[MA] 355. Simple and Wrong (Patreon)

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[A/N: This is last Saturday's chapter.

To sum things up: I'm moving and lost a lot of time doing stuff I didn't predict. The worst sinusitis ever didn't help, either (yup, still recovering, it's been a week already). I'll release any delayed chapters throughout this month (though I don't expect to delay another MA chapter).

Delayed chapters: 1

Next chapter: Thursday]

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Shen's True Realm fixed another issue on top of letting him sense his enemies: movement. In a place devoid of Laws, there was no propulsion, no gravity, nothing. His muscles worked, and he could move his limbs, but without Law or qi to push him through space, there was no force of physics to accomplish it.

Well, there was friction with the mana barrier on the ground. The barrier resisted the Domain of Entropy, and so did Shen's martial arts slippers. But that wasn't enough without gravity or momentum.

The Aspects of Space and Time alone would be enough to ensure two things couldn't occupy the same space at the same time. Likewise, the Expression of Energy—and thus, matter—was present there, even though every form of it met with its end through entropy. Shen's spear would hurt his foes as it pierced them.

The critical part was that while the absence of the Axioms didn't define how movement happened, movement did exist through the Expression of Change. Without it, everyone there would be incapable of moving.

Even then, how to accomplish it depended on Shen's Path and will. He willed himself to move, and his True Realm pushed him toward the closest enemy.

Theoretically, he could move faster than light in this place, as no Laws of Light or any other were around to prevent that. Yet, Shen was his Path, and his Path contained Laws. Every Law was also its every Concept, including the ones that interacted with any absent Axioms. The speed of his spear, for instance, was irrelevant without the Axioms of Space and Time. And so, its speed was as it should be if those Axioms were there. His Path's Laws couldn't evolve into something new like the Laws of Reality itself just because the opposing Laws that formed their Concepts were missing. They limited themselves to what should be there.

Shen's body was also his stats, which came with set expectations of how he interacted with Reality. He could only be as fast as his agility and techniques allowed.

His enemies were, however, the embodiment of the rejection of Energy. They had no actual mass, nothing akin to stats, no intrinsic expectation on how to interact with matter, or the lack thereof, beyond how much they repelled the constraints imposed on them. They weren't bound to the same rules as Shen. Even their Path didn't limit itself as his did because, of course, the Void wouldn't play by the rules.

And yet, they didn't teleport to him or kill him with a speed he couldn't even begin to perceive. Everything from the moment Entropy was used happened instantaneously, yet there had been a tiny window of opportunity for the creature to teleport to him and attack him before he deployed his True Realm. A window the Voided Guardians didn't take. The "leader's" ego had allowed it to deploy a domain, but its arrogance—or inexperience—had just saved Shen.

Now, he was no longer behold to its mercy.

His Path was upon the vault through his True Realm, and the very Laws the creatures wielded had to interact with his Laws, even if only superficially, as his True Realm couldn't superimpose on them. The Laws they wielded also came from Reality. They shared Concepts, and thus, the creatures were limited. Shen's True Realm indirectly pulled some laws of physics into the safe, thus making that battle possible.

Every Voided Guardian had a core Law in their Paths. Shen decided to identify them by their core Laws. The closest enemy was also the strongest and the one Shen wanted to kill the most: Voided Time.

The creatures were still evolving, and he didn't want to deal with a Voided Guardian that had mastered a Law of Time. The damned creatures weren't limited by using Energy or willpower to swing their Laws around, and that made them absurdly scary.

Shen was moving towards Voided Time but was intercepted by Voided Lightning and Voided Light.

That was a mistake.

Voided Lightning turned into its core element and rushed to stand before Shen. The lightning bolt was strangely made of black fog as its body but moved like electricity. Becoming a manifestation of an element made a Guardian vulnerable, and Shen doubted it would be different for the creature.

He swung his spear, which was too slow to cut the bolt—

It was not too slow.

Shen was confused for a moment. He knew his attack should be slower than materialized Lightning—but simultaneously, he was sure he was sufficiently fast. He had C agility and limited qi, so almost everything he knew insisted he couldn't cut the bolt—but a domain wasn't omnipotent against anyone below B-rank for multiple reasons.

