Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Chapter 342: Ryun

Oblivion

Valthua and Vryull had done a lot to help Ryun wrap his head around his Aspect. The conversation had continued for the entire day, and far into the night. By the end of it, he felt like he understood a lot, but in the end he needed to do testing on his own. He didnt have a lot of time, as he needed to head for the gathering soon, and he still hadnt talked with Selia and Erdania, which he needed to do before then.

But he wasnt going anywhere without first having a handle on his power.

So, he made his ways into the unclaimed territories, away from everyone, where he could practice in privacy. The first thing that he realized was that his power could only cause effects that the Concept of Oblivion aligned itself with. Now, after that long conversation, he understood that most of his ideas and understandings of Void had aligned a lot more closely with Oblivion instead of Void and Stillness. He wondered just how much the part of him that was the Aspect of True Death influenced that. It was a final end, an Aspect that just like Death was one of transition. In the case of Death it was from Life to an Afterlife, for True Death it was from Existence to Oblivion.

He started practicing with his Path of the Final End techniques. They had been the easiest to understand and adapt to. Once he realized what Oblivion did, it was a simple adjustment. Those techniques were made in a specific way that resonated with the concepts of Oblivion, or at least part of it. Not destruction, but negation of existence.

Both his {Twilight Cutting Flicker} He removed the Void from the nameand his {Final End} were back to where he could use them reliably. The Oblivion Qi that he released in those attacks influenced the meaning of other Essence around him, guided by his own meaning. He understood meaning as intent, separate from willpower though somewhat influenced by it. If he didnt actively focus on any intent, his technique just deleted anything around him that was what he considered in the solid state of Essence. The ground, trees, stones, and so on. If he focused he could just delete any other Essence he targeted. He believed that as long as he intended to hit something, it would get hit by his Qi.

His base technique, the {Mantle of Gathering Twilight} had gotten a lot more powerful. The boost that he gained was still the same, but now while it was active he could move around all of his stats, aside from external ones like those that came from items. All of his total stats, any other boost that he could activate with his Cultivation Perks, everything.

The effectiveness of Oblivion on other Essence was also guided by the meaning of his Qi, which scaled of his wisdom. It was basically the raw power of his meaning, which had an effect on the meaning of other Essence. He didnt think that most Essence types had high meaning, power of most of them came from their shells which his Qi bypassed. Though, from what he had seen with Tali, anything tied to someone powerful would have powerful meaning. Other Cultivators Qi would probably be harder to overcome than the unbound Essence.

His second Path techniques on the other hand were a bit more difficult. He had experimented a bit, and come to the realization that the techniques had an innate intent behind them. What the technique was meant to do. So, while his primary Paths techniques had the intent of removing other Essence, turning everything in their path into nothingness, his secondary Paths techniques were the complete opposite in nature. They were defensive techniques at the core, for the most part, and Oblivions effects manifested along the lines of its concepts. He had only started to explore those concepts, but his understanding of Void and Stillness impacted it obviously, otherwise he wouldnt have gained Oblivion when his Aspects merged. He was drawn in the direction that most aligned with his understanding.

Oblivion, a state of nonexistence, separated from reality, untouchable, able to remove anything tied to existence no matter how important it was. His Grand Perk, Ayin, indicated some of what the core of Oblivion was. He had gained it after glimpsing the depths of Oblivion. Most of the things he had seen in that place he had forgotten, but impressions remained.

His techniques thought were changed. Oblivion Qi, just like Essence, didnt have a shell, so he couldnt change its state. Qi was a processed Essence, it allowed the Cultivator to influence that Essence, bringing it fully under his control, allow him to change its shell and meaning. Oblivion he couldnt change its state, but it did bring the Essence of Oblivion fully under his control. And with it he could influence the meaning of other Essence.

When he used his other techniques the effects were a lot different. A wall made out of Oblivion Qi was invisible, he had tried it with Tali, but it was there. He had thought that it just didnt do anything, but the key was that it acted according to the intent of his technique, unless he actively focused his meaning on changing his intent.

The {Twilight Shaping Cast} created shapes in the area around him. When he used different Qi, it had different effects. If he solidified the Qi it was a wall, but at the core of it, the technique just filled an area of space with Qi. So, the technique just filled an area with his Qi. That was unhelpful because of the nature of his Aspect. Though he hadnt tried using it for protection at all since the failed tests with Tali, but at that time he hadnt truly understood the nature of Oblivion. And if it was guided by the intent of his techniques and his own, then perhaps something changed now that he understood. He would need to do some testing, and to do that he would need to have someone help him out His sense caught monsters nearby, and he made his way there.

