Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

Chapter 165: Emblem of All

Opening Baels Origin of Circles, my eyes began to gleam as I saw a small pentagram appear within my eyes. It was not complicated, only holding a simple drawing of a circle with a star reaching the edges of its base.

"The Art of Circles revolves around creation. Formations we perceive are merely an illusion that blinds or, in a way, how we understand what creation is. In some way, all beings are composed of their very own circle, in other words, an Emblem.

"To the few that awaken their emblem, it marks the beginning of their comprehension into their souls or the self. A force even at my level I have yet to fully understand. Be it the Fallen or the Angels. Father has granted us our own circle. What I believe to be our soul. "

Pausing, I frowned as I touched my left eye. Opening my palm, a small Emblem began to take form. Slowly the ring began to twist and turn. Bending as profound markings began to take root around the outer scripts of the circle. Some held the markings I was all too familiar with, but as it began forming, I saw myself looking back at me from my palm. I could see my ashen hair, along with my left eye glimmering with power.

"A ring? So this was an emblem the entire time? Most of the times I saw you before, it was blurred. Should I call you the Elder Ring for now? You know, some people believe the circle is the answer to all life. It seems they were not wrong how quaint." I slowly muttered as darkness slowly began embedding itself into the complex ring.

Closing my palm, I released my emblem, returning my attention back to the Baels Origin of Cycles manual. Bael had a rather peculiar view regarding Souls claiming that it was merely a lie we see. The flames that burn brightly were merely our minds not being able to comprehend what we were seeing.

The more I read, the more I began to understand that Circles were merely the souls wrapped into a more complicated web of truth and lies. It was the root of your existence, or at least that is what bael thought. There was a definite way of understanding what a soul was since, by his logic, what we perceive was a lie created by us was, in fact...

"Is my reality truly just a lie." I Weakly muttered, remembering the words of Gabriel, "But if that's the case, how can I understand my existence is a lie if my thoughts are a lie? It's a paradox...none of it makes any sense. If my soul is lying to my reality and reality is tell me the same lie, is it still a lie? But is reality truly lying? No matter how I look at it, Emblems or souls its all leads to a paradox? None of it makes sense. The only concept that holds true is that a lie is being told. "

Pursing my lips, I continued fueling my understanding of Circles and Emblems while being consuming more in Baels' theory of creation. It had taken half the book, but once I reached the middle, Bael finally started talking about the formation aspect of Circles.

Compared to what I learned in Asterion, Bael showed me an entirely new world. Understanding from before, Bael slowly began connecting various Dao's together, claiming how I only needed to know one formation to cast any type of spell. Which oddly enough, even though he didn't say it, I knew he meant my emblem.

And assuming you do not have an emblem, all you need is to create your primordial circle to use as a catalyst an emblem not like your own to connect the Reality of Circles with yours. While it may not be as powerful or fast, you can remove the thought of becoming simply a single elemental Demon but one that can control every type of element under the heavens.

Coming back to the pentagram at the beginning of the book Bael slowly began to explain, "Do not think simply in the first or second dimension. There are hundreds if not billions of higher dimensions left to comprehend. However, the greatest Circle will always be one from your soul."

Scanning the various pages of Bael showing how he turned the simple one-dimensional pentagram into a second dimension and finally the third dimension. My mind began to spin as I felt my body begin to heat up as he continued applying various conditions within the circle. Suddenly, this first-dimensional formation was slowly filling it with various complex aspects that seemed to build up so much I perceived it to be a third-dimensional formation. When in reality, it was simply just a first-dimensional circle.

"This is a mind fuck... So I could truly be living in a one-dimensional world. Bent and twisted so much I think myself I am in a third dimension. " I yelled in plain annoyance before continuing.

"We devils of The Nines do not rank circles as mortals do. We consider them first, second, and third dimension circles because, in a way, this is what all formations are. No matter how you dress it up or how complicated you make a formation in this realm or in pretty much any realm it will always consist of these three aspects even when applying a fourth-dimensional force Like Dao or fifth-dimensional forces like concepts. "

Days slowly began to pass as I ignored the screams of my doctors as they began doing various scans over my body. It had taken almost an entire week to read through Baels's Origin of Circles. Yet, even then, I felt I had only understood about two percent of all what Bael wrote.

Opening my eyes, I sat up with a disturbed expression. Baels was so descriptive I felt I could downright write the spell that I saw Silvia cast. She was a fire mage, although, due to her emblem, she could, in theory, cast any spell.

Taking a deep breath, the air around me began to thin and fade as my eyes began to flash. Bael said I needed to summon my emblem to cast a spell, but it was within my left eye. It was always active ready for me to use at a moment's notice. Sending a cold glance around to see if I was alone, I slowly entered a deep trance.

Feeling my elder ring shivering with excitement, my mind flashed back to the scene of Silvia raining spells down with the outskirts of Sarem. It was brief, but my eyes could make out the exact spell formation she used.

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Opening my palm, a small ball of black flames appeared as my eyes went wide. The power was close to the same level as my Impact arte but required ten times less qi, although that was one concept I never had to worry about. My foundation was so powerful I never had to worry about running out of qi.

Feeling the intense heat, the clothing around my body began to smoke and churn. Exstiguasion my flame, I felt a deep excitement within my heart to begin finally learn various circles, and I still have to read Bahomets book. Rituals of Damnation. With a vibrant smile, I arose from my bed.

"Guess everyone else recovered. It has been a week, after all. I can't stay here any longer; less they try to experiment on me."