Ikrei P.O.V.
One typical day of training and talking with master, elder Akathos.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
After the slashes I turned with a spin and sat back down inside the green room of the labyrinth, one of the secluded places of the second strata. I had been training under master’s guidance for over five years in this unwelcoming place.
[For one hit kills and captures the only thing you need are the first two forms. I have sealed the other four inside your soul.] Master explained speaking into my soul.
“You did that while I was meditating, resisting the energies in this place?” I spoke from my lotus position.
[You noticed? Your perception is getting better. Let’s try forms one and two, Ikrei.]
Master gave another of his training time orders.
“You have sealed the forms up to form number six. Weren’t there supposed to be seven?” The question had to be made.
[As you grow in the realms, the forms will unlock. You can use the Reika sword forms in the meantime. The seventh is the pinnacle of your wisdom, it is for you to create when the time comes. The seven precepts, the heptagram, the Seachar, the way of the Andurin.]
Master Akathos is the ultimate version of artifact Iru.
‘Regardless, at least I don’t feel lonely thanks to him.’
[Oh, thank you, grumbling Ikrei. Once you fix that you will be set. Let’s go around the labyrinth looking for someone to absorb, later.]
“I want a better explanation than just resist and try everything. Throw in soul growth and core growth for good measure. I know experiencing things is better than any theory. But since we are stuck here, it is a good time. So, if you will 9002, the floor is yours.”
I made a master of ceremonies style bow with the accompanying hat trick. Of course, there was no hat.
I was standing readying myself for practice, the practice for the forms.
[Ha, ha, ha, ha! Very well, 10002!]
Elder Akathos got ready for expanded lecture time.
[What you are doing is soul control, you are using my power to fine-tune what you have, a good level of mastery from the go. Something you should have, if you were Eriel. The gods work as follows: you prove yourself, your core grows and that growth is transferred to your soul through your blessings. What happens if you lose a core? You start over with the help of the god’s blessing, faster recovery, greater ability to withstand core overuse, etc. If you have no blessing from a god, you can still do it, it is just tens of times harder. Finally, once you reach peak soul merge you can burn away your soul for power, that is, fight without cores for an extremely limited time or combine your cores with your soul in the burnout. Your soul is the recipient and storage of everything. What is lost varies from god to god. For the unbound, it is true death. Don’t do it unless it is a life and death deal, you hear me?]
“Got it, master.”
[Finally through time in the stratas you will absorb the energy of this place, just like the great experts do. More energy, more power, power to resist all types of soul attacks. It’s going to be anything but easy.]
‘But that doesn’t sound fair to the unbound, they cannot stay here as long as we can.’
[Gods allow creation to do whatever it wants but why should they help one that doesn’t want to follow them? They made us, so it is really like picking a fight with mama and papa. Papa and mama are just slapping back real hard, that is all. Still, the unbound do try and the really capable ones are worthy of admiration. Even if their chosen path is misguided. To me, at least. This good on souls, Ikrei?]
“How do they do it, the great unbound?”
[Think of the great fighters in the pits. There are ones that use crystals, potions, rituals to get stronger. Then there are the few ones that do not. It is possible for a specimen freak to be born and with pure talent, a good regimen, they can reach the same level as the others. More time, more effort, more learning to get there. If they were to cross paths, the unbound would beat the crap out of any in their level. That includes me, barely but it does. Watch out for them, Ikrei. That enough?]
‘Yep. How about the negative emotion stuff?’
[A way to counter negative emotions is with a positive one but what you are doing is dissociation or overpowering, depending on the case. You are separating your own negative energies from the outside. Most of the negative energies based on regret coming from the screaming tortured souls in the stratas bounce off you because your emotions are greater, your regret is far deeper. You are a saint soul killer, my boy!]
The lessons were soul wrenching at times, this day was one of them lessons.
I felt the intensity and sincerity in the admittance of using underhanded methods for results from the elder. Chaos mages can be brutal. The small prickling of dread came over me. The disruption within myself allowed the energies related to fear from the strata to penetrate my spirit body.
“AHHHHHH!” “AHHHHHH!” “AHHHHHH!”
Episodic failure number four hundred and two.
The more time you spend in the stratas the harder it gets. No different from drugs. It is exactly like staring down a lion, you might die anyway but if you show fear you are already dead.
‘The years in the stratas are like going underwater, every day falling deeper and deeper. The strain becoming almost unbearable during certain days.’
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Same principle.
Akathos is a monster, a true, terryfying monster.
‘I don’t want to ask about the trials of the Claimere. This is enough.’
[“FIGHT IT!” “FIGHT IT!” “FIGHT IT”] Akathos shouted within me.
‘I know! I know!’
I let all my happy memories come forth like a wave, a tidal wave of feeling.
* A bottle of Thruskan.
* A ketar.
* A piano.
* The Song Remains The Same. My folk bard’s tale song, myself placed unto a sheet of music.
* My father. One rainy night hunt after my first rabbit and watching the star of Andurin.
* Puri eating panckakes until he puked.
* Ciel talking about cats and complaining she couldn’t keep one inside the castle.
* Ixur giving me a hug, “The flame will forever unite us, brother.”
* The Inverted Titty, Sochu, the girls and a silly song about a bar.
* Iru, a book and a cup of chocolate.
* Even Krigsain and I recording a song.
* The need to survive for my mother. ‘I have a mother, godammit!’
* Seven woofer rabbits, hunger and a couple of crazy kids dreaming of magic swords while holding wet tree branches.
* A deadly consort. An Aikido spar, a leg lock, a dress, a first night.
