Chapter 46

Marcus...

It wrecked his nerves to be sitting just a seat away from this man but he figured that he would need to meet with Ruvick often anyways per his request to keep in touch and Marcus's own desire to learn as much about him as possible.

Ruvick just sat at their table silently as he was continued to read his book and drink his cup of coffee looking completely unbothered.

After a few moments had passed, he finally spoke.

"Well? Say something will you? Obviously you arrived here to have a meeting with me, yes?" he said with a hint of annoyance at Marcus's silence.

"Excuse me, its just...being around you makes my skin crawl. Its uncomfortable to be next to you which is why I'm struggling to convey my thoughts," Marcus said with brutal honesty to see what kind of reaction he would receive.

Ruvick looked up from his book and raised his eyebrows at him curiously.

"Is it the corpse body? Honestly I don't blame you. I don't like it either but I'm stuck like this for eternity," he said calmly as if the comments didn't bother him.

Then Ruvick's colorless eyes focused intently on him as if reading his expression and gleaning everything he can from him.

"I understand what you are trying to do Marcus and let me tell you, its not worth the effort. All you need to do is ask me. I have no qualms about being honest with you about whatever information you need," he said and Marcus looked away to avoid meeting his eyes.

"I don't know what you mean," he lied.

"Nonsense. You're prodding me to try and glean a mental understanding of the kind of person I am or what my goals are. I assure you that you won't be able to gain anything from me that way. If you want to learn anything from then all you need to do is ask nicely, please and thank you," he said as if sounding like an elder educating his grand children on manners.

"I don't appreciate the patronizing attitude," Marcus said in a last effort to try and get under his skin but it failed again.

"I assure you I am simply speaking to you with utmost respect and a polite demeanor. Now, will you drop that façade of acting rude towards me and just act how you normally would if you were to speak with any of your other acquaintances?"

"Your level of patience is astonishing," he remarked honestly. 

"When you've lived five hundred thousand years like I have then patience is something that is inevitable," Ruvick said calmly which sent a chill down Marcus's spine.

Ruvick was far FAR older than he had originally thought.

"Well, as far as the contest of champions is concerned, I'll play along with whatever it is you're asking of me. Can you clarify to exactly what it is that you want from me?"

"What I want from you is the same thing I wanted from you when you were preparing for your battle with Malthael and during it. I want you to train and learn all the different methods to how you can use your magic and use those skills against similarly powerful people in this world and grow more powerful," he said as he finished his cup with a satisfied look on his face.

"There is something regarding that which I don't understand. When Selene had explained to me the nature of our souls and how our magic works, she had said that under normal circumstances a person is born with all the spiritual energy they will ever be capable of producing throughout their whole lives from the moment they are born to the moment they die, and yet you are saying you want me to grow stronger? I may be able to polish my skills and the utility of my magic but I won't be able to increase my spiritual output in the normal sense."

"Hmm...well, for normal people, you are correct. Herein lies the problem though-," he paused as he closed his book before he turned to face Marcus completely, "You are not a human being Marcus. Your soul is far more powerful than that of nearly everyone else in the world aside from myself and a handful of others and STILL it hasn't even reached its fullest potential. In fact, there is no other human in existence, aside from myself, with a soul as strong as yours. Now, let me ask you this. Was there ever a moment in your fight against Malthael in which you felt a part inside of you fracture and something was released? As if, say, a piece of yourself was set free and you felt a rush of power?"

He thought back to when Malthael's breath had rained down on him relentlessly and had him pinned down by the sheer force of it before he started to black out and everything around him had been replaced by an ominous scenery of dead souls staring at him hungrily.

"There was one moment. Malthael's breath held me down and then I blacked out briefly, then everything around me changed and I saw two massive walls made of black corporeal bodies that seemed to go on for infinity and a sky filled with red smoke while the ground was charred with burnt corpses and flames. Someone then reached into my chest as they pulled out chains before breaking them. After that, my vision went back to normal and I could see Malthael bearing down on me but it wasn't as if I had gained more power but rather that my well had deepened and my soul could handle absorbing more magic," he said and Ruvick stared at him with what looked like...shock. The man who was five hundred thousand years old as he claimed, was stunned.

