Every single realm Felix had traveled through to get to the 2500th was either inside, like the realm where he created the Fractal Mana Form, or more commonly, resembled the surface of a planet to some degree. Azura deviated from that trend by being on a cloud which was different but still believable and within an atmosphere.
The 2500th realm on the other hand completely shattered the pattern.
On the other side of the bubble, Felix found himself essentially floating in space.
He saw stars and nebula he didn’t recognize all around him along with a distinct lack of atmosphere, indicating to Felix it wasn’t just an illusion.
There was no one and nothing around, other than Felix, Grim, Nova and Kerix so Felix wasn’t sure exactly what he was supposed to do. He started by creating a bubble around his group that provided an atmosphere both to breathe-even if he could have held his breath-trap heat and most importantly, to let them speak to each-other.
“So… What now?” Felix asked, clearly addressing Kerix without looking back at him.
“Just give it a minute.” Kerix sighed, “He likes to make an entrance.”
Felix nodded and patiently waited while looking out at the stars around him to try and see if he could figure out if they were real or not. A few silent minutes past without any of them really moving before a being appeared before them.
Where they were in space, there was barely any light at all from the stars and nebula around them, not nearly enough to make out finer details. Felix’s Matter Senses completely made up for that, despite the being having appeared nearly a kilometer away from them.
Not only was Felix unsure if the being was a man or woman, he wasn’t even sure they had ever been a traditionally living creature. They appeared mostly humanoid, with a distinct head and torso, to an extent. They had four arms though, then six, then four again. They didn’t really have a chest, most of the time, due to the additional arms that sprouted out from the front of their torso.
In the middle of where their chest would have been, lay a glowing ring that seemed to emanate truth and introspection.
Instead of legs they had an undefined yet shapely black mist, giving them the appearance of a wraith from the waist down. They also, had no face, although their head was otherwise shaped similarly to that of a human’s.
On top of the shape of their body, Felix’s Matter Senses also provided more information about the material composition of their body than his eyes ever could. So, despite the fact that their white and grey flesh looked like flesh and stone at the same time, Felix knew it was neither.
It was smooth and without pores like a statue and had detail and definition, as if to reveal the musculature of the underlying body. Felix’s senses though, told him it was nothing more than a shape. The entire composition and structure of their body was that of matter.
There was no distinct material or even prevalent atomic configuration. The being’s body was that of a random arrangement of fundamental particles. Just matter.
“Acharaya.” Kerix said aloud, despite the fact that Felix’s bubble didn’t reach the being meaning, they wouldn’t hear him.
You have finally decided to take the next step on your path. Felix heard a reverberating voice in his mind and assumed all of them had.
Felix looked back at Kerix who just sighed before speaking aloud, “Yeah well… I’m here now.”
“You two know each-other?” Felix asked.
“He was my Acharaya before I… uh… ran away. Then I snuck into the Ladder…”
You wished to show me you didn’t need me.
“Yeah. Something like that. Prove you wrong I guess…”
And what have you learned?
“That you can’t really be wrong when there is no right answer. Or everyone is wrong…”
You feel you are lost and yet I sense your path has never been more clear.
“I’m still just a little… confused.”
As many of us are.
“Right. Anyways, this is Felix.”
I am aware.
Felix nodded to The Acharaya, “So… what now?”
I find it is easier to begin by providing perspective.
Felix looked around, “That why we started here? So you could provide me with perspective?”
Not you. You are the most confident of your path and where it leads.
Felix looked at Kerix.
Not him. He is aware as well.
He didn’t need to turn to his other companions because they were the only other ones The Acharaya could be referring to.
This is the universe outside of the Ladder of Ascension. Although I suspect this projection is slightly less applicable now.
As he spoke into their minds, the universe around them began to move. At first, it was just growing and shifting as if they were watching the fastest time lapse of all time. Then, it began to move as if they were moving across the universe faster than would ever really be possible.
Stars moved past them before being pulled into orbit or swallowed by black holes.
Nebulas swirled and shifted as if alive.
Galaxies formed and collided, creating stunning light shows.
Finally, the galaxies and nebulas around them began to shrink as the entire scene zoomed out. Nebulas became distant clouds, galaxies became tiny discs no bigger than a coin before shrinking down into pinpricks of light. Some of those pin pricks were close enough to each-other to create a structure amongst themselves. Each one of those vanished as well until finally, the entire universe they were seeing, was rendered down to a single bubble.
Felix was excited and expecting it to go further but the realm stopped moving at that point, a bubble of nearly pure darkness before them. Only visible through the slight contrast between it, and the even darker darkness around them.
This universe is one of countless others.
“How do these universes get created? Where or in what… structure do they all exist?” Felix couldn’t help himself but ask.
These are not questions I can answer.
Felix’s shoulders dropped in slight disappointment.
I show this to you to help you answer one question. What is your place in this universe?
The Acaharaya held out the universe orb in front of him.
Some of you, have decided to ignore this question in the past.
Though he didn’t have eyes to look and his head didn’t move, Felix somehow knew The Acharaya was looking at and referring to Kerix.
Some of you have had an answer since the beginning of your path.
This time, he was referring to Felix though, Felix wasn’t entirely sure he did have an answer.
As Kerix has wisely pointed out, there are no right answers. Having one is unnecessary. However any answer provides direction.
“You said I know my place in the universe. I’m not sure I do.” Felix asked.
No one knows. You have simply decided.
“Is that necessary to reach Titan?”
