Looking around, Felix didn’t see a single building in sight but he wasn’t just in the middle of an untouched forest. The path he stood on was obviously carefully placed. Along the sides of the road were bigger rocks that formed an edge and between them, tiny smooth pebbles of different colors, shapes and sizes. The tiny pebbles, despite their size and number, weren’t randomly placed at all. Looking ahead of himself, they formed a series artistic patterns.
Where they stood, the pattern started as leaves but further down, he could see they transitioned into flowers.
Other than the path though, and the fact that not a single leaf fell on it, their surroundings looked like a forest untouched by any unnatural force.
Noticing the pattern in the path and not wanting to disturb it, Felix lifted his body just slightly off the path so he didn’t step through and ruin it. Peace stepped out ahead of him to lead though and walked right through the path, tossing pebbles everywhere.
Felix actually looked at him a little flabbergasted he of all people would ruin something like this. Peace noticed his reaction, turned and smiled, “I thought the same thing the first time I visited. They put the art in the path with the intention of you disturbing it. By disturbing it, every traveler creates a different pattern and brings new inspiration. Carefully placing the stones is a meditative practice for some here.”
“I see.” Felix shrugged and dropped back down then walked along next to Peace.
Peace seemed to know where he was going as he walked with purpose but the first fork they arrived at he turned to Felix, “Which monastery is listed on your recruitment?”
“Akikabara.”
Peace nodded as if that was obvious and he should have known, “Alright, let’s head there quickly so we can actually get started.”
Felix followed easily as Peace picked up the pace, quickly but still gradually ramping up to what even Felix would consider a fast pace, “What do you mean ‘actually get started?’ What is Akikabara?”
Moving as fast as they were, Peace didn’t look over his shoulder as he guided them through various forks but answered all the same, “It’s one of the main monasteries. It’s not really a… high? one… That’s not the right term and don’t think of the monasteries as tiered, that’s just wrong. They are all different in terms of strength and specialties and what they focus on and how. Akikabara is pretty general and is connected to a bunch of others so my guess, is they want to do some kind of evaluation.”
“That makes sense. You mean in terms of some monasteries focus on pebble road art, others on zen gardens some on hand to hand combat and others on observing nature or something?”
“Yeah, more or less. You should be free to roam between most of them as you see fit. If you decide you’d rather maintain a garden, you can simply walk over there and do that. However, there are some monasteries that are restricted for safety reasons.”
Felix was pretty sure he knew what Peace was talking about, “The ones that focus on curses?”
“No, actually. Sort of? Curse stuff is general and separate from the monasteries, we’ll talk about that after. More like higher grade combatants and techniques that could kill weaker willed individuals.”
“How do we get into those?”
Peace laughed, “We prove we are capable enough to handle them. You don’t necessarily want to get into all of them though, it is far more important to choose the one that is right for your path in the moment.”
Felix grumbled a little before changing the subject, “So what about the cur-”
“We’re here.” Peace cut him off as they reached the edge of the forest. Where the tree line ended, a large body of water started but Felix hesitated to call it a lake because he could see the bottom everywhere he looked. The path continued through right across the water, somehow suspended above it even though Felix could see beautiful, multicolored fish swim beneath it and appear on the other side.
Across the lake, there was what looked in every respect how Felix expected a temple to look expect, that it was massive and consisted of multiple buildings. Despite the distance, Felix could both see and hear the people milling about in and around The Akikabara Monastery and it was so busy, his mind equated it to a shopping mall right before a holiday.
The two of them followed the path the rest of the way across the lake where the pebble road naturally melded in with the pebble beach.
They ascended the short set of stone steps up to the main area of the monastery which was a large, flat platform made of perfectly flat, clean and even bricks. To either side of them there were two long buildings that stretched a couple of kilometers down. Between the two, there were a series of walkways with roofs, small gardens and sitting areas with sand, grass, water and flowers. There were a few trees to provide shade as well as some open areas with rings in the ground within which, a few people sparred.
Following Peace, they wove their way through the crowd and down the center to the building at the end of the long courtyard. The two buildings on either side were connected to the building at the back technically making them a single building but it didn’t entirely feel that way. The two on either side were identical, symmetrical, a single story or two and had people walking in and out of them all over.
The building at the back was ten times as tall with a single set of large double doors that, while they remained completely open, not a single person walked through. That is, until Peace led them right inside.
Felix immediately noticed a few people echo their confusion and warnings out into the anima around him but he ignored them. It was just odd because rarely did people ever do that in Felix’s experience but here, there were half a dozen projecting their thoughts intentionally.
Peace didn’t bother responding but he knowingly glanced over his shoulder and smirked at Felix.
They ascended the steps up to the doors and stepped into the temple which was essentially, empty. In the center there was a small pond and there were pillars around the room along with multiple people in meditation throughout but otherwise, there was nothing. There was no furniture, no interior walls, no decorations, all a single room. Felix could even tell from geometry alone that there was no spatial expansion on the building whatsoever.
There weren’t even any enchantments for dulling the sound from the outside so as they stepped in, with the doors open, the smacking of skin against skin from sparring, the hubbub, the wind rustling through the leaves and the trickle of water from outside echoed throughout the building.
Given the only sound from within the room Felix could hear were heartbeats and breaths, he would have expected them to at least enchant the building to keep out external noises.
Even more surprising to Felix was Peace who loudly stepped forwards through the building. Normally his footsteps were completely silent but for whatever reason, he let his bare feet smack down on the tile floor audibly.
He led them over to one of the edges of the pond and sat down next to a bald, meditating man, mirroring his pose. Felix assumed he was to do the same and so he sat on the other side of Peace in the same pose.
[D - Common] Pewa (Lvl 736)
They sat there for a few minutes until the man finally opened his eyes but otherwise, didn’t move. His head and posture continued to face forwards towards the pond as he spoke, not with the whisper Felix expected, but with a perfectly normal volume, “Peace.”
Peace responded, perfectly matching his posture, “Master Pewa. We have come for a quarter. Felix’s recruitment directed him here.”
Pewa finally turned, one of his legs pulling out of his meditative sit so he could properly face the two of them, “This is Felix?”
Peace bowed his head slightly in confirmation.
“You met my student in the world event. He was the one who asked if you would like to join us. He told me a great many things about you, many of which I confirmed with others present at the time. All of their perceptions of you align in the important details and diverge drastically in the unimportant ones.”
Felix just looked at him, not entirely sure what he was trying to say, “Peace tells me this monastery is used as a testing ground of sorts?”
Pewa nodded, “Yes. Let us get right to it then, shall we?”
Rising from the floor, Pewa led the two of them back out into the courtyard and over to one of the sparring rings. They waited at the side as two people finished sparring within the circle. They were clearly new and, much lower grade than Felix was but their martial arts were nonetheless impressive.
They only had to wait a couple of minutes then Felix and Master Pewa stepped into the ring together. Felix withdrew his outer robe back into Reaper’s Mantle so the enchantment didn’t get in the way then his shirt beneath it as well because it was too loose and baggy then, stood across from Pewa.
“This is more of a preliminary test and… well, something I wish to do. From what I’ve heard and what I can see, I stand no chance in a real, purely physical fight, so please do hold back.”
