Riftside 3 - Chapter 20

The world was gone only to be replaced by pain. It was a roaring, white-hot inferno scouring me from the inside out kind of pain. 

I knew I screamed, but I couldn’t hear it.

My body was no longer my own to control. 

It was a crucible, and the Class Gem an unforgiving flame, melting me down to my very soul. 

From far away I felt myself thrash against the cold iron of the chains binding me fast to Knut’s reinforced bed. Vague sounds echoed from the world outside my torment, but they were whispers in a hurricane.

"Magnificent!" Roq said, and just like last time, his voice was loud and clear. An anchor in the storm, and something to focus on. "This is nothing like forging a mere skill, Ash! I missed having your very essence laid bare to me, your body and soul an open canvas for me to create! Oh, the art we shall make today!"

"Tell me… Tell me what’s possible. Give me a list… something to work on… anything to take my mind off this hell!"

"An excellent idea! A king must have a plan, after all!" Roq’s mental tone was positively gleeful, and for a second, I hated him more than I ever hated anything. "The energy… by my glorious spike, Ash, there’s three times as much as for your first breakthrough! It’s swirling within you, a tempest of raw potential for me to mould into…well, whatever I want to!"

"Consumed experience… worth three times the mind gems of the first…" 

My thoughts were sluggish, and I struggled to think.

"Yes, yes, mathematics aside, your body is responding better this time. It’s still frightfully inefficient, mind you, like watching Eryn trying to forge a sword with a rock, but it’s using more of the energy. I will do better. I will not waste a single drop!"

We’d already agreed on the bodily changes to focus on. Make me stronger, faster, and tougher, with hopefully an increased mana pool. But Roq hadn’t been able to tell me up front what we’d be able to make in terms of abilities. So that’s what I focused on to avoid going insane. 

"Skills. What… can we do?"

"Ah, the fun part! It turns out our imagination might be the only true limit of what can be done. Though the power of the abilities will be tied to your own.” 

“Then I want—”

“Hold on, Ash,” Roq said. “You’ll get your turn, but I have been thinking of the Hive Mind’s attack on my world. It was their numbers that brought us low, and the same is true here. My new Shockwave Slam is excellent, of course, coming from me, but its cooldown is very limiting. We need something that runs on your mana. Something for more frequent… crowd management."

I didn’t need to form a reply. 

The memory of the breaches, of the Twisted Titan dungeon run, of being swarmed. Time and time again I’d fought desperately to protect Eryn and the others. That struggle was burned into me deeper than any forge mark. 

“Do it.”

“And so we begin the first masterpiece!" Roq declared.

The agony intensified as Roq directed the chaotic energy of the Mind Gems by healing specific spots inside me. A searing line was forged from my core down the length of my right arm. 

It felt like my very bones were being filled with molten steel, the marrow boiling away to make room.

“Eryn says to hold on, Ash. She’s here for you. They are all here," Arclight said. Where Roq’s voice came with pain, Arclight’s felt like a balm on my burns. 

It didn’t help much as I worked to accept the pain Roq inflicted, but I clung to what little relief it offered as if it was a branch in a raging river.

Roq hummed and hawed as he shaped the energy within me, and a pressure built inside my arm. It became unbearable, like water in a stone thrown on a fire, heating up until it exploded.

And it did.

Energy rushed from my core, down to my hand, and then…out. Disappearing.

“You just cracked the floorboards, nearly taking Nabeeh’s leg off,” Arclight said. "But you missed, so we are all okay."

"A bit raw and uncontrolled perhaps,” Roq said, sounding like a displeased artist criticizing a student's work. "But it’s a start! With practice we shall improve on this new… what shall I call it… How about Explosive Strike?”

“Whatever. Just, give me more mana.” 

A weakness had spread through me after the expulsion of energy. 

"More… mana. Your leech is good… but I need a deeper pool."

"More mana? Nonsense!” Roq said. “We should use this glorious energy to give you bigger muscles! More strength! You need to be able to swing me with even greater destructive force for more carnage!"

"It’s my damn body!" 

A flare of pure, desperate defiance cut through the pain. 

"Do as I say!"

"You’re not in your right mind!” Roq said. “The pain is making you delirious! Biceps, Ash! Think of the biceps!"

"An ocean of power cannot flow from a thimble, no matter how often you refill it, stone-on-a-stick," Arclight said.

Which made Roq go silent for a long moment. 

If I wasn’t in such pain, I might have enjoyed it.

"Hmph. The glorified kindling makes a regrettably salient point,” he finally said. “Very well. A larger mana pool could fuel bigger, more glorious abilities later. But how to do it…”

“Do what you did last time?”

“Not ambitious enough,” Roq said.

“No! Bad Roq! Nothing ambitious!”

“Don’t worry. I’m just looking at how to expand your mana core without breaking it,” Roq said. “Hmm… I have an idea! Ash, this will require your cooperation. I need you to cast an ability. That should create an opening for me to flood your core with more mana.”

