Weapons of Mass Destruction

Chapter 492: Young white haired demon

My room has become an even bigger mess than before. Most of the furniture—aside from the bed, a few armchairs, and the sofa—have disappeared along with the carpet. The floor is now covered in deeply etched inscriptions, with some extending to the walls, accompanied by mana batteries to supply them with power and more.

The once-functional protective arrays have been reworked and Frankenstein-ed together to better serve my needs. And the same goes for the inscriptions that once covered the huge windows on the exterior wall.

At the moment, my room is being excluded from the tower's array and is under my full control. And I have multiple Ley Lines connecting my inscriptions to the Framework, which I’m constantly monitoring.

Then there are two blanks I’ve created using high quality materials I’ve managed to acquire, one for a shield and another for an ax laid out on the ground. Just the sheer quality of the materials should easily push them to upper epic rarity, but I’ve specifically decided to hold off on finishing them for the moment. So there they lie, half done, waiting as I work on advancing other plans.

In the corner of the room sits a box made of white glass, also awaiting my attention. Much like the ones I brought with me to Beyond not long ago, filled with the white sand from Mana Desert. Next to it, a few weapons from the Mana Desert as well. I still remember the promise I made to Sophie, that we would try to work the white sand into the damaged arcane weapon known as the Golem Heart that I gave her. By this point, I’m sure she’s made her own improvements, and it might be possible to start experimenting with a grain or two of sand.

The only problem is that Sophie has been locked away in her room for the past few days already, and there are only two people allowed to freely enter and leave—Izzy and Tess.

Otherwise, it’s been days since anyone’s seen Sophie, and the only sign of her presence is feeling her going over the protective arrays and confirming her control over the mind mages she’s enthralled. No one comes to visit. There are no attacks, and even the people who spent the most time spying on us seem to have backed off in favor of caution, confirmed by Tess, who’s taken it on herself to keep an eye on such things.

The ignition of the Framework is getting closer every day, so it's been quite a mess considering that one of the most powerful mind mages has gone missing and the people formerly under his control have been freed. I’m also curious what happened to that vyssari with thermal energy and the second primordial energy she was rumored to have. However, my curiosity isn’t tempting enough to lure me out to try and find out. She seemed skilled but she was nowhere near Melel's level nor was she talented enough to make me want to learn from her.

A presence appears in front of my door, and I activate the mana construct controlling them. They open on their own and close once my guest enters, the protections around them snapping back into place.

Noodle swiftly slithers in between the golden chains, stray chunks of metal, and stones and climbs onto the armchair, careful not to touch Biscuit, who is sleeping on my lap, still comatose.

"Just in time," I tell the snake as I draw one of the orbs of mana floating next to me closer.

And Noodle patiently waits as I proceed to set it in front of him.

“So, sorry about last time. I thought the addition of a small amount of thermal energy would make the orb tastier.”

The white snake calmly looks at me.

“It seems like you can only absorb mana and normal fire because of your bond with Izzy. I think that's the reason you got a bit... sick, she doesn’t actually have her own thermal energy. So this time I modified the orb a bit more. The frequency of the mana, its density, and the amount within are different this time. So tell me, what do you think?”

His tongue flickers as he tastes the air in front of the orb, and only then does he open his mouth and gently take it from my hand.

The orb disappears into his mouth, and Noodle continues to stare at me with his green eyes.

Then he nods as he does, but only once.

“Hmm, so it’s not as tasty as the last time, but better than the one before?”

He nods again.

“I’ll modify the next version a bit more,” I promise the snake with a dismissive gesture, only for him to coil around my arm.

I allow my mana to seep through the skin of the arm the white snake has coiled himself around, and activate my eye trait to carefully observe him.

As he has so many times before, Noodle starts absorbing said mana through his mouth, causing it to disappear within the confines of his body without leaving any trace behind, all while I try to pick up at least a bit of what’s going on as it does.

The next day finds me standing over an inscription-covered circle that surrounds the two weapons I made but still haven’t finished. They took a lot of precious materials, but if my plan works, it will be well worth it. These inscriptions along with the circle surrounding the weapons, and the shield and ax themselves, have all been tied together with Ley Lines that are themselves connected to the main Line, which is further connected to the Framework.

Satisfied with the result, I leave it there and stretch as I rise to a standing position.

Min-Jae is sitting in one of the armchairs with Biscuit in his arms, and waves to get my attention.

“I went through the simplified blueprint of the Restrictive Training Emblem with the twins the other day, and I think you might be right. I should be able to make my own version to increase the weight of the person wearing it.”

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“But?”

“I’m not very good at this kind of stuff, so I can’t make it work passively and I don’t know how to apply it so someone else will be able to activate it on their own. And making anything a person could use their own mana to activate is only going to be more difficult.”

“That’s okay, I just wanted to give you some inspiration for the future.”

“I’m not complaining,” he says, nodding as he lifts a glass of juice from the table with his skills before lifting the liquid inside free as well.

That liquid spins slowly, pulling together into a floating sphere which Min-Jae promptly slurps down. “Do you have more blueprints or information regarding the Skyhold Islands? I’ve already gone through most of what you gave me.”

