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Jiran floated within a universe of twinkling stars and flowing nebulas of soft light. The space surrounding him was quiet, serene. A dull vibration, like static born from excess friction, permeated everything. It brought a sense of liveliness to the otherwise hollow vastness of his soul.

The pinpricks of light flickered in and out of sight every few seconds, sometimes independently but often in sync with their neighbors. He watched, transfixed, as they created the illusion of gargantuan shapes passing through the dark.

Why am I here?

One of the millions of lights flashed in a pattern that caught his eye. He instantly recognized it, and upon desiring to touch it, appeared before it. When his hand connected with the smooth, blue ball, he experienced memories of passing through the center of a planet, only to resurface along a gushing river of Magma. He continued to watch as scattered particles of himself were carried on an invisible wind before coalescing into a boy, an infant at the moment of his birth. The boy soon grew, married, and raised children of his own. He died in a bed with his family around him. But death was not the end. His body broke apart and returned to the wind and the water. Soon those pieces were swallowed beneath the ground, only to return on rivers of magma once more.

"Are you… the memory of a life?"

The ball flickered and somehow Jiran understood its message. "Soon."

The word sparked a chain reaction of memories that cascaded through his awareness and left him gasping.

I’ve been here before. When I tiered. It’s exactly the same. No, that’s new.

In the distance was a gaping tear in the fabric of space and beyond it, flickers of a familiar gate. Flowing toward the rent in his soul was a river of pearly-white, fluid energy, iridescent and shining with the purity of life itself. It stretched into infinity, far beyond the limits of his sight, distorting and undulating like liquid free from the constraints of gravity.

Is that the ‘some of her little remaining mana’ that Madra put in here? Is this some kind of joke? I bet the emperors don’t even have that much mana.

Jiran desired to turn and it became so. He cast his sight in every direction, suddenly filled with awe at the vastness of his own soul.

Even with all of that mana in here, it’s just a speck of what I could hold. Like comparing the milky way to the entire universe. Why is my soul so big? Or is this normal?

A relatively small glob of mana the size of a planet detached from the primary mass and began leaking through the gate and into physical reality. The ball, still firmly grasped in his hand, warbled and flickered a goodbye before it sprang from his grip. The moment his fingers could no longer feel its smooth surface, he felt himself falling toward the rupture. Jiran let go, relaxing into the pull.

As he fell, a pang of desire to be free, explore, and learn radiated from him. It created a wave that instantly traversed the impossibly vast distance between the stars. Each and every one of them roared to life for a brief moment, resonating with the call of his soul.

Then, he passed through the gate. It flashed by and he picked up speed as his dark subconscious space whisked by his vision in an instant. He spun wildly as he fell back through the tube. Madra’s mana sloshed all around him, some of the white liquid splashed across his skin. It burned him and he hissed, though he couldn’t help but feel it was lifeless and empty in a way that touched his heart with pity.

Jiran’s eyes snapped open and a huge gasp of air entered his lungs as if he had been underwater for an hour. Every centimeter of his skin ached and burned, though that pain was secondary to the agony ripping through his aura. It writhed and thrashed like a thing come to life, screaming in oscillating vibrations that ripped at his heart and tore at his very soul.

Jiran could only observe with horror twisting his guts as an inconceivable amount of Madra’s mana gushed from his neck. It used his stretched-out aura as a highway to reach the five points where it connected with the platform.

Meanwhile, the mountain shook on the far side of the protective sphere encapsulating the node. Solid rock split and shifted while anything that touched the dome of force was instantly annihilated. A sense of profound unease touched the edges of his pain-stricken consciousness from seeing all that moving rock without hearing a single sound.

His gate rumbled a warning that was far more clear than any message before. Jiran fought through the pain, pulling his wild thoughts together through sheer desperation.

My aura is dying. It already sacrificed itself once, I can’t let it die again!

Jiran’s hand was still stuck to the jewel, he converted a portion of density to mana and watched as it was instantly pulled through his aura along with Madra’s mana.

Still can’t use mana, what do I do? She said to remember the Aahmra’s teaching, but I still don’t know what that means!

He tried to pull his aura free from where it was attached to the platform, but it just screamed in agony. Foresight blared even louder as Madra’s mana began to shred and tear the very fabric of his aura.

The mana is too strong, it's killing it! And there’s still so much left to come out. The mana… is too strong…

A memory flashed through his mind. Sitting in the Aahmra’s dojo, one of his hands covered in Coating and the other in aura. He smashed them together and the mana easily won. The Aahmra’s voice rang loud in his ears, "Aura without mana is nothing, as you say. Do you think that makes mana superior? You say mana is unnatural, but in your heart, you believe it to be superior. Tell me, Jiran of Feylon. Why do you believe something that you claim is unnatural to be greater than aura?"

