Chapter 22: What am I, really?

“What do you think I am? Do you know what a Sovereign is?” Trint asked. He also wondered, ‘If it was 15 feet tall before, how tall does that make me now if it didn’t change?’ Trint quickly calculated it. One inch was 5 feet. I’m at about 6 foot 6 or 78 inches in my human form. Seventy-eight times 5 feet equals 390 feet. 390 feet! How can I be that tall? Or did the monster shrink?’ Unable to figure it out, he waited a moment for the beast to respond.

“Please forgive my rudeness. My name is Sn5C43-12. I understand from typical identity tags for your kind that my name is quite different. You may call me 43 dash 12.” The monster apologized as it kneeled and put its head to the ground facing Trint. “Please, I must know your name?” It beseeched.

“Ok, please, no more bowing. My name is Trint.” Trint thought to help the creature, but with the size difference, he didn’t want to hurt 43-12.

“Oh, thank you, Sovereign Trint. It is my honor to meet you.” 43-12 continued with nervous excitement. “You see, my watchers have been devout followers in the Sovereign Sect all my life. I never really believed, but I know all the stories and prophecies are commonly known in the Subsystem. So when I saw your title identifying you as Sovereign, I was both frightened and excited. The Watchers who raised my group taught us to believe one who would free us from the Subsystem would come someday. There are various stories, but they all speak of someone called a Sovereign who will save us. Many have claimed the title but never has someone bore a system identification as Sovereign. So are you going to save us?” It again dropped to the ground and bowed its forehead to the stone floor.

Trint was more than caught off guard. From one moment, fighting a 15-foot-tall monster to the next, it is a few inches tall and now bowing and begging him to save them.

“What do you mean to save you? How do I do that?” Trint asked.

Raising its head, 43-12 looked up from its kneeled position. “I don’t know. I was hoping you did. Can you use your power to free me and bring me to the main system?”

“Give me a moment; wait here,” Trint said.

Trint’s full attention returned to the fight around him. Only about a second had passed in the instance his mind had split, and he had somehow been present in both places. He decided it was a good time to leave his crater; the walls around him were getting too tall to be very effective. He jumped away from the approaching boss. And landed against the vertical wall of the last curve of the ramp. He used his tail and taloned feet to drive into the stone wall, suspending him 10 feet above the ground on the side of the wall. Now he was looking almost eye level at the other boss. The other monsters were now moving toward his suspended position.

The standing boss looked back at their partner, seeing its kneeled form, head pressed to the ground, and then back to Trint. Then back again. The kneeling boss looked up, knowing its partner was staring at it, and they locked eyes. In that one stare, they telepathically communicated what had happened in Trint’s Spiritual attack. What the one had seen, the fear it felt, and its hope. As far as they knew, nothing like this had happened before this, and these creatures were ancient. They were bound to instances and repeated cycles of life and death and slaughter. Sometimes their death and sometimes that of those who ventured into their assigned instance.

Not all were sentient, but most bosses carried at least a sliver of intelligence, and the stronger ones were just as intelligent as those in the system. These two were very old, remembering most of their ancient lives. Yet limited in power by the system to be an appropriate challenge for the level of the instance they were called to. They both knew they had encountered a foe they should not offend. There was an intuitive level of fear and awe from the one who saw Trint’s Spiritual form in the white room. They discussed their hopes and fears briefly. Then they both agreed.

After their mental conversation, lasting only an actual moment in the instance, they both wailed aloud. The standing boss crouched down to a bow as they both finished their wail. The remaining monsters, those not already lying dead or dismembered or slowly dying, immediately stopped. They were frozen in place.

At this point, Trint felt pressure like that of the first mental attack. This time it was like someone was tapping the back of his head. But this time, it felt soft. No pain, and he sensed an invitation. Not feeling a threat, Trint again flexed that part of him that had been used to counterattack the first boss.

Trint appeared in the same white room. This time there were two small figurine-sized bosses. Trint appeared on the throne again. He took the time to look around the white space. As he looked around, colors filled in where he looked, but they washed out when he looked away. He couldn’t tell what he was seeing. As if what he saw, he immediately forgot. He turned his attention towards himself. He was in his human form, as evidenced by his hands and lack of additional appendages. He felt his face.

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It felt normal, and as he ran his hand through his short hair, his finger hit something hard. His fingers traced the addition to his head, and he quickly understood he had a circle of something around his head. He couldn’t see or sense it like he could with his Spiritual senses. But he knew from touching it that it was a crown. He stopped feeling the crown and looked down the rest of his appearance. He was in a purple robe with gold trim. Symbols were stitched into the fabric like the ones on his honeycombed Spirit cage. These he couldn’t understand, but he memorized the images for later. Finally, he took his attention back to the monster bosses.

“Excuse me for this, but what is this place?” Trint asked. “Is this your mental landscape or something?” The creatures looked at each other, and 43-12 responded.

“No, Sovereign, we are not in our landscape, as you said. We are in your Spirit Scape. Probably not the one you are used to, but since I attacked you, this is more like a battleground or, more specifically, a display of your power. We can see nothing but what you allow. We cannot access your mind or spirit. We are powerless before you here. We would not be so small in your presence if it were a true battle of equals.”

