NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4: Lost Soul
Chapter 4: Lost Soul
A sudden, blinding flash erupted before William, igniting the space in a searing white light. He froze, his pulse spiking, as a disembodied voice reverberated out of no where.
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]
A shudder ran through him, his body tensing as the words settled in his mind. His heart thundered, but no fear gripped him—only a strange, focused calming sensation. His breath caught in his throat.
The light faded, leaving him suspended in a void. Darkness stretched endlessly in every direction, dotted with distant, faint yellow orbs, flickering like stars. He floated weightlessly, his limbs absent from his awareness. It was like being trapped in a cosmic abyss, disoriented and numb.
He couldn't feel his body. No sensation, no movement—just the vast silence and emptiness.
He summoned his runes, the glowing symbols flickering into his vision, confirming his worst suspicion. Whatever the
spell was doing, it aimed to disorient him, to strip him of everything familiar.
…
Name: William Hernandez
True Name: —
Rank: Aspirant
Soul Core: Dormant
Memories:
Echoes:
Attributes: [Apathy], [Divine Soul], [Space of Divinity]
Aspect: [Lost Soul]
Aspect Description: [A soul adrift in the endless void, untethered and directionless. Haunted by memories of a forgotten past, forever searching for a purpose or a place to belong.]
…
Will's glowing form hovered aimlessly, his runes flickering faintly against the black, infinite void. The shimmering light of his floating ball self barely broke the stillness of the void. He couldn't rage, he couldn't shout, the emotions that once fueled him now are like distant echoes. He stared blankly at the runes before him, the glowing symbols meaningless for the moment.
[What am I supposed to do? Where do I start?]
At least his thoughts was still intact. His mind, sharp and calculating, hadn't been taken from him. But what now? He moved forward without purpose, drifting toward a distant light dot, the only thing that broke the monotonous space.
[Do you know where this place is?] he asked.
The dot, like all the others, drifted slowly, dimly glowing against the void. Its response, when it came, was flat and empty.
[I don't know.]
Nothing more. The light dot floated away, leaving him alone once again in the vast nothing. He pressed on, repeating his questions to more yellow dots that passed him, but the answers never changed. The void seemed to nullify their sense of self returning them the same indifferent and detached response.
[This is proving to be quite difficult.]
The senseless questioning after the other, his drive still pressing harder.
However, as time passed by, he was on the verge of stopping, of abandoning this method altogether, when a thought, simple yet firm, broke through his hesitation.
[I should try one more time.]
Will shifted toward another light dot. But this time, something was different. The dot began to shift, slowly, the constant yellow dot blinking into hues of blue and red, the once stable glow flickering as if disturbed. Its calm form rippled, its light bending in uneven waves.
For the first time, something in the void had changed.
He began to grow closer to it, not by his own will, but the vacuum of space around the bright dot sucked him with slow but strong force. It flared even more brilliantly. Once Will came closer to it, it suddenly became dim, slowly growing weaker.
It revealed a path of faintly glowing symbols. Each symbol pulsed with an energy that tugged at something deep within William, an almost forgotten feeling.
[Aspirant! To reclaim what is lost, you must face the shadows within.]
The runes appeared out of nowhere, making it seem as if another challenge would appear within the Nightmare.
[Shadows… Within?]
Without any hesitation, Will continued through the path—incandescent lights shimmered and began to change into different colors. The incandescent lights began to blink slower, showing signs of stopping. It was like a wheel of fortune that would choose a reward for the spinner.
It suddenly stopped at the color red. Will moved along the path, and the void around him began to change. He felt a sudden, inexplicable heat—being transported into another place.
…
Will found himself in a barren wasteland, the ground cracked and scorched, surrounded by crushed piles of metal and debris. This land, was filled with madness and chaos.
Without any time to think, a towering figure appeared before him, eyes scorched in rage. Its fangs began to pour out foam from its mouth. The figure roared, and the ground began to tremble, sending cracks toward him.
"Is that… me?"
He took a step back and then began running. He felt his entire body burning from the scorching heat.
'Looks like I have my physical body again, but I still feel empty.'
Hiding behind one of the giant piles of scrap metal, he distanced himself from the metal, making sure his skin didn't get burnt. His giant self began to search through the piles, its hands seemingly unaffected by the scorching heat produced by the metal.
This has proven to be impossible to defeat the giant, with his current capabilities, even surviving would be a miracle.
He ran through pile after pile, avoiding the giant as much as possible. He knew that once the giant found him, he would be instantly crushed by its foot. He checked his runes once more—he studied each of his attributes while moving through the piles, each time making him more fatigued.
