Orion was now sitting on a chair in a dark corner in the little Base of Operations, his face red like a strawberry.
"AAAHH HOW EMBARRASSING!! I screamed like a little girl!!" Orion placed both hands over his face, muffling his voice into his palms. "AAhhh I wanna diiiie!"
He pressed his forehead against the rough wood of the table beside him, groaning as if the shame itself could crush him into dust. His legs kicked lightly against the chair's legs, restless, agitated.
He had been in this cycle for almost twenty minutes now. First, he calmed himself, telling his own heart to stop racing. Then, inevitably, he remembered the humiliating scene from earlier. Immediately, his spine would shiver, his stomach tightened, and he would cringe so hard he almost folded in two. Then he would mutter again about dying, slam his head against the table, and start the entire cycle over again.
And to worsen his case, the entire Base had seen it. Every single one of them had seen Orion ascend into the skies, only to incompetently struggle to come down, as if he had no clue what he was doing. They had seen his clumsy landing, his panicked expression, his loss of control. Some had even seen the way his eyes watered — he almost cried after the event! Almost!
"Uuuuugh, kill me already..." he whined into his sleeve, kicking the air weakly. His pride had been shattered into shards sharper than glass. He was sure half the Radiants and officials who saw him would remember that moment for weeks. He could even think of the title: the boy who ascended like a star but fell like a chicken.
"OK ENOUGH!! I HAVE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO!" Orion suddenly jumped up from his chair, his voice echoing too loudly in the corner.
He clutched his chest, forcing himself to breathe slower. It had been almost two hours since he had signed up for the expedition, and judging by the restless movement within the Base, the first crews were going to leave any time now. He didn't know in which of the groups he would be placed, so time was of the essence.
He couldn't afford to sulk in embarrassment anymore.
No. He had something far more important waiting.
He had to become familiar with his new abilities.
"I've been waiting for this..." Orion whispered, this time his lips curling into a wide, eager grin. His heart pounded with a new rhythm, not of shame but of anticipation. He closed his eyes.
Now, the feeling of his soul was much more noticeable. It wasn't vague anymore. It was there, radiant, pulsing like a warmth blooming from deep inside his core. It felt almost alive. It was him, and yet more than him.
Immersing himself into his soul was surprisingly easy now. He barely had to concentrate. With only a thought, only a flicker of intent, he felt it open before him like a gate he had always carried but never seen.
His Soul Sea.
Orion opened his eyes again — but not in the Base of Operations. Instead, his gaze fell upon the vision he had witnessed when he first ignited his Spark.
An endless expanse, where the ground was veiled by a shallow sheet of crystalline water, mirroring a vast sky adorned with clouds brushed in gold, their reflections stretching unbroken across the horizon.
Orion's mouth fell slightly open. He turned his head slowly, his orange eyes catching the way every ripple of light played across the mirrored surface. It was like staring into infinity.
He was mesmerized. His knees almost gave way as if the beauty itself pressed down on him. It was unlike anything he had ever seen in his miserable life. It wasn't just scenery — it was divinity. It was a living painting of serenity, a dream sculpted into existence.
"And this is... inside me...?" Orion muttered, his voice trembling with disbelief.
The Soul Sea. A manifestation of one's essence. An interpretation of their thoughts, their wishes, their very being. He had heard Radiants talk about it before. He knew it was supposed to look ethereal, symbolic, sometimes even chaotic. But this?
This was beyond anything he could have imagined.
He wanted to fall to his knees and just stare at it forever. To touch the glass-like water. To lie down and watch the clouds drift endlessly across that vast, golden sky.
But before Orion could lose himself completely in awe, a voice reverberated through the vast stillness.
"Ah... Another Sparkling enters my domain," said a masculine voice, deep and resonant.
The words didn't just echo. They resounded through the infinite plane like thunder rolling through eternity. Orion felt it in his bones. His body stiffened as icy shivers crawled down his spine.
The entire painting of his Soul Sea quivered as if in terror. The once-still waters began to ripple violently, trembling under an unseen force. The golden-tinted skies darkened as though the sun itself had been snuffed out. The brilliant clouds evaporated, dissolving into nothingness. What remained was a deep, sunless void of crimson red, suffocating and oppressive.
Then, before Orion, reality itself tore. A jagged rift appeared in the fabric of space, bleeding with shadows and whispers.
And from that rip stepped out a figure.
At first glance, he looked like a man. But only at first glance.
His skin bore a sickly white pallor, so pale it looked lifeless. His long black hair was darker than night itself, so deep it was as if the strands were windows into the void. His eyes... his eyes were the worst of all. They carried no fire, no spark, no humanity. They were empty, dead, apathetic, like pits that had seen eternity and grown bored of it.
He wore armor — black, intricate, heavy with significance. Orion instantly recognized the style. It was the same twisted armor as the officers of Thirsting Agony, but far more refined, more sinister, as though theirs were just shadows of the original.
The figure stepped out fully, his boots meeting the crystalline waters. But wherever his feet touched, the water curdled and bled, transforming instantly into thick crimson blood. And that blood spread outward, corrupting the purity of the Soul Sea, staining it red.
Orion gasped. "No!!"
Instinct took over. His body moved, his will surged. Without knowing how, he pushed back against the invading presence. His Soul Sea itself responded, as if his very essence refused to yield.
The golden clouds above began to return, re-materializing across the blood-red sky. The horizon cleared, cracks of blue slicing through the suffocating void. The waters beneath trembled, but slowly, painfully, they began to turn crystalline again, pushing back the blood.
The intruder paused, watching with faint amusement.
"A powerful will..." the man said slowly, his voice a mixture of approval and threat. Then he began to walk.
Every step he took corrupted anew. No matter how much Orion pushed back, no matter how hard he imposed his will, the man's immediate path always turned to horror. The water beneath his boots dissolved into blood. The air around him warped into carnage The purity bent and broke wherever he went.
And then Orion noticed something strange.
At first, when the man appeared, he had seemed... small. Orion assumed it was the distance. But as the figure drew closer, he realized the truth.
The man was not small. Orion was enormous. His Soul Sea had manifested him larger than life, a colossus standing tall within his own essence. Yet even towering above, even gazing down upon the intruder, Orion felt small. The weight of the man's presence crushed him regardless of size.
"It's natural one would strive to protect their Soul Sea," the man said, now standing before Orion. His voice was quiet but sharper than any blade. "But any more of this resistance, child... and I will take drastic measures."
The figure looked up at him, but it wasn't defiance — it was command. "Cease now, or I will obliterate your soul."
It wasn't a warning. It wasn't even a threat. It was an order, absolute and undeniable.
Orion's body betrayed him. He stopped resisting immediately, his will pulling back in terror. The invading presence consumed the area around the figure, staining the ground and sky. Orion's body gave, and he found himself lowering to the floor, his body instinctively trying to bow before the overwhelming authority.
His mind screamed. His pride burned. But his soul trembled.
"Is... is this... him...?" Orion's thoughts shook, fragments slipping away under the crushing weight.
But no. This man wasn't just some stranger. He wasn't some nameless nobody. Orion knew him. Everyone in the world knew him.
This was none other than the legendary human.
One of the kings who had reached Illumination.
Thirsting Agony.
A Monarch.