Zack thought the group was joking when he first heard this bizarre analogy. No self-proclaimed smartass would destroy and restore their entire body to fix a simple laceration—right?
But it turned out every Broken Soul does this, and they have also named the technique the art of healing.
'Healing, my foot!' Zack wanted to rewrite the knowledge with the stream, yet held himself back.
Instead, he added 'talk for yourself' beside the technique.
"I'd say we are the dumbest, most powerful, omnipotent beings around," he claimed.
"Call yourself whatever. Just answer my damn questions so that I can leave," Solgrave said, rubbing his temple.
"See, that's not so simple—"
"—Oh my god!" Bazuka groaned, cutting off Zack.
"I told you, let's manipulate this tool," Psycho suggested again.
"No!" Lux exclaimed, then stopped, turning to find Solgrave not following his lead. "Don't tell me you're considering it!"
"Well..."
"It's barely been a year," Lux tried to negotiate with Solgrave.
"It's been a year!" Zack shrieked.
Solgrave ignored Zack and replied to Lux. "That's for us. He's been thinking for over a decade."
"A decade!" Zack shrieked in a higher octave, making every dog in a kilometer's radius howl.
"Ah, we have time. Immortals and all." Lux smiled, casually waving off Zack's concerns, before grimly turning to Solgrave. "Maybe manipulating is not such a bad thing. I mean, for the greater good and all!"
"No--no--no—no!" Zack kept chanting.
"Yo, fool! Rapping is my thing," DJ hissed.
"Nice hiss!" The sisters complimented DJ, luring him closer with some weird spell.
"See! I'm not the only one who goes off-topic," said Zack. "Please clarify this one thing, and you can be on your merry way." He tried to convince the group as they went in circles for another year.
Men and women—emotion and logic—and no matter who inherited which combo, the opposite attracts each other while never reaching any mutual understanding. This has nothing to do with gender or who's right, but the simple fact that opposite perspectives don't cross. In a strangely deranged similarity, when Lux told Zack about an artifact that stored one's core, giving Solgrave the ability to resurrect Zack at his last saved point, Zack was elated and skeptical at the same time. When he turned off his emotions, the logic within him saw this artifact as a cheat, while on 'Auto,'—his emotions blazin'—the aspect of handing over his core was akin to giving up on his free will. Even if Solgrave was a benevolent God, in the future, anyone with access to this artifact can kill him. Or worse, turn him into a puppet. And Zack was about ninety percent sure that someone would be Solgrave himself, albeit the future version who was a push away from Zack's antics.
Solgrave assured him that he himself had no control over the artifact, for it was not his to control. Lux explained the balance between resurrection and the cost paid through lost memories, inevitable death, and becoming someone's puppet.
While everyone held strong opinions, none of them were able to answer Zack's biggest concern: "What if everyone were already being puppeteered?"
"Isn't this similar to that 'what if life is a simulation' nonsense?" Pinky said, becoming the center of focus. "There's no point in wondering about the countless 'what-ifs,' they will always be there, we still have to make choices and live to the best of our beliefs."
"Note!" Bazuka reminded Pinky, and she immediately started scribbling it down within her soul; the bright pink marble of epiphany now floating at the center of her ridiculously pinkish core.
"Why are all of you still staring at me?" Pinky asked.
"Nothing!" said Zack, scratching the back of his head. "It just went from awe-inspiring to bizarre so fast."
"Sounds like me," Pinky said proudly. "Nothing's changed. That's good news. Why are you staring, though?"
"Ah--" Zack stopped, as Bazuka signaled him to drop the topic.
Zack switched his emotions on and off, his emotions and logic debating against one another to choose a path. While the logical part saw the merits, the emotional part counted the sacrifices, and when the rational part sought balance, the emotional part strived for connection. Both of them had excellent points, but which one should he listen to?
"I really miss automation." Zack agreed to the ridiculous deal.
Solgrave tauntingly tossed a crystal ball to Zack. "This should be wide enough to hold your core." He said, holding back a smile.
