Are we genuinely the rulers of our own destiny?
Is it really possible to take charge of your own life, lead it according to your own ideals and come out of it successfully and well fulfilled? Or are we physical entities given perception wandering the universe as specks waiting to pass on? Simply put, we're all slaves to something no matter how much we wish to deny it. Slaves to passion, salvation, pain, others, and even our own goals or ideals. It constantly changes as even death isn't a perpetual state nor is it a grand release from the physical plane into some imaginary heaven.
I can confirm this as I am being forced to repeat my life in the mortal plane under some slightly different circumstances than before.
And, a small disclaimer: I fucking hate it.
After being beaten, assaulted, lynched, harassed, and damn near excommunicated from society I am now being forced to train with the secret police of the country I basically spawned in. So far, I hate them all with a burning passion but I'm not gonna openly admit that cause even the weakest one could very easily rearrange my entire face.
The leader offered me the most promising, simply the most exquisite offer in which I could train under him personally in order to get payback against the hansmen! Yeah, what a name for the secret police.
The Hansmen elite, Astarens greatest underground police force.
I didn't turn down the offer of course, but currently, I'm in a bit of a pickle as I've incidentally created something that simply doesn't count as a Newtonian substance: Liquid, Gas, Solid, etc. What I had expected was to be met with awe and surprise, but all that I saw on the face of the maid and the black-haired bastard was a look of disappointment..—
"Ah..—"
"Interesting I guess..—"
This was nothing how I imagined it would've turned out.
Usually when someone creates something beyond a normal person's comprehension, something completely otherworldly you'd be treated with confusion and intense loathing at what had just occurred, but instead I was stared at as if a kid just did something so mediocre but you have to congratulate them to keep their fragile self-esteem up. Their stares hurt.
"So did I do good? I used the same technique as before kinda.. I adjusted it a bit you see."
I rambled a bit hoping maybe I'd get some sort of acknowledgment but nothing from this tough audience. No joke would be able to make this crowd chuckle even a bit.
"Well you see— this is like one of the more basic things someone at Hansmen level could do, actually scale it even under Hansmen level and you'd basically be there..."
It was then, that it hit me.
This world has magic, mystical arts, and rich history of warfare and other medieval things. It's still in a feudalism-based system of economics..— clearly they can't appreciate a proper work of art when they see it. These fucking philistines, can't really expect too much of them.
Then again, something like this couldn't impress people at this level of prestige and raw power. They could topple the hierarchal structure of a kingdom with just their presence, their skill and power were equal to 10 thousand soldiers using star power in Mario kart. I'm irrefutably and genuinely..
insignificant within their presence. Just them getting serious was like Goku using Kaio-ken then immediately going super Saiyan blue cause his "warm-up" was over. Not saying they're as strong as goku though cause well, he solos the verse.
Eventually, the black haired bastard would've walked next to me and put his hand on my shoulder.
"You see, what makes Chordatta such a strong asset is the fact, that anyone, with potential and talent to use it are able to alter the very world around them down to the most microscopic segment. Right down.. to it's very core."
As he said that, he waved his arm across the air as if he was playing the harp. A tone reverberated across the air as the very field around us rapidly changed. The gravity was greater in a sense, the sky became slightly discolored and the ground went from bright and lush green to a vague red. The grass visually appeared to deteriorate and decompose when it simply just turned into a completely different substance altogether which closely resembled stone or some kind of ground.
It was like we'd been transported to a completely different world but when i looked to the side I could still see the Hansmen central building. I didn't understand fully what was going on so I peered at him after taking a look at all that had unfolded right before my eyes.
"Huh? oh, well this you see..heh."
I don't like this guy.
"Chordatta is an art which combats magic equally, it has the ability to truly bring forth and perpetuate complexity into the world, complexity which naturally stems from within you. Of course the basics are important but the moment you can use it, everything else is genuinely up to you. None of that organized segment crap. You're heavily limiting your own creativity and possibilities by doing that."
So wait, did this dude just downplay and basically say everything i've learned up until now was basically meaningless?
