Irwin was still staring at his card, wondering about the bottom line, when a jarring sensation hit him. For a moment, he felt like he was in two places, his mind dizzy. Then the familiar sensation of his otherself reasserted itself as it seemed to flow away, separate from him.

A moment later, two of them hung in the soulscape. It was an odd feeling, as it usually was, looking at himself from two points. Both of them were him, though also themselves, and they had a single pool of memories. Currently, it was as if he could see two opposite parts of his soulscape at the same time.

"Good to see you back," both of him said at the same time, grinning.

Then he remembered his new soulcard hovering before him, and they focused on it. As he did, Irwin pulled most of his conscious thoughts to one of himself, and as he did that, he froze.

There was a change.

Before his heartcard, he could still differentiate between the him that stayed in the soulscape and the him that went into the body, and he sometimes still thought of the latter as the real him. Now, there was none of that. Both felt completely identical and as he experimentally switched their combined focus from one to the other, he realized he had no idea which was the clone.

For a split second, he felt worried about that. Then he realized it was foolish. As soon as the heartcard was completed and the soulcard was born, it had integrated with the purest form of himself, which was represented by his soulscape. That meant that there was no difference anymore. His soul was larger because of the soulcard, and part of that size came from having two souls or two parts to his one soul.

As he pondered what it would be, his gaze lingered on the soulcard, and he blinked as he read the bottom line again.

"It's been a while since I was easily distracted," he muttered.

Pondering the existence of his soul would have to wait, as would exploring the changes to his soulscape. First, he needed to figure out what that final line meant. Not for him, as apparently he was now immune to something he'd not even known could be a thing, but for everyone else he loved.

He pulled on his connection with Ambraz, knowing that even without words, the Ganvil would feel him.

I wonder what would happen if I bring someone that is infected into my soulscape, he wondered.

A moment later, Ambraz popped into being a few feet from him.

"Kid, you did… it…" Ambraz shouted before his voice petered out. "Why do you still have soulforce in your soullake?"

"I don't know," Irwin said.

One of his selves flew towards Ambraz, dragging the soulcard with him, while the other flew up into the sky to see what the new section of his soulscape looked like.

"But there's something else bothering me. Look at the final line!"

Ambraz didn't respond right away, seemingly entranced by the not-empty soullake. Only when Irwin floated in front of him and tapped his side did he grunt in response.

"Right, let me check! Ah… Immunity. Yes, well… that's fantastic."

Irwin snorted at the sarcasm in Ambraz's voice, though he wondered what was up with that lukewarm response. As he did, the other him was flying near the top of his soulscape, looking down, and it took all of his willpower not to focus on what he saw. Shaking his head to clear it, he forced himself to focus on Ambraz.

"Okay, so why haven't I heard about Soulscape infections before? And what does it mean with infiltrations?"

"You haven't heard of it because it's not something that happens," Ambraz said. "It's a defense that pops up on occasion, though usually not a combination, and I've read about a few cards with it, but there has never, to my knowledge, been a card that can do the opposite."

Irwin cocked his head. "The opposite… You mean, no card that will allow someone to infiltrate someone else's soulscape?"

"No, nor the infection bit," Ambraz said. "If you'd stayed at the Golden Friction Academy for a bit longer, you would eventually have been taught about them. They are part of a later year where they discuss the more theoretical reasons why skills of soulskilled beings gain certain properties. It's even more boring than learning the Unlikely Category and Typings lists."

Irwin felt a burst of annoyance. He knew of Ambraz's distaste for most of the theoretical side of cards.

I'll ask Dahlia in a bit.

"Fine," he said, letting his soulcard fade away, enjoying the sensation of the powerful connection.

Images of his new soulscape section came from his otherself as it flew above and through it.

"Let's go check out the changes to my soulscape!" he said.

He shot up, feeling the same wonder as his otherself at how high he could go. When he finally reached the top barrier, he was at least three times as high as the tip of the volcanic mountain that dominated his first soulcard's section. Below him, his soullake had grown again, and as he examined it, Irwin hummed. His otherself had focused on the new section, not bothering to check the rest of the changes, but as he did it now, he noticed a curious thing.

"I think it grew a third, which is exactly how much soulforce is still in it," he said, turning to Ambraz.

"Kid… if this continues, by the time you have all of your soulcards, you will have a small world in your soul," Ambraz said, sounding excited. "I guess there have to be others with soulscapes like this… probably… but I've never heard of them."

Irwin gave him a crooked grin as his eyes drifted to the edges of his soulscape. Long ago, they had been jagged, lightning-filled barriers. Then, with the completion of his first soulcard, they had become like milky glass, showing only the large swirls of the chaotic soulforce that existed beyond it. Now, a thick layer of fog covered that milky barrier, which was far enough away that he knew walking there would take a few hours.

