'Do not dwell on the past, do not dream of the future, and concentrate the mind on the present moment.'

These are the words that repeated themselves within Indra's mind. A quote from the Buddha. This was the way in which he wished to live his life, the only problem was, he could not.

Another of the man's wise quotes was this.

'Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love, this is the eternal rule.'

Indra repeated these words aloud whilst the others plagued his mind. He wanted only to forget the past and somehow he knew once he achieved that he would no longer dwell on his future either. He needed to forgive those who had wronged him and forget the pain in those wrongdoings caused him. Samsara was an endless cycle of suffering, one which he would hopefully destroy someday. These words would be his motivation.

Indra sat within a space of endless darkness. He did not know where he was, how he had gotten here or the reason why he was there. He only knew one thing, as soon as he began meditating his body had manifested here, or rather, his soul. He could still feel the intense heat of the blazing tree on his skin but could no longer see it. Sweat ran down his body, it could be felt upon his skin but when he looked at himself there was none to be found.

'Why am I here?'

An answer to this question would come in time, this he was sure of. Indra sat for hours, waiting, watching for the slightest change. None came.

Whilst contemplating whether or not this was some sort of punishment by the system Indra recalled another quote. It resonated within his mind, sort of like a thought but he felt as if he could hear it, but there was no noise here, nothing but silence.

'Three things cannot be long hidden: The sun, the moon, and the truth.'

The previous quotes Indra had recalled because he had liked them. This one, however, was different. He needed to hear it. He thought hard upon this memory and replayed it in his head. Something finally happened.

First, a bright ball of light appeared above him, it was smothered by the surrounding darkness and with nothing to shine its light upon it seemed useless. Next, a round shadow appeared as well, the closer it got to the light the more it revealed itself to Indra's eyes. The closer it got the more he came to realize what it was, the Moon. This led to the realization that the light must be the sun!

Once the moon had finally revealed itself completely, it began to change and so did the sun. Each one radically transformed into what looked to be odd teardrops, each one with a curved tail and a hole in the thicker portion.

The one that was previously the moon slowly faded to a shade of black, but still lighter than the darkness behind it. The odd teardrop shape that previously represented the sun did the opposite, it became brighter and brighter until finally, it was a shimmering white. When Indra finally realized What he was looking at he wanted to facepalm himself, this was the yin and the yang.

The two symbols were drawn to each other as if they were one and the same, like two bald eagles, the ferocious raptor which symbolized strength and freedom dancing together across an endless sky of darkness. The black rotated so that it was upside down and the white remained upright. Both symbols slowly hovered toward one another until they clicked and became one just as a pair of mating eagles locked talons in a beautiful conjunction of love.

Immediately after this reunion between the two, they began spinning, the speed at which they spun increased slowly for a few moments and then all at once it sped up to an incomprehensible speed, a whirlwind, so fast in fact that the two colours melded together and Indra could no longer differentiate the two. This went on for some time and Indra couldn't take his eyes off the captivating dance of black and white for even a second.

The last quote from the buddha didn't leave his mind.

'Three things cannot be long hidden: The sun, the moon, and the truth.'

He surmised that the moon represented yin and the sun yang. There was still one piece missing, the truth.

What represented truth?

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Indra searched all around him, peering into the endless black that was this realm but still found nothing, unless…

'I'm the truth.'

Such a revelation surprised Indra, he thought hard about this theory but could come up with no better answer. That's when one final quote graced his mind.

'The mind is everything, what you think, you become.'

This solidified his theory. Obviously, these words had meaning to them, he didn't understand why he recollected such things but he knew in his heart that he needed to heed such words.

The mind is everything, what you think, you become. Indra decided then and there, he could become anything. In this new world, the mind was the only limitation. He was Genesis and with this new name came a new meaning. Truth. Indra was the only truth, no, Genesis was the only truth in a world filled with lies and deceit. With this revelation finally came a change. The spinning mixture of black and white moved toward him. It shrank as it approached him. The closer it got the smaller it became but it never stopped rotating.

