Chapter 23

What laid before me was utter chaos. The visual representation of my soul was in tatters. A disjointed amalgamation of colors, interwoven and uncoiled colors was the framework of my being. The image that came to mind is a tornado of a myriad colors. Swirling in an incoherent fashion.

There were reds, greens, oranges, and violets. This chaos must be the reason for my weakness, for my inability to use my full power. With great concentration, I sought out my soul amongst the chaos. In time I found it, a small bluish wisp. It looked broken, incomplete. I instinctively knew that this was my soul.

What made me even more confused, was the many attachments to my soul. Well, to be more specific, there was only one attachment. A bright red wisp, this wisp had many attachments. It took me a while to realize that the red wisp was the soul of my game character. The other attachments were, to my shock, the souls of the many dragon souls my game character had absorbed.

I instinctively knew that the brightness of the red wisp was due to the souls I had used to learn various shouts in game. That along with the fact that it was the soul of a dragonborn made the red wisp dwarf my soul in brightness. However, the many attachments were dragon souls that I never used.

Each dragon soul could be used to unlock a word of power. And fighting many dragons meant that you had more souls than words of powers to use them on. Not only that, but I didn't feel the need to unlock every available word of power. This led to me having a large excess of souls just sitting there.

When my soul merged with that of the game character, the extra dragon souls were brought along with it. But since they had no purpose, they just raged and went out of control. This has led to the massive tornado of unused dragon souls that I see now. And these dragon souls burnt brightly, they contained so much magical power that its a wonder I didn't just die on the spot upon my awakening.

I would need to unravel and sort these souls out if I'm to find balance. But where should I begin? I begin? No, there was no time for doubt, this was do or die. I mustered as much courage as I could and dove into the task. I tried countless ideas, most failed. Others appeared to show promise, but would become a tangled mess later on. While others would just hit a wall that couldn't be crossed.

I didn't give up however, this was a task I would not fail. I came up with the idea of layering the souls in a grid type formation. My and my characters souls would be in the center, while the attached dragon souls would serve as nodes or energy banks. That was the best way I could conceptualize it anyway.

I tried to merge my soul and my character's soul before, but it wouldn't work. My soul was far too weak and lacked the strength to meld with the more imposing Dragonborn soul. This led me to the idea of using the dragon souls as a battery pack to power my soul to allow for a healthy merge. It was easier said than done however, but with time and will I managed to come up with a decent structure.

My and the Dragonborn soul laid in the center of the formation. Around them, in a myriad of patterns that required much trial and error, made up the body of the framework. I had managed to structure them in such a way that allowed their power to be directed when needed to the center. They were my generators in a sense.

Now that I had everything arranged to the best of my ability, I released the blocks and allowed power to flow to the center. I watched in anticipation as power made its way to the center where the two souls lay. However, too much power was being sent and began further erosion to my weaker soul. I wasn't meant to hold so much power, and it was failing to cope and failing fast.

I frantically tried to stop the input, but the feed was too strong. In a last ditch effort I routed more power to the Dragonborn soul easing the input to my soul. Much of my soul had been eroded, but the was still enough to work with. I knew this meant that who I had been before, most of that was lost. It took me a long time to come to terms with that.

But in time, I moved on. I could not look back for there was no reset button. I could only move on and be thankful that I had any of my soul left. I would not be completely erased. So I continued with my work. Now that the two souls were balanced, despite the fact that I had even less of my soul than when I started. The sudden influx of power served to enhance my feeble mortal soul. It could now stand alongside the Dragonborn soul.

I began molding the two souls together. I wove my soul all throughout the other. I set my soul in the center, like a cpu. The various dragon souls surrounded them creating a functioning system. I looked at my work and watched as it ran. There were some kinks, but all in all it ran well. This was the best I could do and it wasn't bad. It was definitely better than the chaotic maelstrom I started with. Perhaps now I would be complete, perhaps now I would have further access to my powers. There was only one way to find out. I wonder, how long have I been here?

I began pulling myself out from my deep meditative state. I rose back up into my body, back to reality. As I came back and settled into reality, I felt as if a resonance occurred within. Opening my eyes, I was no longer the man who embodied a game character in another world. Nor was I the game character that devoured the man who created it. I am a union of the two, I am whole.

My eyes opened to the gentle calm of the mountain top. Looking around I spotted my two companions sitting not too far away. Rising to my feet I went over to them and when they noticed my approach they stood. Standing before them, they eyed me warily.

"Ragnar? Are ya in there?" Gentle asked and Gunnar looked on in anticipation.

"It is me, old friend. How long was I out?" I asked.

"Good to have ya back. We've been up here for three months." Gentle replied after breathing a sigh of relief. Gunnar too looked to relax after my words.

Three months, much longer than I had expected. The others should have reached the agreed upon spot by now. In fact, Ivar should have already begun preparations. I looked down at my body and noticed I had lost much weight.

"Yeah, we were worried about you not eating. But somehow your body just began sustaining itself. Good thing too, or else you would have died of starvation, hahaha!" Gentle informed me.

"No matter, a little exercise will do me good. Come, we must return to the others. Before that however, I need to do one last thing." I said and turned back and walked to the edge where I had sat.

The skies were clear now and I could see the entirety of my lands. It all laid out before me and I was proud. These were my lands, and I will shape them to my will. Closing my eyes I dug deep into the power that laid within. I drew on that power and it was eager to obey. I opened my mouth and released my thu'um.

"Gol Motaad Kreh!"(earth shake bend)

With my shout the mountain shook, the lands shook. I raised my hands and threw them out. My power traveled and I directed. In the distance to the south, the earth rose forming a new mountain chain that walled off my lands providing a natural barrier. The lands inside the barrier flattened and fresh healthy soil rose in its wake. The entire land became a healthy plane ready for farming.

A tip of Sea Dragon Point broke off from the mainland. It became an island surrounded by sea. The island rose higher until it was well above sea level. The land flattened and cleared, ready to be developed. Ready to build upon. All this happened in the span of twenty minutes, but the work that was done would have taken centuries of natural events to make happen. My work done, I turned to my companions and smiled.

"Now we may return." I said.

"Y- You're finished?" Gentle asked in shock and awe.

"My friend, this is only the beginning."