"I wonder how large it can become," Irwin asked. "What if someone just focused on growing their soulscape? Could they get it the size of a world? Have people and creatures live in it that don't even know they are not in the realm world?"

Ambraz hummed, then barked a laugh. "Here's another for you. Maybe we are all inside some impossibly powerful being's soulscape."

Irwin looked at Ambraz and shivered at the thought of everything he knew about happening in an enormous soulscape.

"Don't worry, kid, I was just joking," Ambraz said, barking another laugh. "It's just one of those things people have pondered about for a long time."

Ambraz let out a musing hum.

"There are even cults that believe it's true. One I know of is searching for ways to contact what they believe is a sleeping god, while another says it is Yilda, and those little trinkets that keep getting found are hints or clues. But all that said, all soulforce and soulscape research has shown that it is highly unlikely. I'm no expert, but I think the gist was that the void that surrounds the world is too vast and empty for that to work. Besides, the ambient soulforce is too weak and too different on all worlds."

Irwin could understand why someone would get to that conclusion, though, as his mind pictured something that vast, he shook his head. If that was true, did it even matter?

He tried to picture his own soulscape growing and growing to the point that it was a country, then a world. Perhaps it would continue growing till he died?

Wait, surrounded by the chaotic primal soulforce, what would happen to it if he died?

"Maybe that's how worlds are born?" he pondered. "When someone gets a large enough soulscape, and they die, it gets pushed out into reality and becomes a world?"

"Who knows," Ambraz said, snorting. "Now, let's stop with the philosophy and check that new section. Those can't be trees because you have no card of type!"

Irwin grinned as Ambraz shot away from him, toward the no longer barren section of his soulscape that was nestled against the hills that formed the end of his first one. He felt the same surprise as he did when his other self had seen it shortly after forming—a vast but sparse forest of what looked like tall, yellow-leafed trees. Even from up here, he could sense and feel something from them, and the soulforce that flowed between was behaving oddly. Besides, what tree had square leaves?

Instead of going there, he just pushed most of his awareness into his otherself, somehow making that the main him, and then he was within the middle of the forest. The trees, for they were some form of tree, were massive, and a soft, soothing song resonated from all of them.

As he closed in on one, it took him only a moment to recognize the song as one of those he knew. It was an adaptation of a Galadin music sheet song that he'd used for one of his reforgings.

A bit closer, he recognized the leaves for what they were—pages filled with music. They were yellowed as if from age, with beautiful handwritten notes. The soft song came from the large tree trunk and the thick branches as if they were hollow and resonating with the songs on the leaves, which Irwin guessed they probably were.

I wonder what determines what the physical representation is, he thought as he flew to another tree, listening to another song, appreciating the beautiful rhythm.

The forest was massive, and as he moved through, he noticed smaller trees, some no taller than he himself. Their songs were unfinished and sometimes disjointed, but he recognized one as a part of a song he'd heard on his travels. Only a small bit remained.

"So, these are the songs I've heard," he thought, shooting up in the sky and looking around.

The area was massive, and some sections were denser than others. Ambraz was hovering near one, a sense of joy coming from him.

Irwin flew towards him, and when he was almost there, he realized why Ambraz was so happy. One of the songs he enjoyed, a fast-paced, loud song that Irwin had heard him sing along to back on Granvox, sounded from the tree beside him. The others Irwin passed had also been from his time on Granvox, and he wondered if that meant they were grouped like that.

"This is fantastic!" Ambraz shouted, flying a circle around Irwin. "We need to move the house over here!"

Irwin grimaced and quickly shook his head. "No, I don't think hearing the same song would be fun," he said.

"Bah! No taste! Well, I'm going to create a tree-house in this one!"

Irwin laughed as he pictured Ambraz in a treehouse, constantly singing the same song.

"Sure, but I think we should go back to the others now," Irwin said. "I'm sure they are curious."

"You do that," Ambraz shouted, in between humming and singing parts of the songs. "I'm going to listen to this again… maybe two or three times!"

Irwin shook his head. "Well, remember we are going to do the Whale card later."

He was about to leave when he thought of something else and turned back to Ambraz.

"Also, do you think I can fill the soullake even without having a heartcard?"

Ambraz stopped humming, his lips pursed. "I've never heard of this entire thing, so I wouldn't know. But we could try! If the Chaos Whales sticks around, that would be for the best."

Irwin nodded and, with a final look around, he left his otherself to check out the other changes as he stepped out of his soulscape.

