Chapter 91

  Bursting With Potential

  I was falling, normally a fear of mine, yet this time I felt calm. As if the world around me was fading away and all I could see was the battle before me, the monster before me.

  My heart pumped and thumped in an increasing rhythm, one that caused tinnitus to scream in my ears, dulling out even the other sounds of the world around me. My senses dismissing everything that was not important and causing me to focus on the deadly monster before me. A monster whose sharp claws had cut down close to a half dozen people but moments ago. Now though, now I could see an almost infantile curiosity in the eyes of this monster, this Death Eater.

  Why did I think this Death Eater was juvenile? Well, it seemed to have a focus that only newborn children could possess, particularly as its eyes were transfixed on my blade that handled three separate streams of energy easily. Even seeming to have exact grooves made for each layer of energy. The blunted and wider edges of the blade held golden holey energy. Energy that folded upwards reached out and almost covered the very tip of the blade. Yet the very tip was glowing bright green and caused the entire blade to radiate its green light all over, showing odd patterns of light that danced about in arcing patterns that were beautiful to watch, if painful to keep filled with energy. Then there was the area just next to and surrounding the green light caused by the radiating life energy in the blade. This was the darker purple of spirit energy, a dark purple that almost took on a cloudy darkness look as its light could not compare to the brilliance of life energy.

  While I had often snuck glances at the blade, nothing could compare to the blazing intensity of how this childlike Death Eater stared at the blade. Staring at the blade with a wide-eyed amazement and reaching out to covet the blade with its hands. Hands that even when being burned and carved away by the golden holy energy still radiating from the blunted edges of the blade. Then even with its hands burning and crackling under the heat and pressure, it still opened its mouth wide and guided the blade towards its mouth, hungrily trying to eat the blade. In this instance, I could see the glowing green flames of its eyes sparkle with anticipation as it tried to shove my blade into its mouth, the same way a child experiencing the world for the first time would. Seeing its expectant face, I almost paused, almost.

  In the end I obliged, my body and instincts forcing me to take advantage of this moment, of this childlike wonder. Using the monster’s own force to propel the blade upward towards its open mouth, I assisted, making sure to tilt the blade at an angle. Then there was a lull as I had done everything I could. I watched as the beast fell and cracked into the mat below us, then my blade entered its mouth.

  For a second, I could see the effect that raw and unfiltered life energy had when applied directly inside the creature. As a wave of green light surged out from the blade, as if being sucked into the dark vortex of its throat. Yet, the stolen life energy was a poison pill, for it was also coated in the dark malevolence of spirit energy. Not just any spirit energy, but the spirit energy of my bloodline. Spirit energy that began destroying everything that the life energy attempted to infuse with energy and vigor. Yet that was secondary, as the main impact came a second later when my blade first contacted the skull. Upon direct contact again, my mind saw and processed everything that was happening at the speed of light, a feat I realize is only possible as my mind shut out every other distraction at this point and let me focus on this one instant with crystal clarity, as if I needed to see this event happen one time, to truly understand what I was doing.

  My blade touched the skull, at which point three different sources of energy surged out of my blade and reacted violently to the skull. Any lingering shadows within the mouth that were remnants of the shadow cloak were eviscerated by the dwindling holy energy of the blade. That meant the blade itself was able to make direct contact with the pale bone of the Death Eater. Bone that reacted rapidly and violently to the different energy types that had been tied together by both my Skill and this blade, a blade that I was beginning to think was more than just a practice blade.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The tip with its life energy impacted the skull, causing that section of bone to expand and harden. While the surrounding circle of spirit infused Soul Devour energy did just that, it devoured. Like a winking black hole, I watched as the blade worked its magic, enlarging a center that was stronger and too dense to be held up by the crumbling and weakening ring of bone around it, causing the center of my impact to easily break free from the force being applied and act as an empowered tip that my blade pushed forward and used as an accepted spike of bone that was pushed deep into the open skull of the creature.

