Ryo vanished from the shop, popping out of existence like a thought that had vanished from his mind after entering a different room. He appeared inside the library, teleporting beside his throne. "Can I teleport into the seat, or will it always be beside it?" Ryo asked himself, reappearing on the throne, sitting down. "Sick."
Ryo lifted up the "A Comprehensive Guide To All Things Magical" book, moving away from the Forbidden section. He remembered that he was looking at an interesting spell in the mental magic section, something to do with the senses. He flipped backwards, trying to find where it was. He turned back to the page that said "Body Modification", and realised he was too far back. He flipped forward again, remembering the pages on Mind Manipulation, Body Control and Monster/Demon/Human Puppetry, finally finding it. He began to read it once more, trying to see if it'd be useful.
[Mental Magic Daughter (Sub) Spell]
'Sensory Manipulation'
'Sensory Manipulation: The manipulation of senses such as sight, sound and touch without altering reality. Used for torture, discombobulation and other nefarious purposes.'
'This spell allows one to change what people smell, hear, see, feel and taste.'
'In order to perform this spell, you must channel mana into your mind, and then choose a target. You must then project for them to see, hear, smell, taste or touch. This will make a fully realistic vis-"
Ryo heard a light hit fall on the doors to the library. He moved the book to the side, a sigh escaping his lips. 'That's twice now. The first time was when I went to sleep before that Semphite, Kyren, tried to steal the book.' He thought to himself, looking up. A small child stood at the entrance, blood leaking from their left arm, bent at an awkward angle. Ryo noticed a black, sticky ichor covering parts of their clothes. It was a little boy, no older than ten years old, and Ryo could see the tears falling from their eyes.
"Please, help!" He screamed, his arm losing its position, causing him to fall to the floor. Ryo rushed over, lifting the boy up to his feet. "The village…" The kid sobbed, gasping for breath between sobs. "Something is destroying it!" He blurted out, shocking Ryo. He assumed the kid was from the village nearby, the one named Aropa, and he felt his blood start to boil. He hadn't been in the village for that long, but it guided him to the library.
A distinct sense of anger washed over him, the image of a book flashing his mind. Like the one that Clone showed him, it was covered in chains. However, this one was surrounded by a light blue glow, with a dark, dank corridor behind it. Ryo dismissed it, deciding to focus on the task at hand. Ryo picked the kid up, taking care not to injure his arm any further, and teleported.
The feeling of teleporting with someone else was a lot different to doing it on his own. Instead of it being instant, he could feel his body deforming and reforming, making sure not to combine his body with the little kids. An orange aura filled Ryo's vision, the sights of houses appearing, windows shattered, doors broken down and walls caved in. "Shit, was this place attacked by a group of monsters?!" Ryo swore, his vision clearing further, a silhouette appearing in front of him. It was humanoid, at least, but Ryo could immediately sense something was off.
It stood completely still amongst the carnage. Black ichor surrounded it, similar to that of the stains that Ryo noticed on the kid. The boy fell to his knees, shadows moving from the rubble of destroyed houses. The bodies of those same villagers that had complained about the Ghouls not two days prior lurched forward, their movements unnatural and their voices mute. They moved closer, stopping about four metres away from Ryo and the kid, as if they were compelled by a force to do so.
Ryo finally got a good look at the humanoid, and his eyes widened. It had pale, translucent skin that was stretched tightly over an under-sized skeletal frame, with faint veins and arteries that shared a deep orange colour that visibly rippled the skin each time they pulsed. Its head was featureless except for a gaping, circular mouth lined with writhing, eel-like tongues that dripped a viscous, black ichor, the same that it had been surrounded by. The creature's limbs were unnaturally long and joined backward. Its chest cavity was a hollow, dark void that seemed to pull at the light around it.
Ryo hadn't seen anything like that before. He felt a disturbing level of fear, nothing like that of adventuring. Even while with the Rising Sun party, fear felt normal, but this wasn't the same. This was… despair.
The creature, voices echoing with multitudes of tones, as if it had copied all the villagers at once, let out an ungodly screech, black ichor spewing from its tentacles. The villagers lurched forwards, barely giving Ryo enough time to save himself. He pulled the kid's right arm forwards, trying to get him out of there as quickly as possible, but a female villager, seemingly a baker by her clothes, grabbed the kid by his broken arm.
The sound of violence filled the air, the squelching of blood-filled muscle, the cracking of bones, the scream. Ryo winced deeply, the cries of the boy echoing throughout the sky. He couldn't bring himself to look at it. Warm blood hit his left cheek as the kid waved around his now armless appendage, the colour slowly fading from his face.
The humanoid creature made a move, rushing towards the child, shoving one of its many tongues through his chest, the sound of blood gurgling filling Ryo's ears. The humanoid made an almost laughing sound, the child falling to the floor. Black ichor surrounded the kid's arm, covering up the stump. His body fell lifeless to the floor, red blood mixing with a sludge-like substance to form a deep, dark crimson fluid.