It is not. The orb The Acharaya was holding of the universe suddenly grew too fast for Felix to follow anything specific with his eyes until they were left standing on a white disc that stretched out seemingly infinitely in every direction.
Around them, were 20 doors.
However, a decision is always the first step towards action.
Then, The Acharaya was gone, leaving them alone on the disc with the doors.
The doors themselves weren’t actually doors but just empty doorways, each one identical to each other.
“I take it that means he wants us to pick a door?” Felix turned to Kerix.
Kerix shrugged, “Meh. Who knows. Just pick one and get settled in. Don’t let his weirdness make you think too hard.”
Felix nodded and walked to one of the doorways which suddenly opened, a portal filling the empty doorway, to reveal what appeared to be the inside of a storm. It was grey and purple with giant rocks floating and flying around, colliding into each-other and adding to the cacophony the storm produced.
He had no interest in settling there so, he floated over to the next doorway which revealed a tropical looking island in the middle of an ocean.
The next revealed a snowy valley between massive mountains also covered in snow, leaving nothing of the raw landscape uncovered.
He looked through a few more before finally deciding on one that seemed to be filled with the ruins of a once massive city. It wasn’t quite ancient as Felix sensed some fairly advanced enchanting on some of the buildings but it also wasn’t modern as everything was made of stone that had since been grown over by moss and other verdant flora.
Taking Kerix’s suggestion to heart, Felix didn’t think about it any more and stepped through the portal.
He somewhat expected a trial to begin and the portal to close behind him but instead, it remained opened and nothing really happened at all.
Felix looked back and saw the white disc he had come from and his companions through the door. Kerix was looking through a few of the others while Nova just floated where she had been, motionless. Grim was in a similar state but not quite motionless, just slow and lost in thought.
He let them be and opened his Pocket Home, Soul Vault and Sphinx’s Vault to let his Residents free then began wandering through the ruins.
The ruins were massive and stretched out both across the landscape in every direction, as well as vertically. The landscape was that of tall stone pillars with a shallow ocean beneath them. The ruins were built both on top of the pillars but also down and through them. It was hard to tell from the top of a pillar just how massive the city would have been.
Whoever had created the city originally had been gone for a very long time as even though most of the ruins had been grown over, the stone had just started to decay in some places. The stone used in the vast majority of the ruins construction was easily an S grade material though so for it to have even started decaying, the ruins had to have been abandoned an unfathomable number of epochs ago.
Despite that, the enchanting on the buildings, flying carts, lights throughout the streets, lifts and throughout every building and path, weren’t anything ground breaking. They were advanced, as Felix expected from such an advanced civilization but, they weren’t any better than what Felix could do now.
The enchantments had a different style and were generally structured with the Mana flowing into the center and working its way outwards to the nodes instead of the other way around but, they weren’t Kryptos level or anything. They were fun to look through and many of his Residents began documenting and experimenting but they didn’t teach any of them or Felix anything fundamentally new. They were just a different way of doing the same thing.
At least, that’s what Felix thought. As his Residents began powering them on, they found the enchantments were slightly stronger than they should have been and slightly more stable. It was so minor, that it was nearly impossible to detect and they weren’t sure it wasn’t the materials being used but, it did seem something was different.
The minor increase in potency wasn’t particularly interesting to Felix so he mostly just wandered around for a few hours.
He felt through his connection that Nova, Grim and even Kerix had joined him through the doorway he had chosen though only Nova had left the general area around the doorway to explore.
A few hours in, as Felix flew down into one of the calmer chasms where the water was still and reflective, he immediately realized he wasn’t alone.
Sitting on the edge of a ruined floor, with one leg hanging over the edge, was a bald man with grey skin, large black horns and black eyes. He wore a set of black leather plate armor and held a large, double edged, curved sword in one hand.
[Titan] Arassagul
Felix’s identification, powered by The Nucleus, along with every one of his senses told him the man was a Titan. His body and Soul were one in the same way Kerix’s and The Acharaya’s was and yet, he almost didn’t believe his senses.
Arassagul noticed Felix immediately and stared him down with a hateful scowl but Felix had clearly floated there for a moment too long, trying to figure the man out, because he growled then leapt up off the floor of the ruins at Felix.
The reason Felix had floated there, still, for more than a moment and the reason he didn’t believe his own senses, was that the man was weak. Jumping up at him from the ruins, Arassagul was slower than Zeraxes and Peace. He was almost as slow as Melody, who’s bodily stats had fallen behind most others.
His sword was impressively Spiritual but Felix had more than enough time to examine it as Arassagul swung it down towards him.
It wasn’t cursed or obscenely powerful but, it was full of Anima.
It was like a novice had gotten their hands on an obscene amount of Anima then shoved it all into the sword. If they had more will power, better control over Convictions or Concepts, were better at spirit weaving, had more knowledge of Anima Spells or any more skill, the sword would have been frightening.
As it was though, Felix snapped his arm up at the last moment and caught massive, leaping, double-handed overhead strike with one hand, holding the blade in his palm without any fear it would hurt him in the slightest.
Arassagul held himself up with the sword in the air and roared in rage as his body and the entire blade were engulfed in black flame that poured outwards in every direction.
It wasn’t a Curse though, or anything nearly that impressive. Instead it was something else entirely, a Spell possibly though Felix wasn’t sure exactly. It definitely didn’t hurt him in the slightest though.
I guess not all Titans are super strong. I kind of thought…
With a light toss, Felix threw the man back into the ruins then turned around and started to fly away.
