Chapter 15
It’s been a thousand years. Perhaps more. Perhaps none at all.
My brain is frozen, as is my body. There is no will to command my limbs. I cannot reach to cover my eyes. I can only stand there, stare at the forbidden and allow it to stare back at me.
My field of view blackens, and out of that darkness, two dim lights appear—two moons that are always divergent, but this time, they’re sliding toward one another at increasing speed.
The two circles come into contact. The overlapping area lights up, creating a reddish blinding flash.
My spirit is pushed back.
Rheus… Rhea…
The whispers continue to inundate my mind as the light exerts unbearable pressure on me.
Just as I think I might crumble and cease to exist, everything ends. I open my eyes and take a deep breath.
Warm liquid drips down my cheeks. I reach with my hand, touching it, only to realize it’s blood.
I’m bleeding…from my eyes.
Yet there is no more pain. My body is light as a feather, as if it’s been unburdened by the weight of being.
But I’m still here. I’m still standing. I still…am.
I look to the center of the formation as everything slowly comes back to me. The individual is now subdued. There is no more surplus energy coming from him; his true form has been restrained.
The red threads have now turned into indomitable chains that hold him together.
Elysand is on the ground, his entire countenance ragged and gaunt. He’s lost all spiritual energy from the scale of the ritual.
At least it’s over… And we had no other casualties.
What should have been a joyful occasion is marred by what I saw; by those unsettling visions and even more disconcerting changes in my body.
While others move around, getting ready to clean up the scene, I’m still rooted to the spot.
Elysand slowly gets back to his feet, congratulating everyone for their work and ordering them to move the body in an optimal condition for teleportation back to the Department.
“Nykander, good job volunteering out there,” Elysand mentions with a friendly pat on my shoulder—though even that seems to take a toll on his exhausted body.
“I just did what anyone would,” I mention humbly, slowly getting back to reality.
“Don’t sell yourself short. I’ll make sure you get recognized for your efforts,” he continues.
“I... I had a question.”
“Yes?”
I clear my throat. “What happens if I saw his true form?”
At his horrified expression, I add, “Just for a second.”
He looks me up and down, finally noting the traces of blood on my face.
“Are you alright?” He asks worriedly.
“Yes, I think so. It’s just my eyes…”
He takes a deep breath. “You were lucky. So lucky…” He shakes his head. “Even one second can be fatal. You need to have a healer look at your body at the Department.”
“But I’m fine…”
“You can’t know. It is indeed a marvel that you’re still standing, but still, damage to this level can never be taken lightly.
” He purses his lips as he assesses me further.
“Perhaps it’s because of your low level?
“ He muses to himself. “Our documentation shows that past individuals who’ve seen a true form have been depleted from energy and as a result they perished. Perhaps because you have no energy that you’re still standing? No matter, you must get checked up.”
With that, he ends the discussion.
All of us gather together to teleport back at the Department with the bound male, after which Elysand immediately fires instructions right and left: some are to place the individual in a prison until further action while others have to write up a point-by-point account of what happened.
And me? Well, I’m quickly led to the Healing Department.
Since a lot of higher-level warriors are able to regenerate, the healer department is only for those who lack that ability and for those who are injured by other means far above their regenerative capabilities, such as poisoning or wounds caused by certain artifacts.
Once I’m in the room with the healer on duty, she takes a quick look at me and immediately notices the bloodstains, so her first course of action is to check my vision.
“The chief told me that you saw a true form for a few seconds. That’s correct?”
“Yes,” I answer.
“And your vision is intact?”
“Yes. I see as well as I did before.”
She clicks her tongue as she takes a step back and stares at me. “That is odd. I’ve never met someone who withstood a true form and didn’t have anything wrong with them. It’s honestly a wonder that your eyes still work and are unaffected. What about the rest of your body?”
“I feel fine. I already told Elysand. I feel completely fine. I don’t think this checkup is necessary.”
