“Experiment Log #28,
“Hypothesis: Spellform Creation Through Affinity Mixing,
“Result: Experiment failed. Combining the Mind Numb Axiom with a Qualitative Warding Barrier resulted in a mild uncontrolled explosion. Further tweaking on the anima expulsion rates is necessary. Compatibility between Mesmerism and Wards remains at 10%.”
Soren stretched his limbs as he stared at The Records chronicling another log…
Another failure… Even as those words entered his mind, he couldn’t help but smile. After all, his progress in the past two weeks couldn’t be any less miraculous.
“When will you realize it is useless?” A meek voice entered his mind and his previous smile instantly vanished.
“Tazzith… I told you already, it's useless to try and change my mind—I am as stubborn as a rock!”
“But it's foolish… And dangerous.”
“Your nagging is already a danger to my sanity. And when will you stop using a child’s voice, you ten thousand year old creep?!”
“Shut up! Do you know how hard it took me to finally find a voice that suited me well?! I’ve already grown fond of this voice!”
Soren smirked. “You know, I'd respect you more if you just came clean—you use that voice to lure prey in, don’t you?”
All of a sudden, Soren felt as if he heard a growl. “You dare to compare me, a Sovereign, to the likes of low level demons?! Such actions are beneath my standing!”
He could feel just how offended he was.
“Okay, okay, I apologize.” Soren chuckled. “But still, I won’t stop pursuing this path. Even if it is foolish.”
Silence hung in the air for a moment before he heard a sigh. “Hmph. Fine, suit yourself. You’ll give up eventually.”
He shook his head. Seeing the mysterious fountain pen finish writing out the experiment log, he reached for the nightstand and blew out the candle. Darkness enveloped the underground dungeon room.
Tucking himself into bed, Soren couldn’t help but stare at the darkened ceiling—his thoughts in complete disarray.
Is Tazzith right? Is it really impossible?
What Soren had been trying to accomplish over the past week was something deemed impossible by the wider audience of scholars and magi in Yarian. Something that many saw to be a taboo art.
Affinity mixing.
In essence, bringing the axioms of one affinity, and connecting them to the axioms of another affinity—using material runes of reason—to create a hybrid spellform of two affinities…
It was obvious why such an art was seen as taboo. At its very core, affinities were in essence, different shades of a person’s personality. Some have more shades than others, but the consensus was the same regardless of the quantity:
Never mix that which should not be mixed.
Anima was, at its core, the manifestation of one’s own will. But these ‘shades’ tend to color that anima in whatever personality trait they represent. The willpower within that anima will begin to influence the Soul Realm into being shaded in its color…
If one were to mix two different wills together…
Chaos.
Or more specifically, chaos in the mind… Insanity.
No one has ever been able to accomplish Affinity Mixing, because it was akin to splitting your mind in half and letting the two sides cooperate with each other—even when their personalities didn’t mesh well…
In Soren’s case, it was even worse. His second affinity… It wasn’t even his own.
As he stared at the dark ceiling, his mind wandered back to when he first reviewed his status page after successfully signing the contract with Tazzith.
He had used [Record] to imprint the information within his mind.
Status
Name: Soren Andersen
Race: ???
Age: 23
Vocation: Scribe
Magi Rank: Senior Apprentice (Pseudo 1st Circle)
Magi Affinities: Mesmerism, Wards
Soul Realm: The Hermit’s Eye (Unique) (Infant Stage)
Soul Weapon: The Records (Unique) (Tier 1 - Tome)
Conduit Connection: Stable
Skills: [Record], [Eyes of the Fairy], [The Faerie Court]
Blessings:
[Traveler] (Unknown) - You have embarked on a journey across space and time. Echoes of the rift will no longer shatter your sanity.
[Fake Fairy] (Tazzith) - You have received a spark of consciousness from a demon. A portion of your mind has forever been twisted.
Anchors: [Julie-Anne Kafka] (Earth), [Tazzith] (Yarian)
Rune Collection: [Fairy Witness] (4 Insight)
An eternal reminder of his progress. Soren smiled.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Even though many of the sections had changed, his memory of the status sheet remained fixed on one aspect—his affinities.
More specifically, Wards. An affinity that he had gained through his contract with Tazzith… At the cost of his sanity.
Even now, it pissed him off greatly.
How can that be considered a blessing? The Records… Is the figment of my imagination playing a prank on me?
Even now, two weeks later, it still seemed ridiculous. Nevertheless, he knew that his Soul Weapon only reflected the truth. And although he wanted to deny it… Aside from the side effects, gaining that second affinity could truly be considered a blessing.
Unlike Mesmerism which was unknown and seems to be extremely rare, Wards was highly common amongst successful magi… And also, extremely in demand.
No, even that was an understatement.
Without the Wards affinity, entire sectors of the economy could collapse.
The reason why was fairly simple—its versatility. Wards, at its very essence, was an affinity that governed over the concepts of formations and integrated systems…
Detection, traps, barriers… Its utility was extremely sought after since at its very core, Wards simply denoted how magecraft operated in response to its own unique factors. Or, if one wanted to be technical, it was essentially the next big leap after using simple Material Runes of Reason…
But aside from the overall advantages, the reason why Soren chose it was something far more fundamental…
Control.
All magi who possessed this affinity craved control. From perfectionists, engineers, artists… Anyone with a desire to control that which they possessed more accurately had a high likelihood of manifesting this affinity.
Soren too, had the potential, but his ‘Shade’ of self was also a reflection of not just his desire for control, but also his learnt talents at deception.
