On the sun-soaked dock, Kai steadied himself as he held the sleeping Relay on his shoulders. The sun shone high above casting shifting shadows from towering clouds onto the sapphire ocean and the bustling city. He watched as the Lunar Temple’s air sloop disappeared over the horizon.
He could feel them go or, more precisely, Ai getting farther away. Since she formed her blood core, he could instinctively sense her location. He felt it in his blood.
There goes half my wealth.
Kai withdrew half his spirit stones for the Lunar Temple cultivators. Some part of him wondered if they would skip out and run away with the money they earned, and he’d given them, but he didn’t think so. Some of Song’s accusations rang true; they wouldn’t quickly leave him now that they understood his ability and willingness to help.
Kai found a comfortable spot on the pier, extending his legs towards the teasing waves. I really dislike being short sometimes. A little distance away, a group of seabirds performed an aerial ballet over a glittering school of silver fish. The orchestrated diving of the birds had a rhythmic cadence reminiscent of applause, creating a stark contrast to the soft lullaby of the waves.
Summoning his powers, he directed a flurry of golden particles from his toes into the water. With a swift transformation, they took on the form of silver fish, merging seamlessly with the existing school. He sent a mental directive - no mass bird slaughter, only one from each species. They weren't on an energy collection mission this time.
Once he had sent out enough bait to guarantee at least one fish tempted the avian hunters, he flooded his mind with energy, seemingly bringing the world to a crawl. Shifting his focus, he transitioned his consciousness into his soul space, materializing beside Relay.
Kai looked through the observation window to the planet inside the soul explorer. At least it looked like a planet to Kai. A dull sphere hovered in the center of the chamber, around which colorful gleaming rings revolved. Green, yellow, white, gray, brown, black, and orange, the bands expanded out from near the surface of the ‘planet’ to the periphery of the chamber.
“What have you learned?” Kai asked. Relay hovered in front of the observation window.
“You know those large strange-shaped chunks left over after we split off the gems?” Relay turned, his blue orb illuminating with every word, “This is what they look like when you try splitting them.” Relay had been busy deconstructing the low-quality gems for analysis when he decided to try one of the featureless chunks.
“It reminds me of Olian IV, with their orbiting ice rings,” Kai zoomed in to examine a section of the gray ring. Each ring was made of millions of tiny particles. The gray color was deceptive; the ring was composed of various colored particles… Are these? Kai zoomed in closer. The rings were composed of particles of two geometries, cubical or tetrahedrons.
“I see you noticed,” Relay turned back to the observation window, “Three shapes represented: the spherical mass in the middle and the cubes and tetrahedrons surrounding it. Remind you of something?”
“Huh, the same as my three soul pillars,” Kai’s entire soul space was built around this pagoda, and at the center of this pagoda were three massive columns that supported the whole structure. Each column had a distinct shape etched on it, a square, triangle, or sphere.
“That can’t be a coincidence,” Kai made himself ethereal with a thought and moved through the wall into the soul explorer chamber. Relay followed. The rings looked like sparkling sand, reflecting the spirit lamps of the chamber.
“What have you been able to determine about these particles?” Kai targeted a brown ring, found a patch of particles, and moved toward it, shrinking as he went. He landed on a shimmering gray cube. He walked across the cube's surface and watched as the room's lights rose and fell as he rotated with the cube.
“Most of the cubes are white or black, or somewhere between, with less than half a percent any other color. The opposite is true of the tetrahedrons, who provide almost all the colors you see represented in the rings,” Relay shrank himself and hovered near Kai.
Kai placed a palm on the smooth flat surface of the gray cube and sent his sense into the cube.
“Encoded,” Relay explained, “I’m running it through several processing layers now. But, yeah, it’s all encoded data, the cubes. The tetrahedrons, I have no idea. I thought they might be filled with spirit energy, but that doesn’t seem correct.”
Kai felt the internal matrix and the organized structure of the cube’s internals but couldn’t tell much beyond that.
“What color was this soul before we split it apart and extracted the gems? Do we know?” Kai floated off the surface and hovered over the ring, looking down as large cubes and pyramids flew by.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Green, a yellow-green like the color of the warning labels on the airlock release. Remember those?”
“I think so,” Kai flew over the rings, scanning them as he went. After a minute, he found what he was looking for. A cluster of yellow-green cubes rotated in a primarily black ring.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Kai turned to look at Relay.
