Bab 229: 226: A Plague of Phantoms X
"Seriously! Here!" I yelled as I stepped off King's Glaive. Sin stood in front of me with Grandpa Seamus and Chad close behind me.
We were standing in front of a condemned building in the outskirts of the bronze city. It was a shitty one story house that was half burnt down, more than likely from me fight with Draco the night everyone helped me defeat the red dragons. There wasn't a door since the front of the building was the half that had been burnt but even still there was a dark shadow that made it hard to see inside, unnaturally so.
"It was the only place I could think to talk him!" Sin exclaimed defensively.
"The apartment wasn't an option!" I snapped then stepped beside Sin and pointed to a roach the size of a softball dragging a dead mouse into a hole in the foundation. "Thor's breath Sin, its got roaches hunting and gathering mice!"
"Shut up!" He griped and stomped up the singed pathway to the door. I started to say something else but Grandpa Seamus grabbed my shoulder. I looked back at him and he shook his head.
"Location aside am I the only one that noticed this place is under a utility spell effect?" Chad asked as he followed after Sin.
"You mean that weird shadow that's obscuring part of the house?" I asked as I followed after Sin and Chad, Grandpa Seamus walking beside me.
"Yeah…the magic that surrounds this place feels off…" Chad muttered.
While I was used to feeling my own mana and even sensing things with it I wasn't that good at sensing other magic unless it was targeted at me and my mana manipulation tattoo spell dispelled it. So it was a little weird to hear other people talking about being able to sense it.
Sin walked through the shadow of the burnt-out doorway and immediately disappeared, not like he faded into the shadows but vanished altogether. I paused and watched as Chad followed suit and vanished from existence. I walked over to the doorway and the moment I touched the shadow I felt a wave of unusual mana tried to wrap around me and tried to impose a spell effect on me. In an instant I felt the spell shatter and my body immediately start to absorb the mana.
The mana was denser than I was used to absorbing from spells and let a metallic taste in my mouth. I realized the density of the mana was because of the sheer amount of it, there was at least twice as much mana poured into the spell. As I absorbed the mana, it caused my farm crystal to overload and my star farm crystal glowed a bright red color.
"AH SHIT!" I winced and grabbed my right hand. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I needed to direct the mana somewhere else, I thought about sending it to Empress, Alpa'nagia, Bone-lasher, or even Bellial but I was sure the amount of mana was too much for all of them since they were near full mana or full mana capacity. Fours was also off the table since he didn't have a mana crystals or any desire to go through transcendence.
I suddenly became aware of the mental links I had with my other evos as everyone started turning their attention to me noticing that I was in pain. Through the connection I could feel Jiggles and Grimm-Guard almost as if they were inside my crystal.
Focusing on Grimm-Guard's connection I willed the mana to flow from my crystal to him. I could feel the mana flowing from my farm crystal and into the dormant mana crystal. Once my mana overload stopped I made sure to cut the mana flow in order prevent Grimm-Guard from suffering from the same thing.
[BOSS!] Bone-lasher exclaimed through our connection, that was then followed by exclamations from everyone.
[I'm fine…mana overload. I've had them before.] I told everyone then rubbed my farm crystal. [More importantly are you okay Grimm?]
[I'm okay Star Boss…I feel a little strange…tingly.] Grimm-Guard replied.
[I'll head to the laboratory after I wrap this up to check on you, okay?] I informed him.
"EARTH TO STARLIGHT!" Grandpa Seamus all but yelled in my ear.
"OW! GRANDPA!" I yelled back as I jumped away and rubbed my ears. He laughed loudly and shook his head. He motioned towards the burnt-out house which was no longer shrouded in shadows.
"When ya stepped into the doorway Starlight all that darkness disappeared." He said. Sin and Chad were standing in the center of the burnt-out house looking at me.
"Yeah…utility and enchantment spells don't work on me." I said. Grandpa Seamus chuckled and nodded.
