Blademaster Ascension

10 - The Path of Alchemy

With quivering steps, Rowan walked back to the currently unconscious Isa. His ears felt extremely sensitive to even the smallest sound as if the eardrums had been rubbed raw. His head was throbbing painfully. Isa's sudden transformation had caught him off guard and what had taken place afterwards couldn't be any more creepy.

Isa hadn't tried to chase him when he ran; in fact, Isa didn't even seem to be aware of anything that was happening around him. He seemed absorbed within his own nightmare, his face twisted into an expression of horror and fierce determination as the horrible sounds kept coming from his throat. Rowan could see him shaking from the effort as he hurried awat from him.

After getting Chip's notification that he was out of the whirpool's range, he stopped to observe the situation. While he didn't want to be involved in any more troubling matters, Isa was his only friend. He was always a sickly boy when he was young and his overly protective parents forbade him from playing with kids his age after some nasty incidents. Isa, his equally estranged neighbour had been his only companion. But then Isa's parents moved their home to the other side of the town. Their friendship had grown stale after that. However, when Rowan's parents vanished, their friendship had rekindled. So he wanted to help him resolve the situation if possible. Although, he had no idea what was going on and neither did chip.

[  The creature in front of host should be categorized as a humanoid monster beast, an extremely uncommon trait among the monster race. However, its physical functions reveal no trace of non-human organs. Strangely enough, the creature's body seems to have undergone a very high level mutation and has become a strange medium for the unidentified elements to channel through. While channeling through its body, a miniscule part of the elements seem to bond with and affect its cells, slowly making the creature stronger. Another problem is that the process seems to be natural and smooth; as if the forced mutation has no side effects. Alongside the creature's primary stats, the increase in elemental affinity also supports the theory that just like host, this creature seems to have found a way to enter the ranks and become something never seen before.  ]

Isa groaned loudly in his stupor, surprising the skittish Rowan.

[  The creature seems to have become a part of space itself, making me nearly unable to sense its presence. It's almost as if nature itself is shielding and baptizing the creature carefully to make it grow stronger naturally. Moreover, I have suddenly detected that the strange sounds produced by the creature seems to resonate with something akin to a universal law. The sounds are acting as a catalyst to stimulate this law to make the creature more attuned to the current mutation process. It can be assumed that the string of sounds follow a certain sequence that acts like a password or a code to touch upon natural laws. If I were to give a technical example, imagine the universe is a massive source of data and those words are a bug in the system. When they act up, the system suffers from a glitch and the result is these unidentified elements appearing where the bug is. But the bug is made in such a way that the elements become absorbed by its source, in other words, Isa.   ]

Invisible to Chip's senses? Being shielded by nature itself? Universal laws? Bugs in systems? Rowan couldn't understand even half of Chip's explanation.
But the dread in his heart only grew stronger as each moment passed. Rowan steeled his heart and took a step toward the motionless Isa lying on the roadside.

In the blink of an eye, Isa's eyes opened and he stood up with inhumane agility. His expression had returned to normal. Apart from looking slightly tired, he appeared to be in peak condition. It was as if the last ten minutes had been Rowan's imagination.

"So...what do you think?" Isa smiled at the startled Rowan calmly. It was the smile of a man who has given up on struggling against the current. Suddenly  Rowan felt that the Isa at the moment was almost unrecognizable apart from his physical features.