Chronicles of the True Wizard

Peace had made it about halfway to the major peak, which was impressive for just about anyone climbing. For Felix though, he had barely felt the effects of the curse at that point. With Peace gone, he leapt multiple steps at a time back up towards the peak.

Unlike the other peaks with multiple minor peaks that led up towards a major peak, sub curses within the umbrella of a larger curse, Oblivion and its counterpart Creation, were standalone peaks and largely considered to be above the other major peaks. They weren’t classified as such but the obsession they carried was deeply rooted in all Anima in a way that stirred something ancient within.

Felix couldn’t identify what the experience was because even trying to tap into it, to experience it for himself, it was incomprehensible. It was very obviously present though no matter where he looked, like something embedded into the very nature of Anima itself.

Passing the halfway point where Peace had finally collapsed, Felix continued bounding up the steps, finally really feeling the effects of the curse but easily brushing them off with some manual attention.

By the three quarter mark, a sizable chunk of his focus was dedicated to keeping his soul aligned. Another eighth of the way up and he had to dedicate his entire focus but he was pretty sure he could have stood there indefinitely. From there he started taking each step one by one and with each one, his soul threatened to tear itself apart.

The strength of the curses as he ascended grew exponentially and with each step, the effect felt like it doubled, then tripled, then quadrupled.

His soul struggled and pushed against the manual exertion of his will power. His body resisted as it was bound to his soul. He didn’t need to exert Strength or Matter Control or anything he would normally use to move his body. His Reaper’s Skills did nothing to help him here. It was just his will power fighting back against the ancient will of whatever collective experiences Oblivion tapped into.

As he struggled to take another step, Felix’s senses vanished and once again, his consciousness reverted into his old form of meditation. He blocked everything out except his own soul. This time it wasn’t him and a puzzle cube but it was a ball of light, his core soul, pushing against the encroaching darkness all around him. Like a sun using its light to physically push against the pressure from the bottom of an ocean of liquid darkness.

In a way, it felt comfortable. It was familiar. It was known. Felix had no idea why but he also immediately obliterated the thought the instant it appeared in his consciousness. He couldn’t think about anything else. There was nothing else. It was him, and that which he pushed against.

With each step he took, the darkness pushed in closer. The light diminishing.

Felix was completely consumed by just pushing forward but even he, knew when to stop. As the darkness swallowed everything around him, as it threatened to consume the ball of light itself, Felix himself, he stopped and took a step back.

The instant he did, the darkness was blasted away a short distance. He took another step back and it recoiled, almost like it feared him. In reality it felt nothing and it was his will overcoming its strength but now that he was releasing his consciousness and letting everything back in, he savored the notion of the curse fearing him just a little.

Opening his eyes once again, Felix turned around and leapt down a hundred steps at a time. They turned and curved with the shape of the rocky mountain so he couldn’t jump further, although he could have flown. He didn’t though. There was something to climbing the mountain being steps, something he recognized and respected. A certain acknowledgement of the strength of the curses they tried to surmount.

Flying just felt like an affront to the feat of climbing.

Looking back, he hadn’t even made it to the clouds but, from his experience, the mountain peak would be just beyond them. That wasn’t the penultimate peak though. As with all major peaks, they led to one more peak, standing above the rest.

Felix wasn’t sure he would ever make it there and he wasn’t even certain what it was because he hadn’t asked yet. It wasn’t important because right now he had a goal. Once that was complete, then he would look to the mountain peak beyond and worry about what it was.

Now that he was allowing his mind to wander, thoughts he had previously dismissed floated their way back into his mind. For one thing, though both The Endless Hunger and Oblivion were completely black, it was like they were two completely distinct colors.

The Endless Hunger was a black that drew in color to fill an endless void. It wasn’t just the absence of a thing, it was the active consumption of everything. An insatiable vortex that pulled in everything around it, like a black hole that nothing could escape.

Oblivion though, was emptiness. It was nothingness. It was black that was the absence of everything. It was nonexistence and the purest form of death. It wasn’t something being reduced to dust, it was something being removed from the equation entirely.

Oddly, The Endless Hunger was a minor peak and yet Oblivion seemed in theory, lesser than Hunger. Hunger was absence that pulled things in. It was anti matter and a black hole. Oblivion was just the void of anything and pure destruction. Yet, having felt both, Oblivion was obviously the grandfather to the nascent child of hunger. Where Hunger was primal, Oblivion was primordial, it existed before hunger ever did.

As for why the sensation of him being just his core soul standing against an ever encroaching darkness felt familiar, Felix had no idea. It was like a feeling of deja vu and that he couldn’t quite shake. He decided he would spend time thinking about it in the Garden and see if he got anywhere.

Getting to the bottom of the steps, Felix leapt over the flat ground and avoided the Spirit Sanctum entirely, heading straight for the portal frame instead.

Heading through straight to the Twilight Garden, even before sitting down on the large flat stone next to Peace, the ripples began to calm him.

He wasn’t misaligned coming down from the mountain and it wasn’t really recovery he needed. He wasn’t actively injured or exhausted. It wasn’t like his muscles being torn apart and rebuilt from a workout, like it was for Peace and many others. For Feilx, it was like accumulating stress.

He needed to decompress.

If he didn’t, it would just accumulate and lead to injury. In decompressing though, he didn’t just sit there and let his soul relax, he manually took control as it was washed in the ripple of relaxation and imposed his will upon it. He aligned his soul, hardened each layer and furthered the control he had over the anima within him.

He knew he was done when he found no signs of his climb but before standing, he did something he always did right before leaving and timed his will with a ripple. Just as it hit, he squeezed down with the entirety of his will on his core soul.

It was already the densest anima he had ever seen but that didn’t mean he had reached some limit. With each foray into the Twilight Garden, he tried to further compress his core soul and each time, it shrunk just a little more. It was by an almost imperceptible amount but each time, the will he could exert felt like it doubled. In reality he knew that wasn’t the case, or rather that it didn’t translate perfectly because everything he could exert his will on, either increased exponentially or wasn’t worth considering.