Arassagul recovered as quickly as he could from his body rattling against the stone of the ruins then used more black flame to propel himself into the air and after Felix.
The man screamed something Felix didn’t understand as he flew through the air wildly. After a few seconds of dodging him, his brain, Mark and Grim, with the help of some books he was carrying, managed to mostly translate his language.
“The righteous flames of the Sagul will sear your flesh, cursed one!”
Can I kill him?
No. Grim responded immediately, Normally, someone attacks you I would say definitely. In this case, The Acharaya might not approve.
I guess.
“What makes me a cursed one?” Felix asked in his language, perfectly imitating his accent.
The man stopped suddenly, his black flame propelling him past Felix as his eyes went wide, “You speak with the tongue of the Sagul.”
Felix just stared at the man with nothing useful to say.
His face hardened into an expression of further hate and disgust, his nostrils flared, “You will die for your transgressions against the order.”
Flying in the other direction, tens of times faster than Arassagul moved, Felix decided there was no point sticking around. He could feel and see the Titan still following him from a few kilometers away but he ignored him and just kept moving since he wasn’t nearly fast enough to catch up to him.
As he was flying away, he noticed another presence, directly in front of him and he stopped.
The black mist that made up the lower body of The Acharaya formed the rough silhouette of a man with his legs crossed making it seem like he was sitting on the air in front of him.
“Acharaya.”
You have met one of the other students.
“Arassagul?”
He is an angry man who questions his own rage.
“Yeah, got the angry part. He’s a Titan.”
Becoming one’s true self is a part of the initiation of the Sagul Order.
“He’s so weak.”
Now.
“I thought all Titans were strong. I thought getting to Titan made someone strong. Like Kerix.”
You thought it would make you strong.
“Yeah.”
It will. Considerably.
“But not everyone?”
Everyone’s path is their own. The journey of one should not be compared to the journey of others.
“That’s a nice sentiment and all but some comparison is a good thing. It can help you decide what to do next. I wouldn’t have even known about Titan if I hadn’t met Kerix.”
Inspiration garnered from a variety of sources can illuminate one’s path. It can also obscure it.
“Are you trying to say I shouldn’t be aiming for Titan? Right now or ever?”
Your path is for you to decide. That is what makes it your path.
“Right. I want Titan.”
Then I will assist you in getting there. Is Titan what you truly desire? Or is Titan a means to an end?
“I guess I’m curious but really, I want to be stronger. I want to kill The Dragon. I want to… learn… everything. I want to see everything, know everything.”
A path most wouldn’t even dream of actually pursuing.
Felix nodded, “That’s what you meant when you said I had perspective and had already made my decision. About my place in the universe. I know I want to know everything and the only way to do that is to be strong enough to do anything, go anywhere.”
Your place lies not in the universe. Searching for it there will only lead to confusion.
“Can’t settle for just one universe if I plan on learning everything. So, Titan, or is there a better path to get stronger?”
I will guide you to the best of my ability. You are not ready for the transition between paths. You are incomplete and cannot see what is right before you, sometimes within your grasp.
“What does that mean?”
I do not speak to be unclear. I speak to say what must be said.
“So you can’t tell me now because it ‘must not be said’ then?”
I aim to guide those on their paths. Not carve them a new one.
“Is this one of those, I’ll understand one day and thank you later situations?”
I cannot foretell a path unwalked.
“Sure. What’s the first step?”
You must agree to my terms.
“Okay. What do you want.”
You misunderstand. My place in the universe is to guide others on their path. That is my path.
“So then what are your terms?”
I will illuminate your path and assist you in traveling down it. I will do this however I deem to be the best way.
“Sure. I’ll do my best to keep an open mind I guess.”
An open mind is-
“Yes, it helps one discover one’s path and keeps them from straying or something. What’s the first step?”
Your path is one of the most confusing. However, one thing is clear, you cannot walk it alone.
Felix cringed a little, “I get the value of frie-”
I am not referring to allies.
“Oh.”
So long as I will be guiding you down your path, I will also be guiding another.
“If not a friend, an enemy then? Arassagul?” Felix frowned in confusion.
His path will never cross yours. He is stuck near the beginning of the beginning. You are rapidly approaching the end of the beginning.
“Then there’s another student?”
I will not influence their paths. Your path is already intertwined with another.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Enemies that I’m… The Dragon?” Felix’s eyes went wide.
An enemy you have sought to destroy. An enemy who’s departure from your path has left you empty. Unfulfilled.
“You can make that thing stronger?”
You walked your respective paths in tandem throughout your encounters. You are already aware of how much of its path remains unwalked.
“So I have to not only catch up to that thing, but I have to outpace it fast enough that I catch it and overtake it. Will The Dragon reach Titan?”
I canno-
“Cannot foretell a path unwalked. Yeah, I know. Is it possible?”
In some ways, your enemy is closer than you are to the end of the beginning.
“Just in some? How close am I?”
You are the closest of anyone who seeks what you seek.
“What does that mean?”
You are here. For you, Titan is the end of your path. Yet, you are here. You have reached the end and Titan is the beginning of your path.
For some part of what The Acharaya was saying, Felix got the sense he wasn’t looking at or referring to him but there was no gaze to follow and he had no idea what else he could be looking at, “You are a confusing being.”
As are you.
“Are you talking about my Soul? I came from The Wanderer, right? Do you know them?”
What remains within you from any other is not significant to your path.
“How could it not be? I have these Convictions that I didn’t work to cultivate. I just kind of found them inside of me.”