“Left corner of the room, on the green shirt, oval mana stone. Take the grape-sized round one next to it as well—it contains some basic inscriptions along with some exceedingly flowery theory on creating more durable constructs. You might need them if you want your own floating island.”

“Was I really that obvious?” he smiles in that typical shy way of his, and the stones fly into his hands.

“It would be a shame if you didn’t want something like that with your combination of abilities. You can ask Aaron and Dennis for more info; I drilled some of the basics into them, and they’re getting pretty good.”

“The infamous 2nd and 3rd disciples of Nathaniel Gwyn.” He snarks, gently setting the sleeping corgi puppy on the blankets bundled up in the armchair and adjusting them so that only his head can be seen.

As he leaves the room, I think about his last words but decide in the end to shrug it off and come back to it later.

Closing my eyes, I appear within my mind space.

This one is unlike any I’ve seen before, and I know Immediately that the setting isn’t from any of my own memories, it’s not the first time it’s happened either.

I look to the right at the white-haired demon standing next to me and follow his red eyes, to look in the same direction.

Within all the yellow sand surrounding us, is a beautiful oasis interrupting the scenery of the desert below us. A huge jagged rock has pierced the ground in the middle of the oasis, creating some much needed shade, and allowing a range of grasses, and trees to take root around it. The jagged rock itself has a bluish metallic shine, and even though there are no inscriptions, it feels almost like it does. And as we watch the oasis, we can see a few demons going about their daily tasks, each one tall and slim with horns not unlike Whitey's and the same red eyes.

And sticking out like a sore thumb is a single demon with long white hair, dressed in a set of ragged clothes, likely the worst in his community, and covered in wounds.

The demon is very young, likely landing somewhere between Vega and Izzy, just under 10 years old. The demon looks sickly, his heart beats weakly compared to the other demons, his limbs are thinner, and he even seems to be paralyzed on the left side of his body, his left arm moving slowly, and he’s often forced to drag his leg behind him as he takes his clumsy steps.

“Demons can be born with as little as a single trait, and the more powerful ones have two. How does that work without the system?” I ask as I take a seat in the warm sand.

Whitey looks away from the oasis and sits next to me. “Some traits can give you access to primordial energies. Most of the demons are born with a heart that gives them access to one of those. Some are born without a demon heart and develop demonic eyes instead, or rarely both. I’ve heard of traits ranging from physiques to circuits and skeletal structures, and more besides. It varies a lot.”

“Getting free traits like that should be cheating. So the system awakens mana?”

“From what I’ve heard, yes. There are also fragments of eternal fire, fragments of eternal wind, and more besides. There are also primordial energies and probably other things you can get without the system, but only the system can awaken mana.”

We watch as the white-haired demon slowly makes his way to the top of the dune. He almost falls a few times but slowly reaches us and sits an arm’s reach away from Whitey.

He clearly can’t see us; after all, he’s just a memory.

Calming his stuttering heart, he closes his eyes and throws a handful of sand into the air.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Most of the grains fall down, but a few stay put, floating. They move from side to side, they shake, and it looks almost like they could fall at any moment; and in the end, they do. Though the young demon smiles brightly and laughs with joy. He lays on his back, tired even after such a little thing, and wipes the sweat from his face.

Inside the oasis, little kids, probably half the white-haired demon’s age, do much the same, throwing two big handfuls of sand, holding the thousands of grains in the air with ease.

“He’s such a dumb little fucker, isn’t he? Damned untalented crippled freak.” Whitey says staring at the young demon, who, even in his malnourished state, bears a stunning resemblance to the grown demon beside me.

“I kind of like his spirit,” I reply.

“Yes, he was always a bit dumb. Some might call that having a strong spirit.”

Whitey stands in one smooth movement and stomps. Causing the entire dune we stand upon to explode in a great plume of sand before all of it stops hanging in the air. The yellow grains gleam as the sunlight finds its way in between them, throwing the most incredible shadows across the scenery.

“Out of the 7 stances I’ve taught you, there are a few that you clearly favor.”

Whitey’s hair hangs, floating in the air, held there by the same force holding the grains of sand.

"Pulser Stance suits you well, and you’re not half bad—you just need a bit more practice. The same goes for Breaker Style. As for Wraith Dance, you seem to use it more for movement than anything else."

“I’m agreeing so far.”

His teeth show in a smile. “As if you could prove me wrong, you little shit. I know more about kinetic energy than you ever will.”

I bow. “I apologize, master.”

That makes him smile even more, and I know that when we get to sparring, his punches will hurt more than usual.

“Your Resonance Flow is powerful. And your ability to handle massive amounts of raw power is probably better than mine, but that’s understandable given how accustomed you are to managing such a disgusting amount of mana. Your fine control, however, is a bit lacking."

Whitey pokes one of the floating grains of sand, and it slowly floats to the ground. “Your Needle Point is trash. Close to mid-range, you do fine using bursts of kinetic energy to attack, but your long range control is just abominable. Your Counter Flow is decent, and your Steelroot sucks.”

"Sounds about right."

He smirks deviously. "Today, you’ll be using only Needle Point, Steelroot, and Wraith Dance."

All the demons within the oasis, along with the young white-haired demon next to us, vanish like the memories they are.

The dune collapses in a cascade of sand, and we clash amidst the chaos.