“Since we’re on the topic of power, this is a good time to demonstrate what I mean,” her words suddenly cut through the tension, drawing everyone’s attention as anticipation sparked in their eyes.
“The previous trial you just experienced was meant to introduce you to how Soulex works,” she explained. Everyone seemed to recognize the term, recalling it from their status windows just after they had finished the trial.
“Put simply, Soulex is the materialization of a soul’s desire, and the elements of the god system are universal tools that can be used by everyone with Soulex,” she said. At the same time, a whitish steam began to leave her body, and everyone watched in amazement at the power they would soon wield.
However, some confusion still lingered, rather than a preparation for the possible threats to befall humanity, they hadn’t expected the trial to be an introduction to how powers would work.
“The trial you experienced was actually an imitation of a certain individual’s Eternal Soulex—unique to each and every person,” she continued, glancing at each of them. The tension in the room suddenly spiked, their faces becoming more serious as she continued.
“The way the caster uses it is much more complicated than you might think and largely relies on elements of the god system rather than their actual abilities,” she said. Immediately afterward, the white aura around her body began to rise, ascending before suddenly dispersing across the room. In the next moment, a huge, golden bell materialized, hanging above her, and everyone looked up in amazement.
“[Bells of Motion],” she muttered. A red streak of light quickly left the bell, wrapping around the areas where each of them stood, webbing and boxing them into their current positions without touching them – effectively dividing the floor around them into small circles across the white space.
The space is smaller, Lin noted, glancing down at the thin, red ‘string’ that circled around his feet, confining him to a space with barely enough room to take even a single step forward. Each person, just as they had been stuck in the blocks before, was now stuck in these small circles. However, unlike the uniform blocks from earlier, the circles varied in size—some barely large enough for a person to stand on one leg, while others were almost as large as the blocks from the previous trials.
Interesting. He imagined a battle scenario under these conditions, concluding that dashing toward the larger circles would likely be the first instinct for most people, as it would provide more room for free movement.
“Everyone in a 100-meter radius will only move according to the bell’s rules. If you step out of your circle, you will hallucinate the sensation of the most excruciating pain you can imagine. The pain you felt before was actually toned down to less than 10%,” she said, their faces immediately turning pale. Even the cool-headed Lin broke out in a cold sweat, thinking he would likely have passed out if the pain were increased to full capacity.
Anything above 1.7 times what we felt would’ve been enough to make me pass out, he thought.
“Of course, this ability also affects the caster since they’re standing within the radius as well. And unlike the trial you completed, even hovering a part of your body outside the safe zone would immediately engulf you in pain,” she explained, glancing at Lin, who merely shrugged. If this was what they had faced, there would’ve been no way to safely complete the floor.
“It sounds like a powerful ability, but it’s not as refined as you might think. For one, there are four conditions you must meet before activating it, and as you’ve experienced, even after activation, you would just need to gradually approach the caster while listening to the bell and knock them unconscious,” she continued, and everyone nodded in understanding, though they had a feeling it wouldn’t be as simple as she made it sound.
Ding. Ding. The bell suddenly rang twice, and everyone’s faces darkened as if recalling the previous torture they endured. They quickly jumped two circles ahead, stepping into their safe ‘blocks’. Seeing this, the goddess nodded.
“Good,” she said, her tone almost proud, though her expressionless face betrayed little emotion. She added, “In a real fight, however, the caster leverages elements of the god system to launch some attacks simultaneously.”
The bluish screen from before popped up in front of them.
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[Elements of the God System]
[Echo] (sealed)
[Pulse] (sealed)
[Form] (sealed)
[Veil] (sealed)
[Bind] (sealed)
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“You don’t need to memorize every element you see at the moment, but this should serve as a rough representation of the elements of the god system,” she explained, raising her left hand. A black bow suddenly materialized from thin air, its dark hue starkly contrasting with the surroundings, while its white string merged seamlessly with the environment, making it nearly invisible.
She pointed the bow toward Lin, who didn’t seem too bothered, continuing to watch calmly.
“Her main weapon is a bow, which she will always have upon activating her Eternal Soulex.”
She cocked the bowstring, and at the same time, a whitish aura appeared, warping and transforming into multiple arrows on the string, each of them pointed toward Lin.
“He’ll first use [Form] to create multiple arrows,” she explained.
So [Form] can create things from scratch? Lin wondered, watching the demonstration and pondering if there were limits to such a god-like power that seemed to disobey the laws of physics.
Matter can neither be created nor destroyed.
However, even if Soulex was considered a type of energy, the amount of energy required to not only create matter from scratch but to rearrange it into a complete and complex object as small as an arrow would still border far above the realm of nuclear energy, meaning that...
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The elements of the god system... A restriction?
“...”
A slight chill suddenly ran down Lin’s spine as he finally glanced up, where the goddess, for some bizarre reason, had completely stopped the presentation. She was now cautiously glancing at him, her face still neutral, but within it, a small discomfort was reflected. Noticing the pause, the others started to look toward Lin with confusion, but the goddess immediately spoke up.
“Right. Secondly, he’ll use a Speed [Pulse] to enhance the arrows’ physical properties to become as fast as possible,” she continued. At the same time, more energy wrapped around the arrows.
The tension in the room rose, and everyone’s faces broke into cold sweats. They didn’t know much about these powers yet, but just looking at the arrows menacingly aimed at them was enough to cause a lot of unease.
[Pulse] for enhancement? Lin mused, trying not to overthink it as he’d done last time. Instead of fear, however, his face was etched with curiosity, staring at the arrow’s tip pointed directly at him.
