[Helel].

  Jon activated his Fragment Of Superbia, enhancing the effectiveness of more than one third of his total abilities. Spear natured spiritual energy gathered in the space above his head, manifesting in the form of an illusory seven-pointed halo.

  The concepts that seemed to run rampart throughout his Source trembled in the presence of his dangerous ability. His pride-mutation contained within it the dualistic understandings of sin and virtue and expressed itself in such a manner.

  Sagacious reeling back in shock at the presence of his Fragment Of Superbia.

  While both Linguist and Trailblazer felt their movements become sluggish, feeling the weight of an enormous arrogance bare down on them.

  The luminous image of an Evening Star and Morning Star manifesting around him, humming with a tremendous amount spear natured spiritual energy. The spiritual constructs imbued Jon with an even greater source of spiritual energy, albeit both temporary and not without its own consequences.

  [Fragment Of Superbia]

  [Helel]

  (Spear, Superbia, Mutation, Ability, Spell, Technique, Enhancement, Buff, Debuff, Self)

  (Star)

  Effect (Knight): Elevate the Helel-Testament Pride into a Helel-Star Pride. The Helel-Star Pride now contains within it the conceptual understandings of dusk, stars and predeterminism.

  The Helel-Star Pride now manifests the image of an [Evening Star] and [Morning Star] around oneself. Upon the completion of [Light Bringer], reduce the effectiveness of all abilities with the Spell Trait by half.

  [Evening Star]: Temporarily increases maximum mana capacity. Increase resistances towards morning-related damages, afflictions, and debuffs. Can be transferred.

  [Morning Star]: Temporarily increases mana regeneration. Increases resistances towards evening-related damages, afflictions, and debuffs. Can be transferred.

  The stupendous amount of spear natured spiritual energy that flowed from his Evening Star and Spear Mana Core into his Fragment Of Spirit was beyond anything that Jon had ever experimented with before. The glow from the runic-glyph symbol on the palm of his hand filled the entire room with the remnant images of piercing truth and damaging spears.

  With this newfound burst of spiritual energy, the Longinus-Rune Spirit once again exerted control back over these juvenile Title Fragments, enveloping them within a restrictive layer of willpower.

  [Thou Art The Monarch Of Spears And Truth] did not possess the Enhancement Trait, although did share the same source of spiritual energy as [Helel]. Even as his Murmur-Arhat Marrow and Minerva-Infiltration Eyes both seemed to surge within his flesh the focus of his attention was instead placed on another one of his numerous mutations.

  [Green Shall Become The Ode To Eternity].

  His Yaochi-Mudra Prana.

  Jon allowed himself to settle into a meditative position, both hands extended outwards, resting on his knees. Several of his fingers forming an archaic and symbolically-charged hand sign, allowing the effects of his Knight Ranked lifeforce-mutation to further enhance his spirit and self.

  [Naraka Padma]: Quiets the mind. Two-fingered hand sign. Increases resistances towards emotion-related damages, afflictions, and debuffs. Increases the effectiveness of abilities with the Spirit Trait.

  [Naraka Raurava]: Quiets the spirit. Three-fingered hand-sign. Increases resistances towards spirit-related damages, afflictions, and debuffs. Increases the effectiveness of abilities with the Self Trait.

  The corners of his mouth curved upwards, revealing two rows of blood-stained teeth.

  This systematic enhancement of his abilities was overwhelming.

  Each one feeding strengthening effects to one another, increasing the effectiveness of his other abilities, which then in turn strengthened the original ability. The combination of both his Helel-Star Pride and Yaochi-Mudra Prana seemed to feed into one another, before flowing into his Longinus-Rune Spirit and Sea Of Knowledge.

  Both the Fragment Of Spirit and Fragment Of Mind had their effects strengthened to their utmost. There was a limit to how much spiritual energy Jon could push into them before running out and needed to pace himself in order to the complete the formation of this new Title.

  The Father Of Shapeless Carcosa expanded so as to engulf Journeyman and Self-Imposed Reign. The Title Fragment which he himself had birthed willingly followed his every whim and command without even so much as mustering the barest hints of resistance.