With the peaks, even if he was right and his will power doubled, each step took more than double the will power of the last, at least where he had climbed to. Each hardening of his soul’s layers took vastly more than double for each minuscule step he took. Each compression of his Mana Core took so much more will than the last. Still, it was progress and he didn’t intend on stopping anytime soon.

Standing back up, Felix found Peace had already left and headed back to The Somatic Halls himself. As he headed towards the building, it seemed almost quieter than it usually did. Stepping in through the back door nearest the rooms Felix and Peace rarely made use of, Felix followed the halls towards the main sparring room with the judges and felt the building shake just before he arrived.

Turning the corner, he saw Peace finally sparring against Aro Zaki on the platform.

His aura was suppressed but Aro Zaki still carried the same domineering presence he always did. Now instead of in his posture and gait alone, it was exhibited through his strikes and steps.

Activating Reaper’s Sense, Felix tried desperately to follow along even a little.

In every other somatic fight involving Peace that Felix had witnessed, Peace looked like a god and an artist at the same time. He would dance through the fights and was obviously superior to his opponents. Aro Zaki, was the only person Felix had ever seen that came even close. Using Reaper’s Sense, Felix wasn’t even sure at first who was better.

Aro Zaki fought aggressively, matching the feeling of his presence and aura.

Peace fought almost artistically. He danced, as he always did, between aggressive stances and defensive moves with the odd flowing dance move thrown in to readjust or reposition.

Where it always looked like Peace was holding back previously, to Felix’s untrained eyes, it finally looked like he was being pushed.

Though Felix had no intention of becoming a hand to hand fighter-not unless he somehow found a ton of extra time-he was well aware that in a fight as high level as the one he was watching, there was wisdom he could extract. He had no idea what or where but he memorized as much as he could and tried to understand what each person did and why they did it. Each decision they made.

It was possible he got nothing out of it, having not enough base knowledge and understanding of the field but there was no reason not to try.

They fought for three more minutes from when Felix walked into the room, the crowd watching in complete awe and even the judges desperately watching and hoping to learn.

At the end though, they both stepped back as if some unseen referee had ended the fight.

Neither looked exhausted. Neither panted. Neither were sweating. Both of them looked drained.

Whether mental or spiritual, they had both obviously been pushing themselves.

Aro Zaki swept his robes off the ground and swung them back around his shoulders as Peace hopped off and headed towards Felix. As he did, the observers argued as to who would fight next, most of them eager to fight after what they had just witnessed, eager to implement whatever nugget of wisdom they had extracted.

As he approached and they walked back down the halls, Peace beamed.

“That was… impressive.” Felix chuckled, not quite able to find the words.

“That was awesome. I was pushing it off for so long and he promised to turn off his aura but still- Anyways, after climbing those steps with you and seeing I was fine, feeling it I just… I decided to give it a shot. Oh man I haven’t had to fight like that in… ever.”

Felix cocked his head a little, “There isn’t anyone stronger in The Cult?”

Peace shook his head, “There are. Many. The Reaper used to be… There are others but Aro Zaki is just… different. The way he fights is so… I don’t know, engaging?”

“It looked engaging.”

“It’s not just that but after… you know, I feel so much lighter. I was a little worried I was going to lose my instincts because obviously I’m not old enough to have the battle experience I have but… It’s more like I’m not bogged down anymore. There aren’t other voices telling me to do this or that, it’s just me and my voice. It’s all mine.”

Felix nodded, “You were worried you were losing yourself as they slowly influenced you but we got rid of them and you retained some of it.”

Peace looked at him, unsure of his point.

“You must have been letting things in. Maybe some experiences and instincts you didn’t want slipped through the cracks but it seems like for the most part, you let in what you wanted to let in and rejected the rest. How else would have tuned your instincts so precisely?”

Peace nodded slowly, “I mean… maybe. I guess…”

Felix opened the door and stepped into their sparring room where Nova was still sleeping in a corner, “I can’t comment on the sapients or sentients of the multiverse but on earth, people picked up the habits and traits and mannerisms and speech patterns of those around them. Sometimes people changed for the worse and they would have to adjust if they ever noticed what had happened but…”

Peace nodded, “I see.”

“You’re worried about finding who you are but… I’d argue most people are the products of a billion little things they learned and picked up throughout their lives.”

Peace didn’t say anything else on the matter but he was obviously thinking about it as they stepped onto the platform and Felix roused Nova. While Felix mostly believed what he had said but, one exception was ever present in his mind, himself. He definitely didn’t mention it though, as hypocritical as it made him. Whatever made his soul the way it was, definitely resulted in his being a little different from others.

It wasn’t that he didn’t change, it was more that as much as he could remember, it was he who chose what changed almost consciously. At least so he believed.

They sparred and Felix continued training his Reaper’s Skills. He immediately noticed Peace seeming almost faster or more flexible. It genuinely looked like he had been unburdened further, even in his drained state after fighting Aro Zaki.

Every day, Felix trained. He didn’t worry about the days though as he never needed to sleep and he was constantly teleporting between what he was pretty certain, were different planets with different day night cycles. All he worried about were his training cycles as he went from sparring with Peace and training his Reaper’s Skills right to The Unwavering Steps where he climbed and finally back to the Twilight Garden where he consolidated his training.

He didn’t stop for breaks at all as he wanted to get as much out of the recruitment as he could.

Peace continued to spar with Aro Zaki and over the course of many dekads, eventually came out on top. Whether it was the fact that he had marginally higher physical stats than Aro Zaki-who described his class to them as most similar to a sorcerer-or a matter of skill, Felix had no idea. It was however enough for the judges and Aro Zaki himself, that they requested the presence of someone else to fight Peace.

Peace also continued to climb the peaks though no longer with Felix. Instead, he climbed and even mastered the three minor peaks of Sloth, Cowardice and Despair. He had chosen those specifically because it was Fear that he struggled with the most and so he targeted mastery of that Major Peak.

At the same time, Felix did what he could with Peace’s Core Soul although it wasn’t much. For the most part, he helped Peace sort through and remove what he wanted to remove but even more so, Felix just helped him become aware of what was there. Every time they spoke, Peace was gradually more accepting of everything that had changed him and who he was. He genuinely seemed to enjoy sparring with Aro Zaki and that seemed almost like a life line for his sense of identity.

