The Call

Ryun felt it as it grew, the call from both within and without. The feeling of True Death called to him, its voice getting stronger, bringing him out of his thoughts. He didn't know how long he had stood there, at the edge of the battlefield, just... Thinking. His mind had dropped into a state where everything else faded away. He felt like he was close to figuring out what the Wheel and even the Afterlife's purpose was, but the tugging inside of his being called to him.

There was the sense of urgency, of timing, the same as he had felt before, his Eternal Hunter: Reaper perk was pulsing, but the sensation was deeper than that. Now, he felt it from the part of his Soul that was the successor to the Reaper, the Aspect of True Death.

Why here? Why now? The questions repeated in his head as it had before, when the Wheel first disappeared and he first felt it. And the only thing that he could think about was that moment what felt so long ago, when he had met her. Ullia Dar Ishi. Her memory was with him, always. It was the moment he had shaped his Ideal. It was an echo of what he had felt inside his Soul. A need, a desire to see stories, to witness the End. But he never really understood why, even though he thought he had.

His Ideal had advanced, it had gotten better, and yet... He hadn't really pushed that understanding forward. It wasn't his Ideal that had advanced, it was his connection to True Death. He understood that his Ideal was linked with that part of him that was once the Aspect of True Death, that was the Aspect still, through him. It had gotten better because he had accepted True Death, not because he had advanced his understanding of his Ideal. Within him was all that his side of the Twin Aspect of True Death ever was, and that was greater than anything that the nine tiers of power in this world could ever be.

Now, he knew that there was more. The Essence around him was greater, and then... There was the Wheel.

He started his walk, following the call, his thoughts turning around inside his head, trying to put the pieces together in a way that he could understand them, before they faded away.

He followed the tugging, knowing now that he would arrive in time. He passed through a forest and pulled back his perception, remembering what happened last time he had walked through it. There were some effects like those in the Ethereal Realm, where the world shifted around him to deliver him to where he wanted to go. Though his skill had advanced enough that he no longer had issues, it was still unpleasant to sense, especially in this place.

The thick forest gave way to a small clearing at the edge of a cliff, with a boulder about as tall as his hip in the middle of it. A warrior sat on top of it, looking over in the distance.

As Ryun approached, he saw that the cliff overlooked the battlefield where he had fought just a short while ago. He couldn't quite see into the field, a shimmering curtain covered it, but he could tell that the fighting had resumed. It was, after all, an eternal battlefield.

He glanced to the side at the warrior on the rock, and saw an old looking karura, which surprised him. People in this place looked how they had looked in their prime. The way they remembered themselves being.

The karura's feathers where withered, the skin around his beak sagging, the rings around his eyes deep. His arms were thin and the talons at the ends of his digits looked yellowish and cracked.

Ryun narrowed his eyes, but didn't comment. Already he had a suspicion, one based on everything that he knew. People in this place were Souls without a physical Essence made body. They looked how the meaning of their Souls wanted them to look.

That the karura warrior looked as he did told him a lot about him, but he wasn't going to make any further assumptions. For all he knew the karura was at his strongest when he had looked like that. Ryun had lived for long enough to know not to underestimate based on appearance alone.

The karura didn't speak, he just kept his eyes on the sky above the battlefield. Ryun stood next to him, not really knowing what to say. The last time this happened, the other party spoke first. He didn't know how to really start the conversation. He couldn't just say: Hey, I'm here because I sense your Death?

Or perhaps he could. He was the Aspect of True Death, he sensed him for a reason. The only thing that worried Ryun was that he didn't exactly know what the purpose of it all was.

The old Aspect of True Death came for things when it was their time, it came for them at the End. But what did the End mean in this iteration of the Framework? What did it mean if there was something after this, after the Afterlife. Was he robbing people of a chance for something more? He didn't feel that would be right, he wouldn't want to do that. But also, he had caused True Death before, when it wasn't its time. When he didn't feel this. He had never felt like he had done something wrong. If anything... He had always felt as if it was his right to choose.

And yet, the Wheel, the Afterlife. There was something more to everything.

The sense of True Death coming from the karura was building up slowly, as it had with Ullia, and Ryun knew that he had a few minutes before it reached its peak. Yet, he didn't understand what that peak was? A moment when the True Death was supposed to come? Was that why he was called? Why he felt it? Or was it something else entirely, was he wrong about what it was that he was sensing.

He took a seat on the ground next to the old warrior, who didn't even react. Ryun closed his eyes and narrowed his sense to perceive only himself and the karura, targeting his Soul. He pushed his Titanic Swift Mind perk as far as he could, buying himself time.

He didn't have a heartbeat anymore, but if he did, he was certain that it would be beating as fast as it could. He had come to the Afterlife to learn, and he had learned many things. The fact that the Essence here was different, the Wheel, the fact that people could still advance their Aspect Masteries after Death. All those things gave him insights into things, and he felt like he was close to something.

In the battle against the six Sages, he had felt close to something. He was losing, his Aspect had been opened wide, the Essene of Oblivion flowing into him, and yet he couldn't overcome them. For all his power, his Aspect was unable to affect the Aspects of the six Sages, not fully at least. He had managed to slow them down, to weaken them, the difference in raw stats had been on his side. And yet... It was the core of their Aspects that had beaten his. They understood their chosen Aspects better, or perhaps they knew how to use them better.

Things were slowly falling into place for Ryun. Ideas and theories that he had held for a long time. Concepts that he had discussed with others. Zach's idea that a meaning of one's life was required to achieve true power. Vryull and Valthua's thoughts on the meaning of Essence, reality given form. Zach had spoken of crafting his being around an idea, a purpose that shaped his life.

The closest that he had gotten before was Enduring in Pursuit of Worth.

But that was too little to contain all that he was. He needed more.

His mind churned, and the clock inside of his being kept moving closer and closer to the peak.