12 Chapter 12
[ 7 days have passed since the previous card has been drawn. A new opportunity to draw a card is available. Would you like to draw a character card? ]
The emotionless voice that he had spent the last hours eagerly anticipating finally resounded in his mind.
An alcove in the trunk of an old and towering oak provided him with both shelter and privacy for the night. The alcove was large, big enough to comfortably fit his statuesque frame. The previous owner had been an enormous and decidedly delicious male hawk.
"Draw." Konlan said aloud with a smile. While a single thought would suffice to operate the blue panel, he found a unique pleasure in doing so with words.
Through the monotonous days of journeying through the vast forests, he had taken the opportunity to further explore the semi-sentience of the blue panel.
The depressing majority of his attempts to communicate were met with a bitter silence. However a scarce few were rewarded.
Konlan had received three pieces of information from the blue panel.
The first was that he was the sole subject of the panel. The second was that the panel held the potential to grow alongside him. The final piece of information was transmitted to him as a series of garbled static noises; he would receive this response without fail upon making any form of inquiry towards the panel's origin.
The blue panel provided endless potential for growth, even if it had limits they were far too lofty for the current him to ascertain.
Following his verbal command, an iota of blue light burst into existence. The sparkling fluid like orb cast a familiar gentle cerulean hue over Konlan's handsome face.
[ The draw is complete. The card drawn is: Lesser Mind Demon.
Description: The mind demon stalks the dreams of its prey. Man's will bends like water to its whims and wars spanning nations are instigated with a single demonic whisper.
Abilities gained: [ Coercion ] [ Memory Altering ] [ Illusion creation ] .... ]
Fast and heavy breathing echoed in the wooden alcove. Konlan's eyes were lit up with fiery desire as he greedily read through the dozens of abilities listed on the blue panel.
The lesser mind demon was a creature from a unknown sub-plane in a fantasy world. Within the confines of abyss where it was born and nourished by demonic miasma; the demon's power was pitifully weak. Against others of its race its mind control abilities were rendered pathetically ineffective.
In order to eek out anguished existence in the abyss, the mind demon had to spend its every moment struggling desperately to survive.
While most mind demons died wretched deaths under the claws of other demon's that possessed fangs and claws more suited to combat; a fortunate few were taken note of by powerful greater demons.
In the demon world, mind demons could be considered almost completely useless.
However, in the human world, they were practically gods.
Within every single human being lay a seed of greed and violence. In most, this seed would lie dormant or perhaps even be covered up by justice and righteousness. Nonetheless, the seed still existed.
Human society was built upon hierarchies and social classes. For this reason, a minute percentage of the population could hold unfathomable power.
Even the weakest mind demon could manipulate a dozen ordinary humans. Under the trickery and deceit of these unique demons, wars that spanned entire continents could be instigated in a matter of hours.
"Integrate."
The intensity of the blue light rose sharply, shining so bright that the surrounding wildlife turned their heads to stare at the strange glimmering beacon.
The integration process was swift and painless.
On the surface no change had occurred, however in Konlan's mind vast amounts of knowledge and blood-inherited magic swirled rapidly.
Unbeknownst to him, two long and curled horns formed in the shadows above his head.
Integrating with the mind demon had brought Konlan a plethora of new abilities. His first use of these new abilities was to bewitch the surrounding wildlife into collecting a feast of nuts and berries for him.
Squirrels, ravens and even ants marched in a singular long column. A hazy dream like cloudiness accompanied the slightly stiff movements of the unnatural procession.
The hundreds of plump delicious blackberries, currants and hazel seeds were reflected in Konlan's wide eyes.
"This is incredible." He whispered.
Not even the bravest royal guard would willingly come to the ghostly and uninhabited forests that surrounded King Foltest's haunted manor. For this reason Konlan was left disappointed in his desires to experiment on human subjects.
'Come on witcher, I do not wish to wait here until winter.' He thought to himself.
An idea struck him suddenly.
Berries squished underfoot as Konlan raised himself to his full height. The slow rhythmic beat of fingertips rapping against wood echoed in the darkness.
"Why wait for you to come to me, when I could go to you instead?"
The faint moonlight reflected from his eyes vanished suddenly. With his eyes tightly shut he tapped into another portion of a mind demon's powers.
For a moment nothing happened.
Then something strange took place.
The air rippled. Seemingly insignificant yet bringing with it an ancient sinister spirit that would've made a man's knees betray him.
This wickedness disappeared as quickly as it came.
Allowing the demonic forces within it to leach out into the material world was a mistake that only a newborn lesser mind demon would make. Due to his unfamiliarity with his powers, Konlan had allowed this error to occur.
Konlan swiftly eliminated any other traces his ineptitude had left behind.
To the north, tens of kilometers away, a tower was lit up by a flash of lightning. A woman's seductive figure, defiantly veiled only by a thin nightgown despite the biting chill of the night, suddenly awoke from her sleep.
Red hair fell down across around her beautiful features. Her shuddering gasps and panicked eyes suggested some terrible dream had befallen her.
Magic was unpredictable. Ban Ard and Aretuza taught sorcerers to harness the power of chaos; however they could only harness, not control.
Triss Merigold was a powerful sorceress. Even rarer among practitioners of magic; she still retained a kind spirit. On multiple occasions she had played an instrumental role in keeping the white-haired Witcher alive.
Triss did not relish her peacekeeping duties in the court of King Foltest. He was a slimy and greedy old man, he preferred to divert her magic into sustaining his pathetic life rather than improving the welfare of his kingdom.
While she did not know it, a character who's fate was even more complex than Geralt's, was slowly making his way towards the court over which she held sway.
Soon the champions of destiny would come together.
The consequences of this were yet to be known.
