Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Chapter 298: Zach

Cry

His will churned and boiled, his body and mind a chasm filled with the might of an ocean of fire. It had only grown stronger, every day, every month, every year that passed. Improving his willpower was the reason he existed. There was nothing else that mattered. The hunger and thirst were trials, obstacles to overcome. Silence was his greatest friend, it wrapped him in its arms, held him close with warmth. It kept the wildness beneath the surface of the ocean from spilling out, from raging and burning everything down.

He was he didnt remember his name, if he even had one before. The only thing he remembered were two names, Ryun and Naha. Nothing else. He was will made manifest, he was a god trapped. He reached out to the wall around his mind, gently, reverently. He touched it, didnt push. His will pulsed, wanting to rage and smash through it. He hated that wall, it had been there for all of his life, keeping him from something, he had no doubt about that.

But this time, he didnt push. He looked for something else. His skill trembled, even though the world around him struggled to keep up with the lie. He didnt need it and its words to understand. Reality was what one believed in, and his world liked to play tricks on him. It was a mother and a father to him, it taught him how to see through it. It helped him and made him strong. Even though, at times like this one, it could be overbearing. He ignored the lies and looked for the flaws, his mind focused.

He could see them, yet he knew. They were so small, so insignificant, that no matter his might, he would never breach the wall.

He pulled his will back once the knowledge settled in. The ocean of fire calmed with his sorrow. Something inside of him was near to giving up. But he didnt give up. He didnt break. Never.

He stood up and glanced at his mountain, filled with notches and writing. There were secrets there that he had forgotten. He resolved himself and went looking.

He searched across the mountain, the writings carved in stone that always remained the same. He didnt know why he found that strange, and it didnt matter. He paused in front of one section with piles of stone arrange around it. Graphs and ideas were carved into the stone, theories about the Mind Essence, what it all could do. It was unorganized, chaotic. Random thoughts strung together with no logic. He focused on a few pieces that were underlined.

Mind related to Will?

Mental fortitude =/= Will?

I am certain, Mind can provide the building blocks for greater Will.

Mind over matter, Will over reality.

I understand.

He tried to remember, but it had been so long since he had written this. Since he had tried to understand the Mind Essence. Some of that knowledge remained, only after so long, it was instinctual. Buried deep within of him.

He moved along the wall, reading. There was a lot of information buried within the ramblings of a crazy mind. A couple of steps after, he paused, looking at another section of the wall with underlined text.

I am a Soul and body linked. My real mind is part of my soul, my memories, my intelligence. The body is just a conduit. The Wall is outside of my mind, surrounding it, cutting me off from my body. But the soul

The thought was never finished. He didnt remember writing this, it had to be very long ago. Yet something about it clicked with him. He only had to try and figure it out.

He found a cave that he had no memory of. He had to had forgotten it long, long ago. Its walls were covered in hurried writing, a story carved into stone.

He read and wanted to cry, to weep for what it was. This was the story of a man by the name of Zacharia. His short life on a world called Earth. Then his life after. He was intrigued, because the writing spoke of the two names that he still remembered.

This were his words. He had carved his memory into the stone, because he had known that he would forget. There wasnt enough room to write down everything, only cliff-notes.

One of the names, Naha, was mentioned more than anything else. He him of the time when he wrote this, wanted to remember. He wanted to never forget that she was the reason that he needed to get out. That she needed him.

He, the Zach of now, who he had become, he didnt know. He didnt remember. The words said that he loved her, but perhaps some part of him did. He had remembered the Name after all.

He moved away from that section, reading on. Looking for parts that were highlighted.

Yeti, Raazel Equinar - Dangerous, untrustworthy. Enemy.

He read that section, learning about a prisoner, like himself. A being of great power and will. A being that had waited in solitude and patience for the right time to strike. The right time to escape.

That was all that he could do too.

He let his Willpower out, just a tiny bit. He used it on himself, trying he didnt know what he was trying to do. It was blind experimentation. All around him was Mind Essence, if the carvings were to be believed. And Essence was it was what the world was made out of. He didnt understand the difference quite yet. Though he did feel like he understood the Soul Essence too, and Time, and Wind. Time passed in this world, it weighed on his mind, but it was Mind Essence taking form of Time. Did that mean something? Did that make it not be real? He didnt know. His existence was all that he knew, he couldnt compare. Not even the cave with its memories had anything that made things clearer to him.

