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Flipping several switches and pressing multiple buttons in the cockpit, I got ready as we prepared to exit the faster-than-light travel between worlds.
"Exiting hyper-light. Remain seated."
Leaving the monochromatic realm of super-speed space travel, the ship smoothly returned to the material world just above an almost pure-blue planet as I piloted the silver spacecraft down, seeing nothing nearby on the scanner.
Breaking through the planet's upper sky, the spaceship's hull quickly heated up, becoming a glowing orange before piercing the atmosphere. I maintained control from the cockpit.
The extreme heat cooled down as turbulence shook the ship but quickly dissipated as I pulled back on the joysticks, slowing our descent toward the ocean planet—heading for a lone island amidst the endless sea under bright azure skies.
"We have arrived at Kolop-VII," I announced over the intercom while steadily landing the ship flat onto the grassland, before a metallic clunk shook the vessel as it touched down.
Flipping several switches, I powered down the engine and other systems while keeping the power-drive active. Once done, I stood and exited the seat.
The cockpit door slid open, and the others were already walking out onto the new world's grass, venturing onto Kolop's land. Waiting for me in the cargo hold was Sathuna, wearing a tired expression across her puppet's face.
"Are you alright, Sathuna?" Analyzing the puppet's body, I saw Sathuna's witch arts were beginning to tire, and the connection between her and the puppet was weakening.
"I'm fine, Ren. It's nothing important now that the Empyrean is secure with Strife." Acting in her usual shrewd manner, she tried to play off my concern. "We just need to wait for Strife to arrive. Then we can disperse."
"My scan of your puppet states otherwise. You're nearing complete drainage of your mental abilities." Ignoring my worries, Sathuna coyly perked up her lips. "You constantly berate Strife and the others to rest, yet you never do. You'll be unfit for days if you don't return your consciousness to your real body soon."
"And what will you do if I don't?" Looking at me from behind the veil covering her glowing eyes, Sathuna spoke in a tricky voice. "We at most need wait only some minutes. I'll rest once Strife's safety has been clarified."
Sighing out through my mechanical voice box, I let Sathuna be, seeing she wasn't going to change.
Gazing beyond the ship's open ramp, I saw Clara open a digital pocket space to pull out the grievously damaged vessel of Ben and the Fire Cloud Mercenaries' spaceship, with Wukong's help.
"How did you even arrive on Idaten with such a wreck?!" Heru exclaimed in disbelief.
"That's what I asked when I first saw it! And they thought I was the weird one!" Clara yelled back, happy that someone sympathized as she ran to give the man a hug and began to bawl tears. "They act like it's easy to fix! This would take a year at best even with a full crew!"
"Really? Looks fine to me." After Vex spoke, the wings on both sides of the battered spaceship dropped onto the ground with a bang—narrowly missing Kimaris, who jumped back. "It does that sometimes. It's a feature."
"What kind of spaceship breaks apart randomly as a feature?!" Punching the back of Vex's head, Kimaris—enraged—knocked the swordsman over. "That's a death trap only the Novflaris gang would want to fly in!"
"Hey! Don't you badmouth our ship—ahh! Put me down! Hey!" Ben got lifted off his feet by Wukong's staff before it was planted in the ground like a flagpole. "Oi! Monkey man, put me down! Your whistling won't make you ignore me!"
Disregarding the loud pirate, Wukong held his hands behind his head, still whistling, then walked over to a tree and climbed up to find a branch to nap on.
"Wukong has got the correct thoughts for once," I quipped while walking out of the ship with Sathuna. "Everyone, sit down. We'll rest while waiting for Traveler."
Clara remained where she stood, analyzing the worsened damage to the Fire Cloud Mercenaries' ship, but everyone else sat down in a circle near where Ben was hoisted by Wukong's staff.
"So? What do we talk about now?" Dante asked, sitting cross-legged on a patch of grass like nearly everyone else. "Not to insult anyone, but making griwi chains isn't really my style."
"There are deeds greater than turning torn weeds into bracelets," Sathuna stated, settling herself on a rock near where I stood. "How about some tutoring ahead of schedule? Why don't we discuss the basics of cosmological external arts while awaiting the Traveler's advent?"
Sighing loudly, Quinella—surprisingly—voiced her dissent. "What good will that do any of us? We all already know the basics of our respective skills. There's no point."
