Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Chapter 227 - Meeting With Rith

Endra then tried to manipulate the pulses that came out of his body. Or rather, his soul. What he really wanted was to change the shape of the pulse that came out of him. Normally, it was just a circle with him at the center. If he could make it a long oval or something, he'd be able to make them move much further than normal. 

He realized that the process of was a waste of time. Another thing he noticed was that the spell was much more rigid than what he was used to. He could do anything he could imagine with mana created spells. Even Talisman spells, Endra could affect to a certain degree. 

But Soul Sense, it did only one thing and it was impossible to do change it in any way. Endra was sure Soul Blast would be the same story.

"You mentioned this is using up my soul," Endra said. "Should I be worried about that?"

"You should stop when your soul starts showing signs of tiredness. The most common symptom is sleepiness, but there are some other reactions: agitation, anxiety, short-temperedness, irrationality. But don't be discouraged and keep on practicing. Just as our organs can function tirelessly our whole lives, our soul can also do the same. It's just that no one really knows how to use it for more practical things."

"Alright."

"And," Heralt said and looked at Endra's body with a slight frown. The expression soon turned to indifference. "Never mind."

It was obvious what the man thought. 

'Just say I'm not fit enough for your standards,' Endra complained inside. But like Heralt, he also decided not to voice his thoughts. 

Changing the subject, he asked about the second spell. 

"So Soul Blast is an offensive spell I can use?"

From the name, it sounded like a very generic energy attack. At that point, Endra would probably be better off using normal magic. 

'But, there are some perks to using Soul magic. Most people wouldn't know what they're dealing with.'

"Ah, no," Heralt smiled for the first time during the whole conversation. "It's a spell that ruptures your own soul shredding it to pieces. You, as an entity, would be dead, but your body can still live on as a vegetable. Might be useful if you don't have a better alternative."

'Motherfucker…' Endra cursed. 'How is that even a reward? Wait, would this be considered true death? Doesn't that mean I now have at least one method to escape undeath? Wait, wait, wait. How would I even check if that's true?'

"How do I even practice this spell? Feels like I'd just kill myself accidentally."

Heralt did not care to elaborate.

"Serve the Empress well and you'll receive more rewards. The next spell won't be a suicide method."

In that case, Endra wasn't going to bother learning the spell. Practicing your suicide just in case something went wrong… that was just bad omen.

"How many spells are there?"

"Ten base spells. After that, you can ask for more specific ones."

"Care to tell me more details?"

"The first tell will include base inspective, defensive, offensive methods. Learn those and I'll tell you about the specific methods."

"Alright."

Heralt then produced a stack of papers and gave it to Endra. "The people on the list and what we know about them," he said, nodding to the board. "See through it at your leisure."

Endra wrapped it up and put it in his Storage Ring. 

"We don't have a quota for you, but do be careful of the Orgonians. As for the rewards, just think of them as a bonus to keeping yourself alive. Come here whenever you need, but do it discreetly next time. There's an entrance on the tavern's back that leads to the ketricite halls. Check it from the outside."

Endra sighed, said his goodbyes and walked out of the tavern. 

When he reached the building's back, at first he couldn't really see anything, but his Soul Sense picked up on something. When its pulsations hit the tavern's wall, Endra could feel the outline of a door. When Endra reached out to touch it, he realized he could simply push it open, though the process felt awfully off. Instinctively he knew that if he tried to push the hidden wall whilst not using a soul related magic, it wouldn't move.

He immediately tried his hypothesis and sure enough, it was as if the door was never there in the first place. Endra even pushed on the wall to realize it was solid. He brought out an empty talisman and drew the Soul Sense rune on it and activated the spell again. With that, the door once again became visible to his senses.

The experience made him more curious about Soul magic. Given some time, Endra would've been able to recreate a similar effect, but if the person touches the wall, the jig would be up. It was technically possible to deceive someone's sense of touch with illusions, but that was simply too difficult to achieve reliably. 

Thinking about the mysterious door, he realized he was getting tamed by Heralt. The man was using the carrot and stick method on Endra, with the spells acting as rewards and the Orgonians acting as potential punishment. It was a pretty nasty trick, to have yourself be the 'carrot', while painting your enemies as the 'stick'. 

Endra shook his head and walked away. 

He was going to have to deal with the Orgonians regardless of whether he got rewards or not. 

He then gathered some Thought energy in his core and made himself invisible to the common eyes. Thankfully, he could still cast spells without problem even with the Soul Sense sending out pulsations.

He headed towards Rith's house, testing out his new senses on the crowd around. He half-expected himself to feel overwhelmed with this new sense of his, but it was surprisingly fine. Since he could see the people he was sensing, his brain received the information without much issue. 

At some point during his walk, Endra started focusing on finding invisible people among the crowd. Perhaps someone was acting like him, walking around the city discreetly. 

He couldn't find anyone by the time he reached Rith's house. At this point, the tiredness was kicking in.  Seemed like his symptom would be the common sleepiness. That was good enough for Endra. 

He then knocked on Rith's door and soon saw the Cosmic opening the door for him. 

"Oh, Evin," she greeted with a yawn. "You're back already?"

"Yup," Endra said and picked Rith up. 

He then carried her to the table for humans and the Cosmic let him do as he wished. He put Rith down on the table and helped himself to a cup of tea and some snacks. 

"Where'd you leave your parents?"

"They're in Koidot city."

"That far?"

"Well, this and that happened and they ended up there."

Rith seemed unaware that Endra had taken over Evin. In a sense, it wasn't that surprising. Evin's speech pattern mimicked Endra's quite a lot. so even if Endra acted like himself, people wouldn't notice anything off. He just had to be mindful of his body language a bit. 

The two of them started catching up on things while Endra had his breakfast. 

Endra spoke about his meeting with Lord Kena and the deal he made with him. He didn't mention the details much and Rith was kind enough to keep her curiosity in check. He also didn't mention anything about Twelve and the World of Souls. Naturally.

Rith spoke about how she and Melayn went back to the Capital to report their findings. They were asked to keep their findings secret and not mention it to the public. They were told that someone high up would contact them again, but there was no word for them yet. 

From the talk, Endra could tell that Rith was hiding something from him and she was making the fact quite obvious. Endra took the hint and soon dropped the subject. They both knew the truth; it was just hard to talk about it openly. 

The two then enjoyed their time together and Endra soon got up to leave.