“We both know that wasn’t there a mont ago, and I really doubt you’re as clueless to this as you’re pretending. So how about so actual honesty here?” I asked. I wasn’t annoyed with him exactly. He didn’t seem to be hostile in any way, just that he had his own, annoying ways of doing things.
“The reality of the soul tends to be reflective of our perceptions of what should exist. Yes, I did pri you slightly for what I thought you had to do to get the ball rolling, but this door and what is beyond is a combination of your own soul’s requirents and your subconscious influences,” Otis replied.
“So am I about to walk in there and find so mirror of myself that I have to fight?” I asked, realizing the question had likely made it exactly that.
“Probably, though if it helps, I believe this part of the conquest of one’s soul is similar for everyone,” he answered.
Before walking through the door, I pulled up the path of the soul portion of my core architect class. It seed that this little experience had ticked up my soul separations again, which I had expected it would. But that hadn’t been what I was looking for.
-\Soulfire\Soul Burst {0/25 Levels} Allows the host to release a concentrated burst of soul energy. Further ranks in the skill allow for an increased chance of overwhelming the souls of those exposed to the burst, granting the host temporary and limited control over those affected.-\Soulfire\Soul Manipulation {0/50 Levels} Allows the host to adjust their soul’s flow into the soul-core reaction. Further ranks allow for a greater adjustnt. Potential soul separation can occur if infusion rates are not properly aligned.
Soul burst and soul manipulation were two skills I hadn’t unlocked yet, both of which seed like they may be useful if I were about to undergo so form of soul combat. The only thing that gave pause was the question of how they would affect my own soul. If I used these against it, would there be a backlash against myself? For that matter, how well would my abilities even function without the active presence of Corey guiding my channeling?
I decided to hold off on any decisions until I saw what was on the other side of the door. The concept of conquest could have a lot of different anings, and it was possible that I didn’t have to fight anything. Knowing my luck, though, it ant I was about to fight so evil version of myself, hellbent on destroying everything I cared about.
That last thought brought out a loud laugh, causing Otis to give a very strange look. “Sorry, just concerned about Ghostbusters’ god rules being in play and how bad I screwed myself with my own thoughts,” I said, laughing all the harder. This probably wasn’t sothing I should find funny, but if a cody movie from the eighties had any bearing on my soul realm, I felt I had every right to laugh.
“I’m not sure what that ans,” he replied.
“Yeah, didn’t expect you to, don’t worry about it.” This ti, instead of distracting myself again, I pushed the door open and walked inside.
Unlike the previous room, there were no walls in here. I was standing on a large circular platform that ended in a dark, black space all around it. While I wasn’t willing to get near the edge to test just yet, I was pretty sure that I could just step off into that nothingness. What would happen if I did that? Would I just be lost forever? It was probably sothing I didn’t want to test at the mont.
The door I had co in through was also gone. Sohow, I had walked through the door to the center of this platform, and now I was entirely alone in it. I had at least hoped Otis would be accompanying this far, but it seed I had to do this part alone.
“Hello, David,” a voice said as I was contemplating just what to do next.
The figure standing in front of looked just like . Except it was dressed like I was being forced to so formal event I’d have hated. That gave pretty strong credence to the mirror version of myself theory. Why was the mirror version of myself just a better-dressed version of ? What the hell did that an for how I saw myself?
“So why are you dressed like we are going to a formal dinner?” I asked, having no idea how this was supposed to work. “Also, I prefer Dave.”
“Yes, that’s part of the problem. I am you after all, and fully aware of what small changes you could have made to avoid so of those deep, long regrets you have. Why weren’t you more willing to join Laura at her formal dinners? Hiding behind the excuse of hating a crowd won’t work as well considering your new life, so then was it just the clothing?” the other asked in return.
“Oh, good, a conversation where we lay out all my insecurities from my past. That’s exactly what I wanted to do. I think I’d prefer it if we just fought instead. Can we do that?” I asked, mostly serious. These weren’t topics I really cared to dredge out of my mind.
“We could, but that wouldn’t be the best idea yet. Unlike you, I still maintain all of our current magical abilities,” as he said this, he cycled through several small examples of spells.
I imdiately tried the sa and found I couldn’t access any of my own mana orbs. My class orb still seed to function, but that was it. All of my usual tactics for fighting were gone. I barely knew how to throw an actual punch. I had relied on the cores and my own shields to avoid the need. And the few tis I had done so had been under the influence of berserker magic, which I also couldn’t access.
