Chapter 546: Selia and Erdania |
Legacy and Reliability
Selia’s world expanded, her being changed and became something else. She felt herself expand beyond her own body. In a way that was completely alien to anything she had experienced before.
She knew instinctively what to do. The knowledge flowing across the bond with Ryun to both her and Erdania. So, it was easy for her to take control of her Authority over the world around her. She was no longer Selia, the wielder of Sanguine Flame of Laqruud, no longer the Soul Smith of Twin Legacy, Scythe, not even an Aspect of True Death. No, she was now more than that. Her Soul, her being was the authority and dominion over a single concept—Legacy.
And that encompassed many things. Creation first and foremost, because to leave something behind, you had to create it in the first place. She could feel the parts where her and Ryun intermingled, where his Destruction met her Legacy. Because yes, even Destruction could be a Legacy.
But it was more than all of that. It was what Laqruud had taught her. It was sacrifice for the generations that would come after. It was what she had always done, taking the pain of others onto herself. Bearing the burdens so that they didn’t have to.
It was hers to watch, to enable, to provide for everyone. Her domain, her authority to create a Legacy. And what better Legacy could she offer than to rid the world of Ra’azel and his evil?
Her power was hers fully now, her Class and her Cultivation, her Skills. Everything was available, and she shaped and used her powers. As Ryun took Ra’azel’s ability to perceive she created.
Weapons born out of her Qi, her very Essence. Filled with the concepts running through her entire being. With her [Project Construct], she manifested more of them. Each unique, each a piece of art, birth through the inspiration of her mind. And she knew that these were not just made out of some ephemeral Essence granted by the Framework. These came from her very own being, her Essence, the Aspect that was Selia. And because of that, each of them was permanent, infused with a piece of her being, a sliver of her Authority.
They would remain long after she was gone, a legacy she would leave behind.
Erdania felt uncertain. She was changing, so fast that she was afraid that she was losing herself. But she didn’t voice any of her concerns. She tried her best to keep them as buried as she possibly could, hoping that Selia and Ryun couldn’t sense her trepidation.
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She didn’t want them to feel it, to know her doubt. It was scary, of course it was. She had spent her life advancing her Cultivation, seeking greater heights, but never for herself. It wasn’t about power for her, it was about being there for those that she loved.
When she met Selia, she had slowed her advancement, kept pace with her, even though she knew that she could advance with no issues. Like Ryun, she had never felt like she had hit her limits. Cultivation came as easy to her as breathing.
Now though, she was turning into something else. Ever step she took felt certain, as if there was nothing that could shake her balance. Her command over Gravity increased, but it also expanded. She could feel the surety of the Earth beneath her feet, the stone of her Worldstone Aspect. The mass of her body, every piece of her from flesh to bones. It was all… a part of her. It was all… reliable.
She was surprised when she had spoken those words. When she had felt them shape her. But she knew how right it felt, even though it was strange.
She always strove to be a solid presence in the lives of those she loved. To be there for them, to help them through their struggles. She was as certain as Gravity, as the world beneath their feet itself.
Reliability, she felt touched many different things. She knew that if she opened her mouth and spoke, if she sang, her words would carry a piece of her being. That they would convey the truth of what she intended. For what was more reliable than the truth? Other things touched her too, the light around them, the dark, things that were laws, that were certain, that were reliable.
She could impact them somehow, though she didn’t know how yet. She could feel herself expanding, her being existing outside of her body. Her perception was flooded by the understanding of everything her being touched. She knew that all the Essence around her that was part of her Authority was hers to command with but a thought.
It was overwhelming. Her Authority expanded to touch Ra’azel, and it stopped at the edge of his being. Which was not actually the edge of his body. His Soul extended outside of it, so vast that it surprised Erdania. She could feel his Soul moving, like a limb, carving runes in the space. She felt it, as if he were carving them on her very skin.
She focused on Gravity around him, tried to increase it and bring him down to the ground but knew immediately that it would not touch him. He had excluded himself from its touch, somehow.
As she saw Selia and Ryun preparing to attack, she formulated a plan of her own. A piece of the ground separated from the whole and floated up into her palm as Gravity inverted, a perfect sphere of Worldstone.
She shaped techniques and layered them within it. Her {Reverberating Blow}, she filled it with her being, channeled through her core. She was Reliability, she could make things more solid, more real, stronger.
But she could also take it away. She focused on her skill, |Perfect Essence Breaker: My Fists, Leveling the Field|, and infused it into the piece of stone. The skill was part of her after all, and her Authority stretched far beyond the vessel she inhabited.
As Selia unleashed her attack, Erdania sent her attack along, hiding it among Selia’s weapons.
The attacks flew true, and hit Ra’azel’s shield. Selia’s weapons cracked or bounced off, and then Erdania’s stone arrived. It hit the shield and she leaned her will on it. The skill triggered and the Essence making up the shield trembled. A piece of a Soul met with the Authority of a being who was part of this place, who had dominion over Reliability. And she took his shield’s reliability away.
It fractured, broke into pieces and his blind eyes widened as Selia’s attacks hit him straight on. Then Ryun was there, charging through the air and smashing into Ra’azel, taking him to the ground.
