Symbiotic Ascension : A Progression Fantasy Adventure

Stars stretching across eternal seas shone in the darkness of space, created within Glenn's soul. The lights flickered and shone with different intensities, mirroring the young man's emotions.

Diamanes cleared his throat.

"Soul manipulation, then. Too bad. I would have enjoyed discussing the kingdom-crashing beauty sleeping next to you—"

Glenn raised his hand as he tried to ignore his racing heart. "Diamanes, please, don't. L- let's leave this for when I wake up and have to deal with it, alright?"

"Tsk. Alright. Let's get to it then." The entity clicked its tongue as their surroundings changed to a standard school classroom. Glenn flinched as he landed inside an uncomfortable wooden chair that was too small for him.

"What the... I know this is an illusionary space, but how can you have so much control here?" He inquired, slightly worried.

Diamanes chuckled. "Everything I control here is all under your supervision. If you so wished, you could destroy everything here and—and there we go." He sighed as the classroom flew away, pulled by a massive tornado. Glenn nodded in satisfaction and returned the control of the space to Diamanes, who disgruntledly shaped it back into a classroom. Glenn just changed his seat to a comfortable padded lounger, his feet raised in the air.

'Anything to relax myself,' he thought in a desperate attempt to get his mind off the very urgent issue going on outside of his body.

"The soul!" Diamanes exclaimed as he grabbed a long stick and slammed it against a newly appeared blackboard. He drew a large circle in white chalk on the blackboard, with the word 'soul' written inside. "Something that even the Gods should struggle to control! I'm not too sure because even though I could eat them for breakfast, I was never a God."

Glenn let his chin rest on his closed fist, thinking back to Liara. Did he take advantage of her back when he was drunk? That wasn't his style of doing things, but that would explain why she ended up in the same bed as him. Unless she wanted to be there too, but Glenn couldn't help but doubt it. Why would Liara want to do something with him, of all people, when being in his simple presence was enough to be in danger?

It didn't make sense.

"Focus!" A chalk shot through the classroom and precisely hit Glenn in the forehead.

"Yes, yes. Sorry."

"I'm trying to help you here!" Diamanes cursed through his teeth before sighing. "Anyway. A soul is something very delicate and very difficult to manipulate. That's why not everybody goes and makes clones like that bard, Montana."

Glenn concentrated on the discussion, actually interested. "How tangible is a soul, anyway? I did manage to do something with it by creating Nelg, right?"

Diamanes gave a hand's equivalent to a nod. "Indeed. And you passed out for three weeks after that."

"...Ah, yeah," winced Glenn. He'd forgotten about that.

"You don't play with a soul like you play with Mana," Diamanes warned. "After all, a simple mistake can kill you. And let's not even talk about manipulating the souls of others. It's like trying to draw water with a tennis racket. And there's no point, really."

Glenn raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't I be really powerful if I could control the souls of others? And I'm not saying I want to do that. Sounds too much like something Epinos or the Fallen Mother would do."

Diamanes cackled. "Sure, you'd be super strong. You just need to find a way to get into someone's soul, manipulate it, and not die. Easy peasy."

"It's safe to say nobody will attempt that on me, then? To harm my... soul?" Glenn questioned, a smirk drawing up on his lips. It seemed a little absurd to attack a soul out of everything.

"Hmm... I think so, yeah. But I'm not omniscient. It's just much more feasible to shoot a fireball at someone's head or try and take control of their minds instead of manipulating the soul," explained Diamanes.

Glenn smacked his lips together, confused. "Wait, wait, so the mind and the soul are two different parts?"

Diamanes grunted. "Yes. And no. Wait." He pondered on the question for an instant. "A soul is something present in every being, something that disappears when the life is snuffed out of a body. A mind, on the other hand, is more like a program installed on a living being's brain, evolving as it experiences things. If there's no soul, the program—the mind—can't run. And if there's no mind, the soul can't stay within the body. Does that make sense?"

The young man tried very hard not to stare with wide eyes and instead forced himself to nod slowly. "So you don't really know what a soul is either, huh?"

"No idea," admitted Diamanes. "But I know a little about manipulating my soul. After all, as you learned by peeking through my memories, the Original could split himself in three with little to no issues."

Glenn clasped his hands together. "Great. Let's skip the metaphysical talk and get to the part where I learn how to isolate you from myself."

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Diamanes grunted. "It is pretty simple, in theory. The first step is to get access to your own soul, which I helped you do. Second is to recognize the... 'guest' residing within. Finally, you'll have to find a way to build a containment zone within your soul and put me in there. If you do it correctly, you'll be able to get true privacy, and later on, even expel me out."

The grin of excitement on Glenn's face turned to utter shock. "And you're just serving me this on a silver platter? I know what I said, but how do you know I won't succumb to the temptation of finally getting rid of you?"

Diamanes turned to him.

"I trust you. I know you won't do that."

Glenn stared silently. Diamanes cleared his throat once again and turned to the blackboard.

"Now, much of all of this is up to you. I can only tell you about the theory, and you have to come up with an actual way to apply it. So... Yeah, good luck with that."

