Chương 23: 12B. The Serpent And The Soulspace

"You're right," Sam said.

"I don't give a damn about living forever. I don't see the point in it. But give me a purpose. Give me friends. Give me people to care about and a job to do. I'll gladly live a long life afterward." He sighed and sat down next to the foundation he had marked for IEF. Sam pressed his palms against the flat stone slab. The moss rippled before glassy, fingernail-sized crystal fragments grew out of the foundation.

"Maybe the Seekers are precisely what I need. Learn. Figure things out. Teach."

"You don't care about immortality?" Oros asked.

"What good is a long life without people to share it with?"

"I don't understand." Her uncertainty increased.

"You'll get there." Sam chuckled.

"Now help me with this. I don't know what I'm doing."

"But this is yours," Oros said.

"You're a part of me, right? It's ours." The crystal fragments multiplied and replicated, growing upwards. They snugly fit on and around each other, leaving no blank or open spaces. None of them grew straight upward; instead, they progressed as Sam imagined: in a spiral. It started with a base layer only as wide as his hand, then grew outward to the edges of the foundation. It started conical, slowly filling out. Most curious of all were the wisps of green light that flickered to life between the two foundations.

They danced, moving in the same figure-eight pattern as Oros. Sam's heart skipped a beat as he realized what he was witnessing. They were the building blocks of his first star. Then exhaustion hit him like a runaway truck. It felt as if someone had sucked all the air out of his lungs. Breathing became a challenge, and his chest hurt. The spiraling aquamarine and emerald crystals trembled. Sam wasn't sure how long he had spent constructing the vessel.

It had grown to three feet at the center, while the edges of the cone stood two feet off the ground. The crystal fragments near the center trembled, then cracked and fell apart, losing a handful of inches while the exterior remained intact. The overlapping crystal fragments made it look like the scales on a snake's body. The type of exhaustion Sam felt was unlike anything he had felt before. It was almost as if an elastic band had been twisted and stretched to its limits.

When Sam released it, things didn't bounce back to normal straight away. Instead, the change was gradual as the stretched elastic mass crawled and twisted back to its base state.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded, still struggling to catch his breath.

"Did I burn myself out?"

"Time," Oros answered.

"I need time to produce more material. More essence and Corruption will hasten the process.

""Fine." Sam sighed, rolling his neck. Even though it wasn't his physical body in the soul space, he felt stiff and sore.

"You're not done. Corruption. Use it. Build."

"I can't." Sam frowned.

"I don't want to end up like those things the Inhumans made."

"It's more than just poison," Oros explained.

"Corruption passes through me. Only strength remains."

"But still—""We're entangled. Poisoning you will poison me. Poison father. Trust me. If you wish to channel Terminus in its purest form, you need this." The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Instead of crystals, black strands rose out of the foundation. Sam's heart raced, and his temples throbbed. The second vessel demanded far more effort and concentration. Unlike the materials born of the essence, the graphite-like substance came with an angry clawing resistance.

Much to Sam's relief, the strands didn't look like the lion's mane mushroom that resided in the cut-open Inhuman's chest. The fungus darkened and turned metallic as it moved farther from the source, wrapped around the organs, and wove its way through the muscle fibers. Now, there was no fungus. Just the strands that looked like strings of refined, rust-free, pure iron but darker. IEF's vessel looked like a segment taken from Ouroboros' body, the individual crystals like scales.

Meanwhile, the new structure resembled thick robes of metallic fibers coiling around each other like several smaller snakes wrapping around one another and climbing upward. The construction took significantly longer, demanding more effort and concentration, but by the time Sam ran out of materials, the central point was almost four feet high. The exterior edge stood six inches shorter. He let go before the elastic band reached its limits.

His heart still pounded, and he felt out of breath, but he knew that they were just starting. Memories and knowledge gained through Oros were still sparse and fragmented, but he understood that they were still in the early stages. Sam could create vessels twice his height, but it wouldn't be enough. Things would need to feel and look right to him, and make sense in how they interacted with his star and all other vessels. Awakened texts said that construction was a lifelong effort.

Currently, both vessels looked like nothing more than simple spiral columns. Sam had a clear vision of what he needed to do. However, it was clear he was not in any shape to do it. More wisps had gathered between the two vessels. Black had joined the green and aquamarine wisps. Fine silver strands flowed through them all. It was a beautiful sight. Black is Terminus. Silver is Genesis. Green is Genesis woven with Life and Growth Attunement. Power pulsed through Sam as the elastic band returned to its basic state.

Even though his star was nowhere near completion, he now felt more than human. Sam was more. He was officially an awakened. The soulspace changed around each foundation. A thick layer of moss grew around the emerald and aquamarine pillar, coating the gravel around the circular stone slab until the individual stones were no longer visible. It spread outward several feet, adding color to the desolate surroundings and thinning as it neared the rim. It was thick and spongy, dampening the surrounding stone.

Meanwhile, the dark black of the Pulsing Palm's vessel leaked into the foundation and the surrounding stones. The gravel rapidly broke into smaller pieces, then into fine sand. The effect expanded outwards into an uneven circle marginally wider than the mossy ground. The land outside of the clearing also changed. Boulders broke down, and moss coated cliffs. Large sections blackened and disintegrated. The changes were sparse, but significantly transformed the drab gray that surrounded him.

A moss-covered cliff face cracked open, and a thin stream of water flowed into the clearing, pooling around the base.

"Flexible ether channels and adaptable flow," Oros commented, changing her route. She left the figure-eight path and slithered around IEF's vessel.

"Yes. Mountain moss was an excellent starting point for your ether network and body."

"And suddenly you're articulate," Sam said, feeling a change in his connection to Oros. The intensity was a constant. Instead, he now had renewed clarity. It felt like a two-way street. Oros was taking form in him as much as Sam was taking from her.

"Can I start condensing the star now?"

"There isn't enough ether," Oros answered.

"You need to build. You need to absorb. You need to exercise the vessels and their power. It's a long path, and you have only just taken the first step." Sam stroked IEF's vessel before walking toward the lights floating in the center. He reached into the multicolored ether, letting it dance on and around his hands. The energy prickled his skin. The sensation was neither comfortable nor displeasing.

"What now? I can't possibly be strong enough to fight the things out there. We're too deep in the Abyss."

"We'll start small," Oros answered.

"Between the two of us and your weapon, we should have the means to find more essences and sources of Corruption. But first, you rest and then test Father's gifts. We'll figure out our next moves afterward."

"Very well." Sam sighed.

"How do I get out of here?" Oros didn't answer. The next thing Sam knew, he was sitting in the dark storeroom next to Iris's unconscious form, surrounded by the jars he had opened. Exhaustion and fatigue came crashing down on him like a wave, and he failed to resist its weight.