Chapter 118: Mana Devourer

Gray thrashed against the invisible grip, his bell straining, his tentacles lashing uselessly against the mana-dense water. Every pulse of his body sent fresh waves of pain through his core as the Xytheris continued to pull his energy into itself.

’Damn it! My mana... it’s draining so fast!’

[Mana drain rate increasing...]

Through the corner of his perception, Gray saw Cindy. Her small axolotl body was glowing with silver light, her frills splayed wide as she poured everything she had into calming the wild mana around them.

She was fighting, in her own way. Even in her fragile new body, she refused to give up.

’...Then I can’t give up either.’

He stopped thrashing and forced his mind to clear and think.

’There has to be a way out.’

Gray forced his body to move. His tentacles strained, his bell compressed, and he pushed against the invisible cage with everything he had. The mana-laced water resisted, but it bent just slightly.

The Xytheris’s eyes rotated toward him, and something changed. The creature’s mouth opened wider, and a pulse of pure mana rippled outward. The moment it touched Gray’s bell, his thoughts fractured.

[WARNING: HOSTILE MENTAL INVASION DETECTED]

His vision blurred. The dark water, the mana spring, the twisting black spires, all of it dissolved like ink washed away by a current. The pressure in his core vanished, replaced by a strange, weightless calm.

When Gray opened his eyes, he was standing in a white void.

His body was pale and bare, arms and legs drifting in an endless white void.

He looked down at himself, and his breath caught.

’I’m... me?’

He was human again. The body he’d worn for twenty-seven years before a bullet ended everything.

’This is... this is my consciousness?’

The void around him shifted. Colors bled through the darkness, deep violet, pale blue, iridescent silver swirling like oil on water. And then he saw the Xytheris was there.

It loomed in the void ahead of him, vast and luminous, its crystallized body coiling through the blackness like a serpent made of stained glass. Its dozens of eyes rotated slowly, independently, each one fixing on him with cold curiosity. Its veins pulsed with stolen mana and its mouth hung open and light pouring from its throat.

It was even more terrifying here. In the physical world, it had been a monster. Here, in the void of his own mind, it was something closer to a god.

Gray felt the fear crawl up his spine. His human body trembled. His bare skin prickled with cold. Every instinct screamed at him to run, to hide, to curl into a ball and wait for death.

[You are within your own consciousness.]

[The Xytheris is attempting to consume your mind and absorb your soul.]

[If you do not reclaim dominance over your consciousness, you will be erased.]

[Reminder: This is YOUR mind.]

[Do not be intimidated. You have the advantage here.]

Gray saw the text from the system, and it made him calm down a little.

’...Right. This is my mind.’

He straightened. His bare feet found grip on nothing, and yet he stood. His hands curled into fists at his sides. The void around him seemed to lean in, listening.

’If this is my mind... then I can do anything, right?’

[Correct.]

[Your willpower defines this space.]

[Your conviction is stronger than its hunger.]

[You can fight back.]

Gray let out a slow breath. His human lungs filled with air that wasn’t real, and it felt good.

He looked up at the Xytheris, and for the first time since he’d fallen into the abyss, he smiled.

’Then I don’t need to be afraid.’

The Xytheris’s eyes blinked in unison. Its body coiled tighter, and the light pouring from its mouth intensified, as if it sensed the shift in him.

Gray took a step forward. The void rippled beneath his feet like water, and with every step, he felt stronger. The fear was still there, but it was smaller now. It was just a voice in the back of his mind, and he’d learned long ago how to ignore voices like that.

’I’m going to beat you until you crawl out of my head,’ he said.

The Xytheris lunged through the void, dozens of eyes blazing, mouth wide open, mana-light flooding everything. It was faster than anything Gray had ever seen.

Then Gray raised his right hand, fingers curled into the shape of a pistol, and pointed it directly at the creature’s open mouth.

’This is my mind,’ he said. ’And in my mind... I make the rules.’

He fired a sphere of compressed, superheated water that erupted from his fingertip. The blast shot through the void and struck the Xytheris dead in its gaping throat.

The creature convulsed, its mana-light stuttering, and for the first time, it recoiled.

Gray fired again and again. Each shot was a bubble of boiling force, each one detonating against the Xytheris’s crystalline hide.

’Overcharge.’

Blue-white lightning crackled along his arm and arced from his fingertip like a bullet. It struck the Xytheris between two of its rotating eyes, and the creature screamed.

"Kriiiieeeeeekkkkkk!"

Gray walked forward. The void rippled beneath his bare feet, and with every step, the Xytheris seemed smaller. It was no longer a god. It was just a monster, and monsters could be killed.

He reached its head.

The Xytheris thrashed, its dozens of eyes rolling wildly, its body coiling and uncoiling in desperate attempts to escape. But Gray reached out with both hands, pressed his palms against its crystallized skull, and pulled.

’I’ve got you now.’

The creature’s mana began to flow back into him. It poured through his hands, up his arms, into his chest. It was hot and burning like swallowing fire. His entire body screamed with the heat, his skin prickling, his veins glowing beneath the surface.

He gritted his teeth and held on.

’You took what was mine,’ he said through the pain. ’And now I take back what you stole.’

The Xytheris shrieked, its body convulsing, its light dimming as Gray drained it. It tried to pull away, tried to retreat into the dark, but Gray’s grip was absolute. This was his mind. There was nowhere it could run.

’You wanted to consume me?’ Gray said, his voice steady despite the fire in his veins. ’Then let’s see who consumes who.’

He pulled harder.

The mana flooded into him in waves, each one hotter than the last. His human body trembled, sweat beading on his skin, his muscles locking with strain. It felt like his blood was boiling.

’My turn now,’ he said. ’I’m going to drain you until there’s nothing left.’

The Xytheris’s shrieks grew thinner, more desperate. Its crystalline body cracked, fractures spreading across its hide. Its dozens of eyes flickered and dimmed, one by one. Its light began to gutter like a candle in a storm.

Gray kept pulling.

The heat in his body reached a fever pitch. His vision blurred and his knees buckled, but he didn’t fall.

The last of the Xytheris’s light flowed into him. The creature’s body shattered, a thousand shards of crystallized mana scattering into the void, dissolving like ice in warm water. Its dozens of eyes winked out, one after another, until only darkness remained.

Gray stood alone in the void, his human body trembling, his skin steaming, his veins still glowing faintly with the mana he’d consumed. He felt like he’d swallowed a star.

’...Did I get it all?’ he murmured.

Then the void rippled, and the system flickered back into existence, golden text materializing in the dark.

[CONSCIOUSNESS DOMINANCE — RESTORED]

[XYTHERIS — FULLY ABSORBED]

[PERMANENT STAT INCREASE — XYTHERIS ABSORPTION]

[INT: +50]

[MP MAX: +350 — Mana pool expansion from direct absorption, independent of INT scaling]

[New Trait Acquired: Mana Confluence (1/1) — Integrated]

[TITLE ACQUIRED: MANA DEVOURER]