The sound of a cane clicked just behind Almarine, and both she and Arson looked toward the slow moving figure who approached them.

“We don’t have time for this, sister…”

Arson’s eyes widened at a familiar pair of eyes piercing through the darkness of a cowled hood. The familiar man’s visage sparking memories of Arson’s time before he was dragged into Endless.

That’s the old man who gave me my second skill…

Though Arson didn’t use the powerful hood he’d been given by this man often, he knew exactly how potentially strong the skill was.

No time like the present…

Arson reached his hand over his head as the two continued to bicker, drawing his own cowled hood over his head from thin air. Instead of the normal red and gold hood, he instead used the black hood he used for stealth operations, his face replaced by pure darkness, dotted like that of the night sky with glimmering pinpricks of light.

Pulling further he tried something he never had before, wondering if the dragon mask with bird features would also be different if he summoned forth the secondary form of his hood. The mask slipped into place, and Arson felt a new power thrum through his body.

This version of the dragon’s mask was horned and pure black, drawing in pure life energy from everything around him rather than mana as the other version of his mask and hood combo did.

His shadow began to wrap around Almarine, drinking her power voraciously as she held him, the draw going unnoticeable at first. Carter glanced over, his eyes narrowing at the sight, but before the man could speak and warn Almarine, Arson took Action.

A roar unlike any he’d ever managed before exploded from him, his power beginning to take more and more life force from Almarine; the sensation of her soul being consumed becoming strong enough to unbalance even the Ancient.

“Let him go, you idiot, he’s killing you!”

Almarine looked at Arson shocked as she began to teeter on her feet, before she lost her balance, and the two toppled over the roof’s edge; Arson watching as her eyes rolled back into her head.

Arson tried to fly but was drunk on the overwhelming life force that ran through his body, causing him to smash into the building on the opposing side of the alleyway they had fallen into. Almarine finally let go of him, falling unconsciously to the ground below.

Arson was barely able to determine which direction was up, chasing the woman through the air, barely able to catch the woman by her ankle before she struck the cobbles head first.

Doubt it would have hurt you, Momma Almarine, but we can never be too safe…

He set her down slowly, pulling back his mask, leaving his hood up. He checked her for a pulse and began patting her face to see if she would wake up.

Come on, Momma Almarine, you can’t get caught here. What if your future changes or something stupid and you don’t end up taking over the orphanage. I’ll be bloody sparked and probably end up dead or something stupid. Come on, come on, wake up!

“You're an odd one. You do know that she was going to kill you, right? I find your concern more than a little misplaced.”

Arson glanced over his shoulder to see Carter. The tilt of his head discernible even with his large hood covering his features.

“Uh, yeah… you're right. What am I doing? You got this, right?” started Arson, slowly starting to step backwards.

“Just make sure she’s alive. I’d never forgive myself if I hurt her,” finished Arson, turning to run. He managed about four complete steps before his body was pulled off the ground and yanked backward.

A blink later he found himself frozen in the air, unmoving as if a giant snake had wrapped around his entire body.

“Mortal… no, a godling for sure, but with a strong enough soul to affect my sister. Strange… maybe you have a titan’s bloodline, hmm… strange, for sure.”

Arson’s brow furrowed, but he couldn’t speak a word as the man analyzed him in a way that made him feel completely transparent. His soul even felt power both foreign and tremendous rummage through his soul realm, suffocating him to the point that his vision started to darken.

“Hmm, normally anyone who feels my aura in this way passes out completely, I know I am recovering but still, your resilience is grand for your age…”

Arson felt his chest begin to burn. The hand print on his left pectoral agitated. His shadow stirred, and before Arson knew what was happening, he lost consciousness.

He began to laugh, his mind taken over by the entity that hid within his soul, growing more powerful as the Gestalt rune on his chest thrummed to life.

In the next moment even Carter felt odd staring the young Cultivator down, as his eyes drooped closed, and a figure cloaked in black began to crawl from Arson’s shadow. The laughing continued, coming from the figure who turned slowly to face Carter.

“Ah, it's you…” said the entity. Hooded and draped in clothing made of purest shadow, the figure patted Arson’s floating body on his shoulder, looking between him and Carter.

“What do you want from us, old man?”

