Tale of Eldramir

The shock of Warren’s ascension had finally worn off, and for a time Ezekiel just sat with him. They talked about what had inspired Warren to make his breakthrough, as well as the decision that had to be made when he and Theo had opened their sixth Chakra.

“I hadn’t been certain of it at first. It was actually Theo that presented this choice to me.” A little lion composed purely of Radiant mana, a construct, not a Spirit, laid in Warren’s lap. “My body is now composed of the pseudo-flesh that all Spirits are made of. Two is now purely a voice inside my head that can manifest when I need assistance in casting spells.”

Warren’s figure had shrunk to the same size that he was before, and a cloth-like weave of Radiant mana wrapped around him. It seemed like he was immune to the effects of their environment.

“I still don’t understand... What did you do to fuse your soul with your mana? What was the process? What steps were involved? Did it just happen, or did you do something to keep yourself together when you disintegrated your body?” Ezekiel was probing his father’s body with his mana, with permission, while Headren’s skeleton flew them through the Paths atop another, smaller, island of fake earth.

“I don’t recall things fully. I honestly don’t know if this method will work for you either.” Warren frowned and Ezekiel pulled back to focus on what he was saying. Shine doesn’t have a pseudo-flesh body, being metallic, physically, so it might not be possible for you to do this.”

The guilt on Warren’s face annoyed Ezekiel. His father had reached an unheard-of level of existence. One only thought to have been achievable by the original creations of Eldramir.

“Your method is already more than enough for me to get an idea of how to start. My soul is definitely powerful enough to make the breakthrough. I just need to find my sixth Chakra and figure out how to make a body from scratch...” Ezekiel trailed off as ideas passed through his mind.

This hadn’t been what he had expected when it came to the energy cultivation method of reaching Tier six, but it made sense. The Ancients were Spirits, so they wouldn’t have been composed of flesh and bone like humans and Cruor were.

If, using the knowledge of body fused with soul equals Tier six was applicable to energy, then this was likely the best course of action. But what concerned Ezekiel was the level of power that his father had. It was only the barest level of Tier six. More than what he had but given the amount of mana that was used in the breakthrough, he couldn’t help but think that there should’ve been more.

“Well... What I can tell you for certain is that your soul needs to be strong, and you need to have something to hold onto. I think that’s what your [Truth] is really for. It's an anchor that keeps your soul in shape when the blast of mana from the sixth Chakra opens.” Warren looked wistful as he gazed into the distance, seemingly at nothing, but Ezekiel could see flickers of light glimmering in his eyes. “I realized something, while I was reconstituting my body... The Chakras aren’t just valves, or gates that open you up to grant you more power... They’re also limiters, ones that only appear when you are capable of handling the power that they will grant you, as well as shields to protect you from external forces.”

For a second, Ezekiel just stared at him in blank-faced confusion. Warren’s words weren’t making sense, because his descriptions seemed to be the same thing.

Ezekiel realized that his confusion must’ve been visible on his face, because his father continued to explain. “When I opened my sixth Chakra... my connection to the world around me became far greater.”

An ocean of light appeared around them, not affecting them at all, but appearing like a blanket of water that flowed around them. This control was something that Ezekiel was amazed to see, because the light was not acting like he knew light to act.

“Having reached this level, my mana is more a measure of the amount of energy stored inside me, creating my existence. I can use it to supercharge my magic and perform feats far greater than any currently on record, but in truth, feats like this... anything on the level of a Mythical being or below, is an exercise of [Will] not mana.”

The explanation was somewhat unclear, but it was enough for Ezekiel to understand. If he were to change it to terms from his past life, his mana was no longer the fuel for his spells, it was the measure of his health. His MP had become his HP, while his soul was the force that directly controlled his magic.

“That’s amazing... is this just instinctive knowledge? Like what Spirits get when they advance, or have you somehow been testing this, even though we haven’t taken our eyes off you since your breakthrough?” A part of Ezekiel felt guilty for grilling his father like this, but he needed to know that everything was alright.