"Finally…" The humanoid growled out, his voice mimicking that of the child. "He escaped earlier, and now he's mine." It said to itself, turning its attention to Ryo. "He brought a…" It continued, not knowing the word 'friend'.
"What are you?!" Ryo asked, incredulously, having never seen nor heard of anything like this before. The creature barked out a laugh, a hoarse version of the boy's.
Within a blink, Ryo was sent through a building. He felt his left leg snap, his vision searing a shade of white no light could compare to. His hearing rang louder than any bell. Not even the Goblin was this bad. He hit the floor, snapping three of the fingers on his left hand, and tearing his achillee's tendon with the speed. Ryo screamed his lungs out, the pain overwhelming him.
Chippings of bricks dripped slowly onto his face, the rocky smell reminding him where he was. He began to stand up, his vision blurry and ears ringing, but he knew he had to stand up, at least. He tried to teleport, thinking about the library, but in the span of a second, the humanoid creature, fast as lightning, stood in front of him. It jabbed its fingers into his ribs, piercing between the intercostal muscles, tearing into his lungs.
Ryo, now unable to escape, tried a desperate spree of magic attacks. He sent a current of lightning through the creature's arms, but, much like his gloves, the energy did nothing. He tried to set it on fire and drown it, but that only caused it to pierce tighter. "Come on!" It told him, a happy childlike voice dressed with a layer of sadistic joy.
Ryo created a tree beneath it, trying to trap the creature in its branches, but he was lifted alongside it. The humanoid being, its mouth worming with tentacles, smiled at him. Black ichor dripped onto Ryo's arms, the sound of whispers and cries echoing from the creature's chest. Ryo pushed away, feeling the Monster, if it even was that, tear large gouges into his lungs. His breath grew shallow, laboured. He couldn't keep this up for much longer, and he couldn't do anything to it.
He used Psychokinesis, focusing on the creature's arms, trying to lift it, to break it, to even just do something. Something that could save him. However, all that happened was that it twitched. All Ryo could do was make its arm twitch. "Oh, how cute!" It exclaimed, a childlike joy that didn't suit the circumstances escaping its mouth. "Maybe you'd be great as one of me." It muttered, the tongues inside its mouth pointing towards him.
The creature dropped him to the floor, his lungs going flat as he felt his world flip. His legs hit the floor, then his face. Several sharp objects penetrated him from the back, what he could only assume were the tongues. A strange fluid filled his muscles, topping them up like the blood that brimmed a curse. His body stood up on its own, not responding to his own incapable movements. His eyes faced the creature, a black vignette surrounding his vision, with orange veins appearing on his arms, even through the rocks.
"You are mine now." It told him, the tentacles being pulled from his back. His body stumbled forward, adjusting its balance. His body, no longer his own, moved towards the Monster, his body stumbling forward like that of a Ghoul. The kid from earlier was now standing as well, his eyes dead and grey, with a faint orange glow to his veins, much like himself.
His body, getting weaker by the moment, took heed of Ryo for one moment. He took his chance, and threw a weak punch at the creature. He knew he couldn't damage it, but he had to show he at least had some control over himself. It was an achievement, a breakthrough in control.
Then, something strange happened.
Ryo felt a sense of warmth fill his body. Mana flowed. The image of the book glowing with a blue light filled his vision. The copious chains that wrapped around it began to snap, one by one, the glow turning from a cyan colour to a verdant emerald green. His body became covered in a bright white orb with the texture of an effervescent champagne. He had seen this happen to a Monster before.
This was the "Evolution Barrier" that had protected the Achron as it transformed into the Umichron. His one looked different, but he couldn't discern why. He felt a small thump against the barrier, black ichor escaping his muscles. His lungs healed themselves, his intercostal muscles repairing. Another hit, stronger this time. His achilles tendon regrew, his fingers snapping themselves back into place. His left leg cracked, and he could move it once more.
'Why am I surrounded by an Evolution Barrier?' Ryo asked himself, a white and green light entering his chest. 'I'm not a Monster. I can't evolve, nor do anything similar. Why?' He inquired, yet, of course, there was no answer. He felt a strange surge of power enter his head, his body shivering in response, his body returning to his control.
The barrier shattered, and Ryo stared down the creature, its mouth open wide with swirling tongues. "How?! How did you do that?!" It screamed at him, a combination of his voice and that of all the villagers. The cacophony of audio didn't shock him at his point. He lifted his right hand up, a white aura surrounding his hands, filling him with an energy he hadn't experienced since he had been in the Rising Sun party.
The joy of being healed.
Ryo stood his ground, using Psychokinesis to lift up bits of debris, the sounds of bricks rattling and cracking filling the air. He grabbed two large chunks of a wall, and prepared to throw them.
"Come on, you. It's my turn."