The Path To Perfection

Chapter 21: Memories, Questions and Answer

The mysterious man maintained a distance of twenty-four meters, nothing more and nothing less with Al'ravee.

Al'ravee followed the man until they reached the gate of the graveyard yard. He was finally able to walk closer to the man when the other party stood still.

"Here, let's take a seat shall we?" The man said, motioning to the white bench a few meters away from them.

Al'ravee didn't say anything, he had a feeling that this man wasn't going to answer his questions if they didn't sit down.

He and the mysterious man sat quietly on the bench as they watched cars pass by at incredible speed. Not a lot of people were willing to drive by a graveyard at leisure speed.

Finally, Al'ravee could no longer take the silence, he had questions and he needed answers now. "What is going on? Am I not supposed to be dead." Al'ravee let out.

"Of course not, you are a god Al'ravee, gods don't die from aging. We are eternal from birth." Said the mysterious man.

Al'ravee looked at the man with a look that was strangely a mix of surprise and being unimpressed. "gods? Are you high or something?"

The man was not surprised by Al'ravee's response, he smiled amusedly as he raised his head to the sky as though he was looking at something. "It's very hard to believe it, I know. But it's the truth." He didn't wait for Al'ravee to respond before grabbing his hand without looking to the side.

"On the orders of your mother, your memories are unsealed."

*POOF*

Al'ravee felt like a smoke bomb was released inside his head before it cleared up to reveal foreign yet strangely familiar memories. For a brief moment, a very brief moment, he felt pain and what was weird was that his brain wasn't able to register where the pain came from, he just felt it.

Quickly putting it at the back of his mind, he subconsciously closed his eyes as he browsed through the new memories. It was like playing a virtual reality game except you had no control over what you were doing.

The first thing he saw was the moment he first opened his eyes where Krene and Jurdelious looked down at him. This memory was very different from the one he remembered. For some reason, they both seemed to be bigger than usual, at first he assumed this was because he was experiencing the memories of his baby self but the next scene proved that was not the case.

Krene reached out and took him into her palm like a human would hold sand. Al'ravee did not have time to be shocked though, his mind started shifting from one memory to another without his control.

...

"Krene? Where are you?."

"Ah, no need to take the life of people unnecessarily."

"He's making friends really well, too bad he will have to watch them all die."

"Ozia wasn't even on this planet, his apostle only dropped a few messages and machine blueprints yet so many beings reverence him."

"Jurdelious, try to suppress your strength well, you nearly threw Al'ravee out of the city."

"No Al'ravee, you can't have one. If you master the concept of concept energy early then I will get you a magic dragon."

"No, you have eternity to learn everything on this planet. Martial arts? that's a small matter."

"I don't have many expectations for you academically, it's a waste of time for us anyway."

"This is Ris. He'll be staying here for a while."

"Hey kid, my blade will cut you if you're not careful. Your parents will seal me up if that happens okay."

"Look at the way he killed those dogs, such a bloody thing."

"How many times have you been robbed? I'll kill these ones."

"Al'ravee, take this. People will think you are still aging."

"Your dad isn't dead. Soon I'll go join him, stop saying that, I'm not crazy."

"Ris, watch him from the sides for me, okay."

"*Sigh* Al'ravee, usually, a hundred years would usually only be enough for a nap but this one... this century feels especially long."

...

Half an hour later, Al'ravee opened his eyes to see a large mirror floating in front of him.

The man Al'ravee saw in the mirror was around six feet tall, even though he was sitting down, he could tell. He had neck-length brown hair with a short, clean brown beard.

His light tan skin, clean and clear of any blemishes was adorned with a ceremonial suit that had a bit of dirt on it.

Obviously, Al'ravee was looking at himself, his true self that is. No longer was he an old man with wrinkles on his face, it was now that he noticed that he walked all the way from his coffin to the graveyard exit without bending over from not using his walking stick.

The sheer amount of emotions going through his heart would have made him jump up in anger, laugh with joy, cry with sorrow, scream with excitement, and probably jump off a cliff out of frustration but the hand that was touching him seemed to suppress that storm of emotions before it burst out.

