The story being narrated by C9 proved to be a lot for Samuel to take in. All he dreamt of was to just capture Tessa's attention and win her heart, but fate decided to play a fictional joke at his expense and serve him the inverted version of it. He ended up capturing a madman's attention and losing his mind, possibly losing his heart as well in the process.
'Have you ever considered the feelings of an electronic storage device when it is new?
'A blank slate with nothing in it's name, possibly the only tasks it knows to perform are storing data and retrieving the information when required of it...but regardless, it has no power perform this tasks on its own, so a master is needed'.
'I felt the power brimming through my wooden jade muscles, the life force surging into my body with my twelve-core as the generator.
'No one was there to explain all this upon our birth, but on the second our eyes were opened, the somehow we all knew who we were...and why we were'.
'We were not birthed of the Celtic mystery men but the proper way to put it is that their sacrifice was the fuel which facilitated our creation'.
'Since we got on this world through a different way from the rest of you all, large amounts of life force were needed and their bodies surprisingly contained just the right amount...it seems the whole process was carefully thought out by the mastermind behind it all'.
'Their bodies contained more than five centuries' worth of life force, which is something your feeble human bodies can no longer achieve. If it was during the early days of the world's creation it would have been possible because by then, your kind still had a deep and intimate connection with the world consciousness and like a single entity'.
The mental patient continued speaking more gibberish and what he said sounded to Sam's "ears" the same way a broken record sounds to a normal person.
'Damn it! I knew he was not human!. And here I was racking my brains wondering why he does not get tired of talking'. Sam let a thought slip through.
Surprisingly the man never stopped talking, as if he did not hear what Samuel had said to himself...or perhaps he did not really hear what the monkey brain thought about him?... nobody knew. But it is a known fact that if he heard what Sam said, a war was sure to break out.
'I'm glad he missed that, if he did I am sure I would have undoubtedly died this time.
'Hang on...what if he did not really pick up on any word I said because I am certain this is the second time he did not respond to my thoughts, hmmm, let's have an experiment'.
The way Samuel said the last line was almost as if he was a real doctor about to rerun the lab results of a science project he had been working on for a long time, with C9 as the lab specimen.
'Old prick'. Thought Sam, but he had lowered the frequency of his thoughts and in the sense of speaking, one could say he was whispering.
After saying the suicidal words which could potentially get him killed... the death he so waited for never came.
'Hmmm, he missed that as well, now let's try something else.
'From the way he speaks, I can actually tell that he is a great man'. This time Samuel increased his thought frequency, like he had changed his 'voice' from a low frequency bass to the highest pitched soprano.
'Oh, you have finally realized how great I really am... took you long enough. You see now, that compared to any other existence the magnitude of my greatness is at a whole 'nother level, actually...'.
'It worked!' Samuel was so ecstatic that he could not conceal the excitement in his voice, but unfortunately he let his excitement get the best of him and that exposed his little experiment to the ''enemy''.
'You are quite the perceptive one I see, can't say that I am not impressed. And here I thought there was a vacuum where your brain should be, turns out you can actually think for yourself'.
'But don't get too ahead of yourself though, even if you figured something out that does not not necessarily mean you qualify to fall under my bracket of what even the weakest Holder should be... you are simply a monkey with the ability to learn, nothing more'.
'Yes, upon birth, each and every holder has at least the ability to manipulate his consciousness, or brain... whatever your people call it. It is the ability to use your mind to affect other minds, take for example, on that day when we were birthed... nobody could remember what had happened because we altered their minds and removed all the memories that were tied to us, directly or indirectly'.
'The mystic lights they saw were the materialized forms of our consciousness combined, that was how we were able to remain unknown throughout the whole history of human civilization. It is similar to telepathy but the updated version of it'.
'Since you are also a holder, naturally, you were reborn with the power. That is how I am able to hear your thoughts, it is through your power. But you are still a weakling juvenile so there is obviously no way you can harness such power and make it yours'.
'If all the so called custodians have loose tongues like yours,... then I'm afraid humanity might actually need protection from your ragtag bunch of misfits. Hurling curse words everywhere like cannonballs on the battlefield being fired by an inexperienced soldier. I need to run from this person'. Sam thought to himself.
'I have a question...what is a..."holder?" The words were said carefully and as softly as possible, afraid of getting on C9's nerves.
'Your conscious core plus the jade mannequin you're possessing equals to what is called... a holder. Don't even think for a second about comparing your inferior existence to the custodians, those two titles are totally leagues apart'.
'There are others like you, with vessels like yours...but however, the only difference is that they range from what is called a milliner's mannequin to the pure gold mannequins'.
'No one has ever seen a vessel like yours, jade? No...this is unheard of. Perhaps it is due to the fact that we occupy the same conscious core and that somehow affected the structure of this body?...it still makes no sense'.
'But know this, there has never been any holder like you and thus, your capabilities remain unknown'.
'Is that a bad thing or a good thing?' Even though Samuel's emotions ranged from fear to astonishment, there was something he never forgot to feel. Confusion.
'Even I am not sure, you could be the weakest or strongest to ever exist throughout the whole of Kenorland'. Even though Custodian 9 was clouded by his ego, he knew to clear his head when the time called for it.
'Why is it called Kenorland, are we not on planet earth?'. The name was totally new to Sam, so naturally, he had to ask.
