It was hard to exactly describe the differences. Something like an absence of the alien warmth and power that represented World Force. Instead, Animora was familiar. A feeling experienced when the Nexus had first awakened.
Like this power had always been there.
Then there was the pulse it gave off, the life force that existed in domination over the small flower in my hand. But… Its origin was no mystery. Not to me, though, I had to wonder if Mei or anyone else was aware of it.
The place where the feeling reverberated from was deep within my Nexus. From my Inner Space. Like a drum called by the hypnotic mantra distancing itself from my ears. And Mei was right. The more I focused on the beating between myself and the other life, the greater my own beat became.
It felt almost hungry, like it had been starved for so long without even knowing until now, my awakening of it. I allowed it to continue, even wishing for it to grow stronger. The beat of the flower began to lessen. Becoming quiet and dim.
As its life flowed into me, it flew separate across my Inner Realm from the Inner Force. Like a ghost that didn’t exist in the same world as it. Cool and if I were to describe it in color, something like a—well, neon blue. Maybe my own mind was being influenced by the physical manifestation created by the tools of the outside world.
It was filling and comforting to take from something else. A kind of feeling that I find myself or anyone for that matter getting addicted too. It wasn’t exactly controlling, not to the degree that the corrupted Precursor Energy had on me. I could stop, but again, it was… nice.
It was only a flower, one already plucked and probably wouldn’t survive. Who knows if I would even end up training this method to the degree of Force, but still, I thought it would be a bad habit to get used to killing through Extraction.
Stopping it felt just as natural as starting. It was a little like forcing your eyes open after laying in bed awake, but too lazy to get up. With a thought, the beat in my own body grew numb and eventually disappeared along with the other connected to me.
Afterwards, I opened my eyes, mind full of questions.
Mei stared back at me, her own eyes wide with shock.
“You—You succeeded.”
It wasn’t a question, but a statement of certainty. She could tell that I had successfully absorbed the Animora of the glowing flower.
I nodded. “Yes… But, what now?”
Despite having my suspicions of where the power originated and went, having more information wasn’t going to hurt.
Mei blinked a couple times before sighing and shaking her head. “Not even I was that fast. If you’re able to develop an ability, you could really be something.”
I continued to gaze with expectation, waiting for an answer to my questions.
“Right,” she replied softly. “We call the place where it goes the Inner World. It takes time to access it. Training. And until then, the process of conversion of Animora will be inefficient. Automatic, but imperfect.”
“That’s alright,” I said calmly. “Everything is a process, right? Can you describe the Inner World? Maybe how the process changes when it’s accessed.”
She adopted a troubled expression with the question. “It’s… a little hard. I can describe it in theory, but even I haven’t accessed it. Ancestor Amei has told me that only near evolution can one access it, and only then, can conversion of Animora be made more manual.”
“Then in theory?” I pressed.
She spoke as I glanced at Sythia, still absorbed in the process of flower holding. My own had already dropped amongst the others, withered, almost like it had been deprived of water for days.
“The Inner World is a void upon which power is built. Real power that most can hardly imagine.”
I chuckled. “But we can. Since we personally know the guardians.”
There was another implication in her voice though. Serith too must have practiced this. Maybe all the guardians did. Perhaps even those on the main continent did, but that was just me guessing without any evidence whatsoever.
The thing was that Serith seemed to be a master of Amei at one point. So what did she teach? She had that library too? Was Serith just exceptionally skilled at using her system? Was she the one who discovered Animora? Both?
Or was it something else unique to herself?
The questions plagued my mind. But one thing was certain. There was too much of this world that I didn’t know about. Coming here, to the home of the Engineers, was an opportunity I didn’t know I needed.
Providing a new path to understanding a new power.
Mei had paused in order to think of the words she wanted to use.
“The Ancestor isn’t permitted to speak of it directly anymore, but she described it a long time ago… The Inner World contains the essence of the Soul. It is given form with Animora, unlocking potential.”
Reacting to that was difficult, so I only waited for her to continue patiently.
“The Inner World is named after something else though. A source of power that could be limitless in theory. A seed. Feeding off the Animora."
Did she mean the egg?
“It surrounds the World Seed, forming rings around it. I’m not sure why, but it creates a pressure, forming a crack in the seed where a world of energy leaks from it.”
She stopped there, the last words a whisper like she was speaking of some legend, but the world opened up to me. Whether it was the human body or creation itself. It seemed that the body was made to work together with all forms of energy.
It was still only an idea that was hardly supported, but Thea and I—others too, had already suspected that Body Refinement, Spiritual Refinement, and Energy Refinement were connected in a way that was necessary for progress.
This seemed to be as well. At least to Spiritual Refinement. The egg, or seed, already absorbed Force. Energy from the Voidseed as well, and on top of that—it somehow formed a structure with Animora leading to a development that allowed access to a new form of power.
“This is a lot of information for speculation based on the past,” I said, trying to glimpse anything from the small girl.
“The Ancestor has learned a lot more since then. Compared to her limitless knowledge, it is practically the ramblings of a mad man.”
I supposed it could make sense with that description, but how could it even be called speculation? The more important matter at hand was that her name, or the culture’s name for the area, was better than mine. Inner Space… No, Inner World was much better.
There was so much news to take in, that it was hard to comprehend everything at once. A new path had opened up for me. That much was certain.. Another cog in the multitude of wheels in the composite that was the Inner Realm and Inner World.
Though the level of evidence wasn’t high, the idea still attached itself deep into my thoughts. It was all connected. We weren’t necessarily inventors, or even if we were, at most, this was a new path to the same goal.
At least according to Thea., cultivation in the state was limited to core formation, but why? The answer felt obvious. Unknown to be fact, but something that had stared us all down to our core.
The lack of a strong foundation.
A strong body.
And a strong Soul.
I was about to open my mouth to continue the conversation, but a quick beeping sound came from the arm brace on Mei.
“Make your way back, Mei. All of you,” Amei said through the communication device. “We will be leaving soon to begin the match.”
No longer looking as excited to beat me up as she said she would before, Mei sighed. “Yes ancestor. We’ll be quick.”
There was a small—Click—and the communication shut off.
Mei looked almost a bit nervous, maybe even regretful, so I gave her a light punch on the shoulder.
“Already got the first hit.”
She narrowed her eyes, lips curving up slightly with the provocation made in joke.
“That’s the last one you’ll be getting.”
I chuckled and walked over to Synthia, crouching, and giving her a firm shake. Her eyes snapped open immediately. She blinked several times quickly like she was trying to get something out of her eyes.
“I wasn’t done.”
Shaking my head—”I’m sure you can continue, just take a few flowers with you. Mei and I are starting."
I glanced back seeing the little girl making her way back to the cursed device we used to travel here.
“Don’t you want to cheer her on?... You could cheer me—”
She interrupted me, cupping her hands over her mouth.
“Meeei!! Peter is a softy! Exploit that to defeat him!”