At this point, everyone expected the next step would be to shoot, but the goddess continued.
“Next, he’ll use Forced [Bind] to link himself with the target—or in this case, multiple targets.”
Suddenly, multiple white strings shot toward them, seemingly emerging from the energy around her and latching onto their bodies. A moment later, their screens flashed with the same messages.
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[Your Soulex has been forcefully linked with someone.]
[Use Echo to search for the link.]
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“!?”
“With that, all she has to do is shoot with the intention of hitting all bound targets. If the speed doesn’t kill you...” she trailed off, releasing the string.
In an instant, the arrows seemed to teleport, stopping just inches from the foreheads of four individuals, freezing them in place. A small thud followed as one of them stumbled backward in fear, falling onto his butt in shock—and ultimately stepping out of his circle.
The limited space already makes it hard to move around, they all seemed to think, watching in awe. However, the other three she had aimed for were watching the arrows anxiously as they floated near their foreheads.
Fighting would be pointless, Lin finally admitted, his mind trying to process what he’d just seen. Even as multiple simulations ran in his mind, he realized there was simply no way he could have possibly dodged the attack.
“While everyone can use an Eternal Soulex, they are inherently given to you at the same time you unlock your Soulex, but this isn’t the case for everyone,” the goddess simply continued, dispelling the Eternal Soulex. Relief washed over their faces as they barely processed the words she’d just spoken.
“I guess you could call them Gifted, but there are those with the ability to define their own Eternal Soulex—a one-in-a-million ability, so very few are given that privilege,” she explained, emphasizing the rarity of such individuals.
Although the number was now barely in line with their current standards of gifted individuals, hearing it after the previous figure of one in 400 million simply wasn’t as impactful.
“The purpose of the trials is to help you create those abilities, and above all, to make sure they suit your style of combat. When the day of reckoning comes, many of those gifted individuals will likely waste their rare opportunity and create Eternal Soulex abilities that only benefit them for that particular time and never again in the future,” she explained, and everyone seemed to understand, connecting their reason for being summoned.
However, after seeing how complicated the ability she’d just demonstrated was, they all worried if they could even create something that complex while managing the so called restrictions that came with it.
“As I stated earlier, the Eternal Soulex I showed you has four activation conditions. These conditions usually relate to its strength; the more powerful the ability, the more conditions it requires to activate. Four is actually very high for an innate Eternal Soulex, but even for a created one, it’s generally seen as a high number,” she explained.
At that moment, the screens suddenly changed again, and this time, the promised power they’d been waiting for finally appeared: Eternal Soulex.
Hmm, Lin’s face tilted as a frown appeared. He glanced at the top of the screen, where a brief explanation regarding the “creation” of an Eternal Soulex appeared, outlining the rules.
The rules themselves weren’t confusing; however, one of the already set conditions caused him to lift his head and glance at the goddess, who, as if already anticipating this, was looking directly at him. He asked,
“This doesn’t seem fair.”
“It’s fair,” she shot back, and Lin could only shrug.
When he’d heard that four conditions were a lot, he had already mentally prepared himself for the possibility of maneuvering around even five of them. But looking at his screen, he couldn’t help but complain about the unfairness. From what he had just witnessed, it was possible for someone to win a fight using only the elements of the god system, so having multiple conditions on an ability wasn’t really an advantage.
I might die before activating it.
----------------------------------------
[????]
[Define...]
[Activation Conditions]
[Set a minimum of 8 activation conditions]
[System will choose to allow or deny a condition depending on the definition of the Eternal Soulex]
[Restrictions]
[Set automatically in accordance with the definition of the Eternal Soulex]
[Strong ES will have corresponding restrictions]
----------------------------------------
Sigh. A small sigh escaped Lin’s lips as he glanced to his side, where the unassuming man considered his “equal” was also looking at him from across the crowd as if understanding his pain.
Him too? Lin scoffed at the thought, the idea strangely alleviating his worries as he looked back at his screen, trying to memorize everything displayed.
Even without knowing what kind of activation conditions or restrictions would be imposed, the power they had just observed was enough to conclude that both variables were meant to hold it back from becoming nearly omnipotent.
Otherwise, beating “[Bells of Motion]” shouldn’t be possible.
The caster being restricted to the ‘circles’ and not being able to freely move as they please is probably one of the so-called restrictions, Lin wondered curiously
“For now, I will leave you with three elements. You will only be required to learn those three before tackling the first trial. The more you use them, the more you will understand the restrictions of each element, and gradually, you should be able to create your own Eternal Soulex by the end of the third trial,” she said, and the screens in front of them changed in response.
----------------------------------------
[Elements of the God System]
[Echo]
[Pulse] (sealed)
[Form]
[Veil]
[Bind] (sealed)
----------------------------------------
“I will give you five hours to play around with those elements. Try to get to know each other while you’re at it. You’ll be spending a lot of time with one another from here on out,” she said, and everyone looked at each other awkwardly.
Although it may have seemed subtle, they had collectively decided not to introduce themselves to one another, hiding even their names. Some might be famous, but I don’t recognize them, Lin thought, linking their caution not only to his earlier advice but also to their own cautious natures—typical of famous people.
Most of them had barely kept up with what was happening, but now, with the goddess suddenly disappearing and leaving them alone, their attention fell on each other, creating a much softer atmosphere than the first time they had met. The hundreds of questions that had been floating in their minds surfaced after her departure, but they all chose to be patient and focus on the issue at hand.
It was time for a proper introduction...