Annixon was having a dream. He was floating over a forest where ma.s.sive sharp rocks were protruding into the heavens. Strange birds that looked like a merger between a parrot and a flamingo, with bushy feathers and six eyes were flying alongside him.

It was soothing. A large lake was in the center of the forest. He smiled at the scene. A familiar voice sounded off behind him, "Beautiful, isn"t it?"

"Old man? Why are you here?"

"To scold you. This place is the area you are headed towards, Landenium if I recall correctly. This is but the pinnacle of the iceberg."
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"You said you are here to scold me?"

"What you did was reckless."

"I did what I had to do."

"There are plenty of ways you could have handled that. It doesn"t mean that you should nearly lose your soul because of it."

"My soul? What"s my soul gotta do with it?"

"The soul is the va.s.sal for your mana. The book drains a tremendous amount if used. It"s not like tools that can is designed to use flow arts. It uses you as the conduit. In other words, you should have been able to use that barrier spell at least four more times. Yet using the book depleted eighty percent of your mana reserve."

"Then what would you have me do? We were being attacked by a tremendously powerful spell."

The old man sighed, "I don"t have a problem with using the book for your flow art. I have a problem with what happened afterward."

Annixon remembered him giving in to his emotions, and throwing that detorb. He looked away. He felt a sense of guilt.

The old man sighed, "No, do you see where I am going with this. Using the book to protect yourself was a smart, spur of the moment call, but the emotional outburst not so much. That flow art you used was something tremendous, luckily you didn"t use the book for that. That would have been catastrophic. That last spell you used on the arrow was the only right call you made, but even there you were a fool. Your body was already screaming by that time that you should stop using flow arts. All of this for the sake of a girl!"

"I did try to end it peacefully."

"Did you now? You could have just handed over the girl and that would have been that."

"You are just some sort of ent.i.ty. You can never grasp emotions the way we living beings do. I made a promise that I would keep her safe. I do not care with whom I go to war with in order to achieve that."


"Yet, I told you what the real threat is. You need to get your priorities straight."

"Screw you, old man. You don"t understand s.h.i.t. If I want to fight this "decay" I will need resources. That also means manpower. She understands the politics of this world."

"Many others do too."

"Yet she will remain loyal. She isn"t some hack n.o.ble who would only be in it for greed, but let"s ignore all that. In the end, it"s just the right thing to do. Something you would never understand."

"Then at least be careful."

That was an unexpected 180 for Annixon.

"If your soul is lost it would open the way for decay to set in. It will turn you into an undead. Given who you are you, will even become an undead champion. They are the most dangerous beings on the planet. You could call them battle mages that siphons life from the planet itself to power spells. One day you will probably come across the deadlands, and there you will see what happens when life is siphoned from the land."

"How much damage did my soul receive?"

"None, luckily, but you were dangerously close, but even then I implemented a protocol in your body…You will siphon from the land like an undead before your soul is touched. This particular flow art is also known as necromancy."

"Isn"t that just messing with the undead?"

"Yes, it is. Necromancy is the flow art of raising the dead via the planet itself. In your case, you use it to power your flow arts. It"s the ultimate taboo. The flow art on you will even go as far as taking the soul from people you care about."

"WHY WOULD YOU PLACE SOMETHING SO DANGEROUS ON ME!?"

"Because you will become more dangerous as an undead. So be very careful when relying on the book. Better wake up. They are waiting for you."

"Just, who are you?"

With that, he woke up.

When he came too, a sense of anger washed over him. He was basically a cornered rabbit. If He tapped into his soul he"ll become an undead that is much more dangerous. If he relied on the protection he was given, he will tap into the very planet or souls of those around him.

He looked up to see Naitra standing over him. She saw him wake up.

She helped him to sit upright. Annixon could sense the tension in the air. He saw Anastacia and Sinah resting their heads at the foot of his bed, sleeping. Off to the side, Celty was sleeping on a chair with her head resting against a wall. The biggest surprise was Amara who was right next to him sleeping on a chair with a book open. Like she had been reading for him. It brought a sense of calm seeing them like this, but the look that Naitra gave send chills down his spine.

Naitra crossed her arms, "You know what I am going to say."

"Yes, I wasn"t aware of the ramifications. I am sorry."

Her arms fell to her side, "Good, at least you are aware that you nearly tapped into your soul, but what I don"t understand is. Why did you lose so much mana? I did a check on your mana reserves. It"s astronomical. Even the most veteran of elf kind doesn"t have that level of mana, so why did you suffer from mana burnout?"

Annixon sighed, "The method I used was disastrously ineffective."

"Guess I will need to teach you a thing or two about magic then."

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