My heart was beating like a Jehovah’s Witness knocking at my door on a crisp Sunday morning. I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. I was tired and felt like taking a break. That would be a mistake. I couldn’t stop now. I won’t stop. I need to get stronger. There was still Qi to be spent. Blood to be spilled and bones to be broken.
Releasing a long winded breath, I pulled thousands of Qi strings from my dantian. Focusing and braiding them together into a thin stream. This insured I could fit a large amount of Qi into my meridians without losing strands.
The power surged within the ley lines of my body causing microscopic eruptions of Qi and corruption through each of my gates. The power weaved itself into a star, creating a perfect circuit as it chased its own tail.
The circulation of Qi began to generate an energy field around my body. Layer by layer it came together. I was quick in condensing each sheet of power into a hard but flexible cloak as they continue to stack themselves atop one another. Can’t afford to mess up. Can’t afford to lose more time. Squirmy was still to strong.
The layers pressed together, forming a solid wall of protection and enhancement. Already I could feel my body becoming lighter than a feather. Lighter than air. With my aura in place, I positioned my right leg behind the other. Orienting myself for take off, my eyes narrowed on Mr. Brutus.
He was just standing there with his arms crossed over his chest. His aura was unseen, but I could still feel it trying to crush me into the ground. It was as if it was apart of the world itself.
Taking another thread of Qi, I forced it into my right leg. Then started to condense it under my foot. Mr. Brutus showed me how to use Qi pulses. They were little waves of Qi that mixed with surrounding aspects. This created a strong reaction, similar to a controlled explosion.
I’d done it before but with essence instead of Qi. Back when I blew up all those roof tiles in that fight with Boner’s group.
The ground erupted in a cloud of dust as I released a powerful pulse of energy under my right foot. The force sent my body forward nearly breaking my leg in the process.
As I rapidly approached my target, I swung my right fist sending out another pulse through my arm. Mr. Brutus held his big meaty palm out stopping my attack. The release of energy didn’t even make his arm shake as the power dispersed through his uncaring limb.
It was like trying to shatter a giant meteor with your bare hands. That was expected though. I used my other hand to grab him by the wrist. Then molded the outer energy around my hand to rotate and cling to his skin. This let me move up the side of his arm like a cockroach skittering up the back of your throat after accidentally drinking it.
I slid around his right arm to his shoulder blade. The big ape tried to grab me with his other slightly less meaty hand, but I’d already made it to the center of his back. With his muscles I’d be surprised if he could reach me.
I hit the breaks on my caterpillar aura. Leaving my arm stuck to his back. This let me take all the momentum and feed it into my right leg. Twisting my body I slammed my leg into the side of his head. The aura around my limb had swelled reminiscent of a hammer.
Pulsing, my kick managed to cause Mr. Brutus’s head to tilt a little. That was the first solid hit I’d gotten ever. I was so happy that I forgot I was in the middle of a fight. The man reached again grabbing me by the leg.
I felt panic as my body was swung around like a numb chuck. Then flung forward. That’s when an earth wall popped out from behind me stopping me from flying any further, as my back cracked against its rocky hard surface.
I opened my eyes gasping in pain, only to see Mr. Brutus’s knuckles coming right at me. There was no time to block or move out of the way as his fist became a solid brown blur.
Lucky for me his karate-like punch missed, pulverizing the wall instead. The whole thing exploded into super thin dust on impact. Not getting hit didn’t stop it from being scary. I found myself on my knees as dirt textured sand rained over me.
Mr. Brutus held the side of his head where I landed my kick. Then rubbed it. “Not bad kid. Your fighting style has evolved from your street Boxer origins. That was a solid kick. You shouldn't have stopped though.” He said.
My eyes had become somewhat watery. My heart continued to pound on the last door holding the tiny bit of sanity I had left. I was sure my heart would rip it’s way out of my chest like a little alien parasite, and start dancing its way out into the forest. How many near death experiences was I going to have on this world?
