Chapter 2.5: What happened to Him

Point of View: Omega

So, he wants to know what happened? Such a simple question had such a complicated answer. It was sure to be one of many as he continued to adjust to his surroundings. I fear explaining everything to him in one go will be too daunting. I should give him the basic run down and explain things as they arose. Writing a guidebook, as I had planned, would have been optimal. Maybe it wasn't too late. He kept staring at me with those dark pools waiting for an answer. I didn't want to scare him with what I saw at his 'Cleansing,' but maybe knowing will give him confidence moving forward through this place.

"Very well. What you experienced when you took the mask is called the 'Cleansing.'" I looked into his eyes for his reaction; I saw waves of confusion and anxiety. This was to be expected; I continued before he could ask a question to derail this train of thought.

"Magic is not how you picture it in your world, and it is not an unexplainable force that moves the world to its whims. What you know as “magic” is Soul Energy used to manipulate, bend, and break the laws of science on rare occasions by even rarer individuals. Every living being absorbs this energy from birth, where it grows and matures."

"Is there no Soul Energy on Earth?" He asked.

He was so impatient; I would have explained that if he had given me just a moment. I folded my arms, leaning against the counter behind me.

"Your Universe has soul energy. However, it lacks in both quality and quantity. The little you absorb at birth is negligible in most cases. Its quality is so low that it actually pollutes your systems. It's why so many things in your Universe have such short life spans."

His expression didn't change much, but given his personality, he was undoubtedly screaming internally or being overly excited about the mention of actual magic. The interworking and fundamental theories and principles around soul energies was a very long and tedious subject. To avoid having to go through all of it, I quickly pushed the conversation forward.

"The mask merges with your soul during the Cleansing. During the process, it clears the soul energy that your body has become accustomed to. In a sense, it stripped your soul of its flesh down to the bone so that it can regrow stronger."

"I see… so that's what I'm feeling? The soul energy of this Universe." He said as he continued to look into his palm. He could already feel the energy after just waking up. It took average citizens in the Castle many years of study to explore the spiritual energies within themselves, let alone around them. For him, it was like being from a place that had never seen or felt the water, then suddenly being thrown into an ocean. It was no surprise that he could already sense it. However, just that wouldn't be nearly enough.

"That's not all that happened." I Interrupted his train of thought. There was more he needed to know about himself, much more.

….

The boy snatched the mask from me like an idiot. He didn't understand that for him taking that mask was the equivalent of sending someone with full-body atrophy to open water and swimming through a sea of broken glass. It was going to be the most pain he would experience in his entire life. I could do nothing but sigh as the Cleansing began. As expected, the pain was beyond severe, and I could not help but feel sorry for him. Things already seemed to be well over his head, and I couldn't say I'd be surprised if he died from this.

His screaming died down, but the black veins stopped growing, and the masks' eyes opened. The black veins began to shine with an aqua green light, and the mask faded into dust after becoming one with his soul. Good, it seemed that the Cleansing was over, and he wasn't in a critical state. I walked over to pick him up, but my hand was repealed backward as I reached down to grab him.

"What?"

What was that that repealed my hand? I reached down again to grab him. Before I could reach him, I felt my feet lift off the ground. I looked over at Zachary and saw him getting further away. My back hit the solid footing provided by the light that surrounded the Castle of Dreams, and finally, I slid to a stop. Picking myself up from the ground, I saw that the boy was 50 meters away from me. He had nearly knocked me all the way to the Castle’s doors. I squinted my eyes as I stared at him.

"What sort of power is that?"

I made my way back towards him, but I felt my body become heavy before reaching him.

"Gravity…"

Considering he was still in decent condition after the Cleansing, I could already tell that his body was sturdier than average. Commonly, undergoing Cleansing results in some substantial internal damage. I could detect very little in him before he blasted me away. An affinity with Gravity was rare, along with his sturdy body, I can see why he was chosen as a Senohoi, however,

"He's not that special. Why assign him to me?" I grumbled to myself as I continued to move through the increased Gravity. The closer I got, the severity of the Gravity increased. It was impressive, but nothing I couldn't handle. I reached down through the increased Gravity to pick up his unconscious body. He didn't willingly do this, interesting. Before my hands could touch him, a black haze leaped off his body.

"Tsk!"

