Chapter 52 - Fate's enforcer (1)

They were also curious about his spiritual elements, but only a little. Unless that essence had changed something, it should be lightning and ice.

Belphegor suddenly had a hunch, and his eyebrows started twitching as he said, "It better just be lightning and ice; this damn boy has already brought too many surprises for my old heart."

Hati rolled his eyes at that, "Oh yeah, cause a thousands of years old sixth-revolution Einherjar is going to keel over from a heart attack. You'll be fine, Father."

Belphegor narrowed his eyes at his son, "Damn you, brat, have some respect for an old man, will you? Now get started already, and you better not have anything but the lightning and ice elements, or I'll show you how an old man disciplines his son!"

Hati snickered at his father's empty threats and closed his eyes before he tossed the last crimson foundation pill down his throat.

As he felt the energy flowing towards his heart focal once again, he prepared himself for any eventuality. 

The thing is, as a mortal, only the memories are stored inside the soul; everything else, like self-awareness, emotions and critical thinking, are all handled by the brain.

Incidentally, this means that memories are the only thing that transmigrated from Earth to Asgard for both Hati and Luna.

Of course, you could have a thousand debates on whether it is memories or the specific wiring of your brain that has the most impact on a person's personality and sense of self.

But Hati's situation makes a decent case that memories and early life weigh the heaviest since he changed very little after coming to Asgard. 

Furthermore, as a mortal, the soul is somewhat intangible, and although it still resides in a person's head, interacting with it requires the power of at least a sixth-revolution Einherjar.

However, intangibility, in this case, does not include invulnerability, as the soul is quite fragile in this state. Targeting it for specific actions might be challenging, but even the weakest area of effect that targets souls would annihilate any mortal soul.

Regardless, all this changes after forming the soul core. At that point, the soul will move into the soul core and become more available for interaction, which is obviously both good and bad.

The soul core, which is embedded in the brain, will then also start taking over most of the brain's functions, except for actual control over the body, since it is still necessary to send and receive signals to the muscles, organs and senses, much to the delight of nature element wielders. 

However, this only extends to the physical body, as the soul core entirely controls the spirit core.

The good things here are, first of all, that it becomes much harder to die, not only because the soul is now better protected against an area of effect but also because losing the brain is not a death sentence anymore. As long as the soul core remains intact, life continues.

Besides that, with the soul core now handling most of the brain's functions, the brain can be entirely remodelled to control the body's signals as quickly and efficiently as possible. 

Plus, the soul is much more powerful than the average brain, and handing critical thinking over to it will essentially provide a boost in intelligence.

The bad thing is obviously that your soul is much easier to target for individual actions, like placing a slave seal or other nasty practices.

But this whole thing was also what had Hati and his parents the most worried. After all, what essentially boils down to his entire being would soon start residing in that soul core, which has merged with that strange essence, causing as-of-yet unknown changes.

Who knows if that essence will act as a slave seal after his soul moves into its core?

Still, what other choice did he have? Give up and remain a mortal? Obviously not. Besides, his father could find nothing wrong with the embryonic soul core in his heart focal, so the only thing left was to simply form the soul core and hope for the best.

When the energy saturation in his heart focal reached the peak, it overflowed, and his heart-focal rank shot up to nine. 

When that happened, he immediately felt a great pain in his chest, as two peanut-sized crystals came out of his heart focal and started moving through his body. They didn't tear anything, but having two such objects scraping past your organs was far from a pleasant feeling.

He groaned in pain, only being slightly relieved when his spirit core settled around his navel; his soul core, however, had to get to his head, which was much more complex and painful.

When the soul core finally reached its destination, it shot straight up into his brain, causing Hati a flash of immense pain before he fainted while his soul and entire being were transferred into the soul core.

After he fainted, he was suddenly floating in a familiar, black void. He also heard a familiar, disembodied voice, "We meet again."

Hearing that voice caused Hati to frown, "It's you again. Didn't you say we would be able to talk face to face after I formed my soul core?"

The voice sighed in response, "Yes, but that substance you call essence seems to be preventing it."

This caused Hati to raise an eyebrow, "Oh? I can't say I'm particularly displeased with that. Despite your assurance that the soul projection is harmless, I'd prefer it if nothing messed with my soul. I suppose this also means that the essence did not come from you?"

"No, it did not. Still, would you not consider this essence to be messing with your soul, just like I would? Did I do something to make you suspicious of me?"

Hati shrugged in response, "Besides the fact that you admitted to being my enemy? I guess it's just a case of the devil, you know, versus the devil, you don't. 

The essence has already integrated into my soul core; there is no changing that for now. No reason to have you messing with it, too."

Hati could hear the voice snorting before suddenly noticing a bright golden light, quickly causing him to shield his eyes. It seemed that even in soul form, his eyes could be blinded.

When he could look up again, a beautiful woman stood before him, one who seemed to embody the colour gold, golden hair, golden eyes, golden robe, and even her skin seemed to give off a golden glow.

Her facial features were soft, making her look kind, but her eyes ruined that image, as there was a deep-seated indifference there.

Hati was stunned for a moment but quickly shook himself out of it as he addressed her with narrowed eyes, "I thought we couldn't meet face to face? And who are you, anyway?"

The woman seemed to look at Hati for a while before she shrugged with indifference and spoke with a voice that was distinctly similar to the disembodied one, except that it now had the unmistakable tones of a woman's voice, "I lied."

She looked around and said, "If it's just me, then I can project myself fine, but I feel naked without my usual surroundings.

You know, you are the first person to speak to me directly since the Six Worlds were created, and this is also the first time I find myself in a place outside of my golden hall."

She shrugged again, "Surely you can't blame me for wanting to bring my hall with me. Unfortunately, this will have to do." 

After saying so, she snapped her fingers, and a large golden throne appeared, which she quickly sat on. "Now, let's talk. I'm sure you have a lot of questions."

Hati was a little annoyed at her indifferent and arrogant behaviour as he felt his pride shard flaring up, but he had no idea how to create a throne in this place like she did, so all he could do was look up at her with indignance.

He said, "I already asked my first question; how about you start there?"

If the golden woman noticed Hati's annoyance, she didn't show it, as she said with her usual indifferent voice, "As I said, you are the first person to interact with me directly, so if you are looking for a name, I have none to give, nor did I ever care to think of one. 

No one else knows I exist or simply assumes I am fate."

Hati raised an eyebrow, "And are you?"

For a moment, he thought he saw something besides indifference flash through the woman's eyes, but it was gone before he could truly register it as she responded, "I am not. I suppose you could consider me fate's enforcer."

Hati became a little more wary, "Enforcer, huh? That sounds ominous. What do you do exactly?"

The woman shrugged indifferently once again, which seemed to be a habit of hers, "I do whatever is required to bring fate's ultimate ending to fruition."