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Chapter 2: Awakening

Chapter 2: Awakening

Lev sat cross-legged on his bed, his face a mask of concentration. The room was quiet, save for the soft whisper of his steady breathing. He focused his mind on the Soul Monster Core, following the general practice he’d studied so diligently.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, the black pearl in his hand began to levitate. It hovered inches from his palm, suspended by an unseen force. Then, like ink dropped into clear water, specks of black light seeped out of the core. They moved with purpose, flowing like a midnight river towards Lev’s lower torso.

The moment the energy from the Soul Monster Core breached his body, Lev’s eyes widened. A searing heat, as if someone had injected molten lava into his veins, coursed through him. His brow furrowed, jaw clenched, but he didn’t falter.

“Well, they certainly didn’t mention this part in the brochure,” Lev thought, his mental voice dripping with sarcasm despite the discomfort.

He’d heard tales of the Soul Monster Core, of course. Who hadn’t? But the specifics of its use, the nitty-gritty details of the process – those were conspicuously absent from the gossip mill. Still, Lev was nothing if not determined. He’d set his mind to this task, and by all the gods and monsters, he was going to see it through.

With the patience of a saint (or perhaps a very stubborn mule), Lev guided the energy around his core. He imagined it forming a perfect circle, like the world’s most painful hula hoop. Five minutes crawled by, each second feeling like an eternity. The heat, already intense, cranked up a notch.

“Fantastic,” Lev grumbled internally. “I always wanted to know what it felt like to be a marshmallow at a campfire.”

Undeterred, he soldiered on. This time, he focused on spreading the energy throughout his entire body. The sensation shifted from ‘uncomfortable sauna’ to ‘taking a dip in Mount Doom.’ Every cell in his body screamed in protest, but Lev refused to give in.

“Ugh!” A groan escaped his lips before he could stop it. Immediately, he clamped his mouth shut, teeth grinding together with enough force to make a dentist wince.

The pain was becoming unbearable, a relentless assault on his senses. Lev had no idea how long this process was supposed to take. For all he knew, he could be stuck here for hours, days, or until the heat death of the universe. But the thought of stopping, of giving up now, never even crossed his mind.

An hour ticked by, though to Lev it felt like several lifetimes. Sweat poured from every pore, soaking through his clothes and leaving a damp outline of his body on the bed. His lip, raw and bleeding from where he’d been biting it, throbbed in time with his racing heart.

“When does this end?” Lev wondered, his inner voice a mix of desperation and determination. “Is this some sort of cosmic joke? ‘Let’s see how long we can cook the poor sap before he gives up?’”

He glanced down at his core, usually as empty as a politician’s promises. Now, it was half-filled with swirling clouds of black energy. It looked like a storm was brewing inside him, which, given how he felt, seemed pretty accurate.

Another hour crawled by, each minute stretching out like taffy.

His core was now filled to the brim, practically bursting at the seams with dark energy. And yet, the pain showed no signs of subsiding. Even worse, the soul space he’d been so eagerly anticipating was stubbornly refusing to make an appearance.

A creeping doubt began to worm its way into Lev’s mind. “Am I really not destined to be a Soul Pact Warrior in this life? Did I miss some fine print somewhere? ‘Must not be allergic to excruciating pain to apply’?”

The thought of giving up, of admitting defeat, loomed large. The pain had transcended mere physical discomfort. Lev felt as if his very soul was being used as kindling for the fires of hell.

His body had started to emit smoke, like a cartoon character after an encounter with dynamite. Under different circumstances, Lev might have found it amusing. Right now, it just added to the surreal nature of his predicament.

“No!” The thought burst forth with unexpected ferocity. “I won’t accept this!”

Lev’s resolve, battered but unbroken, surged anew. His voice, hoarse from the ordeal, rang out in the empty room.

“I will be a Soul Pact Warrior!” he declared, each word dripping with conviction. “I will find Dad, and I will become the strongest Warrior!”

As if the universe had been waiting for just such a declaration, an explosion rocked Lev’s body the moment the words left his lips. A warm feeling washed over him, from the tips of his toes to the crown of his head. His exhausted body and mind felt suddenly rejuvenated, as if he’d just chugged a gallon of the world’s strongest energy drink.

