Chương 71: Interlude: Aurelion

A third life was not something one expected. When that beautiful fox had taken his head, Aurelion had expected everything to finally end. Instead… He poked the skin on his arm. The sensation registered immediately. It felt soft, warm, and alive. A feeling he had not felt in a very, very long time. Aurelion stared at his arm for several seconds. Then he exhaled and threw his arms into the air.

"Again?!" His tail lashed behind him in annoyance. Aurelion froze. Slowly, he turned to look at the offending appendage. The tail lashed again. He stared at it. The tail stared back. Well. Not literally. That would have been concerning.

"Hey dude, thought you would actually enjoy living again, y'know? No need to get all hissy about it. Get it? Hissy? Because you're a Catkin now?" A loud feminine voice rang through his mind, then laughed at its own joke. Aurelion sighed.

"Fantastic. Now there are voices in my head." He put a hand to his chin.

"Perhaps the psychological effects of dying multiple times have resulted in some form of hallucination." He nodded thoughtfully.

"Further testing required." The voice immediately responded.

"Calling me a voice in your head is pretty rude, little brat. I am as real as they come, bro." Aurelion blinked.

"I am several hundred years old. I would appreciate it if you refrained from referring to me as a brat."

"Yeah, yeah. Hundreds of years. That's still a little brat, so I'm gonna keep calling you a little brat, kay?" Aurelion's eyes narrowed.

"Are you implying that you are older than I am?" The voice let out a long, suffering sigh. The sort of sigh normally reserved for explaining fundamental concepts to particularly dense students.

"Just check ya special skills already, little brat." Another sigh.

"You'll get it." Aurelion considered ignoring her. Then curiosity won. As it usually did. He opened his status screen. A list of Catkin racial skills appeared before him. He ignored all of them. Mostly because one stood out immediately. One that did not belong. He inspected it. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Divine Blessing: Soul Goddess Thalia Effects: Grants the Soul Aspect. 25% Increased Maximum Mana ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"... Huh?" The voice immediately returned, sounding far too pleased with herself.

"Get it now? Congratulations dude, you've got a direct line to the one and only Soul Goddess. Me." Her tone somehow became even more smug.

"Courtesy of me saving your sorry ass soul and stuffing it into the body of a recently deceased Catkin before the System or that old codger Kharon noticed." Aurelion blinked. The goddess continued.

"Oh, and don't worry. The body belonged to some random orphan, so there aren't any ethical dilemmas involved. Though considering you've got a trait called Living Calamity, I kinda doubt you care bout that." The final words slurred ever so slightly. Aurelion narrowed his eyes.

"Are you... inebriated?" A loud and deeply unpleasant belch echoed through the connection.

"Hell yeah!" The goddess sounded genuinely excited.

"What's eternity without good booze, dude?" Aurelion heard the distinct sound of liquid being aggressively consumed.

"I'd offer some, but this is the good stuff." More drinking.

"A single sip would vaporize you on a subatomic level." A pause.

"Actually, your soul would probably be drunk for your next reincarnation too."

"... I see." Aurelion took a moment to process everything he had learned over the past minute. Observation One: he was alive. Observation Two: he had been personally blessed by a goddess. Observation Three: said goddess appeared to be a severe alcoholic. Observation Four: he still possessed the Soul Aspect despite no longer being a Lich. Observation Five: he was now a Catkin. … Observation Five remained the most concerning. His tail swished again. Aurelion stared at it. The tail continued swishing. Fascinating.

"Please don't start doing research on your own tail." Aurelion immediately ignored her. A promising start to their relationship. Tentatively, he attempted to move it. The tail immediately obeyed. Aurelion froze. Then moved it again. The tail swished from side to side. Fascinating. The goddess immediately spoke up.

"Fucking hell, he's already doing experiments."

"I am gathering data."

"You've been a Catkin for like three minutes."

"Three minutes is sufficient time to begin preliminary testing."

"That's the nerdiest thing I've ever heard." Aurelion ignored her. He continued swishing the tail. The sensory feedback was remarkably detailed. Far more detailed than he would have expected. He could feel air moving through the fur. Pressure against individual hairs. Tiny shifts in balance throughout his entire body. The tail wasn't merely an appendage, it was integrated. A genuine extension of his nervous system. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Fascinating.

"Stop thinking fascinating every twelve seconds." Aurelion blinked.

"Are you capable of reading my thoughts?"

"Yes. Now stop thinking it."

"I will do no such thing." The goddess clicked her tongue. Aurelion continued his examination. His hearing appeared sharper. His sense of smell had increased dramatically. His body felt lighter. Younger. Healthier. The absence of constant pain was perhaps the strangest part. As a Lich, discomfort had simply become a constant background state. The occasional missing limb had barely registered after a few years of undeath. Now? Now he could feel the breeze. The warmth of sunlight. The steady beating of his own heart.

For a brief moment, he simply stood there. Breathing. Existing. The experience was… Interesting. The goddess groaned.

"You were just about to say fascinating again, weren't you?"

"It was a close thing."

"Dude." Aurelion waited.

"Get a move on already." He tilted his head.

