Celestial: A Progression Fantasy (Surgecaller Book 7), page 13
But one could have an effect, even if a small one, if they pushed hard enough. Usually, it simply wasn’t worth it, which was why Huon hadn’t practised the technique a great deal. But he had discovered some beneficial uses during the years of mind-space sparring he’d undertaken with Liona while in Temtoria.
Huon surged will, which always helped him exert his influence in this way.
Then he pulled the blocks of ice to a very particular target—the pommel of his sword.
When Huon was sure he’d managed to shift the trajectory of the blocks of ice enough, there was no longer time to get out of the way, so he flattened himself just below the hilt of the sword, along the length of the beast’s head.
The blocks of ice struck the hilt of his sword before crashing into him. As before, he was able to take the force of their impact, surging stamina to quickly heal himself of the damage done.
As the blocks of ice struck home, Huon felt the whale-beast’s momentum slow. He was still flattened against it when the blocks of ice drifted away, having done their job. Surging stamina to fix his crushed skull, Huon raised his head and looked at where his sword was.
It had been pushed right down to the hilt. The sword had penetrated the whale-beast’s brain with enough force to kill it before it could surge any stamina to heal the wound.
Huon let out a sigh of relief, turning his head one way then the other, feeling the satisfying crack. He pulled his sword free of the beast’s skull—which wasn’t an easy feat. Then slowly, he cut through its side, and managed to harvest its core, and more than enough meat to get them through many weeks of their journey.
Honestly, he was glad the fight hadn’t been an easy one. He craved the challenge. Just because he was an Immortal now, didn’t mean things would cease to be difficult, especially considering the mission they were undertaking.
He pushed that from his mind, and lugged everything he had harvested back to the deck of the Strong Wind.
⚅ ⚄
Chapter 15
Captain Avery stood in the middle of the deck, an eyebrow raised, and her arms crossed at her chest. ‘What’s all this then?’
Huon smiled at the captain. ‘Wanted to stretch my legs.’ He put his hands on his hips. There would be enough meat for weeks of their journey, meaning none of the sailors would need to do any fishing of their own unless they wished.
The captain looked about to say something.
Huon raised a finger. ‘If you’re going to say something like you’re not alone, I already know that.’
Captain Avery sighed. ‘I suppose you never were the best at taking orders or asking permission before you were an Immortal.’
Huon grinned. ‘Well, it’s not as though I’m one of your crew.’
‘Something I am constantly glad of, yes. You would be far too unruly.’
Liona walked up. She glanced at the large beast core on the ground. ‘Did it have any unique surges?’
When they were in Temtoria, the two of them had hoped to gain more unique surges to cultivate, but they hadn’t been able to do that, as none of the beasts’ cores acted in the same way as those in their own world.
Huon peered down at the core on the deck at his feet. ‘I haven’t actually checked yet, but that’s not why I harvested it.’
Liona tilted her head to the side. ‘It’s not?’ She motioned at the water. ‘Why go down there and fight that beast if you aren’t going to cultivate its essence? Isn’t that a waste?’
Huon shook his head. ‘Not if I get to test my theory.’ He squatted on the balls of his feet, staring at the core. ‘You know that how where Gale is from, they call people without cores soulless?’
Liona nodded. ‘You know I know that.’
Huon glanced up at her. He didn’t mention what had happened with the beast’s core in Temtoria. He didn’t need to. ‘I know beast cores are… different here than they were in Temtoria, but I can’t help but think there’s something we’re missing with soul essence. Something we don’t understand.’ He looked at the core again, picking it up, holding it in both hands. It glowed brightly—the beast had died with an abundance of essence still within it.
‘You think you’re going to find soul essence in there?’ Sirus asked.
Huon hadn’t noticed the null turn up. Much of the crew were crowding around, listening to what was happening. The crew seemed far more interested in Huon than they had before he’d become an Immortal. They had all heard whispers of what Huon and Liona could do, and where the two of them had been. ‘I hope so.’
Sirus remained silent for a long moment. ‘Why do you think you’ll be able to find something no one else ever has?’
Huon shrugged. He had been wondering the same thing, multiple times. ‘I have to believe that I can. Besides, Liona and I know what soul essence feels like. If you and Kelni are right, none of the Sentinels, nor the Everlasting King, use soul essence. Why would they recognise something they don’t know exists?’
Sirus inclined his head, though he still looked dubious.
Kelni was observing from further away on the ship, leant up against the rail. He seemed to spend much of his time staring off at the sea, muttering soundlessly to himself. Huon hadn’t seen the man training once. He imagined he was still fighting with his own mind, and every time he saw him he wondered what would happen if he lost.
Liona knelt beside him. ‘It’s as good a plan as any.’
Huon chuckled. ‘That’s a ringing endorsement, if I ever heard one.’
Liona rested a hand on his shoulder, her gaze locked on the core. ‘Is there anything I can do?’ There was the barest hint of shakiness in her voice.
Was that… fear that he heard? For a long while, Liona had been addicted to surging beast cores. It had done strange things to her—made her more animalistic in the way she fought, and flared her anger. But she hadn’t surged essence from a beast core for some time, not since that six-legged beast.
