Nightmare Realm Summoner

Alex's soul was much as he'd left it, bar the newly refilled ball of smokey blue energy swirling above his basin. Shimmers of delicate light danced over the surface of the dark lake and illuminated the three pillars rising around him. It caught on the Aspect Gems he'd set into two of the three pillars, making their faceted surfaces dance.

Situated between two of the pillars, amidst piles of unused brick and scattered building materials, was the doorway that blocked the way to his domain.

It was as inconspicuous as it had ever been. The plain marble bore no design beyond three lines that ran up the surface of the door and gathered around a clear gem embedded at its center.

Alex walked across the surface of his soul, watching the ripples his footsteps made slowly fade into the darkness, and begun his ascent up the stairwell leading to the top of the basin.

He came to a stop at the edge. Undulating snakes of mist swirled in a thick ball before him. His skin tingled as tiny arcs of energy popped and rolled across it like static electricity. Alex turned to look back over the soul below.

Reflections of even more building materials rippled just beneath the lake, waiting for him to pull them up to its surface. He really had quite a bit to work with, now — and even less idea what to do with it now than he had before.

I was never the kid that took a bunch of random Legos and made something out of them. If I'm being honest, I much preferred the minifigures. Sue me. But I don't have the faintest idea as to what the hell I'm meant to do with all these damn bricks and pieces.

I'm certainly not delusional enough to think I can just start tossing a castle together and hope it stands strong. I have to get one of those Visualizations that Finley mentioned… though I really don't want to get locked in on a bad one.

Maybe he's got something better stored away. After all the effort we're going through to pull him over here, he's going to owe me big time. Could get a pretty good deal or something… but that's a problem to worry about once I'm done here.

He had a more pressing matter at hand. Unless he got really, really lucky, this was going to be the last time he got a chance to meditate before the fight with the Region Boss. The way he allocated his resources now had a significant chance of being the difference between success and failure.

"Let's see," Alex muttered. "I don't have any points left over to get skills right now. I cashed all of those in the last time to get Armament Elegy. So if I want to get any sort of new skill, the cheapest one would be upgrading Monster Medley… and it would cost me 4 points."

That was a steep cost. It was 4 whole levels of energy — and he wasn't even sure if he had that much power gathered before him. It got harder to advance with every single passing level. The System was certainly making sure they had to earn every single step they took.

Given the previous rate I converted energy at, I think I could probably get 3 levels from this. There's a chance I could get 4… but I wouldn't bet on it.

But, honestly?

That might be fine.

Monster Medley was an incredible skill for advancing his monsters, and he didn't know exactly what the next evolution of it would offer, but it was very geared toward long-term power and growth. There was a very good chance it wouldn't make a significant difference in such a nearby fight.

"I think the most important thing right now is to make sure I can just keep fighting for as long as possible," Alex mused to himself. If he'd had enough levels to advance Riftwalk or Requiem to the King again, things certainly would have been different.

But his soul needed to be advanced either way. Completely filling it when he'd been a Novice had given him some huge advantages. There was no reason to believe this would be any different. Improving his soul would make him stronger, faster, and more resilient.

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Advancing my soul could be the difference between getting one-shot by the Region Boss and managing to hold on by a thread. Sure, that's a reach, but you never know. I'm quite certain it's the best move in my current situation.

Sure, it was going to land him a bunch of bricks and other shit he couldn't use yet… but that would eventually change, and then he'd be glad to have them.

Alex sat down on the edge of the basin. He drew in a deep breath, stilling his mind as he extended a hand to brush against the swirling energy. Freezing cold met his fingertips. It raced down his palm and sliced into his veins, but it was nothing he hadn't felt before.

The meditation had become oddly natural. It almost felt as if he'd been doing it his entire life — and there was a sense of peace that came with letting the rest of the world drift away. All that remained was him and the power lying in wait.

Droplet by droplet, he condensed the mist and sent it raining down into his basin. Alex didn't know how long the process took, nor did he care to. Someone would wake him up if the Region Boss attacked, and his mind had no room to focus on anything other than the power before him.

Alex eventually condensed every single drop of power into the waiting basin beneath. He'd managed to fill it just over three quarters of the way, which was absolutely nothing to scoff at considering he hadn't defeated any particularly powerful enemies since the last time he'd meditated. All this power was just from training and cleaning up monsters in the Mirrorlands that had happened to get in his way.

He didn't hesitate to drink every droplet of the condensed magic. The power burned as it slipped through his lips and entered his body, spreading throughout him like a growing frost.

Ripples passed through the lake beneath the basin. Bricks rose up from beneath the water, piling higher as his soul grew stronger. Alex barely even noticed. His attention was completely on gathering every scrap of power he could get. There would be time to see the fruits of his labor later.

The basin seemed to drain at an agonizingly slow speed. It had gotten large enough that drinking all the water stored within it, even when it was only three quarters of the way full, was not a simple task.

Alex's concentration threatened to waver. He'd never lost focus while absorbing energy, and he had absolutely no desire to start now. Wasting even a scrap of magic felt like an affront. He'd worked for all this power, and he'd be damned if he let it get away right before the finish line.

The water level of the basin lowered. It sank from half to a quarter, then dwindled still. Alex continued to drink. His body was so cold that he couldn't even feel his fingers anymore. He could have sworn that his skin was frosting over and icicles were forming on his eyebrows.

All he could see was the water before him, lowering and lowering and lowering. And that was all that mattered. The numbness of the cold actually helped. It muted out what few distractions remained in his soul, swallowed his vision to a pinpoint, and filled his ears with the thundering pump of blood until nothing else remained.

And the freezing sensation enveloping him evaporated. The pinpricks of pain throughout his veins pulled back. Alex drew in a sharp breath as his body suddenly remembered that it was meant to need air.

There was no water left in the basin.

He'd drained every last droplet of it. Newfound power thrummed within Alex. His body was already beginning to adapt to the changes, but the feeling was unmistakable. He was stronger. Faster. He was simply more.

"What a rush," Alex said, shaking his head as he slowly rose back to his feet. His movements were intentionally slow— the last thing he wanted to do was trip over his own feet and accidentally send himself plunging into his own basin.

I don't know if you can kill yourself inside your own soul, but I'm not about to find out.

Alex took a moment to steady himself and acclimate to the energy thrumming within him. Then he turned to look down the stairs and down upon what the fruits of his labor had netted him.

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He froze.

"What the fuck?" Alex breathed.

Rivers of bricks flowed, piled in unruly stacks and in wait of an architect to assign them their places. They were stacked alongside piles of dirt and rolls of grass and other masonry — though there wasn't so much as a single tool to work with amongst the litter.

But Alex wasn't looking at any of the building materials.

His eyes were focused on the side of his soul, between two of the pillars and opposite to the plain doorway.

They were focused on the massive demon sitting cross legged upon the surface of his lake, chin rested on its palm, thick white chains hanging like vines from its enormous body. The demon shifted, raising his hand from his palm as amusement lit behind his catlike eyes.

"Ah," Berith said. The rattle of his chains echoed through Alex's soul like distant thunder. "You've finished. I was wondering when you'd notice me. It's been some time since we last traded words. I hope you haven't forgotten our deal, Alex."