There. Now you're not going to explode. Probably. Honestly, this is new territory for me too, so I could be completely wrong. But the repairs I did couldn't possibly make things worse.
Caeden's mind came down from the liminal space it existed in. the pain of having his soul forcefully changed while his conscious mind was entirely housed inside it was…genuinely awful. Since his consciousness wasn't inside his body, he couldn't even pass out. He just had to sit through it. At some point, his thoughts shifted and seemed to drift into the closest thing he could reach to an unconscious state. It didn't make the pain hurt less, but it somehow made it easier to process.
That…That sucked. Please don't do that again. Caeden pleaded. He was under no illusions. This being could do whatever it wanted with him. He'd forced his way into Caeden's soul without any apparent effort and changed it with ease.
Don't make me do it again. I mean, I'm only fixing the damage you did to yourself. Don't get me wrong, I'm aware that you didn't know the kind of damage you were doing, but it's not like I'm torturing you. You're sick. This is the cure. It just so happens to hurt a lot. Sorry about that, but it's part of the process.
Caeden could acknowledge the point, but he really didn't want to. It was hard to agree that going through that much pain was necessary. Especially right after it happened. He could still feel it echoing through his soul. Instead, he chose to ignore the statement, no matter how correct it was.
So, are we done here? I'm assuming my friends are wondering what was going on.
What? No, we're not done. Time in this plane doesn't operate under the same principles. Essentially, no matter how long this takes, only a half a second or so will pass in the physical plane. No, you need to learn how to get your shrouds under control and integrated. Or at least take a firm step in that direction. I don't think you understand how dire this is. You are immensely fortunate that all your experimentation has largely ignored your Physical Enhancement shroud.
The fact that your soul already ruptured and didn't negatively affect that shroud is nothing short of a miracle. Listen, and understand that what I am saying is immensely, unbelievably important. I never ever interfere with a data set like this. I'm literally undermining my own principles just by having this conversation. This whole situation is tainting the data. If I felt like there was any other option, you would never hear from me, never know I exist. If all goes well, you'll never hear from me or anyone like me ever again. So listen up.
YOU CANNOT DAMAGE YOUR SOUL AGAIN. EVER. NOT EVEN IF YOU DIE. NOT EVEN IF EVERYONE YOU LOVE DIES. RUPTURING YOUR PHYSICAL ENHANCEMENT RESERVE WILL END THIS REALITY. UNDERSTOOD?
Caeden mentally cringed as the words were beat into his soul. This researcher wasn't messing around. Some part of Caeden had let the man's informal attitude convince him that this wasn't a truly serious situation. That idea was gone.
Can you at least explain why this is a danger? I don't really get it, and understanding might help me avoid problems.
Ugggh. Fine, fine. You're actually right. But I'm seriously only telling you the bare minimum. The more you know from me, the worse it fucks up my shroud data. So don't expect me to reveal the secrets of the universe or some shit. Ok, physical enhancement is one of the basic principles of shrouds. In fact, more fundamentally, it is one of the basic principles of Ki. That's why every shroud can do it, regardless of domain.
Uh, Cat can't. With either of her domains. Caeden pointed out.
Ha! No, she just thinks she can't because she lacks full comprehension of her shrouds and her specific domains make the process orders of magnitude harder than basically every other shroud. Your friend with the Age shroud is in a similar situation. She's only that strong because of her draconic traits.
No, every shroud can use physical enhancement. Some will find it much easier than others, but it's fundamentally possible for all of them. And that's the problem. Your domain is Physical Enhancement.
…I don't follow.
Haaaa. What do you think happens, dumbass, when you use Physical Enhancement on Ki? You know, the stuff that physically enhances things? I'll tell you. It forms an infinite feedback loop where the Ki enhances the enhancement which enhances the Ki further in a circle until you create a power well that pops a hole in the side of reality.
Oh.
