Tundria's Gauntlet

Chapter 6 - Archie

(Flashback, 6 years earlier)

I awoke to screaming, without any hesitation I threw myself out of bed and dashed out my room. Bursting through the guest bedroom door I was met with a horrid sight. My best friend was laying in the bed, his body covered in these oozing black streaks from head to toe. He was writhing in pain, tears streaming down his face. I ran to his bedside and gently took hold of him, his screaming got more and more intense, but he leaned against me, gripping my chest tightly. Tears welled up in my eyes seeing him like this, but there wasn't anything I could do. I've consulted countless professionals, none had ever seen a curse like this.

"It's okay, you're okay." I'd whisper into his ear over and over until he was calm enough to set back down.

The pain would come and go at random, the streaks on his body oozing this sticky black liquid that I was told was rotten mana ripped straight from his soul. This curse was tearing him apart from the inside out and I could only watch. Well not anymore. I had an idea that hit me a few weeks earlier. It was probably the most dangerous thing a mage could do, but I was out of options and he was running out of time. Slowly but surely I had been making the preparations, and tonight was the night that I was going to attempt to cure him for real. 

In a technical sense the spell was very simple, I was going to tear a hole in the fabric of reality and draw power from the raw energy that lingers between worlds. It was all purely theoretical, no successful attempts of this spell have ever been recorded, in fact it was illegal to even perform. But I didn't have a choice, I truly believed I could do it. All I had to do was burn off a little bit of my soul to charge the spell. The fabric of the universe is thick to say the least, it takes an ungodly amount of power to even dent it. Luckily a living soul has that power, I won't miss a little chunk of it. Not if it saves my friend.

I carved a circle into the floor, in that circle I carved various runes and Ladromic words. All things that would help give the spell focus, trying to do this without a focal point comes with the risk of burning me right out of existence. Once the moon had hit the center of the sky at midnight, it was time. I stood in the center of the circle and focused my attention inward towards my soul. I felt it, the burning core of my being, hot and radiating with pure power. The soul cannot be forced, it cannot be moved, it cannot be easily changed. But it can be persuaded. It was my soul, if I wanted its power, I simply needed to ask.

"Come to me." I spoke aloud.

"Come to me and aid in the healing of this innocent soul. Renir."

I held out my paw and opened my eyes, for a moment there was nothing, just silence. I began to think it didn't work until every cell in my body was suddenly on fire. I stumbled over and nearly collapsed, I had an overwhelming urge to vomit, but I kept it together and stood back up. I needed to finish the spell before I lost too much of my soul. I focused all that heat and energy into my outstretched palm. Soon my entire paw began to glow, it became almost too bright to look at.

"Alright, halfway there." I whispered to myself.

In one swift movement I did a slicing motion in the air, the energy in my palm being burned away in an instant as a crack formed in the air in front of me. I took hold of the crack with each paw and tried to pull it apart... 

Nothing...

I tried again...

Nothing...

It wouldn't budge...

"No.. no no no no no! This has to work! IT HAS TO!" I yelled.

I kept pulling and pulling and pulling, and then out of frustration I punched it. That was probably the dumbest thing I've ever done, and I knew it too. The impact made the crack worse, it began to fill the entire room, reality was crumbling around me. In a last-ditch effort I put my paws on the crack and tried to absorb the energy. This wasn't the energy I was trying to get to, this was dark mana. Every second I spent absorbing it was another part of my body being destroyed and rebuilt in an instant. I screamed, the pain was unbearable but I had to keep going. Before I knew it, it was over. Everything was back to normal, everything except me.