While Peace progressed in his somatic evaluation and mastered the peaks he had set his own mind to, Felix spent 18 days in total climbing the peak of Oblivion. It was less than the peak of Wrath had taken him and he hoped that everything he had learned, the hardening and strengthening his soul had undergone would help with the others.

As Creation had taken him less time to ascend in total, he was satisfied to say that it likely had although Creation was also so odd, he wasn’t certain.

Like Oblivion, it was something he both somewhat understood but also something ancient he couldn’t grasp. It was ever present as an experience in all anima but it was also not really an obsession that typically plagued sentient beings. It was just there like a bad recurring dream.

Its manifestations amounted to Felix desperately wanting to create new spells, learn new forms but even more so, an urge or a craving he couldn’t pin down. There was something he desperately wanted to do but just didn’t know what it was. Luckily, it only took him 11 days to completely dispel the urge and do away with the indescribable feelings.

After that, he practically raced up the rest of the major peaks as he didn’t expect to have so much time left after mastering the two weird and ancient ones.

Regret and Fear, the Major Peaks often associated with the past and present respectively, were much easier and took him just 2 and 3 days respectively. With those two mastered, he had officially mastered the curses of the past, present and future, Regret, Fear and Desire, at least as they were classified by Amatara’s followers.

Pride was the final major peak and took Felix 7 days to climb. It seemed to simply be more applicable to Felix and his feelings and so it was harder for him to deal with. All of his experience with the others and as far as he had come though, he had expected it to be faster.

After that, was the final peak. He still didn’t know if it had a name but all he knew, was that at each of the major peaks he had ascended, he had seen a path that climbed one final peak beyond all of them.

Each of the other major peaks, like the minor peaks below them, were physically local peaks. They formed a plateau at the top of one mountain but descending just a short distance down their backsides, they began ascending once again towards a single, penultimate peak.

That final peak had no steps carved into it and was steep like a cliff. All around it, were lanterns containing as much of each of the Major curses, just as each of the Peak’s had held. The lanterns were held in by metal spikes and clanged against the rocky cliff face as the wind blew by almost worryingly so considering their contents. Instead of their contents growing in size and intensity though, the distance between them shrank as he manually scaled the side of the peak.

It took Felix 9 days in total to finally make the climb all the way to the top where he found, a large open plateau. He had almost expected either a city, or nothing at all but it was neither.

The plateau was wide and circular and almost completely flat except, the rock of the mountain formed a lip of sorts around the outside.

Instead of lanterns, all around the outside of the peak and completely equidistant from the center, were was looked to be altars or standing braziers. Floating atop each of the bowls was a sphere almost over a meter in diameter, each a different color. Each one, a different curse.

The sphere of Desire looked reflective and rainbow like at first glance, like a diamond refracting all light. Peering at it though, it reflected back at Felix the deepest secrets of the universe. Arcane truths, spells, realms he was unaware of, the origin of The System, the reality beyond it and so much more. He was used to it though, he had long since mastered the peak and he easily looked away.

The Sphere of Wrath was a deep red and instilled senseless anger into all who peered into it.

Regret was like Desire and looked reflective but it was dark. Like a still ocean in the middle of the night it was reflective and showed experiences from the abyss. Felix saw thousands of memories of his past though nothing particularly clear. While he didn’t fully agree with everything he had ever done, he didn’t feel any significant regret about anything. Another one of the unique properties of his soul it seemed.

Fear tried to physically manifest itself and morphed into various scenes, like a sphere engraved with horrific carvings across its surface. They shifted and morphed and showed Felix being trapped, dissected, torn apart. They showed Felix dying, they showed him losing himself and being driven insane and burning in the flames of Oblivion.

Oblivion itself was simultaneously a Fire and an orb of smoke and nothingness. Cracks in reality, rising smoke and a burning flame all emanated out in every direction at once, like gravity simply didn’t exist. With each of them, space itself was destroyed as they stretched outwards but didn’t reach any farther and never expanded.

Creation was an orb of pure white, not bright like a sun but just white. Out of its surface, inexplicable creatures, things Felix recognized, objects he couldn’t describe, formulas, equations, words, feelings and everything in between appeared and tried to escape the gravity of the orb itself. Whatever force held and contained the orbs though, was too much and it got nowhere.

Lastly Pride was like a perfect mirror. Unlike Regret and Desire that were dark and bright, Pride seemed to reflect reality itself, except it didn’t. It showed a reflection of Felix, taller, more handsome, summoning thousands of creatures, commanding an endless army of constructs, using them to take down gods and consume planets.

It was so absurd, Felix almost laughed.

In the very middle of the plateau, sat a slightly raised stone circle. Just a couple inches off the ground and wide enough that he could lie across it without any of him overhanging the sides.

That first time he climbed it, he sat on the platform and meditated. He felt the curses around him trying to consume the Anima that formed his soul and just breathed in, recognizing he wasn’t affected by any of them.

He didn’t stay longer than a breath that time though as he had taken a while to ascend in the first place.

Heading back down, he realigned himself in the Twilight Garden before heading back to spar with Peace.

That very day, he finally upgraded the class skill he was hoping to upgrade every single time he sparred.

Ding You have upgraded the Class skill: [Legendary] Reaper’s Sense (Adept XII) => Class: [Ancient] Reaper’s Instinct (Apprentice III)

Class: [Reaper’s Instinct (Ancient) Channel your hardened instincts to tune your Perception and Intelligence. All senses are applicable and increase your awareness, amplifying your senses to be more attuned to the world around you. Using these senses, and everything they detect, your memory and experiences allow you to predict possible futures further increasing your senses. This skill heavily scales on your Soul Strength and the experiences contained within.]

This is probably the skill The System assigned to describe what The Reaper did for himself. Also, scales on the experiences contained within probably means harvesting experiences from souls too…

The implications of the description and how it changed were drastic but not entirely unexpected for Felix. The part that mattered the most to him was the increase to his intelligence when he used it and the effect was immediately apparent. His brain was no longer playing catch up like it had been when he activated Reaper’s Sense, now his two stats were nearly the same and they worked in tandem.

