Talks of lust and perception.

After taking Maya to the throne room, he returned to his room, where Hollie was waiting for him in his bed.

Feeling Seth appear, she didn’t stand up as she asked: “Where did you go? I couldn’t find you anywhere..”

Seth moved to the desk in his room, saying: “I spent the night with Maya underground.”

“I can see you’re feeling better.”

“I am… Seth, when I went inside your soul sea before starting to follow your journey out of the Oath Kingdom, I met someone that looked like an older you.”

Seth nodded and started creating a few books on the desk.

“I know. It was totally out of my expectations for you to end up inside my divinity’s seal. My lust source might have acted on your wish for power.”

“Divinity?” asked Hollie while sitting on her behind, “That… man… was your divinity?”

“The soul representation of its will to be exact, but yes, it was my divinity.”

Hollie’s body shuddered as her mind returned to that encounter, and she said: “But it looked so… alive. How could that be a divinity?”

“Because it is alive.” Replied Seth, finally moving from his desk and placing two books in front of Hollie.

He then grabbed her shaking hand and said: “As you already know, for energy to move in nature the way it does, it must have a will of its own.”

“That will is constantly looking for hosts able to shoulder it, thus being attracted towards people whose affinities match that energy. Once an ascended begins cultivating, they absorb the will inside them along with the energy.”

“The will is barely an instinct while floating around in nature, but as it gets nurtured inside the source, it will start getting stronger along with the ascended. It will start a slow and long process of gaining actual consciousness.”

“The stronger the ascended gets, the closer that will is brought to a consciousness, and its nature will be closely related to the type of energy it was formed off.”

“What do you think happens to the will when a divinity is formed?” asked Seth with a smile.

Hollie would have been a fool not to understand where Seth was going and said: “It forms a complete consciousness. It becomes alive.”

“That it does.” Said Seth with a smile. “What you met was the consciousness formed of my destruction divinity.”

“If I didn’t find your soul construct in time, you would have died inside that seal. That prick is quite decisive when destroying things, so you got quite lucky this time.”

Hollie nodded thoughtfully and asked: “Then what happens with multiple energy ascended?”

Seth sighed and said: “It depends on the energies mostly. Do you know how the source starts fusing with the soul at the seventh shell? That’s when the energy will begin forming a consciousness inside your soul.”

“If the sources have opposing wills, their influence will cancel itself. Their will would still grow stronger, but they will not be able to work together to corrupt your own will.”

“Take Henrietta, for example. Creation and destruction, space and time, those wills are safe to cultivate each other up to the ninth shell, so not many things will happen to her. If she grabs a divinity, things will turn slightly more troublesome, but as long as she doesn’t, she’ll be fine.”

“And then we have people like Iris, Alexa, Lisa, and so on, where things are difficult. Iris, for example, you know how fire and air work in nature, don’t you?”

“Fire is fueled by air…” muttered Hollie. “Are you saying?...”

“Yes, her air will is fueling her fire will. Since fire wills tend to make their hosts act much more passionate about anything, for Iris, who also has an air will, things are even worse….”

“Her obsession with her oath is fueled by air and fire wills. The more things don’t work out in her favor, the more desperate she will become….”

“Her situation is almost pitiable since any of her two wills would not have been enough to influence her to that degree at the sixth shell. “

“What about Alexa and Lisa, then? Won’t their energies…” asked Hollie, wholly immersed in the conversation.

“Not necessary. Water will always soothe the other will’s influence in their bodies. Alexa will still turn a bit ‘destructive’ to say so, but with her sources, even at the ninth shell, not much will change.”

“Lisa also has time, which has a habit of giving its hosts an attitude of indifference. Her darkness influence will barely hold a candle to the other twos.”

Hollie nodded and asked: “It makes sense. You said that you plan on stepping over these wills. How do you plan on doing that?”

Seth smiled and asked: “Can’t you figure that out yourself?”

Hollie frowned and then looked at Seth’s crotch: “Lust? and perception?”

“See? It was not that hard.” Said Seth with a chuckle. “Lust and perception will help me do that. At least that’s what I hope….”

“But how? Why? Don’t they have a will of their own?” asked Hollie.

“They do, but there’s one big difference between these two energies and the others.”

Hollie lowered her head to think once she spotted the smirk on Seth’s face, knowing he was trying to make her realize herself, but nothing was coming to her mind.

“Where do these energies originate?” asked Seth once he noticed she was not understanding.

Hollie’s eyes widened, and she said: “Human relationships.”

