Keynes activated the Orb of Grand Insight and the Trait of Spirituality. As the time stretched, he checked on his spiritual core, hoping to get the insight about its structure.
He didn’t know what to expect from the trait but with his new technique and the Orb of the Grand Insight, he was surely going to learn much.
Then the world exploded.
Everything vanished, only darkness remained and then slowly faint pinpricks of light appeared. As they gained strength, even fainter threads came into existence. Keynes understood nothing of this. And strangely he wasn’t worried. He felt safe.
“The Child of Chaos.”
Keynes turned around and found the cosmos staring at him. Something about this place made him not worried or afraid and his mind felt crystal clear. Normally, he would have asked where he was but this time, he somehow understood his circumstances. The moment he activated the Trait of Spirituality, the Chaos debuff reacted with it. The effect was exotic but so were the elements affecting Keynes. It actually was funny how people still were amazed by magic. With the arrival of the Dominion of Monsters, people should have learned to expect unimaginable things from the System. And so Keynes didn’t feel surprised.
“The Child of Chaos,” the voice said again. “Embrace Chaos.”
The voice came from everywhere and Keynes decided it was time to pay attention to it and this strange place.
It no longer resembled the cosmos and looked like the structure of a brain. At this point, Keynes could only speculate the meaning of this place but it obviously was connected to the Chaos debuff.
“Why should I embrace Chaos?” he asked, his voice calm and smooth.
Silence followed his question then, a shape was born amid the lights and darkness. It was distinctly humanoid but it had no features and resembled a liquid trying to become something other than a puddle.
“Because you are the Child of Chaos,” the new entity said, its voice was Keynes’s voice.
“What if I don’t want to?” Keynes asked, wondering about his unbelievable clarity. For some reason, his thoughts were unobstructed, and actually there was an explanation to that. Keynes realised for the first time how badly his mind was broken and influenced by outside forces.
The System…
“Then you will wither away,”the entity replied. “Our enemy will not allow one such as you to thrive.”
“Our enemy… you mean the System?”
“The System is only a tool. A potent one, with its own mind and agenda, but the true foe lives outside the System.” It fell silent but Keynes knew it wasn’t finished and so he waited. “You must embrace Chaos. You must cut the strings it has embedded in your Soul.”
Keynes reached out to Alice but the connection didn’t exist. He didn’t panic, subconsciously knowing that Alice, in her current form, couldn’t exist within this realm. Because he was no longer on Earth. Wherever he was, the System was not allowed here.
“What’s the price of embracing Chaos?” Keynes asked after a moment of contemplation. He didn’t trust this place or this entity and not because they could betray him, no, this wasn’t his worry but he was concerned about the way they perceived the world. They might even believe they do things in Keynes’s favour but the reality would be the opposite. They needed to be on the same page and Keynes was going to make it clear to them.
“You must open your Soul to Chaos.”
Yeah, that was not going to happen.
“No.”
“You will die—”
“Then so be it,” Keynes interrupted the entity. He didn’t owe anyone anything. Not the world, not Chaos, not the System. Everyone wanted things from him, everyone wanted to control him. Even Lem Solaris tried to manipulate him. He was more than sure that the kidnapping of Kora and Pucci was her doing or at least, she consciously decided to not stop it.
The entity of Chaos shivered and its surface gained some features. With it came pressure of an otherworldly attention. It seemed that his refusal gained him a greater attention of Chaos.
He wondered how far Chaos could be pushed. Could they kill Keynes here or were they left only with threats?
“CHILD.” The voice didn’t belong to Keynes any longer. It was deeper, louder and richer. “KNEEL BEFORE YOUR CREATOR.”
“I refuse,” Keynes said, feeling his Soul tremble. It was a novel sensation. He had never felt his Soul before but this new entity did something that made his Soul react to it. Did it try to forcibly open his Soul?
“YOU HAVE CHOSEN YOUR PATH THEN, CHILD. NOW, BEGONE.”
The entity vanished but things just started getting weirder. A system message… No, not a system message—or at least not the same system from Keynes’s universe, appeared in front of Keynes.
You are a Defier of Chaos.
You are now immune to Chaos of your Level and lower.
Your understanding of Chaos is now natural.
You were awarded with understanding of fundamental forces.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
*
Step lightly, child. Your defiance was heard in the Higher Realms.
It angered and attracted dangerous beings.
While their reach into the Lower Realms is limited, they still may act.
Nonetheless, some were impressed and pleased by you and bestowed certain boons.
*
You have now access to the Greater System (it will not replace your current System).
Your Mind and Body are healed and synchronised with your Soul and Spiritual Core.
Foreign influences are cut off (Warning! This is not permanent).
Good Luck, Defier of Chaos!
*
Keynes was back in the forest but he immediately picked up inconsistencies. It was not the same place. Its spiritual signature was different. But Keynes shelved this thought for now as he had other things on his mind. His connection with Alice was back but for the first time he saw the flaws in it. The spiritual ‘rope’ was frayed in many places and was quite irregular. He wasn’t sure how to fix these issues but he was confident it was a matter of time before he learned it. Alice herself was in a daze and it wasn’t a self-induced state. Someone had done it to her; either the System or Lem Solaris.