And yet what you have discovered lies beyond the path of The Wanderer.
“What?” Just as Felix asked, a man covered in black flame leapt up from the ruins behind him and slashed outwards.
Felix sighed and moved himself slightly to the side then grabbed Arassagul by the chest and threw him off into the ruins with the assistance of an Instinct Cast Force Burst. He flew multiple kilometers into the distance and Felix feared The Acharaya’s reaction but he didn’t even flinch.
The next step on your path is to abandon the power you have borrowed from others.
“You mean my Convictions?”
They are not the only power you have borrowed.
“My Class.”
The Acharaya didn’t nod or communicate anything but Felix knew he was right.
“Okay. What then? I don’t just want to lose two of the biggest increases to my strength without having a plan.”
You are already aware of the steps beyond the first. I will simply help you walk them.
“Just because I know how I wanted to change my Reaper’s Skills and adapt them into a custom Class, doesn’t mean I know yet how to do that.”
A step taken is often better than no step taken at all.
“Not if it sends you off a cliff.”
And yet, falling is one of the best ways to learn to fly. The Acharaya responded as one of his arms vanished into a portal next to him, black flame pouring through as soon as it opened. A moment later his arm retreated back out and the portal closed.
“Okay. I’ll get rid of what I can. Can you tell me anything else?”
I have answers to many of the questions you wonder.
“I take it now is not the time?”
As part of your path, you must encounter your enemy many times.
“So work to get stronger now and ask questions later. Fine.”
Without another word, The Acharaya was gone and Felix flew off into the distance, as far as he could in a short period, before falling into the ruins crawling up the side of a mountain to find some peace.
There, he sat down and Felix began analyzing himself, figuring out the best way to strip out most of his power.
While he was a Caster, a Wizard in fact, and most of how he fought revolved around Spells and casting, especially with his Staff now, his physical stats were just as essential. The Staff made his Spells hurt and his Instinct Casts helped him bridge the gap between his mobility and those who focused on their physical stats, his Reaper’s Skills were the reason that was possible though.
His stats alone, if he accumulated them all together which he knew didn’t mean much, were increased by nearly 775% through his Reaper’s Skills alone.
They weren’t just improving his body slightly or adding some stats here and there, they allowed his Soul to multiply the effectiveness of his movement, power, thought and durability. The effectiveness of the Skills increased with each and every stat point he gained.
On top of that, their effect got even stronger as he increased his will power.
His Convictions changed everything back when he was failing to kill the griffin. The effect was subtle but it made it every aspect of Casting a Spell easier and more streamlined. It was faster, he could put more Mana into his Spells. They were more precise. They required less focus.
Then, after the griffin, his will power let him survive Curses on multiple occasions, it let him create things he wouldn’t have otherwise been capable of and finally, they helped him control the Fractal Mana Spell Form.
When he finally actualized those last two convictions, giving himself enough will power to control the Fractal Mana Spell Form and use all his other abilities at the same time, he had felt like a god. It felt like the single biggest, or rather the single most notable difference in his power, going from feeling weak and incapable, limited, to being stronger than he had ever been.
He had plans to replace his Reaper’s Skills, or rather evolve them.
Currently, the Skills seemed to tap into and channel the experiences of harvested Souls. It felt like tapping into the universe itself and asking it what he wanted it to do. In reality it was just the experiences in the Anima of his Soul affecting his body and movement.
Hollow Claw fully actualized that and the experiences in his Soul showed Felix how far he could take the Skills.
Tapping into vast experiences though, while cool, didn’t feel right to Felix. It felt like it wasn’t the best fit for him. It was the entire theme of The Reaper, knowing and channeling the experiences of Souls. Using their experiences and letting them live on through him.
Felix wasn’t that person though. He didn’t have the same convictions and didn’t have the same ideals.
So in reality, he had more of a direction or notion that he wanted to explore other methods of using his Soul and Anima in general to augment his mind, body, movements and durability.
It was nothing more than a notion though because he didn’t know yet what he wanted to do with them. Removing them felt premature but, it wasn’t like he couldn’t go back. He already knew how to use his Reaper’s Skills and it would take some practice, but he could almost definitely use them again in the future.
Even though it wasn’t a one way decision, Felix was hesitant to do anything without knowing what he would be replacing them with. Giving up power and strength felt wrong.
The Acharaya seemed to have a plan though and he had knowledge Felix needed. His advice seemed wise as far as Felix could tell and the prospect of The Dragon getting stronger was deeply satisfying to Felix.
Still, there was only really one being he trusted enough to ask if this was the right decision.
Grabbing his Staff that floated along and followed either next to or behind him at all times, Felix held it in front of him with two hands.
Can I trust The Acharaya? Should I follow his advice?
He wasn’t expecting an answer. He knew the Staff didn’t do that. He was ho-
Felix felt a resounding sense of affirmation in his Soul. Like everything was right in the world. Then, it past a moment later.
Though he couldn’t explain why, Felix trusted the Staff implicitly. It had helped him and seemed to be teaching him but that wasn’t enough to explain how much he trusted it. There was something about their bond, the way they were connected that he just knew he could.
So, reaching inside of himself, Felix first manually dismantled each and every one of his Reaper’s Skills. Reaper’s Body was first, followed by Reaper’s Instinct and Reaper’s Movement. Then, he debated whether or not the other two were necessary and decided to remove Reaper’s Presence but leave Experience Nexus, his evolution of Reaper’s Bond.
