Ink looked forward to the return of the archdemon with a slight impatience, but this did not stop him from looking at the book on the altar. It was filled with many bright scarlet characters. They were painted not just with paint, because they shone and shimmered. The earthy-gray pages seemed dry, dry to the touch, and smelled of fine foliage. Ink furtively tried to tear one of the sheets, but they were surprisingly strong.

On the advice of the archdemon, Ink tried to send a thread of consciousness inside the Talmud, and this yielded an amazing result. It looked like he was in a special space. Part of it was occupied with letters floating in the air. They were grouped in piles and differed in the type of "ink". One way or another, all were of a scarlet hue, but flaming words of an unknown language coexisted with smooth-looking silhouettes. For himself, Ink decided to consider them separate chapters or different topics in the content of the grimoire.

"Perhaps, different ways of using forces require different" moods "of energy? Thought Ink . "Or is it an illustration of the effect for those who do not understand the language?"

He was still afraid of touching letters.

In the far part of the space several blots were revealed. In their coloration, they strongly resembled the threads of the archdemon consciousness, so it was not difficult for Ink to guess their nature . After making sure that one of the demons was nearby, he tried to catch the "blot" with threads of consciousness with hooks, and immediately regretted it.

Contact with a particle of consciousness of the archdemon turned out to be like dipping a finger into concentrated acid. The appendage of the mind Ink simply melted to a frightening hissing sound. In addition, it was very painful. The pain did not abate for some time. Ink saw that the sickle of his "defense" remained inside the blot, which made the archdemon particle suffer a certain amount of suffering. "Blot" twitched, trembled and faded, like a fallen sheet on a record with accelerated playback.

"I didn't think that a sickle from a memory with a feeling of regret could damage a piece of archdemon's consciousness so much," the sight was shocking for Ink a. "It is normal for a person to suffer from contact with a part of a dangerous and powerful creature, but to injure him ... I never expected that." In any case, how can I drag them into the brains of these demons? "

The problem seemed insoluble. There was nothing left but to wait for the return of the archdemon. Ink U seemed like about an hour had passed. The expectation turned into torture, and he began to study the changes in his appearance. We managed to deal with everything surprisingly quickly. His body became larger, but remained half-illusory. White energy spilled out, but turned out to be connected by the finest threads of the force field. Ink himself could never get to make them so small. After analyzing what he saw, he came to the conclusion that this became possible due to the viscosity acquired by the energy. Particles of energy clung to them and scattered. As a result, the force field was stretched, but not destroyed.

Under the outer layer of a fake body, he noticed with his threads of consciousness his real body. The wings turned out to be created by the same principle, but there was very little white energy in them. The substitute for it was the dust from the so admired Kiass and ore. The feathers of black color were light separately, but together gained considerable weight. Ink tried to stimulate matter in the mind world with parts of forgotten memories, but the attempt failed. He tried to dispel his new look in order to absorb white energy and suffered another defeat.

By the time the archdemon's face appeared in a luminous spot above the fragment of the column, Ink no longer knew what to do with himself.

"Hold on," the blackhorn looked unusually serious. An object appeared in the stain in the form of a large, with the fist of an adult, egg. It was shrouded in a whirlwind of the familiar scarlet-colored energy. The package hung in a light spot and very slowly sank, gradually increasing in size. "It will take you a long time." The distance from the seventh world is great.

"And I ..." Ink thought about the prospects, "can I get into the seventh world through this spot right away?"

"No," the archdemon shook his head regretfully. "If it were possible, I would immediately suggest that you do so." A living creature cannot pass through this channel. If the grimoire had not been created from special materials, it would have turned to dust at the beginning of the journey. Apart from me, not one other inhabitant of the entire continent of Darmard is able to stretch its threads of consciousness even a third of this path. Otherwise, why would I do all this personally?

- By the way, about the threads of consciousness ...

Ink explained the difficulties he had with the "blots" without touching upon the weakening of the affected part of the archdemon's consciousness. Blackhorn only waved it off, advising him to study the techniques left by him in the grimoire.

With some apprehension, Ink again entered consciousness into the book of the archdemon. He touched one cluster of symbols and knowledge of

barrier printing technique

with a number of explanations on its use. The essence of the method was to use energy to create special structures. There were several dozens of ways to arrange the flow of power, allowing you to get "walls" and only four gave a pair of "lock / key".

Ink decided for himself that this was a kind of magic safe. It could be done separately, or it could be tied to a certain material object.

