While Alnea was stuck reliving his memory, the waves that his hands were grazing began changing their form, turning from ripple like waves, into rotating boxes, breaking him out of his trance. But he was in no hurry to retract his hands. He had taken just his first step towards comprehending the Mystery. How could he retreat so easily? As for the memory that he had just seen…
From what he understood, it was the initial effect of the Mystery. Or at least that was how the Mystery was interacting with him. What others saw, and observed from the Mystery, he did not know. But from his perspective, when employing the Mystery, he could take the thoughts of his enemies as the breaking point, and dig into their memories. Or was it bringing their memories to the fore?
In either case, it would be quite helpful in distracting his enemies. But that was not enough. His enemies would be Wanderers, who would, at the very least, have Serene Hearts. Distracting them with just memories was not possible. At least not for long enough to matter. While the Oren Beasts would just ignore their memories. They did not care much about affection, and care. As for their traumas… If he touched on that, then those Beasts would become even more feral, and aggressive.
So, he needed to find more about the Mystery. He needed to learn more of its effects. And he needed to learn how to bring about those effects. He needed to comprehend the Mystery. Thus, just like what he had done earlier, he grazed his hands over the box like waves, while immersing himself into their behaviour, trying to feel their effects. He tried to understand what they meant, what they signified, what they did. He tried to—
“What do you think a Mysteries are, Alnea?” his master asked, inciting his confusion.
“Mysteries are Mysteries, master. What else can they be?”
Before he could understand what was happening, Alnea found himself being lifted off of the ground, and being hung upside down in the air. And right in the next moment, he felt his face being slapped by his master. His instinctive reaction was to move his hands to his face, but his movements had been restricted. So, all he could do was to stare incredulously, and in shock, at his master.
“You dare to talk back to me like that?” his master said, her face contorting in anger, and disdain.
“I am sorry, master—
“Who are you calling master, you nincompoop,” his master said, interrupting his words with another slap. “I do not have a disappointing, and rude disciple like you. Now, be gone, scum. And do not show your face to me ever again.”
“Master!”
“I will not repeat myself,” his master said, and spit on his face, before waving her hands, creating a gust of wind that carried him away from her, away from Anneve, from Rian, and from the Tes Domain itself, lading him in the Grand Chasm. Landing him right in front of a green robed woman.
“Big sis Serena!” Alnea cried out, unable to hold back the tears in his eyes. However, before he could take a step towards her, he found his movements restricted once again, and stared on in despair, as big sis Serena, his big sis Serena, was looking at him in disdain with her arms wrapped around the shoulders of another boy of his age.
“Big sis… do you even deserve to call me as such? I have had enough of your shenanigans. So, I have decided to take in another brother. As for you… From now on, don’t call me big sis. Better yet, don’t call my name. Don’t even think of me. You are not needed. Get lost, you needy little piece of Oronir’s hair.”
“…Big sis—
“Did you not hear what I just said? You don’t deserve to call me that. In fact, you don’t even deserve to live… So, why don’t you go ahead, and do the world a favour by killing yourself?”
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“No…” Alnea mumbled. “This must all be fake… This cannot be real. This cannot be—
Alnea broke out of his trance, panting heavily, just before his Heart was about to collapse. Comprehending Mysteries… it was not easy. He had not even begun experimenting with the Mystery, and yet he was already finding it hard to maintain his Serenity. It was no wonder that most Wanderers took years to create just one Arcana. But… he was not one of those ‘most’ Wanderers. He refused to be a common Arcanist. He was going to be greatest Arcanist. And so, he needed to comprehend even more of the Mystery.
Thus, though he shivered at the thought of what lay awaiting for him, Alnea still did not stop grazing his hands along the waves, feeling their vibrations, their rhythms, and their Mysteries. The ripple like waves… they had used his thoughts as the opening point, using them to dig into his memories, which the box like waves had followed up by twisting those memories, destroying them completely. As for the oscillating circles…
His master… she did not want him anymore… Big sis Serena… she did not want him anymore… Yuri… she had taken the Rings of Fate back from him… Cecilia… she had long forgotten about him. And his mother… she had found a new life for herself. He, Alnea Oathkeeper, was alone. He, Alnea Oathkeeper, was—
He was like a gust of Wind, going from one place to another, without any purpose in life. No, he could not even go anywhere by himself. He was not a gust of Wind. He was just some dust, discarded parts of Earth, floating with the wind. He was the waste Water that everyone had discarded. The Fire that no one wanted. The Lighting that never came… He was… He was nothing… Not void… But nothing. Because he was not even Created… Or was it that he was Created, but later Destroyed?
Did that matter though? He was nothing. And nothing could change that. Not even Time. Or Good Fortune. Life had no meaning for him. Neither did Light. There was no Justice for him, neither was there any Trickeries. Because he did not even exist. So, Death held no meaning for him either. Neither did Fate. He could not even Decay, or be Destroyed…
The only thing that he knew was Darkness. Just pure Darkness. The sweet, sweet Darkness. That was the only thing for him. That was the only thing he knew. That was his sole existence. Loneliness. Despair… Not of others, but of himself. Why himself though… He did not even exist, so how could there be loneliness… How could there be Despair… It did not matter. He was Darkness. And all that came with it. He was—
The waves changed once again, just in time to wake Alnea up from his trance. To stop him from assimilating into the Darkness. The Mystery… it was far more dangerous than he had thought it was. But that only served to excite him more. Because he learned even more things about the Mystery. The box like waves… they had not just simply twisted his memories, but had also created cracks in his Heart, in his Serenity. And the oscillating circles had then dug into his Heart through those cracks, using them to draw him into an illusion. A terrifying illusion…
If his enemies got dragged into such an illusion during fights… Or if he combined such illusion with other Mysteries that he would comprehend in the future… Just thinking about the possibilities was making Alnea tremble with excitement. But he could not let that excitement overwhelm him, or control his actions. Not yet. He still had one thing left to check.
So, after he had regained control of his self, he shifted his attention back the waves he was interacting with. The ripple like waves… just like how they had been in the beginning. Except that they were not the same as how they had been a while ago. There was something different about them. Something that was not easy to observe from just looking at them. So, he moved his hands once again, tracing the simple ripple like waves, trying to understand—
It began with his sense of smell spilling over into his sense of hearing, before his sense of taste spread to his senses of touch, and sight, as unimaginably large undulations of unknown origin engulfed him, drawing him in to make him a part of it. A part of the Mystery. A part of the rules beyond the Mystery… and in doing so, made him understand a few things. Illusion… that was just a part of the rules, a part of the basic fundamental laws of the world. Even more so when it was an illusion that pertained to memories.
That was not True illusion. That was just a False illusion that used the weakness of his enemies to induce some weird thoughts in their minds. Fooling the five senses… that was just a part of it. Only if it could fool the world itself, the Origin itself, could it be called as a True illusion. Not the True Ranked Illusion, but a True Illusion, one that lay beyond the Origin itself. Illusion, and Reality… Truth, and Lies… He must remember, that—
Alnea found himself back in his Spirit, staring blankly at the ever boisterous Origin Sea around him. The silence, that had been reigning was gone. And the Aspects were back, circling around him, shouting, and cheering for him. Even his own Aspect was cheering for him. He himself, however, was left standing in a trance a for a while. Just as he was on the verge of understanding something, the Mystery had betrayed all his expectations, and had just simply dissipated back into the Origin Sea. Should he say, as expected of the Origin Sea?