Chapter 53 - THE PATH OF FORGING ASCENSION

Today, instead of actually hunting beasts, we went around to look for and classify them. With each one we found, Roric gave an explaination that really deepened, my understandings about the world today that make everything feel layered, like I'm only seeing the surface of a pond. It's important I record this, especially the mechanics of death and transformation as its crucial for my goal.

First, we discovered a colony of rabbits in a field...

" Flow," Roric said, picking up a white rabbit, "The energy inside us, flows through veins under the ground called Ley Lines, and it collects in huge natural power points called Nodes. The whole planet is breathing this energy. And Beasts are no exception. Just as we humans Ascend , beasts Evolve and it starts with 'Mundane Beasts', like this little one." Roric said, releasing the rabbit to join the others. He began to walk and Elias and Aina followed.

"These creatures have faint, basic Flow, just enough to survive. They are simple animals But when they evolve, they become 'Imbued Beasts' just like the boar we encountered yesterday."

Elias nodded and rubbed his chest absentmindedly, vaguely remebering the sensation of being struck in the chest.

"These ones are much stronger and tougher because they spent decades absorbing Flow near a Node. They might have small powers, but they are still mostly animals. They develop slight mutations like, again the Grimboar which had grown in size and could emit shockwaves."

The felt a tremor and Roric suddenly stopped walking, extending his hand and prompting them to stop walking. They listened, still not knowing what was going on. There was another tremor and Roric turned to look left and crouched, slowly moving in that direction. Elias and Aina followed. They moved about a meter and stopped just behind some bushes that seperated them from a clearing where what looked like a massive bear. It stood over nine feet tall had tough,bark-like hide and sharp spines extending out of it. It was wounded but didn't seem to feel its injuries as it feasted of the corpse of another creature. It was disfigured and had a lot of spikes sticking out of what was left of it but Elias could make out a hoof and a barbed ivory horn.

''We ran into some dangerous ones. This one right here is an 'Awakened Beast'."

The Bears stopped eating and raised its head in their direction, a partially crushed skull in its jaws. Elias was tense but suddenly felt a wave of energy wash over him as Roric supressed all the Flow around himself. The bears gaze lingered for a moment before it crushed what was in its mouth an dragged the carcass away into the forest.

Elias let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. After a while, they stepped into the clearing. Trees were broken and overturned with several spikes planted either in thos that remained standing or on the ground and the earth itself was overturned and broken, a testament to the battle that took place.

" What you saw is the next step in the beasts evolution. They grow this powerful after about a century of absorbing energy either through Flow dense areas or their food".

Elias didn't need an explanation to understand what Roric meant by 'Food.'

" Don't Touch the spikes." Roric warned just as Aina reached out her hand towards on stuck in a tree. Roric picked up a rock and used it to scratch against one of the spikes standing upright infrot of him. He turned to show them the result. Black, dustlike particles remained on the rock and, before their eys, began to eat into the stone. he dropped the rock and looked around at the damage that expanded several meters in all directions, even beyond the clearing.

"At the Awakened stage, they gain low intelligence—they can be cunning, and they become malicious. Their Flow is Turbulent because it constantly shifts between the positive energy (Flow) and negative energy (Anti-Flow). This volatility makes them extremely dangerous." 

Roric grabbed the Spike and called them 'Pseudo-Spiritual', meaning they are starting to become spiritual in nature. They also learned how to hide their presence, making it almost impossible to track them.

Elias gasped and Aina's eyes widened as she was about to call him out on his actions, however, a yellow aura flared of his hand and he extracted the spike outof the ground with ease.

' Wait, a yellow aura swirling Clockwise. Red, Orange, Yellow....' Elias began listing the stages of Ascencion.

'Acolyte, Votary...Saint?' He looked up at Roric.

''Better get this back to the Bureau to let them know theres an Awakened Beast on the loose. Anyway,'' He continued as he hoisted it onto his shoulder and they walked back.

"Beyond the Awakened Beasts are the ones you should never meet. 'Apex Beasts' that live for centuries, gain high intelligence, and can level cities some even countries with their raw power. They are Quasi-Spiritual. Then we have the 'Dominion Beasts' being thousands of years old and Semi-Spiritual, unable to be hurt by normal weapons,and the near-unbelievable 'Mythical Beasts' made pure energy beings that can supposedly alter reality. I must of course make mention of 'Divine Beasts' of legend, god-like creatures said to be on par as the deities themselves though there is no proof of their existence People believe them to be the ramblings of an insane Itinerant and that one person from times past would have at least seen one."

