The Katsuyu Sage's explanation of "laws" and "phenomena" lodged in Ling's chest like a lump of ice, cold and heavy. Yet somehow, he felt... something was wrong. He could not say what, but if this truly was nothing more than a law, then how did that almost mocking sense of being watched, which occasionally flickered through the coldness, fit into it? And what about the faint "yearning" in the Nest's pulsations?
He sat cross-legged on the damp moss of Shikkotsu Forest, cradling the cold Black Stone and unconsciously rubbing its crack with his fingers. The silver-blue light of the Beacon between his brows intertwined with the stone's faint, cool aura, forming a strange field of resonance deep within his consciousness.
...Hold fast... restraints... error...
The Black Stone's ancient whispers remained fragmented.
...Purifying Karma... Coordinates... source of interference...
The Beacon's response seemed to point toward something.
Source of interference?
Ling's heart gave a sudden jolt. Rather than trying to "hear" those indistinct words clearly, he sank his entire awareness into the resonance itself, feeling for the subtler "texture" beneath it. It was like watching a silhouette through frosted glass: he could not make out the face, but he could distinguish the shifting contours and changes in posture.
Cold, vast-yes, just as the Katsuyu Sage had said, it had the texture of a "law" too immense to imagine. But beneath that layer of ice, deep within that vast will of death... he caught something exceedingly faint, yet as conspicuous as a drop of ink falling into clear water-
Emotion.
Not the indifference of a law, but a kind of... twisted, burning frenzy, filled with endless resentment and obsession. Like an out-of-tune whistle intruding on a grand symphony, constantly missing the notes yet desperately trying to dominate the melody.
*This feeling... was a