My thousand-yard stare vanished as my eyes snapped to Mr. Brutus. I glared at him for a second before breaking down. “Mr. Bruuutttuuuuus.” I cried. “That was so scary. Can’t you be more gentle?” I begged. I couldn't even stand since my legs felt like jello. My body trembled like I’d been sitting on a washing machine all day.
I kind of missed Zubu and her fluffy head bonks. Too bad she was all butt hurt. I didn’t even get to apologize properly before she stormed off to flower mountain. She is so dramatic!
Also, my butt still hurts. Even though I used lots of healing aspects I could still feel it burning. What the hell did she do!? It’s like I had a deadmans curse or something.
She even took all the toilet paper. Now I have a rash in my no-no square and it burns to pee. It all started to pile up causing more tears to spill. I shouldn't be crying. I should be training, but I was so tired and my butt hurt. I miss Shadow. I wanna go home.
Mr. Brutus gave my head a soft pat. “I can't be gentle with training. We already tried that, remember? You thought it was a game and didn't take it seriously.”
I shrunk a little taking a more defensive posture. Fixing my eyes on the ground, I started fiddling with my fingers. “Yeah but…” I squirmed. “That time it was a game. You said we were gonna play and even threw me in the air and stuff.” I pouted.
The giant sighed. “Can you stand?” He asked.
I didn't want to, but I tried anyway. Using my arms I tried to support my legs, but my body was still feeling strange. I shook my head not really meeting his gaze. The man sighed again before lifting me up and carrying me like a toddler.
I was starting to like being carried. It reminded me of when I’d pretend to be asleep in the car, so mom or dad would carry me inside. Though, I think it also depended on the person and their intentions. If it was Zubu or Shadow I’d probably squirm and complain.
Whenever Mr. Brutus was near I always found myself sniffing him. You would expect him to smell like booze all the time. Sometimes he did, but a lot of the time he just smelled like soft dirt.
It wasn’t that farfetched to blame it on his cultivation or affinity. I bet it all got converted to Qi somehow. I reached up and touched his fuzzy beard. It was a nice beard. Very manly and well kept. Almost like he brushed and washed it recently.
Mr. Brutus was nice enough to let me play with it sometimes. Right now though he looked a little annoyed, but that was okay since he was only going to carry me to that tree over there.
He sat me down next to Snowball and my backpack. “Alright, take a little break and we’ll start back up again in a little bit.” He said.
I nodded before pulling Snowball into my lap. “Mr. Brutus, when’s Zubu coming back?” I asked.
“I doubt she’ll come back here. Not only did you burn that bridge. You cut the trees down and salted the ground on the other side.” Said Mr. Brutus.
My guilt started to bead up over my chest. “But… you can make her right?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about that. How about you show me that aura again.” He said.
My eyes locked with what I thought were his. I wanted to keep pushing, but clearly he didn't want to go get her. I wasn’t sure why. It's not like he cares about how she feels. There's no way he’s protecting her from me. It's not like I was going to hurt her. I just wanted to apologize.
If I had a phone, I’d probably text her super long paragraphs and leave hundreds of long bipolar messages on her voicemail, until her inbox was full. You know, nothing harmful… I wonder how long it would take to train a Rum Robin to deliver messages?
Our little staring contest wasn’t going well. I couldn't hold his gaze as my anxiety crept up on me, so instead I nodded giving off a fake smile.
Closing my eyes I called my Qi to action. Within a second I managed to create 20 solid layers. It took another 5 seconds to get it up to 30. The next layer would take a whole minute so I capped it there.
“Nice. Now show me what you did to move around me like you did.” He said.
I showed him my arm and started to reshape the surface of my aura. Along my arm was hundreds of little tiny spikes. “It’s like how spider legs work, only more like a millipede's legs. Watch.” I said as the spikes started to move across my aura. They were like little ocean waves.
“Your aura is so flexible. Makes it easy to do this.” He flicked my forehead causing my aura to shatter.