Peace was still faster than Felix by a considerable margin but he had to noticeably ramp up the speed and power behind his strikes and hold back just a little less.

Finally having mastered all of the Major Peaks, Felix spent a dekad meditating within the ring of curses at the penultimate peak. During that time he continued hardening and tuning his soul in the Twilight Garden but he also spent some time manually harvesting both the Giant’s soul and Hollow Claw’s soul.

The Giant’s soul was uncomplicated and easy to harvest, almost exclusively providing Strength and Endurance in his body suffused soul layer.

He wasn’t getting much from souls in general anymore, at least in terms of a percentage of their stats, because it was becoming harder to find anima that was applicable. The stronger he got, the more specialized his soul felt. Instead of directly mixing in the anima they used to control their bodies, he had to find the parts of their second layers that meshed well with his second layer. For the most part, he relied on soul structures, convictions and generally strengthening his will power and body directly. Tuning his experiences and imbuing some of the will they carried.

Still though, the giant and Hollow Claw were high level beings and there was a fair amount of each he could take. The Giant was simple but its soul was huge and played a large part in its body, how tough it was and how it moved.

Hollow Claw’s soul was much more complex and it played a large role too but, in a completely different way.

Instead of strengthening his cells directly by being suffused with his soul, Hollow Claw’s focused heavily on something that reminded Felix of Reaper’s Movement. It did both but the latter was vastly more important to his abilities.

While there was a sizable chunk of anima Felix managed to take from the Giant due to the sheer mass of its soul, Hollow Claw’s was similarly sized but there was simultaneously more and less he could take. There were more techniques and structures in place that he took note of and manually harvested but each one of them was lesser in quantity of Anima.

Using Hollow Claw’s as a baseline though, Felix focused on two things.

First, he implemented basic structure for his body suffused layer. It was already something he was planning on doing, after seeing it mentioned in the manual The Reaper had given him but he had been waiting until he modified his body with mana channels. He still hadn’t gotten there yet and he didn’t implement anything crazy but he implemented the basics of a structure Hollow Claw had used. It was essentially a complex braid of anima, each one ideally with its own conviction but for now, just different ideals. Each one applied to different stats and were thicker in certain areas.

The second thing he did, was modify his Reaper’s skills directly. The way Hollow Claw used them seemed to have been more intentional and Felix liked that idea. Instead of just using his will power to push his body to move, he used his will power to move in specific ways and with specific intentions. Hollow Claw’s was much more complex but Felix had boiled his technique down to what he found most applicable and discarded the rest.

That jump in understanding and usage of the skills resulted in jumping a full tier of proficiency in each of the skills which was awesome.

Class Skill Proficiency

Reaper’s Movement: Novice VII => Skilled VII

Reaper’s Sense: Novice V => Reaper’s Instinct: Journeyman IV

Reaper’s Bond: Novice I => Journeyman II

Reaper’s Body: Novice III => Adept VI

At that point, he had just a dekad and a day left until his first recruitment was over. He wanted to spend the last couple of days decompressing in the Twilight Garden and rooting for Peace who would finally be finishing his evaluation so, he spent each day on the peak working towards something he had been dreaming about ever since ascending.

He spent the first few days preparing. He made sure he could touch and handle each of the curses, approaching their floating orbs and pushing his hand into each of them. He would be using his Soul Tendrils when the time came but he used his hand to be sure his physical body wouldn’t suffer from cursed attacks in the future.

The thin film layer he had created of hardened anima around his entire body was incredible and made everything so much easier than he had expected. Like Talrain’s aura, it would dampen any physical and elemental attacks as well but, The System was awful at measuring soul stuff so it didn’t reflect on his status screen.

Name: Felix Kade (The True Wizard) FREE 0

Innate: Ascendant Prodigy: Mana (Wizard) STR 1,074

Class: [C - Ancient] Reaper (Lvl 1,306) DEX 2,344

Race: [C - Unique] Wanderer (Lvl 1,307) AGI 1,554

Profession: [C - Ancient] Lifebinder (Lvl 1,309) PER 1,241

Health: 17,555,850 / 17,555,850 VIT 1,198

Mana: 150,000,000 / 150,000,000 INT 1,755

Resistance: 93.87% END 1,532

Woah. The Giant and Hollow Claw were way more beneficial than I thought.

Grim nodded, Yeah but consider how high their stats probably were. You probably got less than a thousandth of a percent.

Yeah, you’re probably right. So in that case… It will matter less and less the stronger I get and the higher my stats are.

Unfortunately… Yup.

Turning back to the task at hand, Felix had just 6 days left in the event and all his preparations were complete. He now had 7 channels running down 7 different Soul Tendrils, just like the one he had used to vacuum up Peace’s and earlier, Hollow Claw’s, remembered. Standing in the middle of the circle, he reached out and stabbed each of the 7 curses at the exact same time.

From each of them, he drew in enough of the curses to create something between a big moon and a small planet from each that orbited his core soul. At first he was convinced no one would notice because he wasn’t planning on making the planets very big and he doubted how often anyone else stood where he was.

As he began forming each of the orbs within his Soular System though, he realized how relatively thin they were and with barely a conscious thought, compressed them down over tenfold. Actually channeling his will towards each of them, he compressed them even further and no longer did he need just a tiny amount.

The effect of the little planets he created were immense in their compressed state but around his Core Soul, he suppressed them and kept them contained to their own bodies.

Growing them each to the size he had targeted, just smaller than his Core Soul, Felix ended up taking nearly half of each of the curses around him, at least visibly and he estimated that he had compressed them each down by a factor of nearly 40 in every dimension.

That, was an amount that someone would immediately notice and suddenly, Felix felt a lot less sure that no one else would be where he was anytime soon. There had to be at least someone that maintained and checked on the curses. Ensured the altars were functional. Either some kind of alarm system he had possibly already triggered or someone constantly watching from somewhere.

Standing where he was though, he could tell The System was even having a hard time though as the System static he had learned to listen for was aggressively fighting back against the curses. He wasn’t really sure what could have been watching but he just hoped they wouldn’t be too mad.

