Ten Years

Inside of Asher’s sea of consciousness, Vulcan, Kana and the others were silently watching on as everything transpired. They were caught off guard when the voice first started speaking to Asher, they did not know where it was coming from, they were connected to the Book of Slaughter which was now fused to Asher’s consciousness, everything that happened to Asher they would instantly know about it because of the connection, but once they heard the voice all of their faces changed instantly to worry and concern, the voice came from somewhere inside of Asher’s consciousness that much was obvious, but what caused their worry was the fact that they had no idea what the voice was or where it came from, meaning it somehow avoided detection from the Book of Slaughter.

 Knowing that something unknown was living along side of them and was powerful enough to stay hidden from them  was a serious cause of concern for them, especially since it seemed to have intelligence of its own and if what it said to Asher was any indicator, it was living within his sea of consciousness for an extremely long time.

While Vulcan and the others were lost in their own thoughts, Asher was laying on the floor breathing rapidly, each breath was more painful than the last, but that did not stop him from smiling, he would laugh out loud and scream towards the heavens to declare his victory and determination to live, however, he could not muster enough energy to do anything else other than smiling and breathing. His whole body was in pain, he was sure his ribs were cracked if not broken, the bone in his arms were most likely cracked as well and he did not even want to think if his skull was damaged from when he was in the clutches of the beast.

“Hurry and circulate the energy you gathered, it will increase the healing rate of your body, you’re not currently in a safe location and you cannot stay here for too long especially not in your current condition”

Asher heard Kana’s cold indifferent voice, it was like a bucket of cold water waking him up.

 Asher was not very happy with Vulcan and Kana at the moment, while he needed help dealing with the sleeping beast, neither of them made a sound to offer any help what so ever so when he heard Kana’s voice, he could not help with scowl with bitterness in his heart, but still he knew that if one of them spoke warning him about something, he should listen and do as said so with great pain Asher managed to crawl over towards a wall and pull himself up using the wall for support sitting down with his legs crossed as he positioned himself and started to practice “The Rebirth Breathing technique”

The most important thing currently was to recover, so he drew out the energy from the golden medal in his chest and allowed it to flow through his body, slowly recovering from his wounds and strengthening his body at the same time. The energy he got from killing the incapacitated zombies earlier was the bare minimum he could receive, but what they lacked in quality they made up in quantity so it could be said that his harvest was not too bad from killing them, however, the energy he received from killing the sleeping beast was simply ten times the amount he received from killing the zombies.

“Riches and rewards come with risks and danger”

Asher could not help but sigh and mumble to himself.

“That’s just how to the world works boyo, if you want the best you need to stomp on the best and take it from them, there are no free lunches in this world”

Vulcan’s voice came as he sighed also.

“What exactly was that thing?”

Asher could not help but ask as he remembered the encounter slightly shivering in fear as he thought of how close he was to dying.

“It’s called a Corpse eater, you can think of it as an evolved zombie of sorts, it’s one of the weakest life forms that live in this wilderness”

Hearing this Asher could not help but suck in a breath of cold air.

“One of the weakest…”

Mumbling to himself fear started to slowly creep its way into Asher’s heart as he thought to himself

“If that was one of the weakest then what else is out there and just how powerful are they? Just how am I supposed to survive this world?”

As if reading his thoughts Kana’s cold voice said

“If you want to survive you must get stronger, that’s the only way to survive”

“Survive you say…”

Asher muttered to himself before once again getting lost in his own thoughts and continuing his recovery using the energy he had gained.

A few moments later the energy had been stored in the golden medal had been used up, a joyous smile appeared on Asher’s face, he could tell that not only had the bones in his arms been completely healed but they had also been refined and now were at least three times denser and stronger than that of what they had been originally, not just that but his perception had also increase, it was an odd feeling at first but at the same time it felt strangely good, Asher could feel the breeze that blew by him, it felt as it the breeze was entering every pore in his body, he could sense the most minute changes on his body brought about by the wind, it was an extremely refreshing feeling, as if he was bathing in the wind.

Breathing in deeply, Asher’s face showed a slight hint of discomfort as a small pang of pain ran through his body from his ribs, they were mostly healed but the damage was extensive, so it would take longer for the damage to be fully healed. Breathing in once more, Asher than rose to his feet and walked up the ramp towards the exit of the garage, as he reached the top of the ramp Asher stopped and looked back towards the garage door, all the events that had transpired ran through Asher’s mind and he instantly remembered his elderly neighbour, sorrow appeared on Asher’s face but it did not last for long. He rubbed the storage ring, he had stored the elder’s body within it until he could find a peaceful site to give the elder a proper burial.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

“Boy before you go further I have one question”

“What is it Vulcan?”

