Chapter 500: Ryun

Chapter 500: Ryun

Aspect Interactions

Ryun was trying to come up with a plan. He was using a significant amount of his will and focus on just keeping his body condensed into the shape of his human form, keeping himself from expanding or removing the Scorn's shell. It wasn't that he was afraid to do it, it was that he was pretty sure that if he allowed his body to expand it would turn into the same thing it did when he lost control. Perhaps somehow changed, but it would grow to the size of a hill, swallowing everything around him. He was trying to think of a way to do that safely, without destroying everything around him, or somehow consuming Maleatus on the nearby hill by accident.

So, he was thinking and while doing that he checked his other perks, seeing if any had changed. The new perk said that there would be perk alterations. After a quick glance, he discovered that only one perk had been changed, and the change was minimal, at least it seemed. The Adaptive Infinitum Chassis no longer referred to only Oblivion, now it simply stated that his body was made of the Soul and End related Aspects. And saying that my Aspects would exert their influence on anything within my body according to my will and understanding. It also added that the disadvantageous effects of my Aspects no longer applied, probably future proofing in case I get more Aspects.

He turned back to the new perk. From what its description said, his body still contained Oblivion, it shouldn't have changed that much. And Oblivion didn't need to consume everything in its wake. He had been able to project his Aura without infringing on other Essences. Make it an invisible cover that was ready to act on his will. Oblivion Essence had no shell, so it could exist in between other Essences without interacting with them if he so chose. Only people with eyes like Ryun's could even see it, since Oblivion didn't have a physical form unless it was actively destroying other Essence, it was the act of destruction that created the void, the hole in space, that could be perceived.

So, he focused, and then reached out to Scorn, willing the shell of his forearm and hand to pull back. The Skin and Flesh beneath rippled, then pulled back to his elbow, leaving behind the condensed Essence of Ryun's arm that sought to expand. He kept his will tight, holding the shape down. To his eyes his arm looked like his body did before, grains of and Essence that was a combination of Oblivion and an altered Soul, an Essence that had no shell, which made him frown. The wording on the new perk mentioned a change, his Soul stepping forward. He pulled the description up and read through it again. There were mentions about his Aspects, both Oblivion and True Death, but also augmentation and presentation, his will and meaning.

He knew that if someone with ordinary eyesight looked at his hand now, they would see only a hole in reality, a nothingness. The same as they would before. Yet, he did feel a change, his control over his body seemed firmer somehow, even though it was attempting to expand. With an effort of will Essence gathered around his hand and a shell was formed, the same fake Flesh that he had been creating on instinct before. He had calmed down significantly, he had done all that he could for now, Tali's rescue was imminent, and advancing always made him feel better.

That line of thought was very interesting, and he would have to experiment more, but for now he was far more familiar with Oblivion, so he returned his body to that form then had Scorn create a shell over him, again leaving one of his hands free. Now, he focused on what he wanted this version of his body to do.

He knew that Oblivion didn't need to interact with other Essence, so now he attempted to focus on that aspect of his body. There was no change that he could perceive, it was all internal, the meaning of his Soul, his intent.

One of the more instinctual things that Ryun did was his interaction with Light Essence. The reason why people saw the nothingness when they looked at his shell-less form was because he didn't consciously interact with it. Instead, Light Reached his body, and then just reappeared beyond the borders of his vessel, because his body was a hole in reality, there was no space in between himself and the area beyond him. That made the light sort of skip a short distance, but it remembered that it had encountered him, somehow, that was why people saw a dark nothingness.

Now, he consciously changed that. The first thing that happened was that Light Essence now passed through his body, the meaning of its Essence attempted to interact, but it wasn't guided by a will, and it couldn't overcome his own meaning. Allowing his will to win and making it so that it didn't interact with anything. For all intents and purposes, he had turned himself invisible. Or at least his forearm and hand, Scorn's shell still covered the rest of him. Air and gravity followed afterward. They all passed through harmlessly. The first thing he noticed was that the drain on his core lessened. The need to constantly heal from damage was gone as gravity stopped interacting with him, and damaging him, though the damage was always small as his immunity quickly kicked in even while he was moving. Now there was no need for it.

Once he felt like he had the hang of it, he turned to a nearby rock to test it. Slowly he pressed his arm against it. Immediately he felt the meaning of the Stone Essence itself resist him, but it was not guided by any kind of a will, easily his own overpowered it. His hand sunk into the rock but didn't damage it at all. It appeared as if his hand had phased through, though in reality the Essence of his body had just moved in between the empty room of the Stone Essences shell. His Essence, in this form at least had no shell to interact with the Stone, not unless he willed it. He smiled, feeling a bit silly that he hadn't tried that before. He had focused so much on the more destructive elements of his Aspect that he had disregarded others even when they stared him in the face. He had been able to throw out techniques that interacted only with a single type of Essence, just flowing through all others. He could've been doing this from the start.

Now, he felt a lot more comfortable in letting his body expand. He shook his head, then removed Scorn's shell fully, a moment later he stopped keeping his body suppressed, and in an instant, he exploded.