While he didn’t have the anima to replenish the curses around him, he immediately noticed them drawing in the ambient anima. It was arduous and would take hundreds of epochs for them to replenish back to their original sizes but, it would happen eventually. He just hoped it would take that long for someone else to climb their way up here.

In the meantime, he headed back down to the Twilight Garden and watched with fascination as the ripples of the garden were completely rebuffed before entering his body at all. Not only did having the cursed planets orbiting very close to his core soul bring him an odd and inexplicable level of comfort, but the constant effect they had was hardening his soul and aligning him, now that he wasn’t directly affected by their influence.

He had them orbiting elliptically, so their influence waxed and waned for the moment but figured he may switch that later on. For the time being, considering they were forcing his soul to harden in a sense, he had to be experiencing some kind of stress from them so, he let them be until he was certain they weren’t exhausting his willpower or anything.

The ripples of the Twilight Garden weren’t a complete waste though because he could still pull anima out of his body to work on it outside, he just hoped no one had the Anima Senses to see exactly what he was doing. Unfortunately, he didn’t really have anything else to work on so he headed right back up to the top of the peak and began meditating on the raised platform in the center.

His goal, was to spend three days there exercising his will to the limit by creating the spark of life on as many small orbs of anima as he could. He worked on other projects too but his goal was to make certain that he could handle the most stressful possible environment, with the curses around and within him while his will was completely exhausted.

Over the course of his time with Amatara’s worshipers though, his will had greatly increased and just creating The Spark of Life wasn’t nearly enough to exhaust him anymore. He found his limit was around multiple orders of magnitude greater than it had been, not that it meant much at the moment. The only time he had really felt restricted by that limit before was when he was suppressing The sub-System chunk and he wasn’t really planning on harvesting more of those anytime soon.

So, he exhausted himself as much as he could.

He found that despite not being directly affected by any of the curse’s influence, some of them took more of his willpower to contain than others. The entire goal of having them orbit his core soul though was to constantly train his will power so, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Over the course of three days, he did not find himself being slowly drained which is exactly what he had hoped. Otherwise, he would have had to remove the planets periodically to allow his soul to relax and regenerate itself over time until his willpower was strong enough to contain them again.

At the end of the third day, a few hours before he would have rose anyways, Felix leapt out of his meditation as he felt a new presence in front of him. He was so used to being completely alone at the top of the mountain and the presence, had appeared almost instantly.

Physically, a woman stood before him, hands clasped behind her back as she walked around him and the center platform slowly. She had slightly darker covered in shallow wrinkles making her look old and wise but judging from her physicality definitely not decrepit or hindered by her age. Her body was toned and lean showing off muscles that were obviously denser than the standard human configuration he was still used to.

Otherwise though, she appeared humanoid with messy white hair mostly wrangled into a thick braid that trailed down her back and she wore loose, knee length pants, foot wraps, hand wraps, and a top that left her stomach and arms completely exposed.

Spiritually, Felix didn’t even need to identify the woman to know, a God stood before him. Like Aro Zaki, she maintained an aura around her except hers was less constrained. Rather than a field of complete dominance, her aura was tranquil but slowly shifting. It felt to Felix like a beautifully curated garden in the way some anima moved and morphed, some parts quickly others seeming almost still. Like a flowing river amongst still rocks and swaying branches. It didn’t feel like she imposed her will anywhere to move or hold pieces still though, it was like it moved itself. Like her aura was nature itself.

[SSS - Unique] Amatara (Lvl 7104)

“I did not expect to find anyone here, let alone a soul I haven’t yet met.”

Felix bowed because it seemed like the right thing to do and anything that gained him favor and made him less likely to die, seemed like a good idea, “Thank you for hosting me in your recruitment.”

She chuckled once, “I was not the one who invited you.”

“You are the one hosting me though. Whether or not you know I exist, I am in your lands, using your resources and facilities. I am grateful.”

“I provide these resources for anyone who is capable. By standing where you are so casually, you are evidently more than just capable.”

Felix wasn’t sure what to say so he just stared at her.

She looked at him for a few pacing steps then looked ahead of her as she continued to circle him. When she finally spoke, she seemed to almost be talking to herself, “I was summoned for another matter entirely. It is only the way of nature that led to my encountering you at all.”

When he didn’t respond for a few of her slow steps, she continued, “I used to watch the pinnacle eagerly. In recent times, I looked away. Still, I was supposed to be notified of pinnacle prospects. How is it you were admitted?”

“I met some of your worshipers in the world event, I mentioned having mastered a minor peak though, I didn’t know what it was at the time. They asked if I would be interested in a recruitment, I said yes. Chose this, showed up and then a guy named Pewa punched me. He sent me to Aro Zaki who had me stand next to the minor peak I had mastered and that was it.”

“Which world event?”

There were multiple?

“Bastorus One.”

She nodded, “Who is your master here?”

“What do you mean?”

She looked at him to see if he was serious or not then cocked her head slowly, “The one who monitors your training.”

“No one?” Felix shrugged, trying desperately to seem innocent.

After a few moments, she nodded once, “I have something I must attend to elsewhere. I will find you afterwards.”

Then, she leapt off the peak and vanished though, Felix really only saw a blur.

Guess I should get going too. She didn’t even mention the curses being smaller. Did she not notice? Or did she not know their size?

Heading down the mountain himself, much slower than her single leap, Felix headed through the portal frame to the Twilight Garden, where he and Peace had agreed to meet.

Stepping in, Felix sighed as his new outermost layer completely rebuffed the ripples of the garden. Looking around, he spotted and headed towards Peace.

Peace noticed Felix approaching immediately and used his hands to hop his meditative sit a quarter rotation to the right.

Felix sat on the edge of the stone opposite him, “Are you ready?”

Peace nodded, much more resolve than he had had when they had first started.

Placing his hand on Peace’s chest, Felix pushed all of his Soul Tendrils through Peace’s second layer by making a hole he would later repair.

They had expected Peace’s soul to relax and shrink down around his core soul but his second layer seemed just as loose as it had been when Felix had first removed the remembered. They assumed it would just take more time and it didn’t affect what they were going to do anyways.

