Chapter 48: The Evolution Process

  In a minute, the shape of the blob had shrunk down to almost nothing. Like thawing ice, it shrunk, soon leaving nothing but a chunk of solid darkness the size of a compact car. As the solid object stopped dissipating, something disrupted its pure blackness from its very centre.

  A slight tinge of grey spread almost like a disease from within, visible as if the absolute dark was transparent. Soon reaching the size of a fist in the middle of the object, the grey growth started bubbling. These bubbles spread in every direction, reaching the surface of the solid object with tiny pops.

  Having nothing to compare what was happening with, Erik had no words. The object kept doing things like this for the next few minutes, somehow always one-upping itself with weirdness. The whole situation felt far more abstract than Erik would’ve liked.

  Being on the mind to leave his mindplace and come back later, the bubbles returned, this time of varying sizes and shades. The bubbles drifted through the solid matter—having no concern of physics or normalcy—in almost complete unison. Looking closer, the way the bubbles had positioned themselves—two big ones above a curved row of many more, much smaller ones… Was it a face?

  “Hello?” Erik attempted, stooping to look it in its eyes. The black shape’s bubbles jumped as if in response.

  “Nice to meet you too… I think. Can you speak?” he tried as the bubbles seemed to calm, slowing to a near halt in what seemed like a smile.

  From its grey centre, a massive bubble grew, becoming almost as large as the entire black form. Its edge pushed into the face-bubbles, but they didn’t seem too bothered as they only moved a bit, then fused with the much larger bubble before they separated as free entities once more as the large bubble popped.

  “Wah.”

  The sound was indescribable. Erik imagined this was how a depressed treant would sound if they were real. He figured somewhere they were real. Maybe.

  “I’ll just cross off TBD for you, buddy. I’m Erik. May I call you…” Erik continued, then considered the name Jessie had given him. He would never call it ‘Sunless Perseverance’. “Percy?” he said with a wide grin after a few moments had passed. The bubbles forming its mouth turned upside down, and a new large bubble grew from its centre. Another bubble also formed inside that one.

  “Wah-wah,” it said.

  “No? I thought that was a good one.”

  The shape took to creating another bubble, this time in a much more abstract shape. Could bubbles be four dimensional? As he waited for the complex bubble to form, Erik went inside himself to feel out the ability he’d gained by absorbing ‘Not-Percy’. Odd. It didn’t have a name yet. He couldn’t help but let loose a wide grin as he sensed what the power was, however. At last, a cool one.

  “Glom,” the complex bubble popped.

  “Glom? Really?” Erik asked.

  The frown returned, looking a bit more annoyed this time, but Erik couldn’t tell whether it showed annoyance at him or at its own ability to communicate.

  “Wah-wah.”

  It started forming another complex bubble, and Erik had no choice but to wait. A proper introduction was important, he thought, and knowing someone’s name was a must if you thought you were going to see each other again in a short time. “Glo,” the bubble popped, but another had been forming inside it, popping only a few seconds later. “Om.”

  “Glom. Glo. Om. Glo-om? Gloom!” Erik attempted, sounding out the various combinations. Gloom’s eyes lit up in a brighter shade of grey, and it donned a wide, cheerful smile.

  “Wah!” it popped.

  Erik checked the internalisation of the ability once more, and it was now named ‘Gloom’. It hadn’t worked like that before. Maybe the type of ability had a say in it? It was quite different from his other abilities. Time would tell. Or maybe it wouldn’t.

  The Titan offered his goodbyes as politely as he could in an attempt to leave.

  “Halt.”

  “Cross?” Erik asked, turning to the crimson armoured form behind him.

  “You and I should talk,” she said and vanished without a trace.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Erik sighed and did the same, his body appearing in front of Cross Vigor’s large stature in the middle of the lake on Leviathan Island. Erik peered around, but no one else was there. Cross Vigor had never wanted to talk before. She was always silent, almost brooding. It unnerved him. Why now?

  After fifteen seconds had gone by with no words shared between them, Erik asked: “What did you want to talk about?”

  “Do you feel the change within you? In this place?” she asked, the water beneath her rippling away from her as she spoke.

  “I guess I did when I entered. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Do you have something to do with it?

  “That is a more complex question than you realise. The simple answer to that is ‘no’. This is all about you,” her voice echoed inside her crimson and black armour.

  “What about me?” he asked.

  “This place reflects you. Some call it ‘soul’, others call it ‘self’. Neither quite right nor entirely wrong. There have been a few changes that have occurred here in the last few weeks outside of here, not including your recent trial.”

  “A few?” Erik asked. He could just feel anything having changed, and there was more? What had happened outside in the last week that would cause a change in his soul to be reflected here? There was the attack, of course, but he wasn’t sure what that would change within him.

