‘Damn, it’s times like this I still wish I had external mana manipulation’ Dei thought as he dodged under another widening crack leading nowhere. ‘I bet I totally would’ve been able to stabilize the space around us if I used my Void affinity.’
There was nothing more to say about it though, as he wouldn’t trade his current power for external manipulation even if he had the option.
The good part of his situation was how much more difficulty Edward was having that Dei. Edward didn’t even try to dodge the cracks, rushing straight through them and getting himself cut to pieces hundreds of times over. It was even worse than it should’ve been, because Edward’s aura was naturally cracking the space around him.
With how much flesh Dei saw spilling off Edward, he finally, really understood that he had no chance of defeating the man in a one to one. He would need tricks and trump cards, but if it was one thing he had in spades, it was tricks.
Several times cracks in space almost opened inside him and his companions, but that was the one place he could actually resist it, so he closed the gaps in the weakened fabric, keeping hold of the few points of Void mana he’d used to close those gaps. Each time he used and reused the mana to enact his will, he noticed that they took up some small amount of meaning, a concept specified entirely around the manipulation of space.
When they finally reached the edge of the convergence, Dei decided to try his hand at making things worse. Edward was still a good hundred feet behind them, but he would be there in a handful of seconds, so Dei wasted no time in enacting his plan. Taking hold of the fifty two Void mana he’d used to close the rifts inside his body, Dei imbued them with an opposite desire of tearing the fabric of space, imbuing his will and no small amount of hatred into each. When Edward made one final lunge towards Dei, he sent the Void mana out into the breaking Convergence.
For the half second they were in regular space, they did nothing. The moment they touched the bent space though, each left a pitch black streak, a jagged scar in the air. To say it accelerated the spatial collapse would be an understatement, as everything in front of Dei flickered and realigned itself with reality.
The tunnel Dei exited from was unnaturally stretched, and Fendrascora had to shield him from the rain as Edward was juiced, sending a rain of blood everywhere.
He fell to the ground, shriveled like a raisin, but again his body visibly produced more blood, growing him back whole and hearty.
Dei didn’t stand around and watch though, he ran. He’d need a little more time to get rid of the Egogorn.
Amaya surprised him though as she struck up a conversation.
“Which sent you to get me? Lani, or Aloran?”
“Eh, nobody, I met Aloran first and he protected me for a while. When I figured out what each of you were, I decided to pay him back and get you all. Jasmine and Lani are safely retrieved, only Moren is still trapped. Haven’t even had the chance to see what’s keeping him hostage.”
“And what is this guy trying to kill you for? Or are you trying to kill him? Rage users are very easy to bait into combat.”
“Uh, ah. Well, I’m not trying to kill him, but I do understand where he’s coming from. One of my companions is responsible for his family’s death and I’m not gonna let him kill my companion, so now one of us has to die.”
“Fair enough, so what's your plan now? Aloran trusts you, so I will too.”
“Now, I’m going to hand the Egogorn off to you. It was an Anchor Guardian but the anchor was broken by Edward back there. I saved him and yada yada, I need you to keep his connection with Decay stable using the anchor. I should be able to do it if you have a Skill focused on imbuing concepts into stuff, do you?”
“I do.”
“Do you mind watching the Egogorn for a while? I can’t fight with it on my back. You can use it to carry you around or whatever. Go see Aloran.” When he said the last part, he also imparted her with the knowledge of Alorans location and how to reach it.
She sighed wistfully, “Oh how I wish I could, but there is one more thing to do. Moren. Child, this may be something of a risk, but would you like to help me sic Edward on whatever is keeping Moren in place too?”
“Oh I didn’t think of that! Wonderful idea Amaya, let’s do it,” he said, then heard a bell toll as Edward punched at Dei, but Fendrascora used Amaya to block.
His face contorted in horror as he imagined Edward gaining enough strength to push her to her limits.
“Please don’t retaliate!” he quickly told Amaya, remembering her fighting style of damage storage and release.
“Hm? What for?” she asked.
“Because if he locks on to you, he’ll gain immense power? He matches whichever enemy he’s fighting.”
Amaya laughed. “Ahh borrowed strength fighting styles have limits. The stronger an enemy is than them, the more it pushes their souls. Actually, if he tried copying me now, he’d collapse after just half an hour or so!”
“And?! In that half hour, do you think I’d survive him throwing divine punches?!”