“That would be statistically improbable, but I guess you want to try extracting and integrating those cubes into your soul.” The Eternal thrummed.
“Very close, but not these cubes.” Kai turned to leave, “It’s time for an experiment.”
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In the expanse framed by his bronze-golden pillars, Kai stood, an uncertain shadow against a backdrop of glowing energy fields stretched between the tops of his monumental columns. Suspended within the shimmering prism, a radiantly glowing orb seemed to exist in a world of its own, indifferent to the world outside.
“That wasn’t there before, was it?” Kai's voice echoed into the space, his arms cradling seven ruby-red cubes like newborn life forms.
“No, it's definitely a new addition,” Relay affirmed as he ascended, attempting to examine the orb. But an invisible barrier thwarted his efforts, preventing him from entering the field surrounding the sphere.
Kai tried to exert his will on the enigmatic sphere, commanding it to move, to spin. Yet, it held its position stubbornly, unchanged, and unperturbed.
Why don’t soul spaces come with a user guide?
Directing his attention to the pillar marked with a square symbol, Kai touched it. Like living metal, the pillar responded to his touch, parting to reveal the glowing matrix within. Inside, he saw an array of cubes arranged meticulously in groups, connected by radiant lines that composed an intricate, mesmerizing network.
“Ready for this?” Kai shifted his gaze to Relay, an undercurrent of anticipation tugging at his words.
“Scan complete. Proceed,” Relay responded, a tone of eagerness barely contained within his voice.
In the grand canvas of cubes, Kai found one pockmarked with empty slots beckoning to be filled. Guided by his unspoken command, it drifted towards him. Holding the cube, he eased it through a curtain of golden light. The red cube seemed to possess a sense of belonging as it found its destination amidst the sea of identical counterparts, smoothly anchoring itself into one of the open vacancies.
As if sparked by an unseen conductor, a glowing line traced its path to the newly inserted cube, lacing it into the intricately woven tapestry of data nodes. Bathed momentarily in the glow of connection, the red cube gleamed with radiance before it fell into a dormant state, and the light abruptly extinguished.
Was I wrong?
A sense of self-examination took over Kai. An intuition nagged at him, hinting at a missed detail. Actually, he was correct. There was something — a faint resonance, a flicker of potential. It remained elusive, just beyond his grasp. Undeterred, he selected another cube, repeating the prior process. The outcome this time was vastly different. The red cube remained brilliant, its light steadfast in the interconnected grid. The shift in the cube's behavior heralded a change Kai could feel deep within.
It wasn't so much new knowledge but an instinctual understanding of his blood. An ancient power, unfathomable and primordial. His palm outstretched, he commanded his blood to the surface. Like red mercury, it surged from his pores, coalescing into a dagger that held an eerie, pulsating light.
Blood manipulation. The notion of the new ability echoed in his mind. Dismissing the ethereal dagger, he willed it to dissolve back into his body, leaving no trace of its prior form.
"Did you capture that?" Kai inquired, eyes fixed on the cubes.
"Still processing," Relay responded. His voice carried an undercurrent of focus. After briefly pausing, he added, "Yes, I've got it. We should run a few more iterations, and I can compile a translation codex."
Eagerly, Kai reached for another cube, ready to explore.
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Seated on the dock, Kai's gaze was cast distantly across the water, the sea reflecting his inner turmoil.
“Surely it's not all that bad,” Relay broke the silence, trying to offer consolation.
Kai exhaled a heavy sigh, the weight of his newfound abilities seeming to pull him deeper into his thoughts. “I suppose it’s a good thing I found that salamander while it was still a hatchling. The power of spirit beasts is nothing short of terrifying.” He had unlocked four blood-centric techniques, each darker and more troubling than the one before. Three remaining cubes sat stubbornly dim, refusing to reveal their secrets. Kai surmised this was due to him not meeting the necessary prerequisites.
Prerequisites I have no desire to meet.
With ghastly skills such as Blood Curse and Blood Pact unveiled, he doubted he would ever wield these abilities to the degree that might satisfy the requirements. He felt an instinctive revulsion at the idea. He was half-tempted to replace his core altogether if not for the incredible regenerative prowess it offered.
Pushing off from the dock, Kai trudged back towards the bustling cityscape. Amongst the teeming crowds of children, he felt extraordinarily ordinary. He might even blend into the crowd if it wasn’t for Relay.
Kai looked at the sky; it was time. He had a date with the sovereigns of Arcadia.