My Qi was still flowing, but my aura had fallen apart. No good. I cut the power. “Not fair Mr. Brutus! You know I can harden it too right?” I said.
“Auras come in layers. You can make the outside flexible and the inside hard.” He explained.
Layers. That’s how I’ve been doing it so far. Maybe I should harden the first 20 layers and leave the rest flexible. Worst case scenario I can harden the whole thing for a quick defense boost.
He was about to walk away when I asked, “Mr. Brutus are we done learning stuff? We’ve been working on my aura for the past two days. It’s already day 4. Isn’t there something else you want to show me?”
He seemed to think it over before answering. “Your aura has improved quite a bit. Your ability to mold it so creatively, is also pretty interesting. It’s not quite level 1 yet, but you aren’t far off. The only thing left to teach you is to cultivate. I was going to let you master your aura first, but introducing you to cultivation might be a nice way to take a break from aura training, while still being productive.” He said.
I understood. When you work on something without breaks you tend to get tunnel vision. Best thing to do in that situation is to work on other things and come back later with a fresh perspective.
“That's how I get stronger right?” I asked.
“Yeah, that's how you grow stronger. As cultivators we gather essence and refine it until it becomes Qi. Then we feed that power into our sparks.” He explained. “You've seen your spark right? That thing that produces your Qi?”
I knew of it. Even though my dantian was half full, I could still see that spark at its center. It glowed brighter than the Qi it produced. “Yeah.”
“Good. That things the nexus point for your meridians and gates. When you rest, energy is collected there. When you eat, food is naturally converted into energy. When you exercise aspects are released from your gates. Do you understand?” He said
“I get it. My body is naturally designed for energy to flow through it and gather in my dantian.” I said.
Mr. Brutus nodded. “That’s right kid.”
“That’s cool and all but I’ve been wondering about affinities? How come I don’t have that? I want to shoot fire out my butt.” I said. My Qi felt like it was a perfect mix of everything. I couldn’t even make out the individual aspects involved.
“Right now, you have what is called null Qi. It’s not necessarily a none affinity, because it’s frequency is based off of you. Your body shape and soul. Think of it like Isaac aspects… or Aku aspects, I suppose.”
I nodded just as he continued his explanation. “This is normal for someone who’s just ascended into the lower spirit rank. Usually once you open your first gate. You unlock your affinity. For some it takes a little bit of time before it manifests.”
“So my affinity will unlock soon then. Considering this isn’t my real body it won’t happen here. Especially since time in the new world is running super slow. Zubu told me how your cultivation worked. Does that mean I’ll have to switch to something different once my affinity unlocks?” I speculated.
“That depends on you. You could create your own, or keep using the same one, if the affinity is easy to find that is. For now I can teach you the standard cultivation technique, so that you can get a feel for it, but once that affinity manifests. You’ll need to figure out where to get the right aspects. You’d better hope it’s not a difficult affinity to cultivate. Otherwise you might need to make an aspect farm.” He explained.
“What’s an aspect farm?” I asked.
“Some cultivators gather different aspects and create constructs within their bodies that generate aspects for cultivation. Think of it like a generator producing electricity. Only instead of electricity its aspects. Of course these aspect farms when paired with methods of energy refinement are known as cultivation techniques.” He explained.
I think Zubu has that issue. “Is Zubu’s affinity like that?” I asked.
“Kind of. She needs plasma aspects. She can't just pull in the individual aspects. She would need to combine them first before taking them into her body.” He said.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Why didn’t you tell her that. She was under the impression plasma aspect was tier 1. You could have really helped her.” I said. He really was being mean to Zubu for no reason.
Mr. Brutus sighed. “Yukio isn’t a good student. She sees me like her enemy and refuses to use me like a resource. She doesn’t trust me. Everything she knows is stuff she figured out while fighting with me. You know, back when she came to this world. She was about the same size as you. Cute little thing.” He said.
Considering how slow we age that was really telling. Mr. Brutus probably tried explaining things to her, but she wouldn’t listen.
