Chapter 510: Put the Mask Back On (1/2)

The collared cultists were effectively non-threats without powers, but Jason wasn’t taking chances. Holding a hand out to the side, blood spilled out to take the form of Colin in his blood clone form.

“Watch the packaged meat,” Jason instructed. “If it starts going bad, eat it fast.”

The cultist still free didn’t try to look out for his fellows. He did just the opposite moving out of the way as the familiar approached them with slow, methodical steps. The cultist never took his eyes from Jason as he sidestepped out of the apocalypse beast’s path, remaining alert to attack.

The collared cultists tried to run, only for blood-soaked leather straps to shoot out from Colin. They grabbed the disempowered cultists and dragged them back to the familiar’s feet. Jason felt the surge of power from the star seeds within them as they tried to self-detonate and locked them down with his aura.

This was a trick Jason had instinctively picked up after ejecting the star seed placed in his own body. He hadn’t understood how the ability truly worked when he first used it back in Greenstone, but he had changed a lot since then. Jason was no longer a dual entity of body and soul, the way most physical beings were. For him, body and soul was the same thing.

This was extremely unusual, even on a cosmic scale. While the specific components of different physical beings varied, the underlying pattern that made them up was the same. Be it a normal person or an essence user, monster or familiar, physical beings were comprised of a physical component that served as a vessel for a spiritual component. Exceptions to this, where the body and spirit did not exist in a state of duality but in a unified, physical and spiritual gestalt were extremely rare. This was what made entities like the messengers and the vorger so extraordinary.

Jason’s adoption of that state had given him significant insights into the way the connection between body and spirit functioned. It helped him understand the underlying mechanisms of things he’d been doing by instinct, like using his aura to prevent star seed detonation.

The soul of any being was inviolable unless it opened itself to penetration. If a being like the Builder, with practically infinite power, could not overcome this limitation, then Jason certainly couldn't. This made a star seed inside someone's soul untouchable, however strong his ability to influence the Builder's artefacts. Not all of a star seed was held within the soul, however.

While each great astral being used its own kind of star seed, they were all, by necessity, a reflection of the basic patterns of physical beings. They were made up of both physical and spiritual components, which lodged themselves in the physical and spiritual aspects of living beings. For this reason, messengers and similar beings, which now included Jason, were immune to star seed implantation.

Jason was unable to do a lot with the physical aspect of a star seed, as the protected spiritual component was the part that controlled it. The most he could do was lock down the physical component and prevent it from enacting commands sent from within the soul.

Jason's understanding of the dual nature of most physical beings wasn't generally useful. The two aspects were like perfect halves of a sphere, seamlessly sealed together, with nowhere to take purchase. When Jason used his ability to attack a soul, all he was doing was scratching at the exterior or squeezing it like a ball. There was nothing to grab hold of and really go to work, but a star seed changed that considerably.

Jason locked down the physical aspects of the cultist's star seeds, so as to stop their self-detonation. It was something he hadn't done in years, during which time he had gone through considerable changes. This led to a revelation as he grabbed at the star seeds: the physical aspect of a star seed was like a handle sticking out a cultist’s soul. A handle that he could grab.

Looking at the uncollared cultist through a new lens, Jason didn’t see a man. He saw a sphere with a great big handle poking out the side. Half of that sphere was untouchable, but what if he grabbed that handle and used it to wrench off that half that wasn’t? He couldn’t rip the man’s soul out of his body, but maybe he could tear the body off the soul.

The cultist and Jason were still in a standoff, staring one another down. Neither had moved since Colin tied up the other cultists, who were now bound up in wet red leather straps like insects in a web. From the cultist’s perspective that was fine, buying time for reinforcements to arrive. For Jason, it allowed him to concentrate on forging a new weapon in his soul arsenal.

Jason projected his aura in twin talons that dug through the cultist’s aura. One gripped the man’s soul while the other gripped the physical element of the star seed. Then, Jason started to twist. The man froze, eyes wide as he felt something try to wrench apart the very foundation of his being. For Jason, it also felt like a physical struggle, as if he were trying to yank the man’s soul from his body with brute strength. The difference in soul strength between the two silver-rankers was like a bodybuilder fighting a child.

Jason was certain that unless the Builder stepped in and turned the cultist into a vessel, he could not be stopped. Since doing so would go far beyond simply using some vessels to talk, Jason didn’t think that he would. The two men struggled while standing dead still, staring at one another. The other cultists lay where they were tied up, watching in fear and confusion. Despite having their aura senses being sealed, the collared cultists were able to sense the powerful aura reactions coming from within the cultist Jason was spiritually attacking. Even people without magic and the aura senses that come with it would have felt it. It was not enough that they were clear as to what was befalling their companion, but they could tell that it was happening on a level that no wound should be able to reach.

“Mr Asano, I recommend against this course of action.”

Jason ignored Shade, his face warped with hate as he felt the strain he was placing on the bond between the cultist’s body and soul. The man wasn't even resisting anymore, swaying and starting to twitch. Shade rose up from Jason’s shadow.

“Mr Asano, I strongly recommend against this course of action.”

Jason continued to twist and wrench, feeling the cultist’s spiritual foundation beginning to tear.

“JASON, STOP IT!”

Shade never yelled. Shade never told when he could suggest and Shade never used Jason’s first name. Doing all three at once had finally broken through. The cultist dropped to the ground, frothing at the mouth as Jason released him and turned to his shadowy familiar.

“Mr Asano,” Shade said, his composure restored. “If I ask you to do something, will you do it?”

“Anything.”

“Then I will ask you not to do what you were about to do. Ever. Because–”

“Why doesn’t matter,” Jason cut in, his voice soft. “If you want it, that’s all the why I need.”

Jason’s shoulder’s slumped. Shade had shaken the twisted rage from his expression he suddenly looked exhausted. Something festering inside him had finally rotted through and collapsed. He looked over at the cultists. The free one was having a seizure, the foam in his mouth tainted red. The others showed an expression Jason wasn’t familiar with on the face of a Builder cultist. He’d seen arrogance and disdain. He’d seen fury, madness and the slack-jawed blankness of a puppet. Fear was new. Even collared, they felt what Jason had been doing to their companion and it chilled them to a depth only the star seeds within them had ever reached before.

“I almost crossed a line there, didn’t I?” Jason asked.

“Yes, Mr Asano.”

“Or maybe I already did. If you hadn’t stopped me, I’d have torn that man’s soul out.”

“But you didn’t. There is still a path home for you.”

“And where’s that? I don’t think I know anymore.”