What may lay beyond the now lost darkness in Rans mind…
12th Day After The Collapse:
After waiting for a whole week, Fluffy was on the verge of succumbing to her hunger. Most of the food is back in the Cavern Snakes lair, while the rest was accidentally taken by Ran and any calls for him had resulted in silence. She waited to see if Ran came back, but he didnt… even after a whole week, so she was forced to make a decision. The lair was too far and with her still broken limbs it would be difficult if not impossible to cross that distance before she died of starvation. While the pond had fishes, she hated water! And how was she supposed to swim? She can't, that's how! Since she was a rank 8 spiritual beast, she would be able to last a while without food, but with her stature and size, a week would be the most she could last before the consequences of starvation kicked in.
Thus, she could only hope that the place Ran was in wasn't too far from her position, so she started shuffling. She set out in the same path Ran did and came across the same paintings he did. She couldn't care less as she shuffled herself past them. By the time she reached the room, a couple hours had passed.
There, she saw a figure. "HISS!" Frightened by the presence of the figure, she let out a hiss; probably because she couldn't jump away with those two things she calls legs and that was the only part of her that worked anymore-beside from being a pillow of course. Nonetheless, seeing as the figure didnt move, she shuffled closer as her curiosity took over. Upon seeing the face of the figure, she recognized him-Ran.
Oh, oh how horrible! It's only the 16th chapter God dangit! How could you(I) do this!? Stupid. Stupid…
He was practically a mummy at this point. He had lost most of his weight and his body was practically just bones. His ribcage and hip were jutting out of his skin and his long and bony fingers were those straight out of horror stories. His eye sockets were sunken and dark, his eyes were shrunken, dull and devoid of life. His whole body was dry and without moisture. Overall, he looked like a dead body that was embalmed and stuffed in a coffin for a few thousand years.
Fluffy was terrified to discover him like this, but soon she spotted else. A bag made of scales was in the corner of the room. Letting out a single tear, she shuffled as quick as she could to the food inside the bag and started chomping. Finally, after eating over a third of the storage of snake meat-over a 100 pounds or over 45 kilos-she laid down on her back, satisfied. After resting for a while, she burped and looked back at Ran, worried. This was her ticket out of here after all! She would need a month at least, maybe 2, to heal her two front legs. And the rest of the food in the bag, if used sparingly, could last her a couple days or a week at most before she starved again.
Summoning up her courage, she shuffled back up to him and nuzzled his dried up leg, but there was no reaction. She tried calling out to him, but again, no reaction. Finally, she tried biting his leg. Nothing. Almost no blood came out and it tasted old and rusted; nothing at all like fresh blood from a kill. He didn't even flinch nor did his muscles spasm. Time passed by, but the blood just kept slowly oozing out from the wound; not even coagulating. The wound never closed either. Seeing this, she just layed there, consigning to her fate. She would soon have to face the challenge of swimming in a couple of days if Ran didn't wake up.
***
Back in Rans mind. To answer the question of what lay beyond his mind, first you have to ask another question. What is the darkness? Was the darkness not his mind itself, or at least part of it?
NO! Of course not! Describing the "darkness" as the soul is such a weak mindset! No! Instead, the "darkness" was only a mere shackle; a ball and chain. Destroying it was only part of a long and arduous process to transcend. In other words, Ran had unknowingly taken the first step to become a GOD! One of the reasons why Humanity and life on this planet, and others as well, could not transcend was because their soul was bound and forever restricted.
But Ran had removed those shackles, and thus, has given himself infinite potential. His soul could now grow infinitely stronger and because of this, the ranking system can't even be applied to him anymore as his combat strength can be measured with strict power levels. As one knows, the number of runes at their disposal is doubled every rank, so rank 10 would get 2, 9 would get 4, 8 would get 8 and so on and so forth. But because Ran isn't bound by his shackles anymore and therefore the ranking system, he isn't restricted to just 6 runes at ranked 9. Of course, his soul still has to be able to handle the might of runes so while he can get more than 6 runes, he wouldn't be able to get more than 10 currently because it isn't strong enough yet. But that's still 4 more than what someone at the same rank, or power level, would have! While a rank 8 fighter would have over 14 runes, Ran would only have 4 less and only be a rank behind; meaning that even though Ran was only the beginning of rank 9, his actual combat strength is at the top of rank 9!
