Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

Chapter 1033

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Feeling his stomach twist as he went, a growing nausea that had been with him ever since he’d gotten up that day, Ben made the first stop that morning, arriving in at Pelenia’s home to make his way outside of it, looking for the building by its side as he passed through its halls and all it contained.

All around him were the pods of his fellow prisoners from his time on the demon world, those who hadn’t wanted to leave to face reality and those who couldn’t, with what fixes Ben had managed to place on their minds too fragile to allow them to know the truth of the world they’d ended up on, and how just as likely that it was as doomed as their last.

Still, he connected to them all as he walked through it, wanting to make sure that no unexpected consequences of the memory deletion he’d done had popped up in any of them and he found nothing, giving him a small grain of peace by the time he arrived at the single one there who didn’t fit, the demon contender he’d captured in his escape still thoroughly trapped.

Ben stared at its pod for a moment, lost in thought at the ill fate they seemed to share. It was the one who’d broken the device during the first wave, meaning it was the one who had both revealed what was being done to the spirits as well as created his first pathway to awakening both connect and his mind skills to their second tier. In the second wave, it had been the one to steal him away from the world, pulling him across the galaxy, and through that, led to everything he’d gained there as well. The demon god’s blessing, soul production, his first third tier job, and upon his escape, the space spirits to bring back with him, and that demon again had stood against him when Ben had claimed his freedom, becoming a prisoner of his own in return. And now there he was, trapped, both in time enchantments and mana exhaustion, unable to move or act, not even conscious of what had happened to him, and through that, Ben linked their souls, bringing the beast’s mind into his own and stimulated its consciousness, getting to hear it scream.

With awareness came rage, the knowledge that it had been taken and the knowledge that it had lost to something so far beneath it, but while it tried to attack, its magic was blocked from it. Even if it was awake in Ben’s mindspace, its soul was still being wrung of every drop of mana it held from the moribusial wrapping its body, but when it saw Ben’s own mental avatar, it charged.

“Hey, can we just not?” Ben asked it, trapping the demon’s construct in chains to bind its movement while at the same time applied deep calming to its mind, stripping it of its rage but unable to do anything about its hunger or sense of superiority over him. “I’m here to talk.”

“The food wants to speak, does it?” it laughed, looking like it believed it had the upper hand despite clearly being in the palm of Ben’s own. “Then speak. Let’s hear it.”

“As if your entire garbage race even had anything like language until… no, that’s not what I’m here about. I’m here to ask you questions and to get answers. Do you have any children?”

“What?” it asked back, genuinely caught off guard as the system conveyed the words’ meaning, answering honestly if only out of curiosity. “Who’s to say? They’re a consequence of mating, and the urge does strike occasionally.”

“I’m sure. And worlds? How many have you helped conquer?”

“Incorrect,” it said with a sharp smile. “None. All worlds already belong to my lord, he simply leaves us prey on them so we can test ourselves and enjoy the hunt.”

“Mmh. And mercy then? Have you ever granted it, even to one of your own kind?”

This time it didn’t speak up, too lost in its confusion. It heard the word, and the system was conveying its meaning to it, yet still it didn’t understand, leaving Ben to sigh.

“Yeah, what the hell am I doing, looking for even a trace of redemption in this thing’s soul? I’ve looked through its entire history; I already know all of the answers. I just want…”

What did he want? To find a bit of conflict when he asked, a hint of something better somewhere in it, just waiting to be found and brought out? He’d examined too many demons by that point; he was looking for something that didn’t exist, and he knew that well. There was no redemption in them, no kindness, no compassion, no mercy. All they were was violence and hunger, a god of survival's ideal taken to its most selfish extreme.

Instantly, Ben broke the connection with it, not needing anything more. It was a monster, and he would extend every bit of care and compassion that he could expect to get from it, doing what he needed to as he materialized a new circlet on its head before walking off, having other tasks to finish before he could move on.

Laying down in Elvat’s home, Yuzu massaged her head, the information Ben had claimed from past soul mages having been transferred over to all the world’s current ones by that point, with Elvat letting himself sink into the ocean’s depths as he processed everything he’d been given.

Of course, since Falk is technically capable of using soul spells as the world’s soulsmith, I will need to meet up with him too at some point, but that’s a later concern, Ben told himself, making a note to get that done in the future as Yuzu forced herself up, still looking overburdened by the knowledge despite the skill Ben had transferred it with.

