Spire Sea [north of Dzyl Archipelago], local time [1794.04.14]
“Call the doctor…” Zeph wheezed out, trying his best to spread his floppy appendages to prevent his body from rolling on the floor.
The task would be much easier if the world were kind enough to stop spinning around. The flashes of color-coded, fruit-flavored sparkles also weren’t helping, but he couldn’t simply close his eyes. That would only encourage them to intensify.
He retched, his body convulsing slightly. A deep bass of wonky stabilization attempt reverberated through his body as he tried to force the reflex down.
“Eh? Ah! Yea…” He heard Makani’s distant voice. It tasted horribly in his ears, like an old lemon. “You’ve to go to inrif…firmary for… yea, you have to go there…”
A sound of shuffling feet could be heard, its source unknown.
Go… You are our last hope! Zeph groggily called after him in his mind, not daring to open his mouth again.
~~~
Thankfully, Makani’s state wasn’t so bad. The man may have inhaled some of the incense that Zeph was using, but it merely made his mind relax a bit too much. Thanks to that, Zeph didn’t have to wait long.
Barging into his cabin, Maya – the old Doctor – cursed loudly. Two more people stepped inside right after, their steps noticeably heavier.
Waving her hand to disperse the smoke, she kneeled near Zeph’s sprawled body.
“I know the young one will most probably perish and we can do nothing about it,” she started, touching his head. Originating from the point of contact, waves of unfamiliar sensation started coursing through his body. “But that’s no reason to intoxicate yourself as much, no?” She changed her grip and placed her whole hand on his forehead. “Now, be a good boy and withdraw your Mana from your brain for a moment.”
He didn’t argue and did his best to shuffle his internal Mana balance. A moment later, a freezing sensation assaulted his head – intense enough to cause black splotches to show in his vision.
His body tensed and a silent growl escaped his lips, but he endured. Through half-closed eyelids, he noticed that the world slowed down in its relentless pursuit to run rounds around him. The synesthetic sensations also started to subside.
But before everything could go back to normal, Maya took away her hand. He relaxed as the cold sensation started receding.
“That should help for a while…” It was clear without saying, but all she could do was help with the symptoms temporarily.
Which was for the best, because he needed to stay intoxicated for a little while longer. At least now, he could be transported to the infirmary safely.
“To my defense… This was part of my training…” He whispered, clasping his head as it started to throb in a dull pain.
She threw him a skeptical look hearing that. “So you say… but was it worth it?”
That question was complex.
Yesterday, Zeph had made a few breaks from his ‘sentry duty’ to experiment with Makani. He even sacrificed his sleep completely. Obviously, he wasn’t using much of the drugs to be able to keep up the Mana saturation around the girl, but he still found a few promising trails to follow thanks to his slightly altered state of mind and the trance-like meditation he was practicing.
However, the girl had gone into medical shock this morning. Maya was able to save and stabilize her, but it had become clear that their methods were insufficient. The Doctor decided to pump her body with strong stimulants to delay the inevitable but her diagnosis was clear – the girl wasn’t going to survive; she had few days left at best.
At this point, it had become obvious that her Soul was the source of the issue. Maya was determined to keep the girl alive as long as possible in hopes that a visit to a local System Shrine would help. The chances that the girl had enough accumulated Universal Points for the System to intervene were miniscule… but not nonexistent. Also, if the young one were to miraculously endure until they reached their destination, there was a chance that the Shaman would be able to help. It was too early to give up.
Though, Zeph was already aware that the girl didn’t have enough UP. Moreover, he confirmed that the System didn’t value her life enough to intervene directly, even if she was to reach their Shrine. He verified it all through the Shrine Seed embedded in his body. He didn’t receive any detailed data, of course, but the automatized response sub-system answered his inquires, unambiguously stating that the girl would not receive any help. Moreover, the Seed itself wasn’t a sufficient medium for this kind of surgery, so he had no hopes of helping anyone in such a manner in the future.
He kept the depressing news to himself, mostly to not expose himself. The girl’s situation was truly helpless right now. Because of that, Zeph was forced to make a hard decision at the time.
Aware that his presence would merely prolong the girl’s suffering by an insignificant amount of time, he decided his time would be better spent training. It raised the chances of shock recurrence because her condition would deteriorate faster, but, at this point, the physical medicaments were doing much more to keep her alive.
Thus, he has spent the last 20 hours in his cabin alongside Makani. At the beginning, he was visiting the infirmary every hour to test the waters with his new Soul tricks, fill up the dispersing bubble of his Mana saturating the area, and keep an eye on the girl’s condition. However, that didn’t last long – soon, he has found a technique worth refining.
