Adam had just made it into the main foyer of the bastion when the door to outside opened. He heard the tap tap tap tap of Juhend’s cane as the exorcist slowly made his way into the building. Adam instinctively drew nearer to Hannah as Juhend sighed and sat down on the couch.

  “Well, I suppose it’s time to start our first lesson, shall we?”

  Juhend waved his hand, and Adam heard a clutter come from up above. Hellig immediately raced down the stairs, swiftly followed by Gusto. Both of them were tensed, as if ready for a fight.

  “Mr. Juhend, I sensed some massive threat down here, what’s going on, where is it?” Hellig’s eyes darted between Juhend and the windows looking outside.

  “I did as well sir, how can we help?”

  Jezebel, meanwhile, slowly came down the stairway, yawning as she did so.

  “Who’s making cookies? Can I have some?” Her eyes were slightly blurry, as if she had just woken up from a deep sleep.

  Juhend gave a chuckle.

  “It was simply time to start class; I gave you each the sensory inspiration needed to get downstairs as quickly as possible.” He tilted his head briefly. “About thirty seconds for Jezebel, and less than ten for both of you. Not terrible.” Juhend nodded his head and clasped his hands.

  “To begin with, throw out everything you think you know. Yes, even you Hellig, none of you is anything more than a novice. We will go over exactly what harmonization is and how it works, and then you all will have a unique opportunity to attempt to harmonize with my Realm here. Is everyone ready?”

  Did he use his powers to make their senses think we were under attack? That’s terrifying…

  Still confused, Hellig and Gusto glanced at each other. Hannah nodded. Meanwhile, Jezebel was coming to the realization that there weren’t actually cookies being made.

  “You can think of your souls as a wave. Similar to how sound travels, it can have different frequencies and can meet other waves in constructive or destructive patterns of interference.”

  With this, Juhend conjured an illusion of a large bright string waving in the air. Soon, this string began to display erratic behaviors.

  “When we travel into a Realm, and it doesn’t matter for how brief a period, our souls are shaped by this interference. Each Realm can be thought of as having its own frequency.”

  With this, the string began to stabilize, becoming more regular.

  “The more time we spend in a Realm, the higher chance we have to increase our harmony with it. You can think of this as the ability for the Realm to overwrite the natural frequency of your soul. This takes quite some time but eventually leads to the complete loss of your soul if you harmonize too greatly with a Realm that has a different frequency to your natural state. This is how monsters are created and is the process that occurred to your friend Marc.”

  The string began to be pulled taut.

  “We are able to consciously influence the Realm around us by pouring our spiritual senses outwards. Things like conjuring this illusion simply require our souls to overwrite the Realm around us instead. However, this pulls us taut, especially if the Realm itself resists us. This is why even Angels and Devils are almost powerless in the domains of other Divinities- no matter how strong you are, there will always be a frequency that is a destructive wavelength compared to your own.”

  The string snapped in half.

  “When we attempt to spread out too much too quickly, we lose our souls, turning into monsters. This process is called misharmonization. Thus, it is incredibly important that we only tap into Realms that have relatively similar frequencies to the natural state of our souls, and never for too great a period or with too large a change. Until you are at the level of a Chosen, it is ill advised to do much more than simple tricks. Until you are a demigod, it is ill advised to do anything at a scale much larger than a building.”

  The string reformed itself.

  “It is impossible to reconstitute a soul. Unlike this string here, once a soul is truly lost, it cannot be restored. The lack of a soul in this context is not to imply that monsters do not have spiritual senses or capabilities. Rather, they are unable to control how their soul interacts with the Realm around them or their physical form.”

  The string wobbled and frayed into many different thin strands.

  “This leads to physical changes in the body- growing or losing appendages, influencing height or weight, or other changes. Most importantly, it stops the soul from harmonizing with anything else.”

  The string was pulled fully taut.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “When a soul is completely lost, there is no longer any natural harmony to be found in the body. Thus, it is incapable of harmonizing with any Realm outside of the one that caused its transformation. Because of this, monsters are not only unable to Shift to other Realms, but they are also incapable of drawing on the powers of any Realm beyond the one in which they are present. In a sense, a monster is closer to a True Divinity than even a Cherubim or Demigod is due to this exclusivity.”

  The string once more was restored and began to wave again in the air.

  “The path to harmonization that most Passengers are taught is to simply spend time in a Realm and meditate. This is not the path I will be teaching you here. The end goal of every Passenger is to become an Angel- a True Divinity who fully harmonizes with a Realm that matches the natural frequency of their soul exactly. I will be teaching you more...effective means of drawing power from a Realm.”