“Indeed. All the other energies come from nature, from the universe’s building blocks, and their wills would always tend to have a sense of superiority. They will always seek to subjugate and influence their human hosts, building an ego that will never allow themselves to feel inferior to a human soul.”

“Lust and perception come from humans. When I looked over what energies I could use to control that destruction prick sealed inside me, I stumbled upon those energies.”

“To be honest, I didn’t know much about the two, but something made me choose them. It was the fact that they weren’t actively sticking to people who happened to have an affinity with them. They simply existed and floated between humans.”

“The lust energy is created as humans had sex and would exist in the woman’s body for a long time, creating a link to the spirit well. If the woman remains pregnant, the lust energy will pull a soul from the spirit well and remain to fix that soul to the newborn’s body.”

“I was the one to name it lust energy, but what it does is so much more than that, and even I’m unaware of its full potential.”

“The perception energy will be created inside all human souls and travel between them, slowly moving to influence the second soul according to the first soul’s perception of them.”

“It might be confusing, but it is easier to comprehend if you consider perception energy as the one responsible for bridging inter-human relationships. Friendship, hatred, admiration, respect, hostility, and so on. All of them are made possible by perception energy.”

“Out of all irregular energies, these two are the most abundant ones, which made me quickly notice them. After seeing how they behaved, I knew I had to try them.”

“There were also other perks... hehe.:

Hollie was fascinated with Seth’s words, but the more she listened to him, the more she felt it all made sense.

“So that’s why you want to keep humans alive. That’s why you scheme and plot instead of biding your time and growing stronger than everyone else. You’re manipulating perception so you can build it to its peak. And the harem is you gathering lust to its peak.” Exclaimed Hollie.

Seth sighed and nodded: “That is it, yes, but things are not that cut and dry.”

“The perception source is also working on calming my feelings. At first, when the lust source started acting up, I thought I might be even nurturing another entity just like the destruction source, but I had it all wrong. It was not influencing me out of its interest but trying to help me. I only recently figured that out.”

“It slowly seeps into those feelings I had bottled up for all those years, bringing them up and burning them out of my system through rough sex. That’s why it also calls up to you through the lust mark on your bodies. It was trying to help me all along.”

“There are still many unknowns about both of them, but lately, I’ve become sure I’ve made the right choice in choosing them.”

Hollie nodded and said: “What about Katy? How is the lust source helping you by turning her body like that?”

“I have no clue.” Replied Seth with a wry smile before making a small note explaining all the changes that happened to Katy on it and handing it to Hollie. “Since I have to leave soon, I’ll leave studying her body to you. I’m sure that figuring out what is happening to her is the key to completely figuring out the lust source’s potential.”

“What about perception?” asked Hollie while taking the note. “Hasn’t it shown any change?”

“It has not, but that’s probably because I haven’t used it all that much. I’ve only been cultivating it and barely used the energy, while I’ve used my lust source every chance I got. It also appears subservient to the lust source, which might be related to humans’ lusty nature.”

“Either way, I believe it will not disappoint me.” added Seth at the end.

“I see. I’ll try to find out as much as possible while you are gone.” replied Hollie.

“I know you will. That’s why I’ve told you everything I know. I also have another task for you. I’ve found a boy with great potential in bringing forth the changes I want for the human race, and he’ll come search for you today at the academy.”

“He wants to read about ascended knowledge, and I already allowed it. Give him access to first shell knowledge in all four elements before adding him to the class. Also, focus more on him.”

Hollie nodded and looked at the books on the bed. “Are these for him as well?”

“No. These are a gift for you. It’s seventh shell knowledge in air energy.” Said Seth.

After knowing so much more about wills, Hollie looked at the books with hesitation and asked: “But why? I’m still at the fifth shell.”

“It will help you understand more about what happens when the source starts integrating with the soul, which will help with your other research. Having it earlier is no issue.”

“Aren’t you afraid I will end up betraying you?” asked Hollie seriously, turning to look into Seth’s eyes.

Seth teleported her shirt away, leaving her only in her bra, and exposed the mark on her belly.

“You’re already my woman, or have you forgotten?”

“I’ve also told you I trust my lust source. That mark acts in my interest and responds to our thoughts and feelings. Since it’s still there, I figured I was still safe.”

Hollie smiled wryly and looked down at the inactive mark. “You have everything figured out, haven’t you?”

“Not everything.” Seth sighed, “There’s so much more I need to do and know.”

Hollie smiled and grabbed the books using her air energy. She then created a tiny air screen to cover her body and said: “I’ll go and continue reading through the soul knowledge while I wait for that brat. Pass by when you have the time. We still have experiments to run.”

Seth chuckled and watched her fly away through the open window.