SOULSCAPE

NAME

Lukas Aguilar

Type

Prime Host

Level

21

Experience

4163

Current Threshold

17640

Utilized Soul Capacity

41408 / ∞

ESSENCE

Maximum Lifeforce Output

82750

Replenishment Rate

4600 / hour

LEY LINE NETWORK

Maximum Mana Output

84000

Synthesis Rate

4710 / hour

It didn’t seem real, seeing the changes in his Schema.

Memories of his days spent in the Crypt rose to his mind. Running from monsters, choosing his battles, bartering with Inanna over information— back in those days, every single bit of Soul Capacity counted. Every single skill, no matter how inconsequential, was precious in his eyes. Soul Siphon had made things a lot easier for him, but it hadn’t been until he had absorbed the Crypt’s Omphalos that things had truly changed for him.

Level-5 Alpha Condition.

Infinite Soul Capacity.

Those two facts alone had transformed the wary survivor into the consummate warrior he was today. Back at the anomaly, there had been moments when he had to maintain count of how much lifeforce he used in a fight. Now? He had over eighty thousand units at his beck and call. Same for mana. And with those fractals, he might as well double that figure.

And the results were open for everyone to see.

His body had undergone massive changes, both inside and out. The lean muscles were gone, replaced overnight by a meaty weight, giving him a light-heavyweight boxer appearance, the muscles on his forearms feeling like they were made of lean steel cable. He felt slightly taller as well, and his face looked raw and hard, with veins tight against his skin. His brown hair had now come down past his neck, but the damn beard felt distinctly uncomfortable. His body felt warmer than ever before, like someone had set up a furnace within it, making it more comfortable in this land of magma than it had any right to be.

But his body wasn’t the only thing that had changed.

SKILL ATTRIBUTES

SKILL

LEVEL

CONSUMED SOUL CAP

Raw Lifeforce Manipulation

3

5000

Kinetomancy (FRAGMENTED)

APEX

5908

Momentum Manipulation

3

5000

Friction Modulation

2

500

Pressure Modulation

2

500

Innate Gravity Control

2

500

Fire Creation

3

5000

Fire Manipulation

3

5000

Temperature Modulation

3

5000

Earth Manipulation

2

500

Terraportation

2

500

Seismic Sensing

2

500

Conjuration

2

500

Disintegration

2

500

Shatterpoint Intuition

2

500

Psychomancy

2

500

Water Creation

2

500

Water Manipulation

3

5000

It was like how Inanna had said it. The body reflects the soul. But like most things with her, it was not the complete picture. The body reflected the soul, but only to the extent defined by the body’s limits. A beginner’s body could not grasp a Level-2 skill in all its complexity. Even at Level-8, Lukas had been unable to fully comprehend the true scope of what he could do with his skills. It was why despite having a Level-3 at raw lifeforce manipulation and momentum manipulation, his abilities bordered a hair short of Level-2’s zenith at best.

But now, after the staggering number of Level-Ups, his body had evolved, constantly reflecting the skills from the Schema upon itself. Every single Level-Up left a tiny addition to his body, and the succeeding Level-Up compounded upon that. After a total of thirteen Level-Ups while also gaining multiple Level-3 skills in pyromancy, Lukas practically felt like a five-year-old in a grown-up gymnast’s body. Was it any surprise he had fallen on his face and ass over seventy times in the first two days since the Level-Ups?

Even after weeks, Lukas couldn’t help but feel that this power, these skills were downright surreal. And yet, it only served to twist the knife in his heart.

For even with his Level-Ups and his immensely magnified powers, he was completely at sea with his current problem.

They were stranded.

No tents. No food. No clothes except what they had on their person. He already had to divulge his secret aquamancy powers to Tanya. Given the number of things she knew about him, it probably didn’t come as a surprise. If nothing else, she thought it funny and poetic that Olfric had tried to kill him in the anomaly, and he had gotten Olfric’s kami for himself in return. They didn’t have any of those flare-guns to respond just in case the svartalfars attempted a rescue mission again.

Not that they had. He had checked.