"...Okay." Glenn was still a little taken aback by the entity's trust. He shook his head and stood up, drawing in one deep breath.

'A containment zone...' Glenn imagined the quarantine area used on Earth to secure dangerous materials and laughed to himself. That would be a little too mean to use that on Diamanes, considering how unusually nice he had been.

"Does it need to strictly be a containment zone?" Glenn asked, pondering.

"Something around these lines should work, as long as it's a closed place you can shove me in," replied Diamanes, his tone darkening. "A prison of some sort. A cell. These kinds of things work. Even if I'd rather not end back in a cell after thousand of years roaming in a floating sarcophagus."

"Understandable," recognized Glenn. He pressed his lips together as an idea came up in his mind. His soul space twisted as he put his idea into motion as the classroom turned back into the infiniteness of outer space. A pedestal with a hand imprint carved into it appeared before Diamanes, shaped just like him.

"The hell is that?" Diamanes questioned, curious.

Glenn frowned, concentrating. "Stop me if I'm wrong, but if I understood correctly, you can't survive outside of my body, right?"

Diamanes took a moment to reply. "...Right."

The young man rubbed his chin, making sure his idea was sound in principle. "The thing is, I'd feel quite guilty locking you up in my soul with no way to communicate with me, you see?"

"What are you trying to say, Glenn?"

Glenn grinned and pointed at the pedestal. "What would happen if I sealed you away, in, let's say, a temporary spell that allowed you to get out of my body without dying?"

"A Mana-fueled vessel...?" Diamanes moistened his lips. "I mean, I'm not against trying."

"Excellent." Glenn clapped his hands together. "You just need to, well, press yourself into the pedestal, and it should work."

Diamanes cackled wickedly. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"Hopefully, nothing..." muttered Glenn. "Come on, let's get this done."

The floating hand hesitantly approached the pedestal before eventually sinking into the slot provided. Glenn felt himself being pulled out of his soul space, the pathway engraved in his mind. Now, he could get back in there by himself if needed. No need to rely on Diamanes pulling himself in on a whim.

Glenn closed his eyes and exhaled heavily. 'Now to see if it worked. Onnea, if you're hearing me, please make it so.'

***

The sun was peeking lazily through the bedroom's destroyed wall, shining over Liara's face. She turned to the side, sinking her face deeper into her pillow. Her head was pounding like crazy, as if someone was trying to dig his way out of her skull. Thinking itself was painful.

"Ha-ah! I, Diamanes, am finally free! My master plan was a success—wait, what are you doing?"

A bird chirped, answering the annoying, wicked, and evil voice that had almost woken her up. Liara groaned, and she hugged her warm pillow tighter, trying to get rid of the pain in her head. Somehow, the tighter she held the warm pillow, the lesser the pain became, as if absorbed away by the pillow. She snuggled closer to it, smiling softly in the comfort of her bed.

Chirp-chirp!

"The hell do you mean a revenge to take? You're a bird—Oh shit!" The voice cried in horror as Whitey chirped a little louder as it pecked down. Liara smiled as she felt through her connection with Whitey that whatever the annoying voice was, it'd been taken care of.

Wait.

That annoying voice.

She knew it. Recognized it.

Liara's eyes flew open, and she stood up abruptly, the ensuing pain shooting through her head and practically sending her back to the sheets. She powered through the hangover and energetically rubbed her eyes, staring at a plump, white bird standing proudly at the end of the bed. Whitey was grooming himself, plucking out a damaged feather.

"What did you do to...?" She whispered, when her eyes widened. A horrified and horrifying mouth appeared on Whitey's wing, turning completely purple.

"By the Original. What the fuck happened to me?" Diamanes cried, terrified. Whitey chirped happily as it flew away, carrying a screaming Diamanes on his wing. Liara watched it happen silently, her jaw on the floor and her brain scrambling to try to comprehend what just happened.

"Sho 'am biṣīr?" she muttered in her natal tongue, shocked. She rubbed her eyes and took a moment to ponder how to react suitably. After a not-so-careful consideration, she decided to ignore the problem and go back to sleep.

It was already hard enough thinking, she couldn't handle Whitey housing Diamanes just now.

Which was when she hurt the second unbelievable thing.

The pillow she'd been hugging so tightly, which made her feel like all the pain and nightmares had washed away, was a very human-looking pillow. So much so that the pillow had black hair, a muscular back covered in old scars, and a familiar purple left hand.

'Huh.'

Liara felt the blood rush to her cheeks. She pulled the sheets to her chest, realizing she was only wearing undergarments. Her dress was folded on a chair a short distance away from the bed, right next to a luxuriously designed suit, coat, and pants.

'Oh.'

The realization took a little bit of time to land in her mind. But it was forced to land a little faster when the human pillow turned to look at her, an embarrassed expression on his face and cute cheeks flushed as red as her own, she could guess. His purple eyes were filled with uncertainty, yet a small grin hung on his face, not mocking nor ashamed, simply... happy.

"Good morning," Glenn smiled.

Liara's heart missed a beat as warmth spread through her chest.

She'd read romances before.

Yet nothing had prepared her for this disarming smile.

Truly, nothing.