  The Title Fragment which he intended on serving as the foundation for his third complete Title stretched out its shapeless tentacles and formless limbs towards the concepts of “control,” “experience” and “mastery,” engulfing the three of them beneath the shadows of “horror” and “shapelessness.”

  Jon ever-so-slightly frowned, feeling those concepts vanish beneath the Father Of Shapeless Carcosa. Each one of them assimilated into this more powerful concept.

  The loss of these concepts annoyed him, but were ignored in the face of Sagacious, Linguist and Journeyman. The Father Of Shapeless Carcosa would not be able to assist him without damaging or absorbing even more concepts from the other Title Fragments.

  There was nothing more that he could do without activating Princeps Of The Wandering Mutation.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Something that might damage or inadvertently influence the creation of this new Title.

  In other words-.

  ‘All I can do now… is just force my abilities beyond their acceptable limits!’ Jon roared within the depths of his Source; voice tinged with the unmistakeable presence of pride and arrogance. Gritting his teeth, he allowed the full weight of his spirit-mutation and pride-mutation to bare down on the three remaining Title Fragments.

  The pale-dusk glow of his Evening Star expanding to overshadow the brilliant light of his Morning Star.

  Sagacious shrunk in both size and temperance, compressed down to its barest essence.

  Trailblazer felt its accumulated momentum come to a resounding halt, releasing incredible amounts of multi-coloured starlight.

  Linguist had its flow halted, reaching the end of its falling origins. Nothing but a slow trickle of knowledge and concepts controlled under the weight of his spirit and pride.

  His Spear Mana Core would have long since expended all the spiritual energy contained within it, if not for the effects of [Helel]. His Wood Mana Core and Knowledge Mana Core both experiencing similar circumstances, albeit to a lesser degree.

  The pounding sensation within his head had long since been ignored in favour of the swirling amalgamation of concepts and nomological truths within himself. Trails of blood flowing from numerous orifices had started to dry, leaving nothing but the overwhelming scent of copper in his nostrils and the familiar taste of blood on his tongue.

  His Fragment Of Regeneration, now imbued with a Fragment Of Hydra had long since activated, further enhanced through the activation of his Fragment Of Prana.

  Physical wounds and damages had started to heal themselves as Jon remained silent and unmoving, focusing on condensing each of the Title Fragments within himself. Spiritual energy that once flowed as though an open faucet, had now become a gentle drip, focusing on the longevity of his effects rather than just a colossal amount of force.

  His breath turned slow and controlled, allowing nothing but the soft echoes of his Seir-Perpetual Heart to fill his mind.

  Time passed…

  And after more than thirteen hours of sifting, refining, and condensing…

  Jon had created his first Knight Ranked Title.

  His eyes flickering open, feeling each individual concept softly click together and settle within his chest. Despite there being several other System notifications that warranted his attention, his gaze focused solely on his newest effect description.

  [Jonathan Randall Guilliman; Lost Author Of Shapes And Forms]

  “… words are but the lingering echoes of desire. Thoughts are but the crumbling fragments of dreams. Thou shall transform desire into flesh; creeping tendrils that whisper uncertain truths. Thou shall give form to dreams; horrors and words that soothe thy weary mind. These are the words that resound from the depths of mine soul.

  This is the recipe for formless truths. These are the memoirs of shapeless flesh. The soft candlelight which guides the lost through imaginary darkness. The surging mysteries which trail behind them, following them as though shadow in the corner of their eye.

  Nothing is exempt. No words. No flesh. No truth. All shall be written through the hands of this Lost Author.”

  [1]: Manifests an imaginary structure within the mind. The Lost Author allows oneself to rewrite the appearance of defined metaphysical aspects relating to oneself. The Shape And Form that this aspect assumes must relate to a pre-existing metaphysical quality.

  [2]: The Lost Author can temporarily imbue the Self Trait into one ability.

  [3]: Increases the ease of comprehending concepts and notions relating to “horrors,” “shapelessness,” “words,” “mutation,” “transformation” and “the self.”

