I easily formed a sound blast spell inside my soul. Of course, the concentration of the element in it was much denser than what I could create as an acolyte, but otherwise its essence did not change at all. However, I didn't stop there.
Stephanie magical barrier could freeze anyone who touched it. She could also extend it even to her unicorn. Perhaps there were other nuances that I did not have time to notice. Most Mages created the barrier strictly following the spell model and didn't risk making changes, however some managed to make modifications during the breakthrough.
It depended on the Magician's experience, meditation technique, the stability of the mental image during the formation of the innate spell, and so on.
It was so easy for me to do this that I decided to modify the spell to some extent, controlling not only its strength, but also other aspects. I modified the spell again and again, changing its properties, at the same time, the central rune in my mind helped me in this matter remembering and fixing all the changes.
First a simple sonic burst of maximum force, then a directed burst. An overlay formation of sound waves of various kinds, thanks to which I could blast into the air at the speed of a bullet. All kinds of traps and spells based on sound vibrations. In fact I could make my entire experience as a Sound Mage my innate spell. Instead of the sound element I focused primarily on sound vibrations. Since in terms of pure power of the element I was much inferior to other Magicians I have decided to take the path of sound vibrations.
Now this spell has forever become part of my meditation technique and they have fused with each other into a bright multi-faceted mind crystal. This crystal in turn became a part of my soul. With a single thought, I could modify an innate spell by changing its model in real time. All this became possible primarily thanks to meditation technique and central mind rune which easily adjusted to all changes.
All this happened in an instant, it seemed that I simply transferred all my experience of the Magician into the mind crystal. The last step remains, the transition to the Soul Pearl. My mind was connected to it so I immediately felt the presence of a pearl nearby and tried to move towards it. At the same time, the pearl itself began to attract my soul.
However, suddenly I felt an attraction from another place, and so powerful that there was no way to resist. Against my will, I was instantly drawn into the figurine that I found in Outland. This figurine has always remained at my heart as a last resort since it had insane durability.
I only had time to feel with my mental wave how the face of the statuette turned into a bottomless space. Feeling it, my soul trembled. It seemed that in this blackness I saw something unimaginable.
The next moment I was in an unknown place. A huge black ball of infinite dimensions distorting space and devouring everything around was now right in front of me. At the same time, it seemed to be incredibly far away, otherwise my soul would have been instantly destroyed. Dark blue energy swirled around the black ball. It was difficult for me to understand whether this energy is in place or rotates at an insane speed.
I looked around and found behind me countless shelves with small white dolls in the form of humanoids in robes with black holes instead of a face. Between me and the black hole was a giant hundreds of meters high. His massive body looked same way as little white dolls on the shelves. The only difference was that his body was not white but dark red in color and his head resembled a creepy skeleton mask. Two black gaps instead of eyes seemed to be able to devour my soul in the blink of an eye.
As soon as I paid attention to his eyes, my thoughts froze. However, I managed to hear one word. It seemed the giant had decided to introduce himself.
Reaper
In another world, the Reaper threw white rag dolls towards a black hole. When the doll got close enough to the black hole, a paradox occurred, the doll split in two. One doll penetrated into a black hole going through event horizon, and the second hovered in time and space with difficulty keeping from destruction.
Reaper called the frozen doll back to him and sent it to one of the endless shelves behind him. There were countless rows of white hooded dolls lined up, each with a black hole for a face.
Suddenly he felt something and turned to the shelves, calling one of the dolls to him. Instead of a black gap under the hood of this doll, a face formed, it was the frozen face of Sam Tarrister. At the same time, the small doll became stiff and covered with many injuries, turning into a figurine.
The reaper frowned and, waving his hand, took out a whole doll that was not yet participating in the experiment. Concentrating, he carefully separated the soul face from the damaged doll and, keeping it stable, moved it to the fresh doll.
The face of the soul began to come to life again, completely merging with the new doll, it seemed the soul came to its senses and began to look around the area trying to understand what had happened. The giant's eyes focused again on the face of the animated doll and their eyes met. The doll's eyes instantly lost focus.
Various images began to appear in the eyes of the Reaper, he began to read the memory of the soul.
- Hmm. World of Mages. Meditation technique. Knights. Contract...
As soon as the giant looked at the contract, the soul reading technique was interrupted. Suddenly, the doll disintegrated into atoms and literally evaporated along with the face.
- The connection was interrupted ... There is someone strong ... Or the world itself intervened. In any case, the doll is not going anywhere. Sooner or later I will find you.
The Reaper shook his head and continued his experiment.
Suddenly, a huge explosion sounded, the soul cell lost stability and disintegrated, the formations in the room went out again. The picture disappeared and Melrose could not understand whether Sam survived or not. The Soul Pearl remained in its place, unchanged. He decided to come in and personally check what happened.
I automatically released a sonic blast around me, trying to recover. Finally, I realized that I was back in the formation room. I didn't know what happened after I looked into the giant's eyes, but hardly anything good. However, it didn't really matter now.
What matters is that I'm still alive!
I haven't experienced such joy in a long time. I myself did not really believe that this whole idea would end up with something good. However, I still exist, I can still think and feel.
