The sight that greeted Arden inside of Sya’s soul was a familiar one. He felt his heart pound faster in his chest with a mixture of dread and an odd nostalgia. A nervous smile spread across his face as he drank in the familiar void.
It was a black space empty of everything but them, just like when Arden was knocked off the cliff in his trial, save for the calm black water they stood on. Sya’s soul cluster was an endless dark sea on the horizon.
“It’s simple, but it looks good,” Sya said. “Especially my core.”
Arden and Vera looked around trying to find her core. All they found was the dark emptiness. After a few seconds of searching, they saw something appear on the horizon.
At first, it was just a tiny speck of silver light.
“Get ready to see something wild,” Sya said.
The speck grew in size until it looked to be the size of a basketball, letting everyone see that it wasn't fully silver, it was just a silver ring. And it kept growing.
“It’s not getting any closer,” Arden noted. “How big is it supposed to be?”
Sya didn’t respond.
Arden and Vera both unconsciously took a step back when the silver ring took up their entire vision. As it grew, they realized that the bottom half dipped beyond the horizon. It was still as far away as it was when it first appeared.
When it stopped growing any larger, Arden and Vera stared wordlessly at Sya’s core. They were like ants beneath it. The only part of it that had any color was the incredibly thin silver outline. Inside the border was a darkness deeper than the void.
The darkness swirled together like living shadows. Anytime the shadows crept too close to the ring of silver light, they retreated back into the center of the core.
The ring flickered as it glowed, not like it was dying, but like it was exuding too much energy. Silver steam burned along the silver ring, with the steam stacks growing taller the closer they were to the apex. The column of silver haze in the middle rose high enough into the cluster to double the height of the core itself.
With the silver light shining, Arden and Vera noticed that the ground wasn’t just dark water. Swirling undulating shadows made up the sea beneath their feet, just like the center of her core.
Everywhere they looked around the cluster, they would always see the strange eldritch shadows lurking just outside their peripheral vision.
“How’s that for aura!?” Sya cheered.
“You win,” Vera said. “My frozen castle doesn't stand a chance against this.”
“Why is your core so big?” Arden asked, unable to tear his eyes away from it.
“Beats me,” Sya said with a shrug. “But I love how it looks like an eclipse. The corona burning blight essence is a nice touch.”
With a snap of her fingers, a Status window appeared in front of each of the Starborn. This time, the characters weren’t glitched out. Apparently, becoming a full-fledged Starborn was enough to fix the corruption.
Name: Sya
Starborn Tier: Red
Starborn Rank: Protostar
- Progress to next rank: 59/1000
Constellation: Blight Walker
- Rank: Paradox
- Description: The Blight is representative of finality and annihilation. When one is afflicted with the Blight, their journey comes to an end. To you, the Blight is only a step on your journey. You walk together with the Blight and bend it to your will, for the Blight can be wielded like any sword.
Innate Ability: Corruption
- Description: Due to your paradoxical nature, your evolution process is different from other Starborn. You do not have a Stellar Core and Stellar Essence, but a Blight Core and Blight Essence which can be absorbed from Blighted, or converted from Star Cores and Stellar Cores.
Protostar Ability: Corrupted Blood
- Description: Your blood contains a mixture of both blight essence and stellar essence, allowing it to affect more targets.
“How come both of you ended up with evil Status’s?” Vera asked. “You feed off of corrupted stellar essence and your brother feeds off of biomatter.”
“We just really want to make sure we leave nothing behind,” Sya said. “I’ll eat the soul stuff, and he’ll eat the physical stuff.”
“Don’t pair us together,” Arden said. “I have a planet’s worth of blood in my soul, but at least it's not toxic.”
Arden continued looking at the enormous blight core.
“How would Satellites orbit that?”
“I don’t know, I don’t have any. Thanks for flaunting your wealth by the way.”
“We can figure that out soon,” Vera said. “We can try to find a Satellite smith after our appointment. We should have enough money and cores to get some made for us. I could use a real sword.”
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“Same,” Arden said, drawing flat stares from the girls.
“Don’t you have like eight Satellites already?” Vera asked.
“No. I used the Spark on Domah. I only have seven now..”
“The only profound realization about my identity that I’m having right now,” Sya began. “Is that I really want to hit you.”
*****
The three of them were back in the real world, sitting on Vera’s floor, just as they were when they went into the sibling’s soul clusters.
“That’s really trippy,” Sya said. “It doesn’t feel like we moved anywhere. It’s more like the world changed around us.”
Vera looked next to her bed at the digital clock.
“We still have an hour until we need to meet up with Laurent. Let’s do some aura training until then. Just basic training. You two don’t even know how to use it, but Arden was able to manifest his soul.”
“Does me a fat lotta good when I don’t even know how to control aura. I saw a guy in my trial do it, but I wasn’t able to figure it out.”
