CHAPTER 26: CAMPING NEXT TO A LAKE

Thirty minutes after their encounter, Tyrel finally showed back up, only to find them all extremely exhausted. He was busy scouting out another area which they believed had traces of The Nameless Mist. Seeing his confusion, they all explained what had happened and their encounter with the Saint of Spirits, Luvin.

As much as he was shocked, they however were much more surprised by the news he brought back for them. Apparently, he had found a group of stranded Unblessed who had not been converted into Malevolent Hexes. They had told him that they were fleeing from Yadria due to the ongoing issues there, but got lost in the process. Tyrel had brought them with him to their encampment.

After they had set up camp, Tina went off to hunt for prey—the food they had stored wasn’t enough to feed the group of unblessed, especially the children with them who looked malnourished. Tyrel followed her to scour for more survivors.

Myrin sat on a log, distant from the group of unblessed who huddled around a blanket they offered them. Soren sat next to him as he tended to the fire they started. The lake would have been perfect for fishing but the fish weren’t active at this time of night.

“Praise the blossoms. That could have ended much differently…”

Soren stayed silent for a moment, then asked, “what exactly is a Saint? Are they any different from Saintesses?”

“Much different,” he replied joyfully. “Saints are what we call Custodians of Faith. It is important to note that their title of Saint is not exactly accurate to the rest of the continent. The Church of Nature and the Brilliant World Church for example also have chronicled Saints in their canon, but they are rarely even seen—most Aelloran folk view them like mythical beings. The same could be said about Empyreans but that’s a topic for another day.

“The point is, Yadria’s Saints have much less authority than what foreigners imply they have. The true powerhouses of Yadria are the three Saintesses—specifically The Saintess of Dreams, Saintess of Spirits, and the Saintess of Blossoms. Each Saintess can appoint three Saints beneath them—a total of nine. We call them the Custodians of Faith for that reason.”

So that guy was just the servant of a Saintess? And yet he was this powerful. Soren’s perspective on this world had shifted significantly. Although he knew there were probably really powerful individuals in the Mysterious World, encountering one was different from simply hearing about from a distance.

“Speaking of the Saintess, we should have asked her about who could have been spreading this corruption…”

Soren took a bite out of a kabab of meat. “Isn’t that Luvin guy pretty suspicious?”

“Huh?” Myrin lifted his brows.

“It's simple,” Soren explained. “If I was prejudiced against the unblessed and I see them being treated better and better—even obtaining enough leverage in Yadrian society to demand their own separate settlements, I would want to change that.

“And what better way to do that than make them an even bigger enemy to the other side of society?” Soren gulped down another piece of meat.

Myrin stayed silent. What Soren was saying most definitely had merit. The Nameless Mist couldn’t have come from nowhere—it had to have been planned out by someone. The best evidence for that would be the Malevolent Hexes themselves.

Just as The Records had chronicled about them, Malevolent Hexes were unnatural creations that were made through taboo magecraft and or mysteries. The first of their kind must have been purposefully created, and with The Nameless Mist as their base, their existence spread across the poorer areas of Yadria—the places that usually have the highest density of populations in cities.

Soren had seen this pattern before back on Earth—at least heard about it anyway. Poorer areas get filled with diseases that spread to richer areas. And rather than fixing the root of the issue—poverty, the blame gets shifted to the people who lived through that experience first.

The more he thought about it, the more it sickened him. And here I was condemning Earth, but Yarian is no better… If what Mr. Unknown was saying was true, there had to be other dimensions beyond Yarian as well, and the chances of them being just as shitty were now looking pretty high.

You can’t escape human nature, Soren. He said to himself.

“You may be right,” Myrin’s voice broke him from his reverie. “But even so, do not mention this discussion to anyone once we reach closer to Yadria. The Court of Nightshade watches these woods silently…”

“The Court of Nightshade?”

He nodded, “Indeed. They are a branch of holy phantasms that are skilled in espionage and secrecy. They roam these forests without leaving a single leaf’s worth of their presence. I personally have never even seen them before, but I know they are always around, watching.”

Soren gulped. “I will be careful then…”

The conversation continued for a bit on the politics of Yadria and things Soren should beware of—else he offends someone there. After their discussion with Luvin, it became evident to him that Yadria held a strong distaste for foreigners. And humans in general were viewed as lesser beings. Something about their anima being different—according to Myrin.

