Though describing the dark side of Sani is beyond any words a god dare muster, the first Broken Soul was kind enough to have found a way to overcome the biggest backlashes and share the knowledge with their fellow gods, who in return have bestowed their knowledge down the immortal line—fickle gods who might one day dethrone their ancestors due to insanity; a core aspect of being a Broken Soul. This might sound far-fetched, but such an incident had just occurred with Zack trying to pick a fight with Solgrave, who was kind enough to leave behind his accumulated wealth of knowledge, junk though it might seem.
'Or perhaps that was the first Broken Soul's wishes?' Zack assumed, which was more likely than the idea of a benevolent god, at least.
Solgrave helped Zack skip eons of training and growth, all the while creating a plausible hurdle for himself in the future, because Solgrave needed warriors of Zack's caliber. Hell, Zack never fully understood Sani's immortality clause before attacking Solgrave. For all he knew, Solgrave could've died in that initial attack. Recreating Solgrave would've taken a mere thought, but the reincarnated soul would've never matched the previous soul until Zack knew every minute wavelength and several other factors of Solgrave's soul.
'The teleportation paradox!' Zack mused, comparing the two in a mental note.
According to the Soul Journal of Al'truist, in theory, if Solgrave linked his Core to Zack's Sub-space, the second level of immortality could be reached, where not only the body but also the memories survive, bringing about the perfect rebirth. However, this had a major shortcoming as Broken Souls don't trust their Core with themselves, let alone a stranger who's ten times stronger.
'Wait!' Zack disrupted the flow of knowledge and looked into the specifics of why a Soul has to be ten times stronger.
It turns out that 'ten times' was a generic term the author of the journal in question frequently used.
In simple terms, having two 'Soul Cores' is similar to having multiple personality disorder, with full awareness, and without getting the two mixed. This is the part of Sani where brain-surgeon-level patience and skills are required, unlike when a simple laceration is treated by undoing and redoing the entire body. Sure, Sani increased the mind's capacity to an extraordinary state; yet keeping track of every passing thought—made-up truths, lies, and imagination—while separating one from the other is nothing short of exhausting, even for the most stable of minds.
'I never thought I would envy automation so much!' Zack thought, chuckling to himself.
Zack had already had to move every fiber of his body individually to appear human. Adding the aspect of separating the seven layers of reality, storing memories while making them, and every other aspect of life, then just 'living' becomes a tedious task.
"Broken in more than one way!" Zack acknowledged. "With Soul King at the top of the crazy ladder."
Amongst the pile of junk lay a journal in which a 'Broken Soul' scribbled down various harmful skills under a positive light. U'quuba Hurt Revert—the notebook owner—asked his friend to influence and take over his soul during emergencies, which set off an alarm in his soul, prompting U'quuba to stop reliving the memory for the billionth time that day. U'quuba also suggested handing over access to one's 'Sub Space' to one's most trusted friend. This approach is better and obviously more dangerous; however, at critical times, they can enter the soul and dislodge the user from the memory they had trapped themselves in. While he had only intended for this technique to serve as a glorified alarm clock, the unintended side effect saved his friend's life more than a million times. And almost every 'Broken Soul' before "U'quuba" is rumored to be still stuck in a loop of their own making—never to have realized the truth and never to have broken out of their memory.
Later on, Broken Souls modified the technique, calling it 'Soul Alarm', granting limited access to designated individuals to enter a layer adjacent to the 'Core' solely designed to trigger an alarm or disrupt the Core, forcing the owner to wake up. This same method also helped increase the population of the broken souls, also known as the current gods of the Soul Realm: The trea'ma'ru.
While tapping into Sani without help is based on pure luck, maintaining one's conscious self from slipping into the 'Pure Source' is nothing short of unbridled talent. Zack died a thousand times over before getting a handle on it himself, and if Solgrave hadn't used the above technique on him.
"...Eh!" Zack's soul shuddered. "Erase!" He destroyed the memory, the feelings attached to it, and the sense of realization and wisdom that came with it, all with a swipe of his hand.
"Dumb!" The voices of everyone observing Zack echoed in his soul.
"A little privacy, please!" Zack sighed. "Also, what's dumb?"
