Chapter 252 - Mana Ribonucleic Acid

Mayalyn Aloyhee 

Mayalyn struggled to move. Even breathing was difficult in the chokehold of Olive's panicked aura. Mayalyn's desire to fly under her own power had never been stronger. 

Seeing Jiran's scorched body falling to the ground caused the edges of her vision to darken. The world around her ceased to hold importance as every cell in her body demanded she rush forward to save him. But Olive was just as panicked, and already held aloft, Mayalyn was helpless to fulfil her heart’s earnest desire.

It was Olive's scream that snapped her back from the edge. Mayalyn turned her head to find Ardon had appeared next to them. He was as unaware of her stealthy presence as he had been from the start. Then, he was gone.

Charging released a trickle of stored lightning from the tip of her finger. The little bolt zipped through the air to sting Olive's side. The girl yelped, her eyes shooting open in apology and the restraints around Mayalyn eased.

“I'm so sorry! I forgot you were there. I can't even feel you in my aura.”

“Do no be sorry. I was so panic almost dropped my skill,” Mayalyn swam with her arms and kicked her feet, prompting Olive to bring her closer. “Your brother save us from ourselves. Hopefully, he save Jiran too.”

Olive nodded, the back of her hand scrubbing at her cheeks. They watched the monumental battle raging above where Ardon had vanished in silence. The beast continued to fall apart, the old man's victory now clear and only a matter of time.

Olive broke the silence first, “What if he's—”

Mayalyn was close enough now to throw her arms around Olive, hugging her tight, “When I first met my Aajiran, he burned himself badly. When the fire fled, and I saw his broken body, I knew he was dead. He was not, and he will survive this too.”

Olive shook her head, burrowing her face into Mayalyn's neck, “How do you have such faith in him?”

“Not faith. Trust. Is it not normal to trust until trust is broken? He always return alive, so always will. Return more foolish and without manners, but always alive.”

Olive laughed pitifully. It was a miserable, broken sound, but nonetheless, it eased the tension in both their hearts. They turned back to the wall of living lightning, their breath held as they waited. The seconds ticked by at an agonizing pace. 

Ardon burst free, immediately collapsing to the ground. His skin released trails of cloying smoke and his hair was burned away. Green arcs of energy coursed across his armor, yet not one touched the bundle held gingerly in his arms, wrapped in his cloak. One of Ardon’s two surviving party members beat the girls there, pulling them all back to the wall in her aura.

Wanting to kick herself for being such a fool, Mayalyn released her Enhancing, allowing her muscles to feed off the abundant electricity flowing through her blood. She raced down the nearby stairs and toward the encamped army in the distance. Her feet failed to move fast enough so she pushed her skill into the dangerous territory that always left her sore for days.

Her muscles felt on fire when she arrived. She blazed through the outskirts of the camp at breakneck speed, reaching her goal in seconds. Enhancing once more boosted her body. She slammed metal-reinforced heels into the dirt, sliding to a stop and dropping out of stealth.

Niya whipped around but Mayalyn yelled over her, “Jiran is dying! On the wall!” She pointed and Niya was gone in a blur, leaving behind a spreading wave of dust.

Knowing they would bring him to the army before she made it back, Mayalyn chose to wait there. She would only be in the way if she returned. Her helplessness was a dagger in her guts that was twisted by Cameron's gently-spoken question.

“What happened?”

Mayalyn snarled, baring teeth he couldn't see. Without a word, she reactivated Obfuscation, vanishing from his sight. She paced restlessly, ignoring his indignant snort. It felt like hours passed before she saw them in the sky. Then hours more as she waited for them to arrive. 

Jiran wasn't flying next to them as he should have been. He lay next to Ardon on a large cot carried by one of the powerful auras in the group. Olive's gaze swept back and forth across the camp, no doubt searching for her. When they landed, Mayalyn squeezed her hand as she walked by to inspect Jiran's still form.

His skin was whole but pale and sickly. Each breath was labored. The raspy sound emanating from between his lips tore at her chest. Her eyes stung as she walked beside him. Both men were brought to a tent and she sat beside them on the ground.

The tent was so quiet it could only be the result of someone's aura. Mayalyn couldn't bring herself to care. She dreaded removing her sealed helmet but did it anyway. The smell was exactly as she feared. She clearly scented Ardon and Jiran's auras, both clogged with a foul corruption that she didn't understand.

That lightning damaged their auras? Does that mean their souls are hurt? Jiran once told me it was impossible to damage the soul. What does this mean?

Mayalyn stripped enough of her suit off to pull out an arm. She held Jiran's hand tightly, his skin cold and clammy beneath her fingers. Tears tracked down her cheeks and she roughly wiped them away.

Do not break my trust in you, my Aajiran.

Jiran of Madra

“Submit!” An insistent, rumbling voice shook Jiran's soul-space.

The corruption was all around, infecting the ephemeral area with sticky arcs of frozen electricity. His soulwall was the worst, its once cloudy surface tainted beyond recognition.

“Why the inferno would I do that?” Jiran spat back, annoyed at its repeated demand.

By the time he woke up from the burgheist’s attack, his body and mana were already too far gone to save. He felt Niya’s healing mana entering him, but it was only giving the corruption more energy to spread. Every part she healed came under its control, and without access to the mana needed to create venom, he was helpless to resist.

In a desperate attempt to not lose himself completely, he pulled the last four clean drops of mana into his soul-space. Unfortunately, the area was just as far gone as the rest of his body. He held the precious little orbs close, watching with a frown as one of them rapidly shrunk.