“Ooh fair enough, okay I won’t attack.”
Dei hoped she would tell him Edward couldn’t copy her, but it seemed that would be too easy. He asked Fendrascora to stop blocking with Amaya, just in case, and instead made it a fighting retreat to stop Edward from just killing him.
The information was important though, as Edward likely pushed himself much harder against the Accipere, and Morens prison was bound to be much more dangerous.
Moren was the only of Aloran's four armaments that could actually move himself. If he was locked down, it was bound to be a much more active process, rather than the subtle prisons of Jasmine, Lani, and Amaya. If Dei sent Edward after Morens warden, whatever it may be, it might actually spell the end of Edward. That would solve his problem, true, but that would also remove his path for gaining easy experience in his Profession.
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If Dei was going to finish thinking about the planes of existence, now was his last chance to do so.
Mentally, he reviewed all the ones he’d figured out so far and their properties.
‘Physical/Mental/Spiritual/Magical as the Primordial Children planes
‘Conceptual Planes are in between Physical and Magical; the Spirit Realm is between Physical and Spiritual; and the Collective Unconscious realm, whatever it may be called, is between Physical and Mental.
‘Now, I know that Aloran told me of the Divine Plane, where Gods sit. What do I know of that? Not much, admittedly. I remember him offhandedly saying that, when the Physical realm finally rejected him, he would drop into a “one of the wild ones,” meaning that there are wild Divine realms, and it’s not just Gods sitting around in their own plane of existence. It has its own ecosystems and creatures, but what would be born there? Aloran said that only Primordial Children were natural born Gods, but perhaps there are some divine ecosystems composed of creatures that aren’t Gods, simply divine. After all, not everyone over level five hundred is a God, but you have to be over level five hundred to become one. Ultimately, I don’t know, but where would the Gods be situated?
‘I would guess Physical/Magical because the Gods clearly try to remain connected with the Physical realm, if that wasn’t already taken up. I think it’s going to be Magical/(Something else) because, as I’ve figured out, Gods turn into affinities after they ascend. Magical/Mental or Magical/Spiritual?
‘Hmm, Spiritual is already known to produce ecosystems with its echo planes in the form of Spirit Realm, while the Conceptual Planes are more like disconnected concepts. Life seems to go hand in hand with souls, so I think the Divine Realm is between Magical/Spiritual, as it is a big magic ecosystem. It would also supposedly not have affinities in it because there is no Physical aspect, but Aloran also said affinities approach Gods when they first come into Godhood down on the physical world. There are probably no affinities up there, but the domains of Gods make up for it by being dependent on the God rather than the affinity. That would make sense, and explain why affinities want Gods to align with them so badly.’
[Profession Leveled Up: Pondering Sage (Level 25) -> (Level 28)]
[Total Stats Gained: +15 Spiritual]
‘You know, I’d take that as confirmation that I’m correct but I think I’m getting experience just for pondering in general. After all, if I don’t know the answer, I don’t think my Profession will. Even if it’s given to me by the System, a near-omnipotent entity, the spell itself is dependent and linked to my soul. I’m rewarded for making logical and well thought-out conclusions, not actually figuring out mysteries.’
[Profession Leveled Up: Pondering Sage (Level 28) -> (Level 29)]
[Stats Gained: +5 Spiritual]
‘I… I don’t know what that means about my conclusion. That’s okay though, I’ll just move on for now. So, two left. Mental/Magical and Mental/Spiritual. I’ve already established that affinities need physical matter, so no affinities. What would something that is only Mind and Soul look like, no affinity? Only… intent?
‘Wait, I know I said no affinities, but isn’t that a Void Beast, without even the Void? Void Beasts are harmed by intent and, I think, have souls. In a world with mind, it would be all intentions and souls. The souls would be marked by pure intention. There would be no distance between anything because of no space… unless a soul there WANTS there to be distance between themselves and everything else? Hm, yes, this plane would be something of pure imagination. Unhindered by typical ideas and expectations, creatures here likely attack each other by simply intending harm, and shape everything with the concept of what they desire. Societies would be a given, because a large collection of souls that all have a common interest- namely to keep society going- would be able to stave off any wild intent. In this world, more powerful souls would have more powerful intent, except against large masses. Yea, big crowds of people are required in this plane for anything to be stable, otherwise things would be shaped by the whims of the strong, a fact that would annoy the strong because they have to keep themselves permanently in check or lose things they might’ve built up, accidentally destroying them.