“Says the guy who figured out an Archon’s technique by watching her,” Sya shot back.
“I had a lot more time with Domah than I did with Bellum.”
“Focus, you two," Vera scolded. “There are some parallels between aura and soul as we already discussed, but it's not one to one. Even if we do figure out the soul, that's a card we want to keep hidden. Aura is used as a good metric for Starborn. If you can control it well, you’re pretty good. If you’re going to pretend to keep being a mostly normal Starborn, you need to know how to control aura normally as well.”
She could tell that her students were focused again, so she continued.
“The two core facets of aura manipulation are release and restraint. Let’s begin with release, as that’s the obvious one. Every Starborn and Celestial has an aura, and they are constantly releasing it. That includes you two.”
“We are?” Sya asked.
“Yup. Your existence has taken on more definition with your powers. You are constantly releasing aura with every moment until you learn how not to.”
“I don’t feel anything coming from you or Arden.”
“That’s because we’re all weak. Remember, red-tier protostars are just barely stronger than mundanes, and aura is a representation of our power. We have little power, so we have little aura. But that is why we're doing this now. Unlike the other exercises that promote good habits and good bodies, we train auras almost immediately after awakening because it gets dangerous if we don’t do it early.”
“What do you mean?” Arden asked.
“When we get stronger, so too do our auras. And our auras are constantly being released at the moment. If we get too strong, our auras could do some serious damage to the people and places around us. Which is where restraint comes in. Restraint is the far more important aspect of aura manipulation. It’s what separates the good from the bad in terms of aura manipulation.”
“We have to be able to restrain our auras to prevent them from leaking out and doing harm,” Arden said.
“Right. If you can't restrain your aura, other Starborn won't take you seriously. That being said, releasing aura as a method of attack is fine, so long as you are able to control its release. That’s why they are both important. I'll teach you the fundamentals; spreading your aura, narrowing it down and hiding it. After that, you'll have to practice on your own. All of our auras are different, so you'll have to figure out its different quirks.”
“How different are we talking?” Sya asked.
“My older sister is an affliction specialist,” Vera said. “In addition to the normal things you can do with aura, she is able to make her afflictions worse for the victim.”
“Woah,” Arden said. “I didn't think auras were basically another full power.”
Vera shook her head.
“They're not. Remember, they are an extension of your powers. Her powers are all about spreading sickness, so her aura helps with that. But it wasn't always like that. In the beginning, it was just a normal blank aura, just like yours are. But she grew into her power. When you do the same, your auras will become more unique.Typically by orange-tier.”
“I look forward to that,” Sya said with a feisty grin.
“Same,” Arden agreed.
“Baby steps first,” Vera said. “You don't even know how to restrain your aura yet. So let's work on the basics before we get our hopes up on what they may or may not be able to do.”
“So what's the first step?”
“It's simple. First, you need to feel your aura. I'll help with that. Once you manage to feel it for the first time, it'll become instinctive to control, like a sixth sense or a phantom limb.”
Vera stood up and cracked her neck.
“This might feel a little invasive,” she said. “But you'll thank me later.”
*****
“Now this is trippy,” Sya said. “It feels like it's always been part of me with how familiar it is. And natural.”
“Tell me about it,” Arden said. “This feels like when I first grew wings. I already knew how to fly as soon as I grew them.”
“And now you fly around performing stunts in your soul,” Vera said. “Once you figured it out, it became instinct. Aura is the same. Just keep working towards releasing it and restraining it at controlled amounts. Hopefully, after a week or so, you'll be able to control your aura at a rudimentary level.”
Some time had passed since Vera did whatever it was she did with her own aura to make them get a feel for their own. Arden had no clue what it was she actually did, but it was weirdly stimulating, like he felt it on a level somewhere between the physical and the spiritual.
They were now in the main lobby of Miasma, dressed in semi-casual clothes that their host provided for them. Going to an important meeting in workout clothes would not have left the best impression.
Personally, Arden was happy to be wearing something that covered the teeth marks that decorated his chest that stubbornly refused to heal. The workout attire from the morning managed the same, but he was worried that the physical activity would leave them exposed.
It was a secret he wanted to keep from Sya at all costs, just like his work history.
Laurent appeared as they made small talk, looking like a high level executive, which technically he was. His suit jacket was folded over his arm as he made his way over to the group.
“Good to see you guys again,” he greeted them. “Is everyone ready?”
“Ready as we're going to be,” Vera answered.
“Alright then.”
A few minutes later, the four of them were inside of a sleek black sedan as it cruised out of the parking garage. Laurent was driving and Arden was in the passenger seat, while the girls sat in the back.
As they drove down the street, Laurent noticed Arden shooting glances at him and cringing.
“What’s up?” He asked, raising his shades.
Arden shook his head.
“The clothes and the car make you look like an asshole.”
“You can walk to your registration if you want.”
“I’m good, thanks.”