What am I even supposed to do really? What the hell
Lost in his own thoughts and words, Altair gripped the torch very tight, expressing his frustration towards the situation. Was Maxim playing a joke on him? What is Altair supposed to do to get out? Is it even possible to tread this seemingly endless maze drowned in eternal darkness?
Ahhhh that guy was toying with me wasn't he
Altair expressed under his breath, clearly lost, and bitter about the situation he was currently in.
Without the aid of the torch, what good are his eyes? Without any inkling of idea about where he was, how is he supposed to figure out everything by himself?
Awakening was supposed to be the fruition of the soul wasn't it? The soul coming to terms with what was fated to them and accepting it as a part of its whole? The mind, body and soul being intertwined... so then where am I?
A really fair question to ask considering that this eerie place doesn't seem like it should exist in the material world. Where is Altair?
The method of awakening is supposed to be different from race to race, that is indeed correct, most of the time it commences with ceremonies or some sort of rituals to bring together the mind, body and soul, at least how the standard awakening is anyway.
In the case of Altair, an awakening prompted by an entity unknown to mortals, that shouldn't be the case, it is everything but standard and normal. From the sensation of the main aspects of his existence being fragmented, to being sent to a lightless abyss, how could one even deduce what's happening and what he should be doing in the first place?
This environment, it's extremely hostile, nothing was happening, and yet it emanates such an atmosphere that anything could pounce on you, and if you lost your composure for just even once, you are a dead man walking.
I did not survive the frigidity of Auroealis, the oppression and depravity of slavery just to meet my demise in this dark dungeon without being able to do anything. I have to figure it out quick, I have a feeling that things like that slender monstrosity will start appearing if I took too much time.
By then, the already precarious situation will become so much trickier to resolve, especially considering the anonymity of the monsters that will be appearing, there is no way of telling what these monsters are capable of doing once unleashed upon him.
Without any weapons, Altair is stumped on how to deal with one if the situation calls for it, to top it off, he has no combat prowess whatsoever, he does have the strength but not amounting to much. So, he had to deal with the situation logically, but even then, how would logic be of help when the situation is devoid of it? How would one tackle such a predicament?
Questions. Deduction.
Wait, Maxim said this was a prototype of some sort, meaning that even he doesn't know what to expect, or rather what the outcome will be. But think about how he tried to start the process of my awakening....
With nothing to do, Altair could only begin to question the possibilities to the best of his abilities, if there are no answers to his questions and doubts, maybe the questions themselves will become the answer, or are the answer all along? But he has to ask the right ones, otherwise, it will become a downwards spiral towards nowhere.
The first that he started to consider was the enigma that is Maxim himself, he was interested in humans and the 'potential' that they withhold from within them, that means humans may have or not have something that other races have that made him this enticed towards them.
The complexities of human awakening... Maxim mentioned that the lack of connection towards magic and the supernatural forces of this world is what's holding humans back... but why? Why do humans lack that natural connection towards the world?
Humans in nature has always been the most adaptable, so it was only natural to also think that their bodies and souls will be more adaptive of the world that they're living in. The world has always entered drastic shifts throughout its existence, the appearance of magical forces should have been a driving force of human evolution to make them more suitable to live in a world that is driven by supernatural and magical forces.
So... why are humans lacking that connection? and the other races doesn't? What particular characteristic does the other races have that just isn't the case for humans? Answering that might lead to a path of salvation.
Is the influence of the world more closely tied to the physical body than it is to the soul? Surely not right? I have no idea how all of it works, but from what I observed, if that is indeed the case, then surely I already fit the criteria for awakening already... A lot of human slaves I know would already have been.
Altair thought to himself, slowly coming close to what might be a revelation that he needed.
Then that means, our weak connection towards the world, is because of the fact that our souls aren't as established as other races right? That means that our restricted access to the supernatural forces of the world is because our souls are bound, locked by something...
While the physical body has always been more important, it is after all the vessel of the soul, mind and heart, it isn't the aspect of one's existence that will allow someone to tap into the supernatural forces of the world, it's the soul that establishes the connection towards it.
In other words, the soul is the gateway of one's path to supremacy, and awakening is the key that unlocks that. For humanity's case, it seems like their soul is much tightly locked in compared to anyone else, considering that there are a sheer amount of number of them in the world, and yet the awakened to none ratio is astronomically vast, their souls are more compactly sealed than everyone else's from the looks of things. As to why? No one really knows, maybe its their versatility and perseverance as a race being their strongest suit, or their refusal to be wiped off the world even with their weakness, and the will to continue existing despite it all that's holding them back? No one has an inkling of idea.
If that's the case, then Maxim's method is most likely tied to unsealing the soul, or rather a much more forced way of unlocking it. His method might be stemmed from the idea that only those who owns their soul have the ability to remove that very seal that restricts it, which means that he isn't actually dictating your awakening, he merely pulls the necessary strings to give you the opportunity to do it yourself, because only you can do so.
As for how Maxim is able to master such an infinitely complex and intricate technique, who knows? But it seems like Altair finally has an answer to the question that has been bugging him since he arrived in this place.
This means that this place that I have been sent in, is my soul.