"You...you saw The Walls of The Empty? For you to have seen that...you must have been pushed so far on the edge of dying by taking in the essence of death that your soul could even see that far. I'm impressed actually," he said genuinely.

"What is The Empty?" 

"Well...how do I explain this. I'm sure you are aware by the fact that you traversed from Terra to this world Erebus and realized you were in a different universe, which indicated a multiverse? Was it the unfamiliar constellations or something else that gave you that indication?"

"Actually, it was the simple matter that magic existed in this world at all that gave me that idea. Magic doesn't exist in Terra," he said and Ruvick's head tilted to the side as if he heard something nonsensical.

"Don't be absurd, spiritual energy is one of the fundamental forces responsible for maintaining the existence in the multiverse. Without it, nothing can exist. It just means that its presence in Terra is so unnoticeable, much like the strong and weak nuclear forces that govern nuclei, that you don't understand its importance. In this world, its presence is far more noticeable, like that of gravity and electromagnetism."

"I'll...keep that in mind, but we are straying off topic from The Empty," he said.

"Yes, I apologize for that. Anyways, our multiverse is a multilayered and complex structure. Each universe exists in a spherical space rather than a flat one. I'm sure you understand the implications of that yes?"

"A spherical universe means that it can be quantifiable but a flat universe is infinite."

Ruvick smiled like a high school teacher that was happy with his student's ability to follow along with the subject.

"Yes, exactly. Each universe is spherical which means their volume is quantifiable. In fact, I have once traveled to the edge of this universe but I can't say I have the means to measure it. Its...difficult without the proper tools or methods to make calculations like that. Perhaps you can help me with that in the future," he cleared his throat as he realized he was getting off topic again, "To reiterate, every universe is spherical while the multiverse is flat, which means it is infinite. However, the make up of this infinite multiverse is rather...odd to explain. See, we have two flat multiversal planes in which our universe exists within, these planes can be described better as realms. This does not mean we have two multiverses but rather two different fabrics of space/time made of spiritual energy which we exist within. These two realms are called Hell and Chaos one of which looks as if it is filled with thick red smoke while the other is filled with fire and demons. Encompassing both of these barriers and existing throughout everything, is The Empty. A ten dimensional existence that is set beyond the concepts of time and space in which the souls of the dead reside."

"What's beyond The Empty?" Marcus asked curiously.

"I have no idea what really lies beyond it. Only a handful of people in all of creation have every seen beyond The Empty but couldn't seem to form any words to describe exactly what it was they were looking at. While the multiverse does exist within The Empty, I've come to the conclusion that its mostly inconsequential to our survival if it were destroyed," he said flatly but Marcus couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Are you really implying that destroying such a massive and multidimensional construct on that scale is possible?"

"I am, and I know its possible because to see past it, you would have to fracture it to see through the cracks. Its been done but I wasn't there to witness it," he said and all of this information was hurting Marcus's head.

"Have you...have you ever managed to traverse from this universe to another?"

"Well, going to hell isn't all that difficult but trying to navigate it is the issue. If you can navigate hell then you could potentially go anywhere in the multiverse. That being said...if you're thinking of trying to go back to Terra, then I'm afraid that even I can't quite figure that out yet. I'd be inclined to assist you on that though as there is someone there that I wish to meet again as well."

"What about Chaos? Is it possible to navigate the realm of Chaos?"

Ruvick's eyes narrowed as he seemed unable to understand the concept.

"Navigate Chaos...? Have you...been inside the realm of Chaos?" he asked.

"I'm guessing that Kayron didn't tell you about that detail did you? The reason he was able to traverse multiverses from Erebus to Terra in the first place. From my understanding, it was through the Chaos Realm."

Ruvick looked away and held his mouth in his hand and started fidgeting with his skin as if using it like a stress ball as he was deep in thought.

He then returned his attention to Marcus as he asked, "How certain are you that Chaos was what you and Kayron had passed through to traverse between the two universes?"

