While Matthew called for a rush to get Dei as much information on the affinity he'd encountered, Dei's mind accelerated, and he started piecing things together on his own. He could think faster than anyone could move, and he already had a significant amount of data to work with.

He started with Meditations reaction to the mana. The moment he'd walked into the room, his Meditation spell seemed to thrash in sync with the dying man. He'd sectioned off a small part of his mind to analyze as much of this phenomena as it could while it happened, and he went over this information now.

The mind in question immediately started to Meditate, bringing the strings that led out into the world into focus. What he saw was shocking to say the least, as for the first time since he'd gained the spell, the strings were reacting to something.

They were twisting and tangling with one another in ways he didn't know they could. Even Dei himself was not able to move or touch these connections, he could only observe them and Meditate on what they meant to provide himself with Presence. At best, he could strengthen a connection for a boon or burden, and maybe use them to disperse damage to his body into another being.

The spell had depth to it, but he already knew that with how many times it'd devoured other spells. Whatever affinity this was now, it had unlocked a hidden side of Meditation- a more proactive side.

As he studied the changes they underwent when he closed the distance, he found that they were not random. The strings moved with intent, weaving around others with purpose to form a pathway.

He called it a pathway because they clearly weaved themselves flat and wide rather than round like a rope or string, and he felt an intent of destination emanate from each. These pathways went somewhere, but the end of them was outside his soul, and he could not follow them.

There were hundreds, but each pathway created by his Meditation spell was slightly different; furthermore, none of them seemed random.

There were many that focused on his connection with the world itself, such as rocks he'd passed or tunnels he'd traveled. Some were made of monsters he'd killed, others with monsters he'd interacted with. He couldn't figure out what each one meant exactly, but they were clearly focusing on one subject, trying to get a point across.

The moment the affinity was fully suppressed though, when the man finally expended the last of the mana, the pathways broke down, undoing themselves. In seconds, the strings of Meditation were mostly back to normal, all except for one. One pathway was monstrously denser than all the rest, and this one was still intact.

He set his full mind to studying this one, trying to get what information he could from it before it broke down to nothing as the others did.

Its main component was his Wrath affinity, which touched upon all the others at least once. The next largest component was of every interaction he'd had with the demon-kin back on Avium, those two grayish lizardfolk things. Third most powerful was his connection to Iora, the Shaman that'd tortured him as a child. The last distinct piece was his connection to his family- both his parents and his siblings. Aside from those four parts though, there were hundreds of tiny pieces. The individual connection with anyone he'd spoken to in his original village seemed to somehow work its way into this pathway.

'What the fuck is this thing trying to tell me? How are my Wrath, the demon-kin, Iora, my family, and my original village related?'

Despite his initial assumption that they weren't, this pathway stubbornly resisted its own decay. While he could simply wait and allow the thing to be undone, it spoke to him on some level. The man had to touch the soldier to cast whatever spell he did, and he hadn't been touching Dei the moment this pathway started to form itself. That meant it wasn't the man that created this pathway, but a result of his own Meditation spell. The spell itself was telling him something, and Dei wanted to listen.

He split his mind into pieces, Meditating on this pathway in general. Not on any singular piece of it such as Wrath or his family, but the sum of them all.

The Presence he got from it was unique to say the least, and it emanated from the pathway, falling into his soul and becoming a part of it.

The pathway latched onto this, integrating itself into him further, using his presence to stabilize its existence, and Dei allowed it.

He continued to Meditate and stabilize it for several seconds, which would've been a few minutes in real time if he was using a single mind. When he felt the path stop pulling itself apart, he coalesced most of his minds back together, still leaving a few to stabilize it further. It did, after all, still feel quite wobbly.

'Well, at least I now have a tangible benefit from all the times this spell has merged with others. Even if I'm still not quite sure what to do with it.

Without outside information, this pathway was a dead end. He'd need to look somewhere else to figure out how to help the poor soldier, and he had a conveniently contained affinity right there.

While it was suppressed by Cycle of Sealing and unable to manipulate the world around it, Dei's spell wouldn't stop him from looking inside to try and glean some truths from the meaning behind the affinity.

He was cautious of course- he'd seen what full exposure to such truths did to the average mortal mind- but he also thought he'd be better equipped to sift through its truth. His mind was already capable of processing maddening knowledge in the form of glimpsing upon Void, and even if that weren't true, he'd improved it significantly through the use of spells and stats.

It was with careful confidence that he sectioned off a single point of this mystery mana, then promptly delved into whatever truths it was attempting to convey.