Carter didn’t speak at first, not knowing how to respond. His aura was completely being negated by the figure in black, leaving Carter to believe that there was a potential for danger from the entity. Carter was not at his full strength by far, and his sister unable to aid him in her unconscious state.

“What are you?”

The entity pointed at himself, chuckling.

“I am his shadow, nothing but the potential for evil brought on by this young man’s mind. I actually have you to thank partially for my birth…”

“How exactly do you feel I—“

The entity waved a dismissive hand toward Carter.

“You haven’t done this yet, don’t worry about it too much. You may have given us an unintended power, but we will put it to good use, believe me.”

“Hmm, and why exactly shouldn’t I kill you both now,” Carter asked, his raised eyebrow normally unseen, but Arson’s shadow was fully aware of the facial gesture.

“Are you even capable as you are now?”

The shadow at Arson’s feet extended outward like a slowly growing pool of water from a newly born inland geyser, and Carter grabbed his sister in an incredibly dextrous movement that belied his appeared age; stepping backward before either could be touched by the shadow.

“I don’t know what kind of power I could have given to make such a creature, I am no drinker of souls.”

The shadow laughed.

“Nothing but a glimpse of reality, no more, no less. It nearly broke our mind, but we are now meant for greater things because of it, so I thank you.”

Arson’s shadow pulled on the tabard of the stealth guild, showing the intricate Gestalt rune forever burned into his chest. Carter’s eyes went wide at the profundity of the symbol, quickly able to understand why the young Cultivator before him was able to damage a being far more powerful than himself.

The brief look he’d been given filled his mind with an incredible number of ideas for the testing of new runes, in addition to a growing number of questions about the youngling’s own capabilities.

Can he give life to aspects of his own soul as long as his soul realm has the energy to produce new personalities?

“Ah, yes, that was the face I was hoping to inspire in you, but it seems my time here is limited,” said the shadow looking around before sighing heavily.

“Do me a favor will you, old man, get my vessel to leave this accursed place. Our growth is stunted here, and though it is mentally rewarding to him, its value will quickly become a crutch if we stay much long-”

The shadow gave a lazy salute as it melted into the pool of darkness around Arson’s dangling feet, chuckling as Carter struggled to find words.

Not long after, Arson woke blinking his eyes rapidly. Carter frowned at the young Cultivator, but under the weight of his constantly plotting mind a new use for the anomaly before him arose.

“Hello, child,” said Carter, even more surprised to see the youngling with the powerful soul smile back at him.

“Glad to see I’m still alive,”returned Arson with a pause, his thoughts beginning to race rapidly as he remembered what had occurred before he passed out.

“Why am I still alive?”

Even as he spoke a handful of guards dressed in the armor of those he’d seen inside the palace complex ran through the alleyway in search of something; running by them as if they couldn’t see them at all. Arson’s brows rose and Carter raised a clock with an odd rune on its face.

“Clock technology, there are no better tinkerers alive. I believe you have met their patriarch in this blasted place considering how advanced that watch of yours seems,” said Carter pointing toward Arson’s wrist, completely ignoring his question.

“So what, they can’t see us,” asked Arson, ignoring Carter’s own suggestion, assuming that Carter spoke of Osiris, letting the man believe what he wanted. Regardless he didn’t know who truly had created the watch on his wrist, believing it to have been Jade’s father who’d done so.

“They can see us, their minds have just made us as inconsequential as a tumbleweed or grass rustling in a breeze,” said Carter, nudging another guard in group as they ran by. The woman stumbled before she turned around, looking through the alley in an attempt to find what she’d felt she’d bumped into, shaking her head furiously before she narrowed her eyes toward them. Her facial features showed her suspicion before she visibly dismissed the situation as an accident and rushed off to catch her fellow guardsmen.

“Wow, that’s interesting,” said Arson, his eyelids blazing to life with tribal suns as he closed them to study the watch Carter held.

“Rude… that is proprietary technology,” said Carter making the watch vanish into a dimensional space of his own.

“Sorry, couldn’t help myself,” said Arson, opening his eyes, looking to Almarine with a face of sudden alarm until he saw her breathing, slumped over Carter’s shoulder.

“Is she okay?”