Since cultivation is the last thing Mr. Brutus teaches. It only makes sense he never really got to that point with Zubu.
Then again if it was me, I probably wouldn’t be so keen on learning from Mr. Brutus. Considering he and Cosmo were responsible for killing all of Yukio’s friends and family.
Still… just because I wouldn’t be happy about it, didn’t mean I would sit around sulking. Nope, I’d use them to get strong enough to where I can kill each and everyone of them. That made me wonder. Would it ever come to that?
I shook my head. Now’s not the time for such things. Squirmy first. “Teach me then.” I said.
“Sure. It could be dangerous so let's take it one step at a time. It's not difficult, so you should be able to get it right off the bat. Start by gathering aspects from all over. Like you did before.” He said before pulling out his flask and taking a sip.
“Okay… can I have some of that?” I asked.
“No... Maybe later if there’s time.” Said Mr. Brutus.
“You said that last time too. Also, how come I can’t have candy but alcohol is okay?” I complained.
“last time you had candy you buried the brat, remember?” He tapped his temple with his index finger causing me to flinch at the memory. “Also, if I let you drink alcohol it’ll only be to learn how to create a cleansing aura.” He explained.
That made way more sense now. “Fair enough.” I shrugged in defeat.
“Stop yapping and get to work gathering that essence.” He instructed.
I pouted and started the preparations. Closing my eyes I plucked a few strings of Qi. Then redirected them to my eyes. The spiral shape only took a few seconds to form. As soon as it did the world and most of its hidden parts became known to me.
I wonder if the world ever got embarrassed from having people like me or Mr. Brutus x-ray it’s clothes off? I’d be pretty terrified if someone could just choose to strip me whenever they felt like it.
Zubu did that to me the other day when she made me wash up in the river. The cold water was awful. I only wished I could have pushed her in. If it wasn't for all the yelling she did I would have fought back, but she was really scary.
The only thing that really made me uncomfortable was the joy she got from throwing me back into the water. I could have drowned. Especially since I don't know how to swim.
“Focus Isaac. Now isn’t the time to get distracted.” Scolded Mr. Brutus. His words made me flinch again.
I started by identifying all the different aspects. It was a hell of a lot easier with all the knowledge I’d acquired. The whole process only took a few minutes and once I’d found each and everyone of them, I took half.
I didn’t want to over do it because it felt greedy. Like I was ripping away a vital resource from the world. Take to many life aspects and the grass dies. Take to many wind aspects and you get pelted with angry wind. Take to many heat and cold aspects and everything slows down.
The energy gathered in a spiral-like motion. It all coalesced into a ball of random aspects floating within the grasp of my pudgy little palms.
The temperature within the sphere was constantly flowing. I felt pockets of cold popping up all over. It was also a bit prickly like static, but soft like water. The essence swirled in my palm reminiscent of a bottled storm.
It was like I was holding reality in my hands. The sphere reminded me of a small snow globe. Except instead of an underwater town covered in tiny white flakes. It was full of angry little bees of varying different colors and frequencies.
Once I felt like I had enough, I cut the flow and thanked the world for providing so much.
Canceling my Qi sight, I opened my eyes to the beautiful swirling mass of essence. It was pretty big considering I only took half of the resources in the area. It was probably due to the fact I could identify more aspects now.
Mr. Brutus was seated in front of me. In a crisscross apple sauce position. “You have a good collection of mostly everything. You even took some life aspects without murdering the remaining plant life.”
By remaining plant life. He meant the grass I hadn’t destroyed while using my aura pulse take off and the stuff he broke when moving earth around.
I guess Zubu also did some damage there when her aura basically exploded into fire and lightning. Let's not forget all the life aspects I've been using to heal my broken bones and ruptured organs.
“Thanks, I try” was all I said.
“Now comes the dangerous part. I want you to draw that power in and cycle it through your body. Only do half though.” He instructed.
“You want me to breathe fire?” I asked cutely tilting my head.
