Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 8 Soulshadow.

“While Aria is remaking the ritual for our favorite dragon,” Lenna began. “Isaac, did you notice something else… unexpected on your Status screen?”

Isaac hummed in thought before his eyebrows shot up and his eyes went wide. “I leveled up?!” Isaac exclaimed. “When?”

Aria looked at him incredulously while she traced over the old ritual again. “I have no idea.” She said with sarcasm almost literally dripping off of her tongue. “Maybe it was when you challenged a living legend to a duel and killed him?” She asked innocently.

“No.” Isaac replied seriously. “I don’t level up like that.” He explained. “I’m not sure if I ever have. I know earlier on, I leveled at a strange pace but I was also converting my mana pathways while everything else was going on. Actually, when we checked my Status at level eight it showed my Polarity at eighty something percent. I would bet my life savings on my tenth level up happening the exact moment when I finished converting my mana pathways. We couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to level beyond level ten but now, all of a sudden, I am level eleven. Something happened and we need to figure out what it was.”

Aria hummed in thought as she got back to work. “What strange thing or new power did you unlock recently?” She questioned.

The group was silent while Aria worked for a few seconds before Isaac’s frown caught Lenna’s attention. “Did you figure it out?” Lenna asked.

Isaac nodded. “I think so.” He looked over at Kahtesh and then back down at the ritual. “When I first started recreating Kahtesh he was bound to my shadow before he even started forming.” He began. “When I recreated Shaeo it was different. I just remade her. It was that simple. They both require my mana to maintain function while out and about but Kahtesh is always with me. I can’t put Shaeo in my shadow. She’s, at the very core of her being, less connected to me, less… real, I guess.”

“So you used your magic in a slightly different way and all of a sudden you leveled up?” Aria asked incredulously. “If that isn’t cheating I don’t know what is.”

“Aria, how many different ways can you think of to use shadow and death in a way that isn’t just straight manipulation if you can’t use spells?” Isaac asked her.

Aira shrugged. “There has to be at least twenty.” She replied. “If it is that easy then you can just do them all and jump straight to twenty and become a demigod or whatever.”

Isaac looked at Aria like she had grown a third ear. “You sound uncharacteristically unenthused about something interesting.” He told her.

Aria shrugged. “Demigod ascension is not one of my fields of study. Yes it would be interesting to see and experience, because it doesn’t happen often, but it isn’t something new or unheard of.” She explained. “I hope I am around to see it happen first hand but I won’t be heartbroken if I miss it.”

“Oh.” Isaac replied. “That’s fair I guess.”

“Why don’t you try to do something new again and we can see if you level up?” Lenna offered to get them back on track.

“Like what?” Isaac asked.

“Well, are there already eleven different weird things you can do?” Aria asked.

“Let me think.” Isaac began and held up his fingers to start counting. “Dark vision, that was the first one, Zei taught me how to do it but I was already level one before then.” Isaac said with a frown. “Maybe my Dark Mana Manipulation talent was my first level ability?”

Aria nodded. “Most likely. The first level for mages is when we can cast our first spell. They are intrinsically tied together but for a cleric it is a side effect of our bond with our god.” She explained. She hummed in thought. “But I think freeform death and shadow manipulation was most likely the actual first level ability for you. The talents seem separate from class related skills and abilities.”

Isaac nodded along. “Alright, let’s assume that is true for now.” He began again. “Level two was Dark Vision, level three was my Shadowcloak that let me go invisible when we first met.” He shook his head. “I don’t think there are eleven here.” He said. “Kahtesh, Shaeo, teleportation through shadows, boosting myself, healing through death, healing others through death, fueling an effect through a strand of mana…” Isaac shook his head. “That is only ten and even then the levels that I got them didn’t match up with when I leveled up.”

“That is because before level ten you were leveling up from mana pathway conversion.” Lenna explained. “And you have done other things. Maybe your shield made of concentrated mana, or maybe, your mana trying to keep you alive even when you aren’t conscious is a skill, I have seen, and you have told me of, multiple instances, where it seemed to have a mind of its own. Every one of those times it was to save you.”

Isaac hummed in thought with his hand on his chin. “Maybe you’re right. Ugh.” He ran his hands through his hair. “But now we are at twelve and I am only level eleven.”

“That’s a good thing.” Aria cut in. “It could just mean that some of it might be considered one thing instead of two or you might have gotten more than one thing at level one. This is uncharted territory.” She said with some excitement but not as much as she had in the past. It felt, to Isaac, like he was becoming less interesting of a specimen to her over time.

“Alright… we can roll with that hypothesis for now.” He conceded. “We can turn it into a theory by causing me to level up right now. I need an idea of something that I can do that isn’t just normal freeform mana manipulation. Help me out.”

Aria’s gaze became distant as she worked and thought at the same time. Lenna’s face got a little more set and rigid in deep contemplation. Claus just watched them all, more content to just spend time with them and enjoy their antics than actually looking to be helpful. Isaac’s brows threatened to power through his blessing from Zei and change their default state to ‘Furrowed’.

“Alright… I admit, this may be more difficult than I expected.” Lenna conceded.

“I have one I can try.” Isaac said and sat down against the inside of the fence crowning the top of the Celestial Dawn.

“Oh?” Aria asked and looked up from her work that she had just finished. “What is it?”

“I use shadows to see in the dark, what happens if I use death to see?” He asked.

“Wouldn’t that just happen naturally when you are boosting yourself?” Lenna asked.

Isaac shook his head. “No.” He replied. “When I am boosting myself I am adding new death mana to my output and guiding it. Shadows are still being fed to my eyes.”

Aria stepped out of the circle and looked at the little dragon. “Kahtesh, step into the middle of the circle but be careful not to smudge any of the chalk.” She instructed and the dragon looked to Isaac for confirmation. Isaac chuckled and nodded his head and the dragon complied. Aria turned to look back at Isaac. “That’s new.” She said. “He seems very… aware.”

Isaac nodded again. “He is completely sentient, more or less.” He explained and waved her off. “He’ll listen to you unless he doesn’t understand it or it goes against an order I have given him.”

“He just questioned my directive though.” Aria argued.

Isaac shrugged. “He’s my familiar not my foot, what do you want me to tell you?”

Aria rolled her eyes. “You are basically creating life…” She looked back down at Kahtesh. “unlife, life adjacent, sapience? Whatever. You should know how much control he has over himself and if he can disobey you or not.”

Isaac shook his head. “I don’t really see the point. Kahtesh is more than willing to jump into any trouble I tell him to and that is good enough for me. He knows that I am not going to throw him at something just for him to get destroyed. He doesn’t really have any reason to disobey me when I am the one powering his Soulshadow.” He explained.

“Soulshadow… that’s what you’ve taken to calling it then?” Lenna asked.

Isaac nodded. “It is self explanatory and doesn’t sound awful.” He explained. “Anyway, let me focus. While our little buddy is getting scanned I’m going to try and create a new skill.”