Chapter 7: Chapter 6. It only grew a bit

Chapter 6: It only grew a bit

"Hmm, then I'll begin," Rhea said, firming her resolve.

She already knew that anyone and anything with a minimum of sentience could use Aether. Souls or full sapience were unnecessary. So, she should be able to do it.

But how to go about it. She didn't even know how how to access Aether, let alone using it. She was bragging about how she already solved this problem earlier, but that was when she was still a proper Eldritch horror. Now that she was in this human body, her options were very limited. She was very limited.

"Wait… do I have a core?"

Rhea seriously thought about it. After all, she hadn't noticed Aria's core until now, and they've been together for nine years. She tried to recall if she'd seen it, but nothing, blankness. Was her memory… ? No no no, impossible. But it was strange, now that she knew it existed, it was all she could see. Maybe she missed her own too?

She immediately opened her mind, and focused on the place in her body where she found Aria's core earlier. However, as expected, she couldn't see anything at all.

"So, cores are something produced by compressed souls?"

Her consciousness was like a spread out stuff of thick, uncoloured mist. It was mostly scattered into the void beyond, but wisps of it were still rooted in body at the same time. It was so unlike a human's soul; she supposed it was stupid to compare something this different.

"But…"

If she could gather a certain amount of her consciousness in one place, and then stimulate it with Aether, could she artificially recreate the phenomenon the soul produced naturally?

"Worth trying out," Rhea thought. She focused inward and grasped onto the nebulous form of her consciousness. It was easy, she had always been able to manipulate her consciousness whenever and however she wanted, the occasion simply didn't come up often.

After a few minutes of handling the mist-like stuff like clay, she finally gave up. Although it was possible to gather any amount of it she'd ever need, it would immediately dissipate again when she left it alone. She tried a few more times, but the results were the same whatever method she used. It was like there was a pattern or a fundamental law that locked her out.

"It's not working." Rhea stood up, exasperated, and looked towards Aria. Seeing the woman peacefully sitting there, ethereal hair moving like shining water around her, she no longer had the heart to continue her experiments.

That's right, she realised. What use would copying Aria's soul be to someone like her?

Even though Aria was drifting further away from what could be considered a pure human, at the roots, she was still someone that was tied to this world by generations of souls germinating off of each other. No matter how much she tried, she wouldn't be able to reproduce something like that. Not right here, at this moment, at least.

But the soul wasn't really necessary to use Aether, she was living proof of that. So, what to do then?

"Well, how did I do it before?"

Even if it wasn't useful, it could lead to a hint. The memory was unusually hard to extract, like she had to pull it from thick sludge. Rhea tried not to worry about it. Maybe it was a side effect of inhabiting a material body? She was no longer made of metaphysical void-stuff, she couldn't expect everything to be the same. Yes, that's right, there was no need to worry.

And suddenly, the memory appeared. She remembered billions of souls burned and then discarded just for scraps of Aether, she also remembered the long period before that when she still didn't know what to do with herself. Everything was so vivid, like it had just happened. An uncomfortable feeling settled in her heart.

Now that she thought about it, with deeper knowledge of the consciousness and the existence of cores. What she did, forcefully igniting whole human souls only for negligible bits of Aether, tearing them apart and using them like fuel for herself… she shuddered.

Wasn't that horrifyingly inefficient?

If she knew then what she knew now: that souls were only the conduit, not the source, and that she could have succeeded ages ago with a fraction of the souls if only she had discovered the core.

"This… !"

Those long eternities of fretful waiting while diligently collecting every soul that had the pleasure of drifting in the void; those times when her consciousness flickered, faded and reappeared as if she would die in an instant.

Rhea's ears rung, she felt all her blood rushing to her head. She staggered on her feet, she tried to avoid those memories, but they were like waves battering her brain; the more she attempted to escape them, the more violent they became. In the end, she could only ride along as her body did whatever this was.

More images appeared in her mind. Those early days of having to endure deafening screams when figuring out how to burn souls properly, those times when her storage systems failed and she lost everything. Then, there was that shameful day nine years ago when she had to spend an uncountable amount of souls just to see and move!

