Vortex Origins

Ash's sword stayed locked in place, its tip aimed at nothing.

"My… soul?"

His voice cracked as the question left his lips. His eyes searched the empty field, but the only thing answering him was the soft wind brushing the grass.

The voice had said it was living inside him.

"I don't get it. What do you mean, my soul?"

It didn't answer right away.

Ash listened, waiting, the stillness around him growing heavier.

Then the voice whispered again, as if curled up inside his head, like it belonged there.

"Huh. I thought you were going to tell me why."

Ash's grip tightened. He frowned.

"What? Wait—what do you mean you don't know? You're inside me and you're telling me you don't know why? What kind of answer is that?"

A pause. Not long in reality, but it stretched inside Ash like an echo in a cave with no end. Just when Ash was about to speak again, the voice returned.

"I'm sorry... I lost my memory. But there's one thing I still remember. Just one."

The voice hesitated, then spoke with certainty.

"Your face. And your name. Ashley Burns."

His heart skipped.

Ash's eyes widened. That name—it was his.

He had hoped, for a moment, that the entity in his soul had made a mistake. Maybe it had confused him for someone else, matched the face but not the name. But hearing it spoken so clearly, so deliberately... there was no room for doubt.

Everyone in Varagos knew the name Ashley Burns. Stories of him passed through whispers and warnings, through radio static and market chants. People feared him or respected him; this was because he was one of the sons of flame. But that didn't mean he was unique. Not in a world this cursed.

Still, what were the odds of someone having the same face and name as him?

He doesn't have a twin, and even if he does, what are the odds of both of them sharing the same name? Even his brothers, who people usually say look alike, don't share his name. This was no mistake. The thing in his soul had called him out, and it meant him.

But something still stank.

What if the voice belonged to a creature, or something worse? What if it was faking all of it? What if it was pretending to know him, playing familiarity like a blade behind the back? Get too comfortable, and you don't see the stab coming.

Ash had trusted before. Once. And he didn't like the result. This was another reason why he hated creatures and didn't like getting help from one.

The first was them taking away his mother from him.

Ash stepped back without thinking. Every instinct told him to tear into this presence, to carve it out of his soul before it nested too deep.

But how could he do it?

Ash couldn't remember any being that could reach into someone's soul—not a creature like this. Not with that kind of voice that sounded like a child.

No known Tier 6 creature had the power to cross into another's soul. He had believed they couldn't even touch this place. But now? That belief crumbled.

What were the chances?

A child—able to enter someone's soul?

In Varagos, children only began forming their soulcores at twelve. That was when they first entered their soul space. Before that, it was locked, unreachable. The path of an ascended couldn't begin without it.

So how?

How could a child slip through the deepest place of his being like it was nothing?

And even if this child had his name and face… someone had to give it to him. Someone sent him.

That thought stayed buried under Ash's calm, but it gnawed. He couldn't ask. The voice had no memory. It claimed to remember only his name.

"So, you lost your memory... but you remember my face and my name. Is that really all? What about the person who gave you my name? Or how you got into my soul? You didn't just... appear."

A long pause followed.

The space around him felt colder now. And more quiet. He still felt the pressure from the dread mark in the area.

The voice replied.

"No. I only remember you. I thought... I thought you let me in. I thought I was supposed to be here. I don't even know how I got inside."

Ash's grip tightened. The answer did nothing. It circled back to nothing.

He remembered the asteroid.

The broken temple. The small orb glowing like it held a second sun inside it. The hum it made when he reached for it. The voice he heard, faint and childlike, before the asteroid got destroyed.

That was the first time. But back then, he didn't expect the voice to know him.

Ash lowered his head slightly, staring forward.

"How do you know you're in my soul? You said you lost your memory."

The voice spoke again.

"Oh... right. I know what a soulspace is. And how it works. Because I used to—"

The voice cut off.

Ash's gaze sharpened.

"Used to what."

A ripple passed through the air.

"I remember something. I remember something!"

Ash narrowed his eyes then slowly lowered the blade. He hadn't trusted the voice, not once—but in that moment, something changed.

The tone.

It wasn't trickery. It wasn't fear.

It was joy. Pure, unfiltered joy.

Like a child finding a long-lost toy at the bottom of a forgotten box.

