Mark walks into Clawford’s office without knocking and immediately goes on a tangent.

  “I cannot believe you think allowing that demon to join our ranks is a good idea. By the goddess’s name, if reason can’t pierce you, then please think about what would happen. Either demonic fury or divine wrath, the ESP in Bridgepoor will die.”

  Clawford calmly closed the drawer he was fishing in and pulled out a cigar. He let the silence between them stand as Clawford lit it and took a puff.

  “Like I’ve told you countless times by now. Maverick isn’t a demon. I’m aware of your beliefs and have considered them.” Clawford’s voice then gets softer. “I know what you're so against it, but you don’t have the full picture. Maverick is exactly the type of talent we need at the moment. Just try to think of it from his perspective. Something really bad happened to him, and now he has to deal with the consequences of surviving. He was an innocent made a victim.”

  Mark’s shoulders slacked a little, and his expression became downtrodden. “Fine, I’ll trust you made the right decision and drop it.” Mark left the office, slamming the door on his way out.

  “That boy,” Clawford sighed and took another puff.

  He then got up and went to Herald's lab. When he got close, he could sense a large amount of demonic energy, but hidden underneath it was the normal spirituality that any human would have. ‘I look forward to seeing what you become, Maverick.’ Clawford thought.

  Maverick, Herald, Mrs. Packerson, and Maverick make their way to an underground passage within the right corridor. On both sides of this corridor, some cells hold monsters and spirits. Maverick only had a vague awareness of their spiritual auras. However, he would not be able to sense it if he had not been briefed by Herald earlier. The party made its way to the end of the corridor, where there was a large circular room lined with filled shelves of seemingly random objects and junk.

  Herald cleared his throat. “The first advancement ritual is composed of only three things, first the target's spirituality, an object charged with spirituality, and the ritual circle. The circle is already drawn, and you definitely have enough spirituality. To get what we need, you have to go down there and take the object that calls out to you.” Herald explains

  “What do you mean by calls out to me?” Maverick asked

  “I can’t explain it much more than that. You can take anything except the large staff in the center of the room. If you get into trouble, just holler.”

  “Should I be concerned?” Maverick glanced back at Clawford and Mrs. Packerson.

  “We're only here in case the worst happens. You needn’t fear anything as long as you keep your wits about you.” Clawford said while nodding to the area below, urging Maverick on.

  He sighed, then steeled himself. The stairs down were steep. With every step, Maverick thought he might trip and fall. When he made it to the bottom, the contents of the shelves around him were either esoteric and strange or could only be described as scraps. He walked around confused and slightly annoyed by Herlad’s vagueness. ‘How long is this going to take?’ He thought. Then he shook his head. “No. I need to stay sharp. This is probably a I’ll know it when I see it type of deal.”

  Maverick suddenly stopped and looked to the side. He felt a pull unlike anything he had before. On the shelf before him was a copper knife. It appeared to have broken a long time ago. When Maverick went to pick it up, the wooden parts of the handle crumpled in his hand from rot. He took the knife and then walked around the area. He felt similar pulls from various objects, including an old wooden shield, a small quartz crystal, and a random gold coin. Maverick was surprised by the fact that there was a random gold coin in this pit. He was about to take it before he thought better of it. The coin was here for a reason; there was no need to invite calamity.

  The stairs up were so much worse than the descent. Once he made it up, Herald and Clawford were gone. Only Mrs. Packerson was left.

  “The other two left to prepare when they saw you coming back.” Mrs. Packerson explained

  “Shall we catch up then?”

  Mrs. Packerson nodded and turned to lead the way. This time, they went out through the official police station and not the bakery. Outside was a carriage with Herald sitting in the coach's seat.

  “Do you know what you're doing, Herald?” Mrs. Packerson asked.

  “More often than you, you old kadger,” Herald responded with a smile.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Mrs. Packerson grimaced, “I suppose you're tired of bread then. I’ll pray to the Beast King for your pallet.”

  Herald sat up and reached out a hand to Mrs. Packerson. “No. Mildrid, I’m sorry. It’s impossible to find bread out here without you. Please forgive me.”

  Maverick chuckled to himself. ‘It is unfortunate that wheat doesn’t grow in Elmyr. It is a rather mountainous country with little rainfall, so it's not a very good agricultural state anyway.’ Maverick thought.

  “Maverick, let me see what you got,” Herald asked

  I held the knife up to him and let him get a look. As Herald examined it, he smiled and chuckled. “Of course, you would find something with this much spirituality.”

  ‘That's what that feeling is?’ Maverick thought

  “Herald, are we ready?” Clawford asked as he walked out of the station with Mark in tow.

