Chapter 202: Boundary Details

Chapter 202: Boundary Details

Aldrich did not waste any time. He began the process of summoning his

Boundary. He wanted to see exactly how developed his personal space was. And,

some part of him still wanted to see if that little apartment room full of warm

memories was still there.

But to get there, Aldrich had to unlock it with a key. That key being the memory

of pain, that feeling of something sharp, something brutal, gouging into his

heart and twisting it.

It was not very pleasant, holding the feeling, but the Death Lord was right:

holding it made the image of his Boundary space much clearer in his head.

Aldrich held out his hand in front of him, his palm open. Darkness shrouded his

arms, undulating like owing water.

"Manifesting a Boundary already?" Rella watched Aldrich intently, her

gleaming white eyes narrowed. She leaned forward, eager, a smile tugging at

the edges of her lips. "After just barely encountering his core? What is he, some

kind of monster?"

"Yes, you would know much about that," said the Death Lord. She put a hand to

her chin as she watched Aldrich intently. "I would like to see this happen,

but-,"

The Death Lord appeared in front of Aldrich with a single high speed

movement.

Aldrich could not react to her, not only because of her speed, but because of the

concentration he put in trying to manifest his Boundary. It felt like his body

was encumbered by chains all around. His mind, too, was slow. Concentrating

on the Boundary and the knife to heart image took a huge amount of mental

energy.

The shadows manifesting around Aldrich reacted violently towards the Death

Lord, lashing out their tendrils towards her. She smiled as she projected her

own magical energy.

This energy aura, however, was dierent than her regular one.

The aura swirled out in a urry of white snowakes, indicating that this was

not her usual green necromancy tinged mana. When the cloud of bright white

snowakes hit his darkness, they overwhelmed the shadows with ease,

scattering the dark away like the sun would when it rose on a dark landscape.

"Not yet, Death Walker." The Death Lord put her hand on Aldrich's and guided

it down. The sound of Valera crushing the metal of her armor was heard not

very far away. "Not yet. I am curious to see whether you can manifest your

Boundary fully on your rst try, but it is unwise for your wellbeing.

Let your mind process what has happened. Let the magic within your body

settle.

Rest.

Then, you may try. I shall guide you through the process."

"...Alright." Aldrich broke his concentration, and he felt a massive wave of

exhaustion hit him like a tidal wave. It was not physical exhaustion - his

undead body did not feel that. But more mental, more spiritual.

"Look! I can do this!" The Chrysalis spoke up from beside Aldrich, and they

turned their attention to her.

The Chrysalis had copied Aldrich, holding her hand out in front of her in the

same posture as she concentrated, her brows furrowing together. Her lip

quivered in exertion as her whole body trembled.

Black sparks crackled from in front of the Chrysalis's hand before they turned

into circle of darkness - the same kind that Aldrich manifested. From that circle

of watery dark, a gure plopped out.

A human, it seemed, dressed up in a tattered brown suit that looked

unfashionably like the shade of excrement. Despite his tattered clothes, he

slept without a care in the world, snoring liberally.

"What is this thing?" The Death Lord eyed the human with confusion.

"A weakling, I ought to say," said Rella.

"An Alterhuman," remarked Valera, now comfortable with the term.

"Right. The Editor I snatched up," said Aldrich.

"Ah yes, one of those new humans," said the Death Lord walked over to the

sleeping Alter and stood over him. "Still, I cannot understand how these

humans manage to create such a variety of abilities. I do like what is new,

though. Perhaps I may request you send another one of these to my realm.

Medula may quite like experimenting upon one."

"Dissection is not my specialty, but any research is research, I suppose," said

Medula, glancing at the Editor with a slightly more interested look than usual.

"Where were you keeping him?" Aldrich asked the Chrysalis.

"He was sleepy, so I just tucked him in a bed," said the Chrysalis.