Yeah, 'oh'. So, don't do that. This is why you can't let your soul get injured. If your Physical Enhancement reserve ruptures, it'll spill into reality and interact with the natural Ki. Then your reality ends. Just like that. Again, don't let that happen. It would literally be better if you died. Then, your soul would drag your shroud with it to where souls go after death. And no, I'm not telling you about that.
…So, increasing my integration?
Right, yes. The more integrated your shrouds become with your soul, the stronger it will be. Stronger soul, less likely to rupture and destroy reality. Simple. The hard part is getting some integration going. Frankly, the current state of your soul is highly irregular and unnatural.
Caeden took a moment to look at his soul again. It was a small white ball with two other balls floating around it. Looking at his friend's souls, he could see the difference. All of their souls were a direct reflection of their shrouds in far greater detail than his. If he had to put a word to it, his soul seemed embryonic. Unfinished. It was like a piece of metal someone had only started to forge before abandoning it.
I get what you mean. How did this happen?
Honestly, I don't know. I gather data from shrouds whenever their shrouded dies. I had no knowledge of your situation until you almost overloaded that CMS. Which means that whoever or whatever did this to you either isn't a shrouded or that shrouded isn't dead yet. All I can confirm is that it wasn't done by outside interference. This was local work.
But what we're looking at is the infantile stage of a shroud. Which, again, weird. You definitely had your Sharp shroud since you were born, which is normal. But it never attached itself to your soul correctly. Basically, you were born malformed. But that wasn't natural. Someone interfered with your soul and shroud when you were still in your mother's womb. They altered you, changed you in such a way that your shroud could no longer properly connect to your soul.
Can't you just fix it? You literally modified my soul already. Healed me. Just fix this.
Sorry kid. If I had known about it when you were still an embryo, I could have reverted the changes. But your soul is still technically mature while still being immature. Somehow. I can't alter the fundamental structure of your existence now without killing you. Only you, as the owner of your soul, can make that kind of change.
Well, that sucks. I was hoping there might be an easy solution for once. Having a soul that is constantly edging closer to destroying my universe is…a lot. I don't even think I can fully understand that as a possibility. It's just too big. But I can understand not wanting to die, so let's keep it to that level. How can I keep my soul from killing itself?
Well, that's the kicker. I hate to break it to you, but this is unprecedented, as I said. Normally, the mutable unconscious formation of an embryonic soul will simply integrate a shroud. It's a natural mechanism of shrouded souls. The fact that yours didn't do that is unique. As for how to proceed, I can only guess. But we have all the time we could possibly want, so get ready to be here for a while.
Great. Just great.
{}
The researcher wasn't kidding. Caeden had no way of denoting the passage of time. Nothing ever changed in the soul plane. Or, more accurately, his consciousness currently inhabited his soul, which was essentially timeless and immortal unless destroyed. So time couldn't affect his altered perception. A little tidbit Caeden learned from the absurdly knowledgeable and powerful being.
Caeden could tell the researcher wasn't used to working with…people. Other living things. Ever. The man had no filter, and despite his professed desire to reveal as little as possible, he would constantly slip into long-winded monologues about any given topic. Unfortunately, most of those conversations went right over Caeden's head. He lacked the perspective or base knowledge to glean anything meaningful from the majority of the researcher's slip-ups.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Despite the lack of true time, Caeden would say that years passed in that space. Years. They went through hundreds of thousands of attempts at creating some kind of positive change in his soul. Tiny, incremental shifts in strategy, infinitesimal variables tested and re-tested until the researcher was sure that the current plan was a bust.
For the vast majority of that time, Caeden was more experimental subject or lab tool than an actual participant in the process. He didn't understand souls and had barely 18 years of experience with one shroud, while the entity had spent an incalculable amount of time studying literally billions of shrouds and the souls they were attached to. He was the definition of an expert in the field, and Caeden would be unlikely to approach his level of understanding no matter how long he lived.
