Chương 67: 1-66 Matters of the heart

Clarity didn't bring relief for Josef, who still found himself stuck in the dark, unable to move much. It felt like his back was literally glued to the fleshy wall behind him, just like his arms and legs. He also noted that whatever had him bound was slowly draining away his mana, while slowly pushing new energy back into his body. Now that he had regained his senses, he could feel the intrusion spreading like an oily puddle on top of a body of water.

This was what had deceived his mind, and more was accumulating, without a doubt trying to put him under again. How did that creature dare to use his own trick of draining and recycling mana against him? He didn't even want to picture what would happen if he didn't free himself from this trap. Sure, it could just eat them all and be done with it, but considering the theme the parasites before had already set… Its intentions might just be even worse.

He briefly attempted some good old fashioned brute force to blast himself free, setting off some Water Jets where he was stuck on the wall, but to little avail. The damaged areas regenerated quickly, and he soon found himself reattached before he could break all of his other limbs free. Josef didn't plan to just lie back and take it, though, as he wasn't even remotely out of options. Just because he couldn't solve this with force didn't mean there weren't other ways.

And he had just the thing to use on this tricky predator. After all, if at first you don't succeed, try again. Requiring a much stronger handle on his mana, likely because of the interfering energy, he created several streams of energy, intending to drain the creature just as it had done to him. However, he knew from experience that his own spell had a much higher rate of transfer than what he was experiencing right now.

Confident in succeeding in a struggle of endurance, he drilled his stream deep into the surrounding flesh, focusing on the mass he was attached to. In response, the drain on his own reserves immediately increased by several times, reaching a much more threatening rate. It still wasn't as fast as his own, but they were no longer leagues apart. On top of that, more of that oily substance entered his own body, messing with his own spell.

It was like dirt and gravel getting dragged into a water filter, building up a blockage until it could no longer function. Unfortunately, right now he was the poor device getting trashed. Unsurprisingly, this entity, which apparently specialised in trapping its victims, had ways to deal with unruly food. Not to be outdone in a mana-draining showdown, Josef switched up his tactic in an attempt to regain the upper hand.

Since he would outlast the creature if it weren't for that damn substance accumulating inside of him, he just had to get rid of it. And from a simplified view, this was nothing but foreign mana. Which was something he had learned to handle on his second day after coming to Aurum. Instead of letting it stick wherever it wanted to, he was going to digest it forcibly.

Whenever he sucked in mana from outside, it would end up deposited right by his heart, where it then got swallowed up and digested into something he could use. All this stuff did was to stick to everything on the way there, avoiding the cleansing process. Letting go of a few streams of mana, he focused on sending them closer to the issue at hand.

Since spells were made from his own mana, and his mana could already travel freely inside his body, why couldn't he just send streams through his own body instead of starting them outside? The sensation wasn't quite painful, but definitely uncomfortable, feeling like he was getting stretched from the inside in a way that wasn't at all physical. His mana wasn't running in exact channels, not since he changed his body to be made from the stuff, but there were areas in which it would always run more smoothly.

Those were the paths most affected by the external energy, and where he was now sending his spell along. It reminded him of the process he had once performed on Coco, which had him subsequently learn the basis of this very spell. If this was how drilling mana through her body had felt like, then he owed that little girl an apology and some sweets. Then again, the mana he had used at that time was nowhere near this violent.

As the energy carved its path through him, the feeling from it only got worse, tempting Josef to cancel the spell altogether. Either these were simple growing pains he had to go through to utilize the spell in such a fashion, or he was doing something considerably wrong and possibly harming himself. It was getting most of the blockage, though, forcefully dragging it along the path to his heart.

Not only that, but any mana brought in from the outside by his continued assault was also added to it, never giving the sticky substance any chance to settle. A loop without, and soon, a loop within. Two circulating systems working in tandem for greater efficiency. He knew he was onto something here, but he wasn't quite there yet. Same as the stream of energy inside him, which hadn't quite completed its path towards the heart.

The moment it finally connected wasn't something he could have possibly missed, as he almost passed out on the spot as a short but indescribable burst of pain shot through his body. The mana had failed to enter his heart, where it could be cleansed for further use. Instead, it remained right outside after his inner loop broke apart from his wavering concentration. The heartstone had rejected his attempt to forcefully feed it, that much he could tell from what had happened.

It appeared to have some sort of protection in place, though it wasn't clear if this was for self-preservation, or a tamper protection on his loaned organ. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. With all the accumulated foreign mana now dumped in one spot near the heart, it was at least going to get cleaned up, though the process turned painfully slow, as the substance still moved at a snaillike pace, almost as if it was resisting what was coming to it.

It was barely an improvement from before, and he could hardly repeat the process and risk dumping anything more around his heart, for fear of blocking it off completely. If he wanted to deal with this situation, he had to speed up the process, no matter what. Their struggle had already grown severely unbalanced, with Josef losing more mana than he was gaining, and the rate got worse with every passing second. Maybe he was going at this from the wrong direction, he wondered.

