Inside the dark mind space of Siderius, the psyche of Fluff appeared once again. On the waist of the owl was a gold ring. Outside of its body was a second ring constantly rotating.
Most of the psychosis had been absorbed into the ring, solidifying it into a real gold ring. The source of thɪs content is 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝙣𝙚𝙩
Siderius appeared in this spiritual world. Behind him was his soul manifestation with the silver aura.
As the words uttered from his mouth, the gold ring spun faster and faster until it was a blur of gold and blue.
The eyes of Fluff shot open. Its psyche woke up in the dark mind space and it screamed. It was the last effort of it to fight its way out of eternal damnation. It writhed and shirked, head spinning 360 degrees. But the gold ring on its waist constantly releases a faint spiritual energy to restraint it.
"I have asked myself many times." Siderius mumbled. He was saying to Fluff and also to himself. "How do I break free of the shackles that were put on humans? Why 200 years? Why not 500? Why not 100?
We were never able to find out the answer to that."
The owl kept shrieking and the gold ring kept spinning. Suddenly, the gold ring stopped in place. With it, the owl froze and was unable to react anymore.
"So I thought. Maybe this life, I will try what other witch hunters had never tried before. Finding light in the darkness."
Siderius sat down in the dark mind space. He slowly floated up and stopped right in front of the owl. His silver soul began to move its hand, conducting the signs of the Ring of Urge. Inside its abdomen shining the mixed-color of the Aether Sphere.
"I thought that maybe we witch hunters weren't daring enough. We didn't try hard enough. The world is in a constant stage of danger. Witches, abominations, demons and angels.
They are all real and so dangerous that any human can never comprehend. It made me feel hopeless.
I don't like it. I don't like to put my fate in the hands of the inhumans. I will carve my own path.
Siderius raised his hands and began to move it in sync with the soul behind him. Both of them were conducting the sign sequence of the Ring of Urge.
"There is no going back after this now." Siderius closed his eyes.
"No thirst nor starved, nor craving's fire…"
The ring outside of the owl shrunk and attached itself onto the neck of the owl forcefully. It bit into the feathers of its own then sunk into its skin.
Siderius slowly opened his eyes.
"Shall take the heart of my desire."
The two gold rings on Fluff's body shone brightly a golden color. The body of Fluff started to fade and turned into pure spiritual energy.
It shrunk and shrunk, getting smaller and smaller with every breath Siderius took.
Then, it became a small dot of blue light. The remains of the beast's psyche slowly floated over to Siderius. It split in two then went into his eyes.
Siderius' eyes shot wide open in the real world. Now he felt the pain. His back bent forward, veins bulged on his forehead and saliva involuntarily leaked out of the corner of his mouth.
Still, there was no grunt or moan. He held it all inside. His jaw clenched tied and his vision focused straight ahead, no matter how much pain he felt.
Blood leaked out of the corner of his eyesockets. Red webs filled the white sclera of his eyeballs.
With every time he blinked, his vision distorted and changed. Sometimes it was the black and white color of the owl that he got used to for the last few months. Sometimes it had the colorful mixture of a human's vision. Sometimes it was darkness, the world of the blind.
He controlled his breath and sat straight up. The vengeful hunter closed his eyes again. Now he focused on his Truth-Seeking Path. Rather than sit here and be conquered by the pain, he would do something else useful, proving to himself that this was nothing but a scratch.
The Aether Sphere inside the soul spun aggressively, releasing the Aethers into the manifestation of his soul. His soul ate them up like a hungry wolf. The silver aura got brighter and brighter, until it almost enveloped the entire body of the soul.
Hours went by. The pain subsided and the final point of psychosis was gone.
[USER: Siderius 'Snow' Satterblade]
[WITCH HUNTER RANK: OCULUS EXTIMA I (COMPLETED)]
[ALCHEMIST RANK: SILVER I]
[MERCURY EXTRACT: 0/150]
[PSYCHOSIS LEVEL: 0/125 (-1)]
[TOXICITY LEVEL: 0/100 (-15)]
Siderius opened his eyes. The dark eyes of the owl were mixed with a faint shade of purple. It was so little that no one could notice it without taking a closer look.
The world was the same but his perception was different. The owl, Lyara's familiar, had given Siderius a gift.
He turned his head toward the house to see Dark Aether floating in the air. It wasn't a temporary state like when he was in Mucktown. This effect was permanent.
From this day on, Siderius was able to see Magic. He had acquired the Mystic Eyes.
Mystic Eyes, sometimes called Magan by the Eastern Monk, was a rare ability only a few witches had. It allowed them to see magic in the physical world and the traces it left behind. This allowed them to learn the extent of any witch's mana core with a simple look.
The Truth-Seeking Path allowed Siderius to see the mana core inside a witch already. But he couldn't sense their Dark Aether amount or see it in the real world. Now he could.
"A pair of Magans, huh? But it is not a natural Magan, but an artificial one. This is False Magan."
Siderius stood up and dusted off his knees. He went inside the house to check on Caterina. With the Mystic Eyes, Siderius was able to clearly see the flow of magic inside the black egg.
"She is about to come out." Siderius said.
A hand punched through the shell of the black egg. A silky smooth pale hand with no wrinkle or sign of old age. The rest of the shell broke right after that, revealing a naked and young Caterina in front of Siderius.
She had returned to the image Siderius saw in her memory. The beautiful, prideful Black Witch of the Woods.