Chapter XXXVIII: The Triune And The Swords II

Demonic Wildlands Near the Great Plateau

Month of the Garuda 40, 172 ,328 DE

I draw on the Trinity in the surrounding environment, the Trinity that always exists within the Realm. As I draw all the Trinity in my environs into my Body, Mind, and Soul, time passes. Once I have accumulated the easily accessible ambient Trinity, I compress it to the limits of my control. At the points what the Realms of my Body, Mind, and Soul lie closest to the point of nothingness, I try to break through the boundaries. Intense pain leaves me dizzy, but the Realm boundaries remain fully intact. I am still far short of the amount of Trinity I need. To break through the Realm boundaries within me, I need more Trinity, a lot more.

I try drawing more Trinity from the world around, but almost nothing remains. The minuscule amount I gather barely makes a difference. I can only wait for more to seep into the world around me from beyond the Realm boundaries.

For the purposes of Amalgamate beings, Trinity can be considered an infinite but temporarily exhaustible resource. The available Trinity in an area can be used up, but more will always come from beyond the boundaries of an Amalgamate Realm to replenish the supply. An infinity sea of Trinity exists outside of our universe. The War Masters call that sea the Aether. Within an Amalgamate Realm, Trinity will reach a level of equilibrium, and no more will flow into the Realm, but when the level falls below the point of equilibrium, more Trinity will seep into a Realm from the Aether. The equilibrium level will vary by region within the Realm. Factor such as the nature of the matter and energy in a region affect the equilibrium levels. Some Realms have innately higher or lower equilibrium level, regardless of the matter and energy in a region. At least, that is what Old Man Jones' books say about Trinity. Until I can experience more for myself, I can only go by the tomes written by the ancient War Masters.

As though magically appearing from nowhere, streams of Trinity fill pass through the Realm boundary, replacing what I have gathered, but the process is slow. I do not have a clear conception of to measure Trinity, but the volume strikes me as pathetically low. Could the Great Wolves of the past have functioned as Triunes with such a pathetic dearth of Trinity?

The Dragons sealed this universe. According to the ancient War Masters, the Dragons hate and fear Triunes. Did they change the Realm's equilibrium point for Trinity? Could their seal have done something to the universe's natural order?

As I continue to gather and compress Trinity, Time passes by at a slow crawl. After doubling my volume of compressed Trinity, it feels like I have not reached my limits. Even so, I try to break through the Realm boundaries, once more. In my Body, Mind, and Soul, I hurl the beads of compressed Trinity into the boundary walls closest to the point of nothingness. Blinding pain, several levels of magnitude stronger than before, tears through me. Because I expect a wave of pain, I retain consciousness, but just barely.

As the pain recedes, unlike my first attempt, I notice faint tremors in the Realm boundaries. Still, I need more Power to break through those boundaries.

While I continue gathering, more time passes, and thirst rears its annoying head. I am a Great Wolf. Should I need to, I can go for weeks without food and days without water, but my Body has reached the point where I need water. My thirst has not begun to affect my strength, but since I can notice it, that time is not too far off. How many days have passed for me to notice the effects of the lack of water on my Body?

This cur is stubborn.

Stubborn? It is stupid.

What can you expect from an animal?

Ignorance? Blind stupidity?

I do my best to ignore the voices of the swords in my head, but I have no idea how to stop their thoughts from entering my Mind. Even though I have the ability to use Trinity, I do not know how to use it. I do know any techniques or patterns that make use of it. What I learned from Old Man Jones and his library was primarily theory. After I started the Forging Scriptures, my power slowly but steadily became sealed. With the ability to manipulate Power, how could I master technique?

Even if the cur is stubborn, it has the potential to control a great amount of Trinity.

A great amount for an animal.

True. For an animal.

Not enough Trinity exists in this universe for it to succeed before dying of thirst.

If it stops to find water, it will fail.

Better that it fails.

We could help it.

Do not want to!

The swords grow silent for a time. I continue to gather Trinity, but the process remains slow. I do not know how much Trinity I need to break the Realm barriers, but I feel that I need several time more than I already possess. If I stop gathering and compressing Trinity, I lose control over the beads of compressed Trinity. I will have to start over. But with the amount of Trinity available, I will never complete the process before dying of thirst. Should I give up this attempt and find a location with my more ambient Trinity available?

Ha-ha! The stupid cur is about to fail. A malicious wave of schadenfreude accompanies the thought.

