Chapter 90 You Should Already Feel It
"Let's give up for tonight." Ikaris sighed as he saw the twilight sky rapidly darkening. "You've been looking all day and haven't found a single one of their burrows. And we still have to get all this wood back to the village, Malia."
The young woman in her Kitsune form persisted in sniffing the ground, ignoring him, clearly having no qualms about being seen in this guise. Throughout the whole afternoon following the kidnapping of the villagers, she had been busy snooping and sniffing around while Ikaris and Ezrog were slaving away at the menial task of chopping wood.
It was only when they called her back to lend a hand with some of the cargo on the way back that she bothered to show up.
"Malia! It is your Lord who commands you." The teen snapped more rudely this time.
"Just one more minute! I'm getting close, I can feel it!" The vixen begged telepathically, revealing another of her hidden talents in the process.
"I said no." Ikaris cut the debate short. "Let's say you find one of their burrows right now. What are you going to do next? It'll be dark any minute. Don't be stupid. We'll look for them tomorrow."
The kitsune let out a frustrated howl in her animal form, then with her jaws picked up the load of wood that Ezrog and Ikaris had finished strapping on. The two men also loaded up to the limit, then jogged back to the village.
As they reached Last Saint Village, the trio caught sight of an impressive palisade wall over four meters high. From their position on the west side of the village as they exited the forest, the compound wall appeared to be complete, but this was only an optical illusion.
Once inside the village itself, they were able to confirm again that only this side was finished, the rest being an ordinary wooden fence totally useless against humans and other sentient creatures.
Being the Lord, Ikaris quelled his worries and congratulated all the villagers who had participated with Rank 4 meat and a generous amount of food. To boost their morale and complete these protective walls he was willing to make any sacrifice. If these walls had been in place before the lycans attacked, they might have been delayed long enough for him and the others to come to their aid.
The boy then went to Taguchi's tent where Kellam and Marvin were staying to check on their condition. He expected to find at least two of the three men on the verge of insanity, but he was caught off guard when he found that they were not.
Marvin was restless, his eyebrows twitching and relaxing from the concentration and internal struggle he was undergoing. But he was hanging on regardless.
Kellam was as cool as usual, although his heart was beating much faster than it should. He was the only one of the three who greeted Ikaris when he heard him arrive.
"My Lord, the situation is under control for now but the Werewolf who infected us has already tried to summon us twice. If I hadn't held Marvin back the second time, he'd probably have left by now. I have a feeling that he will soon call us a third time after dark."
Ikaris expected this but still took the news with a grain of salt.
"What about Taguchi?" He asked as he glanced at the asocial otaku with concern.
At that very moment, he was meditating peacefully, but his heart and body temperature were abnormally high as well.
"Surprisingly calm." Kellam truthfully admitted. "He didn't even flinch when that Alpha Werewolf called us for the second time."
Ikaris was taken aback. Was it the legendary focus of hardcore video game players? Two out of three? Maybe it wasn't hopeless.
"I brought some Rank 4 meat to help you out a bit." He then explained as he laid several pounds of meat in front of their tent. "Your symptoms will continue to worsen, but if you make sure you're always satiated to the point of sickness your bestial side should stay dormant. At least, hopefully long enough to give you plenty of time to further develop your Self-Control Spell."
Kellam didn't press the issue again and immediately proceeded to dine like there was no tomorrow after nudging the others awake. Taguchi and Marvin didn't balk either and bit fiercely into their slab of meat without caring about their manners.
Ikaris noticed their long canines, but he said nothing. Leaving them to their meal, he returned to his tent just as the moon and stars faded away, veiled by the Black Fog.
Once in his tent, all his nervous tension of the day was released at once and he let himself slide to the ground.
"Your composure was commendable today, kid." Magnus comforted him without a hint of mockery in his voice. "I know how frustrating it can be to see everything you've built ruined in the blink of an eye. But unlike me, you learned that lesson early. The next time it happens, and it will, you'll be prepared and know how to react."
