Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Chapter 343: Ryun

The Reach of Oblivion

Unleashing his Aura felt easier than it ever had before. And immediately he noticed differences. When he used his Void Aura it had always drained Qi from his core to use. This time it did not. Instead, what he felt was a different kind of sensation. Where using Void Aura had felt like he was activating a perk, something more mechanical, this was something else. It felt as natural as breathing. And there was no drain on his core, it was deeper than that, almost as if he didnt know how to explain it.

An aura was an Aspect Manifestation perk, he couldve chosen different ways for it to manifest, but perhaps there was something more to it than he realized before. The aura spread in a sphere around him, filling his immediate surroundings with Oblivion, about a couple meters around him. He could barely see it among the other Essence, but it wasnt doing anything. Of course, he realized that it needed his intent, or rather his will as it said in the perk. His first tests were easy; he started by focusing only on air. Slowly the aura leaned on the Essence of Air, and it started to disappear from the range of his aura, leaving only vacuum. The process wasnt instantaneous, it was gradual, but effective. He almost didnt feel it, aside from having to open his mouth and let the air out of the cavity inside of him. He had nothing in his body to expand, but he could see the lack of Air Essence.

Next he started deleting more and more Essences, trying to see if there was a limit on his Aura. He didnt seem to be able to find it after deleting more and more Essences at the same time. Though the effects werent as quick as they were with his techniques. Still, he continued testing. Focus and will were required to use the aura, and he could change the intensity and range just like how he couldve done before.

The more he used it, the more adept he became with it, and a lot quicker than he anticipated. He felt that his Aspect Mastery helped a lot too. Then, he tried extending the range of the aura, wanting to see his limits. The sphere grew around him, larger and larger, enveloping the clearing he was standing in, then the forest around him, then beyond that. The more it grew the more he felt the presence of his core. It didnt drain his Qi but something was

Ah, that is where its coming from. Ryun felt the Oblivion filtering through his core, but the source was beyond it. The realm of Oblivion that he had glimpsed, that endless, bottomless, realm of nothingness that The aura stopped, and a sharp pain went through his head. He could almost see it again, Oblivion in all of its glory, the understanding that it offered. It was there, at his fingertips, and it slipped away, again.

He realized that the aura had reached the farthest it could reach, which was almost half the territory. He couldnt see the edge of the aura, of course, but he felt it as another sensation, he could tell that there was other Essence within his aura, or perhaps that his aura was in between other Essence. The range was actually about the same as his skill sense. Which he didnt think was a coincidence. Was that just the distance that his mind could handle? Perhaps there was something to that.

The sensation he gained from his core was gone again, but he could tell now that the Aura was fueled by the plane of Oblivion connected to his core. He focused his mind and tried to delete Air inside his aura. Immediately he grimaced as he felt pain shoot through him. A big no no on attempting to delete Air in half a territory at once. The range had to be an issue, or maybe the amount of Essence that he wanted to delete.

Next, he tried using his techniques, wanting to see how the auras effectiveness increase interacted with it. He charged a flicker and felt Qi surge out of his core, far more than he wanted to pull. He frowned, wondering if something was wrong, but then decided to release it. The technique shot out and he sensed it cut through the territory. He blinked in surprise at what his sense was telling him. The technique had shot to the edge of the aura, deleting everything in its way. He didnt plan for that, nor was he certain that it shouldve reached that far. From his previous tests, it shouldve taken him a lot more Qi to hit that same distance and delete as much Essence as he had just now.

He pulled his Qi back, and fired off quick shots from time to time, not really focusing on them that much. Each time they technique ended at the edge of his aura, almost as if it was a range limit for it. And they cost a lot less, almost a third less, he tested it out without the Aura and his techniques cost a lot more when trying to hit the same range.

About an hour later, he learned a few things. His Aura made his techniques easier to use within its range, less expensive, but also he didnt need to worry about how much Qi he needed to get through something or reach someplace, his techniques used his aura as intent. That was very useful.

The things that he learned was that the greater the range of his aura the less it could do. Things that were closer were more easily affected by it, also the amount of Essence and its tier played a part. But on the other hand the aura even when spread thin, to its maximum range, enabled his techniques. Made them stronger and cheaper, plus it allowed him to control their range without needing to focus on it. He had a feeling that the aura would be hard to detect for most people. It was nothingness, and if he didnt use it to actually affect something, it was probably undetectable to all but those with the most powerful perks, skills, or eyes like his.

Somehow, for the first time in a long time, Ryun felt like his build and his style of combat were clicking into place. Things came easier to him now, as if this was what they had always meant to be. Things that he tried to do with Void or Stillness were now possible. It was as if he had always been trying to reach this point. And perhaps he had. Now, it felt like he had been chasing this, chasing Oblivion, since the moment he came to the Infinite Realmno, since the moment he merged with the Aspect of True Death. All the death, all the carnage, the emptiness in his mind and heart, it was all searching for this. One Aspect that resonated with him, with his ideal, his soul.

He felt whole.

A day later, he had managed to test out a lot things. His combat styles from the past few years somehow merged seamlessly together. What before he felt might be wasted time and effort, now proved to be anything but. All those things were stepping stones on his Path.

He still had some things that he had to test out that he would need other people to help him with. He suspected that damage over a continuous period of time would still be his biggest weakness, constant healing drained him too much, but he had some ideas about how to lessen it. Burst damage was almost completely useless against him, had been for a while. He could lose half his body in a single shot and it would barely slow him down. But forcing his body to constantly regenerate significant damage was a different story.

His combat style flowed from what he and Tali developed, long and mid range, keeping distance and taking down foes from afar. It felt right.

Now, he turned to something that he had been waiting for a while now. He had gained his territory a long time ago, and had taken that because he had an idea that he had never been able to bring to fruition. He had tried with the Void, and later with Stillness, but it was just never enough.

