Chapter Thirty Eight, A Lesson. Truth 101.

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  Jora dashed forward, speeding through the Labyrinth. He pushed himself forward with time, manipulating bodily processes, reactions, movements. He skated across reality, bursting with strength, and boosting that output by interlaying space with energy that would burst and ripple him forward.

  He skipped through space, moving and teleporting simultaneously, accelerating through time and speed, and even slowing the immediate surroundings by minute fractions.

  He dashed past monsters, enveloping them in gluttonous flames that warped them directly into Aeternum.

  He was still in the surface level, just having started his journey.

  No beast here was even worth his time.

  This Dungeon functioned different from the average.

  There was F-ranks here, and he was sure that there would be SSS-ranks at the bottom.

  He shot around, twisting and turning, absorbing every creature in his sight.

  Spider. Bear. Centipede. Wolf. Deer. Snake.

  There were countless average monsters, amplified by the Dungeon. They held size beyond the average, with some interesting traits. Like, poisonous insects, extremely hazardous variants.

  Tall apes, built similarly to the Ursa. They had extreme intelligence, and great strength. Even those of E-rank, he felt an average D-rank would have a hard time facing.

  The fact that the monsters here were stronger, was clear.

  But that held no weight against him. Not at this level.

  There wouldn’t be any that held weight against him until he reached the lower levels of the Deep Dark.

  Ana had explained that to him.

  But that was far away.

  Even with the power he held, the speed he could travel at.... This world was deep. Traveling downwards through all the twists and turns, pitfalls, cliffs... It would take time no matter what.

  He was grateful that this space didn't follow Dungeon format.

  It was a real system, a real cave system.

  He encountered cliff faces that made way for giant caverns. He would drop down multiple levels in one go through those.

  The corridors were true corridors. Some of them angled downwards, some upwards. He had to find those that angled down, those that had drops that let him fall deeper.

  And slowly, as he descended, the power started picking up.

  But it wasn't enough.

  The start of this wasn't effective in using his time.

  So he decided to multitask.

  Consuming beast left and right, Jora focused internally.

  He let his body move, his mind falling onto another path. His Parallel Processing flared. His body continued to work, a corner of his mind controlling it, giving commands, noting cues that caused his direction to change.

  He ignored the chime of a new skill creation.

  The majority of his attention turned towards Ana.

  "[New fucking heights... New fucking heights I tell you!]" She screamed, "[One day is ten thousand years! But, I'm having trouble pushing it any farther than that... It's a hard limit. Something that... It's like time is fighting back. Like I literally cannot push it any further.]" That made his brow raise, it was interesting.

  Of course his brow didn't truly raise, but his spirit did show interest.

  'Limits don't exist anymore. You know this... Should I try to evolve past it? I could only imagine one hundred thousand years to one day... So much energy... So much belief as well.' He thought, replying to Ana.

  "[It's not that easy... I am your lesser soul, but I am still you. I was able to get it so far in such a short time due to the insanely boosted evolutions... I would reach a limit of time manipulation, and then my control... My grip would alter. I would infest time with authority, alter its shape and susceptibility. It would become more malleable, and retain more energy. The rate at which it could be supercharged greatly enhanced, and I was able to shoot up forward in dilation for a period of time, until I reached another limit... This one... It won't budge... The soul doesn't have enough power to push past this... I feel the requirement of something more... I wanted to talk to you about it. We have enough power to dip your feet into it... Knowing you, just a half step should be enough to create an avalanche of advancement!...]" She rambled, and Jora listened.

  'Dip my feet into?...' He beckoned.

  He could feel Ana smile.

  "[Come into Aeternum. This requires a real deep lesson.]" Internally, Jora rolled his eyes.

  And then he manipulated his body some more.

  He imprinted psionic commands into his body, and left a portion of his awareness, a portion of his spirit.

  Descend.

  Consume.

  Evolve.

  Be resourceful.