  There was a faint clinking sound as first the shattered piece of bone, and then my infused blade contacted something hard within the monster’s skull. The tip of my blade touched, again accepted due to the green tip of energy, and then countered by the activated Soul Devour energy. By this point, the ability of my eyes to see ended, and I was basing most of my understanding of what was happening from my blade, which was becoming an extension of my body. At least, I think that is what this would be called as I didn’t see any of this, I couldn’t, not after the blade penetrated the skull. Yet, my mind was able to feel the sensations pulsing through the blade, to my hands, and ultimately to my skull. I could feel a clarity coming to my mind, as I realized I was just beginning to tap into a new realm of understanding, of being one with the blade. No, not just any blade, but this blade.

  At the same time, my body crashed into a pile of jagged bone that easily pierced and scratched through my layers of clothing. Landing on the creature, I paused as I felt my blade thrust forward a bit more, carving easily into the skull of the beast, as if it had finally heated up to the required temperature needed to cut open the monster’s skull. There was even a moment when I felt the now superheated blade make contact once again with the solid sphere-like object within the monster’s skull. All this time, I could feel the connection forming, binding me as one to my blade.

  Then the world drew my attention elsewhere. Pulsing green eyes, quicker than any set of Christmas lights flashed and pulsed, as if trying to let out a quick burst in morse code. My eyes scanned the lights, which was a good thing, and likely the only thing that saved my eyes at that time. For that is the moment when the law of action and reaction sparked to life. Action: I stabbed a glowing blade of thrice infused energy directly into a creature of power and magic’s skull and cracked into a crystalline object. Reaction: that crystalline object was made unstable by the surge of foreign energies that destabilized it and caused a violent magical response to occur.

  An explosion of force reverberated back through the blade up, my arms causing them to feel like they were being shattered and broken from the force. Simultaneously, the jagged and broken pile of bones that I fell into suddenly began to burst and explode upwards through my body. Not violently, as deadly as it could have been, as my mind seemed to anticipate and react to as my body instinctively rolled to my left, trying to expose as little of my body as possible to the creature.

  That’s when it happened, the pulsing green eyes suddenly stayed fixed for a half second, a lifetime compared to how quickly they had been blinking earlier. Then a burst of energy erupted out of the skull of the beast and rippled down its body. Raising my right arm to protect my face, and neck I missed the minor explosion that erupted under me and instead saw a sight that will remain etched in my mind forever.

  I had seen training videos in my past life, of how rangers trained with fake explosives filled with white powder. In those videos people would do something stupid, go somewhere they were not supposed to, enter a room that was not cleared properly, and would trip the sensor needed to detonate the testing aid, causing a wave of cascading powder to erupt and cover everyone and everything in the area. This was no different, except for the fact that green vapors were what was detonated and sent flying into the air.

  Green vapors, that my mind instantly understood was life energy. The very same stolen life energy that the Death Eater had targeted, and so violently tried to devour at all costs. An act that cost it, its own life.

  With the body gone, the bones that had erupted upwards and jabbed deeper into me, now collapsed and crackled to the ground. I felt the familiar sensation of falling onto and rolling into broken glass, a sensation that seemed oddly out of place in the moment.

  It was only now that my mind registered the grinding sensation similar to rolling across finely broken glass shards that my mind began to wake up, as my senses told me first that I should be in pain. Then I was in pain. My mind, realizing that the immediate threat of danger was over, began to slow down, allowing the world to catch up to what was happening around me.

  I saw a blur and then heard the fluttering of loose-fitting cloak wrapping around someone as they dropped to the ground next to me. My mind instantly saw and registered the falling form as that of Mr. Yi, yet there was a problem. He was behind me, I almost wanted to roll to see him, but that caused more shards of glass to rise and pierce into my skin. Then with a commanding voice Mr. Yi cried out.

  “Stop!” His words were filled with equal parts fear and determination. Hearing those words, I knew something was wrong.

  “This is very important, you are covered in Death Eater dust, if any of it enters your body, you will become infected and become a Death Eater—” he began, but I cut him off as my mind tried to process what was going on.

  “What?” Was my one-word response.

  “You’ll be fine, so long as you do not let any of the crystallized remains get into your body by ingesting the crystals, or through open wounds.”

  And like that, I knew I was going to become a Death Eater.