Ch 96 – Eric the Alchemist
Currently, on a blue planet filled with swirling white clouds and large green landmasses, a certain building can be seen standing atop a certain continent. Within that building, a man with short black hair, black eyes, fair white skin, and wearing a white lab coat and a pair of glasses over his face can be seen.
His name was Eric, a scientist from the planet called Earth just quietly admiring the plants situated outside his window.
'If only, just imagine the possibilities if a being were to possess the ability to mold the world around them? With only a thought, I can rearrange the atomic structure of the world around me.' Eric chuckled at the ridiculous daydreams he has been having lately. Being so successful while being so young, he can't help but have such fantastical dreams from time to time to ease his boredom when he wasn't doing research.
*HONKKKKKK!*
But out of nowhere, Eric heard loud honking sounds beside him causing him to look to the wall on his left and watch a fucking truck just bulldoze through it out of nowhere.
'Truck-kun?!' Eric thought for the last time within the scientific planet called Earth as his body was crushed by the truck that came from nowhere.
But that was not his final thoughts, nay, they were just his final coherent thoughts. After being hit by the truck, Eric groggily thought with his dying mind at the fantastical adventures he would have in another world. Becoming a hero, getting a harem, revolutionizing a world of magic into one of science.
Though, is reality usually so nice to its inhabitants?
Upon waking up, instead of a grandeur kingdom or a rural fantasy village, he instead woke up in a lot of pain inside a dark alleyway filled with filth and garbage as a malnourished child.
'What?' Instantly, his fantasize dreams of fun and adventure were broken. With the desperation of death, he quickly got accustomed to living inside the fantastical and oh-so-magical otherworld of Terra as an orphan kid.
"Hmm?" But under one miraculous day for Eric when he absentmindedly look out into the open street with a bowl in front of him filled with donations by passing citizens, an old man wearing scholarly robes suddenly stopped beside him and crouch down on the ground.
"Donations… please," Eric mumbled with a hoarse voice, not even noticing the old man who has sat down beside him.
"Hey kid," the old man said which made Eric's eyes widen after finally noticing the old man.
"I-I'm so sorry, Mage sir! P-please t-take some of my money for my impudence!" Eric hastily said, stammering his words as fear was shown through his eyes.
Sighing, the old man cleared his throat and said a sentence that would change Eric's life forever, not one towards heroism similar to those of trashy isekai fantasies, nay! It instead led him down a dark path of almighty power, "I'm lacking some servants for my abode, and I don't mind having a diligent child such as you working for me."
From that moment on, Eric was taken by the kind old man into working for him as a butler at his mansion. He was a particularly rich mage, a scholar of the arcane path, and particularly studied the system of magic circles.
And one thing lead to another, Eric was given the chance to examine the quality of his soul and his attribute, learning that he has the average Gray Soul and a superbly rare attribute Sacrifice.
"Ohoho, I didn't expect you to have such a rare attribute, Eric me boy. Say, do you want to learn magic under me?" The Old Man chuckled while stars lit up within his eyes. What the old man didn't know was that in this one moment, he has led a monster's rise to power within this very world.
Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and months turned to years. With his previous background as a scientist and the harsh experiences he went through as a beggar, Eric feverously studied magic under the old man and also became fascinated with Magic Circles.
Inscriptions that manipulates the world around it with flexibility far surpassing the rigid magic system of the world, with only one attribute that can be used to cast only one path of spells. But with Magic Circles, one can cast nearly any type of magical command to the world with enough knowledge.
And so, under his diligent studying, the old man was more than happy to teach Eric all of his gathered knowledge throughout his long life. Not knowing that he was only fueling the flames of growth to Eric's grand plan he has concocted after learning the existence of Magic Circles.
'With this! WITH THIS! I'LL FINALLY BE ABLE TO ALTER THE WORLD AS I SO PLEASE!' Eric thought with a maddening grin, stabbing his knife into the palm of his left hand as a sharp sense of pain assaulted his mind, causing him to take a deep breath. But his thirst for power overpowered the pain, causing him to continue to carve out a magic circle to his very flesh as blood flowed to the wooden floor below him endlessly, forming a pool of blood as his grin widens when the magic circle was finished.
Crouching down slowly to the ground, his open left palm made contact with the bloody ground and the magic circle made carved to his very flesh turned into a black tattoo once mana was funneled into it, then glowed a bloody red light once more mana was used to power it. Instantly, the blood pool below him slowly gathered at his left palm and formed into a small red ball as he held back his urge to laugh loudly.
'I DID IT! THE POWER TO MANIPULATE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF REALITY ITSELF! HAHAHAHAHA!' Eric muffled his laughter as more and more ideas filled his mind. Ideas that can only be considered villainous.
And so, a few more years passed and Eric can now be seen holding a metallic sword with his right arm while the old man looked at him terrified.
"ERIC! YOU BASTARD! I TREATED YOU WITH LOVE AND KINDNESS AND YOU'LL BETRAY ME JUST LIKE THIS?!" The old man shouted while pointing his wooden staff at him. Instantly, a large fireball formed while Eric only looked at the old man with an apathetic gaze.
Slamming his right foot to the ground, the wooden floor below the old man suddenly shoot towards the air and transformed into a sharp wooden spike, plunging straight through the old man's neck and through the top of his head as Eric felt no hint of remorse.