Before Lev could process this sudden change, his consciousness was flooded with a blinding light. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision. When the light finally faded, Lev found himself floating in what appeared to be outer space.

“Where the hell am I?” he murmured, looking around in awe. The space seemed boundless, stretching out in all directions as far as the eye could see.

“Is this my Soul Space?” Lev wondered, his mental voice tinged with excitement and confusion. “Or did I accidentally take a wrong turn at Albuquerque and end up in the cosmos?”

Based on what he knew (which, admittedly, wasn’t much), a Soul Space was supposed to be roughly the size of a normal room. It was why Soul Pact Warriors could only have one Soul Monster in their entire life. This… this was something else entirely.

Deciding to explore, Lev began to float around, moving aimlessly through the star-studded expanse. However, he soon discovered that while the space appeared infinite, there were invisible barriers he couldn’t pass through.

“Well, that’s a bit disappointing,” Lev mused. “Here I was, thinking I’d stumbled into my own personal universe, and it turns out it’s just a really fancy fish tank.”

Undeterred, he continued his exploration, probing the limits of his newfound space. As he did, the approximate size of his Soul Space began to dawn on him.

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500 cubic meters!

Lev’s jaw dropped. His Soul Space wasn’t just bigger than average – it was colossal. Several times larger than what was considered normal.

“I have no idea what this means,” Lev thought, a grin spreading across his face, “but I’m pretty sure bigger is better when it comes to Soul Spaces. Maybe I can have a whole menagerie of Soul Monsters! Or at least enough room for a decent-sized couch.”

Shaking off his fantasies of Soul Space interior decorating, Lev decided it was time to exit. He concentrated, thinking about leaving the Soul Space as he’d been taught.

Nothing happened.

He tried again, focusing harder this time.

Still nothing.

“What the? I’m stuck?!” he exclaimed, his elation quickly giving way to panic. “Oh, come on! I just went through the spiritual equivalent of being microwaved, and now I’m trapped in my own head?!”

Frustration mounting, Lev let out a primal scream. “Why are you doing this to me?!” His voice echoed through the Soul Space, bouncing off invisible walls and reverberating through the starry expanse.

As if in response to his outburst, a ball of light suddenly appeared not far from where Lev was floating.

“Oh great,” Lev thought, eyeing the light warily. “What fresh hell is this?”

The ball of light, apparently not content with its current size, began to expand at an alarming rate. It grew from the size of a ping-pong ball to a basketball in a matter of seconds. Then it was as big as a car wheel, then a house, and then…

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Lev muttered as the light continued to grow. “Is that… is that a sun?!”

Indeed, the ball of light had expanded to roughly the size of a celestial body. Lev stared at it, slack-jawed, his mind struggling to process what he was seeing.

Then, because the universe apparently decided Lev hadn’t had enough excitement for one day, the sun-like ball of light exploded.

The shockwave hit Lev like a freight train, sending him careening backwards until he slammed into the barrier of his Soul Space.

“Ugh!” he grunted, the wind knocked out of him. “I don’t suppose there’s a complaint department for defective Soul Spaces, is there?”

Before he could recover, a blinding light engulfed the entire space. The once calm and colorful cosmic expanse began to rumble and shift. Black holes materialized out of nowhere, their gravitational pull immediately beginning to devour everything around them.

Lev watched in stunned silence as he was pulled towards one of the black holes. He was beyond fear at this point, his mind unable to process the rapid-fire series of impossible events.

“Just what kind of Soul Space have I awakened?” he wondered, his mental voice surprisingly calm given the circumstances. “Is this normal, or did I just hit the cosmic jackpot of weirdness?”

As he was drawn inexorably towards the event horizon of the nearest black hole, Lev found himself strangely at peace. After all he’d been through, getting sucked into a black hole seemed almost anticlimactic.

“Well,” he thought as his vision began to fade, “at least I can say my awakening was anything but boring.”

Once again, Lev’s consciousness slipped away into darkness.

