Chương 68: Soulweaver 68 - Following the Rhythm

Her Soul Form had a lot of space now that she had destroyed all the Nebulous Materiality. At its center, the Dust Core lingered. About the size of an eyeball, teardrop-shaped. She used her Control to maintain its state. Individual Dust particles were visible on its surface. It was almost night now, and she had spent an entire day trying to make the core work. She tried to use the Nebulous state as a glue, but that didn't work either.

[Materiality -32] [Materiality -32] [Materiality -32] It stung to waste so much Materiality, but the reality she faced forced her to accept it. It wasn't that the dust wouldn't form a core, but the surface area was too large compared to the pressure she could apply. At first, she tried by dropping a hundred units, which was still twice the amount of energy that she had a few months ago. After a few failures, she started stripping the dust by five hundred points.

Around nine thousand seven hundred, it was small enough that she felt the dust crumbling under pressure. Now, it was forming a connection to her soul that had been missing until now. After an hour, the surface of the orb began to gloss. Liesel redoubled her mental effort. By morning, the core was a few millimeters smaller than before, and its surface was as smooth and shiny as a glass ball. She could almost hear the sound it would make if she dropped it on the floor.

And it would be a very heavy orb, somewhat grayish-white. Its weight didn't bother her Soul For, as it was no longer an external entity. The System Screen manifested in front of her with a sharp ring. Liesel opened her eyes, exhaling a breath that she had been holding. A surge of energy flowed out of her body. A wall of text hung in front of her face. And behind it, Auram was looking at her. Arval sat on the ground, her hand covered in a layer of Materiality.

"Is it done?" Auram asked. Liesel nodded.

"Can you feel it?"

"Yeah," Auram grinned.

"You grew so much in just two days." What would that growth look like outside the theory? She couldn't use the lifelong skills that she had developed, not until her Constitution rose significantly. Nor did she have any combat skill that she could show. With her sword, there was one thing she could still do, but even that would need days to readjust.

"I do not intend to hide how long I have been gone."

"Congratulations," Arval said awkwardly. She was offering a fruit that Liesel had not yet seen. Liesel blinked. She accepted it with some confusion.

"Thank you?"

"It's an important day," Arval said.

"We offer something to those who reach it. It's a hard thing to do." Liesel bobbed her head, adding another thanks. She didn't imagine that was a thing among humans, or if that was, it would be far and away from the capital. As much as she was glad to have them here, she wanted to sit in silence for a while. Understand what had changed.

"Can I have a minute to myself?" Liesel asked. Her mind didn't want to interact with anyone right now.

"Yeah," Auram nodded. She had her space. She'd like to sleep for a while, but first, she wanted to check a few things. [Soul Core Formed... You have achieved Condensed Core! Congratulations on your Advancement! Your Attributes have risen due to your Ascension. Prestige Point +100] [Perception Threshold Crossed: Imaging Ability Unlocked! Dominion Threshold Crossed: Weight of Dominion has risen. Second Dominion Threshold Reached: Weight of Dominion has risen.] [Liesel Wyrn Age: 22 Core Rank: Condensed Core Archetype: None Unfinished Archetype: Weaver Materiality: 9732/9732 Title: None Soul Form: Nebulous (Severely Damaged) Attributes: Strength: 17-->20 Dexterity: 10 Endurance: 13-->17 Constitution: 3-->4 Mental Fortitude: 34 Control: 28 Perception: 13-->24 Dominion: 4-->22 Authority: 3-->5 Sensitivity: 9-->10] [Skills: Soul Unraveling Soul Weaving: Communion Abilities: Soul Sense Materiality Sense Focus Imaging Materializing Imposition Techniques: Enforcement: Lv. 32 Layering: Lv. 17 Soul Communion Lv. 3] [Withering: 47. 22% Estimated Time Remaining: 431 Hours 12 Minutes] Withering's calculations were always wrong. And neither the System nor Liesel could actually guess what the breaking point was, where the threads binding it would be unable to stop it. Liesel had taken the liberty of binding in much of her Soul Form beyond the Withering into the stitches to pad the time. Still, a few of the knots were showing the signs of withering.

It may be two hundred more hours, or three more hours. Imagining would be very helpful, expanding her vision outside her body, where her Soul Sense didn't work. Though she didn't know if it would be as impactful as it would have been a month ago. Having a larger area of Materiality Sense would be great for fights. Her Dominion had risen significantly. Since Materiality was directly connected to it, a leap in it was bound to happen, but even by her expectations, it was too high. But so was her Materiality.

So she tried not to be bothered by it. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The weight of Dominion, as she understood it, was a mage concept. They would not want anyone to take over their spell circle if the other had higher control. The Dominion resisted that. It also resisted many of the Materiality skills that manifested directly beside the target. She checked the Prestige Skill Store, wondering if the weight also lowered the cost of future skills.

Unfortunately, that was too good to be true. She could almost be a mage with available dominion. The basic mage Archetype would only need two hundred and thirty points worth of skills. Liesel considered it. She didn't have all the points yet, but it was not too far away. But she wanted to keep the Weaver as her primary Archetype, so until that was fully completed, she didn't see herself buying any of the mage skills. The Dust Core was not recognized by the System at all.