In many ways, it was like being back at the Crypt all over again. Stuck in an unprecedented situation with a powerful female with more secrets than he could imagine, while trying to figure out about the changes occurring within his own body. Where Inanna’s supernatural beauty was a constant test of mental fortitude, his raging lifeforce made it equally difficult to stay around Tanya. It blamed Tanya for being such a distraction, and had a really primitive way of letting that displeasure known. Much like before, he was back to hunting monsters for nourishment, only this time, they were spending more time flying— for Tanya, and surfing through the air— for him, thanks to Innate Gravity Control and Kinetomancy. There was little reason to fight, and most alterations with the monsters started with decapitation— quick and easy and to the point. Instead, they used their energies to traverse through the skies, looking for potential openings to return to the real world.

Or at least, that was what they did for the first fortnight.

But as days passed, his doubts were starting to creep in. This was not the same as being trapped inside an anomaly. There was no way out, not unless a door opened from the other side. He fervently hoped the svartalfars would try opening another Well soon. But would they? If Kradir or Mori had fallen, chances are those bloodthirsty creatures would abandon Lukas and Tanya to their fates just out of spite.

Or maybe, maybe something else had befallen them. Maybe the sheer destruction had caused faults in the portal. There was always room for error and performance issues when it came to technology. Maybe they were trying to repair it? Maybe it was just taking time. With the time dilation in these zones, that amounted to waiting for more than double the actual time spent in the real world.

It sucked. Big time.

It made him wonder. Would he be able to get out, ever? If not, what would he do? How would he get Inanna back? Would his life just… end here?

The questions haunted him. Sometimes he’d wake up at night, wondering if he had put faith in the right people. Maybe if he had tried getting back to the yokai, things would’ve been different. Sometimes, when he lay looking at the dark skies, he reviewed every single thing he knew about this world and its people, about Zuken, about Olfric and Elena, about Tanya…

About Inanna.

He’d search his memory for small, subtle things that he might have missed about them. It made him scared, made him think he had made some horrible mistakes lately. Tanya had been clear. Engage in combat, but not kill anyone. But he had. And that had led to this. Stranded in a borderland with no way out. And with the massive reserves of lifeforce within him, it drove him to do something, to act— even if it was just going through everything he knew.

“Lukas?”

“Yes?”

He didn’t even bother looking beside him. Tanya lay there, right next to him, resting her head upon her hands. They had taken off their overcoats and were using them as makeshift pillows. It was a tiny, insignificant thing, but it maintained the illusion of civilization in this barbarian land of flames.

“Not sleepy yet?”

Sleep was the last thing on his mind. He had tried sleeping before. Between the raging lifeforce and the constant whispers in his mind, sleep was something that just didn’t happen. The growing crankiness was just a side benefit.

“I think the mountains due south have better vegetation. Maybe we could try exploring them in the morning?”

“Nothing’s stopping you.”

“I was just saying,” she said, sitting up, an undercurrent of anger in her tone. “What’s wrong with you?”

Lukas turned towards her. “I think mindless exploration has lost its appeal to me. I’m more interested in finding a way out, not jumping from mountain to mountain and stargazing for nights on end.”

Tanya pressed her lips and nodded in acquiescence. “We’ll find a way out.”

“Yes, like we did in the past weeks.”

He looked away.

“Well don’t blame it on me,” Tanya shot back. “I told you, several times, not to kill them. But you can’t help but do the exact opposite, can you?”

Lukas turned around and growled. “Don’t you put this on me. I wasn’t the one that wanted to participate in this circus. I didn’t want to come to the svartalfars. You did all of those things. You and Banksi. You took me to the Keep. You kept me in the dark about the plan. You dropped the negotiations on my head. You brought me to this borderland without telling me a thing, despite me asking multiple times. ”

Tanya looked like she wanted to argue, but instead, she just stayed silent, downcast, her fingers clenched into fists. Lukas watched her for as long as he could stand it, and then decided to break the silence.

“Sorry,” he said in a voice softer than he expected, “that was harsh.”

“Yes,” she nodded, and took a moment to gather her thoughts. “But no less true. I was the tool to poke at your secrets.”

“Why do you do it?”

“Do what?”

He just watched her.

“You’ve got to be more particular.”

He just stayed clammed up.

Tanya let out a huff. “Fine. I got what you mean.”

“So… why?”

