Takeo looked into the empty blackness of space, out of his depth. Out of his world. Maybe even out of my Universe, how should I know? He even wondered if he was still alive. Activating that Ability took a toll on his mind. Besides when he had been "pushed" into Stasis by his friend, the last time he'd felt this sensation was when he had been on the operating table. And look where I ended up? Dead and reincarnated? Or just dead? Did I disappear there and appear here? He didn't know for sure. The last one didn't seem very plausible, as he was able to walk again- he had been able to walk again. I guess I'm back to square one.
His first usage of his new Stasis Ability had come and gone in a blur. He had been on the brink of death. Now at least he was only in an accelerated process of dying. Which isn't the same as living, he thought, as he remembered some sort of sick joke a nurse had told him once. But it's better than nothing. It had taken him quick a few days to understand what that guy had meant at the time.
Besides, he wasn't really in a coma or anesthesia either. According to his Book, he was in something called "Deep Meditation," something his companions seemed to know. I guess it's a Pather thing, he observed. They did seem impressed that I could do it without any training. He turned around and looked upon the glowing city that was his body. Thousands of golden lines shone brightly in the darkness, and waves of golden radiance rhythmically covered it all, forming a nice little bubble that seemed to protect his body against the darkness around. Within, just like streets and avenues, blue veins covered his entrails, reaching out to every part of his body and meeting back right below his stomach. Traffic seemed okay, but he didn't have many reference points. Yet clearly, the blue energy went through these veins in cycles. And all over, like any good modern city, a smog fog churned, covering everything in a rotating layer of grayishness, condensing right over his heart where the storm of opalescent energy was raging.
It was a strange sight. One he had witnessed only a few times, and each time there had been something traumatic happening. Was this time any exception? No, it wasn't. Not unlike some movies he kind of remembered, a titanic monster had risen from the depth of his entrails, and was now standing right in the middle of his little glowing city. Unexpectedly, it was pretty peaceful, and hadn't noticed it moving since he'd arrived. Is it sleeping? he wondered, or is it just waiting for something? The titan didn't look like much, a blob of golden energy, a bit larger than two fists joined together. It hovered above his torso, bathed in golden radiance, MY golden radiance, he grumbled. A whole lot of golden lines, loops, and whatever else were drawn within and without the blob, and all seemed to converge in a little ball. As if that wasn't enough, a set of blue veins had found it a cool idea to wrap themselves around it. Add to that a so very weird little whitish tube, connected right to the storm of fog like a firefighter hose, and you had a pretty weird sight. What the hell is that? he wondered.
This was pretty tame, it didn't seem to do anything and just hovered there. It even extended his Soul bubble somewhat. He let it be. As if I could do something about it! And yet... maybe he could, after all, he had dealt with the weird ass proboscis. But something more urging was dragging his attention. Right below the monstrous blob, were the remains of the Worm's wound. It had been called a Mind Seeker, according to his Book's Tasks. He still needed to kill nine more to get some insight into their nature. AS IF, he shouted, a bit miffed.
There, the golden lines and whatever funny shapes they usually took were ruptured. The golden shape of his body marred. There was a mess of broken lines floating around, reddish mist, and corroding grayness. Everything floated, not unlike a broken satellite in space. Takeo drew nearer, a bit interested in this development. It was his body, after all, unlike the little fat blob, he seemed to be currently inhabiting. As he zoomed in, he had to part the way from the darkened pipes of otherwise golden energy or get pushed back by them. He had learned the trick from his previous interaction with the Mind Seeker, and Willed his hands to glow golden, and then along with fake kung-fu noises, he moved onward pushing the wreckage of his body aside.
He noticed that the reddish mist, was in fact present everywhere on his body, naturally or not, he didn't remember. But it was extra thick by the wound. I would have liked to be able to put notes in my Book, just right now... he idly lamented. The glow of his body changed a bit, before turning back to its usual brightness. That was something else he had noticed, his golden shine seemed to react fairly easily to his mood. He didn't quite know what to make of it. Another thing to add to the weird catalog of my life, he thought.
He reached the wound, and it was a mess. The broken strands of golden light got their ending grayish and eroded. With his mitten, he tried to touch it, only to break it further. He abstained from further experimentation, for now. As another wave of golden radiance spread throughout his body, something that was happening quite frequently, he noticed that the wave also jumped into the hole in his abdomen. That's weird, he thought. It covered the end of it, just where other, finer, golden threads were still intact, and climbed back up on the other end of the wound. But he noticed that the golden radiance had lost much of its power by the time it reached the other side. But, just like above his skin, a thin bubble membrane had appeared, within the wound space. It was a bit like a soap bubble and felt frail.
