Chapter 20 - A meeting with God

His eyes slowly refocused as his awareness returned. Adam was no longer in the fluorescent underground fungal jungle but instead, the world around him was replaced with an endless white. He was standing on nothing and his mana sight had deactivated. In fact, he had no mana at all, he couldn’t even see his core.

He looked around but found nothing. When he turned back, a person was standing a few meters in front of him. Adam took a step back in shock but his mind soon turned to joy since this was the first person he had seen since arriving in the new world.

“Hello?”

The man had long grey hair tied behind his back and a long grey beard. He wore a blue and white robe reminiscent of Japanese culture and his eyes were a piercing silver color.

“Adam Hartwell, you have a fascinating soul. The universe has truly created something incredible with you.”

“You know me? Where are we? And who are you?”

Adam's joy in finding a fellow human was quickly replaced with dread after hearing the old man use his name and spouting random cultish crap about the universe.

“My name is Nafritese and I make an effort to know all I can about those who walk my path. As for where we are… It's a place of my own creation, out of reach of all of existence.”

“What are you talking about? Was it you who put me on that island? Are you some sort of god or something?”

“I had no hand in that anomaly, though I must say, you are the luckiest being I have ever encountered. Not only to be born a Divine patriarch but also with the Soul affinity. Less than a million beings have ever been gifted with that affinity in the entire history of the multiverse and none of them were ever Divine patriarches from birth.

You then just so happen to fall through space onto a livable mana-rich world, where you took your first steps on the path to godhood before your old world's mana core was even formed. If I weren’t a God myself, I would think one had planned it all along.”

“YOU'RE A GOD? But Gods aren’t real are they?” His mind was racing as the old man's words sank in.

“Ah yes, you come from a world at the edge of the multiverse where magic is but mere myth and legend. Shouldn’t your time here have taught you that the multiverse has many paths to power? Your old world's technology, despite being limited, is a potential path to godhood in itself.

But I am no true God. I will admit that I am the closest being to true omnipotence and omniscience in the known multiverse but I was once mortal just like you.”

“Wait, so Gods are just people who have a bunch of magic? If this multiverse thing you keep talking about is what I assume it is, then shouldn't there be countless Gods by now.”

Adam was so confused and out of his depth with this whole interaction, so he defaulted back to doing what he always did these days when something overwhelmed him… he focused on his magic and uncovering its mysteries.

“You are right in a sense. Mana has allowed countless beings to obtain incredible power and immortality. But all that was mainly through my edict. It is a long and complex tale that isn't important for you to know right now.

What you must know is that your soul has been touched by the heavens. The multiverse has mutated your magic into something more primordial than any other magic. You carry with you the path to absolute power, the same as I once did. If you survive to godhood. Then we will meet again.

I may be called the creator of gods and the father of the multiverse but even I have limited power when it comes to the lower realms. All powerful gods borrow the universe's power, but for one who has merged and shaped it like me, the price for using such power outside of my edict is astronomical. Even now I can feel reality trying to break its way into my domain and stop our unnatural meeting.”

His mind was now even more confused, if this was a God that created the system and allowed others to gain godhood with it, then why was he talking about this abstract concept of the ‘universe’ or the ‘heavens’ as if it was an actual God to him?

“When you say that the heavens have changed my soul, what do you mean by that? And what's a Divine patriarch?”

“Every living being in the multiverse has a soul. It is what forms the inner mind and what allows beings to interact with the various ethereal arcane energies of the universe. The soul is something that determines one's lifespan and magical capabilities.

Some species are born with powerful souls that give them longer lives. Some are born with souls of better quality which gives them great control of the arcane. Others still, make use of the abundant energies of their souls to heal themselves at incredible speeds.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

All souls are created by the universe itself through a complex net of actions and reactions that weave in and out of the tapestry that is the magic-based multiverse and all its possibilities. Countless atoms form countless effects and create unfathomable elements and energies.

Sometimes in that complex chain of existence, an oddity occurs. It isn't too uncommon for souls to inherit certain aptitudes for specific concepts or elements. That is how magical affinities are formed. This can often be influenced by environmental factors or racial abilities.

Even rarer is when a soul retains an essence or a concept of reality directly in their souls when passing through the veil and into existence itself. I call these souls, Divine patriarchs, those whose connection with the universe is stronger than any others who use the magical elements as a conduit to bend reality to their will. Divine patriarchs didn't take their divinity, it was given to them, and therefore aren't opposed by the universe when using it.

You, Adam Hartwell, are one who has a gifted divinity so powerful that it has given you control over a higher plane of existence. An ability few have even possessed, I myself do not ever possess this divinity as my power was taken and not given.”

“So how do I use this power that you think is so great?”