Maybe it was not as unique as she had been expecting. She channeled the Materiality in her Soul Veins, and they were much faster than Liesel had expected. Much, much faster. She was having a hard time maintaining the perfect control as she had before, but that almost seemed unnecessary if she had enough to flood the entire network with Materiality. But it was almost painful to not be able to control the flow of Materiality even inside her body. So this was something she would work on.

As she returned her attention to the profile, her eyes finally noted the lack of change in her Mental Fortitude and Control. Other attributes might be helpful, but she didn't understand Authority to feel anything from its growth. Since her Constitution had gained another point, Liesel tried Layering again, hoping that it would be less dangerous. She tried to draw as little Materiality as possible, and still it was in double digits.

When she dropped it, the skin underneath was red, even more damaged than it had been the last time she tried it. Of course, my Materiality is off the scale with my physical body. It was a trade she had made for the future she would thrive in. She already had a picture of it. Leaving that thought for now, she went to sleep. As she lay down on the stone bench, a thought came to her. What did she feel about her core's Ascension, about finally becoming a full Ascendant? It had seemed impossible all her life.

And yet, just as she felt nothing after killing the Mindeater, she felt nothing now. She searched very deep; there was a bit of pride. Pride not of the achievement itself, but for never relinquishing to impossible reality. Something inside her said this was the natural outcome. How could she be happy about such a tiny achievement? There was an Empire to climb still. The hunger was almost natural, yet for what future did it exist?

Was it because no matter what she achieved in life, the shadow of that title subsumed any joy she could feel? Something told Liesel that if someday she became a Crusader General, she would still feel the same as she did now. Nothing. A hollowness that would say it was her destiny, a natural outcome still. What's next?

It had been a day since her advancement. Arval and Auram seemed happier than Liesel was. They even soaked in the river for a while as a celebration, probably. The entire time, the only thing that was on her mind was leaving the realm. She felt the realm had failed, if it had been trying to bring something out of her. The turmoil growing inside her was gone. She was back to the way she always had been. Calm. No. Unfeeling. Or was this calmness afforded by peace? An acceptance of reality as it was.

Had she lost and didn't even realize it? The days spent in isolation, working on her Core, had given her mind time to piece itself together. She decided not to linger on the thought, unwilling to rip apart the normalcy she felt. Though her body and soul were completely unbalanced, her mind was at true equilibrium. It was time to leave the Realm. Perhaps she could work on the Crest next, but it would be just preparing runes.

She had to look at the Thread Cultivation book, understand it, and make the Crest as perfect as it could. The Realm had gifted it to her. But it was not the realm itself that beckoned her here. It was her Materiality. It wanted her to be here, and now that she saw it, she had not heard from it. That night, she made that her focus. She didn't find the hum inside her body. It was easiest when it was travelling through the Shades and entering an object. She needed her sword.

The sticks and branches of this realm were Materiality constructs. When she tried channeling Materiality into a branch, it absorbed it like a sponge. There was no moment of friction. Without that friction, Liesel couldn't do anything. What was she even trying to do? Clearly, the Realm had used her faith in Materiality to lull her into its trap. Why would it answer now? Still, it was the only thing in her mind. What would happen if she used Shade Severing Strike in this realm?

Unfortunately, without a sword, that was impossible. In the end, she decided to check how her Materializing was working out. As she released Materiality into the air, a frown graced her brows. She focused on the Materiality, trying to feel it shift in the Shades, but realized the Materiality manifested not in the physical world. If it did, she would not have to use Imaging to see it. It was like smoke in the air, pushing the latent Materiality away from it. But.

Liesel wove that energy into a thread, and then tried to channel it again—this time, from the Material Shade to the life shade, into the actual air. The first few attempts were failures, without any response. And the next dozens left her wondering if she was missing something. But with each attempt, she felt the transition of Materiality; the hum was different. Faint, almost imperceptible. It was there. Liesel focused in on it.

The entire channeling from one shade to another lacked the physical connection that the sword gave her. The amorphous feelings took their time to settle. The connection built over the course of the night. Every time, she felt she was close. But only for a limited time did she have control over the Materiality outside her body. It always stole her progress before the thread could manifest.

"Is it working?" Auram asked in the morning. Liesel must have looked exhausted. She felt the same.

"I am close."

"But threads are not really useful, are they?"

"I can turn them into runes with little practice, and runes made of Materiality will be a very powerful tool in the future," Liesel said. She held off her actual thought to herself. She accepted a short rest, had some fruit, and then she returned to her struggle. It was the next evening when the first thread manifested from the empty air. It was silky white and lacked any special features. Just dull strands twined into a string. It seemed fragile, so Liesel was somewhat surprised when she couldn't break it.

She caught Arval's eye.

"Why don't you try?" Liesel offered it to Arval, who had been sitting on the floor, practicing her own techniques while stealing glances at Liesel every few moments. The thread was about the length of her palm, and the girl wrapped it around her fingers in both hands, Layering her claws with magic, and then she pulled using Liesel's Enforcement Technique. The thread dug into the layer of Materiality. The pulling pressure almost sliced off the claw, but the thread's structure didn't last.