The first thing he noticed was a constant happy hum; then, he felt the edge of the metal bench in his back. Groaning, he pushed himself up, sensing the soreness. As tough as he was, lying on a finger-thick metal edge still hurt. Two Chaos Whales were slowly flying around the ship, one half as large as the other and close to what he would expect of an adult Chaos Whale.

That proves it, he thought. The time dilation further down had to become insane.

"Finally back!"

"How did it go?"

Irwin grunted as he saw Greldo and Dahlia look at him curiously. He walked onto the central slab of stone and cracked his neck. He didn't feel any different physically, not compared to when his first soulcard had finished, but as he looked around, he noticed the soulforce resonance seemed to blend in more with the surroundings, both making it less noticeable and more detailed at the same time. As he raised his hands, he was greeted by six empty cardslots- a sight he hadn't seen for years.

"Irwin?"

"Good, though there are a few oddities," Irwin said, nodding at Greldo, who looked worried. Then he focused on Dahlia. "Did your grandfather ever talk to you about soullakes that don't fully drain when the soulcard finishes?"

Her eyebrows shot up, a look of shock filling her shining silver eyes.

"You have a Soulclone?!"

Irwin frowned, trying to recall what he knew about his own card. Also, hadn't he told her about it?

"I do… does that have something to do with it?"

Dahlia whistled, shaking her head in slight awe. "They can, if you have a very high-ranked, high percentage one. Depending on things, such as the basic size of your soulscape and the other soulforce cards you might have, your soulscape can outgrow your soullake by a certain amount. If that happens, you will accumulate so much ambient soulforce within it that it will offset the soulforce within your lake and not drain it all. How much remained?"

"About a third," Irwin said, rubbing his chin. He wondered if that meant he could form his next soulcard without filling his soullake…

He was about to ask when he saw Dahlia stare at him, her face slack. Greldo stood beside her, shaking his head with a grin, poking her in the side and causing her to jolt toward him.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. "What?!"

"Don't look so surprised," Greldo said, turning to Irwin. "He's always been weird."

Irwin snorted. "Says you!"

Focusing back on Dahlia, who seemed to have regathered herself, he raised an eyebrow. "So, I guess a third is a lot?"

"Usually, it's a few percentages," she said. "My grandfather actually has a few cards like that, and his remains close to ten percent full, which I promised to never reveal to anyone..."

"So why do that now?" Greldo asked, putting an arm around her and kissing the top of her head.

Dahlia snorted, glaring at him as she pinched his waist. "Because I am almost certain he would be fine with me telling you, what with all the things I know about you."

"Mutual destruction," Greldo muttered.

Irwin coughed, drawing their attention back to him. Dahlia looked impassive but still blushed ever so faintly, while Greldo just grinned wider.

"Why haven't I ever heard of this?" Irwin asked. "Even Ambraz didn't know…"

"Because it is incredibly rare, and I only know because of Grandfather," Dahlia said. "It's also something that only happens if you have either a soulclone or a similar soulcard."

"Your Grandfather has one?" Irwin asked.

"No," Dahlia said, looking annoyed. "He never did want to tell me exactly what he had, just that it wasn't that."

Irwin felt his curiosity piqued. If he could get another way to increase his soulscape size and soulforce density…

Ambraz popped out of his soulscape, humming the song he'd been listening to since appearing.

"Sorry, I got distracted by some other songs," he said. "What did I miss?"

"Apparently, Dahlia's grandfather also had a soullake that doesn't fully empty," Irwin said, quickly rehashing what he'd learned.

"Why did that old block of cast iron not tell me this?" Ambraz grumbled. "It's impossible for Brazardian to not have been aware!"

"Probably because it's something that's so unlikely to happen that he didn't think it relevant?" Irwin said. "I mean, does everyone with cards like this get this?"

"No," Dahlia said instantly. "There are a lot of factors that contribute, like I said. The rank and percentage of the first card, the subsequent cards, and potentially things we don't know."

"Fine," Ambraz grumbled. "Anyway, with two of those little ones here, I think we should take our chances and continue right away… that is, if you are up for it?"

Irwin took a deep breath as he tried to determine how he felt, quickly coming to the conclusion that he felt great. Energetic, powerful, and with a clean mind. He almost felt like he'd just had a full night's rest.

"We can do it now," he said, as his otherself began preparations for getting the Chaos Whale card ready.

"You might wanna prepare those little ones," Greldo said.

Irwin looked up, raising an eyebrow.

"Little ones?"

Still, his friend was right, and he walked to the edge of the stone platform, humming deeply. It took only a few moments for the smallest of the two Chaos Whales to move close enough for him to touch. Putting his hand on the rugged hide, Irwin thought for a bit, then tried to convey a sense of reluctance and an image of the heartcard.

