NOVEL NEXT Book 3 chapter 3
Eryl nodded, the slightest hint of a smirk on her face as the two young women watched the growing black ball she had floating above her hands. “The earliest accounts of anything start here, in the void.” She paused as Amethyst’s eyes widened, “not the same void; it is simply a coincidence that Hecatolite calls her soul space that.” She answered the question before it was asked as she let the swirling shadow hover around her hand. “From the void came the first Primordial, no one knows which prime came first or how they came about but it is generally agreed that Light and Darkness,” as she spoke the darkness that encased her hand swirled violently before flashing and splitting into two orbs, one a glowing ball, the other a solid black orb; “Came before Life and Death.” The two orbs divided again adding a smaller wispy green orb and a smaller opaque smoky orb. “These are the four primordials that predated all of creation, four powers formed from the void…” Amethyst raised her hand stopping the explanation.
Eryl’s ears perked up as she looked at the young woman, nodding to her as she waited for the question. “What makes them Primordial? Is it just because they are really old? And what are their powers? I mean do they all have… what would you call it, creation magic? If so, why would they all choose different names?”
Eryl held her hand up, the orbs all still floating in her palm as she tried to stop the rapid-fire questions. She let out a faint chuckle as she replied, “One question at a time, I promise you I will answer all your questions and more in due time, but for now I will tell you about each prime individually.” She let the orbs settle into an orbit around her before gingerly reaching out her hand and plucking the bright glowing ball from its path. “I will start with Light, the primordial of Heat, the ever-light.” She could see both their faces light up as they leaned in, their eyes locked on the simple orb of radiant mana in her palm. “Light, as his title suggests, is the source of primordial heat, the first flame. At his will, sparks create fire, rocks turn to lava, and stars are born in the sky. It is said wherever light pushes back the darkness his will can be found.” The orb in her hand changed several colors, from a radiant white to a dull yellow, then a deep red, before quickly turning blue and back to a radiant white. “He is also known as the god of gods; or the prime of Virtue by some for his stance on mortal souls.” She paused again when this time Himari lifted her hand.
“What do you mean, stance on mortal souls?” she asked, causing Eryl to again smile, she truly enjoyed sharing information with others; even more when they were engaged in learning, unlike some of the gods before who all just nodded along.
“That…” she thought for a moment while releasing the orb, allowing it to fall back into rotation around her as she grasped the black orb. “We will get to that in a moment, but before that you need to know who each of the primes are.” She said holding the black orb out before her, though it was a ball of her own mana, Himari noticed Eryl held the orb almost as if it would hurt her; where she grasped the “light orb” fully in her hand she very gingerly held the black orb with just her fingertips. “Her power is a bit… harder to explain. To understand her power, you must understand your own,” she looked to Amethyst as she released the black orb; both Himari and Amethyst recoiling as instead of continuing its orbit around Eryl, the black ball slammed into the ground with a thud. “Do you understand what space magic is in its barest of form?”
Amethyst scratched her head as she thought, “Isn’t it being able to manipulate space around yourself?”
Eryl shook her head, “That is the effect of space magic yes, but what allows one to achieve that goal?”
Much to Eryl’s surprise Himari answered in a mutter, “Gravity.”
“Exactly,” Though her face and voice remained monotone both girls noticed her ears wiggling slightly as she replied. “Gravity, now as much fun as explaining the fundamentals of space magic is, that is a lecture for another time; for now, you just need to know that space magic is the manipulation of the world through gravity…” Eryl could nearly see Amethyst's thoughts as her brow furrowed, stopping again so the young woman could get her thoughts in order.
“But… I’m not a gravity mage, I’m a space mage. How does one teleport by making things heavier?”
Eryl went to answer only for Himari to beat her to it. “It makes sense if you think of gravity as “compression”, instead of moving a great distance, you simply compress the space between you and your destination. You make a wormhole out of a highly compressed area between you and your destination… its…”
“If you invert the way you see teleportation it may be easier to understand.” Eryl’s ears waved happily as Himari’s explanation was not wrong but may be hard for Amethyst to understand. “Instead of you moving through space, you move space around yourself.”
“Is… is that why you always arrive in the exact position you left in?”
“Exactly,” Eryl nodded, “If you start the teleportation standing you cannot arrive sitting because “you” did not move. Now, Darkness is the primordial of space, she is also known as the first devil, the embodiment of sin. In direct opposition to Light she believes that mortal souls were formed to serve the primordials, nothing more than simple playthings to entertain their endless existence. Light has battled his sister since the dawn of creation as he believes that it is their duty to nurture and lead mortal souls to ascension to higher beings, where darkness wishes to oppress the mortals, he wishes to raise them… yes?” Amethyst again raised her hand.
