Beyond The System

Chapter 297: Where?

I thought about activating my Voidseed, then decided against it, at least for the moment. Wyrem’s warnings weren’t something I could afford to shrug off. Still… it was tempting.

If I increased my absorption speed, my Purification would accelerate with it, and that possibility sat heavy in my head. The gains from each purification were never subtle. A hard jump in speed. A sharper recovery rate. Even a bloodline awakening. Not to mention Griffith’s Seismic Sense.

Now there was only one more thing left to learn… if those effects were consistent for everyone.

I let power stream into me, activating my Precursor Sense at the same time so I could shape the temporary cores. Slowly, the process continued. Purification had become more or less automatic by this point, in more ways than one, so I let my thoughts drift to other problems while it worked.

I considered starting Grand Scaffolding soon as well, but pushed it off. It would take too much time and too much energy for the situation I was in. For now, I could use Drybel to assist me. It would likely be slower than doing it myself, but it was still something.

Still… the more I completed, the more it felt like the list grew. It was starting to press in on me, a little overwhelming at times. But there were the others. If I was trusting Lyra and Sia to figure something out about healing energy, then I wouldn’t split myself chasing it too.

Instead, I shifted my focus to something else.

Transforming without thinking.

Just like Mei did. Like Amei and I could only assume Sei could.

Sitting in my Inner World for ten seconds was unacceptable. Ten seconds was a lifetime. In one second, a battle could tip.

My friends could die.

I could die.

If I couldn’t figure it out, then there was no point in carrying such a powerful ability at all.

So I let the time pass, letting the last of the Purification finish.

Before entering my Inner World, I felt something warm lean against my body. Maybe Thea taking her time to train as well. Really hoped the teaching went well.

“Drybel?” I called out the moment the World Seed came into view.

He shifted slightly before answering. “You handled everything alright, it seems.”

I nodded, walking toward the ring spiraling around the seed. “Yeah. But it could’ve been much worse.”

“Indeed,” he agreed. “Beings like that… they remind me of Kazriel in his youth.”

“Oh?” I cocked my head, looking up at the largest tentacle spiraling around my World Seed, the one holding the Essences that fed me power. “What do you mean?”

“His constitution was something special, to my understanding. Of course, I was never connected to him, so I don’t know what, but…” He trailed off, then continued with the same calm, reciting old history. “His enemies would speak of it.”

I crossed my arms, trying to imagine what connection there could possibly be between a Starborn and Kazriel from so long ago.

Thankfully, Drybel wasn’t finished. “You called that girl a Starborn, correct? Well, I suppose the name makes sense.”

“It does?!” The words came out louder than I intended. But he clearly understood something I didn’t, and I mentally cursed myself for never bringing up Starborn before… not that I’d had much experience with them.

“From what I heard, inside Kazriel…” His voice dipped slightly. “Likely in a space like this, there was a fountain of energy.”

My eyes snapped to the World Seed.

And a guess formed.

The first girl I’d seen.

She could fire massive blasts of flame at the speed of sound. Heat so violent it turned everything to ash. And still… her body wasn’t much. Neither were her senses.

Power like a god.

“You think—?”

“Seems like we have the same idea,” he said, practically confirming my thoughts. “Kazriel was something beyond expectations. He could fight higher beings on even footing. Though that may be exaggerated as I only ever knew of him as a higher being.”

So if they were the same kind of existence… then there could be levels to it.

Serith had told me what I would unlock once I gained true access to my World Seed. Enough that someone as powerful as Sei had been desperate to reach it.

Did Starborn have access to that?

I shook the thought away immediately.

No.

Serith still could’ve handled that girl without issue. And Lucan was likely a Starborn, yet he was below her, too.

“You think there’s something like the World Seed they can access?” I offered, reaching for an alternative.

“No,” he responded. “Two massive pools of energy? It seems unlikely. However… your own body can diffuse energy into itself from its center of power. Perhaps the seed is much the same.”