"To where?"

"I dunno. Anywhere." Her voice sounded genuinely exasperated.

"I'm already getting bored watching you stand around. Plus you aren't a skeleton anymore, and the food I so graciously implanted into that practically starving body isn't gonna last forever." Aurelion blinked.

"What food?"

"The only food in this fuckin' ashen wasteland, obviously." A pause.

"That True Dragon currently buried under a pile of rubble. It was a little decomposed, but you're a Beastkin now, so it's probably fine." Ah. Right. The fox had, in fact, slain a dragon.

"Speaking of." The goddess's tone sharpened slightly.

"What the fuck is even up with this tutorial block?" Aurelion blinked.

"I am afraid you will need to be more specific."

"The whole thing!" She sounded offended on reality's behalf.

"Not only did the System somehow drag in a Lich from another world—which is super rare, by the way—but the entire region is an ashen wasteland. And somehow both you and a fucking True Dragon died. Like dude, what the shit?" Aurelion pondered the question. Then arrived at a simple answer.

"There was a being present who surpassed both the dragon and myself." For several seconds there was no response. Just silence. Then:"Wait." More silence.

"Wait wait wait." The goddess sounded alarmingly sober.

"You are saying a tutorial applicant entered a tutorial and, within less than two months, emerged a Dragonslayer?" Aurelion nodded.

"I am fairly certain she is also responsible for turning the tutorial into a wasteland." He glanced across the endless fields of ash.

"That fox was a true monster."

"A fox, huh?" The goddess immediately sounded interested again.

"That's super cool." Aurelion heard the distinct sound of her sitting upright.

"What did she look like?" Another pause.

"What kind of powers did she use?"

"You seem rather invested."

"Yeah dude." She sounded genuinely confused by the statement.

"The Divine Realm is boring as hell." Aurelion heard liquid slosh around.

"A lot of us bless mortals specifically so we can watch their nonsense." A pause.

"Anyway, that's irrelevant."

"It seems highly relevant."

"It isn't." She immediately ignored him.

"Give me the details." Another pause. Likely to take another drink of alcohol.

"I'm your patron goddess. It's basically your sacred duty to entertain me. That's how this works." Aurelion considered ignoring her. Then remembered she could read his thoughts. A deeply unfortunate development.

"She was an exceptionally beautiful Foxkin." The goddess gasped.

"Continue."

"Fast."

"Good."

"Powerful."

"Excellent."

"Deceptively small." The connection erupted into excited clapping.

"Ooh!" More clapping.

"Tiny but dangerous! I love that trope!" Aurelion waited patiently for her to finish. Eventually, she did.

"However," he continued, "I was unable to determine what her Aspect actually was."

"Hm?"

"There were rainbows." The goddess paused.

"Rainbows?"

"Many rainbows." Aurelion nodded.

"Everything she did was kaleidoscopic in some manner."

"Hmmmmmm." The goddess sounded thoughtful.

"Prismatic maybe? Bit boring if that's the answer. I was hoping for something Peak" Aurelion heard her take another drink.

"I am uncertain if Prismatic functions the same way in this world as it did in mine."

"It probably does."

"In that case, I do not believe it was Prismatic."

"Oh?"

"Prismatic in my world was a combination of crystal and light." He folded his arms.

"She used far more than that."

"Such as?"

"The rainbow flames that—" The goddess violently spat out her drink. Aurelion paused. For several seconds, all he could hear was coughing. Then more coughing. Then what sounded suspiciously like choking. Then more coughing.

"... Are you alright?"

"WHAT!?" Aurelion's ears flattened slightly. He cataloged the reaction before turning his attention back to the goddess. There was an edge of seriousness in her voice now. Still drunk. Still slurring slightly. But extremely serious.

"I want you to be completely honest with me. Rainbow flames? Are you absolutely sure she used rainbow flames?" He nodded.

"Undoubtedly." The goddess inhaled sharply.

"... Another Star." Aurelion blinked.

"Right. She did mention something about stars."

"Lilia's right tit, another fucking Starborn?!" A pause.

"Was there anything else?" Aurelion considered the question before deciding that honesty was likely the best policy when speaking to divinity. Even if said divinity happened to be violently inebriated.

"She is also an Epochal Calamity." The goddess was silent.

"Pride."

"WHAT?!" Aurelion gave her a moment to process the information. Then she did something unexpected. She snorted. Once. Twice. Then burst into laughter.

"Ahahahahahahahaha!" The laughter continued for several seconds.

"Okay, okay, let me get this straight." She sounded delighted.

"She uses rainbow flames and talks about stars, so she's a Starborn."

"I am unfamiliar with the term, but she did use rainbow flames, so I assume so."

"She is a Foxkin. A race famous for caring about their families."

"... Yes."

"She is a Dragonslayer."

"Correct."

"She is the Sin of Pride."

"Correct."

"She immolated an entire tutorial and probably walked out with the highest point total in fucking history." Aurelion considered it. Then nodded.

"Likely so." There was a pause. A brief moment of silence. Then—"Ahahahahahahahahahahaha!" The goddess practically howled.

