Aetherios System: Whirlwind

Chapter 54: Soul Inspection

“Can you stand up?” Kate asked softly.

Alex merely grunted from his place on the bed. He felt better, and far, far worse, at the same time. His clothes were soaked, whether from the water of Akus’ skill, or from the large volume of sweat he was certain had covered him during the process, it was hard to tell. Either way, he knew he needed a bath.

“Take your time,” Akus said. The man had stepped away from the bed, holding his small water bowl. He looked about as out of breath as Alex did, and was also wiping away the collected sweat from his face.

Holly’s hands found Alex’s shoulders, and she gave him some support as he swung his legs over the side and slowly stood up. Without thinking too much about it, he took a step forward. Then another. The walking cane was left behind, but he found he didn’t need it anymore.

“I feel… like I can at least move again,” Alex muttered.

Akus sighed in apparent relieve, which gave Alex a jolt of anxiety. If the mage was worried his healing didn’t work, he should have said something about that before they began. Was he hiding something else? Could Alex have been further crippled or something?

“I am glad to report that I hid away more perfectly. That little firefighter didn’t even notice me when he was spraying his hose all over inside your soulspace.” Obby was more than chipper in his tone.

Was there a chance he could? I trusted you would be able to hide from an Adept, even that close. Should I have been worried about that?

“Nah, no chance. But I think you’ll like the results you’ve had.”

Alex grunted again before squatting down on the balls of his feet. Then he stood, stretched one way, and the other. All looked and felt like his body was back to normal, mostly. He was still sore as hell. Everything ached and hurt, muscles, bones, he even felt a twinge of soreness in his.. liver? Could he feel his liver?

But that was a far cry better than the piercing, throbbing, raking pain his body was producing before.

“On second thought, I’m much better, actually,” Alex stepped away from Holly fully, ignoring the ever present worry on her face. “I think in a few days, I can go back to combat training.”

“Don’t jump to that just yet, Mr. Pierce. Your body was the least damaged out of everything, as impossible as it sounds. Please check your gates, and your aether,” Akus asked. “If you are still having difficulties, we can try another treatment in a few more days. You sucked me dry, so I need some time to recover myself.”

There was a silent pause in the room at the man’s words until Alex began to chuckle.

“Was that a joke Akus?” he asked.

The water mage smiled at him. “Mr. Kim has been teaching me the cultural ways of Worldstriders. You all are very peculiar, but I have come to understand you all like what is known to be, filthy humor. No?”

Alex continued to laugh but nodded. “Yeah, you can say that. Garret is going to be teaching you some bad habits for sure.”

“Great, we got another jokster?” Kate scoffed loudly.

“Apologies Ms. Locke, I can refrain from such behaviors if it causes issues among the team.” Akus hurriedly bowed before her.

“Hey, hey relax, it’s fine. Kate is just a bit uptight. Fire mages, right?” Alex gestured for Akus to rise. Kate rolled her eyes at the comment, but didn’t defend herself.

“Ah, um… yes. Okay.”

“He’s gonna be having a hard time, just wait until he meets Tom-Tom,” Holly said.

“The kobold? Correct?” he asked.

“Whoa, hold up, we can do introductions and everything later. Let me see if I can even hold me own in the team right now.” Alex interrupted the little hazing ritual the girls were doing, bringing the topic back to the uncertainty of his recovery.

“Right, sorry. Go ahead,” Holly encouraged.

Alex closed his eyes and began the aether pattern for his [Projection Shield] spell. As his aether moved about his body and into his channels, he felt that clawing pain return once more. He pushed through it, managing to complete the pattern and create a small two foot barrier in front of him that lasted a couple of seconds before flickering out.

“Output is still drastically low. That barrier was practically in mortal tier, early-stage Adept at the very best.” Obby said in his mind. The rock brought up a display in his vision, showing some readings. Sure enough, the rock was right, Alex had barely been able to cast the spell, and it was far underpowered.

“No good. I can’t cast at full power. I’d get wiped by a peak mortal mage.” Alex kept his eyes closed, still looking around at his aether channels. “It feels like my soulgate is returning to better condition, but it's slow.”

“The full results of the process will become apparent over time, give it a couple days,” Akus added.

“Not ideal, but fine, as for my soulspace.” Alex mind ventured through his soulgate into the large open area of his soul. Obby was already there waiting for him with a sharp toothed grin. But Alex ignored the pebble, looking about to see if any changes were made to the area.

Nothing had been moved or added, from what he could see. But he absolutely did notice a change. The edges of the space, although invisible, Alex could feel were less sturdy than before. Where before Akus’ treatment, they were impossibly strong walls of metaphysical force, now they felt like walls of clay that had yet to fully set.