Great, so that ant a nice deep dive into what made , it looked like. I sighed at the thought of all the dumb things in my life laid bare. But if this is what I had to do, it was what I had to do.
“Since you’re , you know the real answers here. It isn’t the crowd, it’s not the clothing, it’s the idea of what those people represent,” I replied, shaking my head as I considered just what I ant by that.
“The idea that you needed to be like them? That there was this whole world that you had to change to participate in. And you couldn’t even do that for the woman you claid to love?” they asked again, pushing the topic harder.
“We both know that’s a lie. I loved Laura. So of those feelings are even still here. There is so nugget of truth in the idea that I didn’t want to be like them, but I don’t think Laura ever expected to. That wasn’t the reason our marriage fell apart, and you know that,” I retorted.
“Ah, yes, the marriage that you couldn’t be bothered to fight for because you were so sad you just had to run away from everything. You spent years hiding away, avoiding everyone you claid to care for.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not ant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“So we’re back to the idea that I can’t handle groups of people? Or is this a dig at my depression? The second is probably the fairest thing you’ve said so far. The fact that I ran away to Alaska like I did is still the biggest mistake I’ve made in my life. But I can’t change any of that. These are all series of events that made the world we live in the way it is now. If I hadn’t run away to Alaska, would my kids even be alive now? Would I?” I asked back, realizing just what course of events had been set in motion by my flight.
“Are they really better off? Your grandson has been taken by monsters from another world, and you kids are in a desperate chase to save him. And yet, here you are again, still hiding away in your own ho,” the voice countered.
“Okay, so this really is just an attempt to goad . I almost left everything behind to chase after him. I was nearly willing to let everything I’ve built burn in an effort to find him. What’s the real goal with these questions? Because this isn’t actually getting at the core of anything new. There’s no deep emotional scars you’re tearing open here.” Was this building for sothing else?
This talk so far seed pointless. These were things I thought about often. None of these were thoughts deeply buried in my past. They were realities of my life that I had finally started to put behind .
“Where’s your brother Dave?” the voice asked suddenly.
“I don’t have a brother. I’m an only child.” At least I thought I was. Wait, was I?
A small snippet of a half-rembered mory ran through my head. My parents were arguing about sothing. I couldn’t have been older than five at the ti. The fight had been about my dad briefly losing sight of , I thought. Dammit, there was sothing else there, wasn’t there?
“That covers the past and the present. What kind of future revelation would you like? Do you want to discuss just what happens when this empire of yours starts to matter on the Spiral stage? Or maybe sothing smaller, like how to handle the eventual need to give all of the people on Earth cores of their own. Or perhaps even smaller. Do you want to discuss those feelings that are growing for Elody?”
I had heard the voice perfectly, but I was still stuck on the idea of a brother. The fight would suggest that sothing happened to him when they weren’t watching. Kidnapped maybe? Or just lost sowhere? Birth records would likely exist, but that would probably be hard to get in the current state of the world. Was he even alive?
Pushing those new thoughts away for a later focus, I grabbed onto the new questions. I couldn’t let myself get lost in its words. I had a feeling that was the real danger here. Did that an I needed to find a way to shut it up sohow?
“Okay, let’s assu I have a brother. There’s no way I can deal with any of that from here. That makes it a pointless topic, and again, just there to goad . And yes, I’m aware of my own growing feelings. I’ll handle those as I see fit. Now I think the better question is, why are you trying to rile up my emotions here? What’s your goal there?” I took several steps toward it as I asked.
“Perhaps I’ve decided you don’t deserve the body you wear? You have all these mories just burning to be addressed, and you refuse to do anything about them. Why not let take it? I could accomplish so much more.” It didn’t sound as much like as it had monts ago. There was a hint of nace in its words.
I was thinking about this all wrong. As much as I had said I needed to ignore what it was asking , I wasn’t doing that at all. In fact, I had entirely written off a course of action just because it had claid how useless it would be. I hadn’t even really tried either, having only given up at a simple attempt at channeling.
Taking another several steps forward, I thought I finally understood what I had to do. I raised my right arm and took a swing at the face that looked so much like my own. My knuckles cracked at the impact. I may have been much stronger than a normal person, but it seed my soul’s form held that sa strength.
