Return of the Fallen Volume 9 Chapter 28
Obsessed was too light a word to describe what Zephris had become. After experiencing the negative zone, he had come to understand and be enlightened about the world and the very universe.
(The laws of nature, magic, the world, these rules can be bent, manipulated in certain ways, and can change and produce other effects. Similar to alchemy, the process of transforming what already exists and combining it with other ingredients. In this case, the ingredients I will be using are the elements as well as my soul.)
Zephris had found that while inside the negative zone, as the void was filled with worlds, energies, and chaos, there was a single constant. Even as his magic would not work, even as his body was being ripped to shreds, his soul remained intact.
(The soul is still full of mystery. It is energy yet at the same time it is beyond that. Not simply an energy source but a well of experience, knowledge, and more.)
Zephris thoughts ran deep and he pondered everything he knew but especially what he understood about the soul. Once more his experiments and research ramped up. He quickly learned that in order to perfect his creature and make it follow him with absolute loyalty, what he needed to do was inject his soul into the creature or rather give his creature a small piece. How though can one do that he wondered?
(I need to split my soul but to do that I require more?)
In order to split his soul, he needed his soul to expand, to grow so that when his soul split he would not be left a lifeless puppet himself. His knowledge was not vast enough for this. He had no clue where to even begin on growing his soul. So again he journeyed the continent. He spoke to the wisest of men and women who all told him the same thing…Impossible.
Zephris was not deterred though and continued searching for answers. After experiencing the natural laws being bent inside the negative zone, nothing seemed impossible to him.
After some time, Zephris found his answer or rather the one who held it. A great master had found a way to manipulate his soul and grow it by training Aura. Zephris was thrilled and sought to learn from this expert but was denied.
When Zephris asked why the expert was blunt. He told Zephris he did not wish for his secrets to reach others’ ears and knew of Zephris’s reputation to share with humanity.
“I would never purposefully leak anything. If you wish me to never speak of Aura to anyone then my lips will be permanently sealed. Please teach me.”
“I have no time for this. You say you won’t spill my secrets but we both know the humans have taken advantage of you multiple times. Your name is famous through all the land. People treat you as a saint but the kings of the human territories see you as nothing more than a giving tree. They have stolen your own secrets in the past and you have done little to nothing to punish them. How can I trust you to keep my secrets when you can’t even keep your very own?”
“What would you have me do, kill everyone who crosses me? If I did that, every king and every nobel would be my enemy and the bloodshed would not stop until there was no one left. I wish for peace in this world, not war.”
The expert would hear no more of this. The only reason why he had given Zephris even a second of his time was because Zephris himself was an expert as well as he was only part human. Were he not mixed, the expert who had his own none human background would not have given him the time of day.
Zephris found that this expert wasn’t the only one with the knowledge of Aura and met a few other powerful figures but they too denied him. No matter how much treasure he offered them, no matter the number of favors he offered, nothing got through. He even challenged a few of them. Fighting them and besting them, even in defeat they still said nothing.
(Damn these Ancient Beasts. Damn their pride and face. Even when I eat them, they go back on their word. I’m getting nowhere and now they avoid me. I need the knowledge within their minds yet they refuse every compensation, every favor. Fine, they don’t wish to tell me, I will find a way even if I have to pry the knowledge directly from their heads.)
Creating his creature that was similar to his master, he had gone through many experiments getting the right attributes from the right animals and beasts’ blood. He focused on many parasitic creatures. Ones that could take what they needed from another creature. He then combined the best of those beasts with ones that could manipulate other prey by hypnotizing their targets. Adding another creature that could synch with another’s mind and read thoughts and then memories, Zephris did it.
A ghoulish small-looking creature its body was simply a humanish looking head with many tentacles and it was covered in a viscous slime. This creature for his purpose was perfect and he called it, [Mind Frey]
With this creature, he could solve two of his problems in one fell swoop. He could personally see his enemy’s memories and with his near-perfect memory, he would remember everything he saw. Not only that, the first expert had told him a pretty big flaw of his. His creations did get out and were stolen. He would share some things but those he shared with turned out to be dubious greedy pigs who would then try and copy his tools or alchemy. Most of the time it didn’t work out but on rare occasions, his creations would be copied and would be used in ways he absolutely did not approve of.
Worst yet was these people did it blatantly. They knew Zephris was anti-war and wished for peace more than anything. Because of this, these kings and nobles would feign ignorance or would compensate Zephris and promise to never do it again.
With this new creature, Zephris would eliminate that. After a Mind Frey was used one time, the creature would then die and shrivel up into a husk. Everything that it was made of would basically disintegrate and nothing could be discovered or uncovered. Not only that but Mind Freys were sensitive to many things and could die very easily. So they must be kept and stored until they were ready to be used, otherwise, any damage could cause their normal functionality to fail substantially.
Zephris felt cheeky doing this but it was either this or going and fighting the kingdoms all around. Doing so would leave more innocent people dead and that wasn’t something Zephris wished for.
With this though, Zephris’s perspective began to change. At first, he would ask and offer rewards to those he wished to gain information from. If they said no up to that point, he would then fight them and forcefully steal the information in their heads. After a few times, he realized that it was pointless to ask. After seeing the memories from every creature he stole from, he understood that all of them were ruthless selfish nasty bastards. All this time they acted as if he were the problem. They acted as if they were better. He learned that these experts, whether they be human beasts or something else entirely, all had similar thoughts. They were the better and he the foolish one.
They thought him naive and his ideals lacking any sort of conviction. Zephris had done many things for the world. He had fed millions and heald even more. He had stopped battles and prevented wars. He built homes and terraformed uninhabitable land for far too many to count but in the end, everything he did, none of it lasted.
Those he fed, had their food stolen from the king and taxed. Those he healed were forced back onto battlefields. The land he terraformed, the kings sent men to dig up all the resources scarring the land and reverting most of it back into unlivable places. It wasn’t that Zephris would do nothing it was instead that he would not settle things accordingly. He would not go all in.
Thinking up to here, Zephris remembered what his father said about showing mercy. Some deserved it and others truly did not.
(All this time I’ve been trying to bring about peace but, the world is giving me no feasible path, no not the world, it’s all of these people and beasts with power. They take and take and take and I have been rolling voe like a dog his entire way. As long as they didn’t push things too far I have for the most part kept out of their way but this stance of mine is no stance at all. From now on, I will be the mountain and they shall be the wind.)
After that, Zephris no longer asked for information, he no longer bargained or pleaded. Instead, he would beat anyone who he wished to gain from and he would gain from them. His Mind Frey would latch on to the nape of their neck and he would steal every memory. Through this, he learned how to create his own Aura.
Comment (0)