A deep honk and confusion came, and Irwin quickly added more images and emotions, explaining that he hadn't killed the Chaos Whale but that the Oculithar had.

The image of the Occulithar caused a powerful trumpet from the Chaos Whale, accompanied by a wave of fury bordering on pure hate.

Irwin almost stumbled back, stunned by the strength of the emotion, while the other Chaos Whale let out a worried hum.

'It's alright,' Irwin hummed, quickly adding a few of his memories from fighting and killing the smaller Oculithar.

The Chaos Whale calmed slowly, and a sense of appreciation and rightness came with it. Then, it sent a powerful sense of acceptance and agreement while a deep, complicated, resonating hum rippled away. The other Chaos Whale let out a bellow, almost laden with surprise.

A sense of curiosity came from the Chaos Whale with a question. What did he want?

Irwin blinked at that. The Chaos Whales had never asked anything like that, and he hesitated before trying to show them- an image of himself, growing much larger as he fought a larger Oculithar, before shrinking down again to play with Zan.

His response was one of confusion, but with a small core of understanding. Irwin tried again, flickering the image of himself growing and shrinking till he got a happy and understanding set of confusing and jumbled images back. They showed a group of humanoids with golden, four-armed bodies, faces with no nose or lips but three sets of two deep black eyes, fighting with an Oculithar. Although there was little reference, somehow Irwin got a sense that the humanoids were massive and the Oculithar of the worldwrapping kind.

'What are those?" Irwin tried to send both in images and words.

What he got back was as confusing as it was absolute. A sense of time so long ago that the simple sense of it made him shudder. Then it was gone, and Irwin felt the rough skin vanish from between his fingers as the smaller Chaos Whale moved to the larger. For a few moments, they quietly crooned and hummed before both sent out what Irwin could only think of as a ready signal.

"Well… that was new," Greldo muttered from behind him.

Irwin shook his head, the images of the giants somehow burned in his memory.

"Kid?"

Irwin shook his head again. "They are ready," he said, putting his hand on Ambraz, who had turned into his large working shape.

"Good, then let's see if we can do this," Ambraz said. "Let's go through the song once, just to prepare."

Irwin barely nodded, trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. What had the Chaos Whale sent him? Some ancient memory? How had it even gotten that… it was just a baby when he'd found it. Did Chaos Whales share stories?

As Ambraz began to hum, his other self pulled out the soulstrum guitar for the first time, but there was no change from before, and soon a beautiful but forceful hymn began resonating out from Irwin.

Forcing away his confusion, Irwin joined in, his voice a deep rumble that was almost immediately joined by the two Chaos Whales.

When they finished the practice run, Irwin saw Greldo grinning.

"That's one hell of a song," he said.

Irwin nodded. Should he talk about it now, or-

A jubilant hum came from the Chaos Whales, accompanied by a sense of urgency as if they were telling him to hurry up.

Irwin raised his hand, and a moment later, the unformed Chaos Whale heartcard appeared within, causing a powerful fluctuation in the soulforce. The Chaos Whales began humming a deep, almost sad dirge as the card seemed ready to shatter and explode.

"Hurry!"

Irwin didn't need Ambraz's warning, and he quickly put the card on the smooth surface as his hammer appeared in his hand. Without hesitating, he slammed it down on the chaotic, crackling source of soulforce.

As he began singing, accompanying Ambraz and his otherselve's soulstrum guitar play, Irwin felt the immediate heavy resistance from the card. Even just the start was so counter to what it had been shaping up to be that the card's resonance pushed back, resonating out of frequency.

Yeah, well, it's not going to be that easy, Irwin thought, bringing his considerable soulforce to bear on the card.

Trying not to shatter it outright proved an idle worry.

As his two soulcards resonated, trying to pull the Chaos Whale heartcard along, the Heartcard resonated back, instantly creating a deadlock.

Irwin groaned, his hammer still raised. He couldn't strike yet. The card needed to flow towards its next step first. Hitting it now would just result in it shattering or, worse, exploding.

Before he could worry, he felt Ambraz's soulforce -almost identical to his own in resonance- join in. As it piled up, the balance very slowly shifted, though Irwin worried that if the heartcard let up all of a sudden, they might shatter it due to that.

The pressure began growing as the heartcard moved away from its original song, taking a sidestep into, for it, unfamiliar territory. As Irwin had feared, his and Ambraz's pressure instantly threatened to engulf the card. Trying to hold back, he felt Ambraz's anger and annoyance grow as hairline cracks formed on the card.

