Chapter 105: Matters of the Soul
“To think this is what you’ve been after all along…”
“How could you Rainer…” Luna said with a sniffle.
Rainer let out another groan as he held his face in his hands.
“Hey guys, take it easy on him,” Sarah spoke up, putting a hand on his shoulder.
My lovely sister…
“Rainer, I don’t mind you adding your wife’s mother to your harem but our mother is definitely off limits.”
Give me back my brotherly feelings!
He should have expected his sister to tease him about body enchanting Kara’s mother, but Luna and Kara were another thing. How could his lovely Fairy betray him!
“I prefer men stronger than me, so when you’re ready, we’ll have a duel first. And then another duel.”
And then there was Vera joining in on the ‘fun’.
Unless he wanted to be teased for weeks on end, Rainer knew what he had to do. With a look of steeled determination he stood up and tried to kiss Vera. The woman herself stumbled back in surprise.
“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” Rainer said with a chuckle as he left the room. He still had many more Werewolves to enchant.
Rainer toyed with an Arcane-weave ball in his hands. The calm Divine Power inside gave him pause. [Sleep Learning] or otherwise, any attempts to detect it had failed. You could feel it’s power, sure, but you couldn’t intentionally detect it. It was the difference between knowing someone was alive through sight, and actually detecting the life energy flowing through their Soul and body. They couldn’t be compared.
Hence now only him, his Avatar, Luna, Gunthar, and his ‘Shadow Brother’ stayed in Neutral City with any regularity, though they didn’t sleep there. Everyone else lived in Furtak’s place - said Goblin was usually in the Fae Realm - or with the Werewolf tribe. His Avatar was on ‘retainer’ for whenever someone needed to travel, usually Elelaria. Otherwise, it worked on enchanted items to sell.
Gunthar, along with Luna’s shadowy familiar, spent most of his time in the monster infested mountains near Neutral City, occasionally accompanied by Kara who was otherwise training with Vera and her grandmother.
True to the danger around it, Rainer had been called in nine times in the past month and a half to bail the Undead out. Three of those times the monster gave even Rainer fear and had it not been for [Void-walking], he was pretty sure it have been impossible to escape. Even with teleportation.
Was it any wonder few bothered training this way? Gunthar was of course being far less discrete and careful than anyone else would be, but it still showed just how dangerous it was to level quickly.
The more populous an area was with lesser monsters, the stronger the monsters there would be in the end. Let alone in the Mana-infused mountains that cause monsters to be berserk. In a normal hunting area, it wasn’t strange for a group of hunters to meet so few monsters that getting to level 10 in their lifespan was just a dream.
Rainer returned back to staring at the orb, an indignant Jor around his shoulders eyeing it with hunger. An illusory dab of drool dripped onto Rainer’s clothes.
“Can Luna try burning it,” the Fairy asked curiously, her inner pyro showing. She was in her full form, leaning over his shoulder.
Jor gave her a glare before huffing and turning away. The serpent was the definition of a glutton.
“Don’t worry buddy, I’ll feed you entire G.o.ds soon enough,” Rainer said, scratching under Jor’s chin before turning to Luna, “You can try later, but leave some for Jor.”
“Rainer likes playing with his snake rather than with Luna.” He could ‘hear’ her pouting without even turning around.
Rainer chuckled, “That’s definitely not the case.”
He vanished and grabbed the Fairy from behind eliciting a squeal.
Francis grinned as he looked at the shocked faces of his mother and grandfather. The more he explained, the more their expression warped. He started from the very beginning, making sure to over-exaggerate how much danger Rainer was in as revenge against his twin. No doubt their mother would over-baby Rainer when they finally meet again.
Francis was confused as he suddenly found himself hugged way too tightly by his mother.
“I don’t care what Rainer says, you are my son. And you are your own person. I’m not going to let you die.”
He was momentarily stunned as he wondered if he should clear up this misunderstanding. Deciding it would be a bit too much for a ‘prank’...
“It’s not that simple,” he opted to explain and halfway into his explanation felt uncomfortable by the determined look his mom gave him. He didn’t need or want her help. He was fine with his future. It wasn’t as if he was truly dying. Their souls were simply re-combining.
“Then you can just give him another [Sleep Learning] s.p.a.ce,” Sophia said as she looked towards Frederick.
“I wish it was so simple. I gave Rainer the only one I had.”
“What?” Francis asked, interested despite himself. He never did learn where exactly the s.p.a.ce came from. He had only learned a spell formula and then his grandfather did some magic with his hands pressed against him.
“Put in the simplest terms, I created the s.p.a.ce from my connection to the Arcanium. I used its power to create a place of natural laws, but unfortunately it was never perfect enough to practice magic with.”
“But it is now,” Francis said before explaining how he got so powerful so fast alongside the system which was mentioned in his earlier stories. They both gave dubious looks at that to which he explained that life without the system was just as foreign a concept to that world’s citizens.
“Fascinating! How-”
“So make another one,” Sophia interrupted with a glare.
“Created was the wrong term. Modified is more accurate. The s.p.a.ce originated from an artifact I came across. It was in a ruin that could only be unlocked with Arcane Power. The s.p.a.ce itself was originally an item to put your living knowledge in, a means of pa.s.sing on magical knowledge in a ‘physical’ - or perhaps virtual would be more accurate - way. I changed it to what it became and merged with it.”
“It could teach runes and spells?”
“Yes… which is why my modification that technically downgraded it was a great disappointment. I had hoped to use it to practice magic. Yet the s.p.a.ce I created and merged into my Soul could only mirror natural laws enough to practice common skills. Though it seems you accomplished what I could not,” Frederick said, burning with questions. But not so burning that’d he’d risk getting Sophia any more mad at him. And perhaps risk physically burning. When you had magic, ‘fiery redhead’ took on a whole new meaning.
“So find another stone.”
“The stone isn’t the important part. It’s what was done to it. Compared to the work on the stone, my t.i.tle of Grandmaster Enchanter is like studying French for a few years and then claiming I have a PhD in mathematics. Though no doubt the stone would be rare in and of itself. I have never seen anything like it.”
“Mom,” Francis said firmly, “I appreciate the sentiment. Really, I do. But it’s not like I’ll be dying. I’ll just be returning to one being again. He’ll have all my memories, and maybe even part of the personality of what I’ve become.”
Besides, Francis didn’t have the slightest clue what was done to [Sleep Learning] to merge it so deeply into Rainer’s Soul. And to improve it. He had theories of course, but had no desire to test it out even if they could recreate the stone. Becoming more of an abomination was not on his to-do list.
“I don’t like it.”
“If it makes you feel better, neither does Rainer. But he was no better at convincing me. Now, let’s help everyone get settled,” Francis said, gesturing towards their audience who were trying not to look like they were listening in on a very interesting conversation. Francis briefly realized he had told some pretty incriminating secrets, but he wasn’t Rainer. And therefore didn’t care. His twin should appreciate that at least he never mentioned the Mana-Well.
“Now what was this about ‘Fairy Dust’?” His mom asked as Francis innocently whistled while looking away from her. He could have fun with that lie for a little longer. Though he carefully tucked the bag back into his spatial ring when he saw a literal fire in his mother’s blue eyes. That would be far less fun.
Rainer paced back and forth as he looked at his Avatar sitting across from him. He was in the white void of [Sleep Learning], separated from the others, now joined by Vera and her own mother, by a distance that was both infinite and not.
He had tried almost everything. But every solution he came up with for Arcane Power and Void Will to coexist was temporary. Contingent on nothing being added or nothing going wrong. Which really wasn’t that different from how they originally functioned.
There was only a single avenue he hadn’t explored: altering his Soul. That wasn’t something to do lightly, even if he had an Avatar to experiment on. After all, the Avatar wasn’t really an Avatar in the [Sleep Learning] s.p.a.ce. It was very likely that the Avatar’s Soul in this case was still his Soul. His ability to create an Avatar in [Sleep Learning] without changing anything in the real world told him that this was almost certainly the case.
Which was why he had Talvara here alongside him. If anything went truly wrong, she’d control the Void half of the problem. She seemed to realize the gravity of what he was attempting and lacked her usual flirtatious nature. Only a pure focus remained in her void-dark eyes.
Nevertheless, the Avatar was still made up of the more useless parts of his Soul. So it should be healable.
All energy sources, whether they be Aura or Mana, existed in a boundary between physical and spiritual. Partially within the body and partially within the Soul. Part of which was why Sarah’s ability to steal someone’s Mana pool was almost always fatal. And grossly painful. Rainer had yet to experience pain worse than when it was related to his Soul. And given his tens of thousands of deaths and dismemberments, he was an expert in the subject.
If he wanted to use the [Sleep Learning] s.p.a.ce in his Soul as a buffer between the Arcane and Void, he’d need to pull them closer to the spiritual side.
Thankfully, this wasn’t an unprecedented act. He had the notebook of a great sage who had done the same exact thing after all. Though with fire rather than Arcane and Void. He had gotten Furtak’s knowledge about it as well. Despite his age and seemingly carefree att.i.tude as of late, the man himself was still considered one of the greatest mages of the world for having become Fire-touched.
Only Yulia’s own state of being Wind-touched, or Rainer’s Arcane Magic, had overshadowed Furtak in any battles they fought together. But compared to any normal mage or Aura user, there was next to nothing they could do to the fire-infused Goblin so long as he had mana. There’s a reason why all of Fae-kind had feared Yulia and lost to her alone in the trials for their throne.
“What exactly do you think will happen?” Talvara questioned from where she stood. She was right behind his Avatar, ready for any issues.
“Best case scenario? My Soul is slightly altered and my [Sleep Learning] s.p.a.ce fills the role of the physical world, the rest of my soul as the spiritual, creating harmony between Arcane and Void.”
“Worst case?”
“I die? The fabric of reality collapses and takes the whole universe with it? I haven’t the slightest idea.”
“Most likely case then?”
