"I only... heard about it. But nothing like this detailed." Lia murmured, going through Korvall's tale. One part of her wanted to dismiss it... but another part of her believed it all.
"It is not repeated amongst the Elders for multiple reasons." He chuckled, watching her calmly, letting Lia chew through the history of their Sect. "For one, many who were alive in those days are long dead. From my generation, only a handful are still kicking. More than half of the Supreme Elders of that time were killed off and replaced by their disciples just so they would also die in the previous Harvest. Slowly but surely, those who were experienced cultivators were gone, and a new generation replaced them. With the death of Loonah and Io, we only have two Supreme Elders who rose to the rank in that cataclysmic battle: Kyaranin and Che.
"They were Grand Elders back then, yes? What about you, Master Korvall?" Lia asked curiously and with a bit of respect, however weird that felt for her.
"I plateaued!" He let out a hearty laugh that turned into a deep sigh, "After losing my Master, I lost someone important. He was a father to me... It messed with my mental fortitude, and when our bodies were discarded to escape here, it sealed my fate. I am stuck in my current state and amount to very little, to be honest.
"You are downplaying yourself, Master!" Yima quipped at him, "Many high-ranking elders and even Supreme Elder Che sometimes come to you to chit-chat! They occasionally ask for your opinions, too!"
"Some still remember that we had a type of honor, but even they won't face the facts!"
"Of?" Lia and Yima asked in unison.
"That we lost." Korvall shrugged, opening his arms. "Not just the war but ourselves, too. We went from one of the strongest forces to simple monsters! Consuming someone's soul was a method used to break through bottlenecks. Gain intelligence on our enemies, or use it to heal quickly when suffering grave injuries! To give us an edge and avoid death, even if our bodies are destroyed! Now? We became things that barely could be counted as anything... natural. Or living."
"You sound... disappointed!" Lia whisperingly exclaimed, and deep down, she was surprised.
"Kinda. I agreed with my Master that having a body is needed to cultivate the soul. Focusing only on one end is not how to get truly strong. Just look at the Sect Master! Even when his body was gravely injured and mauled, he still did not abandon it. To this day, he still has his original flesh! That tells us all that we need to know... of course, there is the fact that we couldn't exist here in our body; that is simply impossible to anyone but him... as we are inside his body."
"What...?" Lia blurted out, almost biting her tongue.
"Figuratively speaking!" Korvall laughed, seeing her reaction, almost reaching out and patting her head... and Lia was ready to doge his touch. "This place was made by him, using cosmic energy, the nucleus of Meriath. That energy is made up of all the elements! Any kind of body coming here would be overwhelmed and destroyed by it as they are not synchronized with it! Only he could withstand it as he was washed in Cosmic energies for eons and had his body purified!"
"Oh..." Lia gulped, realizing how lucky she was that her body got remade from the same thing. She felt she just skipped a few parts... Was Erias this smart? Is he this much better than their arch-nemesis? Now, she wondered if her ancestor knew this or if he was simply fortunate to stumble on such a solution. A lucky stroke, without realization.
"Yet when we go back to Meriath, we need a body," Korvall chuckled while he continued, feeling it to be hilarious, "As there, the opposite happens! The energy gets separated into different elements! The Sea of Souls is like a filter, you see! It is there to wash the stream of souls clean of their memories and experiences before letting them be born into the world once again! Nobody knows how the system came to be, but it is as ancient as our Realm... Millions upon millions of years ago, from an era which is now lost to the river of time! It is in balance... and we are not. No matter how you look at it."
"These are dangerous views..." Yima added, looking around, and it was mostly a warning to Lia. She was already used to her Master's words and lectures, but as someone newly recruited, she had to ensure Lia would not utter them to others.
"I guess." Lia nodded at her, showing she understood, "But say... Master Korvall, why didn't you try to go down to Meriath?"
"Leaving the Sect, you mean?" He asked with no anger in his voice but only a smile on his face, "Why would I do that? This is my home, and I am of the Soulbound Sect! Always was, always will be!"
"I see..."