  [4]: Dramatically increases the effectiveness of all abilities with the Self Trait. Reduces the mana expenditure of all abilities with the Self Trait. Increases resistances towards transformation-related and flesh-related damages, afflictions, and debuffs.

  [5]: Increases control over the flesh, mind, and spirit.

  [6]: Temporarily add the spiritual energy regenerations of one Mana Core to another.

  For the first time in over half a day, Jon allowed himself to lean backwards, embracing the effects of the bed-type spiritual item beneath him. Despite his weary mind and aching spirit, an almost imperceptible thread of war natured spiritual energy flowed into his Fragment Of Library.

  Retrieving a bottle from within his Red Archives, Jon allowed the liquid within to trickle down into his mouth, relishing in the effects of the Mortal Ranked Life-Will Potion. Despite being extraordinarily expensive, Life-Will Potions, Life-Blood Potions and Life-Thought Potions were amongst the most common of spiritual items within his [Red Archives Of Mars Quirinus].

  Each one capable of healing damage inflicted to his spirit, flesh, or mind.

  He found himself almost choking on the liquid, hating the taste of the single-use spiritual item.

  A certain ice devil spirit manifesting herself beside him, looking down at him with a mixed expression on her face. Although he could feel emotions such as fear and worry bleed into him from his Fragment Of Summon, Schwarz Eis was never not one to smile, even in the face of death or danger.

  The two stared at each other for a few moments, before the ice devil spirit rolled her eyes, moving to sit down along the edge of the bed.

  “That was risky… activating your Helel-Star Pride in such a manner.” She spoke, her words somehow both stern and tender at the same time.

  Jon just shrugged his shoulders, ignoring the metaphysical pangs of pain coming from the runic-glyph symbol on the palm of his hand. The imaginary image of his Longinus-Rune Spirit battered and colourless, shrivelled up after more than thirteen hours of use.

  His Sea Of Knowledge still and motionless. Its depths resembling a murky swamp rather than an unfathomable abyss.

  “It was the correct decision. I might have lost a Title Fragment or two if I had just stopped mid-formation.” He replied, staring back at Schwarz Eis, watching her refuse to turn her gaze away from him.

  “Just because you succeeded, did not make it the correct decision, Jon.” Eis countered, “The loss of a Title Fragment or two is inconsequential to your greater wellbeing as a whole. Damaging your Longinus-Rune Spirit and being forced to rely on your Helel-Star Pride in order to compensate for such a thing is something which should not have happened!”

  “If you had just waited for a few days to recover from the formation of five new Knight Title Fragments then you should have had all of the control and concentration that-.”

  Eis halted her words mid-sentence, eyes twitching at the brush of a thin tentacle-esque tendril around her ankles. The familiar presence of a draconian-shadow swarming across the ceiling above her, six-eyes peering down at her through the veil of two-dimensional space.

  An expression of hurt flashing across her face, seeing that Jon remained unmoved despite his obvious threats.

  Her smile became strained, trapped between his Hades-Draconian Shadow and Carcosa-Form Horrors.

  “You don’t trust me enough to be alone with me, is that right?” Eis asked, continuing to stare at his face, knowing that he could feel her emotions through the Fragment Of Summon that connected them.

  Jon just shook his head, expression growing soft as he let out a small sigh.

  Both his Fragment Of Draconian Shadow and Fragment Of Shapeless Carcosa retreating back within himself, both abilities inadvertently strengthened by both the Princeps Of The Wandering Mutation and Lost Author Of Shapes And Forms.

  Allowing his tired Sea Of Knowledge to emanate emotions of honesty from its murky depths.

  “I have always trusted you to place my safety and wellbeing above even your own, under both threat of death and integration of damaging concepts. I trust that you will always have my back in a fight and that you would never not sacrifice yourself if it meant that I would have a chance at survival.”

  Eis blinked, opening her mouth to speak but watched as Jon continued his words.

  “But I all honestly… I don’t think I could ever trust you with the life of someone I care about.”