Task

When Rethys fully regained consciousness, he found himself sitting on the ground amidst dark stone halls that seemed to continue indefinitely in every direction. The air here was heavy and smelled of decay, and he could tangibly feel the muted suffering saturating the ether all around him. This was a place of damnation, and it was his task to bring it salvation.

Both his mind and body were still numb from the experience of being immersed in the incomprehensibly vast flows of the ether, and everything around him still felt cold, heavy, and distant. This new state of mind, however, saw him without doubt or uncertainty, his every action taken with absolute confidence, or absolute indifference, not that he cared.

Thoughts of what happened with the expedition found their way into his mind, but he felt the matter insignificant and not worth his attention, seeing as he had much bigger things to worry about now.

"I need to get moving." He said to himself. He had a duty to uphold after all and couldn't linger for too long.

Focusing on the ether flowing around and within him, he slowly felt his muscles regain their responsiveness until eventually he could move his limbs again.

As he stood up, he noticed the changes that occurred to his body. His muscles were noticeably more pronounced and all the scratches and bruises he accumulated during the last day of the expedition were entirely gone. Checking his body further, he noticed that any scars he once had were completely gone, even the extensive markings he had on his palms and knuckles from his years as a street orphan were instead replaced with smooth, firm skin. He even felt a bit taller.

'...Huh...strange...' He thought but dismissed the matter instantly.

He calmly realized that these changes were the result of his soul finally awakening its ability to harness ether and perform magic, albeit simple and rudimentary, at least for now. Trying to find a way to access his newfound ability bestowed upon him by the entity of will, he closed his eyes, beholding a dark world of blue dotted with bright lights. The sight felt familiar and very nostalgic, yet he did not entertain such feelings.

He first saw many souls wandering the stone halls, they looked strange and pale, lacking the bright shades worn by all other souls he saw in his visions of the world. They were the damned, the ones he was sent to free. Seeing them all at a safe distance and at no risk of finding him, he gazed at his own soul instead. It hovered within his body, just outside of sight, yet always seen. It interacted with the ether around it slightly yet remained separate from it, remaining anchored to his physical body. Focusing on it, he peered inwards, scrutinizing every bit of his soul and body.

Trying to observe his soul bore no fruit, at least with his current skills. It looked like a uniform mass of light that he couldn't understand. While he could somewhat comprehend what the ambient ether around him carried and communicated, he couldn't make sense at all of his soul, it was far too complex.

Giving up on seeking understanding through the soul, he then focused on the physical body. He felt the contracting of muscles and the movement of fluids through their effects on the ether within his body, but these were too many and also too intricate to hope to gain any insight from.

Moving on, he focused on his most basic senses. He felt his clothes upon his skin, the putrid smell of this place on his nostrils, and the silence around him only sometimes broken by faint, distant noises in the background.

He then felt it, an itch coming from deep within his chest. And as he moved to scratch it, it wasn't his hand moving, rather something stirring within his soul.

As Rethys opened his eyes he then saw it. From the palm of his right hand, dark blue ether was pouring out, falling lazily and lightly downwards through the air before dissipating and joining the ambient ether. A feeling then tried to break through his numb state, an intense, searing loathing towards the blue color he was emitting from his very hands, but it didn't last long before also being neutralized.

The feeling of finally using ether, however, of finally getting rid of that itch, felt euphoric. No, it felt right. He expected to feel extreme happiness now that he unlocked the ability to use magic after waiting for so long, but the indifference dulling his emotions didn't let him experience that. He did, however, remember his mentor's words.

"The ether will call upon me, huh. Master Fu..." Rethys stood blank eyed as all sorts of thought ran across his mind, only to not end up anywhere. "I should get moving now."

As he walked through the dark and dry halls towards the closest trapped soul, he managed to identify that he was in a burial site of sorts, a large sprawling complex with halls that seemed to continue endlessly into the distance. These catacombs were completely dark with not a single source of light in sight, yet despite that, Rethys walked unimpeded.

He did so by discerning the flows of ether, distinguishing those traveling through air and those wading through solid matter, and guided towards his target by his ability to perceive souls regardless of obstacles.

Eventually he neared his first target, and the first soul he would free from this eternal prison.

As he turned a corner, he could see through the ether the creature's silhouette in the darkness. It wore no clothes, had completely pale white skin and bore only the most basic resemblance to the human it once was. It used its hands to move, desperately clawing away at the already heavily scratched floor of this place, its legs seemingly gnawed away.

Rethys felt nothing as he looked upon the miserable creature, he had a job to do after all, and knew exactly how to accomplish it. Leaning down, he placed his right palm upon its bald, rotted head before sending his Origin ether into it, sending it into an unconscious slumber.

He then placed his hand upon its emaciated torso, on its back closest to its heart, closest to its soul, and sent wave after wave of ether towards it, carefully and completely dismantling the curse binding it to this place without harming the soul itself.

Rethys nodded, seeing the horridly wounded soul finally set free of its suffering and rejoining the ether, already seeming brighter and healthier as it floated out of its cursed prison. He felt satisfied with his deed, having fulfilled his duty as kindred of the great entity. He even faintly felt its joy through the link connecting the two.

But it was not the time to linger on unimportant details, he already locked his sights onto the next creature to cleanse, and it was time to move on.

Finding the next unfortunate soul was not at all hard, yet this one was not as immobile as the previous one. As he turned the corner, Rethys could see the creature instantly lunging at him with frightening speed.

Unimpressed, he sidestepped its lunge and looked at the creature. This creature was identical to the previous one in features, but was stronger and fuller, lacking the scrawny weakness that defined its lesser peer. It also had quite the sharp claws that Rethys judged to be a threat to his life, but more importantly, a threat to the mission.

Searching his memories for solutions while keeping his distance from the pale creature, he remembered his master's style of Infusion magic and judged it suitable for his needs. Coursing his own ether towards his muscles, he could feel them growing stronger. He could also feel an unimaginably painful sensation coursing through his whole existence. He guessed it was probably from using this technique wrongly, but in his apathy, could not care less as long as it worked.

Now more prepared to face the twisted creature, he let it lunge at him a second time, before turning and delivering a jolt of Origin ether directly into its skull with a backhand slap, instantly incapacitating it. And as the wretched creature flopped to the ground, he leaned downwards and exorcised its trapped soul out of it.

Another job well done; another step closer to his mission's completion.

From then on, he continued wandering the stone galleries of the catacombs, moving from one bright light to the other, at times finding pale wretches and other times different creatures, each with its own unique spin on how to distort and defile the human form.

From large, bloated giants of warped strength, to small, many armed fiends crawling across walls and ceilings. And from small wisps of souls far too tortured to ever take physical form again, to giant swirls of corrupted ether that did not resemble living creatures to begin with, and everything in between those extremes.

All those creatures had one thing in common, however, they all had no way whatsoever of resisting the Origin element.

Rethys walked on and on, his eyes darting frantically between his closest target and his immediate surroundings, yet his stare was blank and unfocused. He continued moving from target to target, freeing their souls from damnation.

At some point, he seemed to run out of possible targets anywhere around him, except for one that was far away in an isolated portion of the catacombs. Regardless of the peculiarity, he headed towards this soul as his next logical target, leading him to a strange part of the underground catacombs, a region untouched by the rest of this place's inhabitants, and he could tell why.

A powerful soul dwelt ahead of him, more powerful than anything he faced thus far it seemed, and its aura poured outwards, keeping all other creatures away.

None of that bothered him however, he would cleanse this soul just as he did all before it.