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“What is everything… soft?” He asked Obby within the space.

“You seem disappointed, but I assure you, what that water mage did is actually good. Look closer, like reaaal close.” Obby wiggled his arms at the area below Alex’s feet.

He did as he was told, crouching down and getting a better look. At first, he saw nothing. He ran his hands along the surface, feeling that it was still warm to the touch, like a holovid disk after being on for a couple hours.

“What do you mean? I’m not seeing an— oh.”

He did see it. The edges of his soul weren’t just solid. Alex had always imagined them as seamless barriers separating his soul from the... whatever was outside, but now that he looked closely for the first time, he could tell that wasn’t the case.

The “floor” of his soulspace was actually a compact and near-imperceptible weave of invisible threads. Like a tapestry made of translucent fabric. He focused on it with his [Aether Sight], mentally stripping away all the ambient aether and visual noise.

His soul-wool, or spirit-cotton, the woven material substrata of his space, was tightly woven, but he could see that some of the threads had broken. Stray pieces had been ripped or torn, frayed in patches.

“Now you see it, good. That softness you feel, it's those threads loosening and then recombining together. Your soulspace is healing now, fixing all that damage that your [Technique] had caused. The cracks in the dam are being filled back in.” Obby explained.

“How long? How long until Its finished and I can cast my spells again?”

“At the current rate? Six days,” the single eye on Obby’s head widened a moment and locked on to Alex. “That's for spells, though. The pressure on your soul from those is minimal, even with [Vita-Soul Cloak], as that mostly strains your body.”

“What are you saying, exactly?”

Obby spun around him, looking about the soulspace as if a home appraiser going about a job. “With damage to this extent. The foundation issues, and electrical problems… I’d say three weeks before you can use your [Demon Asura Style]. The wrath and anger aspects put a lot of weight on your soulspace, even if you don’t realize it. [Descending Demon Fist],” Obby whistled loudly. “I’d say a month, maybe more. Same for using your Wyrm-heart over there.”

“A month? We are entering the Inheritance in twelve days.”

“And you can destroy your soul and die in there if you want. But I’d like to avoid that. I’m not the deciding factor here, okay. A month, and that’s assuming the healing speed doesn’t slow back down.”

Alex scowled. “And how long until we can use [DemonStrider] again?”

Obby paused, thinking things over for a moment. “Well, that’s tricky. I’d say, never.”

“Never?!”

“Hold on, hold on, let me explain,” Obby said quickly. “If we use it again, even if all this damage is healed, it will just cause the same problem all over. As it is, your soulspace just isn’t strong enough to handle the [Technique].”

“How do we change that then? Natural Treasures? Some unique items? Special cultivation?”

“Magus Tier,” Obby replied. “You want to increase the quality of your soulspace, that’s how you do it. Natural Treasures, or items, and some soul cultivation methods, they exist, but they are slow and have minimal effect. They’d take decades to work to the degree you want, which is fine for normal mages of Aetherios. But I know you, flesh-sack, you’re insane, and you want results right now.”

Alex opened his mouth to argue, but closed it just as quickly. The damn rock was right.

“So, I need to reach magus tier?”

“Or… you increase and refine your wisdom.”

“Again, Obby come on.”

“No, Alex, I’m serious here. Wisdom increases your aether pool as a mage for a reason, it is tied directly to the quality of your soulspace and how sturdy it is. You want to use [DemonStrider] again? Increase your wisdom.”

“Whatever, I’ll think about it. For now, I know what I can work on.”

Alex opened his eyes back in his bedroom, leaving Obby alone once again.

“Well?” Holly asked.

“As Akus said, the healing is still ongoing, so I will have to wait and see. But I should be able to cast my spells at full power again in a week. That will give me a few days to train before the inheritance.”

“Good. Amazing!” Holly clapped her hands excitedly.

“Wonderful to hear, Mr. Pierce,” Mr. Kim suddenly said from the doorway. “I must be going now, and Akus has his own training. We will meet back up in a week to discuss more.”

“Sure, sure no problem,” Alex said, taking Holly’s hand.

He was glad she was happy with his recovery. Getting to train and cast his spells again was huge. But he couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. He didn’t tell her the whole truth, he’d need to wait even longer to regain his peak.

It was probably best he keep that hidden for now.

“Alright, don’t you two have training of your own? Let me rest, you get back to it.”

The girls left him after some goodbyes, and his smile fell away once the door fully closed.

“We need to plan, Obby,” he said aloud. “We have limited resources, and limited time. Let’s figure out the best course of action and get moving.”

“You want to start now?”

“Absolutely.”

“Alright flesh-boy, I’ll start getting to it. Bring up your status screen let’s see what we’re working with.”