Arash's Soul Hall Domain

"Sorry!"

Arash checked his smartwatch after he cleared the last bit of things from his trekking session. It has been very tiring, yet he was eager for his next agenda.

2.20 am. 

Finally, he had time for himself. 

He glanced at the kids sprawling on his bed with mixed emotions. 

They were sleeping soundly after a short fight with each other around 9 pm. The content of the fight was about who can hug Papa more effectively. This privilege was only given to their Mama all this while. For once, both kids slept on Arash's left and right shoulders, stopping him from moving while making him cramped up all over. He had to wriggle out carefully for him not to wake them up. 

And it was tough, especially when one had stiff shoulders.

Hana must've had it tough to face this daily all these years. He had no idea. Now he knew why his wife kept on having terrible body aches all the time. 

Arash gently caressed Aira and Aina's heads before he walked out of the room and closed the door as quietly as possible. 

Arash sat cross-legged on the sofa and calmed himself with deep, even breaths. 

After his little adventure, he could finally feel relieved in body and mind, especially after being able to somehow 'feel' Hana's presence and seeing his kids safe and sound. It was like a heavy mental burden had been lifted from his mind. 

Arash observed the sea of rhythmic wave-like particles moving in and out of his body. After the Reawakening Ceremony, his eyes would catch the movement of the strange particle-like entity as long as he concentrate a little. They were everywhere around him, and clung to him like a puffed up transparent jacket. of It took a while, but finally, he managed to see his soul again once he focused on the movement of a single soul energy particle. He wanted to observe what it looked like within his own soul when he wasn't connected to Hana this time. He couldn't enter a couple of times when he tried previously until he properly recalled his first moment 'seeing' the little pulse and re-emulated the experience. 

Focus on his beating heart first until it was as loud as a drum.

Once achieving deep focus with intense concentration, target a single energy particle and follow it. It will lead to the hub, which was the soul central area. 

He was very glad he succeeded with only the first try this time. It only took a little longer to achieve the needed focus.

Arash took note of the kind of environment that could make him focus. A quiet, soundless environment without people was the most ideal. His kids, beside him, safe and sound, gave him peace of mind. 

During his stay in the Bateq's village, he never had true privacy. Although the hayas weren't that close to each other and nobody disturbed him, Tok Silihan's haya was just next door, and it was manned by villagers day and night. Maybe, subconsciously, he couldn't calm down due to having the feeling of always being spied on besides constantly worrying over the children. 

Arash re-entered the illusory node with caution.

As he opened his eyes again, he had turned into a transparent ball-like lump with a splash of pastel color to it. However, his body didn't shimmer like a star like last time; it only had an occasional soft glow. 

From time to time, a group of Soul Energy Particles entered him, making him feel like being bathed in an onsen, though the feeling was fleeting. He knew that these little pulses were artificially generated from the electronic Soul Cultivation Chant he set as faint background noise through his wireless earbuds. He felt good and energized for that short moment. 

New Soul Energy Particles came out from him and moved outwards in waves. However, the waves were just tiny waves. It was vastly different when he was connected to Hana where the waves were akin to tsunamic-level torrents. They washed over his whole being and hovered over his skin at every part of his body. They will then stay there and orbited his body without any kind of direction or order. As of now, the pulses accumulated were still very little. 

Arash had used quite a lot on Lisa, Alan, and especially Uncle Miles and Tok Silihan. He noticed that stronger-willed individuals needed more pulses to influence them. However, since he had only tested on very few people, he would reserve his judgment for now. 

Another thing of note was that the Soul Energy Particles were a kind of consumable energy. Once he sent them over to his target, they were considered spent and were gone for good. He had never seen any of the pulses returned once they entered someone else's body.

Arash turned to look around him. 

It was all black, silent, and lonely, like a starless night, and only an illusory incomplete bridge-like structure could be seen at the very edge of the unknown dark space. Yes, this was Arash's Soul Hall Domain. But it was so tiny and devoid of any 'stars' around him. This time, no soul energy movement could be observed traveling between the partial bridge and his own soul. 