Waving his hand, the wooden floor turned into a wooden arm that dragged the old man's body to the center of the mansion where a gigantic magic circle can be seen. In the middle of the gigantic bloody magic circle, all the butlers and maids of the mansion were stacked on a pile of dead bodies and Eric nonchalantly threw the old man to the pile.
"I sacrifice thee, the bodies of humans to garner the power of souls, [Activate]," Instantly, the red magic circle inscribe on the wooden floor glowed a bloody red light and the bodies of all the humans on top of it decompose and slowly formed into a small glowing red stone on the air. Within it holds a vast amount of power directed from souls themselves.
Grinning, Eric grabs the stone as he felt his power overflowing, the illusion of even bypassing the laws of Equivalent Exchange – the very basis his current power follows – entered his mind. But he knew it wasn't true, it was just using the souls instead as the exchange allowing the power he named "Alchemy" to do things far beyond his reach from before.
Instantly, he grabs ahold of the air in front of him and transformed it as easy as breathing into a chunk of gold. From air to gold, the drastic difference in atomic structure was far too absurd for him to even feasibly do it mere moments ago from mana expenditure, but now… Now, everything is different.
With an increase in power, power override Eric's cautious mind as he committed heinous acts one after another to further amplify his own power and the stone now named Philosopher's Stone.
From one village to two villages, to eventually towns and finally a small kingdom, that was the final straw for the Holy Church to finally make a move.
"Die, you devil!" a man wearing a priest robe shouted. Raising his staff along with many other members of the Holy Church, a gigantic spear of light appeared and shot towards the profusely bleeding Eric.
'SHIT!' Eric thought, in that instance, the world around him seemingly slowed down to a snail's pace as he used the Philosopher's Stone and a bleu portal suddenly appeared behind him. Passing through it at the last moment with his dying body, the existence of Eric the Devil has officially ended in the outside world.
But oh no, no, no. Eric still had his last breath to live.
Inside his own dungeon he personally made, Eric slowly created a plan for a chance at revival. To create a form of a farm where he will allow people to enter his own dungeon, and by manipulating the physical laws of his own dungeon, he would deprive the dungeon and the people who enter of mana.
Hastily, black splotches erupted from the ground beside him as biological lifeforms called Shadows were made. After years of sacrificing human souls, he naturally learned how to control the impurities that reside within souls and created these abominations of life.
Flying high up into the air with his dwindling life force, he reshaped the whole area around him. From creating the sea to a small island, even creating houses and even guns. A world where more than a thousand humans could thrive and populate, creating a small civilization within his very dungeon.
Landing back to the ground, he gouges open his chest and implanted the Philosopher's Stone deep inside his body. And so, he closes his eyes as impurities covered his body whole, turning him from human to a Shadow, using most of the Philosopher's Stone power to fully alter his existence, leaving him with enough energy to open the dungeon entrance once, and only once, meaning he has to wait patiently for the perfect chance to open it.
And so, Eric waited, he waited for hundreds of years. Until… Until, that being appeared.
While currently meditating inside his cavern, Eric opened his yellow eyes to see the area in front of him glitch for a moment, and out came a humanoid being out of nowhere, wearing a pair of revealing clothes and a large witch hat that covers her snow white hair and scarlet red eyes. "So this is where the legendary Devil resides, I knew a being like you wouldn't simply die so easily."
'A projection?' Eric thought as he stood up and slowly walked over to the witch that appeared out of nowhere.
"I didn't expect anyone to ever arrive inside my dungeon without my consent. So how-"
But without any warning, the projection of the girl suddenly transformed into a scarlet light and entered Eric's head. Closing his eyes, he grunted as he fell down to his knees and grabbed his head painfully.
"AHHH!" Eric shouted as he opened his eyes fully, from golden yellow, it transformed into a dark scarlet color as he slowly stood up with an apathetic gaze.
"Tch, my plan of gaining your abilities and memories won't work, huh?" Eric, or more specifically, the girl who took over Eric's body muttered. Shrugging her shoulders, the girl clasps her hands and watches multiple Shadows appear all around her numbering in the hundreds.
"It's finally time to see what Honda the Looper is capable of," The girl muttered, waving her hands, a blue portal appeared right in front of her as the memories finally ended.
'Huh, who would have thought there would be a mysterious person appearing from nowhere.' Lute thought as he watches a blue portal slowly open right in front of him as he looks back towards Honda in the distance.
"OI! It's done! Yami that mothefucker is dead!" Lute shouted as both Bella and Silvy shouted in joy. But Lute easily noticed Honda looked at him suspiciously, causing him to secretly roll his eyes inside his mind.
'To think I would once again gain the ability to control the building blocks of the world once more, not only that, it's fully done through magic, meaning it still aligns with the still vague Enlightenment Plan.' Grinning, Lute waited for the others to arrive as their adventure within this dungeon of mysteries is finally over.
AN: This is 2150 words, you're welcome.
Ohohoho, guess what the Alchemy Magic is controlling! Kekeke, a weird natural energy that binds the building blocks of matter altogether, one can even say it's pretty strong.
Also, the next chapter would warp your whole perception of the time they spent in the dungeon, like a complete 180, or well, more of a 90 degree twist.
Writing = work, power stones = good.
(July 20, 2022 – 238th day of writing)