64. Dancing With The Devil

For a moment, no one cared for the fight anymore. They just wanted to know why they felt so moved by that.

It was like something inside them was being pulled to there.

Even Raz felt like that.

As Mack dragged his right foot over the red ground doing a circle to his back, he flexed a bit his left leg.

Mack stopped thinking about what to do when he closed his eyes and only did what his body asked. Like someone completely absorbed in a music.

But what Mack was doing was not a dance. It looked like more like a martial art form.

Someway the mages felt threatened by that and regained their focus on the battle.

All of that happened in a few seconds while Mack chanted the eerie mantra.

The mages, not knowing what was happening, focused their attacks on Mack.

Spells rained over the area and Raz used all he could to defend Mack and kill all the mages he saw at the same time.

The scene looked anything but a normal fight.

That's what the commander of the mage army thought when looking through a device in his hand, miles away from the battle.

The commander looked at his two disciples by the side and, using his staff, pointed in a slightly different direction from the one the army was currently heading to.

They would move the entire army to that battle. Those two warlocks were too dangerous to keep sending small units.

Mack, not knowing anything of that, and not even paying attention to the battle in front of him, kept doing the movements that felt right to do.

But something was odd.

He felt like something was missing.

A very important part.

'The connection'

Thought Mack, remembering a crucial part about his own body.

Mack stopped, opened his eyes, and saw the battle that unfolded in front of him.

Raz was giving his all to stop the attacks aimed at the runic circle.

'Truly a hero from a lost time.'

For Mack, this man was a bastard, but a good one. One he could call 'brother'.

"Hang in there! One minute! Thats all I need!"

Screamed Mack, using all the air in his lungs.

Raz quickly looked behind and gave a nod. If needed, he would die for this single minute.

Seeing the resolution in Raz, Mack closed his eyes again.

But this time, Mack didn't directly chant the eerie mantra.

Instead, In his mind, he was quickly correcting the mistakes he did in the first try. While also doing quickly calculations.

And the biggest mistake he did was that he forget about how worked his freak body.

But he got the enlightenment he needed. Mack guessed that this was what warlocks did to create their Essence Manipulation Arts.

Mack lowered his body and grabbed his dagger on the ground.

Using his left hand, Mack quickly drew runes on his right hand, one after the other, without hesitation.

He was going to create his first Essence Manipulation Art.

Mack guessed that somehow the phases, the breathing and the movements of warlocks all had meaning. Maybe that was the reason he could not hear warlocks here. Their words carried power. Maybe his ancestor wished that Mack learned bit by bit as he progressed in the tower.

Mack lost count of how many runes he drew already since he entered this floor of the tower. And all those runes kept coming in Mack's mind, one after another, but also the phases from the book.

And in particular, a very special word.

The word 'Law', that Mack initially thought to be a common word, used in daily life by warlocks.

But remembering something that the Arcane once said when just entering the tower made Mack be assured. She said that he already had all he needed, but the only thing Mack had by the time was the knowledge from reading the book.

Mack quickly finished drawing the runes, and as usual, put his thumb over the runes to activate it for the first time and make it perpetual, and just like the other runes he carved before, this one too was a multilayered rune, but instead of using only a few circuits, this time, Mack used all already previous carved circuits to compose this new unique circuit.

'I will call it Domain Runespell'

Thought Mack, opening his arms full to both sides.

Mack loved some drama. Only the gods knew how this man loved dramatic entrances.

Mack moved both hands to the front and touched his two palms in front of him. Like someone praying to a god.

But the only god present now was him. As he himself became the ruler of his own domain.

Blood gushed from all his body, creating wisps around him. It looked like he was burning alive, but instead of fire, it was blood.

Mack skin crackled all over his body while even more blood poured out of it.

And then a red flash of light came from his hands, and suddenly, all around him as far as the eye could see, had become slightly red.

Mack took a step forward. There was no pressure from the runic circuit on the ground anymore. The runic circuit had stopped and the Essence Crystals had been drained out by him.

Everything seemed to stop. The mages, the birds and trees.

There was no whirlwind, there was no wind at all. Everything seemed to have stopped, waiting for Mack to command.

"So this is the feeling to be connected with Essence."

Said Mack aloud, taking another step, while he raised his right hand to the side.

And like hearing his master's thoughts, a sword came to Mack's right hand.

He took another step, and he was completely healed. But still as white as a ghost could be.

Another step, and all the mages around vanished in the air, only leaving their staffs and clothes still hanging in the air. In their places, something akin to a human figure made of slight red air could be seen.

It was not mage's blood. It was Essence slightly infused with Mack's blood.

All the essence in a few kilometers had become infused with Mack's blood, and he now owned all the free Essence around him in that bloody red area. And mages, being Light constructs, were completely made of Essence.

It was Mack's first Essence Manipulation Art. His kind of art, at least.

Words had power, movements had power and nothing could be more powerful than putting his own blood as a medium for that power. Mack only replaced words and movements with runes.

Mack knew everything in the book was connected. But it not the way he initially thought.

Each word from each phase had his own meaning. Chanting them all together like Mack usually did may have helped in general but was not meant to be used like that.

His breathing technique was also not meant to be used like that.

One breath, one word, one movement, one thought.

That was all it takes for an Essence Art to be created. Simple and powerful.

Mack used his blood as medium instead of a breath, the flashbang rune as movement, the law rune from the book as thought and word at the same time, and created his first Essence Manipulation Art.

Mack raised his left arm and opened his now fully healed palm.

"Come to me."

And all the bloody red infused Essence all around the area listened and came to Mack.

Like an eclipse that never happened, all the essence in hundred of meters went to Mack's body.

And not a single drop of blood could be seen on the ground or air or trees anymore.

The paleness of Mack vanished, as all the Essence owned by him along with blood cells from his body also came back. And with that, his domain vanished from existence without him doing nothing.

Everything looked just like before, except for the mages.

Now in their places, staffs and robes and all kinds of accessories were dropping to the ground one after the other.

Raz, like waking up from a dream, looked behind.

Mack was there, completely healed, and smiling.

Naked, with only a sword in hand.

"Lets go brother! We have an army to defeat today."