Soon enough, the time came for Fen to refocus on the memory if he wanted to to discover the method to create Mana knights. He watched through Edmond's eyes how much he struggled to spread his magical energy around the rooftop in order to execute his plan to make the Chosen suffer from a backlash. In the memory, Fen was covered in sweat while his body trembled just to not lose control over his own energy. The effort alone made him unconsciously tighten his facial muscles turning his usual blank face into a snarl.
Even though he understood that the person he was looking at was him, Fen had to admit that he looked pretty scary when he was fighting for his life.
Just as he was observing his own appearance, Fen felt something shift within Edmond's body. The feeling quickly faded, but he was only able to sense it because it was so familiar. It felt slightly familiar to how he manipulated his own body with his Vital energy, but also different, like the effects of it were altered.
Before he could accurately determine what it was, words spilled out from Edmond's mouth as a feeling of frustration erupted in his chest.
"Argh, I've gotten tired of this." The same scene occurred while Fen watched, just from the opposite perspective.
He felt as Edmond connected his magical energy into the same Mana spellwork he used against him earlier, and he felt as Edmond experienced his control over his spellwork be severed by Fen's ambient magical energy surrounding them.
The backlash was much worse than Fen thought. The severed Mana immediately retreated back into Edmond's body and penetrated through his circulating system of Mana, interrupting his bodily processes and causing his organs to stutter as they struggled to not come to a complete stop.
Blood erupted from the Chosen's nose and was only barely stopped before it spilled out of all his orifices too as Edmond regained limited control over his body.
Although the pain was, well, painful, Fen inwardly applauded at his how well executed his plan was. Sure, it worked more because of his luck rather than his skill and because of how inexperienced his opponent was but a win was still a win.
Because he wasn't actually controlling Edmond's actions and was simply an observer, Fen was able to see the situation more clearly than the Chosen could and so was very aware of his approaching attack. Still, he couldn't prepare himself for the Death's Influence magic's invasion of Edmond's body. Even though he only experienced it once, it was more than enough to make him never want to go through that ever again.
The feeling hit Edmond immediately; the sensation of his cells and nerves rotting while still in control of his body was enough to drive any normal person insane; people like Fen and Edmond could only barely hold onto their unraveling sanity and attempt to retain their control over themselves thanks to their control over Vitality and Mana respectively.
A blast of magical energy erupted from his body and pushed Fen back, while a bubbling rage started to overtake even the overwhelming feeling of pain afflicting his mind. A roar escaped from Edmond's pained lips, and Fen watched as his past self was forced to run as bolts of magic were sent chasing after him with the intent of fatally wounding or killing him.
His mental consciousness winced as he endured the pain Edmond was currently experiencing, forced to endure while Edmond struggled to not scream out in pain. Dey only watched from the sidelines, neither helping nor assisting him in any way. Fen had to endure his way through the memories if he was going to survive; it was a path that all Vituls had to go through once in their lives, but it wasn't one that they all returned from. The Void God only hoped that the young Vitul had the mental fortitude needed to keep his ego intact.
On the other hand, the moment that held most of Fen's expectation was rapidly approaching. Afraid that he might miss even the tiniest detail, he almost completely merged his mental consciousness within Edmond's memories and only barely stopped when he felt the Chosen's mental energy about to overrun his own protections; that was how greedy and desperate he was to discover the method to make the Mana knight constructs, to put his own ego at risk.
Then, the feeling he received earlier appeared again. Something inside Edmond shifted once again, and this time, except of quietly receding, a vast amount of energy exploded within his body and was only barely retained by the Mana barriers he had hastily built within himself.
Fen could feel as some outside force started corrupting Edmond's mental energy, stopping after chipping away at the exteriors. Fen was slightly nervous after seeing the damage done to the Chosen's memory while his ego was partially merged, but he calmed down quickly after noticing that this was something that occurred in the past and so couldn't affect him.
