CHAPTER 42: DIGESTING THE POTIONS

"Both of you breathe." Wilson beckoned to both of them.

Asher grabbed the table’s edge trying to steady himself as his dizziness was getting out of hand.

Anna’s body glowed faintly as she groaned in pain.

"Be calm."

Anna’s entire body flickered like a light about to die until it went off completely.

Asher could see different colours in different people. As his eyes moved from Anna to Wilson he saw tow distinct colours, green all over and a touch of white at the chest for Wilson and White all over for Anna.

"You can see them can’t you?" Wilson asked him seeing the fascination and shock on Asher’s face.

"I don’t even know what I’m seeing." Asher replied with his hand on his forehead.

"The black stage of the Shattered Mask pathway is called The Seer." Wilson started. "You can basically see what a person is like at the moment or to explain further, when you ask someone a question you can discern the truth from lies based on the colours you see."

Asher nodded as he say down on the wooden chair close to the table.

"The colour of essence you see differs per person based on their health at that point in time. If it’s green then that person is healthy, if it’s red in some parts then it shows that said person is having some ailments in those areas." Wilson continued his explanation.

"I don’t know much about the black stage of this pathway, but I do know this..." Wilson stopped.

Asher widened his eyes for a moment and focused his gaze on Wilson. "What’re you planning?" He asked.

"That’s one of the things you gain. Danger sense, you can sense danger within... I believe it was within a hundred metres." Wilson replied.

Asher touched his chest. He felt happy within and could feel somewhat jittery. He had become an Ascender and would become stronger even if it cost him his life.

"Don’t you have the potions for the Orange stage?" Asher asked, eager to advance through the stages so he could become stronger than he had ever been.

"It isn’t done that way." Wilson replied in a rather serious and somewhat agitated tone. "The advancements aren’t something to be rushed, do that and you would most definitely go insane and die."

Asher and Anna’s eyes widened with fear.

Was this really the right choice? Anna thought to herself as she say there listening to the conversation between Asher and Wilson.

Asher calmed down and collected himself. "Then how does one advance?"

"You basically have to digest your potion and doing that takes time. You also have to play the role of the stage which you’re currently at." Wilson said.

"Play the role? What role do we have to play?" Asher asked again, clearly baffled and flabbergasted by Wilson’s words.

Wilson grabbed a chair from behind him and turned it around so that the back would be facing Asher who was sitting directly opposite him.

He say down and crossed his hands atop the backrest of the chair.

"Yes, play the role. You are currently a Seer, so play the role of a Seer."

"You mean...?"

"I mean you have to behave like a fortune teller." Wilson stated finally.

"What happens if I don’t ’play the role’ of a Seer?" Asher asked.

"Well, you go mad and get hunted by Official Ascenders like me." Wilson replied.

"Oh! This is interesting." Asher’s blood boiled, he didn’t expect there to be this many requirements to even digest the first potion at the weakest stage. If it was this complex at this low level of power how would it be when he advances higher.

"And moreover, I don’t have the potions for the next stage, infact we don’t have any of that." Wilson said.

"What do you mean we?" Asher asked.

"I’m an official ascender of the an association known as the Lightseekers. We deal with everything supernatural although there are a few ascenders among us we make it work." Wilson explained.

"So even in an organisation such as that there aren’t any advancement potions?" Asher asked further.

"The ingredients are hard to procure and as such most of us who are ascenders don’t bother with the other pathway potions and only focus on our own." Wilson narrated.

"So what are the ingredients for the orange stage potion for this pathway?" Asher asked once again.

"I won’t tell you, it’s too soon for you to know. You might start hunting down the ingredients only to die in the process, I can’t risk that." Wilson got up from his chair and put it back in position.

He walked up to the spiraling steps and then stopped just as he put his foot on the first step.

"Anna, I’ll explain your abilities tomorrow morning." And then he walked up.

Anna followed closely behind him and held the railings as she walked up trying to steady herself.

When both of them had gone Asher stood up from his seat. Many things went through his mind, he had become an ascender and gained basically two mediocre abilities but he would make it work nonetheless.

He had to act out in a bizzare way to completely digest his potion and he can’t even quickly ascend as there was a hundred percent risk of him going insane.

Pffff

He sighed as he walked around the room weighing his options. What if he changed pathways and drank the black stage potion of another? Or he could just take Wilson’s words for a bluff and quickly ascend through the stages?

These were the thoughts that crossed his mind but he didn’t know what to do at this point.

It was at this time that something caught his attention. The chest from which Wilson pulled out the potion just sat there.

From what I remember, he didn’t use a key. His mind raced to when Wilson opened the chest to extract the potions, he hadn’t used a key to unlock it which meant that it was still open.

He walked towards it.

Creak!

He opened the chest and saw the potions laying there untouched, each one labelled with the distinct sigil from their respective pathways.

He looked through it and then something else caught his eye. A book with a brown back which had accumulated so much dust that picking it up would be like picking up an entire desert laid there.

His curiosity got the better of him as he wanted to know what was written within it.

June 30th

I just drank my fourth potion and reached the silver stage of the Broken Throne pathway becoming a demigod.

"Huh?" His eyes widened in surprise at the first sentence. It was a diary but who’s diary and it seems like they reached the silver stage. Wilson wasn’t lying, it really does seem that reaching the silver stage grants some level of divinity.

But who in the world had endured long enough to reach such levels of power and what pathway did he go through? These thoughts danced in his head as he held the diary in his hands.

He decided to continue reading to further unravel this mystery.

June 31st

I keep hearing these voices in my head, it keeps telling me to ascend further. I knew I couldn’t rush my ascension so I paid it no heed and continued with my daily life.

Ascending to the level of the Black Crown wasn’t easy so rushing it now would put all those years of hardwork to waste.

"He heard a voice?" Asher read further as the diary enthralled and captivated him with each letter.

February 1st

"What?" The diary just jumped to February. Why? What does this mean? What happened during that blank period?

The war has begun, demons ravaged our lands and killed our kind. I joined my soldiers in the war to protect my people and we have reclaimed Heathorn from them. I have also been gathering ingredients to ascend to the white stage God-King of my pathway so I can stand up to the demon king. I had heard his name was Xoraxys.

Asher’s eyes widened in surprise, shock and horror. Swear graced his temples and fell down onto the pages of the book he held, soaking them with their wetness.

He stared at the name as if it was a plague. But it was, the name Xoraxys was one Asher knew all to well. He was the one who ordered his family’s death as well as the death of the love of his life and her family.

The name made his blood boil but at this point he knew he wasn’t near as strong enough to even touch him.

He kept on reading further.

I found the location of the last ingredient. But to be honest it wasn’t an easy one to find, it was the blood of the three headed Falcon. A bird with intense speed that put me to shame during my time chasing it. But at the end I was able to acquire it, now I have my potion mixed and ready for me to consume it.

~ Leonard Jardel.