Atticus's Odyssey: Reincarnated Into A Playground

Chapter 1391  Substitution

'How should I go about this?'

This was a thought Atticus found himself having for the tenth time now.

How should he go about this?

The next lesson, substitution, required him to search for another anchor. Emotions, while potent, were unreliable.

To activate Solvath's fragment, Atticus first had to go through the Star's emotions. Live through his life. However, he knew better than anyone just how dangerous it was.

He could get lost. They could consume him. Only terrible things could come from relying on emotions.

However, it didn't change the fact that this was what had worked until now. How could he use another anchor?

Anorah's presence suddenly vanished from his senses.

'She's gone.' He realized. 'I have to handle this myself.'

As he came to that conclusion, he took a deep breath.

'Think this through.'

His mind worked fast as he pondered the conundrum. And after countless thoughts, he reached two conclusions he decided to try out.

'I'll activate the fragment and observe the process.'

Atticus did just that. Though the emotions flowed through him, he used the teachings of the first and second lessons to ground himself.

However, after a few seconds, he frowned.

His eyes blazed purple, and his heart pounded hard in his chest. He could feel the surge of Solvath's emotions, but that was all.

'No process…'

There was no process. It was as though Solvath's fragment was ingrained into the emotions themselves. He decided to try the next thing.

'My will.'

Rather than try to learn with the fragment, he would focus on his will for now, then use what he learned on the fragment.

'The Burning…' Atticus' will, the Burning, was centered on his desire to protect his loved ones and burn the world.

His belief, as he had told Whisker, was simple: the world is tinder; I will choose what burns and what survives.

Pure, unfiltered domination. He controlled all.

To use it, Atticus always had to enforce his belief onto the world. To dominate. In a way, it was centered on his emotions, to protect, and to destroy.

Right now, these were the emotions that Atticus utterly suppressed in order to achieve his goal. He had used his will to such an extent that it became second nature. Instinctive.

In simpler terms, it was easier to activate than Solvath's fragment.

Suppressing his emotion, Atticus chose to focus on a logical pattern instead. He used one of the patterns Anorah had suggested: geometric focus.

He started by visualizing a perfect shape in his mind. A circle. Then he held it steady until it stabilized. At the same time, he tried to call upon his will. Nothing.

'Again.'

Atticus repeated the same thing. Formed a circle in his mind until it stabilized, while simultaneously trying to summon his will. However, just like before, there was no response.

But Atticus didn't stop. He repeated it, over and over again. He visualized and visualized, trying to summon his will.

Time blurred until he lost track of it. At this point he didn't even know how many times he repeated the process.

'It's not working.'

His goal here had been to search for another focus besides his emotions. He had hoped that repeating this process would make his will attribute its activation to the pattern.

'It could be the pattern. Maybe it doesn't work for me,' he thought to himself.

Besides geometric focus, there were numerous other logical patterns he could use. He decided to flip between patterns to find the one that worked for him.

Next, he used mantras. Repeating the same thing over and over in his mind while trying to unleash his will could attribute them together. However, after numerous tries, he was disappointed to discover that he received no response.

And this was the case for many other logical patterns he tried. Atticus was beginning to become frustrated.

'Last one.'

For the last pattern, he picked breath counts.

Atticus inhaled slowly, then he began to count.

'One… two… three… four.'

Hold.

'One… two… three… four.'

Exhale.

'One… two… three… four.'

During the first cycle, he felt nothing. Only air flooding his lungs.

But he did it again.

And again.

Each cycle began to feel longer. The rhythm was mechanical. Unlike emotions, it did not waver. It was only after numerous turns that Atticus found this different from other patterns.

Unlike the other patterns, it felt… physical. He could feel the air flooding his lungs. He could feel the relief it brought him.

He felt… it.

Time blurred once more. And all Atticus did was: inhale. Hold. Exhale.

Then his heartbeat began to sync with it, no longer erratic, no longer pounding wild. He felt his blood calm, his muscles loosen, his mind sharpen.

He had control.

The thought suddenly slipped into his mind, and with it… something stirred.

As he inhaled once more, his will responded. Blazing.

Atticus peeled his eyes open and stretched out his palm. A flicker of crimson danced upon it. But he quickly noticed something different.

'It's… calm.'

Though it still blazed, Atticus could see that his fire was calmer, tame. With a thought, it flared, and with another, it dimmed.

Atticus smiled. Though he never had any problem with controlling his will, the current situation felt different.

There were no emotions involved.

The Burning rose at his call, not because of what he felt, but because of what he chose.

"It works."

While the other patterns had failed him, his breath hadn't. Breath was something he could feel, that his body could respond to.

For the first time since awakening, his will had answered without a trace of emotion.

The path of Logoth had opened wider.

With that out of the way, Atticus practiced activating his will with his breath count multiple times until he got the hang of it. Then he turned to the fragment.

With a deep breath, Atticus repeated the steps he had used for his will. It went without saying that this was significantly harder. While he was used to his own will, an extension of himself, Solvath's fragment was different. Alien. It wasn't his power.

Because of this, Atticus eventually shifted his approach. He fused the teachings of the earlier lessons with his breath counts.

As the scenes flashed in his mind, he resisted the urge to let his power loose. He simply observed, forcing his emotions to still. Then he inhaled, counted, held, counted, exhaled, and counted once more.