Chereads / Divine Beast of Episteme / Chapter 21 - 21. Spirit to Spirit

Chapter 21 - 21. Spirit to Spirit

With his vision blurry and his life seeping away at a rapid pace, Tristan remained unable to understand why he remained alive. It did not matter, unfortunately.

He fell into the ocean and began to sink with the whole island around him. The blueness of the ocean became evident only thanks to the small lights that fell from the sky. The rest of his view stayed dark.

Cold and dark.

The sinking island cast pitch-black shadows upon him and that portion of the ocean. Tristan could vaguely sight buildings.

Unable to understand just how much time had passed, he continued to bleed even if he had stopped feeling pain.

His dim eyes flashed with memories of his life: for his body understood he was at the closing chapter of his lifetime. A bit more and he would slip into the darkness called oblivion. His soul wandering the bounds of space and time.

However, as fate would have it, this would not be the end of his life, only a defining moment that would lead to tales told across the years.

Seeing his memories become fuzzy and strength leave his bones, Tristan closed his eyes as all his vitality vanished to give way to emptiness. He died.

Or so he thought.

Similar to the howling of the wind, and the raging force of the oceans, a melody of sorts swept the world around him for an instant, generating a thrum. One that pulsed with power and exuberance.

Having been in the midst of this event, Tristan felt power fill his chest again and spirit took hold of his bones again.

His eyes snapped open and he tried to gasp, but the waters remained around him. Quickly holding his breath, Tristan felt all the functions in his body come to be, at least for the most part.

With this sudden wave of power, almost like a jolt of electricity, he returned to life, and once again his pain returned.

Fortunately, he would be unable to properly focus on that suffering since the waters around him shortly began to boil.

Instantly, all his attention was pulled towards the dark and seemingly endless depths of the sea he had fallen into. Terror filled Tristan's mind since his primal instincts reacted negatively to that event.

A low rumble quickly became evident and soon turned into a mighty shaking that boiled the water around him but left him unscathed.

In seconds, a pair of immense blue balls made themselves evident and all other effects instantly vanished.

Tristan held onto his almost hacked-off arm but stared at the huge balls of sky-blue light. They were no less than half the size of Medirial!

Still, that wasn't the most unsettling detail.

That title would go to the fact that Tristan felt in his gut that those were the eyes of something. Some being that had never been discovered.

'A sea monster?!' he wondered, terrified and petrified.

During those moments he had failed to notice that he had stopped sinking, or that his arm hurt far less than it was supposed to.

Gazing at the huge balls of light that had emerged from the depths of the ocean, his life still slowly seeped away.

Nevertheless, something even stranger than the sight of that immense eyeball became evident. A weird sensation filled those waters and made something within him tremble in both excitement and hysteria.

"Human." A deep voice boomed forth from the huge masses of light before him and the entire waters shook again.

'The eyeballs can talk!'

Words could not explain how Tristan felt, but his fear reached such levels that he swore he would explode on the spot.

His features contorted in horror and his eyes widened, but only then did he realize that the world around him had turned stale. He couldn't move.

After that non-human voice unfolded In the sea, a flash of purple light reached his eyes and something floated towards him and it eventually arrived in front of his figure.

Tristan gazed at a small transparent orb featuring a core that blazed with purple light. Markings of unknown origin ran across the entire orb of light.

"We do not have much time," the orb released the same voice as earlier, except far less thunderous.

"What are you?" Tristan asked in fear, he still felt a gaze on his body, and now that orb generated the same feeling.

Tristan normally was used to having people stare at him, but that event continued to unsettle him beyond reason. This wasn't even a human.

"I am he of many colors. The first of the seven," it stated. Confusing him.

"We do not have time. I have come here with an offer... seeing your predicament," the orb continued, sensing that Tristan could not form a reply. He was dying again.

"What do you want?" Sudden weakness filled his bones again and he was reminded of what had just happened to him.

"That I dwell within you," the orb responded.

Stunned by that answer, Tristan opened his mouth to speak. "Why would I let something that feels dangerous enter me, and how will you even do that?" He asked.

"I shall dwell within your spirit. Thereby losing my physical form," It responded, but Tristan still found no sense in those words. His fatigue had returned with the same force of a freight train. He felt sleepy.

"I don't understand. I'm dying," Tristan stated the obvious. His blood continued to stain the waters around him.

"You will not die as long as I am within you," the orb responded. "I will take care of your body and grant you great power. There is much in it for you."

Despite not fully understanding what was going on; Tristan's ears perked up when he heard the word 'Power,' and revenge against the Urtal family flamed in his mind.

"Power?" He asked.

"Yes. Power. I am he who wields, and even the higher gods tremble at my presence," the orb responded, but once again its audience could not comprehend all that it said.

"What do you get then?" Tristan considered, ready to give anything for a chance to revenge against the noble family that had taken the only thing he loved.

"There is no need for you to concern yourself with that. There is still too much you do not understand, but when you return we will begin our journey to understanding all those things. For now…"

A whirling sound sprung into existence after those words faded away, and Tristan watched the orb transform into a streak that returned toward the huge shining eyeballs.

"Do you accept this offer, human? A chance at living once again." The thunderous, yet profound voice returned and the oceans quaked with violent intensity.

"I accept." Fear had risen in Tristan's heart again, but his eyes were cloudy too. He didn't want to die.

"Very well." The figure of the being moved and the oceans fell into chaos—for its very body was wrapped around the oceanic floors of the entire planet!

"Tales of this day shall be told across the eons. Time will pass as I integrate with your spirit. My brethren must first be safe, and for this cause, I take this great risk." The being explained, as a whirlpool formed around Tristan's figure but he remained unaffected by its terrible power.

Tristan continued to stare at those blazing eyes, whilst those words entered his ears.

The whirling sound became so intense, his ears ruptured and he became unable to hear anything.

Notwithstanding.

"I evoke the ancient spell 'Spirit to Spirit!" Those words rang out in Tristan's very mind and the whirlpool suddenly vanished, allowing peace to reign—even if only for a second.

A strange sensation made his very hair stand straight even under the influence of water, and mere instants after the whirlpool disappeared, seven pillars of multicolored lights ascended into the sky with blazing speeds and frightening power.

The very water around Tristan vanished at that event. Then those multicolored pillars lit up the sky above him.

In those seconds Tristan saw what had been producing the blue lights and his heart shook.

Unfortunately, before he could take a long look, strange markings of various colors-even colors he had never seen before, appeared on his skin and burnt it.

Intense pain filled his mind and he writhed in agony whilst floating mid-air. Upheld by an invisible force.

A series of circles containing symbols and words of shining intensity expanded before he and the being that evoked that ritual.

Cries of agony filled that-now magical place, but it didn't matter. Tristan felt pain from those markings searing into his skin, but his wounds vanished. His arm reattached itself at speeds visible to the naked eye.

Tristan's black hair gained tinges of colors that did not belong to it, but most of all, an immense white circle containing innumerable amounts of markings and symbols appeared before his violently shaking body and the now shining figure of the strange being.

The size of the circle stretching beyond the width of the island Medrial formerly sat on!

A multicolored substance came out of the head of the blue-eyed being and floated through the white circle to transform into various streaks that landed on Tristan's head but directly bypassed it to enter a place unknown to man.

Tristan's eyes widened and both his eyes turned white. That process did not stop until the multicolored substance vanished and an immense illusory mass entered his body.

The pillars vanished and the sea replenished the hole that had appeared within it. Tristan fell into the ocean, unconscious. He would remain that way for a very very long period.