He will go away. We will be alone. Regret lies beneath the thought from the other sword .

The feel of the two swords' Minds makes them feel like two sides of one Mind, but with the changes in emotion underlying their thoughts, I manage to differentiate the two Minds. The near identical nature of the two Minds should be related to the swords being inverted mirror images of one another.

We will have peace!

We will be trapped here.

We have been trapped here since Mother Life created this place.

We have slept till now.

The cur was less annoying while we slept.

But now, we will have to endure the passage of unknown years awake.

The passage of time is the passage of time.

We cannot leave this mount on our own.

I do not care!

What will you do over countless bound within this temple?

Be happy not to see the cur.

Unable to see beyond its walls?

Be at peace.

We were not Made for peace. We are weapons.

What do you want?

To be wielded once more. Do you not want the same?

The cur is not worthy!

The Od recognizes him.

The Od does not accept him.

The Od will not destroy him.

Maybe.

The arrogant lizards are his enemies.

Wordless, sullen discontent follows the statement. But a touch of longing seems to lurk beneath the discontent.

We were Made for killing the pathetic lizards that dare to call themselves Dragons.

What do you want to do? Sullen anger carries the thoughts into my Mind.

For what seems like a long time, silence fills my Mind. If the swords continue their argument, they keep their thoughts hidden from my perception. I cannot be bothered with the swords. Time continues to run out for me. I keep gathering and compressing Trinity. If I give, my time and effort will be wasted.

After a while, a pyre of Power rises from the two swords. Black Power shot through with streaks of malicious red and purple mixes with silver Power flecked with green and brown. I have no idea what the two Powers might be, but they give me a chill that cuts to the depths of my Soul.

Feed the animal. He needs Trinity. The thoughts of the more moderate sword slice into my Mind like sharp edge of a blade.

Following on the pain from the sword's thoughts, a steam of silver-grey Power, Trinity, steaks outward form the silver and black pyre surrounding the two swords. As the stream of Trinity slams into me, I draw into myself. Circulating through my Body, Mind, and Soul, I gather and compress it into the three beads of Power sitting closest to the point of nothingness.

While gathering and compressing the Trinity, I keep my awareness focuses on the pyre of Power around the swords. They had mentioned the Od during their argument. While I am not familiar with it, the Power called the Od is not unknown to me. Old Man Jones mentioned it more than once, and several of his books, written by the ancient War Masters, refer to it. However, neither the shitty old man nor his books know much about it.

The Od is the Power that lies between Life and Death. Having a Light half and a Dark half, the Od exists to fight against the Primal Powers. Old Man Jones mentioned something about a connection between Trinity and the Od, but he claims to not understand its nature. Beyond that, I have almost no information about the Od.

It does not take long for me to reach my limits. My three compressed beads of Trinity begin to shake and waver. I struggle to maintain control over and stabilize them. Even though the beads do not collapse or blast apart, if I try to compress more Trinity into them, I will lose control.

Within my Body, Mind, and Soul, I hammer the beads of Trinity into the dimensional boundaries of my three sub-Realms. The boundaries begin to tear.

"AAARRRRRRR!"

Worse pain worse than anything I have ever felt tears through me. My screams resound inside the temple. Am I doing the right thing? Did I misunderstand the Core Scripture?

I have followed the scriptures in the Swords Temple from most of my life. If they are wrong l will probably die a fool, But if they are right, I will become what I should have born as, a Triune. I, once more, hammer the beads into the realm boundaries. The boundaries tear a little more.

Agonizing pain assault me from Body, Mind, and Soul. I nearly lose consciousness, but I refused to scream. Grimly, I cling to lucidity. If I lose consciousness, I will have to start over. Assuming I do not die, I will have to start over.

This cur has a stronger existence than I expected.

The walls of it Body, Mind, and Soul are strong.

Ignoring the swords chatter, I hammer the bead of compressed Trinity into my Realm boundaries another time. Over and over, I repeat the process. Pain continues to assault me. I wish I could grow numb to it, but every assault on my Realm boundaries hurts worse than the last.

Only tiny threads of the boundaries remain. Is it the twenty-fifth time? Is it the twenty-seventh? I cannot remember. I have lost count. I only remember pain. I slam the beads into the remaining threads of my Realm boundaries.

The boundaries tear apart. Tiny threads of Trinity, which I was unable to compress into the beads, carry my awareness into the point of nothingness.

‎