RD 3 Ch 39

Chapter 39

The time continued to pass while my body was frozen, and I was going a little stir-crazy. There was nothing but the empty white room and the occasional demonic grunt.

The demons were working for the boss, walking through and commenting on various parts of whatever trials were happening. I was able to glean several key pieces of information from their conversations. 

First, wherever we were at the moment broke the system rules with a set of rules of its own, and that it had to stick to the rules in order to supersede the system. The rules of this space were paramount and absolute. Breaking them seemed to cause issues, which told me that the trials were fixed. Now that they were being squirrely and adjusting how the trials went, we were likely causing problems for the demons that they were then having to solve. 

There appeared to be only one person participating in the third trial of the vault at a time so that they could manage whatever issue was occuring or perhaps it was a small subset of people.

Meanwhile, I was fairly certain the only reason I was even aware at the moment was because my spirit was high enough that they could not completely lock me in stasis. 

Finally, I learned that the resources were running perilously dry, yet they had to have enough to finish the final phase of the trial, otherwise the vault would all come undone.

They were also short on workers. Several of the grunts had already been killed by the boss. Watching one of them fail some sort of implementation only for the boss to sever his head made me realize they might be as nearly as brutal as the human corporate environment. 

Regardless of who was more brutal, it was clear to me the demons had a set agenda, and were working through it systematically.

Time continued to pass by as I stared out into a white space for what at times felt like years, but might have only been days. I was rather fond of the demons when they walked back and forth chatting, because at least listening to them gave me something to do to keep me from being lost in my thoughts.

I was floating, listening to a conversation, when something new happened. I felt a tiny tug on my soul. If I had been otherwise engaged in just about anything, I'm not sure I would have felt the faintest of threads, only to latch onto it with my consciousness and see where it was going and what the demons were doing to me. 

At this point, when I touched the thread of my soul, I could feel dozens of other connections to me. The fact that these had formed without me knowing was cause for concern enough. 

I considered entering meditation and working on my soul defenses and spirit. Regardless, I followed the thread. It whisked my focus away from my present body towards something in the far distance. 

It felt like I was penetrating space itself, heading somewhere very different. As my perception opened up in a new form, I found myself in a stone crypt, sarcophagi lining the wall, alcoves with sarcophagi lining the walls, two on each side. 

But my attention quickly shifted from inspecting the area to finding Amanda on the floor continuing to pull at my soul. Suddenly, I realized who had called for my help.

I stopped resisting and swiftly dove into her mind, appearing in a new space.

This time, we were in a simulacrum of the fort we were building outside of Vein City. It was partially built but also completely destroyed.

Amanda was on her knees looking weary while a powerfully built demon swung an ethereal blade, destroying the fortress around Amanda. 

One such blade rushed at me and I reached a blood-red hand up and caught it before pinching it between my fingers and shattering the weapon.

She may have only drawn a small wisp of my consciousness, however, I still had my spirit, not to mention Soul Resilience. 

I blinked, realizing my Soul Resilience was active in someone else's soul. That… shouldn’t be possible. 

Soul Resilience increased my spirit when fighting in my own soul. I glanced at Amanda kneeling behind me, confused. 

"Amanda?" I raised an eyebrow. Her eyes went wide. 

"B…Bran? Like, the real Bran?" She stammered. 

"Not really. A fragment of my consciousness has been pulled here." I looked down at myself, realizing I was currently a golem made of blood. "When we are done, you are going to help me understand all of the Mul Branova's abilities. Do you understand, Amanda?" I said to her seriously. 

She bobbed her head up and down. "Of course, Lord Bran. I didn't know this ability would bring you," she said, still stunned at my appearance. "But I'm in a little bit of a pickle," she admitted. 

I turned back to see the demon staring down at us with a bit of confusion in his eyes. 

"You summoned help? That’s impossible, we are alone in a sealed space." The demon frowned.

Given that this was essentially a projection of my form using Amanda's blood, my physical stats were significantly diminished. However, my abilities were all present. A Blood Blade ran down my hand, matching the rest of the body I seemed to be using in this space.