"I could've avoided all of that."

Rhea could feel her entire being trembling at the thought. Never—in all of her existence—had she ever felt anything this intensely. All that work. Billions of years of stress, billions of souls, an incredible amount of effort. "All those things for nothing?" Rhea's eyes burned, but not with tears; they were literally burning with white, roaring flames.

At that time, she could feel something inside herself shifting, like a gate opening and letting out gushing water. The flickering flames in her eyes soon changed into a raging inferno, overwhelming her. There was a dull, continuous sound, and just when she thought this would be her Awakening, the uncontrollable fire weakened.

"What's happening?" she thought. Even Rhea, as unflappable as she seemed, truly felt fear and confusion at that moment. She could feel the Aether flowing out of her from the void, but instead of consolidating itself in her body—like what happened with Aria—it was being sucked away somewhere.

"Rhea!" Aria shouted. Rhea looked over, expecting to see a look of surprise and concern on Aria's face—after all, what else could she feel when she opened her eyes and saw this?—but the joke's on her, apparently. Aria's eyes were also burning, her fantastical hair was puffed up to several times its size. "Look!"

Aria pointed. Rhea followed, or tried to. Her Sight was overcharged, and everything looked too bright and too dark and too colourful. Her eyes saw things that would scar the average creature's mind with just a peak.

But where others would have recoiled and suffered permanent psychological damage, she got used to it in a few seconds and filtered out the interferences. She noted down the effects, though, they were nasty. And useful.

"Our tree is burning down." Rhea didn't even know which of them said that, she was too tired of being surprised.

When she could see again, she saw their treehouse covered entirely in white fire. The flames from both of their eyes and Aria's hair were being pulled away to the tree.

Rhea immediately thought about how to extinguish it, of course, but something told her it would be a bad idea, so she let things unfold. It didn't seem like Ms. G was taking damage at all, anyway. On the contrary, it looked more and more beautiful.

"It's growing," Rhea muttered. The trunk was thickening, the branches were getting farther and farther away from the ground. Meanwhile, the leaves were turning the same shade of white as their eyes, Aria's hair and the flames. "It's an Awakening."

And with that thought, the flames were completely absorbed into the tree and the light show began. "I always knew Ms. Greenvine was special," said Aria. Rhea snorted, but a smile tugged at her lips. Soon, she saw the flames connecting them to the tree were cut off.

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It was a bit frustrating that their treehouse would Awaken before her, though. She recalled how strong Aria had become after her Awakening, that incredible jump, how her hair had gouged out a huge trench in this desert's hard ground. She wondered if she would become the useless one now.

After a few seconds, and slowly, the light that seemed to pop up whenever someone Ranked up died down. What laid before them now was their treehouse, transformed. Evolved? Anyway, it was many times larger and taller, its trunk had an inner light that gave it a mysterious look, its sparkling leaves shined like scattered stars; it was a dramatic change on the level of Aria's.

"Did the inside change, too?" Aria asked, frowning. "All our things… we only brought two necklaces."

"It's okay," Rhea said. "It only grew a bit… a lot. And is glowing."

Aria laughed, her shoulders gently shaking along. She shook her head and started towards the tree. "It's alright now, you don't have to force yourself. I'm relieved." She turned around, and walked backwards with her hands behind her. She smirked. "You're still so bad with jokes, though, but I appreciate the effort."

"Well, I think I'm the pinnacle of funny," Rhea said with her usual stone-like expression. There was a snorting laugh and a surprised giggle; Aria froze, and Rhea stopped just before their door. If the giggle came from Aria who was beside her, who's laughter was that then?

The laughter stopped, and a clear voice—like a child's—came from inside. "You can come in, guys. All your things are safe." Who was that?—Of course Rhea wouldn't demean herself wondering about such a stupid question.

… well, they already knew since forever that this tree was weird, just not how much. And it seemed they what happened today numbed them because neither of them could squeeze a drop of surprise out of their hearts anymore.

They looked at each other, shrugged, and opened the door.

