Out of nowhere, the man on the throne threw his head back and laughed.
The sound rolled through the golden hall like thunder, deep and booming, echoing off marble and stone as tears streamed freely from the corner of his eye.
Leezy looked up at him, unimpressed.
"What the hell are you laughing at, old man?"
The laughter only intensified.
"You," the man finally said, voice thick with amusement.
"The sheer audacity of standing before a god and flipping him off… it's pure comedy."
He shook his head, still chuckling.
"I haven't laughed like that in centuries."
Then his expression softened—just slightly. "You remind me of myself," he continued.
"Foolish. Stubborn. Unwilling to bow, even when the world itself presses you into the ground."
The crushing pressure vanished instantly.
The weight lifted from Reyes' chest, allowing him to breathe again.
The portal beside the throne snapped shut, the chained chimera dissolving into nothingness as if it had never existed.
Reyes gently lowered the unconscious girl behind him.
"Leezy, was it?" the man said, leaning forward on his throne.
"Because I've taken a liking to you… I'll offer you and your brother knowledge. Freely."
Reyes and Leezy exchanged a glance, shrugged, then sat cross-legged on the cold stone floor.
"Alright," Leezy muttered. "Let's hear it."
"Most believe Soul Gems are something new," the man began.
"That they appeared recently, alongside the chaos spreading through this world."
He smiled faintly.
"That adopted belief tells me how much history has actually been forgotten."
He rose from his throne and slowly paced before them.
"Souls have always released energy upon death. Since the dawn of existence. However, this world—this realm—once lacked the spiritual density required for that energy to condense outside the body."
He gestured toward the air itself.
"That has obviously changed now."
Reyes frowned.
"So the world…evolved?"
"Correct..." the man said. "Or rather—reawakened."
"When a being dies, their soul collapses inward. If the ambient spiritual pressure is sufficient, it causes the collapse to crystallize and form into what we call a Soul Gem. The stronger the soul, the higher the quality the Soul Gem will be once it is created."
Leezy nodded slowly.
"That part we know."
While pacing, he asked them what methods they already knew of and used themselves.
After listening to what they had to say, he continued on.
"That method of just absorbing them is… inefficient."
He stopped in front of them, eyes sharp and raised a finger.
"There is a better method when it comes to using Soul Energy that you absolutely must understand if you wish to ascend. The most basic method is what you two have been doing, Soul Absorption..."
"Crude. Wasteful. You are absorbing fragments of energy without structure. It can indeed strengthen you—but much is lost."
Leezy rubbed his chin.
"Sounds about right."
"The correct method for personal growth is called Soul Linkage. This happens when a Soul Gem is harmonized with your own soul, allowing its entire energy to integrate without any backlash."
Reyes leaned forward. "So no rejection?"
"Minimal," the man said. "Provided your spirit can bear the strain."
"Based off your current knowledge, an improper form of Soul Linkage is being used to force equipment creation, which is completely wrong and reckless. Doing that often results in u desirable equipment. You also run the risk of damaging your own Spirit Energy, which I will explain more about in a second. You should only create a weapon through the use of a Soul Orb"
Reyes and Leezy blinked
"Soul Orbs?"
"Multiple Soul Gems refined into a single, purer form. Dangerous. Powerful. Soul Forging is what the gods use to create them. They are melted down in enchanted furnaces capable of withstanding spiritual pressure by a soul smith—then combined with other materials like other gems, ores, pre-crafted equipment, or creature parts. This results in the creation of Soul Orbs that are used to create equipment."
The man sighed.
"Unfortunately, only higher realms possess furnaces capable of sustaining the required heat and pressure."
Reyes exhaled slowly.
"That's why people fight so desperately to ascend."
A knowing smile crept its way onto the man's face.
"Precisely."
"The nature of what you forge—or what it becomes—depends on its elemental alignment." the man continued.
"Earth. Wind. Fire. Water. Light. Dark. Nature. Arcane."
Leezy raised a brow.
"Arcane?"
"One the rarest and least understood elements..." the man replied.
"And the most volatile from my experience."
He looked directly at them.
"Elements can merge, fracture, or mutate. Sub-elements are born from compatibility—or conflict. Metal, poision, void, blood…even concepts beyond mortal comprehension."
Silence followed.
Leezy broke it.
"That pressure you hit us with earlier—what was that?"
The man chuckled. "Nothing more than Spiritual Pressure."
He knelt and pressed his palm against the floor and the pressure they felt came back for a moment before dissipating.
"It is the weight of one's spirit on full display. Spirit is your life force given form. It is what determines the color, durability and sharpness of your aura. It also determines the strength and control of your mana similar to a garden hose or flow of a river. As your Ki and Mana pools expand, your spirit grows denser resulting in increased spiritual pressure that you can exude from your body."
He glanced at Leezy.
"To weaker beings, standing in the vicinity of a denser spirit feels like sitting at the bottom of the ocean. To equals, it feels like standing in the eye of a hurricane."
The man straightened.
"There is a place I can take you," he said.