From there, Felix removed the lattice layer he had been constantly maintaining, fully opening Peace’s soul to the world around him.

Felix easily found the soft layer of structured anima that surrounded Peace’s core soul, the one he hadn’t touched once and carefully surrounded it on all sides with his Soul Tendrils. Once he was in position, he readied himself then used the Soul Tendrils without channels in them to slice the layer into strips while the ones with channels, sucked out the anima entirely.

As soon as he did so, Peace’s core soul exploded like Felix had popped a balloon.

He desperately held on from all sides and wrapped it as tightly as he could with his Soul Tendrils, desperately trying to contain his core soul.

It shouldn’t be this weak. Was that layer the only thing holding it in place?

Squeezing down from all sides, Felix began the process of compressing his core soul down, slowly removing tendrils from the equation as it shrank down from a volleyball, to a softball, to a baseball, to a golf ball then finally to a marble. Felix stopped there not because he couldn’t go further, in fact he oddly hadn’t even felt strained yet. He stopped because he wasn’t sure any smaller was a good idea.

If everything worked out, he could always come back and compress it further.

He held it in place for a few moments. Then a few minutes. Peace’s Core Soul just kept pushing against him though and he could feel his Tendrils were the only thing containing it. If he let go, it would either explode and he would die or it would expand back to being a little larger and he would live.

Felix didn’t want to bet on it though so, he held it for even longer.

The deadline they were working against was approaching though so Felix didn’t have forever to wait. Either he released it or he wrapped it in a new layer. Considering releasing it risked him dying, Felix decided his best bet was to simply wrap it back up for the moment then figure out a more permanent solution later.

Holding Peace’s Core Soul with a couple tendrils, Felix began weaving a lattice layer around it then wrapped that in a film layer to make sure everything was contained. It wasn’t quite as impressive or strong as the layer protecting his Soular System but it was at least half way there because Felix didn’t want to risk anything.

Carefully pulling his two tendrils back, Peace’s Core Soul immediately expanded to fill the inside of the barrier Felix had created, just as he had expected.

As Felix drew the two tendrils out of the layer and readied himself to patch it though, he noticed Peace’s Core Soul beginning to leak through the barrier on the other side.

What?

Desperately reaching over with Tendrils he grabbed and shoved as much of the leaking anima back into the barrier as he could but he wasn’t fast enough. More began leaking out from another side then another. As he grabbed and contained everything, two of his Tendrils still acting like a plug to what he was certain was the only hole in the barrier, Felix panicked.

Fuck! What is even happening. I know the barrier is fine- this shouldn’t even be possible.

As much as he tried, Felix knew he was fighting a losing battle. Peace’s Core Soul leaked out from everywhere and there was nothing he could do to stop it. As it did, it pushed up against his loose Second Layer like it had become the film of a balloon then, the Second Layer began to dissolve.

The anima from his Core Soul, the anima from his Second Layer, everything that had made up his soul fell apart and became one.

Felix immediately decided there was no way he was harvesting Peace’s soul and that he would rather let it merge in with the ambient anima, like a dying soul was supposed to or return to whatever afterlife he worshiped. He did however, remove the failed lattice layer he had created within Peace’s soul because it didn’t belong there.

I… I can’t believe… I just didn’t have enough… After all that my will power still wasn’t strong enough? Did I do something wrong?

Some of the soul focused residents and I were watching. We didn’t notice anything you did wrong.

Is it just… not possible to compress another soul then? I did it to Nova but we’ve been soul bound for a while so… that worked? Does that mean I have to implant a piece of my soul, my will, for anything to stick?

Maybe. Maybe his Core Soul was just too damaged from remembering.

I should have… I thought I mastered the peak of Pride… I gu-

“I feel awesome.”

Felix’s eyes shot open to find Peace hopping up and down in front of him.

“I know I was hesitant for, a long time but oh man I was wrong.” Peace chuckled into the air, completely shattering the tranquil silence of the garden.

Felix leapt to his feet, “Yo- You’re alive?”

Peace stopped and patted himself all over, “Yeah. Pretty sure.”

Carefully reaching out, Felix poked Peace and found he felt perfectly normal, physically. Spiritually, it was like he wasn’t even there. Like he was a body without a soul.

“Uh… Peace…”

Peace looked at him, Felix’s worry causing his expression to darken a little.

“Do you still have a soul?”

Peace’s eyes rolled back in thought then he shrugged and vanished, replaced by a streak of black. The black streak circled around the pond a few times then he stopped in front of Felix and shrugged, “Yeah, seems like it. Why?”

Felix stared at him incredulously for a second then stepped forwards and placed his hand back on Peace’s chest. Reaching in, it was like he wasn’t reaching through anything. It felt like, Peace’s soul didn’t exist at all. No matter how hard Felix looked or sensed, he felt nothing.

Stepping back, Felix mentally noted that Peace had a slight hand print marking on his chest, just like Nova and Zero had when he had manually altered their souls but the tendrils weren’t there. The tendrils had gone inwards instead of outwards so instead, the print grew whiter towards the center.

Offering his hand to Peace, Felix drew Peace into his Soul Garden. Both so they could talk and to see if it would work at all.

Appearing in his Soul Garden, Felix immediately felt like his soul had just lifted a massive weight while simultaneously, Peace’s hand vanished from Felix’s grip in the physical world. Without releasing him, Felix opened his physical eyes and saw that Peace, was gone.

Inside his head though, Peace stood there in the garden, waiting for him.

Felix joined him and Grim appeared a moment later as they both circled and examined Peace.

“I guess… let me show you my memory of what happened first.” Felix moved them into the memory room in an instant where a few of his original mind residents were already watching the memory in question. He had them restart it and Peace watched from the beginning as Felix freed his Core Soul, compressed it down, then completely failed to contain it. It then merged with his Second Layer and the anima that was once his soul all became one.

On second viewing though, Felix immediately noticed that although Peace’s soul did exactly what he expected a dying soul to, to merge with the ambient and dissipate, he never actually saw it dissipate. He didn’t know that it left his body at all.

