Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Chapter 502: Ryun

Matters of the Body

A week of training with Maleatus had gotten Ryun a long way to mastering his new existence. He wasn't yet perfect, but he had learned a lot. First, the vessel he created in order to appear more human had some limits depending on how much of himself he used to create it. Mainly, the physical stats, namely strength and dexterity, that it possessed were directly proportional to the percentage of himself that he put into it. And the more he put into the vessel the less area he covered. Vitality, wisdom, or intelligence weren't impacted by this, which made sense to him. Two were mental attributes, and the puppet vessel was just that, a vessel, it didn't have a mind of its own, that was firmly part of Ryun's Soul, which was connected to the vessel. The vitality also made sense, since it was in every part of his being's Essence, and even the smallest part of him would hold the full power of it.

He had learned a lot of things about strength and dexterity though. His being, the Domain Aura Authority, which he had started just calling his Area Authority, could move even when he was fully stretched out. Though it was slow, it was as if he was trying to crawl through Essence, his size slowed him down. But he had found that his Area Authority was always centered on the densest piece of himself. Mostly, that was. It lagged behind sometimes, and he had to focus and will his being to move as well. But in most cases when he moved his puppet, the Area Authority moved with it.

In a way, it felt like he had a body that could off-load its weight, or density, or existence, out into the world around it. It allowed him to do some pretty strange and powerful things.

The thing that he had learned about strength and dexterity though was that those stats controlled the movement of his Essence. He could use his Area Authority like a physical aura to crush anything within his area, the more of himself he put to the task the more strength he used. Crushing rocks had been the first of his experiments, but he had moved over to just moving things. His Essence could interact with other Essence in a way that made it almost like a faux telekinesis, allowing him to do pretty much anything. Well, not really. His Soul was physically interacting with things and moving them, so it wasn't like he moved it with a power. It was the equivalent to someone standing, picking up a rock, then walking a few steps to put it down, except that he was everywhere at once and could just move it through him.

It was also extremely useful in other ways, and he had tested out and trained with his new perks as well, getting a new understanding of all that he could do.

"You are really, really, really, unfair, you know that right," Maleatus complained, again, for a dozenth time, as he looked up at Ryun who was floating in the air above him. Just... Floating, no Qi used at all, no power other than his very being.

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Which was pretty fun, if Ryun had to say. Within his Area Authority, he was for all intents and purposes a god. All Essence existed because he allowed it to, well, all Essence without its own will, that was. Maleatus stood out like a nail stuck straight into his bone, but he had learned to tolerate the feeling. But everything else? If he didn't want Gravity to work within his Area Authority, it wouldn't, because a piece of him was still Oblivion, and he could just stop it from existing within himself. The Air, the Earth, the trees around him, all existed because he allowed it to.

He wasn't really floating in the air, his puppet form was just a manifested piece of himself, and he could move it wherever he wished within his Area Authority. So, right now, Gravity didn't work on Scorn, because he didn't want it to. And that meant that he could move the denser piece of himself within Scorn wherever he wanted. Right now, that was above the ground, legs crossed and hands on his knees.

He had put around half of himself into the puppet to manifest it, making it half as strong as his entire being, that also meant that the rest of his Aura Authority could only exert half of his strength or dexterity on the world around him, but that was fine.

"You are just jealous that you can't do the same," Ryun told him.

Maleatus frowned, and then the Space around them shifted and Maleatus floated across from him in the same position. Ryun felt it like a stab in his gut, if he still had it, though in a sense they were inside of him, so perhaps he still did. Ryun felt Maleatus' will and how it pushed on his own Essence. His being was powerful, but a powerful will could oppose him, as had always been the case with his Oblivion. He was used to it. To damage something or someone, he had to overcome their meaning.

He had practiced and experimented a lot with Maleatus. The man had a very creative mind, and they had come up with a lot of interesting ways that he could materialize his newfound power. Overall, he didn't regret it, he had gotten a lot more powerful.

"So," Maleatus started. "How much longer until they are here?"

Ryun tilted his head, closed his eyes, and focused, pushing his skill perception outward. He had discovered that the more spread out his Area Authority was, the more he had to pull his sense back if he wanted to be able to function and be aware of what was happening within him. Not that he needed that of course, having a puppet meant that he could just rely on his mundane senses. But at his current distribution of half of his density packed into a puppet vessel, his skill perception could be extended around half his usual range. Now he pushed it further, and his Area Authority grew dimmer as a result, until he finally expanded his sense fully and he lost what he felt inside his being. They had figured out that it was probably related to the boundary of his "body" being an amorphous cloud, and his skill technically starting at the edge of his existence. He had to focus in order to feel within himself.

He found what he was looking for, and pulled back, then opened his eyes.

"They're here," he said, then pointed at the mountain in the distance.

Maleatus turned around and looked, a few seconds later an airship made its way over the gap in the two peaks.

He threw his arms up in the air, then exclaimed. "Finally!"