Chapter 15: A Stride Toward Evolution

A wave of overwhelming excitement, with only a tinge of reservation, surged in Zax.

‘There is a high probability that I’m correct! I must confirm’. To do so he had to proceed as close as he could to the center of the Earthly Crater. At the moment it was still too much for him just in terms of dealing with the gravitational force, so he resorted to what can be done now and advanced the last step to the fifth ring.

“Arhg!” Zax clenched his teeth as his back bent forward and his arms nearly reached to block to fall to the ground. Breathing heavily he slowly raised his back up, stabilizing his stance with his hands grabbing and supporting the knees. ‘I can’t use the Dark Titan storm in the vicinity of the crater, but I can operate it inside my body’. He stopped relying on his bodily strength, the moment he channeled the dark attribute energy accumulated in him – a tiny portion of it was unexpectedly generated from his sea of consciousness – he felt light as a feather.

“Mmm...” He uttered in discomfort. ‘The increased attraction of the earthly attribute turned it violent. Its attacks on the soul can’t harm me, but they do interrupt my concentration’.

He sat down on his own leisure, manifesting in his sea of consciousness. ‘A soul defense will allow me the freedom of meditating peacefully’. It was an obvious solution to the unceasing soul attacks and a simple one at that.

His intent was not to make it a complex soul formation, he preferred to not waste time when his soul and dark attribute energies were practically one at the same after the assimilation. Hence, he was very capable of fending off the soul attacks with an easy to erect defense.

‘It probably won’t hold in the fourth ring, and without transforming I’m not sure my body will hold, either. I’ll meditate up to two months and choose to stay or leave depend on my accomplishments. At the latest I’ll recommence the search for the third Black Core after being here for three months. I rather not test how long the Horned Eel Overlord plan to prolong its absentness’.

With that Zax completed his preparation and refocused on proving his hypothesis.

‘The specks of earthly attribute’s essence gathered faster in the fifth ring’. In less than a day the first speck descended to his sea of consciousness, following which it was eliminated by the dark light. ‘The dark light emanating from my soul is triggered by the presence of the earthly specks’, he tried to delay it, but found it extremely rigorous on his soul. ‘Why? Is it really because of Nature’s rules or... ‘ He could not negate the possibility that it opposed the earthly specks them from turning from unassuming phenomenon to a source of harm. ‘Two are all I need’. He compromised, though it was meaningless for making the dark light less hindering.

Two days later two specks were floating next to each other above the black desert that the Inner Panorama became.

‘Good’. Zax was relieved, the dark light was contained. Calmly, he examined the specks. ‘They repel using a gravitational field, yet not affect one another and remain in the same fixed position’ He squinted, despite the action being useless when done in his sea of consciousness. ‘Swallow’. He initiated the devouring nature of his dark attribute.

The earthly specks shivered and then began to move in a very slow pace toward the not so far point where Zax commenced the drag.

‘Hahaha! It really is like this, hahaha!’ Everything was now clear! ‘The Earthly Crater doesn’t generate the pulling force of gravity, but that of suction of swallowing! The Earthly Crater should be renamed the Dark Crater, that “something” deep in its center must be dark attribute related’. It was merely the initial observation; there were other aspects to analysis, questions to be answered.

‘I can tell that the crater is using the swallowing property of the dark attribute’, Saulalu’s elaboration helped him decide to categorize it as that, at the chance of misconception. ‘Yet how come it has undulation mine doesn’t? Also, why it only attracts the worldly earthly attribute?’ These were not the only things he wanted to know, but the ones he believed to be most simple to tackle.

In the days that passed Zax diligently meditated on three things with one common denominator, “Drag”. He matched and compered the two types of swallowing, his and the crater’s, along with the gravitational field of the specks that daily appeared in his sea of consciousness.

‘Gravity and swallowing, gravity and swallowing, gravity and swallowing... ‘ The more he looked into the two kinds of properties the more confused he was. ‘The crater’s swallowing pulls down everything in its domain, but it only sucks to its center earthly attribute. The eruptions and whirlpool in the Gentic Belt are only side effects, the combination of the undulation and the ripples from occasional bursts of earthly attribute’s essence. Why? Why it’s like this?’

Zax was frustrated. ‘Today’s!’ The daily earthly speck descended and the dark light went wild in an attempt to set itself free from Zax’s control and banish all three specks. ‘Get lost!’

The pain of restraining the dark light aroused waves in the dark sea and bombarding echoes in the dark sky. Instead of permitting a fraction of the dark light out to remove the new speck, Zax’s emotional state intermixed his intent with the action he was doing, rather than with what he intended to do. The swallowing he regularly operated fluctuated and for the instant Zax’s emotions got the better of him, it projected the opposite of a drag, a pushing force that shoved the new speck upwards.