In a World without God

Chapter 31

Inside Edulis's magic, numerous Boshas were floating around.

Some were stealing bread, some were running away, some were taking pleasure in disrupting trade between the empire and the kingdom, and some were about to accept Granadilla's offer...

Edulis cut them all down. He defeated dozens, hundreds of Bosha. As he did, he remembered Ygraine's words.

- Make no mistake, Bosha. Hatred is not who you are.

- It's just a ripple on the surface of the water. The real you lies beneath, very deep.

Ygrainne's words to Bosha were the sword of Edulis.

Before he met Ygraine, Bosha thought he was consumed by hatred, anger, and jealousy. He thought that if he let go of those feelings, he would be nothing but a shell of himself. But Ygraine said, "They're not you. They are not Bosha. A heart stripped of all hatred, anger, and jealousy, and the light that shines within it, is the real Bosha."

Edulis believed Ygraine. Like a support of morning glory vines, Edulis's heart is centered on Ygraine. Those things in the form of Bosha are not Bosha. They are the dregs of his emotions, of his faith in Ygrain, and of his unfulfilled promise.

The trajectory of Bosha's sword was unstable, but Edulis' sword was seamless. It didn't take long for Edulis to cut down hundreds of Bosha.

Edulis had driven all that he had accomplished in his two years of hellish training outside the boundaries of "himself". And then the Magi of Ygraine, small and slender as a hair's breadth, emerged— a fragment of what was to be returned to Lutea.

Leaving it where it was, Edulis approached the mass of magick his soul was born with. It hadn't been refined to flow through the arrangement, but rather in its raw form. Now came the real challenge. This was going to be a very different process than a normal refinement.

Normally, the fragments, except for the Magi that were made operational through refinement drifted around the soul like planets around the sun forever. But now, Edulis had to destroy them all. He had to send them all out of the boundaries of 'himself', leaving only the purest, whitest light, similar to the Magi of Ygraine.

Edulis looked at the lump of magick he had been born with. The energy, like boiling molten iron, with the same feeling he had as Bosha, was embedded like a fallen meteorite. Edulis swung his sword towards it. Then...

- Bosha, foolish and weak.

There was a voice. It wasn't his own. It was not a voice of hatred or resentment, a voice that sank downward like a sinking ship.

- You could not be a sword. You were never a shield. He closed his eyes, comfortable with himself. Shamelessly.

The molten-like energy fell. The red energy blazed, and then it began to walk on two legs.

- How dare you speak Ygraine's name, how dare you dream of standing beside her?

The ground shook. Edulis's soul churned like a storm.

"I know, and that's why I'm taking responsibility."

Edulis retorted. He had to. If he wants to wield the same power as Luthea, he must peel away this fragment and break it.

- You have taken so much from Ygraine, and you have given nothing back. You have been nothing but a burden to her.

- Ygraine has suffered alone. You must suffer the same fate she has.

Edulis found no voice. He realized what was before his eyes.

- I hate you. Hateful Bosha, hateful Edulis!