A technique he knew he could grasp fully in a matter of hours; one that wasn’t blocked with force and was mostly ignored by his auguring ability.
He threw all caution out of the window, focusing fully on his new goal. He knew he had to push himself even more, though. And the consequences of his determination were lying before Maya’s very eyes – fully exposed and spread on the cabin’s flooring.
Thus his long absence, current state, and Maya’s question.
“It was… absolutely worth it,” he answered with some difficulty, a weak smile spreading on his lips.
Interface notifications were waiting for his attention. Moreover, in his trance, he already managed to glimpse at information the Skills have gained access to. Even if he couldn’t use that knowledge now, it was showing him expressly that he had chosen the right path to follow.
Maya shook her head slightly, disappointment visible on her face. She stood up and made space for her entourage. The two crewmembers understood the situation without her instructions and got ready to put him on a stretcher. No more words were exchanged between them.
As he was being transported to the infirmary – this time to be a patient instead of an unpaid worker – he allowed the notifications to surface, curious about the advancements he had managed to pull on such a short note.
Impressive progress is impressive… he thought, looking at the ‘Shamanic visions’. It would be another story if addiction was a real risk here, though…
Zeph sucked in his breath. That wasn’t what he was expecting!
Two Expansion options?! The hell did I do to earn it?
His reaction caught the attention of the Doctor. She frowned and moved closer to his side.
He waved her off before she started another physical examination.
“No need. I was just surprised by my Interface update, is all.”
She hummed idly, scrutinizing him. Zeph could only smile awkwardly seeing that.
“I won’t be interfering, then,” she said finally, stepping further to the side as they moved down the passageway. “Don’t let me distract you. The effects of my assistance should start fading away soon.”
Nodding, he started to read from the notification in a hurry. After a short minute, he had a general idea of what was happening.
The first option – ‘Will-powered Soul interpretation’ – was almost unrelated to his latest struggles. It was here because of the many raw Soul memories he had come into contact with. His exchange of Soul memories with Gru as a form of communication was the major culprit, but that wasn’t all. Before the System managed to interrupt the integration of Adeptus Miu’s Soul fragment, Zeph had already relived his last moments – fully immersed in the memory of the higher-quality Soul fragment. Not to mention, he had also tasted raw memories brought by Gru’s gathering technique once or twice – especially when they were testing things around.
Stolen novel; please report.
Thus, that Expansion was all about his ability to change perspectives while Soul-reading, without losing the view of self in the process. It was intricately connected to his robust Will and Willforce Morphon Enhancement as well. He expected great rewards after choosing this path.
The second option – ‘Chimeric Soul perception’ – has come to be as a result of his training with ‘Shamanic visions’. The most intriguing part was the lack of a ‘Will-powered’ component in the name, and he quickly learned why it disappeared.
It was not a mere Expansion. If he had a normal ‘Soul perception’ General Skill in his arsenal, it would have been consumed. It was a Skill Fusion in disguise. Moreover, the Expansion was linking his experience of perceiving the Soulscape in different mental states with those two perception abilities. In other words, it was a chimeric technique of Soul and mental perception.
It was also chimeric because the results were quite subjective and absurd, but that fact couldn’t discourage Zeph.
I want them both! he thought with a zealous glint in his eyes. Don’t proceed! I repeat – don’t proceed! We need to find a way to Expand over them all!
The notification disappeared silently, making way for the next one and leaving Zeph with a warm feeling in his chest.
Or maybe it was just a symptom of the drugs’ regaining their power over his body…
A shame the Skill didn’t diverge… But I understand. Those are paths, not separate disciplines, he commented internally, smartly nodding to himself. I will have to find a way to use all those effects at once to fuse them, and with a clear designation at that… He started giggling. Can’t wait to try!
A cough from his personal medical escort brought him back to the present.
He sheepishly thanked the Doctor and refocused.
“Another one?” he voiced with glee, ignoring people around him.
Yes. Please kindly proceed, please!
It was like a bucket of cold water falling on his head.
Not because it was bad, no. Nor was it useless.
It just meant that Zeph have failed to earn his first Soul Arts General Skill.
For a long time, he was trying to get the ‘Soulform Shifter’ technique Skill – the very same thing Gru was trying to teach him back in the day. Evidently, his latest success wasn’t enough to excuse his overall lack of experience in the field. Otherwise, instead of attaining another knowledge Skill pertaining to the topic, he would have received another congratulatory notification.
