Chapter 451: Ryun

Chapter 451: Ryun

Thread of Existence

Like all living things in this world, spirits had a core of their being. For beings living in the Real Realm, it was the Soul, as was for the Shades. A spirit, almost like a cultivator, had a core, a piece of it that was connected to their Essence. Some had a physical core, an orb that contained their Essence and gave their beings meaning. Others had cores that were more Ethereal and nebulous things. Unlike Cultivators, spirit cores weren't directly connected to the plane of the Essence that defined them. The Essence that they had was a finite resource, unless they increased their power through entering into a service of another stronger spirit and fulfilling the terms of that service.

The Grand Spirits had no such cores. Ryun's eyes and perception had told him exactly what the Grand Spirits were. Their center of being was their connection to the Plane of the Essence that defined them. They were literally the manifestations of that Essence in the Ethereal Realm.

When they had designed the armor to trap War, Ryun and Grey Horde's smiths had made a way to specifically target that connection and stifle it. War wasn't severed from the Plane of War, she just couldn't reach it.

That was the exact same thing that the prison was designed to do, at its basest form. It cut of the connection to the Planes and therefore the Framework.

Except the Grand Spirit of Change didn't embody a single Essence like War that could be specifically targeted. The connection that the Grand Spirit had with its plane was the same as the spirit itself. It was ever changing. Ryun knew that he would never be able to keep up or even attempt to get ahead and stifle that connection.

There was only one way to deal with the Grand Spirit. His Ideal manifested all around him, threads of future probabilities of all reality stretched in all directions. He could feel the weight of all those threads, and instinctively he knew how much will it would be required to cut them and end those outcomes.

He didn't look to end anything. He searched through the threads, seeing how they shifted and changed and he reacted by crafting plates faster, anticipating what the Grand Spirit would change its nature into. The Essence of Change was such a fascinating thing, an Essence that could take the form of other Essences, in that it was similar to Mind. But it could also induce change in other Essences. If he had the time to study it, perhaps he would've been able to figure out a way to trap the Grand Spirit.

But he had no time. The Grand Spirit of Change realized that Ryun was up to something, and it fought back.

Its body transformed into a mass of a thousand different Essences, each lashing out from the center mass. Flaming tendrils burned through his Avatar in an instant, blades stabbed into the walls of the prison, cutting the walls apart. Wind like a hurricane howled and sent the pieces flying in all directions at speeds that turned them all into deadly shrapnel. Ryun ignored it all as he kept trying to suppress the spirit. A piece of the prison wall smashed into his head, the armor held, but the impact rocked his head enough that he felt a big drain on his Qi as he healed from the damage. Pieces pelted him, stabbing into the armor and he triggered the Last Will of Kha Yu and Gravity smashed down on the spirit and the flying debris.

Ryun was just buying time as he prepared a technique. He opened himself up to Oblivion, reaching down toward the center of his core, the bottomless void, the gaping maw that led to the Plane where all things eventually ended up in.

A calm settled over him, and silence filled him. It was always like this when he touched the plane. He knew Oblivion, he had glimpsed and grasped it, but he hadn't truly mastered it, not like he had Void. His Cultivation let him exert his influence, but being a Master of Oblivion and having Mastery of it was two different things.

The spike made out of black Ice changed as Ryun broke the thread that kept the water frozen, he dashed down, his body moving faster than his stats could account for as his will and |Velocity| accelerated him. He broke threads or moved them aside, and evaded through the onslaught as he fell toward the center mass of the spirit.

In his right hand he still had Bright Star, and as another tendril shifted into razor sharp blades intending to slap him out of the way, he swung with his hammer.

Bright Star hit the tendril and he activated Star Forging and Forged Memory. He crafted a plate out of the material available to him, the Grand Spirit's body itself. A plate with a formation branded itself on the spirit's flesh, and for a moment it went still. Then it went wild, a Change rippling from the core up to demolish the plate that was suppressing it.

It was a moment, but it was enough for Ryun to see the thread that he was looking for. The thread at the heart of the Grand Spirit of Change; its connection to the Plane of Change. Ryun pointed his other hand along that thread, then leaned his will on it even though he had no chance of severing it with will alone. Then he fired his technique and turned all his attention on a singular goal. His Aura and Oblivion's Mirror leaned on the core idea behind his power, to erase a nature.

A line of piercing nothingness stabbed out, it consumed the thread in an instant, as if it had never been there in the first place. It stabbed into the core of the spirit, the connection it had to the Plane of Change; for a moment there was something opposing him, but Oblivion was behind Ryun, and what the spirit had was just Change. In the end, even Change would return to its ultimate destiny.

The line of his Qi cut, and the connection was no more.

The whirling mass of tendrils stilled, all of its body turning back into unstable grains that Ryun now knew were the Essence of Change. It fell to the bottom of the prison, filling the large floor with a body that was the size of a whale. It hit with a thump, and then it lay still. Essence waiting for impetus to change, but an Essence that had no meaning and will to change.

Ryun fell on top of it, exhausted. In the corner of his mind, he acknowledged notifications, and with quick command he removed his filters.

You peered into the deeper law and the concept of an Essence. You understand the truth behind it.

Rewards:

Sage of Oblivion Title

Aspect Mastery II Title

Aspect of Oblivion Perk