He sighed and flew out of there. This is depressing... He felt miserable and impotent. Feeling he was well acquainted with. His whole body shivered, and his Will flared, NEVER AGAIN! What was that little hole in my abdomen, compared to my previous state? Nothing! That's what! Strangely enough, it seemed to motivate the reddish fog, as it deepened. He didn't know how long this Stasis Ability would last, but it was supposed to fix his body. He looked at his two mitten hands, Maybe I could lend a hand? he wondered.
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He might have been a tad optimistic. Still, his intuition that the red fog was somehow linked to his regenerative ability wasn't unfounded. It had required him some tweaking of his sight, but he had found he could get a feeling of his meat and bone body. And that indeed the red fog was desperately trying to fix it. Which of course had been some great news. But it didn't allow him to help himself. No matter how shiny his hands were. Besides, there were other problems to deal with, inconsistencies he had noticed.
For one, the fog was doing it all wrong! Takeo wasn't a doctor, he hadn't even studied biology, even standard high schooler stuff. But he had been living in a hospital for five dreadful years and every day a host of doctors, no matter their specialty, went touring by his bedside as if he had been some sort of attraction. Thus he had learned a thing or two about the human body. It tried to fix the skin first, uncaring for everything that was broken below, how would that help? He had tried to Will it to do otherwise, but it was a no-go. The fog completely ignored him.
Then, there was the matter of the golden lines. Where they were broken, the red fog simply went down until it found some unbroken cables and continued its work there. That's not how it works! he had shouted, but to no avail. No amount of shouting, focusing, or Willing had changed anything about that either. Takeo despaired at seeing something that looked so great, so powerful, being so useless. Dispirited, he had gone back far above his body and looked beyond.
He wondered if he could wake up now. He was frustrated and lonely. He needed to talk to somebody, and hopefully understand what was going on down there. Not that he expected any of his companions to be able to shed some light on the matter. As he peered into the darkness he felt some sort of threshold. Intrigued, he pushed against it, and darkness faded away, replaced by another kind of darkness. His senses were suddenly aware of his surroundings once more, and he felt a bit dizzy. I guess I'm back, he thought.
"Oh, you came back quickly this time," a voice said. Takeo had to discipline himself not to turn his head. He was lying on the ground of the Mind Seeker's lair, by the dying fire Xander and Connor had lit. Not quite as comfortable as the Arena's sand floor, he lamented.
"Aye... It's boring in there," he replied trying to sound nonchalant. "How long was I under?" he asked. He tried to keep his voice steady, and low. He didn't want to move his abdomen much. He even tried to keep his breathing as shallow as possible.
"About two hours. You can control it?" Xander asked, interested. He wondered where Connor was, the cave wasn't that big, so he should have heard him. But that wasn't important enough to warrant a question.
"Yes, sort of," he replied. "I've so many questions." But he didn't ask them either, it would take too long to ask them properly. "Later."
Xander shrugged, "Can you sit and move about or?" he didn't finish his question. He wasn't convinced either. It was a bit of a gamble anyway.
"No, something is wrong." Thankfully his arms should be fair game, so long he didn't do too wide movement. He put his hand right above the wound. "The golden lines are broken there." He paused, slowly breathing. "The red fog can't fix the lines." He paused again. "Or doesn't for some reason." It was after all another possibility. Maybe it could fix them, but would only do so at a later date? He didn't know. "No lines, the healing takes place somewhere else." He shrugged, "Not appropriate." He sighed, "I don't know what to do." He looked at Xander, "I'm sorry."
Xander muttered some curse. Takeo mentally smirked, How unusual. He kept his calm, but he wasn't enjoying this situation, I'm sorry guys...
Xander sighed in defeat, "Alright, we'll drag you all the way to the next Haven if that's what it takes." He paused. "Now, we still need some of your help and then, we'll be on our way."
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After a long discussion, a bunch of analysis, and a countdown, for old time's sake, Takeo went under Stasis again. His friends were about to fight in a possible deadly Challenge, as it was a Red one, and he would have to stay in his bubble for the duration of it. He felt useless. He was happy they'd get him through the Doors, carrying him away and hopefully toward a Haven, but... that didn't make it any easier for him to accept.
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He looked back at his wounded body. Xander and Connor had explained that Deep Meditation was the key to understanding and working with all Energies. At least, as Ascenders. According to them, without Ascending Jade, none would respond to his call. But then he had made his mitten glow. Was it Soul Energy being manipulated? Or a normal, and usual behavior? They didn't know. They didn't even get what his form blobular form was. To their knowledge, one just saw their own energy body, as it was called when they were in Deep Meditation.
Another tidbit they revealed is that all Jades' effects could be witnessed in some way in there. His formless eyes darted toward Blobzilla over his chest, It means that that thing is probably one of my Jades. From the look of it, and the sheer complexity of it all, he guessed it was his Book's Jade. How strange... He already had had suspicions about his Books. Some stuff it did couldn't be as simple, or as roundabout, as it seemed. Take, for example, the fact that he could push things into it. Just like the Spatial Storage Ring.
