Luke and Sean ran for another few hours without taking a break. By this time Luke felt the strain on his whole body. The only feeling that he could aquitate it to was when wrestling there were times they had to do a hell week. This consisted of two weeks of Intense physical exertion followed by an easier week of skill training. These two weeks allowed those on the team the best chance of getting back in shape, but it was also a team building time period where everyone suffered in a sense together.
The memory was a welcome one, he hadn’t thought of home much, or about his friend Ben or his Mom as much as he felt he should. Though wrestling came to mind, thoughts of the closest people in his life did not. He was wondering if maybe the world had an effect on his mental state. It took only a moment for him to agree to his own thoughts. Of course he wasn't doing well. By Earth’s standards he was an alien and outcast that had been living umong what before this week was considered normal in his life.
Now he was running at the speed of a car, with a man that supposedly was his parents' disciple in some way. Everything about this scenario was messed up and he knew he couldn’t kid himself into thinking that everything was going to turn out alright, and just on cue he managed to lose focus enough for his leg not to come up enough to bypass the little rocky outcropping he was supposed to be jumping over.
His body fell, rolled, and managed to hit every little tree root in the forest. Or so that's what it felt like. As he laid there, breathing intensely, nursing more his ego than his body Sean approached him.
“Well you exceeded my expectations for the day if I am being honest. I thought you wouldn’t have made it half that distance. Your body is at its limits I can tell”.
“What do you mean, I can still sense that I have enough essence reserves to keep going. Just let me take a moment and we can keep going”. Luke said while trying to get up.
Trying was all he was able to do because as he tried to get his legs working properly and stand up, his legs couldn’t be forced. As he sat there continuously trying to get his legs to cooperate, and his body had time to settle he noticed that it wasn;t just his legs but his arms felt extremely heavy as well.
“It's called Essence Fatigue, essentially your body is at its limit and can;t be enhanced until it has had a period of rest. Most individuals who have grown up here and have practiced enhancing their bodies could go for days without it happening. However with you just learning the concept your body hasn’t caught up to the use”>
Luke's only thought wasn’t that this was happening but what if in the future it might happen. “So what you're saying is that my body, if pushed for extended periods of time, will just give out on me. What about those who use abilities”?
Sean gave him an assessing look, “I have to admit, you are asking all the right questions. Those who use abilities combined with enhancing their bodies do see more of a burden put on their bodies. Remember what I said before: our body is a medium for our Soul. That medium can wear down. There have been those in the past who reach beyond their bodies limitations. Those as a recruit trying to harness the power and intricacies of those in the Gold. They may have the potential, and the expert knowledge of how but their bodies can’t withstand the strain and they burn up the medium leaving their soul to be consumed by the world”.
Luke looked at the now sitting Sean, not moving from his spot as his legs still betrayed him at every effort. “ So not only do I not have abilities, but the one thing that could have pushed me further was to enhance my body, but now I can;t even do that to match those I will have to fight”.
“Your body will adapt eventually, the more you push it the longer you will be able to enhance it, and the degree to which you can too. Every Morning from here on out we will train your body. I will use some of my abilities to put pressure on you to hopefully increase the strain enough to build up your tolerance without breaking you. This we will have to do on top of traveling of course”.
“How in the hell am I going to surve all of that? I can't even use my legs right now, god forbid a creature or even a squirrel attack me right now. I would be dead”
Sean looked at him with a weird expression, slowly gathering nearby wood to make a fire. “What on earth is a squirrel”?
Luke metaphorically hitting himself in the face, realized that while some things may seem similar to that on Earth that not everything would carry over.
“It's a little forest critter, grey or red, with fur. That lives in trees no bigger than that small log next to you”, Luke pointing at the log Sean was about to toss in the fire.
“I see” Was all Sean said, as he stopped what he was doing and took off faster than Luke could have thought possible.
As Luke sat there he noticed an invisible pressure he hadn’t before lifted off of him. It was different from the feeling of Essence all around him, more like something that weighed him down, but out of his reach. Then the sounds he thought should fill a normal forest came to his senses.
The leaves bristled in the wind, bringing the sound of animals within the trees. He heard the breaking of branches far off that could be larger animals seeking out of their prey. Then he heard what sounded like growling, and almost a scream like. The forest around him came alive. It sounded primal in a way like nothing man made had ever touched this place.
Then the sound seemed to dissipate, and the feeling of something encompassing the surrounding Luke was sitting in snapped back into place. He felt it more now that he was looking for it. It had a hint of essence to it. Just as he was trying to think more on the feeling he noticed Sean making his way back to the little place they had decided to set up camp at. Well the place Sean did as Luke was just now getting feeling back into his legs.
Stolen story; please report.
As Luke watched Sean get close, she noticed some odd creature in his hand. One could say it was squirrel-like. However, it looked more rodent-like, with large canines, and powerful looking legs. Add those with a short tail that was anything but bushy, instead replaced with what looked like a stinger seen on a scorpion.
“These are called primas, they were not native to this world to begin with but were actually world ending beasts. They breed and breed. Typically a litter of them could have 50 born by the females. They ended up coming to this world from the Void. They did a number on some of the factions but eventually a strong enough essence user was able to wipe out a large number of them. Occasionally some will survive, and I happen to sense one when we were stopping”.
