Magical Soul Parade

Chapter 389: The Heretic’s Ability

“You’re exactly right!” Finn responded, his voice easily matching Sage Limitless’ loud volume. There was no flicker of shakiness whatsoever. In fact, it looked as if everything was still proceeding exactly according to plan. And that absolute confidence made the Sage’s newly gained vigour waver.

“I, the Errant, cannot be the congregation of the vengeful souls’ cry for retribution… However, who said I must be the one directly?”

Immediately, Finn glanced towards Althea, and the moment his eyes shifted, the sage’s gaze snapped over to her direction also, widening in pure confusion.

Even Althea seemed somewhat shocked by the sudden turn, her gaze moving to meet Finn’s.

Finn grinned behind his bone mask, then faced forward, leveling his gaze at Sage Limitless squarely.

“Watch very closely. This is the difference between a divine being and someone like you.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Finn clasped both hands together in a particular formation, closing his eyes behind his mask. Instantly, the surroundings seemed to still to a dead, absolute silence.

“Aspect Adaptation… Ananke’s Spindle: Inevitable Karma.”

The moment Finn spoke those words, the aura about him changed entirely. He had not spoken these words ever since he had first arrived in this world, back when he was still learning how to use his abilities as a bearer of error.

At that time, he had simply used the ability to embody aspects of mythological characters as a defensive mechanism on pure instinct to survive.

He hadn’t known then that he was using an intrinsic, defining ability of himself as the Errant Heretic.

But now, for the first time, he had resorted to using this ability with full intent.

To Sage Limitless and Althea’s senses, it was as if they were no longer looking at Finn at all. His entire makeup had changed despite the fact that the person they were seeing before them was truly Finn, live and in the flesh. The person was entirely different, ancient, and foreign.

From the depths of his soul, a soul mass that he had never used before was brought forth, raw and without form. This was one of the last two soul masses he was yet to use — the second ranked soul mass among the twenty-one Arros had carefully embedded in his soul before grafting himself to Finn’s existence.

Since arriving back in this timeline, Finn had known exactly what these last three soul masses were. Ryuga was the third of them, which he had already unlocked and brought out to life.

These last two, however, were simply soul masses unheard of.

They were without any particular form, just a massive congregation of raw, powerful, chaotic soul mass, malleable to the whims of whatever the host wished to achieve with them.

Of course, Finn still had a score to settle with Arros later. The man was a leech… a parasite embedded deeply to his own existence. Their separation and eventual clash was an inevitable fact…

But despite that, Finn still had to admit that Arros had thoroughly prepared a vast array of soul masses, painstakingly selecting the most exquisite versions and instances he had ever come in contact with within his time of existence.

At this moment, however, that unformed soul mass simply became a tool for Finn’s aspect adaptation to manifest in this plane.

He was embodying the aspects of inevitability and karma from the Greek goddess Ananke.

Through his ability as the Errant Heretic, he stood as a divine being who was known for not conforming to standard logic, even among Gods.

A thief by all standards. He was one who stole aspects of other Gods, using them as if they were his own, and now he had finally bared his fangs truly and fully in this world.

This adaptation was nothing like the basic, fragmented version he had conjured up during his early time here as Finn, a simple Grade 3 Initiate rank Ossuarist. Rather, this was a fully fledged adaptation by him as the Errant Heretic in his full form.

To Sage Limitless and even Althea, who was not the recipient of adaptation’s effects, a heavy feeling of inevitable judgment pressed down on the surroundings and was forced even more by the Great Dao which was already focused on the area.

The laws of cause and effect, of check and balance, of karma itself, were being amplified as Finn channeled his adaptation into the soul mass hovering in the air in front of him.

If Limitless hadn’t sensed any of the vengeful souls so far, right now he could feel them very much clearly. It was as if the fact that Finn was enhancing the laws of karma in the immediate surroundings made the Great Dao focus more on that clause, essentially giving voice to the vengeful souls which wanted retribution from him.

Their cries echoed across the surroundings, the cacophony of a billion voices all crying for justice, looking for a means to actualize their will…

And Finn’s adaptation was creating the medium for that.

The moment the soul mass hovering at his front became corporeal, as if karma itself had descended upon the plane, two things happened:

First, in that exact instant, Finn urged the soul mass towards Althea to her utter shock. The impossible orb of karma in a literal form. His intention was clear. He wanted her to be the one to wield it. In accordance with the terms of the binding vow, he was not going to cause any harm to the world, but that didn’t mean Althea could not in his stead.

While Finn was focused on his task and Sage Limitless was trying frantically to urge a use of his power, sensing the imminent danger, another thing was happening far below the whole spectacle that was unfolding above.

Among the transcendents who were somehow still alive, one of them, Ailin, who had previously been a vessel for a Great One, had a peculiar look in her eyes. They were utterly black like an abyss and glazed over.

Those eyes were locked onto the Errant Heretic, watching with a silent interest as he manifested a power that clearly didn’t belong to him, and shouldn’t have been possible to actualize in any manner or form. Especially not under the direct gaze of the Great Dao.

Yet he was doing just that.

“So indeed, he bears the key…”