Am I really going to let this dead, empty-ass mana beat my aura? No, no way. Absolutely not! He said I lacked conviction and belief. Of course I do, I have no idea what the aura is! It’s like a gas, but malleable. It can be both weak and strong depending on my desire. It’s me and I am it, but it’s not me and I am not it. This isn’t helping!

I have to increase the power of my aura. It needs to be like the Aahmra’s; immutable, powerful, and greater than mana. Think, Jiran. Think. Before it dies again. What is aura?

Wait, dies… again? It sacrificed itself to seal the wall of my soul. How could it do that in the first place? Unless it’s made of the same thing as that wall! Is aura just an extension of the soulwall? That makes complete sense! Madra’s mana is pouring out of my soul, riding along the pathway of my soulwall and into this machine.

Jiran’s voice filled the silence of the sphere, “If the soulwall is big enough to contain an entire universe. And my aura is just the barest fraction of my soulwall leaking into reality; then how could it ever lose to a little drop of mana? Even if that drop is thousands of planets worth, even if it was a million planets worth, it would still just be an insignificant speck compared to my soul.

My aura is my soul.

My aura is a universe unto itself.

Jiran pulled and his soul quivered. Power unlike anything he had ever felt flooded into his manabody and it instantly stabilized. He formed a thick layer similar to blocking sound but with the desire, the need for it to withstand Madra’s mana. The mana flowed smoothly along the new reinforced surface, no longer penetrating into the delicate membrane within.

Jiran breathed a sigh of relief as the torment ripping through his body and aura eased to a dull throb. He watched with mounting disinterest as the ‘drop,’ of mana continued to flood out of him, no longer a threat. Internally, his thoughts raced.

This all started at the challenger arena. That was just an audition. Fighting above my weight class and having a ruptured soulwall were the only real requirements she needed. Madra’s gaze was upon me indeed. Every quest, every reward, every moment has been leading me here. I finally know what she’s been wanting this whole time. She took half of my childhood away so she could turn me into a living sparkplug. My family is who knows where. My only friend lost hope in his life and could be off getting himself killed right now. All because I was the best tool for the job.

Anger seethed and churned within his chest like a serpent.

Wait a second! This node didn't turn itself off. Why would it? That makes no sense. Something had to come and turn it off. Something powerful enough to stop a node. All the mana coming out of me was just to turn this thing on. How much would it take to shut it off? Worse still, Madra pumped enough mana into my soul to turn on thousands of these nodes And Daughter said Madra is dying, then it stands to reason a lot of them have been turned off already.

Not only did she hijack my body and soul, but she's also pitting me against something that is capable of turning off thousands of these nodes. Likely whatever that is, it’s at the very top of the entire planet’s food chain. A planet big enough to have nine stars that rotate around it and I’ve just pissed off one of its biggest players.

Nope, no way. I'm out. This is way above my pay grade.

Fuck! Mayalyn’s people are so dead. When whatever turned this place off comes sniffing around to find out why it's back on again, there's no chance it's going to just ignore the cute little town at the base of the mountain.

The last dregs of Madra’s mana finally drained out of his aura and the doors of his gate slammed shut.

[Quest complete!]

[Hide and seek: Reactivate the density absorber node at the designated coordinates.]

[Rewards: Sanctuary]

The arms detracted from his body and aura to slide back into the panels which closed with a soft hiss. A popping sound echoed through the sphere as the gem released his palm. A cut in space suddenly appeared before him and widened into a portal. He recognized the familiar scenery from the mettlerise looking down at the ocean waters below.

Except that ocean was raging. Waves thirty meters high churned against one another and crashed onto the beach to tear out chunks of land and swallow them whole. The skies thundered and lightning blasted the ground, setting trees burning as lava flowed down the rocky slopes. Betas clung to the side of the mountain, hunkering down to weather the storm.

Jiran leaped through the portal with a snarl. The density within his stomach was overwhelmed and claimed into the fuel that ignited blue flames from his feet. He rocketed through the air toward Azurelight with single-minded focus. Grasping tentacles of aura tore trees from the ground as they pulled him forward like an octopus skimming the depths of the ocean.