Felix chuckled a little then nodded in affirmation and waited for Pewa to remove his looser robes then fall into a stance of some kind.
Without any formal training whatsoever, Felix didn’t even try to mimic Peace from memory or do anything fancy. Instead, he just stood there because realistically, he had no idea what they were doing.
Noticing his lax stance, Pewa stepped forwards with deliberate footwork and punched out at Felix’s chest.
Being Common and only level 736, Felix wasn’t expecting Pewa to be a tenth as fast as he was from an Agility standpoint alone. However, even accounting for his trained movements and reactions, Felix was thoroughly impressed with Pewa’s strike as it was only about half as fast as he was.
Pivoting to the side with a series of movements he had trained, Felix dodged the strike with minimal movement and watched as Pewa tried to feint him with an elbow while also sweeping with a kick.
Felix took two shorter but more stable steps back from Pewa and dodged both.
Despite having dodged the physical strikes by a few fingers though, Felix still felt the strikes. They didn’t feel particularly strong and it wasn’t just air striking him, but it was his soul that felt it.
Pewa’s strike had landed, from a distance, right where he was still partially injured on his chest and that caused the area to noticeably ripple out. The ripples were contained to a circle the size of his palm, the only remaining area that was still injured, but it rippled nonetheless. He wasn’t actually injured though, there was no permanent damage and there would be no bruising or anything but, the shock of it felt a little like he had gotten slapped.
Pivoting to face Felix once again and closing the distance by a step, Pewa pushed forwards and sacrificed his balance to close the rest of the distance.
Felix had no training in martial arts but his training with Mihto was enough to recognize stable footing and good balance. He didn’t try to capitalize on it though, he had no intention of striking back at all and instead, he actually stepped forwards to catch Pewa’s strike with his forearm and in doing so, correct his balance.
His fist smacked into Felix’s forearm which was wrapped in a couple of tendrils to bolster his defenses now and Pewa immediately smiled, “Thank you.”
Felix nodded, assuming he was talking about the balance he had sacrificed as he began to block each and every one of Pewa’s strikes.
Being at least twice as fast normally wouldn’t have been enough for Felix to beat a master of martial arts like Pewa but his other stats were also much higher. Specifically, Felix’s Perception was high enough that he saw every move Pewa made far in advance where as Pewa was stuck reacting and moving much slower.
Felix could see every muscle as it tensed and with his Matter Senses, even feel his blood flowing. He wasn’t at the point where he could sense or decode a nervous system, but it wasn’t necessary in this fight, or ever for that matter. The time he wanted to spend in melee range with anyone was none.
It was impossible for Pewa to feint Felix, knock him off balance or make any move Felix didn’t foresee. If he really wanted to, Felix could have just run around the outside of the ring and waited, or suspended Pewa in the air helplessly, but that wasn’t the point of the test. So, Felix stood there and blocked every strike instead of dodging them as Pewa increased the power of his Soul Punches with each strike.
Finally, Pewa leaned back slightly and Felix brought both arms up together in front of him, wrapping both in all of his Soul Tendrils. Pewa swung his entire body into a strike as strong as he could, both physically and spiritually causing an almost discordant reverberation through both the ambient anima an the air itself.
Dropping both his hands and his defenses, Felix saw Pewa had dropped to a knee and was panting and for the first time since the fight started, Felix looked around. Almost everyone in the entire courtyard was watching them, because of the climactic sound or from before, he didn’t know.
Taking a step forwards, he offered a hand to Pewa and helped him up to his feet.
“Taking a Spirit Strike from a Master. That was fun… I haven’t punched anything that hard in… a while.”
Peace stepped into the ring and helped Pewa stand from the other side, “I take it we need to head to the Uktarr monastery to have Felix properly assessed?”
“I can get you entrance to some of the locked monasteries but, yes, not all of them. Judging from how relatively easily you took that strike, I suspect not nearly enough either.” Pewa chuckled and pointed to one of the side buildings, “Help me over to the portal, will you?”
Peace nodded and started to help him walk over but Felix didn’t want to wait for him to groggily limp so he just grabbed Pewa’s chest with his Matter Control and floated him along.
He seemed quite pleased and rather enthused with being carried over as the others in the courtyard split to make room for them. Pewa pointed the way into one of the long symmetrical buildings on the side and over to a red wooden frame.
Felix floated him over to it and he opened a portal within for them to step through.
Laying him down on the ground gently next to the frame, Felix and Peace stepped through the portal onto a flagstone road.
They followed the road just a short distance toward a building that wasn’t nearly as large as the last but was surrounded by ancient looking trees with tiny green leaves and a dense fog. It was either a large house or a small facility and at this point, Felix really wasn’t sure which.
Heading in through one of the sliding doors, they arrived in what looked to be a large meditation or sparring room, it was completely empty so he couldn’t really tell which.
Peace closed the door behind them then walked forwards and sat down on the ground. Felix sat next to him and they waited in silence until a bald man with one of the first consistent, controlled auras Felix had ever felt, walked into the room.
He wore long, traditional looking robes that matched the building they were in and nothing about him was unique or different from anyone else except, his aura. Around him in a tight area, completely unlike Talrain’s cursed form, the anima carried a very specific feeling. It was like he was actively threatening anyone within it. Constantly looking for a fight that he intended on conquering.
[A - Epic] Aro Zaki (Lvl 3012)
Felix’s soul, especially with the conviction he had, was loving it. It responded by rousing from the slumber that was its natural state, all of it begging Felix to take that fight. It wasn’t hard to ignore but, it was currently more active than ever-other than when he was close to losing a fight-and this time, it was having fun. In those other life threatening situations, his soul was struggling to survive and it was like a tense determination.
Now, it was like Felix’s soul laughed in Aro Zaki’s face and wanted more than anything, to accept the challenge his aura offered. There was also something else at play within his soul but Felix couldn’t really pin it down, just that something else drove him in a similar direction of wanting to fight back. Like an old experience he couldn’t quite remember.
“I was not expecting to evaluate anyone this epoch but then, I was told to expect you. Felix?” He looked at Felix directly.
Felix nodded and gritted his teeth as he resisted the little voice from within telling him to attack the man.
“You have conquered a minor peak?”
Felix nodded again.
“Show me.”
Felix looked at Peace for a moment but he didn’t even turn to meet his gaze so Felix stood, unsure of what to do. Azo Zaki took a single step to the side though, the step matching his aura and somehow made it seem like he was about to dominate the ground, and gestured for Felix to proceed down the hall he had come through.
Stepping down the hall, Felix immediately knew what to do. There were doors along the hall as it turned a corner and traced the outside of the building. Behind each door, Felix could feel the echo of a curse.
He proceeded down until he found the area that felt familiar to him then identified the specific door he was looking for and slid it open.
Inside, the room was empty save for a single short pedestal in the middle that was only half as tall as Felix was and not more than a palm wide. Atop the pole, there was what looked to be a glass container-almost like a jar-containing a single black speck. It was so weak, Felix could only barely feel it because his anima senses were relatively well attuned. Otherwise, he wasn’t sure it would have really affected him much even before the integration. Maybe a normal soul would feel the effect, but even them, not much of one.
