The operator laughed nervously.
"That depends entirely on what you’re offering."
I didn’t particularly like that answer. He continued anyway.
"Some want money. Some want information. Some want power."
I sighed.
The operator seemed to notice my expression.
"Though if you ask me, sir..."
I looked toward him. He hesitated briefly before pointing toward one of the commander ships near the center of the formation.
"Commander Seven."
"Why?"
The operator’s eye narrowed slightly.
"Because she’s the only one crazy enough to make deals with strangers."
A crazy commander willing to deal with strangers was still better than twenty-two commanders who might refuse to even speak with me.
"Thank you."
The operator immediately nodded.
"You’re welcome, sir."
His vertical eye followed me cautiously as I turned and left the command chamber. I stepped toward the edge of the deck and looked ahead. Far in the distance, beyond countless vessels and drifting silver waves, I could barely make out the front formation of the armada.
Commander Seven’s ship was somewhere among them. I took a deep breath. Then floated upward.
The deck rapidly fell away beneath me as I rose into the air before orienting myself toward the distant formation. Only after leaving the ship behind did I truly begin noticing what Aurora had been trying to teach me.
The Null Realm was different. Fundamentally different. Soul force existed everywhere. The vast silver sea below me radiated it. The air carried it. The drifting clouds carried it. Even the darkness beyond the horizon carried it.
It saturated existence itself.
The sensation reminded me of swimming through an ocean. Every movement required resistance to be overcome. Every action demanded effort. As I accelerated forward, I immediately felt the difference.
Flying normally should have been effortless. Instead it felt like moving through deep water. The further I pushed, the heavier the resistance became.
Three times.
Perhaps four.
That was how much more difficult movement felt compared to normal space. At the same time I noticed something else.
My soul force was slowly depleting. A constant drain. A constant expenditure required simply to exist as a living being inside the Null Realm.
Aurora’s warning returned to me.
You are alive.
Everyone else here is not. For the first time I truly understood what she had meant. The realm itself was rejecting me.
As I continued flying, I began experimenting. A small amount of my own soul force flowed outward. The surrounding energy immediately reacted.
There was definitely potential there. I had just begun exploring that feeling when the sea below exploded.
The warning came less than an instant before impact. A gigantic tentacle erupted from the silver waters. The thing was larger than mountains. An immense black appendage covered in glowing runes and thousands of silver eyes shot upward toward me with enough force to shatter cities.
My body moved automatically. Soul force surged from my arm. I swung my hand outward. The silver-violet energy collided with the tentacle and diverted its trajectory.
The impact sent shockwaves across the surrounding sky.
The creature’s attack missed me entirely and continued upward. Before I could even properly observe it, another tentacle burst from the ocean.
Then another.
And another.
The entire sea beneath me began churning violently. Silver waves rose hundreds of kilometers high. Something enormous was moving below.
I shot backward. A moment later the creature surfaced. The sight actually surprised me.
It resembled an octopus only in the loosest sense.
Dozens of tentacles spread across the ocean while a central body larger than many islands slowly emerged from the water. Thousands of eyes opened across its surface and fixed themselves upon me simultaneously.
The pressure rolling from the beast was immense. Not Saint level. But certainly powerful by local standards.
A soul beast.
Several tentacles lashed toward me at once. This time I did not evade. Instead I allowed soul force to gather around my body. Silver-violet energy coated my arms.
The next tentacle reached me.
I punched.
Space cracked.
A shockwave erupted outward. The enormous appendage exploded into fragments of silver mist. The beast roared. The sound physically shook the sea. Dozens more tentacles attacked simultaneously.
I welcomed it.
Soul force surged through my body. For the first time since arriving in the Null Realm, I stopped treating the environment as foreign and began treating it as a weapon.
The surrounding energy responded, not smoothly. But enough.
One tentacle approached from behind. I seized it directly. The creature immediately attempted to pull me toward the ocean.
Instead I pulled back. The entire appendage snapped.
The battle rapidly transformed into experimentation. Every attack taught me something new. Every clash improved my understanding. I could feel how soul force behaved differently from Essence.
Essence was willing. Soul force was stubborn. It wanted purpose, direction and identity. Simply forcing it to obey was inefficient. But mixing my own soul force into it...that worked.
The realization caused a smile to appear on my face. The beast immediately regretted existing.
My soul force erupted outward. Instead of attacking directly, I allowed it to spread through the surrounding environment.
Then I imposed my will upon it. The surrounding soul force began gathering. Slowly at first. Then rapidly. The sea itself started sinking. The creature sensed the danger immediately.
It attempted to retreat. The entire region became heavier. The surrounding soul force condensed into an invisible pressure crushing downward from every direction.
The beast screamed. Its enormous body began collapsing. Tentacles shattered. Silver mist erupted across the ocean.
The creature fought desperately against the pressure. It made no difference. I continued feeding my own soul force into the surrounding currents.
The pressure multiplied. A mountain would have been flattened instantly. The giant soul beast lasted several seconds longer.
Then its body imploded. The ocean exploded upward. The enormous creature collapsed into fragments of soul matter that rushed and merged with my body. I saw my own depleted soul force replenish and even increase slightly.
I hovered above the water while observing the aftermath.
"Interesting. Very interesting."
If Essence was the authority of existence. Then soul force was the authority of self. Identity imposed upon reality.
Aurora had been right. From Saint onward, what I wanted to become mattered. The realization lingered in my thoughts as I turned back toward the armada.