Vir cringed, recalling the lifeless eyes of the demon who’d fallen to one such attack. Not alive, yet not quite dead either. A state from which there was no recovery—no magic that could heal it, aside from one’s own mastery of Chakra.
“You’re saying I need prana to learn Chakra?”
“You already have an incredible ability to sense life around you. It’d be foolish not to capitalize upon it, yes?”
“Well, I suppose it’s worth a try.”
Vir sat in the meadow, crossed his legs, and cycled prana to his eyes.
Prana Vision flared to life, illuminating the nearby forest in all the various hues of prana, despite none of it being real. It made Vir wonder just how close to reality this space was—perhaps a fair bit closer than he suspected.
“Now, look at how they flow,” Shardul said from beside him.
As usual, the lines of prana lay out before him, showing the flow of energy through the trees, through the shrubs and the grass of the meadow. In the air and the ground.
“Isolate only those forms you see in life. Ignore the rest.”
Vir concentrated on the blades of grass and the prana within them, ignoring the prana of the air and ground, though he couldn’t help but voice some concerns.
“If prana is the energy of life, then why does it exist in the air at all?” Vir asked. “The air isn’t alive. It has no Chakra. Right?”
Opening his eyes, he found a knowing smile on Shardul’s face. What could that mean?
Vir didn’t have a chance to find out. Before the demon could reply, Vir found his control over his Chakra slipping away.
“Until next time, then,” Shardul said, his form disappearing.
Vir sighed, once again alone within his mindscape. Just when he was about to make the next leap, too.
That was alright, though. He now had a path forward. The rest was a matter of time, and that was one thing he certainly didn’t have.
As Vir Leaped above the barren wasteland of the Ashen Realm, the first thing he noticed was the sheer number of Ash Tears. A good sign—for it meant they were deeper within the Ash than he’d thought, yet not so deep they led only deeper within the Ash. Peeking through, Vir saw a few exits that looked as though they may have led to the Demon Realm.
Unusable, given their shattered, dangerous state, but encouraging nonetheless.
The prevalence of tears also meant the time skew was likely less than Vir feared.
There was just one issue—as Vir traveled, more and more tears appeared. Far more than there ought to have been, given the relative prana density.
It was almost as if denser prana gave way to more tears—like the density was too great a burden for space in the area to bear.
For there to have been this many here? It was odd. It was even more odd that, despite the prevalence of tears, Vir had yet to come across a single stable Gate, though that was hardly a surprise. Stable Gates leading to anywhere useful were precious treasures.
For hours, he scoured the land, ranging farther and farther from their base. It wasn’t the danger that bothered Vir—he could easily handle anything that lived in this part of the Ash alone—but rather, getting lost.
The Ashen Realm wasn’t beholden to the normal rules of navigation. Land looped back upon itself, turning it into a labyrinthine maze. Without an Artifact to guide him, the danger of getting lost forever was very real, thus limiting the area Vir could search.
The restriction might have slowed Vir, but it did not stop him. If he wasn’t practicing opening the Life Chakra, he was out searching.
The landscape was not a static one, after all, and Vir loathed remaining within the camp. The reverence and awe his troops gave him alienated him somewhat—it made the camp a stifling environment. A safe and comfortable place to sleep, perhaps, but nothing more.
It wasn’t as though he could help much with the troops’ training, either. Balagra had that well in hand, and Malik had the camp running so tight, Vir doubted anyone could improve upon it. Morale was high, training was progressing… and Vir had work to do.
And in that time, he had ample opportunity to visit Ash Tears—closer than he’d ever have dared when he’d first entered it with Cirayus.
More than that, it was his effort into Life Chakra that first tipped him off.
Vir had always been perceptive of the surrounding prana—but as a tactical tool, not as a means to enlighten himself.
Under Shardul’s guidance, that was now beginning to change. He perceived the beauty in the way the prana moved. He appreciated it for what it was, not for what it could be made to become.
Ash Tears, like everything else in this realm, consumed Ash prana. Initially, Vir thought they simply acted like funnels, pulling prana through to wherever they led.
This wasn’t true, however. The prana didn’t pass through. It disappeared.
Vir had only noticed this after staring at the beautiful flow of prana for a good while. He hadn’t even been intending to scrutinize it.
Yet once he noticed, there was no un-noticing. He was witnessing an impossibility, pure and simple. Prana could neither be created nor destroyed. It merely transformed into different forms of energy. Fire prana to fire magic. Ash prana to Leap, Dance of the Shadow Demon, and Vir’s other movement arts.
No, the prana wasn’t being destroyed. It was being consumed. By the Ash Tear itself. But why? For what purpose?
Vir thought he had an answer.
Landing at a Tear that led off into the Demon Realm, Vir approached as close as he dared.
This one was at the end of its life. Ash Tears didn’t explode when they died. They simply faded away, and now Vir knew why. The prana the Tear consumed from its surroundings had dissipated, rendering it on the verge of collapsing.
But why let it?
Vir swiped his talwar, sending Blade Launch ripping at the Tear.
Neither was physical, and so no damage was done. The blade dissipated… and the Tear strengthened.
Disbelieving, Vir fired several more, strengthening the Tear, stabilizing it.
Realizing his method was inefficient, he simply shot prana in a fan to the Tear, allowing it to consume the prana he’d built up within himself. Meanwhile, Prana Current surged, allowing Vir to send it more and more prana.
The more the Tear stabilized, the closer Vir was able to draw without fear of injury.
Finally, his palm came in contact with the Gate’s edge—not a physical surface, but one constructed of pure Ash prana.
Then, in a deluge, Vir allowed his energy to surge outward. Into the Tear.
No, not quite. Into the Gate.
Vir couldn’t control himself. He started to laugh. He laughed so hard he fell to his knees.
It was so simple. It was right there, all along!
Vir had just stabilized an Ash Tear into a Gate. And he was fairly certain he was the only being alive who could.
65GATES OF REBELLION
As Vir stepped through the Ash Gate—no longer a mere Ash Tear—his mind reeled at the implications of this profound discovery.
To his knowledge, no demon who ever lived had managed such a feat. There simply was no Bloodline Art that allowed one to stabilize Ash Gates.
As for whether his predecessors ever accomplished it, Vir somehow doubted it. It’d have been in the record books, and even if they wished to hide it, Ash Gates were not so easily concealed. Then again, from what Vir learned, Ash Tears had been far more rare back then. Perhaps there hadn’t been much opportunity.
Whatever the case, aside from Ashani, Vir was the only living being with power over Ash Gates. And that gave him immense power over the realm. While he couldn’t quite create them as the Imperium Goddess could, once he found a suitable tear, he could now turn it into a permanent—or at least, near-permanent—fixture.