“Does… does that mean space magic is dark magic?”
Eryl shook her head, “Magic is not innately dark or light, it simply is. A tool granted to us to express our true selves in the world.” She couldn’t help but let out a slight laugh at the idea of someone who was technically half devil worrying about being a “dark mage”.
Amethyst nodded, a look of relief on her face as Himari spoke up, “A classic battle between light and dark, good and evil.” A slight glimmer in her eyes, back in her old-world Himari always loved a good story, and this one was one as old as time, the classic struggle.
“Though they have battled, it is not nearly as black and white as that.” Eryl let the two orbs clash a few times in the air before they began orbiting one another, “What makes one evil where the other is good? Who makes that distinction?” Eryl asked, causing Himari to bite her lip, “The truth is that though Darkness wishes to use mortals she has been known to be rather… tender with her toys, as she says. She agrees with Light on several things, like the preservation of the mortal souls within the universe as though souls could be seen as an endless resource. The truth is, the creation of new natural souls takes a very long time and they grow slowly, this may be hard for you to understand as the cycle of reincarnation wipes the mind of a soul but your soul Himari, is likely older than this world we now stand on. It has taken your soul ages to grow into the power you have today.”
“If that’s the case, why reincarnate the souls to begin with? Wouldn’t it be easier to allow them to live longer so they can grow and learn?” Amethyst asked as Eryl grabbed the wispy green orb from the air.
“That was explored once, it is well documented in the system as something that the primordial of Life attempted, to keep a soul “alive” long enough to ascend on its own. The problem is a mortal soul cannot exist outside of a vessel. Without a body to house it the soul’s mana would dissipate into the aether of the void, so the cycle of reincarnation was formed to protect the souls from simply returning to nothingness. The problem is the limitations of a natural body, even you and I, as homunculi, will eventually reach the limits of a physical body and “burn” our brains out if our bodies do not fall apart before that. Remember that mana exists on worlds, but not in the void. Aether devours mana so outside of the protection of a physical body a normal mana soul would be stripped of all its power.”
“Does that mean I can never go to a different realm?” Amethyst had never thought of traveling to the divine realms, but given her new divinity along with her relation with the gods it was a possibility she needed to accept.
“That is… different.” Eryl sighed, “forgive me but I am unsure of how to explain this to the two of you as we all possess mana core souls, yet we are not mortal. Himari and I are shielded by the system where you, Amethyst, are something different. I cannot be sure what would happen to your soul if you were to venture to a different realm or off world, but, I feel you would be ok for at least a short time as your mana pool is not only very dense but seems to fill at an abnormal rate. That, combined with your ability to convert aether into mana, makes it possible that you could inversely suck all the aether out of a realm if you venture into one.” She rolled the green orb in her hand as she spoke, “It is something that we will have to be very careful with in the future, before you ask, I also do not know about Hecatolite. As an aether soul she should have sucked all the mana out of the world once she awoke on it.” She glanced at the large egg sitting beside them, “Two sides of a coin. So different yet similar. If we use Hecatolite as an example, given your power seems mostly like hers I believe you will also be fine if you find yourself somewhere you shouldn’t be. But that is something for another time.” She shook her head realizing they had gotten off track.
“Next is the primordial of Life, the mother of creation. She, along with Death, are responsible for the creation of the cycle of reincarnation as a way to preserve souls as well as the formation of the system that watches over the universe. Her power is very… different; she commands over the physical worlds, able to shape entire planets with no more than a thought. She, unlike Light and Darkness, believes that mortal souls should simply be observed, watched over and protected but not interfered with which is why she is often referred to as neutrality.” Eryl held the green orb as if it were made of glass, as she ever so gently released it back into its orbit before holding her hand out and letting the opaque smokey orb lazily drift into her hand. She quickly closed her fingers around the opaque orb only for it to vanish and reappear a moment later back in its orbit.