Walking into the room, Felix stood next to the pedestal then looked back at Aro Zaki for direction. He simply stared Felix down then nodded and walked back down the hall.
Felix followed behind him back into the room where Peace remained in the same spot and position they had left him except now, with a slightly smirking smile.
“I will approve your unlimited access to The Unwavering Steps.” He looked at Peace, “You do not need permission from me.”
Peace shook his head, “Nope.” He looked up at Felix, “You’re still injured right?”
Felix instinctively brushed his chest, “Just slightly.”
Turning to face him in an instant, Aro Zaki smacked his palm into Felix’s chest strong enough for him to lean back, but not enough for him to stumble. Felix was so shocked, he didn’t even really react and once he was aware, he decided not to. Aro Zaki’s eyes hardened for a moment then he nodded, “You seek access to the Twilight Garden?”
Peace nodded, “I’m also going to need you to override his access to The Somatic Halls. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he doesn’t actually fight anyone.”
Aro Zaki looked at him with a hard glare that looked like he hated Peace but he nodded a moment later.
“Awesome. Twilight Garden first.” Peace locked eyes with Felix and nodded.
Aro Zaki then led them both over to another, separate red wooden frame and gently placed his palm against it in a way that looked like he was striking it.
A portal instantly opened upon impact and the two of them stepped through, leaving Aro Zaki behind.
Felix had been getting a little dizzy, or rather disorientated, with all the places they had been to recently through portals but immediately that feeling washed away as an expanding bubble, a ripple on the anima struck his soul. It pushed its way through him and upon leaving, left him feeling not just calmer than he had before, but also more centered and aligned.
A path of sand led them forwards towards the shore of a small pond, just a few dozen meters wide. It was contained by a series of large, flat topped, stones that completely surrounded it and around those lay a garden with trees, flowers, bushes and stone arrangements.
Looking up, the sky was a mess of dark purples and bright orange streaks that despite the pattern, definitely reminded Felix of a sunset. As they walked along the path, and towards one of the stones, the entire pond began to almost vibrate very subtly. Just before they reached the stones on the shore, a single drop fell from the sky directly into the center of the pond creating both a physical and spiritual ripple calming the water and the anima in the entire garden.
There were already a handful of people on one of the 40 or so stones that surrounded the pond, four of them in meditative poses and one of them just lying down on the stone like they were napping.
Peace took one of the empty stones and Felix sat on one next to him.
“We have permission to stay as long as you’d like but you’ll probably want to heal yourself as fast as you can so we can move on. We can always come back later.”
Felix nodded and assumed a similar meditative stance to most of the others around the pond then closed his eyes, immediately allowing his consciousness to fall into his soul.
Felix realized the timing between the droplets was not precise as soon as the third took much longer than he expected to arrive. Still though, what the ripples left behind was a soul that was relaxed. It wasn’t like the Tranquility Elixir’s or the drink from Jozusto’s, it didn’t calm him through his soul, invoking calming experiences. It literally relaxed the anima that formed his soul in a similar way to how Aro Zaki’s aura had awakened it.
After having two ripples pass through him, his soul felt malleable in a way and he immediately understood the significance and value of that and so, he immediately began working.
First things first, he began realigning the part of his soul that hadn’t healed in his chest, as he did so, he was essentially pushing and forcing the anima to listen to his will and stressing it. Normally it would slowly relax over time and shift in position, like he was bending an elastic material. As the next ripple hit though, it was immediately relaxed and so, Felix continued to push it.
Holding it as close to how he wanted it as possible, he waited for the next ripple.
Anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes passed between each ripple and instead of the dekad or two he was expecting it to take for him to heal, it took Felix a grand total of a couple of hours to fully heal the rest of his soul. He didn’t immediately stand though once healed, despite having other places to be because there was so much more immediate value he could get out of his current location.
He didn’t do everything, like test out intricate and fragile anima structures that would be much easier to create here with the ripples but he did, put nearly all of the anima from the System sub-chunks to use. He saved a small amount for new structures if he needed them and a allocated a small amount to his future plans but everything else, he fit into his soul. As he did, he further increased the density of his soul all around until it felt to him, as solid as an anima suit of armor, for his soul.
Standing up a day later, Peace stood with him and led them back to the portal frame and into the main courtyard of The Akikibara Monastery. It was much quieter than it had been when they first arrived with less people but still, more than anywhere else he had been in Amatara’s domain.
Peace led him across the courtyard to another portal frame on the other side.
“Unwavering Steps?” Felix asked.
“Yes but, we need to go through The Spirit Sanctum to get… You’ll see.”
Felix nodded and followed as Peace led him to through the portal to the bottom of a massive mountain range that stretched far above the clouds. At the bottom of the mountain and the end of the path they arrived on, was a large circular building from which 50 different stair cases led, each of them forking off towards a different mountain peak before them.
Walking into the building, Felix spotted a couple people ascending various steps along the mountain, one of which collapsed.
Felix and Peace entered the building and inside, it was like the end of a group workout, something Felix hated. Everyone was either tired and exhausted from their climb or eager to start their climb and that caused them to be overly friendly and chatty towards strangers.
It was also though, completely silent.
Not audibly silent, but the anima. The static of The System was completely gone within the building. Even more than that, the anima itself was still and empty. Even the auras of the people in the building, exhausted and uncontrolled as they were, were completely suppressed. Felix wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be relaxing as he mostly found it to be somewhat chilling, in a creepy way.
Peace gestured towards the windows which faced the mountains and revealed the steps, “These are the steps.” Gesturing to the room around them, “This is The Spirit Sanctum.”
Felix gestured towards the steps with his head, “Can I try the steps? Are they what we talked about in the event with the… Amatara worshipers?”
Peace nodded, “Yes, the peaks. The steps each represent a different curse. The minor peaks merge and join to form the major peaks way up there.”
Felix looked out the window and saw one of the women who had been in the building with them earlier leap up the steps towards the individual he had watched collapse earlier. She lifted him onto her shoulders and carried him back down to the Sanctum then placed him on the ground. Nodding to the others she had been talking to, she headed back to the steps and began ascending for herself.
“If I falter, I just have to hope someone finds me?”
Peace nodded, “Yup, exactly. That is why you need permission, otherwise a lot of idiots would die. Mastering a minor peak gives you unlimited permission. I’ve already gotten permission.”
“Have you ascended any of them?”
Peace chuckled, “No. I have permission for most buildings here because I’ve proven I understand the risks involved, not because I’m going to participate.”
“Why not?”
He just shook his head seriously, “Some things aren’t for me.”
Shrugging Felix took a step towards one of the doors for the steps but Peace grabbed his shoulder, “Let me show you The Somatic Halls first.”
Felix hesitated for a moment then nodded and let Peace lead him back into a portal to The Akikabara Monastery then over to another portal frame that led to a large building made of thin wooden walls under a light snow fall. Echoing out from the building, were the perpetual sounds thumps and smacks of flesh on flesh.
They entered through one of the wings of the building and Peace led him into the main room from which the sounds were echoing.