Yima wanted to ask what Lia meant by that, but then the trio was transported away by Korvall as they arrived at the junction between the layers of the Supreme Elders. Lia's vision suddenly swam around her, like being thrown into a whirlpool before reappearing in a white, luxurious palace that looked abandoned. The gardens were empty; the gazebos stood deserted, and a gentle wind was blowing around them, carrying the element of air with it with the aroma of fresh rain within it.
"Looks deserted..." Yima spoke first, looking around, but she couldn't get a read on any souls present in the vicinity.
"It is." Korvall nodded, walking forward as the two followed him close, "She brought away most of her people; those who remained here were the fresh recruits and a few weak elders. So they should be hiding in the deepest part, simply because of what happened! I know that most of her Grand Elders and Elders are stuck on Meriath, being sent to the front lines, to ongoing ambushes, and literally given the choice of an honorable death or being destroyed by the others."
"You know... how the war is going?" Lia asked, looking at him from the sides, trying to sound nonchalant and not give away her sudden excitement whenever she got some news.
"Stalemate. Supreme Elder Killieth's move was effective, but now we are stuck, and he is under pressure to find a point where he can have another breakthrough. For now, we still have a few dozen million souls to sort through, those we harvested in our surprise attack. Mostly mortals, going straight to the Sect Master, so he still has time. But when the Sect Master runs through them... he will start demanding more! His return and advancement are near, and Killieth must show results!"
"I see." Lia's voice was calm this time, without the need to hide her feelings as she suddenly realized she was still with two Undead. No matter how kind Korvall was to his own, he was still the enemy of all living beings. "Say, Master Korvall... How was it back then? The war in the Cosmos, I mean, was it anything like the Harvest?"
"Oh, it was much worse!" He answered immediately, and Lia could swear she saw him shudder. "We greatly underestimated their strength! I don't know if it was our complacent views in tens of thousands of years of being the sole rulers, conquering multiple others... or they were simply more unique. The fact is, with fewer numbers, they still rolled us over and took what was ours for as long as we could remember!"
"They were smaller in numbers?" Yima asked as this was something she had never dared to ask. Maybe it was because Lia was still new, fresh... and she was happy that it was not her to question Korvall like this.
"Strength can't be measured with numbers or titles! Not inside the Cosmos!" Korvall stopped walking, turning towards them, imparting a solemn lesson to the two, "Inside our home, it can be layered, tiered, quantified! You will have distinguishable levels of strength! That is why we have tiers inside Meriath, always had! From being a mortal to ascending the boundaries of our home and stepping out into the Infinite! But there... Those concepts go out of the window!"
"I don't get it..." Yima answered honestly, biting her lower lip, trying to wrap her head around it.
"Outside, there is no cultivation like you know of! The Cosmic energy is all-encompassing! It allows you to walk your own path, free of laws and boundaries. Everything is there for the taking, and only your mind is the limit!"
"But how could we understand the infinite?" Lia asked, voicing her true thoughts by reflex.
"My Master called it the Duality of the Cosmos. You can't understand it, but you are studying it. Your strength outside is dependent on how much you learn from it and how many secrets you unlock! I can't really put it into words as I never even reached the level to bother about studying the cosmic balance. That was my Master's forte, and I wasn't at a level to learn from him. He said that it would be simply detrimental to me... You learn to walk first; running comes afterward! He always used to say that! He also told me that one can count himself truly strong when he can create his own Meriath! Although... I never managed to understand what he meant by that."
"So... outside, is everyone at the same level yet not...? Mmmmm..." Lia questioned him, trying to get a particular feeling from rising in her chest from escaping.
"You could say that! It is what also makes it hard to gauge another's strength! It turned out we were very wrong! We got used to the feeling we were on top of others! And when the army of the Kodai Clan, the Ravagers, and our people first clashed with them after what happened... they were wiped out. None returned."
"Wiped... out?" Yima asked, feeling it hard to believe.
"Although the Kodai Clan and the Ravagers were not as strong as us, they were still part of the ruling forces. Strong enough to make us maintain a semi-friendly relationship instead of being antagonistic towards them. They both sent out their leaders, along with their personal disciples, sons, and generals, you name it. With our three Supreme Elders and an army of 100 strong cultivators, we had an army numbering around 500 individuals at minimum, the 9th Tier! Yet... None returned... No, that is a lie."