“Finally,” she said quickly, not giving the two a chance to ask any questions, though she would have liked to answer them, she felt getting through the list of primordials would be more important. “The primordial of Death, the inevitable end. His power is… well it is unknown really. He is the primordial in charge of passing judgment on those who have gone against the system, but I am unsure what he is able to command.” As she spoke, she made a show of attempting to grab the orb two more times only for it to allude her. Himari knew Eryl was, in all actuality, controlling the orbs she created but Amethyst seemed to enjoy the show. “With a wave of his hand worlds dry up, souls wither, and all life ends but that is true of all the primordial beings, but it seems much more… final, whenever Death moves in the universe. I speculate he commands a small portion of the void itself, returning power to it when it is no longer needed in creation, but that is simple speculation and I have no evidence to back that claim. He along with Life created the system that watches over creation as a means to keep Light and Darkness from destroying existence in their struggles against one another, along with Life, he is also known as a neutral in the universe though he is known to be much more passive in his dealings. He is said to be the one who guides souls in the cycle of reincarnation, through his power the souls are stripped of their memories to lessen the burden on the mortal mind as well as give them an opportunity for unhindered growth.”
“Why would they make the system? I can understand reincarnation if it is true that souls would dissolve without bodies; but what,” Amethyst summoned a terminal to emphasize her point, tapping on the red screen much like her sister does as she finished her question. “Purpose does it serve, is it to guide people or restrict them?”
“Well to put it simply, the primordials are powerful, but they are far from omniscient nor are they omnipresent. A misconception about the system is that it controls things like skills and titles, but the truth is it merely catalogs them. It does have some power to influence souls, as well as restrict what can and cannot be done under certain conditions but in all actuality, it merely counters certain actions with large quantities of mana. Say for example, you developed a skill for swimming, it's not that the system granted you that skill; it simply notes that you performed this action repeatedly with the contribution of mana and gave it a name, it just happens that swimming is a common skill. For less common ones like your skill “reality warp” the system needed to explore what the skill did, assign a name to it, and in that particular case set a limiter in the system. You may not know this, but that skill is immensely dangerous, as such, the system has determined that if you were to try and use the skill outside what it deems “safe” it will attempt to counteract the spell…”
“Does that mean in theory one could force cast a forbidden spell? Like someone did with “soul sacrifice”?”
Eryl took a deep breath, she had explained this before to many divine beings, yet for the first time, she was sharing it with someone she thought capable of battling the system to cast a spell and succeed… “Yes, if you were able to overpower the system's protection or make it too dangerous to continue to try and stop you, in theory you could. I do ask that you do not attempt to do such foolish things however, the system was put into place to protect souls such as yourself from destroying not only one another but yourselves as well. If you were to combat the system in its entirety the strain on your soul could very well cause irreversible damage to you and those around you.” She sighed again as her ears folded almost completely down, “Amethyst, your sister is capable of unbelievable acts given her seemingly impossible means of regrowing large portions of her own soul and though it should go without saying, you are not Hecatolite. If you were to attempt to force cast a spell the system has deemed dangerous it will attempt to stop you with its full might and if it is unable to… it will attempt to remove you from this world.” She watched Amethyst closely; the threat of removal normally is met with some resistance, though in honesty the young woman being a powerful space mage would make such an act… difficult. The protocol for removal of a soul is to teleport them to a different realm, or into nearby space, meaning removing Amethyst would likely be… just as difficult as removing Hecatolite. It was not lost on Eryl how alike the two strange girls were now, even having Himari scan Amethyst's soul leads to the strange error X47 gave her originally, reading as “Amethyst, error, soul fragments detected. 1 fragment of a soul detected; fragment identified as Hecatolite Lapidary.”
Amethyst closed her eyes as if thinking before, after nearly a minute, she replied. “I… would still like to know the purpose of the system. You said it catalog’s skills and titles as well as protects souls, but I am still confused on how, or why?”
Eryl nodded, Amethyst was the devil of judgment and Eryl was happy to see that she did not pass it quickly. “There was a war. Long ago, Light and Darkness battled with their full force; both bringing millions of gods and devils to the battle that lasted nearly a thousand years, only ending when Darkness struck Light down finally bringing an end to the endless conflict, but the damage was… Life and Death, fearing their sister, banded together to protect the souls remaining in the universe and created the system to preserve the balance in the worlds, dividing creation between the remaining primes as well as protecting souls from their influence. The system allows souls a chance to carve their own destiny as the void created by Light’s absence…”
“Wait, aren’t… aren’t there still four primordials?” Himari cut her off.
Eryl without missing a beat replied, “You asked what makes a primordial, didn't you?” she smirked as she held her hands out before her, three of the four orbs reappearing above her hands as she spoke. “The answer to that is, they exist. Nothing more, nothing less. As a mortal soul, your soul will grow and die, as a divine you can be shattered and killed, but the primordials,” a light flickered in her palm as a tiny glowing orb started to appear, “They exist. They can be shattered but unlike a divine they will eventually reform.” The orb grew before taking its place in orbit around her with the other three. “Since then, both Light and Darkness have been shattered several times by each other…”
Eryl stopped as Amethyst muttered something under her breath, barely a whisper yet something about the words struck her. “The never dies.”