"Ah, those arrogant bastards are so fucked!" More laughter.

"Gods, I can't wait to see Dornak's face." Aurelion heard another drink being poured.

"This is going to be so funny." The laughter slowly died down. Then she seemed to reach a conclusion.

"Right. That little girl Sylphie has a Blessed there." A pause.

"I'm totally tuning in when that starts going down." Aurelion tilted his head.

"That was a substantial amount of information that I cannot say I am particularly interested in." The goddess groaned.

"Of course that's your takeaway."

"However," he continued, "I am curious about one thing."

"Hit me."

"Starborn. Would you mind explaining?"

"Ah. Right." The goddess took another drink.

"Basically, it's an absurdly rare inborn trait that shows up sometimes."

"Sometimes?"

"Like, ridiculously sometimes." Aurelion nodded.

"Continue."

"It guarantees the Star Aspect." Aurelion raised an eyebrow.

"A Peak Aspect?"

"A Peak Aspect." She sounded mildly offended by the very concept.

"And they get all sorts of absurd bonuses on top of that. Things like a practically guaranteed Aspect Alignment. The kind that can almost put them on equal footing with a True Dragon's racial stats." Aurelion blinked. That was… Significant. The goddess snorted.

"Basically, it's the universe's biggest cheat code." Aurelion put a finger to his chin. Fascinating. The goddess groaned but, notably, did not comment. Progress. Aurelion gave his status screen another cursory examination, but found little of interest. Tier One. Farmer. A collection of unfamiliar racial skills. The only true anomalies were his blessing and Soul Aspect.... And the fact that his statistics were significantly higher than they had any right to be. Dragon meat, in all likelihood. Convenient.

With nothing else immediately demanding investigation, Aurelion began walking through the ashen wasteland. Thankfully, the goddess had deposited him outside the walls. As he walked, the goddess continued bombarding him with questions. Most concerned his previous world. Its magic, politics, cultures, and fascinatingly, methods of achieving immortality. Aurelion answered all of them with perhaps slightly too much enthusiasm. The goddess certainly seemed to think so.

Eventually, however, she asked a question that gave him pause.

"So. You gonna pursue Lichdom again?" Aurelion stopped walking. The question lingered. A few months ago, the answer would have been obvious. Now… His thoughts drifted back to the fox. To her certainty. To the sheer importance she had placed upon identity. The conviction she wielded as naturally as breathing. He opened his mouth.

"No." The answer came easier than expected.

"I am a Catkin now. That is my identity." The goddess was silent for a moment. Then she chuckled.

"Heh. Looks like that fox taught you something valuable."

"She did." Aurelion resumed walking.

"She even claimed her Arcana was formed from identity." The goddess spat out her drink. Again.

"A FUCKING ARCANA?!" Aurelion winced slightly. The volume was impressive. Several seconds of coughing followed. Then a long sigh.

"... She really is a monster, isn't she?"

"That she is." Aurelion spoke with the certainty of firsthand experience. It was at that moment that something caught his eye. A boulder. Ordinarily, this would not have been noteworthy, the wasteland contained thousands. The fox had apparently chosen to spare the rocks from whatever apocalypse had befallen the rest of the tutorial. This one, however, was different. A blade protruded from its summit, one formed entirely from starlight. Aurelion approached. Carved into the stone beneath it were two words.

Unknown Leader. Curious. He inspected the weapon. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [Starlight Blade (Epic)] [Growth Weapon] A starmetal longsword originally forged by the User Lyn. Through prolonged use, it has absorbed the will of its wielder, reshaping the blade into a vessel of directed intent. Maintains exceptional sharpness and durability. Naturally resistant to astral energy. The blade grows in strength as its wielder aligns with the imprinted will of the unknown leader. No additional effects.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Aurelion paused before repeating the name quietly.

"Lyn." Right. The fox had mentioned her name back then. Interesting. Reaching forward, he wrapped a hand around the hilt. Then pulled. The blade slid free of the stone effortlessly. Aurelion gave it an experimental swing. Then another. The weapon cut through the air with remarkable balance. A perfect fit. Interesting. No. Fascinating. The goddess groaned again. Aurelion ignored her. There was something inside the blade. Not a soul or a consciousness. Something simpler. Some form of intent. Will. Purpose.

The lingering imprint of the person who had wielded it. It brushed against him. Examined him. Judged him. Then settled, accepting. Aurelion regarded the blade thoughtfully.

"Would you care to accompany me on my journey?" The sword did not respond. Naturally. Still, he could not shake the feeling that it had given its approval. Satisfied, he rested the weapon across his shoulder and continued walking through the endless fields of ash.

"... Lyn." The name felt oddly familiar already.

"Perhaps I shall seek her out one day." A small smile appeared on his face.

"I believe I would rather enjoy another conversation with her." The goddess laughed.

"Dude, that's your first objective after reincarnation?" Aurelion considered the question. Then looked around. Endless ash stretched to the horizon. He had no money. No home. No supplies. No idea where he was. No idea where Lyn was. And no idea how large Asteria actually happened to be. …

"On second thought," he amended, "I should probably determine where I am first." A reasonable starting point.