"Huh?" The two stopped, looking at each other, waiting for Korvall to explain what he meant by it.
"Their heads were sent back. A beast appeared right before the Realm Gate of Meriath and threw their polished skulls in before leaving. That thing was the most frightening being I have ever seen, and she did it without saying a word!"
"I bet the Sect Master wasn't happy." Lia shrugged, almost laughing out, looking away quickly to hide the glee she felt welling up in her belly.
"He was not. Same with the rest. It made us form a united front, something that hadn't happened before, like ever! The death of Trishula was something that only our Sect was fuming about. The others watched as the Sect Master vowed revenge and wanted to annihilate them while being unable to break into their territory. After that? All powers came under a united banner, and we finally managed to fight back for real!"
"How long did it take? I mean, for things to turn into this!" Lia asked, wanting to know everything Korvall had in his head.
"A few years only..." He answered with a lethargic sigh, "We couldn't launch an invasion or take the lead. We were on the back foot constantly and had to set up defenses instead of preparing campaigns... Then, their leader started acting. The so-called Thunder Immortal. Slowly but surely, we were losing territory after territory, being pushed back. One fire appeared on our left; the moment we started dealing with it, another popped up on the right! You... know the rest. We were utterly decimated at the Battle of Meriath and had to seal ourselves away to not be routed entirely by their forces!"
"But if the Sect Master recovers... We can gloriously return!" Yima added, breaking the sudden silence as they entered the primary, marble-like palace grounds.
"If he steps into the Second Cosmic Realm, then yes. The Immortals will fall before him, one by one!" Korvall nodded, even smiling a little. "That is a stage that is only heard in legends-" He began to explain, but a voice halted him at once.
"And it will remain exactly that... a legend."
The moment Lia heard him, she moved to stand behind the master and disciple duo, exploding with her natural aura and strength, surprising the two while Erias materialized before them, sealing not just their escape route... but their ultimate fate.
"I only... heard about it. But nothing like this detailed." Lia murmured, going through Korvall's tale. One part of her wanted to dismiss it... but another part of her believed it all.
"It is not repeated amongst the Elders for multiple reasons." He chuckled, watching her calmly, letting Lia chew through the history of their Sect. "For one, many who were alive in those days are long dead. From my generation, only a handful are still kicking. More than half of the Supreme Elders of that time were killed off and replaced by their disciples just so they would also die in the previous Harvest. Slowly but surely, those who were experienced cultivators were gone, and a new generation replaced them. With the death of Loonah and Io, we only have two Supreme Elders who rose to the rank in that cataclysmic battle: Kyaranin and Che.
"They were Grand Elders back then, yes? What about you, Master Korvall?" Lia asked curiously and with a bit of respect, however weird that felt for her.
"I plateaued!" He let out a hearty laugh that turned into a deep sigh, "After losing my Master, I lost someone important. He was a father to me... It messed with my mental fortitude, and when our bodies were discarded to escape here, it sealed my fate. I am stuck in my current state and amount to very little, to be honest.
"You are downplaying yourself, Master!" Yima quipped at him, "Many high-ranking elders and even Supreme Elder Che sometimes come to you to chit-chat! They occasionally ask for your opinions, too!"
"Some still remember that we had a type of honor, but even they won't face the facts!"
"Of?" Lia and Yima asked in unison.
"That we lost." Korvall shrugged, opening his arms. "Not just the war but ourselves, too. We went from one of the strongest forces to simple monsters! Consuming someone's soul was a method used to break through bottlenecks. Gain intelligence on our enemies, or use it to heal quickly when suffering grave injuries! To give us an edge and avoid death, even if our bodies are destroyed! Now? We became things that barely could be counted as anything... natural. Or living."
"You sound... disappointed!" Lia whisperingly exclaimed, and deep down, she was surprised.
