Chapter 19:

19 Days After Spring’s Beginning

278 Days After The Ra’tok Attack Amia Village

The Ghastly Skull, Airship, Prisoner Cells

Border of Rua Desert

I look at the chain wrapped figure that kneels before me, still trying to figure out what he said.

‘Born from the Blood of The Progenitor’? It clicks in my head.

“You-your what I created?” I ask, releasing my tensed muscles and taking a step back. My hands go to my sides, and I look at the figure kneeling before me.

The blood fog slowly creeps back into the ground, dissipating into the black. Th rainbow colored light from the swirling scripts above illuminates his back, the red frost crystals covering him glistening.

Vengeance nods its head with the creak of leather and rattle of chains, “I am, father.”

I run my bandaged hand through my hair in disbelief, looking around at the blackness that surrounds us. How…? This isn’t…

One thought stands out amongst the churning waves of my mind. I’ve created something intelligent.

I have created a intelligent, talking being. This was completely different from the spider. Or is it…?

My attention turns back to the chain wrapped being when it talks, “I am at your command father, what is it you wish of me?”

Father… I’m stilling trying to come to terms with this, and this… creature, isn’t helping.

My voice comes out hoarse, cracking a little. “I-I don’t know?”

Vengeance tilts its head to the side, but remains silent.

I look around again, still trying to comprehend what I have done. How did this happen? This isn’t even remotely close to the image I had in mind!

I panic at the thought, because if this isn’t what I wanted, then how much Gray Life katra did I use to create it?

I close my eyes, trying to reach my core.

There is nothing. I can’t sense my core or anything. This isn’t good.

I speak out loud, more ot myself than Vengeance. “Where am I?”

The chain wrapped being breaths out a puff of white fog, standing up slowly. I can’t see its face, but I get the impression it is looking at me. “We are in your Soul Space, father. From what I know, it is nearing completion and has already started on the process of assimilating into you.”

I look at the crimson hooded figure. “How do you know that?”

Vengeance bows his head, a leather glove with iron plating stitched into it held out towards the floor. The chains along his arm clink and rattle as he flexes his hand.

The red fog boils from his hand, forming a thick pillar of it. The chain enters the pillar, it’s length going taught as it connects with something.

With a rattle, the chain pulls out from the pillar of mist a round shape, wrapping completely around it. The fog quickly dissipates, leaving the chain wrapped object in Vengeance’s palm.

He turns it to face up, giving me a good look at it.

I can see through the chains a eyeball, which gives off waves of anger. It’s pupil is a dim Gray color.

Blinking, I lean forward to look at it, “Sol?”

There is a faint buzzing, but nothing else. Vengeance speaks, “I took the liberty of capturing this Agent and ascertaining whether it was a threat or not. All in your best interests, father.”

It… subdued Sol? I remember the aura Sol pushed down on me, making me want to run and die. Of how it had completely blocked all my access to the Origin.

“You interrogated him?” I ask, looking at the now normal sized eyeball.

Vengeance shakes its head with the clink of chains. “No father, I had no need. I simply connected with the stream of information that was being fed to it.”

It takes me a second to puzzle out those words. “Sol was being given information?”

The chain wrapped figure nods its head. “It was also keeping in place a barrier that would not let you enter here. I disabled this… Sol, and allowed you access, father.”

I wrinkle my brow, looking at this being wrapped in chains. That feeling of cold dread had dissipated now, almost like it wasn’t even real.

If this is the creature I made… then why is it here?

“How did you get here? I thought you would be in the real world.”

Vengeance cocks its crimson hooded head to the right. “I was father, but I did not have enough strength, or material to materialize fully. I retreated here, and disabled this being, then contacted you.”

I look around at the seemingly endless plane of darkness, with a roof of shifting, multi colored runes. “Why? I mean, why did you come here?”

“It was the only place that could safely house me and allow me to gather my strength. I know the purpose you had in creating me father, and it is my own fault for not being able to fulfill it. But please, give me enough time, and I can redeem myself, I swear it, father.”

What? Vengeance almost sounded… scared. I look at his hands, which shake slightly.

I am not accustomed to someone being so subservient. I was usually the one always weaker and lesser than everyone else, so I was the subservient one.

This though, Vengeance was treating me like a House Head.

That’s when it fully sinks in, I created it, somehow. I might as well be a god in its eyes.

But this isn’t what I envisioned at all. Then I remember when my mind kept wandering when I had been trying to create the spider. My thinking of becoming a slave, of that sea of corpses and when I threw all those things into my imaginary flame of vengeance.

No way… I accidentally created Vengeance. I want to be upset with myself for what I did, and I still don’t know how much Life imprinted katra I wasted, but I can’t.