  His body would advance, consuming, leveling up, descending deeper, and utilizing skills. He would not just level up in level, but also through skill usage as well. His Sensitivity was high enough to be so in tune with his body that he could easily control his actions without being completely aware.

  And with that, his greater consciousness was sucked into the spatial layer stitched into his soul.

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  He blinked, his spirit surrounded by darkness.

  Beneath, was a world, a massive planet.

  Aeternum.

  "Look at it... Large. Just as big as Yara should be." Ana floated next to his side, her hands behind her back.

  He observed the planet. It was vast, filled with energy. He could see green luscious lands, dark terrains, sandy deserts. The bottom of the world was covered in a cold icy region, a massive super-desert of frost.

  The majority of the world was covered in water, and in those waters he could see intense accumulations of magic energy, alongside storms of element.

  Now that he could perceive and control magicka, it seemed that Ana took it upon herself to condense and evolve every mana particle in the world.

  The planet was a whole lot more deep with power, and that was evident.

  It felt ancient, and powerful.

  Everywhere, magicka existed, and the weak could sense a portion of it, manipulating the small piece of magicka that was, mana...

  But the truly powerful could manipulate the magic energy in its entirety.

  Manipulating magicka, becoming real masters of magic.

  Just a small random evolution he gained from taking in mana from Yara and evolving to understand the magicka... It had made Aeternum's power skyrocket upwards.

  He chuckled. Inherently, there was a tinge of pride. The existence of this whole planet rode on his power.

  This was his creation...

  "Fuck you. I made this shit!" Ana scoffed from the side.

  Well she was right about that...

  "Look a little deeper though, I wanted you to see that as well." She spoke. With that, his eyes squinted ever so slightly, and his vision peered past the top spatial layer, glancing at what existed beneath.

  A disc. A flat super island, existed directly where Aeternum did. The lands were hot, rocky, lined with magma. There were burning deserts, raging storms of sand and fire. Blood seas existed, with mountains that reached high, spewing blood, fire, and ash, into the atmosphere.

  Truly, it might be the harshest environment he could imagine!

  His eyes fell to the underside of the disc. He flipped in space, observing it upside-down.

  It was the same, but the opposite. A land of dark, frozen stone. Filled with turbulent ice storms, and cascading mountains of frost. The winds were intense, strong enough to rip the strongest apart. There were massive snowy plains, with seas of frozen ichor. The flat world was blue, white, and red. Snow, frost, and blood.

  Just as harsh, and just as terrifying.

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  "Hell?" He asked, Ana nodding in response.

  "Correct. The Coldlands are lorded over by the Demon Monarch of Frost, Aestrael the Frozen Tyrant. The Infernal realm is controlled by Nyxariel the Crimson Scourge, the Infernal Demon Monarch. Despite it being less than a day since you were last here, hundreds of years have passed. Our children have stepped into SS-rank just ten years ago, right after you consumed Kismet's scale and ear... They're leveling relatively fast, but soon you will be too." She explained, a small smile growing on her face.

  "And now, go focus back on Aeternum... But focus on the firmament. The bubble around Aeternum, you know, the one that paints stars in the sky, generates the heat of a star, and mimics the gravitational pull of a moon, the one that is falsely hung up in the sky." She upturned her face at that, Jora chuckled. She wasn't going to get the praise she was aiming for.

  Instead, Jora restrained his gaze, focusing back on Aeternum. Then, he gazed at the wall of power that surrounded Aeternum.

  And another layer revealed itself.

  Within this spherical wall, was a spatial layer, beautiful and bountiful lands existing. Looking at it like this, it was like Aeternum had grown, and on this new surface, was an expansive land of perfection. Green lands, beautiful forests, white clouds. It was bright, and there was an celestial tone to the place.

  "Heaven... Controlled by Eltaras, Ana'fae, Kuta, and Joriah. Of course, Eltaras and Joriah still control the demons, but that is under their demonic identities. They have developed their heavenly counterparts a little more, those that align with Ana'fae and Kuta as well... Before a few hundred years ago, Eltaras and Joriah were fading from sight, but now it is known and solidified that there are four great gods of Aeternum. Four great gods of Aeternum, and two baleful gods of Hell. Of course they aren't aware that the two gods of Hell are two of the great gods, but that is okay. That is how they want it." She explained.