It didn’t return my punch. Instead, a look of absolute astonishnt showed across its face. It really hadn’t expected to hit it, which was a fair expectation. Socking it in the face ran counter to how I normally handled these things. Sure, I had started fighting more and more, but that was almost always against monsters, rarely against soone trying to talk to .
Had this been so test to tell that I need to get more aggressive in how I deal with things? Or had it just been as simple as Otis had said? I needed to defeat my soul, and to do that, I had to do sothing I wouldn’t normally do. I wasn’t sure the answer fully mattered, as I wasn’t sure anything in this place had any sort of tangible connections to the normal world.
My soul self vanished and behind the sound of clapping pulled from these thoughts. “Well, you did it. I wasn’t sure you would for a minute there. Had that thing kept talking much longer, it might have been too strong for your punches to affect,” Otis said, his claps growing louder.
He and Chip had both appeared in the room with . The first room was still nowhere in sight. “What the hell was that exactly?” I asked.
“Elents of your own soul, empowered by the things that live in the soul realms. It’s part of why I said we will need to seal these areas off for your own safety. I didn’t exactly know how this would play out, but I had a feeling, and I didn’t want to accidentally influence it for the worst,” Otis answered.
“So now what then? How do I start developing this place more so I can work on the soul knot issue?” He never had said how long this would all take, either.
“That I really don’t know. It’s incredibly hard to see a realm once it’s been properly secured without permission, and finding them before they get to that point is like finding a needle in all of space and ti. What do you see now if you look out beyond the space we are in?” Otis asked, gesturing to the blackness that surrounded us.
I spun my head around, looking everywhere, and it seed sothing had changed. There was a second platform attached to this first one by a small walkway. It was just barely visible against the blackness as a slightly lighter shadow. Was it safe to cross?
“There’s another platform out there, but it’s nearly as dark as the area around us,” I answered.
“I suspect that is part of your soul connections. Possibly the path to soone you share that soul chat of yours with. It’s likely a journey you will have to make alone, but before you go, we need to find a way to tether you here to your soul’s core.” Otis walked to the exact center of the platform as he spoke,
“I don’t know what any of that ans. This is all brand new to .” I hadn’t even had a chance to test my own soul anchor before this ss had happened. How was I expected to know what a soul tether was?
“All it ans at the core is sothing or soone you are tied to in so way. Their presence here should allow you to move yourself back to this area, as long as sothing out there isn’t strong enough to suppress it,” Otis answered.
The only thing I had with that I had any ties to was Chip. Could he act as my tether sohow? I was pretty attached to the guy. He was one of my first companions and had happily stuck with ever since.
“Hey Chip, can you try charging this area with your mana like you would ?” I asked the pumakey, not sure he even understood the request. He was smart, but I didn’t think he had reached a level of awakened mana beast smart yet.
Despite my worry, he seed to understand as what looked like strands of mana began pouring from him into the ground beneath his feet.
“Quick, Chip, join in the center as you do that. It will work better from here, I think,” Otis ordered the pumakey with a smile, his voice friendly despite the command.
He ran to where Otis was standing, leaving a mana trail in his wake. Assuming that was what mana looked like in a soul realm at least. Every drop glead like an early sunrise, leaving a small trail of light as he moved across the floor. Once Chip reached the center of the platform, the whole of it exploded in light.
I could feel the warmth all around . It reminded of my bed. It had beco a nice, comfortable place waiting for when I needed it. Along with that transformation ca a change to the pathway I had seen earlier. It was no longer shrouded in darkness. It was a glowing rainbow of colors leading to another platform like the one we stood on.
In the center of that platform was a ghostly outline of Corey’s manifested form.
Pumakeys rarely beco awakened mana beasts. The reason behind it isn’t fully understood, as with their natural mana-enhancing abilities, it would seem they should have one of the easier tis doing so. But despite that, the number of awakened pumakeys in the Spiral can be counted on a single hand.
I believe the reason behind this is their removal from their howorld makes it harder for them to develop their own natural abilities, and this stunts them on their own mana beast paths. It is just another sad facet of the illegal trade of these amazing creatures. Hopefully, I can locate enough of them in their natural environnt, long enough to find an answer to this mystery.
Mana Beast Awakenings by Ceril Roph Horned-Trunk
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