Chapter 33: Devourer

Subject: Inis - [Requesting Reanalysis] Location: Redtinge Overgrowth

Inis’s world returned to her by means of her virasenses. The terrain’s topography could be interpreted as a grayscale mesh. Plants, fungi, and even the smaller Chorth blightbeasts that had appeared while she was incapacitated all fell into focus. She felt it all.

Each mage uniquely experienced their virasenses. With mastery and talent, they could even tailor how information appeared to them based on what suited their needs most.

Inis saw colors, but it wasn’t caused by reflected light. Creatures, even blightbeasts, were vibrant. Taking recent advances into account, Inis still wasn’t all that competent. She couldn’t tweak what she saw, she was only aware of more than before.

Invisible Botan blightbeast tendrils slithered their way toward her, visible from the impressions they made in the soil and upon the clumps of springy mossy.

On impulse, Inis pressed her hand to her chest and cast an enhancement spell. She felt the vira bathe her body in transformative power. It was part regeneration augmentation, part muscle stimulant, and part something she couldn’t put into words.

Did the spell even have a name? That, she couldn’t answer, but she didn’t need to. It was a spellweave of a few she could name. All of this had been done in the middle of combat!

It’s like I’ve been holding myself back all this time. Forcing caution, I was limiting my potential.

Inis made for the closest Vitanark tree, scrambling up as far as her legs, in their current state, would take her. Once she reached that point, she used a more advanced Tether spell, Chain Tether, to lock her arm and foot to the tree.

The decision to take this high vantage was not sourced from Inis’s own mind, but from her new “partner”, Shade.

Now that Shade had made its presence known, Inis could feel the parasite combing her memories and doing something to them.

Her companion apparently took different lessons from the events of her life than she did, and that much was clear when Shade spat them back out as tactical suggestions. The... presence... was still working, but it took less time to process memories focused on “irrelevant” moments.

Irrelevant memories included things like food, the precious few relationships she’d treasured, and the ambiguity of morality. Inis had always considered the first two to be very important to survival, but Shade didn’t come equipped to handle much beyond how best to kill something.

Morality, on the other hand, was really only a concept to keep in mind when dealing with the narrow-minded. Spirituality, scientific ethics, good and evil… they could all be wrapped into that whole mess of subjective nonsense. It was something she and Shade could agree on, at least.

The precision of Inis’s spellcasting had only been heightened since she was forced to rely entirely on her virasenses. She hoped to remember that later. Something about natural human sensory input generated “noise” that interfered with spellcasting. Virasense, derived from magic itself, didn’t have this apparent drawback.

Maybe that’s what she meant, Inis mused, remembering something her mentor said on the subject.

But these insights came with greater clarity than the abstract lectures that barely grazed the surface. Magic was foreign. Connections were forming in Inis’s mind, but she didn’t have the freedom to pursue them at the moment.

“Follow the vines back to the source,” she mumbled to herself. “You’re mine!”

When Inis tried to unleash a barrage of Viradarts at her target, she realized that she’d hit her limit.

Painful feedback, triggered by trying to draw upon slightly more vira than her body held in its active reserve, pricked her from within. This pain wasn’t dulled by Deprive, the spell currently numbing senses of touch and blotting out her natural vision.

The pain didn’t stop Inis. Overdrawing energy from one’s body, and the terrible side effects that came with it, was something that frightened Inis like any other mage. She prepared another spell, instantaneously negotiating with Pulse for another gift.

With this new wealth of knowledge, it really did feel like the act of casting a spell was a “negotiation”. The taxing mental work was a part of that exchange.

Vira looked something like a flowing liquid crossed with “living flame”. It pooled in vital organs, shifting with the health of an organism. It interacted with the environment, leaking out in predictable ways.

Technically, what Inis was doing was more like observing reflections of her own virasense ripples.

The vira magic energy sent out would interact differently with vira in other living things and in the environment than it did with other forms of matter. Developing virasense was about learning to distinguish these reflections, willfully altering virasense-based perception to better interpret one’s surroundings.

The tree trunk the hyper-alert scientist clung to had a particular vira signature. Unlike the ferns below, the Vitanark’s energy was more stagnant, concentrated into a layered pillar around the cylindrical core. That core was the reserve of energy she needed to tap.

“You have more than enough,” she whispered some mournfully. “It’s time to give to a cause nobler than petty survival.”

Inis felt the familiar draining sensation of her spell requesting fuel a moment before she made contact with the Vitanark’s core.

It hurt! Pulse did it hurt! Inis forced her way through the pain until she passed the burden onto the tree.