  Jora nodded, he could understand.

  Things were looking interesting for this planet. He would enjoy watching events here... A nice past time.

  "Anyway! I just wanted you to see the small advancements. It's time for a little lesson..." Ana spoke, he turned towards her, and she glanced at him.

  "Listen well!" She raised a finger.

  The space around them warped, they appeared in Aeternum, in an isolated forest, far away from any creature.

  Ana sat atop a log, leaning back on her hands.

  Jora stood, not entirely expecting the warp, but he soon found himself seated atop a rock just a bit away from Ana.

  "So, once reaching A-rank, Soul skills are usually developed. A great power, a mutation of the soul that grants incredible power. Usually these mutations stem from the intrinsic traits of the soul, the Talents. S-rank, that is when lesser traits of the soul, lesser growths called skills, are grouped together, creating mini mutations that carry incredible power. These mutations exist, as a natural progression, to power up the soul, the body, and the mind. SS-rank is when we start to encroach upon why exactly the soul is meant to be upgraded, mutated into something more grand." Ana spoke.

  She had summoned an orb of light, manipulating it in ways that coincided with the words she spoke. Talents were shaded in different colors amongst the orb, like territories that controlled separate portions of the soul. Out of these territories came intense swirls of light, large and profound. Those were the Soul skills. Riding along these territorial lines were smaller swirls, they split up the territory lines and grounded themselves in the soul, taking a small portion for themselves. Skill-Trees, they were.

  Some of the Skill-Trees actually existed within Talent territories however, and they seemed to grow a bit more powerful.

  All of these mutations and upgrades seemed to create a more intense pressure from the soul.

  The pressure rippled space around it.

  "Tell me Jora..." She spoke, hovering the soul manifestation in one hand, and slowly opening her other palm, conjuring something else.

  "What is this?" She asked.

  A flame erupted in her hand, burning, calmly.

  He raised a brow.

  There really wasn't much to it...

  "Fire." He spoke, straight faced, intrigued.

  "Correct." She moved her opposite hand from beneath the thrumming soul, bringing her attention to the flame.

  "This is fire. An element. But... what is fire?" She asked. Jora tilted his head.

  "Fire... Fire is an elemental reaction. It is combustion. The ignition of air, heat, and fuel. But it is more than that. Fire is not just flame. Fire is a principle. It's ageless, a key element of life and creation. It is transformation... Release! You may see an outburst of heat and light, but the Sensitive can understand that it is also conversion. It's not simply a tool for destruction, it is not only destruction. That is just a surface consequence. Flame is exchange. Swapping air and fuel for heat and light. It is an energy, destructive inherently. It effects all that it touches. Understand the flame. To understand fire, is to remember that it is energy. It is conversion." In her hand, the flame raged, returning to nothing, before a spark was created in the air, bursting into a flame.

  She used her other hand to summon a multitude of things, and the fire came to interact with it.

  "Wood becomes smoke." A small log was burnt, billows of gaseous grey emanating into the surroundings. "The smoke becomes sky." The pillars of ash raised upwards, melding with the air. "The sky becomes a storm..." The ash swirled, becoming a violent cloud of surging darkness, only fueled more by the burning wood in her palm.

  "And that storm becomes growth." The raging smoke grew wild, expanding endlessly into the sky.

  "Fire is conversion, a hinge upon which reality turns from one state into another." Jora's eyes were wide, watching as she restrained the ash cloud, returning it to nothingness.

  Each word resonated within his mind.

  Each word, boosted his levels in his fire related skills, enhanced his control of flame, and his understanding.

  He wasn't doing anything, but his skills were growing and evolving.

  "With my knowledge coming back to me... I can easily help us step into SSS-rank prior to even reaching it..." Ana smiled.

  "Fire has four main faces..." The flame turned in her hand.

