Chapter 16: Soul and Bones
Jack opened his vision, as the gold wisps in his eye sockets had once again danced into gold flames. The Holy downpour had ended a few minutes earlier. Jack was still unaware of the phenomenon he caused, but at this moment he felt... Powerful.
He could feel the Holy power surging in him all along his bones. It was painful, but delightful at the same time, like getting a deep tissue massage. It hurt so good! He continued to sit where he was for a moment while feeling the changes in his soul and bones. After his readings, he then set out to find what rank he had achieved. When he had first sat down to start Cultivating, he wasn't at the Disciple rank like he hoped he wasn't, but it turned out to be worse than he expected. It was as if he had no Cultivation at all. Using his mind to feel the changes, he came to a startling conclusion. He wasn't king rank like he wanted... But he was in fact at Knight rank! One rank away from King! This was absolutely better than what he had to work with previously.
This made Jack ecstatic with joy, half his plan was complete. He now only needed to learn a few spells and be ready to take on the court. Jack got up from his cross-legged position on the floor, below the Glowstone pearl he had previously made his Cultivation spot, and made his way back to his desk. He looked up at the Chronometer... He had three days before court. Jack inwardly sighed, it was a fleeting joy.
Sitting down he took out a new tome from the stack he had brought earlier labeled, "Slinging Magic and You." [Who names these tomes?] Jack questioned slightly annoyed.
He was about to crack open the tome, but wondered, if now that he was a Knight rank, could he just absorb it, would be pretty nice if he could.
Jack placed his hand on the front of the cover and waited for that feeling he had last time. This time, however, his entire rib cage felt warm. He directed that power through his shoulder down his arm and into his hand that held the tome. The tome lit up brightly, and the contents flowed into Jack's mind. This time, his head didn't pound as hard as the first time he had done this.
Jack sat there satisfied with the effect of absorbing the knowledge of the tome. [Wow! I really like this ability. It's like downloading the tome into your brain... So matrix!] Jack then proceeded to go over what he had just obtained.
[What?!] Jack was astonished, once again more than anything, after mulling over his new found information. Spells had different verbiage based on the school of magic. For example, Holy magic spells were called Hymns, Unholy magic spells were called Curses, and Arcane magic spells were called Sorceries. Performing a spell was a three-part process.
The process of forming magic into a manifestation started by drawing the magic from the soul, then chanting the formula, and lastly, releasing, or also known as evoking the magic. Chanting or Humming the Hymn, Curse, or any type of spell would evoke the spell. What was shocking Jack the most was the formula for spells? Forming a spell was exactly like programming, but here they called it formulating. To produce a new spell, a Cultivator would write or mentally formulate the spell, which would produce the chant to evoke said spell. The Cultivator would utter this chant, and this would evoke the spell.
Jack was precisely a programmer in his last life! While the syntax for writing spells was certainly different from C++ or Java, it was still a programming language. Now, Jack had absorbed this tome and knew the programming language of spells in this world.
[I can't believe this is a thing...! I just can't! Actually, programming magic!] Jack was extremely excited and was ready to try some spells, immediately. Jack picked up the next tome in his stack titled, "Holy Hymns Vol. 1." [Simple!] Jack assimilated this tome and settled on the most basic Holy Hymn within the book, the Hymn of Bright Light. A Holy Hymn that would produce a ball of light to illuminate the dark, very useful in the Underworld, if you were without Glowstones. For this Holy Hymn, the Light would last for a fifteen-minute duration.
Jack held out his right palm face up, and hummed the alien sounds, "Zaniwohugliwohug." This would be a mouthful... If Jack used his month to talk; he would wonder later how flesh and blood beings spoke or hummed these words. A bright ball of light the size of a golf ball was emitted from his palm and gently floated a few centimeters above it. Jack's first spell! Finally, he produced magic, and best of all, he didn't even feel anything casting this spell! Well, it was the most basic of all Holy Hymns, so this was to be expected for a Knight ranked Cultivator.
After coming down from his high of evoking his first Holy Hymn, he thought over the formulation, the programming of the spell. After reviewing it in his mind, he came to a surprising conclusion.
[The programming of this spell is utter garbage. It's literally spaghetti code! So many redundancies, there's no reason for some of this code to even be here.] He then went through several Holy Hymn formulas... They were all the same, sloppily written!
[Who made these? I would have gotten fired the first day on the job if I submitted programming work like this in my last life....] Jack was rendered speechless, as the ball of light, dimmed and dissipated.
[Hmmmm. Let's see.] Jack went back over the Hymn of bright Light, in his mind. After cleaning up the formula, he hummed the new chant. "Zaaa," and a new ball of light was produced, just the same as the last one. Jack watched it while thinking, until it, too like the last one, dissipated.
He, once again, hummed a new chant. "Zaaaaa," and a new ball of light was produced, still the same size as the last one. Jack also watched this one until it dissipated, but this time it endured for over an hour.
His last experiment was hummed, "ZaaaaaNii." A ball of light was produced this time, but it was the size of a desk! Jack was able to reduce the chant to evoke his Holy Hymns, but also increase the duration, and size of the effect. His experiments lasted for a full day.
Soon, his thoughts turned to if he could make new Holy Hymns. Keeping this in mind, he spent the next two days wiping up new Holy Hymns; with each, he was more pleased with than the last.
Jack finally looked back up at the time and decided it was time to leave. He had a few hours before it was time for court, and he needed to get with Lucius for information on Undeath Official Jordan.
Jack returned all the tomes back to where he picked them up and walked out of his study. He was greeted by Leslie and Lucius, who had been waiting for him, who knows how long.
