Infinity: Rising of the Soul Weavers

\'Lady Raven,\' Raven could suddenly hear Abbadon\'s voice in her mind. \'I think that you need to see this…\'

Hearing his excited voice, she could see a magic circle materialising next to her, forming a teleportation portal. Understanding that this was Abbadon\'s, she hopped into it.

"What the…" as soon as she was brought to the other side, she felt a terrifying pressure in the air. 

Looking closely at the source of this pressure, she could see Maria\'s figure glowing with a fierce azure while pinning Keith on the cracked floor.

Smiling proudly, Keith gently tapped Maria\'s wrist, prompting her to release him. Not a second after, Maria dropped on her knees, panting. 

Looking towards Raven that she felt looking at her, she smiled, seconds before fainting into Keith\'s arms.

Raven instantly flickered next to her and applied her skill: Saint of Life. Making sure that she wasn\'t in any danger, but merely exhausted, she stared at Keith with a serious expression and muttered one word: "explain!"

"My mistress," he said with a smile while handing her Maria. "I\'ve been able to unlock Lady Maria\'s hidden potential."

Raven could feel his excitement, which he had never shown before, yet she still wasn\'t clear of what was going on. "Explain more, what happened?"

"It is what he has just said," Aella\'s voice came from behind Raven, seconds before her arms wrapped around her tense body. "This Keith of yours has more to him than meets the eyes. 

"He was able to tell that Maria had something preventing her body from exerting its full potential, and simply helped her get rid of that, or rather control it.

"They\'ve been working on that for a while now, she wanted to surprise you actually, but I guess she was too tired to grin in your face." 

Hearing that, Raven didn\'t know what to feel about it. "Keith, I want to hear it from you. What sort of powers does she have? And how were you able to remove whatever was preventing her from unleashing her full potential?"

From what Raven remembered, Maria was powerless and had nothing but what she had previously injected her with, back when she had saved her life and converted her into a Soul Weaver. 

But even though she knew that she was the one to convert her, Raven hadn\'t witnessed the process herself. \'If I remember correctly, it was one of my weird episodes where I somehow gained a different personality… or something.

\'I am not sure… but it was that robotic me, that Camilla spoke of, that had helped my mother at the time.\'

"My mistress," Keith bowed. "During our training sessions with your mother, Lady Maria, I\'ve conducted some mana tests to check up on her mana core, nodes and circuitry.

"You can think of them as her mana heart, mana filters, and mana vessels. Unlike the natural ones most creatures have, they circulate mana around the body, and not blood.

"Lady Maria had her nodes set in a way that constrict her mana usage and prevent her mana core from producing its full effects. In simple terms, it was limiting her overall potential.

"I have informed her of such, and according to her will, we have decided to go on with a plan that helps her fix that issue. Now, she simply has control over her mana usage."

Everything sounded normal and sweet, yet Raven knew something wasn\'t right. "How did you do that? In other words, what was that plan you conducted, to relieve her limiters? Wouldn\'t those limiters be put into place to prevent any damage to her body in the first place?"

"It\'s more complicated than that, my mistress," Keith said calmly. "However, it is a little bit tricky to explain, may I share part of my memories about the incident with you?"

"Um, sure," Raven answered.

Touching her forehead, Keith used one of his skills to transfer his thoughts to his mistress. 

Instantly, foreign memories that weren\'t hers flooded her mind. They were cut and trimmed in the way that would make the most sense and coherence to Raven.

She could suddenly picture Maria\'s mana core in her mind and see the familiar azure energy radiation out of it. \'But this looks so wrong…\' Raven muttered in her mind.

\'Why is her core being destroyed and reconstructed every second? How is that possible? Why are her mana nodes almost transparent? It\'s like they\'re working as magnifiers rather than limiters now…

\'Instead of having normal paths for mana to circulate through her body, it seems that her entire body is made out of mana now… what is that? What did he do to her?\'

Shaking her head from those visions and memories, Raven held her head between her hands. "How did you do this? And is it not dangerous for her mana core to be constantly reconstructed?"

