Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 9 Black Dragon

Isaac felt the constant trickle of shadows that flowed up from his core, up the front of his neck, out to his jaw muscles, around and over top of his mouth, up behind his cheekbones, into the receptors in the back of his eyes, encapsulating the inside of his eyeballs, and finally ending behind his lenses. The trickle of shadows was so incredibly thin that just observing it showed Isaac exactly how thin he could make a strand of mana. All of this happened by itself. He had guided the mana to its endpoint all those months ago but he had never needed to focus on maintaining the mana’s movement. It had been natural as if that was always the way that the mana was supposed to go. He took one last deep breath before his resolve set and he forced what he had started calling an ‘aspect shift’.

Isaac had shifted dark mana to shadows, shadows to death, and death to dark mana countless times before. It had come naturally for him as they were all technically the same things. Mana was not water but it sure liked to act like it a lot. If someone thought about dark mana like water then death flames were ice and shadows were steam. They were all simply water but in different forms, showing different aspects. As Isaac aspect shifted his shadows into death flames, he miscalculated one small thing. His death flames still needed his immediate guidance. As soon as he completed the near instantaneous shift everything broke apart and the rooftop was cast in dark shadows.

Suddenly the ceiling of the cavern could no longer be seen. The details of Lenna’s face existed only in his memories. The lamp Aria brought up kept his eyes from properly adjusting to the incredible darkness of the world around them. “How do people live like this?” Isaac asked. His gaze drifted up towards the ceiling. An impenetrable void opened up before him. He shook his head and focused inwards again. This time he manually guided death flames from his core up through the same path he had felt his shadows take. It took a fair amount of control to follow the exact path until the mana finally seemed to slot into place. In an instant, Isaac’s vision went black. He recoiled slightly as even the glow of the lamp had vanished.

Isaac looked down and was bombarded by information. The first, and most obvious, thing he noticed was his mate’s soul. Her soul blazed with an almost blinding white. It shed no light but it was like a reverse silhouette. He couldn’t keep himself from squinting in her direction at first as his eyes adjusted to her blinding presence. Another thing he noticed was the thread reaching from his chest to his shadow and then from his shadow to Kahtesh. The little dragon was glowing a soft white as he sat in the middle of the ritual circle staring back at him. Aria and Claus were almost the same brightness as each other and were a bit brighter than Kahtesh but not nearly as bright as Lenna.

“Am I seeing your levels?” Isaac asked.

Aria stopped and hurried over to him to peer into his eyes. “Why?” What do you see? Your eyes are eerie.”

Lenna approached at a more measured pace. “Indeed. All I can see is death flames.” She looked over at Kahtesh. “Very reminiscent of your shadow.”

Isaac nodded. “I can sort of see the outlines of objects. If this is how Kahtesh sees things then I feel bad for the little guy.” Isaac said and looked like he had just taken a bite of something sour as he tried to look at Lenna from so close. “You’re so bright.” He told his mate.

“Oh?” She asked.

“It’s going to take some time to adjust to this.” Isaac explained. “Your soul is very bright. Far brighter than anyone else's.” He said and looked down at his own hands. He was a little brighter than Claus but not by much. ‘Now that I look at it… I can see myself getting a little brighter… unless it’s just my imagination.’ He looked up at Aria. “I think I’m leveling up.”

Aria’s eyes widened a little. “It really is that easy for you then.” She grumbled and stood up straight. “We can test you again after the dragon is done.”

Isaac nodded. “We can do that.” He agreed. “For now, I’m going to take a minute to get used to this.”

“Go ahead.” Aria replied with a nod. “Explain everything you see in as much detail as you can.” And explain he did until Kahtesh’s Identify was finished.

Isaac blinked a few times to help his eyes readjust as he switched back to his normal Dark Vision. His Soul Vision, as he had come to call it, lacked definition at best and was disorienting at worst. The reason he had cut short his training time with it active was because Kahtesh’s Identify was finally finished. They crowded around the illusory screen for a third time and what Isaac and Lenna saw shocked them greatly.

Name: Kahtesh Race: Golem (Bone - Dragon - Blue)

Length: 9’1” Weight: 98 Eyes: N/A

Height: 4’1” Scales: N/A Level: 6

Strength: 21 Dexterity: 11 Constitution: 21

Intelligence: 6 Wisdom: 6 Will Power: N/A

Total: 60 + 0

Talent: Lightning Dragon Breath, Flight

Blessings: Familiar of Isaac Wexler (Small healing over time as long as you are receiving mana from your master.)

Curses: Familiar’s Curse. (You can only exist as long as you are receiving mana from your master.)

“Kahtesh,” Isaac said with some concern in his voice while he turned to look down at the dragon. “Did you know that you could level up?” Kahtesh tilted his head to the side in a very dog-like manner. “You don’t understand level ups at all do you?” Isaac further questioned and Kahtesh rocked his head to the other side. Isaac frowned. “I didn’t think so.”

