36 Manifestation (1/2)
I nodded my head, slow and somber before standing and walking out of the room. For some odd reason, listening to strange voices that only I could hear sounded like a bad idea. I walked up and out of my room before pacing back into the main one. I leaned against the table before saying,
”Yo Torix, I just heard a voice in my head. Figured you could help me figure out what the fuck it was.”
Torix squinted his eyes, ”A voice? You mean like Etorhma?”
”Naw, raspier and more like someone young than old, if that makes any sense. That was the vibe I got from it at least.”
Torix cupped his chin, ”Well then. There are many likely culprits to the voice's manifestation. Most likely, it is the embodiment of suppressed thoughts or feelings that you've been neglecting over the course of a long period of time. It could have something to do with your armor as well-”
”The voice said I should eat everyone around me. It also said it was the voice of my armor.”
”Your armor is a part of you, so it is most likely what I first mentioned. You are suppressing yourself, and this is the aftermath of said suppression.”
I sighed, ”Thanks for all the help.”
I turned to leave back into my room before Torix grabbed my arm and said, ”Wait a moment before you leave. I just thought of a suggestion for spending your time.”
”What?”
Torix released me, ”You see, stress can cause oddness in thought and action. Learning to handle stress is essential for all facets of life. You would be helped tremendously by managing it. I'd suggest a hobby of some kind.”
I crossed my arms, ”A hobby? My hobby is fighting.”
Torix shook his head, ”You would likely benefit from something with a more artistic appeal. Say, a craft of some sort perhaps.”
I nodded before walking back out of the room. Torix leaned back onto his blob of black mana. He said, ”Perhaps doing so around people may help as well?”
I sighed before turning around. I leaned on the hallway's doorframe as I said, ”Why are you so caring all of the sudden?”
”You are hearing voices, Daniel. Best we stamp this out sooner rather than later. Hiding in your room, alone and with plenty of time to think may not be the best way of handling the problem either.”
I glanced up before shrugging, ”Eh, yeah. You're probably right.”
I walked back into the room before sitting at one of the benches. For a few minutes, I just sat there without knowing what to do. My gaze wandered around the room as I daydreamed for a while. I found myself staring at the runes around the room.
The sentences melded together, becoming a sort of symphony on the wall. The sound boomed in my ears as I gazed and listened to them. So much complexity was hidden within the words, like each letter was its own little world. It was like I was gazing at stars in space instead of marble engravings in a room.
Each ball of fire circled with planets around them as I glanced closer. These balls of light formed solar systems then constellations and galaxies. At the center of the room was a pristine galaxy with the stars laid out in great detail. I stood and walked towards the center of the room before reaching out a hand.
The galaxy enlarged, revealing a vibrant, green earth covered in life. Giants roamed the hills. Throngs of insects covered barren fields. Endless desserts stretched along even vaster wastelands. Kessiah's voice snapped me out of my trance,
”You feeling better then?”
I glanced around, finding myself leaning over the pool of mana at the center of the room. The ripples in it bending the light on Kessiah's smile.
”Uh, yeah. I'm feeling better about the whole thing with my friends. They were trying to use me anyway. Fuck them.”
”If what Torix said is right, then you may be more bothered than you think. But yeah, your friends were leeches.”
She wasn't wrong, but the words stung a little all the same. I turned my head towards her, ”It hasn't affected me as much as I imagined it would. I shrugged it off pretty easily.”
Kessiah leaned against the pool's outer rim with me, ”Maybe how you've specced yourself is why. How's the build going anyway?”
”Build?”
”Yenno, your stats and stuff.”
I tilted my head back at the realization, ”Oh, yeah. Of course you meant that. My build's going good. I invested my level 100 perks into endurance and willpower. It paid off big time not long after.”
”Really now? That's very unusual. I put them into the big three for warriors. Strength, constitution, and endurance. Worked for me.”
”What did strength and constitution give you?”
