When was the last time I slept without dreams of the past carrying horrifying nightmares? I could hardly even remember it, but now I was embraced by sleep, and I did not want to wake up, but I knew that I had to.
My body was not tired; I don’t even think my mind or soul was tired, but the human part of me was tired... that small side that still maintained my identity as Elric Voss, that part was tired.
I woke to the feeling of warmth against my neck and the sound of a low, continuous growl.
The Moon Fox was standing on my chest, her three tails spread wide like a fan. Her teeth were bared, and her blue eyes were fixed on the doorway with an intensity that drove the last shadow of sleep away from my head.
I turned my head slowly and looked at the threshold of the room, and the demon was there.
Everything about Sad had changed; its body was shorter and thicker, more compressed, as if it had folded itself into a shape that could fit through the doorway. One of its hands was pressed against the invisible barrier, and I could see that the barrier was slowly, inexorably, giving way under the unearthly pressure that the demon was exerting as ripples of force like shockwaves were shaking the hall around the demon. Thankfully, the room remained silent.
I saw that Sad was paying a grievous price for this, as the demon’s hand was burning, its flesh blackened before it peeled away, revealing the bone beneath. After a while, it healed, and flesh covered the open bone, but it soon vanished, and the overall shape of the demon was reduced by a fraction.
The demon was burning itself to get through the door, but it made no sound, as its yellow eyes were fixed on me without even blinking.
"Elric," the fox whispered, her voice low and urgent. "It’s been doing this for hours."
I looked at those yellow eyes that would have watched me sleep for hours, and I sighed as I sat up... You would think that I got used to nightmares after all this time, but creepy stuff was still creepy.
Still, I had gotten the sleep that I craved, and my mind was fresh; it was as if in my sleep, the knot in my heart had been loosened, and the path forward had opened up before me.
I sat up and brought the fox to my lap, while I softly ran my hand down her head to her back, and she slowly relaxed in my arms. "Thank you for watching over me while I sleep."
Her ears straightened. "Of course, it is what I should do."
The yellow eyes of the demon shifted a bit, the first motion it had made outside of pressing its hand against the door, but I did not care about its actions, and I closed my eyes.
The fox whipped around. "Elric, what are you doing? It’s coming through..."
"I know." I crossed my legs while taking in long, deep breaths, wanting to keep as much of the fresh air in my lungs before the stench of darkness covered it all. "It’s coming through no matter what I do. So I’m going to spend the time doing what is necessary... my powers have been shackled for too long."
I closed my eyes, and I looked at my Inscription, and it was at 89... a step away from Arcanist, and then I glanced over at my Anima Depth, and my breath stalled.
[ Anima Depth: 89 (Adept) — Broken-Celestial — Crystallization: 57% → 92% ]
How did it grow so fast? I had thought my crystallization might take months, especially when I was nearing the threshold, and even that speed was almost unreal to me, but in the blink of an eye, my soul was nearly crystallized.
I could now barely hear a rumble as the barrier in front of me was beginning to fade, and I realized the truth in this instant... While my time inside this facility may not have the grand spell slinging as I did at Caelith Mourne against the demons, the danger that I faced here was different and much worse.
I had no way to fight against Sad, and could barely hurt him, all my powers were useless against a demon who could flood my channels with darkness and prevent me from acting at my full potential, what was even worse was that I knew that I was not being taken as a real threat, because if the demon unleashed the full might of its Sovereign strength, I would be crushed to ash before I could even blink.
All of that pressure might not have contributed to the growth of my spell. Still, it was a potent tonic to the crystallization of my soul. Every time I denied the demon, stood against a Sovereign, and refused to be broken by the darkness in this place, my Anima Depth crystallized further, and before I knew it, I was at the threshold of my transformation.
The impossible powers of a Sovereign had pressed me to the ground for so long that I had forgotten that there was a moment when lightning had been my flesh, and an army that could devastate a city had fallen to my might.
If I could not fight against this demon with a liquid soul, then let us see what happens when my soul was crystal... but before then, that was not the only path to power that had opened up before me... Inscriptions, they seemed simple on the surface, but they were the backbone of magical expression... and I know that my transformation would only be fully realized if I broke the limit of my understanding and pushed it to the Arcanist level.
Eighty-nine...
I think I had been sitting at eighty-nine for a while now, pressed flat against a ceiling I could feel but not pass. Every script I had learned and mastered, all of it had brought me here , to the last inch, and no further.
I could no longer climb this last inch; I had to cross it.
I looked at the scripts on the walls here, and while I knew I could derive countless inspirations from them, they ultimately belonged to Seed, whose path was darkness, and I was lightning made flesh.
If I wanted to cross into the Arcanist Tier and become a Master Engraver, then I needed to choose my own path, write my own script, and break the chains that have held me down.
What is the script that resonates with me?