His territory was a space in his soul, a place that he could physically enter. He could walk out of the Real Realm and step inside, disappearing from this place. Once he had asked Tali how he could possibly do that, and her answer was uncertain. From what she knew, the soul was nestled in a deep layer of a plane that crossed the Real Realm and the Ethereal, and those who had territories could bring their bodies, the vessels their souls used, to this realm, somehow. He gathered that she didnt know as much as she pretended to.

Still, his territory was small, about two meters across and from floor to ceiling. It had been empty, a space filled with nothing but well, Space Essence. There was no Air, no Oblivion even, nothing. He had been able to exist there, but well, he was hard to kill. He doubted that anyone else could. The walls of the territory were the most interesting, they had almost felt like his soul, a barrier containing the space inside of it. Yet, there had to be a way to expand his territory. He had pulled things inside before, items, furniture, even some plants. They couldnt survive for long in that emptiness, but it had taught him how to expand it all.

Tali had told him that it took Cultivators a long time to shape their territories, the same as domains. That he had to give a piece of his soul to shape an environment. That it had to be done slowly. Ryun had always planned to cheat. He hadnt risked Bright Star, but his plan had always been to try and manifest the realm of the Star Forge inside his territory. So that he could physically enter it, and so that others could too. Bright Star was connected to his soul, and the territory was space inside of it, it seemed like it should work. He just never tried it, not after his failures.

Now, he turned his attention to his test. He used his aura, limiting the range to just his immediate surroundings. Then he focused and cleared his intent as he shaped Qi. He crafted a box, with only the walls being Oblivion, and leaving air trapped inside. Immediately he saw the effects. The Oblivion pushed against the Essence of space, it didnt take long before something snapped, and both his sense and his eyes Through his eyes he saw the Space inside the box disappear, leaving only a hard box of Oblivion, space around the box trembled and then threads of it reached out, connecting with space through the boxno, over the box, through a layer that didnt touch it. He felt his Qi trying to stop it and with an effort of will he stopped the process. The space repaired itself and everything was as it used to be. Except his Oblivion box held something inside, separate from the world outside. In his sense it was a lot different, but also familiar. He could feel space, the area where his box was had almost an overlap of space that was like seeing double, or sensing double. The sensation was similar to how storage spaces always felt to him.

He had tried to do this with Void, but he had never been able to. He knew that crafters used Void to somehow separate spaces that could then be made into storages through spatial powers. At least that was one way to do it. He had never managed to get Void to consume space. He didnt know why, though he had a suspicion now. Perhaps his understanding had always aligned more with Oblivion, perhaps that interfered with what he could do. Or perhaps there was some trick, it didnt matter now.

He pushed his hand through the box, his hand was made of it, so there was nothing to block. Then when he was touching that separate space he reached to his Territory perk and pulled. The space was drawn out of the Real Realm and into his territory. The result wasnt anything spectacular, he had just separated Space and what was in it, which had been only Air. Still, he felt his territory expand a tiny bit, as that Space joined the Space inside his territory.

He smiled as he saw it work, that meant that what he planned could be done, he could cheat.

The territory he was in wasnt that high tiered, the monsters were between tiers 6 and 10, and most of them were the herds of the monsters he tested his wall on, called Ishi. It was a peaceful territory, it had a large forest, a lake and several tall hills covered in stone formations. It would do.

He stood in the air above the ground and spread his Aura as far as it would go, covering the hills and half the forest, the grass plain where the herds grazed, two lakes, some of the ground, but more of the sky. And then he shaped. The Aura didnt just have an effect on his primary techniques, he had figured out that it gave his secondary ones increased range. It was far easier to send threads of Oblivion through his aura than it was through unbound Essence. His Qi spread out, his core emptying rapidly, this was going to take everything that he had. He had already drank three elixirs to strengthen his Qi and boost regeneration of it. And he still pushed for more. He tried to reach for his Aspect, for that conduit to the plain, to pull more of the Essence than his Aura was giving him. He didnt know if he succeeded, his mind was filled with his great working. His sense allowed him to monitor what he was doing, and he felt the walls of Oblivion rise all around him, at the edge of his range. Half of the entire territory.

And then with an exertion of intent, of meaning and will, he separated the Space inside from the Space outside.

The world around him trembled, he was locked inside his own space, isolated from reality outside of it. Some Essences still remained, gaining access even here in this place, laws of Time, of Gravity, of things that he didnt yet know.

It didnt matter, he spread his arms and pulled. It wasnt violent, it was almost as if he was compressing space, or no, as if his soul was spreading out to consume the space. Down below he felt the monsters panic as light winked out, what had been trapped inside hit the walls of the space and disappeared, gone in a way that Ryun didnt understand.

And then, he felt himself pulled into his territory along with his space. He remained where he was, but knew that he was now inside his own soul. He reached into his storage and pulled out a small orb. He leapt up, high near the edge of his soul and there he used it. A small ball of light came into being, sending Essence down onto his territory.

He smiled, and then felt weak, his Qi slipped and he fell all the way down to the ground. He crashed, sending debris flying everywhere, and felt the last of his Qi drain as his body regenerated. But that was distant, he was feeling exhausted, and not in any way that he had before. It didnt take him long to figure out that it had to do with his soul, he had strained it with the space that he had taken, but he had done it, and that was all that mattered.

He exited his territory in the same place he had entered it. He was high above the ground, standing in the air. The Space had repaired itself, the Air had returned, as had the Light. But the territory had a gaping hole in the middle, a box shaped crater where he had taken a piece of it for himself.

He chuckled, and then turned in the direction that the bond in his head pointed him at, heading back home. It was time to head for the gathering.