“So why are we in your room exactly?” Sya asked.
“Because I’m the teacher?” Vera answered. “Does it matter?”
“Well, you’re not the teacher in this case. Arden is. Why aren’t we in his room?”
“Again,” Arden said. “Does it matter? Last I checked, we just needed privacy. This works.”
“You’re hiding something,” Sya said.
Arden sighed.
“I think you're being paranoid. Why would I avoid going to my room?”
“I don’t know, why would you avoid it?”
“Because room service is over there,” he lied. “Leaving our bodies with them is the same as leaving them out in the open.”
“Typically, when someone says that room service is cleaning, it's a lie. Most times they say that so they can spend the night at someone else's place.”
“That’s a generalization,” Vera said. “I doubt that’s actually a thing.”
Sya ignored her and gave her brother a knowing stare.
“There’s a woman over there, isn’t there? You had sex last night.”
“Sya, you know me. If I had sex, I would be shouting it from the rooftops. I wouldn’t go out of my way to hide it.”
“That’s…fair actually,” Sya deadpanned with the wind taken out of her sails. “Damn. I thought I had something."
Arden and Vera were again taken aback by Sya’s perception. Pretty much everything she said was correct. The reason why they weren’t at Arden’s place was because they were airing it out. With both Arden and Vera being inexperienced, they didn’t know how long it would take for the room to return to normal.
“So how do we do this?” Sya asked.
“First, close your eyes,” Vera said.
Arden grabbed a hand from each of them. All of their eyes were shut.
“Do you want to enter my soul cluster?” he asked
“Yes,” Sya said. “But I don’t-”
“We’re here,” Arden said, letting go of their hands. “You can open your eyes.”
Sya hesitantly opened her eyes, expecting Arden to be pulling her leg for accusing him of hooking up with a random woman, but instead she saw the grotesque majesty of Arden’s soul cluster.
“God damn dude,” she said, looking around. “I already saw it when Domah took over my body, but I was a bit preoccupied to actually take note. What the hell is with your soul?”
“It just turned out like this,” Arden said, walking over the ocean of blood to get close to his star core resting on a large bone pedestal. “I thought it was weird too at first, but it's grown on me.”
Sya looked through the giant ribcage towards the nodes of multicolored light shining through a web of viscera.
“Are you holding the galaxy hostage?”
“I said the same thing,” Vera said.
“Before I start showing off,” Arden said. “I think I should show you my Status. Just so we're all aware of what I’ve got going on in here.”
The crimson Status window appeared in front of everyone, allowing everyone to get either a refresher, or a first look at what Arden exactly was.
Name: Arden
Starborn Tier: Red
Starborn Rank: Protostar
- Progress to next rank: 2/1000
Constellation: RedShift
- Rank: Paradox
- Description: As stars travel across the universe away from us, they take on a red appearance and are called red shifts. You too will become red with blood as you advance. The question remains as to whether your humanity will come with you, or if you will leave it behind in the name of power.
- Legacy: Arden
Innate Ability: The Blood of Billions
- Description: Due to your Paradoxical nature and possession of a Legacy, your evolution process is different from other Starborn. You do not have a Stellar Core and Stellar Essence, but a Star Core that feeds on Biomass from slain foes.
Protostar Ability: Devour
- Description: With a touch, you can devour Biomass for your own benefit.
“That’s me,” Arden said.
“You know, I always kind of knew that there was an edgy side of you,” Sya said, having finished reading through it. “Orphaned slum rats typically go hand in hand with over the top edge. What did you do to get these powers?”
Vera looked at Arden with a worried face. She knew what Arden was like immediately after his trial. He was broken. Whatever happened in his trial was enough to ruin him. Even she didn’t know what had actually happened there. Arden only told her some of what happened, like how he was poisoned or how he was husk, but he didn’t share any details. Vera didn’t ask either, for fear of hurting Arden even more.
She didn’t need to know. It wasn’t her place to know. If Arden wanted to tell what happened, he would do it at his own pace. She just needed to be there for him. Just as she had done, and just as she would continue to do.
Arden placed his hand on his core and looked up. After a few seconds of thought, he spoke.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“I guess it's time I talked about it.”
“Are you sure?” Vera asked.
He nodded.
“The soul power thing was all about my sense of identity. What happened in the trial influenced who I am. It’s the reason I’m an Archon now. Using my identity as a source of power while denying my trial is denying a part of who I am. Of what I am. Accepting all that I am was what allowed me to put up a fight against Domah.”
Three pedestals at stool-height emerged from the ocean of blood at Arden’s command, surprising Sya and Vera. As they all sat down, Arden began to speak.
“My trial began half way through a fight with the crown prince…”
*****
“After the being spoke to me, the trial ended and the world was destroyed in front of me.”
Arden looked down at the floor, the ocean of blood.
“The blood of billions is on my hands. The Stargazer said so. I ended the world with my own actions. And it's a part of me now. I've already accepted it.”
After a minute or so of silence, Vera spoke. The revelation that a third Vera appeared before Arden was a tough pill to swallow, even more so considering her death was what drove Arden forward. It was confusing, but more than that, it was painful for Arden, so they let it be.
“You went through all of that?”
Arden nodded.