Everything was at a standstill.

Arash worked hard to influence the movement of the little pulses. 

A few newly made Soul Particle Energy stopped joining the crowd and moved in a different direction. Unlike the first time which was unbelievably hard, he succeeded after some time. Additionally, the number of pulses which responded to his instructions was slightly more than before.

Arash was positive that with enough practice, it will become easier.

The little pulses circled around him once, just like little docile birds, and proceeded to move against the conventional wave-like pattern. They moved erratically for a while before finally reaching the illusory bridge. It took all of Arash's power to control their movements from going off course.

Finally, the bridge shimmered as they entered the bridge.

And that's it.

No change. It was so underwhelming, to say the least.

Arash scrunched his brow and retry again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

...

..

.

After his forty-sixth try, Arash saw the appearance of an inch of a single new brick, at the corner of the illusory bridge. He knew he didn't mistakenly see it since he had been zooming in on this particular section from the very beginning.

This is not going to work...

Arash looked back at the bridge and sighed helplessly. 

There were hundreds of bricks already formed, and that one small inch seemed very insignificant. He knew there need to be thousands more to go for the bridge to be completed. 

He remembered vividly the short moment during which he could feel Hana's presence. The bridge was rapidly forming from nothing until it became something exclusively from the torrential Soul Particle Energy tinged with Hana's presence. Due to how fast the energy was flowing in as compared to its consumption into forming bridge constructs, the access even forcefully nourished and improved his own soul. 

The only way to speed up the process of bridge construction was to somehow connect to Hana properly and receive help from her end. 

However, he had tried. He simply couldn't reconnect with Hana outside of the Reawakening Ceremony. He wasn't sure why.

While Arash was thinking deeply, his fingers inadvertently fiddled with Tok Silihan's gift, the fang-shaped pendant. He had been wearing it all along and hadn't taken it off. It reminded him of his conversation with Tok Silihan about the activation of his Spiritual Root. 

Finding other exits, huh? 

This was one of his newest goals. 

Find ways to activate the pendant. 

The pendant can only be triggered with Spiritual Energy from a user to detect the environment's natural spiritual energy density. From their previous discussion, Arash concluded that he had to be able to supply a minimal amount of Spiritual Energy at all times for the pendant to function like a scanner. 

He didn't want to think about what comes next after finding another Hell's gate. Even activating the pendant was too farfetched for now.

One problem at a time. There must be a way. Arash encouraged himself. He had to prioritize and find something that he could actually do from his end.

He remembered his success in pulling something out of thin air to make the muscles on his finger strum. 

Arash immediately tried again. He painstakingly redirected newly made soul energy towards his right index finger. He found that once the soul energy left the vicinity of his body, the effort to control them had become significantly difficult as compared to the newly generated ones. 

Nothing happened.

Arash massaged his temples with one hand as he sighed. Why was it so hard?

He slapped his head after a moment of thinking. The muscles moved when he pulled something out from thin air with his Soul Particle Energy. Of course nothing happened right now! The 'something' came from outside! What he did was essentially concentrated Soul Particle Energy on his finger, not that 'something'! 

"Papa?"

Arash was startled by Ai's call. He was focusing so hard he didn't notice Ai's presence beside him.

"Yes, Ai. Why are you not sleeping? Want Papa to accompany you to the toilet?"

"Papa, Papa..." Ai sighed exasperatedly while shaking her head left and right.

"It's already morning. The alarm already rang so long. Didn't you hear it?"

Perplexed by Ai's words, Arash immediately looked at his smartwatch. His daughter was speaking the truth! It was already 6.20 am! It meant that the alarm had been ringing from 5 am and he hadn't heard any of it! The four-plus hours of practice and building the first inch of 'brick' felt like a twenty minute task. 

Arash sighed. 

"Alright, go wash your face. Papa will prepare some cereal for you, alright?"

He needed to hold off his experimentation again for tonight.

...