“What was that?” She had heard of the primordials called that before, only once during her training when she had convinced the Mother system to allow her and other trainees to view a primordial court; given their rarity and the weight they carried, only a handful of souls alive have ever seen one. She has long since forgotten the context, but she was positive Death had called his siblings that… as a joke maybe? She couldn’t be certain, but she did remember Life not thinking it very funny, chastising Death for even saying it…
“Sorry,” Amethyst shook her head as if clearing a memory, “It's just something Hecatolite said when she was having a… a breakdown. She had said something about fighting people she called the “never dies”, and that they always came back no matter how often they were killed… I think she said something about… the Ferryman being the only one she couldn’t beat.”
“Death?” Eryl asked without thought, clearing her throat before explaining. “Darkness had called Death that, his full title in the system is the primordial of Death, the Ferryman of souls. As to why it is such a thing I do not know. The system is unable to actually scan the primordials as such, Life and Death entered in their own names so if anyone ever attempted to scan them with the system it could at least recognize who and what they were.”
Amethyst was quiet for a long time, her face twisting through several emotions before she looked up to Eryl, “Is… is it possible Hecatolite fought the Primordial court? Why would she do that?”
Both Eryl and Amethyst turned to Himari who unintentionally let out a surprised noise, the look of shock on her face clear as she stammered, “Wh… why would… you think that?” Himari’s voice trembled as she spoke, her newfound information on who exactly the primordials were making what she knew of Hecatolite even more frightening in her mind.
“It is possible, as I told you, the primordials are timeless, deathless. It isn’t uncommon for Light and Darkness to allow powerful souls to battle with them, often handicapping themselves when they do for… fairness.” Eryl narrowed her eyes as she watched Himari. “It is clear Hecatolite is powerful, meaning it is not out of the realms of possibility that she may have clashed with them in the past, in fact the two of them are even known to take disciples on rare occasion; having their followers battle tends to be… less destructive than Light and Darkness fighting themselves. Though I have never heard of Life and Death partaking in such activities, I cannot deny the possibility that she fought with them.”
Those battles… How long did she fight them? If they cannot die and she is still… Himari couldn’t stop the tremor working its way down her spine as she looked at the egg. “Is… is she a primordial?” her voice trembled as the implications of her words sank in, if that were true, this world ending monstrosity would be unkillable… she ignored the world around her as her mind raced, that would explain why she is still alive. Why she was removed from the system and locked into a harvester world… but…
“That is not possible.” Eryl replied bluntly, her monotone voice grinding Himari’s thoughts to a halt. “There are and have only ever been four primes. As I have said, they are not souls like us, it would be more accurate to define them as concepts, unshakeable laws of the universe. The formation of a 5th
would be impossible; I fear I may have misled you in my explanation.” Eryl sighed sitting down across from them as she shook her head, “the primordials are not souls, not a “next step” or anything of that sort. Energy condenses and becomes a soul, a soul condenses and becomes a seed, then a fledgling divine, then finally a divine. That’s it, gods and devils simply become more powerful gods and devils but that is the end of that evolutionary line, so Hecatolite could not be a primordial nor could she become one. Himari, I know X47 is powerful and… unprecedented but she is nothing more than a very strange soul.”“But what about the fifth pillar?” Amethyst asked, catching them off guard, their puzzled look telling her to continue. “The prime faith, the one Jarvis follows. It says there are five pillars, fire, space, life, void, and mind… clearly the prime faith is of the primordials but there is the fifth pillar, couldn’t she be…”
“It’s not possible.” Eryl replied curtly, her voice raising unintentionally causing her to recoil, shocked by her own sudden outburst. She took a deep breath before continuing, “The prime faith is indeed the faith of the primordials, it is found in every system in the universe but mind is… mind is a false pillar created by mortals to try and explain their own consciousness, even the Mother system has assured us that the addition of mind to the faith was nothing more than an amusing joke to the four primes as the mortal’s try to add definition to the unexplained side effect of consciousness.” Eryl couldn’t explain why but some part of her… rejected the idea of a fifth prime. Something deep within her fought against the very concept as suddenly she found herself awash with a strange anger.