"Oh, I simply guided through a process that is called mana refinement." Keith said. "It\'s a process in which one would dive deeper into the depths of their own body and internal energy to try and understand the way it works.

"Only by having complete understanding over such matters can a person unleash their full potential.

"As for your second question, I agree that it is usually bad that a person\'s mana core is being destroyed and reconstructed. 

"However, for some reason, it seems that Lady Maria\'s body is adapted to that. I\'m not sure what that exactly implies, but I know it\'s not particularly harmful for her."

"I see…" Raven said while looking at her mother. \'Wait, how have I never heard of something called mana refinement?\'

As if reading her mind, Abbadon\'s voice came from behind her, almost startling her. "Lady Raven, is it possible that you\'ve never gone through the process of mana refinement?"

"Um… I\'m not sure…" Raven stuttered since she didn\'t know.

"There\'s no way though, right?" Aella asked while tilting her head. "I understand that Maria was forced into her powers and that\'s why she had no knowledge of it, but you should have full control over your powers, no?" 

"May I look into your mana pathways, my mistress?" Keith asked curiously. Abbadon and Aella nodded in agreement.

"Uhm, sure," she nodded. \'Maybe this can help me become more powerful?\'

Gently touching her forehead against, Keith blinked twice as a bright blue radiant light was emitted from his eyes.

Looking deeper into Raven\'s mana pathways, he was expecting to see a stream of golden energy or maybe something that matched her mother\'s, but instead, what he saw made him widen his eyes in surprise and horror.

"My mistress…" he muttered in disbelief. "What happened to you? This can\'t be true…"

"Eh? What is it?" Raven asked since she didn\'t understand one bit of what he was trying to say.

"Your mana pathways… they can\'t really be called pathways, I\'m not sure of what I\'m looking at…" Keith said while reverting his eyes to their normal colour.

""May I take a look?"" Both Aella and Abbadon asked simultaneously.

"Sure," Raven shrugged.

Moments later, both of them had a similar expression to Keith. Yet, both seemed almost angry.

Gritting her teeth, Aella hugged Raven. "Tell me honestly, how was your first experience with powers?"

"Eh? Um, from what I can remember, my first experience with powers was Tu\'s energy." Raven said with her index over her lips, trying to remember. "It was the time when me and Maya were trying to run away from Lady Luck and her assistant, the duo had kidnapped us and kept us for a while…"

This was the first time for Keith, Abbadon, Aella, and the rest to hear of that incident so they were all shocked.

"We will have to f*cking talk about this later," Aella said, her anger seeping into the air. "But for now, tell me what happened after that? The way you said it implied that you\'ve never used your own energy, is that true?"

"Hm, well, my body kind of got used to that feeling Tu\'s energy gave me and so I could replicate a small portion of it," Raven said while creating a blood crimson orb of energy. "Then, after some experiments, I realised that I had some talents such as controlling my shadow and stuff.

"Shortly after, I had to go through a trial where I was first exposed to this girl form… *cough* Am I going back a lot?" She asked, embarrassed.

"No, no, go on, I feel like I don\'t know you," Aella said, trying to hide her surprise. \'She was a boy??!!\'

Narrating her story, Raven told them the entirety of the energies she was exposed to; the crimson energy, the golden energy, the white radiance, the purple energy and the rest.

"Wait, so what\'s your real energy?" Aella asked, confused. "Are you telling me that you\'ve never used your own energy?"

"I mean, I think my own energy is the golden one, since it is the one I have the most control over," Raven said, slightly embarrassed that she has never questioned that herself. 

"Ok, let me tell you what we saw of your mana pathways, and you tell me if that makes sense," Aella said. 

"So, in short, your mana core is almost fully blocked, your mana nodes are set to prevent you from using mana to start with, and there\'s little to no mana circulating through your body…"