Rise of the Devourer

After a brief look at the training grounds, Zax had found Noah and teleported to a chamber with magical runes all over the place. Moments like this sometimes reminded Noah of how easy it would be for Zax to kill him and the rest of them even in his current weakened state, should he want to.

He put the thought out of his mind, looking at the dragon with curiosity at their sudden detour.

“Apologies for abruptly bringing you here. This is something we had to prepare in secret and we wanted to avoid attention. From our understanding, what we’re about to do is quite forbidden, and we wouldn’t want to create a diplomatic incident,” Zax said.

“What thing?” Noah asked.

“Your request. The re-binding of your shadow to you, and the ability you had received.”

“Ah…” Noah trailed off, remembering what he’d said, or rather, what he’d asked for. His shadow swirled, rising up from the ground. The shadow specter let out a whistle. “That’s a lot of magic.”

“It was a complicated spell. Even for us. And not a magic field we are very knowledgeable about,” Zax said.

“A magical thing you don’t know about? Color me surprised,” the shadow said.

“Soul magic has been guarded and restricted since before our time, it is not a field one dabbles in easily. The consequences are great for any mistakes made,” Zax replied.

“Are you sure it’s safe then? We can probably wait a little if needed,” Noah said.

“Yes. It’s safe. That was the primary thing we’d made sure to address,” Zax said.

Noah nods. “There’s actually a few things that I wanted to talk to you about as well. The first was that, ever since I got the bracelet with the Analyze ability, the descriptions have become… not sure how to put it. It’s talking directly to me and referring to my current circumstances at times and using knowledge from my world. It seemed harmless but it’s still kinda weird.”

Zax frowned to himself. “We’ve heard of similar things happening. As an individual grows, their astral scripts almost always change and adapt, going from the neutral entity to something that seems to take on a personality that either mimics them, or someone they know. But it happening this early on is a bit strange. Your soul resistance and modifications have probably sped up the process,” Zax said, before glancing towards the shadow specter. “This binding will probably only exacerbate the process even further.”

“Is that something to be concerned about?” Noah asked.

“Not normally no, but let us know if things change significantly. Your case is… a little special for sure,” Zax replied.

“Right…” Noah trailed off. His mind lingered on the next thing he wanted to talk about, and how to broach the subject. Just how did someone talk about something like this?

“Zax…” Noah said, taking a breath as he made himself look up at the dragon. “What… am I?”

Zax looked at Noah, pausing. Noah looked intently at the dragon, feeling his chest tightening as he waited for an answer. He could feel the shadow had stopped pretending to not listen as well, now staring directly at Noah.

“Is this supposed to be some kind of a puzzle?” Zax asked, looking at Noah.

“No, I’m asking honestly. I have always thought that I’m a human from earth who just flung here. I mean, there isn’t anything else to be, I have all the memories of my life from back on earth and there I had been nothing more. But… ever since I found that other shard piece, this feeling inside me has grown stronger and stronger. Like there’s a human Noah, the me I know, and then there’s… someone else inside,” Noah said, pausing.

“The… Devourer.”

A strong revulsion rose inside him, his chest tightening as a wave of emotions threatened to overwhelm him. He hadn’t even realized he’d started using Meditation to keep it all at bay on his own. Noah took a breath as he looked sideways towards the shadow.

“You’d already realized this a while back, hadn’t you?” Noah asked.

The shadow didn’t reply.

“I’ve known this to some extent. Certain impulses, and my ‘instincts’ and the way they guide me. There is a deep inhuman quality to me. So… I want to know. What am I really? And… how did I truly come here, and what was I doing on Earth?” Noah asked.

Zax looked at Noah and then the dragon let out a sigh.

“These aren’t questions we can answer for you Noah. There is indeed a separate entity inside of you. And there is a very strong correlation between this entity and those shards you seek. Perhaps… Perhaps it is some remnant of the god which had died. And somehow it found its way to you and attached itself. These are all hypotheses we’ve considered, among multiple other ones. But the truth is that we simply don’t know. And we can’t find out without more answers,” Zax replied.

The dragon walked closer and then put a hand on Noah’s shoulder. “But we can say this. Whatever the being inside of you is, it does not define you. It is not you, nor are you it. Like how your hand is not you, nor are you your hand, or any other part of yourself, but the consciousness living in this moment and making choices. And from your choices, we know that you’re a good person Noah.”

Noah looked at the dragon, and then gave him a nod. A swirl of emotions rose and then were pushed down inside of Noah. There were many things he wanted to say that he did not.

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Frustration, fear, and most of all… guilt. Afterall, he knew one thing. When he’d let that creature out… he’d felt like he’d finally shed a shackle he had forever been wearing on himself.

That thought scared him.

“The goddess Septah said to seek the Reaper. And that he will have answers,” Noah said.

“The reaper huh… only a goddess can say something like that so nonchalantly,” Zax said.

“Why? Who’s the Reaper?” Noah asked.

“The Reaper is… he… or rather, they are an entity that define death within this realm. A formless being that does not have any single shape. It is said the reaper visits you in the visage of a loved one at your final hour and guides you to the underworld, protecting you from the gaze of the watcher in the journey across realms,” Zax said.

“Sounds… a lot like our own reaper.”

