Meanwhile, in the prophet's subconscious, Yaga was busy trying to convince Ikky that making a body able to utilise a form reliant Virtue like the Nightborn Sun was indeed worth all the years of life she had burnt to do it. And not because of her points, but out of desperation to get her to stop nagging, Ikky repeatedly told her he understood her reasoning.
"But I didn't really want those curses anymore though." He couldn't help but grumble.
Yaga sighed. "I would want no more than to peel that burden off of you, Nox. But a Virtue is a vital portion of a person's being. If I had left out a portion of that being, your soul would find it foreign, and you would have become a wandering spirit. But tell me, what about you? Have you at least learnt to grasp a more efficient use of the night mist while you were in the afterlife. If you have, then we could have a way of managing the vices of the cursed Virtue."
Seed of Nyx, Ikky's first Virtue gave him a special essence efficient body that had the power to regenerate any lost limb or injury he his suffering after the curse has been lifted. He could even suspend incoming curses by consuming essence crystals. The Nightborn Sun however, seemed like a downgrade.
His new Virtue did not allow any curse suspensions or stalling, while only coming with a bonus of 'elevating' his body with every blessing. It also limited its regeneration to only healing damage he takes during the time the specific curse has been active for. Compared to the much intricate Virtue of the Night Chant, and the less restrictive Seed of Nyx, Nightborn Sun seemed more like an afterthought of whoever even came up with it— an ability unfit for a Virtue ascended by a tier.
However, even if its advantage wasn't as many as Seed of Nyx, the Nightborn sun provided a more qualitative improvement, one that would indeed prove its worth with time... regretably too much time— longer than Ikky would need to survive today. Astrid was not the only self-righteous extremist in heaven, so there will be more his damned spiritual essence would attract.
Ikky thought for a bit, then clicked his tongue after understanding Yaga's words. "By grasping the efficient use of the night mist', you mean, understanding that eternity thing that the Night Chant prophecy mentioned, right?"
Yaga sighed in relief.
Ikky continued. "Yeah, I got to experience eternity. That's why the world below looks like so much crap. Even if I did want to leave the seventh Lokah, do you know how disappointed I was when that damn yellow spirit woman dragged me back to this place?" He shivered.
Ikky had come into contact with a strange woman in the afterlife who was covered in the light of everything good, and experienced heaven with infinitely better satisfaction. A drop from that feeling back into mortality would leave anyone depressed.
"The Night woman told me my soul was spread across eternity, and that if I descend from the Lokah, my body will keep getting bombarded with fragments of that soul for all eternity, and I won't even be able to do anything till my head explodes!" He shivered. Wouldn't want that to happen twice... or thrice depending on technicality.
"But then for some reason, she was able to just gather those infinite pieces into one anyway. Was pretty confusing for a bit. Speaking of..." He thought out loud, "Has that spirit dragged other people she's killed back down from the seventh Lokah?" Ikky couldn't imagine another person coming to terms with leaving the highest form of pleasure for a world of strife, while simultaneously being bombarded with memories stretched across a world where time is eternal. Had the Night woman helped every person just like she'd helped him?
"Well, usually a person's soul remains with the Axiom incarnates until they're proven guilty by the Edict of the prophet killers. So not many make it to the afterlife before getting dragged back after they've been proven innocent. Now, back to the point." Yaga looked down at the hands of the prophet as he fiddled with a ball of fiery night, riding on a chariot across the sky alongside the many flying deer.
Ikky nodded as if in understanding of what Yaga had just said, albeit still confused. He shook those thoughts off for now and blew out an air of pride straight from his nostrils. With his chest slightly puffed with confidence, he began, "Seeing as you're clueless, allow me to properly explain, 'Ink'... I should probably come up with a new name for that..." He looked at Yaga with eyes that exposed he was waiting for her to do it. However, Yaga completely avoided his gaze and turned to the flowing sky.
Ikky stuttered, continuing, "A uh, ah yes! Ink contains innumerable units of information. And even if just a portion of it is ripped out, it still continues to grow and expand. The range of information I can get access too is also pretty wide, like, colors, smells, visuals, tastes and logic that lets it filter out unnecessary strings of those information types to then recreate other natural or Virtuous essence." He explained, counting his fingers along with the types of information, with his middle finger popping up at 'logic' as he waved it in front of Yaga's face.
