Divine Apostasy Book 12 - Chapter 53

Chapter 53

"Aura manipulation becomes easier as more chakras are Awakened," Pine began. "The aura is the external expression of your internal chakra energy. Think of it as your chakras' influence extending beyond your physical body. Without an aura, one can still project power outward, but the distance and effect are limited.

Pine continued. "With training you can extend, shape, and direct your aura while increasing its potency in the process. Auras can heal, protect, create, and destroy just like the people who wield it."

"It sounds similar to other magic systems," Ruwen said.

"Your friends explained Spirit to me and Sift discussed the soul and both systems appeared outwardly focused. You gather and store Spirit in your core, but its power is generally manifested outward. Soul power regenerates any use automatically and releasing that energy requires one to open an internal hidden door and directing the power toward a target. Aura manipulation, however, requires you to first perfect your internal state, purify and concentrate your aura using those chakras, before extending that perfection into your surroundings. Most of the work is inwardly focused and appears to require far more work and patience."

Ruwen had spent more and more time considering the different magic systems. The Realm of Bones discovery in the Destruction Realm revealed the possibility of merging the Material, Creation, and Destruction Realms within oneself. The concept of directionally focused magic wasn’t something he’d spent much time on.

“Thank you for that explanation,” Ruwen said. “It’s impossible to convey all the details in a few days so my friends glossed over some specifics. I find your view of magic having a default or preferred focus fascinating and I think you’re right. Spirit though is interesting because it might be neutral. What you described is correct, but when focused inward on the body, it Fortifies and strengthens. It is a critical path on the journey to become a god.”

Ruwen projected a simplified diagram of his thoughts on magic between himself and Pine. It mostly looked like a pie cut into four pieces with a weird circle in the middle. On the top half of the circle sat Soul and Conceptual magic, and the bottom half held Blood and Chakras.

Pointing at the Soul slice Ruwen did his best to keep things simple. “From painful experience and some observations on how the magic system increases in power, I believe Soul and Chakra magic oppose each other. Or maybe balance each other is a better term. It is likely Conceptual magic and Blood magic have the same type of relationship. I don’t know enough about Conceptual magic yet and if Hamma and Sift can’t explain it, I might need to visit the Creation Realm to learn it. Blood magic I’m far more familiar with and is certainly internally focused.”

“The bottom slices of your pie are Blood and Chakra,” Pine said, “and both internally focused. The top of your picture contains Conceptual and Soul, both outward facing. That means the top and bottom balance each other. The magics also balance their opposing slice. Do the right and left halves also balance somehow?”

Ruwen almost displayed his actual diagram to Pine, but he hadn’t worked out all the details yet and Pine, with his lack of magical context, would be too overwhelmed by the complexity to offer much help.

Instead, Ruwen offered a simpler explanation which was also true, if only in part. “The left and right sides balance themselves out already, making them neutral from the start. Outward Soul balances inward Blood and the same with Conceptual and Chakra. In that context, the diagram remains balanced or neutral from every angle.”

 Pine leaned forward studying the diagram. “This is fascinating. I never considered chakra magic to be a part of a greater whole. It interests me that what you call Conceptual magic is a balancing magic for chakras. I’d like to understand that. Learning one’s weaknesses is the shortest path to understanding.”

“Conceptual magic is kind of my own term,” Ruwen said. He thought about the machines they’d fought in the rift and the Affinity Wheel they’d found there. That Outerverse faction had used a different word. “Psionics is another term I’ve seen.”

“Oh, that I’ve heard of.”

That surprised Ruwen.

Pine whispered to Ruwen conspiratorially. “Never tell Ash this, but I played some games when I was younger, although they involved imagination not twitchy fingers. As much as I’ve yelled at that boy for wasting his time on videogames I’d never hear the end of it despite the differences. Anyway, one game, Gamma something, took place in a post-apocalyptic world.”

Pine paused.

“What’s wrong?” Ruwen asked, worried by the old man’s expression.

Pine shook his head. “Sorry, It’s just we’ve entered a post-apocalyptic world, you’re talking about psionics, and some of the things coming out of that pit in Egypt certainly look like mutants. It’s like that game became reality. If I live to see powered attack armor, my ten-year-old self will die of happiness.”

“How do psionics work here?” Ruwen asked.

After a few seconds of consideration, Pine responded. “At its most fundamental level, it worked by using your mind to affect the world around you. It had abilities like telekinesis, telepathy, shields, and precognition. Dangerous though because if you rolled a one, and the DM was a jerk, the feedback loop would make your character’s head explode.”