But even then, Ash didn't relax. He listened. His muscles were still tense.

"What did you remember. Is it about the person who sent you to me?"

The voice answered. Still excited.

"No. I remember... I remember I have a soulspace too."

Ash tilted his head slightly.

'What is he talking about? Doesn't everyone have a soul space?'

Just like before, Ash was going nowhere. He wanted more. Anything else that can at least give him a clue to what he is dealing with.

"So, is that all? Did you remember anything else?"

A pause. Then the voice returned.

"Mm… no. Nothing at the moment. Just that I have a soul space with two Soulcores floating in the sky. The same ones you have in yours. But you've got four. And I've only got two. That's not fair."

Ash let out a breath and sat down, legs crossed, facing the stream near the waterfall.

He wasn't on edge anymore. Not after that. If this being was lying, it was a damn good lie because the only ones who knew about his extra Soulcores were those he trusted beyond reason.

Rowan came to mind. Max might have told him something, but Ash doubted he understood what it meant. The Divine Soulcore hadn't revealed itself through flashy effects. Only the new skill that came with the core.

If Rowan knew something, it would be that Ash gained a new skill. But still that would raise questions, because Ash already reach the maximum slots of skills for both his fire and lighting soulcore.

But then again, he still has his free slot on his dark soulcore.

And there will be no way anyone will come to a conclusion that Ash gained another soulcore.

Why would they?

In this world, everyone knew the rules. Soulcores couldn't be given, bought, or transferred.

No.. Not everyone.

Apex had broken that law.

Ash remembered from the asteroid event. Jov, the fire-soulcore Ascended, had been born with only one Soulcore—yet now wielded two. Apex had given him another. And if they could do it, they knew more than they let on.

And Apex wasn't alone.

The military, or more precisely, the monster that lived behind its iron smile—the Powerhouse—they'd know. If Apex had scratched that secret, the Powerhouse had already swallowed it whole.

Ash stared at the cascade again, the roar of the water dulling the thoughts in his mind.

No fish stirred beneath the surface.

Still watching, Ash spoke in a low tone.

"So… have you ever met me before? Inside the soul space?"

The voice answered after a moment.

"Not face to face. But yes, I've seen you. Many times. I just couldn't talk. I was too drained."

Ash narrowed his eyes.

"Drained? Did you use up your energy on something… before entering my soul?"

The voice replied, almost too fast.

"Yes and no. I was low on energy, yes. But I didn't use it on anything. When you found me, I was already empty. Completely empty even. My Soul Pool capacity was at zero. I had nothing at all."

Ash's eyes widened.

'Zero? Well… he is a kid. Maybe at the time, he hadn't awakened his Soulcore yet.'

Still, something about it made Ash's lips twitch. A child awakening their Soulcore inside someone else's soul—that wasn't just rare. It was unnatural. The kind of occurrence that only happens once… and maybe never again.

The voice continued, unbothered by Ash's silence.

"I couldn't do anything but watch the darkness. But slowly… I began to feel it. My Soul pool. It came, drop by drop, until something began to fill inside me."

Ash's eye twitched.

That didn't make sense.

Newly awakened didn't grow soul pools like that. They just… got them. A hundred points of soul pool capacity, formed in an instant the moment the Soulcore crystallized. And especially within Ash's soul. There was no reason this presence should be gaining anything at all.

Without soul energy drawn from the dead, there was nothing to grow.

But the voice kept going.

"After a long time… I started to feel alive. I could see more than just the dark. I saw four Soulcores shining in the sky. Then you came. But I was too weak to speak—or even move. Then my soul pool grew. I began to see the world… through your eyes.

Then more. Until now—I can speak."

Ash felt the chill ripple down his spine.

This was unlike anything he'd heard. A presence forming a soul pool independently, growing by itself, inside another person's soul? That wasn't possible.

At least… it shouldn't be.

The voice spoke again, softer this time. But heavier:

"But none of that compares to what happened… after I just remembered my soul space."

Ash's breath hitched.

Everything the voice had said already felt like breaking every rule of Soul Theory. But this... this was something else.

He narrowed his eye, tense.

"Hold up. I don't understand what you mean by filling your soul pool without absorbing soul energy from the world. Can you explain more?"

Then came the words that changed everything, ignoring his question.

"I have my own soul space… inside your soul."