  The string branched into many different ends.

  “The Accepted Pantheon are Angels that have done just this. Think of the Many Winged Angel, the Rainbow Pantheon or the Mind Most High. These Angels are fully harmonized with Realms that perfectly reflect the natural state of their souls. Because of this, it would be fair to say that the Angel is their Realm, and vice versa.”

  “However, frequencies are complicated, and it is often difficult to determine if a Realm is truly the best fit. It can take decades for a Chosen to become a demigod, and most never make it that far. A demigod making it to an Angel happens once every couple of centuries, if that.”

  The string once more consolidated itself.

  “We get around this issue by Shifting to many different Realms before making any rash decisions. By exposing ourselves to dozens or even hundreds of Realms while we are Passengers, we can notice trends and patterns in what harmonizes with our souls most effectively. Then, once we are certain, we enter into whichever Realm we choose and spend time familiarizing ourselves with it on an intimate level. Thus, we become Chosen through the act of choosing. This is why you are all here in my Realm instead of the Physical World. Whether you know it or not, we have already begun the process of searching for which Realm will harmonize best with you. Though of course, Hellig and Gusto are already Chosen.”

  The string disappeared.

  “I won’t bore you too much with the detailed intricacies of how a Realm likewise chooses us, but it will suffice to say that it is possible to even become a demigod of a Realm that you do not fully harmonize with. In fact, your very own emperor is one such demigod. He will never become an Angel but has chosen to harmonize with his specific Realm for other reasons.”

  Juhend got up from the couch.

  “Now then, shall we meditate at the lake? One of the best ways to understand if a Realm harmonizes with you well is by spending uninterrupted time studying your body and soul. Of course, this is also the slowest approach.”

  Juhend led the group out towards the glimmering lake. In the sky above, stars wheeled and turned in dizzying patterns.

  …

  Captain Naerhn was freezing. The Vice Admiral had assigned him a trio of Passengers in service to the missionary fleet, and it was their task to investigate the last ruin in the area. He had just about had enough and was ready to call it quits, but then again, if they did happen to run into Hrime, it would certainly look good if he was the one to bring her in. He was a Chosen after all, and his skills were certainly capable of handling most threats.

  The captain rounded a corner in the ruins, the stone bricks around them were weathered by time and the elements. The snowstorm was nowhere near as heavy as usual, giving the group hope. They only had a few more spots to check before they could return to the dreadnought.

  “Smith, Wesson, Winchester, on me. This is the last building to check.”

  The trio of soldiers, each capable Passengers in their own right, moved to back up Naerhn as he led them towards a collapsed section of the ruins.

  Naerhn didn’t notice it, but at some point, a white figure had appeared in front of him. It wore a pure white robe. On its hands were black gloves that looked as dark as night, a contrast to the snow in the background. Its head was like nothing Naerhn had ever seen before. A mask of brightly white skin, without even wrinkles or creases, greeted him. No eyes, nose or mouth could be seen. It was like looking at an unpainted figurine.

  Naerhn didn’t know how it imparted its words to him, but each syllable left him feeling like he was facing down death itself.

  “Don’t you know it’s rude to pry into other’s private lives? I’ll have to send a complaint to your Vice Admiral for this.”

  Naerhn didn’t dare clap back with any witty remarks. He had recently been promoted to captain, he was only 24, and already a Chosen! He had a bright future ahead of him. His mother and father back home were already preparing how they would spend his birthday together when he went on shore leave next month.

  He had the sinking feeling that if he made a single mistake here, the being in front of him wouldn’t have an issue with killing his entire team.

  “Oh well, I suppose that humans are rude sometimes, aren’t you?”

  Naerhn swallowed the saliva in his throat. He could hear the pants of Smith, Wesson and Winchester behind him.

  “Let’s do something about those souls of yours, shall we? They’re, how to say, out of sequence with my designs.”

  The white robed figure spread its hands and the blizzard around them seemed to completely stop.

  “Rejoice, for you have the privilege of having yourself harmonized with the chosen one of prophecy. My embrace is unending.”

  …

  Somewhere in the midst of a cloudless snowy expanse, three Passengers and a Chosen lost their ability to act in less time than it took Captain Naerhn’s tears to form in the eyes he no longer had. A white robed figure flicked blood from its black gloved hands and scoffed.

  “Always so fragile.”