85 Grimoire (2/2)

Even with my enhanced concentration, the ebb and flow of mana coursed out of the well. Starving tendrils of the red singed the runic inscriptions. They disrupted the flow of mana. From the scorch marks, a brighter red crawled outward. Within seconds, this bright red bathed the room in a red glow.

Waves of energy spilled over the fountain. The ground quaked, the shifting red tendrils tearing into the rest of the runes. The chaotic energy split the incantation, riving it apart. The mana corrupted the complex inscription as it passed through it.

Seeing the ensuing chaos, Torix shouted, “Stop the ritual. You aren’t ready. We’ll adjust the ritual over the next few weeks. It won’t be as difficult then.”

I grimaced, “We don’t have a few weeks. Yawm is about to wake up. We need to be ready for that. It’s now or never.”

His words doubled my resolve. If I wasn’t ready now, I never would be. I was a higher level than Torix, and controlling my mana would continue to be a problem down the line. The problem would expand in size, because it would increase as my health increased. Getting a hold on it now would serve me well in the future.

With this realization, I gritted my clenched my teeth. I glared at the well, commanding the mana to obey. The torrent of energy, like a thick entropy, begged for release. I wouldn’t allow it. I crushed the energy, forcing it to stabilize. It rebelled against my own efforts, but my iron will oppressed it. Like the hands of a serial strangler, I choked the life out of the living mana.

The red lines receded from the other runes and the singe marks healed. As they receded, the mana within the well filled to the brim. Pulling the mana back into the well would result in a weakened grimoire. It couldn’t hold enough mana. I needed to do more than reign the mana in. I needed to wield it as my own and warp the ritual for my own needs.

I balanced the chaotic force, allowing it to leak into the runes once more. This time, I bended the volatile forces within the ascendant mana. Like channeling mana through the runes of my armor, I channeled mana through the runes on the floor. Instead of destabilizing the ritual, I made the energy organize the runes in my own image.

As the mana passed through the carvings, they changed. The clear, precise lettering turned coarse and violent. The crimson mana crept outward from the well, altering the entire ritual. It as a slow, calculated change this time. I wasn’t letting the mana run wild anymore.

Breakthrough achieved! Ascendant Manipulation(lvl 47)-->(lvl 62)

The changed ritual reflected my own mana instead of Torix’s more stable magic. His magic was a cold, analytical kind of power. Mine was a frenzy and fire. It was like an endless hunger, waiting to dig its teeth into anything it touched. I used that hunger, making it my own.

Lightning arced from the changed runes, saturating the runes with the energy. As it spilled further and further out, the mana became harder and harder to control. The pace of its growth slowed until every inch further out was a desperate struggle. My hands shook as my armor shivered. More of my mana poured, surpassing my ability to generate it.

Breakthrough achieved! Overcharge(lvl 4)-->(lvl 29)

Blood poured out of my skin, the liquid evaporating into the electric energy. Once inside the well, it fed the growing demands of the ritual. Time passed slower as the growing toll on my body became evident.

Strips of my armor peeled from my skin, melting into a black liquid that fed the ritual. My teeth loosened, turning soft as butter. The well at the center of the ritual poured the red mana over the side.

The mana crawled over the surface of the ritual. It filled into the etched runes, turning them a dark red while the rock itself remained crimson. This second layer of the ritual demanded even more mana, begging for more of my flesh. I relented, giving the ritual what it needed. Torix floated over me now, laughing like a maniac,

“This really is quite the bloody spectacle. I’ve never seen the creation of a grimoire become so interesting!”

My skin melted. My bones softened, bending under my own weight. The arcane chains lining my flesh disintegrated along with my gums and cheeks. Blood leaked from my eyes, ears, and mouth. More time passed, and Torix cast a glowing green spell onto my back,

“This shall heal you, giving you a bit more mana to work with.”

At that point, I neared death. The ritual consumed me, devouring my body like some hungry parasite. It gorged on my blood and feasted on my flesh. For the first time since maxing out my Pain Tolerance, a dull ache formed throughout my body. That pain grew as my health lowered below ten percent. The glowing green light of Torix’s healing spell strengthened as he murmured,

“Hold it. Hold it. The ritual won’t kill you. It’s simply taking as much as you’re willing to give it.”

And I gave the ritual everything. Every piece of my mind, every corner and shard of concentration, it fed into the incantation. I maintained the ritual with all that I was. The second, deeper layer of the ritual covered the entire room. As it did, the room turned into a lake of blood. The pain turned into a throbbing. The throbbing turned into sharp, burning waves of agony. I hissed,

“How does it even hurt? I have maximum Pain Tolerance.”

Torix struggled out his words, “The ritual isn’t working like normal...Aren’t you excited?”

As sweat poured down my face, I rolled my eyes, “That’s easy to say when you’re not the one melting.”