Inside there were a dozen people, two of them stood at the center of the room, on a slightly raised platform, fighting while the others were sitting and milling about around the outside. Three of them looked like judges and sat at one end while the others stood around and talked amongst themselves about the fight.
The two in the middle were moving far faster than Felix could follow and the force of each of their strikes were enough to create ripples he could feel physically and spiritually.
[B - Epic] Ridoth (Lvl 2371)
[B - Special] Thireeble (Lvl 2612)
Peace stepped over to the three that sat as though they were judges and bowed from the hips, “Grand Masters.”
[C - Epic] Somatic Grand Master Petal (Lvl 1724)
[S - Legendary] Somatic Grand Master River (Lvl 4823)
[A - Epic] Somatic Grand Master Ekluta (Lvl 3479)
River, the grand master closest to Peace nodded, “Dark One. You have returned.”
Peace bowed his head, “We will be spending a quarter here.”
“You seek rooms.”
Peace nodded, “Yes.”
“Will you finally complete your assessment during this quarter?” Petal spoke, also without looking away from the fight before him.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Possibly. This quarter is more about him than me.” Peace gestured to Felix with a thumb.
“You may take the same room as before as well as the one across the hall. The training room between them is yours as well.” Ekluta spoke, also not turning his head at all.
“Thank you.” Peace bowed again then led Felix back through the halls.
Opening a door, he revealed a large empty room that was exactly what Felix expected. There was no furniture, not that he needed any, just a floor and walls.
Felix took two steps into his room, saw the whole thing then spun around, “Can I try the steps now?”
Peace chuckled, “Not just yet. While I know you’re mostly going to be trying the steps and refining your soul, you should also spend time getting used to your Reaper’s Skills.”
Felix nodded quickly, “That was also on my todo list for this epoch.” Stretching his hand out, he produced a tiny palm sized kitten that rolled over and stretched as it woke up then grew to a normal size. “Along with teaching her how to use them too.”
“Actually…” Peace smirked, “That’s probably going to be easier than it will be to train you. Don’t get mad when she surpasses you without even really trying.”
Despite Felix’s doubts, Peace was right. It only took them a few hours for Nova to surpass Felix’s proficiency with the skills and manage to use them more consistently. It didn’t even take long to explain to her how to activate them, Felix just sent over the experience of himself doing it and she picked it up right away.
They continued to train almost every day though not for too long as Felix had other tasks he wanted to accomplish. Each time they trained, Nova got even better, faster and Felix fell further behind with his own Reaper’s Skills. Luckily, Felix had two tools he could make use of to at least try and keep up.
Firstly, he tapped into Nova’s experience of using the skills and found it was mostly as Melody had explained to him. Her mind was less complex which allowed her to be more focused. Without errant thoughts and complexity baked into every decision, her soul was aligned as if she had a conviction which resulted in strong beastly instincts.
That wasn’t the only experience he could tap into either. Apparently Peace had planned things this way because he mentioned it even before Felix thought of it but, Hollow Claw was apparently one of the best with Reaper’s Movement specifically. Sifting through the experiences he had of Hollow Claw, they weren’t entirely applicable as what he had used wasn’t Reaper’s Movement at all but a completely different skill that was similar in concept.
It seemed as though, without The System to name them, most of the Cult just called all soul enhancement by their respective Reaper’s skills. The specific skills Felix used were the ones The Reaper, The Primordial, had tuned for themselves. Even the one Peace used was similar, but different in somewhat weird ways. His was easier to activate and required less alignment but resulted in less overall output because his soul wasn’t quite as strong as The Reaper’s.
To truly practice using The Reaper’s Skills, Felix sparred with some of the members of The Somatic Hall and even though he was awful at martial arts after trying once, he understood the basics and had a few tricks up his sleeve. He understood the basics of footwork and stability which helped a lot but, he also understood how and which muscles would tense before which movement allowing him to somewhat foresee his enemies movements.
That made it barely possible for him to keep up to some degree with expertly trained martial artists who, should have been significantly weaker than him, judging from level alone.
As he improved his abilities with The Reaper’s Skills though, he went from keeping up to dancing between strikes.
Nova went through the same training along with him and spent more time in The Somatic Halls than Felix did because he, spent a lot more time on The Unwavering Steps.
He had a total of 100 days in the recruitment, a couple less because he didn’t arrive right at the start. It only took him 5 days to completely master the major peak beyond the Hunger curse, Desire, and not just what Amatara’s worshipers considered mastery but his own standard of mastery, touching the curse. That meant he had to climb the steps of Lust, Envy and Avarice but they were sibling peaks to Hunger so, they weren’t particularly difficult for him.
From there, he set his eyes on the peak of Wrath. That one had three minor peaks, Conflict, Vengeance and Frustration. It ended up taking him longer than he had hoped to master each of them-5 days for each of the minor and 7 for the major peaks-as he wanted to use them as a training ground for his real goal, the curses of Oblivion and Creation.
Despite lagging slightly behind his ideal schedule, Felix was quite satisfied with his mastery of wrath. He hadn’t just climbed the peaks, but he’d begun to develop and test methods to deal with the curses along with structures to protect his soul, something he had been planning on doing anyways.
Descending the steps of wrath for the last time, Felix passed through The Spirit Sanctum without stopping-unlike all those currently using its unique attributes to decompress.
Flying straight into the portal frame, he made his way over to the Twilight Garden where he spent a few hours allowing the ripples to buffet his soul. After that, he wasn’t quite done what he wanted to finish but he had already spent too much time away from his other training so he headed back to his temporary home during his first recruitment quarter, The Somatic Halls.
Stepping through the portal frame, the building didn’t look quite the same as before. While there was a perpetual layer of snow wherever the building was located, that perpetual layer was completely missing in a large circle around the building. Instead, it looked like the snow both on the ground and the roof had been completely blown away in a sphere around the building. It wasn’t centered in the center of the building though but rather specifically around one of the rooms.
Flying over the snow, passed the rim of snow banks and the rocky ground that had been revealed beyond, he entered through one of the back doors and headed into the main hall.
Just like last time, there were a number of people around the edges, two fighting in the middle and judges along the side. This time though, there were twice as many people around the center platform observing and 4 judges instead of just 3. The additional judge, though they suppressed their aura while in The Somatic Halls, still had the same domineering presence he had had for the last two and half dekads, ever since Felix had met him during his evaluation.
[A - Epic] Aro Zaki (Lvl 3012)
Amongst the observers, the non judges, was also Pewa.
On the platform, one of the other residents of The Somatic Halls was fighting Peace.
[C - Ancient] Peace (Lvl 1783)
[A - Legendary] Kahagar (Lvl 3184)
Despite the massive gap in levels-not that Peace’s level seemed to signify much of anything-Peace was evidently winning. Kahagar was obviously a master of his own body and whatever martial arts he practiced but, much like the sparring Felix had witnessed in the world event, Peace was a different level.
If Kahagar was a master of martial arts, Peace looked like the Arch Sage of every discipline of fighting to have ever existed, ever, while also being able to see the future.
