Desmond’s eyes snapped open. What greeted him was a familiar starry expanse that spread out in all directions. He was momentarily stunned by the sheer beauty of the sight.

This was what he was hoping for, but not what he expected. He had been trying to get into his mana room and found himself back in the Soul Realm. But did this mean he could no longer enter his mana room? Or was his mana room in some way connected to the Soul Realm?

Desmond didn’t have much use for his mana room as he never put any time into learning magic, but being cut off from it would still be disconcerting. These were questions he would need to answer, after he got more information.

Desmond took a quick look around and noted that he was standing on top of his reconstructed glass plane of memories. The last time he entered the Soul Realm, he was a good distance from his soul and had to run here. Maybe his soul had simply been too fragmented at the time to allow him to appear on top of it?

Everything else he could see was the same as he had left it. The glass plane was still cracked throughout with holes here or there where the pieces didn’t quite fit together right. There were 2 piles of stacked assorted memory fragments off to the side from his past life 2 and 3. There were 3 orbs hovering above his soul glass that gave him an at-capacity feeling. Finally, the large yellow and blue glowing sun was still located below all of this. Everything was as it should be, at least as far as he understood.

Desmond turned his attention outward, looking at the vast collection of stars that made up this space. It was still as breathtaking as the first time he saw it, but somehow, there was something off. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but something was different. Did the stars move? Or many he had just moved, like how when a planet rotates you find yourself looking at a different part of the night sky.

As Desmond was scanning the starry expanse, his eyes caught sight of something. Or, really it was a lack of something that caught this attention. There was an area of space that was almost perfectly black and without stars, in the general shape of a circle. It was rather large, and Desmond felt like he would have noticed something like this if it had been here last time.

Turning his attention back to himself. Desmond decided it was probably best if he moved off the soul glass he was standing on, as he was concerned with shifting the pieces. Taking a step, he found his footing on the invisible plane. The surface of which rippled a little each time he made contact with it. It was still weird for him to be standing on essentially nothing but he adapted quickly.

Desmond refocused his attention on the dark area of space that didn’t possess any stars. Looking closer he could just barely make out small flickering tendrils of darkness around the edge.

It wasn’t a blank area of space like he thought, it was a dark star! A very large dark star at that. Which, from experience meant it was close. Maybe only 20 to 30 kilometers away if the star was the same size as his own. A distance he could cover quickly.

Desmond felt a smile form on his face as he started to put things together. All these stars represented souls, and their color was related to affinity. So a dark soul should have shadow affinity. And someone with shadow affinity who was close by could only be one person. It had to be Riki’s soul!

This would mean that proximity in the real world is directly related to proximity in the Soul Realm. It was an obvious enough concept, but still good to have it proven.

As Desmond examined this dark star, he could see vague gray outlines of enchantments on its surface. However, the soul glass and legacy orbs were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they were just located on the far side of Riki’s soul?

Desmond really wanted a full image of another soul to compare it to his own. Riki’s soul was located a good deal lower than the plane he could walk on, but if he got closer, maybe he could see more.

Desmond set off at a light jog, moving towards the dark soul. He needed more information, and he wouldn’t let this change slip. As he moved farther from his own soul, he kept an eye on the tether of energy that was linking him to it. As the distance increased, the tether slowly shrank, and he got the sinking feeling that he should never let this tether snap. However, his destination would be well within his range, and he would have to go many times further before he ran a risk of it disappearing.

Soon, Desmond was standing over the dark star. It was still a few kilometers below the rippling plane, but this was as close as he could currently get.

From this distance, he couldn’t make out any new details. There had to be a way for him to get closer. Why could he only walk on this one plane? Could he change it in some way?

Desmond closed his eyes and focused. He willed the plane below his feet to rotate and align him with the dark star. After a few moments, he started to feel stupid as nothing was happening. He was hoping to feel the plane below his feet rotate, but as he continued to stand there, he just felt, nothing. Desmond decided to try another approach as he opened his eyes, only to find himself staring straight at the dark star. The plane below his feet now led directly to it.

Desmond was hit with a wave of vertigo at the sudden unexpected change. Without his soul nearby to orientate himself, the change had left him feeling lost in this sea of stars. Desmond knelt down and focused on his energy tether. He could still feel it leading back to his soul, which was now below his feet. After a few minutes, the vertigo passed but left him feeling exposed out here, so far from his soul. Desmond pressed on. He had come this far and was not going to turn back just as he found a way forward.

After a few more minutes, Desmond found himself in front of what he assumed was Riki’s soul. He was now faced with another problem. The soul was rhythmically moving up and down a few dozen meters. He hadn’t noticed this at a distance, but up close, it would make it hard to see any details. If he wanted to examine the legacy orbs and memory glass, he would need to fix this.

Perhaps the dark soul wasn’t the one moving, but his soul was? Was he just moving relative to his own soul? If this was true, then he should be able to change it such that he was moving relative to Riki’s soul instead. The Soul Realm had proven malleable to his will, to some degree.

Desmond closed his eyes and focused. He imagined the plane he was standing on wrapping around Riki’s soul like an orbit around a planet. As he opened his eyes, he found himself standing on top of Riki’s soul, which was now perfectly still.

Focusing on the tether, Desmond could feel it shift back and forth ever so slightly. His soul was now moving and not Riki’s. It would appear that the plane he walked on was highly adjustable. He would have to use this method to examine his own soul more closely in the future.

Desmond turned his attention back to Riki’s soul. Now that it was still, he could tell that the dark star was a bit smaller than his own, and it was covered in light gray enchantments. Desmond could recognize a few shadow runes, but beyond that, had no idea what the enchantments did.

The surface of the soul seemed to burn in a black fire that was only really viable around the edges of the sphere, due to its dark nature. Desmond started walking around the soul, looking for the telltale shine of legacy orbs. That is when everything shattered!

Desmond found himself uncontrollably spinning in space with no idea what had just happened. Closing his eyes, he imagined the rippling plane under his feet. When he opened them, he found he was standing still in space once more. He quickly felt out his tether as a sinking realization started to dawn on him.

The tether pointed him in the direction of his soul. After a quick plane rotation, he was off running back towards his own star. The tether was much thinner now than he remembered it being. Whatever had just happened had tossed him further away from his soul.

Riki’s soul was nowhere to be seen. The only thing Desmond could think of for what had just happened, was that Riki had gotten up or moved. He had linked his movement in this space to Riki’s soul, but clearly, there was a limit to that. No, he was lucky there was a limit to that. Or he might have been dragged beyond the bounds of his tether.

Desmond ran at full speed, bounding across the plane to where the ripples couldn’t even keep up with him. He didn’t know Riki as someone who got up a lot during the night. It was possible she just got up to use the washroom, but he felt it was far more likely that something had happened to wake her up.

He never should have entered the Soul Realm while there was still someone actively targeting his life. Did Lucel send assassins after him two nights in a row? Riki could hold her own, but he couldn’t help but be overcome with worry. It was probably not even possible to wake him up when he was in this state. He would currently be a burden in any fight, which was something he vehemently hated feeling.

After a harrowing run, Desmond found himself standing beside his soul. He quickly laid out flat on his soul glass in an attempt to return to reality as quickly as possible. It still took several agonizing minutes for him to fully submerge through the viscus-like substance.