Yaga gave him a burning glare, letting him know that she clearly understood what that hand sign meant.
Ikky immediately tightened his hands into a fist. "Ahem! What does that have to do with me getting my infinitely split soul back into one body? Well, I thought about that concept too. How did the Night woman grab an infinite amount of soul fragments and just roll it up to fit into one body? During my descent from the Seventh Lokah, I gradually began to understand. What she did was compress those fragments into one— infinitely similar variables into just one whole!"
Yaga blinked, the man continuing to rant.
"I've tried counting trees before to ease my boredom. It got to a time where every tree I found had a mark on it, but I'd long forgotten what the highest number I counted up to was. Maybe ten thousand eight hundred and ninety six, maybe ten thousand nine hundred and two? Sure as heck couldn't tell anymore, and didn't want to start going around the forests of Sumeru again just to find out. So I came up with a conclusion, which is to lie that I'd found as many trees as numbers exist! Then... as I told that story on the streets, some runt doubted me and told me I couldn't have used up all the numbers, since decimals exist. He sure baited the effort out of me, the bastard. So I started counting again, this time making sure to account for the smallest numbers so that kid wouldn't be able to complain anymore. Yet, no matter how many times I scribbled and counted, I always found a smaller number. Every ten trees passed and I'd come back to the previous ones to add another zero after the fraction dot. It started to become clear that I was going nowhere."
Rationally, every number is infinitely far from the others before and after. The numbers 1 and 2 have infinite amount of fractions between themselves. 1 and 1.1 also have an infinite amount of fractions between themselves 1.1 and 1.01 also have an infinite amount of fractions between themselves. Ikky would think, how did humanity ever reach the next number? That once passing thought of a curious child had made its way back into the mind of his adult self as he witnessed the Night woman's feat. It was then he realised, infinitely close fractions all ultimately result into one single whole— infinity can be quantified within finite numbers. This was the same principle behind how the Night woman grasped an infinite fragments. It is also the same principle Equinox would now apply to his ever inquisitive 'Ink'.
"To do anything of worth with Ink that has infinite information and continues to expand, I should need to account for an infinite amount of infinitely similar estimates that exist in the essence, and also account for the new information ink makes, but if I did that, I'd never get the job done. One second could pass and Ink would have expanded its content a gazillion times over.
So instead, I thought to use Ink to create objects by simply summarising the infinitely similar units of information into wholes, allocate any new information it expands into to those wholes, as well as control the range of new information, before finally extracting them from the pool of eternity." He tilted his head in wonder,
"For some reason, my body sorts all of this out by itself when its recreating essence. But with the amount of resources Ink has access to, why does it only make essence? The answer I'll tell you, is that the models of 'wholes' already exist in the Virtue, but only 'wholes' of the Essence part of infinite information. Working the existing model in reverse, I've learnt to create models of other things with the logical infinities as its base, and then made a 'whole' model for that of solid objects! ...But then my brain short circuited after finishing the model when I finally landed inside my body." He looked at his spirit, laughing nervously and expecting a scolding for already wrecking the body she had made only seconds into using it.
Yaga continued to blink, her mouth slightly agape as she stared right at Ikky in genuine surprise. "That... Isn't what I was asking you about."
"... Hm?"
"I only asked if you knew how to use 'Night Mist' better, Nox!"
Ikky was confused. "Isn't that what I just said?"
Yaga turned her head down in thought, answering, "No. No, it's something completely different. Utilities of your Virtues come instinctively when you've used them even once. That's what that 'model' you found was. It's the only thing you're permitted to have access to at this stage. What you're talking about, Nox is you breaking the ability down to its bare fundamentals and forcefully extracting a function out of sheer technicality! It's like scratching off the color yellow from a green painting just because the combination of yellow and blue makes green pigment." Yaga slapped her forehead as the horrific implications of what Ikky had done hit her.
Ikky himself soon began to gulp as he felt the dismay in Yaga's expression. "Yaga? Am... Am I going to get killed again? I didn't know? What should I do?"
There are clear rules prophets must follow in a world like this one. Equinox knew none of them. Breaking one of those rules— albeit unintentionally was what had gotten a self righteous prick like Astrid on his neck in the first place. Ikky's energy surged, thinking about if he would have to go through the things he'd just been through all over again. He had thought prophets were only there to fight monsters, who would have expected that the biggest threats to him are the ones he was supposed to fight alongside with.