They were both too fast for Felix to catch everything, even when he activated Reaper’s Perception every few seconds but even he could tell Kahagar’s physical stats were higher than Peace’s. Not by as much as he would have thought though as he recently learned Peace was closer to a beast under The System’s purview. He didn’t have a Class, Profession, Race or the accompanying skills but instead, his stats were almost triple what they would have been otherwise. Along with his mastery of Reaper’s Movement and Reaper’s Body, he got close to matching Kahagar’s stats, at least close enough that they could spar.
The difference in stats though, just didn’t seem to matter in this of fight. Oddly, Felix noted that, once again, they didn’t fight with Soul attacks at all, like the ones Pewa had used to test him.
Rather, as every fight of Peace’s he had seen in The Somatic Halls had been, it was plain old physical fight.
From when Felix arrived, the fight only lasted for 2 minutes at which point Kahagar was too exhausted to continue. The entire fight, Peace capitalized on every one of Kahagar’s mistakes and struck him, but lightly. Felix was pretty sure Peace’s strikes wouldn’t even bruise his opponent. He was just pointing them out, like a teacher showing their student their mistakes.
Taking a step back from the fight Kahagar dropped to one knee and bowed his head then dragged himself off the platform and collapsed in exhaustion off to the side.
Peace bowed his head to his opponent then put the top half of his robes back on and hopped off the stage, next to Felix, “Training time?”
Felix nodded, “Yup, let’s go.”
If Felix were the kind of person to doubt himself, he knew he would have felt bad taking Peace’s time. Not because it was a waste of Peace’s time, but because of the resigned looks from the observers, and a few of the judges, in the room as they left.
It seemed as though everyone wanted to spar with Peace or watch his spars and Felix could understand their point of view. He also appreciated seeing a master at work, even though he knew he couldn’t appreciate the fights to the same degree.
Down the hall to the other end of the building, they made use of a similar looking room with a bigger center stage that was used for training weaker and less experienced martial artists who needed more room. They closed the door behind them and Felix roused Nova from her slumber at the side of the room.
She didn’t really need to participate, given how phenomenal she was with the Reaper’s Skills already, but Felix figured building her endurance was a good thing as it was the only limit they’d found in her use of the skills. She didn’t buff herself as much as Felix or Peace did either, but that would come with time. Otherwise, she could activate them at will, as often as she wanted for as long as she had the soul stamina to do so.
Felix didn’t have the same limit, at least as far as he had ever detected, but he simply couldn’t maintain the skills for longer than a short period anyways without getting distracted.
Standing across from each-other, they got started without any delay. Peace leapt forwards and punched out towards Felix, even harder and faster than he had been a few moments ago in his spar with Kahagar. The punches needed to be fast so Felix was forced to use Reaper’s Movement and they had to be strong so he felt the need to dodge them, not just logically but instinctually.
Peace’s fastest strikes though were more than twice as fast as Felix’s Reaper’s Movement buffed Agility though so he rarely struck out in any combos. Instead, he threw strikes towards Felix that he knew were dodgeable to push him to the limit then turned to Nova to test her while giving Felix a break.
Jumping between the two of them, Peace knew exactly what each of them could handle and pushed them right up to their limits. He read the both of them and constantly adjusted for nearly two hours before Nova was completely exhausted and stepped off of of the platform.
Peace and Felix kept at it for another 3 hours or so at which point Felix decided it was enough for the day.
“You are getting much better.” Peace smiled as they walked off the platform.
“Thanks. I’m still pretty annoyed I haven’t managed to upgrade Reaper’s Sense yet but… I guess I haven’t even pushed the skills out of Apprentice yet.”
Peace shrugged, “You’ll get there eventually. Where are they at now?”
Felix shared a screen he had been looking at himself every few days.
Class Skill Proficiency
Reaper’s Movement: Novice VII => Apprentice XXIII
Reaper’s Sense: Novice V => Apprentice XX
Reaper’s Bond: Novice I => Initiate XVII
Reaper’s Body: Novice III => Apprentice XIX
Peace read through the screen and nodded, “That seems about right. Once you manage to maintain them consistently, we’ll have to find you a new teacher.”
Felix cocked his head, “What’s after that?”
Peace shrugged, “Not really sure. I was never very good at the skills and the ones I use are limited. You heading back to the peaks?”
“Yeah. Finally going to start climbing Oblivion.”
A voice suddenly cut in from the end of the room, “So you have time to spar then.”
The both of them looked over and saw Aro Zaki step into the doorway from around the side of the wall.
“I… Maybe not today.” Peace winced a little.
Aro Zaki stood in the doorway, his aura suppressed but his presence ever domineering, “You have been putting off your assessment ever since you beat the Masters. Why?”
Peace shrugged weakly, like he was a little nervous, “I’m just not… interested in knowing.”
“Then why do any of the evaluation at all.”
“So I could make it here.”
“So, you will not fight me?”
Peace sighed, “Probably not. I don’t know.”
“Hmm.” Aro Zaki’s brow furrowed a little more than usual then he turned and walked away.
Felix waited a few moments then turned to Peace, “Why not?”
He didn’t need to clarify, Peace knew what he was talking about, “It’s just…”
“You might not like killing things, but you do seem to enjoy fighting. Sparring at least.”
He winced, “I think so…”
Felix frowned, “What do you mean you think so? Do you enjoy sparring or don’t you?”
He sighed, “I feel enjoyment.”
“There you go.” Felix threw his hands up like it was obvious.
Peace finished all at once, like the dam had broken, “That doesn’t mean I enjoy it.”
Felix’s brow furrowed, “Explain.”
Peace withered a little at Felix’s stare then sighed and offered Felix his hand. Felix grasped it and pulled his soul into his Soul Garden.
Standing on the bridge over the pond in his Soul Garden, Peace leaned on the railing and stared down into the river below, “I don’t know who I am… and I may never know.”
Felix patiently waited for him to continue.
“Do you know why I started following you around at school?”
“I thought The Reaper told you to but… that isn’t it.”
Peace shook his head, “I was you, until you came along.”
“In…” Felix squinted a little, “what sense?”
“I was The Reaper’s successor. Trained from birth to replace The Reaper.”
Felix shook his head and widened his eyes, “Wait, I’m supposed to be The Reaper’s successor?”
Peace nodded, “The situation’s gotten worse over the years but The Reaper can’t do what he used to do. He’s… let’s just say old. So, he started up Death’s Shadows to take over for him but that only lasted for a few million epochs before they began to suffer from the same problem. It became obvious that Death’s Shadow’s weren’t a viable permanent solution so, he started looking for viable candidates to replace him.”
“Viable candidates to become a Primordial?”
Peace shook his head, “For one thing, that doesn’t make any sense but that isn’t what this is about. He is the oldest Primordial as far as he knows and even before any of the others were born, he was remembering.”
“He’s been taking in souls, preserving their experiences, memories and lives since…”
“Exactly.” Peace sighed, “He searched for souls across the multiverse that were born with similar qualities and ideals to his own but the situation kept getting worse.”
“So he settled?”
Peace shook his head, “Didn’t need to. I was conceived by my parents, in the cult, with a nearly perfect alignment.”
“So you were raised, from birth to be the next Reaper?”