Yah. That makes sense. Obviously my thoughts in here don't come from my flesh and blood brain. This place isn't reality and it isn't connected through nerves. I know mana alone can replicate thought, just not very well. Though, I've never felt as dumb in here as I did after that ranker killed me. Wonder what the difference is. Probably open air dispersing the mana that was trying to hold my thoughts together.

I’m distracting myself. Enough of that. It’s not like I’m going to give up. I've only lost my body, mana, and aura, hardly an inconvenience.

“Submit!”

Jiran moved himself to a particular part of his soulwall. Since Enthralling Touch was the only sigil he knew the location of, he had no choice but to start there. He pressed the dissipating drop of mana against the center of the sigil and watched with disappointment as the green arcs sucked it up instantly, proliferated massively across the surface of his sigil to the point he couldn’t even see it anymore. 

He backed away from his soulwall, lest the lightning reach the last three and he vanish completely. He clutched them to his chest, unable to stop another from beginning the process of evaporating to maintain his pitiful existence. He looked down at the other two, one resting peacefully above each palm.

If these two were a million, they could restore everything that I am. How can the potential for my entire existence rest within something so small and delicate? They’re like DNA, but so much more. MRA? Heh, sure. Why not?

Jiran took one last look at the space around him, finding it completely unrecognizable. Even the gate to his soul was jammed full of the foul, pulsing lightning. The iceheart had long ago released its captive who he imagined must have eagerly rejoined the rest of the corruption. He briefly considered attempting to seek refuge inside it as well, but that would only delay the inevitable.

“Submit! Submit! Submit!”

“Rot off!” Jiran combined the two whole drops into one, wishing he had true emotions in this place so he could be brought to tears by the beauty of mana one more time.

“Submit!”

Why does it even care? It has control of everything already. Or does it? Is that why it wont shut up? Because so long as some part of the original me exists, it can’t fully control the rest? No, not the rest, just my skills. That’s what it really wants.

But if it gets those, everyone I love is going to die. I’ve got enough mana in Armament to wipe out the entire city and the empty tier nines five times over. I can’t let that happen.

“Submit!”

The dissipating drop vanished, and the combined drop began pulling itself apart as he watched. The last speck of his will, thoughts, and intent disappearing into the cosmos.

Will and intent… Would that actually work? It’s not like my status appears on some mystical screen that I touch with my fingers. It’s always interacted with through thought alone.

Jiran didn’t dare try to access his status, knowing it consumed mana to display itself. It wasn’t his status itself that even interested him at the moment, it was the possibility that lay within two of its many lines of text. Lines that had only recently appeared, yet he knew every word by heart.

Mana Confluence threshold reached: Primary skill evolutions available

Mana Transcendence: Remove mana potentiality limiters

Involution of Rendin: Seek, intuit, reason. The intricacies of mana are revealed to those who study with a keen mind

Potency of Sadukar: Amplify, direct, overwhelm. Become the ultimate implement of mana and invoke its might upon the unworthy

Will it work though? I don’t know what actually happens during the process because it always knocks me out. I might only be making this monster stronger. Or, it might rewrite all of my mana from the ground up, like parts of genetic code being replaced with superior versions of itself before getting spliced back together. Which could cleanse the corruption in one fell swoop.

“Submit!” Jiran barely heard the call. If he had a heart of his own at that moment, it would have been pounding.

Even if it's the tiniest chance, I’ve got to take it. I’m out of time and I haven’t got another decent idea.

Fuck it.

With a thought, a simple stretching of his will and intent, Jiran made his choice.

Mayalyn Aloyhee 

The night passed, blossoming into a clear-skied morning. Olive brought news of Master Filibree’s victory, yet Mayalyn couldn’t stop her tears from flowing as the pulsing green veins of energy took over more and more of Jiran’s body. Niya had done what she could to help but it was clear the more she tried to fix him, the worse he got. Ardon’s condition was no better, and despite Olive’s pain, Mayalyn didn’t have the room left in her broken heart to care.

The two sat shoulder to shoulder, clutching each other’s hands with sweaty fingers. Unable to even hold their loved ones as they grew worse, they could only watch in lingering silence. For the first time in hours a change occurred. It was a subtle shift at first, then swept across Jiran’s body in a rush. The green turned to gray in a rippling wave, like his body itself became one with the ocean. When it swept over his feet and he was completely changed, his body collapsed into fine dust.

“No!” Both girls screamed in unison.

Before their heart wrenching cries died on their lips, the dust swirled into a miniature tornado that collected and condensed his remains into a tiny gray ball. It clunked to the floor. Wide eyed, they scooted away as a terrifying sense of danger prickled their skin. Ardon and the girls were thrown to the side as a pulse of power radiated from the ball. Their momentum was arrested midair, all three hanging powerless as a tremendous force trapped them.

Five circular holes opened around the orb, revealing the familiar blackness of rent space. From within, massive quantities of mana poured out and into the orb. It grew in size, its shape distorting like hot metal. Within seconds, it formed into the shape and size of a human. The holes in space closed and the force suspending them vanished. They fell to the floor right along with the gray, metallic humanoid.

Olive and Mayalyn were on their feet in a flash as another wave passed over its outer shell. Wherever it swept, natural, healthy skin replaced the smooth, hard surface. Speechless, the two stared slack jawed as Jiran’s beautiful features were revealed one centimeter at a time. When the wave stilled, he took a gasping breath as though it were his first in days.

His eyes bolted open and he cast about the room in confusion. He found them standing there, staring at him, unsure if it were even the man they knew and loved looking up at them. 

Then, his mouth opened and they knew the truth immediately, “Oh, this dream again? Awesome. Olive, can you be more gentle this time? Oh, and Mayalyn, do that thing with your tongue, it's the best.”