Observing the mana caused it to react, and it struggled to escape Cycle of Sealing's grasp, for naught. The spell was more than able to prevent the affinity from doing whatever it was attempting, but Dei decided to take a moment to read that intent first. What did this mana, when in a vacuum, want to do? What was the "latent will" within that the System always warned about?

It wanted to… be one with all. It wanted to connect with him for the simple fact that he'd interacted with it. Not in the way of subsuming him into a hive mind, but more like it knew they were joined in a way, and it wanted to increase the connection between them.

When he looked at it, their views were shared. The moment between them linked, different only in perspective.

His brow scrunched, and he remembered the main description of Meditation.

[The self, everything that one's identity is comprised of, is not entirely unique when considered in parts. Each moment is shared by an uncountable amount of other beings, separated by either time or perspective. The plants, insects, and even microbes experience the same moments as any human, yet one's identity itself is entirely unique. Despite sharing moments with so many others, no entity shares every moment with you. Your identity is the sum of so many parts, yet greater than every single one individually. Even still, there is an unbreakable link between every singular person and the grand cosmos that rotates around their unique perspective. Using that link, draw aspects of yourself into the open, showing all what it means to be you.]

It was an interesting read, but nothing more. Irrelevant to the function of the spell itself. Flavor text.

What he found now proved that was not the case though. This affinity clearly took on the same principal of Meditation, strengthening the bonds between every living being. It didn't necessarily want to use this bond for anything, but it wanted it to become more tangible.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The mana provided terrible strength for his Meditation spell, and the spell itself used that to realize its true purpose.

'The Meditation spell used the mere presence of this affinity to cast a spell of its own, or perhaps a subsection of the Meditation spell. It cast itself in a way I can't.'

From a cursory glance of the mana type, Dei already had an epiphany about the underlying function of Meditation.

Not only that, but something within him glowed brightly for a few seconds, infusing him with power and firming up his soul.

He was pretty sure his Profession just jumped in strength significantly enough for him to feel it. Ever since coming to Earth, he was halfway sure that his Profession had begun to take on a more gradual strengthening, rather than the periodic bursts of power it did with the System; it was so subtle that until now he wasn't entirely sure if it was still working properly, but this finally confirmed it. There were some implications of how it surpassed his natural Potential node but that was something for later.

Despite his thinking speeds, time did still travel outside his head, and someone was finally running into the room with a file in hand- one that was sadly thin.

The first section was dedicated to a general overview of the affinity itself, and thankfully clarified several things.

"Category: Foreign Subcategory: Karma

Karma magic is shown to be incredibly toxic to any entity that suffers from exposure to its base form, though its effects are still debated. The name is only known because [ ] passively mentioned its 'annoying effects' in conversation. Because it is untraceable to any known recording devices and does not work in a vacuum, it is hard to measure with any certainty.

Widely speaking, the only thing that can be ascertained is that Karma taps into creating an outcome before it happens while completely avoiding the use of Time magic. It has been confirmed multiple times that fate does not exist, yet the effects of Karma seem to create the very idea of it. It is theorized that it creates an observed outcome, such as in the metaphor of Schrödinger's Cat, thereby forcing the reality being Continuity to guarantee a particular moment, without interfering with the entire process leading up to that point.

Despite this, the guaranteed outcome has been shown to be incredibly fickle. While it is possible to lock a future in place, the mental toll of doing so accurately is significant. Many Karma users liken it to throwing darts with their eyes closed, and frequently miss the outcome they were aiming for- thus guaranteeing the wrong result, in theory. While Karma users claim this is the reason for their future predictions being incorrect, it is also possible that the threads of Karma magic can be broken with effort, though Karma users seem adamant that this is not possible. Neither option can be proven or disproven with current existing technology."

What followed were two and a half pages of recorded events proven to be the result of Karma magic, though each one was wildly minor. Such as "The pencil of an agent dropped from their pocket at this time of day," or "A civilian fell through their roof while fixing the shingles."

It seemed that as the events got bigger, it was harder and harder for Karma magic to take effect, and thus impossible to verify. The more people it involved, the less likely of "Guaranteeing" the correct outcome. Either that, or it was easier to break free from its effects.

Of course, all of this was only surface level uses of the Skill. The Karma affinity's natural toxicity to… apparently everything meant that it was impossible to see what it could really do. Dei thought that perhaps it was just that humans did not have Karma as a natural affinity, but that would be wrong. The next three pages detailed what the U.S. had learned from outside the universe.

