Aether stared in the darkness, at the white light that sat gently just where his soul was… he couldn’t believe it, he had done it. He had actually found a way to see his soul. He never thought it was possible.

But there was one thing: his head hurt like crazy, like someone was hammering a nail inside his skull. If he had to say it was because he had pushed too much trying to find it. But at the same time, he wanted to continue.

He sighed, opening his eyes and waking up to reality.

Luckily, he had done this at night, so he didn’t have the sun blinding him.

He closed his eyes again to check something, and he was right, the little light was gone. The moment he had opened his eyes and lost concentration, it disappeared.

It wasn’t good.

After all, if he had to focus to even see his own soul, just how hard would it be to see a shadow’s soul and keep it forever? Even when he wasn’t concentrated. I mean, when he was going to fight Denial, he was going to be focused, but still, Denial was really fast; he had to have a very good grasp on this technique before he could even think of challenging Denial, much better than he had at the moment.

He sighed, walking back inside the spire, and into the tower where the other man were, and where they had gifted him a bed and a place to sleep in. Very nice of them, he didn’t expect them to be like this after their first encounter… but they were really nice. If he had to guess… their reason was the same as the one from the people in the Inn, they wanted him to get out through him.

They knew they couldn’t handle the illusion, even more of them, and they had no way of beating the guy blindfolded, but he… he had survived his encounter with Denial with his ember intact, even more, he had broken out of the illusion, if there was someone who could do it.

It would be him.

…

He just had to learn this soul sense or whatever it was called.

Really, he shouldn’t have gone to bed instantly, but instead, the moment he closed his eyes, he put the cotton back in and began to try to find his soul again.

His headache was getting worse, as he imagined and visualized himself swimming through the vastness of his core, through his essence, and then through the soul essence inside his body, by what he figured it was, since he didn’t have any other better guess.

Yet… this time he had found it a lot easier.

He opened his eyes again, looking around to see that everyone else was still sleeping. Then he closed his eyes, and it was gone again; his soul wasn’t in the darkness anymore.

…

‘Again!’

…

…

He was a mess. In the morning, he was a complete mess. Not only was he completely exhausted physically, but his mind was broken; he felt as if his head was getting squished off all its juices.

But… closing his eyes, and standing in the darkness… after two whole seconds the light appeared.

He had learned to do it in two seconds, to find his soul. Was it a good thing, yeah, but was it exciting, not really. After a whole night of constant training, he wasn’t able to make it appear instantly. He wasn’t able to make finding his soul passive; he wanted it to just be there every time he closed his eyes, unless he didn’t wish for it.

But as much as he wanted to keep going, to finally achieve this goal of his, he knew that if he pushed any longer, it would just cause more harm. He was lucky the Abyss was helping him in this Trial, since if he wasn’t, he would have taken over a long time ago, since he didn’t think his mental fortitude would have been able to keep up.

So while the other were waking up, he was going to get some sleep.

But Leo notices this and punches his shoulder teasingly as he wanted to sleep.

“What, are you a vampire or something?”

Aether murmured something against his pillow, something that couldn’t be comprehended, and gave him a hateful gaze which made Leo laugh.

“Alright, alright, well, let you sleep, just so you know, were going into town to sell this heart, so you will be alone.”

Not that it matters that much, he was going to go to sleep anyway.

…

…

…

Night came in no time, and he awakened, his head still hurt slightly, but to what it was before, it wasn’t even one percent of the pain. He sat up, looking around and seeing that no one was back, or at least by what he could see, since it was darkness, maybe they were, he just couldn’t see them in the darkness…

If he learned to see the soul of shadow, he would have been able to tell.

Either way, he got up on his feet and summoned his cloak. Walking outside, still half asleep.

He wasn’t going to let this sleepy state and a little headache stop him from practicing… after all, this next part was important.

As much as he wanted to continue his training on the whole, finding his soul being passive, it wouldn’t help him as much, after all, he was doing this to find the souls of others, not his.

So he decided against it; he was going to try to find a shadow’s soul.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and putting the cotton in.

“Come on… You can do this.”

Aether imagined himself as a small fish yet again, inside the pond that was his soul, but, instead of going to one of the rivers, he stared at the darkness, the darkness he wasn’t even aware existed until now, because he had never questioned what was outside the rivers and pond.

He swam over to it, pushing himself against it, but it just stopped him.

It didn’t work.

…

But he reminded himself of something, he spoke with shadows using his soul, so maybe…

Aether squinted his eyes, trying to focus, trying to combine this fish state with the soul essence, and then… he went inside the darkness… completely being engulfed by something.

He had left his body.

But, he continued to swim, in the darkness that was all around him, in hopes of finding a small pond that wasn’t his. But to no avail, he wondered and wondered, not finding anything. But he knew there were, here.

There were a lot of shadows in this place, but he just couldn’t find them yet.

His head also started to hurt more. But he didn’t stop.

He focused harder.

…

And then, in front of him, a small speek on light appeared on the ground, he followed it, hope blinding his thought. Was this it?

He continued, the little spot getting bigger, until it was a path, leading him to something.

…

A river, it had become a river.

He swam faster, determined to find it before his head got the best of him, since it took a lot more out of him doing this outside his body, his own rivers and pond.

The current in these was also a lot rougher than his own, maybe because he wasn’t used to them, but they were really keeping him from moving faster than he was.

It was funny, since in real life he didn’t know how to swim at all, and here he was, swimming as a fish in a river made out of soul essence in a place that was only darkness.

As he continued, the river got bigger, and continued to do so, until… he finally reached a giant pond.

Compared to his, it had to be at least triple as big, but at the same time, it was also a lot harder to move inside it; the waves were gigantic, and he had a small body, so how was that fair? And the current was raging, and yet he wasn’t scared to go forward.

Since if he just stopped here, he would have done everything for nothing, so he had to continue, to reach the center.

And that was what he did, he challenged the waves and current, trying his best to reach the center of the pond. Each second, the pain inside his head got harder and harder to bear, until he almost lost his focus completely.

But he pushed through.

… and found the center.

…

…

In the darkness from not having any of his senses, Aether found two bright lights, one that belonged to his soul… and one that was further away.

His arm rose, without him knowing that it was, pointing to the light.

And… when he opened his eyes, he found that what he was pointing at was in fact…

A shadow.

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