A single beta braved the storm, leaping from its perch to intercept his mad dash across the quaking island. Its eyes were consumed by gluttony as it screeched and dove, hungering for his flesh. Its flock took notice, diving after it and angling to follow. The moment the first beta was within range, a vine of aura wrapped around its body and tore it in half with a single yank. Blood and guts fell like rain as the two halves were discarded. All save for a single chunk of flesh which Jiran pulled to himself. He didn’t bother chewing the raw meat before swallowing it to replenish the contents of his stomach. Seeing one of their kin so rapidly disassembled, the other betas turned feather and flew away in terror.

Azurelight soon came into view and Jiran’s heart lurched into his throat. Two alphas dove from the high skies to beat their wings above the collapsing buildings and screaming people. Their bodies together were more massive than the entirety of Azurelight. Each beat of their wings tore shingles from roofs and shattered windows despite their bodies still being far above.

The monsters’ roars sent shock waves rippling through the air that tore apart the ground. People collapsed in droves, bleeding from their ears as death descended from on high.

“Mayalyn!"

Comments

Beeees!

Hahaha, damn haven't thought of that song on so long. Nice

Derze

The “I’m a horrible person ,please hate me so I can be more of a dick to the world” talk and the sheer arrogant and lunacy of thinking he has more agency than the living personification of the world (a.k.a the system quests and Madra) just makes me sick. Really. The resolution to ascend would have to come eventually but still , they both spilled a bunch of crap just to feel better about themselves while also none of it being true. Jiran is starting to become delusional.Seriously. All the I’m the chosen is getting to his head. A bit sad if he develops a Savior complex. Disappointed ngl. Expected some self reflection,a bit of introspection on what his purpose is and perhaps even guilt over ruining people’s lives . But nope. We get one paragraph of him being all sad and the very next he is like… “oh well,bummer, let’s enjoy my new girlfriend and grow more magic, YEAH!”

seth dauer

Fester isn't the right word choice I don't think. Rot, a wound going septic, unless you mean the feeling of betrayal rotted? It's unclear to me

thaughton2

Holy shit, I had the same thought. When she mentioned telling the other they were joined, I immediately thought "Well they'll know. They'll be irradiated by his aura emoting 'I just had sex' and telling the children not to worry about what the weird man is feeling for at least a decade." Then I read the last line and it broke me. lmao

Baconwargod

I don’t understand what you’re mad about you call him arrogant for blaming himself because he thinks he has more agency than the world and also want him to feel more guilty about what he did. I’m just not following maybe I’m miss reading it but I don’t understand why he should feel bad other than just how shitty everything turned out. The world itself said that this was imperative to the entire worlds survival and didn’t hint that what he was doing would be bad.

Derze

Not mad about him blaming himself. It’s the back and forth shift between him and Mayalyn that bothered me. Because it’s neither their faults. As you also pointed out it’s imperative to the survival of the world,so there is really no reason to even consider these events as something worth taking “blame for” . I recognize the need for him to push towards a greater goal ,hence ascending. But it could’ve been done through other means other than him complaining about things that he has zero control over. And worse yet, he believes he does or should be able to have a say in it. It just ruins the character for me. Imagine yourself complaining about the Sun being hot and complaining your tears can’t extinguish it. And then,not satisfied you get upset that neither complaining nor crying solved your perceived issue. It sounds idiotic doesn’t it? My issue with the chapter is then both believing they could have changed the outcome. Jiran through sheer wishful thinking of an idealized power threshold and Mayalyn telling other people her new sweetheart is the “Koroko”. It would have changed nothing. The Highest Tiered person can’t barely survive against Betas. Mayalyn credibility inside the village is atrocious. They would’ve done nothing of value. Jiran is another can of worms that it pains me to great lengths ,the audacity the kid has to claim he can win against something the world itself is losing against is just…idk. I expected better . Something other than this. It’s just sad.

Baconwargod

I thought he was talking about being able to kill the alphas and help stop the catastrophe of the land? I didn't think Madra was trying to fight anything more that the destruction of the village was just an unfortunate side effect of the density converter fireing up. And I understand where you're coming from with the complaint of how they were discussing it ,but Mayalyn believing that forewarning people (about the guy who fits old legends of former harbingers of disaster to a T after a massive disaster occurs) would have changed the outcome makes sense for someone who literally grew up in a tribe of less than 400. Also Jiren is still mentally 8 I mean hes mature because he has access to memories of an adult but he isnt those memories they just help inform him of his current world. Him thinking that he can do anything when he is the only one hes ever met who has fought up tiers and achieved the things he has makes a lot of sense.