"This sounds like a bad idea," Arclight said.

A cold dread trickled through me, chilling the fire of my agony. 

“What’ll happen?”

“Once you cast it, I’ll guide the mind gems’ energy into your mana core, forcing it to expand.” 

“Is it safe?"

“Maybe?” Roq said. “I’m creating art, not hammering horseshoes. But sure, it should be fine! And I can always heal you if not. We have plenty of carcasses.”

"He says ‘should be’," Arclight noted dryly. "That is not the same as ‘will be’."

"Silence, bow! You don’t understand the intricate art of soul forging! Stop second-guessing my genius!”

“Have better ideas, then!” she snapped back.

“Damnit.”

Roq hadn’t failed me yet, and I needed the mana. 

“Arclight… tell the others to stand back. So they don’t… get hurt. Even better yet, get out of the house.” 

Arclight relayed to Eryn, and told us we could go ahead.

Then, with what little focus I had left, I triggered Smash. 

A supernova of pain erupted in my chest, eclipsing everything that had come before. 

It was not a burning or a tearing pain, no, it was a fundamental shattering, as if my very center had ceased to exist, leaving only a void of pure agony.

"RIFTROT! That cracked your mana crystal wide open! It’s destroyed!" Roq cursed.

The genuine panic in Roq’s voice was worse than any of the pain.

I didn’t fear dying as Roq would heal me, but without my core, I’d be a crippled adventurer. Just like Enar.

"I told you it was a bad idea,” Arclight said, her tone unforgiving.

"You’re NOT helping! No, wait… not destroyed! There’s a piece! I see it! Ash, hold still, I’m bringing it back from your big toe!"

A new, bizarre agony shot up my leg as Roq manipulated a fragment of my being back towards my core, a fisherman reeling in a piece of a drowning man’s soul.

"Knut says there is something moving under your skin, heading for your chest,” Arclight said. “He asks if he should cut them out.”

“Of course not, you big oaf! I’m putting him back together!" Roq bellowed, his panic giving way to frantic determination.

What followed was a period of torment so intense I wouldn’t wish it on anyone but the Hive Mind itself. I screamed and thrashed until my blood ran freely, or so Arclight relayed. All the while, Roq meticulously, painstakingly, rebuilt my mana core. 

His running commentary was a bizarre, maddening narration of my suffering.

"Got one from behind your liver… Fusing it now with a bit of healing… This is just like putting together a puzzle! And forging! All at once! If not for my brilliance, your reckless use of an ability might have crippled you!” 

If I could only curse him, but my mind was splintered in pain. Eventually, I started to lose my consciousness and regain it over and over again as if in a fever dream across many hours. 

“It was behind your left earlobe!” his voice boomed in my mind and startled me from what had become a prison of pain. “Who could have known,” Roq said. “…and…done!”

The pain receded almost immediately from that of being burned alive to being poked with the sharp point of a blade. 

“Hah! That was fun! And interesting!" Roq said.

“I hate you.”

"Right!" Roq announced cheerfully, oblivious to my anger. “Now, for the next ability, I have decided, in light of your momentous screwup, to let you select the next ability! Now, hurry up. We don’t have all day!"

I took a moment to calm myself and regained what senses I could. In doing so, I came up with a suitable revenge.

"Change… weapon.” 

"What?! You want to swap me out? After all I’ve done for you?!"

"No, idiot. Your spike was too short for the Scrambler’s shell.”

“It was in how you used it! My spike is perfectly shaped and long enough,” Roq said.

“We barely got through its shell!”

“You could use raw mana to extend beyond your form," Arclight said. “Think of how I forge arrows from carcasses. The change in Roq’s shape would be temporary, but it should hold for a strike or two, maybe even more. The head could be made larger for a wider impact, or, as you desire, the spike may be lengthened, all depending on your intent.”

“Yes. This is what I want.”

Let’s see how you feel about being changed.

"It’s possible, I suppose," Roq grumbled, his pride clearly wounded. "But I refuse to make anything with an edge! A larger flat striking surface? Fine. A longer, more glorious spike? Acceptable. But I am not grafting on a sword or being turned into some ugly axe-thing or, forge-forbid, a sword-hammer!"

"Do it. Bigger head. Longer spike. As big as you can."

A wicked grin entered Roq’s mental voice. 

"Your wish is my command."

This process was different. Less brute force, more intricate. 

Roq had me visualize my mana flowing and holding a mental image of his changed physical form. And I had to do it while he healed the parts of my mind that lit up when I imagined the result. 

It was a battle of concentration and pure will. My focus, frayed and battered, shattered twice, the mana dissipating uselessly into the inferno and every time I became weaker.

"Lan says you shouldn’t fight the image," Arclight relayed unexpectedly. "Let it flow through you instead. Hold it like the banks form the river, not like a dam creates a lake."