But the Spatial Storage Ring didn't require one to "push things into the ring," they had only required him to think it, to Will it, "store", and stored it'd get. So why does my Book require me to push things into it? he had wondered. Besides, that wasn't even the first thing that had triggered his inquisitive mind. The first one was how it could react to his own thoughts. He could order it to move, turn pages, seek stuff, and even write in it. And then there was this corpse fascination. Why did it want him to kill monsters and bring their corpses to it? Even the giant fish from the Bear Challenge had triggered a Task. Like, as if I could bring it ten complete corpses of such Beast! And then, how was one to grab and push the damn thing into a Book, it had made no sense.
Of course, the easy solution would be to say "shut it, it's magic." But he wasn't satisfied with that. He wanted to know how it worked. One didn't need to be an engineer to understand how a car worked, or a computer, at least grossly. So he had wondered if he could do just like he had with the Spatial Ring, but with the Book instead. And it had worked. He had suspected he had gotten a Task for the Fish, and he did. It was a "Juvenile World Fish," according to his book. But the head didn't qualify for a full corpse. He looked at the blob that probably was his book and wondered where the fish's head was. I guess it's in there somewhere... he thought. I hope it is somewhere ELSE than in my body, he added. The thing had been huge...
Anyway... it does mean that this Jade, this Book, isn't as straight forward as I thought, he pondered. And if it isn't, then what can I do about it? How can I take advantage of it all?
His eyes fell on his wound and sighed. I can't do much about that for now. Maybe.
Suddenly, everything changed, on the outside. The world of endless blackness was gone, and a river of stars appeared. Billions of them, shining brightly with dashes of light coming and going between them. A giant network of he-didn't-know-what. And there, on the border of it, giants angry clouds of darkness were rumbling with purple lightning. It was breathtaking and terrifying at the same time. What is that? he wondered. Is that the Universe? He had seen pictures of galaxies, but this was something else. By the time he was beginning to take a closer look, it was gone, the blackness was back.
Does that mean... We just crossed the Doors? he wondered. He felt awful to feel relieved they hadn't betrayed him. He had to get rid of his eternal suspicion, he had decided to trust them, so trust them he would!
I hope they're alright...
And he went back to his observations.
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When he next emerged from his Stasis, he was staring at a giant moon. Somewhere beside him, he could hear kids whining and crying. A little girl sounded dejected, "You just can't leave us here, we'll die!" she shouted indignantly, then snorted. "You're a big meanie!"
What the hell is going on? he wondered.
Connor entered his field of vision and looked down at him. "Hey, pal!" he whispered. His joyfulness was clearly faked. "Please, don't care for their antics. They're just 'kids'," he explained with air quotes.
Seeing Takeo's frown, his friend sighed. "We'll have to explain that at some point. But not right now." He looked up to the Doors, and added, "Guess what?" he added a slight dramatic pause. "The Door leads to a Haven!"
Takeo's eyes widened, "Really?" he asked, surprised. He had been hoping for one, that's for sure, but he hadn't expected it.
Connor nodded, "Yeah, we're not out of the tunnels yet, but we're close." He paused, "Xander has asked me to fill you in about a few stuff that is going to happen once we get through the Door, so listen up."
Takeo nodded, "Sure." He could also hear Xander talking to the kids, trying to soothe them. But without success.
"Chances are, we'll have to go through a checkpoint, so you'll have to wake soon after we land on the other side of the Door, okay?" he asked. "Still, as nothing has gone as planned so far, we'll have to be ready for anything."
The wounded young man just shrugged, he could only agree. "Do I have something peculiar, to say at this checkpoint?" he asked, haltingly.
Connor shook his head, "More like think you shouldn't say... Honestly, the less you talk, the better. Just let me and Xander do the talking, okay? We'll have to reveal your status as a Newcomer though, that's a given and it should come with benefits for you, and maybe if we're lucky some for us too." He shrugged, "But... Things might be a bit complicated."
Takeo frowned, "What do you mean?" he asked.
"We haven't talked about this much, but your Seal is strange." Connor's eyes had drifted toward his gloved hand as if it could still see the animated GIF-like tattoo that was lying beyond it. "Seals, as far as we know, never behave like yours do. And secrets, like such things, cost a lot and can earn you a lot. So we'll have to be careful about it, to ensure you get the most out of it, alright?"
The young man wasn't sure what was in Connor's mind, but the guy was devious by nature so he probably knew what he was talking about. Besides he had had the same question about their static tattoo. So, it is mine that is the exception and not theirs? he wondered.
"Thus, we will request authorization from the Haven's Authority to get you in without a check," explained Connor. "It's a long shot and will raise some ruckus. But we've discussed it with Xander. We think it's the best course of action." He paused, "It will probably either entail an escort or an Oath, or something like that and might cost us some of our hard-earned Orbs. Or completely fail, of course." He shrugged, "But it's worth it, we think."