Peace nodded, “I was raised as a Death’s Shadow. Taught to remember. Taught to be unseen. Taught how to fight if I needed to. Then, I was given my first soul to remember.” His head dropped down a little further, “It was a young boy with a terminal illness. They lived outside the purview of the multiverse and… didn’t agree with it as a people. They would rather their son die than have The System save him.”
Felix sneered a little, “That’s idiotic.”
He shrugged, “They believed The System was evil with the entirety of their being.” He shook his head, “It doesn’t matter. They wanted him to be remembered so, I was sent to remember him. Everything went perfectly, or as perfectly as a child’s death can be, and I headed back to the cult.”
Peace shed a single tear that fell into the waters below, “It wasn’t until a few months later… I forgot my name.” He took a quick breath, “No- I didn’t forget it, I corrected someone who called me Peace. I said, ‘I’m not Peace idiot, I’m Magnus, and don’t you forget it.’ Completely seriously…”
Felix assumed Magnus was the name of the boy he had remembered.
“After that, The Reaper tried to personally take on the soul of the boy but… it was too late. The boy’s soul, for whatever reason, was much stronger than we expected and… it had merged with my own. It’s impossible to separate.”
Yikes.
“For a long time, I insisted it wasn’t a problem and I fully believed that. The Reaper trained me to cultivate my soul and continued to train me. I didn’t really think about it, I wasn’t worried and honestly, I didn’t really care. Being the successor to The Reaper was all I’d ever wanted and I was completely dedicated to it. I never outright forgot who I was after that and… I remembered millions of others. I became much stronger, The Reaper taught me everything he could and I was even enrolled at Eramith, to gain worldly experience and whatnot. Then…”
“I got the class.”
Peace nodded, “The Reaper came to me one day and simply told me, I wasn’t his successor any more. There was someone new, someone in the 256th who would fix everything.”
Fix everything?
“I thought… I was furious… for all of a few minutes. I’d trained for this my entire life, this was all I ever knew, all I ever wanted to be, all I ever wanted to do. Then, in an instant, it was all gone. I was angry and frustrated because I thought that was what I should feel but… as soon as I was alone, I realized all I really felt… was relief.”
Peace wiped his eyes, “I don’t know why I didn’t realize it sooner but… I don’t want to be The Reaper’s successor, I don’t really know if I ever did. But, that led to a different question, ‘what do I want to do?’ and ‘who do I want to be.’ I’d never even thought about it before because I was to be, The Reaper, and I never even questioned it.”
Felix sighed and nodded, “You started to think about who you are and began to question if any answer you come up with is real, or the result of a soul you had remembered?”
He nodded solemnly, “I haven’t even told The Reaper this but… I can feel myself losing more of who I am with every soul I remember. My memories are my own but all the experiences… my instincts… suddenly I’ll feel a hint of fear towards something I had never had a problem with before. I’ll feel nostalgic when eating something completely new to me. I don’t know who I am. It’s… It feels like thousands of voices in my head that are changing me…”
“I see. Just a few dekads ago, you went to remember a civilization? Some kind of war? Why not just… not go?”
Peace chuckled a little, “I don’t want to tell The Reaper. I can’t. Back when I called myself Magnus… he was devastated… I assured him and… I can’t tell him I don’t want to remember because then I have to tell him why.” He sighed, “At this point… what does it matter anyways… I will never know… who I was… it’s just too late.”
“You said it feels like thousands of voices in your head, right?”
Peace just looked at him.
“Let me show you something.”
In an instant, the two of them moved from The Soul Garden, to the middle of his Mind City, right in the center square.
Both Peace and Felix looked around with slack jaws.
The entire city looked quite a bit different. There were now at least a few thousand people running around and only a tenth of those at most, were Rakyt. The rest, were simply citizens who had had children.
After the first birth where two of his original creations gave their lives to provide the anima, he had allocated some of the anima from harvesting The System chunk to the city so they could have children, without dying. It seemed as though that was a huge success not only because of how many citizens there were, but also how productive they had been.
In the middle of the center square, was a massive man wearing billowing robes holding a glowing orb in his hand that pulsed and shifted constantly. Rather than a statue, it was his mind and so the figure looked completely real, like there was really someone standing there with the wind billowing through their robes.
Though it was exaggerated and more noble looking than he, Felix knew the statue was supposed to represent him.
Around the square, there were a few people praying, some relaxing with their feet in the fountain at the base of the statue and around the outside, carefully trimmed, verdant hedges. Outside of that, there were hundreds of buildings now. There were shops, houses, monuments, offices and restaurants. Everything he expected to find in a real town or city.
“What… is this?” Peace stared at some of the citizens running around.
“This is Arkade. The original city.” Grim suddenly appeared and responded from behind them.
“Arkade? Seriously?” Felix cocked a brow.
“Not my choice.” Grim shook his head, “I tried to sway them but the original residents voted on it.”
“What is that.” Felix pointed at the massive representation of himself.
Grim sighed, “I know you didn’t want anything religious like but… I couldn’t really stop it. Long story but, the Rakyt started worshiping Mark because he literally gives them processing time and when he doesn’t they sleep. They started by asking for more time then making offerings and finally praying. As more citizens were born here, they visited the Rakyt city and the Rakyt visited this one and everyone here knew more about you and Mark so they started worshiping you as The True God to stick it to the Rakyt.”
Felix’s face contorted in disgust, “I’m not a god.”
“Are these… souls?” Peace poked at someone who was praying and they frowned at him.
Felix sighed, “Yeah. Souls bound to tiny mana computers for now.”
Peace looked around, his eyes squinted, “So… are we… in your soul?”
“The System calls the skill Mind City but, the line between my mind and soul is kind of blurry at this point.”
“What about… The Rakyt?” Peace pointed at one as they walked by.
“Right… Some idiots tried to sacrifice the Rakyt City in the world event to Akaroth. They killed everyone and started a blood ritual that trapped the souls. I just punched a hole in the ritual and sucked out all the souls. I don’t have enough computers yet to bring them all back but… we’re working on it.” Felix gestured for Peace to follow as he both explored the city for himself, and showed Peace around.
As they made their way through the city, the older generations nodded and waved while the younger ones revered Felix and stood back, whispering. He really didn’t like the whole religion thing but unless he wanted to wipe the city clean and restart, he wasn’t sure if there was any good way to get rid of it. Even if he did, he didn’t have a good way of preventing it from happening in the next city either.
They sampled foods and explored buildings. Felix showed him through the library with all the books and even showed him the the buildings connected to his senses.
Their journey ended in a building near the library, one that could be used for watching back memories as Felix had experienced them, “You’re worried about losing yourself with all the voices in your head. Give them to me.”
Peace opened his mouth then closed it a couple of times, “How do you know… You aren’t being influenced by them? The Reaper talks about you like… it’s impossible and I know you took on Hollow Claw’s remembered but… how do you know?”
“I don’t. Not really. I’m not exactly worried about it though. All of this-” Felix gestured around, “-is contained in a soul structure. Again, I can’t know but, I wouldn’t really care if they did. Obviously there’s a line but… on the planet I’m from, it only takes a few conversations for a group to adopt similar mannerisms and expressions. The way I see it, who I am comes from all the little things I’ve learned and picked up from others. Although, I don’t even know if that’s possible and my telling you this, is like a Fire Elemental telling a human not to worry about fire burning them.”