Additionally, he kept himself emotionally neutral, because another part of him flared up in warning when he thought about taking this path forward. He couldn’t help but feel like this method had its own limitations, and taking it would lock him in, preventing any other means of going forward.

Not unlike how those that broke through to Tier five using the old method, before [Truths] were figured out, meant that they were lucky to reach Step two. In truth, their ability to progress was forever cut off, unless they had a significantly higher power that was able to literally put their soul back together, which became more and more difficult as a being’s power grew.

From his own experiences, it took at least a two-Tier gap for a shattered soul to be repaired.

“In all honesty,” Warren said, drawing Ezekiel’s attention back to him, “I think it’s a bit of both... I don’t know what my limitations are, but I know how I’m using magic, and my spells aren’t using mana. Not mine, at least. I’m not sure how this differs from how body refiners ascend. What their fused soul and body result in... but whatever it is must’ve matched what I’m now capable of.”

Ezekiel pondered that, and like a bolt of lightning, an idea struck him.

“Your [Truth], which was basically engraved into your soul, is now a part of your body... It’s basically a passive expression of your [Will] telling the world who, what, you are. Thus, it would take the active force of a [Will] greater than your own to overcome it and disrupt your body’s composition.” Thoughts and sparks of possibilities passed through his mind as he slowly entered into a state of enlightenment. “That’s why the environment isn’t affecting you... the [Will] infused in the mana that is ever present in Eldramir’s Spirit Pathways is entirely unconscious, so the full force behind it isn’t pushing down on you. Thus, it merely washes around you... You’re the giant boulder in the water that splits the river, while I’m just a pebble getting tossed about... With only my [Understanding] of the Void... of the world, to protect myself... You are what you are, while I’m just borrowing right now...”

To the side, Ezekiel, Headren’s skeleton, and the little Death Spirit hiding behind it, watched silently as Ezekiel began to glow with opalescent light. His muttering grew more fierce and rapid.

A wide eyes smile spread across Warren’s face, even as the Theo construct on his lap faded away. Had he been able to focus on it, Ezekiel would’ve recognized the look of pride coming from his father. It was even grander than the ones he got when he was a child.

“If that’s the case, then that’s how the body and soul are fused together as well... If it worked for the soul and mana, then it should be fine...But it would be much harder... A process that would take weeks, months, years... The use of the [Truth] intrinsic to my souls, as an anchor to tie it to my body... Slowly, my soul would be pulled to my body, and the two would integrate one another... Eventually this would lead to body and soul becoming one...” The light of his mana was now nearly blinding as it spread through his body. “At which point... the difference between that and what you did... It would be the difference between internal power, and external authority... Power from the self, versus power over the world around them... Then does Tier seven mix the two together?”

Just as the last few words left his mouth, Ezekiel closed his eyes. His mind sinking inwards, and his mana slowly diffusing throughout his body. His [Truth] tied his body to his soul.

No longer did his soul simply inhabit his body as the ephemeral organ that contained the mana that he had cultivated for thirty years. Its existence now overlaid his physical form, and in turn they both became more powerful.

The time it would take to be completed was unknown, both to him and everyone else in the world, but another step had been taken. Now he just had to see how far he would get in the short amount of time he currently had.

Not only that, but he would need to figure out the other missing components to his breakthrough. For, while he was certain he was going in the right direction, he could tell that there was more that he needed if he didn’t want to take whatever shortcut his father had.

However, that could come later, when he awakened from his enlightenment, and had time to go over everything in more detail.

----------

Ezekiel’s glowing form took up most of the attention of those that were with him, but after a few seconds, and being unable to tell what was going on, they turned away. Headren’s skeleton went back to maneuvering the island to find the nest of Death Spirits, while Warren turned to Shine.

“So... I think that there’s no better chance for me to address this,” his voice was low, and Shine turned to him, the flat of their blade displaying their avatar.

“What is it?” the Void Spirit asked.

“Simply put, it’s what I didn’t tell Ezekiel. Specifically, the fact that Theo didn’t give me a choice when it came to my ascension.” His eyes turned down and an aura of sadness emanated from him. “In truth, while it would’ve been impossible for us to fully separate due to how intermingled our Spirit Paths were, it would’ve been possible for us to remain as two separate souls.”

“... What do you mean? Theo was right here. You said that he could manifest whenever he wanted to.” There was a panic that filled Shine’s voice, but Warren knew that he couldn’t let the Spirit’s concern hold him back.

“Theo’s soul was subsumed by mine. He forcibly fused together parts of our souls after we had figured out our [Truths]. I had originally thought that he would exist alongside mine, and in a way, I am, but in truth, while my mind is a perfect merger between our souls, it is Warren Luminance that is the predominant personality.” A sense of guilt welled up inside him. If he had known that the voice of his Spirit would have disappeared after the merger, he would have fought this outcome more actively.

“But he was just here!?” Shine didn’t seem to want to believe it.

“That was just a construct. A hyper realistic one that I created. Don’t forget, I don’t need my mana to use my magic. Now listen!” Warren raised his voice, causing Shine to snap to attention, no longer leaning to the side. “If it comes down to it..., will you sacrifice yourself for Ezekiel?”

“Of course!” Shine’s voice had an indignant tone but was filled with cracks as he partially quailed under Warren’s Ancient might.

“Then here is what you need to know, in order to force the ascension to Tier six... At the cost of your soul becoming the anchor that holds Ezekiel’s together during his breakthrough.” Holding out his hand, Warren let the knowledge that he had gained from Theo’s sacrifice flow through him and into Shine.

It detailed how the sheer force of the sixth Chakra was too much for them to handle individually, so Theo had used his own soul to keep Warren’s unharmed. The Spirit’s memories, their essence, mixed into the mana itself, but lost its consciousness. His [Truth] not strong enough to withstand it, but was content in the end, having stayed true to himself, and fulfilled his purpose.

“I don’t know if it will work for Ezekiel.” Warren shook his head and removed his hand from Shine. “He is somehow walking the path of a body refiner, in addition to the path of an energy cultivator. Not impossible, as far as I know, but I can’t imagine it’s easy. If he succeeds, then it might not be possible for you to do this. It might not be needed either, but in the event you two are in a bad situation when you return to the physical world, this will be the key to pushing him forward, and making sure that he survives.”

For a moment, shine was silent while they processed the information they had received.

“... I understand... If it comes down to it, I will sacrifice myself to open Ezekiel’s sixth Chakra, and make sure that he survives his breakthrough.” Shine no longer flinched under Warren’s gaze. The possibility of keeping his partner alive was enough to reinforce his determination. “But, sir, why does it sound like you’re not coming back with us? With you there, the Cruor don’t stand a chance.”

This had been the question that Warren had wanted to avoid. Even more so than the questions about Theo and his ascension.

“... Do you honestly believe that you will be able to open a rift wide enough for me to fit through? My existence is too heavy. My presence is disruptive. Even if I restrained myself as much as possibly could, you don’t have the mana to carry me through the Void anymore. If I am to leave, Ezekiel will need to reach Tier six first. However, I don’t think that either of you have time for that to happen right now. Especially if the problem here is as bad as we expect it to be.”

He looked at Headren's skeleton with a glare, but the Mythical Death user just glanced back at Warren before focusing on his task once more. There was no emotion in that gaze, unlike the many times before, where his aura conveyed his thoughts and feelings.

“That isn’t something to worry about right now though. Instead, I need you to focus on keeping this information secret from Ezekiel. If he finds out that he can’t get me out of here, then he might delay things for too long. We can’t afford to wait for him to break through.”