Worse yet, he had to push his General Skill all the way through Tier 1 to be awarded with that knowledge assistance Skill.
The grief and bitterness that assaulted his hazy mind were indescribable. His place in the grand scheme of things lost. His reason to endure the unending torment—
His mind regained some clarity as liquid fire was injected into his arm.
He sat up and tried to scream, only to release a weak squeal as the medicine started working. As his body started limply falling back, his mind rebooted with a start.
With a newly gained clarity, he finally noticed where he was. Another infirmary bed, swaying delicately despite the ship’s movements.
Huh? I don’t remember passing out… Ugh, useless drugs! I just had a short mental trip, didn’t I? he complained internally.
The Doctor was standing beside him, looking at him expectantly. It was impossible to miss an empty, oversized syringe in her hand.
He licked his dry lips and tried to swallow some saliva to moisten his parched throat. However, there was no saliva in his mouth to use.
“Better?” Maya asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Wa…ter?” he asked in response.
She pointed at the metal tube with a valve near his bed, then shrugged and turned around.
“Suit yourself while you can. You should be more in control now, but I strongly recommend you try to sleep it though,” she told him without looking back as she left the platform.
He was at the end of the strange faucet before she finished.
After a minute, he cut off the flow of water and sighed contently. Drinking when lying on his side wasn’t the most pleasant of exercises, for many reasons, but he was much more preoccupied with his dried mouth than comfort.
Strangely, even after his stomach was full, he still felt the need to drink more. But he knew better than to try forcing more into himself.
Rolling onto his back, he sighed tiredly. It was a very draining day and he wasn’t even halfway through it. His plan has worked somewhat and he was now in the infirmary, ready to take action, ignored and unperturbed. The only glaring mistake was the amount of medicaments he ingested and inhaled.
Not like he had a choice, though. The Phleya present in Gru’s appendages, his own blood, and his lymph was already neutralizing the new agent the Doctor had introduced to his body, and a similar thing was happening every time he took his medicaments. Without Gru, he had no way of communicating his intent to the colony. Instead, he had to flood his organisms with a correct mix of substances to stimulate Phleya – to force them to produce the same synergetic effect he had discovered during the Tournament. However, the dosage necessary to realize the full potential of that synergy was unrealistically high. What was truly ‘killing’ him right now was the toxicity of the substances he took, not their intended effects.
All in all, his enhanced immunological system was a hindrance. But its inner workings were also undecipherable thanks to the Phleya’s nature. At least without a detailed and prolonged analysis of his body. That gave him a very important advantage over anyone trying to uncover his secrets – room for maneuvering.
And that was exactly what he planned to leverage here.
He could already feel the haze coming. He could tell that the Doctor’s medicament was dedicated to neutralizing toxic substances inside his body – ones resulting from metabolizing the active compounds – and was deteriorating quickly, leaving the remainder of his shamanic mix present in his blood to work its way back into his brain.
As he waited for the effects to accumulate, he sent a Mana tendril in the direction of the girl. Because his Mana was still present in her vicinity, diluted as it was right now, he could easily tell where she was without a look. After connecting, he started to strengthen the presence of his Mana by channeling his whole Veil and Mana generation into the area.
With a direct connection and a strong Veil presence, he should be able to easily locate her Soul in the Soulscape, as those were enough to replace the requirement of physical contact.
He continued to do so until he was sure that the reality he was now perceiving was warped.
It wasn’t hard to notice at the entry stage – he just had to keep track of the synesthetic effect occurring again as it was his constant companion during those trips.
As soon as he started smelling sounds, he started meditating, quickly falling into a dreamlike state.
~~~
Different from normal meditation – an exercise in quieting the mind to uncover the less-obvious senses – Shamanic visions was more of a dreamception experience.
He could feel his heart speeding up, the rush of blood in his veins, and the cold air repeatedly cooling his lungs. Those sensations didn’t fall into the background – they started intensifying. He focused on them, on his body, allowing his addled mind to dive deep into the cacophony of life.
Progressively, an abstract picture of his own body started drawing itself in his mind’s eye; his imagination, memory, and random thoughts adding unnecessary details all around it. A universe of its own, suspended in the void, yet infinitely complex inside.
Following this semi-sensual stimulus further, he dived deeper yet. Soon enough, the distorted landscape of this dreamscape started expanding in his mental eye as his metaphysical journey brought him closer and closer to the dreamscape biomes – the hard surfaces of his bones, the flowing rivers of blood, the web of intercellular connections.
It didn’t take him long to notice the erratic currents of Mana flowing all around.
