B6 Chapter 24: Realm Revealed

Before, Cal’s realm had been nothing more than an infinite abyss stretching to the corners of my vision and beyond. It was dead. Devoid of mana and presence. 

It was dead. Not anymore.

The moment I touched the key, I felt a tug at my very core, one that breached past my control and grabbed at a connection nestled deep into the center of my soul. I had enough time to process the exchange of mana, a sliver of a sliver taken and stretched and woven.

Infinitely more complex than my own attempts, the mana formed linking runes in chains that reinforced itself a dozen times over before it solidified and transformed into ether.

This all happened in less than a second, my perception stretching like taffy.

When the second rolled into the next, the void around us transformed, blooming into awareness with a scream of a million bestial cries.

Red, orange, yellow. Lava, fire, ice, sunlight, death, and shadow! Mana warped and twisted into shapes and shades that clawed at my senses.

I almost shut my eyes, but I had dealt with something similar and forced them open even as I felt blood trickle down.

Mana continued to solidify, spreading as a current of flames sparking against invisible grass. Landmarks appeared, as did faces too blurry to make out. They crumbled, grew, bloomed and disintegrated before my eyes. 

Then the chains started to appear. Ropes of forged ether that glowed brighter than the sun. Ancient bone and sinew wrapped themselves around it like coils before they turned into foaming amalgams of beasts, immolating into clouds of ash only to reform again and again.

It took everything I had, my bones and flesh screaming as my muscles in my neck activated and flexed. Turning my head about a quarter to the left, where I knew Cal had stood, blew the sights of the mind-tearing scenes away and revealed a nothingness similar to the void. 

Except the ether chains burned white and black at the same time, reminding me of a negative space. In the center, so impossibly far away yet as close as an arm’s reach, a sphere of void cloth rotated.

The confusing landscape was torn away, ripped bare and blotted out of existence as it came in contact with the sphere. 

Only a single image remained.

My gaze flicked up and took in the titanic creature standing tall in the center. Wrapped in the chains and embedded with spikes as large as redwood trees, a flaming fox stared down. Six eyes with dying stars outlined with flames of black and purple bore into my being.

Then I noticed the gashes of pink scattered across the great fox’s body. 

In that instant, my senses stretched forward and I reached for the nearest gash. Once I was close, teleported in the blink, I noticed the furling of tails wrapped around the fox like a cloak. 

Six. Six tails wilder than mountains and each lick of flame, a strand as sharp as blades.

 Around the fox’s form, a crown of silky pink formed a pillow on which the fox lay. Infinite combinations of runic symbols formed the lattice, each line a string that made up the chain.

 My gaze was pulled further in. The gash near his neck stretched wide and crimson strings stretched forth. 

The tip of my nail reached for one of the threads.

 I was slammed backwards. I yelped as I rolled into oblivion before I came to a sudden stop. The lights of madness bled away, and my consciousness retreated once more back into the dark.

***

I slowly peeled open my eyelids and found a serene sky staring back. Canopies of golden leaves held a warm sunlight at bay as the tall trunks pulsed with rhythmic blue lines. I looked down and found myself atop a familiar couch.

“You know, Cal. A heads-up wouldn’t have killed you,” I grumbled.

Cal stepped into view, a faint smirk on his stupid face. 

“As you said yourself. Curiosity killed the embercat.”

“What?”

“Mmm, common flame spirits. They are on the lower end of intelligence despite their appearance. They commonly get demateralized by rushing into the rain.”

I rolled to my side and tried to summon a mirror into my hand, finding my mana unresponsive. However, a slab of reflective silver appeared, hovering before me.

“Huh. So did I imagine the bleeding from my eyes, or did you clean me up?”

Cal sat on an opposing couch but within view. “You are an avatar right now. Your body repaired itself.”

“I see.”

A wind picked up and blew through the glade, exposing the leaves and allowing a ray of sunlight to shine atop me. I held up my arm and glared at the god.

“You’re controlling this, right?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “To a degree. I’m maintaining the space, but the environment itself is not static. You are simply lucky.”

“Sunlight burning my vision is not luck.”