Shine’s avatar nodded, though the thin line of their mouth was curved into a frown. “I don’t like it, but fine. I’ll keep this a secret. If I dedicate myself to finding his sixth Chakra, I can probably hide it behind my work. Though, you know how perceptive he is. It’s possible he already knows you were keeping things from him.”

“I am aware... For now, all we can do is hope, and take what precautions we can. That will have to be enough.” With a sigh, Warren flinched before gazing into the distance, then sat down once more.

He allowed his [Domain] to take form around them. A shimmer of light kept them safe, though, it was clear that neither Headren’s skeleton nor Shine knew why he had done this.

“What are you doing?” the skeleton asked.

“My senses go further than yours. I am keeping us hidden from the massive swarm that is headed our way. I would suggest that you find some sort of nook for us to bunker down in. Even I’m not certain how long I would last against the sheer numbers headed our way. Especially with the beacon here announcing our presence to all.” He gestured with a hand over his shoulder at Ezekiel.

Headren gave him a strange look, as if he couldn’t comprehend how difficult the swarm could be. Which, to be fair, made sense, since the skeleton had been dealing with the rogue Death Spirits for years now. But this was different.

Previously, when asked, Headren’s skeleton had said that the previous swarm was a large one.

Given that what Warren was sensing was nearly ten times larger, and they still weren’t at the heart of the nest, he knew that Headren’s information wasn't up to date.

Either something had changed, or the Wild Death Spirits were more intelligent than Headren had expected. This number was huge, and Warren feared what it would mean for them, and what they would have to face.

In the distance, a small dot, nearly pitch black in color, but with hints of indigo flickering within it, slowly grew larger.

----------

The first thing that Ezekiel noticed when he came back to awareness was the fact that there was no light. Even if there weren’t any specific light sources, the ambient light from their environment was still enough for them all to see without specific light sources.

“I see you’re awake. Good. I need you to imbue your [Shroud] with the barrier that I’ve put up. I’m maintaining it for now, but we need something to ensure that they won’t be able to find us by accident again.” Thought he couldn’t see him with his eyes, Ezekiel recognized his father’s voice.

The urgency that laced it made him snap to attention and react instinctively.

“Was Shine not enough to help without me?” Ezekiel reached through his bond with his Spirit, finding that they were lying on the ground just a few feet away.

A flow of mana filled with the [Understanding] of [Nothingness] became imbued with Warren’s barrier. This [Nothingness] was twisted, however, because Ezekiel had forcibly applied his [Will] to make it project a sense of ‘Nothing is here’ to any who got close to it.

So long as they weren’t a Mythical being, they would be unable to acknowledge that there was anything within the area of the island that they were all floating on.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Shine said with a sheepish tone. “I just tried to keep us hidden while Headren found an offshoot path for us to hide in while the swarm moved past us.”

“It’s fine. This isn’t the most obvious choice to make anyways.” Ezekiel waved off Shine’s words and focused on the task at hand.

Given that it was almost completely dark, that meant that the number of Death Spirits must’ve been massive. Especially since the buzzing from before couldn’t be heard. So, they weren’t anywhere near the island.

“Why didn’t we try fighting them off? I’m sure that you could’ve taken out an army of Legendary Spirits. Even I can, so long as the numbers aren’t too great.”

Warren just held up his hands and created a lens-like construct that showed a scene several kilometers away from them. Then swiveled it to show a similar scene in every direction.

While he couldn’t sense them from this distance, Ezekiel could tell that the average level of the majority of the swarm was the Adept Tier, but a large number was still in the Legendary Tier. This was greater than just an army. This was a planetary population. There were even a few Mythical Spirits mixed in. Though the ratio was incredibly skewed.

“... How is this possible? It should take years, decades, for anyone to reach Tier five. I’m an exception because of... weird circumstances, same with you and Riley, but this is ridiculous.” He gestured to his father, and for the first time in a while, Ezekiel felt utter fear at the situation.

