Beyond Mortal Comprehension

"Ready when you are, Master!"

"Okay. Better get a Barrier up, just in case this gets out of hand somehow."

John's Barrier ability didn't change the world around them this time, but he could still sense a difference in the air, and his Observe passive still gave the air a strangely vibrant effect for a moment, one that was far more noticeable when the landscape around him wasn't shifting as well, seeming to bathe the space around him in a rainbow of hues before it faded away. He could still see that strange array of colors, but only if he actively thought about it and focused on it; he wasn't sure if that was the Barrier settling in, or his passive making sure he didn't feel like he was on an acid trip the entire time he was in a Barrier.

"Probably for the best. We're a long way from the house, but even if everything is safe, I'm sure the others would appreciate it if you didn't start two fires in two days."

"I'm glad you're so amused by that," John muttered, glancing sideways at Vallya. She was only a dozen feet away, resting casually against the trunk of a nearby tree with one of the books he'd brought resting in her lap. "Did you see the fire, or did someone come out here and tell you about it?"

"Both. I actually flew out to see what was going on, but when I noticed you with that girl, I decided to return here without saying anything." Vallya turned her eyes to the pages in front of her, but John could still see the threads of somber thought running through her. "I know you were quite a ways from the house then, too, but I thought it best to keep my distance. The others tolerate visiting me here, to some extent, but…"

"We're going to train together tomorrow. All of us." Vallya's ears perked up at John's words, twitching excitedly and anxiously in sequence. "We'll see how you handle things when it's more than just me you're hanging around, and how well you deal with tension."

"You're not going to get yourself hurt again, are you?" Vallya asked, her eyes narrowing sharply. "I appreciate the lesson you gave me last time. I won't appreciate it nearly as much a second time."

"No, Vallya. I'm not going to become a dog treat again, even to teach you a lesson. But there's a bit of a..." John hesitated, not sure what to call the rift that currently stood between Sophia and himself. "There's some friction between a few of the people that will be there, not counting whatever happens between you and the others. And I expect you to either be comforting or to ignore it outright. No prying, no teasing, and certainly no vindictiveness."

"...It shouldn't annoy me so much to hear you say that."

Vallya whispered the words, though not lowly enough for John to miss them. The fingers of her right hand trembled on the hard edge of the book's cover, while her left swiped angrily at her eyes, smearing and swiping away the pooling moisture there before it could fall and stain the thick tome. Despite the fact that he'd already assured her that none of Moira's books mentioned Jiina at all, Vallya hadn't stopped combing through them since John arrived.

"But I'll do my best to keep things friendly."

"I'm sure that you will," John said, giving Vallya a confident smile. "Now, get us set up for testing."

"Not a problem!"

Vallya gave a flick of her wrist and blew a kiss into the air, sending a red heart-shaped bubble of mana out. It burst when it touched John, and for a moment the same rainbow luminescence as before showered him. When this one settled in, there was no trace of it left, though it was obvious enough what the effect had been. Vallya was now in two places at once, still seated in the spot that she'd been in, and also standing directly across from John, giving him a happy grin.

"Can you make it, uh, not look like you?" John asked, raising an eyebrow at the illusion.

"What? Tired of me already?" Vallya shifted against the tree, giving him an appropriately foxy look.

"I'm going to be experimenting a lot, and it's probably going to involve doing a lot of hitting and attacking to check damage numbers." John paused, figuring that would be enough, but Vallya remained still. "Illusion or not, I would really feel more comfortable hitting something that doesn't look like you. Or anyone I care about."

"Well, that's sweet. I could make it a little more satisfying for you, I suppose. Maybe a little something like this will encourage-"

Vallya seemed to wince and fold in on herself for a moment, her outstretched hand jerking awkwardly as it came to a stop. The smile on her face faltered, and when it steadied itself, it did not shine as brightly as before.

"Here, Master. This should be acceptable."

There was a subdued tone as Vallya let her motion finish, her fingers twiddling in the air for a second. The illusion that had been a duplicate of Vallya shimmered and shifted until it was a faceless silhouette of sorts, a generic soldier wearing dark grey steel covered in blue runic markings. The completely smooth plane that should have been its face gave off a vibe somewhere between a mannequin and a horror story, but it was certainly a less uncomfortable target to start pummeling than a replica of Vallya.

"Thank you, Vallya. I don't know if that was some attempt at self-flagellation or if you were just messing with me, but-"

"No need to thank me. Just a stray thought I should've never indulged," Vallya said, averting her gaze to a different section of the forest. She waved her hand at John dismissively. "Go on, then. Get started. The illusion should be real enough to convince your abilities, but we've never done this before, so let me know if it needs adjusting."

The way that she was refusing to meet his eyes was off-putting from the ever-forward kitsune, but she seemed to be dealing with whatever was going on in her mind well enough on her own. At least for now. John gave her one more grateful nod and turned his attention to the matter at hand.