“It wont be like last time. Last time you over did it by taking in so many aspects. You didn’t even use the Qi to cultivate all you did was release it into the world while filling your body with corruption.” He said.
“Right. So from what you told me so far. I’m supposed to filter this stuff using my bodies natural filtration system. Then feed the Qi into my dantian?” I speculated. “What about the corruption?”
“That’s why you’re only taking in half of what you gathered. Then you and me are going to spar afterword’s. You’ll feel a little sluggish like you just ate one too many greasy burgers in a row, but once you get your blood pumping it’ll cause the corruption to make its way out through your gates.” He said.
“Does it matter that most of my gates are closed?” I asked.
“Not closed, more like clogged. Corruption can still leak out, but at a much slower pace.” He explained. “Now get to work.”
I nodded. Then started to pull the essence into my body. It was a bit nerve racking as it all started to enter my meridians.
The power felt like back before my ascension. This was the original power source my body used. Despite that it felt so wrong. Like sugar in a gas tank. It was so different from Qi. Like the difference between fire and turtles choking on plastic.
Quintessence by comparison was even stranger. There was no way I would have been able to make the connection between essence and quintessence without Qi. Even then it wouldn’t have been obvious.
I let them cycle through my magical highway. Slowly but surely the aspects began to strip away from the quintessence. I also couldn’t help but notice a very small amount of quintessence was being funneled into my soul.
that teeny tiny minuscule amount was enough to greatly reduce the few threads of Qi I managed to get out of the essence I took in. I hadn’t even tried to feed the stuff into my soul. It was like I had no control over it.
There really wasn’t much Qi there, and the amount of quintessence left within those few strands might as well have been zero. Not even enough to build a swing in my inner world.
Mr. Brutus must have been using Qi sight because a moment later he said, “Now take that Qi and feed it into your nexus point.”
I did just that forcing the power into my spark. As soon as it went through I was met with a new sensation. Something I’d never felt before. Like taste or maybe sound.
It tasted like sweet freshly baked bread, sounded like a reverberating bell chime, felt like a soft warm sweater right out of the dryer, on a cold winter morning. It looked like a fire work but more watery in the way it drizzled down, also kind of like a plant in the way it grows.
It smelled like purple. Which was strange since I had no idea colors had their own scent. It was even stranger when you realize I’ve never smelled purple before, but somehow could still identify the scent.
“Whoa!” I yelled. My excitement didn’t last very long as all of a sudden my body became super heavy. I also felt really tired. Like I’d just pulled an all nighter and got zero sleep.
“There it is. Come on kid get up. We can’t let that stuff settle otherwise you’ll feel even worse later.” He said as he pulled me to my feet.
My body really didn’t want to stand up. It felt like I could curl up and fall asleep. That’s what I wanted to do, but I had a feeling that Mr. Brutus would do something drastic if I were to close my eyes. Instead I eyed him while sprawling myself out on the ground like a dead raccoon on the side of the road.
That’s when Mr. Brutus took control of the ground again, causing it to cling to my body. Despite my protests the dirt forced me to stand. Oh, no! He knows necromancy! I felt like I could kill Mr. Brutus for forcing me to do stuff.
This was probably how the undead felt when necromancers forced them to get out of bed and help them move into their new apartment.
“Come on, don't be lazy kid.” He started by making me do a few jumping Jack’s. I absolutely hated it!
“Whaaa! I don’t wanna! Let me sleep!” I whined.
“No, no. Come on get that body moving. Attack me.” He said giving me back control.
With my weight back on my legs they became wobbly and unstable. I nearly laid back down then and there. That was until I heard an elongated scream from across the cosmos. Back there… where my body was slowly dying.
The scream… it… wouldn’t… stop…
I couldn’t afford to waste so much time whining and complaining about things that didn’t even matter. The only thing that mattered was my strength, and right now it was nothing compared to that overgrown bug.
So what if I was tired. So what if my body was sore. So what if I hadn’t slept more than 2 hours since Zubu left. I should try complaining to all those people I doomed to a fate worse than death.