Carter nodded, surprised by the young Cultivator’s obvious relief at her confirmed wellbeing.

“You are definitely strange. However, it seems that you may be a useful asset to my sister's and my mission in this soul sucking plain…”

"Soul sucking plain, what does he mean by that?" Arson questioned internally.

Am I missing something about Origin? I haven’t felt any drain in my mind, body, or soul…?

“Uh, what would you have me do?”

Carter smiled, and Arson instantly didn’t feel he would like where this was going.

“You are going to help us destroy the Runic Realm Pillars holding this dimension together, forcing all the Tested that laze here in perpetual bliss back into the normal flow of time, and space,” started Carter, causing Arson to gasp unintentionally. His eyes drifting toward the smoke in the distance that plumed ever upward into the sky. Arson turning back toward Carter to see him nodding made Arson’s stomach drop.

“Balance must be restored and my elder sister's little experiment has backfired completely….”

“How can I… I’m not built to—“

“Bah, you have no idea what your capabilities are, child. I can see right through you, you’ve never come near to tapping into the energies within you… but don’t worry, we will change that soon.”

…

Arson made his way back slowly. His walk toward Acu’s manor was one of torture. His mind plagued with the thoughts of what he was about to commit to in the near future.

“At least we actually have a reason to break into the bank now,” Anastasia said in an attempt at playfulness.

Arson stayed silent. He was in no mood to laugh, feeling as if what he was being forced to do was something that betrayed the trust of those around him within Origin. Thia only made him want to progress through the trials in a manner that would result in him leaving Origin before he aided Carter in any way.

He rubbed his head, thinking of the temporary rune that’d been placed at the back of his neck. A torture device even more pain-inducing than a particular trial in which he’d escaped an experience of utter agony after gaining the Gestalt rune had been placed along his spine; Carter’s brief demonstration giving Arson a whole new perception of pain and the limits of the body.

The Ancient Cultivator hadn’t even used the rune for more than a blink. Yet Arson had felt time slow and a seeming eternity pass before the sensation of having his body picked apart layer by layer, segment by segment, stopped, leaving him exhausted and bereft of any thoughts of fighting against Carter’s wishes.

He finally made it to Acu’s manor, but didn’t enter. Instead, he sat on the bridge that led inside, staring down at the moving waters of the moat deep in thought.

Then the voices returned, causing him to look around, but Arson saw no one, as the conversation of the now familiar people grew louder in his mind.

“What is wrong with me, am I seriously losing it…?

For the first time since Arson had entered Endless he decided to return to his soul realm, hoping that a literal peek inside may give him answers as to what was going on with him.

Once inside he saw a vast amount of new stars in the distance, only glancing at the multi-colored sun at the center of his soul realm before the even louder voices drew his attention upward.

He followed the line of power that lead into his Cerebral realm, entering through his gateway node to see the changes within his mind.

The environment hadn’t changed. The hovering tree still sat above the swirling vortex of darkness, all beneath the brilliant storm cloud topped by the even brighter halo of light with a view of the heavens, that Arson had always felt was familiar somehow. Not even the red casted sky showed any changes. It was the appearance of four individuals arguing within the space that caused Arson to freeze once he landed on the shores of his mind island. The sound of splashing waves touching the edges around the beach that enclosed the tree, as all four figures had stopped talking the moment Arson landed, his jaw slowly falling open at the sight of them.

All four figures seemed to be like that of his clones, with the exception of small details that helped Arson be able to tell them all apart.

One, had frozen in the middle of a spin kick, showing the flexibility and outrageous levels of musculature that this version of himself possessed.

Another sat crosslegged with his feet in the water, glancing between Arson and a strange book in his hands, almost as if he couldn’t tell what was more important, Arson, or the pages of the book reflected in his glasses.

Yet another held a buckler shield, wearing a smile as he nodded, looking between Arson and the others there.

While the last seemed to be completely unaware of Arson, teaching themselves how to fly using nothing but Conductive water orbs that burst over and over, keeping them barely aloft as they spoke a strange chant that Arson was even more confused by, barely hearing it over the crashing waves.

“Boom, pop, bang, pow, blam, kablooey…!”

Arson’s brow furrowed, as he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“What in the bloody sparking embers…!”