He wagged a finger. “You are beyond something so physically restraining. And it is luck. That’s not actually light from a star; it’s the hearthglow of a solar fexel leviathan’s core. To be graced by a single ray of light from its pulse is said to bring you a decade of good fortune.”

“Where in the hell did you encounter a creature like this?”

“I spent my fair share of time wandering the system. It’s not like you can’t already imagine such fantastical scenery yourself. It’s not so strange.”

“Fair, I guess.” I sat up and examined Cal. Outwardly, he was calm. “Soooooo, can we talk about it?”

“We can. But know that most of what you saw I’d like to keep between us,” he sighed. “Your friends are wary of me as is; I’d rather not add kindling to that flame.”

I turned so I was facing him. “There’s a distinct lack of pink.”

He blinked a few times before laughter erupted outward. Snaps of fire crackled in the air with each breath. When it faded, he shook his head. “I know you like pink, but out of everything you saw, that was what you had to say?”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” I said. “I got plenty more. It’s just… As you’ve said. I’ve seen some fantastical things. Eraztis has shown me some of the astral space, and Galarion has helped piece together most of the memory fragments of my time with Macaroni. So it wasn’t like I hadn’t seen crazy.”

“But pink?”

“Yes, pink. Come on, I know pink means a sort of higher mana. It’s chaos, right? Chaotic? Your realm is batshit bonkers, but the only pink was from your wounds. What’s up with that?”

“Okay, first of all, you are vastly wrong. Pink does not mean chaos; pink is simply a form most chaos-based skills tend to assume as a base form for their mana. Pink is a higher energy tier, as explained by rift colors, but if you think green mana, which is usually life, nature, poison, is lower in tier than blue, you would be wrong. There is nuance. There is even a love affinity, where most people’s perception of it naturally shifts the mana to a pink hue. I can tell you that it is merely an offshoot of mental, combined with other mana types. Not stronger, merely different.”

“Okaaaaaay. Your wound though, was pink… and only your wound. Sooooooo?”

He sighed and conjured up a still image of one of the wounds. It lacked the bite of the real thing, but I still felt a strange unease staring at the strands of strings radiating from the edges of the gash.

“Let me query something,” Cal started. “If pink is chaos in this case, and yes I know what I said. A specific brand of mana. Let’s use a rift as an example. Pink would mean the creation of a higher tier. A disorder.”

“Okay. So you have pink in you because you are a higher tier being. You would be the source, right? So the pink is in you, but not around you? Like the way a rift portal works.”

He smiled in a way that a parent does to comfort their very much incorrect child. “Pink is a radiation of the light spectrum being perceived through your senses. But sure, let’s go with me being the source. It’d make sense that I, the god, owner of the realm, is the source of it said realm’s mana. Now why wouldn’t it be in the environment?”

“Because it shifts and bleeds out into other things. I sensed death, light, and shadows. More. So the chaos morphed?”

“Correct.”

“Hah!”

“Also wrong.”

“What?” I exclaimed.

Cal zoomed the image out and revealed the full majesty of the titanic fox sitting amongst the void and the chaos around it. It was hard to think of Cal with the sinister image bound by pins and chains while madness bled reality in the background.

“The void space, that part of the realm empty of all things, is also a part of me. The chains keep it locked.” He swiped the air and the illusion started to play. “I am… chaos, yes. It is my main realm. My particular brand of chaos is…”

My eyes narrowed as a wolf’s head sprouted from a wave of muddled blue bubbles before disintegrating layer by layer.

“Destruction. You have a void area because your chaos is destructive? Is that right?”

Cal’s gaze lowered and the illusion faded. “Yes.”

A beat passed and I watched the eerily still god in mortal form sit there, avoiding my gaze.

I snorted. “Is that it? You’re worried because you are some force of destruction? So? Cal, my very presence in this world caused a fragment of a dead god to blip from the void and take over a city. I awakened a rift demon strong enough to help commit regicide while nearly destroying the capital of a kingdom. Hells, Cal. Listen, I get it. You’re scary, mind-bendingly scary. But so what?”

Cal snapped to attention, his eyes blazing. “You did no such things. The Weave did. You survived its meddling. You are merely a target, not the cause. You also failed to take into, that both times the kingdom wasn’t destroyed. The cities were saved. You survived and won, while protecting others and minimizing damage. Do not count yourself the same.”