___&___

Still 19 days before the breaking of the Sixth Barrier

1st of March 1446

My name is Gamwick, and I am a Champion.

My men and I are currently en route to the edge of the Eternal Wound to try to reclaim Babel. There, we will cautiously do some tests to make sure my ability works. The corruption there is too dangerous for us to cross it carelessly. However, with my Storm Merge and a drug I once found in Eden, I believe we can make it if we hurry.

Yes, I think my thoughts went like that before I Ascended. Things are completely different now; even I can't believe how much I changed in such a short amount of time. If I had some doubts before, they flew away the moment I checked my new abilities. There is no need to fear anymore. We can do it. We can really do it now.

I know what others think of me, I can hear their mocking voices when they think my back is turned.  But this trial is already as good as done.

___&___

Gamwick smiled as he went out of his tent, seeing all his men busying themselves around the camp.

It had taken some convincing to get the crown's approval on this expedition, but they were finally here, doing what should've been done a decade ago.

"Hey, that's Gamwick!"

"The Champion!"

"Wah, I can feel the pressure from here… he's the real deal."

"Of course he is. Don't you see his Aether leaking out? Oh, I forgot you were a Material type."

"No big. But I'm a bit envious of Seer types now, being able to see a Champion's Aether. I wonder what's it like?"

"Well, I'm in the First Rank, so I can't see that much. Just a cloud around him."

For years, he and a few of his friends had experimented on the effects of Chaos corruption, but were stumbling on walls every step of the way. It seemed like with every discovery that netted them money and glory, the hope of conquering Chaos corruption diminished more and more. In truth, they probably never expected to find an actual solution. They were just content to be able to say that they were at least doing something about it.

In the end, no universal miracle was found, but all was not lost. Even if it wasn't the one they wanted, a miracle still happened: just after Gamwick crossed the Fourth Barrier and became a Rank Four Caster, his Merge had evolved in a way that could allow him to ignore curses around him. When taken to the extreme, and with a bit of creativity, he thought he could use it to guard against the corruption.

"Are the supplies from Atlantis here yet?" he asked the jittery boy before him. He was wearing the brown robes for squires and apprentices. "We're departing at dawn and it's already noon."

"S-sir, His Excellency has already sent word, and offered some blue potions," he explained in a rush, "b-but said he couldn't spare any healers. Our scouts are escorting the convoy here as we speak. Lord, sir."

"… I'm not a noble or a lord of anything, so stop being so nervous." Gamwick sighed, frowning. "I guessed they wouldn't give us any healers anyway, just trying my luck. Tell all Casters to gather before my tent later, I'll assign their share myself."

The hardest ones to convince to help were those with the least things to lose. Noblemen and arms manufacturers were on top of that list.

After the burning of Eden—which caused the fading of Alchemy and healing Mergers—there was a brief war for alchemists and saints, after which most nobles hid their brewers and healers as a precaution. Nowadays, to get potions or get rid of curses, you had to pass through an intermediary. Most often those were nobles.

"I wish we had more healers," he said mournfully as he went on his way. "Among all the known pillars, I can't believe Eden was hit first. It almost looks too convenient."

On the other hand, since Babel fell and shield and sanctuary abilities became useless, even if it wasn't that much time ago, arms manufacturers had already taken over the market. Now, no one could afford to stay neutral. Even aloof countries like the Roman Kingdom, whom relied on their shielding technologies to stay safe, started to amass weaponry for national defence.

Everyone was doing their best to protect themselves from the coming storm, but the knowledge that many already powerful countries were gathering weapons was a bit much for the Human Lands' fragile balance. Tensions were so high that even ordinary citizens could feel war on the horizon. And not against Beasts.

Fortunately, in the middle of all that crap, he had heard the Call and was chosen as a Champion—and though it conflicted a bit with his aim of proving humanity's worth on his own, beggars couldn't be choosers.

With the title of Champion came a serious upgrade to his Storm abilities; he could now protect all three thousand of his men from the corruption without any problems. The path forward was finally a bit clearer, and his goal was closer than ever. Fate was surely smiling upon him.