Torix let out a short, hoarse laugh before we dug deep into our roles. He healed me, giving extra mana and health while I focused on keeping the spell intact. Well, that and not dying. For more help, Torix supplied me many buffs. Torix grabbed healing and mana potions from his dark portal too. He even sacrificed several summons for extra mana and health.

As Torix grasped for more health and mana for me, I grasped for more control of the ritual. The greater the crimson infestation spread through the runes, the greater the toll on my mind. My body suffered with it. My knees buckled. My back bent. Despite the sharp suffering, my head remained unbowed. I controlled the will of the ritual, fine tuning it with a will like steel.

I got a hold of the ritual over time. It became easier and easier to make the ritual operate. Once I got a handle on maintaining the ritual’s growth, I focused on restructuring it. Any inefficiency, any imperfection, I ironed it out. As I used the mana for honing the ritual, controlling it became easier. Aspects of it suited me more, turning the incantation into a better conduit for my mana.

By the time the ritual stopped using all my health regen, I altered it completely. It couldn’t be called Torix’s ritual anymore. It was my own.

Once the ritual was set in place, the runes soaked up the mana. They built mana in the ritual, dispersing it throughout the cavern. By the time the ritual reached its apex, thunder echoed off the walls from lightning arcing in the distance. The air blurred with the electric force of mana. A near unbreathable density saturated the cave, like the mana was becoming physical.

Breakthrough achieved! Overcharge(lvl 29)-->(lvl 54)

The voice in my head whispered throughout the mana. It begged for destruction. It begged to devour. Just like before, I silenced it. The mana reminded me of the ambient mana used by the Lord of Worms. The mana thickened until it choked a normal person. This mana was no different.

Here I had thought the mana was a voice in my head. Instead it was the unrestrained voice of the mana I made, wanting destruction and ruin. With my superior control of mana, silencing it proved simple. With this volume of super charged mana, the task became far more difficult.

At my breaking point, I fell onto one knee. As I did, the ritual finally ended. All the built up mana poured back into the well, filling it as a giant sphere of the mana coalesced. Like a miniature sun forming above me, the sphere of glowing mana condensed further. The sun reformed into the outline of a grimoire.

A shockwave of energy forced Torix and me back as the blinding light faded. The leather bound book flopped into the well before I pushed myself off the ground. As I looked up, Torix stared down at me. His body pressed into the stone. He coughed,

“I’m fine. Go grab the grimoire.”

I laughed a little before pushing myself onto my feet. My mental endurance showed itself as a few seconds of reprieve was enough to function again. Using that inhuman persistence, I jogged up to the grimoire.

The thick book was a maroon color, with a black lock bolting it shut. As I tapped the soft looking leather, it rung like metal at my touch. Underneath the leather, a layer of metal acted as reinforcement for it. The book’s weight and durability came from that metal.

At the center of the front cover, two circles were on it, each symbol intersecting. Within the intersecting circles, the book was pitch black. It was the kind of black that soaked in the light around it. Outside the black, the shining leather was pristine. Outside of those features, it looked like a normal book.

As I observed it, my health returned to normal. Guessing how to use it, I poured a bit of my mana into the seal. The lock popped open, revealing the pale pages within the book. I ran my fingertips across the parchment. The paper was harder than my armor. A thin sheet of something covered the pages and weaved through the fibers of the paper.

I grabbed a sheet of the paper and jerked at it. The paper didn’t tear. Hell, it didn’t even crumple. Torix pulled himself from the roof during my inspection. He floated towards me, leaning towards the book from my side. He cupped his chin,

“Curious. This is the most durable and one of the thickest grimoires I’ve ever seen.”

I shrugged, “That’s good...It seems like a solid book...I mean, that’s nice and all, but I don’t think it was worth all that trouble.”

Torix leaned away from the grimoire, “That would be true if the grimoire didn’t act as a conduit for magic. With it, you can avoid the trouble of setting up a ritual every time you need a complex incantation. You flip to the page you need, and the grimoire will guide your mana for you. That’s if you have the incantation made, of course.”

I turned the pages of the grimoire. Halfway through the booklet, the pages were black instead of the pristine white of the beginning pages. I pressed my hand into the page, but nothing happened. I tapped the page for a moment before scratching the paper. The black markings etched off, revealing a pristine white underneath an inch of the black paper.

I couldn’t tell how the paper was so thin, yet it let me carve so deep. I etched a simple magic rune before channeling some mana into the page. The runes I carved into the page glowed. The runes floated off the page before I pressed the back of my hand against the floating runes. They etched into my armor, an easy method of changing them. An evil grin crawled up my lips, “This is exactly what I need.”

Torix frowned, “For what?”

I turned to him with an evil grin, holding the grimoire in my hand.

“For carving the eldritch runes into my armor.”