The Shadows of Nature

Reflection

Audrey was oddly calm.

Many thoughts clouded her mind but her expression remained blithe, the events that flashed through her eyes settling slowly. Perhaps she was already aware of most things, somewhere within her subconsciousness, and she could accept it all. The way of nature mixed with her sense of duty, and everything really did make sense. But one fact remained unsettling.

Audrey recalled Mildred's, no, her own thoughts in that absolute void. She closed her eyes, picking up the signals from her memory, the signals when Vlad learned what was inside him.

——

"You are a tear in the fabric of the dimension, Vlad. A fragment of equilibrium's energy tore out the moment you did, and it is the energy you used to destroy the Wind Phoenexias and the Demonic Creatures. Simply put it was distributed into positive and negative, and since it has no value, the energy multiplied in equal amounts remains to be zero. Other than that, energy of no value exists, too. That energy is within you."

"But zero energy... how can that even be...?"

"The value of a soul's energy is zero."

Even in that space, Mildred has become hesitant for a brief moment but continued when she sensed Vlad's urge.

"The soul of the deceased creatures, the Wind Phoenexias and the Demonic Creatures that die. They're not proper souls but those fragments of energies have also developed a 'history', a memory. Information and emotion such that they are a part of the dimension but not the Shadow Beings for it is not a proper manifestation of the One.

"But anyway, these souls exist within the dimension. They cannot return due to the tear in the fabric and this... they reside within you."

Mildred didn't wish to use the notion of being trapped, but Vlad understood the truth. He remained calm, Mildred's respect instilling the only sense of trust he had in himself. He wondered if he was an individual, or if everything was guided by nature. He wondered if he had any free will, existing in multiple realities, or if it was all written.

Nothing mattered in front of duty. But after those trials... perhaps it all did. Perhaps nothing did but in that case, why was he there? Why did he have to oppose, why did all those souls have to suffer because of him?

Souls trapped within him, within his mind? Just like the Demon Lord was? No, the Demon Lord had her senses and memories. She existed. They were nothing but in a personal sense, they were absolute chaos and disturbance even if they caused nothing.

No... Vlad had to change his perception. Such thoughts would only lead to destruction. Whatever their situation may be, they were under his protection. They chose that place because their 'home' had been damaged. He killed to return them and he would fulfil it, but in the path of more entropy and less destruction. Until it didn't increase it wouldn't be able to decrease, to create that space after reaching a limit. Until we don't face adversities of a certain degree and do not learn, we haven't progressed in the least. That was what the reality within him said.

Evolution is relative. Learning is personal.

He would face all anger, fear, hatred and any such emotions against him. He would put on a facade to cover up his true nature even though he had no such thing; he was only a vessel for two entities and an emotion. The emotion was dominant but the others were present. He would projects the interpretations of that emotion to the Shadows and the Spirits - Nature's learning - to settle equilibrium.

Intelligence and wisdom were different, indeed. Sometimes there was foolishness within wisdom for fools learn whereas the intelligent simply skip to solutions without understanding the essence or reason of the problem.