  “Yes, Inspector, we can leave whenever,” Herald responded

  ‘Inspector? Right, the police are our cover.’ Maverick thought.

  Clawford nodded and got into the carriage. Maverick and Mark shared an awkward glance before both of them tried getting in at the same time. After they bumped into each other, Maverick took a step back. “You go first.” Maverick scoffed and then went in. Maverick went in after him and sat down. For the next few hours, the ride would be torcherously quite and awkward for all involved.

  When they finally stopped, the sun had already set. Herald lit a lantern hanging off the carriage and hopped off. Clawford stepped down and snapped his fingers. A small flame came from his fingers and shot forward before stopping in front of us. Clawford snapped his fingers a few more times, and the flames spun around and lit up the area as they walked. They walked into a thick forest till they came across a clearing bordered by a giant iron ring.

  “Is this the ritual circle?” Maverick asked.

  “No, that is,” Herald responded.

  In the middle of the clearing was a stone slab. On the stone slab was a ritual circle drawn with chalk. There was an outer circle and an inner circle about ? the diameter of the outer one. A line stretched down from the top through the inner circle to the bottom. On each side of the inner circle were six dots separated into two equal groups by the line.

  “I trust you know what to do,” Clawford said

  Maverick nodded and stepped over the iron ring. The others stayed behind it. He went and stepped onto the circle in the center. Once it was activated, the circle flickered to life. Maverick could feel the others' anticipation as the ethereal glow of the circle took on a dark purple color. As it did, Maverick could see Herald quietly celebrating out of the corner of his eye. Maverick smiled, then the knife floated up into the air and started faintly glowing that purple color. It was a sight to behold before the knife disintegrated. As the ash itself disapeared Maverick’s spirituality was coaxst out of him. It all erupted and diffused into the area within the iron ring. Maverick then breathed in and let go. Allowing as much of his spirituality to leave his body as he could bear. It also started disappearing till the circle flickered out and the chalk blackened. Maverick opened his eyes and could see a whole new world.

  New information appeared in his mind. This wasn’t like when Maverick’s memories crashed over him; it was like a calm explanation or intuition from his spirituality. ‘I’m a warrior class mystic. I have three main abilities: spiritual control, spiritual sensitivity, and Biological spiritual infusion. The first two simply let me see and interact with spirituality. Which is a big step up. Like the difference between sensing heat and seeing in infrared. But the third is the most interesting power. I can infuse my spirit into my body to augment it in some way. Infuse my legs to run faster, my arms to hit harder, or even my blood to stop myself from bleeding out.’ Mavrick reviewed his new abilities and was inundated with a renewed sense of curiosity at the limits of his new abilities.

  Before Maverick could celebrate any further, something black started crawling on his eyes. It was like dozens of black maggots came from behind his eye and obstructed his vision before blocking him out completely. Maverick panicked a little and blinked in rapid succession. When he stopped, he found himself somewhere else. It was an older-looking castle even for the 1700s-ish times he found himself in. Not that Maverick had even been in a castle before. He took stock of his surroundings. Everything was in shades of black. The room he found himself in was a grand throne room. ‘Is this part of the ritual. I don’t think so. I need to think, where is a chair?’ Just as Maverick thought this, a chair made of darkness arose from the ground and made itself real. ‘Did this come here because of my thoughts? I’m going to try something.’ Maverick lifted his hand and thought, ‘computer.’ As he did a replica of his personal computer, from Earth came out of the darkness and fully materialized. Maverick excitedly tried turning it on, but it wouldn’t work.

  “Guess that’s too much to ask.”

  Maverick then investigated the room. When he made his way to the throne, he sat in it out of curiosity. It felt weirdly comfortable, like it was the best seat he had ever taken. His train of thought was interrupted by banging on the other side of the ornate doors at the other end of the room. ‘What the hell is going on over there?’ Maverick inmusivly thought. He then could see what was happening, superimposed on what he saw with his eyes. Maverick quickly closed them to focus on what was happening on the other side of the door.

  Two people were banging on the door while some monster was chasing them. ‘Open the door.’ Maverick thought, adjusting to his new power. ‘Monster, go away.’ From what Maverick could see, the monster sank into the darkness of the floor as soon as he thought that. When he heard the door open completely, he opened his eyes, and the two immediately bowed before him. ‘Do they think I’m the lord of this place or something? Do they live here? If I act like I am the lord here, they might answer my questions.’ Maverick smiled to himself and spoke. When he did, he tried to mask his voice, but this place did it for him, making his voice deep, mysterious, and ethereal.

  “Rise.”

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  Please like and comment. I would greatly appreciate it. I post a new part every week on Sunday at 12 P.M.