Before Jack could say hello, Lucius barraged Jack with multiple questions. "Your Grace, did you break through? What was that beacon of Holy Light? Why did you call down the angels of death? Are you dissatisfied with the world? Is that why you called down them down...? Blah, Blah, Blah?" Jack started to become dizzy from the flurry of questions, and near the end, he couldn't even understand what Lucius was asking.
"Grand Minister, slow down. Ask me one question at a time, so I can answer..." Jack finally interrupted Lucius. Leslie just impatiently waited to the side. She had found that she had become this way, now that she knew she had a place in Jack's heart. She was able to wait for a thousand years to see her love before, but now it was agonizing to wait for just a week and a half!
"I am sorry, your Grace." After composing his thoughts, he asked the question he felt most pressing, "Ahem. What exactly was that beacon of Holy Light?"
"What beacon of Holy Light?" Jack asked while being puzzled.
"You don't know?" Lucius was so shocked; he forgot to add The Holy Witch King's honors to his question. Jack didn't pay attention, as he wasn't use to this; However, Leslie noticed this.
Jack speculated over what the beacon of Holy Light might have been, and after a few minutes, he figured it had to be when he was cultivating the Heretic's Logic.
"Ah. I know what you're asking now. I was Cultivating the Holy Light. I had lost some Cultivation from my long entombment." Jack casually lied... errrr... Bluffed.
"Thank the Holy Light. This is good news! However, your Grace... What were the Angels of Death doing?" Lucius finally asked the question that bothered him the most. He still had a lingering fear of those things he saw, especially after hearing the report given by Verruca.
"That was just a byproduct of my Cultivation; nothing to worry about." Jack still in full bluff mode. Honestly, he had no clue. He would have to find out what happened in his absence. Jack just wasn't sure who to ask... Leslie?
"A by... product, your Grace?" Lucius was unsure how this was a byproduct... This was clearly an evoked Holy Hymn.
"Yes."
"Your Grace, your byproduct broke into the Jail Quarters and reaped 30 charged, awaiting Judgment..." Lucius spoke what he found the most troubling.
[Errrrrrrrrrrrr... What?] Jack finally was stumped. He wasn't exactly sure what to say to this... He assumed he caused this beacon of Holy Light, but wasn't sure on what the angels of death were that Lucius was talking about, let alone them reaping lives... [Wait... Jail Quarters? The guilty? Was this magic outburst related to my intentions of cleansing the court?] Jack had accidentally figured out the reason the angels of death spawned from his Cultivation and the reason why they were reaping the charged held in the Jail Quarters.
After a period of time, Jack finally responded, "These manifestations are an extension of my will. With these lives reaped, We have saved time for other issues in the court." Jack said coldly, as the golden flames in his eyes were energetically dancing, as he spoke.
"I... Understand, your Grace." Grand Minister Lucius' mind returned to the words spoken by Archbishop Javon, [...The Holy Witch King is displeased with the world..., and the times are going to change because of it.]
Jack finally got a word in edgewise, "Leslie, my dearest, how have you been." Leslie's, who had been quite up to this point, face bloomed into a beautiful smile. "I've... missed you."
Hearing this, Jack walked over to Leslie and pulled her into his embrace. He propped his lower jaw on top of her head, "Yes. I as well, but I will always return." Jack said softly. Leslie felt spoiled by Jack's words.
[These two...] Lucius inwardly sighed, again. He then interrupted the two, "We have completed Consort Leslie's Throne."
Jack let out a laugh, still holding Leslie. "Excellent. I look forward to seeing it, but more importantly, Grand Minister. What information do you have for me about the Undeath Official Jordan?" Jack asked eagerly. This is what he needed for his plan to fall into place.
"Let us take this to your Office..." Lucius spoke, in a low voice. [I have an Office? What don't I have?] Jack didn't know just how important The Holy Witch King was to the Holy Kingdom of Deagoth.
Lucius looked over to Leslie, and then back to Jack while gesturing to her. Lucius was indicating if The Holy Witch King wanted Leslie to accompany them, and Jack did catch the insinuation. "Anything I can hear, Leslie can hear, but I do want to warn you, dearest," Jack said as he turned to Leslie. "I will be dealing with your family, and it will not be pleasant. I will not wipe them from existence, but it will not be easy for them." Leslie shuddered. She was struggling, even while she had been exiled and shunned by her family, they were still her family. Most of all, she was worried about her parents.
She tucked Jack's right arm against her chest, "...I understand, and I will stand behind any decision you make, as long as you don't wipe my family out."
"Alright then, lead the way, Grand Minister," Jack commanded casually. Lucius noticed that his Grace didn't speak his name, and figured he wanted to keep some distance between them in the presence of Leslie. This confused him with the previous statement that she could know what he knew... Perhaps it was only with regard to her family.
As always, with twists and turns, the group made it to the Office of The Holy Witch King. A grandiose décor greeted his vision, a medium sized room, in the same style as The Holy Witch King's private chamber. White bone walls and ceiling, with an obsidian stone floor. On all the walls, hung tapestries depicting various scenes of undead in battle and worship, a white carpet split the room in two, where at the back of the wall where the carpet ended, sat a large desk with an accompanying chair, both made of black bone. These were made in the same style as his desk and chair from his study. In front of his desk sat two white bone chairs. Against the left wall, sat a large black bone couch padded with white silk cushions, fine silk imported from the Great Tomb of Neolith, one of their key exports.
Jack swaggered in with a royal decorum and made way to his chair. He sat down looking very proper, with his posture ramrod straight in his seat. Jack indicated to the two white chairs for Leslie and Lucius to sit. He then folded his fingers and propped his hands on the desk in front of him.
Leslie walked over the couch and lounged upon it, facing the direction of Jack. Lucius took his seat in front of Jack. With everyone settled, Lucius began to report to Jack the information requested on Undeath Official Jordan.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone