Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Authority

Zach had five Aspects as part of his Arsenal, Soul, Wind, Time, Mind, and Ethereal, he had one more slot available for an Aspect, and he had an idea what he wanted to add based on his skill anchors, an additional way to bring the meaning of his Soul in line with his Class. He had another nine Aspects that he was connected to through his soul weapon. Knowledge was one of them, the most important one perhaps, because he had felt like knowledge had been an Aspect that he had gotten close to even before he had met the Grand Spirit of Knowledge. His deepest desires had pushed him toward it.

That was his Soul’s intent. Just how Fire sought to burn, his Soul sought to manifest its intent through his actions. When he used his power, his Soul used the pieces of itself that were tied to the Framework. If the meaning of an Essence was its set of rules, then… The meaning of his Soul was the rules by which he lived.

It crystallized itself in his mind, he had known that, and yet he had never thought to apply the same to himself, to his Soul. He had forgotten that everything was Essence. The only difference between him and most other Essence was that the Essence of the Soul granted him the ability to choose, free will, and the ability to shape himself. He could change, he could grow. Every living thing with a Soul could do the same. A skill anchor shaped the Soul, it was the Framework enabled instrument that let one manifest that change and growth, shaping, molding the Soul.

The same way as… the same as when Zach had created a Way. The more he grew in power, the more he advanced and saw the depths of the Framework, the more parallels became apparent. Everything was there for a reason, everything was meant to teach something. He loved that about it. It was a teacher that never stopped trying to instruct, and Zach had an unshakable desire to learn.

The meaning of his Soul? It was not something that could be described in a single word like an Aspect could. It wasn’t just Knowledge, it wasn’t just Time or Wind. It wasn’t even a concept. It was something deeper, it was a narrative, his entire life. He was close, so close to touching the core of what it was.

He turned to Ryun, and spoke.

“You asked about my authority over Time, why?”

Ryun didn’t answer, instead his body rippled. His flesh started to pull back in a cascading effect, as if it was folding in on itself. It was a disturbing sight, he could see blood and flesh being folded inward, starting from his limbs. It surged across him to his chest where it sunk into it disappearing into nothingness. What remained was a human shaped hole in the world, and whatever it was that had kept Zach from fully feeling Ryun’s Soul was gone. He felt the power of it, the weight, it felt… dense. And it felt as it had before, a Soul made out of Oblivion, a nothingness in the world. He didn’t exactly feel it, it was more that he noticed the absence of everything. More than a Void that was always hungry for more, it was an ocean of indifference. It grated on the senses, but only when he focused on it. Even when he just put his attention of it aside for a moment, the sensation slipped his mind, as if it couldn’t even be properly recorded in his mind. He never remembered the fullness of this sensation, not until he was in its presence again.

Then, that nothingness shifted, expanding just a hairsbreadth. His Soul and Body were linked, they were effectively the same thing. Zach had seen him manipulate it before, change his size and shape, turning into a wolf. This felt different somehow. It was as if he had expanded just a small piece of himself. It was what he had done before, when he arrived on the ship. When his Soul spread far around his body yet didn’t seem to impact the Real world.

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Zach felt the Air Essence around Ryun’s head tremble as if something was affecting it, then he heard Ryun speak.

“This is my body, my Soul, as Oblivion,” he said, the sound forming in the air around his head as he didn’t have a mouth. Zach had seen his shell before, Essence forced into a shape, a fake facsimile of a body. This wasn’t the same, yet he couldn’t figure out how… it changed. A wave of Soul expanded out of Ryun, covering both Zach and Eratemus.

“What is this?” Eratemus asked.

The air in front of Ryun shook, and his voice manifested. “It is my Soul, and within it, I have the absolute Authority over my Essence, and a great deal of it over any unbound Essence. People, like the two of you, are harder, because you have meaning, but I could pit my will and meaning against you, and impact you with my Soul alone. You and I are similar in this regard. We both don’t have a vessel, we are our Souls. Except you craft your own vessels, and I am my vessel. Your Soul fills a container, mine is one.”

Zach felt as if a Soul of Oblivion was embracing him. It was a strange sensation, because it wasn’t doing anything. It was spreading through all Essence that wasn’t Zach or Eratemus, Essence that was unbound.

“How?” Eratemus asked.

“It is an upgrade of my Perk,” Ryun said. “But the reasons why I’ve gained it… I wasn’t sure until just now, when Zach said how one should make a Way. I’ve been wrong, I thought that I had to understand more about my Aspects, but it isn’t about that. It is about what I think they are, and my command over them. My authority, and that is absolute. The same way that within your Soul, your command over it is absolute.”

“You think that you have an absolute authority over Oblivion?” Zach asked.

Ryun shook his head. “No, at least not until I make a Way. And perhaps not even then. As I said, I think that you made your Way too soon. That we lack the power to manifest true Authority. Even this, what I can do, is not the true authority, it is only a nascent expression of it. But,” he paused, and his body changed again. His Soul pulled back, compressed itself into his human shape, and then the nothingness rippled. A body of sleek black and glossy substance appeared. For a moment, Zach thought that it looked like it was something akin to polished stone, but then he realized that the surface of it was covered in such fine fur that it was barely noticeable. Then lines of white, like bone, wove themselves over his body. Swirling around his limbs and body in large patterns. On his head a mask manifested of the same white material, shaped like a wolf’s head.

“My Soul is made up of two Aspects, Oblivion and True Death, and I can choose which or how much of each to bring forth. And True Death… There is no other authority in existence on it but me. I am one half of True Death, what it means is what I want it to mean. I think that this is why I got this perk as an option. Teaching tools, as I’ve said.”

Authority. Zach closed his eyes, he looked inward at his Soul. He should’ve been able to command Time as if it was an extension of himself, that’s what Ryun was trying to say. He was lacking in power. But to reach that point, to be able to have Authority over an Aspect, he had to first have an understanding of his Soul. To understand in what way that Authority could be manifested. The rules behind it.

He was on the right path, he had made steps toward understanding. Perhaps he shouldn’t wait, perhaps he should evolve more of his Skills, push his Class forward. He didn’t need to know his Soul fully to lock in pieces that he understood. There would always be something left over, something that could be changed. Or… no, anchors were there to lock in or facilitate change. He didn’t need to understand, he could shape himself into something new.

Before he could truly dwell on the idea, a wave of willpower passed over the ship and Zach turned around. All the lights in the ship dimmed as the Shadows grew deeper. A darkness settled onto the ship as Naha finished pushing her Skills to the end. Her image flowed around them, and he tasted its great power. It was far more than it had been before, it made what her Image had been just a pale shadow. This was the true Image, the true expression of her Skills, of her will made manifest in the world.

Zach smiled, he didn’t have to rush forward, to fumble in the dark. Naha was his partner, and they were walking this path together. He would speak with her and see how her evolution had changed her. Together, they would discover more, learn as they walked hand in hand. Advancing, always forward.