Book 2: Chapter 1

Cyil wandered through the dense forest floor as the sun crawled above the mountains. He found it interesting, but frustrating that mages always choose a cave to reside within. He wondered if that was normal. But even if it wasn’t normal, Cyil felt like he would prefer a nice comfy bed and house to stay in while meditating.

Cyil only had his thoughts to accompany him while on his conquest to finding a new body. He could understand the gravity of the situation and the consequences of not finding a body but at this rate he would have to inhabit an animal's body! And all the animals he had seen were alive and kicking, not to mention dead. So maybe he would go into a plant or tree, would that work?

Cyil quickly shook his head and dreaded the thought. Being in another human’s body already weirded him out, but thinking of life as a tree made things even more bleak. Now that he had time to himself and could think over what had happened, he began to realize just what a mess he was in and had brought to Baccaus. He was worried for Baccaus and that nice beautiful lady who was his grandma. He wondered if they would be okay and why they were all there in that darkspace.

Cyil had many questions but like an obedient child, he focused on the task at hand while pushing those questions to the back of his mind. Questions will have answers and answers will come when they come he decided.

By now, Cyil had already spent ten minutes or so hovering about. He wasn’t sure if he was going in a straight line, but he could no longer see the mountain so that was a good sign.

As Cyil explored the different mechanics of controlling the rhombus stone with his soul and while searching for a body, he felt Baccaus’ spatial ring shake, making it almost fall off. It shook then wobbled and finally spun to a stop; as the ring stopped, its outer appearance changed from an old plain looking rustic ring to one that had intricate designs and runes laced around the outer and inner layers. The ring was now completely ash-black with red and blue rune carvings alternately glowing. Everything about the ring now yelled out that it was definitely a magical item. Thankfully for Cyil, however, the size had remained the same otherwise it would have slipped right through the rhombus stone.

Cyil didn’t know what caused the ring to morph but he quickly decided against carrying it out in the open. A floating stone would already draw enough attention much less a magical ring to top it all off. Besides, Baccaus had told Cyil that having a treasure can be a crime if you haven’t the strength to protect that treasure.

Cyil now had another goal aside from finding a new body. He had to find a suitable place to hide the ring.

As Cyil continued to wander through the forest, he finally met a few wild animals but luckily he didn’t cross paths with any magical beasts. By now it had already been well over 4 hours since he entered the rhombus stone and began his search. The high-noon sun was beating up overhead yet Cyil was still in the forest.

“How vast is this forest? It seems to go on and on.” Cyil just kept on floating along. He didn’t get physically tired nor did he have to deal with the uneven footing of the forest grounds so he made good time. 9 hours later, Cyil could finally see that some of the plants on the ground had been dug up and even further up ahead he could see trees that had been chopped down. It had been 13 hours since Cyil entered the rhombus stone and he only had 11 hours left, but there was now hope!

Cyil quickly backtracked further into the forest and dumped the spatial ring into a crevice between two thick tree roots that had burst up onto the ground.

Along the way, Cyil had thought of many hiding places for the ring and had finally settled on hiding it within the tangled tree roots. There were many tree roots so no one would think anything precious would be hidden in there. The tree roots could also protect the ring from being blown away by the wind or from being moved by wild creatures.

Cyil thought his idea was very good and he went merrily on his way using the human marks of destruction to guide him.

An hour later, Cyil saw a decently sized town ablaze with lamps and some of the fancier buildings even had lamps that glowed with a strange bizzare light. Cyil had never seen these sorts of lamps before, because they were things imbued with magic and also outside of his worldly experiences.

“We’ll do it tonight. That fuckin’ prick striding about like he owns the town.” A voice whispered from somewhere ahead of Cyil.

Cyil was still on the periphery of the forest and quite a bit away from the town so he hadn’t expect someone to be out here, especially since it was already dark.

Cyil quickly maneuvered the rhombus stone to drop down onto the ground. This was one of the things he had learned how to do while experimenting with the stone’s mechanics.

“Are you sure? We need to make sure he’s all alone. He always travels with a girl or his underlings so that’ll impede our plans.” Another voice responded in a hush whisper.

A third voice chimed in, “Don’t worry about that. I sent someone he won’t be able to resist to ‘escort’ him to the place. With his dick for brains attitude, he’ll come for sure.”

Then a fourth voice added, “Make sure no one learns of this. Make it quick and clean. And stick to the plan.”

After the fourth voice spoke out, a bunch of grunts sounded out in agreement and began leave in small groups. To Cyil’s surprise, there seemed to be more than just four people--a lot more. 10 or more people, at least, because it took the whole group a while to disperse.

All this while, Cyil stayed as still as a rock and thought about what he had heard. From what he could make out these people were not nice people. They were intending to harm someone! Cyil didn’t know how or who the person was but he felt as if he should warn them. But right after thinking that, Cyil remembered that he also needed to find a dead body so maybe if both sides fought there would be some casualties and then he could possess one of those dead bodies?

Cyil thought this was a reasonable idea. Although he knew that it wasn’t right in a sense, he was more concerned about finding a body to inhabit. It wouldn’t be too late to be a hero then. Nodding to himself, Cyil moved the stone to float only a few inches off the ground and followed behind the last group that only now began to leave the edges of the forest.

In this way, Cyil’s way of thinking had already begun to change without him even knowing it. The old Cyil would have not thought of death as an opportunity to benefit from nor would the old Cyil have put his own welfare before another’s welfare. But things were different now. And to say this difference was good would be incorrect, yet to say it was a bad change would also be incorrect…

Cyil followed the group until they were nearly to the town’s gates then he veered off to try and enter the town from another more concealed place.

While following the people he did not gain any more useful information which disappointed him. All he got was the name of the three men: Tec, Ekraq, and Krun. Cyil noted that Tec was the first man who had spoken and Krun was the third man who had spoken. Ekraq had not spoken during the meeting so it was technically Cyil’s first time meeting Ekraq. In any case, Cyil knew Ekraq shared Tec and Krun’s sentiments on how “he” should end up.

As Cyil made his way around the town walls he thought: “maybe I can find a cemetery with people who had just been buried and inhabit one of those bodies.” Just thinking the thought made Cyil laugh. If only it were so easy he thought. Then he sighed as he said, “Grandpa Baccaus, 24 hours is too short! It would have been nice if I had more time.”

What Cyil didn’t know was that the rhombus-stone was a one-time use magical equipment that was actually rank 8. The rarity of the stone was beyond precious and it was one of Baccaus’ life-preserving treasures. These type of magical equipment were much more precious than magical weapons, defensive gears, or even spatial storage rings. If Baccaus were to ever face mortal danger and cannot save his physical body then he would leave everything behind and enter the rhombus stone to escape. Another ability the stone had, aside from storing a soul, transferring it and healing the newly acquired body, was to travel at extreme speeds!

It was just that Cyil’s soul wasn’t strong enough to utilize this ability of the stone, otherwise his search speed would have increased a hundred-folds and by then, finding a suitable body would have been much easier.

Nonetheless, Cyil had still found a town with a population of near 15,000 so his chances were good. Of course, he didn’t wish for anyone to die but as fate would have it, a single person died that night. This person was one of the most hated and feared in the town. A 13 year old boy.