Even Visitors from other dimensions confirmed that utilizing Karma mana always led to madness, no matter the Race. there wasn't a single recorded being capable of using it and keeping themselves intact. The other Visitors had never even met someone capable of changing their Race to better suit the affinity, such as how Dei turned himself into a Union and likely now had Spirit as a natural affinity.

All of this was to say, people could barely withstand even the most basic Karma spell. What the patient did to the soldier? He was clearly not withstanding its effects as Karma drove him mad, so there was a good chance it was something far more complicated than a simple event guarantee.

'But I've already been using karma magic? Meditation clearly taps into it, and I'm fine. Perhaps it is not karma magic itself that kills, but Karma mana. The affinity. It's already been established that there is not an affinity for everything, and it's very likely that affinities are leftover divine domains, so perhaps there was something wrong with the God of Karma that ascended.'

If that were true, then the mana itself was utterly flawed and he'd have to freestyle manipulate karma.

But he couldn't. Dei already tried to touch on the threads in his soul but they didn't respond. Even if they did, what would he even do? His goal was to break whatever karmic curse was on the soldier, but he couldn't even see the karma of another being.

He had two options. One was to allow for the Karma affinity mana to affect him and see if he could learn something, but he honestly didn't think he'd be able to make the situation better with what little mana he had. He could use it for epiphanies about his own Meditation, but trying to manipulate the Karma of another seemed like it would just inflame the problem. The file itself said Karma magic was hard to control, so he might just end up killing the poor guy.

The second option was to take it straight to the top- the reality being named Continuity. The file mentioned that Karma magic likely utilizes this being to guarantee an outcome, so Dei would have to go to this being and see if he could find something out about how to break said result. This was the much safer option, as he already had a Skill for contacting reality beings. He'd just have to keep casting it until Continuity was the one that responded.

Around two minutes of real time had passed by this point, and Dei finally brought his attention outwards, speaking to the soldier in question

"Okay, I think I have a lead on how to help you but it will take some time. I'm not sure if you know much about this type of magic, but it seems you are now destined for something, though it's impossible to say what. Judging by the man's mental state, I can't imagine it's going to be good. For now, I'd recommend keeping yourself disconnected from other beings as much as possible, because Karma magic uses other life forms as its power source."

Again, the soldier sighed and nodded, "Thank you, though if you don't mind me asking… who are you?"

"Dei Grrata, I'm a Visitor from another universe. You?" he asked, extending his hand.

The man didn't hesitate to shake said hand. "Jacob Smith, glad to have an expert at least."

Dei turned to Matthew, telling him "I need to cast a spell really quick. It's part of how I intend to help Jacob here, but I can't cast it frequently and I'll need to use it multiple times. Give me an hour or so to complete it, then we can finish up helping others in the facility."

Matthew looked uncomfortable, and clearly out of his depth, but an order through the earpiece told him to just go along with Dei's request.

Sitting down cross legged, he closed his eyes and once more delved into the Realm of Reality using Commune with the Universe.

Again, his mind was projected elsewhere through various reflections, and Dei sensed his surroundings had changed into that of the great clockwork.

Only… it was slightly different, Hard to quantify, but Dei found that he'd changed locations within the clockwork. It was not much, barely noticeable, but it was noticeable. Now that he'd experienced two close locations to one another, he found that he was actually able to somewhat… triangulate feelings, so to speak. There were many things around him, and now that he had two points of reference, he understood the direction and distance of the most significant landmarks.

He likened it to having seen through two eyes. When he used the ability only once, he was limiting himself to a more cyclopean view, with no depth of perspective. Now that he had two slightly spaced apart images in his mind, he could compare them and see what was closer.

The two close landmarks were not equal in distance either. One in particular was very close, while the other was sort of a backdrop he could travel to.

When he finally worked through all the new sensory information though, he found his mind slipping back into his body. He'd have to wait until next time to see if it was possible to move around in the Realm of Reality without physically moving his body, and if it was, he'd begin making his way to one of the formless landmarks.

Opening his eyes again, he found that he'd been out for just under an hour.

When he was reoriented again, he said "Alright, I'll have to use that spell periodically but for now it's on cooldown. I suppose it's time to finally assist Oscar, please lead the way."

Despite his actions towards helping one of their people, Matthew, Loretta, and the other soldiers seemed to be much more tense now.

His little showing proved that locking him down was harder than they would've first assumed. They were not as good at hiding their eventual intentions to capture him as he thought trained soldiers should be.

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