However, what Soren really wanted to know most about was what Luvin’s connection to Myrin was.

Soren wasn’t stupid—he could tell there was definitely more to Myrin’s past than meets the eye. Especially since Luvin mentioned his exile from Yadria. And even before they met Luvin, Myrin had constantly tried to change or maneuver subjects regarding Yadria.

“The truth is, I am also Unblessed,” Myrin smiled as he watched Soren’s face contort in shock.

“You read my thoughts again…”

“Haha… There was no point in trying to hide it.”

Soren stayed silent for a moment. “Does… Tina and the others know?”

“Yes.” There was a hint of melancholy in his voice.

Soren stayed silent for a few seconds before responding. “I thought you said the Unblessed were prosecuted because of their lack of anima. If you are also unblessed, doesn’t that disprove this assessment? Why do they still believe in such a fallacy if it's obviously being disproved?”

Myrin nodded. “As you have seen from that first Memory Void Husk we met, anima is most definitely not the main aspect that one looks for when it comes to being unblessed. This was a theory a Yadrian scholar proposed a millenia ago that became the mainstream belief.

“As to why they still believe in it even though it’s untrue… I can’t say for sure. The unblessed have become somewhat of a way of life in Yadria for more than a thousand years now. Political factions opposing their treatment have risen in the past, but the issue almost always lands in the middle. And it's fairly obvious why.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Think about it, if the unblessed were being shunned by the holy Maiden randomly, would this not create massive amounts of doubt in Her gospel? This is why so many scholars have tried to create their hypotheses for why the Unblessed are rejected from Yasini’s Paradise—without it, fear would most likely spread. People will grow suspicious of themselves and others—they wouldn’t be able to know whether some day they too would be rejected from Her heavenly grace. Eventually, one of these hypotheses stuck—it was much easier to believe that those who were rejected simply lacked anima than to simply attribute it to the whims of the goddess.”

He took a bite from his kabab. “To be honest, I think at this point, the issue isn’t even about the unblessed themselves. It's more so an economic problem. Yadria depends heavily on the cheap labor of the unblessed.

“There are many jobs in Yadria that no one but the Unblessed are allowed to do—like sanitation or construction work. But most often then not, high nobles tend to hire them for maintaining their properties.”

Soren wasn’t expecting Yadria to be this grim. He had assumed it to be some sort of elven paradise—he needed to stop comparing this world to the fantasy novels he had read.

Sensing the mood, Myrin changed the subject and began to explain what it was like to enter Yasini’s Paradise. Apparently, the books he had read on the subject described it to be extremely beautiful, filled with gardens, floating cities and other fantastical environments.

A whole separate world that existed within one’s own dreams.

“How fascinating…” Soren couldn’t help but imagine what it was like, but he knew that it was probably impossible for him to enter—only Yadrians obtained the privilege to do so.

“So then if it isn’t a matter of having too little anima, what exactly causes some Yadrians to be unable to enter Yasini’s Paradise?”

Myrin thought for a second then shrugged. “We don’t know, haha. Only the Maiden knows best.”

Soren frowned. “And yet you still pray to Her?”

Myrin stayed silent. Soren resisted the urge to slap himself again, I really need to control what I say…

“I apologize—that was an insensitive question.”

Myrin chuckled. “No worries. It’s understandable for you to think this way. However, I am still grateful to the Maiden for everything She offers our people. She is the reason why the glory of Yadria still shines today.”

“Say,” Soren decided to change the subject. “How did you do that with the trees? When you move them to form a road. I always wondered about that.”

“Oh that,” he grinned. “It’s fairly simple. I annoyed them until they did what I wanted.”

“.....”

“Haha…” He manifested his Soul Weapon. “The trees of the Feylith Forest—they are all one living organism. They move, rotate and even morph their shapes in some cases. Yadria itself is partially made of these trees morphed into the shape of homes for people to live in.”

Soren was shocked. “Is this related to the Spirit Blossom Willow?”

He nodded. “Indeed. You can think of the Spirit Blossom Willow as the core and every other tree in this forest a part of its roots. This wasn’t always the case, by the way. These trees were once very normal, until they were absorbed by the Spirit Blossom Willow—becoming what we know them today.”

Soren thought for a moment before asking. “What even is the Spirit Blossom Willow?”