“I’ve been crafting structures in my soul as long as I’ve been alive. No soul structure is perfect.” Peace glared adamantly, “It’s all made of anima. You can’t know.”
Felix shook his head, “That’s not how I know they aren’t going to change me.” Mentally, he called Grim over and had him load up a memory of his. As he did, the entire room around them vanished and it looked like they had been transported to an endless void.
Then, the memory of Grim first seeing Felix’s soul played out around them. Watching the experience didn’t even measure up to when Grim had shared the experience with Felix, it was more like a movie with a little bit of feeling but it definitely got the message across.
“That’s…” Peace turned to him, “What are you?”
Felix shrugged, “No idea. You get now though that I’m not worried about the voices? About remembering too much?”
He nodded, “I…”
“Let me take on all the souls you remembered. They don’t want to live on, that’s fine. All of the souls I took from Hollow Claw are floating around in dormant anima.”
Peace nodded, “I’ll… give you what I can but… Some of them I can’t… separate.”
“If you’d like, I can try to separate them myself.”
Peace looked at him with more than a little distrust, which was reasonable since Felix was basically offering to perform surgery and Peace had never seen him do anything like that before.
Chuckling a little as he realized that, Felix waved his hand for show and pulled up the memory of him separating The Endless Hunger from Nova’s soul.
He was slightly hesitant to essentially be revealing everything to Peace but after thinking about it for a bit, he decided to trust Peace. Not only had Peace gone out of his way to help him on multiple occasions but he’d been vulnerable with him a few times now. This time, Felix had him in his Soul Garden and not a single time, did he sense a disingenuous thought, instinct or emotion from Peace.
Felix sensed genuine fear and despair above all else at the moment and if what he did ended up making Peace stronger, then Peace would be more capable in the future.
At the end of it, Felix could sense Peace’s disbelief even before he turned to him and shook his head, “You can touch The Endless Hunger?”
Felix shrugged, “Yeah. Desire, Wrath and their minor peaks too now.”
After almost a minute of silence, Peace nodded, “Okay. Take what you can.”
Felix nodded, “Couple of things first. I’ll take anything I can, separate things where it seems natural. This won’t make you try The Unwavering Peaks or fight Aro Zaki though, will it?” Felix continued nodding as he came to a realization mid sentence, “Both of which you are avoiding for fear of them changing you.”
Peace nodded.
“I’ll remove what I can now but we’ll probably need to head down to the Twilight Garden over the next little while. In the meantime, I can wrap your soul in a protective lattice.”
Peace shook his head, “The Reaper’s done that before, I don’t have the force of will to maintain it.”
“I know. I’ll repair it every day so you can spar with Aro Zaki and climb the peaks yourself. Once we’ve removed everything we can, I’ll compress your core soul.”
Peace winced a little and Felix cut him off before he could complain, “You’ll never find yourself are if you’re constantly afraid of changing.”
He still looked unconvinced and Felix just sighed, “Look, we can deal with that once we come to it and if you’re still hesitant, we won’t do it. For now, let me see what I can easily take.”
They were already physically touching so all Felix needed to do was to reach his Soul Tendrils out and knock on the outside of Peace’s soul. He didn’t even try to barge in and simply waited for Peace to open himself up and accept him.
After another few moments of hesitation, Peace opened up and Felix’s tendrils reached into his soul.
Felix had already attached the end of the funnel he had used with Hollow Claw to the end of a Soul Tendril as they had been talking so all he had to do, was find the souls to remove.
Just like Felix had with the Second Layer of his soul-the one that typically interacted with and controlled the body-Peace had suffused his body with his. Pushing through that layer wasn’t very difficult and beyond it, was a layer Felix wasn’t entirely suspecting.
Peace had mentioned he had a soul structure of his own to isolate himself from the souls he remembered but just beyond the second layer, there was an ocean of remembered souls all writhing around like eels.
Punching his way through them, Felix felt around with his tendrils and brushed up against Peace’s core soul, or rather, the Soul Structure he had mentioned. What it amounted to in essence, was an extra layer of anima with little structure that surrounded and protected his core soul. It didn’t really look like it was doing a very good job though as to Felix, it seemed like his Core Soul was cowering in the face of the remembered swimming around it.
Felix looked around a little more to make sure he wasn’t missing anything then began sucking in all the remembered with his Soul Tendril like it was a vacuum. As he did, Peace’s second layer began relaxing immediately as it was no longer being constantly pushed on by the remembered. It would take time for it to fully relax as even with all of them gone, the second layer was still loose and weak around his core soul.
For the time being, Felix left everything else as is because he knew tearing through the layer around his core soul would be tantamount to peeling off his flesh and Peace needed to be ready before that.
Returning to the physical world, Felix made sure Peace’s consciousness wasn’t still in his mind then nodded to him, “You okay?”
Peace nodded, “I feel… a little weird but good weird just… not used to it.”
“I’m not going to touch anything else you have in there just yet but, can I place a barrier around your soul now?”
With more resolve than Felix was expecting, Peace nodded, “Yeah. Do it.”
Reaching back in, Felix cut out some anima he didn’t really need from some planets and formed a lattice barrier between Peace’s core soul and his second layer. That was all he needed to do since the second layer contributed nothing to personality and identity, along with regenerating itself quickly.
As Felix opened his eyes once again, he saw Peace smirking.
“What?”
Peace chuckled, “When The Reaper said all our problems would be solved… I was worried for a while you know? Once I realized how relieved I was… I was worried he was sticking this on someone else and they would suffer the same problems I did.”
Peace shook his head, “I’m definitely not worrying about that now. What the hell is this defensive structure?”
“It’s from a book The Reaper gave me.”
“No, I know that. He used to use something similar… I mean the density.”
Felix raised a brow expectantly, “Will you try The Unwavering Steps now or spar with Aro Zaki?”
Peace hesitated for a moment out of instinct but nodded a moment later, “I’ll try the steps with you, if that’s okay?”
Felix nodded, “Course. I’m heading to the Twilight Garden first. You sh-”
He nodded, “I know. I’ll come.”
Leaving Nova in the room, because she was already asleep, the two of them headed off to the Twilight Garden where Peace let his soul relax and adjust and Felix got to work on some structures of his own.
First things first, Felix continued the process of thickening the fleshy layer on his main lattice barrier. While it was like a film or a balloon before, he wanted to get it to the point where it was more like leather. He also had grand plans to swap the whole thing out at some point with something vastly more complex but he didn’t have time to figure it all out just yet.
At the same time, he had begun creating a whole new layer outside of his Second Layer, almost like a second layer of skin. The idea was to act as a defensive layer for everything and as a first line of defense. It wasn’t to prevent outside influence like Peace’s new defensive layer so much as it was for defending against direct Soul Attacks. He hadn’t really encountered any so far, other than Pewa’s punches, but he still wanted to be ready just in case.
With both of those structures, Felix’s goal was to eventually imbue them with convictions of their own that made them more effective at their jobs but for the time being, that was out of reach.
