Chapter 28: Hierarchy
‘What the fuck…’
This changed everything. All along Zan thought that the spider was Mila or at least some kind of metaphor that it was her. Who else could it be after all? As far as he knew she was the only one with so many bodies to sacrifice. She was the only one entangled with dark and demonic magic and she was also the only one with an enormous eldritch entity in her basement.
With that information, with the notion that the spider was her and with what the orb requested of him…he thought that he had to somehow, someway…stop her. In more specific terms he thought he had to kill her. This was the thought that he was wrestling with all along.
But the youth kept in mind the obvious benefits too. If he asked for strength from the orb, how powerful could he get? Could he beat that arrogant rich noble who got everything handed to him? That single thought consumed him whole. How can I beat that bastard? How can I grow more powerful? Strength. Power. It was everything. Perhaps he…no, it was more than likely that he would have agreed to end her life for the power he sought. What did it matter that she had saved his life? In the end she was using him too, and the countless innocent victims she tortured everyday consoled him about that fact.
‘What’s this bitter taste in my mouth though…’
The youth took another look at the drawing.
‘The spider might not be her, it’d make my life easier if it wasn’t her.’
Suddenly, Zan felt something tap at his waist. The youth looked down to see Quin staring up at him, his left missing hand lightly touching his waist while his right hand behind him held a collection of papers with squiggly and messy writing.
Quin’s right hand moved, raising the collection of papers towards Zan.
“For me?”
Zan took them from the boy’s hand, perusing through them in the next moment.
As he looked through them he quickly realized they weren’t the boy’s work. Unless of course, he was a genius for his age who had a knack for vulgarity. No, it seemed as if the boy copied his mother’s documents and placed them in this collection of papers.
The youth’s eyes gleamed, this kind of knowledge and information…it was exactly what he wanted to know about the world!
“Those disgusting mutated and their twisted powers.”
“Hierarchy of the powers of the world.”
“Nuclear cores and their sickening transformative power.”
“Yes…Yes! Muahahaha!”
“...”
The youth stopped his mad laughter when he felt the uncomfortable gaze of the boy and the living library on him.
“...”
“Ahem…”
“Thank you very much! I won’t let you down!”
Zan once again concentrated on the series of documents. He quickly brushed over the titles and contents, intent on organizing them into the most comprehensible and productive session of reading that he’s ever had in his whole life. The only time he spent actively looking for books was when he raided the surrounding village houses for rumored fighting manuals…that he never found.
The first document that he looked over was the earliest recorded and from what Zan understood, a summary of the beginning of the current era, the past 1500 years.
“From the recent excavations my hypothesis has been all but confirmed. This world has ended at least twice, and from each end of an era, humans return each time like a plague.”
“The last era before this was perhaps the worst.”
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“Nuclear and radioactive powers drastically shifted the alignment of this planet’s natural energetic lines and arrays, not to mention their drastic effect on the atmosphere. There are areas of Eok with almost no natural energy, and there are areas so dense with energy that they give birth to magical beings.”
“My own theory is that these beings were simply fabricated mythical existences from past human folklore, but with the super density of concentrated energy, they were pulled from metaphysical ideas and birthed into the real world.”
“Or…that’s what I thought.”
“Lately with all these new findings and most importantly…the discovery of a super civilization that once united the world…my theories may have been wrong.”
“According to these murals, the planets, stars and other galaxies are supposed to hold an abstract creating force. Each star holding metaphysical influence that shape and come into being through the physical reality.”
“It turns out then, that dragons and fairies may not simply have been fairytale, but a metaphysical archetype that remains a constant within the planets and galaxies that the draconic and fae constellations shines its light upon.”
“Nuclear cores then, are the main ingredient, the vital catalyst to the birth of those disgusting mutated. The success of these millennium empires is directly attributed through them.
“My theory is, after the war that ended the world and the few humans that survived flocked to whatever habitable areas they could, the ones who found the concentrated energy territories formed the now ruined-empires, who saw the miraculous things before them and tried to connect to the sources by their own talent. But…they were quickly destroyed by the millennium empires’ ancestors, who found and used these cores effectively.”
“Perhaps the radiation already got to their head, but the ancestors of these great empires saw these sources of great and terrible energy, and with their braindead thinking decided to make direct physical contact with them.”
“Some turned into dust, most quickly grew tumors all over their body that absolutely destroyed their forms, but the very very very few, were successful in connecting to a metaphysical source despite being under the extreme mutative properties. I like to think that the threat of death pushes the mind closer into connecting with its metaphysical roots, thus helping the individual to connect to a source while the core’s mutative properties help to transform their physical body.”
