The Runic Alchemist

The man suddenly looked back through the wall as if he had sensed someone outside—he opened the door and went out. He returned after a couple of minutes. This time, beside him was another man—this man had no face, just a black scribble. He wore a mage robe and a chain around his neck—the hands of the man looked burned.

The people present in the room were acting like the man was part of their family—no one even looked twice at the guy.

Suddenly, a book appeared in the newcomer’s hand, Sam noticed the metal spatial storage tool on his wrist—and the man started chanting. The chanting continued for some minutes as slowly the whole room started shaking, the objects started floating around, the bed the boy was on also left the floor—suspended in midair, inches above the floor. Then, suddenly, a dark, big, round portal opened up right above the bed—it was pitch black, but slowly as the man continued chanting, the center became purple—the edges remained pitch black as the dark purple inside the portal started swirling in a circle.

It looked a lot similar to.. a Waygate spell.

The dark purple with a tinge of pink portal stabilized, small bright purple and pink lightning bolts surrounding the portal. Tendrils of purple and pink came out of the portal and enveloped the dead kid from all around his body.

The scene stayed the same for about five minutes—the energy in the room slowly increasing. All the people inside the room held on to the walls so they wouldn’t get swept up—the father and two mothers, Sam assumed of the children, held onto the teenage children tightly.

In the end, the energy in the room reached a breaking point and a massive explosion went off. With that, the scene changed.

They were in another room, this one was brightly lit though—a young man was reading, he did so for a while, then the man dozed off and after a few minutes suddenly woke up. Groggily, he stood up and laid down on the bed that was on the side. Just as he closed his eyes and started snoring a little—suddenly the purple portal appeared right atop his bed too—the same purple and pink tendrils enveloping him too.

The scene changed as the boy was completely enveloped in the tendrils and pulled inside the portal—the darkness enveloped Sam’s vision but for just a few seconds. Right after it, they were back inside the room where the robed mage was still busy chanting. Finally, he stopped. The portal disappeared and the scene changed.

The robed man, along with the father, walked near the tree from which the kid had fallen. The little kid was still unconscious and was held by his father in his arms. The father placed the little boy exactly where he had fallen, spread a little blood from some leather pouch, and stood up. After a moment, he looked at the robed man and asked,

“Are you sure this will work?”

The man replied with,

“I have done my part. It’s not up to me anymore—the pieces have to fall in the correct places. But worry not. This is.. what was required.”

The two men walked away. The lasting silence after their absence was broken when the dead kid finally opened his eyes, blinking again and again. The sentence he said confirmed the suspicions Sam had about the whole thing:

“Hm?! Since when did we get a big tree in our dorm room?”

***

[The world of illusions, Inside the Memory Trap of Damian, current time – Damian’s POV.]

His memories were mixed?

Well, that was not a surprise. The Demon Lord’s trap could not differentiate between his own memories and the ones he had received from young Damian. There was no memory after the kid had died.. which made Damian relieved. If he learned that he had trapped the poor boy unknowingly in his own body, he would feel disgusted with himself.

The scenes were jumbled with his memories from Earth and young Damian’s memories. They were not always true though. So he could not really believe the weird thing he had just seen.

A mage and his birth father conspired with all his family to do some weird-ass spell on young Damian’s dead body?

That was doubtful.

But then again, there was no reason for young Damian’s real hidden memories—or the memory trap itself—to make up something completely random. This thing.. there had to be some truth to it.

Who was this guy though? A person capable of space-bending spells could not be a normal one.

All that aside, the fuck was this situation now? Who was trapped here? His own half-soul or the real young Damian? How to even get his own attention?

And above all, should he even do it? What if this woke up the young Damian and he himself would be forever lost?

The cycle ended and started anew again. Damian’s birth mother abandoning him.. he didn’t even know he had this memory. The memory trap was trying to make her look cold and ruthless. But Damian didn’t care either way—he had found her and his birth father too after getting out of the orphanage, they both had died in a car crash.

The sister Hadley had been all his family—he remembered those childish fantasies of staying with her all his life, hating any man that came near her. He remembered the crazy drug addict they had stumbled on while going on daily walks with Sister Hadley to ask for donations and share the baked cupcakes she liked to make. The memory trap tried to twist the words of praise she had given him after he did that brave yet childish thing to save the two of them.

The worst part was when they had to wait beside the dead body of a small kid for over 40 minutes. The lifeless eyes were horrifying to look at—even though every single one of them, including Damian, had seen much worse things on many battlefields by now – this was really creepy.

Ten minutes into it the others looked at him – no one said anything but it was clear what was going on in their minds. It was time to tell them the truth.