Chapter 250: Charging Through The Ranks (I)

Vara’s expression cycled through fury, disbelief, and finally cold calculation as she processed Finn’s words. Her hands clenched at her sides, jaw tight enough that muscles stood out in her neck.

Behind her, Slick Jones’s hand moved incrementally toward his weapon. His eyes were locked onto Finn, measuring the distance and analyzing the threat potential. He weighed the possibility of landing a hit, despite already knowing how dangerous Finn was from the way the young man had saved him and Vara. It was a testament to his dedication. He truly was, in every sense, Vara’s sword.

Vara raised a hand, stopping him mid-motion. The gesture was subtle but absolute. Slick Jones’s hand stilled, though his body remained coiled and ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

“Then what am I supposed to do?” Vara’s voice was controlled, but barely. “Watch as you steal my God’s legacy?”

Finn met her gaze without flinching. “You can follow. Observe. Learn — Whatever, really… I don’t particularly care.” He paused, letting that sink in. “But if you interfere with my claims…”

The unspoken threat hung in the air between them. Vara’s eyes flickered to Althea, who stood with deceptive casualness several paces away, then to Ailin, who watched the exchange with those ancient, knowing eyes.

She was outnumbered, outmatched, and severely overpowered… And she knew it.

“Fine,” Vara said through gritted teeth. “We’ll follow your lead.”

But Finn could see the calculation continuing behind her eyes. She was agreeing because she had no other choice, not because she’d accepted defeat. She was still waiting for an opening.

Finn snorted internally but simply grunted in response.

“Good,” he said, turning back to face the circular hall and its twenty-two archways. “I’ll be claiming the soul masses in order. Building up gradually before attempting the stronger ones.”

He pointed to the corridors in sequence. “Corridor 21 next. Then 20, then 19, then 28… After those three, I should have enough soul density to face the Sea God without being dissolved.”

Vara’s eyes tracked his pointing finger, and understanding dawned on her face. Each successful claim made him stronger. Each corridor was a countdown to her complete failure. The window of opportunity was closing with every soul mass he integrated.

“Which is the weakest?” she asked.

“The one I already claimed,” Finn replied cursorily. “Corridor 22.”

“And how long between attempts?”

Finn glanced at her. She was still probing.

“As long as it takes,” he said simply, and started walking toward Corridor 21.

As they moved, Althea fell into step slightly behind and to the side. Not obviously trailing Vara, but positioned with a clear line of sight. Her hand rested near her sword hilt casually, but anyone with a keen eye could tell she was extremely ready.

No words were spoken about it. But Vara noticed, and Finn with his higher perception also noticed that Vara had noticed. There was now an unspoken tension in the air. One that was most certain to be broken anytime soon.

But Finn couldn’t be bothered either way. No matter what Vara might attempt, it was already beneath him. This wasn’t pride on conceit, it was simply a fact.

It was in this manner that they entered Corridor 21.

Again, the change of atmosphere from the hall to the corridor was abrupt. The walls were darker here. Smooth obsidian or something similar, reflecting distorted images of the group as they passed. The reflections moved wrong. Not quite matching their movements. Lagging by half-seconds or moving too quickly.

Finn’s enhanced perception picked up fluctuations in the corridor’s structure. It felt as though the space wasn’t stable. It shifted subtly, constantly rearranging itself in ways that would be imperceptible to normal senses, but Finn knew that should be impossible in a Rank 21/22 chamber. It was the second weakest afterall.

It seemed this soul mass was something adaptive. Something that knew how to deceive and how to change to counter threats.

Within some more steps, they reached the chamber at the corridor’s end. It was smaller than the Tyrant’s, more enclosed. The ceiling was much lower. And in the center, instead of a statue, there was something else.

A pillar of crystal roughly the height of a human, flickering with internal light. The colors shifted and changed constantly from red, to blue, to green, to colors Finn had no names for. And embedded in the center of the crystal, suspended like an insect in a cocoon, was a vague shape.

The inheritance. Rank 20 of his future soul mass inventory.

“Be careful…” Althea warned quietly as Finn strode over to it directly.

“It’s alright,” he replied, examining the crystal and the form within it more carefully. “It seems this one’s specialty is adaptation. It changes to counter whatever threatens it.”

On a normal basis, Finn wouldn’t naturally know this, but in his current state, with his current level of soul strength, and perhaps because of the expanded state he’d entered previously, he was more in tune with the subtle emanations coming off the soul mass within the crystal.

His soul could instinctively glean some level of information from it purely from observation.

“How do you win against something that changes its form to defend itself?” Vara asked with genuine curiosity despite the resentful undertone to her voice.

Finn didn’t answer immediately. He was studying the crystal, the flickering form within, feeling how it responded to his presence. Already it was shifting, preparing defenses against his soul density, his Error, the Tyrant’s power within him.

“By being faster than it can adapt,” Finn said finally.

He reached out with his enhanced soul perception, touching the crystal’s surface with his consciousness. The form inside reacted immediately, rippling with defensive changes.

But Finn had learned from the Tyrant. Had refined his understanding. He didn’t try to overpower or subjugate it through brute force alone.

Instead, he expanded his soul’s presence around the crystal. Not the full expanded consciousness from before, though — he couldn’t manage that yet since he was still recovering from the strain. This was a lighter version.

He extended his awareness through the chamber, letting his soul touch across the walls, the floor, interacting with the infinitesimal fragments of consciousness from the stones.

It was a more localized, much less strenuous, watered down version of expanding his consciousness. In fact, it could barely be called that. This was practically like a passive effect of his superior soul now. It was just enough to create pressure from all sides of the crystal simultaneously.

The form in the crystal tried to adapt. It quickly shifted its defenses to counter the direction of greatest soul threat. But Finn was pressing from everywhere all at once. There was no single direction to defend against.

Without hesitation, Finn began chanting his soul edict.

“Will.”

His voice resonated through the chamber. The crystal cracked slightly, hairline fractures spreading across its surface. Inside, the soul mass’s form thrashed, accelerating its adaptation to Finn’s suppression.

“Soul Anchor.”

Finn’s presence locked in place, grounding itself against the chamber floor. His soul density increased locally, making him harder to affect and harder to counter.

Vara watched intently, her Soul Sight allowing her to perceive something of what was happening. She saw the green glow of his Error vision. Saw his soul somehow expanding beyond normal bounds. Saw the crystalline prison responding, trying to evolve defenses.

It looked like what she’d heard described about Incarnate vessels. Champions of Gods given divine authority. Except wrong and different in a way she couldn’t place her finger on. All she could tell was that the mechanics with Finn’s version of supernatural power were different. His source of power seemed to come from within himself rather than being granted from above.

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