35 Chapter Thirty-Five: Siran (2/2)
More time passes as Jack continues practicing magic with Naris, as well as completing more summoning charms. Each time a charm was completed, the time to complete a charm was shortened. Because of the Endoindustria growing in the real world with each new charm completed, it became easier to channel the energy into the charms. All the while, Jack also continued practicing absorption magic on his own in secret. Eventually, Naris and Jack went to go complete one last summoning charm.
”This will be the last one” Naris says, ”for once this is done, the two realms will exist within the same plane of existence. You'll then have enough Endoindustria to teach the world how to use it efficiently”.
”What about you?” Jack asks, ”what are you going to do when this is all done?”.
”I'll go on about my own business” Naris says, ”my job here will be complete”.
However, things wouldn't go as planned as the final charm was finished. When the charm was fully charged, the charm was burned into the ground like usual, but the ground soon began rumbling. As Jack looks over, he finds Naris, who used to be no larger than his own hand is now a giant whose head reaches the heavens. Naris grows into a long serpent-like creature that appears as if it's body is made of jet black smoke that grew larger and larger until a giant beast hails over the heavens.
”You damn stupid fool!” Naris hisses, ”In your selfishness, you've only helped me achieve my goal alone, and now you will face ruin”. Jack stares up at this creature, first in shock, then in awe. ”I've taught you everything you know. I've given you everything and I will take it away!” Naris howls.
”Not everything!” Jack shouts as he raises his arms in preparation. He was shaking with fear and confusion. Just when Jack thought he found someone he could befriend, he was betrayed.
”What are you planning?” Naris scoffs, ”magic? Please! Magic is uselsss against me! You may be the only human so far who knows magic, but have you forgotten who gave you magic? ME! AND I CAN TAKE IT AWAY!”.
Siran just raises one of his index fingers and gestures at the beast to challenge him, all while uncontrollably shaking. Naris grows angry and throws walls of black magic and pure force at Jack. Jack digs his feet deep into the earth, and begins absorbing the magic and body of Naris as well.
”You!” Naris howls, ”You trickster! You damned fox! You brat!” As Naris yells, more of its body is absorbed and this strange light forms on Jack's back. The light forms into a new shape, similar to a charm, but not any Jack was familiar with. Without warning, Jack suddenly feels a sharp pain and the light carved itself into Jack's back, forming a mark that will become a permanent scar on his skin.
”I curse you!” Naris yells, ”I curse you with a new appearance that you will never shed! This is your curse! Your punishment for your trickery!”.
Jack stops absorbing Naris's body and collapses onto his knees as he vomits blood, then collapses onto his back. ”This is the end for you!” Naris howls as his giant fist hurls towards Jack's weakened body. The fist meets the earth with an impact strong enough to cause an earthquake. But when Naris raises his fist, Siran's body was nowhere to be found. Just blood, and a lot of it.
Time passes as Jack then finds himself in a white void, seemingly floating through nothing as visions flash through his mind. Many voices ring through his ears all at once until all the voices seem to say the same thing. ”Wake up!”.
Jack wakes up and looks around this endless white void. There was no one to be found anywhere. ”W-where am I? What happened to Naris?” Jack asks.
A woman's voice is heard this time, as she says ”Naris was never your friend, human. As for where, you're in Valhalla. I need to speak with you”.
”...what?” Jack asks. ”Valhalla?”.
”You can call this the endo realm” the voice says, ”for this is the world that exists within your world. Some may think of it as the realm of the gods. My name is Gaia”.
”Gaia?” Jack asks. ”Wait, you mean goddess of nature, Mother Earth Gaia?”.
”The very same” Gaia replies.
”Where are you?” Jack asks, ”I can hear you, but I can not see you”.
”And you never will be able to see me” Gaia says. ”Your human mind can not comprehend the integrity of this realm, so right about now, probably all you can see is light and nothing else. You must be Jack, the one who assisted Naris in his quest to conquer the realm of mortals”.
”Assisted him?” Jack asks, ”No! All I did was use charms to bring magic to life!”.
”Those were not charms” Gaia says, ”nor were they summoning spells. Those were seals. Seals that were put in place to separate mortals from the immortal. Thousands of years ago, all gods left Earth in the hands of humanity, and we retreated to a realm of our own. That's what this place is. The energy we use to create, called Endoindustria, fills this place up. The Endoindustria you're familiar with is an inactive and less efficient form of real Endoindustria, which appears as a black smoke. While our world that may appear as just white light is made purely of reactive Endoindustria. When you use magic, you were really borrowing a microscopic piece of our power. As punishment for releasing the seals, I bestow upon you a quest”.