What if he wasn't supposed to shove things into his heartstone, but expand on its own tendency to suck up mana? Could he start a stream from the very core of his magic? It was worth a try, he decided, and immediately went to try it. Getting a feel for the magic stone in his chest, he poked and prodded at the mana surrounding its shape. He could even feel the core itself, which, as he could tell now, was clearly made from mana itself.

A solidified form of the energy that flowed through him, which could somehow interface with the rest of his body. He wasn't exactly going to get behind the mystery of the dragons' great treasure, but maybe he could just figure out how to interact with what it was already doing. There was a sort of origin point from which it absorbed the mana around it, like a magical funnel, except for the lack of an actual opening.

Not a physical one, at least, which was understandable since magic had never cared about crossing through solids as it moved through and out of his body. Pushing some mana with his intent towards that point, the strangest reaction occurred, as the suction momentarily halted. At this point, his mana rested against the core, and some trace amounts of the same energy, coming from the heart itself, whirled around it, as if performing an inspection.

Normally, all of Josef's mana listened to him and followed his every intention, but somehow, this was different. It was an uncanny sensation, having the very energy that should belong only to him moving around with its own purpose. Not in the natural way it always moved without any conscious input on his part, which felt much more like breathing, a simple autonomous action. This mana was being moved by an intent that was not his own.

Just to be safe, he checked his mental state and quickly looked for notifications about his mental resistance leveling again. However, everything indicated that this was truly happening. For once, he would have preferred an illusion to reality. Whose will was doing this? Had the heart a mind of its own, or was it the system? Or something Lapis had set up in advance? He would have to ask her. She sure owed him some answers once he released her.

While the answers to those questions would have to wait, he got one to his spell just moments later. As suddenly as the inspection had started, it ended when all mana was dragged inside the core, including his own. Then, just as Josef wanted to get upset and complain about the magical organ, a tiny stream of energy emerged. It was the beginning of a mana stream, the same as the magic he was using. Even better, it was under his control and moved willingly at his command.

He was casting the spell with his heart as the point of origin! From the outside, if there had been any light to push back the darkness, things would probably have looked bad for him. The cascading loss of mana had done a number on his body, and his skin was already crumbling in places from losing mana more quickly than it could be supplied. However, Josef couldn't care less about a minor hiccup like that, as he went to town on all blockages that had built up within him.

He was guiding the stream like a seamster his needle, piercing through all foreign mana, sucking it up, and carrying it back to his heart. There, beginning and end combined into a loop seamlessly, tying up the spell. Unlike the magic it was based on, he could only use this one loop, as the heartstone didn't offer him a second one to guide. However, even one was more than enough to clean up his insides, restoring optimal flow as he shifted around the path of the stream.

More than that, once he had it run close to the streams delivering mana from the outside, the system of two supporting loops was finally complete, allowing no escape for the sticky mana. With his body back in order, he could even muster more concentration on the original spell, redoubling his energy acquisition. The fight had tilted decisively in his favor, which also gave him the time to acknowledge two notifications that were vying for his attention.

☆☆☆ Syphoning Manaheart (Moderate) -> (Exceptional) Mana is a type of energy naturally occurring on Aurum, unaspected fuel for all magic. Your heart has acquired an even more sophisticated way of predation. ☆☆☆☆ Mana Flow (Exceptional) -> (Pinnacle) The first upgrade was about as charming as all the other improvements to his heart had been. At least he had once again found a way to progress in that regard.

Finally, with the tide turned on his enemy, he could feel the flesh that bound him crumble away, a fate much like the one his own skin had begun to suffer from. Along with its integrity, it also lost the force keeping him attached, finally returning his freedom. Breaking away, Josef created some light and immediately had several questions. Like where his companions were, and why he still had the Flash spell he gained before. The latter one was a question for after saving his friends, though.

With nothing else to go by, he felt for his links and immediately found both of them nearby. In fact, Dusty was already sitting right there, having apparently waited for him to emerge from what appeared to be a fleshy cocoon, now that he had some light to look with. Clearly, his familiar had been confident in his summoner's abilities, considering the bunny hadn't aided in his escape.

Pretzel wasn't far off either, and turning about in the dim light, which couldn't reach more than a few meters away from him despite the ranked up spell, he soon made his way across the squelching ground and found her encased in a strange meat-like wrapping. Apparently, his flesh cocoon impression was spot on now that he saw an undecayed specimen.

Feeling the mess of her mental state, though, Josef bypassed any attempts at manually freeing the snake and unsummoned her, turning her into motes of mana that flew back to his chest. With both of his familiars free, he now had four more people to find in this mess, preferably before they succumbed to the boss, which still hadn't shown its actual face.

"Just you wait, I'm coming for you."