“Good question,” he chuckled. “Roughly 1367 years ago, an incident occurred. We Yadrians call it the Great Yasini Demise. We don’t exactly know what happened, but on that day, the Feylith Forest ruptured, and a strange energy unlike the anima we are used to erupted from the earth. On that day, it is said that a sapling absorbed this strange energy and within just a single night, it grew into a mighty tree that dwarfed the rest of the forest. Its roots stretched to the ends of the Feylith Forest, attaching itself to every form of flora and fauna in its wake.”

“A strange energy…” Soren mumbled.

Myrin nodded. “Indeed. We call the source of this energy The Dragon Vein. It's unknown what it exactly is—countless Magi venture into the forest every year to uncover its secrets, all of them ending in failure. I don’t believe even the Saintesses know what it really is.

“Regardless of its origin, this energy spreads through the roots of the Spirit Blossom Willow and gives another layer of life to the forest.”

“I see…” Soren thought for a moment. “But why do you call it The Great Yasini Demise?”

“That is because the Maiden entered The Spirit Blossom Willow and hasn’t been seen since. Even Yasini’s Paradise became a once in a year event, unlike the previous age… The goddess used to roam the world and even give guidance to us mortals—not anymore. Though, I am not exactly sure how accurate this is—most believe these stories to be nothing but myth.

“And it was also around this time that the term Unblessed became prevalent. It was completely unprecedented for a person to get rejected from Yasini’s Paradise back then—all Yadrians enjoyed this custom, regardless of their anima.”

Soren continued eating his food while pondering over his words.

After their meal, Myrin instructed Soren on training his Soul Realm. He would periodically expand it around them until it dissipated on its own due to exhaustion. His record so far has been 47 seconds, much better than it was two days ago.

However, this was only when the Soul Realm was activated on its own. When paired with [Eyes of the Fairy], he was only able to last up to 25 to 30 seconds depending on what his focus was supposed to be on.

Whenever he used these two together, he felt his point of view shifting, as if he was looking at everything at the same time in a small radius around himself. It was extremely mentally exhausting. And even worse, it hindered his ability to focus as everything in the Beyond assaulted his vision all in the same moment.

Still, he was marginally improving over time. The Hermit’s Eye as it was called, would prove to be extremely useful once his ability to control the shape of his Soul Realm manifested.

The one thing he still wasn’t exactly sure of, however, was whether unlocking his Soul Realm had any effect on his Soul Chain’s stability.

According to Myrin, he was able to tell that his soul chain was unstable due to how tumultuous his Three Layers were. When he observed them the first time he met Soren, he described it as if there were multiple storms brewing within his Echo of Mind at the same time. And even worse, these storms seemed to clash against each other, as if his thoughts were contradicting themselves. It was a complete shocker to Soren when he heard this—his mind only echoed the thoughts he himself imagined. Even when he visited his Echo of Mind himself, the only echoes were his own. So to hear about these shadowy thoughts creeping into his Echo of Mind scared him.

Myrin wasn’t exactly sure why Soren couldn’t sense them himself. Soren did have a theory however. He suspected that it might have to do with the fact that his own Soul Weapon was also his true self. Because of this oddity, his own thoughts and the thoughts of his Soul Weapon meshed together in a way that it made it impossible for him to differentiate them. However, this was nothing but speculation. Soren sighed—this was another mystery to add to the pile.

What they did know however was that this was usually the effect of Soul Chain instability—it hinted at the fact that his own Soul Weapon might be trying to usurp control over him. After all, Soul Weapons tend to not have their own thoughts—that only occurs when the Soul Weapon tries to gain autonomy over its own host. Usually, combatting this would mean trying to stabilize his own Soul Chain and possibly rushing to form the next node in the chain to reach the next tier, but this option wasn’t available to him.

Myrin theorized that instead of going for the usual solution, fighting against these rogue thoughts from his own Soul Weapon directly by finding his True Self and gaining full control over his Three Layers might be able to delay his Soul Weapon’s takeover of himself.

And he wasn’t exactly wrong with his hypothesis. According to his own observations and Myrin’s, his Echo of Mind was much more calm. And the contradictory thoughts had ceased—at least to a certain degree. He was sure that it had gained him at least another few days to a week to live. Not the best, but not the worst either.

Soren smiled, if my soul weapon took over my body, would anything even change? Me and The Records are the same, after all… The thought made him chuckle.

Here he was sitting next to an elf eating a kebab of meat while fanning a campfire, and he was thinking about what would happen if ‘he’ took over ‘himself’.