Codex:
Vash Sekal: A traditional dish. It is served with common ingredents such as beef, celery, potatoes,
Atherion: Atherion is the manifestation of something's ability to change its environment. All things contain it to a degree, from grass to trees to rocks. If it can change something, it has atherion.
Alexander looked at the chaotic mess that was Kiore.
It honestly looked like a war zone...
He glanced around, seeing dismembered bodies, and pooling blood mixed within the wreckage. What drew his attention was a soft crumble that had made its presence known in the edge of his hearing. He, calmly as possible, made his way in the direction of the sound. He passed a few buildings along the way, but nothing out of the ordinary for him.
He had seen much worse before.
When he finally reached the source, he was greeted with the sight of what appeared to be a half dead knight, slashing through what appeared to be a ... Goat Man?
Raising an eyebrow, and an arm... he charged a miniscule portion of his magic and launched it in a devastating beam attack. The attack cut through the knight without resistance. It disintegrated a portion of his upper half, and rendered the knight dead.
Kiore's knights all served the church in some capacity. That was worth enough to kill the man on sight. He hated that blasted church. They learned to never cross his path after declaring his wife a danger to their order.
They'd lost at least 50 men that day.
Alexander smiled at the thought.
Now, what was going on with this goat person? With a quick glance he used his magic to sense the atherion(Uh-Theory-On)* around him. The knight produced little, while the goat produced so little that he could barely sense him.
"Damm..."
What Alex could sense was fading fast.
What could be the culprit? With a second scan, he saw the missing arm.
"That might be the issue." He stated with a frown
With a flick of the wrist, he brought his atherion to reverse the damage done. Without a reference, he used the remaining arm as a template and begun the healing process.
That was as the goat man passed out. He ignored it.
He felt a slight strain as he fed the spell enough energy to complete its task, albeit with time.
He had a few questions, but they could wait.
For now, he should probably get heading back. He didn't want to miss the Vash Sekal(Vah-sh Seh-Kah-l)* that his wife was making.
He picked up the poor... dammit he really needed a name for... it. After a few moments, he decided on the temporary name Pyka(Pie-Kuh). So, he picked up Pyka and brought him to his horse which was only a about 300 feet away. Lucky for him, he'd only be traveling for a few days or until the boy was conscious before he'd be able to ride on his own.
Those three days though would kill his feet though... Alex shrugged at the thought. As much as he was glad for the horse, he did not like just having one.
"Maybe I should invest in a second horse?" He asked himself
His mind grew blank for a moment.
There seemed to be something tingling on the back of his neck.
He was missing something.
He had all of his supplies... so was it something he missed about the town?
He had Pyka, so he... wait...
"Let's do another check to be sure..." He said focusing his senses on Pyka
Is that a second atherion signature?
He put his hand to the goat boy's soul, drawing it out temporarily. This pulled his out, revealing both or should he say all three of the souls, Alex's being a Magenta with specks of light blue surrounded in a black casing, one that Alex guessed to be Pyka's was the pure white one. The thing that actually caught Alex's attention was the glowing red soul that surrounded Pyka's.
It was radiating atherion that was downright shocking in his opinion.
He felt the power on level to change the fabric of reality itself. Which, to say the least was a power he had not laid his eyes on in a good 45 years.
He stopped the horse mid step and pulled Pyka off of the horse.
His curiosity was starting to get to him, so he made an effort to satiate it.
He laid Pyka on the ground and pulled the intwined souls out yet again. He then used his magic to create a space in which his soul and the red one could communicate.
It was a simple matter, and was finished quickly.
Next was to open that space to the red soul.
Once he did that, he drew his soul to the 'meeting area' he had created.
Consciousness left him.
He opened his eyes to a field of golden flowers. Noticing them to be buttercups, a common flower in this region, he made a note to avoid ingesting them if he came across them in in the natural world. He took one and ground it between his fingers.
"Those are poisonous." Rang a high pitched feminine voice
Alex turned around, and saw a 5 foot girl who seemed to be young for her height... at least at the current advancement that society was at. Either she was naturally tall, or she was fed well.
"I know, they compare to the Marigolds I'm used to." Alex replied
The child stood, weight shifted to her right foot and arms crossed. It was obvious she did not trust him. '
She wasn't as naive as most her age...' Alex noted
"So... why am I here. I don't usually hang out with creepy old men, but when they save my bro... I do give them some slack." She stated casually
"I- I brought you here to ask you what you and your... brother... were even doing at Kiore." Alex answered, caught off guard by her vernacular slightly
"You see a monster attacking humans and you don't know what's going on? You must be dumber than I thought..."
"Unlike you, I have not had the luxury of knowing the history of this region. I would also advise that you watch your tone. While you do control the visage of this place, I control its existence."
"... Fine." She said begrudgingly, "We were capturing human souls to gain enough power to break the barrier surrounding Mt. Ebbot."
"Capturing Souls... Interesting, tell me more. Why would souls help with what I am assuming is a magical barrier." He asked
"The Wizards who did this used their souls to fuel the barrier." She spat out
"Ah, I see..." He muttered, "Equivalent exchange is a bitch..."
"Equivalent Exchange?" She asked, left eyebrow raised
"You weren't meant to hear that..." Alex stated before continuing, "Basically, in order to use magic, you must put forth energy to get a reaction. If you want to launch a fireball, the energy has to come from somewhere. The opposite is true if you want to cancel it out. Souls made the barrier, and souls have no equivelent in a magical sense. No magic can create souls. Period. So, you have to use souls to cancel it out."
She stared blankly at him.
"You sure do love to talk." She deadpanned
"Ah- Er... Yes?" He replied nervously
Damm this girl was sharp...
"You could potentially break the barrier without collecting another soul..." He stated
The girl looked at him in shock.
"WHAT?!" She spat(?) out
Alex rubbed the back of his neck nervously before composing himself and answering:
"You need 7 souls worth of energy correct?"
"How does this relate to breaking the barrier with only one soul?" She asked testily
"You could potentially train your soul to reach such heights."
"This isn't an anime." She deadpanned
"I'd have to agree with you, but what I say remains true. If you two become as strong as 8 human souls, you could potentially break the barrier with your own power... and survive."
She brought her hand up to dismiss his claim but could find no argumant.
"How would me and Azzy get that strong?"
"You seem curious about me yes?"
"Yeah, you know a lot more than any human I've heard of."
"I will offer to train you, and in return you will teach me of your underground. While training with me, you and your brother will be free to snoop as you like under one rule."
"Seems fair, what's the rule?"
"My wife is not apart of this and you may not disturb her routine with any questions. I of course will not answer any question you ask. Thus it will be up to you to piece together who I am."
"Huh, a mystery... I like it."
"Deal?"
"I'll go along with this for now... Deal."
"Here's my first lesson..." Alexander stated
She just raised her eyebrow.
"You share the body with your brother. As such, your soul can control it."
"Wha-" She attempted to ask, but was only met with the blackness of Asriel's subconscious
He had cut the link.
A/N:
This chapter is about ½ of the size of this story's normal and sorry about that. Haven't really gotten in the mood to write lately so I've been holding off.
Well, i'm sure that Asriel will wake up in the next Chapter… or at most the one after that. As for Chara and her body… that'll come up later.
Welp…
Peace.
