Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 64: Insight of Millennia

Toren Daen

Lady Dawn tilted her head at me. Though no wind sifted through this zone, her hair rustled as if kissed by an invisible breeze.

"It has taken some time for you to question me of this aspect of our power, Contractor," the phoenix said.

I spared another glance at the forest around me as I walked. In the time I had taken to look at Lady Dawn, the trees had once again reoriented their spearlike branches toward me. "I wanted to practice it in the Relictombs since you mentioned that it was difficult to restrain our asuran signature when I engage the Will. And there's no guarantee I'll ever have a more peaceful moment to practice my Will than now."

The phoenix nodded slowly. "And that was wise. Until your control of my Will reaches precise levels of power, you will be unable to restrain the outpour of power."

I nodded. My control of mana and inner power had risen greatly as I assimilated the Phoenix Will, as I had to maintain tight control of the mana in my body. I was still undergoing the assimilation process regularly with Lady Dawn's assistance. From what I could feel, I thought I was likely nearing the ending stages of assimilation. Where it had taken Arthur several years to assimilate Sylvia's Will, I had some very distinct advantages in that regard. For one, Arthur had Virion to assist in his assimilation.

I had Lady Dawn.

"How exactly can I expect the Will to function?" I asked, remembering how close Lady Dawn's mind had come to my own when I slipped into the Acquire phase of her Will. "I feel like even my first phase was far more powerful than it should've been."

It was true that the first phase of Sylvia's Will allowed Arthur to separate himself from the flow of time, but my Acquire phase allowed me to shoot lasers from my hands. They acted fundamentally differently.

The phoenix furrowed her brows, no doubt sensing the implications of my words. "Do you know what a Beast Will is, Contractor?" the phoenix asked at last.

I furrowed my brows, walking around a bend in the unchanging dirt road. "Mana beasts of certain power level, usually A-class and above distinction in Dicathen, are able to pass down their unique insight and Will, usually to their young. But mages can sometimes extract the Will from a beast core, if they're lucky."

Lady Dawn stared into my eyes and held my gaze. I slowly stopped walking, the asura contemplating how to break some bit of information to me.

"You are correct, Contractor, but you do not grasp the implications of your words. You know that a mana beast can pass on its insight as Will. But what happens when this beast passes on their Will to their offspring? And their offspring's offspring?"

I furrowed my brows, trying to piece together what Lady Dawn was trying to tell me. She did this often, laying a path for my mind to trod and allowing me to reach the conclusion she desired on my own.

Then it clicked. Though the sky above was cloudy, I felt a ray of sunlight might just have pierced its way through. "It compounds," I said. "All that insight adds up into a single Will. It grows in power as the generations go by."

"And how long do asura live, Contractor?"

As I peered into Lady Dawn's eyes, I was reminded of how ancient this being was. Here was a woman who had seen the rise and fall of empires. Here was a woman who had witnessed the flow of time in a way I could not comprehend. Here was a woman who was older than Rome; older than Jerusalem; older than Babylon.

She was older than anything I knew, and at that moment, I felt the full weight of that age on my bones.

I swallowed. "How many generations has this Will grown?" I asked, a bit of a waver in my voice. The Will had always been a bit of a distant thing for me. I had it, true, but I rarely drew on its power or contemplated its meaning.