Chương 46: To Converse

Liesel was in the darkness again, no longer drowning. A cage surrounded her. Around the cage, the unravelled strings of the centipede's soul wrapped tightly. She was within a distorted reflection of actuality. Detached from the pain that was hers, and these threads were, perhaps, a representation of her distance from her soul. Am I dead? Liesel wondered. Dead as in beyond saving. She couldn't feel her fracturing soul anymore.

'Not yet.' The Reaper's voice was distant and small, echoing through the wrapped strings around the cage.' The inherent function of the skill you used is survival. The Weaver kind devised it so, and their memories are still imprinted on it. You have felt it act differently once before... have you not?' Liesel remembered Soul Unravelling assisting the healer's magic to boost her recovery quickly.

A small part of her wanted to leave that for whatever Auram did, though consciously she was trying to get rid of one more centipede without failure. Liesel pointedly decided to ignore the implication of imprinted memories.

It didn't seem like a time to worry about what kind of door it would open, unnecessarily. Is it doing the same thing?' So it would seem. It merely prolongs your life and your suffering. My charity is not infinite, so you might want to decide before this fortune becomes a curse.' Why are you protecting me? Liesel asked. What is your reasoning? I know very little about how the divines act, but seldom is it pity, and rarer is it beyond self-aggrandizing. What does my soul give you, Warden of the Soul Sea?'

You have a unique sense to touch others' souls, odd for a mortal. It manifests in the form of a skill that no mortal should possess, certainly not a fledgling soul such as yours,'the Reaper went quiet for a moment, and with a sigh, she continued as if giving up something,' You will make an interesting apprentice should I collect your soul before it withers away. I have dominion over death, and shall collect only the dead. Before you become my claim, you will be worthless dust.' You want to make me your puppet?

Liesel's consciousness began to wilt immediately. The world around her began to dull a bit. Her thoughts muddied. It was unlike her to be so physically angry, but perhaps it was the presence of the divine that urged her to express her loathing.' Yes, that intensity. So little, yet so easily commanded—not a feature of a mortal kind. They play with Materiality. Not what you just used.

'The Reaper smiled against her ears.' Puppet? Of a sort. You will have your powers all the same, but not the flesh of your being—the binding chain that hinders your fathomless potential. And not the taint of your memories, nor the curse of your inadequate struggle of morality. Come with me. Let your soul be free of the accursed existence it is tied to. Relieve your consciousness of all the externalities—worries, guilt, hope, desire, needs, and above all, the needless humanity, as you'd call it.

And find the true path of magic as you so desire.' What am I, if not the sum of everything you ask me to shed? That's your mortality. Unnecessary. You can be of a greater idea, a formation of the superior kin. You have your schemes. You are here because you desire something. Before asking me, consider relieving yourself of everything. You won't, because you cannot persist as you are.

You will not coax a human, barely into adulthood, to be an eternal puppet, for it requires a certain kind of lust for self-aggrandizement, no different than what makes the Laks Empire, spanning a hundred thousand realms, and the Emperor the most dominant force in the history of our world.' You equate yourself and your kind to the Divine Ideas? Then take this path. You will be allowed to reclaim your mortal self if you prove capable of achieving it so in our hierarchy—amongst the gods.' I am not interested.

Without my memories, what tethers my struggle, why would I strive to be anything? I'd rather be at peace now than become an eternal puppet. Liesel said. Though she was unsure how the Reaper would take her soul, she felt extremely confident it required some sort of surrender on her side. Perhaps that was why the voice was designed to be disarming. At least, the Reaper was honest. Perhaps it felt this was the easier way to get her nod.'

Is the idea of struggling against the Divine Kins, to one day possess a dominion of your own, or perhaps mine, not interesting enough?' No.

'It is a great shame that you deprive this world of your great potential. But we are one thing that your kind never can be. We honor our vows. Is that your final answer? Liesel didn't reply. Though a part of her was curious about this entire place, she knew better than to converse with the one intent on manipulating her. Death is not the worst thing that can happen to anyone. Perhaps, you are a worse fate I should genuinely be afraid of. Liesel settled her eyes on the threads wrapped around the cage.

Had she passed out in the outside world? Was her body abandoned? She'd expect them to. She hoped none of them tried to use Soul Severance on her. The cage was slowly dissolving.

'It would seem you have another shot at life,' The Reaper said after a while, once the cage was fully dissolved and the threads were rushing at her consciousness.' You are fortunate. So am I. Consider my offer. The next time I visit you, perhaps we can reach a genuine understanding. The mortal things you seem to equate to your will are just decorations of the feeble and fading existence of mortals. They amount to nothing.' We can never have a genuine understanding, because...

