Many crystals had different shapes and sizes, but Ink a attracted obviously alien elements. He noticed a round ball in which he recognized the force field. Irregular dark crystal with smooth edges - blood control. A ball of bluish threads - micromanipulation. A star from needles pointing in different directions - activation of magical forces. The latter resembled a distorted cylinder; many cracks covered it. He seemed about to fall apart.

"Is this a skill to awaken blood?"

Ink tried to touch it, after which he felt the movement of the force field and white energy.

"Because of this, I turned into winged? But where then is the ability to awaken blood? "

Ink searched the entire space and did not find it. Some skills related to the ability to read and write, others affected microreflexes, and the most transparent and inconspicuous ones touched the natural processes of the body. Ink in some latent manner understood that it was not worth touching them. However, parts of the needle star, which represents the ability to activate magical powers in this layer of the mind, related to innate skills.

All this seemed a mystery and the secret birth of life. Ink wondered about the reasons for a person's skills. Instinctive actions, something you don't need to learn, since you have from birth?

"Could it be that monsters and gods have innate skills like a force field, metallization, lightning control?"

Thoughts could not distract for a long time, and soon the sorrow from the death of Rowhn returned.

"I need more power ... I have to develop the skill of energy storage."

The information in the tag was quite detailed. Ink entered the starry space, glanced fearfully at the pulsating energy creature, and, without waiting for any action from the bearer of the god's mark, he began to pull and twist the white energy into three vortices. It was difficult to do this, Ink failed several times, until he could create rotating columns. The second stage of the technique was to reduce the vortices end-to-end to cause a synergy of their rotation. The difficulty was the need to maintain the identity of artificial hurricanes. Otherwise, one absorbed the other.

Ideally, the vortices should attract and support each other. The result will be the creation of one rotating column with three inside. This immediately reminded me of the schematic representation of the mark - a triple spiral in a circle. Ink stopped counting failed attempts after the tenth failure.

"It is very difficult to control them because of inertia. If I try to make the vortices smaller, they still draw energy and grow ... Then what if we make them a little bigger? Small whirlwinds ... Combine three, and then feed them the rest! "

Ink found the idea beautiful. Based on the size of the vortex, for which he could easily change the speed of rotation, he created ten small hurricanes.

"If I make three complex vortices, won't they stabilize each other?"

One of the small hurricanes fell apart. The rest has become a little more difficult to control. Ink divided the whirlwinds into groups of three. To his joy, a barely noticeable layer appeared around them, proving the success of the technique. Three large rotating cylinders began to attract each other. At the time of the collision, Ink tensed in anticipation. Large cylinders buzzed, but held on, began to circle around each other

"Good ..." Ink rejoiced .

There was a booming clap. Another layer was formed around the three cylinders, but it was compressed above and below, forming a sphere. The inner pillars collapsed. Nine vortices, like evil snakes, moved along strange paths inside a translucent ball of white dust.

Ink tried to stop them, but nothing came of it. All grains of energy pulled together to the sphere. Particles of force began to stretch out of the energy being, but it roared and moved toward the edge of space. The likeness of a golden dinosaur ceased to emit pulsations of light and even contracted into a lump.

The situation got out of hand. Ink felt uneasy. He thought experimenting with his mind was not the best solution. A sphere of white energy began to shrink. Nine vortices inside it turned into thin threads, their movements became even more chaotic and confused. The rumble stopped.

At first glance, there were no negative consequences, but it was impossible to predict how this would be reflected in the future.

Ink once again looked at the instructions in the bloody mark. No special details about possible accidents were found in it upon repeated examination. Information about the keenra was also not very useful, some of the described layers of the mind could be discovered only after the development of subtle bodies, others operated on concepts that were impossible to realize without a deeper understanding of the nature of energies. The dark space of stars was considered one of the most important layers of the mind and was described as something separate from consciousness itself, but Ink could not understand everything in detail .

Lying on the bed, he thought about going to that very Library.

"Perhaps there I will find information that will help to better understand the keenra, understand the nature of the label, find a way to get rid of a piece of the mind of God. And this thread between me and the dead light of Rown ... Who knows if this will affect my consciousness. - Ink froze. He felt connected to the container, but did not see the thread. She's gone.

Ink got up, carefully examined the container and the creature inside him. I put the container back and moved to the opposite part of the room. Previously, the thread was pulled and created a feeling of discomfort and soon the destruction of the remains of the soul of Rowan, but now there was nothing like that. Ink felt connected to a silver animal at some deep level. On a hunch, he tried to enter the mind of the creature. This was made surprisingly easy. Ink again felt the trembling pink light of Rowne's light. For a moment he thought about whether to destroy it, but in the end left everything as it is.

With great care, Ink tried to find skills in the mind of the creature. They managed to do this, although all the abilities of the silver beast were almost invisible. It did not work out to study them, but at some point Ink captured the idea of ​​transferring the skill to another creature in order to check how it would affect him.

"I can't find the experimental one, but I can try to transfer one of my skills to this creature ..."