“I have introduced myself, and this is Sn5C43-87; you may call him 43-87.” 43-12 continued very politely and respectfully. “This is called a Spirit Scape. I don’t wish to be presumptuous, but we assume this is new to you. We can tell the level of instance we are brought to, and this was originally a level 22, but after being summoned, it changed to level 27, and my partner here was added to the instance. Typically, we cannot communicate with anyone who enters the system. But the title our system access displays when we look at you says Sovereign: Creator/Keeper.

“I understand from the display of your Spirit Scape what a Keeper is,” 43-12 said. “Also, after the result of our brief battle, you are someone to respect and fear. 43-87 and I have already discussed this, and I would like to enter into your service and become your bonded summons. We believe that as a Keeper, you can bind us to yourself and thus bring us to your system. But we also believe that you being a Sovereign is even more significant.”

“What does that mean?” Trint asked them. “I already have a bond.”

“We wish to offer any service we can,” 43-12 continued to persuade Trint. “Normally, when I attack someone in a Spirit Scape, their soul appears as a smaller version of themselves and very weak compared to me, allowing me to dominate their Spirit. That process was reversed, and I was pulled into your Spirit Scape instead. The power you have over us is absolute. You are either trying to deceive us, or there is much we can teach you about this. Are you new to the iterations? Entering a level 22 instance means you are still in the lowest iterations. There is much to learn. Not everything in the iterations is as it appears.” 43-12 said.

“There are things we don’t understand either.” 43-87 said. The bosses looked at each other as 43-87 said what they all were feeling.

“But we are familiar with what a Creator and Keeper are and how they work with our kind, those from the Subsystem. What a Creator typically does allows them to manipulate matter—creating more of it or shaping it to their will. I assumed that was happening when I saw how you fought and then saw your creator title. And Keepers can summon bonds or what are called Summons. They are typically gathered from the Subsystem. When I saw your identification as Sovereign Creator, Keeper Sovereign meant something else entirely. We are subjected to the control of the System.

“The System does not always integrate every world or its people into the iterations like you,” 43-87 added.“Many are also integrated into the sub-system of the iterations. The world of the instances is populated using those in the Subsystems. It’s more complicated than that but think of it like another System like the iterations. But imagine you are trying to live, level, and fight. But every so often, you are summoned to do battle in an instance. Not when you want to but whenever the system teleports you. We are some of the fortunate ones who have done well. We can gain experience based on our performance in the instance, but none have a choice when they are summoned. We have been doing this for over 10,000 years.

“We have never encountered someone who can communicate with us,” 43-12 jumped back in. “It is assumed and taught that although we are part of the same overarching system, yours is seen as a primary and ours a secondary, subservient one. That is where the Subsystem gets its name from the word subservient. We are privy to some information in our Sub-system that you won’t or probably can’t know in yours. That is why we feel I can be of service. And we feel that you might be able to offer some unique perspective as a Sovereign Keeper who can communicate with a Summoned Bond.”

“May I think about this for a moment, outside of here?” Trint asked.

“Of course, please take whatever time you need. We will remain here if you don’t leave the instance or kill us.” 43-87 explained.

“I’ll be right back,” Trint said.

Trint relaxed his grip on the Spiritual plane and returned to his physical form. Pneuma was a little frazzled as he immediately became aware Trint was back.

‘What is happening, Trint?’ Pneuma started a little panicked. ‘Where have you been going? I can’t sense where you are? I know part of your mind was gone. Were you attacked?’

‘Pneuma, calm down.’ Trint reassured. ‘Let me explain.’

Trint took the next moment to try to explain everything, from the start of the Spiritual battle with the boss to the conversation he just had with them. Their conversation would have lasted an hour if they were sitting down in physical bodies speaking. But in their bonded communication, it was just a moment. In the end, Pneuma was decidedly calmer.

‘Ok, I say you agree to take it on as a summons. But ask them to agree to a system contract. We haven’t discussed your Creator Class or the Keeper subclass yet. But they were right about what they said with the Creator class. I have that class, which is why I can manipulate the forms you use. Or at least used to be able to. Creators can do lots of stuff with it, though. You will likely have benefits in crafting if you want to explore that in the future.

‘But your subclass Keeper,’ Pneuma continued. ‘That is typically a subclass of a Summoner. Most summoners can call forth an entity to help them fight. Those with the rare subclass Keeper can also keep the summons active, ignoring the timer on a summons. Without the Keeper subclass, all summons will dematerialize after a set time. Keepers don’t have that issue and can keep them active and only dematerialize when they wish. Then they can re-summon their bonds after a cool-down.’

‘As a Keeper, how many bonds can I have? Also, are you a summoned bond like that?’ Trint had so many questions.

‘No, I’m not a summoned bond, and I’m not from the Sub-system. As far as how many bonds you can have, I don’t know. I’d say ask the system, but who knows what it will tell you. Just try it and see.’