The Hybrid

After getting out of Kawagurme, Nox and Convict went to the small place called Hogure. It was a place full of gigantic trees. Sometimes corrupt spirits break free from the Kawagurme and infiltrate into this forest area. Because of this, there aren't many ordinary or inferior spirits present in this area.

Nox sits in a meditative state in the middle of a clearing. While he was still in Kawagurme he was constantly fighting against other spirits. But now he decided to check his body and powers.

When a spirit is born, he/she borns with a concept. Most of the time young spirits inherit their parents' concepts. But sometimes there can be mutations that would cause completely different concepts to appear. Nox was a similar case. His concept was nothing like his parents.

He took a deep breath and cleared his mind. He never had a chance to look at his concept and powers. Yes, he knew how to use some of them instinctively but that's it. Pureblood spirits know how to use their power and concept just from instincts.

Nox focused on his spirit core. It was an organ just like a heart. The core is on the right side of the body, unlike the heart. From the core some structures like blood veins spread through his body. These were mana paths also known as mana circuits. Humans and other beings can't use mana without harm because of the lack of this.

Even though every spirit has mana paths, Nox's are different. Bodies of the spirit race can't produce mana, because their real body only formed from mana. Anyway, Nox has two organs normal humans don't have. One of them produces mana, the other one produces hex. The one that produces hex isn't working so he can't use it.

"It is fascinating... To think this single organ alone is giving me an advantage over every other being. Can I... make it stronger? Mana it produces is enough for now but against the Rebellion and Council."

A slight frown appeared on his face. He didn't know how to enhance his mana organ. Since he can't do anything about it he focuses elsewhere. To his core. His concept is inside of the core. It's not a physical object or anything like that. It's more like a unique kind of energy different from mana.

"Why is it different from mana? Oh well, not that I care."

He inspects his core with his intent. Every spirit of Citizen or Great class can focus their own intent inside their bodies. When he finally felt his concept he couldn't help but shudder.

He knew that it was something about darkness and even death maybe. But this was unexpected. He slowly released his concept to his own body. It was burning everything, veins, muscles, and bones. His mana reacts too. It circulated together with his concept.

"ARGHH!!! What the hell?!?"

Suddenly burning intensified and Nox couldn't help but groan with pain. His concept rushed at the mana organ and invaded it. The moment concept reached the mana organ, it started to break down and at the same time repair itself.

The pain subsided after a little while. Nox took a deep breath and calm his mana. This was unexpected for him. He never heard anything like this happen to any of the spirits before. Well, there was never a half spirit before too.

He scanned his body quickly. What he found was another unexpected thing. 'The mana organ... err... evolved?' thought Nox. When inspecting it he couldn't help but laugh crazily.

"Hahahaha!!! I never thought I can be this damn lucky! Lady Luck must have fallen in love with me!! Hahahaha!!"

Now evolved mana organ brings many benefits for him. Mana producing speed become four times faster, mana density has become two times denser. As a side benefit his mana circuits enhance even more causing his mana reserves to four times before.

After checking the rest of his body Nox opened his eyes. They were glowing dark yellow. His pupils once again turned into hexagons. There were spiral patterns inside of the hexagons.

"Now let's look at what we have here. Even the name of this concept sounds interesting. Never-ending Nightmares. I wonder what can I do with it."

He opened his palm and on top of it, a black sphere appeared. It looked like it was made out of black smoke. He shaped it with his intent and watch its reactions. It was actually reacting differently from mana. The difference between them wasn't much but the black sphere was more tuned with spiritual spells. Of course, he learned this from his concept.

Right now his concept is mixed with his mana. So he didn't expect there would be any different. But still, this wasn't a bad thing. All of his mana looks like black smoke right now, this means he got incredibly stronger at the spiritual magic. On the other hand, he didn't lose anything on the other magic fields. His mana is denser now, which makes his spells a lot stronger than before. Basically, it's a win-win situation.

"All is good but evolving is this easy? My concept makes it break down and repair itself continuously, eventually evolving it. My mana organ is the core of my power, I need to make it even better. But how though? Can I make it evolve again?"

Nox stand up and cracked his back. He doesn't have enough knowledge about his mana organ so he pushed it to the corner of his mind for now. Right now practicing his powers is a better choice. Especially now that his concept mixed with his mana.

He released his mana to his surroundings. The black smoke quickly covered the ground within 10 meters radius. Smoke didn't rise from the ground but stayed low.

"A domain, huh? Let's see what it can do."

At several places smoke gathered as small patches. They took the shapes of different creatures. Cats, dogs, scorpions, and spiders. They were all jet black and their numbers were a total of 30. But they were all small, around his ankles. Even though they were small, he could feel their mana. It was at the level where they could fight with inferior spirits. He suddenly gained an army.

"Have to improve this. If they can be as big as me they would be incredibly useful. I have finally a weapon to wipe out canon fodders."

He canceled the domain and gathered all of the remaining mana. The mana consumption of it was small but in a battle, he can't use it. Every drop of mana is valuable in battles. Especially if his enemies are above the citizen class. He himself is bordering the high class but has not enough mana to defeat an actual high spirit, yet.

He condensed the mana he gathered and turned it into a black crystal. It was fragile but after feeding it mana it became denser and strong. He changed its shape to an arrow and fired it to a nearby tree. When it hit the tree trunk it gouged out a huge part of it.

"Impressive attack."

"!!!"

Nox quickly turned toward the place where the voice came from. There stood a man with a goat head. Nox prepared himself for the incoming battle. Meanwhile, a man walks to him slowly.

"Nox Kieran. I didn't expect to find you here. I was ready to chase you to the Human Realm."