Will edit these two tomorrow morning after getting some shut eye as I noticed some words missing and fixed those my mind was able to pick up on.

Hope you enjoy!

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Chapter 7:

Closing his door with a sigh, Ze couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty that he had stolen one of the books from the library on his first day here already but considering it was completely empty in the first place he doubted that it would matter much to the old man, that is naturally if he had no idea what this thing really was and he had the bad premonition that the old man knew nearly everything.

Swallowing down his fear, he locked the door behind him and pulled down his hood.

Taking out the object of his theft, an unsure expression was visible on his face in the dim light of the moon that shone through the window.

Standing there for a few seconds he steeled his mind and went into his bedroom, closing the curtains while turning on the light.

With a final look at the book and remembering its words he went outside again and brought one of the knives from the kitchen with him.

Trying his best to keep the blade steady he cut a small gash on the palm of his left hand while quickly dipping his right thumb into his own blood before pressing it on the first page of the book.

Like that he sat there for a few seconds, pressing his still bleeding hand against his jeans while staring at the object before his eyes.

Seeing that nothing had happened he took his thumb off the page and sighed in resignation but before he could stand up from his bed a sudden force from above locked him in place.

With the sound of pages turning at high speed and unable to even move an inch, he watched the small black book come to life with big eyes as page after page was filled with black ink in no time and words visibly form on them before the thing closed shut and sat there just like before, completely innocent.

Wiping his bloody thumb on his already stained jeans, Ze picked up the book with shaking hands and opened it once again to the first page.

This time it had changed from a blank page to a small paragraph as well as an image beneath it with weird symbols that were laid out in a circular and complicated pattern.

‘To whomever finds this guide and is willing to make a contract with it.

Let me once again make sure that whoever you are, do not use this book if you are of non-human nature as it will not bring you any benefits and instead only harm, this is a guide of sorts but only someone who is willing to trade a part of themselves in for power will be allowed to gain the knowledge in this book.

If you are human then I must still warn you as the price for power is always high and this is only a guide to your path, the beginning of your future and not the fruit that can only be obtained through pain and effort.

Should you still be in need of power beyond the human realm, once again put a thumb print of blood in the middle if the contract shown below, the consequences of this action are grave.

For one your lifespan will shorten, by how much varies for each individual but living beyond the age of 50 is already considered a miracle.

You will experience pain, far above what you ever felt before and it can scar your mind.

Your body will not be same as before, you will no longer strictly speaking be human.

This is the price for this power that was not meant to be, none of the above will show itself any time soon but let me assure you that they will happen eventually, no matter if you are prepared for it or not.

At the small possibility that you finish this guide and are able to go through it then let me tell you that the first price of shortening your life can be fixed later on and you will know how to do it at that point.

The rest will still be permanent.’

Ze needed a moment to process this before nearly dropping the thing out of absolute terror for this small book that promised power but warned him over and over again about the consequences.

Unsure anymore if this was a wise idea or no, Ze hesitated, scared.

Was he really willing to give up maybe 30 to 40 years of his life just like that?

Experience pain and stop being human, whatever that meant?

Was his situation really that desperate?

He just wasn’t able to blindly step into such dangerous waters at the moment and hastily closed the book.

Sitting there quietly for a few minutes, Ze in the end put the black book on a table next to his bed and undressed himself before jumping under his duvet.

It was late, he was tired and he still had to get up early tomorrow for the… examination.

What if this examination would reveal who he was?

Just remembering the bloody classrooms with countless white sheets spread around the floor sent a cold shiver of fear down his spine and he couldn’t help but think of the black book.

Wasn’t he practically signing a contract with the devil and selling his soul at this point?

But was his soul worth an unsafe future and possible death that loomed over him at every second?

Fear was a powerful motivator, especially the fear towards one’s own life.

What was losing a few years down the line against not being able to see the day after tomorrow?

Who couldn’t withstand a bit of pain? Screw humanity if it meant he had to die by staying human.

Driven by his fears, the images put into his head by local news that only picked the bloodiest cases and made them worse than they really were.

Urged by his will to live and to get out of this alive he broke away the crusty scab that had already formed on his palm and once again put a bloody thumb print in the book, not even thinking about the consequences with a shaken and unstable mind.

