60. The count down begins

At a rounded interval of seven years, the human body completely renewed itself.

New cells occupied the place of the dead ones, carrying a bit of information from the previous cells.

To this date, Earth science didn't even know how cells moved inside human body. They knew the cells had something akin to small legs and arms, but what directed them? How they knew where to go? The researchers had several speculations but none proven theory until this date.

If one person said that he was his own body instead of his mind or ego, then one could assume the person itself lived for only seven years and in his place, a new one would be born.

Some cells, like skin, had a short life, while others lived as long as seven years.

But, it was all that took. Seven years and a new body would replace the old one.

Essence changed that.

With enough Essence density, the regenerative ability of the body was increased to inhuman levels and accelerated the process several times.

Mages knew that, and it was a common practice for them to use 'healing rooms' over saturated with Essence to help the body heal faster. Even if it was just a bit more that they could support, it would help them.

Mages had their gates closed, and Essence could not enter their bodies freely.

What would happen if they submitted themself to an Essence saturation 100x more than they were used? Simple. Their gates would explode. Not be broken like Mack. Explode. And when several gates exploded together, the person would become ashes if they were lucky. Otherwise, they would become a pile of broken body parts.

That's what happened in the last battle with the hundred mages that Mack went on rampage.

Light constructs were not living things, but they followed the same rules. They were created to mimic the body of humans, mages, warlocks or animals.

The mage community chose the quicker way and more safe to strength themself.

It was proven, it was efficient, and it was safe.

Mages were not the only ones in the dimensions that used Essence and were able to use will to some extent.

Several kinds of different species and races, humanoids or not, had their own ways to manipulate Essence.

Mages were just part of it. A big part. But was only one.

Mack, unknown to himself, practiced in almost the same way a very old and ancient civilization did. A civilization known to extinct in this current era.

They called themself 'cultivators' at their glory.

Because they cultivated the body.

To be stronger, to be faster, and to be the most powerful of all.

But Mack was not a cultivator.

Mack chose to use runes, and he loved the feeling to discover more and more runes. And also the feeling of creation involved in runic circuits.

But he also knew that his freak body and blood would also be a key to his survival.

Until yesterday, Mack had three choices, or in other words, three paths he could choose.

He could wait until his will was strong enough to manipulate freely the Essence in his own body with only his will. But that means he could not strengthen his body anymore. He would need to wait a long time until he could improve a little.

He could also follow the path of runes. And focus completely on learning runes and create several powerful circuits to use along with the Essence crystals he found. But this path would have made him reliant on external tools all the time. What if he runs out of crystals? What if his weapons were stolen or destroyed or lost? And also, the biggest problem of all. He was a newbie to runes, with barely any knowledge.

And the third path, the one he chose, was to strengthen his body to the maximum he could and use runes carved on his body to output powerful runespells. This path was only possible because Mack was a warlock. And his blood was the rarest and most expensive material to create multi-layered rune circuits.

Mack knew this path of his was unique and full of problems ahead. But if someday he could not strengthen his body anymore to be a giant essence battery, then he could train his will and be back to the original warlock way.

The third was the best path for him, but was also the most demanding.

No sane man would choose to be tortured this way, be strengthening the body or to test new runic circuits carved on his own flesh.

But Mack was anything but normal.

Because right now this same man was laying naked in a pool of his own blood.

Raz looked up to the sky, and the sun was up already at his maximum.

It was midday already.

Over twelve hours had passed and Mack was still there, unmoving.

Raz wished to go there and check, but he knew he would die if he did.

The pressure there was too big for Raz to even breathe.

And Mack made them promise to not destroy the rune circuit nor remove the crystals until he was dead or the crystals run out of Essence.

But the crystals would still run for more than 90 hours if no one removed them.

Raz hoped that Mack could survive this, and that the mage army stood still where they were.

If the army came back, there was no way that they would not find them.

Raz's gaze went to west.

Better be prepared for the worst.

Raz called two warlocks and started talking with them.

After a few minutes the two warlocks gave small nods with their heads and started to run.

They were running to the west.

Raz thought that was better to have someone monitoring, if the army came.

This way they would not get caught by surprise, at least.

Seeing the two warlocks disappearing amongst the trees, Raz's gaze went back to Mack.

Now their hope was all on him.

There was only two possible outcomes.

Or he died, or he succeeded.