Peace nodded appreciatively, “So… I should be dead. I’m not. I still have a soul. I think.”

“Now for the second thing.” Felix moved them into the building where his eyes were connected then physically opened his eyes and looked around.

Seeing what he was seeing, Peace’s eyes widened, “Where’d I go?”

Felix hesitated because what he wanted to say, he was pretty sure was completely impossible, “I think… you’re in… here? Physically.”

Peace’s eyes remained wide as his smile grew, “I mean I feel great but… what?”

Felix shrugged and Peace laughed.

Releasing him from his Soul Garden, Peace reappeared in front of Felix as if he had never left the spot he had been standing in except now, he wore a wide smile.

“You know, we probably should have done this a bit sooner. I feel at least twice as fast which is great but…”

Felix sighed, “You’ve had no time to get used to it and now you have to fight.”

Peace shrugged, “Oh well.”

Walking back towards the portal frame, Peace leapt and flipped over Felix’s head constantly, completely enamored with his own speed, “It’s not just speed I also feel so much lighter.”

“Are you just as strong? Or are your strikes going to suffer?”

Peace landed in front of Felix and nodded, “Good question. You’ve never taken a full force punch of mine, right?”

Felix nodded and activated Reaper’s Body to massively increase his Vitality and Endurance, “Go for it.”

Suddenly Felix’s health just dropped by over 3 million but physically, he didn’t move. The actual force behind the strike wasn’t overwhelming and didn’t cause him to step back or anything. Rather, it felt like he had been punched through his robes, through his skin. Like the punch was internal somehow.

Looking inwards, his soul was completely unaffected but his internal organs looked like the force of the punch had hit all of them, everywhere, at once. It was the complete opposite of what he expected which was essentially a Soul Punch.

Peace looked both a little excited and a little worried, “How much health did you lose?”

“3.4 million.”

“HA! I’m amazing.”

As they walked back through the portal and towards The Somatic Halls, Felix explained to Peace what he had felt from his strikes as best he could. They didn’t have any more time than that though as even before entering the building, Felix knew exactly who Peace was supposed to fight as he felt an aura resembling nature itself emanating out from within the building.

He didn’t spoil the fun for Peace though as they stepped into the hall and Peace immediately laughed, “I should have known.”

Amatara turned to them from atop the stage and she locked eyes with Felix for a moment before turning back to Peace, “You are The Dark One I was summoned to assess?”

He nodded, “I think so.”

She looked over towards Aro Zaki and the other judges who all nodded.

Amatara turned back to Peace then nodded and walked across the sparring platform to give him room to join her.

Hopping and stretching his body for a few moments, Peace stopped and cocked his head, “I can fight naked, right?”

She nodded once, “Of course.”

Peace nodded then turned around and stripped. He tossed his clothes to Felix who easily caught them then turned and faced Amatara as Felix winced.

Naked, it was obvious that Peace’s entire body, was slightly translucent. Felix wasn’t the only one that noticed it either as Amatara’s eyes were locked on his body and her face visibly displayed her confusion.

“You are an odd one.”

Peace shrugged.

They stood there for a few moments then, as if on some unseen signal, they engaged.

Felix already had Reaper’s Instinct active so he could try to follow what was happening but he stood no chance. Even his buffed Intelligence and Perception couldn’t follow what was happening. He caught the big picture like who struck who but he missed the nuance of how and where they moved to get there.

It didn’t much matter though and Felix was just happy to be able to maintain all of his Reaper’s Skills indefinitely. It had taken nearly the entire recruitment to get there but he was incredibly satisfied with the result.

Class Skill Proficiency

Reaper’s Movement: Novice VII => Adept IX

Reaper’s Sense: Novice V => Reaper’s Instinct: Journeyman XVIII

Reaper’s Bond: Novice I => Journeyman IV

Reaper’s Body: Novice III => Adept XIX

Even more satisfying for him, was that he didn’t feel like he was at a dead end at all. He knew exactly what he wanted to do next with the skills, or at least the avenue he wanted to explore.

It was a little disappointing to still be missing so much of the fight, even with his Reaper’s Instinct constantly active though.

From what he did get, Amatara fought almost like Peace used to, switching between forms and their strengths as she went from strong and stable to fluid and flexible. Her knees bent and feet spread, bracing her to block a strike then she’d almost turn to liquid as she contorted around and dodged another.

Peace fought unlike he used to. Instead of switching forms the way she was, he seemed to almost exclusively move in a way that almost mirrored the wind. He was fast and fluid and explosive all at the same time. He shifted a bit from when he was striking to dodging or blocking or knocking strikes aside but he seemed to be completely avoiding stable footing.

Then, he completely shifted all at once.

All of a sudden, he was nothing like the wind at all. His feet were planted and he seemed like a solid wall that had suddenly gained an absurd amount of mass. He was unmovable and rigid and took everything. His body even grew darker and more opaque, somehow.

Amatara, who was clearly holding back her Agility and Strength, visibly shifted her stats around a little as she struck with faster strikes then stronger strikes to really put Peace to the test.

From there he shifted through a number of other forms that Felix felt a little silly naming but couldn’t help himself. After Rock was fluid and flowing Water that mostly parried and twisted through strikes followed by Fire that was explosive and almost stunted followed by three or four others he couldn’t really put a name to.

Finally, Amatara nearly doubled all her stats and Peace went back to his normal fighting style of shifting from style to style and stance to stance as he saw fit. His every move trailed in shadow like always but as he was pushed and as he adapted, the black streaks began to gradually shift. They went from black shadow with almost imperceptible colors within to a weird translucence that looked almost simultaneously like a soap bubble and a fluffy white cloud.

Amatara’s stats visibly grew with every strike she threw, parried, blocked, every step she took and every second that passed as Peace was almost visibly oppressed. As skilled as he may have been, there was no getting around her having the actual stats of a God and so it was only a matter of time until he was forced to surrender or lose.

Despite the inevitable approaching, Peace never just took strikes. He moved and predicted Amatara as best he could up until the point where his blocking strikes just didn’t matter anymore. He would try to parry but her arm wouldn’t move, his body did instead. He would try to block but her strength was too overwhelming and he was significantly injured anyways. He saw things and react but just wasn’t enough.