He found a herd of horned monsters that werent too powerful, but they would serve. He got closer to them than he thought he would without them noticing. One of the things that he had realized was that he no longer gave off any scent, which probably contributed.

The monsters noticed him and got agitated, as he kept walking toward them, they finally decided that he was a threat. Two of them charged him and he shaped a wall in front of himself. In his eyes, he saw the Oblivion Qi nestle itself in between other Essence, but not really affecting it. One of the monsters hit the wall and It stopped, for a split second. Its head was pointed down, as it connected with its horns, which cracked, weirdly. It held still only for a moment as its legs pushed it forward, it was passing through the wall slowly. It realized that something was wrong after its head was through and it came to a complete stop, but it looked disoriented, and its body was a mess. His sense had allowed him to see everything, and he was dumbfounded.

When it connected it was as if the parts of its body that hit were affected by Oblivion Qi, they stopped, not like they hit something but as if they just froze. The rest of the body didnt, however. The Oblivion spread from the impact point outward, but slowly, and the back part of the monster was still moving forward, effectively pushing the monster through as Oblivion engulfed it. By the time that happened the monster had suffered internal damage as it was basically squished from front to back.

The other monster paused when it saw that, and then its horns started glowing. It snapped its head and sent a bolt of lightning at him. It hit the wall and the same thing happened. The lightning hit the wall and got pressed against the wall. It didnt push through at all, but then again, it didnt have any real mass.

Ryun frowned as he tried to think about what all that meant. Obviously it did somethingand then it hit him. It was robing anything that passed through the wall of momentum. As it started working from impact point back to rear of the object hitting it, basically squishing it together. That was a lot more useful than he had thought. He walked forward and touched the wall. His fingers passed through easily. He frowned. He had hoped that he could still use it as platforms, as that was his biggest issue right now. He hadnt been able to stand on platforms before, when trying with Tali, his feet just passed through. Though, her attacks had passed through too, but now these monsters didnt. His understanding of his Aspect had changed after his talk with Valthua and Vryull.

So perhaps he shaped a small platform in front of him and tried to step on it. Immediately he felt his foot sink and then stop. His eyes widened, but he realized why quickly. It robbed momentum of everything that passed through, but his fingers were made of Oblivion, he was unaffected. His foot, though he wore boots made out of other Essence, and that was what his Qi stopped. That was one problem solved, though he wouldnt be able to leap through the air barefooted. And his Evolved Form too, he would need to always wear armor, unless he figured out another way.

Still, it was good progress. He remembered the monsters and saw them both frozen in the wall, unable to move as his Oblivion constantly deleted their momentum as they tried to build it. The rest of the herd was watching from the distance, stomping their feet in a display of threat. He dismissed the wall and moved away as the herd came to check up on the two injured monsters.

Ryun started thinking of what more he could do, obviously, he could focus and change his intent. Make it so the Oblivion wall did more than just robbed momentum. That was probably a remnant from the core of the technique, a wall that stopped objects coming at him. He could have it delete light, sound, anything really. He could make it delete anything that comes in contact with it, though he needed to test it against someone powerful first, like Tali. See if her techniques could get through. He felt like the result would be the strength of Qi, Aspect, and the strength of meaning. Oblivion seemed like a really powerful, top tier Essence, but he wasnt going to assume anything.

Next he tested out his branch technique. It didnt take him long to figure it out, it was similar to creating his Mist Void armor. He could shroud himself in Oblivion Qi, which would delete anything that he came in touch with, or rather most things, he still hadnt tried to effect higher tiers of Essences like space, time, and gravity. But he knew that he could, and that was enough. He could also use it for stealth a lot more easily. Changing intent, he could make it so that it turned him into a walking piece of Oblivion, not affecting all Essences like Earth so that he could walk, but deleting Light, Sound, Air even, making him for all intents and purposes invisible. Sure, if someone looked directly at him, he would see something, Tali had seen a black hole, twisting through space, but he could probably tweak it with further practice. He could also expand the armor into a sphere of Oblivion wall, or just a blast of Oblivion, like what he used to do with Stillness. It could have nearly the same effect, he could just choose which Essence to delete and stop things midair or just delete Essence.

His Avatar was just a walking piece of Oblivion. All black, or nothingness, with silver and violet threads around the edges. That technique didnt change too much, it still did the same thing.

With his techniques somewhat understood, he moved to the next thing. He had noticed that his Aura had the word meaning in its perk now, and he wanted to do some more testing with it. He had a hunch that there was a lot more that he could do with it now.