Chapter 59: Freedom Paradox
Shout-out to James25 ma, DENSYS BRATINI, Jazzonicasian17
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***
Nik felt as if he was being torn apart from the inside. Two strange forces were given birth within his body the moment he fell unconscious and they struggled against each other. Nik soon came to be. But he couldn't move.
In front of him, two forces given life after the strange encounter could be seen struggling.
But aside from the vague sensation of pain Nik could only see two colors lashing at each other. A string o blue surrounding pure white continuously latched on the existence of red surrounding pitch black. While the former only sought to shackle the latter, the existence of red and black continued to thrash. The more Nik looked at the latter, the more enamored he felt and as if sensing his moment of desire, unexpectedly, the figure of black and red that was nothing more than a tendril lashed out at Nik.
In the strange world where Nik could only see the struggle of two, he found himself writhing in pain himself.
It continued.
And it continued for years to come.
His senses felt warped but then again, he felt he was being protected somehow because he still remembered everything about himself. He didn't feel changed or attacked despite the two forces colliding again, and again. The former simply refused to let go. It looked like a leech, feeding off of the red one and seemingly thriving but the latter's source of... existence felt unending as if the two were meant to remain in this struggle...
Until...
Nik perked up as a wave of fire emerged under suspicious circumstances akin to a whip that broke the two forces and the image collapsed in an instant.
What was left, however, was a tiny source of violet.
It instantly enlarged and shot towards Nik and when it reached point-blank—
"Huaah!"
Nik gasped, suddenly sitting up with cold sweat matting his forehead.
'Where am I?' He looked around only to find himself within a forest. With a thought he pulled out a can of water and quenched his dried throat and licked his dry lips, biting off some of the dried skin- a bad habit of his.
"I'm... fine?" Nik frowned and looked at his hands and then touched his face. Feeling nothing, Nik stood up with a grunt and he heard a faint call.
"--- Nik!"
His ears perked up and he looked to his left, shouting in an instant, "Katara! I'm here!"
He moved towards the voice, pushing away the bushes in the way as he suddenly tripped over, tumbling down suddenly but he was quick to roll along with the momentum, something he had learned yesterday and Suki would argue that his form lacked quite a bit to be desired but...
"Suki?" Nik mumbled in surprise as he crawled over to the unconscious Suki, patting her cheeks while calling her name in an effort to wake her up.
"Mmgh... I didn't..." Suki mumbled as her eyelids barely parted. Her vision was cloudy and her body shaking in Nik's arms and as she registered Nik's voice, a whimper escaped her lips with tears beginning to well up in her eyes.
*Shrrsh*
The sound of bushes being parted with Katara walking up, her eyes red and puffy as if she had been bawling her eyes out.
"There you are," She grumbled, obviously in a bad mood but when she peered forward, her expression turned solemn. "Do you know what happened?"
Nik looked back and shook his head but seeing the strange expression on her face Nik couldn't help but inquire, "What?"
"Your... eyes. What happened to them?"
---
Nik, Katara, and Suki settled in a nearby clearing temporarily. They had clearly gone through better treatment and after her initial bout of tears, Suki had largely kept to herself and the trio kept a short distance between themselves. They had thought of reaching the nearby village conveniently but their trip had been cut short with what can be called a descend into hell. Well, at least, that's how it felt to the trio. Even Nik was trapped in that strange sense of struggle.
Currently, Nik held a rather expensive mirror in his hands. He had, of course, acquired quite a bit from the palace in Omashu but even he couldn't ask more than necessary for his devour and it didn't really matter. He just wanted to devour another fire nation battleship and then check the results of ranking up in the organization called 'Infinity.'
His dark pupils were changed.
Physically so.
Nik silently observed his violet irises surrounding the dark pupils and his thoughts constantly returned to the violet flash of light n the world of mist that seemingly struck him.
'Not to mention...'
Nik closed his eyes and realized he felt more energetic than before as if a burden had slid down off of his shoulders, chest, and ankles. It wasn't a physical reaction but more spiritual, if Nik had to term it.
Constant recollection of his encounter with the figment of Esta Faran projected by his mind and then the struggle that felt like an eternity provided him no other information and seeing that only the color of his eyes had changed made Nik speculate that he was the only one who went through this particular encounter with the violet orb.
As for the Nik without any desire? Even Nik himself did not find it noteworthy to recall the illusion and became another factor to his drive to better himself.
Left with no choice and a little worried by the nature of the encounter, Nik pulled up his entire status that 'Infinity' provided and soon a set of three screens appeared in front of him.