"If you put such a barrier on a real safe, you can avoid its robbery by spirits. On the other hand, even those who leak into the vault will not be able to disburse money and take out the jewels ... Useless improvement is obtained. But why did the blackhorn shove it here for his wards? Maybe to protect against espionage? Locking consciousness? I hope I can use it advantageously ... "

The second part of Ink a's training was flaming letters. They trained to transform energy into a kind of flame. This time it became clear that the letters do not flow into the mind, but create some kind of vibration. In the emptiness of the space of the grimoire, it could not be transmitted anywhere, but as soon as the symbols touched the thread of consciousness, trembling sent straight to the mind. It was these vibrations that created a picture in the brain that was a copy of the information in the book.

"Mind is like papyrus, but ink ... Are these emotions? - Ink marveled at the discovery. - From vibrations, weak flashes of emotions and images arise. Their union ultimately creates knowledge ... Like DNA and genes. Separately, they mean little, but together describe the human body, even partly in character and habits. Then information is also a kind of energy being. Reading it, a person not only perceives the environment, but because of this he experiences a certain impact and the picture depicting his mind itself changes. Little by little, imperceptibly, turning ... into someone else? - Ink even froze for a moment at the thought. - Well, nonsense ... So I'll even think of the fact that just reading an art book turns a person into a clone of a non-existent being, and some master can pour simple ink on the paper's papyrus to make someone he wants from another person, using a set of chains of emotions and images ... "

Ink thought it was stupid, but some latent apprehension remained with him.

"Damn, I'll create a phobia from scratch as well"

Self-irony somewhat helped to cope with the surging excitement. Only now, Ink noticed that the transfer of knowledge about the technique of creating fire was interrupted. He calmed down and continued to study techniques in a grimoire one after another.

Illusory flame

it made it possible to heat something, but in reality there was no burning process. The fire was simply an illusion due to the energy loss of the "special effects." The highest level of mastery of the technique suggested the absence of an external manifestation of flame.

Voice of consciousness

had many uses. Touching the threads from the light of the mind turned out to be very dangerous. In the absence of control, it was possible to hurt the weaker by accident or to receive a deadly attack from the enemy. Ink remembered his condition after the first "meeting" with the black-footed one and decided to master this method the very first, especially since it was he who needed to move the "blot" into the consciousness of large, but stupid demons. The technique made it possible to communicate without touching the strands of consciousness, act on energy structures at some distance from the ends of the web of the mind, write information in specially structured materials like the grimoire itself, and read it with less risk to the mind. There were also methods of studying the environment "by touch." All this could be achieved by vibration of the thread of consciousness, around which distortions were created by the protection and the instrument at the same time. The component methods turned out to be simple and complex at the same time.

"If the cobwebs of the mind were fingers, then this technique is gymnastics to increase their mobility, the basics of writing and safety. Because of curiosity, children can jerk a finger sharply and dislocate it. I myself am now, as a child, in everything that concerns the cinema. The transition through the steps of development is simply awareness of the presence of hands and feet, ears, nose, tongue, but inability to use them. "

A special skill in the technique of the voice of consciousness was call, but in the grimoire he was indicated as a dangerous action with a risk of attracting a predator of the mental layer of the world. Incorporeal consciousnesses were very useful for various things, but insufficiently strong summoners were guaranteed to die in their teeth. Ink did not want to become a vegetable , so he clearly remembered all the actions for the call, so that he would not accidentally apply it. The highest level of development was to direct it to a specific creature. With the exception of the goal, no one will notice fluctuations in the field of consciousness. The grimoire even provided a method for using the call as a radar. The only problem is that the person found in this way is aware of the touch of the mind. Secretly knowing the position of a person by call will not work.

The remaining letters revealed the method of "softening" the body of the demon to absorb part of the body of another creature. This required a special change in consciousness, without which it was impossible to achieve resonance with residual energy in a foreign body. In order to "digest" a part of someone else's body and make it yours with maximum benefits, you had to partially turn your victim. From here the obsession method also developed. Part of the demon's mind went into a strange body and mimicked under it, and then drop by drop changed the alien way of thinking in order to match the original light of the demon's mind. As a result, the demon came and swallowed the alien body without any problems.

"That's why he needs them ..." Ink realized . - These demons will pass through the worlds and gain some special skills. After arriving in the seventh world, they will become parts for the blackhorn and make it stronger. It is worth following these creatures. Even if the archdemon considers certain skills useful enough, then it would be nice for me to study them. You just need to find a way to monitor ... "

Ink managed to copy all the letters when the package from the seventh world finally arrived. With a light pop, the remnants of the archdemon's energy were dispelled. The object really turned out to be an egg. Through the transparent walls a beast was visible.

"Some kind of baby dinosaur ..." Ink touched the egg, and it disappeared. "I didn't destroy him?"

Something was wrong ... Focusing on the feeling of wrongness, Ink found himself in that layer of the world of reason where he had previously wandered with the help of the grain planted by Michaelon. In a void with floating pieces of "something" of different colors, two things stood out: a golden figurine of lyrs and an egg with a dinosaur.