"You'll thank me for peeping at you once you're done," said Solgrave in a haughty, impatient tone. "Get on with it. Unlike you lot, I don't have the pleasure of time to goof around."
"Accept and continue," Zack said—his words rewriting his approach and his way of life as he moved the process along.
"So dumb!" Pinky whispered to herself, only to find Solgrave frowning at her. "What!?"
"Nothing, just wished I had this foresight at your initiation," Solgrave said, shedding a fake tear.
"If everyone goes through this..." Bazuka Barbie wondered out loud. "Who did his?" She gawked at Solgrave, making it way too obvious.
"Duh! His mentor," DJ Rizz snorted.
"Someone way above the food chain," Psycho thought, a gleeful grin splitting his lips.
————
U'quuba's friend escaped purification by hiding away in U'quuba's soul. He eventually was killed by U'quuba himself, but that's beside the point.
'Power,' Zack gazed upward, beyond his Sub-Space, into the endless Void; the space he yet had to claim. The Void stretched infinitely—a sea of nothingness that was never truly empty; It shifted, pulsed, breathed, and tonight... it bled light.
A shooting star broke loose from the darkness. Then another. No, not a star. Not two. The first had split in two. They fell fast, yet Zack felt no fear. Something inside him—his soul, his instincts, his very being—knew: they were meant for him!
The twin stars pierced through the veil of his Sub-Space, ignoring every barrier he had built thus far. They were uninvited. Unstoppable.
The stars crashed into his room, landing squarely on his bed. Their light bloomed so bright that it should have burned him alive, yet it felt warm, like a hug he had never experienced—one that lurked deep in his memories. A belonging he had never asked for, nor could claim as his own.
As the glow dimmed, the stars were no longer stars. One had become a shield, while the other transformed into a sword.
The shield was curved, a celestial arc of silver and black, its surface shifting like the night sky itself. It wasn't solid, the best Zack could describe; it was the promise of protection and the embodiment of defense—a unique concept held together by sheer will.
The sword was stranger than the shield; Long, sleek, forged from a single piece of star-metal. A crescent-shaped curve at the end, hollowed with five intricate holes that warped the air around them like a blanket. It was sharp from every angle, made purely to strike—never to block. A weapon that did not hesitate. A weapon meant for certain death.
Zack stepped forward, his fingers brushing the hilt of the sword. It was warm. Waiting; An unknown timer swirling across its surface, preventing Zack from claiming the weapon.
Zack let the weapons hover over his bed, unable to shake the feeling that these weapons had always been his—been there at this exact spot.
"See you in a bit... Mom. Dad." He smiled and vanished.
Outside, Psycho attempted to establish a private connection with Solgrave, yet the sisters broke in with little effort, and the rest stepped into the private conversation through that breach.
"So—" Psycho stopped, irritated. "Never heard of privacy?" He growled.
"Never heard of soul tapping?" The sisters hissed back in unison.
"Curiosity here!" Pinky raised her hands defensively, with Rizz and Bazuka mimicking her.
Psycho's eyes darted to Leader Lux, baring his fangs, and waiting for an explanation.
"What!?" Lux frowned. "I don't have to explain myself to the likes of you."
"The brat is almost done, can we get on with whatever this is..." Solgrave pushed. "And if this is about the soul artifacts, let me make one thing clear. If you ever see a god wielding a weapon, steer clear of it!"
"It's similar to a human having a knife," said Virith
"Except, it's a billion times worse," added Azrith. "Like a human with a nuclear launcher that fires a hundred nuclear missiles on a simple command."
"Single, simple, flimsy, emotional command," Solgrave added. "Don't get me wrong. There's always a workaround. One that might take you a few life cycles to figure out. Yet..." his shoulder drooped.
"I meant taking away his free will," Psycho said with a straight face.
Solgrave dismisses his previous idea, chuckling at Psycho's proposal. "And people call me heartless."
"That's actually one of the ways to deal with an artifact," said Virith.
"Still... Wait! Does that mean!?" Psycho realized and gawked at Solgrave. "There's no way I can beat you in heartlessness."
"Why, thank you." Solgrave snickered and waved his hand, dispersing the veil and letting Zack in on the conversation. "Ready to die for a better cause? My cause, obviously!"
———<>||<>——— End of Chapter fifteen. ———<>||<>———