“You might feel fine, but we’re dealing with energy from mystical sources. Even we don’t know the true degree of damage that could have had against you. Let me do a quick checkup and see if all of your bodily functions are in order. You’re level zero, correct?”
“Yes,” I say in a low voice, even now dreading admitting my lack of strength. I take a seat on a reclining bed and wait.
She nods, and without any judgment, she proceeds to hover her hands over my body from head to toe. Her brows are knit together, her eyes closed, and when she’s done, she’s silent for a few moments.
“There is something,” she mutters, mostly to herself.
“Something?” I echo.
“I’m not sure if it’s from seeing the true form, though. I detect scar tissue around it. This is much older than that.”
I frown. “What are you talking about?”
She doesn’t answer. She takes a step back, still thinking.
“When Elysand told me that you were level zero, I was a bit astonished, to be perfectly honest. You don’t really find level zeros anywhere.
And that’s mostly because by the time our kind reaches maturity, you would have already reached level one or two without doing anything.
Just existing is the way our bodies function. But level zero—that’s highly unusual.”
“Is that so?” I ask. I don’t really have that much information about our kind except from what I’ve been able to glean in books, so what she’s saying is completely new to me.
“Yes. You see, our kind, because we are descended from the Seven, are not perfect beings. And by that I mean compared to the Aperites from Empyrean. Since they were made from the merged energy of seven beings of light and seven beings of nether, their cores are naturally more stable. They’re much more balanced beings than we are.
And because of that, as we reach maturity, we need to balance that chaotic core within ourselves, and we need to do it on our own. ”
“You mean consuming souls,” I say. That much I know.
“Yes. That is correct. Consuming souls, or consuming sources of similar energy. You’re probably aware that there aren’t enough souls in Tartareia for all of our kind to feed, and that is why only the ones at the top—the titled Sons of Tenebrae—have access to those souls.
For us less important people, we must get the energy from different sources.
Sometimes we’re lucky if we get a soul maybe once every one thousand or two thousand years. It’s not that simple.”
“Oh,” I murmur. I had not known that. “So how do regular people deal with it, then?”
“It’s simple. There are a myriad of artifacts left by the Primordials.
These artifacts have an unlimited amount of energy, and they can be used to fashion certain supplements that allow our cores to gain some stability.
Of course, this is nowhere near the level of what a Son of Tenebreis can do if they absorb souls, but we can at least live our lives.
This is why the Central Administration was founded in the first place.
Because there are so many people who try to get powerful through underhanded methods, including the consumption of souls that goes unregulated.
We are the ones who watch over that. We have so many different races of people living in Tartareia that we must protect to a certain extent. ”
“Oh, I see.”
“But that is a discussion for another day. What I meant to tell you is that it’s so rare to see a level zero.
Because through our daily interactions, through our interaction with the environment—which in itself is considered an artifact from the Primordials—we get enough energy that we raise our levels instinctively.
It’s almost like there are particles of energy, magical sources in the air.
Even as we inhale and exhale, we interact with that environment.
That is why it’s highly unusual for you to be level zero at your age. ”
“Then what did you see when you checked my body?”
“A seal. There is a seal. I’m not sure who placed it on you. I’m certainly not able to do anything about it, since it uses some ancient ritualistic magic that even I don’t have access. But I can take a closer look if you’d let me?”
She’s been very respectful so far so I nod in approval. I lay back again in the reclining bed and wait for her check-up. This time, she focuses on the area around my belly, right over my belly button.
She frowns for a moment. “Let me try something.”
Rubbing her hands together, she produces a ball of energy that she presses into my abdomen. Pain erupts everywhere as the energy makes contact with my skin before being redirected and flying into the ceiling.
“I see now,” she mutters under her breath.
“What is it?”
“I’m pretty certain that is the reason you’re still at level zero. The seal within you inhibits you from transforming the particles around you into your own energy. It’s almost as if you were isolated from the entire world, living in a void.”
“Can anything be done about it?”