The surging energy bounced around Edmond's body and caused several internal injuries. Any escaping Mana was immediately transformed into more magic missiles and instantly chased after Fen again, while Edmond struggled to calm his own energy. His face gradually became paler and paler, as the internalized energy began to transform and shape into the familiar Mana knight construct. But it wasn't being shaped by Edmond; some other force was manipulating his energy for him by forcibly taking control of his Mana.
Although Fen was disappointed to see that he couldn't gleam the method of how to build a Mana knight from the memory, he quickly forgot about his disappointment as his curiosity replaced any feelings of disappointment. Poking more mental tendrils of his consciousness into the memory, Fen still couldn't figure out what was happening; Edmond wasn't forming any coherent thoughts either, so he was forced to resort to his own analytical skills to form an answer.
However, Dey gave him an answer and saved him the effort of thinking.
[It's a Bio-system. I didn't know they still used methods like these; they were outdated even in my time.] Fen could hear the audible note of displeasure in the God's tone. For some reason, whatever was happening to the Chosen's body wasn't good.
It was painful too, like something was stripping control away from Edmond and manipulating his magical energy to create the magical constructs- Actually, it wasn't just 'like' it, that was exactly what was happening.
The Chosen started foaming at the mouth as his body barely withstood the pressure as an outside force took control. The pressure only lessened when the Mana knight was completed, standing tall at his side.
[That outside pressure? It's not an outside force like you're thinking. Using the kid's genes as the base, someone implanted a 'system' inside him. You ever read those shitty novels with a protagonist that has an overpowered system?] Fen was too focused on capturing all the details of what was occurring in the memory, so his consciousness simply gave a mental fluctuation in response. [That's what this is. Using a combination of modern biological technology and advanced Magical Arts, people were able to create capable soldiers in wars. I say cutting edge, but stuff like this was available even to the nation of Veratul, and we were introduced to Mana very late compared to other civilizations. I suppose advancements were made over time until now, but the overall application of the system seems to be the same.]
'I didn't know stuff like that could even exist...' Having had his overall world point of view updated once more, Fen felt like he understood more about the universe as a whole- Hell no, he was still confused! The explanation did help somewhat, but he still didn't really understand what this 'bio-system' actually did. In Edmond's memory, all it seemed to do was take control of his Mana and do the work for him...
'Oh, I think I get it.' He had to think back onto the novels he read, but Fen did remember that some did specifically mention that the system did the work for the user and helped alleviate the stress from their minds instead of them performing the work by themselves.
That seemed overpowered, but there must have been some reason why the Chosen didn't use the bio-system until he was overwhelmed. Clearly, his understanding of the system still wasn't as high as he'd like.
None of the other parts of the memory were as important or interesting to keep paying attention, as all Fen would see was Edmond running away and hiding in one of the many buildings in the ruined city until he was taken care of by a few Flaming Spears and a quick strike to his vital regions.
It seemed that the effects of Death's Influence didn't go away despite the large amount of time that passed, proving in Fen's mind his hypothesis that the spellwork would be extremely effective and last a long time against biological organisms that didn't have powerful regenerative abilities like himself.
Until that point, Fen took back most of his mental energy from the memory and had a conversation with Dey about bio-systems. Through the new information he gave him, Fen gained a more thorough understanding of what biological systems actually were and what they did.
When implanted, they would mostly reside dormant inside the user's spinal cord where it would remain until the user actively wished for it's assistance. How that worked, the God didn't know. Dey was clueless about the actual process of calling out the bio-system as he wasn't selected to be one of the candidates for the program. Supposedly, the user would instinctively feel how to call the system out, which made some sense, Fen supposed.
Just like Edmond had a bio-system, there also existed a Mana-system; it just depended on what Class the user was. Because Edmond was a Mage, his body was fundamentally weaker than his magical energy, requiring the system to be implanted within his spine so he could utilize the most benefits. For someone like Fen however, the system would be carved into his small amount of magical energy in a process that seemed extremely painful to him, though Dey explained it very casually.