Before Liesel could finish her thought, the threads crashed into her consciousness. They wrapped around her and dragged her into the depths of the Soul Sea. She was drowning again.

How far her mind had been taken away from her body. With each passing moment, she saw herself drowning deeper and deeper, and the density of the sea squeezed her from all around. Once the pain began to seep into her mind, she realized that pressure from the sea was just the pain she had been sheltered from. She was back in her body, which was immobile and burning, while her soul withered. But there was something odd. She struggled to focus her Materiality Sense amongst the relentless agony swirling in her body.

But eventually she did succeed, and she dragged the sphere of sense into her soul. Somehow, she could focus. Beyond the agony of her collapsing soul, she could finally feel the outline of the unravelled soul strings. Instead of becoming a clump within her Soul Form, they were tangled around the Soul Form as if to hold it together. The threads were different, bright, and the energy in them was akin to the golden glow of Auram's wings.

Though it had significantly slowed the withering of her soul, it was impossible for it to stop the process completely. It was impossible for anything to stop that process, really, as far as Liesel was aware. But, assisted by the tangled threads, Liesel used her Control to apply pressure on all sides, and it essentially stopped the leaking. A jolt of pain struck her mind when she did that, though. She was still breathing, so her body was still functional, it would seem.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. After a few minutes of applying pressure, hoping that would stop her crawling doom, the soul began to slip once again. After meddling with the form of her soul, which she had never done before, Liesel settled on a design that might help. Her Soul Form was like a balloon, and the withering was the process of the soul slowly turning into specks of dead ash.

At the moment, it was just a tiny area, as most of it had been trapped by the tangled strings. She applied pressure on the punctured area of the soul and began folding it inward. The pain was like she was pulling on a live nerve like a rubber band. The first time she tried it, her entire mind blanked. Even through it, she didn't relent in her coercion. Wrapped inward, the area of the soul no longer seemed to be dissolving as fast.

Liesel did it on the other side, this time without losing her entire capacity to think. And then, she squeezed both sides together. And applied a flat pressure on each side, creating a faux clamp-like seal. She could feel a few specks of dust still escaping from the temporary seal. She wished she could use the soul threads to hem the puncture, but it was impossible for her Control ability to interact with the threads in any capacity. I guess this means, instead of a few hours, I will die in a few days.

Withering had significantly damaged the size of her Soul Form, though. The Rune Cage that was in the upper section of it was only a few centimeters away from touching the exterior of her Soul Form. Liesel didn't know what would happen when it was outside, but she imagined the Ashdust would escape into her body and afflict her with the Ashening Curse in her physical body just like her mother. Liesel pushed her Materiality sense slightly outwards, around her body.

She could immediately feel the presence of Materiality lingering in her body, damaging her cells. There was another energy in her body, which Liesel imagined was the potion Isa prepared. She focused on a portion of her body, stretching the senses from the heart to that point. She applied pressure on the Materiality, weaving it out of her flesh, gathering it in one place, and burning it. She repeated the process a hundred times over in her body, one section at a time.

During it, once she stretched her control, her faux seal came undone instantly. So she had to reserve a portion of focus on her soul at all times if she wanted to prolong her life. Once all the materiality was burned, the cause of Materiality poisoning in her body should be gone, and the deterioration should stop. There was a big question as to whether or not it was enough for her to regain consciousness. At this moment, she was awake inside her mind, but her body was still disconnected beyond the pain.

On some level, this was a gift from the Reaper. It was unlikely she'd have even this much consciousness without the cage it had provided. The initial burst of pain from using Soul Unravelling might have thoroughly destroyed her capacity to think. The energy in the potion didn't feel great. As it flowed through her body, it seemed to burn everything due to its high concentration. Something mixed in the potion seemed to heal her body as well. This was a different potion than what she had asked for from Isa.

What Liesel asked for was a temporary raise, similar to the two enhancement boosters she had used to contain the Ashdust maligning her soul. But the one that was inside her body was acting differently. She didn't know its effect. After flowing through her body, burning and restructuring the flesh and veins, it entered her Soul Veins and did the same thing. Though the Soul Veins were severely inflamed, the healing effect of the potion did calm them down somewhat, not before burning it too.