It came closer and closer with each passing second and in turn, Indra's heart beat faster and faster. Finally, upon its arrival, the spinning yin yang symbol, or taiji symbol as it was also known, made contact with Indra's shaking body. It made contact just over where his heart lie beneath the skin and then disappeared. The symbol sunk into the loose monk robes that he still wore from the monastery. He peeled the material away only to find no spinning symbol but something else in its stead. Right, where Indra's heart lay was a tattoo of the black and white taiji symbol embedded into his tan skin.

Unbeknownst to Indra himself, this event which seemed to happen within hours was actually months. The time he spent staring into the darkness, staring at the spinning symbol, Watching the symbol descend from the black and into his chest, this took months not hours. He didn't make such a profound revelation in mere hours it took him nine months, almost an entire year. At this point, everything changed. He was no longer in the endless room of darkness but somewhere completely different.

Indra found himself staring at the back of a man's head as the man meditated, reciting words that would later become a religion. This scene flickered and next, he found himself among a group of people dressed in robes, they recited these same words and then more that he hadn't heard from the mediating man. Once again, the scene changed and he found himself somewhere radically different. He stood among a group of men worshipping a statue that had four arms, he heard them reciting their own religious words, things that sounded profound, and meaningful.

This process repeated itself hundreds of times. Indra appeared in hundreds of different scenes. Sometimes it was a group reciting their most meaningful words of wisdom. Other times it could be a single man speaking of his own morals to nothing but himself. Some didn't even occur on Earth and others he suspected weren't even of the same dimension, when he visited these he felt completely disconnected from everything.

It was an unexplainable feeling but a feeling all the same. He could spend days on end in a single vision, weeks even before it changed. Indra's mind recorded every bit of information compiling it into something separate from the rest of his memories. Almost like it had its own separate file. Even though he didn't know what to refer to this something resonated in his mind. Eclipsing all other words.

This information would be known as…

The embodiment of truth.

There was so much information for Indra to sort through that even with a mind as powerful as his own it would years to sort through, and decades to understand. This was his path, his path to truth, his path to freedom.

***

Ambevilius belted out a laugh so hard that it hurt his stomach.

"hahaha a monster indeed, this boy will grow to heights even I may never reach. If I play this correctly." Ambevilius tapped his fingers repeatedly against the marble chair in which he had been lounging for a month straight. Indra became more remarkable even now. He may not hold within him two empyrean intents but something just as powerful."

The Titan Lord beckoned one of his servants over and commanded him to fetch him something from his vault.

"Are you sure sir?"

"You dare question your master!"

The servant was so scared he couldn't even answer, the man had been with Ambevilius for a century now, his longest one yet, he was smart and knew when and when not to talk while in his lord's presence. The scrawny man scurried out of the room like his life depended on it, which it did. He was back in a matter of minutes holding within his hands one of his lord's most prized possessions.

He shivered in his shoes, afraid to even hold such a thing for fear of dropping it or leaving even the slightest scuff mark. The young immortal kneeled at the titan's feet and presented his treasure with his hands extended above his head. Ambevilius took the treasure within his hands and spoke.

"This aided me in my quest to power and now it will aid you in yours." He flipped the thin pages with a reminiscent look on his face. This book, although paling in comparison to the might he holds now was once a powerful asset to the Titan Lord. It was no manual as Modus had gifted his new pupil, no, Indra had covered that on his own, this was a powerful skill book. It was a deadly arsenal of techniques that Indra would not be able to use for some time but once he could, he would know what it truly meant to be powerful.

He dismissed his loyal servant who he could clearly see relaxed his shoulders and let out a deep breath that he seemed to be holding for quite some time. The Titan Lord then fiddled with the tablet once again zooming closer to Indra who had finally stopped disappearing and reappearing. He zoomed in so close that all he could see was the young man's body and a bit of the tree around him. A change finally occurred. His eyes were open.

***

Indra opened his eyes for the first time in what seemed like days and immediately words appeared before him.

[A new quest is available. The quest is to discover the skill book Titans Blessing.

Quest rank: Unknown

Time limit: 1 year.]