Receiving advice from Lan was so unexpected that I decided to try. And once I relaxed my mental grip, letting the image constantly refresh instead of holding onto one instance, it worked. 

The connection solidified, and I felt the mana flow from my mind. 

"Success! Now, before we move on, I am fixing your height. A king’s wielder cannot be a short-stack."

Before I could form a protest, Roq ripped into my skeletal system, tearing it down and repairing it, stretching and lengthening it.

I cried. 

He didn’t care.

Anger filled me, which surprisingly helped keep me sane as he remade my bones.

“No more changes without my approval! On your pillow!”

“Fine,” Roq said. “I’m nearly done anyway.”

“And I’m nearly done with you!”

“Ash, calm down! Your chains are breaking!" Arclight said. “Roq! Do something!”

"I’m trying!" Roq snapped, and it felt as if I got hit by lightning. 

I stretched involuntarily.

"Uh oh,” Roq said.

I didn't even have time to ask what he meant before I felt my right arm snap free. And then, an impossible warmth filled my arm, as if it had been flooded with warm blood. 

"Impossible," Arclight said.

Roq cleared his throat. 

"All part of the plan. Just a new skill I was making, is all."

"Liar."

"You can’t prove it!"

"What happened?!"

"Your growth snapped a chain," Arclight said. "It flew toward Eryn’s face. But your freed arm… it whipped out and caught it. Inches from her."

"Behold!” Roq said. “The Counter ability I forged for you! It bypasses thought, allowing your nervous system to react on pure, unadulterated instinct to any incoming threat!"

"Don’t bullshit me, Roq. What did you do!”

"Fine! We… got lucky. My attempt to stimulate your nervous system to calm your shaking kind of backfired. It made you shake worse, and you broke a chain,” Roq said. “And… well, perhaps I haven’t given the Class Gem enough credit. I think it channeled your instinct to protect Eryn, and made a new skill. A good one.”

“Is she fine?”

“Of course she is. I wouldn’t let anything happen to her, would I?” Roq said. “Now, focus. We can’t waste more time. Guiding the creation of skills took far more energy than expected.”

“More than last time?”

“Knut got two skills when he broke through. You got three. The last one was…expensive. There’s not much energy left."

“What do we do?”

“You just relax. I’m spending what remains of the energy to heal you evenly and make sure your body works properly after the masterful changes I’ve wrought. That and give you some boost to strength and agility.” 

Relaxing turned out to mean gritting my teeth through further pain, but he hadn’t lied. It didn’t last much longer, and as the final energy left me, I went limp. 

My hearing was the first to return.

“Ash? Are you alright?” a voice asked from somewhere nearby. It was Eryn. Close, real, and laced with fear.

I managed a grunt and forced my eyes open. 

Damn she’s stunning.

Something must have shown on my face, because she breathed a sigh of relief and leaned down to kiss my forehead. 

It felt like the first gust of a spring wind after stepping out from a day spent bent over the roaring forge. 

Then Knut was there, unlocking the remaining chains, and Eryn helped me sit up. 

Steam rose from my skin, my clothes plastered to me with sweat. 

“Again bed broken,” Knut said and winked at me. “What will doctor think? You will need verify I did not do bad thing in bed. Understood?” 

I looked along my body and saw only splinters remaining of the footboard. I must have kicked it to pieces while I was thrashing.

“What a monster you’ve become,” Nabeeh said, shaking her head, though a relieved smile played on her lips.

“Is it that bad?” I croaked.

“I am not letting Roq anywhere near my breakthrough,” Lan said from the corner of the room, her arms crossed and expression unreadable.

I chuckled a weak, rattling sound. 

“Thanks… for your help,” I said, reaching out a trembling hand and patting Arclight. She didn’t shock me but instead let out a mildly buzzing sensation. It actually felt good. 

I swung my legs over the side of the broken bed and stood. 

And kept standing. 

I looked down and for the first time, met Knut’s eyes from below. 

I was now taller than my Northman brother. How much had I grown this time? Easily eight to ten inches.

A real, tired laugh escaped me.

Knut cursed under his breath, then a huge, booming grin split his face and he pulled me into a bone-crushing hugging competition which I was more than happy to oblige to. 

“Congratulations, brother! You are—oof,” Knut said, and I let him go. I wasn’t sure if he’d acted to make me look good, or if I was that strong.

"A king’s breakthrough requires a celebratory feast! One with a great deal of pie!" Roq said excitedly.

Then Eryn pushed Knut away and hugged me, head head resting on my chest. 

“I love you,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. “Damn it. I thought you were about to die. Idiot Roq. Always making us worry.”

I bent my head to kiss the top of hers. “I love you too.”

“What are your stats like?” Lan asked, not reading the situation at all.

I didn’t mind. If I had something she wanted, I’d use it.

“How about I trade you?” I said. “You show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.”