Eighth generation soulmancer? Soul clone?
The words sent a ripple through Liam's mind. He didn't recognize the term eighth-generation soulmancer, but soul clones—that, he understood. He understood but it was impossible to believe.
Even though he might not be well versed in soul magic yet and hadn't even completed that legacy or unlocked his dual class, it was still hard to believe that he couldn't sense a soul standing right in front of him.
Who the hell was this person and how was his soul so strong and refined? It's almost as if it was refined to perfection.
That man, Senior, watched him with an amused expression. "What are you thinking if I am lying or not?"
Liam shook his head. "No senior. It's just my technique is too bad to fully comprehend your being. Ummm… " Liam hesitated to speak.
He looked like an obedient little kid who was reporting to his teacher. "Ummm… if possible, could senior please impart this technique to this useless junior. That way at least I can fully understand the might of senior." He awkwardly added, looking very shy and humble.
The man looked back at him with an imperceptible expression and then a low, deep chuckle rumbled from the man's chest, his shoulders shaking slightly. "Hah. Not bad. You little swindler. At least you're not completely useless."
Liam remained motionless, keeping his expression carefully measured, though inwardly, he was already analyzing every reaction from the mysterious Senior. His playful demeanor didn't fool Liam. This man wasn't just powerful—he was dangerous.
For him to call Liam a "swindler" meant he wasn't just casually humoring him. He had seen through Liam's act completely.
Liam's lips curled into a small, harmless smile. "Senior jests. This junior merely wishes to understand the profoundness of Senior."
The man hummed, stroking his thick brows as if in deep thought. "Oh? So you know how to talk your way around things, huh?"
His gaze turned piercing, suddenly serious. "Tell me, kid. Why do you seek power?"
Liam froze. That was a loaded question. There were many ways to answer, but he instinctively knew that the wrong answer wouldn't just disappoint the man in front of him—it might cost him something irreversible.
He exhaled, choosing his words carefully. "I want to survive." He told the truth. He felt anything else would mean he would never see this person again.
For a moment, the void around them seemed to still. Then, the man grinned. A slow, sharp expression. "Good answer." He took a step forward, closing the distance between them in an instant.
"I'll give you something. A taste. A single glimpse into what it means to walk the path of a true soulmancer."
Liam's heart pounded, but he forced himself to remain steady. The man extended a finger, tapping Liam lightly on the forehead.
Everything shattered. Liam's consciousness exploded outward, ripped from his body and thrown into something vast. A sea of black fire.
Whispers. Screams. Echoes of shattered souls.
Liam gasped, his vision filling with endless fractured reflections of himself, pieces of his being torn apart and put back together over and over again. His soul cracked and many many fissures erupted from within.
The constellations did not matter. All the effort Liam had put into nurturing and cultivating his soul did not matter. It only took an instant to destroy everything, every little progress he had clawed his way into.
Pain. Understanding. Death. Rebirth. Nothing could stop the destruction. In a fraction of a second, his soul was going to be completely and utterly destroyed.
A voice whispered through the abyss, low and ancient. "The soul is eternal, yet fragile. It is power, yet weakness. Those who control it… control everything."
Liam's mind twisted, expanding, collapsing, and then just as he was on the verge of utter annihilation, his will shivered and somehow his mind was pulled back together again.
The next instant, he was back. His body jerked violently, gasping for air as if he had drowned and resurfaced all at once. His vision blurred, sweat dripping from his forehead. He fell down face-first on the rock platform completely unconscious, his soul just shy of shattering.
The man's smirk deepened as he observed Liam's still form. "Not bad, kid. Not bad at all. Didn't think you would survive it." He crouched beside Liam, peering into his very essence with the eyes of someone who had seen far too much.
"This wasn't your first time touching Samsara, was it?" He chuckled. "Looks little swindler has some secrets of his own. You're hiding something. Something even you don't understand yet."
His gaze flickered for a moment as if seeing beyond the present, beyond the here and now. A possibility.
His grin widened. "It's been a long time since the Court had a real contender."
The void around them rippled. The Forgotten Abyss was watching. Listening. Waiting.
The man stood up, stretching as if unconcerned by the weight of the cosmos bearing down upon them. "Well, kid. If you live, we'll talk again. Don't blame me, you asked for this."
He flicked a finger—a single spark of soul energy—and dropped it onto Liam's chest. It flickered, sinking into him, disappearing beneath his skin.
Then, just like before— He was gone.
The spark, still lingering in Liam's body immediately got to work. The cracks that had formed, the damage that had nearly erased his existence, were slowly knitting back together, but not in the same way.
His soul was reforging itself.
Stronger. Denser. Sharper.
And Liam remained, unconscious on the cold, silent rocky platform as it continued its journey, gliding through the void with no end in sight.
And somewhere in the unfathomable distance, Senior smirked to himself, his gaze lost in contemplation.
"Now… let's see what you become, little swindler."
After what felt like a long long time, Liam gasped. His eyes flew open, his chest rising sharply as he sucked in a breath. He had been burning. Breaking. Shattering.
And yet, here he was. Alive and whole.