Fear was all that he felt, and fear was that drove him to this stupidity that he immediately regretted in a matter of seconds as his head split apart with unending pain.

Howling like he was being tortured to death, Ze thrashed around in his bed and flung the black book against a wall while pressing both hands against his bursting temples.

Something had entered his body in a flash from the book and whatever it was, it brought Ze a new experience of the word hell.

Unable to control his voice his screams once again echoed through the room, sending vibrations into the hall outside and waking up more than a few other sleeping students.

.....

Woken by the endless screams that seemed to shake the walls themselves, many students felt panic and fear as they stood up.

The hall outside quickly filled with people and two of them rushed to get a teacher while the rest looked fearfully towards the room with the number ‘1393’ from which the screams came from.

Not once did they stop and many felt their hairs stand on end as they could hear the pain and despair that was contained inside that male voice.

Abruptly, just as quickly as it had appeared, the screams died down and an eerie silence filled the corridor.

No one dared to walk closer to the room in fear of what might hide within it, those screams didn’t sound like they were made from a person that had injured themselves but more like they were being tortured by someone and no one wanted to meet the person responsible.

Instead they fearfully waited for a teacher to finally arrive and resolve whatever had happened.

Soon enough quick steps could be heard as Sarah, their homeroom teacher appeared with a startled and concerned look, together with the two students that had ran off to get her.

Quickly making way for her, everyone stepped aside as she rushed to the room in question and knocked her smooth and silky hand against the door heavily.

“Zero, hello do you hear me Zero? Please open the door or at least tell me what is going on! If you don’t answer then I will go look for Jarred for the spare keys to make sure that everything is alright so please unlock the door if you can.”

Waiting for a response she looked at the closed door before a voice, slightly muffled by the wood resounded from behind it.

“Everything is alright with me, I just had a nightmare.”

Nearly everyone in the hall exchanged an unconvinced glance.

Just what kind of nightmare makes you scream like a pig in the slaughterhouse?!

Thinking around the same lines as the people around her, Sarah furrowed her brow and instead shook her head before replying.

“I don’t think that is all of it so quickly open the door so I can make sure everything is alright with you, please.”

After a few moments the voice behind the door gave a short “wait a minute” as a reply before silence once again filled the hall.

Anxiously tapping her foot, Sarah waited just like she was instructed to before the door suddenly opened and a boy wearing a hood that covered nearly his entire face came into view.

“As I said, just a nightmare and I have some sleeping pills so that it won’t happen again, can I go back to bed now or is there something else?”

The boy asked in a harsh tone and Sarah was clearly stunned but she didn’t say anything else and just shook her head, followed by a door slamming shut in front of her shocked figure.

Normally Sarah would have used her position and power as a teacher to her advantage to make him follow her to the infirmary so she could forcibly make sure that he really was alright but that didn’t seem to work with this particular student as she always found herself swept up in his own pace, no matter the situation.

Swallowing the words that she had wanted to say back down Sarah threw another concerned looked towards the closed door before shooing the rest of the students back to bed.

.....

Closing the door a little bit harder than he had wanted to, Ze nearly fell down on the floor as he heavily leaned against the nearby wall.

His knees were wobbly and his entire body was sore from his muscles contracting for a long time because of the pain he had went through.

Even now he still felt a throbbing sensation in the recesses of his mind, both body and spirit more than a little scarred from the experience.

“I have a bad feeling that this wasn’t the pain the black book was talking about...”

Ze said aloud to himself, shivering at the mere thought that this had just been the tip of the iceberg.

Even though it had been his choice and a hasty one at that, in the end he still was a teenager and bound to make mistakes just this one... wasn’t one he would recover quickly from.

Gingerly returning back to his room he glanced at the ripped sheets and mess of a room that he created by flailing about during his previous ‘experience’.

Noticing the discarded book lying in a corner he first fixed his bed before picking it up with an unsightly expression.

Once again the first page had changed as golden letters filled the entire thing.

‘You have thus chosen power above all else. Know mortal that this will be your guide on a path not tread by many, neither Yokai nor Human, you will be of a different kind.