I sat with that, trying to follow the line of reasoning.

“You think their World Seeds have leaked out some of their energy?”

He didn’t answer right away, letting the question hang while he weighed my words.

“I think so,” he said at last. “But it is only a guess. The power, if we’re correct, could leak out a certain amount before stopping… in different amounts… or—”

“Continue leaking,” I finished, leaning back as the idea landed.

How powerful would someone like that be compared to an average person? Or at this level?

“It’s a terrifying thought,” I exhaled. It wasn’t the raw strength that chilled me, but the uncertainty behind it. “It’ll be impossible to know what to expect with each Starborn, then. If some have access to just a bit of that energy, then… I don’t know.”

For all I knew, the one I fought had been nothing but a grain of sand. Then again, she could’ve been one of the higher-level ones. And even so, it had taken everything I had—plus the help of several others—to bring her down.

What if she was nothing compared to the others?

“I wouldn’t worry so much,” Drybel said, almost casually, and my head snapped back up toward him.

“I think I should.”

“No. The solution is simple. You must grow,” he said, as if it were as easy as breathing. “And how many could truly be born at once?”

A faint huff slipped through my nose, one corner of my mouth lifting in a helpless half-smile. “Maybe you’re right.”

But I wasn’t so sure.

Sure, in this world—I’d seen one, and the others had seen another, but the Kingdom was practically a eugenics program built on power.

In a society that wasn’t searching for something like that, maybe only a couple would ever be found. But in one that was? It might still be rare… but maybe not as rare as people wanted to believe. Still, even that was only a guess. Just one more worry to stack behind the others.

And, Lucan was apparently Griffith’s age, but seemed young.

That had its own implications considering the words from Nova and Serith. Too many theories could form. So I dropped it.

In the end, Drybel was right.

Worrying endlessly would accomplish nothing.

I stood again, drawing in a slow breath. “Then I’ll get stronger, like you said. Thanks for the information…  and the advice. But I need to figure something out first.” Walking toward the strand of Animora, I called it down, but didn’t fully grasp it yet. “When I transformed, did you notice anything about it?”

One tentacle shook side to side, mimicking human behavior.

“This avatar, does it leave?”

Another shake.

Is he feeling playful all of a sudden? Was it the compliment?

I dismissed the swift change in behavior.

“So I have to figure out a way to make this spirit and the ring contact each other.” I looked up at him, hoping he’d have an answer.

But when he reached out to touch it, his form slipped straight through.

“I see…” I mumbled. It would’ve been convenient if he could do it for me. Especially since, when I met Mei again, she could probably show me the proper method, but for now it felt impossible.

“It’s a shame…” he murmured too, and the disappointment in his voice sounded real.

I shook my head. “No. Since I couldn’t do it without pouring in all my energy, how could you when your energy is—”

I stopped mid-sentence.

“Peter?” he prompted.

“All my energy in this space allowed me to interact more physically…” The words came out slow as my thoughts raced.

“Yes.”

I looked at him again.

That form of his; pure darkness given shape. The thing that had coated my Harmonic Channel, then altered it, molding it until it conformed perfectly to something he could use.

And yet…

None of it was mine.

Every bit of it was under his control.

In reality, I knew nothing about it. No rules. No structure. No mechanics.

Or rather… I knew only the surface.

He could shift the bodies of beings he inhabited, likely to take them over one day.

The Voidseed could absorb the power of the world around me, skyrocketing my cultivation speed.

But beyond that? I didn’t know much at all.

And that was only in his current form.

What about when he was a child? Powers like his couldn’t have been sealed away just to be used after death, could they?

And Kris—though he was similar—didn’t seem to use anything like what Drybel did, at least not in any way I could recognize. Honestly, other than appearance, I struggled to see any similarities between them.

Only that it was his.

So I asked the question.

“Where do you get your power?”