It snapped into thousands of tiny dust particles. Arval heaved, grinning wide.

"It's so strong." Arval's claw had a deep impression of the thread. Unknowingly, Liesel had developed a strong alternative to balance her non-existent physical power.

"You should be careful," Liesel said. And as much as she was happy with the result, she spent a little while fixing the structure of Arval's Layering. While the thread was strong, Arval's impatience weakened the Layering's profound defensive capabilities. After that, Liesel returned to her spot and began her efforts to replicate her achievement. She didn't try to follow the rhythm of Materiality anymore.

That was the sound she'd find useful after she had mastered her newly developed Materializing Technique to perfection. As easily as she could breathe, only then could she take the next step. She tried to employ latent Materiality through Imposition into the threads, but the external Materiality hindered her ability to manifest. So she decided to leave the ability for the future. After four hours, she managed to manifest another thread. It was dark by then, and only Auram was here.

"What do you think?" Liesel asked. She tried to unravel the string, but that was impossible. The Strands had merged into one. It still seemed fragile, but this one was even stronger than one she had produced before.

"It's kind of marvelous," Auram said. She tried to replicate it.

"Yeah. Can't replicate it. Something about it feels oddly impossible. Is this the Weaver Archetype's ability?"

"For you? Or in general?"

"I don't know," Auram shrugged.

"It is my natural disposition, or so I want to believe, but there might be something more to it. We have had this conversation before. And you have asked the same question. Perhaps the Weaver skills draw me subliminally towards their nature, but I'd have felt something shift inside me. There has been none."

"How will this get us out?" Auram asked. A distraction that Liesel gracefully accepted. Liesel considered for a moment.

"I can hear the rhythm of the Materiality... that means it is moving through the Shades."

"So..." Auram asked.

"That means, even without a sword, I can perform a Shade Severing Strike."

"And you think that will be a way out?"

"I don't know. What else can I do?" Auram nodded. Over the course of the next few days, Liesel strengthened her mental image and control. Slowly made it more complicated. Manifesting threads while they were looped around a stick. It was possible, though far more complicated. With each passing day, her Control over the thread became as easy and quick as it was inside her soul. And she developed the way to make the threads wrap around something quickly. First, create a twined thread pushed to her Control's limit.

Then, make a loop loosely the size of the object's circumference that you want to wrap it around, and then guide it to the object, and then manifest it. It would materialize wrapped around the thing. The thread materialized around a piece of branch held up right between her thighs. She focused on the two ends of the thread and yanked with her Control as hard as she could. The thread was thin enough to slice the branch without any resistance.

It may slit a human's neck, but they would have to be asleep for her trick to work. It was impossible at her current level to make it manifest around a moving target. And she couldn't manifest threads within other objects. When she tried it on her finger, recoil hit her head like the butt of a sword on the temple. It had been a pleasant while since she felt pain that was actually painful. It progressed a bit by the end of the week. She was sure it was now six weeks inside the realm, and about two days outside.

Arval was giving up hope now. She felt she was trapped. Except for magic, she again seemed to be distressed and gloomy. She even tried to find the heart to ask it to let them leave. Unfortunately, they could no longer find it. Liesel would argue that it was a good thing they couldn't find the heart. Otherwise, she'd also be tempted to try to open a way through it. The situation felt a little more tense, and Liesel was compelled to act quickly.

To perform the Shade Severing Strike, there was one requirement: the ability to accelerate the Materiality through the Shade and manifest it into the blade. She didn't have the sword, which had a subconscious trigger of swinging the blade. The act itself gave her mind the signal to manifest the Materiality, forcing it to be present in multiple Shades at the same time, touching both Soul Shade and the Life Shade. But there were other Shades. One that let her cut through the Barrier around the Caravan Village.

Perhaps another that pulled her into the Primordial Veins. Her ability to forcefully manifest the thread instantly had developed to some extent. Enough that she felt confident to follow the Rhythm of Materiality. She had been hoping that once she had mastered Materializing, it would be easy to execute it. But the Rhythm was impossible to follow, and it was far quicker. The sword gave her ample time, but the air was much quicker. After almost thirteen hours of unpaused attempts, she did succeed once.

The thread manifested into reality, tearing through the Shade. For a moment, Liesel saw trees on the other side. But it snapped shut instantly.

"It worked..." Arval mumbled. Her eyes were glowing with hope. Liesel exhaled, patting Arval's head. The girl had been sitting on the floor, leaning against the stone bench. She liked to sit on the ground. Or she was trying to stick close to Liesel without bothering her.

"A few more days. We have a way now." If Arval didn't seem so hopeful, Liesel would've been comfortable informing them that this was pure luck. Amongst tens of thousands of attempts, one was bound to succeed. She couldn't follow the Rhythm in the air. Either her mind was not developed enough, or it was impossible for a human to achieve. Just have to be lucky one more time. First, I need to find a way to keep the tear open.