His was the Domain of Infinite Improvement. His techniques had been perfected to improve them in a way that made sense to him. Otherwise, if he died knowing expensive qi abilities he couldn't use, it wouldn't be a real improvement, would it?

Shen had no qi, and his domain—his Path, Laws, feelings, body, soul, True Self—could instinctively determine that his techniques should be improved to be more cost-effective. He had become a qi-less Killing Weapon.

A conservative estimate put his qi-less versions of his techniques at one-quarter the effectiveness of his qi-fueled ones. With his improved stats, he was faster than he had been with his best qi abilities.

That was incredible, as much of a cheat as automatically mastering his Laws. Sure, it did fit with his Will of Absolute Power and his True Boundlessness. Still, his Truth of Limits demanded its toll. The price he had to pay made him feel cheated instead.

His domain already robbed him of the opportunity to improve his willpower by mastering his Laws, and now, also by preventing him from experiencing the hard work to enhance skills. He knew how to use the techniques that had just popped into his mind, but not why they were that good. After he deactivated his domain, any understanding from checking his abilities wouldn't improve his willpower because he was only studying something already done. He wouldn't even have a sense of accomplishment in learning something new.

To make matters worse, he would be incapable of having insights that might push him in the wrong direction; he had already reached the final destination. That was not a good thing. His creativity and analytical skills would be crippled. It might even prevent him from understanding and seeing why his enemies did what they did.

A single misstep, and he would grow dependent on his domain, too. Even now, part of him wondered why he cared about those issues. If he activated his domain at every opportunity, he would swiftly master his Laws. Then, he could keep it active forever, always growing stronger. Eventually, he would reach unlimited power. It was that simple.

Simple and wrong.

His most significant advantage was his willpower, and eventually, he would reach a point where individuals of the same level as him would have similar or higher willpower. That, of course, assuming his domain was as effective after he mastered his Laws as it was now, which he doubted. Even so, then what? A battle between domains required willpower. How did he hope to survive?

He argued he could always hone his willpower later if needed, but his mind could still tell him—for now—that he was only fooling himself into becoming a useless addict. Even thinking of a battle between domains was wishful thinking. Having a domain meant any tribulation would be much stronger than for someone without it. Without his willpower, he would fail the tribulation awaiting him to master his Laws. There was no cheating the Heavens.

Like a falling star, he would shine bright but briefly. Fitting, considering his Racial Title. His Domain of Infinite Improvement was the worst poison he could've put into his True Self.

It was also a distracting poison. Part of Shen had already grown addicted and tried to convince the rest of the allure of using his domain to grow stronger whenever he could. The part of him close to his Will of Absolute Power loved the idea of fast power growth, no matter how it was achieved. The Truth of Limits, often so problematic, became the greatest ally of his basic survival. Absolute Power insisted there was no defense against, well, absolute power; that he only believed he would be limited by his lack of willpower because he had been a fool to make the Truth of Limits a cornerstone of his True Self, to begin with.

Honestly, that was a great argument. Indeed, he couldn't consider a world without his Limits. It was impossible.

What if...?

The potential validity of his claims against himself only made things worse for him. This wasn't a mere battle against novel Void creatures with a ridiculous growth rate; it was also an inner battle. Shen's True Self worked against itself.

And then, the Void joined the discussion.

'The Truth of Limits is right,' he thought—without having ever thought that.

Shen immediately recognized the intrusive thought brought by the Void. Shen was virtually immune against that thanks to his True Self, but the strain on his True Self evidently decreased his defenses, and the Void had found an opening.

His True Self flared against the invasion it couldn't perceive. The part of him closely linked to his Will of Absolute Power pointed out how enough strength would prevent that. His supposedly great willpower was already useless; why insist it was necessary. Also, the Void was on Limits' side. Could he trust that Truth?

Shen knew the Void didn't lie. Ever. So, he could use that to rest at ease with his conclusion of not using his domain to grow.

And yet, this was a new form of invasion; the Void wasn't telling him to kill himself. The pattern was broken. What if the Void could also lie now? What if insisting on not using his domain was a way to die faster—thus achieving the Void's goal?

