Chapter 203: Denial(28)

Aether grinned, as from two white lights, it turned into three, and then four.

One of them belonged to his soul; he knew it best, as it was always there, when he closed his eyes.

Training finding other souls had made his awareness of his own a lot stronger, so he didn’t even have to search for it anymore; it had become a passive thing, just like he wanted.

While the other three belonged to shadows, maybe the weaker kind, that was true, but it didn’t matter to him; he was able to sense their location without looking at them or hearing them. That was what mattered.

Really, he was done; he didn’t even need to be able to find so many, he just needed to be able to see one. So yeah, I guess his training was done, all the hours he had spent with his brain hurting like crazy were worth it.

…

He was going to go to sleep, so he could wake up energized and ready to leave. He needed it for the road, and after it, since he was going to challenge Denial.

Yet, before Aether opened his eyes, another light appeared, one so strong it overshadowed all the others, making them dissapear, he staggered slightly, as his head started to hurt like crazy, so he didn’t hesitate to open them.

But opening his eyes only confused him even more, as the one who was standing in front of him was none other than the Abyss. Was that light the Abyss’s soul?

If so… then it was extremly powerfull, I mean, it made him not know where the other four were, including his own. It was like it had overthrown his whole world.

“What do you think you’re doing, brat?”

Aether tilted his head while smirking.

“Well, I needed a way to beat Denial, so I just thought that I could borrow one of your techniques. I hope you don’t mind.” He hopes that he would mind, that he would be irritated that he stole one of his skills.

But the Abyss just seemed confused. “Stealing one of my…”

He didn’t say anything, thinking of what he could have stolen.

Before bursting out into laughter.

“Like hell, you aren’t even close. You think seeing some souls is what this ability is? I’m offended. This is nowhere near. What you are doing is the basics, nowhere near the actual ability. Sure… maybe it could get you through your fight. But don’t flatter yourself.”

The basics? What was this guy saying? I mean, he has spent days getting to this point, and had made his mind a total mess many times, so what was he talking about? This couldn’t be the basics.

But he was going to take the bait.

“Oh yeah? Then if this is the bassics then what is the true ability like, huh? Willing to show me?” He teased.

…

“I would be glad.”

’Hm?’

The next time Aether closed his eyes, he froze.

’W-what?’

He could see, well, not actually.

Standing in the darkness, Aether looked at himself and showed that not only could he see his soul, but there was a white outline around him, and that was how the whole world was. It was like he saw the soul of something, and his mind automatically filled in the gaps. He could see the tower, shadows, and not just their soul. But he could see their figures.

Really, he was bewildered.

He had thought he had made great progress, but… looking at this… he was nowhere near.

Then he heard the Abyss.

“This ability wasn’t meant to help you see people… but a way to see the whole world through.”

Then everything turned back to darkness. So he opened his eyes. He tried to say something, but he couldn’t find the words.

“Impressive, no?”

…

“Yes…”

…

…

It’s been almost a month since that happened. Originally, he had wanted to fight Denial the next day, but he quickly realized he wasn’t going to do that.

Why?

Because he wanted to get the full power of the ability,

Aether imagined himself as a fish swimming through the darkness. But he wasn’t searching for a shadow’s soul, as he had been before.

He had paid close attention to the Abyss’s words, that the ability was designed to see the whole world, the whole picture.

The whole story, not just the characters inside of it.

Really, if he had to say.

At first, when he started learning this ability, he was navigating his own body, swimming inside his own rivers, and trying to go to his pond to find his soul. To find himself in the darkness.

Then he felt his body and traveled in the ocean, trying to find another soul, another pond to get to. He was trying to find others in the darkness.

But now… he wasn’t seeking anyone, he was trying to understand the ocean he was swimming inside. It was vast, really vast, and he didn’t know anything about it, but he wanted to. He wanted to learn everything about it.

So with his ways changed, he had started to use more soul essence when swimming inside the ocean.

And with the days coming and going, the ocean had started to respond, to react to his soul.

That way, the ocean was also trying to find him.

At first, in the darkness apeared a small light appeared, without him trying to find it, without him finding the pond and trying to get to its center, it just appeared, and it didn’t belong to a shadow, but just a small rock. But then that rock began to have an outline, to see it for what it was, even with his eyes closed, not just its soul.

If he had to guess why, it would be that he had learned to give what the soul was and to give it an appearance.

That was the first. Then he continued, and more and more lights began to show themselves to him. At first, they were small rocks just like before, and he continued to learn what they were, until in the darkness he could see them clearly, outlined.

Then they got bigger and bigger.

Until he could see the ground.

…

…

Aether felt the wind wash against him, which would normally make it harder for him to train. But… at this point, it didn’t matter.

He wans’t just standing in the darkness anymore. He could finally see.

He knew where he was, where he was standing, and he could walk around and be sure that he wouldn’t fall.

It had taken him a while. And that was an understatement.

…

After all…

[Character Codex: Sync Stable]

Name: Aether Moirai

Age: 15

Race: Human

Affiliation: Royal Family

…

He was fifteen now…

Sighing, he pondered, thinking about just how much time he had spent in this place. It was unreal, how much time had already passed since coming here, and that he hadn’t made any progress yet. But… he was going to get out of this place soon.

After all, he only had one thing left to do…

Aether looked in front of him, at a soul that still didn’t have an outline. He continued to stare, as it slowly began to reveal itself to him.

And in no time, a shadow was standing in front of him, and he didn’t have to open his eyes to see that.

…

[You have gained a New Skill, {Soul Sense}]

Aether quickly opened his eyes. He hadn’t expected it, to gain a skill. After all, in all his years as an awakened, he had only gained one thing, that being to talk to rocks.

But… for him to gain this skill it would mean that he had mastered it… so why didn’t he feel pride… why did he want more?

Skills were a little different from abilities in that they didn’t have a rank or class. The reason was that skills were things that the user had mastered. Abilities were things given when sync rose, and after the path, well, for Readers, it was after the Affinity, since they didn’t have a path. For abilities, the rank and class were the same as those of the users. Which actually meant shadow speech had risen in rank a long time ago when he had become an echo rank. But that wasn’t important.

Another difference between skills and abilities was that they could evolve; he was going to give an example of a skill related to cooking. You can get the skill after being a master of cooking something, but then it can evolve to another when mastering plating it or something like that.

So it did make him wonder if this skill could evolve.

[Soul Sense]- Your eyes see beyond the real world, the physical world. You can gaze into the world of souls, and they don’t hesitate to reveal themselves to you. A master of both worlds, both the real world and the world of the Forgotten. This skill allows you to see the soul of shadows and unliving things.

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