Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Chapter 500: Ryun

Aspect Interactions

Ryun was trying to come up with a plan. He was using a significant amount of his will and focus on just keeping his body condensed into the shape of his human form, keeping himself from expanding or removing the Scorn's shell. It wasn't that he was afraid to do it, it was that he was pretty sure that if he allowed his body to expand it would turn into the same thing it did when he lost control. Perhaps somehow changed, but it would grow to the size of a hill, swallowing everything around him. He was trying to think of a way to do that safely, without destroying everything around him, or somehow consuming Maleatus on the nearby hill by accident.

So, he was thinking and while doing that he checked his other perks, seeing if any had changed. The new perk said that there would be perk alterations. After a quick glance, he discovered that only one perk had been changed, and the change was minimal, at least it seemed. The Adaptive Infinitum Chassis no longer referred to only Oblivion, now it simply stated that his body was made of the Soul and End related Aspects. And saying that my Aspects would exert their influence on anything within my body according to my will and understanding. It also added that the disadvantageous effects of my Aspects no longer applied, probably future proofing in case I get more Aspects.

He turned back to the new perk. From what its description said, his body still contained Oblivion, it shouldn't have changed that much. And Oblivion didn't need to consume everything in its wake. He had been able to project his Aura without infringing on other Essences. Make it an invisible cover that was ready to act on his will. Oblivion Essence had no shell, so it could exist in between other Essences without interacting with them if he so chose. Only people with eyes like Ryun's could even see it, since Oblivion didn't have a physical form unless it was actively destroying other Essence, it was the act of destruction that created the void, the hole in space, that could be perceived.

So, he focused, and then reached out to Scorn, willing the shell of his forearm and hand to pull back. The Skin and Flesh beneath rippled, then pulled back to his elbow, leaving behind the condensed Essence of Ryun's arm that sought to expand. He kept his will tight, holding the shape down. To his eyes his arm looked like his body did before, grains of and Essence that was a combination of Oblivion and an altered Soul, an Essence that had no shell, which made him frown. The wording on the new perk mentioned a change, his Soul stepping forward. He pulled the description up and read through it again. There were mentions about his Aspects, both Oblivion and True Death, but also augmentation and presentation, his will and meaning.

He knew that if someone with ordinary eyesight looked at his hand now, they would see only a hole in reality, a nothingness. The same as they would before. Yet, he did feel a change, his control over his body seemed firmer somehow, even though it was attempting to expand. With an effort of will Essence gathered around his hand and a shell was formed, the same fake Flesh that he had been creating on instinct before. He had calmed down significantly, he had done all that he could for now, Tali's rescue was imminent, and advancing always made him feel better.

He turned his hand back to its Oblivion-like form, and then he waved it around keeping his attention on the Essence around it. The air was displaced and moved out of the way by the passage of his arm, the same as always when he was in this form. The meaning of his body interacted with the Essence in unconscious ways on Ryun's part, otherwise he would be destroying anything that he touched in this form. Air, Time, Space, all the Essences that came in contact with his arm. He wasn't doing that, not usually at least. But he knew what Oblivion could do, and now he felt like the control he had over his body had grown. The pressure he felt remained, and it started to feel almost painful, but he persisted. He had to know that he could control how his body interacted with the world before allowing it to expand, otherwise he would at best, just push all Essence he touched away, or at worst disintegrate it.

Then, something else occurred to him. The perk mentioned True Death in a way that his previous perk hadn't. He wondered if it would be possible to change how his body manifested. He focused inwardly, to the part of himself that was True Death. It was harder to do than Oblivion. If he had to reach for Oblivion it was always right there inside of his Core. That was what Cultivation offered, a direct link to an Aspect. But Cultivators weren't the only people that could connect with an Aspect, Classers did it too. Ryun imagined that what he did with True Death was somehow similar, except that in this case he was himself the Source of True Death.

He willed it forward, acting on instinct and what he thought his new perk was capable of. The wording made it seem like he could gain mastery of more than just these two Aspects, that he could somehow incorporate them into himself.