Takeo didn't quite understand what was going on, but he nodded. "Okay, I'll trust you guys."
Connor nodded appreciatively. "Oh, and you earned yourself a new carriage, along with a few Orbs and a Jade, by the way," he added. "It's a bit of a long story, but we'll tell you about it later."
Takeo nodded, "Okay." He was a bit curious but more than curious, he was antsy to get going. The Havens have been described to him as the ultimate safe places, where he could rest, recover, and learn everything he needed to to live in this new world. He was eager to get there. Still, he had an idea he wanted to try. It would occupy him somewhat during his time off. "Can you do me a favor?" he asked.
Surprised, Connor replied, "Well, sure?"
He mustered a bit of courage and asked, "Can you stab me in the arm?" Seeing the horrified look on his friend's face, he added, "Not a deep wound, just a scratch, please?"
"Why the hell would I do that?" Connor asked, a bit miffed. "Aren't broken enough?" he added, a bit sarcastically.
The young man knew it wouldn't be well received but he needed an example of a simple wound. "I need to see something," he explained. "Please?" he added with a pleading look.
Connor sighed, defeated. "If you insist... lunatic!" he added, shaking his head. He took out his dagger and looked at Takeo, "Any preference?" he asked. But the young man shrugged indifferently. "Alright, here goes nothing." He stabbed Takeo's arm, just below the elbow. It was painful, but the young man had already taken the pain under his arms and wrestled it into submission, so it wasn't too bad.
"Now, get back to sleep, just wake up in five minutes, if you can?" As Takeo nodded, Connor turned his head toward his friend. "We're ready, Xander. Let's get going!"
Takeo counted down, it didn't keep the fear away but made it somehow more palatable. I'm going to be okay, he thought. I'm going to be okay...
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Once again he had observed the river of the universe. Or whatever it was. They had somehow moved toward one of the borders, by the lightning clouds. He had tried to get a closer look, but either he was prevented or there was nothing he could do to that effect, he didn't know but hadn't been able to gleam anything new.
When he next emerged, the hot air was suffocatingly heavy with water. The ambient noise was deafening. And despite the calm faces of his friends, he knew something hadn't gone according to plan. Connor had set up something that was a weird mix between a wheelbarrow and a stretcher. Getting there hadn't been a cool experience, but he found it comfortable enough. Besides, what did he care about comfort, he would mostly stay in Stasis.
Still, he was a liability right now, at least in Stasis, he was a bit more durable than usual. So, as he counted down he let himself go into the darkness of the Deep Mediation once more.
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His new wound had been a revelation on multiple points. First, it had been a good example of a simple wound. And as he had surmised earlier, the red fog did indeed work to rejuvenate him. But the wound wasn't complicated enough to get some insight into its working, sadly.
The second, and most fun fact, was that the red fog didn't come out of nowhere. How unexpected... But instead was the product of the bright blue veins that crisscrossed his entire body. I guess it makes sense... he thought. Qi, if that's what it is, is supposed to be the energy of the body. So it stands to reason that to heal one would draw on his Qi... As for why he hadn't noticed it before, well that was easy. His abdominal wound was almost right above the abode of his Qi, his dantian. So it messed heavily with his ability to track down the blue energy.
Might also explain, why I can't Will it to do anything? he wondered. Maybe Qi doesn't respond well to Will but to something else? He didn't know. Also, he still wasn't positive that what he had done up until now had been Soul Manipulation either.
His last and most important observation however was troubling. The knife cut hadn't section any golden line, at all. He could feel the wound, and it went right through a few of these lines. Even the golden radiance didn't seem to notice the cut. What the hell? he wondered. Is it because it's a simple wound? he asked himself. Did that actually mean that the wound I received was somehow different?
But his musing was interrupted by something quite unexpected. From the outside world, a golden wave reached him. It was a bit like the golden radiance that was constantly flowing through his body, but it was different, alien. More than that, it was powerful. His bubble shook under the assault, pressured by the incoming wave. And just like that, it popped. He felt the foreignness invade his body, going through his everything, and then it was gone. The next instant his bubble popped back in place.
What the hell? he wondered. Did somebody just scan us? With a frown, he looked outward. I must warn them. He woke himself up.
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But he didn't have time to warn them, by the time he opened his eyes, he could see an old grandmother. No, even older than that. This woman should be held in a museum... She was standing fine as a flower, despite her age, on a single leg, firmly set on top of a stone pike that littered their current location. She was wearing a very colorful poncho, and a tall square hat, fastened to her head. Her face was so wrinkled he had trouble getting a sense of where her eyes were. She cackled.
"So, what are you youngster about?" she asked. "You're not from around here, are you?" she added, with a knowing smile.