“Do you regret how it ended?”
“Undoubtedly. I don't know how real that trial world was, but everything I went through in there was real enough to push me to the brink. I still ended it. This place shows that I survived the trial at the cost of everyone else.”
He looked at Vera with sad eyes.
“Do you remember the description of my Constellation? It says that I'll lose my humanity as I get stronger. The trial proved that. I'm more afraid of that than any number of Archons after me.”
“You shouldn't have to worry about that,” Sya said. “You're as human as they come. When you tricked Domah and brought her into here, you did it with flair. I'm assuming because you wanted to do it like that.”
“It was the same at Savish’s restaurant,” Vera said. “From helping the staff, to having a fake-out death, you injected your spark into everything for a bit of fun.”
“Before you guys get too far into this praise,” Arden continued. “I’m not saying I don't feel human now. Just being with you two did more for my mental health than several months with Santos could have done. The whole point of me telling you this was to show that I'm confident in who I am. If I look at who I was in the trial, then I'm a walking doomsday scenario. If I look at who I was during the fight with Domah, I was an immortal masochist. But if I take it all together, then it becomes simple.”
He flashed a confident smile. He looked at them with eyes that dared them to challenge him.
“I'm all of those things. I'm Arden, the Archon of Evolution. I am defined by my advancement. I turned the legacies of both Beyond and Life into my own. I will always be improving.”
Arden stood up from his bone stool.
“I am my soul, and my soul is me. We are one being. I know what I am. It scares me a little bit, I admit, but I won't let it stop me. It's because of my will and my confidence in my identity that I can do this.”
As soon as he said the words, two sets of bone wings sprouted from his back, and he took to the sky above the girls.
Vera stood up in amazement. Her eyes widened as Arden climbed higher and higher up. With a stunned smile, she looked at Sya.
“You need to tell your brother to stop with his impossible antics.”
Sya shook her head.
“The god of submission couldn't get him to stop. I don't think anyone can.”
*****
“You figured out how to do that on your own?” Vera asked.
“Well, I wouldn't say alone. Domah showed me the ropes,” Arden responded. “I wondered how she was able to manifest such power inside of my soul. This was the answer I arrived at.”
Vera rubbed her hands together. She couldn't stop herself from smiling. Arden was right when he said that it might help with aura control.
“This is a game changer,” she said. “Do either of you know exactly what aura is?”
“It's when you look cool,” Sya said.
“It's an extension of yourself and your inherent power as a Starborn,” Vera explained, ignoring Sya. “When a Starborn projects their aura, they are imposing their will towards the universe using their essence.”
Her eyes had stars in them as she gushed more about aura. It was one of the few times that Arden saw her as cute rather than hot.
“What Arden showed us wasn't an extension of himself. It was himself. That was his soul, and he was in perfect control of it. It's beyond aura. With his knowledge, he’ll have a headstart in aura control at the very least.”
“That's cool and all,” Sya said. “But what makes it different in practice?”
“Well, the soul is inviolable, right?”
“Debatably,” Sya responded.
“If an attack is launched with soul instead of essence, then it stands to reason that the attack will share the properties of the soul. It should be inviolable as well. Impossible to defend against."
“Should?” Arden asked.
“I’m guessing right now,” Vera responded. “I don't think there's a precedent for this. We're in uncharted territory now. Have you tested this outside the confines of your soul?”
“Yes,” Arden nodded his head.
“And?”
“No,” Arden shook his head. “It's a shame. I'd love to keep using these powers, but I don't think every enemy would be willing to throw down in my soul cluster.”
“If you invite anymore in, we'll be having a serious talk,” Vera warned with a dangerous light in her eyes.
“Duly noted. But it's worth noting that this isn't quite what Domah was able to do. She was able to manifest this power in someone else's soul, while I can't even manifest it in reality.”
“That could just be a power thing,” Sya offered.
“It could be,” Arden acknowledged. “But I don't think so. I'm still mostly human. No matter how many times she beat her ability into me, there's no way that I was able to completely figure out the technique. By the looks of it, I'm on the right track, but I’m not there yet. I’m missing something.”
“Is it power?” Sya offered again.
“It's not that. My gut is telling me that there's another reason.”
“You're going off your gut?”
“Going off my gut is how I figured this out to begin with.”
“Lets put aside the question as to why it's different,” Vera interjected. “You don't need the transcendental power of an Archon to make this work. If we did, Arden would be able to use it in reality.”
She turned her attention to Sya.
“If we do what Arden did, maybe we can use the soul as well.”
Sya sighed and stood up.
“I’ll give it a shot in my soul cluster, but I think its gonna take a bit more then yelling ‘bisexual poisoner’ to awaken the powers of the soul.”
“We'll follow you in,” Arden said. “I want to see whose cluster looks the best. Ignoring mine because it's sexy as hell, I'm going to assume Vera’s cluster is the prettiest.”
“It'll be hard to beat,” Vera said.
“I'm confident,” Sya said with a smirk.
Arden thought about Vera’s nature compared to his sister's. A beautiful Starborn who was both a master of ice and steel versus the Blight Walker.
“Yeah,” he muttered. “Fascist heaven's winter vacation is going to sweep.”