A Testament Of The Dark Magician

Nightfall descended, and the moonlight crept inside through the partially opened drapes. Roland crossed his two legs against the king-size bed, with the body refining manual propped against his lap. He had already gone through the basic steps and preparations almost a dozen times. With Omega's help, Roland could carefully extract the most essential steps for the body refining method.

'Interestingly enough, it's been split into two parts. I can do the first part on my own, but I will need help from someone for the second half. Well, that's assuming I make it to that stage.'

Roland sat pleased with the preparation he had assembled. He stared off across the new spacious room assigned to him. An obscure-looking basin sat on top of large wood formed inside a stone platform—large enough to fit a person inside. Small crackling fires ignited a burning flame, heating the bottom of the iron basin.

To the side, he had a bowl of specific elixirs and countless thin iron needles sitting in a potent, inky liquid. Roland was eager to get started on the advancement tonight. If he was fated to walk into the den of his enemies, he wanted to at least be prepared in some way.

He skimmed over the last few inscriptions written against the 42-page manual. His brow lifted, and he noticed a familiar voice speaking to him from beyond.

"To my beloved boy, this is for you, my dear Roland. May the magic of the cosmos dress you in armour of divinity for all your future days."

A warm feeling stirred in Roland's chest. He pulled an affectionate smile before delicately closing the manual.

The air felt perfectly warm tonight, with a slight wisp of crispy night air filtering through the uneven stone walls. Roland embraced the small sense of peace being afforded to him. He placed a hand against his chest and willed a personal oath to both himself and the Roland of the past.

"Whatever it takes, I will make sure we survive."

Roland approached the iron basin and emptied the three buckets of cold water inside. He had instructed his death knight to fill the iron basin with a specific amount of elixirs. Measured to the finite detail thanks to Omega. He also did some precautionary things, like ensuring he wasn't doing this on an empty stomach. This meant his body absorbed the elixir quicker and the effects efficiently took place.

He stripped down his clothes and climbed into the bone-chilling cold bath.

Roland steadied his breathing until his body climatised to the temperature. He carried the bowl of needles with him and began to prod his meridians slowly. Omega guided him with the effective carefulness of a world-renowned physician until he was covered in countless needles like a porcupine.

Halfway through, the pain had turned into an uncomfortable itch. But he bore it all and continued.

Roland delicately placed the leafy mix of roots and a specimen described as a mixture of sea moss and an octopus against his tongue and chewed.

A spray of bitterness filled his mouth; Roland gagged but quickly shielded his mouth and forced the terrible-tasting component down his throat.

His eyes watered, but he gritted his teeth until the taste mostly dissolved against his saliva.

'Ok, next step. Omega, talk me through the process of absorbing the yin energy and turning it into pure Ki, please.'

{Place your knuckles together and put them against your stomach. Let your mind empty while you return to the sticky centre of your being. I will begin guiding your breath pattern in 6-5-3 intervals as instructed. The purification process will start once the yin energy enters the bloodstream} Omega instructed.

Roland lost track of time a while ago. Unaware of how long he had spent half submerged in this basin filled with boiling water. After a while, he felt less pain and found himself completely immersed in a sea of darkness.

He eventually found the silent peace within, which took him into his centre, a formless stickiness alive in the core confinements of his being. A short while later, Roland began noticing glaring changes.

The water, first of all, had become thicker and less palpable. So much so that he struggled to move his limbs around freely at this point. Almost as though he was swimming in a basin filled with mud.

The other change was perhaps the most alarming. A very warm, surging heat gathered against his stomach. Thankfully, with the help of Omega, Roland began intentionally breathing. A cold feeling suddenly raced around his entire body. The swift change from hot to cold was a surprise.

Omega told him how to control this feeling and helped guide the yin energy towards the scorching heat around his stomach. The moment he managed to work out how to do this, Roland's eyes shot open as a sharp pain assaulted his torso. He shut his eyes quickly and refound his focus.

The sharp pain never wilted, but Roland hung on with the thoughts of Omega's words and coached him through it all.

After an hour of enduring this sharpening pain, he found himself gently falling into a strange trance. His stomach felt full, as though he had eaten a full-course meal twice.

But more bizarrely, Roland opened one eye and noticed most of the water had gone. His body felt incredibly heavy and rigid. But he didn't panic. He still had a long way to go.

Roland exhaled a murky breath, and his breathing unconsciously began flowing in the 6-5-3 pattern Omega talked him through: 6 breaths out, 5 breaths in, 3 breaths out. This continued for another 60 minutes before a surge of popping noises ensued.

He heard his bones grinding, and a terrible pain almost snatched his breath away. Roland coughed out blood and felt his heart racing.

Now, he was panicking. Thankfully, Omega arrived with words of soothing calmness.

The sound of sizzling water filtered into his ears. Roland squeezed his eyelids tightly and felt a burning pain as though his bones were being melted beneath his skin. Meanwhile, Omega's voice continued to mechanically whirl in a series of overlapping voices jammed into his head.

Roland fought back the uncomfortable sensations.

Another hour passed, and another change arrived. Silence. Everything fell silent as though time had stopped. Roland experienced something like this before. Where his consciousness traversed into a different place.