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Slowly, it worked. The Essence that he usually saw retreated and a new one took its place, a much different Essence. He felt the change across his entire body, beneath the shell that Scorn kept over him. He then uncovered hand with his other, the one still covered with Scorn's shell. He felt smooth Essence, the grains of this Essence had a shell, were more physical. His arm was tough, didn't have any give, there was no warmth nor was it cold, it felt almost like a polished stone, yet he could move it however he wished, his fingers and wrist bent when he wanted them to while still somehow remaining rigid. Ryun knew that the previous Aspects of True Death had physical bodies, he assumed that this Essence was in part at least what they had been made of, the other part was what had once been his Soul. He wondered what it would look like to other people, what color it would be. To his perception it felt solid all the way through. He pulled back Scorn into the deeper parts of his Soul and adjusted his size to accommodate what the Scorn's shell covered. He blinked as his new form was revealed. He had no hair, which made sense in a way, hair usually came from Essences that were related to Flesh and Blood, and True Death seemingly wasn't that. He looked like a human shaped being carved out of marble. Yet, he knew that it was the meaning of his Soul that gave him shape, even now he was fighting his body's desire to expand. So, he focused again, sharpened his meaning. Essence whirled and hair grew over his head and a beard on his face. Like his old shell, it was formed from the Essences around him, held in place by his will, it was a fake, but it felt right somehow. He had grown used to his look.

He felt his body attempting to spread again, like something lurching in the pit of his stomach, attempting to grow into a different shape, but he denied it again, even though it was painful. He felt like something was missing.

He glanced down at his body. He could see how similar this Essence was to the Oblivion flavored one, a part of it at least, the core of the grains of the Essence was still the same. That was probably the Soul. Which meant that he could change what surrounded the core of that Essence, change the shell according to the Essence that he possessed. This shell felt sturdier somehow, even though he didn't have endurance anymore, it felt like it had density, a weight to it. He wondered how that would work. Perhaps the same way as his old body, if something with enough intent behind it hit him, he would probably splatter like a gelatinous blob, then reform into a solid appearing shape.

That line of thought was very interesting, and he would have to experiment more, but for now he was far more familiar with Oblivion, so he returned his body to that form then had Scorn create a shell over him, again leaving one of his hands free. Now, he focused on what he wanted this version of his body to do.

He knew that Oblivion didn't need to interact with other Essence, so now he attempted to focus on that aspect of his body. There was no change that he could perceive, it was all internal, the meaning of his Soul, his intent.

One of the more instinctual things that Ryun did was his interaction with Light Essence. The reason why people saw the nothingness when they looked at his shell-less form was because he didn't consciously interact with it. Instead, Light Reached his body, and then just reappeared beyond the borders of his vessel, because his body was a hole in reality, there was no space in between himself and the area beyond him. That made the light sort of skip a short distance, but it remembered that it had encountered him, somehow, that was why people saw a dark nothingness.

Now, he consciously changed that. The first thing that happened was that Light Essence now passed through his body, the meaning of its Essence attempted to interact, but it wasn't guided by a will, and it couldn't overcome his own meaning. Allowing his will to win and making it so that it didn't interact with anything. For all intents and purposes, he had turned himself invisible. Or at least his forearm and hand, Scorn's shell still covered the rest of him. Air and gravity followed afterward. They all passed through harmlessly. The first thing he noticed was that the drain on his core lessened. The need to constantly heal from damage was gone as gravity stopped interacting with him, and damaging him, though the damage was always small as his immunity quickly kicked in even while he was moving. Now there was no need for it.

Once he felt like he had the hang of it, he turned to a nearby rock to test it. Slowly he pressed his arm against it. Immediately he felt the meaning of the Stone Essence itself resist him, but it was not guided by any kind of a will, easily his own overpowered it. His hand sunk into the rock but didn't damage it at all. It appeared as if his hand had phased through, though in reality the Essence of his body had just moved in between the empty room of the Stone Essences shell. His Essence, in this form at least had no shell to interact with the Stone, not unless he willed it. He smiled, feeling a bit silly that he hadn't tried that before. He had focused so much on the more destructive elements of his Aspect that he had disregarded others even when they stared him in the face. He had been able to throw out techniques that interacted only with a single type of Essence, just flowing through all others. He could've been doing this from the start.

Now, he felt a lot more comfortable in letting his body expand. He shook his head, then removed Scorn's shell fully, a moment later he stopped keeping his body suppressed, and in an instant, he exploded.