Slowly the energy began to dwindle, and still it would be hours by then, and most of the pain in her body seemed to have become bearable. Almost ignorable, except for the damage to her soul. That one was probably going to accompany her to her dying breath, or until she managed to sew it, which she was expecting her Soul Weaving Skill to allow. In this situation, she quite literally needed a skill to do that. Still a long shot...

"Mh..." She grunted as she woke up with a gasp of cold breath. The moon above was staring down at her. Yehia shrouded it as she peered over her. Only her deep black eyes were there, overwhelming all other emotions welling up in Liesel's physical body. Yehia's lips curled into a wide grin.

"How are you feeling?" Liesel blinked. She pushed herself up, leaning against the wall to steady herself.

"Alive... I suppose." She croaked, coughing to clear her throat. Yehia gave her the water sack.

"Your soul's still withering."

"It will probably take a few da... no, at least a week for me to lose enough that I am rendered useless again," Liesel uttered, flicking her eyes at the System's estimation.

"How does that even work?"

"My soul's manageably small, and so is the rupture in it. I can squeeze it tightly, and dampen the speed of decay." Yehia blinked.

"That sounds... unpleasant."

"It's manageable," Liesel nodded.

"Living through sheer force of will," Yehia chuckled, patting Liesel's shoulder.

"I must say, I hope I will be able to pull something like that when my time comes."

"I hope not," Liesel uttered, exhaling.

"I'd hope you are fulfilled with your life before that happens."

"Were you not?"

"I feel bitter about doing things half-heartedly. I couldn't just give up when I had another choice." She spared a glance at the expedition crew, and only wounded greeted her eyes, but none were dead. Charbil was the worst.

"How long before the storm?"

"Twelve hours and some change." Liesel's heart dropped. How could they waste twelve hours waiting for me to wake up? She didn't ask it, because, of course, it was not a pragmatic choice. And she'd rather not berate their concern for her, even if it was wrong.

"We should start walking then." Liesel leaned against the wall, pushing herself back to her feet. [The Spirit Dust Concentration Assimilated! Constitution +1] [Soul Unravelling Successful! Due to the unusual circumstances, the unravelled thread had been used by the skill.] [Soul Withering: 19% Estimated Time: 2 Hours Due to extraordinary circumstances, Estimated Time of Withering has been Adjusted: 2H --> 172 Hours and 15 Minutes] [Soul Withering: 19% Estimated Time: 171H, 4M] Liesel didn't think this was the time to be concerned about a week into the future. She took her sword, which was heavy in her hand, and walked a few steps, clearing her throat.

"Thank you for waiting for me," she said to the rest of the group, "But we must trek forth without a break from here on."

"Yeah, I figured as much, so we have been resting for a while now," Garvin said. They began their journey almost immediately. She took a moment to express her gratitude to Fiya, who also informed her about the series of events after she passed out. There was enmity among the team now, and Liesel found that worrying, but not enough to worry at this moment.

Garvin's anger was based on the fact that Fiya couldn't bring something to heal Charbil, whose hand seemed to be beyond healing, but had the energy to help Liesel out. Liesel felt she should get that attention away from Fiya, but it didn't seem harmful yet, and bringing it to attention might be for the worse. For how dire the situation was, it was close to a miracle they were not trying to rip each other's flesh. With each passing hour, they grew restless.

They were no longer capable of surviving the storm, even if Liesel herself was healed enough to fight. Her body was far from where it was. She didn't know what that would mean against the actual centipedes, especially ones that would be stronger than the ones they had faced so far. Their trek was faster than usual, and much more exhausting, but everyone inherently understood they would have to reach the Primordial Vein before the storm started. Hours ticked by, and so did their speed.

It felt like after everything, they were about to meet their doom. Then, at the ninth hour, there was a change in the endless wasteland. As if they had crossed an invisible curtain, they saw green in the distance. Trees, a few of them. None local to the Saffron realm. Around it, a village of tents. Before their hopes could even rise, they also caught sight of people. That's impossible. It's supposed to be a Necropolis, and there is only one entrance. And yet, they were coming their way. Not humans, but Rakamels.

They rode reptiles as they raced towards the expedition crew. Their weapons sharp and glinting under the light of the moon. Their materiality flared like beasts trying to scare their hunters. Liesel settled her hand on her sword, glancing at Kurvam.

"Don't attack. We must converse first."

"That's an illusion. They are demons, clearly. We should strike when they stop. We need an upper hand."

"If they can speak, we must find an understanding," Liesel said. They could worry about everything else later. The group was over twenty-five warriors strong. Fresh and brimming with energy. A battle would not end without a bloodbath.