“That, I cannot say. I have seen too few wielders of powerful gifted divinity and I sense that none were as potent as yours. I assume your soul affinity is responsible for this, which makes me even more curious as to what higher plane you will be able to access.

Alas, our time is up. I hope you unlock the true potential of your unique opportunity and will look forward to seeing how you progress. I may not be able to interact with the multiverse outside of the edict anymore but I will still do my best to aid you. I have a feeling you will become exactly what I have been searching for all these eons.

Good luck Adam Hartwell, and follow your soul, it is your strongest tool and safest asset. It will never betray you nor hold you back… how would you say it on Earth… the sky's the limit, so reach for the moon.”

Adam's mind went blank once more as the white world around him disappeared. The first thing that he felt after that was pain. A kind of pain that ran through his entire being as if every fiber of his body was screaming.

He gritted his teeth as he flexed his muscles and wiggled his fingers. His eyes slowly regained focus as he reconnected with his screaming body. He tried to move his arms but they refused to budge.

He looked inward to see what was happening and was shocked by the change. Whereas before he could see his bright core and his pathways when he circulated mana, now he could see a bright silver flame enveloping his entire body. His core appeared to have become a part of that silver fire as it had become semi-transparent and ethereal.

“Is this my soul?”

Adam tried to look around, to see where the monster had gone, and after a few moments of extreme pain, he was able to move once again.

He pushed himself up with his arms and nearly had a heart attack when he saw the red demon's ugly face only a meter away. It was dead but had no signs of any wounds.

Adam wondered if this was the work of that self-proclaimed God as he tried to remember what happened before his conversation with the old man in the white void.

His mind felt so distant back then so it was hard to tell but he vividly remembered the silver ember that he latched onto and pushed out toward the creature in his final act of rebellion.

That spark he had found only moments away from death must have been his soul magic or whatever the old man called it.

He was still a little confused about everything going on and most of what the old man said sounded like jibberish to him.

He remembered that he was apparently special in that he was given something by the universe when his soul was born which makes him something called a Divine patriarch.

He focused on the silver flame inside of him and found that he could see lines running across it.

He hadn’t touched his core since he woke up so this pathway shouldn’t be illuminated by his mana. His silver fire was filled with veins-like lines running throughout it. Was this why he couldn’t see his pathways before, they were a part of his soul.

This then raised the question of that God and his system. It had modified his pathways and therefore apparently altered his very soul somehow. He opened his status window to see what it could tell him.

Adam Hartwell

Mana core: [grey - middle - (Soul)]

Divine patriarch (???): [???]

Spells:

- [greater sight - crude - uncommon]

- [mana blades - crude - uncommon]

- [enhancement - crude - common]

Nafritese’s Edict: Opens the path for magical growth.

(???)

His magic was now listed as having the soul affinity and he at least now knew what all those question marks were about. His divine ability was still unknown but he was one step closer to uncovering that mystery.

There he was too, that old man who called himself Nafritese. His edict must be what let him change his pathways to improve his spells.

“I guess there really was a God behind this system”

His core was looking like a silver ghost currently so he focused on it and imagined it returning to how it was.

His core then began to materialize once more into the real world back to how it was. His silver flame slowly faded in his mind's eye as he focused on what his magic felt like before.

Adam was rather shocked to see that after a few moments, everything returned to how it used to be as all the silver disappeared and his core became solid once more. He tapped his core to extract a small amount of mana and it looked and felt the same as before.

A white line then streamed from his core and up to his eyes to reactivate the greater sight spell that stopped when he fell unconscious.

The low light from the fluorescent mushrooms did help him see but using his spell allowed his vision to improve exponentially.

The red demon was lying on the fungal platform only a few meters in front of him. It was most definitely dead as its previously glowing red body had faded and only a single red point could be seen at the center of its body.

Adam had completely emptied his core when fighting for his life so his mana reserve had only replenished a small amount when he was unconscious.

His body was still hurting all over but he could now better identify the pain as coming from those lines he saw all over his silver flame. His soul affinity must have strained his soul when he pumped it out of him in that final blast.

He hoped it would fully heal on its own as he moved to harvest the red core. His shield had dissipated and all his weapons were gone. He had nothing to cut into the monster with as his last claw blade was missing. He didn’t know when he lost it but simply placed his hands on the body and began sending tendrils of his mana to retrieve the red core’s mana.

It was very dense and reminded Adam of the light affinity lizard mana. It must have had the blood affinity since it could track his blood and seemed to control and modify its own blood to empower itself.

As Adam sat there trying to ignore his hurting soul and simply focus on controlling his magic to absorb the dense red energies of the once terrifying predator, far away and unbeknownst to him, his existence became known and his legend began.