Becoming Legend

[Ned!]

Ned's head rang of both ICE's prompt, and pain.

A squint of his eyes and the pain awoke his mind and body. It ran from his head, down to his neck, shoulders, and joints. Finally, the pain from his right side throbbed of pulsating sensation, the pain his body felt was nothing compared to the pain from his right.

Ned was laying flat. His back felt soft, and cold, and wet. Opening his eyes—eye, his right vision was swollen with blackness and flesh. He was half drenched in mud. Silver hair seeped with viscous liquid. Ned groaned as he forced his eyes to open. It was disappointing, as his vision was filled with fog, obscuring the distance.

Ned rolled, and bent, and forced himself to stand. He grunted as his hands were heavy as if tied with chains and exclaimed cause his legs felt the same. He gritted his teeth, but the more he pumps force into his body, the more blood leaked from his wound. Finally, he gave up: to stand, or to open his eyes—he gave up.

"M-my," he said, lips quivering. "Status."

[Ned, finally you are awake.]

After ICE'S voice was his display in half opacity as his usual. Ned could barely make out the digits appearing in front of him. His mana and energy were at least half clear. Both were critically low. Ned even wondered how did he roll with only 2% of energy he was left. Not to mention his mana sitting at 80 points. Enough to conjure a fireball. He scoffed seeing his current status. "And I'm still alive," he muttered. Then his hand reached for his chest, where he stabbed—both idiotically, and perhaps heroically attempts—the Butterfly. "Why did you let me stabbed myself, ICE?"

The question raised another voice inside his head: 'Be careful with the bitch. She's not what you think she is.' Rassus's voice was bony and rattling, yet Ned couldn't find any hint of lies. Could it be? Ned shook his head.

She was from Calahir and Kamma. No, she won't, Ned thought.

[I am, indeed. Why Ned?]

[What is the matter?]

[Also, from the time you snapped during the argument between the team, and the moment you fell from the hole—Moloatiss did with a blast—I could not get a hold of you.]

[It was rather, unconventional that I have lost my connection.]

[And it was not supposed to happen.]

ICE explained one after the other.

[My system is absolute.]

[And so are you, Ned.]

"Am I really?" Ned asked. "The Core, can you feel it, ICE? The Core inside me, the energy, the darkness, his voice, he was there. He forced me to."

[Who, Ned?]

[Who was there?]

"Rassus," he muttered. Ned's hands felt heavy as if someone was trying to pull him off the mud.

[Impossible, Ned.]

[The Core exists within you, yes.]

[And Prime Evolution was based in the Core. That is the only explanation as to why you have the unknown energy within you.]

[It was from Rassus. But, for him to speak to you. That is impossible, Ned.]

"Impossible?" Ned said. Eyes wandered the sky. The fog blinded his vision, he could make out a flicker from above, probably stars, or moon, perhaps a torch. But no, he fell from a hole, he was probably in some cave filled with mud. "Impossible?" Ned said again. "Rassus spoke to me, in my head. He was here." Ned raised his hand to try to touch his temple, but he couldn't, his hands were too heavy for such a simple gesture.

[Ned, aside from your voice, I couldn't make out any other noise.]

Ned closed his eyes. He focused, letting the pain to flow his body, and his thought appeared to the Core. The crystal Core hovered, dark mist inside. The Core was filled with half of the black energy. The moment Ned appeared in front of the Core naked, the dark mist stopped swirling. This time, Ned's feeling was being pulled toward the Core, the mist remained steady. Ned shook his head. "No," he said, "you are not him. You are now part of my system, you are part of me, and you will listen to me."

The Core shook as if listening to Ned. It did the otherwise. Ned's stomach grumbled, and he felt hungrier, colder, and devouring. His body shook, and hair stood behind his neck. His mind swirled. The pain pulsated his body with a single move of his finger. Ned gritted his teeth. Too much wasn't the right word, and dying would be the nicest thing that could happen to him now. "Why let me live," he muttered.

The fog stopped moving. Slowly, the surroundings revealed as the fog was erased of existence.

Before Ned could survey his surrounding, a growl broke the silence from his right. It was a bear, covered in a shell-like that of a turtle. Thick fur in brown, and teeth red in blood. He walked on four, claws boring the mud. His mouth bubbled as he sniffed toward Ned and eyes turned red as he saw him. Then his body snapped with bones and flesh, the bear-like turtle swelled, and expanded bigger than Ned, bigger than a boulder.

[Bracadian.]

"Why is it here?" Ned asked in surprise. Bracadian were bear-like beasts native to the planet Om—a desert-like planet sparsed of water. Ned considered this beast to be one of the toughest enemies he had fought during his mission to infiltrate a base captured by insurgents. The mission however turned sideways as the insurgents used untamed Bracadians to guard the base. There, under his command, he lost eighty of his clones even though equipped with the empire's weaponry. The Bracadians greatest strength was their mimicry. Able to copy, and balance, and eventually exceed their foes by increasing their raw power. Their weakness? Water. They couldn't swim. Former Ned had to conjure a water spell the size of a lake to fully drown the beast.

