Chapter 399: An Offer
"So... I’m screwed, huh?" Laz felt like he had been hit with a baseball bat... or maybe a train considering a baseball bat would no longer hurt him.
’How the hell am I suppose to be ready in two days?’
Laz looked at Zal and had to fight back the urge to strangle him knowing that it was just a projection and therefore couldn’t strangle him.
"Don’t look at me like that. This isn’t my fault. Besides, it’s not like there is no chance..."
"Right. There is a chance, like a snow ball’s chance in hell..."
"My understanding of your hell indicates that the lowest level of hell is actually a place of ice and absolute cold?"
"Really... Actually, how do you understand all these things, including my language? I would have assumed you had never met someone who speaks English by the time you got locked up?"
"Oh? That. Well, it’s not hard. When I brought your consciousness in here, I just scanned your brain as well. Things like language and background knowledge are pretty easy to acquire since they aren’t guarded like other memories."
"You scanned my brain? Shit... Look.."
"Before you say anything, remember this point. Your mind is like a living vault. Things that are valuable are harder to access where as things that are common, like language, you don’t bother protecting. Had I tried to scan your memories, you would have felt it and resisted. And considering your mental strength and my imprisonment of hundreds of years making me weak, I would never have gotten in to get them."
Laz wasn’t sure if he was hearing the truth or not considering he couldn’t read Zal’s facial features, but he felt the words to hold meaning and therefore breathed a sigh of relief. If someone could just take things from his head just as easy as snapping their fingers, then the world would be in grave danger in the future.
During the moment that Laz was feeling relieved though, he noticed a problem with what Zal had said.
"Wait. So... you’re saying that if you had time to recover, you’d be able to access someone’s memory without a problem?"
"Yes. Understand that it’s not easy. The more complicated the target, the harder it is to get the info. If I wished to look through a birds memories to see if they had seen a particular person, it would be as simple as anything. But a human’s would require a lot more digging just to get to the same information."
"Fuck."
"Anyway, that’s not important. What is important is that you shall need to break through the shackles holding you down and reach the next realm if you ever want a chance of freeing me. It’s also important to note that it’s not just physical strength you need, it’s fighting off the residual energy that is locking the stakes in place. By all accounts, they should have been greatly weakened, almost to the point of being useless. But the energy had been molded into the stakes from the beginning. So all they’ve been doing is losing energy over the years, just not all of it."
"Ok. So... do you have a plan?"
"Yes. I want you to drain off the remaining energy by using it for your breakthrough..."
"Why does that sound like a bad idea? Like a really bad idea? Like why do I feel like this would kill me?" Laz said as a shiver went down his back.
"Well. normally it would. But I don’t think that’s the case with you."
"You don’t?"
"No."
"And why is that?"
"Well. Your spirit has been here for a while already and you’ve yet to be affected by my body being close by. Normally by now, with my sealed energy rupturing, you should be writhing on the ground in pain while bleeding from your seven orifices. But look at you. You’re perfectly fine!" Zal seemed like he was complimenting Laz, in a way.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BLEEDING FROM MY?"
"Well. Yes. With the stakes in my head, my power is sealed along with my mental facilities. After being down here for so long, normally, I’d be drained. But ever since the great tree came back, the world has started coming alive with energy and my body has begun filling up again. If I was able to control myself, I would be able to circulate the energy and infuse it into myself as even a little bit is better than nothing. Sadly though, I can’t. So at this moment, there is a bunch of rampant energy just coursing through and around my body without a purpose. Have you ever tried to capture lightning in a bottle? Well, that doesn’t work and is a stupid way to get yourself hit by lightning. But anyway, let’s suppose you could. With the way the energy build up works, unless the cap is sealed in a way where the lightning couldn’t escape, than it would occasionally discharge, especially when you keep putting more and more energy into the bottle. if it didn’t, then it would explode. My body naturally doesn’t want to explode, so occasionally it releases the energy from an open orifice. As far as I can tell, the channeled energy seems to be hitting some rocks around me and charging them up. While the energy is still pure, it’s slightly filtered through me, so it’s a bit more docile. If it wasn’t, then all of those stone would explode the moment they were shaken too hard."
"Ah..." Laz finally understood the secret to the energy stones that the order had been mining.
"Wait... You said it get’s discharged through you... how...?"
"To be honest, it’s kind of painful to let it come out of my noise or eyes or such. In fact, there are only two orifices in the human body designed for excretion and one of them is kind of sensitive. So I just let the energy out through the other one." If a projection could show signs of embarrassment, Laz felt that Zal would be a different color right now, like a shade of red.
"So you shit lightning? Well... fuck... that’s.... I guess it’s better that it comes out of your ass as opposed to your manhood...." Laz felt a bit dirty. Knowing he had absorbed the ass energy of a god made him feel like he hadn’t showered enough recently.
"Back on topic. So if you make your breakthrough on top of my body, you will be able to force the remaining energy from the stakes into yourself. The best part is that it’s actually energy from my brother. Based on what you have said, you’d be the first person of your time to cultivate with the energy of a god!"
Laz had to admit, it did sound tempting. Not only would he be able to use the energy of a god, but it would also help him in his task of freeing Zal. Two birds, one stone. But now Laz felt suspicious. Where was the catch?
"Ok. So where’s the catch. There is no way this is going to work out as perfect as you’re making me believe." Laz felt that asking directly was the best choice. He didn’t have time to beat around the bush.
"The problem. Yes. Well, I can’t say for sure, but I think that such activities above my body would waken it that much sooner. And sure, the stakes would be god energy free... But they would still be blocking my mental capacities."
"So your saying that my break through would be like an alarm clock to you?"
"Alarm clock?" Uh. Well, yes it would wake me up almost immediately, leaving you with little time to address the issue with the stakes before I start my rampage."
Zal said no more, waiting to hear Laz’s thoughts.
’The god energy would ensure my breakthrough, but I would immediately have to deal with a deranged, rampaging god. If I don’t do this though, I might take longer to break through and could risk not being ready by the time he wakes up. Damned if I do and Damned if I don’t. I guess I might as well go for broke then.’ Laz finally made up his mind. He would do this, even if it was crazy.
Laz then relayed his decision to Zal who seemed to bounce around with joy, as much as a stiff projection could.
"Oh. Good. OK. Then from that point on, it will be up to you. Remove the stakes from my head and I’ll keep my part of the deal and join your master on her side."
"Alright. I guess this is it than. So uh... how do I get out of here?"
"Oh. That’s easy. You just have to wake up!"
BAM.
Laz opened his eyes to see himself still sitting in the secluded spot he had chosen. The wards around him were undisturbed, except for the one that was to protect against mental attacks. That one had been burned right through and was still smoldering on the ground. Seeing this, Laz frowned, but still got up and ran off to Nora’s place. He would need to talk to her and Celes first before organizing everything. They had already started their plans, but now they would need to mobilize the entire order and get them ready.
Back under the ground, the green man still floated there without moving. It then turned a deep black color as the sound of laughter could be heard echoing in the space. Another green projection came into view, one that was full of movement and expression and looked over at the black figure.
"What’s so funny brother?" The green man said, looking at the laughing black projection.
"Nothing brother. Nothing at all. I’m just thinking how amazing fate really is.... HAHAHAHAHA!" The black figure started laughing again as the green figure looked on for a few moments before shaking it’s head and disappearing again, leaving the black figure to it’s own madness.