“How precise is your communication with him?” Aria asked.

Isaac tilted his hand back and forth in a ‘so-so’ gesture. “He can understand my intent flawlessly but the return is hazy. He can send feelings back to me but they are usually very… it feels like I just got hit by a runaway cart full of whatever he is feeling in the chest. The first time it happened was when he was stuck and the mushroomancer was bullying him. The panic I felt almost brought me to my knees.” He explained. “Why?”

Aria shook her head. “Just curious.” She replied.

Isaac turned his attention back to his familiar. “Have you noticed yourself getting abruptly stronger, smarter, or faster?” Kahtesh swooshed his tail back and forth and straightened his head. “Like just now? A few minutes ago maybe?” Kahtesh swooshed his tail back and forth faster. Isaac reached out and scratched the top of the dragon’s head absently while he turned his attention back to his mortal companions. “I think his level is equal to half of mine. Every time he levels up he gets an extra point into every stat. He gets a little smarter, faster, stronger, more aware, and harder to put down.”

Lenna nodded. “I can see that. He hasn’t grown at all but his quality is increasing with your level at a one to two ratio.” She agreed.

“Last thing we can do is double check that your level has just gone up.” Aria said. “But something is bothering me,” She began with a frown. “The first time we did this your level up had been slow. Right now, if Kahtesh is anything to go by, then your level up was almost instant.”

“Over the past five minutes or so, yeah.” Isaac agreed.

“How?” Aria questioned. “Why is it so much faster?”

Isaac shrugged. “The only thing I can think of is that it is far less of an increase compared to back then. I wasn’t receiving a fifty percent increase but a nine percent one. That and the fact that my body is properly aligned with my power now and it was definitely not back then.” He replied.

Aria thought about his answer for a few seconds before nodding. “We should really be writing all of this down.” She told him. “If there is ever anyone else with a True Mage class then having reference material would be beneficial.”

Isaac shrugged. “From everything I have learned, the odds of that are almost nonexistent.” He countered. After Aria retraced the ritual, again, Isaac sat through the ten minute duration until his level up could be proven and sure enough it was. The only thing that had changed on his Status screen was that he was now level twelve.

“I think that proves all of our hypotheses correct.” Aria said with a content nod. “You know, I had this other hypothesis a while back, it was actually based off of dragons.” She began. “I cracked open an old reference text on black dragons, only drow ever really have to deal with them as they prefer the Innerworld, and their powerset seems very similar to yours.”

“Oh?” Isaac asked. “I should probably check it out then.”

Aria nodded. “Black fire coursing through their veins, an aura that can kill from ‘the intensity of the feeling of being about to die’ alone, vanishing from sight and coating their bodies in liquid shadows that seem to blunt all incoming attacks, nigh unstoppable regeneration.” She explained. “The way dragons typically level is with age alone, as far as we are aware, and I had assumed that it would be the same for you. Obviously that was incorrect but it still seems like it would be much more logical than learning a new skill and suddenly getting a power boost.”

Isaac had to cede the point. “Yeah, that would make more sense considering our similarities but I definitely prefer this way.”

Aria gave him a very unamused look. “Yes, I would imagine so, you get to have the powers of a black dragon without any of the drawbacks.” She retorted.

“I still can’t use spells.” Isaac countered.

“Use?” Aria asked. She latched onto his turn of phrase like an eagle’s talons on a fish.

Isaac scratched behind his head sheepishly. “I may have copied a shadow spell from a grand master shadow sorcerer and used it against him.” He admitted. “The problem was that it lacked any real substance. It was just a shadow of the original spell.” He said his pun with a shit eating grin.

“Puns are an art form in some parts of the world.” Aria mentioned.

“Oh really?” Isaac asked.

“This is not that part of the world.” She finished with a cold stare. “But that is off topic. Explain to me how you cast the spell and what was weird about it.”

“Aria, how and what do you think?” Isaac asked. “I can only use dark mana and I have an entire dragon’s worth of it, apparently. I just copied what he said, word for word, and dumped power into it until it worked. The spell made shadow tendrils that were supposed to grab onto someone and hold them in place. My shadow tendrils didn’t have any substance to them so they were useless but they looked convincing enough, I guess, at a glance.”

Aria nodded in thought. “I wonder if a spell crafter could make you a spell.” She thought aloud. “If you ever find one who can, let me know, I want to see a spell that only uses a tiny part of the mana spectrum. It would be interesting at least.”

“Sure, I can do that.” Isaac agreed. After a moment of silence he continued: “Now that that is over with, I’ve been meaning to ask you about the prisoners from Ben’s End and Outpost Charles.”