"You will have time to vent soon Al'ravee. The influx of so many feelings at once can be quite overwhelming..." Ris said in a soothing voice.

"Why?" Al'ravee cut him off. He was able to recognize Ris now but he didn't care, he just wanted to know why all this was happening in the first place.

"It's because you are a god Al'ravee. Sorry if you hold any sentimental feelings towards these mortals and their way of life but you know it won't last." Ris said. This time, Al'ravee did not think he was joking.

Ris continued. "Being a god, you need to have a good personal experience of some things so that you structure your concepts properly and avoid a concept lock. This is the best your parents could come up with.

Your parents, *sigh* can be considered two of some of the strongest beings in this galaxy, but they aren't the only ones. They too have enemies, although very few people can antagonize them and come out alive."

"So that's why they were careful not to draw too much attention. It would have definitely hindered my experience." Al'ravee concluded, his thoughts starting to move at a slightly abnormal speed. He also noticed something very amazing, he was actually thinking of two things at the same time. Surfing through his memories as well as thinking of the questions he wanted to ask.

Ris smiled at the shocked face of Al'ravee after he spoke. "Your body's full potential is now unleashed. You may look human but everything about you is different, from your brain to your muscles. This is a result of the manifestation of the concept of organic body."

Al'ravee nodded as he went into deep thinking even though he didn't completely understand. He found himself answering most of the questions he wanted to ask and left the main ones so that he could ask Ris.

"What do you mean by concept?" He asked solemnly. There was no use acting shocked again, after all, he wasn't even feeling the shock.

Ris smiled in satisfaction at the fact that Al'ravee wasn't throwing unimportant questions at him. "Concepts are the building blocks for everything that is and isn't.

Although you are eternal as you are, your immortality is just the manifestation of another concept, the concept of eternity.

We gods usually live so long that the only thing we could ever long for besides a pantheon... is perfection. Some of us seek perfection through fire, others through darkness, a few love the light, and a few through conflict. There are so many concepts that exist out there to use to pave your way.

In fact, your entire existence for now is built upon the three concepts which are the concept of soul, the concept of organic body, and the concept of eternity."

Al'ravee narrowed his eyes as he heard the last sentence. "What's that supposed to mean? Why an organic body? Why not mechanical? Why am I humanoid too? How does this even work." He asked.

"Hehe, don't worry, you'll understand it better when you're ready," Ris said as he smiled waiting for Al'ravee's next words.

"How do I become ready then?" Al'ravee asked.

Ris shook his head before giving Al'ravee a look of amusement.

"You just have to add the concept of concept energy to your existence. That is a concept responsible for powering other concepts so once you have it, it'll interact with the concept of organic body and soul. By then you will feel the influx of power into your body and be able to feel your soul." Ris finished.

Now Al'ravee could not help but frown. Feel his soul? what's that supposed to mean, he thought.

Ris, seemingly reading his mind responded. "Well, no matter how I explain it to you, you won't understand."

"...But"

"No. Explaining it to you now will clearly leave you more confused. You'll experience it by yourself, just like you always have."

Al'ravee had no choice but to put it at the back of his mind for now.

"How strong do gods get? How strong can I get?"

Ris behaved as if he had heard people ask these questions a lot of times.

"That's a good question. Let's see.

A god's strength is usually determined by the number of concepts they have relative to the concept of concept energy and there are three thousand concepts in total so…

I'm made up of fifty-four concepts and I think I can shatter the lands of this country if I tried." Ris stated with a thoughtful expression, completely ignoring the look he was getting from Al'ravee.

"Ozia, you might have heard of him, he has more than a hundred concepts last I checked but focuses on the concept of machinery. He's a pretty chill guy but he'll sink an entire continent if you force him to.

And then, there are some gods who have the power to influence affairs on a planetary scale, usually called world gods. But not all planets are the same size so that's that.

Finally, we have the gods whose attack power is comparable to the explosion of a star, capable of consecutively destroying more than a thousand planets. That is also the stage your parents are at. They are usually made up of four hundred plus concepts I think."

"..." Al'ravee honestly didn't know what to say about this.

"If you want to know about anything beyond that, you first have to become strong enough because even I have never seen anyone stronger than your parents."