Chapter 98 - Dark Soul

The air was eerily silent as the two familiar figure stared at each other, at the moment there gaze connected there seemed to be a mysterious sympathy a connection between them that was beyond words, Layton who was staring at his other self was amazed and horrified although they looked the same the essence was totally different through the mysterious connection Layton could easily perceive the inner workings of his other self.

The other self body was peculiar to say the least its body was made up primarily of muscle fibres thinner than hair, its blood thick and vicious and was made up of fragments of a familiar crystal like substance that seemed to replace the role of a blood vessel, every organ, every minuscule part of the body gave off bizarre fluctuations as if it were alive.

Looking closer Layton finally remembered why this was so familiar, his other self had basically reformed its body to be perpetually in the Magia Erebia state and the body was modelled after that indescribable form he had witnessed during the first time he experimented in the spirit world, which meant all the cells in the body had its own independent thoughts and was a veritable thinking life, the energy contained in such a form was immense and the will required to control it without deforming into a monster was incredible and Layton intuition told him the answer was in that weird flame he could perceive hidden in the darkness in the other self's soul.

While Layton was marvelling at his other self, the other-self was doing the same gazing closely at Layton he could find that the body soul and essence were closely intertwined forming a perfect whole giving him immense resistance endurance, growth and potential.

The body, soul and essence so intertwined that any deficiency in one would be made up for by the others, the combination of which allowed for the birth of the peculiar energy that seemed to originate from the depths of his soul. Although it sounded simple, the fact was that sometimes the simplest things are the most profound and incredibly difficult to achieve.

Layton who couldn't keep a hold on his curiosity quietly questioned "How did you…"

"Dark soul," his other self said stated with a smile on his face.

With the other-self words a vision born, a dark abyss full of squirming darkness but with a bonfire dead in the middle, the bonfire was burning releasing a golden flame, a flame which seemed to take in the surrounding darkness and madness burning it to create a resplendent glow of humanity.

From his intuition Layton knew what this was, it was a vision representing the essence of his other self's soul.

"Our affinity is darkness and flames, the negative emotion and dark chaotic nature brought about by body puts too much immense pressure on my soul so I simply ignited my soul using the darkness as fuel to keep me going" although the words were simple Layton could feel the danger behind the transformation.

The words dark soul referred to a video game back on earth which Layton guessed his other self got the inspiration from, a change in the soul was not something that could be easily accomplished at will, Layton perceived through their connection the most likely process that led to his other self's current form.

It all likely originated from the Magia Erebia spell, his other self likely did not bother to stop the process of his body's adaptation and evolution which led to a rapid breakthrough in strength one which his soul couldn't bear, to solve the danger he manipulated the negative information emerging from his active cells which were eroding his soul to act as a pigment, his ailing soul as a canvas and finally he gave up his rune igniting it turning it into a flame to keep the integrity of his soul.

Although the rune and his soul had been drastically changed separating the other-self from the orthodox wizarding path Layton had no doubt that his other self had already found a way to advance with his perception Layton could see the crystal fragments in the blood which he knew were most likely minuscule plane crystal fragment much like the one he found in the avatar world and he didn't think he kept those crystals in his blood for fun.

As for what capabilities he had Layton couldn't judge after all some features and characteristics of the dark soul in the game back on earth was pretty high level, but one thing was sure his other self was definitely aiming at creating a world in his soul which was part of the reason he used his soul as canvas and merged with the plane crystal.

"Psionic" Layton said softly after rousing himself from his thoughts and noticing the inquiring look on his other self's face.

With Layton's words the other-self could clearly perceive the psionic energy in Layton's soul, the energy was one mined directly from the soul and from his perspective it seemed that Layton's soul was no longer filled with mist but bands of mysterious light, his rune no longer followed the normal part of gasifying the soul making it release and generate spiritual power but instead it seemed to affect the deeper part of his soul making it release a mysterious energy that seemed one level higher than spiritual power.

The soul was an inherently obscure and mysterious topic and one of the fundamental building blocks of any universe, spiritual power was nothing but the surface use of the energy of the soul and yet it was able to achieve numerous miraculous feats, in fact, the creation and core of the wizarding path started as a result of the use of the spiritual power to analyze knowledge, and Layton psionic seemed to go one step further into utilizing that mysterious omnipotent energy that constituted the soul.

The will required to reach this step at his level without his soul suffering undeniable damage and possible death was unbelievable first the connection to the plane will in the avatar plane was essential has it had an intense tempering effect on the soul and rune, an effect which would normally leave behind hidden wounds and stunt potential, secondly the promotion of the plane was vital as the blessings brought about by the promotion would feed back an intense pure energy that would heal such dark wounds and increase potential and thirdly the will to crush and dominate the active cells instinct making them cater to a single will, after all as a human the soul and the body affect each other and taking full control of the body naturally allowed for a deeper control over the soul.

The other-self did not think Layton was the only one in the whole of the void to realize this mysterious energy but it was still an impressive feat nonetheless.

Thinking up to this point the fighting intention in the other-self couldn't be suppressed anymore as an astonishing brutal aura erupted from him as he stared at Layton with an eager and earnest gaze.
RECENTLY UPDATES