This spell was meant to take energy from another and receive it into the caster’s body. It felt different than when Inis would use respite shards. That energy felt “bottled” or “artificial”, while this invigoration was primal.

Feeling like one does after they receive their first bite of food after near-starvation, something she’d experienced more than once due to her lifestyle, Inis was reborn. She scanned her surroundings for her prey once more.

After having been forced to tap into fresh magic to sustain herself, Inis no longer thought Viradarts were an appropriate attack. First, she would strip away the Botan’s cloak and expose it to her virasenses. Then, she would use this specimen as a learning tool.

Subject: Inis - [Requesting Reanalysis] Location: Redtinge Overgrowth

A terrifying *crack* resounded throughout the jungle, following by the splintering of wood.

Inis was prepared for this. The tree she’d bound herself to was dying, a vira-deprived husk after what she’d done to it. It was almost sad, but this was a battle for survival, and she would win at any cost.

She released the spell binding her to the dead tree and leaped to another, similarly binding her foot and arm to it. The lifeless Vitanark was too enormous to fall in any short time, but it’s shedding bark would no longer support her weight.

The target was the unknown creature, cloaked from her virasenses. But its tendrils made noticeable trails along the ground, and Inis found the stationary body once again.

Scientist no longer, Inis the predator launched a Viralight Lance at a point where one of the invisible tendrils connected to the blightbeast’s equally-invisible body.

From an outstretched hand, the brilliant green projectile only loosely resembled a mundane throwing weapon. Like most magical projectiles, it was solidified vira, in-part molded in the mind of the caster. Normally, this change was minor.

Inis had never cast this spell before, but she had been studying its theoretical principles. It was somewhat of an “Advanced Viradart”, nicknamed “Viralance”.

The same spell looked a little different when cast by each distinct mage. Inis’s Viralance had small, curved protrusions down the shaft, like a plant’s thorns. These barbs were slightly darker green than the rest of the lance.

If she concentrated, she might be able to temporarily maintain the form of the projectile, keeping the beast pinned.

It worked!

Four more Viralances drained the pool of vira Inis had stolen from the now-desiccated Vitanark. It was a powerful spell, demanding a comparably substantial price.

“Pulse-forsaken Blight! I need more!”

There was a chapter in the magical thesis book Inis had brought with her to this festerfont, Sol: Coercing Payment, in her post-injection stupor. She’d hidden the book, but a memory surfaced. Shade had influenced her to read the book.

The book was about sol, the name for the second fundamental state of matter or energy. When magic was concerned, sol referred to the expending or manipulation of the mundane.

A reductionist perspective saw that Inis’s body was composed of both vira and sol. So it was this tree, too.

If I dig deeper, I can convert the sol within this tree into energy. All that extraneous stuff I ignored in my first attempt, it isn’t useless garbage. I should take it all!

And so, that’s what she did.

Subject: Inis - [Requesting Reanalysis] Location: Redtinge Overgrowth

This second attempt at drawing power from a living thing didn’t go as smoothly as the first. It was a frustrating, messy slog.

Most of the tree’s trunk was relatively worthless, Inis concluded. Using her virasenses, she peered into the depths of the Vitanark, scouring much further than her initial dive.

Is this what Biomages do? Is this the world they see when they do their research? What would they think of how I’m using their technique?

This tree cohabitated with the Blight. It grew on occupied land. Taken to the extreme, Inis’s work could be viewed as a crime against a helpless prisoner or a liberation.

This one died much more dramatically, with violent splintering sounds cascading along the area where Inis began sucking it dry. This was the point where she realized that the tethers weren’t enough to keep her from falling from the shedding bark.

No, it isn’t just flaking off... The bark is disintegrating.

Inis didn’t know what she was expecting would happen when she converted the tree to energy. Technically, she couldn’t actually see what was happening with her natural sight.

She divided her attention to conjure up a Chain Tether, such that the ethereal silvery-white strand wrapped itself around the dying tree. At least, that’s what color she thought they were.

To do so, she released her hold on the Viralance projectiles pinning the blightbeast down. She felt the distant vira disperse.

It wasn’t going anywhere. It would also have difficulty reaching her up here, especially wounded as it was.

Inis’s Chain Tether looked different than her last. While her last had resembled the typical spell, Inis’s new chain looked stronger and molded itself to wrap specifically around her target. The vaguely metallic appearance was also differently reflective. She couldn’t guess as to the true color change, blinded as she was.