Dismantling them was more akin to slowly breaking down a habit as his Soul passively maintained them at all times. So, he began relaxing his Soul and manually holding it back. Slowly, it learned and adapted and as it did, he felt his Soul relaxing.
It wasn’t softening or becoming weaker, but it felt like a small strain was removed with each one.
The issue, was that Felix wasn’t sure if it had been a good strain that was strengthening him, or a bad one that was just taxing him.
Then, he looked inwards at his Convictions. Starting with the most recent and easiest to remove, he began peeling back at his own Soul. Convictions were simply a belief or ideal his Soul attached itself to. Removing it made his Soul feel a bit lost but at the same time, free.
It was a uniquely different feeling from removing his Reaper’s Skills but it was similar. He felt his Soul relaxing once again but this time, he instinctively felt like it was a good thing. The strain that was relieved was like a massive weight he had been carrying around that suddenly vanished. Like he had been bound by chains and now, he was finally free.
At the same time, he felt directionless and somehow, loose. Like his muscles had been flexed for eons and now, they had relaxed.
His new Mana Core didn’t flinch in the slightest as its Fractal Form was what kept it stable, not his Soul and will power any longer.
The Curses he kept within his Soular System were more oppressive but only slightly and all Felix had to do was push them out, increasing the radius of their orbit a little until he no longer felt them anymore.
With everything that changed so suddenly, Felix felt so much more human than he had. He felt weak.
In reality his base stats were so absurdly high, he was still multiple times faster than the Peace and Zeraxes he had left outside of the Realms, who were stat monsters in their own right.
Still, it was something more than the weakness of his physical body that left him with that feeling, he just couldn’t quite pin down what it was.
Felix was hoping the next step would either become clear as he followed The Acharaya’s advice or, that The Acharaya would suddenly appear when he was done. Neither were the case though, and Felix was left alone, in the middle of the ruins.
Using his bond with Grim, he located and headed in the direction of the center of the ruins as that was where the exit to the realms lay. It took him longer to get back than it had taken him to fly out but not by much. On the way back he was more focused and was exploring much less.
He was flying noticeably slower though, both due to the reduction in his will power and therefore his ability to push himself with his Matter Control and the reduction to his reaction speed making him less comfortable with high speeds.
Flying back to the center of the ruins, his Residents along with Grim had already started settling in. Though Nova was out exploring so she wasn’t around to transmute or repair anything, they had still managed to breathe life back into a large portion of the center of the ruined city.
Much of the verdant wildlife still remained but many of the enchantments had been reactivated and renewed. Felix saw buildings with lights, platforms that carried materials flying through the air, streets that moved themselves and water, being pumped through the streets.
The area around the portal from the weird realm The Acharaya had controlled wasn’t anything special. In fact, the portal wasn’t even in the middle of the street but off to the side, which was visually quite annoying. The Residents had left it be and placed stone around it, to make sure no one accidentally wandered in or anything. Everywhere around that though, the city was booming.
Dropping down into the city center, Felix landed next to Grim’s massive armored form who was sitting at a table with a woman he didn’t recognize. He knew it wasn’t a Resident both because he would have sensed them and due to the way their physical form stood out.
[Titan] Velerena
She looked human with ashen hair except, that she was about the same size as Grim was at nearly 10 feet tall. On top of that, she had a set of massive antlers sprouting out from the top of her head. She wore a full set of dark plate armor all wrapped in a red cloak.
As soon as Felix landed, she looked directly at him, “It is you.”
“Me what?”
“You are the new student.”
“I’m Felix. How’d you know?”
“Velerena. You are the closest one has been to the Ascension.”
“I assume Ascension means reaching Titan? How can I be the closest if you’re already there?”
She gestured to one of the empty seats and Felix took it, joining them.
“I have reached my Ascension. Moved beyond it. You are right on the cusp.”
“I’ve been told. Doesn’t really feel that way.”
She shrugged, “Sometimes it is difficult to know where you are without an outside perspective.”
“How long have you been here?”
“A long time. We the Endless have remained in this realm under the guidance of The Acharaya since the Ladder was created. Some of us have Ascended the Ladder, others were students of The Acharaya and followed him in.”
“I take it Endless refers to the other students here? I think I met one of them, Arassagul.”
She nodded.
Felix continued, “I know time in each realm is a little different… but it still must have been… basically an eternity.”
“Yes.”
“You’ve reached Titan, are you not bored? Why do you stay?”
“The reason is different for each. Arassagul cannot release his faith though knows he must. Sarros fears his own weakness will become visible on the outside.”
Felix glanced at Grim who just barely nodded permission before he asked, “Why are you here?”
“My Soul is broken. I was bound to a companion of mine who was torn from me. The Acharaya has been aiding me in repairing my Soul. I do not wish to let go. Why have you not Ascended yet?”
“I didn’t know it was a thing until… a short while ago.”
“What stops you now?”
“Direction. Knowledge. I’ve been following The Acharaya’s advice. I was just looking for him to get the next steps.”
Grim looked at Felix, “Is that where you’ve been?”
Felix cocked a brow, “What do you mean? You’re in my head, you must have known.”
“Kinda, you were doing Soul shit which isn’t always obvious to me. I just wasn’t sure you didn’t do anything else.”
Felix shook his head in confusion, “What else would I have done?”
Grim threw his arms up, “I don’t know, it’s been like half an epoch.”
“Wait…” Felix’s eyes went wide, “Seriously?”
Grim nodded, “Yeah. You were unreachable the whole time.”
“Did something happen?”