"Mana-nana manipulation tattoo spell. I used ta be jealous of my siblings that had that ruddy spell growing up." Grandpa Seamus replied. I arched a brow and wanted to ask a question but Sin interrupted my train of thought.
"Well since you got rid of the spell hiding this place Boss let's hurry up and get inside." He said.
"Right behind you." I said then walked inside the remains of the house with Grandpa following close behind.
Sin walked over to the stairs down to the basement and went down them without hesitation. Everyone followed suit, though I was initially worried about not being able to see since the house was all but destroyed and there were probably no working lights down there. I quickly found that there was no reason to worry as we reached the bottom of the stairs. The ceiling of the basement had several small orbs of light that illuminated the area.
The basement was small and filled with the belongings of whoever lived here before the Red dragons sucked the life out of the bronze city. A thick layer of dust overed every toy, piece of furniture, or discarded bauble in the room. At the very back wall of the basement was the entrance to a tunnel that looked a lot fresher than everything else in the room. Like it had only been dug a few days ago.
The group followed Sin as he walked into the tunnel, it descended deeper into the earth for a few minutes before we finally reached the bottom. The slow incline that everyone had been walking down leveled out to a underground chamber about the same size of the basement.
Everyone gasped as the looked around the space. Whatever made the space had decorated it to be comfortable for young kids. There were toys all over the ground, mostly action figures in various poses like recreating a great battle. Child sized furniture were strewed all over the place in a attempt to look like a child's room. At the very back of the room sitting on a mat made of leaves and cloth scraps sat a little boy that was for spitting image of Sin.
"Indy! It's me and I brought some people." Sin called out to the boy. His son looked up from the toys he was playing with and smiled.
"Papa!" He exclaimed as he jumped to his feet and ran over to Sin.
[Boss to your left!] Bone-lasher warned me as he shared hos electromagnetic vision. I saw the outline of a figure watching everyone from a corner and quickly recognized it as the Djinn Signifier that Sin borrowed from Moldworks. The fact that nobody was looking over at him told me they couldn't perceive him.
Sin's son grabbed Sin's leg and hugged him tightly. Sin smiled sweetly at the boy, the look seemed put of place on the normally frowning and aggressive looking giant's face. He then reached down and picked his son off the floor and held him on his hip.
"Indy, where is Voodoo?" Sin asked.
"He's over there." I said pointing to the exactly place he was standing. Everyone looked in that direction and cocked their heads to the side when all they saw was shadow. Chad cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes.
"A utility spell?" Chad said. I saw Voodoo cock his head to the side as he regarded me with Bone-lasher's electromagnetic vision. Sin turned with his son in hand and looked to where I was pointing.
"Voodoo come out. These people are with me." He ordered. The Djinn Signifier nodded then undid the spell, suddenly coming into view to everyone that didn't have a liger shark aiding their vision.
"As you wish Master." Voodoo said then moved over to Sin's side, placing himself between Sin, and his son and the rest of us. I couldn't help but notice I had a flick of annoyance at the move and at the evo's complete lack of recognition of anyone other than Sin.
"Papa, who are these people?" Sin's sin asked.
"Well Indy…" Sin said and pointed to me. "…That's my Boss Chase Kingston, my Co worker Chad Princeton, and Chase's grandfather…um…what's your name again?"
"Seamus MacClery. Pleasure ta meet ya laddie." Grandpa introduced himself. Sin's son laughed loudly and pointed at Grandpa while looking up his dad.
"Papa his voice is funny!" Indy chuckled.
"He's from another country son. Its just his accent." Sin replied with a smile.
"Everyone this is my son: Indariq Walliaskir or Indy for short."
"Nice to meet you Indy." I said with a smile. Indy smiled back at me and chuckled again.
"His voice is funny too!" Indy exclaimed.
"That's cause I'm from another country too." I said.
"Umm…weren't we supposed to grab him and hurry back to somewhere safe?" Chad spoke up. Sin's expression hardened instantly and he held his son tighter.