Their cores will be tortured, torn, and used to create even more of those things. I’m sure those people will understand if I say that I’m tired. Yeah fucking right! My resolve hardened along with my stance.
Taking a deep breath, I concentrated on the sluggishness I was feeling. Somehow, the more I focused the worse I felt. It was like when I was little and I wished for the world to slow down and stop spinning. The laziness spun, causing me to become dizzy and nauseous.
I cycled my Qi which in turn caused the corruption in my body to cycle once more. This made me feel pretty good. I created the 30 aura layers making sure to form the first 20 to be as solid as steel.
My avatar became coated by a thin but dense layer of fuzzy blue energy. Taking a deep breath I prepared myself for battle. Then dashed forward.
My fist slammed against Mr. Brutus’s palm again, so I exploded another pulse under my right foot. Then used the momentum to kick his arm up into the air as my body performed a back flip in the process.
As soon as my foot touched the ground, another pulse exploded under it allowing me to move forward into Mr. Brutus’s mid section for a fully powered punch.
That success was short lived as Mr. Brutus turned his body avoiding me. He then slammed his knee into my exposed gut. This caused my aura’s 10 outer layers to shatter. Even though my first 20 were still in tacked. I still felt pain.
The forward momentum I’d created was interrupted by the sudden knee in my gut. Causing me to flip through the air and land on my neck. There was a loud crack followed by a horrific and intense mix of pain and numbness.
Unable to move, my body fell on it’s side. “You'd better fix that before you accidently die. Unlike the brat this is the most I can hold back. That's why I had you learn that healing aura first.” He said, before taking a sip of alcohol.
As he drank one of the rum Robin’s came down onto his arm and started pecking at the flask. He shooed it away with his free hand but it kept bugging him like it had a death wish.
I quickly added in some life aspects from what remained of the patchy grass. My aura took on a white glow instantly snapping my neck back into place.
“That hurts!” I yelled.
“I told you to start adding in apathy aspects.” He responded.
“You never showed me how!” I retorted.
“Didn’t I? Huh. Must have slipped my mind. Alright, well let’s learn a little about 0 tier aspects since the corruption in your body is mostly purged.” He said.
I wanted to punch him in his perfect manly beard, but there was no way I’d get a lucky hit like that in. Instead I sat up and released a breath of frustration.
His knee really took a lot out of me. Even though I was so determined before fighting an over powered gorilla really took it out of you. I was expecting my life aura to fix everything, but it couldn’t fix burn out.
No wonder Zubu hated this guy. “Okay, so what’s this about 0 tier aspects?” I probed. This was a good chance to recover a little and learning new things was also pretty productive.
Productive in a “knowledge is power” sort of way. Not in a “I will break my bones until they are stronger than steel” sort of way.
“Carful there kid, you’re starting to sound like the brat.” He cautioned.
He had a point. There was no reason to get angry over things like that. I was here to learn everything I could. Not complain about everything I disliked. Besides, this body was temporary, so it didn’t really matter how beat up it got. “Sorry Mr. Brutus. That last hit really hurt.”
“I’d imagine so. Now, where should I start… so you know about the normal tiered aspects like the tier 1 wind aspects such as hydrogen and oxygen. Now I need to teach you about the 0 tiers. 0 tiers aren’t that simple. They’re concepts. You’ve already associated with a few.” He explained.
That made my ears perk up. “I have?” I asked in surprise.
“You did it a moment ago kid, when you healed yourself.” He said.
“But… those were just life aspects.” I said.
“Think back to when you fought breakfast. Remember when I told you, you needed to not just stuff your aura with life aspects. You also had to imagine yourself healing?” He said.
A white rock lamp went off over my head and I finally understood what he was getting at. Concepts. “Healing is a concept isn’t it?” I said.
“Bingo! That’s right healing is a concept. It exists within the water aspect too. However it’s far more abundant within life aspects. These concepts exist within nature, however the enlightened such as you and me have captured them under the labels of words. Such as healing.” He said.