'Yes this is still your homeworld, but what is known to you is known to us differently'.
'You call it Earth, to us it is Kenorland, and the four commonly known mainlands are Laurentia, Baltica, Kalaharia and Niew-Holland. I believe these are known to you as continents, but however...shhh quiet...did you hear that?!'.
A sound of heavy footsteps reverberated out of nowhere and invaded Sam's and C9's shared ears, but poor Samuel could not hear anything.
They sounded like they belonged to a confident person who was taking a stroll in his own garden.
'But I can't even hear anyth...'.
'Quiet! Fuse your conscious node with mine, let me control and move this body or we are both going to die right here!'. C9's thoughts were forced into Samuel's mind and there was an obvious sense of urgency in his words.
'You see that little pinhead on your side of the core?, Yes I want you to pretend as if you are breathing and with each breath you take in... imagine it as if it's moving towards mine, hurry we are running out of time!'.
Under normal circumstances, it was impossible for the duo to exchange words in such a short space of time before the approaching footsteps got to them...but fortunately they were using a direct mental connection and in a split second a lot of information could be shared between the two existences.
Not knowing whether Sam was a natural when it came to controlling his newfound power or it was sheer dumb luck but he successfully pulled it off and the two nodes met at the center and fused into one, changing the mannequin's outward jade appearance to that of a shiny tan color that had a distant glow to it.
'I am in!...now watch me as I show these Rodinian scum who's papa!'. C9 was so thrilled that he looked like a four year old child who had just found his lost lost toy.
Even though Sam had surrendered all the control to C9, he could now very well see, feel and hear everything...it was akin to having sleep paralysis with his eyes open.
The tan mannequin just stood up like a puppet being manipulated by an invisible puppet master and slightly hovered a few centimeters aboveground before landing back in the dust, with both its feet with visible knee-joints firmly planted in the ground. It attempted extending its right arm to get familiar with its own body and it's elbow released a cracking sound.
'So that's what it is huh'.
Nobody knew what C9 did but the mannequin body he commanded started producing cracking sounds all over it's body. The knees, elbows, wrists neck and every other joint that held it's body parts together all began making sounds as if there were a series of twigs snapping all at once inside its body.
At first it was having difficulty moving its organs but as soon as all the twigs snapped, its movements suddenly became as fluid as flowing water.
Bam!.
The stone door in which the tan mannequin was hiding behind was burst open with such force that made the whole ancient temple quake.
Glass.
A majestic being with a human body structure was found standing on the other side of the door door when the dust from the broken down rubble settled. A super shiny transparent glass exterior, blue light radiating off its body and a pair of red blade handles peeked from behind its back... indicating that the new guest was a swordsman, and a powerful one at that.
"Rodinian".
C9 hissed and said a single word with a clenched jaw, and the way he acted alone spoke volumes of the type of foe they were going up against.
'We are so going to die!'. Poor Sam could do nothing except just watch and panic as he watched them die.
'I said I got this you fizzle brain, just sit back and watch!'.
The Rodinian unsheathed both his extremely sharp silver blades from his back and a black crystal-like armour materialized all over his body and his eyes and mouth were the only parts left uncovered by the strange armour.
C9's left arm morphed into a simple looking rusty shield and his right arm transformed into a jagged, blunt and rusty old sword that appeared as if it was a bread knife. In fact, calling it a sword was insult to all swordsmen.
'You expect to fight a fully geared swordsman with a bread knife and a cutting board?.
'If you want to commit suicide sure, I can help...there are plenty of suicidal methods that are less stupid out there!'.
'Shut up I'm trying to concentrate, if you don't shut your trap we are surely gonna die!...The least you could do is try lending me your power!!'.
Samuel just repeated the process he had been instructed before and the mannequin's outward appearance developed jade patches, creating beautiful jade and tan mosaic. The bread knife also slightly turned into what looked like a proper sword, together with the shield...and with this, the duo's survival chances were bolstered a bit.
The glass swordsman stepped back slightly, an indication of the fact that he was intimidated. But he soon got back in position and licked his glass lips with a beet red tongue, the same way a starving lion licks it's lips when it sees defenseless prey.
'Eat this!!'.
C9 streaked towards the glass swordsman with the highest speed possible that he could muster. Perhaps it was because he had confidence in his strength or it was because of something else, nobody knew but the warrior remained rooted to the ground as if he was not bothered by the wingless fly charging at him.
With a single swipe of his silver sword he produced a small gale force which was supposed to send his enemy flying with its strong wind force.
But C9 was not having any of that.
He too, waved his sword and it sliced through the strong wind in a straight line, separating the gale in half. But it did not end there, the sword strike was not released without a purpose...it demanded a sacrifice and so it took the warrior's left arm with it.
"Ahhh! Cursed holder, you will pay for this!".
The warrior shrieked in pain.
"I am not really the one to leave with unpaid dues. Here is your full payment".
Then C9 took another power packed swing and it sliced through the air as before, separating the warrior's head from his shoulders as it went...and with that, the warrior disintegrated into a pile of glass shards.
He picked up a three-point core from the pile with his left hand which had reverted back to its original form and clutched it. The core started fading into thin air but the strange part is, when the core was fading...his right bladed arm started getting even sharper and more livelier than before.
"We're leaving this place"