"You're right. We need to go." Sin said then started towards the tunnel back towards the basement. Voodoo followed closely after Sin and eyed everyone as he passed with suspension.
[Boss outside! Enemies!] Bone-lasher warned me then shared his vision. It took me back to the surface where I could see a small squad of four approaching the yard of the burnt-out house while another squad was trying to get inside King's Glaive.
"Sin! Hold on!" I exclaimed then rushed in front of Sin. He instantly became alert and looked to me. "Enemies are outside. Eight in total."
"They followed us?" Sin exclaimed.
"We came here in a massive crystal ancient magical artifact. It's not like it's that hard to track…" Chad said.
"What are your orders Master?" Voodoo asked. Sin looked to me.
"Boss?" He asked.
"Stay here and guard your son. I'll deal with them." I said then popped my claws and headed up the tunnel.
"Boss what about me?" Chad asked.
"Guard my Grandpa!" I ordered over my shoulder and continued.
"Voodoo go help the Boss." Sin said.
"Yes Master." Voodoo replied.
I suddenly sensed Voodoo running up behind me and keeping to my flank. I barely regarded him as I ran and kept track of the assassins that followed us. Thanks to Bone-lasher's I knew that the first squad was currently walking down into the basement.
[Imposter I can deal with them if you wish?] Fours asked.
[No I got this.] I told him.
I channeled accelerate attribute mana and felt time slow to a crawl as I dashed forward and reached the beginning of the tunnel. As I skidded to a stop I saw the first of the assassins stepping off the steps to the basement and looking around in slow motion. I quickly dashed forward and slashed his throat before he had a chance to react to what happened. I stopped channeling accelerate attribute mana and switched to shock attribute mana.
Channeling the new attribute into my left hand and between my two bone claws.
I aimed my hand up at the three remaining assassins that were all walking down the steps. Like a makeshift crossbow I fired a lightning bolt from between my claws up at the three assassins. It slammed into the first one and closet to me near the bottom of the stairs and sent him flying back as time started to return to normal speed. The lightning tore through his chest and jumped through to the other two assassins, dropping them immediately before the lightning continued through the doorway before dissipating into the sky above.
I quickly switched from shock attribute to gravity attribute and jumped up, flying up the stairs and launching myself into the sky. I stopped several meters above the house and oriented myself. It didn't take me long to find the other squad of assassins as one of them took a pot shot at me with a spear of ice. I dodged the ice spear and prepared to counter attack when suddenly Voodoo jumped from the doorway to the basement casting a spell sigil.
I watched in astonishment as Voodoo cast a offensive spell sigil and fired eight small fireballs the all flew towards the four remaining assassins, two fireballs per assassin. The assassins all tried to dodge or jump out of the way but the fireballs all turned and followed them, reveling the spell had homing properties. The fireballs struck home with each assassin and engulfed them in flames. They all died quickly, screaming in agony.
I flew down towards the door to the house and landed in the yard and looked at the burnt corpses of the nearest assassin who made it to edge of the yard before the fireballs hit. I looked back over to Voodoo who was examining me with a unrecognizable expression, mostly because of its face which was a odd mix of ape and goat.
"Something wrong?" I asked as I looked over at Voodoo. He didn't answer right away, instead observed me before responding.
"You are incredibly powerful…more so than the attackers that my master saved the young master from. That power could become a threat to the young master…" Voodoo said. I instantly became on guard and narrowed my eyes at Voodoo.
"What do you…?" I started when suddenly ice formed around my feet, cementing them in place before creeping up and encasing me in ice up to my neck.
Voodoo rushed towards me, one arm reared back to punch me in the face. The spell that captured me shattered before Voodoo could reach me and sent a shockwave that knocked the evo back. As I absorbed the mana used to cast the spell my farm crystal went into mana overload again.
