What was humanity really?
If you were to seek an answer within recorded history, you would find that humanity was the aggregation of a megaannum of careful evolution… that the "soul" was simply humanity's innate desire to reproduce..
Alternatively, if you were to turn to the religions now lost within the annals of time, you would find ample claims that humanity are the children of a higher power- that earth acts as the cradle of a civilization watched by God's careful eye, guided by his benevolent hand.
However if you had asked Cassian, he would have told you the essence of being human is imperfection. That our defect are the things which tie us together, separating us from everything else.
No matter how you looked at it though, or which thought school you subscribed to. what Cassian was currently looking at…
Was far from human.
Around them stretched an ostentatious Gothic cathedral, so obscenely large it triggered an agoraphobia he didn't have. A forest of intricately grooved stone support pillars surrounded him, reaching toward the heavens. Whether they would hit the ceiling or God first was a great question.
Light lost its reason within this gargantuan space, bending in strange curves that violated the laws of existence. Upon closer inspection, it was flowing towards something on the far end of the room.
No…
It was flowing towards someone on the far end of the room.
'What the fuck is that?!'
Resting upon a grand throne made up of a swirling radiance of dazzling gold light sat a single figure- or… the empty space where a figure should have been. Cassian could make out a vague outline formed entirely by a labyrinthine network of connecting runes, building together an uncanny imitation of a human form.
Inside this anomalous luminary sat an endless abyss, reminding Cassian of the astral world. Yet, unlike that empty void, the core of this abyss was a colorful splatter of star-like nebulae. One could easily mistake it for an entire universe localized to this single point. There was no hostility within it- only a haughty indifference that permeated deeply into the surroundings.
Looking upon this void caused Cassian's mind to be assaulted by an intense barrage of information. An infinite stream of knowledge battered him, worming its way into every corner of his being. Within this deluge, truth met falsehood; the end met the beginning. There were concepts so far removed from human existence that he couldn't put a name to them. The only thing he could understand was that it hurt.
It hurt damn bad.
Reeling back in agony, he clutched his head. Cassian's body screamed in egregious horror, actively breaking itself apart piece by piece in an attempt to escape the unholy pain. The flow of knowledge burrowed into his blood, the torrent of information slowly tearing his skin apart.
It felt like he was becoming something else.
However, while this occurred, his soul sat safely behind the astral barrier erected within him- remaining completely untouched. The chains of reality that were intending to drag him away from earth acted instead as a reinforcement. Limiting the sudden mutation to his form alone, not his inner being.
The throned being looked on uncaring, before finally waving his hand. In an instant, the pain paused, granting him once again the sheltered perspective of a human mind.
[Fragment of the greater wanderer cast withon a blank slate.]
The space around them twisted to formulate the being's sentence. Cassian could swear that reality itself was the one speaking to them.
[Oh how we have waited]
His portly captor had long since left- presumably whilst he was incapacitated in the throes of witnessing infinity. It was just him, and the divine presence trapped within this morose cathedral.
A sudden pause filled the room.
[...He does not lie dormant?]
An explosion of light caused Cassian to instinctively shut his eyes. Instead relying on his previously discovered "soul vision" to bear witness to his surroundings.
Unbeknownst to him, the moment he did, the divine presence left the golden throne. Approaching his proximity.
Shockingly enough, soul vision would yield a different perspective on the enigmatic being.
Cassian focused on the energy that surrounded them. Feeling it move around the space. Marking Its collisions against each surface to map out the room in which he stood.
But the expected presence was not found.
Frowning, he did it again, and again, and again… to no avail.
Feeling the creeping hunger of unease enter his mind, he tried it once more. This time however, he attempted to pull the idle energy floating within the room towards himself.
'Feels like a damn spring'
The room's energy was now tightly compacted into a ball around him, pulsating as if it might release at any moment. Angry ripples resonated at a far higher frequency than before.
Reading this resonance again, he found what he was looking for.
The god-like figure hovered directly in front of him, laws such as gravity evidently not of concern. Step by step the energy wrapped around it, building an imitation of the beings form.
It looked starkly different to before. Instead of the malleable concoction of light grafted together by an impossible array of runes containing an endless void, it simply looked like an echo of a human form. A form wrapped in…
Chains?
Ornate white threads interlocked into thin chains stretched out from the abyss of the surrounding darkness, approaching from every possible angle. These otherworldly binds wrapped around each of the being's limbs, tying it down.
Wait
Shifting his attention down to himself, he was greeted by a similar sight- only even worse. Multiple threads stemming from an unknown source wrapped around his chest, visibly straining under tremendous pressure. Simultaneously, far thinner, pallid threads stabbed straight into the earth, ready to snap at the smallest incitement.
What was it Aria had said to him?
We are all bound by chains.
….
Perhaps she was being a little more literal than he thought.
[Allow us to correct this oversight.]
Cocking it's head to side, the figure reached out its 'hands' towards Cassian's face. Grasping it tightly.
[Look upon me once more]
Completely ignoring his closed senses, the conceptual attack resumed, his body once again breaking down under the overwhelming knowledge drilling into him. Only now, he could see the blazing amalgamation of knowledge take form, looking upon the line separating his body and soul with ravenous hunger. It- or more likely, the being behind it- seemed to have noticed the anomalous separation within him.
It slammed against this barrier.
Again.
And again.
And again…
…He could feel it breaking.
The uncaring being drew his head closer in towards Cassians. Effervescent light dancing around its where its eyes should have rightly been.
[Join with us]
Like a house of cards, his resistance to this force collapsed. Cassian could feel his limbs betraying him one by one, signals of control becoming a twisted Trojan horse that the figure took advantage of as its own. Whatever malignant power that now flowed through his body threatened his soul- the core of his very being.
But what could he do against it?
'Think Cassian, THINK!'
He was no longer breathing. It was breathing for him.
'There must be something I can do!'
His heart no longer beat. Its heart was beating for him.
'ARIA!'
He was no longer struggling. It was struggling against itself.
Cassian's agency over his own body had been eliminated, the parasitic influence puppetting him like a marionette. Any moment now, it would complete its conquest and tear down the barrier to his soul.
One roadblock remained.
[Concede, false pilgrim]
The azure mark still resisted this invasion, Cassian's arm erupted into a beautiful symphony of fire. Only this time, it was not a metaphor- the blue radiance truly burned around his skin as if Aria's will were manifesting into real space.
Her fire expanded with his body as the kindling. But instead of the expected excruciating agony, he felt nothing but a kind warmth.
Nonetheless, he burned.
And with it, the threads connecting him to the ground were reduced to ash. One by one, they snapped. And as each one did- the force pulling at his soul increased exponentially.
Until eventually, his soul was whisked away to somewhere very far away.
—---------------------------------------------
For the first time in an eternity, He felt an emotion other than cold indifference.
The weak, lowly being before him had carried that of which was lost. Intending to reclaim his fragment, he twisted the humans ties to the world's providence, allowing him control.
But somehow, he failed.
[Great wanderer, do you still observe?]
The power wielded by that human defied his will. Providence can be altered, twisted to fit one's ideals… But that which can shatter providence entirely can only be done with his tacit approval.
And that is exactly what the human did.
He gazed listlessly upon the empty husk the human left behind. Now expelled from this land, his soul, which carried the fragment, was gone. Lifeless on the human's arm, the cursed mark remained, its once boundless energy completely suppressed. Evidently, it too was bound to the wanderer.
[Ah…]
Anger.
That was the emotion he was feeling