I had seen his power from a distance and reaffirmed my thought—

“+Nightmares ARE Fiction+ should not be real.”

The power never made sense to me. The powers that humans could achieve were general, ever-sweeping powers. The ability to see all, the ability to touch all, the ability to move all, the ability to travel through all. Those were the deific powers that awaited humans that came to learn the nature of reality.

But +Nightmares ARE Fiction+? That power could never exist under the previous paradigm--the paradigm that the physical reality created.

The power--it was so fragmented—such a segmented look at reality. It had so many rules and so many divisions. It had so many drawbacks and so many arbitrary limits. The user himself didn't know why the power was, just that it was.

This was not a power made for divinity.

No, this approach to powers—this was human. Only humans that were not so far along the ladder to enlightenment would so divide up reality. Humans with infant understandings were incapable of understanding reality all at once, but they were good at focusing on one aspect and building their understanding of that one sliver.

Breaking off a sliver from the whole and understanding the nature of the sliver was certainly a good first step, but the fixation on the sliver itself would be what often prevented them from seeing that dividing the sliver,--and their belief that they divided the silver--cut them off from the potential of complete understanding.

Ultimately, the humans who had to divide to understand would not be rewarded with the powers of divinity at that step. The ones who endeavored to become one with everything at once—the ones who saw that the sliver was never truly divided--they were the ones who would taste the power that waited for them.

Humanity once had many great sages. Divinity was possible for them, and it still was when they could put aside their arrogance. Humility with a thirst for understanding was something to be rewarded.

At least, that was how it worked.

Here, Fainn was with a power that shouldn’t have existed. Svilran didn’t know about it. I did not either until he revealed it. Did the higher forces of the Hero Hub know? I think not… If they had… Something would have been different. Our Hero Hub would have been different. We would have placed different rules on Fainn and would have given him different responsibilities.

But here we were, Fainn has a power, and I fear that this power goes beyond me. This inexplicable power, born of a human interpretation, ignores the rest of the rules and perceives the world through one lens, hyper-focusing on its topic--the veracity of nightmares. In questioning that topic, it moves heaven and earth to explore...

I watched him as he faced the Parasite, I watched as he destroyed a nightmare, and I watched as he crumbled before Elma. My intuition has led my thoughts, and I believe I have devised some possibilities. These are all cases where Fainn would use his powers in an offensive manner, against a clear and defined target...

Fainn uses a nightmare on a Parasite, a totally subconscious being—the Parasite dies. By itself, this is an amazing power. A boon. Fainn may be the single most valuable weapon against the Imaginal Parasites. Unfortunately, Imaginal Parasites are not the only inhabitants of the Imaginal Realm's underside.

Fainn uses a nightmare on Elma’s dream self—he would greatly injure Elma’s mind. Some of the wounds may appear on her body because her mind believes they are there. It might induce insanity depending on the degree of injury.

Fainn uses a super nightmare (like the form he had when he fought Dorthaunzee) and targets the dreamer’s fog in its entirety—he would damage the subconscious so severely that the conscious mind would be driven insane, and the subconscious would be extremely wounded.

Fainn uses a nightmare on me, and slays me, the subconscious of a conscious being--a god of the earthsphere physical reality. I would die... and in my absence, Svilran would become…

I cannot bear to bring myself to confront that truth. I must endeavor to ensure that Fainn never turns his powers toward me, and I must ensure that I never cross into +Nightmares ARE Fiction’s+ realm. The arbitrary and self-imposed limits of humanity--they are the only thing saving me now. If +Nightmares ARE Fiction+ were to ever gain deific, all-encompassing properties… It would be a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions… At that time, perhaps only the Imaginal Will could stand up to it, or adapt…

I must hope that +Nightmares ARE Fiction+ stays human… So far, the limits seem to imply it will. Considering everything about the nature of human, the downside to its power may be that it can only be so powerful while its arbitrary rules are in place… Without the rules--the touching component, the limited range of the dome, the penalties it imposes on Fainn--the power may cease to exist...

If Fainn truly ascends the way sages of old did, then he might outgrow the power like a child outgrows their toys… A child with a gun, is just as dangerous as an adult with a gun, if not more so... To think of a power as a dangerous weapon in the hands of a child--is that a good metaphor?

The future… It is much more open than I thought and that… that is concerning. I must be prepared for anything so that I may react appropriately. I hope that my efforts are being mirrored up above. It is a little shameful that you hadn't prepared the Inverse's Point System, but I understand that you are overwhelmed at the moment, Miss. I will do as you requested and keep Fainn from questioning it. Please, do not be mad when I reveal the truth to him, however.

He is my equal, after all. Or wait... Is he? Maybe in authority... and he is most certainly deserving of respect as an equal, but... could I say I am equal without knowing the origins of the young man and the power he wields?

Sebas_Guzman

We're getting very close to volume 1's ending. It's a little scary for me because Volume 2's not finished just yet. The first 20,000 words are done, as are the last part, but that middle part still needs to be filled in. It'll be a hectic last few days of september XD

 

Anyway, this chapter features Narlivs' thoughts. I tried to put in some critical info. The bit with the nature of human powers came from a conversation I once had with a super old budhist monk from asia. I want to say he was from Tibet, but honestly, don't recall. Anyway, I won't bore you with the details, but when he spoke of the things that came with enlightenment, he said that it was simple. For some things, it was a matter of flicking a switch. Now that I'm older, I realize I should have asked him, "but how does one move their hand so as to flick the imaginary switch?! Bro, I want powers, but I'm basic!"

Ahem, anyway, and ironically, he was actually a lot like an engineer or some other technical expert. You know like how sometimes people in hyper-specialized fields just take for granted that you get their jargon? It's like if you're talking to an engineer about figuring out the physical properties of an electromagnetic field. Engineer dude could be like, "Yeah just take the Integral." and you're like, "Bro, i don't know how to read."

You know, it's that kind of divide. Anyway back to the budhist. A lot of their stuff makes things seem simple. (But it's really only simple if you have the sense for it and know the jargon.)

If you contrast it with the works of Aleister Crowley, that simplicity dissapears and there are more ceremonies and rules that are more in your face. Metaphysical theories derived from budhism retain some of that practical simplicity while elaborating on the theories of how everything connects and why the simplicity occurs.

Anyway, that's how we end up with this series and its divide between human powers and divine powers as per Enlightenment type doctrine.

Do keep in mind I'm grossly simplifying the above into just general stuff based on my understanding. If I started writing the exact differences and nuances to the different schools of thought, we'd have half a book. At least...

 

Anyway, have a good day!