"It is harder to walk" Azief suddenly said to Katarina.

Katarina nodded as she tries to use her energy to divert some of the energy and breathes in and out to absorb the other.

And the closer they came to the centre, the stronger the energy. And as they are fifteen feet to the centre of this mine mana energy, there is even a mini tornadoes of mana.

"Wait" Azief said as he walks closer toward these mini tornadoes forming on the surface of the ground

As Azief walk close to these mini tornado this mini tornado quickly dissipated.

And Katarina who is only a few feet behind Azief could feel it the most right now. Azief is getting stronger.

"The concentration of energy here is even thicker" but then as they reached six feet around the centre of this mine, Azief stopped.

Then he pointed toward the centre of the pillar. And Katarina look at it. And frowned

"Is that what I think it is?’ Azief smiles. That is as good as any answer. Katarina look again at the pillar and nodded

"What do you think?" Azief ask

"I did know know souls looks like this. So clear, so not....different"

What she sees in that pillar, is flying apparition of people. Translucent, like some ghost one would see in some depiction in arts and media.

Like the kind of ghost, one would see in a movie. Translucent being. There is a reason why Katrina knows in a glance that these are dead people. The life....there is no life. There is no life energy that is commonly could be felt by her.

And there are no physical bodies. Of course, Azief in Essence Creation also have no physical bodies. His current body is just energy compressed by desire and will. A magical body. If he wanted to, he could just fuse with the elements and sail the seas of matter all over the Omniverse.

Physical limitation...is not something an Essence Creation leveller bother themselves with.

However, Azief emanated powerful energies. Energies, rules, and laws. And all that is present with living.

These people...are dead. They have no bodies. But they are not entirely non-existent. Souls. These are souls.

And Katarina finally understand how Azief would do that one last step in his plan. No wonder...no wonder he didn’t care how many people would die in a war. This is his last chess move in this game.

No matter how Pandemonium is wrecked....he doesn’t care. Because he has this plan.

Azief did not know what Katarina is thinking about but he did hear her words about soul and he shook his head

"No, this is not how the soul really looks like. It is a bit complicated to explain it"

Katarina look at Azief and raise her eyebrows and spoke

"Then explain it simply"

Azief frown for a moment and then closing his eyes. Trying to simplify the problem and then opening back his eyes he said

" I did some modification to the extractor. To make sure that I would not do it wrong" Katarina hearing this could not help but shakes her head

"That’s not a simple explanation at all" Azief could only smiles butterfly.

How to explain to her the extractor?

How to explain to her the crystal special properties that could reflect a being true nature and how it would be perceived.

This is something that he had learned from the knowledge of the Etherna.

It is simple for him to create the extractor.

It is also quite simple for him to enchant and carve the runes needed to make sure the souls appear the way a person limited understanding could perceive it.

This soul, depending on who looks at it, see different things based on their own understanding of souls and life and death

The higher the understanding, the more profound image you could see.

Seeing souls in its true state could bring enlightenment.

It could also bring about madness. Because it touches upon one of the most sacred thing in the entire Omniverse.

Azief before he learns about souls, thought it was one of the simplest magic, one of the simplest artifices of magic.

Souls. But the more he learns about it, the more he believes those who said arrogantly they know soul magic, could not even scratch the surface of what soul is.

One soul...if pure enough, could even support an entire magical Universe.

That is how powerful soul is. And yet, other than extreme cases, almost every living beings in the entire Omniverse has it. Whether they know it or not, whether they could feel it or not, the soul is there.

It is not entirely good. Not entirely evil. It is like some kind of programming. A programming that is written since before Time.

A log of fate and destiny embedded in you, but unseen, intangible, and rarely felt unless it is a fate turning moment.

The most mysterious, the most enigmatic of all that is intangible. Souls.

If the body is determined by DNAs, external environment, and other things that are quantifiable, like how much nutrition you have going up, how many pollutants you are exposed to and so on and so forth, then souls are something that is hard to quantify

Because it is magic.

The purest kind of magic.

And what kind of magic could be considered the purest?

The most unreasonable ones

Even Azief who had been able to create the extractor and the visualizer of souls, would not dare to say he is adept and an expert on soul. Because the more he knows, the more he knows that he doesn’t know.

Azief had told her his plans a long time ago. But how....that is the part of the plan that he did not tell her.

Today, he told her. And he is even showing some of the methods.

Why?

Yes, Katarina is thinking why would Azief shows her all of this.

Katarina is not someone who would doubt him.

Katarina and Azief, they have spent years with each other.

But even if this bond created by time is not there, Katarina love for Azief and Azief love for Katarina, they would not doubt each other

Even though Azief himself did not say it in his words, from his action Katarina could feel it. Katarina on the other hand was not shy in expressing her feelings.

She is not confrontational when she is with Azief. Most of the time she only felt happy.

Katarina has always loved Azief. From curiosity, to like, to love. This feeling that evolved rapidly is something that not many people could understand.

For most of her life she is secluded from people. But there was something about him that drew her to him.

It is unexplainable attraction that she herself did not know to describe.

Like fate. Like destiny. Like a bond that is destined. Like a thread of fate that could not be cut.

At times, she felt happy.

And at times she feels sad.

But she rarely holds her tongue when such things happen.

Instead, she would always tell him if there is something that disappointed her or something that saddens her.

At times Azief would say something. But even if he doesn’t, Katarina says those words so that he would know.

She knows and he knows.

There are certain bonds that are just like that. They did not need much word to convince the other. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Even if Azief held some secrets, Katarina would not be such a busybody that she would do her utmost to uncover the secret.

As for lying....Azief would not lie to her. This is not because he believes Azief is honest. She knows better about Azief than most people. He could be cunning.

No, he is cunning.

Everyone however thought he is always above-board when doing things. Azief once told her the reason why he was never cunning in his dealing with the world powers.

The reason like always is simple and not as complicated as one would think.

It is not that he is trying to cultivate some kind of righteous aura of him trying to cultivate a persona of righteousness of persuade other to do virtuous things

The reason why he rarely becomes cunning is because there is no need to be cunning when strength alone is enough to convince people.

Things that are easily solved with his strength....why should one use cunningness?

Most of the thing he wanted to do is something that benefits humanity. And that alone would win the support of many people. For those whose interest is jeopardized, they still would not dare say anything because of Azief power.

"There is no need to lie"

If there is something he did not want to share, he would just not speak it.

And Katarina knows that when he does not speak, it means Azief did not want to lie to her.

There are some things he could never tell her and Katarina would have understood it. Because there are also things, she could not tell him.

Some....things need time for it to be talked about. At times, they need to react at that time

Other times....you need to give time.

To know the difference is a mix of trial and error but they have nailed it pretty well in all of these years

Why? That is the question. Even if Azief did not show all of this to her, it was not like she would not trust him. Katarina is not someone that Azief need to convince.

...