Not even Radiant Chaos had been this terrifying. Though, he actually had a feasible plan at that time. This time, not so much.

“Now you see why we’re so worried. We’re only at the periphery of the nest, but this is far greater than anything that even Headren’s skeleton had ever seen before.” Warren looked to the skeleton, who was gazing silently into the distance. “This is only an assumption on my part, but I think that the Spirits we’ve seen before this were merely exiles... Offshoots that weren’t accepted into the central nest as a whole. Which would explain why they were so fewer in number.”

A part of Ezekiel accepted that explanation, but a bigger part of him had a terrifying thought, based on what he knew of natural insects, both on Eldramir and on Earth.

“That’s one option... But I think that there’s another one that’s more terrifying and more likely at the same time...” Warren and Headren turned to him while Shine shifted closer to him. “In those other groups, was there ever a single Spirit that seemed to be in command? One that the others fought viciously to protect whenever you fought them off?”

Headren’s skull tilted to the side for a moment. “Yes, there were... I figured that they were simply the leaders. Why do you ask?”

“Did the rest of the swarm become listless, almost like living corpses, once this leader was killed?” That sense of fear and worry was growing larger. “Like they had lost all direction, and no longer had the will to fight?”

“... Yes, they did. What does that mean?” Headren moved over to where Ezekiel was standing with Warren and Shine. “Do you know something about this?”

Ezekiel sighed and sat down, cradling his head in his hands. “It’s a hive mind... These Spirits that we’re seeing don’t have souls of their own... They’re like Forest Spirits. A central soul and consciousness that doesn’t move but can control multiple bodies. Those so-called exiles, or scouting groups, were actually nascent nests being sent off into different parts of Eldramir’s Spiritual Pathways, to set up homes of their own. That’s why killing their leaders killed off the rest of them. The leader was the only one that was actually a Spirit. A baby queen sent to make a new home, and eventually grow in size to this one.”

Warren seemed to pale when Ezekiel mentioned Forest Spirits. While he wasn’t sure what was meant by hive-mind, he knew what a Forest Spirit was, so the thought of fighting one of those, one that could create Mythical bodies at that, was alarming.

“So... you’re saying that this is not the only nest... That, even if we destroy it, nothing will change!” Anger filled Headren’s voice, and the stench of death permeated the area. “No matter how many we kill, they’ll just spawn more, with no end in sight. Eldramir will die within the next century if that is the case.”

Warren stepped forward, putting himself between Ezekiel and Headren. His own aura flowed to keep Headren’s contained so as to not give away their position.

“I didn’t say that. If anything, while killing the soldiers and fodder won’t do anything, this makes things easier in a way. After all, we only have to kill one of them.” The others looked over to him in confusion. “Like you said, once the leaders died, the rest lost their will to fight, so all we need to do is kill their leader, and the rest will drop and be easy pickings.”

The next thing Ezekiel knew, he was looking at a skeleton that seemed to be smiling, which was strange, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he was hallucinating.

“Yes... That could work! With you [Shroud] we can simply enter the hive and assassinate the leader. Then the rest will simply die... They’ll fade away within hours... faster if we encourage it.”

As much as he was happy to see Headren’s mood lifted, he knew he would have to drop it again. Though, it seemed like his father had already figured out the rest of the bad news.

“Ezekiel... Forest Spirits can only make bodies that are weaker than themselves... There are Mythical... bodies, in that swarm...”

Ezekiel flinched when his father said this, and Headren snapped his skull around once more.

“Yeah... that means that there’s likely an Ancient Death Spirit in the center of this nest... One that isn’t going to be kind, like the original one was.”

This time, there was no outburst, just a clattering sound as Headren fell to the ground, bones bouncing around, and miasma seemingly fading.

Seeing this, Ezekiel wished he could do the same. It looked like getting home was going to take longer than he’d thought.