I mean, when I take a look at it from the way he's describing it I kinda see why the Hansmen are superior in their own right. If they're able to apply whatever they want to the world around them and even themselves then it only goes to show that they're truly an elite force to be reckoned with. Like hell I'd just admit that right off the bat.
The sheer intensity of being within the presence of a single Hansmen was a lot, but the grand courtier here was something else. His power alone was like all of them combined multiplied by ten. All I could do was be awestruck with the demonstration he provided, I struggled trying to comprehend how it worked or how I could implement it in the first place.
"Okay so.. Uriel, explain to me how I'd apply your or well.. The Hansmen variation of Chordatta?..—"
"hm..— well, that's hard to explain since we all apply it wayy differently but generally in the same way."
"what."
He was talking in circles and I didn't have the patience or mental capacity to find some answer for his vague riddle. I stared at him, confused at his terrible explanation hoping he'd at least go on further.
"Well, for example..Seline. He's a genuine expert in applying his chordatta to his body in a manner where everything warps around his body, he becomes a metaphorical starlight in the sense he's completely able to surpass those around him and appear to be the biggest and greatest thing to have happened. This basically resulting in enhanced strength to the greatest pedigree, speed which surpasses lightning, and a golden aura which he can control completely to the utmost. Essentially everything within 5 feet of him is completely inferior, truly a troublesome person to fight but I can still beat him with no diff."
No diff? Seline basically manhandled me while I had my secret power eye thing on, how the hell does uriel beat him with little to no difficulty? He's basically like 'wow, I know he solos your verse but like.. goku solos' but he's goku in this case.
"And just like you've seen, chordatta can be used to bring forth worldly constructs where the entirety of the enviroment is warped, and it can also be used to create regular physical constructs. And, something a bit difficicult that me and a select few in this world can preform. Formless constructs which naturally have effects beyond what we might or might not understand."
"Formless constructs..?"
"The same way seline is able to make anything within 5 feet of him inferior basically. It's basically a field of subjectivity around him which bends to a specific whim he has in place to go hand in hand with his overbearing ego. Subsequently, you're placing a natural law on something or manipulating them in order to achieve some sort of goal."
"So maybe I could do a domain expansion or reality marble type noble phantasm if that's the case..—"
"Huh, what are you mumbling about."
"Don't worry about it."
I contemplated what he said about placing constructs into the world, then going back into the core of what chordatta is. Bringing forth the natural complexity which resides in yourself into the world. Okay, so I should be able to theoretically turn everything I touch into gold like rumpelstilken, actually no it just reminds me of Seline now.
All this talking and mentioning of Seline has been doing nothing but making me sick. Just from a baseless assumption, he seems like the type to go on and on about how he pisses excellence every day and shits blessings when he's feeling generous. Kind of disgusting when I put my mind to it; I don't wanna think about it anymore.
What I really do need to think about, what's the extent of chordatta. The definite limits of a power which generates complexity into the world and basically warps reality. Except, generate wouldn't be the right term now that I think about it.
"Uriel, I have one question.."
"Ask away."
"Is it possible to do anything I want?"
I asked this promptly after giving it some well needed thinking time, after taking in the information he gave to me and just base knowledge I've already got from all of the "media" I've consumed.
He gave me a blank stare, one as if he's gonna tread all over my conscious and trample any sort of hope I had; simply and utterly ruining any ideas or theories I had.
"Basically yeah, I wouldn't say that to normal people but you're the exception here. However, you know, slight disclaimer..— you still need to train in order to apply these things. Bringing forth complexity isn't some simple task, since you're bringing it forth with chordatta you're naturally straining your own body without even noticing it. Chordatta is like a straw or hose basically. By using it you're able to release the nearly limitless amount of complexity and structure within yourself. Just by living you're exuding a profound and exponential amount of complexity into the universe as life isn't exactly a simple thing. We affect just about everything we touch on a scale so astronomically large, that's basically why any interference to the past by our current selves would have such an altered outcome compared to it being left alone."
"So, what I'm getting from this is that I'm extremely important and I should be careful about what I do."
"No you dense arse."