“I don’t understand what you mean by purpose.” I say, looking at the figure. The blood ice crystals are still covering its form, mist coming off them.

“I was unable to materialize due to my lack of strength and insufficient materials.” Vengeance bows its head in what seems to be regret.

“Insufficient materials, you mean blood?”

Vengeance nods his head, it being a he because its name sounds male, “Yes father. I am also currently not strong enough to materialize, and I need time to gather more strength.”

I nodded my head. So I needed more blood and he needed to be… stronger?

“I don’t understand what you mean by strength.” He didn’t seem weak to me, having been able to capture Sol. I glance at the eyeball that is glaring at me.

“I require more of your… Energy to materialize and sustain myself. I can gather some from here, but I fear I would also require your energy to help stabilize myself in the real world. Forgive me, father, for my weakness.”

I stutter, as Vengeance gets back down on one knee. His could voice seemed to have a fleck of regret in it, and I could sense his sincerity. “I-I forgive you, please, don’t bow.”

So he means katra. I need to give him katra and blood to materialize. Which I can only assume means to take form in the real world. At least my carelessness doesn’t seemed to have backfired too much.

“So you can help bring down the airship?” I ask, watching as Vengeance slowly lifted himself back up.

He nods with surety.

Okay, so if I can get him enough blood, I think I will be able to summon him. Now the only problem was getting out of this place.

“How do I get out of here?” I ask him.

“You can leave any time, this is your Soul Space, father.”

I can leave whenever I want? I don’t see an exit. I blink, looking at the nondescript wooden door that appears in front of me.

I walk towards the wooden door, stopping to look over my shoulder at Vengeance. He stares at me silently, not saying anything.

“How do I summon you when I am ready?” I ask over my shoulder.

He bows deeply towards me, his hollow voice resounding without emotion, “You only need call my name, father, and I shall answer your summons to the best of my ability. But I am currently unable to materialize, I need a day to gather enough strength.”

I nod, grabbing the wooden handle of the door and turning it. A blinding white light spills out as I push the door open.

Stepping through, the door closes behind me and I feel my mind twist. Then a splitting pain, everything turning to darkness.

Colors swirl in front of my eyes, the sharp pain in my head pounding at my skull, trying to break loose.

I blink my eyes open, groaning.

The wooden plank ceiling comes into focus, a deep thrum vibrating through the boards from the engine of the ship. The shadows pulsate with each strike of my migraine.

Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath and sit up. My stiff back muscles complain, but it is the spike of pain in my head from moving that really gets me. I shuffle and rest against the wall, banging my head on the planks with a dull thunk.

Cracking my eyes, I can see the blurry shape of Kamar citing on the other side of the small cell. I ask after a few seconds of thinking, “How long was I out?”

“A couple hours.” From his body movement, I can see that he is looking at me, “From what I gather, you used Katra. You never told me that you could still use it.” He says this very quietly.

I whisper back, “I thought it best to keep it secret.”

Kamar nods, leaning back against the wall. I open my eyes wider, the migraine still drilling in the back of my skull and out between my eyes. Kamar rumbles quietly, “What is your Katra Aspect? You never told me, and I thought it best not to press, but now you will tell me.”

I stay silent for a few minutes, piecing together a sincable answer from my fragmented thoughts. “From what I can gather… My aspect is neutral, something close to Pure katra, but not quite. I call it Gray Katra, due to the color. The experiments I have done have proven that it… seems to be able to emulate other katra aspects, and assimilate with, along with control, other types of katra. The best way to describe it would be, well… A base for all katra.”

The boards under Kamar creak with his weight as he shifts, “That is a bold claim, and I am not sure I believe it. But what I saw you doing with your blood supports it.”

I furrow my brow, thinking back to the blood and Vengeance. I had a lot more questions for him, but frankly, I just wanted to get away from him. His calling me father and display of capturing Sol made me want to get away from him, till I was in a better state of mind to question him.

“With my blood?”

Kamar points with his smaller, left arm, where the boards had absorbed my blood and been stained crimson. “In my Silver sight I watched you as you started control blood throw the vital aura gathered around and in it. You manipulated vital aura, outside of your body. Some exceptional sacred artists can manipulate the various vital auras in their body, some can even spread a aura of katra outside their body, but I have never seen someone control vital aura of all things.”

I gulp, my head spinning with his words. It’s times like these that Silver Sight would be most useful, even more than a Steel body.

Maybe if I could see vital aura and other types of katra on the spiritual level, then I would be able to understand my abilities far better. I can see inside my body and the katra there through a mental-spiritual “sight”, but it is not really seeing.

Kamar says something else, his voice curious, “I wonder if you would be able to emulate my katra spect and path? I saw you do something similar when you summoned that gauntlet.”