  “Indeed. The first is simple. The four pillars of your power have settled. This means you are ready to start evolving.”

  This one he already knew. Once he had filled all major ability slots—four in his case—he could start increasing their ranks. Minor abilities would grow alongside the major one they were connected to—the pillar.

  “Sure. The second change?” he asked.

  “Don’t be hasty. You need to know these changes in yourself. Do you think all that has changed is a new landmark in this world or a number that you have reached?”

  “I guess that wouldn’t make much sense if something was stopping me from increasing in ranks earlier. Is it the air? It feels off somehow.”

  “No, but that is another change. You can feel it in the water. It has started growing thicker and heavier. As you get closer to your first evolution, you’ll feel the difference in quality. The difference in your essence.”

  Erik touched the water of the lake, knowing full well it was no different from the sea in his world. Was it any thicker? It felt different from normal water, he had to admit, but not any thicker.

  “Okay… So that’s normal, I take it?” Erik asked, getting a nod from the armoured spirit.

  “Second. The air. It’s as tense as a thread ready to split, like a branch held taut enough to snap. It is like that gasp of air you take when frightened, holding it and holding it until you realise it left your lungs already.”

  “And what does that come from? What does it mean?”

  “It means you are scared. This is a very recent change. There was… activity here. Not long ago.”

  “I’m not scared,” Erik argued, but felt his words all but sizzle as they left his mouth. “I’m just… nervous. Four months ago, I was just normal. I love having these powers, of course, but saving the world? It’s a bit of a step up for me. What if I fail?” he asked himself more than Cross.

  “What if you fail?” she repeated.

  “People will die. The world will fall… It will burn.”

  “That is not your fear,” Cross countered.

  “Of course it is! What else would it be? That’s what happens if I fail; people, families, everyone will die. If I fail, humanity will cease to exist. If I die, I…”

  Cross stood there, waiting. Erik realised what she was trying to do. She was right, wasn’t she? His fear wasn’t of failing. He feared dying. He had focused too much on the consequences rather than his feelings.

  “Thanks, Cross. I’ll try not to worry so much,” Erik lied. It wasn’t anything he could help or avoid.

  “Fear is natural and will only make you want to grow stronger. Don’t run from it, but seize it,” she said, holding out her arm with an open hand, closing it so hard a burst of air exploded out from it. The water rippled outwards as well.

  “Any more changes?” Erik concentrated on the spirit in front of him after he’d looked around some more.

  “Not yet. I will strive to tell you more should the need arise. Your knowledge is… lacking,” she complained.

  “Sorry, but magic has been extinct since forever. It’s a bit of a learning curve,” Erik pointed out. “But thank you, Cross. I’ve never heard you say so many words before. Are we becoming friends?” he continued, this time in a teasing manner.

  “I speak when needed. Besides, it is in all of our best interests that you do well.”

  “How so? This ‘spirit’ thing seems to just be happening to me, not Jessie. I never even heard mention of it in Afterlife.”

  The armour whistled a low tone from Cross’ sigh.

  “Don’t hold this Afterlife in too high esteem. Magic is alive, though seems rather distant from here. Afterlife is nothing but a game to wait for its return, I am sure. As for us spirits, I’m sure you can imagine why you can talk to us like this—while your Witch friend cannot—is your bloodline. ‘Behold, the Titan who carry the Cross is reborn!’” She mimicked herself rather grandiosely.

  “So, is it because I’m a Titan or because I have you? What does that nonsense mean, anyway?”

  “It is your Titan blood. Titans and spirits were once entwined, sharing the universe with each other. That was before the Blood was diluted, making lesser people with less purity. The ability to commune with spirits was among the first abilities the watered-down species forgot,” she answered, seeming to spit the last words. “You have me because I was… am your ancestral spirit.”

  “Ancestral? Meaning my family? From a bazillion years ago?” Erik asked, receiving only a confirming nod in response. “How has the Titan bloodline been reborn again in me, after all this time? I presume it should’ve been, at the minimum, diluted down to one of these ‘lesser’ bloodlines,” the man then asked. He didn’t think the other Remnants were lesser, not that he knew many more than Jessie except in passing.

  “I am unsure. It should be impossible, much more so in a magical void as your world. Though I cannot say how, know that it fills me with a hope I haven’t felt in millions of your lifetimes. To think… A final Titan. Maybe even a new first Titan.” Cross looked upwards as she spoke, up at the false sky and through the blackness beyond it.

  “I want to learn more about you and the other spirits. Can you and I talk later? I want to do one more trial for now,” Erik asked. Cross nodded and was gone in a flash, much like last time. “And thanks,” he said to nothing but the false air in front of him, knowing she heard him.