[Apathy] Attribute Description: Emotions slide off you like water off a stone. Neither joy nor sorrow can penetrate your detached state, granting you an unshakable calm but also leaving you isolated from the warmth of human connection.
[Space of Divinity] Attribute Description: You exist within a sacred realm where the divine and mortal worlds intertwine.
[Divine Soul] Attribute Description: Your soul carries the essence of divinity, a spark of the divine that elevates your existence.
Will was already quite familiar with [Apathy] since he was already devoid of emotion. He came to the conclusion that this was his innate attribute. [Space of Divinity] gave him the ability to interact with any beings through their soul core without giving him the risk of losing control. [Divine Soul], however had proven to be quite handy—this attribute gave him the power to heal or buff his own soul, also influencing his physical body.
Will was perplexed at first; he didn't know what the meaning behind the attributes was nor did it give a vivid explanation of the ability. But upon realization, he was already given a complete understanding of the attributes themselves. This gave him more options in defeating the giant.
With all that being the case, he started formulating a plan. He buffed himself, removing his fatigue. Adrenaline spread throughout his body, making him stronger. Will dashed through the hazardous landscape. The giant sensed Will's movements, repeatedly looking around in confusion.
Enraged by its predicament, the giant roared, shaking the land—causing Will to lose his balance and be spotted by the giant's ability. It pulled out a huge scrap of metal from the gutters, running toward Will, crashing his weapon into the pile, accumulating dust around the area.
This made it more convenient for Will. With a piece of sharp metal on him, his hand bloodied and burnt from the metal, he slashed through the giant's Achilles tendons. But to no avail, its hide was more durable than Will had expected it to be; it did not show any signs of being damaged, not even a scratch.
Upon noticing, the giant kicked Will, causing him to tumble, crashing into one of the scrap piles. His skin burnt and bloodied, he was in shambles and struggled to recover. With little energy remaining, he used Divine Soul to heal himself. He stood up, then ran away from the giant.
The giant's ravaging red eyes looked at Will—chasing him. It took out its huge scrap metal to crush Will, causing the ground near him to crack, creating miniature quakes and an avalanche. Will jumped on the burning scraps of metal then landed on the ground, making his timing right and precise. The giant continuously did the same attack to which Will countered in the same way.
The giant stopped its repetitive attacks. If it couldn't catch its prey by making obstacles on his path, then it needed to stop him from running somehow. It forcibly threw around debris and metals while chasing after Will, making it harder for its prey to run so easily.
A smile spread across the giant's face, looking at its mere prey, growing tired from dodging its flurry of attacks. Will was about to give up. He didn't have the energy to use Divine Soul. He had no choice but to hide among the debris that the giant threw at him.
Recuperating from its ballistic attacks, Will used his small advantage to dash among the debris, then hid among the giant piles once more. He was covered with sweat, making his clothes heavier to run with. He took off his shirt then put it beside him—he couldn't afford any unnecessary sounds produced while he rested. He controlled his breathing, making his presence less vivid.
Through his gathered information, Will found out that the giant's abilities were something he couldn't handle—it could detect movements through the use of its roar, create earthquakes with little effort using a medium as a weapon, and had durable skin which was hard to penetrate. This led him to the conclusion that nothing in this pile could harm the giant, which left him with one option left.
The giant was rummaging through the piles again, like a cat reaching its paws into a mouse's hole, trying to search for its food. It was filled with anger—this feeling pulsing through it to crush its victim with its bare hands, devouring its little body smudged on the ground.
From afar, little footsteps were heard—struggling to move, seemingly ready to give up. The giant smiled, tracking its prey to a corner where piles of debris and metal surrounded the small, exhausted figure. The giant took one slow step at a time, making its prey cower in fear. The prey, on the other hand, was bloodied and bruised all over, its sweat making it look more appealing and juicy to devour.
Panting repeatedly and lying on the ground, the prey gave up on its attempts to escape. It struggled to crawl away little by little, but its arms gave out. It was evident—the giant had claimed its food. The giant approached Will, its desire to consume him apparent. With no food left to scavenge in this desolate place and no time for thought, it was already at arm's reach, moving closer to its prey.
In this moment of final desperation, Will took his chance and used [Space of Divinity], entering the giant's soul core.
[Space of Divinity] Conditions: The target must let its guard down and allow its soul core to freely activate.
This was Will's last option. If he couldn't defeat the giant in a physical battle by traditional means, like Sunny's method of fighting Nightmare Creatures, then he needed to take out the giant from its source—the Soul Core.