* A piano and a couple that can’t trust each other but end up touching hands over the keys all the time.
* The song that Yun Hee wrote and recorded.
And one more memory that repeats like a waterfall falling upon the rocks.
* A last kiss that doesn’t fade away. The touch of Malgrun imprinted strangely into it. She trembled, I gasped.
Two more breaths.
“AHHHHH!” I repelled the dark energies with my own emotions and the energy from Akathos’ soul.
Forty breaths. I came back, barely, just like always. Control near yet faraway.
“Fuck!” I couldn’t help it.
“Don’t curse with negative thoughts in here! You’ll bring more dark energy upon you.”
‘Heavy, master. This place keeps bringing up the memory of the dagger and the child every time this happens!’
[Outer darkness is just sharing her riches with us, like the resident suffering souls always do. Misery loves company!]
“Figures!” I couldn’t help but laugh self-deprecatingly.
[Even though we number in the tens of thousands, why do you think the Andurin is the order with the fewest members amongst all shadow factions?]
“Haven’t really though about it elder, like never. I’m here because pops?!” I was truthful.
I felt a metaphysical knock on the head and then, the one that I wasn’t expecting.
SLAP! SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!
‘Come on! What did I do?!’
[The Will only corrects those who are worthy of correction. It’s your honor.]
‘Do you get hit then, master?’
[Headaches, migraines. I used to be like you, you know.]
“Really?! Don’t believe you.”
[Free beings, burning hearts, steady hands and open minds. It is hard to raise you, it really is. But if you wear that cloak for the right reasons, the star on it will never fade, even after the world burns.]
“This talk is ominous master, let’s drop it. It is enough to be trapped here by you, in this hell. And stop hitting me, Will of wills!”
[You either master everything I give you or you give me Eriel back. Your choice.]
I pretended not to hear the last part and started practicing a few movements.
‘I wonder if Teng, Ciel could repel the energy in this place? Jeez, so much stuff to understand, I’m never going to learn everything I need any time soon! Wait…’
[Yes, before you ask, there is such a thing as an outer heaven. Saints, saintess and similar can train there.]
“Ciel! Ciel can go there, she can become a grandmaster cat lover too! I got to talk about this with her!”
[Remember the principle of the philosopher’s stone?]
A dampener was coming.
“The only ones to receive it are the ones that do not desire to possess it.”
I knew what master meant when I answered.
Ciel had to get there on her own, her growth had to be without any looming shadow of self-interest.
Her path is restraint, truth, sincerity, sacrifice, peace, joy, love. Grace upon grace, justice upon evil. A completely different animal. The many roads of what many call, the elven star, the star of Andurin.
A saint that keeps re-birthing and ends up with the Andurin, something deep is going on with that.
[Continue to spar with her, the day you feel that her light attribute energy can match your darkness is the day you tell her that it is time.]
‘Why does it have to be me? You know something master, don’t you?’
[Do I? I guess I might, who knows, probabilities are hard to calculate one thousand years before hand.]
I was left with even more questions on the matter.
“What about everyone else? You know, strong awakened that are in the middle, neither dark nor light in their focus? They cannot come here like we do.”
I learned something, a new question popped up. Every single time.
[Soul contracts, blood rituals, ancient forbidden rifts, large orgon deposits with special formations, soul weapons, soul artifacts, becoming a blessed one. There are a few more. All the very, very, very expensive and convoluted kind of methods. Too much effort, for most it is not worth it, not until the higher realms. You got it?]
“Yeah, I think I do.”
Library 2.0 was something.
[Enough chatter, let’s pick up the pace.]
Another long and grueling training started.
And with days just like this one, coupled with everything else, the great elder Akathos gained my trust slowly with his serpentine mind and calm voice. Despite my own reluctance.
“Byeolfeng, second form, Eodumxuēruò, Dark Weakening!”
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Eventually all my knowledge and battles against the stratas, the voices of darkness would be summarized as follows and given to all future andurian chaos mages.
First, they tempt you with pride, rebellion. Not violence nor weapons, it is a whisper, the voice of temptation. Offers of power and knowledge, control the world by one’s will. That there are no rules, that you are your own god. If you fail darkness becomes you and you become darkness as you lose power over your own soul.
Second, they come with corruption and chaos. They come with doubt. Whispers of confusion into your mind, distorting time, space, your sense of self. They whisper, forget! The why you’re here in the first place. Your memories get twisted, not able to tell your left from your right. You wonder if anything was ever real. Once doubt eats at your will, the spiral of despair drags you down. If you fail darkness becomes you and you become darkness as you lose power over your own soul.
Third, they come with deception and destruction. There are no temptations nor promises of power, only pure unfiltered chaos. They come to shatter your sanity, forced to relieve your worst fears, deepest traumas. Your most agonizing regrets. You experience every mistake you have ever made, every wrong decision, every failure. If you fail darkness becomes you and you become darkness as you lose power over your own soul.
Fourth, they come with perversion and decay. They call you to join them, to give yourself up, surrender completely, to let darkness transform you into a servant of darkness not a master of it. When these whispers come, you are no longer yourself. You are but an empty vessel, no identity, no will. If you fail here you will become, the very thing one of the dark path seeks to overcome.
Regardless of what you do, or what you say, in the end one thing remains. When your time in the stratas is done, you will never be the same again.
I say these words for me but I hope you listen too, whosoever reads the song of the dark path. For it is like this in every place and every world within the hearts of men. The pendulum of light and dark forever swinging from side to side. The cosmic dance, the gods’ game. No matter where, no matter time.
The Song Remains the Same.