The boy pondered the old Vampire's words in silence, then a gleam of newfound determination flashed in his eyes. Magnus' jewelry box reappeared in his hands and he pulled out the black feather.
"Assimilation."
The night passed in a flash and moments before sunrise, Ikaris put the feather back in its box with the other Bloodsparks.
[Human Nephilim of Faulch:]
[Nephilim(Angel) of Faulch Physique(0.8>5%): Night Vision, Dark Element Affinity 0.08>0.5%, Dark Element Resistance 0.08>0.5%, Death Element Affinity 0.08>0.5%, Death Element Resistance 0.08>0.5%. Servant of Faulch, Hate of the Living]
[Necromancy lvl1: 0.08>0.5 points]
[Black Magic lvl1: 0.08>0.5 points]
This time the teenager didn't need Magnus' insightful comments to feel the difference. His progress was much faster than the first night, but that was thanks to the growth of his Assimilation Spark.
[Assimilation lvl1: 0.002>0.009 points.]
Aside from the Principle of Optimization making it easier to use a spell over time, Ikaris thought his progress tonight also had to do with the depth of his emotions. The events of the night before had affected him as much as Malia, though he hid it well. Whether it was in his old life or this one, he was not used to failure.
As he stood up, the boy felt a slight aversion to his own beating heart but he quickly suppressed it with his I Am Me Spell. His gaze then turned to the Black Fog blowing outside his tent and he felt a weird familiarity with it.
Letting himself be carried away by the surge of knowledge flooding his subconscious mind, Ikaris opened himself up to the flow of Black and Grey Light Particles that he dimly perceived all around him as if he were currently in the center of a swarm of fireflies.
No matter how hard he concentrated, he had no power over them, but soon the nearest particles began to flutter timidly toward him. When the first gray particle touched his skin, it melted inside and the boy felt a cold shiver run through his flesh and ruffle his hair.
'I can't control it, but it's still inside me.' Ikaris jotted down mentally as he watched the phenomenon with fascination.
"It's the Death Element." Magnus replied unprompted. "Your Soul Spark is only level 1 and you have no Death Spell, let alone a Spark for now. But you have these Necromancy and Black Magic Sparks. Very soon you will know what to do with them. You should already feel it. Those skeletons and other Undeads outside are not as hostile to you as they used to be."
The boy became thoughtful as he listened to his last statement. Shaking off his suspicions, he once again opened his body and mind to these luminous particles and soon a black speck penetrated his skin as well. It was a different kind of shiver this time.
Not pleasant, not unpleasant, but somehow smothering. The kind of suffocation that a claustrophobic person would feel when locked up for several hours in an elevator jammed in the dark.
The first light of dawn finally shone through the darkness and Ikaris felt the Black Fog recede. The Grey and Black Particles that he had been perceiving diminished sharply with the arrival of the sun, but did not vanish completely.
The boy felt a certain emptiness and discomfort, like when a child's comforter is pulled off in the middle of a cold winter night, but he had no time to feel sorry for himself because at that moment something heavy crashed against his tent.
Ikaris drew his sword and thrusted in the bulge when Magnus yelled in his head,
"STOP!"
The boy barely stopped, the tip of his blade having already pierced the fabric of his tent by a few millimeters.
Drop, drop...
Ikaris saw two vermillions beads dripping on the ground and as he brought his blade up to his face he saw that its tip was coated with blood. He sniffed the air and smelled the metallic scent of blood, but also of sweat and a more floral note.
"That smell..."
His eyes widened abruptly and he bolted out of the tent. Incredulous, he found Danchun half passed out against his tent.
Yet at that moment, she was hardly recognizable. Her former pristine and otherworldly beauty had been destroyed by hundreds of disfiguring runic scars. Seeing her Lord crouch down beside her to scoop her up, Danchun forced herself to smile and said through gritted teeth,
"I know where their burrow is."
And then she fainted in his arms.