I instinctively jumped back 30 meters from the boy as the darkness flowed over him like fog. I looked at my hand, and the tips of my fingers were missing. Whatever that was, it ate away my flesh in an instant. I quickly looked back up at him, expecting whatever was to have engulfed him. However, what I saw was much more terrifying; that dark energy surrounded him like a protective cocoon. It began to spread out, feeding. The darkness devoured the gravity field he had created around himself. The light that surrounded us began to crack, as the darkness seemed to feed on it as well.

"This could be bad."

If that energy kept feeding, it would devour the foothold that we had. Zac's power would eat a hole through this place, and we'd fall into the void. I had to stop him. I looked down at my hand; my fingertips had regenerated. It was slower than usual. The dark energy seemed to interfere with soul power, and that made things… inconvenient.

"Screw it."

There was no time to think; I changed forward through the spreading fog of destruction. It attempted to wrap around me and consume me like hungry tendrils. That greedy energy found itself barricaded by my own force. The tendrils of darkness curved around my body, but I could still feel it feeding on my spiritual power. If left unchecked, the energy was going to dissolve the very fabric of my Soul threads. I focused my strength and empowered my legs, jumping forward to close the gap in an instant. As I was getting closer, his energies fluctuated again.

The darkness and Gravity wove together to form a tight barrier around him. Cute, it thinks it can stop me. It didn't matter what it was; it could not stand in my way. I punched towards the barrier, unleashing a wave of air pressure. Once it left my fist, its pace picked up and smashed into the barrier. I watched the structure give, just barely an inch. That was all I needed

"Break."

I opened my fist, and the movement at the point of impact became erratic and then exploded inward, bursting a hole in the barrier. The barrier vibrated, I dismissively waved my hand. The barrier then dispersed. I could see signs of more to come; black energy continued to roll off of Zachary. I needed to act quickly. I landed, sliding to a stop 10 feet away from where he was lying. Pointing my right index finger, I released a concentrated Soul Thread directly into his forehead,

"Calm down, boy!"

A beam of aqua green light no broader than my finger smacked him in his forehead and penetrated his very soul. His physical body was unconscious, but his soul would not remain quiet. Not too surprising, seeing that it was so sickly and malnourished up to this point. Now his soul was like a child hopped up on sugar. Once the beam of light connected, he finally managed to calm down as that dark power faded.

"Auy tienna eti pa wuq."

I said without thinking. Where did that come from? It didn’t matter; all that mattered was getting him out of here before he had another episode.

…

"And then I brought you here to recover. Don't worry about payment; this is a home I prepared for you some time ago." I had given him the essential details so that he'd have an understanding of what he was capable of. I couldn't guide him unless he knew where he wanted to go. He didn't seem to register what I had said and just sat there staring into his own hand. I watched the aqua green soul threads coming off his fingertips. He clenched his fist, then stared at me,

"So this is magic then?"

"No… those were Soul threads forme from Soul Energy. Using that, you weave your soul energy, the source of your existence, into the physical world to manipulate and control its properties. When you do that, then it becomes what you would know as magic. In the Castle, it's known as AOS, Application Of Soul-Source." His eyebrows raised as he looked over at me.

"That sounds more Scientific than I was expecting."

I nodded in response; this was a natural response, considering how magic was viewed in his world.

"In the Castle, AOS and Science are used in concert. There are some things that the rules of the physical world will not allow. Through the use of AOS, we can expand on what is possible. The improbable becomes mild inconveniences, and the impossible becomes figuring out the logistics."

"Ok, um, that's a lot to take in. I'm ah… Give me a minute to ah.." He was not really sure what to say. I understood he was in a completely new world. I couldn't unleash everything on him at once. I nodded my head and walked out of the room,

"I'll be downstairs when you're ready. There's a change of clothes in the closet over there."

The door slid closed behind me as I made my way downstairs to the couch. I tried to have things as close to Zac’s old world as possible. That wasn't easy because life spans were longer in the Castle of Dreams, and the population was staggeringly higher. Designs for furniture and even homes took on a minimalistic ergonomic design. That was not to say that everything was the same. This planet, for instance, likes to work with nature. All of the homes were built into the sides or in the branches of massive trees. There were countless races of people on each planet, and their influences can be seen in everything.

It might be best to let him experience these things for himself, rather than me explaining everything to him. However, I'd still need to educate him on a great many things. I heard the sounds of someone coming down the stairs.

"I'm ready for you to tell me about this place." He said as he stood at the bottom of the stairs. I stood and smiled,

"Well then, let's go for a walk."

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