What was happening? His mind openly probed, seeking an answer from the intentions emanating from the 'wall.'
But he found nothing.
All he was met with was a defiant adamance and absolute rejection. No matter what he tried, this wall was not going to budge.
But Finn wasn't going to simply accept that. He hadn't come this far just to be stopped here.
He probed across the whole 'breadth' of the wall, looking for some point, any point at all that he could breach through. But it was solid all across.
Finn had nearly given up. He could feel his focus begin to slip, like his current state wouldn't last a minute longer. And anxiety threatened to creep in, but he stilled his mind, doing a careful once-over the wall yet again. And again. And again…
Until eventually, he noticed something.
A flaw…?
It wasn't exactly a flaw per sé, but he got a familiar feeling from that part of the wall. Something within him urged him to attack that area. And without hesitation, he did.
And the second he made that decision, he realized why it had called out to him, he realized why the rest of the wall had been so hard to break, he realized exactly what the wall was:
It was the last bit of consciousness left within the shadow wolf. Its ego. Its psyche. Its… self.
Locked deep within the chaotic mass it had become. It was the last hurdle. The last, unbreakable wall Finn had to take over, else all he would have enforced loyalty and obedience onto would be only the periphery. This right here, was the core self.
It was a core, locked away even to the shadow wolf itself.
Finn had only found a way in because he resonated with a specific core memory hidden within this consciousness: The memory of the shadow wolf's earth-shaking battle. Specifically, its attempt to protect its cubs.
The purpose of that core memory Finn had accessed finally revealed itself. He never would have expected it to prove useful in such an unconventional manner and at such a crucial moment.
That resonance — that flaw, gave Finn access into the walls. And like a virus that had broken past a firewall, he ran amok.
The walls came crumbling down immediately, and right on cue, Finn felt the feedback. The concepts of loyalty and obedience that couldn't be further enforced because of the walls pressed forward immediately, encroaching into the core of the shadow wolf itself.
And in Finn's mind, bit by bit, the shadow wolf's violent impulses dulled, its rage mellowed, its chaotic form stabilized… till eventually… it lowered its head flat to the ground in obedience.
Finn had succeeded.
But he still wasn't done. He knew he'd won the moment the wall broke. At that point he could've stopped immediately and the shadow wolf would still be successfully tamed. But he didn't. He couldn't…
Not when he saw the vastness that lay before him.
The shadow wolf's consciousness and ego was so vast, it made all he'd previously enforced loyalty and obedience on pale in comparison.
His mind burned as he pushed on, straining to maintain stability of the core concepts without losing himself to the entirety of Geri and Freki.
The shadow wolf on the other hand, kept mellowing without stop. Finn's concept had been enforced onto it already, but as if there was no threshold to how obedient it could get, it simply kept mellowing. The concept of loyalty and obedience continued to seep deeper and deeper into its psyche, rewriting its entire existence and nature to fit exactly what Finn wanted.
If it continued this way — till there was no ego or psyche left to enforce upon, who knew what the result would be, but unfortunately, or perhaps, fortunately, Finn's focus broke.
His mind had had enough.
Without missing a beat, he killed off every thought in his mind to prevent himself from slipping towards other ideas of Geri and Freki that could rewrite his existence in his current weakened state.
The abrupt cut dropped him from the intense high of that state. Like a god that had been cast down to earth from the heavens. The abrupt loss of that feeling left a hollow void in his mind. But at least he'd been able to prevent a repeat of the previous near-rewrite of his 'self.'
He struggled to ground his mind as his fragmented sense of reality settled. Slowly, his concerns returned — the memory of his situation, of his life, of who he was.
The shadow wolf! Finn remembered again, snapping his 'attention' towards the presence of the wolf, eager to see the result of all his efforts.
But before he could examine it, something flickered in the 'space' before him.
[SOUL REGISTER BINDING COMPLETE]
A window appeared, glowing with a light-blue light displaying rapid prompts like some sort of status panel from an rpg game. Surprisingly even in his current state, he could understand what was written on it naturally.
[SOUL REGISTER]
True Name: Finn Slade
Title: The Errant Heretic (Unspeakable)
Chaotic Soul Masses: 21
Active: 2
Dormant: 19
[CHAOTIC SOUL MASS]
Species Name: Storm Prowler Wolf
Rank: 13 / 21
Type: Beast Soul (Lightning Elemental)
Assimilation: 39%
Mythology Aspect Used: Loyalty and Obedience
Adaptations Left Till Soul Drift: 3 / 4
Time Till Next Adaptation Recovery: 128 Days
[SOUL DEBT]
Previous: Lack of sight. Lack of smell. Lack of taste. Sporadic Bloodlust.
Current: Requires a minor blood feeding every seven days.
Status: Stabilized
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[CHAOTIC SOUL MASS]
Name: Crimson Fist Baboon
Rank: 21 / 21
Type: Beast Soul (Body Enhancer)
Assimilation: 83%
Mythology Aspect Used: Nil
Adaptations Left Till Soul Drift: Nil
Time Till Next Adaptation Recovery: Nil
[SOUL DEBT]
Previous: Enhancements limited only to focused limbs.
Current: Strong urge to beat chest when challenged.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[MYTHOLOGY ASPECTS]
Active Aspect: Loyalty and Obedience
Adaptations Made: 1
Time Till Next Adaptation Recovery: 128 Days
Note: Loyalty and Obedience has been successfully impressed upon: Storm Prowler Wolf.
Instinctual chaos suppressed. Behavioral essence undergoing restructure.
Further adaptation of same Aspect is not recommended until full recovery. Very high risk of Soul Drift (self loss) if unheeded.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[SOUL SUMMARY]
Active Debts: 2
Overall Soul Stability: 61%
Next Renegotiation Window: Pending
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Finn short-circuited.
What…?
He very perfectly understood every single thing that was displayed on the soul register, so it wasn't a matter of lack of understanding. Rather, his shock came from the title at the very top:
The Errant Heretic…
What the hell was even that?!