His Will made everything tremble. But he didnt push, he knew what he could do now. He knew how this world would hide his successes from him. So he restrained himself, and just built up his power. More and more, all for that one day when he would escape. Not because he wanted to, he didnt know what he wanted. But because of the words on the wall inside a cave.

I NEED TO ESCAPE.

The words were deeply scratched into the stone. And they gave him a sense of regret, of pain and sorrow seared deeply into the stone. He knew it, because the scratches there were scars on his own mind and soul. He forgot, but they were sill there. The words brought it all up. He was alone, but he hadnt always been. And out there, beyond the prison was something else. Something that was just a distant dream long since forgotten. Something that could change everything.

The Wall around his mind grew heavier, and he pulled back his Will. It wasnt time yet.

Understanding Mind meant understanding the base rules of this world. Mind was powerful, it could be whatever you imagined it to be. It related to Willpower, because Willpower took that to the next level. It bent the world to its own design, manifesting will through willpower and imagination, forcing the world to obey.

This world resisted, it was not real, it had a will behind it that was just as grand as his was. There was no escape that way.

He walked across the valley, he knew every part of it now. Where every strand of grass resided, he knew the shape of every leaf and the pattern of every trees bark. The mountains and their peaks. It was strange what ones mind did, what it remembered.

This was his home, the only one he had ever knownthe only that he remembered clearly. Beyond the Wall was the unknown, just a frail promise of something different. An end to the agony. The words carved in stone;

I need to win.

He laughed at the words. Laughed until his head went blank and he forgot what he even laughed about. It was all a grand trick. For all he knew, he wasnt even real. He was as fake as this entire world.

He wondered what would happen if he won a victory. Would it be more than he had ever hoped for? Or would it be more than he could bear?

He pushed his blade against the stone, marking another notch in the wall. He remembered reading some of his childhood writings, ideas and measures of time. It made him sad. He no longer had any idea what time meant. What was a day? A month? A year? He spent his days fighting the agony, trying to learn, teaching himself, and pushing his Willpower down, forging it inside his mind and soul. It was easy for him to lose days just staring at a single line he had carved so long ago that he no longer remember its purpose. It was easy for years to pass in the pursuit of a single idea. For decades to pass on contemplating the briefest of stray thoughts or training on a simple sword slash.

Time was insignificant to him now, yet the habit remained. He finished making the last notch that he expected ever to make. Its number was one million five hundred fifty-two thousand and five hundred. He didnt quite understand what that number meant, but he suspected that it meant that he was old.

He sat down on the ground and just stared at the notches.

Something wet rolled down his face, and then he wept. He cried for his confused mind, for the home that screamed at him that it wasnt real. For memories that he had forgotten, long ago.

He was prepared, sitting in the cave surrounded by memories that he couldnt remember. But he knew them, knew the words etched into the walls. Perhaps that was enough.

His Willpower, the ocean of simmering fire, calmed. Expectant, ready to be unleashed.

HeZacharia, as he knew he had been called in a dreamclosed his eyes. This realm, these mountains were his home. A part of him was terrified to leave. But it was time.

He looked up at the sky, then closed his eyes and felt at the wall around his mind. He unleashed his willpower, his mind and his skills shaking with the effort of holding it all, of channeling an ocean of might. He let it flow and turned it away from the prison walls. Instead, he turned it inward. To his Soul.

Old skills and new trembled in his mind, the world tried to lie, to hide what he had achieved, but Zacharia ignored it all. He knew what was real.

He couldnt escape through the Walls of the prison. They were too deeply embedded; they were too strong. Crafted by a grand will. Perhaps, if they had been put in place in the time that he was who he was now, he mightve been able to break them, but not now. Their grip was too strong.

Instead, he went inside, to where he belonged.

He felt the world around him slipping, the walls remaining on the outside. They didnt matter. He couldnt reach his body through his mind; he would then reach it through his soul.

His Will pushed, taking with it his entire being, it raged at reality itself, forcing it to obey. And it did.