I clearly remembered that the figurine from Outland was incredibly hard and did not succumb to any kind of damage. However, now my soul was in the body of a rag doll, the figurine was nowhere to be found. Given what I saw in this strange dimension, most likely I am now in this once figurine.
Melrose opened the room and went inside staring at me completely amazed. It seemed that his mental waves again launched into chaos, conveying the full depth of his madness.
- Ahaha! You are alive!? You are alive!? You are Sam, right? - was screaming Melrose.
- Shut your mouth! Shut your mouth! Shut your mouth!
My answer sounded like echoed thunder and drowned out Melrose. I couldn't hurt him, but the contract didn't stop me from bringing him to his senses.
This madman killed a huge number of acolytes and even True Magicians, obviously not limited to volunteers. Once upon a time, there were at least two other True Magicians of the Melrose family in the tower, but over time they disappeared without a trace. It is not for me to judge him, perhaps in order to achieve my goals I would have done the same, but this did not prevent me from feeling disgust for this Mage.
Melrose clutched his head and seemed to wake up from his admiring oblivion. I took the pearl, flew around him and appeared in his office next to the mirror.
Now I was in the body of a small rag doll. This doll remained only the size of a human little finger. Appeared as a humanoid in an all-white cloak with a hood. Only now, instead of a black hole under the hood, there was the face of my soul. It looked young enough, like when I met Isabelle. But at the same time, long gray hair reminded me of my real age.
The face looked quite realistic, apart from the excessive pallor, but touching it, I felt that it was made of the same substance that the hood and doll body itself is made of.
The eyes shone with a white light, but I deliberately suppressed the light and instead of the eyes there were only empty gaps. In place of the eyes, a tissue layer of the doll remained, however, this layer had the original black color, as deep as on the face of dolls from another world. Because of this, there was a terrible feeling that at any moment the abyss could swallow me again. I had to restore a certain shine to my eyes. Whatever it was, now was not the time to try to figure it out.
Now my soul was attached to this doll and the connection was so strong that it seemed to me as if it was really my own body. Especially when you consider that partially returned all kinds of feelings. They were a little different, but they were.
With my vision and senses, I could even see mental energy that was previously impossible to see. Moreover, I saw and felt vibrations in everything around me. Everything, without exception, had a vibration, an ordinary stone, a plant, air, mental energy. Everything seemed to have this vibration, and it was different for all elements. It was a little confusing, but I tried to quickly adapt to this feeling.
Melrose calmed down a bit and pulled himself together. After all, he had been striving for this for so many years, no wonder he completely lost his mind after realizing that he had finally succeeded. True, now we will never know if the experiment would have ended with success if it were not for the intervention of the doll and the otherworldly entity.
- Contract! I want to know everything! - Melrose yelled with reddened eyes.
- Of course, old man. Get comfortable and listen.
I began to retell all the details from beginning to end, describing my feelings and everything I saw in the process. The formation of the soul, the work of the mind formation and its structure, the attraction of the statuette and the transfer of my soul to an unknown place. I also told about the Reaper, as well as everything that I have managed to see around.
A contract is a contract, there was nowhere to go in this matter.
After listening to me, Melrose asked about the figurine. Since it became part of the experiment, naturally I had to talk about it aswell.
- I found the figurine in Outland. Kingdom of Arun city of Melsey. You can ask anyone in the kingdom about Tarrister and his guild. Any ragamuffin knows that I've been scavenging from all the surrounding kingdoms in search of something useful. According to the reports, the figurine was brought to the pawnshop for the poor in the city of Melsey. I don't know any other details, too much rubbish was turned in daily for me to force my workers to keep detailed records. Naturally, I have no idea if similar figurines still exist anywhere.
- Damn it! I need this figurine! Give it to me! - again began to hysteria Melrose splashing saliva from his mouth with a furious face.
- Shut up you idiot!
I had to bring him back to his senses. He believed that he would finally be able to use soul transfer himself to increase his lifespan, but my story dashed all his hopes. The likelihood that he would find the same figurine is simply negligible, at the same time the contract stated that everything that was used in the experiment belongs to me. This paragraph was originally added in the contract to prevent Melrose from claiming the Soul Pearl that was used in the experiment.
- Give me the doll or I'll kill you right now! - did not let up Melrose.
A black mist swirled around Melrose, and two spheres of darkness the size of a ball began to form in his hands. I was covered by his mental pressure, it seemed that in the next moment he would kill me even at the cost of his own life.
I didn't show it, but I was happy about it. If he attacks, it will solve all my problems overnight. Unlike Melrose, I was well aware of the incredible durability of this doll. First of all, I checked if the rag doll still had the properties of the figurine, as expected, no elemental energy could penetrate it.
Unfortunately Melrose just froze with a distorted face, but did not attack. Apparently the old bastard was just pretending but not out of his mind yet. I had to provoke him even more.
- You want a doll? Why don`t you eat shit, you old degenerate. By the way, drag here all the acquired goods you gathered over the years, all the records, magic crystals, artifacts, golems, I want everything you have. And make it fast otherwise I will just destroy this shitty tower to dust. - I kept trying to piss him off.
Note
Dark Scepter strategy adventure video game by Mike Singleton
ZX Spectrum 1987
