He left only one Shadow alive and cast an earth spell that opened a divide in the ground.
It would slow down the incoming wave long enough to perform his experiment.
Kamila had told him the Shadows employed weird attacks. Lith wanted to see if it was something that he could imitate or at least teach him something about the Black Star’s abilities.
Once the Shadow came within a range of ten meters (33′) from Lith, it raised its arms towards him. The limbs elongated into snakes made of darkness and the fingers stretched into meters long needles aimed at Lith’s mana core.
Albeit unexpected, the move lacked the speed necessary to be a threat. Lith dashed under the extended arms, striking at the opponent’s body with his bare fist. The Shadow exploded into black flakes which slowly faded away.
‘It felt like hitting a cushion. Aside from a little buzzing in the ears when the fragments touched me, nothing strange happened. I can see why fake mages need to keep their distance, but with my speed that kind of attack is useless. Solus?’
‘Nothing relevant. Physical damage works like any other kind of damage.’
Lith did the same thing for the following wave. He left only one Shadow alive, but this time he allowed it to strike at his forearm. The fingers-needles were not sharp or strong enough to pierce his Skinwalker armor.
The Shadow changed its approach, having his extremities wrapping around Lith’s arm while sucking his life force and mana. Much to Lith’s surprise, the Shadow’s appearance started to change into an obsidian copy of its prey.
Lith released a small bolt of lightning that destroyed the doppelganger, obtaining two unexpected results. Before shattering, the Shadow regained its human semblance again for a brief moment. It allowed Solus to recognize him.
‘It’s one of the merchants from the food stalls.’ Her good memory always surprised him. Lith could barely remember the faces of the villagers of Lutia, let alone a stranger in the crowd.
‘Who cares. This was a waste of time. At least the amount of energy he stole from me is irrelevant. I wonder what…’ The second oddity was that one of the flakes was blue instead of black. It caught Lith’s attention.
Unlike the other fragments so far, it wasn’t disappearing. The speck of blue light charged at Lith’s abdomen, where his mana core resided. He tried to block it with his hand, only to see it pass through like a ghost. The moment the blue flake entered his body, Lith experienced a strong headache.
Memories that didn’t belong to him flashed in front of his eyes, showing him unfamiliar faces and making him listen to unfamiliar words that somehow he was able to comprehend.
When the next wave of Shadows arrived, Lith realized he knew the secret recipe for a twelve spice sauce of sorts. He was still too confused to take any risk, so he used his wands to quickly dispose of the enemies before getting outside the barrier.
What the heck just happened?’ He thought while reviewing the alien memory until he could almost feel the spices on his hands emitting their familiar yet unknown fragrance.
‘I’m not sure.’ Solus replied. ‘Maybe the Shadows are the minds of the Kadurians, or at least an echo of it. It would explain why they have no mana core or life force. It could be a way the Black Star uses to get rid of their most violent emotions or simply to harvest more power.
‘What I’m sure of, is that while the life force the Shadow stole for you is gone, you got all of your mana back. My hypothesis is that while inside the creature’s mind, it temporarily became its own.
‘When you shattered the Shadow, the flake still contained part of its consciousness. So when you reabsorbed your mana, you also got a glimpse of the street vendor’s mind.’
‘Yeah and now I can open a Kansas Fried Chicken.’
‘Well, what did you expect? A random memory from a random stranger is bound to be something irrelevant. What would have you thought if you had found out the secret of the Black Star on the first attempt?’ Solus replied with a chuckle.
‘That the damn thing was baiting me with a trap. Let’s give this thing a few more tries. No pain no gain. My only hope is that Lady Luck will smile at me for once.’
After several attempts, Lith was on the verge of a nervous breakdown as a result of the memory harvesting process. What he hadn’t considered was that Lady Luck had been kind to him already.
Finding a recipe inside a mind filled with centuries worth of agony was a stroke of luck. As such, it didn’t happen again. All the memories Lith acquired were about pain, despair, and death.
‘These poor b*stards are in a situation way worse than mine. At least until I can keep myself alive, I can avoid being reincarnated. They suffer an excruciating death several times a day. The Black Star is nothing but a curse.
‘Scarlett was right, the only option when facing such a thing is to destroy it.’
Lith felt Solus shivering at his words. It took him a few seconds to remember how the Scorpicore had attempted to kill her out of prejudice.
‘Don’t you even dare to compare yourself to that monstrosity. You give me hope every single day. You are my first and most dear friend in all my three lives! The Black Star does nothing but take. It robbed the Kandurians of everything.’
Lith’s mind was invaded again by the memory of a farmer that, during the years of madness, had been forced to kill his own children at the beginning of every cycle to prevent his neighbors from defiling their bodies.
‘I’m sick of this place.’ He thought in disgust. ‘Let’s finish our mission and get out of here.’
The agony and madness of the acquired memories burned through his brain like acid. As soon as the next light cycle began, Lith entered the barrier. He already knew what would happen and where to find the crowd.
His mind was cold again. He considered his situation like removing a band aid. The faster the better.
On the other side, a man was tilling the land near his house. He knew it was a fool’s errand, but after centuries of entrapment, it was the only part of his life that still made sense.
It was the same farmer that had greeted Lith during the previous cycle. The moment the farmer noticed Lith approaching, he dropped his hoe on the ground and ran towards him.
“How did you get in, stranger? Are you here to help us?” He asked again.
Lith was about to dismiss the man when he realized the words were gibberish no more.
“What did you say?”