"Fuck!" I winced and quickly channeled incinerate attribute mana into my right hand and sent a stream of blue flames roaring towards Voodoo, mostly to burn off the access mana.
Voodoo jumped back and dodged the attack. Lightning sparked off its body as it moved with a sudden burst of speed that made it move so fast I couldn't track it with my eyes.
'Mana channeling? Volt attribute?' I thought.
[Boss to the right! Duck!] Bone-lasher warned. I did as instructed and narrowly dodged a hoof to the face as Voodoo came flying at me with a flying kick.
"Voodoo Stop!" I ordered as I scrambled to my feet and switched to volt attribute mana and cycling it throughout my body. Voodoo landed and spun to face me and bit down on his hand drawing blood.
"My purpose is to protect my master and young master! You could very well be a threat later on!" Voodoo snapped back and started writing on his other hand in his blood.
"I'm Sin's boss! I've literally almost died to save him!" I snapped, slightly insulted that it thought I would actually hurt Sin.
"I WILL PROTECT THE YOUNG MASTER!" Voodoo bellowed as he started casting a offensive spell sigil.
'Blood casting!' I thought as I started running towards the mana train. Voodoo fired the same fireball spell that he had used earlier and launched eight fireballs at me.
Thanks to channeling volt attribute mana I was able to outrun the fireballs as they homed in on me. I jumped onto King's Glaive engine and jumped several meters into the air and then switched from channeling volt attribute to channeling shadow attribute mana throughout my whole body. Clouds of darkness spewed from every pore and enveloped me. As the fireballs flew into the shadow cloud they were quickly broken down into mana and absorbed.
As I stopped mana channeling and fell towards the ground out of the shadow cloud I saw Voodoo casting another offense spell sigil aimed at me while I was still falling. I was still suffering from mana overload which was even worse now that I absorbed the mana from Voodoo's last attack.
"GODSDAMMIT! VOODOO STOP!" I bellowed as I channeled gust attribute mana into my hand and sent a tornado spiraling towards the Djinn Signifier. It jumped out of the way of my attack and cast the homing fireball spell again.
[Boss! Let me out!] Bone-lasher exclaimed.
[Star Shaper!] Alpa'nagia yelled.
'OH FUCK IT!' I thought as I saw the fireballs approaching. I guarded my face then let all of the fireballs hit me, exploding and engulfing me in flames.
I felt an immeasurable amount of pain as my left arm was blown off from the force of the explosion and my skin boiled and burned. The pain was so much worse than getting hit by that fireball from Draco, regardless I focused on the task at hand. I channeled gravity attribute mana and stopped myself from falling out of the smoke cloud the explosion caused.
As the smoke cleared I became visible to Voodoo. Second and third degree burned covered most of my body, my clothes were all but ash, except for a portion of my jeans which covered the goods. My left armed gone to just below my shoulder, exposing charred bone and burnt muscle. I didn't even want to imagine how my face looked.
[BOSS!]
[MY LORD!]
[SAVIOR!]
My evos all called out to me via the mental link, many begging to let me help them, others promising swift and deadly retribution but it wasn't what I had in mind to deal with this evo.
Voodoo stated up at me with terrified eyes as he saw the full extent of my wounds and realized that I was staring back at him with a look of more annoyance than fear like any normal person injured to such a degree would.
I floated down to the ground below, landing just outside of the houses yard. As I lowered I also channeled flesh attribute mana along side the gravity attribute to speed up my healing. Since my body knew my lysdale script by heart the mana restored me to the picture of health. I was restored perfectly before I even reached the ground. This of course ate up a lot of mana to do but thanks to the mana overload Voodoo sent me through it didn't exhaust too much. I was currently at sixty percent.
"Are you done?" I asked, allowing the annoyance in my voice to be clear.
"You're just…you're just like me…?" Voodoo exclaimed and then swallowed nervously.