To implant a Mana-system, the procedure required that the user's Mana be forcibly removed from the body while it was still connected to him, and force him to condense his magical energy long enough for the operation to succeed implanting the system within him. How could something like that be called painless? It was like they were ripping his Mana out of his body...
Anyways, when the user called out the system, the bio-system would 'steal' control from the user and start casting whatever spellworks and magic it was programmed to. Usually, this was a painless process, but in the case of Edmond who was in agony when the bio-system took control, the Chosen had so much rage inside him that he forgot to let go of his control resulting in the bio-system having to fight for control against him, causing all that pain he felt.
Until the system finished taking control manipulating the user's energy to formulate the spellwork, it would store the energy internally, causing the sudden surge of magical energy inside Edmond's body. When it finished, it would release the spellwork and perform it's job.
In this case, a Mana knight construct was created.
The specific programming of the bio-system inside Edmond's body was to continue creating Mana knights until the user's body grew exhausted or willed the system to stop, and that was why Edmond was able to create so many constructs while he was seemingly unconscious; he wasn't the one putting any effort in, it was the bio-system.
The only thing the Chosen had to do was command the Mana constructs, which wasn't a hard job at all. All Edmond had to do was give the constructs a general directive or goal, and they would immediately go out to complete it. While he was still inside Edmond's memory, Fen temporarily felt invincible with an army of semi-invincible Mana knights at his control, the feeling lasting until he remembered that it was all a memory and in the past.
But rather than forgetting the feeling, Fen ingrained it into his heart. That feeling of power... It was too alluring. With enough power, he'd be able to breeze through the Tasks and the Program while never having to worry about losing his own life.
'Heavens, how long has it been since I've had to constantly worry about dying? It's only been a little over a month...' At this rate, Fen was seriously concerned about how he'd manage to get through another eleven months of the Program. But the end of the Program wouldn't be the end of his worries- no, if the Foundation succeeded in calling Heaven back to Earth through the Succession then he'd have to hide his abilities from the Universal Grade civilization just to survive!
Fen's lips twitched just thinking about it. Ever since he joined the Program... Actually, wouldn't it be ever since he was born? Thinking back on his life, it didn't seem like he was very fortunate even before he had the Death Mark, but that wasn't new information.
He could only sigh and move on from thinking in such a depressing manner.
The conversation that he was having with Dey cut off suddenly as a piercing pain sucked him back into the memory, forcibly drawing his attention back to the orb of collected memory. Slightly stunned, Fen saw that he was watching from Edmond's perspective as he struck down with both his Flaming Spears and his Iberian short sword.
It was a horrifying sight considering how much blood was covering Fen's body, a sight that became even more horrifying because he was aware that all that blood was his own; Mana knights couldn't bleed, after all.
The sucking sensation didn't stop when he was in the memory however. If anything, the pull grew stronger as Edmond got closer to his death. When his Flaming Spear finally pierced him, the pull surged and reached a new peak.
With a flash of dark energy, Fen's mental consciousness was stolen from his own mind space under the shocked watch of Dey, who had never seen something like this occurring before.
Even back on his home planet filled with Vituls, the process of observing the memory of the first intelligent life form they killed was never interrupted; in all the records, something like this had never happened.
A feeling of worry pressed down on the God's chest, an occurrence which had become much more common ever since he met Fen.
****
Meanwhile, Fen had no clue where he was. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours and he was already kidnapped again. He wasn't the type to hold a grudge against the universe or anything, but wasn't this too much?! If he was old enough to drink, Fen would no doubt already be a raging alcoholic to deal with the stress caused by his unfortunateness.
He couldn't see anything around him, nor could he sense his body- Fen assumed that he was still in his spiritual form rather than his corporal body.
Oh, actually... The air around him felt familiar. Like he'd experienced it before? He wasn't entirely sure. Suddenly, his entire body froze and shivered. There was a voice, somewhere in the darkness.
It was... calling him? He couldn't make out the words, they were swirling all around him like the immaterial wind. But Fen was almost positive that it was calling his name... Right now, this didn't so much as a kidnapping as it did a summoning.