An indeterminate amount of time later, Lev opened his eyes to find himself in a lush, beautiful garden. The air was sweet with the scent of flowers, and a gentle breeze rustled through vibrant green leaves.

“Am I in heaven now?” he wondered, looking around in bewilderment. “Or is this just the world’s most elaborate ‘You’re Dead’ screen?”

As he took in his surroundings, Lev’s eyes were drawn to an ancient, beautiful gazebo. Vines crawled up its walls, giving it an ethereal, otherworldly appearance. Intrigued, he began to walk towards it.

As he drew closer, Lev noticed a black figure sitting cross-legged in the center of the gazebo. At first, he thought it might be a statue. But as he approached, he realized it was a humanoid shadow, featureless and dark as night.

Lev stopped in his tracks as a wave of creepiness washed over him. The shadow exuded an aura that set every hair on his body on end.

Suddenly, the figure’s eyes snapped open, revealing glowing, blood-red orbs that seemed to stare directly into Lev’s soul.

“Yow, what the f-” Lev yelped, jumping back in surprise and fear. “What the hell is that? The galaxy’s most terrifying garden gnome?”

He stood frozen, watching the shadowy figure warily. The creature slowly raised its arm, pointing directly at Lev.

“Wha-” Lev began, but before he could finish his thought, a tendril of darkness shot out from the figure’s hand, piercing Lev’s forehead.

Strangely, he felt no pain. Instead, a wave of numbness washed over him as his consciousness began to fade once more.

“I’m being tossed around everywhere…” Lev thought wearily as he succumbed to unconsciousness. “Is this what it feels like to be a cosmic ping-pong ball?”

Ring!

The familiar sound of his alarm jolted Lev awake. Groaning, he fumbled under his pillow for his phone, silencing the insistent ringing.

Six in the morning. A new day had dawned.

As sunlight streamed through his window, realization slowly dawned on Lev. His eyes widened as memories of the night’s events came flooding back.

“It’s morning already?” he thought, sitting up so quickly he nearly gave himself whiplash. “What happened to my Soul Space? Was it all just a really weird dream brought on by too much late-night studying?”

Without wasting another moment, Lev assumed the lotus position and closed his eyes, focusing his attention inward. There, in his core, he found a shadowy sphere about the size of a tennis ball.

“Bingo,” he thought, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. With a mere thought, his consciousness plunged into the sphere.

In an instant, Lev found himself back in the beautiful garden he’d seen the night before. The gazebo was still there, its vine-covered walls gleaming in the ethereal light. However, the creepy shadow figure was nowhere to be seen.

“Where did that creature go?” Lev wondered, scanning the garden for any sign of the red-eyed entity. “Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I’ve had enough nightmare fuel to last a lifetime.”

Despite his curiosity about the missing shadow creature, Lev couldn’t help but feel relieved. He took a moment to admire his Soul Space, a smile creeping across his face.

“I think I’ll call this place ‘Soul Garden’ from now on,” he decided, feeling that the name suited it perfectly. “It’s certainly nicer than ‘That Place Where I Almost Got Sucked Into A Black Hole.’”

Pride swelled in Lev’s chest. His Soul Garden was awakened, providing the foundation he needed to become a Soul Pact Warrior. He was one step closer to his goals.

“I will be a Soul Pact Warrior,” he thought, his mental voice filled with determination. “I will find traces of Dad. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll figure out what the deal was with that creepy shadow dude.”

Lost in his thoughts and plans for the future, Lev was startled by his mom’s voice calling from outside his room.

“Little snow white, your prince is here! Come and wake up, or you’ll be late for school!”

Lev chuckled at his mother’s playful wake-up call. With one last fond look at his Soul Garden, he withdrew his consciousness and prepared to face the day.

As he got ready for school, Lev couldn’t help but feel that his life had irrevocably changed. He’d taken his first steps on the path to becoming a Soul Pact Warrior, and while the journey ahead would undoubtedly be challenging, he was ready to face whatever came his way.

“Watch out, world,” he thought as he headed out the door. “Lev the Soul Pact Warrior is coming through. Just as soon as I finish algebra class.”