'Itinerant?'

" But if thats the case the world would have been destroyed by thier prescence alone so we'll never know''. Roric said with a chuckle. Elias had an inkling that Roric would very much like to see a Divine Beast.

Roric then talked to me about humans. Our path is not called Evolution; it is Ascension. And it is not passive. While beasts take centuries to slowly absorb Flow, humans must force their souls—our Spirit-Domains—to expand through intense, internal, and extremely risky work called Spirit-Domain Forging;

" To Ascend," He explained, "You cannot just meditate more. You must first push your soul to its absolute limit, a state called 'Saturation', where your Spirit-Domain is completely full and cannot hold any more Flow in its current structure. Then comes the terrible part. You have to intentionally draw in a small, controlled amount of the opposite energy to start the process. If your body uses Flow as its base, you must pull in Anti-Flow. If it uses Anti-Flow, you pull in Flow. This is the 'Ascension Trigger'.

They passed by a stream where a fox was taking a drink. It raised its head to look at them as they passed but seeing that they posed no threat, it lowered its head and coninued to lazily lap the water.

"The clash of these opposite energies creates instant, violent chaos inside your soul, the 'Forging Ordeal'. It is an entirely internal war. Focus and mental Will must be strong enough to keep the chaos contained while forcing the soul's structure to break apart and expand. If you succeed, your soul expands, gets denser, and you survive, becoming stronger and ascending to a new stage." 

"What if your will fails?" Elias asked.

"You shatter." Aina responded.

'Shatter? What does that mean.'

''It's not everyone can endure this despite how simple it sounds, its a very precarious process. The Ordeal requires intense finesse. Thats why most people aspire to go to Fazhan University. It is an institution set up by the 'Order Of Toth' where Flow is researched and people are trained to handle the process. They also contain those who fail the Ordeal because they become unstable monsters."

Elias nodded. He was leaarning a lot today.

"What do you mean when you say monsters?''

Aina spoke up before Roric did.

"He means exactly what he said. There are two things that happen to those who fail, aside insanity of course.The first is becoming a 'Hollow'. This happens when the soul collapses from using up too much Flow. The body becomes a mindless, mummified husk that must steal energy from others just to exist. The second is becoming a 'Wraith'. This happens when the turbulence of the clashing energies destroys the body. The soul remains, but as a mindless energy being that constantly seeks to enter a new body, only to destroy it with its unstable power."

" Both of you duck." Roric suddenly said. Before they could respond, he world seemed to slow as the Awakened Bear Broke through the wall of trees, sending splinters and pieces of wood everywhere, in this seemingly slowed world.

'How did we not sense it?' Elias wondered as he suspended helplessly in the air.

 Aina wasn't in a better position either. Roric was the only one who could move. He pulled the two kids behind him with one hand and with the other threw the spear with such force that it displaced the air as it flew and planted itself in the beats shoulder, sending it flying above the trees. Then,as if he teleported, Roric was above it and with a swift chopping motion from his hand, it crashed back down with such force that it caused a tremor and uprooted trees Aina and Elias were about five meters away and were shielded by a tree Roric had left them under. It all happened within a span of five seconds after the creature revealed itself, so fast that Elias didn't know what he had seen. The dust cleared and revealing Roric standing in a crater with the bears head in his hand as he stood on its crushed corpse.

" Well, I guess I wont have to report this after all. Are you guys alright?'' He called out.

"Yeah." Elias responded with a shaky voice.

'So this is the power of a Saint...'

It was a very interesting experience, aside the fact that I got to see? a saint in action,the whole process of Ascension—the guaranteed, total loss of self if you fail the 'Forging Ordeal'—sounds perfect. If I could just attempt 'Saturation' and then fail, my soul would shatter and disperse. It would be over, completely. I listened to Roric talk about the terrible risk with a strange, childlike excitement.

 The problem is Automatic 'Accelerate Heal'.

 The moment any damage happens, it will instantly activate. The question then would be if my soul would shatter while my body remains intact. 

I'm not sure what would happen but if I don't fail, I'll become even harder to kill. To be on the safe side I need to find a way to switch it off before I can even attempt to break myself on the Ordeal.

The secondary problem is the risk of becoming a Hollow or a Wraith. If the healing is limited only to my body and not my spirit and I fail to shatter my soul entirely, I could end up as one of those monsters. But then another question arises,If I become a monster that steals energy or destroys people's bodies, am I truly dead? Or am I just a miserable, mindless creature? If I become a monster, I will have failed my final goal.

Tch,what a pain.>