"No, Djinn Signifier…I'm not…" I said sternly then in a display of power I released a wave of pure attributeless mana surging from my body. It struck Voodoo and effortlessly overpowered his own mana and mental fortitude, my mana invaded his body and created mana chains that linked back to me. "…kneel!"
Voodoo obeyed instantly, dropping to his knees and lowering his head. Thanks to my mana chains I had a link into Voodoo's mind and could hear its thoughts as it thought them.
[Too strong! Too strong! Dense power, his presence is overwhelming! I won't be able to protect my master and young master!] Voodoo thought in a panic.
"No, you wouldn't. If I wanted to kill Sin and his son and dedicated my full power to doing so then you would be powerless to stop me." I said aloud. Voodoo's eyes widened at my declaration and I saw traces of fear creeping into his expression.
[Can he hear my thoughts? Like Master?]
"Yes I can…" I confirmed then started walking over to Voodoo, taking slow and deliberate steps. I could see the evos body tense and flex as it tried to force itself to move bur couldn't because of my order. "…honestly I should be pissed since a evo that I created is attacking me but I can't help but admire your devotion and dedication to Sin and Indy. However your paranoia is a problem. Seeing threats in people who are allies is something that will only isolate Sin and Indy."
I stopped in front of Voodoo and looked down at the now frantic and desperate evo as it tried to will its mana to overpower mine but I had the larger mana pool. Even with my mana at sixty percent it still vastly overpowered his measly mana capacity.
"I won't let you hurt my master!" Voodoo declared.
"I'd never hurt Sin. He's like a brother to me." I said then knelt down and placed my hand on his head between his horns and allowed my mana to flow directly into his body, and with it my memories. Voodoo's eyes widened as the memories of all of my encounters with Sin flashed before his eyes.
"Master…you saved my master?" He gasped softly. I could feel a epiphany coming on from the young evo but in that same instance all of my evos used the physical connection with Voodoo to make their presences known. They all flooded the connection with the full force of their own mana and malice.
Honestly the suddenness and sheer amount of mana and malice startled me a little but I quickly got over that. Voodoo on the other hand looked like he was about to pass himself.
[YOU DARED TO HURT THE STAR SHAPER!] Alpa'nagia hissed.
[YOU DARED TO HURT OUR CREATOR!] Jiggles roared.
[I WILL RIP YOUR SPINE OUT AND DEVOUR YOUR SOUL!] Bone-lasher snarled.
The voices and threats of all my evos flooded through the mental connection, each trying to drown the others out in an attempt to make their rage heard. Voodoo was frozen in terror and I was getting a headache.
[ENOUGH!] I bellowed, the order resonating deep within my mind and silenced everyone instantly. Taking a deep breath to calm myself before addressing everyone. [I have the situation under control everyone. All you are doing is giving me a headache. All of you quiet down.]
Everyone responded quietly and I felt their presences retreating from my connection with Voodoo but I could feel all of them paying close attention to proceedings through their connection with me.
"You have control over all of them? All of those….those…demi-gods?" Voodoo asked.
"Demi-gods? That's what they all seemed like to you?" I asked as I looked down at Voodoo. The evo looked up at me in reverence. "They're my evos, my family. They mean the world to me."
"Those aren't mere evos…their power was…in a realm all of their own. Second only to yours. You control those Demi-gods which mean you are more powerful than them…A god…a God of magic…" Voodoo gasped.
'Why do I feel like this line of thinking will be troublesome later on…?' I thought.
"Voodoo, I will forgive you for attacking me today. While misguided, you attacked me for Sin and his son's sake. Because of your desire to protect them and obvious bond with them I will be lenient. Just remember if you attack me or anyone at Sho'lajah Artifact Company I will end you in an instant. Regardless of the reason, everyone at Sho'lajah is my family and I would commit the most atrocious crimes imaginable to protect my family." I said. I let a little bit of my malice and anger leak into my voice along with my mana.
"Y-yes your holiness." Voodoo replied.
'Holiness? Yep…this might be a problem…'
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone