Unusual World 116 Unwilling Teacher, Unwanted Student Part 2

It took mere moments for Zane to find his prize. Desmond's soul was beautiful to look at, but their was a horrid aura surrounding his soul. Zane was sick to his core just looking at how badly Desmond had been managing his soul. Desmond's soul was being influenced by the wills of the souls Desmond had consumed.

As the wills inside Desmond's soul conflicted it would lead to disastrous results for Desmond both physically and mentally. After thinking for a brief moment Zane took the best course of action and began harvesting Desmond's soul. Desmond had no idea what Zane was doing to him until Zane began taking apart Desmondas soul. Desmond let out an inhuman screech the moment Zane made the first slice.

Every instinct in Desmond's body made Desmond want to get away, but Desmond couldn't escape Zane's grasp. As Zane took pieces of Desmond's soul Desmond felt felt worse pain then when he cut off his own skin. It reminded him of when his soul exploded. The process was almost unbearable and when it was over Desmond felt as though hours had past while in actuality it had only been 10 seconds.

Desmond slumped over when Zane was finished. He heaved loudly and his body was beginning to sweat profusely. Some parts of his body were going limp as he found it difficult to control his meat suit while suppressing the other spirits inside of him. As Desmond struggled to keep himself together Zane quickly inspected Desmond's soul fragment.

Zane had expertly avoided every part of Desmond's soul that was facing corruption. Taking only the the purist parts of Desmond's soul which he promptly stuffed into his bird cage that vanished into the darkness of Zane's coat. As for the many wills Desmond had influencing him Zane left those alone. The corruption of Desmond's soul wasn't his problem to confront it was Desmond's. Plus to Zane the corruption of the many wills Desmond faced inside of him only benefited Zane because it ment Desmond would have to rely on him or Seraphine to help.

The purity of Desmond's soul while important to his plans was of little consern because Zane could cleans those impurities any time he wanted.

"Help me".

Desmond saw what Zane had done and he excepted it because it was the price he had to pay for magic. While Desmond did accept it he also looked at the piece of him which he felt a strong connection to with sorrow in his eyes. The fragment contained Desmond's memories, his hopes, and his dreams. While Desmond was willing to give and do anything for magic this was the first time it dawned on him what his words truly ment.

That was simply the first of many tough choices Desmond was going to have to make. Desmond was gonna have to continuously give pieces of himself to Zane and by the time Zane had had his fill Desmond didn't know what would be left of himself or if he would even have the same obsession?

Zane seeing Desmond on the verge of breaking down took out a fist full of soul gems filled with purified intermediate level souls and crushed them in front of Desmond's face. The souls inside the gems floated up into the air, Zane was going to carefully feed the soul's to Desmond, but Desmond seeing many defenseless souls floating around felt hungry. Then as if upon instinct he unhinged his jaw and sucked all the souls in front of him into his mouth.

Desmond devoured the souls just like he did all the others aiding in the repair of his own. Zane viewed the way Desmond ate souls and was intrigued. Zane knew Desmond's soul mutated, but to what degree he did not know. The abilities Desmond displayed were possessed by different kinds of specters and creatures. It was rare there was something that possessed a mutated soul fire, devoured souls the way Desmond did, and shrieked like a banshee.

Zane was able to unveil more secrets about Desmond when he inspected Desmond's mouth. The inside of Desmond's mouth was perfectly normal. It was hot and moist with not a single tooth in sight. Zane was amazed by the sight before him because no matter were he looked Desmond's mouth was in pristine condition.

"Incredible there's absolutely no damage inside your mouth. So that is your mutation, your soul fire altered your body during your transformation and now you can turn your body partly etherial. This is a great starting point for study". As Zane finished inspected Desmond he was certain Desmond was worthy of being grade 4 material.

Desmond after having his mouth violated by Zane right after Zane had his way with his soul let those matters go and focused on what was truly important to him, which was being fed.

"More souls, please give me more souls".

Zane knew exactly why Desmond wanted more souls that's why his reply didn't beat around the bush and got straight to the point. "No, I will not give you anymore souls to eat. Besides when you have to repair your soul you should never eat them".

"What?" Desmond was visibly p.i.s.sed that Zane wasn't going to give him more souls. He was even more p.i.s.sed hearing Zane wanted him to stop eating souls entirely.

"Are you mad? Do you have any Idea the immense verity of flavors a single soul contains? It is the single piece of heaven I have found other then magic and demi-humans on this world I can't give that up".

Zane scoffed at Desmond's short sited foolishness then said, "the souls that you eat make you stronger indeed, but they also corrupt you. After you devour one soul you will only wish to seek out another soul to consume. It is a bottomless pit of despair that will have you turning just as dumb and single minded as the normal wandering souls out in the world. If you had a way to fight off the wills of the souls inside of you that would be a different story. But after a while the same problem will arise again".

"I can battle the wills inside of me?".

Desmond wasn't oblivious to everything he knew their was something wrong with him. He also knew about the gaps in his memory, lapses in judgement, along with the other problem that had been slowly arising since he started eating souls. But since Desmond had no way to fix the problem he left it as is.

"Of corse you can, there are many different kinds of wills in the world and each are useful for different things. For instance star will is useful for deductions and thinking, fake will can manipulate others, so subtly the person you use it on will not know they are being influenced unless you tell them. Deliberate will can engrave a will's effect deeply into a target making it difficult to remove. A malicious will can cause harm and if done correctly kill a target".

Desmond's eyes twinkled after hearing such things. It made him speak like an eager child, "how do I control wills, teach me".

"You use wills every single of the day of your life. Every time you think or move you create and destroy them. You have just never utilized them to their maximum potential. An example of you using wills above normal is when your casting spells and giving them shape. As for me teaching you about those things I will not".

Desmond thinking that he heard wrong said, "what did you say?".

"I said I'm not going to teach you any thing I have better things to do".

Desmond couldn't believe what he was hearing. While stammering Desmond said, "bu- but I gave you a piece of my soul".

"Yes you did, but that doesn't mean I have to teach you anything personally".

"But the binding circle it should have ..."

"The binding circle is valid I agreed to one thing and that was to teach you all that I know truthfully whenever you asked. Its not like I have to be here to do that or do it personally".

Zane rummaged threw his coat and pulled out an iron ball along with an oval jewel and a leather pouch which he handed to Desmond. The jewel bounded around in Desmond's hand then burrowed inside of his body. Desmond was shocked by what happened and tried tried to keep the jewel from going inside to no avail. The jewel was long gone Desmond couldn't find it even when he searched with his soul.

"What was that thing"

"That thing will hide the age of your soul from others. It should stay on you always unless you want people like me to pay you an unexpected visit".

"No, I'm good"

"As for the iron ball it shall be your teacher. It contains my will inside of it, but it also has limited capabilities since I just made it a minute ago. The leather pouch is a storage pouch inside of it is 25,000 magic crystals, 500 beginner grade magic cores, 500 intermediate grade magic cores, and 500 advanced magic cores".

"Why are you giving me, so many magic cores?".

"I wasn't going to give you anything originally, but your body is to weak to support further growth. Which limits the quality of your soul when I come to extract more of it. A problem I wouldn't have if you didn't neglect the basics for such a long time. By absorbing the cores you can increase the strength of your own. Which will provide a solid foundation for your next advancement and increase your magical reserves. With the magic cores you can also 'safely' tamper your soul. That will also help in mitigating the effect the wills have on you, but as a cost if you use the cores for that the magic core will break and you will not be able to absorb it increasing your foundation".

Once Zane stopped talking he reached out towards Desmond once more and performed a grabbing motion. As Zane closed his fist dozens of bugs flew out of Desmond's body into Zane's fist.

The way the insects burrowed out of Desmond's body left large gaping holes all over Desmond's body which quickly closed up.

"What the h.e.l.l was that?"

Zane didn't feel the need to lie, so he told the truth.

"That was plan B you know just in case I didn't get what I wanted. I put those inside of you when I healed you earlier". Seraphine saw Zane implant the insects inside of Desmond earlier, but did not try to stop him because she knew he wouldn't cross her bottom line.

"If I didn't give you what you wanted what would you have done to me?". Desmond said with a bit of fear inside of him.

"There's no reason to be worried I'm your master if you can't trust me then who can you trust. But you must remember other people won't have as much good will as me towards you, so you must never let random people treat your body. You should come straight to me instead I'll take good care of you". Desmond did not trust Zane's words he believed he would have been robbed of his soul regardless of what he said today.

Once Desmond finished his thought Zane's coat parted and more bugs flew out which all burrowed inside of Desmond. Desmond felt no pain as the bugs dug inside of him, but it mad him s.h.i.+ver to his core knowing that there was a, bunch of bugs inside of him.

"Why in the world did you do that"

"You don't have to worry about that. Alright I'm done with you, so you can go home now". Zane said as he began to shew Desmond away.

"You can't let your student go out like that he'll draw to much attention. He just had a bounty placed on him at least show him how to suppress his soul". Seraphine said while eating some of the spilled food on the table.

"Surpress my soul why would I need to do that" Desmond asked with a bit of confusion.

"You may not have noticed, but your soul is far to overbearing for normal people to handel. Your spiritual energy is leaking out, so much people might mistakenly think your trying to kill them. Every s.h.i.+ft in your emotion is clear to read. Its northing to us, but to others you can clearly see its a problem".

Desmond nodded his head in understanding. His spiritual energy made Desmond stand out like a lion in a pack of rabbits. Every s.h.i.+ft in his emotion scared those rabbits away, but would also attract other much more dangerous predators.

"Uhh ... fine it shouldn't take long anyway" Zane uttered. Desmond wasn't like other people he had great control of his spirit since the beginning. In addition to Desmond's magical practice Teaching Desmond how to suppress his spirit only took 10 minutes.

Desmond's body was like a water basin with many wholes. Zane only Directed Desmond on how to plug the wholes and keep the energy deep inside him. The instructions made Desmond appear just as he usually did. It even altered his eyes back to their normal color.

For Desmond to surpress his spirit he had to constantly focus on it which forced Desmond to split his attention. The act caused Desmond's mind to be constrained which limited the amount of things that he could do. If Desmond wanted to cast magic while suppressing his spirit he would have to do it slowly or give up on concealment entirely to fight effectively.

"There now you can go"

Abruptly Zane flicked his finger conjuring a huge gust of wind that picked Desmond up and began to carry him away.

"Wait I'm not finished asking questions and there's still people hunting me down".

Though the time they spent together was short Zane was tired of hearing Desmond's voice. Coldy he responded by saying, "I don't care".

Then Zane whisked Desmond away past many large corridors decorated with items from Seraphine and Ragnars travels. Towards a room containing an active star gate of which Desmond was thrown inside. The star gate teleported Desmond back to the Hunter's Bazaar where he was flung outside of onto the door.

Desmond picked himself up off of the floor and wanted to immediately shout insults at Zane, but his focus was on a suitcase that was flying quickly at him. By ducking away Desmond was able to avoid being hit by the large suitcase. Believing that the suitcase was for him Desmond walked over to inspect it.

The suitcase was normal with nothing fancy about it. The only thing that stood out was a note attached to the side of it that said," Mystic items effective range is 150 -200 meters, must bury before usage. Use as soon as possible to defend against enemy detections. P.S do not tell anyone about star gate its obviously illegal to have".

After reading the note Desmond looked inside the suitcase to find the golden seven treasure incense burner. It was placed in the middle of the suitcase surrounded by compact dirt. Desmond quickly closed the suitcase again, so no one would see then he let out a drained sigh.