“But… all the pieces fit… the fact she can just survive having her soul torn apart and act as if it's nothing.” Himari finally looked back to Eryl only to freeze as she saw the look of anger on the elven woman’s face.
Himari, I should remind you that Eryl was formed from a fragment of the universal system’s core and as such, her subconscious could be equated to the system’s programming. Overseer’s voice rang in her mind as she watched Eryl take several deep breaths, an odd thing given Eryl is not actually human.
Wait, what do you mean by that?
Hecatolite has been completely erased from the universal system for some reason. As such, Eryl may subconsciously reject her existence as anything more than a strange soul, need I remind you that the system has several safety protocols around what X47 is.
“It is not possible.” Eryl stated bluntly, annunciating every word as she spoke. “The formation of another primordial from the void, would be a universal event. Not to mention the simple fact that she…” Eryl froze when a strange thought crossed her mind. “She… she wasn’t in the system… I… I put her there…”
“Wait, you said the primordials were unable to be scanned by the system. Only their names would appear.” Amethyst asked, raising her eyebrow.
“It's… no, it’s a mistake because of the summoning. The fact she was in your body made the system unable to recognize her, that’s it.” Eryl shook her head, rambling as she attempted to make sense of the boiling emotion in her mind. “Just like you have an error in your race now, it's something the system couldn’t recognize so it couldn’t ascertain it properly. Once Hecatolite emerges from the egg the system will be able to scan her properly, that will clear all this nonsense up.”
Himari swallowed hard, she knew Eryl was correct in her assumption, the only reason Hecatolite hadn’t tripped the safeties in the system before was the fact she was sharing a body with Amethyst. In the system, when she was scanned, she would simply come back as “Amethyst Lapidary… error….” Just as the whites inside their soul space; she was simply an error as the system recognized the impossibility of two souls in a body but clearly, she wasn’t part of Amethyst. The fact Amethyst's soul had shielded her from the system… don’t worry, I disabled the self-destruct but once she hatches, there will be no stopping the other safeties. Overseer tried to calm Himari’s nerves.
Amethyst chewed her lip as she recalled her sister in the void, the words she spoke, how their entire soul space filled with emotion as she spoke of the “never dies”, her fearful words with the unnerving smile… the feeling of excitement… “I promised.” She stood and walked to the egg, placing her hand on its warm surface as she spoke, repeating the promise she made to her sister. “Primordial, Deity, just a soul… it doesn’t matter. You are Hecatolite, my sister. Even if the primordials themselves come for you,” a strange warmth radiated from the egg as an eerie hum filled the air, “If they wish you harm then we will fight them. Even if they truly never die then we will simply make them understand,” the fur on her back stood on end as she released her own mana, matching it to the rhythm of the now vibrating egg, “We will not be trifled with. If the Ferryman is the only one you can’t beat than I will deal with him.”
“Amethyst! You can’t say such things!” Eryl sprang to her feet, the blue lines on her body instantly lighting as she called out over the humming. “They are the peak of power in the universe, the ones who created existence itself. I understand Hecatolite is powerful, I can admit that. I can even admit that it is possible she may have fought the primes before but that is a battle you cannot win! If that is your sister’s goal, then I will be forced to…” Eryl stopped as the world around them shook, her eyes widening as Amethyst turned back to her.
"Eryl, I do not wish to fight. Not the primordials, not the gods, the people of this world, nor you. But I will not allow anyone to threaten my family.” Amethyst's body lit the dark area with a deep purple glow as she turned her glowing eyes to Eryl. “Hecatolite was… concerned the primordials, the never dies, would come for her. That they would hunt her. If they do that then I will fight them, no… I will beat them. Hecatolite is proof, just because one can’t die doesn’t mean they can’t be beaten. The Ferryman,” as she spoke the name the egg pulsed again, a wave of energy blasting across the island sending sand flying into the air. “She said she took his arm, if he comes back then I will take his head. If he truly never dies, then I will simply never stop killing him.”
“You are not your sister, Amethyst,” Himari attempted to reason with her, rising on shaking legs as she held out her arms. “If Hecatolite is a primordial then she can’t die just like them. but you, you are mortal. One life, if you're shattered then it's over, think about it.”
“She is not a primordial!” Eryl snapped at her, “If there truly was a primordial of the Mind, do you think they would be insane!”
A thunderclap caused the three of them to lull as Overseer’s voice cut through the rising chaos around them. “Hecatolite is waking up… please note… she is drowning.”
A scream ripped through their minds, forcing them all to step back as the egg shook violently, a deep fear blanketing the area as the ground shook.