Because of this, almost no one is like Ran. One has to know that the shackle is the primary reason why the ranking system exists in the first place. However, the price to pay for removing the shackles is beyond measure and almost always spells certain death; via ripping your own soul to shreds.
Ran could even be dead as we speak and you wouldn't even know it. Of course, I wouldn't do that to you all. But I was merely telling, and showing, you the consequences of being unprepared for breaking your own soul. After all, in the 10,000 year history since the sudden introduction of sigils-humans and beasts alike-not one had transcended and left this planet. Now, with that over with, let's back to the story shall we?
***
This time, really, really back in Rans mind, the darkness was gone-forever.
Instead, now, one could find many things. A blue sky, filled with many stars shining and flickering brightly; even brighter than the red and orange suns that caused the day and night cycle. There were clouds but, unfortunately, not the kind you're thinking of. They were made of bubbles. Bubbles containing the memories of our beloved Ran Ran! A huge Sakura tree that touches what one could only presume to be the heavens themselves was ever present. The branches cover most of the sky and are even thicker than entire buildings. Each branch can reach out even further than what the eye can see. Each sakura flower was as big as a soccer field and were softer and fluffier than cotton candy. The color resembles both of Rans sigil colors. White-pink on the outside of the petal and red-pink on the inside, while the stamen, pistil, sepal, stem, and even the leaves were a mysterious and pure blue.
The circumference of the tree would rival the size of several continents on Earth, including all of Asia, North and South America put together… at least. Surrounding the trunk of the tree, glass and white marble cities erected from the ground like blades of glass. These cities actually look similar, if not identical, in terms of aesthetics, to his home state-the Holy City State. Slithering around the cities were the humongous roots of the tree. And surrounding these roots are rivers or canals of the same mysterious blue water from the pond in the cave. Past the cities are mountain ranges made of sand. In fact, one particular mountain range wasn't made of sand-it was instead the same mountain range that Ran was in right now! Going beyond the mountains the rivers eventually coalesce into an ocean of shimmering blue water.
If someone were to stand on the beaches near the ocean, they would be able to see a shadow. A shadow so big that it would be the size of a city was currently swimming happily; creating splashes so big, they would inadvertently create water spouts the size of a red wood tree. Of course, this shadow was none other than Olly, the Koi fish! She popped her head out and looked toward the center of the sakura tree, where his sword was, and appeared… proud.
Going backwards, one branch was thicker than the rest and rested near the center of the tree itself. It was here that a platform was carved into the wood and in the middle of this platform, Rans sigil was shining brilliantly. Floating on top of the sigil was Rans fetal organ, his sword. And by proxy, his name; true name. It was still sparkling and sizzling with energy, more than ever before in fact. Releasing pulses of heat, it was unlike before. Now, it was the kind of warmth an infant needs when they form a bond with the parent. The warmth was a signal of love and care to the infant, telling it that it would be safe and fed. It was the same here. The warmth continuously spread out to the entirety of Rans mind, causing the tremors and shaking that was currently going on to simmer down and eventually stop. The tremors had caused a buzzing and shaking noise, but now, only peace remains. One could hear the river flowing, birds chirping, and even the occupants of the cities were bustling with travel and gossip.
That wasn't the end though, as it was done with that business, the sword burst aflame. The redish-pink flame sprouted from his name and soon covered the whole sword. The sword then floated up slowly and then zoomed toward the top of the tree. At the top of the tree, the view was magnificent. The bubble clouds were below and would sometimes swarm and spiral around each other and below them was even cooler. One would think that since the sakura tree was extremely large, the bottom wouldn't be visible from the top, but it was opposite. It appeared almost as if it was magnified and everything was perfectly visible. What was better was that the glass buildings would refract all the light from the suns and the stars together; following which was a manasury of different colored rainbows overlapping and crisscrossing each other to create a twinkling rainbow city.
Once it reached the top, the sword then proceeded to plunge itself to the tallest and last branch, which could be considered to be at the top of the world! It set itself ablaze with an even more powerful and brilliant fire and carved an inscription. An inscription which looked exactly like the rune Ran was currently touching right now! And in fact, it was the same rune because as it finished, it set itself ablaze with the same fire and shone brightly.
Outside, Ran suddenly dropped to the floor, his eyes slowly gaining the life and youthfulness it once had.
"Ugh. I swear I'm never going to touch anything I said wasn't touched in a long time again! Such instant karma is just hilariously… too instant!'