CHAPTER 18: THE THREE LAYERS

A few days had passed since that incident, and the mood during the ride had yet to change for the better. After their brief exchange, Tyrel had come back from his scouting trip and discovered a few more Memory Void Husks scouring the nearby forested areas—many of them already on the brink of collapse. After giving all of them a proper burial according to Yadrian customs, they swiftly moved along toward their next estimated stop: Point Sylvia.

According to Myrin, it was a large swamp filled with enormous lily pads that were said to have the ability to hold several people on top of them without sinking—a common stopping point for travelers heading toward Yadria. If they could find it, it would be confirmation that Soren’s Soul Weapon was heading in the right path. At the same time, Myrin had also used Flower Petal Divination and found out that if they did head in that direction, their trip could get significantly shorter—something Soren was relieved to hear. Spotting it was also not that difficult, as it was said that a Beacon of Guidance was located at the center of the swamp.

That was supposed to be the case if not for the current weather.

Maybe it was just a coincidence, but it felt almost comical how well timed the rain came, as if it was trying to match their sour mood. For the past several days, the heavens did not stop pouring. It felt like a breath of fresh air at first, but the fact that they couldn’t start a fire quickly got annoying—especially for Tina who loved to complain about everything. Soren for the most part didn’t mind her outspoken nature. For most of his teenage life, the only people who spoke to him were either bootlickers or scammers. Getting told to “fuck off” everytime he made a mistake felt oddly satisfying for once.

Aside from his newly acquired masochistic tendencies, Soren spent the time learning from Myrin. Ever since that incident, many questions were piling up in his head—most of them having to do with Yadria. At first, it didn’t make any sense to him why a society of supposed spiritual shamans would obsess over how much anima a person had.

Willpower. That was how it was explained. Although he did understand the basic nature of it, there were still many gaps he had to fill. And yet, even with his lack of knowledge, it truly did not make any sense to him why they would place this energy on such a pedestal—to the point of alienating a large portion of their own citizens. It was only after Myrin explained the situation that things finally clicked into place.

In Yadria, all religious practice centered around The Flower Maiden, one of the six orthodox deities of Yarian. She was known as the Weaver of Spirits, the Mistress of Sleep, and the Eternal Blossom.

According to Yadrian myth, She was also known as the Pollinator of Unfounded Dreams. Her peoples were once nomadic, but only in the spiritual sense. Every fortnight, those blessed with Her anima were said to enter a dream-like state in which they journeyed alongside the Goddess. This tradition was later called Yasini’s Paradise, and has been continued to this day.

Nowadays, Yasini’s Paradise takes place once every year on the 90th of Vyak, unlike how it was usually done during the Third Age of Fantasia. History aside, Soren was much more interested in the now. How did such an innocent yet fascinating religious practice have any ties with the mistreatment of The Unblessed? The answer was fairly simple: those who could not participate in Yasini’s Paradise were labeled as such.

According to Yadrian scholars, those lacking in anima were said to be weak in spirit. And to be weak in spirit means that you are not in the good graces of the Flower Maiden—locking you from entering Yasini’s Paradise. And so, the term ‘Unblessed’ became prevalent over the years. Even though that was the case, the term only gained its current notoriety roughly 1367 years ago, at the start of the Fourth Age of Fantasia. That year marked the birth of the Spirit Blossom Willow. A tree so radiant, it was said that its roots stretched to the far ends of the Feylith Forest.

By that point, Soren had noticed how uncomfortable Myrin was becoming and decided to change the subject. He was going to find out more about the situation when they got there anyway. If they got there, at least. Aside from the Unblessed, there was something else pressing on his mind.

The Nameless Mist… Just thinking back on what he had witnessed when using [Eyes of the Fairy] on that Memory Void Husk gave him chills. Nightmares continued to persist him throughout the lengthy nights. Though, insomnia had managed to attach itself to not just Soren, but everyone else as well. Aside from navigating the illusionary barrier, they also had to keep their eyes open for Spirit Beast attacks. But now, they also had to keep track of Malevolent Hexes.

This was especially true of Memory Void Spirits. Unlike their Husk counterpart which struggled to even move, Memory Void Spirits like the one that had attacked him had clearly adapted to their circumstances. Even with their corrupted Runic Existence, their ability to traverse in spirit body form allowed them to easily locate prey. When Myrin and the rest heard of Soren’s recount, they couldn’t help but sit there frowning. Without an ability to perceive The Beyond like the one Soren had, noticing their presence was pretty difficult.

And it wasn’t like this was an empty threat. In just the last two days alone, Tyrel had counted roughly 60 Memory Void Husks. And that number was quickly growing the closer they reached their destination. The chances of another Memory Void Spirit wandering close to their carriage and attacking them when they least expected it kept them awake at night. Even Myrin, who somehow had better skin than Tina herself, was showing eyebags underneath his glistening golden irises. Even so, they had still devised a plan when it came to detecting their presence. Myrin had brought with him a strange magitech tool (as Myrin called them,) that could detect rogue anima. After sampling The Nameless Mist, it should give them the ability to notice their presence—at least to a certain extent.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Though, none of that stopped either Myrin or him from experimenting with The Records, and most importantly, Soul Realms.

“Listen up Soren,” he said plainly. “A human’s soul can be organized into different layers. They are called The Veil of Perception, The Echo of Mind, and The Heart’s Shroud. They govern a person’s senses, thoughts, and emotions respectively.