He stopped himself from shuddering at the thought, and supposed it made sense that she would have become wary about beast cores since then. Huon shook his head. ‘No, that’s alright. I’m not really sure how this will work anyway.’ He sat cross-legged on the deck. Slowly, the crowd of sailors began to disperse, taking the whale-beast meat down below to be salted.
Liona sat across from Huon, as she usually did when they meditated. ‘I’ll be right here if you need me, then.’
Huon inclined his head. He noticed that the captain was still observing them, along with Sirus, and though Kelni wasn’t looking their way, his eyes would occasionally dart toward them.
Gale and Eliko were glancing over as well.
Huon supposed he didn’t blame them. He would have been doing the same. He let out a breath and closed his eyes, pushing his awareness into the core, sensing what different types of essence were inside.
There were the basic physical and elemental essence types, all of which were at Immortal-level, which he had expected. The essence reserves were deep, as well. Huon suspected a human core at Immortal-level would struggle to hold half as much of the essence within this beast-core, which made him wonder how old the beast had been.
And… he frowned. There were no unique surges. He tilted his head to the side. Not even any sense surges. That was rather unusual, especially for a beast as powerful as the one he had just faced. But he supposed that wasn’t important. He wasn’t looking for unique surges. If he had access to soul essence, unique surges became far less useful.
His breathing steadied almost instantly. His mind was no longer struggling with him being on the same ship as the man who had killed his mother. A part of him almost felt guilty at that, but it was a part that was easy to silence.
With his mind, he scoured every millimetre of the beast’s core. But there was nothing else that he could sense within it. That had been clear from the moment he’d held it in his hands. He didn’t sigh. Didn’t open his eyes and stand up. Didn’t simply cultivate the essence and move on.
He remained sitting there, deep in thought, his mind pushing at the essence, prodding at it, but not cultivating it.
Unrefined soul essence could be turned into pure soul essence, which could then either be surged, or used to fuel other surges. That was how Huon and Liona had been able to reach the rank of Immortal so quickly, by feeding pure soul essence into their other surges, strengthening them more rapidly than could have otherwise been possible.
But soul essence was… a different beast than anything Huon had encountered before.
For a long while, ever since Huon had consumed his first cultivation pill, he had known about the existence of pure essence. The first time they had faced the ancient kraken, the massive beast hadn’t been alone. It had sent hundreds of smaller kraken at the crew aboard the ship. The captain had taken all of the cores from the slain kraken and purified the essence, putting it into a cultivation pill for Huon, a pill that had helped him reach the rank of Champion.
Without that pill, Huon would have lost his first match in the Tournament of Grace. He would have lost his core.
He pushed those thoughts aside.
When he had spoken to the captain about the Eternal Wheel, she had told him that though it bore some resemblance to the process of purifying essence, it was definitely not the same. Apparently, when purifying essence for a cultivation pill, the essence never actually entered a surgecaller’s core.
Huon had had trouble understanding that when he’d first heard it. The captain, no longer worried about keeping the process a secret, explained that one had to cultivate the essence into their body, and stop it short from hitting the core. It was somewhere between surging essence from a beast core or a surge-gem, and cultivating it.
It had taken a moment for him to wrap his head around.
When a surgecaller surged essence from a beast core, they had to do it immediately else the essence would dissipate into the air. They could, however, control the amount of essence they surged, which was why they were able to give essence to Sirus, who didn’t have a core at all—he could surge the borrowed essence at a trickle, using speed essence over a long period of time.
Though Huon wasn’t sure how that would help him now.
He didn’t want to create pure essence. He wanted to create pure soul essence, and the only way he knew how to do that was by turning unrefined soul essence through the Eternal Wheel.
But what… what was unrefined soul essence? Where in this world, or in Temtoria, for that matter, did it come from? He didn’t even understand what a soul was.
Huon thought on this some more as he felt the different types of essence within the core.
He remembered when they had fought that six-legged beast, back in Temtoria. It had been using all of the normal surges, as far as he could tell. At least the physical ones. It had definitely been surging strength, considering how strong that damned thing had been. It had also surged speed. He remembered being able to interrupt whatever surge it had been using when he struck it with his Oath Shearer dagger infused with will essence.
But how could he interrupt individual surges, if the beast had only one essence in its core? An essence that Huon was sure had been unrefined soul essence—or perhaps even pure soul essence, for all he knew…
If the beast had been surging that to alter the world around it, perhaps it could choose what it surged. When Huon had used the soul essence, he’d had to think of exactly what he wished to do. He’d needed to imagine what he wanted before he could make it a reality. One thing he hadn’t tried was making himself stronger, or faster. He hadn’t tried using the soul essence like he would his normal surges, because he already had access to his normal surges.
He recalled the stories he’d read, in the time of the Great Gantra, where they hadn’t spoken of individual surges. Though he still didn’t understand how that could be, he believed those stories wholeheartedly.