“You're telling me that's what you thought of when I described a squirrel? That's absolutely terrifying”. Luke said as he watched Sean throw it in the now lit fire between them.
“Well we don’t typically have kind creatures here. This world isn’t full of animals that you can live cohesively with. Typically they spawn from void pockets and either find a way to live in this world or don’t. I will however tomorrow let you see what it is like without the protection circle around us tomorrow. There are things that I will keep away from you but you must see what the world is really like”.
“That's what I felt before wasn’t it when you walked away, you took the sphere down”? Luke looked at Sean expectantly thinking back to the feeling he had felt before when he had the chance to actually be a part of the forest.
“Yes, I have used my aura that's been infused with a touch of Essence to carry it further around us. It gives us a good buffer from those that may prey on weaker individuals. This part of the land is not under a Dominion so a lot of the animals have free reign over this landscape. Unless they run into some like us, or a campaign most of these creatures can live here preying on weaker ones”.
At this point Lukes legs were finally working and he was able to slowly get to his feet. On wobbly legs he managed to take a closer seet to the fire using his hands to slowly work out the muscles in his legs letting the fire warm them up to make them more comfortable.
Seeing as Sean wasn’t saying anymore he felt like he could ask another question. “So instead of burning that creature could you have technically eaten it. I know you said that our bodies no longer need food in the sense it would if there was no essence. But can we still eat?”
“I mean yea you can, however, I will warn you if you were to eat that prima that I had brought earlier. It has no place to go. It would burn up in your body. It can’t be used as energy. Now if you were to eat again in a very low essence world you would be fine but then all of your organs would kick back into overdrive to work properly.”
“So what you're saying is if I eat something and then suddenly go into a pocket world with a huge lack of essence then I might have to shit again.”
“You won't only have to use the bathroom, but all of your organs will kick into overdrive to keep you alive. The sensation is 100x worse than being filled with essence and your organs going dormant”.
Luke thought back to when he first entered the world the pain was like anything he had ever felt before. Like his body was breaking in unimaginable ways to the point that he had passed out.
“Well let's avoid that then, forget I asked”. Luke said, thinking more about the pain.
“You may not have that option to be honest, thankfully over the years I have only been to two worlds in which there was an extreme lack of essence and that was due to essence corruption from a God who destroyed his home planet. The world was beyond dead, and only lasted for a brief time and then off to the void”.
“What exactly is the void? I can kind of get it from the context of our conversations that it seems like the void is all around us or whether planets. You had said or maybe it was my mom that when a plaent dies it is brought back intot he void and during this time it can turn into a pocket world”? Luke asked, confused by his own interpretation.
“To put it simply, the void contains essence. The void is what lies between planets. It has an abundance of essence but nothing for that essence to affect or act upon. This world is different though, I can’t tell you how or why it happens. You learn more about it when you learn the history of the gods when you're at the Academy but, this world has a thin veil when it comes to the void. Other planets as they become corrupted, or the essence that holds them within the void becomes unstable the veil lifts and that world can permeate into this one. When that happens we can enter that other planet for a duration of time, or in some cases the veil opens sporadically and other things come through. It is said that's why multiple Gods came to this world. It allowed them to touch upon many other worlds to increase their strength”.
“How is the duration someone can travel to this other world, and what if the veil closes” Luke asked thinking that was one quick way for a death.
“Those trained with the space affinity can anchor the dying world to this one, severely increasing the length we can travel. It's not an exact science but once an anchor is established they have an intamate knowledge about the collapse of that world. I do not share the Affinity so I do not know how it works. Those with the affinity are highly coveted and trained by various Dominons as you can guess.
“What happens though if you do get stuck there, or what if you find a way to get away from here say leave a domion by jumping ship. I mean some may find it better to find their own way than be esssentially slaves to a God”.
Just as Luke finished the last word, his chest lit up in white hot agony. He collapsed ont he ground rolling around. Sean seeing him hold his chest approached Luke.
“Get those thoughts out of your head now”, he said yelling at Luke over his struggles.
“You need to not think of actions that may be directly considered as heretical to the gods. That mark that binds you to their dominion makes it so if you have any stray thoughts or actions that go against the betterment of the dominion or God as whole they will use that link to hurt you”.
Luke was barely listening, the thought of escape was too much of an idea on his mind. He didn’t want to be here, and after listening to Sean explain they had the chance to see other worlds. Dying or not it seemed like a prime opportunity to escape his fate. The pain was unbearable, Luke's vision started to blur he couldn’t help wanting to leave. He was forced into this without knowing anything. He wanted to just go home. The thoughts of his mom, and Ben at the forefront of his brain he passed out.
Sean looked at Luke slumped on the ground knowing he wouldn’t die but tomorrow was going to be a long one. The Heretical rebound often left a nasty headache. He remembered his first like it was yesterday, shuddering, he remembered passing out too. He would have to not only explain more about the Void, and pocket worlds tomorrow but training was a must. He needed Luke to be ready, if not he wouldn’t be able to think heretical he would be dead instead.