Leaving behind the physical picture, he entered a new world. Magicules were forming clusters within the space, causing disturbances. Mana was conglomerating near the energetically active areas, causing chaos in the overall flow. The restless ocean of energy started to unveil itself before him.
It was a familiar view. Yet, he needed to stray from a known path at that exact moment.
He was flexing his Will during this mental journey, making sure his consciousness wouldn’t be swallowed whole by the visions. Now, instead of following the currents of Mana upstream, he focused on something much more intricate.
Changing the ‘phase’ of his Soul – also called ‘pattern’ between him and Gru – wasn’t his strong point. At least not after he became aware of the current ‘phase’. The ability to freely shift between the fractal-like patterns a Soul could take required a deep, intuitional understanding of what was happening in the Soulscape – something he was still lacking.
But, he had found a workaround. What if his starting point was already near the ‘phase’ he wanted to apply?
It wasn’t a simple matter. The truly extreme and useful ‘phases’ weren’t manifesting naturally – they had to be forced consciously. Nonetheless, ‘consciously’ could mean only one thing – dependence on Will and Mana, as those were the only two mediums connecting the conscious mind and the eternal fragment of his being.
As so, instead of following the Soul links connected to his body – the true nature of the channels bringing in Mana that he could now perceive – he focused on the waves traversing through the stream. Those waves were the representation of his Will. He focused on them carefully, slowly switching his waning perspective.
The world started trembling in the rhythm of the billows; parts of the dreamscape disappearing, one after another.
There is no world. Only fluctuation… notes of creation…
His new perception started overriding the ‘reality’. Structures all around were falling apart, replaced by a growing ocean of vibrating mass.
The process took a while, but when it finished, Zeph was no longer in the dreamscape he knew. It would be misleading to say he ‘saw’ anything, as the structure of this imaginary world had become abstract to the point of encroaching madness. He could feel and understand what was happening all around, without any limits to his range or perception, but no visual, auditory, or any other mundane representation could describe what he was experiencing at the moment.
After a moment of relaxation, allowing himself to get accustomed to this new environment, he concentrated again. He had his own song to play.
Slowly, delicately, he started to pluck the immaterial strings of the dreamscape’s vibrating reality. Its tune started to change, synchronizing with his lead. The streams of waves flowing incessantly to their destinations shook, changing directions.
He was playing a song of his Will; the base note was rising incrementally. And the world was trying to keep up.
Faster and faster the sound reverberated, assimilating and taking with it all other waves. Soon enough, his general vicinity was resonating with the same, high-pitched cry. And when he felt that this change has settled, that even the furthest parts of his being caught the rhythm, he moved…
~~~
The Soulscape emerged before his metaphysical eyes.
The ever-changing background of distant, fractal shapes was much different today, though.
For one, the lights have gained some color. Not that strange – it wasn’t Zeph’s first vision, after all. His other senses were also mixed into his perception, but they were very much dulled.
What was more intriguing – he couldn’t perceive any ginormous shape in the vicinity. He was surrounded by small, distant lights, very much similar to the view of the night sky.
It took him a moment to understand that most of them were a part of a sparkling nebulae surrounding him. There was no true depth in this space, after all. But even more shocking was the discovery that those miniscule Soul fragments were still vibrating with vestiges of Will.
She’s fighting still… with an indifference characteristic to this kind of perception shift, he realized that the cloud of foreign Soul fragments surrounding him belonged to the very human child he was trying to save.
He also realized that, in his current form, perceiving anything significant would require his full attention. His thought process could be clearer than ever before, but this technique also had cons.
His Soul was now in a dispersed state – in a form he was trying to master lately. It was a shroud, interacting with his vicinity very delicately. Thus his limited perception, but also enhanced critical thinking and a chance to learn more about the girl’s Soul.
He filtered out the ‘visual’ part of his perception and focused on scanning his immediate surroundings. Her Soul had to be nearby – they were in physical contact right now, technically speaking.
Waves after waves of slight movement of his dispersed Soul followed. The geometry of the space was screwed, as always, but his slow approach allowed him to at least analyze the perceivable shapes around him.
It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for. Actually, the girl’s Soul was almost in the center of his own being, metaphorically speaking.
Most probably the effect of staying in my Veil for so long… I knew it was a ri— At that moment, his thoughts stuttered, almost causing him to lose his connection to the Soulscape altogether.
He has found what was plaguing the girl. He has found a fractal hole of subjectively infinite proportions.
Cascading Soul fragmentation… he noted with horror. How is she still alive?!