DensityGodbyToraAKR

I double checked the definition and think it fits fairly well. Before his feelings of being betrayed got worse they were wiped away. Fester (of a negative feeling or a problem) become worse or more intense, especially through long-term neglect or indifference. "anger which festers and grows in his heart"

_mori (edited)

Comment edits

2023-06-23 09:26:57 This chapter makes no sense. Since when can Jiran tell people about. Challenger density and his business with Madra? Is it suddenly ok to tell Mayalyn because “plot”? Also, while it is stupid that he kept something obviously critical to her people a secret for literally no reason, I really doubt that shes the only person who would’ve realized that he isn’t tier 5. Earlier in the novel there jiran was spotting the possible tiers of people just based off how they move. Even the other tier 5s who he couldn’t physically match while they made their way to the teleportation place would know his body isn’t tier 5 standard, talk less of someone like the Ahmra who should have good idea where Jiran’s stats lay. This all just seems to make plot holes from my point of view. It’s possible there’s some explanation for why he can suddenly reveal as much as he has to may, but the koroko thing is less so. I hope you don’t abandon all logic just to rush this romance. A few dozen chapters ago Jiran was saying how he isn’t really ready for a relationship or settling down, but somewhere that changed and you seem to be putting in maximum effort into rushing their romance
2023-06-23 07:26:45 This chapter makes no sense. Since when can Jiran tell people about. Challenger density and his business with Madra? Is it suddenly ok to tell Mayalyn because “plot”? Also, while it is stupid that she kept something obviously critical to her people a secret for literally no good reason, I really doubt that shes the only person who would’ve realized that he isn’t tier 5. Earlier in the novel there jiran was spotting the possible tiers of people just based off how they move. Even the other tier 5s who he couldn’t physically match while they made their way to the teleportation place would know his body isn’t tier 5 standard, talk less of someone like the Ahmra who should have good idea where Jiran’s stats lay. This all just seems to make plot holes from my point of view. It’s possible there’s some explanation for why he can suddenly reveal as much as he has to may, but the koroko thing is less so. I hope you don’t abandon all logic just to rush this romance. A few dozen chapters ago Jiran was saying how he isn’t really ready for a relationship or settling down, but somewhere that changed and you seem to be putting in maximum effort into rushing their romance

This chapter makes no sense. Since when can Jiran tell people about. Challenger density and his business with Madra? Is it suddenly ok to tell Mayalyn because “plot”? Also, while it is stupid that she kept something obviously critical to her people a secret for literally no good reason, I really doubt that shes the only person who would’ve realized that he isn’t tier 5. Earlier in the novel there jiran was spotting the possible tiers of people just based off how they move. Even the other tier 5s who he couldn’t physically match while they made their way to the teleportation place would know his body isn’t tier 5 standard, talk less of someone like the Ahmra who should have good idea where Jiran’s stats lay. This all just seems to make plot holes from my point of view. It’s possible there’s some explanation for why he can suddenly reveal as much as he has to may, but the koroko thing is less so. I hope you don’t abandon all logic just to rush this romance. A few dozen chapters ago Jiran was saying how he isn’t really ready for a relationship or settling down, but somewhere that changed and you seem to be putting in maximum effort into rushing their romance

_mori

Also, why is it suddenly a good idea for him to go hunt with her? Emotional support doesn’t really seem to justify her possible death. If he’s going to hide her all the time, then isn’t it still better to leave her in the cave and return after every (few) hunts?

_mori

He has grown arrogant though. There’s no lie about that. Even after seeing that the mountain was host to tier 6s, he didn’t have any thoughts of leaving and coming back stronger, nor did he think to warn the people or even prepare in any way. He acts like he doesn’t have time and is being rushed along when there isn’t. Forethought would’ve actually helped in this specific instance. Choosing to do all this the second he’s deposited the Ahmra in another continent is the height of bad decisions.

_mori

Author sure doesn’t treat or write him like he’s 8. I don’t think even Jiran knows where to place himself right now. Honestly, it seems the author only made Jiran a reincarnator expressly to have a convenient source of knowledge of Jiran’s skills to feed off, and a way to avoid writing a convincing child. Everything else seems to have been ignored. We don’t know what type of person Jiran used to be, or even what his job was.