Back within the Vitanark, energy was accumulating around her hand. It wasn’t entering her, as it had when she was merely stripping vira from the last host.

Just how did she plan on using this dense chunk of sol coating her hand? It was really hard to harvest. Would it be worth the struggle in the end?

Inis undid her Tethers and leapt to another tree. Or, rather, she tried to. A foot punctured the surface when she tried to launch, and Inis fell tumbling to the jungle floor.

Again, but in a different way, her world was flung into chaos. Inis stumbled, tenderly checking to make sure she hadn’t sprained or broken anything. After a preliminary virasense sweep, she couldn’t do very much more of an examination.

Inis wasn’t a proficient Lifemage, and she was also acutely aware that she was now down on the ground with the invisible creature. Blind, numb, and rattled.

Her breathing was ragged, coupled with the tingling of spellcasting overexertion. All the vira she’d collected from the second tree went into harvesting the sol now encasing her hand.

Inis spent a great deal of time, minutes, or even perhaps an hour, it was too hard to tell, accumulating more vira and sol. She would use the sol energy from the previous harvests to hasten the desecration of the next target.

This was a learning experience. Through trial-and-error, Inis practiced the technique. However, it wasn’t as boring as exhaustively studying in preparation for casting a spell safely the first time. The tradeoff was that there was nothing safe about this.

With all of these immediate concerns, Shade barely made it onto the bottom of the list.

Each attempt would expend some of the resources Inis accrued, but she learned to use more and more of the sol to offset the vira expenditure, to the point where she felt she was almost topping off her active vira reserve.

There were some tasks that suited vira for which sol could not act as a substitute. But Inis was learning that there were also many things that sol did more efficiently than vira. She still didn’t fully grasp what she was doing or how else it could be applied, but it was good enough for now.

Subject: Inis - [Requesting Reanalysis] Location: Redtinge Overgrowth

When she finally decided to seek out her former captor, the wretched thing was nowhere to be found.

Inis scoured a large area from where she had originally pinned it, only to come across nothing resembling a trail. However, It was actually quite difficult to use virasense to detect any marks left behind. It was easiest when they were actively being made in the area.

Irritating as it was, she was about to give up hope. She would take her freedom, the rejuvenation, and move on to the Redtinge Pillar, the only way out of the lower jungle.

The Redtinge Pillar was the only way out of the dangerous lower jungle for those without climbing tools, expertise, and a great deal more upper-body strength than this scientist.

Then, fortune smiled. Something unseen moved as she began her journey to the spire. Concentrating, Inis saw that it had regrown its tendrils. Or, it simply had more than she’d seen in their first encounter. Either way, they all had to go.

And so, once Inis had discerned where the body was, she began the methodical work of separating the tendrils from it.

This time, after she’d taken some time, and skewered the thing with enough Viralances, something new happened. Through virasense, Inis saw a shimmer in the air. It was very faint at first, but it was there.

Accumulated damage to the blightbeast had somehow disrupted its concealment. Viewed through virasense, the basic shape of the creature was the same as the one Inis saw before she willingly blinded herself to dull the pain and concentrate.

Inis took this as an incentive to close the distance and resort to Solflame. Despite being less cost-efficient for damaging a target possessing no magical resistances, Solflame could draw from all the sol she’d stored up.

Embarrassingly, Inis hadn’t spent time practicing this technique. But the world of magic was just too vast to cover, and she needed to prioritize.

Fragments of puresol, the most basic and stable configuration of sol matter, flew out into the air between Inis and the creature. Without a long-range igniter or any such tool for that matter, Inis used vira to spark the reaction.

She witnessed the area engulfed by her flame, surprised by just how tremendously destructive the spell was when it had a proper fuel to draw from. It looked different through her virasenses, but she was more fully able to grasp the volume of the destructive wave.

A gust of hot air hit Inis, forcefully enough to know her back. She restabilized her footing and peered through the clearing mist at the creature. Fully visible, the withering plant was no longer spewing fog, its bulbous body deflated and seared.

“That took a lot longer than it should have, but you’re mine now.”

We’re alive, Shade affirmed, reminding Inis of its presence.

“It’s time for another lesson,” Inis announced, pacing toward her prey. She felt that Shade couldn’t understand her intention, expecting her to finish the blightbeast off. “Those tendrils seem to be its only method of locomotion. Withered away as they are, it can’t get away.”

Inis honed in on the creature, examining its anatomy before beginning the next stage of her study.

What are we doing? Shade inquired, like a curious child, observing a parent.

“Just watch. The world has more depth to it than you could ever imagine. Let’s discover something new together.”