“These layers are Manifestations of ‘Self.’ They define who you are as a person. To unlock a Soul Realm, a magus must first look past these layers and discover what remains. Have you ever asked, ‘Who am I?’ That is what you will need to do first.”

“That sounds interesting,” Soren said. “But how am I supposed to view these layers, or even ‘walk’ past them?” Even if he tried to use [Eyes of the Fairy], it wasn’t like he could take his eyes out and try looking at himself… Unless mirrors worked? But he doubted that notion.

“It’s fairly simple,” Myrin smirked, much to the discomfort of Soren. “All you need to do is kill yourself.”

“......”

“I’m kidding, but it’s kinda similar to dying actually, haha.” That did not sound comforting to Soren at all. “Essentially, you must deprive yourself of everything you have. Your senses, your emotions, your thoughts. All of it. And within that void, all that will be left is the true you. Luckily, I have the perfect magitech tool to facilitate that, so you won’t need to worry about how to enter these layers in the first place.”

Soren pondered over his words. “So what exactly is this ‘True Self’? What does it look like? Is it a mirrored version of me or something?”

Myrin chuckled. “It’s hard to say. Your true self can be anything, but it represents your inner will—the desires that drive your destiny forward, ones that are unknown to even you. Unless you know what that is, manifesting a Soul Realm is impossible.

“My Inner Self for example, I still remember it to this day. It appeared to me in the form of an ink splatter—a fairly ugly one at that,” he laughed while correcting his cone hat.

Soren leaned back, a bit surprised. “I kinda expected your Soul Weapon to show up as your true self,” He glanced at The Records briefly.

“Hmm, a person’s Soul Weapon.” Myrin thought for a bit then smiled. “You might not entirely be wrong in that notion—a Soul Weapon manifests itself based on your True Self. But that isn’t the entire makeup of it either. A Soul Weapon, especially ones like ours that belong to Vagrant Phantasms, requires an Abstract Rune that gives rise to its conceptual Mysteries. But that’s a topic for another day.

“Anyway, all you need to know is that it is impossible for a Soul Weapon to entirely reflect your True Self. There are elements to a Soul Weapon that are alien to who your actual identity is.”

Soren pondered over his words for a bit as silence returned to the carriage. He checked The Records again to make sure they were still following the correct path. It seemed that the Illusionary Barrier hadn’t shifted this time, much to his relief.

Myrin finally spoke up again. “I have a practice technique to recommend to you—one that might be useful at tackling The Veil of Perception. It's a fairly simple one, but demands a lot of focus. First, close your eyes and imagine a formless, still void. Absolute darkness.”

Soren crossed his feet and took a deep breath before closing his eyes. He did exactly as Myrin had told—his mind was completely dark. Though, small patches of thoughts continued to disrupt this stillness.

“What you need to do is now imagine your remaining thoughts as bubbles floating slowly in that pitch-black darkness. You need to pop those bubbles one at a time.”

Soren went ahead and did that. Surprisingly, it worked. The once chaotic thoughts invading his imagination ceased to exist. Soren then accidentally opened his eyes out of shock, before clumsily going back and doing it all over again.

“As you can see, controlling your thoughts was fairly simple. Do you know why?”

Soren was stumped for an answer.

“The reason is simple. You already have immense control over your thoughts. It has always been subconscious, though. Until now, at least.”

I’ve always controlled my thoughts? He never realized. But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

“I’ve been observing you since the start of our journey, you see. [Eyes of the Fairy]—that ability of yours. It cannot be controlled without first controlling your own thoughts. Think about it, whenever you needed to observe something within The Beyond, did you not need to focus on that subject to hone your vision on what you needed to see most?”

What he desired most. Now that Myrin had mentioned it, it made perfect sense. If he hadn’t been able to control his thoughts when using [Eyes of the Fairy], the ability would continue to show him things he did not desire, and with the unlimited amount of distractions present within The Beyond, getting lost in your own desires was a fairly easy and understandable mistake to make.

Not for Soren, however.

“Not once during your countless uses of [Eyes of the Fairy] did you ever get distracted from your goal. You always had one the moment you used the ability, and you kept that goal to yourself when viewing The Beyond.

“Your control over your own thoughts—it's monstrous, Soren.”

Being compared to a monster peeved him a bit, but what Myrin was saying wasn’t incorrect. Even so, it did make him curious. Did he always have this ability? Or was it something he inherited after acquiring his Soul Weapon?

He leaned more toward the former. Afterall, ever since the tender age of seven, a year after he had discovered chess—playing entire games in his head against himself was a fairly common practice for him. Whenever he felt bored, he would simply close his eyes and imagine an entire chessboard, moving every piece with his mind—keeping track of patterns. Marking down possible mates. It all felt so natural to him. Eventually, he was even able to imagine multiple games playing out simultaneously, all of them at the international master level if not grandmaster level.

He had always assumed that that was fairly normal for a chess player to do. But now that he thought about it, it might have been something others couldn’t even imagine replicating... Should I be proud of myself or something? He smiled plainly then looked back at Myrin.

“You might not be entirely wrong. I am a monster—and a fairly handsome one at that.”

Myrin chuckled. “And you said I loved to brag. Are you sure you weren’t projecting?”