“I can't answer that,” the goddess's calm words reverberated across the white space, shooting down the very first question they'd gathered the courage to ask.
"…"
Everyone simply stared at her, confusion etched on their faces. They’d been forcefully summoned out of their day-to-day lives and suddenly tasked with becoming the saviors of an incoming doom that would befall humanity, yet the goddess couldn't answer the most basic of questions.
Who would be their enemy?
“What you refer to as the ‘enemy’ concerns information about the future, so I cannot reveal that,” she explained casually, as if it wasn't that big of a deal—a stark contrast to many of their thoughts.
Worst-case scenario, it might be another human, Lin thought, considering how bad it would be if the threat came from fellow human beings rather than an external source. Without knowing who or where the threat might come from, they wouldn’t be able to effectively gather allies or even trust anyone other than themselves.
“And how long do we have until the ‘threat’ reveals itself?” Lin suddenly cut in, asking the question on everyone’s mind. If they couldn’t be told about the details of the threat itself, then simply knowing when it might come would be very beneficial. Unfortunately for them, the goddess didn’t seem to relent.
“I can’t say,” she replied, her expression neutral despite the dark looks spreading across the group. She added,
“It might take a few years or perhaps a few days after you arrive. I’m not allowed… no, rather, it wouldn’t be beneficial to tell you,” she explained, pausing as if choosing her words carefully.
A risk? Lin thought, considering multiple possibilities in his head. The way she was explaining it made it seem like revealing the future—something that would normally be beneficial in their situation—might actually do more harm than good.
“The uncertainty of the future is a natural aspect of mortal beings, just as every mortal will eventually meet their end, regardless of any attempt to extend their life. One might say that even the instinct to resist this fate is a natural aspect of mortal beings,” she began, eyeing everyone in the room.
They nodded slightly, acknowledging the philosophy she'd laid out. Seeing this, she continued,
“An eventual end pushes them to live life to the fullest, while an uncertain future makes life worth living,” she said, and a few of them seemed to reflect deeply on this.
That goes without saying, Lin thought to himself. Human behavior is largely goal-oriented; removing even one element of what makes a person human would make life itself meaningless.
“If you knew about an event too far into the future, the consequences would be dire. If the major threat were something that revealed itself within a very short timeframe from your return, the impact might be manageable. Otherwise, exposing the future in the current situation would mandate a complete rewrite of the future. It’s simply the law of nature,” the goddess explained, their faces continuing to show confusion.
So, a butterfly effect? Or rather, a difference in severity? Lin wondered. There wasn’t any other concept that could explain it. The difference between someone with knowledge of the next five minutes and someone with knowledge of the next five years was in how much they could potentially alter the timeline.
While both may cause an initial butterfly effect from their first divergent action, the individual who sees only five minutes into the future can only affect the timeline once. Subsequently, all their future actions would fall within the new timeline, no longer considered butterfly effects but a part of the foreseeable future.
By contrast, an individual who could see five years ahead would likely take continuous actions to change the anticipated future, compounding multiple butterfly effects from their first action and all actions afterward. This would lead to multiple branches and an eventual butterfly effect on the scale of impacting the entire world.
It doesn’t sound reasonable, Lin thought. Their current stance as heroes, gaining knowledge of this upcoming threat and even training against it, wasn’t something he thought should align with ‘nature.’
What they were being tasked to do would obviously change the future to a great extent, and yet the future wouldn’t attempt to rewrite itself...
So, changing the future itself isn’t against natural law? Or is it simply a mortal ‘knowing’ the future that defies natural law? Lin wondered, eyeing the goddess curiously. As if reading his thoughts, she turned to look at him as she continued.
“You don’t need to worry about that,” the goddess said, moving away from him and addressing the others.
“Any other questions?” she asked, showing no desire to elaborate further. They all eyed each other, worry etched on their faces, until finally, one of them—the blonde-haired woman—raised a hand.
“Mmm. You said Soulex is a part of us and all, but how come we can't even sense it?” Sera asked, tilting her head, and everyone immediately nodded in agreement. This whole time, they had been conducting experiments with Soulex, but at the core of it, they hadn’t felt anything at all. Even as they created matter from ‘nothing,’ there was no sensation or feeling of actually doing something that amazing, as if it were simply an automatic action activated by thought alone.
"It's because the [Pulse] element is still sealed,” the goddess answered, and they all recalled its mention in many of the other elements. It seemed like an ‘enhancement’ type of skill. She added,
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“It's the only element that involves directly manipulating your Soulex, so it also acts as a connection between your Soulex and your entire nervous system,” she explained, and they all nodded, starting to understand the concept.
“Oh, so Soulex has a sensation?” Sera repeated, her voice sounding strangely relieved. Like everyone else, she found it unsettling to perform these miraculous actions without feeling as though she were the one doing them, which only made them question their reality even more.
"That's right," the goddess replied in a neutral tone, turning away from her and glancing at a certain boy. This time, the golden-haired student, Isadore, seemed to have a question as he spoke up.
"What about the status window? How does that work?” he asked, sparking a curious look from Lin, who’d also been wondering the same.
Can someone activate the elements without the status window? Lin wondered, returning to a question he’d had since beginning the experiments with Soulex. If [Pulse] allowed them to fully manipulate their Soulex, then it meant they could potentially mimic how their Soulex behaved when activating certain elements through the status window, making it possible to perform them without the help of the status windows.