For a moment, the silence was gone, and there was only the song of his soul. For a moment he was at peace. And then he was beyond, his mind pushing back from the outside of his body crashing through the walls from the other side.

In a single moment of violence and tearing, he was back.

He opened his eyes and screamed.

It burned his eyes, his ears, his nose and mouth, and his skin. The world around him was real, and he saw

|I Focused And Saw All Flaws|

He saw it all, the cracks in the black stone, the body that was weak. He tried to move and howled at the wrongness of his muscles moving. He was bound, unable to move nearly at all, unable to get through to himself. Black tendrils that misted with smoke held him tightly, keeping him upright.

He was imprisoned again.

He focused, bent his will against his skill, forcing it under control. It lessened the effects. His mind was still focused, it still looked for flaws everywhere around him, and he tried to ignore it.

Then, a voice broke through to him. Zach, you are awake, it said the words that sent him spiraling back down.

The voice was wrong, flawed. He closed his eyes and tried to move his arms to cover his ears, the bounds around his limbs preventing it.

Voice flawed. No air passing through the vocal cords, sound generated at the back of the throat, coming from nothing, transmitted through still air, wrong, flawed.

He grimaced, and took a moment to gather himself. The voice kept talking, but he ignored it. It only made things worse. Zach then realized part of the problem.

His body was weak, it was tired. His mind was tired. A weight of thousands of years lived. He couldnt handle the price he was paying for his skill always working. He could feel himself slipping into sleep, unconsciousness. And no matter how much he wished to experience that again, he resisted.

He focused on his body, he bent his will, and the world obeyed.

|Perfect Tireless Body|

His body changed, his will dominating it, and the fatigue was gone. The world cleared, the flaws still apparent, but He could listen.

He opened his eyes and met the eyes of the voices source. Blank eyes that couldnt see, flawed, dead flesh stretched over bones. A corpse, animated by something inside. A vessel.

Zach? Quick, can you break the chains? You need to release us? the corpse said.

It knew his name, the name that he had in the dream.

Zach looked around, saw the night sky, saw the grand courtyard covered with black stone. There were other people around him, all strung up by black tendrils that grew out of the stone, misting with black smoke, holding them all. Black lines pulsing beneath their skin, crawling beneath the surface. Beyond, he saw a throne, and figure in yellow sitting on it. Hatred welled up inside of him, the words on the wall coming to his mind. The name, title, something. King in Yellow, enemy.

It was turned away from him, he needed to

Zach, the corpse pulled his attention away. The flawed voice that was wrong. He looked at it, and narrowed his eyes.

Are you real corpse man? Is this world real? Zach whispered, his own voice making him shiver. Gravely, stiff, coming through a throat that hadnt spoken in a while, dry. How long had his body been here he wondered. He glanced down saw that he was wearing armor, flawed. He saw where a blade could strike, widen and break through the micro crack in the metal. It would need to

Zacharia, the corpse said again. I dont know what happened to you, what the Dome Leader has done to you or the others. But I know that there isnt any time. Weve been here for three days, the others will not last for much longer. If you can, you need to set me free, it is our only hope.

Zacharia didnt understand, not really. But he hated being trapped, imprisoned. He looked down at the tendrils holding him. They were perfect, not real as everything else around him was, but They were forged of will, a will that he recognizedthe wall that had kept him all alone.

He reached out with his will, and nothing happened. He frowned, he should be able to His will bending reality itself, it was his right. The Mind over matter, Will over reality. It wanted something from him, the thing that made rules, the Framework. Zacharia understood. He focused his will again, and created what it wanted. Gave a conduit to his will.

|Perfect Telekinesis: My Will, Made Manifest|

The Framework wanted to give him something, for him to choose. Zacharia didnt care, he let the Framework chose, as it had for the skills he made before. His will manifested in the world, and squeezed the tendrils around him, he pulled and ripped them apart.

His body hit the ground as he was no longer held.

Quick, the corpse said. The others are still wearing their amulets, I can break them out. You must hurry, before the monster wakes.

Zach grimaced at everything around him, all the flaws, his focus shifting from one to another. Everything was so he shook his head and stood up, walking over to the talking corpse. He raised his hand and focused his will on the tendrils holding it prisoner, pulling them apart.

Good, the corpse said once it was free. There is hope still.