"I've lost, so much in just a few days but I've also gained much in return. The truth about Immortality, the value of my soul, and wills. Every single bit of this knowledge is priceless to me I have such a wondrous opportunity, yet I've been complacent. I can not let this go on I must reach the pinnacle of magic".

When Desmond finished gearing himself up for an epic training montage the headline of a newspaper under his feet caught his eye. Desmond read the article briefly before tearing it to shreds.

"I was just recently captured to be sacrificed, blown up, had a bounty placed on me. Then I had to sell my soul for magic. Right after all that I now find out a war is on the horizon. This is just great, just f.u.c.king great. Why did no one tell me?".

***

On The Surface of The Moon

Zane was seated in his original spot while playing with Desmond's soul in his hand. Seraphine and Ragnar were seated next to him relaxing when Zane suddenly spoke.

"How long do we have to keep playing these games with that thing. It belongs in a bottle inside my lab. This tiny bit of its soul is barely enough to satisfy my needs for now".

Seraphine responded by saying, "You must hold on you saw what the relic showed us. The pillar of light he generates is immense. I have seen very few like his in the world. You know my relic only shows opportunity of my actions and the opportunity those around me represent. The last time we followed the pillars light we gained unimaginable wealth. If I knew more about what his pillar signified then we wouldn't have to play games with him".

"Yes I know, but its not like that relic is all powerful. Everything is subject to change by forces out side of our control".

Seraphine nodded in agreement then replied, "if his pillar ever grows dim then he would have exhausted his usefulness then we would just have to kill him and divide up his soul. For now we just have to wait and see we've already connected our fates with his as per planed. You just have to not go overboard with the experimenting".

Zane snicked then said, "sure i'll restrain my self, but you need to get your s.h.i.+t together and get some acting lessons".

Seraphine had a displeased look on her face while she asked Zane what he ment.

"Your telling me you did that on purpose? Remember when you said you don't kill for pleasure only money. If he spent more then 5 minutes alone with you he would know that was a lie immediately. Your more blood thirsty then me and Ragnar".

Seraphine's eyebrow twiched then she furiously replied, "Don't question my acting methods the only reason no one can tell if your acting or not is because you don't have to change your an a.s.shole all day around".

"I'm a saint compared to you"

"After everything that you've done you have the gull to call yourself a saint"

"Yes because unlike you I didn't leave my entire race to die".

Zane's words truck a powerful blow to Seraphine making her feel the sting of her past. But Seraphine was not to be messed with she mobilized the full might of a rank 3 and directed her killing intent towards Zane. Zane was not scared off he did the same. Both of their auras clashed resulting in sparks generating and the sound of explosions. The ground and table broke apart while the air in the room swished around violently.

Zane stood up from his seat ready to fight, but Seraphine didn't move instead she lifted up her hand that healed two beating hearts in it. Zane screeched and roared at Seraphine for what she done along with all the other creatures in his coat.

"lets revisit that question I asked you before. How many of your hearts can I rip out before you realize you can't touch me? With the first strike I took two, but what about the next?.

"Your not even fast its that stupid special ability of yours which is the problem"

"Oh do you really think I can't kick your a.s.s without it?".

Seraphine's words were met with the hungry glare of hundred of beasts inside of Zane's coat. Moments before Seraphine and Zane were about to fight Ragnar stepped in to defuse the situation.

"That's enough from the both of you everyone in this room is a terrible person that can not be redeemed in anyway. If you under stand that then stop fighting because its almost time for mechanical heart to start and i'm not going to have your fighting get between me and my show".

Having Ragnar angrily defuse the situation to save his show killed the mood making both Seraphine and Zane not want to fight.

"I'm not going to get caught up in someone elses war, so I'm leaving early. But before I go Ragnar I need you to do something since your going to fight in the war".

Ragnar a bit suspicious asked "what is it?"

Zane replied, "Say h.e.l.lo to Nester Vargas for me".