"The status window is simply an automated system for using Soulex,” the goddess explained, an answer that left much to be desired. What she said was something they could already understand and see with their own eyes. Seeing their skepticism, she suddenly added,
“Trust me, if you had to use Soulex intuitively without a system, it would take ten lifetimes to master all the elements,” she said, and they all seemed to keep quiet, wondering how much truth there was to her words.
“There’s no harm in trying to understand the flow of Soulex as you use these elements, but you should abandon any idea of learning Soulex without the system,” she added, and they all looked at her reluctantly. It had taken them less than five hours to learn three of the elements, and though they weren’t ‘masters’ yet, they trusted they could apply them when necessary, which only made them more skeptical of her words. Lin, who had previously been questioning whether the system acted as some kind of restriction, tried as much as possible not to overthink it.
While they anxiously watched the goddess, a different voice suddenly interrupted.
“You said [Pulse] would allow us to feel the sensation of Soulex, right? What’s the point if we’re still going to rely on our status windows?” Ren asked curiously, his voice surprisingly loud given his previously timid demeanor. Lin glanced at him, a bit taken aback by his sudden boldness.
He’s a bit talkative, Lin thought to himself. While this side of Ren had shown during their earlier experiments, Lin had assumed it was just his nerves. But after everyone had gathered and started working together, many seemed very impressed by Ren’s creativity, naturally gaining acceptance by almost everyone in the group.
Since he was also less intimidating than Lin, it was much easier for others to approach him and ask questions, which had allowed him to open up a bit. It seemed that rather than being ‘antisocial,’ he was simply just shy.
“Feeling your Soulex makes things easier than simply relying on the status screen,” the goddess replied to Ren’s question, lifting a finger as the rest looked at her, puzzled by the sudden action. A moment later, a status window appeared in front of everyone.
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[Your Soulex has been forcefully linked with someone.]
[Use Echo to search for the link.]
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“For example, if you could sense your Soulex, you would have felt a tug on it the moment I used [Bind] on you just now, which I activated at the same time I lifted my finger,” she explained. Everyone looked at her with surprise. Though they weren’t yet familiar with the [Bind] element, they could more or less guess what it entailed. A few of them immediately activated Echo Sight, noticing a faint, white Soulex at her fingertip, with 20 strings attached to everyone in the room.
The strings look similar to a normal Echo, Lin thought as he stared at the goddess’s finger through Echo Sight. Or maybe it actually uses Echo to attach to the Soulex? He wondered, recalling how many of the other elements synergized in similar ways.
One example was [Form], which created objects always connected to the user’s Soulex immediately after creation, much like how Echo’s strings functioned. As Lin’s thoughts raced, the goddess’s words suddenly interrupted.
“Because of the difference in skill, I’m able to momentarily trick your Soulex into thinking it’s a normal Echo, which doesn’t typically appear on the status window since it’s nonlethal. For speed-based Soulexes, that split second would be enough to launch an attack before you could even activate [Veil] to disconnect the string,” she explained, and everyone seemed to contemplate her words deeply.
Oh? Lin thought, quickly activating [Veil] and glancing to his side, where Ren was already observing him with Echo Sight. Ren looked momentarily intrigued, prompting Lin’s curiosity as he moved closer, still listening to the goddess’s explanation in the background.
“However, don’t mistake performing each of the elements intuitively, without the status window, as true understanding of their underlying principles,” the goddess continued, her words drawing confusion across their faces. Sensing this, she elaborated further. Meanwhile, Lin reached Ren’s position, curious about what he’d just observed.
“You might be able to imitate how your Soulex splits and attaches itself to nearby Soulex signals for tracking, as Echo does, but what you’re actually doing is activating Echo through ‘muscle memory’ already ingrained by the system. The only difference is that you use proprioception to map out where each target is in your mind, instead of relying on the visible map on your status window,” she clarified, though confusion still lingered in their expressions.
Everything you’re able to do without the status window is something that can just as easily be done with it, Lin concluded, turning away from the goddess, who continued explaining the concept to the others who still seemed puzzled by the details.
He glanced at Ren beside him, who quickly spoke up.
“The string just snaps back really fast. Same as last time,” Ren said, and Lin nodded. They had already experimented with how using [Veil] while someone was still using Echo on them affected the connection. The result matched exactly what had just happened with the goddess’s use of [Bind], leading them to a clear conclusion.
“It incorporates Echo,” Ren voiced aloud, mirroring Lin’s thoughts. They had managed to learn something new about [Bind], even though the element was still sealed, demonstrating just how much they were beginning to understand the elements of the god system.
But would applying that knowledge be just as simple?
“I will now explain the rules of the first trial,” the goddess’s voice reverberated across the white space, silencing their casual banter. Their expressions turned serious. Unlike the last trial, where everyone had been completely unprepared and hardly understood what was happening, this time, they were alert and ready.
In the next moment, a blue screen appeared before them, detailing the conditions of the first trial.
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Trial One: The Art of Tracking
Clear Condition (Choose one):
1. 90% survive until their individual timers reach zero.
2. Kill the Soul-vor beast.
Permitted Abilities: [Echo], [Veil], and [Form].
Time Limit: N/A
Individual Timer: 75 minutes
[Rules]
...
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