"You made this all by yourself?"
Alexanderia stood in the middle of a red circle, in a secret chamber. Around them, like two spiral tens of obsidian monoliths, stood each at least ten meters. As a whole they were designed in a way that anything entered couldn't get out.
"I told you, my talents are fascinating." Ray smiled. It had taken him six years to build this; its form was far from his original idea, yet it could work each six months.
Modern craft stations used gamma radiation to control magic and lock it in an area to make a crystal; the process was easier and more efficient, yet this method belonged only to him.
Alexanderia had been to many craft stations; each was made in the middle of a bare land, with large facilities for each type of magic. As she inspected the obsidian monoliths, she understood his method: "You had infused them with your blood ... You can only create magic crystals that come from dark crystals, right?"
Ray nodded as he prepared for the task at hand. "If one wants to use a white crystal to craft here, it's no different from a normal place. Plus, the only one that can use it is me." He tried to emphasize his importance for Alexandria.
A faint smile appeared on her lips. "Not bad, but how can you do it?"
"The most important thing is for you to give me pure thoughts constantly. Right now, I have only one thought in each second; I need about ten during the whole process." One needed at least 300 as a base stat in mind to have that many thoughts in a second.
Alexanderia sat on the ground where the Ray had pointed earlier. "I can do that, but how are you going to control my magic so it doesn't kill you?"
"That's wrong; you will be the one to do the process."
"How?" Alexanderia was frustrated; this went against all of her experience with the crafting.
Ray sat on the ground too. "You will swallow my mind; I will do everything from within your body."
Her eyes went wide; that was one of the most insane things she had heard and, at the same time, one of the most reasonable ones.
"Who taught you this method? Answer honestly, or I will not be that kind anymore." Her blade appeared at her side.
"No one." Even in the face of her threat, he didn't flinch.
"Bullshit, this method can increase our speed in production by double."
"I will sit here waiting for you to go search the entire planet to find someone that is capable of entering your mind." His eyes provoked her gaze.
Everything made less sense for her. "Then why are you ready to do it?"
"Curiosity."
"Insanity..."
"Maybe now you might start."
Ray dismissed any defense that he had put on his mind, serving his whole consciousness on a silver plate for the general to devour.
Dark chains rose from the ground, locking his figure in their palm, as a thin string from them reached out to Alexandria's head.
The only thing that he could feel was that he was thinking; there was no body for him to control anymore. The only thing that showed he still existed was that he was thinking.
An old quote flashed in his mind: "I think, therefore I am."
"Time to get to work..." His magic aflamed the monoliths; flames gave a new light to the dark chamber. "Their source of power is my own blood; they should last at least for three hours."
"Tell me when you need my thoughts."
Two dark crystals appeared above her head, as Ray's voice echoed, "I think you know the basics. We must destroy the structure of the dark crystal and replace its original form with your magic. The first one will be a vessel for the other ones."
"Not to this extent; they just tell me to fill the space with my magic." Alexanderia felt weird from being the one who was being taught lessons. Long had passed since anyone had treated her like this.
"Protect my body, and fill the space as much as you can with your magic."
She followed his instructions; in an instant, if any living creature walked in the circle around them, it would die instantly.
Ray focused on the two dark crystals and said, "Give me your thoughts..."
Floodgates of torment opened on his mind, screams of pain and death purred in his mind, and he ignored anything except their original form.
The first dark crystal in the air started to crack. Ray, as a vessel, attacked its core structure; in just a few breaths, the only thing that was left out of the crystal was a dark fluid leaking the death aura.
"To keep its form, five thoughts are needed: one for the pillars and the three remaining for destroying the other ones and fusing them. All you have to do is keep this up." Ray used his last free thought to speak with her.
"I can give you more thoughts if you want."
"No. My mind will break..."
The other crystal, instead of breaking, changed its form completely to a dark ball. The aura of magic around it thickened to the point that it was swallowed by the death magic.
With the most precision possible, Ray took the ball near the dark fluid. "Their density is a little different..."
"Lower your magic in the space..."
She obeyed like he was her mentor.
After a few minutes, the dark fluid shape started to turn into more like a crystal again.
"Good." Before it could return to its form, the ball entered its core. However, their mass didn't increase at all.
"What happened?" Alexanderia asked with curiosity.
"Crystals are made out of pure magic; in the infusion stage, they just increase the bond between themselves and the magic that is holding them together."
"And we will do this until my magic takes the majority of it?"
"Exactly."
Another crystal summoned from his soul, just like before, the process went smoothly.
After an hour of changing the density of magic in the air constantly, and Ray not wasting a second, he said with an enthusiastic tone, "It's finished!"
He let go of his grip on the vessel; it slowly returned to its crystal form. However, this time around, it looked more like a living thing compared to a rock, with its color constantly changing between shades of black.
"Can you return me to my body?"
Alexanderia was so fascinated by the object in the air that she had forgotten about Ray.
"Here you go..."
His body had a time to move again after an hour of standing by, yet his success gave him more energy than anything.
"Take it. In six months I should be able to do that again."
"Why that much time?" Alexanderia took the crystal in her palm and took it into her soul.
"My mind is already on the verge of breaking. I should sleep for days to be able to function again. In two days there is a conference about my family wealth too, so I'm kind of fucked at the moment." Ray sighed; he hated to deal with useless acts, yet they were necessary.
"One last question: why did you lie about your affinity? You are obviously a Cardinal." Alexanderia sounded not caring at all; for now, even if Ray killed half the population of earth, she would stand by his side.
"I don't trust the military." Ray said with no care about insulting her whole life.
She raised an eyebrow. "I'm going to assume you wouldn't say more, and I don't know your true affinity. We are going to have a long relationship."
"That's for granted..."
Their hands shook with both of them imagining their futures.