{Warning…abnormal activity detected in brain waves-Warning ab- }

***

A heavy haze finally lifted, and the world around him unveiled itself as a mirage of enchanting ice. But the air wasn't so cold. The figure looked down and saw the blurred view of his appearance—dressed in grey and black for war, a mesmerising black sword caressed in his hand, golden runes etched mysteriously into its metal, while blood continued to run down the edges of its bite.

A foreign sound ahead drew his attention.

There was a tall silver throne with a deep sea blue cushion.

A man staggered away from it, clothed in heavy cyan and white robes. His crown glimmered like the moon amongst the surrounding ice. Observing his face more deeply, the shape of his ears told another story—more elf-like than human.

"You…monster", muttered the Elf. He stretched out his withered and petrified hand. Two more blue gemstones pulled over his fingers cracked and evaporated into ashes.

"Monster?"

He lowered his gaze again before he quickly flinched upon seeing a pool of blood gathered beneath his feet. But the most striking thing was the glaring wounds pouring blood began mending themselves before his very eyes, with spears of ice lancing right through him. He carefully pulled out the ice spears, rapidly healing the remaining wounds.

A terrible shiver ran through his body seeing this. None of this made any sense.

Suddenly, a tremor quaked against the ground. The ice walls shook violently, and the ceiling began to break apart slowly and fall.

The elf king was stupefied into a frozen mess and could only watch in horror as a large piece of ice broke away from above and fell on top of him.

This place wasn't going to last. He needed to find his escape. He twisted on his heels to flee, but when his body turned around, he was confronted by a tall pillar of golden light.

A strange figure slowly emerged from the top of the pillar of light.

A pair of scarlet eyes descended upon him. The lithe creature's body was dressed in ethereal pale white clothes. Two large feathered wings sprouted away from its back while a tussle of long silver-white hair tumbled down its shoulders.

He stood in enamoured awe, almost frozen in place by an unseen compelling power. The goddess formed a peculiar smile and stretched out her porcelain white arm, beckoning him closer.

He refused to move. He was terrified but also intrigued. Nonetheless, he could only watch the divine creature gradually fall closer.

Her lips finally moved, and a gentle voice spoke out to him.

"Don't be afraid.

This is all a gift.

One of many gifts. I bestow upon you."

A blinding light erupted from behind the goddess and covered his entire surroundings in a veil of white.

At that moment, Roland awoke to the sounds of heavy wind whistling past his ears. Once the haze of confusion lifted away, he was left to piece together his strange new environment.

A hurdle of dark, tall trees surrounded him. He moved his limbs and palms over the crunchy, leafy ground beneath him.

Roland flinched, suddenly realising he was sitting outside…in the middle of the forest.

'How did I end up out here?' His eyes busied around the twilight air, the blanket of night covered in stitches of countless stars. The last thing he remembered was beginning the body refining process, sitting in that cauldron, and then… 'What happened next?' Roland massaged his temples in deep thought. A distant howl of wolves startled him. He furrowed his brows at his current predicament, left to wonder what kind of problem had befallen him this time around.

'I guess I should be grateful. Nothing changed about me, although.'

He finally looked at his body, and whilst he was still Roland. All limbs are attached and functional. He was shirtless, and his upper body was covered in dried blood. It didn't look like it was his blood. A small win. But both hands were in the same sordid state as his upper body. That worried him.

Roland was left with a small handful of possibilities here. He killed someone or was killed.

He eventually conceded on unravelling this mystery alone and mentally called for the system's help.

'Omega, are you seeing all of this.'

{Yes, my host. I am with you}

A sigh of relief escaped through his dried mouth. Roland's shoulders were unconsciously lowered. The situation wasn't the worst thing he could've imagined.

"Omega, what happened to me? Why am I outside?"

{retrieving host memory data…inconclusive results. Omega is unable to access the full memory. Running a scan of the host's brain waves…standby} the system said before falling quiet

Inconclusive results? That doesn't sound good. I wonder if there's room for Omega to record memories and access them later for playback.

*awoooooooh* rippled across the silent air again.

A distant howl echoed in the distance. Roland tossed his uncomfortable gaze across the tall woodland. He swallowed harshly before cautiously rising to his feet. His body was brimming with energy. He was surprised since his outward appearance painted a very different picture.

'Omega? A-any luck?' Roland was growing weary of this place by the second. He wasn't comfortable being half-naked outside, either.

After a few more tense minutes, the mechanical sound delightfully graced his ears.

{Host's brain waves and vitals are all normal. Full internal scan 79% complete. Before the host's slumber, Omega detected unknown activity in the ventromedial hypothalamus. The amygdala levels had spiked to unprecedented levels as well}

Roland felt his bony frame involuntary shake. He sunk back down to his knees with Omega's lingering voice stuck in his head. Roland could still remember some of his most cherished memories involving his research work.

The ventromedial and the amygdala. Roland couldn't forget those two components of the brain. Coincidentally, he spent a great deal of his leisure time understanding why the brain functioned as it had done. For one of his school projects, they asked him to produce a structure analysis of anything, showcasing the workings of these two components. After an intense research session, he could only think of one particular mythical scenario

Roland chose zombies.