"Amanda, this is your soul and in your complete control. You can manipulate this space as much as you want. Your belief that his attack is powerful enough to destroy the fort is what makes it able to do so." I stared down at Amanda. "Do you understand?” I decided to use this to my best ability. “As such, I am Lord Bran, and he can't touch me." 

Amanda's eyes quite literally glowed as she stared back at me, and the demon swept his blade towards me again.

I didn't even block the ethereal slash that slammed against my current form, shattered effortlessly. I moved, and this time the space between the demon and I collapsed, similar to Merlin's League Step.

Did she think I was a fucking god? Then again, she literally worshiped me.

I lightly stepped up beside the demon, and my blood blade clashed with the ethereal katana in his hands.

He fought back, swinging it in a frantic, yet practiced style. That blade of his carved intricate patterns in the air.

I had no care for such fancy and deceptive sword work. Instead, a powerful overhead chop from me forced him to either block or step back. 

The demon retreated, only for me to turn the chop into a thrust.

I stepped heavily forward, cracking the fort wall and surged forward. My sword pierced his gut before I swished my blade out the side of his form. Even though I was in someone else's soul, and therefore operating on their rules, he bled from the wound as if this were real. 

"Amanda," I called, stabbing my sword into the top of the wall, "we're going to teach you a new ability, one I probably should have taught the Mul Branova already."

"Yes, Lord Bran," she said in a hurry, standing up and drawing her katana.

"It's called Soul Absorption Art. You need to understand that this is your soul, and you are in complete control in some form or function. I'm going to teach you how to devour this demon. What did he promise you in order to gain access to your soul?" 

She blushed and looked down at her feet, biting her lip. "Skills for my sword," she admitted. 

"Perfect. Then we'll work on you devouring some of his stats as well as those skills." I grinned, and the demon took a hesitant step back before he turned and tried to run. "Amanda, cage him in." I commanded.

Large steel bars stretched from the top of the wall all the way to the sky before bending and wrapping around, capturing the demon. I managed to slip inside before the other end collapsed. 

"Perfect, Amanda." I couldn't help but smirk as I drew glowing, but useless shapes on the bars. What mattered was that Amanda now believed they couldn’t be broken. "Now, what I need you to do is help me set the table."

"Yes, Lord Bran." A buffet-style hot bar appeared just outside the bars.

"When I pass a piece of him through the bars to those platters," I pointed, "have it turn the body part whatever food you desire. After all, he is nothing more than a resource."

"I have to actually eat him?" Amanda asked, looking a little green.

I didn’t respond. Instead, I turned and attacked the demon.

Inside the cage, he could not even back up and quickly found the end of his retreat blocked off. The gangly demon panicked and looked around for some solution only for his sword to bounce off the bars with a light ping as if it was little more than a child’s toy.

I bashed him against the bars in a quick exchange and cut off part of his leg. Walking towards the bars, I said, "Remember, it's going to turn into your favorite food." 

Pushing between the bars, spaghetti and meatballs poured into one of the platters.

Amanda looked at it and shrugged. "If that's your will, Lord Bran," she hesitated, scooping some out and putting it on a plate. 

"When you get more accustomed to doing this, we can make this easier, but for now, I'm going to help you, Amanda." I smirked. This was far better entertainment than staying frozen in whatever prison the demons had my physical form in at the moment. I loved killing demons. A giant grin split across my face at the idea of picking a demon apart piece by piece.

***

The demon was gone. For a demon, he turned out to be quite pathetic, turning into a blubbering mess by the time I was done. Not that his begging bothered me. I had lived through enough torment from them that I knew what they were capable of if left to their own choices.

Meanwhile, Amanda had been stuffing her face and lay on the ground with a broken chair beneath her swollen body. "Bran," Amanda groaned, holding her stomach. "Why am I so fat?" 

"Because you think you're fat," I tried not to laugh. It was blatantly obvious when the intrusive thought that she might break the chair entered her mind and she fell back, eating on the ground after that. "You're not actually fat. This is your soul. It's more of a projection of how you feel than anything else." 

