The Grand Weave

The rush of power that surged through my body hit me all at once. My chest became a balloon as it welled with new energy.

"What's happening?"

Xena floated close, her hands grabbing my cheek. "You bonded with a Dungeon Fairy. The dungeon mana should be filling you. I'll help guide it so it doesn't change your mana channels."

"Th-thanks," I ground out. "Isn't this supposed to be temporary?"

"It is; that's why I won't let it change you."

It took an eternity, but the energy shifted and formed something inside my gut. It felt solid, but Xena shunted the energy toward the new vessel.

"There. Stabilized."

"Now what?" I said as I stood up straight.

Chomperz looked down, peering at my stomach, but I ignored him and focused on Xena, who was running her hands along the spinning crown.

"You're a Reborn. The marks inside your body... How are you alive? Why are you only tier zero?"

"Luck, mostly. And I'm working on it."

Xena snorted and lowered her hands to examine the changes to her wings. "Fine. You're finally living up to your title. Now, we need to break out of here."

"And how do we do that?"

I lifted my shirt and rubbed the skin underneath; my stomach radiated a piercing cold that penetrated my fingers.

The fairy clapped her hands, and I felt power shift around, leaving my stomach and extending toward the fairy. She took the energy and landed on the ground, where she placed her palm.

As she rose into the air, bright pink energy spilled out that formed into a black pillar. She stopped once it became a few inches above my head and pulled away.

"We can't do anything without a control node. Now, extend your hand and prepare for the headache. You're not Weldrammornorpelus, so we'll go slow."

Xena was entirely serious despite the spitfire attitude she showed earlier. Her eyes never blinked, and she stared with crossed arms.

I'm going to murder Cal for this.

I extended my arm, and my mana exploded outward and latched onto my wrist. It sank into my bones and created a vibration that nearly dislocated my shoulder as I wrapped my fingers around the pillar.

There was a feeling. I closed my eyes and quickly opened them as a million things assaulted my senses.

As I blinked away the tears, Xena hovered closer and landed on my shoulder. She extended her right arm while placing her left directly against my neck.

"Slower," she grumbled. "Pathetic fleshy bodies are so inconvenient. You should ascend when we get out of here."

"Trying," I said flatly.

"Stop wasting time! I can feel the energy. It's begging to be used; let's get our revenge already!"

Somehow, I didn't think she meant me in the 'our revenge.'

I complied, and my vision shifted into something more. It was like my mana senses but on steroids. From all around us, I felt the room's dimensions, its walls ever-shifting but static.

That's a lot smaller than I thought. Weird.

"I'm cutting off the unimportant senses so you can focus. Try to feel the energy inside the node," Xena interrupted.

"How many senses would that be?"

"More than twenty-three. Now focus."

Finding the pillar was easy. It was a star amidst a sea of nothing. Focusing on it and only it was nearly impossible. Beside me, Xena growled her frustrations.

"Sorry, but this is difficult."

"Bah. You're like a newborn core! Just follow your instincts!"

Chomp!

Suddenly, parts of my vision were cut off, and I found the pillar come into focus, the image clear as day.

"Chomperz?"

"That's... you shouldn't be able to do that. But whatever, as long as it works!"

"Okay, pillar. What now?"

"Push your sight into it; enter the node."

Easier said than done. It took another couple of minutes before my vision changed. The void fell away, and new senses bloomed into my thoughts. I tasted everything and nothing.

"Aaagh! Sorry."

The taste of crystals and magenta disappeared from my tongue, and I focused on the room below.

Below... wasn't entirely accurate to describe what I saw.

It was as if I could see from seven angles, the top, the bottom, the center, and every corner. I recognized the pink obelisk and the ether pool around it. Hammering away with her daggers was Sereza, who tried to chip the obelisk. Isaac looked furious, shadows whipping around him and smacking the ground.

He said something, but I felt knowledge pop up rather than hearing or seeing it.

"Is he saying something? And where is my body?"

"Most likely in the pillar. You must have temporarily melded with it. And he is, one sec. Your flesh body is so inefficient!"

"Thanks."

"It wasn't a compliment. How can you stand having all these fragile organs control your thoughts in such a tangled mess? Horrible."

I fought a sigh and waited for Xena to finish.

Suddenly, I could hear Isaac trying to talk to Sereza, who was busy grunting.

"We have to go. He's an annoying bastard; I'm sure he'll appear when we clear the dungeon," Isaac shouted.

"And. I. Say. No," she said between thrusts. "He's your friend and got sucked into the ether crystal. There has to be a way to get him out!"

"Maybe, but we can't do anything about it. Best bet would be to get out of here and contact his god."

"And if he dies before that? What happens next? His god takes vengeance on all of our family lines?"

Isaac snorted. "That's not that much of a threat for me."

"Piss off. Why are you calm?"

Isaac jumped onto the island where Sereza was hacking away and caught her wrists with his tendrils. "Because you don't know half the crazy shit he gets himself into. I barely do. We need to go. The others could be fighting."

She lowered her weapons. "Fine. But where? There's no way out."

"We'll have to shadewalk. I got a health potion, and without Cyrus, we should be able to slip through without alerting the monsters."

