Shadowcroft Academy Year 2 - Chapter Forty-Three

Chadrigoth felt the symbiotic spores wrap tightly around him like an Aldaleeran python.

Invisible microorganisms invaded and permeated his cells while delicate crystal caps erupted across his black pebbled skin, lending him not only access to Logan’s unorthodox power but also to a host of new senses he’d never had before. Immunity to poison, to blindness, to deafness. He could sense life floating in the air around him, a halo of spores that leant him a new extended perception of the world. The physical sensation was both unnerving and uncomfortable—like having bugs burrow and crawl just beneath the surface of his skin. .

While the mushroom caps sprouted and proliferated along Chadrigoth’s back and arm and chest, a dizzyingly complex network of hair-thin mycelium strands sank into his muscles, latched onto his bones, and slithered into his mind. Chadrigoth had never heard the term mycelium before, but thanks to his new connection to Logan, the abyssal lord knew that the real power of a fungi lay not in the mushroom itself but in the vast nervous system that connected colonies of fungi across vast distances. The mycelium.

That network also acted as the nervous system for entire ecosystems, allowing trees and plants to communicate, resources to be shared, and information to be passed even over hundreds of miles. And that was exactly what was happening to Chadrigoth. As those thin, symbiotic tendrils more firmly entrenched themselves in his mind, they connected him to Logan and effortlessly broke down mental barriers he hadn’t even been aware he’d created. The tangle of mycelium effortlessly forged a host of new neural pathways that flailed his soul and laid it bare for the world to see.

He was completely exposed, every memory, every feeling. It was like he was human again, parading around in his underwear fighting pretend dungeoneers with a wooden sword, or even worse, practicing kissing girls with his pillow.

But it was far too late to turn back. And those strands of connection worked both ways.

In a rapid-fire burst of images Chadrigoth saw not the Fungaloid before him, but the man he’d once been. Glimpses of bonfires and beers during warm summer nights. Flashes of Logan sitting with a fishing pole in hand beside his Uncle Bud. For a moment, he was Logan. He felt hot sand whip against his cheeks and sear his eyes, sweat trickling down his back. A dusty desert road stretched out in front of him and with a single step everything changed. The world ignited in a frenzy of fire and force and pain. Agony worse even than dying filled him up and ripped through his leg…

His prospective shifted once more and watched as Logan learned to walk again, learned to live again. Watched as the former solider started his own business and found a way to move on, despite having his life so violently disrupted.

Chadrigoth saw it all.

Logan had experienced hardship and pain, but in the midst of that was a happy life filled with friends and family—two things Chadrigoth had never had. Logan’s time at Shadowcroft had been much harder than his life on Earth. He’d been snatched from his world and thrust into a terrible situation, made even worse by Chadrigoth and Rockheart. Yet somehow Logan had soldiered on, refusing to quit. And even though he lacked what Chadrigoth had—power, privilege, experience—he had friends that cared for him, a purpose that drove him, and a quiet confidence in himself that carried him through every hardship.

Chadrigoth had been the worst kind of bully. Vindictive, cruel, spiteful, and petty.

The abyssal lord realized that he’d treated Logan just as his older brothers had treated him. His brothers had been vicious, constantly teasing Chadrigoth for things he had no control over. They were bigger than him, stronger and faster. Smarter and more popular among the other nobles. Chadrigoth hated them, but he also envied them and the confidence they seemed to exude. They’d always been the pinnacle of cool in his book and so he’d modeled his life after them, emulating everything he had learned from them and passing it on to others.

Chadrigoth should’ve cringed away, being so openly exposed, but instead it felt liberating. For the first time in his entire life, he wasn’t hiding anything. He felt seenand in that moment something broke inside of him. The Professors often talked about Revelation being the key to advancement from B Class to A Class and A Class to S Class. He’d never understood that, but he did now. Seeing himself through Logan’s eyes, he knew these phobias and insecurities were the very things holding him back. So long as he was tethered to his hatred, his fear of abandonment, his constant need for validation and approval, he would never be able to forge the kind of relationship with the Tree of Souls that he would need to advance.

He had more than enough raw power to advance—what he needed was the force of character to carry him over to the other side. He realized that protecting the Tree of Souls was really about protecting life. About bonfires and beers on warm summer nights. About keeping friends and family safe. Logan was advancing so fast because he had a personal reason to do so. He wasn’t just protecting the Universe, in some giant cosmic sense, he was protecting his universe. His home, his friends.

Chadrigoth had never had that before, but now he did. Logan had every reason to hate him, but Logan wasn’t that kind of person. Logan would be his friend despite everything the abyssal lord had put him through.

For a split second, the abyss lord wanted to laugh at the mushroom moron and call him a fool for being weak. After all, the only proper response to an insult was to crush your opponent and grind their bones to dust. That was just Chadrigoth’s bullying habit rearing its ugly head, though. There was a deeper part of Chadrigoth that was lonely and sick of the constant fight to be the best. What did he, Lady Elesiel and Jimi Magmarty really have in common other than laughing at weaklings and bragging about their exploits? Not much.

This was the closest Chadrigoth had ever been to another living soul and the thought of having a true friend—someone who saw him the way he really was and didn’t shy away—was the best feeling of his life. A ground swell of fierce joy filled him up, but then a darkness loomed up out of the recesses of his mind.

For the first time he got a look at the thing that Logan called Steve.

A pool of cancerous black power as dark and endless as the universe itself. Logan had said Steve was more powerful than Chadrigoth. The abyss lord hadn’t believed that was possible. He did now. Steve was far more than a stupid floor boss gone rogue. There was a force behind him, a malignant essence of corruption that would eat and eat and eat until it consumed everything. Chadrigoth’s resolve hardened. He’d just had a breakthrough. A revelation that may well help him advance to a Jade Leaf Cultivator. More important still, he knew that if he wasn’t such a murderous bully, he’d have a new friend, a real friend, a best friend. A best bro.

He’d be damned if anyone would rip that away from him.