Ink concentrated on his mind. I found the skills, touched the needle of the mind with the thread of the mind on the skill of activating magical powers, another thread entered the mind of the animal. The ripple of the voice of reason tried to create a kind of needle-shaped star, but it turned out an ugly caricature. To Ink's joy, the rays of education themselves stretched out and touched the animal's innate abilities.

There was a knock on the door.

Ink was distracted and hastened to open. Outside stood Grank .

- How are you?

The question was completely unexpected for Ink . He did not think that he would see a kind of sympathy on this face. The very sorrow of a stranger seemed strange and why shameful. I did not want to show weakness.

Ink nodded to Grank instead of an answer.

"I don't know what happened there, but it's not your fault." The girl was someone important to this community. Over the years, they have taught monsters there are only those people who have passed the washing ceremony. No one was waiting for demons today. They have special hourglass counting down time for feeding monsters. At such times, they are coated with special compounds to save their lives. She was just out of luck.

"It was important ..." Ink thought Rowan was like a princess in this small world. Her desire to save other deep people moved him. "Did the demons come earlier?" I know why."

"It's because of me," Ink raised his hand, interrupting Gran's objection . "I did something with the monsters at the request of the archdemon." Most likely, it was because of this that they appeared now.

"You ..." Grank frowned.

- What did you do? - Arsi's voice came as a surprise.

"He helped to leave ... something ... in the heads of demons."

"Did he promise you something in return?" - continued to pry Arsi .

Ink was silent. All his past actions seemed stupid. He understood that everything seemed logical to him before, but now the situation was perceived as a game with fire.

"Exit," the lie came easily. Ink pursed his lips, afraid to tell the truth. He thought that his comrades would despise him. This is a scarecrow. - He promised to open a way out of this small world. Remember the temple in which I hid the wounded Kiass ah? There is a way out. It takes time for him to appear.

The place was right, in the bloody label it was indicated that this channel is the most stable and you need to use it. Ink did not want to hide the truth from his companions in misfortune, but he saw no other way out.

"Over time, I will tell them more. Necessarily, - Ink promised himself . "Besides, if the passage opens into the arena, Glam and the rest will face the demons and destroy them." Such creatures should not exist. You just have to wait until the demons leave this settlement. "

The thought that right now the monsters are continuing to devour people caused an outburst of anger. Ink's fists clenched, his face contorted.

"These demons ... are they still here?"

"Grabbed the guy who brought Kiass here ," Arsi nodded . "Don't even think about trying to help him." With our forces we will simply perish. You need to get out of here and bring help. Many clans will want the resources of this small world. They will have to destroy the demons.

Arsi came closer and took Ink 's hand. The touch of her cold fingers reminded Rowan of tender skin. Ink jerked his hand, freeing the brush from the girl's palm. I wanted to leave this small world as soon as possible.

"Take a rest," resentment flashed across Arsi's face , "tomorrow we'll try to return." Perhaps the rest of my strength is enough to create at least a minimum passage.

Ink silently returned to the room. There was something wrong with his behavior, he understood this, but did not want to do anything. The mood to experiment was gone. Ink stared at the ceiling until he fell into oblivion. He did not dream, but he felt a certain dulling of emotions. Calmness and confidence in their own rightness returned.

Arsi refused to escort Aboriginal people . The group left the city on a route on which they had not seen any signs of yesterday's attack. The girl occasionally cast worried glances at Ink a. She calmed down only after leaving the settlement.

"Should we just wait here for the opening of the exit?" - asked Kiass . He had not yet fully recovered, but stubbornly refused to help, he walked on his own.

"No," Arsi shook her head. "We cannot trust the archdemon." If the exit is really somewhere here, the rest of my strength will be enough to break through the passage.

Blue sparks scattered around. One of them froze in space and began to disperse in a glowing spot. All other lights turned to merge into the growing gap in space. The eyes of Ink and the rest opened a view of the sidewalk near the apartment building. A vertically elongated oval window in space in the zero world hung between the first and second floors.

Ink clutched the animal container to his chest and jumped, not waiting for the others. Gran followed by pushing Kiass a, but at the last moment held his hand and gently lowered down as long as his arm was enough. As a result, the drop height for the metal was not significant. He performed the same procedure for Arsi , but he did it more accurately - without jerks in the back. The descendant of the gods himself came out last. He, like Ink , had no problems jumping from that height.

" Arsi , can you tell Glam that we got out?"

"Sorry, Grank , but my particle collapsed when it gave me information about what happened after we left."

"I can," Kiass coughed and continued, "contact your clan." Our family is rich enough not only in the buffer, but also in the zero world.

- Well. We are counting on you. " Arsi smiled at the alchemist, who began to look around.

- I will find us a phone. You in this form are better not to shine for now.

" Grank was able to get his livelihood in a small world and kept his clothes relatively clean and completely intact," Ink realized that in many ways he was inferior to a rude fellow practitioner. He was not ready to say it even mentally, but deep in his heart he decided to adopt the best qualities of his comrade, so that he would never have to suffer as in the last days.