Chapter 1209 (1/2)
Ileot Swacc’s game is duplicating entire worlds.
Slowly, that statement from the darkness-Vualla had percolated through Vualla’s drifting consciousness. It was a strange sort of relaxation to slowly unpack that statement as she had been lulled by the rhythmic motions of her own body fighting the Nether Gatekeepers. Ileot Swacc… duplicates worlds…? Then is this world-
Amusement flowed out of the darkness as it pulled her limbs this way and that way. Are you asking if this world is a duplication, a dream? No, that line of thought means you both over and underestimate what Ileot can accomplish. He cannot create true worlds. After all, he is just one man, our brother… but you should not underestimate what one individual can accomplish. Because his ability makes very real people that have inhabited his projections.
So all this that has happened… meeting Randidly, having the Nether King invade... Vualla had released a sigh she hadn’t known she was holding. A sense of relief washed over her. If all this had ended up being just a dream… Her understanding of her current situation was tenuous enough as it was.
All real.
Despite the fact that the darkness-Vualla had been spending a portion of her attention speaking, it didn’t seem to affect her ability to fight against the Nether Gatekeepers at all. If anything, the darkness was improving with every single movement, constantly refining her ability to utilize Vualla’s body to its fullest potential. Always one step sharper with her movements, always one iota more powerful with her punches. The explosiveness and violence of her attacks was always improving. The progress was so staggering that Vualla couldn’t help but split her focus between the explanation that the darkness was giving and the deft way it manipulated Vualla’s body’s power.
As the surrounding Nether Gatekeepers began to warily regard Vualla, the darkness had spoken again. Heh, I hope your young boy will not follow the Path of your brother… But Ileot’s ability seizes onto the origin of some individual’s karma and uses that to create a projection of the world, as it was for them at the moment of karma he selects. He splits a thread of karma in two. Because the source for the whole ability is that thread of karma, the process of creating a single duplication… inevitably creates more.
Calling the karma he uses a thread is a misnomer, but there simply isn’t a better word. Because it is truly more of a net than a simple thread. The karma of one being is tightly tied into another endlessly; they could not exist separately. Even if his original intent was only to create a separate life for himself, I think it is safe to say that Ileot cannot avoid the extras he creates.
As he has grown more adept at his ability, he has improved immensely in how wide of a world he can use as a playground to influence the split karma and change the fate of the duplication from what it originally was. He has no small amount of influence in the projections he creates. By adding elements to these projection world, he can create duplications that are more powerful, or weaker, or loyal to him. He has been using that ability desperately for his entire existence in order to survive.
Her physical body’s dominance over the surrounding Nether Gatekeepers had grown almost casual at this point. When she moved, the Nether Gatekeepers could only hastily stumble backward. Her superiority only improved when one of the Nether Gatekeeper that was fighting her had been pulled over to help assist against the monstrous Lady Iellaya, leaving shadow-Vualla plenty of time and space to refine her strange new image.
It added a strangely surreal feeling to the experience of disembodiment Vualla was going through. First, the strange assertions of the darkness manipulating her body. Second, the leisurely combat with Nether Gatekeepers, a foe that Vualla had struggled so long against.
Yet Vualla hadn’t minded; it had given her a great opportunity to slowly grow familiar enough with the image the darkness utilized so she could attempt to use it herself later.
Desperately? Vualla asked. Why desperately? Honestly, that ability seems extremely powerful.
It truly is. One of the most powerful abilities in the Nexus… but it was only activated under dire circumstances and exercised recklessly on the first occasion. Which has left him struggling to pay the price of his first use to this day. Suddenly, the darkness had seemed extremely tired. Its tight hold over Vualla’s body had relaxed. Vualla noticed, but didn’t attempt to try and seize control back. After all, it was clear she would be able to obtain more information as from this version of herself if she played meek. Better to take things slow and only move when it was necessary.
Humming, the darkness continued to speak to her. Duplicating karma… it is something that should not be done casually, especially when the original karma thread is present in the world. Because karma… is sensitive. Two of the same strands of karma existing means that they will inevitably interact. They cannot be kept apart; they will eventually be one, as they were in the beginning before Ileot’s ability split them. That is karma.
...if I’m being honest, I don’t quite understand karma. Vualla had responded carefully.
The darkness locking her heart and controlling her body had pulsed with amusement. Few do. Least of all Ileot, or else he would not have such difficulty escaping his own karma. Or rather… he would not have allowed his karma to become so knotted in the first place. Karma is the set of intangible things that people would look at when something tragic happens in your life to determine blame. Those things will enable them to say, ‘it is deserved’ or ‘it is undeserved’ when referring to your tragedy. Karma is the cycle of sowing and reaping at their proper times. It is what is present when people make sense of patterns and symbols. It can be considered most broadly to be a universal set of principles, inelegantly perceived by humans.
It is the most powerful force in the universe. Yet the paradox is that you could very easily live your entire life without ever even guessing at its existence. It is a thing that is invisible if you do not look for it. And sometimes it is invisible even if you seek it your entire existence.
Such might be your karma.
Vualla had thought at that moment, slightly sourly, that the darkness hadn’t provided a very helpful answer to what karma actually was. But she could sense the general shape from the circular explanation that the darkness provided. Karma was a set of universal rules for how things can and would be connected.
A broad answer, but one would have to do for now. So Vualla had shifted her focus back onto the problem at hand. Then… what is the karma of Ileot that you were talking about? The karma he is trying to escape.