However, there was one thing he had as an advantage over the researcher. They were currently working on his soul and his shrouds. Over time and through much trial and error, Caeden became an expert in this very narrow scope. He was an expert on the specific topic of his own soul. At that point, further experiments became a more collaborative effort.
There were setbacks. After the researcher ran through every 'safe' test and strategy they could try, things slipped into a more dangerous territory. He had to have his soul fixed, reconstructed, twice more. Two times. Both hurt just as much as the first. The second time followed a test that threatened to rupture his soul and cause the very problem they were trying to prevent. That was the only test that the researcher fully abandoned after only a single attempt.
Caeden went from curiosity to frustration to despair to elation and back again over the years. Focusing so intensely and relentlessly on a single thing for so long without a single break or the slightest pause taxed his mind endlessly. He actually broke down multiple times, unable to continue. The constant stress reduced his consciousness to a vegetable more than once.
Throughout it all, the researcher never wavered. The endless grinding of experiment after experiment, failure after failure, only to achieve the most minor of breakthroughs, was soul-crushing. The fact that the researcher could do it without the slightest notable change in his demeanor was the final straw that completely convinced Caeden he was working with an ancient alien force that was older than his universe. Or at least life in his universe. Caeden felt that the being could have spent an eternity doing just this and been content. Meanwhile, Caeden wanted to curl into a ball and die after a month.
But it was not in vain.
Ok, carefully. Slowly. A bit at a ti-
Shut up! I swear, if you keep talking, this is going to end up like attempt t45. The researcher meticulously noted and cataloged every test they did.
Sorry! I'll be quiet.
Caeden huffed mentally, focusing back on his soul. Attempt d5 had clued them onto this path. Caeden had found that he could manipulate his soul ever so slightly. Apparently, this was abnormal. The shape of one's soul was an amalgamation of their identity and existence. To change one's soul was to change themselves. Normally, a soul's shape only changed in moments of great upheaval when the person's body or mind underwent a fundamental shift.
But Caeden could manipulate his soul's shape without changing at all. The researcher, after over a hundred tests, concluded that this was because of his soul's proto-embryo state. By shrouded standards, his soul was less than a baby. It was still in the mutable, original form it started in despite Caeden being an adult. That discovery had become the basis for all further tests and attempts.
Despite that, it was thousands of failures later that they struck upon what both of them felt was the winning formula. Since then, it had been endless tweaking as they edged closer and closer to the goal.
Caeden focused on the shape of his soul. He pulled and prodded, using his painfully cultivated experience to tease out three fine filaments of soul substance the width of a hair. They resisted, his soul wanting to maintain its perfectly spherical shape. Despite the resistance, Caeden moved slowly and deliberately. The faster he went, the more his control wavered.
At the same time, he was also commanding Sharp. The researcher had started this whole process with the intent of increasing Caeden's integration with his first shroud. It might have been easier to do this with Physical Enhancement, but the possible repercussions weren't worth the risk. Caeden agreed.
Using his fundamental control over his own shroud, Caeden refined over a dozen filaments of Sharp, each of them less than a third the width of his soul strands. This was the finest level of control he had ever exerted over his shroud. If he hadn't already had a firm basis in controlling Sharp, it would have taken three of four times longer to reach this point. As it was, what he was doing put a strain on his control. He had to hold each filament perfectly still when they all wanted to move and spasm in his mental grasp.
Finally, he was ready to actually start. He had three hair-like strands of soul extending halfway from the white sphere of his soul to the red ball of chaos representing Sharp. Likewise, he had dozens of razor-thin filaments extending from the red ball toward his soul. Now, he began moving both sets into specific positions, bending them around and toward each other at extreme and odd angles, the white strands mixing in with the red as they grew ever closer to touching.
This was the point where the last couple hundred attempts failed. Caeden knew he needed to connect his soul to his shroud concretely, mingling them together. He could feel the rightness of what he was aiming for. But it wasn't as simple as shoving the two together. The energy of each would conflict and rebound. Caeden's first attempt as simply shoving the two together had nearly killed him.