“Why….” She looked away, at the distant horizon. “Why do I do what I do? Why do I work for Zuken? Why am I so insistent about figuring you out? If I had to guess, I’d say because it solves both quests for me. The secret of what you did to me, and the secret of your powers. ”

“Two… monsters with one fireball then?” Lukas internally patted himself on the back for the translation.

“I’ve never heard it put like that, but it fits. I suppose.”

“I get it,” Lukas said, “You’re far more used to this than I am.”

“This?”

“This..” he pointed at everything around him. “You’re used to staying out in the dark. Away from the Eternal Light. Whether it be here in the borderlands, or in that desert. That’s why you’re so casual about it.”

“I’m not casual—”

“You’re not freaking out, so that’s casual,”

Tanya narrowed her eyes but then nodded in acquiescence.

“Why?”

“It’s a long story,” she said evasively.

“And then you say I have secrets.”

Her eyes hardened. “It’s not the same thing.”

“Looks the same to me.”

“Well it isn’t,” she shot back, irritation rising in her voice. “You’re an Outsider, and Zuken’s already accepted that as fact. You can break the rules of our world and he wouldn’t blink an eye, blaming it on your Outsider powers. Me? I’m a freak. Unlike you, I didn’t drop inside an anomaly. I grew up in this world. I have…. I have baggage.”

“And you don’t think that sharing that baggage is a good way of establishing trust? Especially when prying for my secrets?”

“Trust gets you killed.”

Lukas laughed.

She growled at him. “Do I sound like I’m joking?”

“No,” said Lukas, “just reminded me of someone. My teacher.”

“The Goddess?”

“...Yes. She had a sister. One she raised. One she protected, and paved the way to become a powerful goddess in her own right. And then, that same person betrayed her.”

“Is that why…” Tanya began, hesitant. “Is that why you want to bring her back? This sister goddess killed your teacher, and now you’re looking for ways to resurrect her?”

It was a bit more complicated than that, but he assumed it was good enough for now.

“Yes.”

“And she gave you those skill-stealing powers?”

“You aren’t going to drop that are you?”

Tanya at least had the decency to look sheepish. “You can’t blame me. For all my life, the Frost has been the ultimate mystery I’ve known but never been able to solve. And here comes this guy out of nowhere, crushes me in battle, shatters the Frost’s influence on me and returns me my… my rationality. And then I find out that he is not only an Outsider, but he can also steal skills from his victims…” she trailed off, looking at him nervously. “Wait. You— you could’ve killed me. Back then. At the anomaly. But you didn’t. You could’ve taken my Frost powers for yourself.”

Damn good question. Could he have? Inanna certainly didn’t voice that proposition back then.

“I could, yes.”

“Why didn’t you?”

He arched an eyebrow. “Are you seriously asking me why I didn’t choose to kill you and steal your powers?”

"Yes,” came her adamant response. “I am— was, no one to you. I attacked you, and for all I know, tried to kill you—”

“Several times—” Lukas offered.

“Several times,” she agreed, “so save me? You can kill all these muspels and bylestyrs and grow stronger through them. So why not me? Why not Zuken? Or Elena?”

“Because I’m not a monster?” He said incredulously. “How difficult is that to understand?”

“But you’d have grown stronger out of it.”

His eyes twitched. “Are you trying to convince me to try and kill you? Because I swear, it’s working.” At her sheepish look, he continued. “Yes, killing monsters grants me their skills, and yes, I’d indeed have gotten stronger if I had killed you. But I’m not a mindless killer, nor do I want to be one. Power for the sake of power means nothing. It needs to be tempered with purpose. At least, that’s what my grandfather used to say.”

“And what is your purpose?”

“Get my teacher back.”

“The goddess.”

“Yes.”

Tanya ran her fingers through her hair. “It’s blowing my mind. You— you’re a bremetan. A mortal. No matter how many skills you get or how powerful you grow, you’ll stay a mortal. You will not become a God.”

Lukas smiled. “That’s where you’re wrong. My teacher, before she became the Supreme Queen of the Heavens, had a different title. They called her the Butcher of Gods. And she achieved that as a mortal.”

“No fucking way—”

“And that entity told me I had to take her place. And guess what? She told me there was one person in this world that could do the same.”

“Kill a God?” Tanya whispered, disbelief ringing in her tone. “Who— who’s that?”

His lips twisted into something predatory. “You.”