Chapter 47: Shard of Ascindium

Name：Master of the Loop Author：
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Chapter 47: Shard of Ascindium

Chapter 47

Shard of Ascindium

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Sylas head hurtand it wasnt for any of the normal, everyday reasons for why a head would hurt, such as a lack of sleep(or too much of it), stressful day, or any other number of things that could cause one to grab his head and wonder why is the brain beating itself like a masochist. No, his head hurt for a very simple reasonhe tried to stuff too much information into it too quickly. Though, before today, Sylas would have laughed it off as a stupid superstition, he had no choice but to bandwagon the my head hurts cause too much math group.

He sat in his room, leaning against the wall, while Rynes voice continued to echo inside his mind as she went in great detail to describe to him the means and ways of a talisman. He had hoped to start slow and work his way up, but Ryne was relentlessno doubt a remnant of how she was taught, to begin with, never having been given the gentle and encouraging handshooting a thousand words per minute into his brain and scrambling whatever little knowledge lay there.

Talismans were, Sylas learned, kind of like circuits back on Earththey werent sources in as much as conduits for other forms of energy. While circuits used electricity, talismans used this worlds natural energy. As far as Sylas heard, Ryne simply referred to it as energy rather than using any unique name, such as Mana. Nonetheless, talismans were conduits for that natural energymeans for people without intrinsic knowledge on how to channel that energy to use it, to a certain extent at least.

However, talismans could only be created by the people who had that intrinsic knowledge as they required the Inscriber as they were called to fuse at least an iota of natural energy into the talisman so that it can connect with the outside forces through it.

There were, however, major limitations on how strong a talisman could be. In fact, Sylas learned that the talisman Valen used to blow up the hole in the wall was actually one of the genuinely strongest ones that could be made. After all, the stronger the talisman, the more linesand usually more parchments and complicated connectionsit required.

Ryne demonstrated the simplest of talismansone that simply burned itself at the command by igniting the tiniest of sparks at the center of the talismanand even that required nearly a thousand intricately woven lines. What shocked him even more than the number of lines was her speedshe rammed through each line within a second, clearly a well-practiced hand.

Roughly an hour into the lesson, Sylas had to remove himselfhis head hurt too much, after all. They didnt even get to the point of how hed go about controlling the natural energy as she was still running him through the rudimentary basics, such as how the pattern of lines defines what kind of reaction it would cause, or how an external talisman could be an amendment to the original one and overwrite it, possibly confusing people in the process.

I need to clear my head he mumbled aloud and stood up, walking out of the room and down the winding corridors of the castle.

While still talking to himself, Sylas beelined for Derreks chambers in the Captain Quarters of the Castle. If anyone knew what the Shard was, it was likely himor, at least, according to Sylas quickly-concocted theory, it was him. Once there, he knocked several timesquite loudlybefore a disgruntled voice yelled back at him from the inside and opened the room.

What the hell do you want?!! temporarily confused, Sylas recalled that it was actually quite latelikely at least one hour after midnightand that hed woken the man up from his sleep. Oops You

Look, your dubious suspicions of my messianic nature notwithstanding, Sylas quickly cut to the chasehed simply reset the loop anyway, he just needed to figure out whether it was connected to Derrek. Ive a very simple question for you.

H-huh? W-what?

Have you ever heard of the Shard of Ascindium?

w-what what did you just say? the man seemed to awake that instant, his eyes widening into saucers, stuttering out the words. Bingo!

Shard of Ascindium, he replied, reaching into his pocket. This thing.

NOOOOO!!!! Derrek suddenly screeched like a wailing ghostjust at that moment, Sylas felt an abundant blast of energy cruise through his arm and into the shard. His insides immediately grew weak, hunger overtaking him, as the shard lit up in faint, dim, emerald hue. Within that split second, it also projected a ray of light forward that washed over Derrek. And then and then, well, there was no Derrek.

"" Sylas stared, dumbfounded. The man who was just standing there was gone. Not even clothes remained, let alone him. He was gone. But then, Sylas heard something. A voice, of sorts. It was dulled and muffled, but he heard it. Almost by instinct, he brought the shard next to his ear, and, well, he found Derrek.

HOW DARE YOU, YOU IMBECILE?! YOU PUNY CREATURE?!! HOW DARE YOU TRAP ME IN THIS PLACE?! RELEASE ME, I ORDER YOU!! RELEASE ME, AT ONCE, YOU MONGREL!!!

WHAT IN THE GODS HELL IS HAPPENING?!!!!!