Chapter 52: The Inverted Prism
His fingers had blocked my access to the tree with the same ease as someone swatting a fly.
Shaking my fist twice, the ache from the impact lingered.
Around me, Theren’s Domain stretched across every inch of forest, river, and grass. A kilometer of absolute control. Every stone, every root, every drop of water was covered by his Empero.
Even though I no longer needed to touch him directly, now I had to touch anything within his Domain? It was an impossible task.
Could you help me? I asked the Harem System.
[Now you need my help? How sweet. 😊]
This is not the time for your...
[I’ll make it easy for you, Romeo: Have you stopped to think about what Theren can’t see?]
And after writing that, the screen disappeared.
What the hell did that mean? Theren was blind. He couldn’t see anything. But his Empero allowed him to perceive practically everything: the vibration produced in the earth when someone walks, every change in pressure, the wind caressing the leaves of the trees... every movement within his kilometer of control was perceived by him.
What was it that Theren couldn’t see?
Looking around. The clay statues, the grass, the stone, the river, the trees, the sky.
The sky.
The clouds had parted. The sun fell upon the forest in golden shafts. And the rainbow stretched from behind the mountains to the heart of the forest. Its end touched the crown of an oak tree about fifty meters away.
That gave me an idea.
While Empero could be felt with all five senses, light... light passed through Empero if it wasn’t sufficiently condensed. It was the reason everyone could see despite being surrounded by auras: natural defensive Empero was thin, almost transparent. It didn’t block light.
Even for Theren Valdris, condensing Empero over an entire square kilometer was impossible.
Rather, he did the exact opposite of condensing when deploying his Domain across the forest. After all, that was what Domain consisted of: dispersing Empero so your aura covered a wider radius.
And what wasn’t condensed let light pass through as if it were window glass.
That was when I noticed it.
The rainbow.
The rainbow was white light passing through a prism that split it into seven colors. It was neither an object nor matter. It was a phenomenon that existed without weight or mass.
And although Theren could feel things like water, stones, or grass... light was none of those things.
"Theren."
"Sapling."
"How did you locate the end of the rainbow?" I asked cautiously. I needed to know how he perceived light if he didn’t do it with his Empero. Only then could I finish formulating my strategy.
Theren tilted his head. His fingers stopped moving over the water. Then he pointed his index finger at his face.
"My eyes." He touched his eyelids. "Although they don’t receive light, they can feel the glow: that subtle warmth and sudden clarity. Very faint, but enough to perceive that it’s day and not night, or in this case, the end of the rainbow."
So he felt a faint glow. Good, that was enough for me.
I looked at the rainbow. Its end shone on the oak’s leaves. A band of seven colors that no one in this world seemed to consider beyond a pretty phenomenon.
Theren turned toward me. His white lips curved.
"You found it, didn’t you?"
I didn’t answer. Starting toward the oak, I hid my true intentions as best I could.
Theren’s white Empero moved. The air pressure around me increased. His tentacles crept closer to my legs, arms, back... He was perceiving my intentions.
Quickening my pace.
My boots stepped on the grass; or rather, on Theren’s Empero, which covered it.
The end of the rainbow shone before me with its seven colors. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. So close... a couple more steps, and...
The air in front of me condensed.
Turning toward Theren, I saw he had raised his right hand.
The rainbow’s light vanished before my eyes. It was as if the sky itself had been abruptly shut.
Damn it.
"Did you think I’d make it easy for you or something, Oak Sapling?" Theren said from behind.
I stopped. The rainbow’s light had been blocked.
Turning toward him. We were five meters apart.
"Now what?"
"Can you feel the light of your own Empero?"
Theren opened his eyes. His lips stopped curving.
"What do you mean?"
"Your Empero is white. Like the true color of sunlight. The same light that makes up a rainbow before it splits into colors."
Theren didn’t answer.
Concentrating my Empero inside me. Instead of expelling it, I molded it in my interior, just as he had taught me.
