CHAPTER 77: ASTRAL PROJECTION

Creating Channels of Willpower turned out to be far easier than he had initially assumed.

After his conversation with the Mistress, she wasted no time to instruct him on how to create one. At first, he was fairly shocked at the prospect. After all, he had only just gotten his Soul Realm solidified, and only because she had used a Mystery to speed up the time for his Soul Realm.

However, after learning about the process and what goes into creating one, it turned out to be much simpler than every other process he had taken so far.

Magecraft spellforms are made up of countless axioms, each of which provide instructions to the entire spell in order to manifest it correctly. But how that spell could be casted depends on one’s anima. Soren knew from his reading that the anima that flows within a person’s Soul Realm was not homogeneous—there were very big differences between the anima populating his Echo of Mind compared to his Veil of Perception, for example. Each of the three layers has its own ‘form’ of his anima.

This was why creating a Channel of Willpower becomes necessary. A spellform’s countless axioms will each demand a different set or form of his own anima. Some axioms need anima from the Echo of Mind, while others may need some from his Heart’s Shroud. In all cases, a spellform will require anima from all three layers to function properly.

The solution would be to create a channel that allows the anima trapped within each of his three layers to flow out, mixing with each other. This was what a Channel of Willpower did. As a magi requires more circles for their spellforms, more Channels of Willpower will need to be created.

Soren, however, did not need to concern himself with such a future. All he needed currently was one Channel of Willpower, at least. And that was exactly what he got around to doing. With the guidance of the Mistress, he was able to create a small opening between the three layers to allow his anima between them to flow into a cycle.

The only problem with this, however, was that he would need to continuously maintain this cycle of flow manually for a while. Changes this deep to the three layers would take a while to solidify, similar to how his Soul Realm itself needed time to get used to the change in the color of his anima.

All this work for nothing… He laughed inwardly. The reason why Soren was somewhat dejected was because in most cases, a Channel of Willpower could only be useful when casting a complete first circle spellform. As he was currently, he hadn’t even discovered a single material rune associated with his affinity, let alone a complete axiom or two.

Nevertheless, progress was progress. He was still proud to make it this far in only a month. Most magi, according to Sienna, would take a year to even unlock their Soul Realm. Even his speed at discovering his affinity during the Soul Search was nothing but miraculous, though, that was largely attributed to his Soul Weapon’s strange properties which allowed him to use his abilities even inside the three layers.

The more he thought about it, the less preposterous his claim of reaching the first circle in three months sounded. Soren knew this was just his ego speaking, however.

The hard part was yet to come.

Sitting in a lotus position in the center of Cassia’s room, Soren glanced at the little witch staring at him with doubt in her eyes.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” She asked. He could tell she was worried for him.

Soren smiled. “Ready as can be.”

If Myrin was here to see what he was up to, he would most likely slam his hand against his forehead in exhaustion.

And what gargantuan task was he up to this time, you may ask?

Astral Projection.

Yes, the very same Astral Projection that allowed him to converse with the demon stuck at the lowest layer of the Subterranean Shunning Grounds. Except, rather than descending to the lowest layers of hell, he was now trying to ascend to the heavens themselves.

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He remembered the words Myrin told him last week:

“... In the uppermost reaches of the so-called ‘Towers of Heaven’—there exists a large stone tablet. And when I say large, I mean large enough to eclipse the sun.”

Indeed, what he was trying to do was form a connection with the so called Records of Enigma—the mysterious conduit that allows for runological studies as they are currently known to exist.

However, this was still a fairly dangerous journey. Unlike the mind storms and other dangers he had faced within his own three layers, the Beyond was home to countless unseen horrors beyond human comprehension. It was this same reason why he was so careful with [Eyes of the Fairy]. Without his incredible ability to focus on what he needs to see most, he would have most likely gone insane long ago. The knowledge housed within that realm was archaic and beyond mortal comprehension.

At times like these, he would remember the words Mr. Unknown had left him:

“Knowledge is a responsibility, not a right. Not everything must be known… There are times when ignorance becomes more powerful than wisdom.”

As much as he hates the bastard, he was right.

Countless times, he had debated whether this extended only to the rift or other aspects of this world. But recently, he had been leaning toward the latter conclusion. The Beyond itself was essentially a pool of infinite knowledge. From what he had heard from Sienna, those with abilities like hers or his were prone to live short lives due to their own curiosity killing them.

In fact, he suspected that the reason he faces so much pain from using [Eyes of the Fairy] in the first place, was most likely due to how much knowledge he was absorbing during each session. Even with his innate focus at the most basic of elements, the amount of knowledge flowing into him would certainly be more than his mind could handle. If he went by that theory, then it would mean that each usage of [Eyes of the Fairy] was essentially being erased from his mind—the brain was too fragile to handle everything he absorbs, leaving only the most bare bones information left over for his [Record] ability to kick in.

Of course, he doubted this happened in every session. After all, if that was true, he would have been able to obtain more knowledge on certain subjects after trying the ability again and again, which was not something that happened often.

Either way, this danger he was constantly dancing around with every time he activated [Eyes of the Fairy] for just a few minutes, was now going to be all around him for a while. After all, rather than peering into the Beyond, he was now planning to enter it in spirit completely.

Cassia glanced at him with a dubious look and sighed. “Is this what Myrin had to go through all this time?”

He remembered the first time he rushed to unlock his Soul Realm, then it was his affinities. Now, he was requesting something ridiculous from Cassia instead.

He smiled. “This is the last step I must take before finally being able to cast magecraft…” He paused for a second. “Actually, no… There’s still selecting the medium, conducting runological studies, forming the first axioms, testing rudimentary spellforms…” He ran out of fingers as he counted what the next steps will be.

Cassia sighed once again. “You’re so goddamn reckless! There are people who take entire years studying the dangers of the Beyond before even taking the venture! And yet here you are, four weeks into your journey and already planning to climb the heavens themselves!”

Soren shook his head wistfully. “I wish I had more time as well…”

Cassia said nothing and made her way to the chair next to him. She activated the magitech device that allows a person to detach their Soul Realm from their bodies and glanced once more at Soren.

“Don’t… Die.” Her expression contorted as the words fell out.

Soren smiled, “I won’t.”

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An incomprehensible amount of time had passed by now… No, it felt like three days? It was very hard to tell the time in this mind-numbing expansion of space.

Soren was currently roaming a section of the Beyond once called the Runic Constellations. It was fairly easy to assume why such a name was proposed. Countless fractal-like orbs were currently spinning on an axis, shifting in geometries he could never hope to understand as a simple, three-dimensional being. Well, four dimensional now?

He glanced down at his body. Nothing was different at all. His clothes were the same as well as the Soul Weapon currently in his hands. He could find no discrepancies in how he currently looked at the moment.

And yet, he knew that what he was seeing was not his real body. It was his Astral Projection.