CHAPTER 244: SEEKER’S PATH [2]

Seeing the increasingly terror-stricken existential crisis overcoming the faces of many students, realizing that the unbelievable statement of their professor was actually not false, caused many of them to have a mental breakdown. This only made the professor frown even more, as even the best of the best in the next generation were actually so fickle-minded.

But thankfully, there were just as many more among the students who did not give in to their mental instability and analyzed themselves in detail, with a cold and calculating calm. That spoke volumes about the extensive knowledge and understanding they had about themselves.

He sighed and decided to continue, not wanting the students to fall deeper into a mental breakdown, as that would actually affect each of their soul sanctums, possibly even causing permanent damage to their souls as Seekers. Since belief and will are the foundation upon which the floors of your sanctum stand, both the primary and secondary aspect chambers.

"Okay, let me explain this in a bit more detail, what happens when your soul is transferred to the trial world, and yes since it is very much a real world, what prime nexus does is that it kind fragments your soul into many segments, and when you have arrived in the body of another in that different world."

"You perhaps only have one fragment of you in that foreign body. But as you progress and grow stronger in that world, you overcome challenges one after another. You regain the few fragments that are at the very core of you. Again, after the trial is over. Your existence is again fragmented in similar numbers, but this time, as you are back in your own body, some fragments of the one whose body you inhabited also come along and take on an active state."

"What this does is basically two things: one, it intentionally wounds your soul; two, it inputs impurities in your very soul. Then how does the soul deal with this? By obviously becoming stronger and purer. Two real-life examples of this are when diseases afflict you; your body develops immunity to them by expelling or destroying the virus or bacteria. Two, when you exercise, your muscles are actually torn and damaged, so the body develops new muscles and the new ones are stronger, more durable, they are better."

"Something similar happens with your soul, it slowly finds the impurities, and expels or destroys them, and in the process it gets hurt, then as a result it also repairs itself and grows stronger."

Then he took another significant pause to let this information sink in for a moment. This time, he could see that even the previously composed and strong ones had a visibly serious and contemplative expression on their faces, and even the valkyrie was the same. Perhaps it was even more complicated for her than for everyone else in general.

To his surprise, the valkyrie raised her hand. He was a bit caught off guard by the gesture that the ever-so-uninterested, unbothered valkyrie actually wanted to ask a question. Still, he quickly recollected himself and nodded, gesturing for her to speak.

Then her serene and divine voice cut through the chaotic tension of everyone’s identity crisis like a hot knife gliding through butter, "The healing of the soul? I presume it’s not a natural process? Otherwise, Seekers would grow stronger without needing to do anything at all?"

Everyone turned towards the valkyrie; none were unable to hide their surprise that she had asked a question, even with the current grim situation. But the select group of Axel, Heinz, Jaden, Enrick, Thorian, Lucien, and Lumina weren’t surprised by her question; instead, they had the same question in their minds.

Professor Darwin smiled in satisfaction at being asked that particular question. "Thank you for the correct question, Miss Valkyrie, and yes, you are both accurate and wrong."

"The soul does do it automatically, but the process itself is so inefficiently slow that it could almost be called nonexistent, so yes, we are the ones who help it do faster, tremendously faster, and so how do we do that?"

"We help it identify the parts of our true selves by remembering the parts of our true selves that we discovered in the trials, by embracing those qualities and natures. Then understanding more meaning to our existence, slowly but surely knowing ourselves, defining ourselves."

"A more straightforward analogy for this is that, as humans, if we are water, we change and adapt to different situations or mix with someone or something foreign, just like water that can combine with other liquid substances. Still, you have to slowly become a type of water that doesn’t mix with different liquids, not even water from some other source. Then you start to become ice, an unbreakable ice that doesn’t change its shape, that doesn’t melt even if the surrounding temperature goes up."

"So, the Seeker’s path in truth is nothing but becoming something changeable to unchangeable, in such a way that it is the very world that changes to fit you, not you who changes to fit the world."

And when the last comment of their homeroom professor dropped, a subtle but profound change occurred in everyone; it was more of a psychological change than something physical or measurable through standard methods. But the professor smiled, understanding that it was those small internal changes that probably mattered the most.

The professor did not stop just at that; he revealed more, "So, how exactly do you find more of your true self amid the impurities of another being mixed in you? It’s the soul sanctum that helps you in that process. Not only that, but it also serves as a communication mechanism between you and your soul, delivering the understanding you have about yourself in a way that the soul can understand. Then, as a result, the process of soul impurity expulsion becomes a thousand or more times faster."

***

Back when Axel had first revealed his runic eyes by the taunt of the valkyrie, disregarding the warning of the principal who had suggested he keep those eyes hidden.

The principal sighed to himself in a mix of exasperation, delight, and nostalgia. This was good, but it happened simultaneously. Bad because this would put a big target on the back of the boy, once the news reaches outside, that is, but good in another way because his old friend Damien had once mentioned that it was almost impossible for two runic eyes to appear at the same time.

But wouldn’t that mean that his old friend is perhaps dead? But no, he knew for a fact that Damien was not dead, but very much alive and kicking. And there was another thing he mentioned: if, by some utterly and absolute impossibility, two runic eyes do exist at the same time, the Seeker with the higher level of it would be able to feel or know it when the lower level of runic eyes is revealed to the world. So, his old friend Damien must have felt it; some resonance existed between the two.

However, that also meant that when news of Axel Nomrad having the runic eyes reached the ears of the nobles, merchants, and the king of Suncrest, it would confirm to them that Damien Nomrad was indeed dead.

They won’t repeat the mistake they made with Damien. Instead, they will thoroughly control Axel Nomrad from the start, turning him into their good little puppet to continue making the runic weapons nonstop until he dies. Existing for that and that purpose alone, a slave, just like the valkyrie, and this is why he always hated the Suncrest Kingdom the most.

The over-glorified most potent force of humanity at its core was the most controlling as well as the most corrupt and disgusting force beyond the comprehension of a normal human being.