The armored tome shook his head, “Nothing urgent. Other Endless have visited. I’ll catch you up later.”
Felix nodded and Velerena cut in, “He did not come to you? The Acharaya? When you finished?”
“Nope. Wouldn’t be here if he had.”
“That is unusual for him. He always appears when he is needed, even when he is not but you believe he is.”
“So what, he’s busy?” Felix asked.
“I do not know. He can appear in many places at once so this is not normally an issue for him.”
“Anywhere in particular I should wait for him?” Felix asked.
“The nexus of the realms.” She gestured towards the portal with her eyes.
Felix nodded, “Alright, thanks.” He stood from his seat, “It was nice meeting you.”
“We will meet again. I am quite fond of this pseudo civilization after being alone for so long. It is nice.”
Looking around at the ruins around him and The Residents moving throughout the city, he nodded, “As long as you don’t try and kill anyone, you’re more than welcome here.”
She nodded and he headed through the portal, back to the white disc. There, Felix flew away from the portals before sitting down and entering a meditation, examining and assessing himself.
With all the changes to his Soul, he took the time to try and figure out what had changed, where he had found the Convictions if they hadn’t come from The original Wanderer and what his next steps were.
He had no idea how much time he spent meditating but he wasn’t any closer to answers than he had been when he had sat down. He only stopped because he felt a presence moving towards him, quickly.
[Titan] Sarros
Sarros looked like a statue made from porcelain, gold and obsidian strands. He wasn’t shaped like a human at first but all the strands of his body tightened and shifted to form something vaguely humanoid once he was just a few meters away.
“You. Are. New.”
An robotic voice that seemed almost like hundreds of voices all speaking in perfect unison echoed into the atmosphere Felix maintained.
“I’m Felix.”
“You. Are. Weak.”
“Uh… Yeah… Working on that.”
“You. Are. Slow.”
“Physically and literally or metaphorically I’m taking a long time or…”
“All.”
Felix suddenly got a bad feeling that he didn’t know the source of. Either it was from his instincts or from the confusing Aura Sarros was giving off.
“Sarros. Don’t” A familiar voice suddenly called out.
Hearing it made Felix aware of another presence, one he recognized but not the one he was hoping for.
“Kerix. The. Prodigal.”
Kerix just stared the Endless down, “Sarros.”
Sarros remained almost entirely still in the same position but his body was rife with movement, the strands of his form moving, twisting and squirming. He remained like that for almost a minute before his body morphed back into the rough shape of an arrow and he flew back towards one of the portals.
“Thanks.” Felix said once the Endless was gone.
Kerix nodded, “He’s… Don’t worry about it. He’s one of the old ones that followed The Acharaya in here.”
“Gotcha. Is he gonna seek me out?”
Kerix sighed, “Maybe. I’ll chill here until The Acharaya is back. I’ve got some shit to figure out anyways.”
Felix nodded in appreciation and Kerix sat down across from him, falling into a meditation of his own.
Some amount of time later, The Acharaya returned.
You have taken a step.
“I have.” Felix responded, “What’s the next step.”
I cannot determine your path for you.
“I don’t know… I have no Convictions, my will power is weak and I feel so slow.”
Often the best way to travel down a path, is to take a step.
“What is that supposed to mean.”
“Spar with him.” Kerix said.
Felix looked over at him, “With The Acharaya?”
Kerix just nodded.
Looking at the Acharaya, they didn’t nod or confirm they were okay with that but they also didn’t object.
“Can we do that?”
Yes.
Felix nodded and Kerix backed up to give them room then, The Acharaya vanished. He reappeared with one of his arms already moving to strike Felix’s head.
Pushing himself both physically and with his Matter Control to the limit, Felix barely managed to avoid the strike, by an inch or so. The Acharaya followed up with another strike right afterwards and this time Felix used his Instinct Casts and once again, he barely managed to avoid the strike.
Each and every strike he avoided, The Acharaya got a little closer with the next. Inching towards him and pushing him just a little bit more every time.
Then, one of his many arms struck Felix in the side.
He expected the force to be minimal, the strike to be a sparring strike. It was not. The strike hurt and broke all of his ribs on that side along with most of his internal organs.
The Acharaya didn’t stop either, he kept going. Appearing in front of Felix and striking at him the very next moment.
This is so stupid.
Felix dodged three more strikes then The Acharaya broke his right leg.
He can’t just keep getting faster.
He managed to dodge a couple more before his collar bone was shattered.
I’m running out of health.
Next was his pelvis.
Is he going to kill me?
Finally, The Acharaya broke Felix’s arm and simultaneously struck him in the face, leaving him with just under 5% health before stopping entirely.
Heal then we will continue.
Felix dropped to the ground and began manually repairing his body. Lying there, staring up at the stars, Kerix walked over and looked down at him, “You okay?”
“Fine.”
“If it makes you feel any better, this was how he trained me.”
“Does he do this to everyone?”
“No. I was the only one before you. Guess we’re just special.”
“Both stubborn enough to actually make a breakthrough by getting beat into the ground.”
“Something like that.”
It didn’t take Felix longer than a few minutes to heal back up and start sparring once more.
In between sparring sessions, as Felix was repairing his body, he began meditating. Looking into his Soul to try and find an answer, the next step, inspiration, direction, anything that would let him get stronger, faster.
Every time he sparred, he had to push back on his Soul instinctively trying to fall back to the Reaper’s Skills. If he just tapped into them, used them once, he could avoid a strike. He didn’t though. He knew he had to get rid of that instinct.