I thought of an ice cream cone and found one in my hand. With a thought, it turned into the size of a watermelon and I threw it. Of course, it turned to white dust the second it neared the god, but hey, at least I tried.

“So the system treats you like a harbinger of death. Pretty edgy, got to say.”

“Cyrus.”

I sat up. “You haven’t hurt me or mine. You’ve only been there to support me how you can. I know you’ve been busy. I know you partially feel bad for all the shit I’m going through. I get it. I also know you are doing things to help me. Prepare for when things go belly up. So how about you take the compliment pops and I’ll take yours. Eh?”

Cal searched my face before relenting with a shrug. 

“Deal.”

He sat back and the scenery changed. From a beautiful glade to a realm of blue and purple. Crystals chimed in the background as light pulsed through the floor and ceiling. From there, the scene around us changed a hundred times. Each one was different from the last, and Cal’s explanation for it was both mundane and fantastical.

Near the end, I finally stood up and stretched. Bones popped where they shouldn’t have popped and a strange, dizzying sensation rushed through my head.

“Oh, that’s weird.”

“Something the matter?” Cal asked.

“Just my body being strange.” I paused and cocked my head. “Actually, what the fuck? I’m in an avatar form right now. Why is my body popping like bubble wrap?”

Cal merely hummed and approached until he was only a foot away. He patted my shoulder and raised his free hand and a portal appeared as a wall of flames.

“It’s about time. Don’t worry about your physical body, it’ll be rested once you leave and I lower the time distortion.”

I hugged Cal and leaned back. “Oh, I forgot to ask you about the demon blood.”

He snapped, and a marble appeared. It was similar to the ones Galarion could create, except it was made of orange and red flames rather than glass.

“Technically, this is skirting the rules of what I’m allowed, but I’ve been doing that this meeting. So if the Weave wanted to punish me, it would have stepped in by now.”

Wait, what?

The marble slid into my forehead before I could react. Memories and half-finished thoughts played in fast forward. I retained maybe a portion of it, but that was enough. Soon, other memories came, different from the ones in the marble. They finished the incomplete fragments and expanded upon them.

I shuddered. Having memory downloaded like that would never not be weird. I spat, trying to get the taste of blood and metal off my tongue.

“Okay, hold on. Thanks for that, but can you explain the last bit?”

Cal chuckled. “Let’s see. I think six seconds?”

Six? 

At the third second mark, the dizziness in my stomach shot up into my chest. I glanced at Cal, but he flashed his fangs. Dizziness turned into full-body vibrations and the urge to burp.

“Cal, wha-”

Ding!

Huh?

“Well then. It looks like I won’t be smited today. Good. Think of it as an apology present. I know what you said, but take it anyway. Now I’ll be sending you back, so.” Cal gave me a quick hug and gently pushed me forward. I floated just before the wall of flames and froze. “Don’t be afraid to give Teldrin a choice. He’s a smart boy. Raised by wiser people for the last several months. Let him decide for himself, even if you think the skillstones sound silly. And yes, that skillstone from the king is indeed a good choice, even if you've been subconsciously suppressing the idea of giving it to him.”

I turned my head, barely able to put Cal’s form in my peripheral vision. “Cal!  You’re not answering my question.”

“Another time perhaps,” he teased.

I rolled my eyes and turned to the wall of light. I knew he was waiting for me to accept leaving. The mana surrounding me was gentle, but waiting.

I breathed in.

“Can you at least answer one question before I go?”

“Of course,” Cal said softly.

I closed my eyes, diving into my memories to pull up that moment. When I touched the thread of mana before I was blasted back into the void.

“I’m not that experienced, so I could be wrong, but…” I clicked my fangs, letting that memory replay, pausing at the moment I touched the mana of the string and was exposed to Cal’s own, without the veil. “Why is your mana signature familiar?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… I know what demonic mana feels like. I can feel it in Sereza, through her blood. Same with Arz’odral. Except yours is familiar in a different way… Is there a reason why you’re not a demon, Cal?”

Chuckling. Soft and slow. It was the last thing I heard before I entered the wall of light and lost consciousness.