[Profession Leveled Up: Pondering Sage (Level 29) -> (Level 31)]
[Stats Gained: +10 Spiritual]
‘Oh man, more than that, I bet it's gonna be a huge slave thing isn’t it? A caste system, at the very least. The strong are gonna want to keep the weak in line and THINKING themselves in line too, not considering anything above their station, because believing yourself deserving of more in that plane would probably lead to more strength coming your way. The strong will trade souls as currency, and the weak will just accept it… damn, this is shaping up to be awful. I hope at the very least that the strong will treat the weak nicely to keep the weak happy. Actually yea, they’d have to, because a large mob of angry weak people would rip you to shreds instantly, but a large mob of happy weak people would grant you immense power. Okay, okay that’s good at least. Kings have to be loved in this world or they die. And no peasant can dream above its station or it fails its function.
‘I’d call this nightmarish, but maybe that’s just my physical mind speaking. Maybe they would call my reality nightmarish because I have to work to eat so I can simply continue existing and my body will naturally die one day. Man, this is dark.’
[Profession Leveled Up: Pondering Sage (Level 31) -> (Level 32)]
[Stats Gained: +5 Spiritual]
‘Okay, Mental/Spiritual is intent-world. What’s Mental/Magical? A world of minds and magic. What do we know about the other planes? Mental planes are based on many beings, such as the Mental/Physical subconscious world, and the Mental/Spiritual society-based world. The Magical-based worlds are sectioned off, such as the Physical/Magical being affinity planes, and the Spiritual/Magical being the divine planes- an area with clearly more than one plane if Alorans whole “wild divine plane” comment is to be believed. So, something collective-based, yet separation based… almost contradictory, really. Oh! Also! No affinities, because it has no Physical aspects, and apparently affinities rely on Physical stuff. Damn, this is hard but… wait. Wait! My Skill!
[Commune with the Universe] takes me to a place to talk with higher concepts, but I already established that it’s most likely not affinities because they don’t need a Skill for me to do that! I’d be talking with big magical minds, in other words, Mental/Magical beings. If I combine this with how I think I’d be talking more directly with the universe itself, that means the Mental/Magical plane is home to the Laws of Physics and the like, unaffinitied magic running in the background to keep everything going.
[Profession Leveled Up: Pondering Sage (Level 32) -> (Level 36)]
[Stats Gained: +20 Spiritual]
‘Damn, now I really wanna activate that Skill again, because I’m crazy curious. Later though, later. When I’m not currently in a fight’ he finished his thought then focused back on Edward.
Nothing much had happened other than more running, dodging, and blocking.
‘Fuck, this is the most boring fight for my life I’ve ever been in.’
* * *
They approached where he’d last seen the spiritual form of Moren and, as they did, he started getting a clearer picture of the… prison.
There was no other real way to describe it. It was a medium-sized cavern, and he sensed Morens spiritual signature in the middle of it all, leashed by hundreds of chains holding him, utterly unmoving.
The closer they got though, the more detailed his view. They weren’t chains but vines. And each one had a powerful soul within or… no, they all had the same soul.
In the middle, Moren was not just tied down, but fully encased in a a ball of vines. When the image cleared further, Dei noticed that he wasn’t unmoving. Moren thrashed violently every passing second, it was just that he was held perfectly still by the tangle of vines, only able to vibrate in place. Dei would’ve assumed it was a feature of the prison if it were consistent thrashing, but the movement was discordant. From what Dei could gleam of the surface of Morens soul, he luckily felt no despair, only grit. Moren, Like Amaya, hadn’t given up. If Aloran was to be believed, it required a force of will to make Skills, and they tailored themselves to your needs.
Moren hadn’t surrendered, and he never would. Not until he escaped. Not until whichever Skill he was training was powerful enough to annihilate his prison.
It was a show of will so powerful Dei felt the urge to bow his head in respect, and almost did, until another blow from Edward knocked him free of the thought.
‘That was… an odd sensation. It felt so natural, but what if it wasn’t? Is Aloran perhaps blessed by a Virtue, making others know his burden similar to what Kindness did for me?’
His attention was brought away from Moren though, instead looking towards his prison.
‘Vines? Why vines? I feel like thats… The Grovyn! The demon-kin Aloran was fighting was a Grovyn, a large mass of vines… Oh my God, is the Grovyn still here?!’