The issue was he kept finding nothing else. He tried dissecting The Reaper’s Skills to see if he could find some kind of essence of truth in the method but there was nothing there. The Reaper used the collective experiences of billions of people to show his body, his Soul and the ambient Anima how he was supposed to move.
It was like he was showing his worth to reality itself and asking permission to move faster, stronger, be smarter.
Felix didn’t want to ask anything for anything. He wanted to do everything himself. With his will power feeling as weak as it was though, how was he supposed to compete with collective experience?
Thinking through everything, with his building frustration fueling him, Felix finally had a breakthrough in one of the spars.
As The Acharaya’s arm swung around towards his head, struck him, and shattered half of his skull even through his Mana Scales, largely due to his decrease in will power, he came to a realization.
I don’t want to ask anything. I want to tell reality what I’m doing and make it obey.
Felix stopped moving, even with half of his health left and The Acharaya immediately stopped.
“I think I know what I need to do.”
Where to plant your foot is a decision that must be made before taking a step.
“My old Skills used collective experience to guide my body and ask the ambient Anima around it for help. I don’t want to ask anything. I want to command it. Command reality to obey me.”
Kerix snorted but didn’t say anything.
Ambition worthy of the path you have decided to walk.
“Is that even possible?”
I cannot foretell a path unwalked.
“Everyone does things a little differently. Your Reaper Skills were the most efficient version of using Anima and a Soul to move a body I’ve ever seen.” Kerix added, actually helpfully, “Anything is possible. The question is how effective will it be.”
“So how effective will it be?” Felix asked.
Kerix shrugged, “Won’t know until you do it. Then you have to practice and master it.”
“What’s the limiting factor here? How much ambient Anima there is to command?”
“No. Same way you have convictions to align your Soul, it’s about how much Anima you can get to obey you. Both in your Soul and the ambient.”
Felix nodded once, “So there’s no way to know if it’s even worth it until I both figure it out and master it?”
Following one’s own path will always lead to a superior destination than following another’s.
With that vote of approval backing his decision, Felix sparred with The Acharaya a few hundred more times before taking a break to meditate for an extended period.
He was going to replace his Reaper’s Skills with a command instead of a question and reliance on experience. It felt right. He had also been hoping to figure out how to replace his Convictions with anything else. He had been hoping that one would lead to inspiration for the other but, he had no idea how to apply the concept of a command to his Soul.
He tried commanding his Soul to obey, to follow him but just as every time he tried to do what The Reaper’s Skills did when he was sparring, nothing happened.
Felix began to doubt himself when he wasn’t making progress and asked The Staff of Arcane Wisdom if he was on the right path. It didn’t respond to him in any way.
Then, during one of his break, Felix asked Grim in one of the cafes his Residents had set up, “You know me. What do you think?”
“That may be but… what would The Acharaya say, something like only you can see if you are straying from your path, or something.”
“Yeah but…”
Grim shook his head, “Why are you doubting yourself? I don’t know if you’ve ever doubted yourself like this. You were convinced you could fight the World Bosses alone and did it. All the way through to The Dragon, you just do shit even if it seems impossible.”
“I don’t know if I’m actually doubting myself or just… maybe it’s my Convictions being gone. I feel weak and I don’t want to feel weak.”
Velerena leaned in over the table, “In order to make an effective command, you must have authority and confidence. There is no place for Doubt in an effective command.”
Authority… What authority do I have?
“You should speak with Nura.” Velerena added.
“Who?”
“Another of the Endless. She is often within The Storm. Just be careful.”
“Why?”
“You will see.”
Felix took her advice and headed back out of the ruins and into The Storm realm.
The only issue, was that he had no idea how to navigate in The Storm. Everywhere, was a cloud. Each and every floating rock looked the same as any other. Every Lightning strike and thunderous boom shook the entire realm. Everything was moving constantly.
Felix wasn’t even sure he would be able to navigate back to the portal, given he had no way to measure position or direction. It wasn’t like he had a compass or even anything he could base compass directions on.
If there was someone in the storm that could help him though, he was willing to risk it. Worst case he could always get Nova or Grim to stand just inside the portal and use them to navigate towards it.
Even if he had a way out though there was no way for Felix to find who he was looking for.
At least, that’s what he thought at first.
Flying aimlessly into the storm, avoiding the flying meteorites and just trying to point himself in the same rough direction, Felix finally felt something he could use to point himself. Somewhere, in the storm, Felix felt the Curse of Oblivion.
As soon as he felt it, Felix latched on to the feeling and flew towards it.
He assumed it was close as even though the feeling was weak, it was still a Curse. It couldn’t have been too strong if it was in an item. He kept flying towards it though and it just kept getting stronger until he was certain it wasn’t just bound to an item or an echo of the Curse but the actual Curse. Then it kept getting stronger.
Without his Convictions, Felix was wary of getting too close but he did get close enough that, under the light of the constantly sparking lightning around him, he saw it.
Obliterating its way through the storm, massive tendrils of pure black writhed and twisted out in every direction. Some of the tendrils were over a kilometer in length and everywhere they went, the storm and the massive chunks of stone they passed through were destroyed.
Felix stared for a few minutes as the tendrils grew more active, they writhed and trembled. Finally, they began shaking then, they retreated over the course of a single second, revealing a girl at the center.
[Titan] Nura
She sat on the air, face contorted in deep focus for a few seconds before she opened her eyes and yelled out.
“Who are you and what do you want?”