Seriously? One hit!?

An ear-rattling, bone-thrumming hum came from the Chaos Whales, but unlike before, it didn't join him and Ambraz. Instead, it seemed to join the resonance of the Chaos Whale card, bolstering it and causing the sudden overpowering resonance of Irwin and Ambraz to balance out. Then, very slowly, the Chaos Whales began pruning the resonating song. Tiny melodies and small percussions were whisked away until Irwin finally felt the card start to move sideways.

By now, he was breathing raggedly, and he was almost worried about what would happen if he struck the card a second time.

Raising his hammer slowly, he prepared himself, still singing and playing. Praying that the Chaos Whales could hold the heartcard together, he struck again.

This time, the jolt and accompanying resonance caused a much smaller reaction, though that was only compared to the previous one. Even now, it felt like his and Ambraz's soulforce resonance was almost being nullified by the raging heartcard.

This thing has more power than either of my soulcards, Irwin thought as he tried to balance forcing the resonance with not pushing too hard and shattering the card. Again, the Chaos Whales began removing parts of the Heartcard's resonance, and although Irwin felt the card's power lessen, he didn't mind. It had been far too powerful and dangerous, and if he wanted even a remote chance of success, making it weaker and simpler was fine with him. It also meant he needed to change his own song slightly, but it would only need to become simpler.

As soon as the heartcard was moving again, this time smoother, Irwin struck again.

Time quickly lost its meaning as he continued to struggle to find a balance. At some point, he found himself singing softer, more in control as the heartcard had been whittled down to a fraction of its initial chaotic power. Still, something about the card was different from any he had ever seen and reforged. It almost felt as if something was being unearthed.

At some point, after Irwin had long lost his sense of time, the card began moving in the direction he and Ambraz envisioned, as if it wanted to go there, and as it did, a shiver ran through the incredibly dense ambient soulforce. With what little focus he had that wasn't on the reforging, Irwin saw and felt the ambient soulforce start to spiral around them, not unlike what had happened within his own Soulscape, what seemed like days ago.

The Chaos Whales' voices began growing in depth and power as a spiraling cocoon of soulforce began wrapping around Irwin, the platform, and then both ships. The wind began howling like a gale, and for a moment, he thought he heard someone shouting at him. Then, it was lost in the storm.

In the eye of it, below his hammer, the card seemed to thrum with power.

Is it turning into a soulcard? Irwin thought, trying to keep up with the now rapidly changing card.

It had stopped being him, moving it along, and now it was all he could do to slow it down and prevent it from exploding. The deep rumblings of the Chaos Whales were one of the few things he heard, and he thought he saw their shadows spin around him. They had returned to singing the song with him, though little of his original concept remained. With Ambraz fully focused on keeping the card from shattering, Irwin constantly adapted the song, the words no longer understandable, and the soulstrum guitar constantly screaming and frenzied.

As he felt his own soulforce start to drain, and his mind began to turn groggy, all Irwin could do was hold onto his hammer. He was striking faster than he had ever had and trying to use the resonance of his own soulcards to slow down what felt like an explosion waiting to happen.

For a long while, he thought he could keep up, and then that which had been a heartcard let out a rumbling roar of resonance. The surrounding gale was blasted away, the sound vanished, and Irwin stood stunned, panting, his hammer raised to strike.

A card with a golden border, unlike any he'd ever seen, lay on Ambraz's surface, far too large, and thrumming and humming with seemingly unbridled power.

"Be care-"

Ambraz's shout was cut off as the card let out another explosive resonance. Irwin heard something crack and rip as his vision turned dark and blurry. He knew he'd fallen to his knees, but there was no energy left to move. His soulscape felt drained, his soulcards distant. As a sense of existential dread filled him, a tiny part of him knew that Greldo would be fine, hidden in the Shadowrealm with Dahlia.

Something slammed into his left hand, and a burning pain erupted from it as a thing too massive to fit tried to worm its way into the cardslot.

For a moment, he feared his hand would explode. Then, the pressure eased up. As his vision slowly returned, he looked up to see a large, glowing card hovering before his hand. It seemed meant for the handslot of something ten or twenty times his size.

There was a powerful sense of annoyance hanging in the air, which lasted for a few moments and threatened to swallow him. It vanished slowly while a sense of angry resignation replaced it. Irwin almost felt like the card was about to speak, then a screeching sound, like metal being ripped, came as a tiny sliver of the card looked to be cut free. It lowered itself into his hand. Watching in worried horror, Irwin saw the odd, angular piece flow like water into a dark-red, fluorescently bordered card.

He had a moment to recognize it as an Ammolite before it plunged into his hand, and the world turned black.

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