“I can’t do anything, I swear! I don’t know a way in. That was all Adrien’s to manage. Oh god, please believe me!”
Abreo’s guards were wide-eyed at the display of aura power, but when they glanced at Hector, he shook his head, signalling them not to intervene. Jason relaxed his aura suppression and turned back to the aperture.
“Taking weeks to get through is better than not getting through at all,” Hector said. “They’re bottled up and not going anywhere.”
“Not good enough,” Jason said.
“Obviously, we’ll be looking for alternatives,” Hector told him, “but it’s exceptional enough that we can get in there eventually. Getting through right now is impossible. We need to accept that and direct our energies where they can actually accomplish something.”
“It’s been my experience,” Jason said, eyes once more glued to the aperture, “that much of what people call impossible is an unwillingness to accept the price of moving forward.”
“Mr Asano,” Shade said. “I worry that you are going to make a decision with long-term ramifications in the heat of the moment.”
“You’re a smart guy, Shade,” Jason said. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Ability: [Nirvanic Transfiguration]
This ability will be evolved from the ability [Astral Affinity].
Your body and soul will be combined into a gestalt entity both physical and spiritual in nature. This state will grant inherent resistance to effects that utilise the soul-body disconnect.
The nature of your new body will render you immune to resurrection effects, including those of high-rank healing magic. If your body is discorporated, your soul will return to a purely spiritual state, unable to reinhabit a physical form or re-enter a physical reality. This prevents the natural formation of an outworlder body on entering a physical reality. These restrictions will change on reaching diamond rank.
When suffering lethal damage, instead of dying, your new body will undergo a nirvanic rebirth, returning to a state of full integrity. This effect cannot be triggered again until you have increased in rank from the last time it was used. This ability will change on reaching diamond rank.
The strength of your aura will significantly increase.
Your resistance to hostile dimension effects and disruptive force damage will be increased. This is an enhancement of the [Astral Affinity] ability.
The effect of your dimension effects and your transcendent damage will be increased. This is a legacy effect of the [Astral Affinity] ability.
Physical reality around you will be more stable. You will be able to sense nearby astral space apertures and proto-astral spaces coterminous to your location.
You will be able to traverse astral space apertures, including those that are closed or have been sealed.
You will be able to directly enter proto-astral spaces coterminous with your location or directly leave a proto-astral space to a coterminous location.
While within the astral, you will be able to create and maintain a small zone of physical reality around you. This does not grant the ability to enter or traverse the astral.
Of the many effects of the strange ability offered to him by the World-Phoenix, the ability to pass through sealed astral space apertures had seemed like a minor consideration. In this moment, it was a more crucial power than coming back from the dead.
“You held well-reasoned reservations about that power,” Shade said. “The wiser course would be to take some time to cool down and consider the consequences of claiming this power.”
“I already know the ramifications of not taking it,” Jason said. “Farrah in the hands of that man for weeks while I pick a lock, when I could have slipped in the window.”
“Have you not considered that you may have been offered this power in anticipation of this very scenario?” Shade asked. “The World-Phoenix may well have placed her where she arrived as part of engineering this result.”
“Of course it has,” Jason said. “But even if that is the World-Phoenix’s plan, my knowing that doesn’t mean it won’t work. This is what I need right now, and what did I say, Shade?”
“Whatever it takes,” Shade said. “This is not a trivial choice, Mr Asano. Jason, this will change you. Fundamentally.”
Jason finally tore his eyes from the aperture to look at Shade.
“You’ve never used my first name before.”
“It is a moment for drastic measures, Mr Asano. I believe that you have the potential to reach the pinnacle of power and throw off the shackles of a mortal lifespan. This is a decision that may follow you for eternity.”
Jason looked at Shade for a long time, then turned back to the aperture.
“Shade, do you remember what my dad said about big decisions?”
“Yes,” Shade said. “He advised that you consider the person you want to be.”
“If I’m going to live with this forever—and I think that’s a much bigger if than you suggest—then I want to be the man who chose to do whatever he could to save his friend.”
“Then you have your decision.”
“I don’t suppose anyone wants to fill me in on what you’re talking about?” Hector asked.
“No,” Jason said.
You can accept ability [Nirvanic Transfiguration]. Accept Y/N?
Jason mentally accepted the offer and silver light shone from within his body. Light poured from his mouth and his eyes, shining through his skin to make his veins and even his skeleton visible. The pain began early, not just to his body but his soul, but this was something he had endured in the past.
The other people in the tent looked on, startled, as the light shining from him grew brighter. They backed off as Jason’s clothes disintegrated around him, his skin becoming increasingly translucent. The veins and arteries in his body were absorbed, vanishing as his body moved even further from the human norm. Only his bones and the scars on his body remained visible in his increasingly transparent flesh.
The ritual on the aperture was washed away and the onlookers abandoned the tent entirely as they sensed the strange vortex of magic centred on Jason. Shortly thereafter, the tent itself was disintegrated like his clothes. The Network’s tactical units scrambled to surround him at a safe distance, a firing line of magical guns pointed in his direction.
Jason’s flesh completed the transition to translucency, making his scars stand out all the more. The onlookers watched as the white bones of his skeleton were transformed into silver metal.
Once that process was complete, an amorphous murk appeared within his translucent form, like a stain. It moved to the surface of his body and splattered out, landing on the ground in gobbets of rancid ichor. The horrific stench of it every essence user recognised, having been through their own purges.
“Is he ranking up?” Hector asked.
“I don’t know,” Asya said, standing beside him. “Is that what ranking up to category three looks like?”