"It never hurts to return to the starting line," Vex retorted, clearly disagreeing. "As a martial artist, it's essential to revisit the basics if you want to grow."
Looking down from her perch atop a pole, the black-skinned witch sought her leader. "Captain, can you tell them not to?"
"It's not like we've got anything better to do, Quinella." Ben, despite his annoyance, accepted his fate of being suspended in the air, a dark expression tugging at his face. "Pretty sure my shirt is starting to rip."
"Excellent!" Clapping her hands together, Sathuna began conjuring ethereal diagrams in the air. "Let's start from the very beginning. There are ten core elements wielded by those capable of harnessing cosmic energy: fire, wind, earth, water, ice, poison, dark, nature, light, and lightning. Each represents an elemental manifestation of cosmic energy that a mage or martial artist channels. A certain aptitude is required for each one. For Vex, it's water. Falice has wind. Kimaris, also water."
Quinella's dissatisfaction was so vivid it might as well have been audible, but no one paid her any mind while Sathuna continued her lecture.
"We call the energies that allow us to perform miracles by many names—mana, spirits, qi, yin and yang, divine ichor, chakra, and so on. Thousands of distinct forces, each refined differently depending on the profession. Mages draw upon mana. Martial artists channel qi."
"While their cultivation methods differ, they share one key similarity: the Nine Dams. Mages call them mana rings; martial artists, dantians. Both require immense energy to forge and purify—though alternate methods exist."
"Mages create mana rings by condensing focused mana, stacking them one by one to climb toward greater power. Martial artists, meanwhile, generate dantians within their upper, middle, and lower bodies to store and circulate qi. Through these processes, mortals have found ways to challenge—or serve—the gods they revere."
There were subtle inconsistencies in Sathuna's explanation of dantians that Vex clearly noticed but chose not to mention. Martial artists believe dantians are an innate part of the body—unseen until qi awakens them. Not physical organs, but metaphysical vessels. I'm sure Vex has come to realise this now, too.
"Thanks to advancements in bodily cultivation, anyone with determination—regardless of race—can step beyond mundanity and enter the realm of causal chaos." Opening her palm, Sathuna summoned a burst of black wind magic before snuffing it out and resting her hand on her lap. "But cosmic force has its dangers."
"Mana overload. Qi deviation. When the power within you turns against you—corrupting your body and mind. It happens when your foundation is weak and unable to bear the earthquake of power forced into it. In most cases, you'll be crippled. In some, you'll die."
"And then there's plummeting. When cosmic energy outright abandons your body. Mana and qi, like brain waves, possess wills of their own. Primitive. Obedient. But still children—and what child doesn't throw tantrums? Treat your powers carefully, or risk falling from your peak atop the wall."
Taking a pause, Sathuna stretched out her hand for something, then lowered it again—realising whatever she was searching for wasn't there.
"Uhh, miss?" Falice raised her hand. "Could you talk about [aspects] next?"
"Of course, little sprite. Your name was Falice, correct?" Sathuna's cheeriness was clearly forced, and it irked Heru and Clara. The witch glanced their way, and both immediately averted their eyes, pretending they hadn't just scowled.
"Sifo Ren, dear. Would you fetch me a cup of tea?"
A compartment slid open in my robotic chest. I inserted a ceramic cup, then watched as hot brown liquid poured in, followed by milk. Once it was ready, I handed the steaming cup on a metal plate to Sathuna.
She took one whiff and frowned. "This is coffee."
"I lack the components to make tea."
"I told you to upgrade your spare body knowing I'd want tea in the future."
"Error. Software incompatibility with hydrogen-based liquids." I played the robot card.
"Not only are you a badass robot, but you double as a coffee maker?" Ben's eyes sparkled like he'd just witnessed magic. "What else can you do?"
I remained silent and entered low-power mode to conserve energy. After my encounter with Ramirtec, only superficial repairs had been completed. I'd need to return to Svartelheim for proper restoration—or wait for my original body, which still hadn't been repaired.
Sathuna sighed at my silence and dropped sugar cubes into her coffee, sweetening it excessively. "Very well. I'll continue."
The Fire Cloud Mercenaries leaned in, eager now.