'That is a valid worry,' the Void whispered in his mind with his voice.

The Void was arguing against itself. That was not unheard of, yet Shen couldn't stop wondering if that was a lie. This manipulation was too sophisticated, and he could do nothing to push the thoughts away. The one thing his domain didn't improve was his mind.

Shen screamed in frustrated rage as his spear moved fast and cut the lighting bolt in half.

Moving as the manifestation of an element had indeed made the Voided Guardian as vulnerable as a Guardian would be. It was defenseless and easier to destroy. Shen cut it down in half, and it lost its form, becoming a formless black gas that swiftly faded away. There was no sliver of existence trying to escape this time around, though if it was because of their Path or because they had been "revived" through Time was anyone's guess until Shen killed Voided Time.

One down, seven to go.

Shen couldn't stop his invasive thoughts, so he would take his frustration on these creatures.

'Killing them will also decrease the Void's influence on me,' he considered—and couldn't tell if it was an invasive thought, which had all kinds of worrisome implications.

Voided Light was also coming as a manifested element. Shen wasn't fast enough to cut the stream of photons after attacking the lightning bolt. Instead, he continued his ongoing swing into a diagonal one aimed not at the creature but where it should return to its form if it wanted to block his path to Voided Time.

His spear got in place a split instant before Voided Light did. It became a high elf made of black fog, only to be split open from waist to head before it could even fully form. Taking form also made it as vulnerable as Guardian would be, and Shen's spear found no resistance. The creature tried to move back as soon as it reformed, but Shen's momentum as he got sideways and rotated his body fast was marginally faster than it could move from a full stop to a dodging speed. It couldn't escape him.

He cut it from shoulder to leg in a crooked X, and it dissipated into nothingness.

'Two down, six to go,' he thought. 'My domain is an outstanding tool. I shouldn't discard it.'

Such a simple and undeniable truth. Yet, he was not considering discarding his domain. He was only worried that using it would lead to dependence, addiction, weakness, and death. Even suggesting discarding his domain was a possibility served no one, least of all Shen himself. The Void was trying to bring his mind into disarray.

Shen howled in fury and headed toward Voided Time.

Domains were fueled and willpower was affected by emotions. His wrath descended on everything in his domain—and, consequently, his True Realm—like a raging dragon. Shen was still using his Domain of Infinite Improvement, and so his True Realm was improved.

The Voided Guardians had been moving to get to him, but suddenly, the world resisted them.

Shen felt as if seven suns touched the iceberg, which was his willpower. His "improved" True Realm could now affect Voided Guardians similarly to how his Aural Realm could hinder actual Guardians. However, it wasn't related to Laws. It became a matter of opposing wills trying to impose their desires upon Reality, and Shen's willpower could not resist the Void.

That improvement was impressive and closely linked to willpower. He had lost a lot of potential growth just them. His domain had cheated him again.

Shen seethed in absolute fury at having to fight himself.

Reality didn't destroy the Voided Guardians when their Will met his this time. The Void's "psychic suns" hadn't crossed Reality's bottom line.

But it had crossed Shen's bottom line.

Why care about his willpower, which was much less helpful in fights against Guardians than raw power would be? Why care about something that was also proving useless against the Void? His mind was melting at the slightest touch! That was pathetic!

Supposedly, his greatest strength was his willpower. But was it? In fact, his willpower worked against him, for he had just convinced himself that it might be useless for anything—except persuade himself.

So, Shen would make a simple test. Every part of himself accepted it would convince them one way or another. The result would determine if he would use his domain as a shortcut—if he survived this place, of course—or take the long road in the future.

Instead of deactivating that function of his True Self so his willpower wouldn't melt against the suns, Shen roared uncontrollably and faced the challenge. He enveloped one of the shining stars of sheer inferno burning his mind with his willpower and applied pressure.

Over a fifth of his willpower was spent before it grabbed its target. To his senses, it felt like a mortal clenching a burning metal sphere with bare hands. It hurt, and Shen's mental "hand" evaporated as it pushed. His "fingers" disintegrated upon contact, yet he kept going until only the skin on the back of his fingers remained.

And then, something gave.

The sun blinked out of existence, and Voided Time exploded like a crushed egg.

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