[Name: Nik Faran
Age: 20 (80)
Code: GC—EHG—98034
Authority Rank: 0 (89.7462/100)
Paradise: Transmigration
Bloodline: Adonis' Ember (Common)]
[Authority Rank: 0
No benefits.]
[Skills:
1) Freedom Paradox Physique: A being unbound by metaphysical shackles and restrictions around itself, yet bound by its own devices.
Bloodline—
1) Charm of Adonis: The user's charm can attract the opposite gender and similarly oriented individuals.]
Nik silently stared at the new addition of the Freedom Paradox Physique and then pondered on its explanation. Needless to say, Nik could only vaguely understand what the explanation of the skill hinted at best but now he was sure that things weren't as simple as an illusion and this led him to break the silence.
"Should we talk about what happened?"
"Not really," Suki was the first to reply with the glom saturated in her tone and Katara silently shook her head.
"Fine, I will go then. I think talking about it will make me feel better, even if little," Nik mumbled and began deliberately, "I met the illusion of an acquaintance..."
"It wasn't an illusion. Whom we met are the spirits of those dead," Suki interjected.
"The person I met is alive," Nik looked at her, "And given my last encounter, that person will be in good health."
"It... really was an illusion?" Katara pursed her lips with doubt flickering in her eyes. Just thinking about her encounter filled her with pain and desperation that she never wanted to feel.
"Are you sure?" Suki inquired. Unlike usual, she wasn't quick to assert her own thoughts and seemed more than willing to believe Nik with hope in her voice.
"I also saw myself and I'm alive. It was just... our fears, probably, our doubts were given form by some strange entity. Anyway, it's fine if you don't want to talk about it but..." Nik hesitated a bit yes resolve grew in his eyes, "If... you want to talk about it. Or spar it out, you know, to vent... don't hesitate. I would have probably forced out the truth from you if I was a bit stronger."
Nik smiled as he added the latter portion of the statement. His smile was infectious as Suki nodded with a slight smirk but she still seemed quite out of her thoughts, "Then you just have to practice more."
"Or learn bending the elements, but that doesn't seem possible," Katara coughed, and seeing Nik's dead glare, a smile finally touched her lips. Although there was still doubt in Katara and Suki as they chalked Nik's analysis of the situation in an effort to comfort them, they also felt that the situation seemed more... targeting. As if it was meant to make them feel like shit.
"So... what did you see? You said you wanted to talk about it..." Katara inquired as Nik sighed deeply, "I saw I had lost all my will... like a puppet with no desire of my own. Saying it out loud sounds so stupid," he snorted a chuckle, "But I'm glad that things didn't turn out that way for me and I'm also glad to have been able to share it."
"What about that person you kept talking about? The one you're sure to be alive..."
"My trainer," Nik mumbled, "But it is because of her that I'm sure that it is an illusion... you see... she was too kind and... passive. And that was one of my worst fears, that form of hers because it only represented the calm before the storm. However, she was empty."
"You don't talk a lot about your past... maybe I will take you up on that offer," Suki mumbled, "To spar, of course."
"Then I will choose the option of chatting," Katara's timely snicker lightened the mood but it was clear that despite feeling a bit better, they still weren't inclined to speak up on their experience, at least, not in each other's presence for the time being.
After taking a short rest, the trio got up once again, intending to leave for the village since they weren't sure whether the same incident would occur once again or not.
As they walked, Nik couldn't help but frown and stop suddenly.
"Do you guys hear it? Some kind of chatter?" His question instantly made the two women stop in their tracks and they glanced around cautiously. They remained silent, straining their hearing but even after a few minutes nothing happened and they heard nothing.
"Could it be some kind of stress?" Suki questioned as Nik frowned.
"I did hear something... I'm sure of it," Nik grumbled but with nothing strange happening anymore, they left for the village marked on the map. This place was considerably away from Omashu and said to be developed relatively with their earthbenders already released so this fact already indicated that the capacity to hypnotize others was quite limited and only Nik among the trio knew why the children were the key demographic of this disaster.
Well, anyone with a bit more sense would realize the plot to control the future generation but given the poetic prose in the piece of information Zhao tortured him about, Nik felt he had a pretty good idea about the actual reason for all this.
***
A/N: The freedom paradox physique will be in play for a long, long time and is connected with my head canon for the additional lore of the Avatar and how it will interact with the coming worlds including big ones like bleach and even warlock of the magus world so you can expect me to not just give this skill low rank and keep on upgrading it. This may not be powerful in a destructive sense and immediately power up... but it is op in what I plan.
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