"Simply put, [aspects] are the embodiment of your soul in reality. Once you uncover the name of your soul's conceptual form, you can begin creating magic or martial arts not bound to the ten elements. Clara, for example, has the [Aspect: Iron Ant Queen], aligned with the earth element. It allows her to summon a helper. These are 'authentic aspects'—simple, straightforward, easy to apply."
"Then we have 'abstract aspects'—a higher class of soul. These are much harder to master. One man has the [Aspect: Cross], which he fuses with weapon arts to become formidable. But another with the same aspect could only make himself angrier. It all comes down to creativity. Abstract aspects reflect not what you are—but what you can imagine."
Ben looked down at his hand, deep in thought, then asked, "What if you know your aspect is abstract, but can't awaken it?"
Sathuna sipped her coffee, her eyes narrowing. "It's common. Before the
"Give it time. With effort or opportunity, the chains of physicality will loosen, and you'll witness the true shape of your soul.
A hush fell over the forest. The sea breeze rustled the trees while the wind whispered between them. Ben's quiet joy was evident. His resolve was firm.
"Explain sequence rings too," Quinella demanded, blunt and sharp.
Unbothered, Sathuna grinned through her blindfold. "Very well. Sequence rings are the definitive classification of all self-cultivation systems. Martial artists use star series. Immortal cultivators rise through myriad realms. Mages condense mana circles.
"All follow the same core process: the use of cosmic energy, as many elemental attunements as possible, and most importantly—the longitudinal radiation of the soul. Your [aspect]."
That last part drew puzzled looks, except from Quinella.
"It's the radiation of our emotions, identity, and thoughts," Sathuna clarified. "Our 'vibe', essentially. A natural soundwave of who we are."
Several nods followed. Her teaching experience was showing.
"I won't bore you with the countless methods of ring formation. What matters is the laddering across the nine rings. Think of it like a song with nine verses.
"The first—Yesod—is the foundation, the metronome. The second, Gevurah, is the song's strength. The third, Netzach, defines its eternity—how to sustain the beat. The fourth, Chochmah, brings wisdom to play it fluidly. The fifth, Binah, is understanding yourself within the song."
"The sequence moves like a wave—up and down, inside and out. But without a proper container—your body—the volume leaks. Wasted noise. This is why mortals rarely reach beyond five sequence rings."
"What happens if someone tries to force the sixth?" Vex asked quietly.
"Poof." Sathuna flicked her fingers open like a firework. "Their bodies fail. They explode. Fission energy and screaming."
The Fire Cloud Mercs all paled, shelving any dreams of reaching the ninth.
"To touch the sixth and become a demigod requires a special inner frequency: ichor-pneuma, as the Erudition Fort called it. Those who possess it become exalted. Martial masters and archmages become transcendent. Hermits and spiritualists ascend as gods. Though... there are exceptions."
Ben perked up. "Like what?"
"The seventy-two cursed devils, for example," she said, nodding at Kimaris. "Their devil-names artificially forge an ichor-pneuma, though with dire drawbacks. But the most fascinating case is the Hero Knight."
Falice beamed. "You mean famed [Sentinel of the Dreaming]?! I grew up reading his stories on Heyrose! He's real?"
"Very. Though his divine name now is [Artists' Regality], the Guardian of Artists under the Enditian pantheon. Despite reaching the seventh-ring-sequence, he remains mortal. Neither transcendent nor god. How he grasped the kindness of the sixth sequence—Chesed—and accepted the splendour of the seventh—Hod—is a mystery even the greatest minds can't explain. Only the Kralscell of Invention might know."
"Wicked," Dante muttered.
"What about the eighth and ninth sequences?" Vex pressed.
"The sixth makes you a demigod," Sathuna continued. "The seventh, a deity. But the eighth—Tiferet—is beauty within and beyond. You cast off your body and forge a divine one. As for the ninth... Malkhut... only those with the divine right of kings may attain it. You must have a kingdom—real or imagined. You must rule something."
Silence followed, the group processing everything. Then Ben asked from where he hung, "Is there a tenth sequence?"
Sathuna chuckled. "Ahh, the elusive tenth. Also called the Zeroth Sequence. A myth. An imaginary dream. No one's reached it. No one knows if it's real. But some say it is, and always was. The only reason people believe it might be real is because of the ancient primordials."
"Primordials?" Quinella inquired, interested.
"It's too early in the story for that explanation, dear." Sathuna teased pressing a finger against her lips. "The same for the Wish Dragon's."