“Advice I guess? Inspiration? I’m Felix. Velerena told me to talk to you.”
She nodded once then slowly flew over towards Felix who channeled a Force Bubble around them, mostly to block out the noise of the Storm.
“Woah. That’s really nice…”
“What?” Felix asked warily.
“The silence. I’ve been here for… I don’t know how long.” She just sat there, lost in her enjoyment of the newfound peace.
“So… Velerena told me I should talk to you?”
She opened her eyes and cocked her head, “About what? I don’t really do much other than sit here and fight the Curse.”
“Fight the Curse?”
She nodded and suddenly the obsidian flames of Oblivion began to seep out of her body. Her hair was formed from it, it ran over her skin forming tattoos, it creeped out in every direction for a moment before receding back within her, “I’ve gotten better at it but I can’t totally control it for too long. That’s why I stay in here.”
“I see. I’ve been trying to make a breakthrough. I think I know what I want to do but I just don’t really know if it’s possible, let alone how.”
She waited patiently for him to continue.
“She was saying that to make an effective command, I need to have authority and confidence?”
Nura immediately nodded, having caught on, “I don’t know much about commands but authority definitely. It was one of the most important things I had to figure out.”
“How do I have authority over anything?”
“Authority can come from lots of places. It can be inherited, this Curse is in my body and a part of me, I have authority over myself therefore I have authority over it.”
“I guess that helps somewhat.”
“That’s not the only way. Experience, power, structure, knowledge can all lead to you having authority.”
“Knowledge… ?”
“Yeah, sure. If you’re the subject expert on apples, you have authority over all things apples. Kind of.”
“How much knowledge would I need to have though? Wouldn’t I need to know basically everything?”
“To have authority, you just have to know more than the thing you’re commanding, right? About the thing you’re commanding… to be done? Does that make sense?”
“Right… That does makes sense. I guess the same applies to power and experience too.”
“Yeah, everything really.”
“I think that helps. Thanks.”
“Sure. Good luck!” She waved and smiled as he left.
After some more meditation and soul searching, Felix sparred with The Acharaya again.
This time, he tried to command some kind of authority over his body, his Soul and most importantly, the ambient Anima.
Ambient Anima was disperse Anima that existed everywhere. Realistically, commanding it shouldn’t have provided him with much of anything. Felix was beginning to realize though, since the Reaper’s Skills had used it heavily and to great effect, that there was something else there.
He had been trying to feel it, sense it with his Soul for a long time but now, after talking with Nura, he was using all the knowledge and experience he had instead.
Felix also came to the realization that even if he wasn’t the expert on space and Anima, he knew a lot more than the average person and therefore more than the collective unconscious, on average. So, if he tried to command it with his authority, provided by his knowledge, he would theoretically be able to make 99% of the ambient Anima obey him because he knew more than 99% of beings.
It wasn’t just knowledge of space and time either, through his Residents, Felix had knowledge of almost every subject overshadowed only by the masters of any domain.
He may not know more about alchemical elixirs than Edira, but that was one person and she probably knew more than almost everyone else in existence.
So, as The Acharaya swung one of his many arms for Felix’s head, he pushed everything in him to move and for reality to obey him.
He got smacked again. A lot.
Though his answers were cryptic and often useless, Felix tried asking The Acharaya while he was regenerating, “I’m missing something. Any ideas?”
One must often be provided a reason to shift from their path.
“You mean I have to demonstrate my knowledge? I guess the Reaper Skills did show the collective experience to the ambient Anima… How the hell do I show knowledge though? And what knowledge do I show?”
Felix continued to lose his health to The Acharaya, getting beat down constantly as he desperately tried to replicate a similar effect to his Reaper’s Skills.
To replace his Convictions and align the Anima of his Soul, he began to apply the same concepts internally, commanding and forcing his own Soul to obey. That was much easier which was to say, nearly impossible but he was actually making progress. It was his own Soul though so he had more authority over it than he did the ambient Anima.
Slowly, over the course of their sparring sessions, various factors began to click for Felix.
He realized ambient Anima wasn’t just a disperse collection of Anima that existed everywhere, it was naturally bound to space within a universe. Commanding it was like commanding space itself.
As his Soul slowly grew more aligned, he began to find it was much easier to control the Anima around him.
Most importantly though, if it was easier for him to command his own Soul, why not make everything his own Soul. So, he began to spread his Aura, adopt the ambient Anima around him into his own Soul.
Then, at the peak of his frustration, Felix finally did it exactly once.
As The Acharaya’s hand swung out to strike Felix’s head, he pulled his body downwards and begged reality to obey his command. For once, it did.
His head was going to be struck by The Acharaya, then it wasn’t.
Felix could feel his head moving so it didn’t teleport or anything but it felt weird.
He didn’t manage to reproduce the same thing for what felt like ever. Still, having done it once completely renewed his motivation.
On a blank white disc with unmoving stars above, Felix didn’t know how long he spent sparring with The Acharaya. All he knew was that he had finally done it.
He could move nearly as fast as The Acharaya himself, when he wasn’t abusing his Realm control, and he was no longer struck at all.
Moving his arm with the effect active, Felix marveled at how his arm looked almost like it was teleporting. He could feel it moving so he knew it wasn’t but it was like reality, light, sound, the air and everything else was catching up to his arm being moved. Like his moving was breaking the laws of reality and they were trying to accommodate after the fact.
What really mattered though, was whether or not it would make any difference against The Dragon who, had also been training with The Acharaya.