Chapter 514: Darkness And Fire

The darkness pouring from my mouth moved unnaturally, as if it were extremely heavy. It went down my chin and hit the cobbles and spread along the burning street.

When it touched the flames, the darkness just swallowed it and continued spreading, and in a short while, several houses and the street behind me were covered by darkness, and I was the only being of color in the midst of it.

’The Grimoire is a dimension,’ the Hollow Avatar had said, a few moments ago before I began to vomit darkness. ’This one is a place of fire laws, folded into the shape of a book. It is a world within a world, sustained by the Sovereign’s will, and the bounded piece of creation.’

’I know. A Grimoire is a separate dimension from the world, anchored to a soul, Caldus told me this himself.’

’But you are also a dimension.’

I paused. ’What?’

’Your soul is different, and even I do not understand the reason for this, perhaps, it is all related to that engine at your core... the Pivot. Your soul is able to hold nascent dimensions, you call them rooms. The Hollow Room, the room with the Lightning Law Shards, the room of the Moon Fox, the room of the Caelith, and you have been able to manifest your soul in a new direction, creating a spatial pocket... souls are not supposed to work this way, Elric.’

I did not fully understand, but I know that my soul was stranger than most, and perhaps I was just seeing the tip of the iceberg. What I was getting from Hollow was that it was a mistake that the Sovereign had brought me into this place.

’Inside this Grimoire, those rooms can manifest. The Grimoire is a dimension of will and law, and so it is free from all the constraints that a complete world like Terra would have on the nascent dimensions inside your soul.’

’What does that mean?’

’It means that your rooms can exist here. The Hollow Room. The Moon Fox. The Caelith. All of it. They can manifest inside this Grimoire, and when they do, we can stake a claim to the piece of creation at the center of all of this... You can consider them to be Active Law Shards, and for a space like this, you could find five to ten shards, if not more.’

My rage turned to hunger, and I grinned inside myself. Two Active Law Shards had led to the creation of my new shell and the Hollow Titan; what would I do with ten more of these?

’What are you waiting for, Hollow? He has brought us into his house, and he seeks the secrets of eternity; let him see the consequences of peering into the darkness.’

’This would break him.’

’I... do not care.’

’Then I would need to push the rest of your rooms forward, until you learn to fully control them, they can only be triggered by threats that touch their domain.’

∞

The darkness was pouring from my mouth and I looked at Caldus Thorne who watched the darkness spread with cold eyes. I could see no fear in them, just a cold calculation like a snake; his red eyes moved from me to the darkness and then back to me.

His body went into the air, and he gestured at his side where the air warped and a burning book appeared that slowly opened, and I noticed that at the edges of the burning book was darkness like oil.

"Interesting," he said. "I was wrong; you are not Elric Voss, something else lived inside that Caelith and wears his shape. How pitiful, I had expected something better from a student of my Academy. Whatever you are..." he grinned, and his eyes began to burn. "You will not find me easy prey. In this world, I am king!"

He raised his hand, and the world of fire seemed to expand, and my vision went along with it, and I saw that this city of fire kept going, countless houses, courts, palaces, all filled with flames.

With the slight gesture he made, all the fires in this place responded to him, and the temperature in this place suddenly spiked to a ridiculous degree, as if I had just stepped from a normal world to the core of a volcano, and the darkness that I had sent into this burning world began to shrink.

"Law of the Unconsumed Flame," he said.

And flames from all corners of this burning city poured towards the darkness, surrounding me, and I was an island inside a sea of fire, and above the Sovereign rose with hands spread wide.

I made no sound as I watched him, for in this moment I was a bit curious. Sovereign Caldus was making a grand spectacle, but his eyes were narrow with interest, he was watching me... studying the darkness, and the way it was interacting with his law of fire. Even now, the only thing he was interested in was knowledge.

"You are not a mage," he finally spoke. "Not in the traditional sense. This darkness is born from something else. Tell me, do you mimic our laws? But how much can you learn from it when you take the body of an Acolyte... If you serve me, I can show you a pathway to great powers, we can work together, or you can burn."

He took a step forward, passing through his flames and slowly stretched his hand as if he was going to touch the darkness, but he held himself back a few millimeters from it.

"This darkness is strange. The laws of nature tell me that darkness is the absence of light, but what you have here is the absence of... everything."

He took back his hand, and rubbed his fingers together. "Fascinating. I never knew that darkness could express itself in this manner. I was looking for the next element to master, and you have shown me a path I did not know possible."

With a sudden movement, he shoved his entire hand into the darkness and kept it there for a few seconds before he pulled back with a growl. His entire right hand had been stripped of flesh, and only bones remained, and as I watched, flames gathered over his hand, and he was healed as if time had reversed.

"My darkness attunement was barely reaching the Arcanist level, but in four seconds, I have gained a point in this resonance. Hahahahaha... I must have you!"

He raised his hand again, and the Grimoire beside him flipped to a new page.

"Sixth Rule. Nothing Unnamed May Stand In My House."

The whole city of fire began to vibrate; the ground was shaking, and before long I could see them, a seemingly endless number of burning knights on winged horses, long-limbed and faceless except for the suggestion of eyes, each one in armour of living flame.

These were the Spirits of the Unconsumed. I had seen them charge into the flesh castle of the Pale Matron in the last loop, beings of pure fire essence and the will of a Sovereign.

"Burn it," Caldus said, and they charged into the darkness.

They were endless, and for a moment they brought light and heat into the darkness, tens of thousands of them racing into my darkness in silence... and the darkness swallowed them all.

My eyes did not leave the face of the Sovereign; I had watched him send out his armies, but what he did not understand was that the darkness here was just a small part of the darkness I kept inside my soul.

’How much longer do you need Hollow?’

’I have led the armies of fire to the doors of your nascent dimensions... prepare yourself Elric, they are stirring.’