Chapter 34: Fixing The Ring

Aden’s figure crouched over the mask, his eyes shut tightly as he painstakingly followed the circuits of the mask.

Four hours passed in that exact position. Small beads of sweat had begun to form on his forehead and signs of frustration could be seen in his face.

With a groan, Aden snapped open his eyes, the darkness sparing him the discomfort of adjusting the light that would have passed through.

Aden gripped the edges of the table with clenched teeth as he stood up. An empty can shot through the wall and left a gaping hole in it.

Aden clicked his teeth while shaking his foot lightly.

“This is stupid,” Aden mumbled.

He let himself fall on the hard bed, and stared blankly at the dark ceiling.

’What am I doing wrong?’ he wondered. “Is the mask that complex?”

’No,’ he shook his head. ’I’m simply not skilled enough yet.’

His left hand raised above him, small marks and healed cuts unveiled themselves alongside his callused palms that his Master had consciously left unattended to.

As he recalled memories of his Master, his eyes grew sad, but he slapped himself and sat upwards with a start.

He wiped the corner of his eyes quickly. “Stupid dust particles,” he said under his breath.

Clearing whatever ’obstruction’ that resided in his eye, Aden consciously recalled every gruelling moment he spent following the circuit.

After a while, he frowned. “Why does this feel very familiar though?”

He couldn’t quite place his finger on it, but the circuits he spent hours following bore a striking familiarity to something else.

Something he could swear he’d done, but had no recollection of what he had done in particular.

His frown depeened even further, his fingers tracing over the dusty floor in search of something.

Letting out a soft groan, Aden let the idea reside in a small corner of his mind.

He slowly stood up, the cold floor sharing it’s properties through his bare feet as he walked back to his desk.

As he stared at the mask for the umpteenth time, a thought struck him.

Why was he always expelled from the circuit before he could make any considerable progress? Could it really be a matter of skill?

At first, he thought that was the case, but as the final moments of each failure replayed in his head, he came to a conclusion.

He didn’t make any mistake in his mental expedition, he was rejected by the very nature he was trying to meld with.

’Since I have two different energies within me, does that mean that my Resonance energy has been corrupted by the Void energy?’

The idea didn’t sound too far–fetched in Aden’s mind. The Void energy was essentially a devouring force of nature and as Aden studied his skills more closely, that notion was reinforced.

“What a selfish energy…”

The steady dripping sounds outside his room accompanied the silence that followed.

Then, a smile slowly formed unrestrainedly on Aden’s lips. “I understand it now.”

Aden closed his eyes again. He didn’t reach for the Key gem this time. Instead, he placed his palm flat over the forehead of the demon mask.

“If I can’t follow the paths,” Aden whispered, his voice echoing off the damp walls, “I’ll just make new ones.”

He released the tiniest thread of Void Energy.

To a normal engineer, this would be sacrilege. Resonance circuits were delicate, like glass filaments and Void energy were rocks inherently designed to shatter them.

But Aden was never conventional to begin with.

The moment his energy touched the wood, a low, pained hum vibrated through the stone table.

Aden watched as a thin, black vein like a literal root began to crawl from his fingertip into the mask’s first circuit node. The blue light of the mask’s standard resonance fought back for a second before turning a bruised, sickly violet

The mask shook, a tiny crack appearing near the eye–slit.

Aden licked his upper lip, his hair slowly absorbing the beads of sweat rolling off his neck and forehead.

’Too much,’ Aden grunted. ’It has to be formless like….water!’

Aden’s eyes widened in realization, the teachings from Kaelthorn granting him another layer of insight once again.

Aden retracted the black energy before letting out a thick layer of his transparent Resonance to cover the entirety of the mask.

Slowly, he reduced the thickness of his energy until it formed an almost imperceptible film on its surface.

Then something truly shocking happened.

The paths that were previously elusive to

him showed themselves on the mask, and although it wasn’t activated, he could clearly visualize the paths his energy would take to perform its basic functions.

This reinforced the teaching to a deeper, more practical level.

It was like breathing onto a cold mirror.

Normally, the surface looked smooth and empty. But once fog spread across it, the hidden scratches and fingerprints appeared.

Aden reeled in his excitement and let the enlightenment sink in else he risked the operation becoming a massive failure.

He carefully injected a separate strand of his transparent energy into the origin of the circuit and squinted his eyes.

It flowed through the channels seamlessly, but halfway through the circuit, his energy turned inwards like a wave colliding against a fortress.

His head ached lightly, but the new discoveries he made drowned out the minor discomfort.

He retracted his transparent energy and infused the Void Energy into the channels.

The result was Aden predicted.

The black energy chipped away at the channels, expanding them slightly with every circulation.

He spent an extra four hours in total silence. His attention remained unwavered throughout this time and by the time the faint sound of the town’s morning bells filtered down through the street grates, the mask looked… different.

Aden stood up with a little disorientation in his steps. He held the Hannya mask in front of his eyes, and a pleased hum left his lips.

The white wood was now marbled with faint, obsidian streaks that seemed to move if you looked at them too long and the small cracks that formed at its sides had been sewn patched together by them.

Aden winced as his fingers massaged his temples softly. His legs shook a little before he fell on his bed.

A triumphant smile remained on his lips and widened even further as he stared distantly into the air.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ]

Task Progress: [Void-Infection] — 5% Complete.

New Attribute: [Dissonant Feedback] — The mask now dampens Stage 3 scans by 40%, but drains the users stamina while worn.

“We’re getting somewhere at least…”

Aden’s eyes finally shut and thankfully, the rays of sunlight didn’t have any access to disrupt his well deserved rest.

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