:(
"Just because we're complex ourselves, literally trillions of other life forms exist as well, coexisting or living in parasitic, or even mutualism based relationships despite being so complex. We drown each other out with how simply profound we all our innately. You could be this amazing person but know it means nothing in the world we live in as there's too many people and not all of them will ever even take the time to acknowledge your existence even if you dedicated yourself til the end of your days."
"So don't try to become famous, thanks for ruining my dreams."
"Shut up."
"You're so mean you know."
"I quite literally, don't care. Plus you're getting side tracked, you're supposed to be training to apply chordatta in some way unique to yourself. "
"Well, I figured something I wanted to try actually."
"Hmm.. don't tell me. I want you to surprise me in a week or two, for now we're going to just do the basic training to strengthen your body to handle chordatta better and to properly formulate your commands better."
"I see.."
Despite being shut down completely I wasn't exactly too disappointed. I was definitely going to work my ass off to get this chordatta stuff down. Plus magic which I haven't really gotten much of any knowledge on since I've gotten to this world.
Surely I'll have more luck in magic than chordatta is giving me right now.
Uriel basically gave me the day off after our small talking session so I could refresh my brain. I didn't exactly know what I wanted to do other than wrap my head around my general situation; I got beaten black and blue by the cops, stripped of my belongings, dignity and standing. I mean, whatever social popularity I had at the time. And basically, I got taken in by the strongest member of the group and told by said person; I could take revenge but I'd be a military dog.
Not exactly bad but I'm pretty sure there's been worse.
Sadly I learned that the next day. I was basically pushed to my very limits all so I can master the basics of the basics for Chordatta.
When it's determined you can use Chordatta there's two methods to making it so you can use it. 1.) Forcing a mental gateway so their body can naturally let Chordatta in and out. 2.) Learning your body and breaking it to mold a strong gateway which is typically not used in current times.
For anyone who can use chordatta, it's like flexing a muscle. Of course you can't constantly flex it but as you grow and train that muscle the ways you can flex it gradually change along with the shape of that said muscle. You'll find yourself with a abundance of strength which you didn't have before but it won't happen over night.
But chordatta, if you're talented you'll probably be in the few where it does happen over night. Naturally because of my situation I was apart of that few but it only made things worse; I had to work considerably harder. Lifting weights, going on 50 KM jogs, sparring sessions going on for hours, and meditation sessions which forced me to heighten my senses when I physically couldn't see or feel anything around me. Almost like a sensory depravation kind of training, surely it helped but it was way more tiring than the others by far.
They dunked me in a ice cold lake and had me sit under the water, I was constantly on the verge of hypothermia and if I wanted to survive I had to use Chordatta or sacred arts which I barely knew how to apply properly but eventually became adept at later on in meditation. I can only describe it as an out of body experience, except that it's could feel everything that was going on in my body all at once. It's a creepy thing but it let me understand certain things going on with a bit more clarity.
I had to confirm something before I went further however. Using sacred arts I felt at more ease compared to by terrible attempts of magic and the unbearable hell that Chordatta training was. I felt my ability to use Sacred arts gradually increasing the more I engaged in training, meditation and other activities that trained my body even by a small margin.
My vision, hearing, stamina and everything gradually got better if I used sacred arts. It exhausted me but my reserves to use it exponentially increased once I recovered. I found it extremely mind boggling how simple it was. Eventually I found myself walking through the Hansmen quarters to get some sort of answers, only to confirm a suspicion of mine. I peered through the well decorated hallway which had hansmen portraits of the past hung up. The tapestry was comparable to some of the highly rendered digital art I've seen on my days scrolling through Twitter and deviantart. Eventually I'd be met with a really well decorated tapestry with gold embroidery all around the edges. Within the piece was a strong buff looking dude who looks like he injects steroids into his testicles for the thrill then bench presses 500-700 with his mouth saying it's rookie numbers only to casually toss your house a couple thousand miles with little to no difficulty.
"Dante Astaire; prince of death, Founder of the province,—.."
"The first Hansmen."
Uttered slowly by Uriel who had appeared from god knows where.
He happened to have a meaningful tone when it came to this specific person. Someone like Uriel I was actually rather surprised.