The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage: Wandmaker Vol.2

WM [108] Insanity Is...

The moment Bjorn stepped into the Blood Maya, it consumed him. It was thick and churned, like wading through a lake of ink. Every motion was met with resistance, as though the liquid itself fought against him. Bjorn knew it wasn't really a fluid even if it felt like it. He was swimming in the infernal planes equivalent of a lightning bolt. If he wasn't a True Hydra he would be very dead.

Time itself seemed to freeze the moment he submerged himself. He became increasingly aware and at the same time distant to the world around him. No sound, no sight, only the finest taste of something there, something he needed.

Soon an eternity passed in silence or was it a moment? Where was he? Who was he? Why was he in this darkness?

He couldn't remember. It had been so long, hadn't it?

The worst part was the whispers.

They slithered into his mind, soft at first—gentle as a lover's breath.

"You are strong."

"You are powerful."

"You could be more."

He pushed himself forward, that was where he needed to go. At least that is where he thought he needed to go. But why? He growled, pushing forward through the corrupted void, following the faint thread of something. Every inch forward, every moment submerged in this abyss, the trail grew fainter. The maya twisted slowly hiding what he sought. It wanted him to stay.

Something clawed at his core. A violent pulse of demonic energy slammed against him like an unseen current, seeking a way inside, prying at the fractures that had formed from his recent evolution. The pain was immediate, it was a bone-deep agony as the invasive energy latched onto his damaged meridians, trying to force them open.

Bjorn's entire body seized. His heads snapped back as his core trembled under the assault.

"You could be perfect."

"Why fight? Surrender. Let go."

"Why be a slave when you could be free."

"We want you to be..."

"Free." Bjorn finished.

It was intoxicating. This energy wasn't just raw power, it was the promise of abandonment, of being nothing but oneself with no chains, no attachments, no burdens. No responsibilities. No regrets. The maya wasn't just energy, it was love. He could feel it to his core. It loved him. It saw him not with eyes and it wanted him to live a life free of torments. For the briefest moment, the temptation tugged at him.

He wanted to give in but there was something in him that refused. Something deeper than his conscious thought. Something that wouldn't bend or break no matter what the maya promised. Bjorn wasn't eroded; he was sharpened under the mayas temptations. His instincts snarled in defiance.

When he came back to his senses it wasn't Bjorn who roared, it was Isin. It was the man that forced all under heaven to kneel and he pushed his will against the invasion of his soul. He felt the maya twisting inside him, writhing, searching for weaknesses. The meridians that had cracked under stress now throbbed in protest, caught between breaking completely or sealing shut.

He knew he couldn't stay here. The maya had dulled his senses, smothered his path, forcing him deeper into its grasp. The mana crystal might as well have vanished from his perception. Isin turned, kicking off the abyssal floor, his massive form tearing through the liquid corruption as he surged back the way he came. The whispers howled now, enraged at his retreat.

"Come be free."

"Don't leave."

"Be free."

Isin broke the surface of the maya like a breaching leviathan, his body slamming into the cavern floor. He coughed, gagged, his vision swimming as the black substance clung to him, trying to burrow deeper, to become him.