He had been stumped when the researcher brought up a salient point. Every other shrouded soul changed its entire shape into a form suited for their shroud. Somehow, the shape of the soul made the binding process work instead of failing explosively. Thus, all future attempts had devolved into finding a shape perfect for connecting his soul and shroud.
It was a process of trial and error, based only on the vague impressions Caeden could get with each attempt. He would get a sense of whether or not any given shape was more or less successful every time it neared completion. So, hundreds of iterations later, the shape had grown in complexity until now; Caeden was mentally managing a careful dance of dozens of parts taking particular hoops, curls, zig-zags, and loop-de-loops.
Finally, points started to connect. Red filaments touched strands of white. Here too, there was a specific order to things. If Caeden failed to follow it, the whole process collapsed. That was what had happened the last three times. But this time, Caeden was in the zone. One after another, links formed. Red bled into white.
The last piece touched, and Caeden felt a shift transition through his soul.
A transformation spooled out, rippling across both his soul and Sharp. His soul changed first, spinning rapidly, the spherical shape destabilizing as it rotated. It spun and spun, shifting as it accelerated until finally, it began to stabilize all over again, now in the form of a ring. Immediately, Sharp snapped into motion. The red sphere transitioned into dozens of lines darting out and around his soul, forming a network lattice that wrapped around the entire ring. Every few seconds, a strand of Sharp would dart out and tap against his soul before darting back into the lattice.
Physical Enhancement wasn't left out of the transition, though its change was minor comparatively. The gold and purple sphere began to orbit along the ring of his soul, drifting around in circles.
Instantly, Caeden felt his connection to Sharp become much more profound. The depth of the changes were something he would have to take time to pick apart, but he could feel the difference. He felt more…complete. Like he had found something he didn't know he was missing.
Great! Absolutely great! I'd say you jumped all the way to fifty percent integration. Probably a lot of that is down to your excellent control and familiarity with Sharp. Now that you've crossed the first hurdle, simple meditation training like what you were doing to reach Incarnation should bring that interaction number up. Even better, your soul is far more stable now. The reinforcement by Sharp should drastically reduce the chance of further soul injuries going forward. That said, be careful. Watch out for the things we talked about, keep an eye on the counters I added to Forged Infinity.
I… That's it? We're done? Caeden couldn't believe he'd spent years with this entity, and he was ready to run at the first opportunity.
Well, yeah. You know what to do. When you reach one hundred percent with Sharp, start working on Physical Enhancement. We cracked the process, so it should be much easier the second time. I have a shit ton of data to collate right now, considering how much we learned over the last… twenty-two years? Relative time? Man, you're going to have the mother of all headaches once you get booted back into your body. Oh, and I unlocked a couple things in the facility you're in. consider it a thank you present for being so cooperative. Forged Infinity will act as the access key, so look around. You'll find some things I think you'll like. Well, see you when you die, don't blow a hole in my experiment. Bye!
Before he could get a word in, Caeden felt his consciousness fade back into his body.
{}
Floating in the endless void of the soul plane, the researcher watched Caeden's soul, marveling at the half-finished structure.
This has been overwhelmingly lucrative as a research experiment. I'm almost happy someone fucked that kid up so bad.
He stared at the soul. Twenty-two years was nothing. An insignificant speck of time. The entity also had enough self-reflection to acknowledge it was the longest he had spent in the presence of another conscious mind since this project began.
Well, almost happy. He didn't really deserve this mess. I hope he likes my presents. It'll be fun to see how far he goes from here. The exceptional are the most interesting to study, and he's collected an entire cadre of them.
Then he drifted away. He had reams of research data that required further study. Though he did look back for a moment. He wondered when he'd next talk to such an interesting subject. Then the entity banished all thought from his mind, diving into the numbers.