”More of the same really. Stronger and tougher. How about willpower? I think I heard about it before, but it's been a long time since someone told me what it did.”
”It's that rare?”
”Yeah. Combat oriented perks usually take precedent.”
”Damn. Well willpower did more of the same and made my augmentation affinity better. It saved my ass versus Elijah.”
”You mean Elijah Joan? You lived against him?”
”Well, yeah. The hardest part was resisting his voice.”
Torix turned his head towards us, listening in. Kessiah moved her hand through the liquid mana, sending more ripples of light through the room. She said,
”That's good to know. Surprised you handled that at all. I expected you would snap under the pressure.”
”Yeah, thanks for the support.”
”Just being honest.”
Torix turned his chair around and said, ”Daniel, you said you resisted the voice of Elijah?”
”Er, yeah.”
”Would you mind elaborating?”
”His voice had this weird tone to it, like I couldn't say no.”
Torix stood, ”Was that your first time resisting a voice like that?”
For some reason, I didn't feel like telling the truth. My gut was telling me that Torix was hiding something, but I continued, ”Yeah. It was.”
Torix's eyes narrowed, ”I find that hard to believe.”
I shrugged, ”Eh, it was my first time hearing a weird voice like that. I think the leveling perk for perception hadn't given me enough perceiving power before the explosion of levels I gained from fighting Yawm's minions.”
Torix's eyes loosened up, ”Hmmm. That was a rather high number of levels to gain so suddenly.”
”Yeah. This next raid should be even better for us.”
”Indeed.”
Torix sat back down in his mana blob of a chair before turning back around. He leaned onto the table, ”Excuse my intrusion. Carry on.”
I sighed internally, ”Yeah, but Elijah looked tough as fuck. I can't even imagine what Yawm's like.”
Kessiah pushed herself off the edge of the mana pool as she said, ”You'll get a taste when we head out next time. I'm sure he's as terrifying as you think he is.”
I turned back towards the center of the mana pool. I stared for a moment before saying, ”These runes come together real well. It makes some far off galaxy.”
Kessiah glanced at it with me, ”The runes can form pictures if you can read them and focus hard enough. See that center point. That's where we're going.”She turned to me, ”You ready big man?”
”Hell no.”
She giggled, ”Come on. You already saw what Yawm can do.”
”What can he do?”
”All kinds of things. His name gives away some of his powers, but the specifics aren't really documented well. He has a way of turning people over to his side over time.”
”Yeah, like putting a squirming bug into them and have it move them like a puppet made of meat.”
”Well, yeah. Some people have speculated that Yawm wasn't actually a normal sentient race, but a member of treants or something. They say he has a vendetta against all moving life. Other rumors say he's actually some kind of eldritch. No one knows.”
”He was an avatar of Etorhma that went insane over time. He wants to mold the old ones, the eldritch, and people into one thing. I'm sure most of his powers come from his experiments with just that.”
Kessiah raised an eyebrow, ”Who told you that bit about being an avatar or whatever?”
”Etorhma.”
”Maybe we can use that. You're an avatar now right? He would probably hunt you down too.”
I shook my head, ”Naw, you have to accomplish whatever task it is that he gives you first. Then he gives you some of his essence or some shit. I don't really know.”
Kessiah raised herself up off the pool of mana, ”Sounds like he'd be hunting you down even without Althea. Good thing we're here to keep you from flying off the rails.”
I nodded, ”Yeah. Thanks. It's nice having someone to talk to. Keeps me out of my head.”
She slapped my back, ”What are friends for anyway. Come on, you look like you need something to take yourmind off of everything.”
She pulled me towards a back room before we walked into her room. Crazy thoughts flew through my mind before she pointed at a pile of crumpled black metal.
”That's the metal we peeled off you during the surgery. Your armor kept reforming on top of the shards, so we have plenty of it. Throwing it away seemed like a waste. Why not see if you can make something with it, or practice your rune stuff. You look pretty serene when you're staring at those symbols.”