Holding the whale-beast’s core cradled in both hands, Huon leant back where he sat upon the Strong Wind’s deck. The breeze was cool and soft on his skin, wafting his hair in the wind. He smelled the meat he had just harvested, being hauled below decks. Heard the commotion it caused, as well as the rigging slapping against the masts and the canvas pulled taut by a wind-surging sailor.
Though he could feel, hear, smell all these things, they barely touched his mind. His full focus was on the essence within the core in his hands. On the stories he had read. On the soul essence.
His mind turned, over and over, as he contemplated the truths he knew, and the things that he only suspected. Surgecallers had once had only one source of essence. Now, they had multiple sources, but it seemed as though their skills had diminished because of that.
Why would a surgecaller wish to only be able to surge the physical, elemental, or unique essences that they had cultivated? Wouldn’t they wish to be able to surge anything into being? Mould the reality around them, and within them, to their will, like Huon and Liona were able to with soul essence?
What had happened to the surgecallers of this world that they no longer knew how to do that? Was it because there was no source of soul essence here?
He frowned, his forehead creasing deeply.
The Great Gantra had been upon this world. He had trained here. There must have been a source of soul essence here if that were to have happened. There must have been a way for him to cultivate it into himself.
So where had the soul essence gone?
Why was it not abundant here, as it was abundant in Temtoria?
In Temtoria, Huon had felt the different kinds of essence. He had felt wind essence and water essence. Felt earth essence, even fire essence…
But he had also felt more.
Huon sat there for hours contemplating these facts. It seemed as though there was nothing in the whale-beast’s core for him to find, yet he clung to it as though it held the answer within its depths.
But it wasn’t the depths of the core that held the answer. He was sure he could come upon it within his own mind. Was sure the answer was there, somewhere, simply waiting to be discovered.
We were once all like this, he thought, and now we no longer are.
What had changed?
He didn’t know. Couldn’t know. And why should he? That answer wasn’t the answer he sought. That answer would be lost somewhere in the history of their world. It could have been lost completely to the purge…
The answer he sought wasn’t why things were this way, but how to get back to how they had once been.
He focused upon the essence in the core once more, and brought it into himself. Control, he thought. That was an important aspect of what he was searching for. The Great Gantra spoke of many things. Of patience. Diligence. Training.
And he spoke of control.
Control of one’s body, mind and soul.
And though Huon admitted many times he did not know what a soul was, he knew it was somehow connected to essence. It had to be, for coreless humans to be called soulless. There was a connection there. The true meaning of which must have been lost long ago.
Huon drew all the essence within the whale-beast’s core into him, trickle by trickle, but he didn’t let it touch his core. He tried to do as the captain had done when purifying essence. The process was similar to turning the Eternal Wheel, she had said, except the essence never entered one’s core. The surgecaller turned the essence around in their body, over and over, and it was purified through channels his own essence had moved through in the past.
Huon had the ability to pool essence into any place in his body. From the tips of his fingers to the tips of his toes. From the top of his head or to any single organ, though it was an ability he rarely found any use for.
Now, he was stretching that ability to its fullest, pulling more and more of the essence through him, slowly purifying it.
There were multiple types of essence within the whale-beast’s core. He turned them all into one. Into pure essence. He knew it wasn’t the same as soul essence. Wasn’t near as strong. Near as diluted. But he hoped it was a step in the right direction.
The Great Gantra always turned the Eternal Wheel in his training, Huon thought. Huon had tried to turn the essence within him—his normal essence—with the eternal wheel. Tried to pull it free of the different essence types. Tried to combine his strength essence and speed essence into one, but he had never figured out how to make that work. He simply couldn’t move that essence within his core like he could move soul essence—refined or otherwise.
But what of pure essence? The essence that came from cultivation pills? Could he move that with the Eternal Wheel, once he had gathered it?
The captain had told him what the technique he was using was called, or at least what the king had called it.
Essence Circulation.
Huon tilted his chin up as he focused, moving the essence through his body. He couldn’t help but feel that this was very similar to the Eternal Wheel. It seemed as though the training he had undertaken, turning the Eternal Wheel for hours upon hours, for months and months within that cave back in Temtoria, was a transferable skill.
Though it took far more of his concentration.
Even the names were similar—the Eternal Wheel, Essence Circulation—each reminding Huon of a circle. Though it required a lot of concentration, the act almost felt natural. Like picking up something heavy was natural. It might be difficult, but it also felt like he was meant to do this all along.
How is this technique not more widely known? Huon wondered. He didn’t know if creating cultivation pills would have been something that could have helped him in the past. Perhaps it would have been. He had simply never had a chance to learn.
Slowly, he felt the essence purify as it moved around his body, from limb to limb, flowing through every inch of him just as his blood flowed through him.
Huon wasn’t sure how much time had passed, how long it had taken him, when all of the essence from the whale-beast’s deep reserves had been entirely purified. As he purified each drop of essence, it flowed instantly to his core, sitting there like a bright light. He knew he could put that essence into his different surge types. He could deliver it to his strength, speed, any part of him. It would act differently to soul essence, but it would still help him become stronger.