Zack caught the basketball-sized crystal ball with telekinesis, frowning through the entire process. "My core is bigger than this..." He mumbled, creating a duplicate—one without his parents' artifacts—and inserted it into the crystal ball. "Fuck!" He cursed, hiding the fact that the crystal ball had plenty of space leftover.
The crystal ball took on a purple hue, blinked twice, then forcefully detached itself from Zack's control, floating off to Solgrave.
"Pst!" Solgrave held back his laughter as he shrunk the crystal four inches. "Not me!" He burst out laughing.
Zack switched off his emotions before he felt the connection break, so he maintained his stoic demeanor, waiting for Solgrave to dismiss the crystal.
"Kid's a fast learner." The sisters remarked.
"I wouldn't call fourteen years fast," Solgrave countered. "But, not bad, kid." He smirked, tossing Zack a power orb. "Use it as a last resort." He turned and started walking away. "Remember, there is no shame in running away." He waved them goodbye without turning around.
Having access to Solgrave's Sub-Space—which was ten times larger than his own—made Zack want to reach for more power, and at the same time, the nonexistent respect for Solgrave grew into something more profound; he no longer wanted to compete or take revenge, but help him out, even if it were insignificant.
"Hold onto that feeling." Lux reminded Zack, while eyeing Psycho. "Never let it slip."
Psycho ignored the jab and smiled at Zack. "You didn't forget to leave your journal and security codes for the barriers in there, did you!?"
Zack wanted to comment on the obvious sinister intent behind the question and his sinister smile that gave it away, but kept silent, not wanting to teach a psychopath to hide his feelings better. "I might take time to commit, but once I do, I do that shit all the way through."
Psycho stretched his hand forward, demanding. "Sword."
"Oh! Did I forget to mention?" Zack copied Psycho's sinister smile. "You might be able to use my Slots and Artifacts by connecting to my Sub-Space, but these artifacts aren't mine, you see!"
"Then how did you cover me from Solgrave's aura?" Lux asked, baffled.
"I covered you with my soul, which was covered by the shield." Zack smiled cheekily. "Pretty clever of me, huh."
"You need to hide your core better." Lux deflated Zack's pride. "The next mission should serve as a wake-up call."
"Can't we spar like normal human beings first?" Zack pleaded.
"Nah! This is much faster." Bazuka dragged him along.
Lux created a telepathic link for the entire group except for Zack. "Solgrave mentioned Quazy again."
"That meddling nosy brat needs to learn some manners." Pinky scolded Solgrave. "Who is Quazy again?"
"He was the first amongst us to reach Wisp." Bazuka reminded her, replaying glimses of her memory within the link.
"Also, the first amongst us to go crazy and quit the gang," Psycho added.
"We allowed him to leave, against the promise not to terrorize the world," Lux added his part of the memory.
"He did something, we didn't question, and now we split the memory to stay hidden." DJ sang.
"Please tell me you didn't change the memory to suit your lyrics better." Barbie loaded her bazooka, ready to blast DJ Rizz to kingdom come—no matter what he replied.
"There's no point in that!" Psycho pushed the barrel away from DJ. "He wanted a break. All of you agreed against my concerns, and we found a way to hide this from Solgrave--which I highly doubt we did--but here we are."
"How didn't we?" Lux asked.
"Dude is too lazy to search all of our memories. Hell, he's so lazy that he asks you to spread and coordinate his instructions. Why do you think only our division has a leader?" Psycho ranted on.
Lux wanted to argue back, but deep down, he knew Psycho was right, even though none of them trusted his memory bank.
"Yeah!" Pinky stumbled onto Psycho's epiphany. "That's why other groups support their Soul Snatchers, while we get our asses handed to us in every mission." She hopped around, her eccentric mood transforming the room into a warm, pink glow.
"Should we?" Bazuka looked at the group.
"Nah!" They shook their heads in unison. "Let's not remind her to store this one."
"But what if it returns in a decade, or worse, half!" Zack asked, finally being able to enter the conversation, thanks to the rupture Pinky caused.
"All in favor of erasing his memory to cope?" Psycho didn't get to finish his sentence before the group already had their hands raised.
———<>||<>——— End of Chapter twenty-two. ———<>||<>———