Shard of Bishamonten Activated! [100% Integration]
Rune of Resonance Activated! [100% Damage Increase]
Strength, Agility, Endurance, and Libido increased by 20!
Damage Inflicted to Enemies with Negative Alignment: +50%
Damage Received from Enemies with Negative Alignment: -50%
Overflowing Aura Activated: White Lightning [No Targets Selected]
Cruciare has become Lifetime of Penance, Barrier has become Field of Judgment.

John inhaled sharply as the Shard in his chest sprang to full power. As often as he'd felt it activate since it was **** upon him, letting loose the full power of the little sliver of divinity was still an exhilarating experience. Even the creeping taint of old memories that danced at the edges of his mind when he recalled each time he had first become enraged enough to unlock each tier of the Shard could not fully subdue the enthralling vigor and warmth that coursed through him. It left a sour taste in his mouth, all the same... but it was a glorious regret, to be sure.

"Alright. First, I'm going to try it out with my sword." John wasn't sure why he bothered to announce it for Vallya; as far as he knew, she didn't need to adjust the illusion spell based on what he was doing. John pulled the blade from his inventory and twirled it once, getting his hand adjusted to the weight. The rune in the weapon, the one attuned to the Shard, glistened and pulsed as he approached the faceless figure.

John only had the barest of understandings as to what he was meant to do. Activating the Shard wasn't an ability like the rest of what he could do—in fact, it didn't even appear in his inventory, or anywhere in his menus—but he still did it more subconsciously than anything. With each stage of integration, it had become easier, and now he hardly had to do more than think about it to awaken the dormant energy inside of him.

"Etriyya taught me a little bit about channeling my mana in the right ways, how to form it to fit the spell. That's how I learned White Lightning. But this isn't mana, this isn't even really my power. Can I still control it that finely? Even if I do, I wonder if it works the same way?"

Well, standing around and thinking was only going to get him so far. John tightened his grip on the sword and narrowed his focus, bringing his mind to concentrate only on the blade in his hands and the pulsing Shard within. John was surprised when the Shard seemed to show some sign of reacting to his attention. It beat like a second heart, out of rhythm with his own yet twice as noticeable, sending pulses of fire and energy through his body with each rhythmic convulsion.

3,129 DMG!

John was startled into leaping backward as the faceless humanoid before him was cleaved cleanly in two, blood spraying from its severed torso. John felt a warm wetness cover his face, and furiously wiped at his eyes.

Then it was gone. When he pulled his arm away, the blood had vanished entirely, and the figure was standing in the same place it had been, intact once more.

"Does it have to be so realistic?" John said unevenly, lip curling upward as he looked down at his arm, still expecting it to be layered in viscera.

"Not sure. We haven't done anything like this before," Vallya replied, giving a neutral shrug. "You asked if I could make a realistic illusion that would fool your abilities, so I gave it my best shot."

"Right…" John nodded with a note of uncertainty to the explanation. He considered asking her to tone things down, but she was right—he needed accurate readouts and reactions from his system. Still, between the blood and the fact that the illusion apparently had no form of damage reduction to match the armor it wore, the outcome had startled him in more ways than one.

The best way to practice would have been in a Dungeon Barrier, but having to deal with moving targets that fought back would have surely slowed the process down tremendously, and he'd have to keep making new targets. Plus, the only Barrier creatures strong enough to survive more than one hit from him now, especially with the Shard activated, were those close to his new maximum level. He'd waste more time and energy on fighting creatures that powerful than he would on practicing his abilities. That's why he'd asked for Vallya's help in the first place, so there was no sense in being sour about her taking that request seriously.

"Whatever, it's fine."

"Not like I'm not used to blood at this point, anyway…"

John stepped back into position and took up his stance. The damage reading had been normal; it was high, but only boosted by the effects of the Rune of Resonance, not by anything he'd done himself. There wasn't any real sign of change in the sword or his menus either, much less a pop-up telling him he'd learned something new. So this time John took his time, standing with his blade upright and his body steady, trying to keep it relaxed as he took deep breaths.

"More power, then. Let's try that."

John tuned the world out again, focusing on the Shard alone. It pulsed steadily, but this time he didn't just swing the moment that he felt the warmth begin to flow. He let it pool, let it build, and then tried to divert it all up into his arms and channel it into the blade. The rush was intoxicating. John was shocked to find that, for once, it was easy—a little too easy, perhaps, as a notification indicated when he swung the blade.

Rune of Resonance Activated [110%]

3,422 DMG!
-151 Mana

Another spray of blood, and a slight increase to his damage. John winced and kept his eyes closed until the illusory feeling of blood coating his face faded away, then opened them with a sigh.

"Great. That's actually complicating things a little." John frowned, glancing down at the sword. The Rune of Resonance was attuned to the energy in the Shard; John knew that, but he hadn't anticipated the way that it would be so easily drawn into the rune with no conscious effort. And all it had done was to amplify the powers of the rune—possibly useful, but not what he was going for. And it looked like charging himself up in that way cost mana. Not an unreasonable amount, but a much less efficient way of spending it than using his other spells.