“We are not surprised. The reaper is not a god limited to just this realm, but a being that connects many different realms together, watching over the souls within them. They are a god, but unlike the gods of this realm or the primordial gods, the reaper’s role is perhaps the most duty bound, and they cannot truly leave the underworld. But none of the other gods can enter their realm either. Only the dead can. It is a protected land, a place for the departed souls. Even if you can reach the underworld, getting to the reaper would be… a very difficult task.”

“No wonder the quest rewards have been slowly adding more and more reasons to head there. Clearly it wants us to meet this guy,” the shadow said.

“Things like your quest system are not unheard of, especially in individuals with a stronger touch of fate onto them compared to others. So the idea is not entirely without basis,” Zax said.

“I’m not sure how to feel about something like that dictating my movements,” Noah said.

“Nothing. These things can dictate paths, and nudge you, but which path you end up taking is entirely in your own hands,” Zax said.

Noah nodded.

“Alright, I’ll say that’s quite enough chit chat. Let’s get this thing over with,” the shadow said.

“Indeed. Let us,” Zax said, motioning them to head into the center of the magical circle, with two smaller circles carved into the runes present on the floor. Noah stood on one side and the shadow moved to another side.

Zax then took the spectral heart out and let it float in between the two of them.

“Noah, this process must be performed by you. What we’re doing ultimately is simply managing it externally and boosting its ability. But the initiator must be you,” Zax said.

“Alright. So, what do I need to do?” Noah asked.

“First, take out your skill book and use it,” Zax said.

Noah took out the skill book from his dimensional vault. The item appeared in his hand, followed by a prompt.

Would you like to consume [Skill Book of Advanced Soul Binding]?

Yes/No?

Noah looked at the prompt, took a breath and then selected yes.

The book lit up, before dissolved with a bright flash as the familiar torrent of information filled Noah’s mind, this time a significant amount that flowed into him like a rushing wave, almost knocking him off his feet for a second.

Noah stumbled back, holding his head. There wasn’t a headache, but his mind moved slower for a second, struggling to incorporate all the new information. He stood there, feeling a throbbing sensation in his head, before soon, it disappeared.

Skill [Soul Binding (Advanced)] obtained!

“You should now have an understanding of how to proceed. Use the spectral heart as the host to bind the shadow back to yourself, forming an anchor onto the world itself,” Zax said, as the runes began to glow on the ground.

Noah steadied himself, and then nodded. A set of information that wasn’t his own began to guide him. The sensation was quite strange, but this wasn’t his first time using a skill book and he soon settled into the motions.

He took a breath, reaching out towards the spectral heart, letting his aura expand outwards. The shadow joined him, letting its own aura reach back out towards Noah as the two auras intertwined at the point the spectral heart was floating.

Noah began to cast.

“Whispers of the beyond, in form we are bound, the endless infinite and indestructible, of that from which all was born.

Let it be bound, to the vessel which contains, the ethereal immortal self, an anchor against the final call.

Anima Immortalis Est In Morte.”

Something began to shift, the heart at the center of the spell beginning to pulse. Noah felt his mana seep outwards, sinking into the heart, but his attention was soon taken by the shadow.

Noah looked the specter in his eyes, watching him looking back.

The shadow gave him a smile.

“See you soon,” the shadow said, as the runes underneath lit up with a bright flash.

The shadow dissolved into the heart the next instant, turning the ethereal heart into a dark shadowy entity. The next instant, the heart shot into Noah’s body, and Noah felt a powerful pulse of energy fill his body.

Memories, and emotions began to fill his mind. His perspective split in two, scenes replaying themselves from a different angle, a different train of thought. Silent, watching, waiting.

A part of himself, one that he’d… not severed, but pushed away, it rose back up to the front again. A part of himself that he’d wanted to not exist. The same part, which now he realized, was what made him human.

Noah collapsed to his knees, dark spectral shadows swirling all around him. A notification popped up in front of him.

[Shadow Spectre] perk has changed to [Shadow Heart]

You can become a shadow, your heart beating with the pulse of the darkness that remains unseen. Even death struggles to touch you. Find yourself capable of defying death once, leaving an anchor onto this realm to guide yourself back from the final end.

Noah simply sat there, on his knees as the spell came to a halt. It was hard to truly describe how he felt at this moment.

Zax walked closer, checking on him for a moment, before patting his shoulder.

“Take your time. In a few hours, your friends are throwing a feast to your return, from the wyverns all of you have caught at Drakan Steaks. When you are ready, head there,” the dragon said, turning around as he left Noah in the chamber.

Noah simply sat there, looking down at his hands silently. He’d expected loss, but this was entirely the opposite.

He felt the second layer of magic in his soul, the shadow heart like a layer around his own heart, beating in tune with it.

Noah stayed there for a moment, before standing back on his feet.

“Is that how I really sound to other people?” he said at last.

A smile came on his face, as the diverging perspectives fully combined, and Noah decided how he wanted to spend the next few hours.

Zax had been wrong. He didn’t need a few hours to sort his memories or emotions. He was never that emotional.

No, instead, he needed those hours so that he could finally use his skill points to upgrade some of his abilities and test them out at last.

Noah smiled in anticipation.