“That really shouldn’t be hurting you at all,” he had to say, the past pain that might come with forcing knowledge into another mind practically gone ever since he awakened to eldritch mind, with only some still coming after truly vast amounts of information was shared. “It was basically a book’s worth of info.”

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“It’s trying to understand it that’s giving me a headache,” Yuzu told him, expecting she wouldn’t be seeing her teacher again that day while he also went over everything they’d just learned. “Five years on this planet and there’s still so much more for me to improve on.”

“You started here with maximum power and minimum knowledge; nobody can fault you for needing some time.”

“I’m not sure how I should feel, hearing that from you,” she said, her eyes flicking to the soul of one who came in nearly the opposite condition as her, with minimal power but at least a little knowledge in one of his core skills, and just how far he’d built from there. “But I’m almost as good as my teacher now, I think, and a part of that has come from you teaching me like this, so I do appreciate it.”

“Well, don’t worry about it,” he shrugged. “But on that note, do you currently have anything taking up your time? There’s something I need some help with.”

“If it’s you, then I can make the time,” she told him, not able to tell at all how his stomach was twisting. “How long?”

“At most, an hour.”

“Then that’s fine. I was given some time to practice these new spells, but I can help you instead.”

“You sure?”

“You’ve done too much for me, for me to not help you out if you need it, Ben. So, what are we doing?”

“Going to Anailia, I’ll give you the rest of the details when we get there.”

“Okay, I’m still happy to help, but I’ve gotta say, this place is incredibly creepy,” Yuzu told him as they walked through the halls holding all of the former prisoners, to her looking like nothing but a dark building full of mysterious pods. “What exactly is this?”

“When I escaped from the demon’s world, this is where I shoved everybody I came back with so they couldn’t use their newfound freedom to immediately kill themselves. The ones who either didn’t want to sit around, worrying about this world ending too, along with the ones I judged unable to emotionally handle the idea that this world is also under attack, are all stored here, along with one more.”

Finally reaching his destination, Ben once more stood in front of the same pod he’d faced only a few hours prior, putting a hand on it and slipping deep into thought.

“Ben? You okay?” 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

“... I don’t know,” he muttered. “But, it doesn’t matter. I don’t need to be okay.”

“So that was a bit of a worrying answer.”

“Yeah, sorry, my head's been in a bit of a weird place today, but it’s fine. We’re here; all that there is left to do is start.”

“And explaining to me exactly what it is you need me to do…?”

“Yeah, and that,” Ben nodded as he transferred information directly into her head, seeing her eyes widen in shock.

“Ben-”

“I know this might not sit well with you; you can back out if you want.”

“... No, I’ll do it.”

He was right; it didn’t sit well with her, but despite that, she had faith in him, and had faith that his heart was in the right place. Anyone with eyes could see just how much he had worked for the greater good of the world; she didn’t doubt that the same was true then, even if what he wanted could only seem doomed to failure. What doubts she had didn’t matter though, what he was doing was testing a suspicion, more of a guess than a theory, and with her agreement and a soul spell of his own design imprinted in her head, he opened the pod and filled the demon it held with mana as he removed its metal bindings, snapping it from its exhaustion to stare at him in madness.

Its arms lashed at him as it and Yuzu screamed as one, his soul reaching back to the monster in front of him as his flesh tore under its claws and his blood spilled down his arms, both Yuzu and its own power focused on that connection between the two of them as Ben felt everything it was, clinging to the aspect of it that he needed.

The circlet he’d forced on its head that morning, empowered with the second level of eldritch mind, had contaminated its consciousness, driving it to a madness that wouldn't be cured, even with the tool’s removal, that told it two things only. A part of its soul was causing it immense pain, and that it should force that pain on the one who’d trapped it.

With the demon being a natural soul magic user and Yuzu being tied for the highest in power for that skill in the world, the two worked in tandem to do exactly that, the pain the demon felt from having its soul torn apart feeling like confirmation that the madness it was under was real, that if it could only get rid of the thing that was forced on it, that it would be free of all of its suffering, and ever so slowly, Ben felt it start to give. Essence was sliced as the soul was torn, elevating the pain the contender was under to whole new heights while Ben clung to the severed section with connect, magic from the other two filling his own soul as other skills grown from it reached out as well, strengthening the hold he had until, all at once, he no longer needed to. Parts of the severed soul fell away, but those were the parts he could have never used. The rest acted like glue between all that had previously been grasping it, leaving notifications to ring out in Ben’s head as the world came to a standstill, his final attempt to awaken connect complete.