Lastly, he spent a bit of time refining another new layer, this one not for himself though. Still, he deemed it important enough that he wanted it to be finished by the time his recruitment was done.
After a few hours of silence between the two of them, Felix opened his eyes and rose to his feet then, completely shocking him, he had to physically tap Peace’s shoulder to rouse him. Peace also seemed shocked as he woke with a start and looked around rapidly before noticing Felix, nodding and collecting himself.
From there, they headed straight for The Spirit Sanctum which was, as it always was, packed.
There were enough people in the building that it was impossible to cross without physically bumping into someone. A problem only exacerbated by the almost drunken demeanor of those returning from a climb.
Walking through the building, Felix walked in nearly a straight line, simply plowing through where there wasn’t enough room. A few people gave him funny looks but no one said anything and it was the fastest way. He knew exactly which door he was heading to this time and Peace followed along in his wake.
Opening the door and piercing the tranquility of the Spirit Sanctum, Felix immediately felt the static of The System smack into him full force, along with the more obvious whisperings of the curses amongst the mountains. They weren’t loud or even really noticeable to most and honestly, Felix wasn’t entirely certain he wasn’t imagining them because he knew they were there, from his previous climbs.
Just outside of the building, the path was marked with a series of small flags stuck into the rock as the ground was still relatively shallow and flat.
The early parts were easy and Felix didn’t worry much about them so he looked back to confirm with Peace before they both ran along the path. At their pace, it didn’t take more than a quarter hour to reach the steps. Normally Felix would have gone faster, but he wanted to stay with Peace just in case as it was his first time.
As soon as they reached the steps, the lanterns started to appear.
They weren’t actually for light at all but every hundred meters or so, a lantern was placed alongside the steps that contained a small spec of the curse specific to that path, just like the building he had proved his mastery within.
At the bottom of the steps, the lanterns were nearly empty with an essentially imperceptible about of cursed anima within them. As they climbed though, so did the size of the cursed anima within the lanterns and the oppressive force of the curse bearing down on them from all around.
Felix already had some experience with the curse of Oblivion, albeit a significantly watered down version of it, but he knew what to expect and had prepared accordingly. Peace on the other hand, had not. He was careful and Felix could feel him squeezing his soul and resisting outside influence with all of his will.
It wasn’t actually necessary in Felix’s experience. For the most part, it was difficult for the aura of a curse to actually change the core soul of any being. He had even tested that theory a few times with normal souls, other than his own. It could influence and spawn thoughts and feelings within you but those were always temporary if the soul wasn’t directly exposed and didn’t marinate in the aura for multiple dekads.
Peace’s core soul though, Felix suspected was actually injured. He didn’t want to bust through his last layer of defense just yet but from what he’d said and what Felix had felt, that was his working theory. The structure Peace had in place helped, but it was prone to leaking thoughts and experiences through it-albeit after dulling them significantly-which would result in them reaching his core soul. The only way for that to really matter though, was if his core soul was damaged.
Felix intended on helping and repairing it as much as he could but that took time which is why, he had put the lattice work frame in place in the meantime.
What Peace was doing, was out of instinct, not necessity. The shield Felix had placed around his core soul would completely eliminate any secondary influence from the curses on the mountain, at least until he reached the very peak.
Judging from how Peace was visibly pushing his way up each step, Felix didn’t expect him to make it there today though.
Felix slowed down to match Peace’s pace as his soul was hit with a barrage of unnatural feelings. He had experienced it once before, the feeling that your soul had met the end. Not just that it would die, but that it would cease to exist, that it wouldn’t be remembered.
The best way Felix could describe it, was as the horror one would feel if they knew their entire life and everything they had ever done, was about to be wiped out from existence. That no one would remember them, no photos would exist, no one would know, no one would care. No funeral, not a single tear shed over your forgotten name.
What Felix had realized, having now mastered two major peaks already, was that the name ‘curse’ wasn’t entirely accurate. They definitely felt that way and acted that way in a lot of cases. On a weapon, the curse of hunger would cause insatiable hunger and could lead to the weapon or its wielder consuming its targets.
More accurately though, he would describe what the curses actually were, as anima obsessions. They were feelings or experiences so universal, so strong and so all encompassing, that they often completely suppressed everything else.
Oblivion wasn’t an obsession he knew, but it was something his soul and anima in general did, as an experience. It happened to often create Fear, another major peak, but that was just a side effect. Many of the obsessions often spawned their brethren.
Step by step, Peace pushed his body onwards as his soul tried desperately to both pull him back and push him further, protect him and attack something, all of it reacting differently. It was like a cup of water where each drop suddenly became conscious and tried to do something completely different from each-other. Felix could feel it happening and feel him resisting it.
The true test of the peaks wasn’t resisting the specific curse, it was keeping your soul aligned and controlling it with your will. As those slipped, as your soul strayed, the influence of the curses began to seep in and only then, did it really become dangerous.
As Felix observed, his perception of Peace’s soul strengthened from having anima affinized to himself within it, he noticed Peace’s soul almost pulsing. It was affected and looked like it was going to drive him insane for a moment then he reigned it back in and took another step. Then it grew again, he squeezed it, and he took a step.
Each step, an exercise in will power and each one, harder than the last.
Finally, once it took Peace a minute to ascend just a single step, he dropped to one knee, panting.
Felix reached down and placed his hand on Peace’s shoulder, “You made it halfway on your first try.”
Peace chuckled once but it sounded forced through his body’s desperate breathing, “Better than I… Expected.”
Felix didn’t even bother asking whether he needed help and used his very immature and simple aura to push back the influence of the curse locally, as much as he could. He had no real experience manually creating an aura and he knew it was weak, disjointed and inconsistent but his soul’s strength contributed massively to the effect and so it wasn’t useless. While it was barely useful, it did give Peace just enough breathing room to slightly recover.
He waited a minute or so for Peace to calm himself then reached down, helped him up and carried him back down the steps.
As they descended, he felt Peace’s state massively improve to the point where he managed to hold his own weight and eventually walk on his own very quickly.
Escorting him down just a few kilometers was enough that the effect of the curse was drastically lower as the strength of its effects were exponential, not linear. Felix let go of Peace, dropped his nascent aura, and manually checked his state then nodded to him, “You good to descend the rest of the way yourself?”
Peace nodded, “Thanks. For helping me back down and… everything.”
Felix nodded, “Of course. You’ve been nothing but helpful to me ever since I met you and it costs me little to pay that back.”
Peace took a deep breath and nodded, “That maybe so but… You’re putting a lot of trust in me without any guarantees and… my helping you was pretty selfish.”
“Maybe. I made the choice to take The Reaper class though, your helping me succeed so you don’t have to be The Reaper’s successor, even if it ultimately helps you too, is still you helping me with my own decision.”
“I’m glad you see it that way.”
Felix shrugged, “I’m heading back up. See you in the Garden or the Halls?”
Peace nodded, “Probably the Garden. I have quite a bit of recovery ahead of me.”
Felix knew Peace would overdo his recovery a bit, given his still very present fears about losing himself but, he lost nothing other than time in doing so.
He continued to watch Peace descend for a bit just to make sure he was alright then turned back around and headed back up the steps himself.