A few hours later.

Surrounded by small trees, a naked man stood in the middle of a rune circuit made of blood.

Around the circle, seven men kept quietly looking at the one inside the circle and patient waiting.

The strong blood odor permeated the air with his metallic stink.

While the trees around them moved with the wind in the dark night and the leaves made an unpleasant sound as if anticipating something bad.

Only the moon shined above theirs heads.

The naked man, had a body that looked sculpted from a artist and the moon light reflected the black luster of the tattoos all over his body.

The man pressed his left thumb against the runic circle..

One second later, the runic circle shined in blood red color. The light of it only made the night even more eerie, because in that light, the smile of that man appeared.

‘Its working’

Thought Mack, seeing the rune circuit was perfectly working.

He raised his head and looked at Raz and gave a nod.

Raz felt it was all too unnatural for him. He was not used to using runic circuits, but still, moved as planned and put one of the Essence crystal in its due place above the circuit on the ground and moved back to his former place.

Essence left the crystal and went inside the smaller circuit, making it stronger, and in the inner part of the circuit in a 2 meter radius, Essence started to congregate.

Mack felt the pressure increasing at each second, but was still far from what he wanted.

He gave another look at Raz and raised 3 fingers.

Raz, just like before, went to the runic circuit and put three more crystals there.

Now Mack could feel pressure that made him use his muscles at the maximum.

Mack raised one more finger and Raz did as asked.

One more Essence crystal to the runic circle.

Now it was truly demanding for Mack to stand up.

‘Good. They are way more powerful than I thought’

Mack initially thought he would need to use all crystals from the start to be able to feel a threatening pressure.

Alas, he was wrong. But this only made him happier.

Mack started to chant the old familiar chanting he created himself based on the book inscriptions. And the already eerie atmosphere only intensified.

Breath, chant, breath.

The wind carried his voice and the few animals around left the place.

No sane animal would approach this place tonight.

Because tonight, the moon shined in red.

Mack raised his hand, made a signal with his finger for one more Essence Crystal.

But his closed eyes dint opened.

And his chanting never stopped.

A fight against his own will was happening now.

His muscles were already sore.

His brain kept saying to leave the circle and stop the pain.

His mind was against him.

The first battle was not against the Essence pressure. But against himself. Against his monkey brain that kept asking for tranquil days and food instead of pain and suffering.

A strong will can change worlds and forge them to his own accord. But the battle is always there. Fighting against himself all the time.

Mack’s right hand raised, but this time, he did not ask for more crystals. But stabbed his own chest, the dagger in his hand cut the skin and blood started to pour out of it.

The metallic stink intensified, but Mack didn’t stopped chanting. Let alone scream because of pain.

He was used to pain. So used that he now almost felt pleasure out of it.

The human brain was a tricky ‘machine’.

~slash~

Another cut and blood gushed from Mack’s leg.

He now was doing the same he did on the second trial of the tower.

Using high Essence density to change his own body.

He tried doing the same with his nameless middle finger runespell, but it didn’t work. Because he himself was the ‘source’ of Essence.

He originally thought of doing this inside the mage towers, and was not sure if it would work, but with the discovery of Essence Crystals, his plan went on a little deviation.

And now, seeing how much power each Essence crystal could use, Mack was sure.

Today he is going to bleed until his body evolved again, or he would die trying.

~slash~

Another deep cut was made and blood flowed from his body.

Below Mack feet the red ground was soaked in his blood already.

Each time a cut healed, Mack made another one.

~slash~

It was time to speed up the process.

Mack raised two fingers with his left hand.

He could not lose time. He need to be able to use all those Essence Crystals at the same time or he would not be able to achieve the regenerative speed needed for his blood to produce new blood cells on the frequency needed for them to evolve to a point they could support more Essence Density.

His marrow cells needed to evolve.

And for that he needed an insane regenerative speed, and to be almost without blood on his body.

That was what Mack believed.

And that was his goal.

Raz saw the two fingers and put two more Essence crystals.

The array shined even more with the flow of essence and bathed the surrounding trees in his blood red light.

~thump~

Mack fell to his knees.

The pressure was too much for his already sore muscles.

But he was not angry.

He smiled.

A crazy smile full of pain and blood.

His own blood.

Mack put the dagger over his own neck.

Time to go all in.

He didn’t have time to lose.

Is do or die.

“Put all of them!”

Screamed Mack, before the cold metal on his neck became warm with his own blood.

Blood poured out of his own neck like a broken dam.

The warlocks around quickly put all the crystals and waited around the runic circuit.

Mack fell to the ground, unconscious, with blood pouring out of his neck.

They knew it was risky, and they knew that if Mack died, their fates were doomed, too.

Their only hope was for this crazy man laying on that blood pool at the center of the runic circuit to be able to live.

But they didn’t knew something very important.

This was not the first time that Mack knocked on hell’s door.

And the devil seemed to not welcome him.