And Ned was badly injured, and badly depleted, and badly needed of water spell. But he couldn't, Prime Evolution was stopping him from conjuring spells outside fire element.

"One option," he said. Even though he couldn't raise his hand, Ned still muttered words and conjured fireball.

Eventually, he raised a hand and aimed it toward the beast. But his hand was heavy of something. So the fireball exploded near Ned, and he heard metal clanking and woods snapping under the mud. He frowned, and he felt his hands were free of burden. He tried to stand, he did as if the fireball freed him of his chains. He ran, away from the beast, away as possible, away to a place where he could find a lake to drown the trailing beast.

The Bracadian roared and followed Ned as he kept on getting bigger. Mud splashed under his paws, grasses cut under his claws, and air hissed under his jaws. He dashed, eager to taste human flesh.

"This is not happening," Ned said under his breath. The pain was put behind Ned's consciousness as he trailed off the swamp.

Over the horizon, the sun was sizzling hot, but behind Ned, the moon was hissing mad.

Light in front, darkness behind.

"I was an idiot," he muttered as he skipped a rotten log laden with sparkling moss. For once, perhaps Rassus was right. "My goal was to get stronger, to save Master," he said as he limped and grunted as the blood slipped from his wound. "Not for me," he said, as he slid under a vine. Mud splattered under his black boots. "But for the people, I cared about." Ned looked over his shoulder, the beast trotted. Pretty sure he was faster than Ned, but he couldn't get to him. Must be the mud, Ned thought as he raised his hand—ready of something. "But, in return," he said and focused his thoughts, mana stone appeared in his hand. "I've been limiting myself. Conserving things I shouldn't. Yet, I have everything I needed." One after the other, mana stone appeared, absorbed, and thrown empty. The sun in front shone with hope as Ned left the darkness behind.

His display turned clear as he kept on absorbing mana. Ned's energy doesn't decrease to 0 or went above 2. It kept on steady even though he has been running for quite a while. Ned grinned, it was to his advantage, it doesn't matter to him, he'll take it. Whatever advantage he has right now, he'll take it. Mana stones splashed over the mud, some clanked upon hitting stones, while others broke inside Ned's fist. His strength was regaining. He checked his status, his mana went to a whopping 900. Ned smiled, doesn't matter anymore how many mana stones he used. "More," he said, grinning. "More!"

The Bracadian roared, and sparks appeared like glitters of red and orange around his mouth. One thing about Bracadians was their mimicry, and Ned used fireball to surprise him, and mimicry he was good at. The bear conjured fireball, the strength over a dozen stronger than Ned's.

"I'll prove to you," Ned said, "that I won't." Ned spun to face the Bracadian, his feet motioned in a circle. The pain he must endure. He threw mana stones and gripped his right wrist with his left hand. He gestured to let his mana flow from his body to the flat of his palm. "Be needing you, Rassus! Egnious!" He yelled. "Burst!"

The air around Ned hummed, then roared as he let the blue flame be conjured around his palm. With a grunt, Ned hurled the spell toward the Bracadian's fireball—vanishing it—then went through it toward the beast.

Ned's mana was over a thousand from all the mana stones he absorbed, and all thousand was used to conjure the spell. A blue sphere of fire lit the swamp. The darkness, to where the Bracadian was, turned shining blue as the Egnious spell exploded.

The bear-like-turtle beast's head vanished instantly along with the explosion, then the flame engulfed the beast. With a roar from the flame, the beast charred instantly. Then the swamp around Ned skewed out of shape, the trees bent and stretched.

[Ned.]

ICE chimed after the explosion, then the air went damp and heavy. Stalactites fell and shattered from above, while stalagmites broke from below.

Ned's vision blurred, his right side eye throbbed of pain, swollen. He then fell on his knees with darkened vision. But he was conscious, he needed to be conscious. Murmured around him gathered to his ears. Ned tried to move but was dismissed with rattles of metals. Ned opened his eyes with broken chains wrapped around his arms, and legs. He was naked and cold. Crystal stones shattered across him forming a tiny inclination, while monsters around him gathered as he scanned the place he was at. A cave it was, lit by stones affixed against the wall. This light pulled Ned's vision over the hip of crystal stones, under this shattered rock was a beast with an eye spanning a diameter of a meter. Tentacles around the eyes jerked, and twitched, it then growled from an unseen mouth and the eye—the pupil like that of human—dimmed. Half of his eye was burned, some spikes struck his body. It died with an open eye and no pun intended as the beast around it growled.

"Swamp Eye," Ned whispered and fell.

Thud

Black