“That’s so cool!” I said excitedly.
“By labeling the healing aspects we gave them a concept. A foot hold in reality. Thus creating the aspect itself. Now when primal energy filters through the concept of healing, it becomes healing aspect.” He explained.
“I didn’t know labels could hold so much power. That’s insane. Is it like that old myth about names giving you power over people?” I asked.
Could this mean anyone that knew my name had power over me? I remember when mom used to use my full name I would freeze in place like when I’d catch dad eating birthday cake out of the fridge at 2 in the morning.
“Not in the way you think. Names can make you powerful, or they might turn you into a monster. It’s your footprint on reality and the more famous you make it the stronger you’ll be. They say names like that can change reality around the person that owns them. Whether by striking fear in the hearts of people or inspiring them.” Said Mr. Brutus.
“So it’s more about your names reputation? That’s lame. I thought it would be more magical.” I complained.
“Isn’t it? A name can do all sorts of things. People can fill names with power simply by imagining the stories associated with them. Just look at little Aku in your chest. She wasn’t real yet she still managed to become a mortal simply by your thoughts alone. Even that centipede gained power by burning itself into your mind. You were their foothold in reality.” Said Mr. Brutus.
It was kind of like a Tulpa. Or a Tsukumogami. The Tulpa was a collection of mental energy. The Tsukumogami was more like an object coming to life due to old age. I bet it has to do with the same mental energy I used to create Aku and empower Squirmy.
Names were basically the same thing. They gave people a target to focus their mental energy. Was it like a form of cultivation? A cultivation that gathered quintessence instead of Qi. The whole religion thing was starting to make sense now.
Names were truly powerful and scary things. It made me wonder. What would the mention of my name bring. Hope… or despair? I didn’t want to think about it. “Okay, no more. Where do apathy aspects come from?” I asked.
“That’s the secret kid. It’s all around you. Reality doesn’t care about the people that live in it.” He said.
I was left thinking the same words I’d always known. I couldn’t hold it back as I mumbled them aloud. “The universe doesn’t care about me.” It was as if the words couldn’t wait to enter the world and torment me.
Just like that. The very aspect we were talking about flared to life all around me. It’s like they were waiting for me to acknowledge the truth. That I was nothing. That my existence was not necessary, and that I was useless.
There was something wrong with these aspects. They almost felt… personal. It was like my experience with life was put into them. I could see myself getting my ass kicked. I could see my brother bullying me. I could see myself separating my emotions from the world. Separating myself from reality.
The 0 tier aspects were concepts. Only by understanding them can they become real. My understanding of apathy was far too great. Thus creating a huge abundance of them. Had I really put so much work into not feeling anything? So much so that the aspect became so prevalent. The hell was wrong with me.
Well, it wasn’t hard to understand that concept. Its not like the world cared about me, so what reason did I have to care about it. Actually it felt like the universe got a kick out of my suffering.
That brought a thought to mind. If the universe didn’t care about me. Then I could really die for no reason at all. What if it decides that it’s board and just leaves, forgetting about me completely?
I looked off into the distance and saw hundreds of giant eyes darting from one side to the other. Almost like they were methodically reading a book. Blinking, they went away making me wonder if they were ever real to begin with.
I let out a breath and got to my feet. Creating a thin 5 layer aura, I injected apathy aspects into it. Immediately I stopped caring about a lot of things. I was still tired and sleepy, but could now ignore it. It was like the good old days before Aku’s emotions got in the way of everything.
The scream from across the cosmos no longer hit as hard. The guilt I felt for what I did to Zubu lost its edge. I was focused as all distractions gave way to absolute apathy. To absolute focus.
“Okay, should we go again?” I asked, ready to throw myself into training. To forget about the weight on my shoulders.
“I got a better idea. How about I teach you some kata that’ll help you gather aspects. It could come in handy, and might even give you a better understanding of essence.” Said Mr. Brutus.
I nodded.