DensityGodbyToraAKR

Jiran has been able to tell people about the system shenanigans since he reunited with Samris. He's been bottling in pretty much everything and now facing the weight of the world on his own since day one. He chose to talk to her because he constantly makes things worse by rushing ahead without communicating with anyone its one of his major character flaws at least in my opinion. As for why he told her, since when do men withhold important information from a pretty girl? That's been a thing since forever haha. The only reason she realized he's not tier 5 is because he told her. While higher tiers tend to be able to move and speak very quickly they often slow themselves down around lower tiers to be polite so it can be very hard to tell when a fellow human is a lower tier than what is apparently obvious. His aura is a dead giveaway that he is tier 5 and his ability to kill tons of betas would have cemented in everyones minds that he is tier 5 or above and any contrary evidence would have been ignored out of hand.

DensityGodbyToraAKR

Remember how much the red density affects him. He's terrified of it taking over his thoughts and turning him wild. Emotional support to him is a million times more important than it is to you or me. For Jiran, it's life or death that he doesnt get emotionally overwhelmed or have his brain screwed with by the system. Having someone around who can watch him is what he originally wanted Niya to do but that's not possible and Mayalyn is willing to keep an eye on him while also being able to read his emotions. I'll try to reiterate some of these points in the chapters when I do the RR release because while I have covered all this, I have a bad tendency to only say super important things once and sometimes only through context...

DensityGodbyToraAKR

Missed one, Jiran isn't ready to 'settle down' but she's not asking him to do that, she's asking to go with him which is a whole nother thing.

_mori (edited)

Comment edits

2023-06-23 22:16:52 I understand that it’s important, and that the presence of a loved one can affect the decisions you make in key moments, or even midst crisis, but along with how rushed this entire thing feels, it hasn’t really been communicated (to me at least) in any way that [emotional support &gt;&gt; red density craze]. And sure, Jiran might not want to lose himself but taking his much squishier girlfriend to a place where not only said tier 5 beasts present a danger, but also possibly himself, doesn’t seem all that wise or thought out to me. It seems like two excited children making a decision without even considering what might go wrong. This might sound harsh(er), but May’s character hasn’t had nearly enough time to set(?). Reading up to this point, it seems more like your intent is “create female to _serve_ as girlfriend for MC”. Right from the moment where Jiran said/thought “I wouldn’t mind getting fed by her again”, it began to feel like that’s all she exists for, in a way. It reads as if it’s forced, to be concise. she has nearly no character aside from being the village outcast that only Jiran can seem to ‘get’.
2023-06-23 13:52:59 I understand that it’s important, and that the presence of a loved one can affect the decisions you make in key moments, or even midst crisis, but along with how rushed this entire thing feels, it hasn’t really been communicated (to me at least) in any way that [emotional support >> red density craze]. And sure, Jiran might not want to lose himself but taking his much squishier girlfriend to a place where not only said tier 5 beasts present a danger, but also possibly himself, doesn’t seem all that wise or thought out to me. It seems like two excited children making a decision without even considering what might go wrong. This might sound harsh(er), but May’s character hasn’t had nearly enough time to set(?). Reading up to this point, it seems more like your intent is “create female to _serve_ as girlfriend for MC”. Right from the moment where Jiran said/thought “I wouldn’t mind getting fed by her again”, it began to feel like that’s all she exists for, in a way. It reads as if it’s forced, to be concise. she has nearly no character aside from being the village outcast that only Jiran can seem to ‘get’.

I understand that it’s important, and that the presence of a loved one can affect the decisions you make in key moments, or even midst crisis, but along with how rushed this entire thing feels, it hasn’t really been communicated (to me at least) in any way that [emotional support >> red density craze]. And sure, Jiran might not want to lose himself but taking his much squishier girlfriend to a place where not only said tier 5 beasts present a danger, but also possibly himself, doesn’t seem all that wise or thought out to me. It seems like two excited children making a decision without even considering what might go wrong. This might sound harsh(er), but May’s character hasn’t had nearly enough time to set(?). Reading up to this point, it seems more like your intent is “create female to _serve_ as girlfriend for MC”. Right from the moment where Jiran said/thought “I wouldn’t mind getting fed by her again”, it began to feel like that’s all she exists for, in a way. It reads as if it’s forced, to be concise. she has nearly no character aside from being the village outcast that only Jiran can seem to ‘get’.

TheEarthWorm

What are you on about? Its 100% implied in these sentences "We must speak with Mathra and Pepa before we go. They will want to know we have joined.” ... “Chosen a mate, huh? That’s definitely one way to say it."

Cole DeBoer

Yeah May has felt like way too forced of a character since the moment she showed up.

Ananiash

Yeah... This romance feels too forced and actually, I belive there should be no romance at all, it changes the dynamic of the story too much, one of the worst mistakes authors make

Ananiash

We don’t know what type of person Jiran used to be, or even what his job was. cos he have no memories of this