  "Release..." Jora's eyes sharpened. "All things contain tension... Potential locked within every shape. Fire is a key that can free what is held. Burning through shells, and letting essence escape in its most primal form. Energy. Energy that can be used to fuel the flame even more, if that is desired..." Jora listened.

  "...Ascent. I'm not speaking literally, but metaphysically. The flame has passion, ambition, it personifies destruction, and release. Transcendence. Flames equal ascension, skyward reach..." The flame in her hand, burned stronger, reaching upwards.

  "...Illumination. Fire is light. It reveals. In darkness, it draws visible boundaries. It contrasts. It illuminates its subject, and it tells that to be transformed, one must be seen..." The flame grew brighter.

  "...And cost. Fire doesn't give without taking. It cannot exist with sacrifice. This is the core of the flame. Power requires fuel. Change demands sacrifice. Fire enforces balance through... Consumption." Jora could feel his heart beating. Intensely. He was understanding the truth of what fire was. He had never once thought so deeply into power before.

  "Manipulating flame is trivial. Commanding fire, is commanding transformation. Understanding Fire isn't summoning heat... It is releasing tension, removing shells, fueling strength. Masters of fire do not just create flames. They ignite power, to loosen bonds. They don't burn enemies, they exchange their form, for something more primal. Energy." Ana adopted a smile, Jora was entranced.

  "Masters of flame could... Ignite the resolve of a broken army... Reduce a lie to ash, simply by burning away their shell, burning through structural weakness... Even fear, could be burned away... Combustion doesn't progress if a master of flame denies it permission... Fire doesn't begin with just a spark. It begins with an overload of power. It begins with imbalance..." She breathed in deep.

  "Those that understand all of that... are able to touch upon the truth of fire... They become those that comprehend..." Her breath stuttered.

  "Those that comprehend the Law of Fire." She smiled.

  There was a click in Jora's mind.

  He was able to understand.

  It was so clear.

  His jaw was slightly agape.

  His Status hadn't changed much, but he could feel just how much he had changed as a whole.

  He could feel the flame... He could feel heat, light...

  He lifted a hand, feeling the magic of a nearby tree.

  Then he created an imbalance.

  It burst into flame, disintegrating into energy that flowed directly into his body.

  His comprehension went up by one-hundredth, and there was a smile on his face.

  Putting his knowledge into application, increased his experience, and helped him understand more.

  "I started with the Law of Fire, because I wish for us to understand the truths of your innate Talents... There is a Law for everything, and I guarantee you can comprehend the truth behind your Gluttony, Wrath, Fury, Lust, Pride, and Envy. Doing that will make you stand out far beyond the norm. Understanding Fire is something basic... Even understanding the Soul can be considered basic, but powerful of course. These powers you have, these... Sins... Will stand you out amongst the crowd, and likely give you power that most don't have!" Ana smiled.

  "But, there are of course other powerful Laws to understand. Kismet, for example... Once we reached SS-rank, I understood what the error in his Status was." She spoke, Jora's ears perked up at that.

  "I believe he has comprehended the Law of Fate, and has reached intermediate comprehension, alongside forming a Runic Ecriture." She raised a finger.

  That made Jora open his mouth. He had seen the screen.

  Intermediate comprehension? Runic Ecriture?

  "Intermediate comprehension is at ten percent understanding... At that point, an imprint is written in the soul, in the font of the universe. An Ecriture, a runic sigil is made, and through that sigil comes the generation of the essence of ones Law... That error in Kismet's Status was the measurement of his Fate Essence... A powerful source of energy that lies beyond simple magic, even beyond the power of the soul... And that was exactly why you couldn't do anything to him... Even now, you still can't. Wielding the essence of a Law is far different from basic comprehension..." Ana explained.

  That made more sense to him.

  Truly, he was thankful for having a knowledgeable Dungeon Core apart of his soul.

  Ana chuckled.

  "I was once a World Dungeon! Able to converse with Yara often! Praise me more! You're lucky to have me!"

  He laughed.

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