"Where Soul Linking is taught properly."
Leezy and Reyes didn't hesitate. They both asked for the man to take them.
"Before we go," the man added, "there is a price."
He smiled.
"Kill that dragon for me after you both have learned the ropes. That is all i ask."
Reyes' eyes widened.
"I cannot leave this fortress," the man continued.
"The reason for this…you will understand once you ascend."
After a brief pause, Reyes stepped forward, adjusting the girl over his shoulder with his brother following closely.
"We'll do it."
The man extended his massive hand.
"Then climb aboard."
They did and a bright light began to envelop them all. As light engulfed them, the man spoke one last time.
"By the way. My name is…Odin." he said simply.
…
Back in the bar, it had been a few days since Rachel had last seen Reyes. Fearing that the worst had happened, she began to worry about her sister.
She was only 14 years old…she still had a long life ahead of her and Rachel didn't want it to be cut short.
She stared off into the distance as she recalled her time as an adventurer while she was a member of Thousand Eyes, an ancient faction that fancied looking for treasure and dungeons to gain power rather than killing other people for soul.
When their parents died, she was forced to leave Thousand Eyes in order to make sure she was taken care of. Ending up in the city of El Diablo, she worked hard to forge a life for them.
As a teenager, Rachel decided to follow in her parent's steps, who were well respected treasure hunters within Thousand Eyes.
One day, her mother and father had a run in with a few members of a rival faction while exploring a dungeon. They both were gravely wounded after a ferocious battle took place. Even with those wounds, her mother somehow managed to go on and give birth to her sister, but lost her own life in the process.
Her father managed to live a few more months after the battle, before also succumbing to his wounds alongside his love.
On that day, Rachel's tears fell onto his cold skin as she held him next to her newborn sister. Thinking of this, Rachel could feel sadness flowing down her face as tears fell from her eyes.
"Hey, would you mind snapping out of it and get me a drink lady, i'd like a bit-o-rum for me and my mates."
Rachel snapped back out of memory lane and finally noticed the young man who stood at the bar. Around him was a small group of people who looked to be the same age, gingerly snapping his fingers in her direction.
With a look of distain, she wiped her tears, grabbed a few mugs and poured some rum for the lads, sliding them over the counter to him once they were filled.
"That will be 125 credits."
"You must be fucking crazy thinking i'm going to pay that much for this grog. Thats 25 a mug!"
The young man said, scowling as he threw a handful of credits onto the counter. As Rachel counted, the young man grabbed the mugs and started to walk away.
"I said…that will be 125 credits. If you are simply too broke to pay, then i'm only going tell you this once. Leave the mugs behind and go."
Rachel looked at all five of the young men with boiling anger. She had counted 75 credits…
Turning around and seeing the look on Rachel's face, the young man started laughing.
The owner paid her well to run the bar since he was an old friend of her parents. He warned her that the nature of the job required her to work as a bartender, waitress and bouncer all combined into one. Even so, she accepted without hesitation.
"Little lady, take the credits before things turn ugly in ere aye? I don't like laying my hands on-"
Before he could finish his sentence, Rachel slid over the counter and kicked the man square in the jaw, sending him careening onto the table next to him.
Picking him up by the collar of his shirt, she held him high so that his friends could see his face plainly.
Blood oozed out of his mouth as his jaw bent at a weird angle, clearly dislocated. Reaching up to grab his jaw, Rachel popped it back into place and glared at him.
"Care to finish what you were saying? I'm not in the mood for bullshit today, so i highly suggest you pay up or leave."
Whimpering, the young man reached into his pocket and started handing Rachel the rest of the credits he owed her. As he was handing them over though, a loud roar echoed across the city.
What the hell?
Rachel thought dropping the young man to the floor.
The credits he was about to give her flew from his hands and scattered around him.
Quickly, she threw herself through the door of the bar and into the street as people ran about, screaming while pointing to the sky.
A huge shadow swooped over the city as a huge green fireball slammed into a cluster of buildings, annihilating them. Looking up into the sky, she could see a huge red dragon circling back to spew another fireball down into the city.
"Is that Azel? This is bad, very very bad."
Rachel took off running toward her home, as the bar she was just in was completely destroyed by the fireball. As she ran, many people were quickly running into their homes in an attempt to grab what they could.
After a few minutes, half of the town was in ruins as long streams of green flame scorched the sand. People lay among the streets, either dead or dying as the green flames which blazed hotter than the sun, consumed them.
Back inside her home, Rachel rummaged through her belongings in search of a scroll that once belonged to her father. To her relief, she eventually found it, just as the dragon turned its attention toward the remaining side of the city that Rachels home was built in.
Opening the scroll and throwing it down to the floor, she bit her finger and allowed a drop of her blood to fall on the parchment. The scroll, which had a drawing of a home on it, began to glow with a florescent blue light.
Another green fireball could be seen heading toward the vicinity of her home, but just as it was about to strike, Rachel, along with her home and its belongings teleported to another far away location, completely safe from harm…