She groaned again and rolled over what was left of the chair that she had been sitting on. It cracked and split as she rolled across it, an obviously unreal situation that didn't seem to bother Amanda at present. She somehow managed to roll herself to a sitting position, leaning against a concrete wall that had seen better days. 

"So if I leave here, I won't be fat?" She asked.

"No. If you leave here, you'll be your normal self. Though you're going to have some enhancements to your stats and some new skills." 

Amanda grinned. "Promise you'll forget about this?" She gestured at herself. 

"Promise, Amanda. And trust me, I've seen worse." I replied easily.

My reassurance didn't quite work as well as I'd hoped.

Amanda narrowed her eyes, and I gave it another shot. "I mean, it'll be forgotten. Completely forgotten. Instead, I'll just remember how you destroyed a demon and took advantage to get new sword skills." 

With the reminder of the new skills she'd obtained, Amanda beamed back at me. "We have to figure out how we can get the others to do this," she said.

I couldn't help but nod along. That was where my new plan was going to get tricky.

While she'd been finishing up her feast, I'd been working on several inscriptions. Unfortunately, I didn't have Simone here to help me by creating a disguise talisman. Though, within Amanda's own soul, I could help fortify her a bit better. I had scribbled all over the wall of this fortress in her soul. 

"So when you leave, remember, your name is Vertorak." I instructed.

"Vertorak," Amanda said, nodding. "I can do that. I have some of his memories bouncing around in here." She frowned, as if finding those memories uncomfortable.

"He's probably been in that jar for a really long time. It happens, they’ll fade. The demons have been laying in wait for a long time and most of those memories aren’t going to be much use to you. What I need you to do, though, is somehow get the other Mul Branova to understand that they can use this ability to protect themselves." 

Amanda nodded.

"The other option you have is making a simple soul door talisman." I scribbled it out on a piece of paper and showed it to her. "I'm going to need you to practice this a few times. If you can enter their soul while the other demon is there, you might be able to use your ability to help them." 

Amanda continued to nod.

"My biggest concern is Simone, Gloria, and Nyx.” I told her.

“Why is that?" Amanda asked.

I noticed as she was talking, her stomach was deflating as I took her mind off of the food and eating the food. The natural state she remembered herself in was growing more dominant every moment.

"Well, Simone might not be quite as much of an issue. But Gloria and Nyx don't know how to eat souls, and their own soul defense may not stand up to whoever gets shoved inside of them. They will likely get stronger demons." I shook my head. The very idea of one of them becoming possessed made me angry enough to try and break my stasis. 

There was a strange look on Amanda's face, and I recognized some of the Mul Branova may not entirely appreciate all of the women in my life. But that was a problem for another day. For today, we needed to ensure none of them were possessed. 

"I can do my best. I don't know what's going to happen when I get out there, though." She gestured to the side. "Also, are you going to stay here, or…" She hesitated. 

I shrugged. "Honestly, I shouldn't have lasted this long. Most likely, when you stop focusing on me, I'll disappear. Like the breeze."

Amanda nodded, staring at me, as if her focus could then prevent me from disappearing. 

"Look, you don't need to worry," I chuckled. "Just get out there and do your best to make sure that we can save as many people as possible. You are probably stronger than those grunts running this place.”

“Do I prioritize the others?" She asked. 

I opened my mouth to tell her to save everyone, only to sigh and shake my head. "The Mul Branova and the people we brought in with us are your top priority. Hopefully, if you can get a couple of the others to summon me and their soul. I’ll do the same for them and hopefully we can get enough support to start to scale." 

Amanda nodded continuously, and suddenly there was a disturbance in her soul, almost like something giant was knocking on the outside.

I clicked my tongue. "Alright, we can't dally any longer.” I stared into her eyes. “Head out, remember your new name, and don't try and fight your way out of the vault. The vault that we're in likely has some incredible defensive measures." 

Amanda nodded repeatedly, but I wanted to reiterate. "I'm serious Amanda, all of the Mul Branova are precious to me, and I refuse to lose a single one of you."

With those words, her face turned bright red as she smiled, and she disappeared from her own soul. Soon I felt my current form waver, as I also started to disappear and feel a pull back to my own body and soul.