Deceiving humans.
That had become one of the core tenets of his life. And its tainted touch had corrupted him so deeply, even his Shade of Self reflected that reality…
Mesmerism… Was born.
An affinity that revolved around controlling the environment to deceive those who exist within its reach… A truly cunning and deceptively monstrous affinity.
But it's also because of this, that Soren realized something. Because his affinity was extremely rare, progressing through it without any guidance from a grimoire was close to impossible.
So far, his divinations, even after two weeks of research, only resulted in him being able to discover three material runes for Mesmerism… Something he configured together into an axiom he called the Mind Numb Axiom. If he were to continue on with his current pace….
It was this desperation that led him into researching Wards. This affinity that was extremely common held many similarities with his own. He theorized that if he could study some of the spellforms used in Wards, he might be able to reflect that knowledge somehow into spellforms for Mesmerism…
And then, with the inevitability of him signing a contract with Tazzith approaching, he decided to use the opportunity to obtain the affinity for himself.
Of course, he never realized the potential of that action until that incident happened…
“Hey, Grandpa Demon.”
“Hm?” Tazzith replied.
“You say it's foolish, but you saw it too didn’t you?”
Soren smiled.
“My grand performance during the Crimson Ritual Incident.”
The night of horror… A night stained crimson by a forest of deadly vines… One that reaped the lives of hundreds. It was akin to the very gods saying, “This is how a proper ritual to appease us is done!”
Well, at least to most cynical agnostics like him.
But aside from that, there was something else that stood out under the cover of the night. A lullaby that was heard across the plaza—one that calmed the hearts of every mortal there… As if to say, “Relax, everything will be fine, it's safe to fall asleep…”
Indeed, the one who invoked such a mesmerizing spell was none other than Soren himself… Albeit, subconsciously.
“Subconscious casting.” Tazzith spoke. “That is what you invoked.”
Even now, he had a hard time understanding it…
Subconscious casting was a theorized form of spellcasting that invoked the inner ‘will’ of the anima itself, rather than manifesting magecraft with the assistance of material runes. Soren’s research traced this concept back to the development of Soul Manuals used by Sentinels, which was surprising in itself.
Sentinels, who possess a Soul Frame, manipulate their anima at an instinctual level. Unlike Magi, whose Soul Realms extend outward to encompass large areas, a Sentinel’s spiritual zone was confined entirely to their own body only.
This extreme focus grants them unparalleled precision in controlling anima.
Comparing this to Magi however… Introduces problems. Magi, by their nature, expand their consciousness outside their own bodies. And the further one expands their Soul Realm beyond their current limits, the less control one has over their anima…
Hearing Tazzith’s answer, Soren smiled. “During my journey across the Beyond—before I met Hurion who saved me, I was able to succeed at subconscious casting and turn myself ‘Invisible.’ Of course, back then, I didn’t really understand how or why that worked, but now I do. My Astral Projected form required my Soul Realm to encompass my body, in the same way a Soul Frame would. I assume it was because of this that my level of control over my anima was heightened enough to be able to perform such a feat.
“But,” he followed. “That doesn’t explain what happened during the ritual.”
During his final confrontation with Silmar, the Whispering Dream, Soren was able to expand his Soul Realm to the size of an entire plaza. Albeit, most of that was due to the fact that he allowed Tazzith to lend him his anima, in accordance to the contract.
But that also meant that with his Soul Realm expanded to such a degree, his level of control over his anima should have been way less… And yet, maybe due to desperation or just the madness of having his consciousness screwed with, Soren managed to pull off subconscious casting and affinity mixing at the same time!
It was a feat that even now, he was struggling to replicate…
“Brat, did you already forget what happened to you after that incident? Your brain was close to being fried—you entered a coma for an entire week! And yet you still speak of this as if it isn’t a one off thing…”
“I can do it!” Soren replied. “I know I can! If I could do it back then, what’s stopping me from doing it again?! I just haven’t grasped the proper method yet…”
“Truly a Foolish One…”
Soren ignored him.
Yes, what he managed to do might have been a one-off miracle, but it was a possibility none-the-less… Especially when his mind wanders to the spell he managed to cast in the first place… A spell that mixed his Mesmerism abilities with what he now understood to be an axiom of his other affinity—Wards.
With Mesmerism as the base and Wards as a supplementary affinity, Soren was able to create a ‘barrier’ with the properties of his original affinity that made anyone in its vicinity fall asleep and see hallucinations.
He had successfully achieved Affinity Mixing… Subconsciously.
Even now, two weeks later, his mind still couldn’t give up on the idea… What he was able to perform that night was something he was still chasing after.
If he could just use the material runes for Wards as a substitute for Mesmerism, he could theoretically reach the First Circle instantly. It was for this reason that his status page listed him as a ‘pseudo’ First Circle Magi rather than an official one…
“I am running out of time, Tazzith. You know this better than anyone else. Five months from now, my Epoch Star will begin to move once more, and all the corruption I’ve gained will return at once. If I don’t reach the first circle and obtain another abstract rune by then, I will lose control and die…”
The voice in his head stayed silent so he simply sighed and closed his eyes. Tomorrow will be another day of trial and error.
“Extra! Extra!
“Border crisis worsens—the elves invade Magna Village! Get yours now!
“Come get your issue!”
As Soren ate his breakfast near a food stall, he watched as a newspaper hawker went around the busy market, yelling the latest news.
His brows furrowed. “So it's finally begun…”
The war between Yadria and Aellora.