“That sounds messy.”

Pine realized the topic they’d veered into, and his expression turned guilty. Ruwen immediately reassured him.

“I’m interested in these things. Knowledge shared is knowledge persevered, remember. This world is at the center of a considerable number of mysteries and the fact you have terms that I’ve only come across from places very far away makes me certain something important is happening here.”

“Even so, your time is valuable, and I shouldn’t be wasting it with fifty-year-old memories. My apologies Grandmaster.”

"None necessary. One never knows what piece of information will turn out to be critical. You’ve graciously hosted my friends and family and shared your chakra knowledge with me. I’m in your debt.” He summarized Pine’s earlier statement. “Chakras focus inward, and only once they’re mastered can you affect the outer world effectively."

"Exactly," Pine replied. “I wish Ash listened as closely as you do.”

Ruwen returned Pine’s exasperated smile about his grandson, but Ruwen’s mind was busy making new connections. If Souls mirrored chakras it meant if mastered, Soul magic might reveal internal capabilities.

They sat in silence while Ruwen processed all this new information. Pine, like Ruwen, was comfortable with silence and neither of them felt the need to speak.

After a minute Ruwen summarized his thoughts. "Each system likely has both internal and external aspects, but with different emphases and approaches."

The sun had long since disappeared and the temperature had dropped ten degrees, but the humidity remained. Laughter and the murmur of voices reached them from the distant farmhouse.

"There's one more relationship you should understand," Pine said. "Auras aren’t just for projecting your chakra energy outward. It offers a bridge to the energies of the earth, the air, and other living beings. These connections will affect your aura. Just like the leprechaun magic has contaminated your chakras, foreign energies can poison your aura and if strong enough, they can use the aura to reach your chakras. That is why chakra development is critical before any significant use of your aura."

“Can I resist this aura contamination or cleanse it?”

Pine radiated pleasure at the question. “Harmonizing your aura with your chakras will make contamination difficult if not impossible. Normally I wouldn’t bring the topic of aura cleansing up until much later, but you seem to have an instinct for detecting problems.”

Ruwen smiled. “Believe me, seeing problems only comes naturally because my life has consisted of little else for the past few years.”

“Ash is the same. You two are so much alike and different at the same time.” Pine shook his head. “Or perhaps I’m just an old man worrying about his grandson and seeing him wherever I look. Grandmaster Echo assured me he is doing well.”

“Ash is lucky to have Echo as his Sisen. Setting the founding sisters aside, I can only think of a handful of Step Masters that can match her skill.”

What Ruwen didn’t say was that Echo needed Ash just as much. Her sense of responsibility to him might be the only thing keeping her anchored here with the living.

“I never answered your question,” Pine said. “Aura cleansing in specific is impossible to teach as it depends completely on the state of your chakras and the type of contamination you want to remove. High level, one cycles their aura through their chakras, using them like filters to remove foreign energies. You can then expel those energies using the techniques I just taught you. In the future, when you’ve developed further, you can attempt breaking that energy down and absorbing it. This will make your chakras stronger.”

Ruwen immediately saw the advantage. “That’s how you level. My chakras all contain eight empty circles. I’m thinking the final process is something like extending your aura, absorbing energy from your surroundings, extracting that energy with your chakras and using it to level.”

Pine stared at Ruwen for three seconds before bowing. “Yes, that’s correct. I’m shocked you put all that together so quickly.”

“Like I said, I spend a lot of time thinking, and that process is very similar to how Spirit and Refining work.” Ruwen snapped his fingers as another revelation struck him. “That’s why chakra alignment is important. If you’re circulating aura through your chakras, misalignments would cause friction. Just like scarring and inflammation affected the pathways to my Meridians.”

“I’m not familiar with the last example, but what you stated is true. That’s why the process of transferring energy, good or bad, from your aura to your chakras is so personal. There are too many variables that differ between practitioners to create a common method. My system requires a sequence of movements, which is what I taught Ash, but I also taught him his mother’s chants and visualization techniques. I never told him they were for aura cleansing, but I hope knowing both will help him discover his own way when the time comes. Since you’ve already leapfrogged years of contemplation and arrived at the correct conclusion I’m going to demonstrate both techniques to you. I hope they help you find enlightenment.”

Pine stood and Ruwen did as well.

“Thank you for your trust,” Ruwen said sincerely.

“Let’s see if you complain as much as Ash,” Pine said with a smile. “He thinks these are just morning stretches.”