"Kinda. I agreed with my Master that having a body is needed to cultivate the soul. Focusing only on one end is not how to get truly strong. Just look at the Sect Master! Even when his body was gravely injured and mauled, he still did not abandon it. To this day, he still has his original flesh! That tells us all that we need to know... of course, there is the fact that we couldn't exist here in our body; that is simply impossible to anyone but him... as we are inside his body."
"What...?" Lia blurted out, almost biting her tongue.
"Figuratively speaking!" Korvall laughed, seeing her reaction, almost reaching out and patting her head... and Lia was ready to doge his touch. "This place was made by him, using cosmic energy, the nucleus of Meriath. That energy is made up of all the elements! Any kind of body coming here would be overwhelmed and destroyed by it as they are not synchronized with it! Only he could withstand it as he was washed in Cosmic energies for eons and had his body purified!"
"Oh..." Lia gulped, realizing how lucky she was that her body got remade from the same thing. She felt she just skipped a few parts... Was Erias this smart? Is he this much better than their arch-nemesis? Now, she wondered if her ancestor knew this or if he was simply fortunate to stumble on such a solution. A lucky stroke, without realization.
"Yet when we go back to Meriath, we need a body," Korvall chuckled while he continued, feeling it to be hilarious, "As there, the opposite happens! The energy gets separated into different elements! The Sea of Souls is like a filter, you see! It is there to wash the stream of souls clean of their memories and experiences before letting them be born into the world once again! Nobody knows how the system came to be, but it is as ancient as our Realm... Millions upon millions of years ago, from an era which is now lost to the river of time! It is in balance... and we are not. No matter how you look at it."
"These are dangerous views..." Yima added, looking around, and it was mostly a warning to Lia. She was already used to her Master's words and lectures, but as someone newly recruited, she had to ensure Lia would not utter them to others.
"I guess." Lia nodded at her, showing she understood, "But say... Master Korvall, why didn't you try to go down to Meriath?"
"Leaving the Sect, you mean?" He asked with no anger in his voice but only a smile on his face, "Why would I do that? This is my home, and I am of the Soulbound Sect! Always was, always will be!"
"I see..."
Yima wanted to ask what Lia meant by that, but then the trio was transported away by Korvall as they arrived at the junction between the layers of the Supreme Elders. Lia's vision suddenly swam around her, like being thrown into a whirlpool before reappearing in a white, luxurious palace that looked abandoned. The gardens were empty; the gazebos stood deserted, and a gentle wind was blowing around them, carrying the element of air with it with the aroma of fresh rain within it.
"Looks deserted..." Yima spoke first, looking around, but she couldn't get a read on any souls present in the vicinity.
"It is." Korvall nodded, walking forward as the two followed him close, "She brought away most of her people; those who remained here were the fresh recruits and a few weak elders. So they should be hiding in the deepest part, simply because of what happened! I know that most of her Grand Elders and Elders are stuck on Meriath, being sent to the front lines, to ongoing ambushes, and literally given the choice of an honorable death or being destroyed by the others."
"You know... how the war is going?" Lia asked, looking at him from the sides, trying to sound nonchalant and not give away her sudden excitement whenever she got some news.
"Stalemate. Supreme Elder Killieth's move was effective, but now we are stuck, and he is under pressure to find a point where he can have another breakthrough. For now, we still have a few dozen million souls to sort through, those we harvested in our surprise attack. Mostly mortals, going straight to the Sect Master, so he still has time. But when the Sect Master runs through them... he will start demanding more! His return and advancement are near, and Killieth must show results!"
"I see." Lia's voice was calm this time, without the need to hide her feelings as she suddenly realized she was still with two Undead. No matter how kind Korvall was to his own, he was still the enemy of all living beings. "Say, Master Korvall... How was it back then? The war in the Cosmos, I mean, was it anything like the Harvest?"
"Oh, it was much worse!" He answered immediately, and Lia could swear she saw him shudder. "We greatly underestimated their strength! I don't know if it was our complacent views in tens of thousands of years of being the sole rulers, conquering multiple others... or they were simply more unique. The fact is, with fewer numbers, they still rolled us over and took what was ours for as long as we could remember!"
"They were smaller in numbers?" Yima asked as this was something she had never dared to ask. Maybe it was because Lia was still new, fresh... and she was happy that it was not her to question Korvall like this.