Notably, the Editor had gotten lot better treatment than the Butcher. It was as if

the shadows beneath the space the Chrysalis made had claimed the Butcher for

themselves. It hinted further to the possibility that the shadows represented

the darker aspects of Aldrich's mind, the part that had wanted to cause as much

agony to the Butcher as possible.

Then, did the Chrysalis represent what was good in him? What was pure? That

might explain her childlike appearance and innocence.

Aldrich could not know for sure. He was not an expert at getting symbols out of

context clues. That was a job for empty headed academics, not him.

"And he's still sleeping? Impressive," said Aldrich. He nodded to the Chrysalis

and her tired face. "You should take a rest, too. I know taking something in and

out of your territory is taxing on you."

Before the Boundary had developed, the Chrysalis could barely take objects in

and out for more than a few instances before needing long recharge periods.

Aldrich had hoped that with the Boundary's development and the Chrysalis

obtaining a soul that she would get better, but he did not let any

disappointment show as he did not want to hurt the Chrysalis.

"No, that was because he was a strange man. He didn't belong in my space,"

said the Chrysalis. She pouted, wanting to impress Aldrich. "But-but I can do

better. Look at this!"

The Chrysalis furrowed her brows again, and from the shadow portal she made,

objects started to fall out.

First, it was a series of random household objects. Forks, spoons, chopsticks, a

random mug or two that shattered on the ground, and so on.

Then, Aldrich's eyes widened as he saw something valuable. A white porcelain

vase holding roses.

Aldrich instantly recognized it was a vase from his mother. From the room.

Before the vase could shatter on the cold, hard stone below, he instantly

grabbed it.

Then, a small stack of comic books fell out. He grabbed that too in his other

hand.

Then, a moderately sized painting of a house on a green hill popped out. This

was too big for him to carry in either of his hands, and he did not want to let it

get ruined by mug shards from below. He deftly kicked it back.

"Valera!" said Aldrich.

"I have it, master!" Valera responded like she was a soldier responding to a life

or death order from a general. She caught the painting in her hands.

"And...and...," The Chryalis's eyes began to utter as her little body swayed

from side to side, growing tired. "I'm sleepy."

With that, the Chrysalis closed her eyes. Before she could plop down on the

messy, shard scattered ground, the Death Lord picked her up by the neck of her

white dress like she was picking a puppy up by the scru.

"Hmm." The Death Lord stared intently at the sleeping Chrysalis. "I see now.

Your Boundary is split. One part of your Boundary hails from this girl, and

another from you.

An exceedingly rare case."

"Is that a good thing?" said Aldrich.

"It depends," said the Death Lord. She nodded towards the Chrysalis. She slept

peacefully. "On her, for I trust your competency.

Two souls sharing one Boundary means control is shared. If both souls are

competent and in sync, then they may operate the Boundary with incredible

eciency. If not, the more competent soul will have to do double the work.

There was one Lich who rebelled against me that had this condition, what was

their name, ah yes, Kal'Ves. A twin mage sister and warrior brother duo who

fused together due to their kindred closeness upon reaching undeath and

Lichdom.

Their Split Boundary was exceptional due to how in sync they were.

You witnessed before, did you not, how my aura of white overpowered your

shadows?"

"Yes."

"That was the energy of my Boundary clashing against yours.

When two Liches unseal their Boundaries, the Boundary that is more developed

and stable will take over more space than the other. If the dierence is great

enough, the stronger Boundary will completely devour the lesser and use it as

fuel," said the Death Lord. She shrugged. "Of course, we are in my Boundary

already, so I have an advantage, but I digress.

The twins were particularly erce because they could unseal two fully

developed Boundaries that worked together, eectively doubling the space and

complexity of their Boundary.

The brother created a world of swords. The sister created a world of magic

crystals. They could combine these worlds together for a world of magic

infused blades.

This made them a deadly foe against foes even a dozen levels higher than them.

However, more often than not, a Split Boundary harms more than it does good.

Two disparate souls, for example, will create Boundaries that are so vastly

dierent from each other that they cannot mesh, risking even devouring each

other."