That only lasted for a very short time though before they both simultaneously stopped, took a step back and nodded, or head bowed, to each-other.

The dozens of collected observers around the side were completely stunned and said nothing as Amatara walked over towards the judges and spoke with them.

Peace turned to Felix, who immediately threw him his robes. He caught them and dressed himself rather gracefully as he walked over, “Did you see that?”

Felix chuckled, “Some of it. You guys are way too fast for me to catch much.”

“I know right? I feel so much faster so much lighter and when I switched forms it was like my body itself got heavier.”

“I am… really glad everything worked out and you’re not dead.”

Peace laughed, “Me too. I am so glad you talked me into doing this.”

The two of them headed back to the sparring room they used where they left Nova napping and instead of sparring and training Felix’s Reaper’s skills, they began experimenting with whatever Peace was now.

Mostly it was just Peace trying things while Felix offered an outside perspective, thoughts, ideas and a sounding board.

“See, when I think like a rock-” Peace widened his stance and planted his feet so strongly, the platform released two resonating thumps, “-I feel like I become a rock.”

Visually, his body was completely opaque and suddenly slightly grayish in hue.

A voice suddenly pierced their focus, “You are indeed an odd being.”

Looking towards the door, Amatara stood with her hands clasped behind her back, watching the two of them.

Felix bowed a little and Peace nodded to her before hopping back to his feet and returning to his slightly translucent form.

“It is a unique experience for me, to meet someone so young who has reached a level of mastery requiring my own judgement to recognize. And yet, it seems this is not a unique experience at all.”

She looked from Peace to Felix, “Two Sages, neither of which has even reached the B grade.”

Congratulations!

You have been granted a title.

Spirit Sage: This title is granted by Amatara to those who have mastered all 7 major curses, then reached and spent the requisite amount of time at The Zenith.

Looking over at Peace, they both flashed their titles to each-other.

[Unique] Somatic Sage: Peace (Lvl 2413)

“Wait… Your level is… also your grade is just… gone?”

“My level’s always jumped around randomly. I wouldn’t worry about it, it’s just an estimation based on my stats but those jump all over the place too. As for the grade… I guess it just stopped guessing?” Peace shrugged.

“It is common for those who reject The System, especially those so spiritually attuned. What is not quite as common, is being completely spiritually undetectable.” Amatara looked at Peace for an explanation as she slowly stepped into the room.

Peace nodded and thumbed Felix, “That’s what he said. Not like I have any idea what’s going on but… can’t really complain.”

“I see. Neither of you are staying any longer I hear?”

Felix shook his head and looked over, Peace was doing the same, “I’ve got other obligations with The Cult.”

She nodded and looked at Felix, “I’ve got three other recruitments scheduled. I already accomplished everything I wanted to here anyways.”

“I guess I will have to visit The Cult then,” She said looking at Peace then turned to Felix, “And good luck with your other recruitments.” Looking at both of them now, “I suspect we will meet each-other again, rather soon.”

Peace bowed a little, “Yeah, I’m sure The Reaper would love to have you again.”

She exhaled just a little from her nose, “And I would love to see him again as well. I didn’t believe I had time but I think I will need to find some. How is he, my old master?”

“Same.” Peace shrugged a little solemnly, “He would have loved to see our fight.”

She nodded, “I’m sure he would have.” Then she turned and walked out of the room.

Spinning towards Peace just as she left, Felix leaned in a little, “Her master, The Reaper?”

Peace nodded without looking away from the door, “Her’s and mine in fact. Who else do you think could have taught either of us. You know, it’s kind of silly to call ourselves Sages after that fight. You should see The Reaper fight. His forms are… well lets just say he favors more exotic forms. Not entirely somatic though… Or… he used to.”

Felix nodded, “Huh.” He slapped Peace’s shoulder, “Well, we have a day and a half left, anything else we should do before we leave?”

Peace shrugged, “Want to try learning auras?”

Felix’s eyes widened, “Yes.”

Heading back out into the main room, Peace walked over to the judges table, bowed and spoke to them. Whatever he said was inaudible to Felix who had followed him into the room, over the crowd of observers that were loudly talking amongst themselves.

A few moments passed before Aro Zaki rose to his feet and followed Peace.

Back in the sparring room they used, the two of them spent a day learning the basics of auras from Aro Zaki who was a terse and concise but incredibly patient teacher.

Neither of them managed to really get anywhere but just knowing what to do was still immensely helpful, at least for Felix to train on his own in the future. Peace on the other hand, none of them were really sure if it was even possible for him to have an aura of any kind anymore. When he tried, he simply became more translucent and said he felt sick and light headed.

At the end of the day, the two of them left together, heading back through the portal frames and running through the Akikabara Monastery, across the pond and back through the forest. Felix had memorized the path and having been just a quarter of an epoch, the trees were now a bright blue, almost identical to the color of the sky, which was odd to look at.

That wasn’t nearly as interesting as the pebble path though which was, completely redone.

Peace had mentioned that the artists maintaining the path redid it using the inspiration of travelers stepping across it and now, it had changed completely. Felix wasn’t even sure if it was using the same pebbles at all.

The majority of the pattern was black, with slightly different shades creating the image of distorted shadow creatures, maws, hands and other less describable depictions. Those stretched for kilometers and were rather disturbing to Felix. Every once in a while though, the endless black was interrupted by an orb of pure white. The orb pushed back the darkness in an aura around it and even as hands and teeth tried to push through the aura, the orb and its influence was absolute.

The darkness completely surrounded the orb and stretched between them but there was no other pattern on the path, just the darkness broken up by the same orb over and over again.

Felix and Peace passed by a number of people also leaving their recruitments and largely ignored them but Felix took specific note of a number of individuals on the edge of the road. They were staring down at the pebbles, handfuls and piles surrounding them, and carefully placing them. Instead of the calming act it was supposed to be though, they all seemed stressed and nervous.

Neither Peace nor Felix asked though and they simply provided their footsteps for the tapestry on their way out.