"Strength can't be measured with numbers or titles! Not inside the Cosmos!" Korvall stopped walking, turning towards them, imparting a solemn lesson to the two, "Inside our home, it can be layered, tiered, quantified! You will have distinguishable levels of strength! That is why we have tiers inside Meriath, always had! From being a mortal to ascending the boundaries of our home and stepping out into the Infinite! But there... Those concepts go out of the window!"
"I don't get it..." Yima answered honestly, biting her lower lip, trying to wrap her head around it.
"Outside, there is no cultivation like you know of! The Cosmic energy is all-encompassing! It allows you to walk your own path, free of laws and boundaries. Everything is there for the taking, and only your mind is the limit!"
"But how could we understand the infinite?" Lia asked, voicing her true thoughts by reflex.
"My Master called it the Duality of the Cosmos. You can't understand it, but you are studying it. Your strength outside is dependent on how much you learn from it and how many secrets you unlock! I can't really put it into words as I never even reached the level to bother about studying the cosmic balance. That was my Master's forte, and I wasn't at a level to learn from him. He said that it would be simply detrimental to me... You learn to walk first; running comes afterward! He always used to say that! He also told me that one can count himself truly strong when he can create his own Meriath! Although... I never managed to understand what he meant by that."
"So... outside, is everyone at the same level yet not...? Mmmmm..." Lia questioned him, trying to get a particular feeling from rising in her chest from escaping.
"You could say that! It is what also makes it hard to gauge another's strength! It turned out we were very wrong! We got used to the feeling we were on top of others! And when the army of the Kodai Clan, the Ravagers, and our people first clashed with them after what happened... they were wiped out. None returned."
"Wiped... out?" Yima asked, feeling it hard to believe.
"Although the Kodai Clan and the Ravagers were not as strong as us, they were still part of the ruling forces. Strong enough to make us maintain a semi-friendly relationship instead of being antagonistic towards them. They both sent out their leaders, along with their personal disciples, sons, and generals, you name it. With our three Supreme Elders and an army of 100 strong cultivators, we had an army numbering around 500 individuals at minimum, the 9th Tier! Yet... None returned... No, that is a lie."
"Huh?" The two stopped, looking at each other, waiting for Korvall to explain what he meant by it.
"Their heads were sent back. A beast appeared right before the Realm Gate of Meriath and threw their polished skulls in before leaving. That thing was the most frightening being I have ever seen, and she did it without saying a word!"
"I bet the Sect Master wasn't happy." Lia shrugged, almost laughing out, looking away quickly to hide the glee she felt welling up in her belly.
"He was not. Same with the rest. It made us form a united front, something that hadn't happened before, like ever! The death of Trishula was something that only our Sect was fuming about. The others watched as the Sect Master vowed revenge and wanted to annihilate them while being unable to break into their territory. After that? All powers came under a united banner, and we finally managed to fight back for real!"
"How long did it take? I mean, for things to turn into this!" Lia asked, wanting to know everything Korvall had in his head.
"A few years only..." He answered with a lethargic sigh, "We couldn't launch an invasion or take the lead. We were on the back foot constantly and had to set up defenses instead of preparing campaigns... Then, their leader started acting. The so-called Thunder Immortal. Slowly but surely, we were losing territory after territory, being pushed back. One fire appeared on our left; the moment we started dealing with it, another popped up on the right! You... know the rest. We were utterly decimated at the Battle of Meriath and had to seal ourselves away to not be routed entirely by their forces!"
"But if the Sect Master recovers... We can gloriously return!" Yima added, breaking the sudden silence as they entered the primary, marble-like palace grounds.
"If he steps into the Second Cosmic Realm, then yes. The Immortals will fall before him, one by one!" Korvall nodded, even smiling a little. "That is a stage that is only heard in legends-" He began to explain, but a voice halted him at once.
"And it will remain exactly that... a legend."
The moment Lia heard him, she moved to stand behind the master and disciple duo, exploding with her natural aura and strength, surprising the two while Erias materialized before them, sealing not just their escape route... but their ultimate fate.