“There are those who connected to the draconic constellations, some to the everpresent elements such as fire, water, air etc. The Bluelight clan having the power of lightning makes them look pretty cool in my book.”
“But in the end they used a crutch, not their own understanding. Their physical bodies are mutations, they are not pure unlike the creatures birthed by energy.”
“The ruined empires tried to use their own understanding, but they’re ruined for a reason. It takes too much talent to connect to metaphysical sources directly, most simply rely on the cores they find.”
“Even with the mutations in their bloodline it is still a monumental difficulty to reach the stage known as ‘true being’. True dragon, flame sage, storm caller, shadow dancer, these are what some of the mutated call their elites but the past super civilization called this stage ‘true being’. In their words not mine, it is a stage where your pure beingness is your truth, and your truth is entwined with your being.”
“The direct connection to a source that provides a constant downpour of energy upon the individual. Truly miraculous. The next stage above is even more monstrous. It was called—”
‘What the fuck!? It ends here!?’
The youth found the information extremely fascinating even though truth be told, there were times he had no idea what the fuck it was saying.
'Metaphysical? Like ghosts and shit right?'
'Stars? Planet influences? I thought that was only for the weird village girls…'
Zan flipped through the pages but he couldn’t find a continuation of Mila’s notes upon the topic.
‘Goddamnit! Fine! Whatever. What’s the next one?’
“Stages Of Power And The Cultivation Of The Body.”
‘Oooooh now this one looks useful.’
“The royalty of the millennium empires hold a universal system for all those under the illustrious power of true being. Ordered from weakest to strongest, they are ordered as follows, Initiate, Novice, Adept and Master. They are ordered from their direct skill to combat capability, energy manipulation and source sensitivity.”
“Initiates are effectively babies who know nothing about anything. Novices are those at least trained in combat and generally are those who were just introduced to the manipulation of energies. Novices are the main soldiers of territorial disputes. Typically, they are martial artists and weapon masters on the verge of activating their bloodline. But, there are some talented individuals without mutations, bathed in blood and war, they were submerged into the metaphysical source of either their weapons, or to the abstract idea of slaughter. They either learn the most basic energy manipulation, or they create their own to their detriment. Most of the pure, stay in this level of power for all their lives.”
“Bloodline activation is a monumental milestone for the mutated. Simply because it showcases their talent. Talent is a direct measure of one’s value to their clans, therefore more talent comes with increased favorability among their family and a boosted funneling of resources. Unless of course, you were unlucky enough to be born into a clan who expects you to prove yourself and fight for every resource with your own hands.”
“Adepts are highly skilled individuals with activated bloodlines or the elite among the elite of the pure. The mutated were already naturally stronger than their untwisted and untainted counterparts, but after activating their cursed blood it only boosted their physical abilities past the limit. Typically, adept mutated are at least ten times stronger than adept pures. The difference between a novice pure and novice adept is their concentrated energy. In wartime scenarios, the adept caste of individuals are the direct superiors to novices. Most of the mutated stay in this level of power all their lives. In fact, most mutated who activate their bloodlines do so around the age of 35. The younger, the more talented. Generally only the main bloodline are able to surpass this caste.”
“Masters are those with insane talent and skill. Energy manipulation of this level requires genius, or the purest of bloodline. Many of the mutated in this stage are the talented children of their insanely talented parents. Generally, all in this stage have touched upon a source of power, whether that be the source of power of their bloodline, the source of the sword, or the source of slaughter. It is rare, but there are those who have not touched upon a source of power yet are able to match if not even overpower their peers. These outliers have no distinct factor that they share, they each have their own conditions to why they are stronger. Whether they be freak escaped experiments or those with monstrous talent in energy manipulation.”
“This of course doesn’t take into account the cultivation of physical bodies. Depending on the source of power they connected to, their bodies would have different abilities boosted to such a degree. Strength, agility, toughness are some of the main attributes boosted. The lightning power of the Bluelight clan has a large boost towards strength and agility but only a moderate boost to toughness, while those of the Iron tribes have a drastic increase to the toughness of their bodies. As for the pures, their own body cultivation relies on their infusion of energy with their flesh. Though, their boosted physical prowess could never match their mutated counterparts.”
“Ordered from weakest to strongest, the known body cultivation stages are known as, Mortal, Enhanced, Strengthened and Inhuman.
As Zan read about the power levels and systems of the world, he felt his blood pumping within him even faster and stronger. Ambition welled up inside him once again. His dreams were simple, they were the same since his simple village life and they were the same now.
‘…I want to become the strongest. The strongest above all without equal.’