearing. While stammering Desmond said, \”bu- but I gave you a piece of my soul\”.
\”Yes you did, but that doesn't mean I have to teach you anything personally\”.
\”But the binding circle it should have ...\”
\”The binding circle is valid I agreed to one thing and that was to teach you all that I know truthfully whenever you asked. Its not like I have to be here to do that or do it personally\”.
Zane rummaged threw his coat and pulled out an iron ball along with an oval jewel and a leather pouch which he handed to Desmond. The jewel bounded around in Desmond's hand then burrowed inside of his body. Desmond was shocked by what happened and tried tried to keep the jewel from going inside to no avail. The jewel was long gone Desmond couldn't find it even when he searched with his soul.
\”What was that thing\”
\”That thing will hide the age of your soul from others. It should stay on you always unless you want people like me to pay you an unexpected visit\”.
\”No, I'm good\”
\”As for the iron ball it shall be your teacher. It contains my will inside of it, but it also has limited capabilities since I just made it a minute ago. The leather pouch is a storage pouch inside of it is 25,000 magic crystals, 500 beginner grade magic cores, 500 intermediate grade magic cores, and 500 advanced magic cores\”.
\”Why are you giving me, so many magic cores?\”.
\”I wasn't going to give you anything originally, but your body is to weak to support further growth. Which limits the quality of your soul when I come to extract more of it. A problem I wouldn't have if you didn't neglect the basics for such a long time. By absorbing the cores you can increase the strength of your own. Which will provide a solid foundation for your next advancement and increase your magical reserves. With the magic cores you can also 'safely' tamper your soul. That will also help in mitigating the effect the wills have on you, but as a cost if you use the cores for that the magic core will break and you will not be able to absorb it increasing your foundation\”.
Once Zane stopped talking he reached out towards Desmond once more and performed a grabbing motion. As Zane closed his fist dozens of bugs flew out of Desmond's body into Zane's fist.
The way the insects burrowed out of Desmond's body left large gaping holes all over Desmond's body which quickly closed up.
\”What the hell was that?\”
Zane didn't feel the need to lie, so he told the truth.
\”That was plan B you know just in case I didn't get what I wanted. I put those inside of you when I healed you earlier\”. Seraphine saw Zane implant the insects inside of Desmond earlier, but did not try to stop him because she knew he wouldn't cross her bottom line.
\”If I didn't give you what you wanted what would you have done to me?\”. Desmond said with a bit of fear inside of him.
\”There's no reason to be worried I'm your master if you can't trust me then who can you trust. But you must remember other people won't have as much good will as me towards you, so you must never let random people treat your body. You should come straight to me instead I'll take good care of you\”. Desmond did not trust Zane's words he believed he would have been robbed of his soul regardless of what he said today.
Once Desmond finished his thought Zane's coat parted and more bugs flew out which all burrowed inside of Desmond. Desmond felt no pain as the bugs dug inside of him, but it mad him shiver to his core knowing that there was a, bunch of bugs inside of him.