"Xena?" I asked

"So that's how you got here. Will need to set up defenses when this is done."

"Okay. Great. What are we looking for?"

"Ignore them; move your focus to the joining room. It's the main mana chamber."

"Uh, big room, lots of crystals, and a deep moat?"

"Yes!"

"Uh, is the moat supposed to be filled with bubbling tar?"

"Tar? What, no! Show me!"

After the third try, I managed to shift my perspective into the hallway and then out into the first room. Once my vision cleared up and I got access to the room, Xena erupted like a volcano.

No... That's thought-speech bleed through. Must be like the soul link.

"Th-that, aaagh! I'll kill it. Murder it. Make it suffer through a million years of hell!"

"I thought so... Is the ether corrupted?"

"Yes! It's destroyed centuries of mana! We worked hard on that! How dare it!"

"Stop yelling in my head. It's hard to focus."

In a more physical sense, Xena squeezed my neck, pinching it tight. When she let go, the rage was there, but as a simmer rather than the explosive fire that threatened to incinerate all.

"We found bodies inside the crystal. Is that your doing?"

"Bodies? Show me."

I did, and once again understood what being a crystal felt like; it was strangely nice, if restraining.

Xena grunted, and the feeling disappeared. I sensed her examining the crystal with the man encased within.

"That's not us. No. Squidface must have done this. We should get rid of this before it can be used it for nefarious purposes."

"Woah. Wait a minute. What do you mean get rid of this?"

"If we focus the ether, we can dissolve the body. Can't farm what's not there."

"Nope. Hard no."

"Why?"

"Are they alive?"

"Well, yeah. They're under an illusion."

"Then no, we're not getting rid of him. That's messed up."

"I don't understand. Wait. Are they your friends?"

"No. But I'm not erasing him just because. Can't we just disconnect him?"

"Weird mortals and their weird morals," she grumbled. "Focus on the energy in this room and extend it outward toward the crystal. Visualize him being removed from the crystal, and I'll handle the next part."

Despite knowing it was ether, the mana answered my call easily. She wasn't kidding when she said it was begging to be used. I heard a crack, and the crystal began to shatter. Before the first piece fell, the man's body disappeared.

"Hey! What did you do to him?"

"Calm down. I put him in a safe room. Speaking of which, we should do the same for your friends."

I moved the view back to the obelisk room, where Isaac was explaining how the shadow realm worked.

"Same as before?"

"No, they're conscious and would actively resist our attempts. We can try brute forcing it, but you don't know how, and I'm already juggling a lot. Here, try creating a coin."

"A coin?"

"Yes. Dungeon loot. Make a coin. Think about its shape and size, color, and so on. I'll handle the mana weaving."

I pictured a gold coin, the same kind we used in Solunaria. However, instead of the minting on the back, I replaced it with myself, giving a thumbs-up.

And just like that, mana rippled from my core, and a single gold coin appeared. Xena's control slipped again, and my brain nearly fractured once the information streams flooded my thoughts.

When I finally regained control, I was no longer seeing through the pillar and, instead, on the ground, panting as silver leaked from my nose.

"What the hell... Xena."

The fairy was also on the ground. Slowly, she pushed herself to a sitting position and rubbed her head.

"Damn flesh prison! The backlash of trying to comprehend the loot creation filtered through the connection. Do yourself a favor and get a mental passive!"

I groaned and stood up on shaky legs. "Noted. Fuck. Did we do it?"

Chomperz landed on my shoulder and pointed to the pillar.

I poked his snout, but he failed to dodge it. I offered a hand to Xena, who hopped on. Once she was back in place on my shoulder, she assumed position.

"Yes. Good choice on using your likeness. That should stall them. But we'll need something else if we want to move them. And unless you can upgrade yourself, it's going to hurt."

What's new?

Chomp!

"Aah." This time, he bit my ear, and I stared. "What?"

Chomperz did something, and I felt the energy in my stomach shift around a smidge.

"You are going to help again? Good."

"That true, Chomperz?"

Chomp!

Okay then. Let's get this over with. I bet they're losing their minds.

We reconnected, the energy settling in place as it pulled from my stomach. This time, it burned for a dozen seconds before Chomperz did something and shifted the energy around.

As the visual of the obelisk chamber returned, I found Sereza arguing with Isaac as he scrutinized the coin.

Like a puzzle piece clicked in my head, sound came online, and I heard the tail end of Sereza speaking.

"-old you so. That's definitely him."

"Cyrus," Isaac said out loud. He looked toward the ceiling. "If you're fucking with us, I'm going to have Arturous shit in your bed!"

Sereza crossed her arms. "That's the best you can come up with? And doesn't Arturous love Cyrus?"

"That's because he's a cheating bastard who sneaks him entire racks of ribs."

"Xena?"

"Think of a scroll. Repeat the message you want to be delivered in your head. If we can do this, we can move on to the next step."

"And that'll be?"

Her feelings bled through again, but I knew it was intentional. If before she was a volcano ready to erupt, this time, she was electricity incarnate.

"Reclaiming our dungeon!"