Maybe after decades or centuries that have passed since the creation of this book you will be the only one left but know that Spiritmancers are a profession that has always been shrouded in mystery.

This will be your guide to uncover some of the secrets and gain the power that was never supposed to be ours.

One of the reasons only humans can dabble in this accursed profession is because Yokais are born with a fixed spiritual center in their head while humans are a blank slate, a fresh mold one could say in that regard.

The contract you signed was nothing more than an incantation that sucked the essence in your body into one place in the center of head where Yokais would normally have their spiritual center but for us humans it is also a rather tricky place.

Instead of growing naturally, this forced process will shorten your life, some nights you might even wake up by the blood dripping out of your eyes and ears.

The pain center in your head has been pushed back and a still weak and shaky spiritual palace has been built in its place, treat it carefully because if it collapses so will your mind and body.

Minor usage of essence will be available for the first week, should you strive too crazily for power then you are doomed to fail, let your body and spirit rest first is my advice.

Let your wounds heal and then dabble into the profession of a Spiritmancer.

These following pages will teach you all that you need to know, everything else you will have to find out with time after mastering these basics.

Learn about the Glyphs and how words can have more power over us than you might think.

Study the essence but don’t let it consume you like it has so many others.

And most importantly, do not abuse your powers or you will fall from the little bit of humanity that is left inside of you.

Our body was not made to hold this kind of energy, if overused it will change us, make us into what we fear most.

Do not travel the path of no redemption and follow the light inside the darkness ahead of you.

My name is Ardon Tharlasus and you are hereby my first and only disciple.’

Once again Ze didn’t really know how to feel about these words.

Not only did they explain the dangers surrounding what he was about to stumble into but they also showed him a possible hope, that he didn’t just simply throw away his future.

As long as he didn’t abuse this new power, whatever it was, then it wouldn’t hurt him too much, at least he hoped so.

Unsure what to make of this he turned the page and was quickly confused but nonetheless fascinated by the ‘Glyphs’ how they were called inside the book and their function.

Many symbols of circles inside rectangles with star like edges and triangles that seemed to be looping into themselves drew him in for minutes as he absorbed all the knowledge he could.

Looking through the book he soon enough found out what Spiritmancers really were.

Yokais used the essence around them to strengthen and fire up their DNA to gain an increase in physical or mental powers.

Spiritmancers on the other hand used the power that their bodies had absorbed to charge ‘Glyphs’ to do all sorts of different things and create different phenomena, much more diverse and expansive than what any other Yokai could ever create but instead of being able to do it instantly they needed time and spend a lot more essence to reach the same conclusion as those Yokais with natural abilities.

It was similar to charging up a battery with power as these Glyphs would only hold for a limited amount of time and with varying effects but a few of the easy ones Ze found, with most being non-offensive ones, were quite useful and one of the incantations attracting his gaze like a homing missile.

‘Cloak of darkness: An incantation focused on creating a demonic illusion around the user, can be split into head, limbs and torso sections and all parts are needed complete and inactive to create the whole illusion.

Unlike other illusions that work with light to distort the surroundings this one uses shadows to create a form that one can pass through.

From the outside no one would be able to see the Spiritmancers appearance while the user himself can see everything around him like normal, it is a one way illusion only working on the surroundings and not on the user himself.’

Glancing over the Glyphs and further description of the incantation, Ze’s eyes lit up in delight and he immediately got to work.

He already had an idea what and where he wanted his first trial use of this new power, and if it worked it might very well save his very skin.

Looking at the clock above him he frowned and decided to just forget about sleeping tonight and instead try his hardest to make this still complex assortment of unknown Glyphs work.

Until now this was his first real chance at hiding his human identity and Ze would be damned if he couldn’t achieve the impossible in 7 and a half hours.

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AAAAAAAAND finished... *rubs sleepy eyes and yawns* =.0 hard to stay awake...

Will edit chapters tomorrow, hope you liked this little double release and *mumbles a few more words sluggishly*

Anyways, if you find mistakes and stuff tell me so I can fix em tomorrow and now off to bed *flops dead under duvet*

PS: Satan my saviour bring me to your wonderland!

Abbadon out!