MAGUS INFINITE

The Moon Fox felt it and thrashed, and I held it down with a hand of stitched-on dead meat, with the weight of a body that did not feel pain, and I poured Storm Bearer’s current along the link itself, down the leash, into the fox, until the heaven-beast understood the only thing I had come to teach it.

A Heavenly Beast was a proud creature, but it could only be proud to those who could feel the weight of that pride, not me, and so I showed it what its new reality would be.

It had a new holder. The holder did not feel, did not tire, did not grieve, did not bargain. The holder would not be broken, would know no fear, and would not, like Vrakth, ever once long for it, pity it, or treat the leash as anything but a leash.

”Accept,” I told it, in the flat cold fact of the lightning running down the bond. ”The demon held you out of a perverse desire to claim your power, and you rightfully hated him for it. I hold you out of nothing. Accept the nothing. It is the only master that will never disappoint you. In exchange for this, the corruption that tortures your mind and breaks your body shall be made clean.”

The half-moon dimmed as the fox went still, and allowed the leash to set deep, the rage that flooded its spirit burned down to a banked and waiting cold that matched, I noted, the cold in me.

It was a good fit. The boy would not like it. That was not my concern.

A Heavenly Fox was a thing of cold and darkness, and the boy would have tried to tame it with love, and he would have failed... however, there was something about the boy that did not closely follow the parameters that I set out for him; maybe this would shift his soul towards the true reality of existence.

∞

I had done what I came up for, but I did not feel satisfaction, for I am not built for it. I noted the work as complete, then I went back down into the deep where I wait, and I gave the boy the wheel, and I let him have the feelings about what I had done.

He would have them. He always did.

I switched the Title back to Demon Slayer and returned to the darkness.

∞

Do you know that sensation where you enter your room and know someone was there a moment before? Perhaps they adjusted everything back the way it was, but you could still feel the wrongness, and you just knew that something inside this room had changed.

This was how I felt when my consciousness returned. I was a bit surprised that I was alive. I had felt the Hollow Avatar rise up from the deep, even though I did not summon it.

Perhaps I should be more worried, but from the moment I saw the status of my soul, I knew that there were some roads I was no longer privileged to walk upon. The core of who I am was no longer mine alone, and I could not complain or shout that this was unfair. I knew that this was the price for the power that I wielded, and I would gladly pay it, over and over again.

What was the use of my soul when everyone around me burned?

The Avatar was already gone, sunk back down into the Hollow place, leaving me with the changes it left behind, and this no longer surprised me.

It was a cold being, and even as I digested the memory of the fight, I could not help but appreciate the endless depths of the Hollow Avatar.

I could see that from the moment this Broken-Celestial skill had crossed the Adept rank, it had changed.

From the way the Hollow Avatar had taken over my body, changed my Title, and fought the Moon Fox, everything about its movements carried a refinement that it did not have before.

This skill was growing, and I don’t know if I could keep up with it, and yet, I was grateful for the progress I had made, and the fact that I was thinking of keeping up with the Hollow Avatar was a sign of my growth.

I knew before I opened my eyes that something was different inside me, because I could feel the new room.

∞

Every change in the soul did not just mean an increase in power; there was also growth in sensitivity, depths, and so many other benefits.

My soul was beginning to crystallize, and this gave me a new window into it that I did not have before.

The birth of the Hollow Avatar gave me a new room inside me, somewhere below my soul, and even till this moment, I knew I could not properly categorize this change, or where this room fit inside me.

The Academy taught every mage that our Anima Depths were our soul, and everything that we would be stemmed from our Anima, and nothing could exist outside of it.

However, I know that this was not the truth when I gained this room that was inside me and yet was not part of my Anima Depth... it showed me that the mysteries of the body and soul went beyond anything that a mage currently understood, and the awakening of all my channels simply solidified this proof that the mysteries behind the fundamental forces of creation were far greater than the Magus civilization understood.

If I were not being constantly killed, I think it would have taken me a long time to process this information, but death refined all the unnecessary distractions away from my mind.

There were now three rooms inside me, dwelling below my Anima Depth, and I could see them more clearly than ever before. I called them rooms because that was the closest name I could find.

The first room was familiar, belonging to the Hollow Avatar, and if I stared at it for long, I could feel the Hollow Avatar staring back at me.

I was familiar with this room, as my mind escaped to this place when the burden became too much. This space was cold and dark, and despite the fact that the darkness was contained in what seemed like a small room, I have always felt that, given the chance, this darkness could swallow an entire continent.