”A quest?” Jack asks.
”I want you to fix what you have started” Gaia says. ”I doubt a human could fix the broken seals, but the real matter at hand is Naris. He used you to access an unlimited source of power, and now runs rampant in your world. You must defeat Naris, and stop the world from being destroyed”.
”But how can I do that?” Jack asks. ”That's impossible!”.
”That's your problem to solve” Gaia says, ”for we can not interfere. We left the Earth in the hands of you humans, now you must prove your competence”.
”Wait, how long have I been asleep?” Jack asks as he realizes what happened. He remembered seeing Naris attack him, but then he suddenly woke up here. ”How'd I get here?” He asks.
”I pulled you here” Gaia replies. ”As for how long you've been asleep, would you prefer the time in our world, or human time?”.
”Human time... please” Jack says.
”It's been over a year” Gaia says. ”Your world is a mess, and every minute you spend here, your world is further destroyed. Obviously you haven't noticed your appearance yet”.
”My... appearance?” Jack asks as he looks at his hands. The area beneath him becomes a reflective pool, much like a liquid mirror. Jack leans in close and sees that his skin has become a dark ash like color. As well as his hair has turned a silvery white, his finger nails had grown into small claws, the sclera of his eyes (the whites of his eyes) had turned jet black, his iris on both eyes had turned a bright glowing red, and what looked like very short horns had grown on his forehead. ”W-What happened to me?” Jack asks.
”You've been cursed with a spell similar to a shapeshifting spell” Gaia says. ”Naris has changed you into an appearance that will not be familiar in the human world. It's likely he expected you to find a way to escape death... that or he felt pity for you and allowed you to escape. It's also likely that his reason for changing your appearance like this is to make it harder for humans to accept you if you try to help them”.
”So is Naris... from this realm?” Jack asks.
”That is correct” Gaia says. ”When I pulled you into this realm, I had to save your life. You were dying from the sheer amount of Endoindustria you absorbed into yourself, so to counteract this, I intricately fused the Endoindustria into your body. Your body now uses the Endoindustria as another source of energy to live off of, as well as the Endoindustria in your body is so high in quantity, that it's preventing your body from aging”.
”Does that make me... immortal?” Jack asks.
”In a way” Gaia says, ”you can no longer die of aging, but you can still die by any other means. Enough of the chat, it's time for you to go. But before I send you back, I'm curious. Since you've been here and now know about the existence of gods, what do you think about religion and afterlife?”.
”I'm not religious” Jack says, ”and seeing the existence of gods doesn't change that. I don't think of religion as believing in one's own ideas, but merely believing in someone else's ideas. However, you said this is the realm of gods before, so I guess this still doesn't answer whether or not there is a such thing as an afterlife”.
”Clever human” Gaia says, ”and would you like to know about the possibility of an afterlife?”.
”Not really” Jack says. ”It's mind boggling enough to hear that gods exist, and I'm still wrapping my mind around that. But at the same time, I think there's things we humans do not need to know. Although I don't follow a religion, I'm not looking forward to fighting for the sake of religion. Leave that a mystery”.
”I think you're my new favorite human” Gaia says. ”Time to send you back. Perhaps, we'll meet again”.
When Jack wakes up, again, he finds himself in the forest near his neighborhood where he lived. When he looks over towards the neighborhood, he finds the area barren. No more houses, no more backroads, no more people and no more family. Everyone was gone. Jack fell to his knees in shock. The world was in worse condition than he first thought. However, Naris was nowhere in sight. Only part of the forest remained, but was slowly dying as the grass around the first seal slowly turned black. Suddenly, a group of people armed with rifles and backpacks full of food and canteens came across Jack. They pointed their firearms at Jack in response to his appearance. To them, he seemed to not be from this world.
”Who are you?” A man asked Jack, ”we saw you come from some sort of portal, so you must be from the place that beast is from. Answer us or we'll be forced to shoot!”.
Jack put his hands up in surrender. ”I can't tell them my real name” Jack said to himself. ”They won't possibly believe me if I told them I'm from here. I have to think of something”. Finally, Jack stood up as he said to them ”I'm... Siran. I've come to this world in order to fight off the beast known as Naris”.
”Is he from your world!?” The man demanded.
”That is... correct, unfortunately” Jack replies. ”That's why I've come to help. It's my... responsibility”.
”And your full name?” The man demands.
”It's just... Siran” Jack replies.
”Well Siran” The man says as he lowers his weapon, ”this mess better be fixed before we're all annihilated. Otherwise, the death of this world is on your hands”.