Asher replied to Vulcan in an impatient an annoyed manner

“What was that voice earlier?”

Although Vulcan could easily tell of Asher’s annoyance, it was to be expected, if he was in Asher’s shoes he would have been just as annoyed it not more so, so he just went on with his question acting as if he was none the wiser to Asher’s mood.

“…”

Vulcan and the other’s expected a cold reply but when they did not hear any reply after a few moments, they knew getting an answer would be harder than what they had originally thought.

Ignoring Vulcan’s question, Asher looked around at his surroundings, but what he saw was a great shock to him. The building that he once lived in for several years, the building that he knew like the back of his hand were now covered in vine’s, moss and flowers, it was nothing like what he had remembered. The pavement was now covered in tall grass, one could barely see any signs of the pavement that once covered most of the property and the trees that he had remembered had multiplied and grown to be twice the size that they once were. Caught in shock Asher quickly once more looked back towards the garage, maybe it was because of the previous excitement that he had not noticed it before, but the entire entrance was covered in foliage of some sort. Asher could not believe his eyes, it was as if he was in a dream, from his knowledge he was not in the basement for that long, it could not be more than 2-3 days at max, but how did the world change to this extent. He scanned his surroundings once more, however, the trees were so densely packed he could not even see the neighbouring buildings.

After a few moments Asher finally recovered from his shock, he raised his hands to his face covering his face with them, slowly rubbing his face upwards until his hand reached his hair, then he slide his hair backwards slowly before finally holding on to the back of his head with both hands.

“How long Vulcan?”

Asher asked in a shaky voice after he came to his conclusion as to what was happening. Although he was annoyed with Vulcan and Kana, he still had a favourable impression with them, more so with Vulcan than Kana, so he was more willing to voice his questions to Vulcan.

“How long what?”

Vulcan confusingly replied.

“How fucking long was I in that pocket dimension?”

Asher’s replied in a low angered growl that replaced his initial shaky voice.

Vulcan hesitated and did not know how to reply to him, what was he to say, of course he knew the answer to the question but he did not know how to voice the answer in a manner that could minimise the impact he knew Asher would receive

“Ten years…”

Before Vulcan could think of how to answer Kana’s cold voice sounded out in his normal indifferent manner. Kana knew that no matter how it was said it would not change the facts, so rather than try to answer in a soothing way, it was better to just say it and get it over and done with.

“ten….ten…ten years…”

Asher muttered to himself hearing Kana’s answer, the complexion of his face changed and his eyes became a bit listless, his body felt as if it had lost the energy he had received from killing the corpse eater, he shivered and his body swayed as if the gentle breeze that was blowing could instantly blow him over at any time.

“What the Book of Slaughter did is not something that can happen instantly, you need to realize fusing with a soul is not a common thing, it’s not like forming a soul contract where two beings give permission for their souls to partnered, soul fusion is becoming one with another creature’s soul, it is a process that is extremely complicated and must be done step by step, otherwise if rushed and something goes wrong the soul will immediately reject it and depending on how far along the process, the damage to your soul will be disastrous, becoming a retard would be the best outcome at that point, so with step the process becomes slower and more cautioned, especially if the object being fused to your soul contains different souls”

This time the voice that had replied was not Kana’s or Vulcan’s but that of a female, it was soft and soothing, both beautiful and dignified. However, Asher did not hear these traits; all he could hear were the words from her explanation, as his mind raced with hundreds of different thoughts and questions

“But…the ring…I mean”

“The ring never fused with your soul, you just placed a part of your consciousness within it, allowing you to be its owner and allowing it to rest within your sea of consciousness, you can do the same with anything object that you can place your energy and consciousness into, well that is if the object can handle the amount of energy you put into it, a weak and ordinary object will just explode if you place too much energy and because it cannot handle your energy, it will not be able to enter your sea of consciousness.”

“Hahaha…ten years…”

Asher laughed out loud as if not hearing the females explanation, the only thing he could currently think of was the fact that he was in some pocket dimension for the last 10 years, everything he knew was either gone or changed to the point where he could not recognize.

“RAWRRRRRRRR!!!”

A sudden roar sounded out breaking Asher’s train of thought.

“Run now”