Speaking of the devil, Lem Solaris decided to show up. To Keynes’s enhanced spiritual senses, she was a blank slate. Not even the minutest thread of spiritual energy escaped her. Maybe she wasn’t here and this body was barely a projection. Keynes would not be surprised with that.
“Hello Lem,” Keynes said.
“You’re changed, Keynes Kid,” Lem Solaris ignored his greetings.
“Of course I am changed,” he replied, tapping the side of his head with his finger. “No one controls me anymore.”
“You weren’t controlled before,” Lem Solaris reappeared next to him. He felt her attention on him. “But your mind has been healed.”
Either she lied or she wasn’t aware of the outside influence. He made sure to keep the thoughts to himself but his spiritual mastery didn’t extend to the mental domain. If his thoughts leaked, he was unable to see them doing so or prevent it at the moment.
Maybe, there’s a way to build a spiritual shield around my mind? It would stop you, Lem Solaris, from reading them, he thought and Lem Solaris sharply glanced at him.
“You’ve become arrogant, Keynes Kid,” Lem Solaris said in response to his mental message. “It’s a dangerous trait to have at Level 4.”
He ignored her empty threat and instead decided to confront her about something else.
“Why haven’t you healed my mind earlier?”Even as he said it, he watched Lem Solaris with scrutiny but her spiritual signature was non-existent. If his eyes didn’t inform him about her presence, he’d not sense her. Unfortunately, it meant he couldn’t tell if she lied.
“Because I was not allowed,” Lem Solaris replied nonchalantly.
“Why? Why did the System want me broken?”Keynes asked and consciously made an effort to not think about his conversation with Chaos. He couldn’t tell if Lem Solaris had witnessed it but he suspected that she hadn’t as even the System hadn’t been present there.
Lem Solaris’s child appearance wasn’t helping Keynes getting anything from her. She clearly was capable of altering her appearance and wouldn’t allow any hints of distress to get out. She glared at him for several seconds before glancing around as if looking for something. If she hoped that the System wasn’t watching then Keynes had bad news for her, the System was always watching.
“It wants you to open Level 7 rifts.”
“And does it require a broken mind?”Keynes asked, confused.
“No, but after a Level 5 outbreak you may become uncooperative.”
“Is Level 5 that bad then?”
“It is worse than you can imagine. If you have caused the Level 5 outbreak today, your kind might have vanished from the surface of the planet.”
Keynes digested this and it wasn’t that hard to imagine the scenario after witnessing the post-outbreak world but it wasn’t all.
“What’s so special about Level 7 rifts?”
Lem Solaris squinted at him, there was a hint of something in her eyes. Hesitation?
“They drop Talent-grade spells and spells that can affect Talents.”
“Ah, so I will become redundant. Others will be able to open rifts. I can’t say I’m going to complain.”
“Yes, they will but to a lesser degree and nothing ridiculous as opening hidden rooms inside rifts.”
“Haven’t done that in a long time actually.”
They stared at each other for a while. Keynes kept his mind blank, not wanting to give away anything to her. Lem Solaris remained unreadable like always. Her appearance and her behaviour were quite mismatched as she behaved completely inhuman. If she wished so, she would stare unfazed at Keynes until he couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore. Not today though, something urgent was on her mind and she asked, “What did you see inside the rift?”
“Nothing,” Keynes replied, maintaining an empty mind. Not a shred of information for her.
“You understand that I know when you lie.”
“I do.”
She opened her mouth but then changed her mind and after narrowing her eyes, which was purely for dramatic effect, she said, “I see what you’re doing. It is smart but it doesn’t work against me. I can read your memories if I want to.”
Her words didn’t make Keynes stop and she eventually left without saying anything else but as she vanished, Keynes projected one powerful thought: bring back Kora.
He didn’t wait and brood. There was no time for that. She’d either bring her or not and there was nothing he could do to influence her decision. He gave only a brief thought to the System’s manipulation and Chaos’ warning but didn’t dwell on this either.
First things first, Alice, you there?
Master… What happened? Her voice was confused and weak.
Keep watch why I go over some things, okay?
Yes…master.
He was going to work on their bond. By the look of it, he was pretty sure that bond could carry over skills as well but to what extent the time would tell.
Keynes glanced at his spiritual core. It was changed in many places, especially the buff parts. The buffs were now a part of him, which hadn’t been the case in the past. Keynes’s memory buff showed him how much the structure of his core had been changed. Curiously, the general volume of the core was smaller and streamlined to accommodate the buffs. Almost in real time, as Keynes observed his current spiritual core, he was able to figure out the reasoning behind the changes and it ran contrary to his previous assumption of enlarging his core.
One thing he noted right away was the amount of spiritual energy emitted by his current core; it was half of the previous amount. And this was without any conscious effort from him. So this meant that the size and structure of the core directly impacted spiritual aura.
He reached for his aura and flooded the area. The effect exceeded his expectations. His aura was 30% stronger, more responsive and easier to control. Yes, much of this was thanks to the trait and technique but the core played the key role in this comparison.
And I can feel it isn’t optimised. It’s just synchronised with the buffs. Nice. Let’s figure these things out.