"Whatever you did, I definitely felt it." John turned to face Vallya when she spoke, finding that the Kitsune was now staring at him quite intently, a curious look on her face. "Saw it, too. Kind of looked like you just poured a gallon of gasoline on that bonfire in your chest."

"Something like that. Didn't do anything special or unique, though," John replied, turning back to the reformed illusion in front of him. He pondered the faceless figure for a moment before stashing his blade away, returning it to his inventory.

Rune of Resonance Deactivated.

John's skill with a blade was effectively a self-taught intermediate at best, and his skill at pure hand to hand was notably worse. All the same, he raised his fists and tried to take a stance that wouldn't get him mocked as he squared off with the imaginary foe ahead of him.

"There. Nothing to interfere, now."

Again, John did his best to tune out everything else. His stance and his swing weren't important; all he needed to do was get the fundamentals down. Heat welled in his core, a fire that surged along his veins. He tried to suppress that visual, to avoid picturing the energy as a literal flame, not wanting to taint the spell with any sort of elemental manipulation or alteration.

"No fire. Not even mana. Just... whatever this is."

This time the process was a bit harder. John couldn't quite tell if he was actually feeling the shift, or just willing it so hard that he imagined it, but he did his best to push that energy outward, to draw it into his shoulder, down his arm, and settle it within his right fist. He wasn't sure what to do from there—whether to try to pulse it outward, to let it soak into his body, or just hold it.

The decision was made for him as his arm started to tingle... and then burn. Not a feeling of heat this time, but a burning pain that coursed along his arm as the energy pooled there. It was like the worst mixture of electrocution and the tingle of a limb going to sleep; John felt as if the energy was running rampant in his arm, oscillating chaotically rather than flowing purposefully, and damaging him as it did so.

Reflexively, John chose the fastest way that he could think of to release the energy. He threw a hasty punch, bringing his right fist to bear on the unmarked cheek of the illusion. The impact felt real—the smooth, featureless cheek caved a little under his weight, and he felt the flesh give way. There was a secondary impact a moment later, an unexpected jolt of **** that hit John every bit as hard as it did the ghostly figure, diverting his arm's path and throwing John himself so off-balance that he could do little in his startled state except topple unceremoniously to the dirt.

1,072 DMG!
198 DMG!
-415 Mana
-217 HP!

"Okay, now that was just unpleasant."

"I know, I know," John groaned, testing his arm out on the ground below. He hadn't actually seen if any damage was done beyond the **** of the blow, but if it had, Gamer's Body must have fixed it before he even lifted himself off the forest floor. "I kind of panicked, didn't mean to fall like that."

"Not the fall. Well, that part too. I meant that energy."

John glanced over and saw that Vallya looked almost annoyed, her tails arced tense and flicking dangerously, one of her ears twitching. Her mouth was covered with one hand, but he could see that she'd narrowed her eyes to hardly more than slits.

"Care to elaborate?"

"I'm not sure how to describe it. It was... unpleasant, as I said. The energy felt like it was off, different in a way I can't put my finger on. Like the first week after you installed the lightbulbs in the house, and everything just looked so strange until we got used to it. Something was wrong about it, and I don't just mean that you did it incorrectly."

"That's not worrying at all..."

John set his jaw and climbed to his feet, taking his stance and trying to figure out what he'd done wrong. Everything had felt fine until the very moment it hadn't, when his own energy had started to harm him.

"Well... technically, did it harm me?" John paused for a moment and checked his health bar. It was still sitting at just the 217 HP missing, which meant that he hadn't taken any damage prior to the explosion. "No, it hurt like hell, but it didn't actually do any real damage. Guess that's something, anyway. Not great that it did so much damage to me, though. Most of my magic sort of excludes me as a target as long as I'm not doing something crazy reckless; is this not doing that because it's different, because it's not actually mine, or just because I wasn't controlling it quite right?"

John didn't know the answer, and there was only one way to find it. He started to experiment with the way that the Shard's energy flowed in him. He tried calling it out the moment his fist struck, the moment before it struck, he tried building it up on the outside of his hand instead of within himself, and he tried simply focusing on the Shard while he was striking, along with a half-dozen other ways to try calling on the energy.

Every attempt either failed or resulted in him getting damaged by the explosion—often while feeling like his limbs were on fire until the moment the energy was released. His health and mana took a sizable dip in just twenty minutes of practice, leaving him annoyed, though not entirely displeased.

"I could probably use this in enchantments or something, but I don't know if it's much use in combat until I figure out how to make it work for me," John called out, waving his hand at the illusion. "You can dismiss it, Vallya."

"Mmm, not yet, Master. Can I make a suggestion?" Vallya responded, that same thoughtful, slightly annoyed look plastered on her face again.

"You have some idea of why I'm hurting myself?"

"Actually, I do," Vallya said, glancing at his chest. She gave a smirk, one both annoyed and yet amused, and shook her head with a note of disbelief. "Honestly, I should have noticed it sooner. I think I know why that energy felt so wrong."