Aldrich did not waste any time. He began the process of summoning his Boundary. He wanted to see exactly how developed his personal space was. And, some part of him still wanted to see if that little apartment room full of warm memories was still there.
But to get there, Aldrich had to unlock it with a key. That key being the memory of pain, that feeling of something sharp, something brutal, gouging into his heart and twisting it.
It was not very pleasant, holding the feeling, but the Death Lord was right: holding it made the image of his Boundary space much clearer in his head.
Aldrich held out his hand in front of him, his palm open. Darkness shrouded his arms, undulating like flowing water.
"Manifesting a Boundary already?" Rella watched Aldrich intently, her gleaming white eyes narrowed. She leaned forward, eager, a smile tugging at the edges of her lips. "After just barely encountering his core? What is he, some kind of monster?"
"Yes, you would know much about that," said the Death Lord. She put a hand to her chin as she watched Aldrich intently. "I would like to see this happen, but-,"
The Death Lord appeared in front of Aldrich with a single high speed movement.
Aldrich could not react to her, not only because of her speed, but because of the concentration he put in trying to manifest his Boundary. It felt like his body was encumbered by chains all around. His mind, too, was slow. Concentrating on the Boundary and the knife to heart image took a huge amount of mental energy.
The shadows manifesting around Aldrich reacted violently towards the Death Lord, lashing out their tendrils towards her. She smiled as she projected her own magical energy.
This energy aura, however, was different than her regular one.
The aura swirled out in a flurry of white snowflakes, indicating that this was not her usual green necromancy tinged mana. When the cloud of bright white snowflakes hit his darkness, they overwhelmed the shadows with ease, scattering the dark away like the sun would when it rose on a dark landscape.
"Not yet, Death Walker." The Death Lord put her hand on Aldrich's and guided it down. The sound of Valera crushing the metal of her armor was heard not very far away. "Not yet. I am curious to see whether you can manifest your Boundary fully on your first try, but it is unwise for your wellbeing.
Let your mind process what has happened. Let the magic within your body settle.
Rest.
Then, you may try. I shall guide you through the process."
"…Alright." Aldrich broke his concentration, and he felt a massive wave of exhaustion hit him like a tidal wave. It was not physical exhaustion - his undead body did not feel that. But more mental, more spiritual.
"Look! I can do this!" The Chrysalis spoke up from beside Aldrich, and they turned their attention to her.
The Chrysalis had copied Aldrich, holding her hand out in front of her in the same posture as she concentrated, her brows furrowing together. Her lip quivered in exertion as her whole body trembled.
Black sparks crackled from in front of the Chrysalis's hand before they turned into circle of darkness - the same kind that Aldrich manifested. From that circle of watery dark, a figure plopped out.
A human, it seemed, dressed up in a tattered brown suit that looked unfashionably like the shade of excrement. Despite his tattered clothes, he slept without a care in the world, snoring liberally.
"What is this thing?" The Death Lord eyed the human with confusion.
"A weakling, I ought to say," said Rella.
"An Alterhuman," remarked Valera, now comfortable with the term.
"Right. The Editor I snatched up," said Aldrich.
"Ah yes, one of those new humans," said the Death Lord walked over to the sleeping Alter and stood over him. "Still, I cannot understand how these humans manage to create such a variety of abilities. I do like what is new, though. Perhaps I may request you send another one of these to my realm.
Medula may quite like experimenting upon one."
"Dissection is not my specialty, but any research is research, I suppose," said Medula, glancing at the Editor with a slightly more interested look than usual.
"Where were you keeping him?" Aldrich asked the Chrysalis.
"He was sleepy, so I just tucked him in a bed," said the Chrysalis.
Notably, the Editor had gotten lot better treatment than the Butcher. It was as if the shadows beneath the space the Chrysalis made had claimed the Butcher for themselves. It hinted further to the possibility that the shadows represented the darker aspects of Aldrich's mind, the part that had wanted to cause as much agony to the Butcher as possible.
Then, did the Chrysalis represent what was good in him? What was pure? That might explain her childlike appearance and innocence.
Aldrich could not know for sure. He was not an expert at getting symbols out of context clues. That was a job for empty headed academics, not him.
"And he's still sleeping? Impressive," said Aldrich. He nodded to the Chrysalis and her tired face. "You should take a rest, too. I know taking something in and out of your territory is taxing on you."
Before the Boundary had developed, the Chrysalis could barely take objects in and out for more than a few instances before needing long recharge periods.
Aldrich had hoped that with the Boundary's development and the Chrysalis obtaining a soul that she would get better, but he did not let any disappointment show as he did not want to hurt the Chrysalis.
"No, that was because he was a strange man. He didn't belong in my space," said the Chrysalis. She pouted, wanting to impress Aldrich. "But-but I can do better. Look at this!"
The Chrysalis furrowed her brows again, and from the shadow portal she made, objects started to fall out.
First, it was a series of random household objects. Forks, spoons, chopsticks, a random mug or two that shattered on the ground, and so on.
Then, Aldrich's eyes widened as he saw something valuable. A white porcelain vase holding roses.
Aldrich instantly recognized it was a vase from his mother. From the room. Before the vase could shatter on the cold, hard stone below, he instantly grabbed it.
Then, a small stack of comic books fell out. He grabbed that too in his other hand.
Then, a moderately sized painting of a house on a green hill popped out. This was too big for him to carry in either of his hands, and he did not want to let it get ruined by mug shards from below. He deftly kicked it back.
"Valera!" said Aldrich.
"I have it, master!" Valera responded like she was a soldier responding to a life or death order from a general. She caught the painting in her hands.
"And…and…," The Chryalis's eyes began to flutter as her little body swayed from side to side, growing tired. "I'm sleepy."
With that, the Chrysalis closed her eyes. Before she could plop down on the messy, shard scattered ground, the Death Lord picked her up by the neck of her white dress like she was picking a puppy up by the scruff.
"Hmm." The Death Lord stared intently at the sleeping Chrysalis. "I see now. Your Boundary is split. One part of your Boundary hails from this girl, and another from you.
An exceedingly rare case."
"Is that a good thing?" said Aldrich.
"It depends," said the Death Lord. She nodded towards the Chrysalis. She slept peacefully. "On her, for I trust your competency.
Two souls sharing one Boundary means control is shared. If both souls are competent and in sync, then they may operate the Boundary with incredible efficiency. If not, the more competent soul will have to do double the work.
There was one Lich who rebelled against me that had this condition, what was their name, ah yes, Kal'Ves. A twin mage sister and warrior brother duo who fused together due to their kindred closeness upon reaching undeath and Lichdom.
Their Split Boundary was exceptional due to how in sync they were.
You witnessed before, did you not, how my aura of white overpowered your shadows?"
"Yes."
"That was the energy of my Boundary clashing against yours.
When two Liches unseal their Boundaries, the Boundary that is more developed and stable will take over more space than the other. If the difference is great enough, the stronger Boundary will completely devour the lesser and use it as fuel," said the Death Lord. She shrugged. "Of course, we are in my Boundary already, so I have an advantage, but I digress.
The twins were particularly fierce because they could unseal two fully developed Boundaries that worked together, effectively doubling the space and complexity of their Boundary.
The brother created a world of swords. The sister created a world of magic crystals. They could combine these worlds together for a world of magic infused blades.
This made them a deadly foe against foes even a dozen levels higher than them.
However, more often than not, a Split Boundary harms more than it does good.
Two disparate souls, for example, will create Boundaries that are so vastly different from each other that they cannot mesh, risking even devouring each other."