“It only partially works and requires numerous painful trials before I can get it to the best case scenario. Or it does nothing of value and just hurts.”
“That sounds like something you have experience with,” Talvara said with a raised eyebrow. Watching Francis casually inflict serious pain on himself as he tried to create a Void Sword was very disconcerting. It wasn’t the dismemberment itself, but rather how relaxed he was about it. Even as he occasionally screamed in pain. It wasn’t from an insensitivity to pain, but rather as if pain was just a normal thing. As if he was doing nothing more than taking a walk or eating a meal.
She supposed a Magus who had achieved so much couldn’t be completely sane. Magical s.p.a.ce or not. All the better for her. No one sane would ever truly befriend what she really was. No one sane would even be able to look at what she really was. No one sane would challenge the true Divinities of the world. Compared to the ones after her, the four Divinites of the Tarainien Empire may as well be mortal.
“Perhaps. Let’s get started,” Rainer said, mirroring his Avatar as he sat cross-legged across from it.
He calmed himself as his entire focus switched to [Avatar Control]. His main body may as well have been a flesh bag.
Talvara took that as a signal to begin and planted Void Will in the Avatar’s body. Rainer felt the extra power flow through him and remained calm. Just as before without any major changes, the Void Will would exist just fine.
Rainer split his focus. He moved both his Arcane Power and Mana Pool, interconnected as they were, towards the left of his Soul, and Void Will to the right. With every pa.s.sing moment he pulled them closer and closer to his Soul.
With a yell of [Devil’s Soul Language], his Soul cracked and Arcane and Void flowed in.
A process which should take years, if not decades, shortened to just moments. Had it not been for the combination of [Avatar Control], [Soul Manipulation], and [Devil’s Soul Language], Rainer wouldn’t even come close to being able to attempt this with two separate energy pools.
Time flowed and his Avatar’s Soul changed and changed. The energy started seeping into his Avatar’s body. Beneath his eyelids, the left drew in light and the right shone with violet radiance.
Suddenly, the two changing halves of his Soul slammed together, the energies colliding yet separate. A piercing pain entered his mind as he was forced out of the Avatar.
Rainer’s main body snapped its eyes open.
His Avatar’s body glowed with light, and yet seemed to be entirely covered in darkness. The void light both glowed and darkened. Forced light away and yet drew it inward. It’s existence impossible in every way. It spread, consuming all around it.
Rainer had never felt such awe. Not even when Death itself tried to stop him from reviving a life did he feel such a presence. He stared at the impossible sight. His energy froze yet raged, his mind stopped yet spun out of his control. Every part of his being felt like it was being torn at two extremes, compressed and expanded all at once.
“Rainer!”
The voice echoed in his mind, snapping him away. He lurched in pain as the void light spread further and further, destroying the very s.p.a.ce around it, damaging the very s.p.a.ce as if it were not an illusion. Rainer immediately forced everyone else out of the s.p.a.ce.
Rainer focused all his will on destroying his Avatar, and removing it from existence. But the void light kept spreading. He focused on the Avatar’s Soul, making sure he wouldn’t reabsorb it.
Talvara reappeared in the white void. She tore away at the Void, while Rainer used his [Sleep Learning] s.p.a.ce to rip away the rest. Jor appeared within the s.p.a.ce, its maw open as the impossible light entered its stomach. With their combined efforts, the expansion stopped and the void light vanished, along with Rainer’s consciousness.
Rainer shot awake, screaming as he scratched at his chest, drawing blood.
Pain. All he felt was pain. Pain that consumed him and attacked his very being. More than he had ever felt before.
Even as both [Arcane Awakening] and [Arcane Invigoration] ran at their maximum nothing helped. His [Sleep Learning] s.p.a.ce was cracking and he could only slow it down.
Only when he felt a calming hand on his back and a violet flame in his Soul did the tide turn. Slowly but surely, his Soul and all it’s contents returned to normal. The parts that were destroyed in [Sleep Learning] healed soon after, bolstered now that [Arcane Invigoration] could target them.
Luna didn’t bother asking any superfluous questions, she only covered him with her flame. But even her unflappable nature was briefly startled as Rainer laughed.
And laughed.
It was a failure. A complete and utter failure. The result of mixing his Soul with Arcane and Void had completely changed what happened when they collided. It was no longer simple destruction but something far greater. But within that failure was endless possibilities.
“Hey Luna.”
“Hmm?”
“Have you ever wondered what the power that could kill a G.o.d looked like?”
….
“No. I’ve wondered what a full night’s sleep was like,” she said, her voice far more serious than usual.
Rainer started laughing again. It was the one time he was glad he wasn’t sleeping beside Kara as she would no doubt not be happy at him laughing after what just happened.
“You know, Francis came up with a great idea. Talvara shared it with me earlier.”
“Is it fun?”
“You’ll love it.”
“Hmm good, tell Luna tomorrow. And if you drag Luna into [Sleep Learning] she will find things to burn Rainer doesn’t want her to burn,” she said in a half mumble as she pulled him back down and snuggled into him.
“Understood.”