"I know this because Apophis appeared over my body and gave me the magic I use today. She pressed what looked like two concentrated orbs of spiritual energy into my chest and when I emerged in Erebus, I realized I could use magic."

"Wait...you weren't born with the magic you use?"

"No. I don't imagine I was."

"Well that explains a lot, especially as to why your magic isn't fire based like your mother, but still...why would Apophis appear to give you this magic personally...?" he started speaking mostly to himself as he was absorbing the new information, "This...complicates things. I don't understand why Apophis would get involved with you," he said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"What exactly is Apophis?"

"I'm sorry but unfortunately that is a piece of information that I can't quite share with you yet. It will have to wait until I am certain about some things before I can feel confident about the validity of what I know. Either way, did my explanation of The Empty satisfy you?"

"For the most part, yes. It did. Thank you."

Ruvick nodded his head in gratitude, "Of course. Is there anything else you wish to know about?"

"Well...I want to go back to the topic as to why you believe I am capable of gaining more strength with my soul."

"Ah, yes. That. Well, you wouldn't be gaining more strength but rather unlocking access to it. I can look into your soul and for some reason its shape is unusual. Most souls emit their power outward while it looks like the energy from your soul is compressing itself on a single point from an invisible source. I don't know why but for some reason, its as if your soul isn't even contained within your own body and that the energy is being transferred to you rather than from you. I don't know what the reason for this is but I imagine the more damage you do to whatever is containing your soul the more power you will be able to draw from it until you have complete access to it. Of course, there are other methods but I wouldn't recommend them."

"Other methods? Like what?"

"Well...you could eat dragon hearts to increase the spiritual energy output that you can produce but you will have to come to terms with the one you already first. You've felt the initial effects of disorientation, loss of balance, and other symptoms yes?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, it won't be too long before the echoes of Malthael's personality resurfaces in your mind. The first person to eat dragon hearts had to contend with the personalities of the dragons she had eaten, fighting against them in her mind and dominating them over time. When a dragon dies, their scales act as a sort of barrier to keep out death magic from seeping completely into their bodies and their souls are concentrated in their hearts. When you ate Malthael's heart, you ate what remained of his soul too. He'll come back eventually and I'm betting that he will want to take over your mind, body, and soul. Not to worry though, if you think you need my assistance, then I can help you with that."

"Uh...I think I'll be fine for the most part, thank you. I will keep it in mind though. Do you have any other methods?"

"There are two other methods but one of them I can't help you with at all since I am incapable of its practice."

"And that would be...?"

"Death magic. The essence of death exists in all things in this world and when people die their bodies turn into Draugr, or in some extreme cases, wraiths. Now while this sounds dangerous, there are actually methods in which you can utilize death to gain power but its very risky. Though I can say you've already done that in a sense."

"How so?"

"Well, when Malthael was slamming your body with his breath, it wasn't just his flames and darkness he was hitting you with, but also the very essence of death itself. That power poured into your body and saturated your soul in mere moments to the extent that you could see into The Empty. The only reason that Deathroot didn't form in your body and turn you into a wraith was because of your lightning, not that it has any special properties anyways. The heat emitted from your lightning alone is enough to prevent Deathroot from forming in your body and killing you."

"If heat is all that's needed to burn Deathroot then why didn't Malthael's flames simply negate Deathroot from forming anyways?"

"His flames are not hot enough to burn the Deathroot that forms from his magic where as lightning is five times hotter than the surface of most stars similar to our own. Burning Deathroot should be effortless for you which means that if you were to enter a state of temporary death, you could absorb the essence of death into your body and gain more strength that way. However, the amount of essence that was forced into your body, combined with the fact that you ate Malthael's soul means that you are already highly saturated with the essence of death and it would mean that trying to gain strength via Death Magic would be a waste of time. Though even if there was a method for you to gain more, I wouldn't know it nor would I be able to help you figure it out."

"Why is that? Isn't your body a literal corpse? Shouldn't you be more saturated with it than I am?"

"If a body is already dead then what good would it do trying to kill it with more death? The essence of death actually tends to avoid me and I can't contain it within myself, I've tried."

"So...that leaves just one more method yes?"

"Yes, learning the art of manifestation."