Before even materializing it, I gave it shape and condensed it.
’Prism.’
That was the word I was going to use. It was no ordinary word; in fact, I had no certainty it would work. But what plan has absolute certainty?
’When I retract my Empero, you will go to the rainbow in front of you, then aim toward me. Instead of splitting the light, you will merge it into one: you will transform the seven colors of the rainbow into white light.’
That was the order I wrote for it. I didn’t know if it would work this time, given how complex it was.
After materializing the word, I immediately noticed it was denser, and also noticed a much larger drop in my Empero reserves than on previous occasions.
What happened? I asked the Harem System.
[Conceptual abilities have a few different ways of functioning, but that price is paid in more Empero reserves. The more complex your order, the more Empero it will demand. 🤓]
So that was it? It made sense. It was the most elaborate order I had written so far.
[You went from 80,000 to 10,000]
So I used 70,000 to write that order? That’s too much.
[Look at it this way: if it weren’t so complex and demanding, your ability wouldn’t be powerful. Don’t you think, Romeo? 🤔]
"What are you...?" Theren began after noticing the immense amount of Empero I had drained by using my ability.
Deciding to run toward him, I charged my fist with the little Empero I had left.
"You know that’s not going to work," he observed.
Paying him no attention, I took a swing to strike him.
Like the previous time, Theren blocked it without moving a single finger.
"It’s a waste of time and energy to execute a useless strat—"
My Empero retracted.
The word ’prism’ began to follow the order.
’When I retract my Empero, you will go to the rainbow in front of you...’
The word shot toward the rainbow.
’... then aim toward me...’
The word turned toward my direction.
That was the moment Theren realized.
But it was already too late, even for him.
’... Instead of splitting the light, you will merge it into one: you will transform the seven colors of the rainbow into white light.’
A burst of white light flooded the forest and then concentrated on a point, aiming toward me.
It was an inverted prism: on one end it absorbed the rainbow’s light, and on the other it emitted it as a white line pointing straight at me.
I smiled.
Theren blinked. His white eyes darted from side to side. His Empero churned. The tentacles retracted by instinct, searching for the light source.
But the light was indistinguishable from himself. He had only managed to block the rainbow’s because he already knew where it was, having noticed it earlier through what he called the glow.
To him, it was like trying to find his own shadow in a dark room.
The condensation blocking the rainbow dissolved.
The rainbow’s light touched the ground beside the oak once more. Seven colors shining on the grass.
That was when I ducked.
The line of light pointing at me passed over my head... now aiming at Theren’s chest.
I had not only touched the light, but also, through my own Empero, had managed to touch him.
Theren looked down; his white eyes felt the light on his chest which, like a magnifying glass, was starting to heat him up.
He looked up at me.
He smiled.
"Light," he whispered. "The one thing a Domain as vast as mine can’t block. The one thing I can’t see without feeling its glow first..."
"You told me to touch anything within your Domain," I replied panting, still kneeling. "When I tried to touch the rainbow with my own hands, I realized that, indeed, touching a visible light phenomenon would be a victory for me, since it didn’t break your rules."
Dispelling the word prism, the white line disappeared.
Theren retracted his Domain. Then he sat on the riverbank. His feet submerged in the water again. It was the same position he was in when I found him.
"Three seconds to solve the first riddle. Less than a minute to solve the second." He scratched his chin. "You know, boy, the last time I did this exercise with a student, he took three hours on the first and never solved the second."
"Who was it?"
"My last student was Duralianne."
I was left speechless.
"She... tried this exercise?"
"And failed."
Theren reclined on the grass, looking at the sky with eyes that didn’t see.
"When the earth trembles," he said, patting the ground. "Only then will you come to me for our second lesson."
"And when is that supposed to happen?"
"The ground has told me it will happen," he stated. "Make sure to bring something to eat when it does."
An eyebrow raised.
"I don’t understand what you mean..."
"When you come to me again, Oak Sapling, I will teach you to listen to the voice of the world."