Reincarnated as a Duck: A beast progression litrpg isekai-Chapter 265 - 256: Resonance Realm - Part 4

Murai turned his head, noting no peculiar light around this priest guy. He figured the wording and cultures of this place were easy, or straight up simple, yet he didn't feel comfortable involving himself in serious discussions.

Especially when this wasn't wrong or right, and he wasn't even aware if he could leave good remarks, let alone do something meaningful, or good about it. He felt like a villain, and the fact that many weapons aimed at him didn't help with anything.

"How light?" Lining argued, hurt that Uncle Master was such a piece of moon. "It fought and crawled out of lakes and done OUR duty. So what if it's a little leaking and dark? It's so nice to see its hues transition and moonwashed. It's trying! I like it, so why is it such a big problem?"

"By plaguing and stenching it, you mean? Silly child, this isn't about fixing. This is you being a problem, and it being a much bigger problem. It is about the destruction of what is right, correct, and wrong, or very mistaken." The priest had few invalid arguments and recognized that Lining didn't mess with anything. It was right as much as she was right.

He also saw how Murai's concern overshadowed more doubts and how the Art of Mixing might have returned after... how long? Wasn't this quite a terrifying prospect? Not honorable? Once lost, it should've been a barren possibility for nothing but words and wisdom of lost eras. Or backstabbing against that which was taken. Either way, this creature was doing bad things to this realm, and it got here for a reason. Which, he didn't know, but he was about to find out.

Lining eyed Murai, hoping he would get her appeal, but it was like asking the moon to spin in a different direction. She saw his spears and shards and how he wasn't really gaining anything from this conversation, let alone from her. She ran from it, hid behind the tree, and let it down.

It was just compromising, bearing with him, or it found something to light up in the darkness, so... it was the opposite act. The forbidden pact. Like Yin and Yang of stories of old, Lining began to cheer up after reaching a bare-bones conclusion for a couple of answers and fun. That lit her up in no small ways, so the priest was getting a headache because of it.

"L-listen, Lining..."

"Oh, none of it. To moon with you! I think I know what this is about and..."

The priest clapped its sticks, forcing five soldiers, thick, sturdy figures, to go and grab her and solve it better than words could.

"You wanna?" Lining charged from behind the tree, angry and flashing her hair. Spears came at her, but a mere blink of a flash seized the lines, causing the soldiers to snap against the ground. Lining stood over them, satisfied and glaring like a storm against the sun.

"You...." The priest prayed again. "You don't wanna know what light is in this, Child!"

"Oh, dear dream, come on, Uncle Master. Gimme a golden break. It seemed all light to me, so don't moon with me. This one is just interesting and here for a reason. It snatched at him. Why? Who did this? I haven't done light besides calling and wording. Not a poke went between us, I light!"

"NO! She touched it! Played with it! Broke with it." Aisling argued, hiding behind the soldiers and a distant tree for a very valid reason. The priest glanced at him, worried but not surprised.

"No matter. This matter is of deep hazard to our Realm. You, Children, are stupid and brave in all capacities, but you are also you, and also right in all accords. This one has been welcomed in some matters and allowed to plunge into that lake. That itself is a hazard to our Realm, as well as an immense satisfactory point, history, and opportunity light. In light, darkness dwells, dividing the matters of pride and hatred, right? That's coexistence. Not hatred, but it is to our consolation and judgement, while this is... real."

The priest paused, hoping they got his lesson right, before continuing.

"Nay still, this leaves some matters close or far. It is also challenging and moon complicated since what you see is still a curse, yet accepting because of... mistakes. Many mistakes, Children. Learning from them is fine, and it isn't a matter of purity or pride. Lightbright Realm has its rules and kings. Accepting the reality has its consequences, and these have rules and paths and steps to follow. Break them, curse you. Follow them, you might fit right in."

The soldiers cluttered their weapons, nervously wincing in their steps as the leaking darkness expanded ever so closely toward their legs. Murai was like ink dropped onto a clean page that wasn't doing anything personal, like writing or painting. But it could.

Murai yawned, stepping around to notice those spears coming closer. They were poorer than him, so he considered his words and mistakes once more.

"So it is about mistakes. That's it, old light? Aren't Epochs one giant mistake? Aren't lives and worlds matters of these mistakes, and aren't Realms guiding mistakes to appease no further mistakes, or judge and make more and more blundes since that's all they fucking do?" Murai said, making a rather deep and profound statement that the priest didn't take lightly.

He churred in deep blaze, revolting in anger and fury around his flesh. "Visitor of this caliber, bearing Dread so thick it makes my light crawl, and causing wars in the Sacred Ponds?! How could Light take you in any capacity? How could it accept this weakness? You wretch!" He kicked Murai, but he dodged it by a sidestep, chuckling and not attacking back.

"Is there something here for me? If so, tell me that, because that Child did not make her words light on me. I don't really get it either, but body or reality matters moon to me. I am here for myself! Not you, sillies."

The priest shook because of his greed and tone. "Pity... pity that it is correct and... dutiful, meritorious, and.... truthful. Amitabha," he prayed and backed away, trying to overpower the darkness below his feet with his blazing light. It half-worked, but Murai was simply far too wretched and deep.

Aisling hurried to his side, helping him away. "Master, this is some serious moon. Please, let's get rid of it together and as an army. We can't live through the darkness again, can we?"

The priest tapped his head with his stick and praised him.

"What Resonance takes, it gifts and goes for reasons, Child. Even a demon can come here, reach gains, rewards, and even bonds, and odd conclusions. This is the biggest demon of them all for many reasons, better untold and not undone. We have seen them before, devoted, as one, and right. Nothing would destroy this Realm, so worry not. We might get out, be void, but we would return in one form or another, for that is our meaning for as long as there is spark and life in the Epochverse."

Aisling shuddered, agreeing with his matters, and took this as an important lesson. He aimed his light at Murai again, watching those lines, spears, and what Lining perhaps saw in him that made her act like a lunatic.

"That is a demon, then?!" He panicked as he pointed at Murai, who chuckled and snapped his beak at him for fun. He would gladly give him a different kind of demon, but a duck did it just fine.

At some point, Lining stood aside from Murai, curiously poking her stick into one of many spears still protruding from his odd flesh. She overcame the cursing Dread by sending her stick light to her studs and tasting his spears and shards a bit better than before. They felt fun, but that darkness did not, even though something curious was ahead, looking to be very deep.

Murai figured he couldn't just force them out, and they didn't hurt him for some reason that he felt as comforting and leaking as himself. He was wounded, while getting better and worse at the same time, though he wasn't cracking. That, he knew.

The priest turned, seeing how Lining was way too close and doing something she shouldn't be doing. "Lining! How else in a light am I to tell you to get away!?"

"In better Light, Uncle Master? I started mine, you see. I am not fine with these lights. On Pride!" She offered a suggestion. "It doesn't seem harmful all that much. No demon would shrug, look, and take me like this one. So it is no demon but one weird one instead. It is just... heavy in darkness, that is all. Odd lingering one that does want to quench, and not destroy. It dims, fearful, unknown, confused. It tries and acts for this lingering course that is the reality of life. We can't get it, Uncle Master. We live in different meanings."

"I am not hearing this from you today, Lining." the priest shouted at her, his light crisped up in agitation. "What would your Master think if he heard and saw you light like this?"

"He would agree?" Lining became one with the spear, gripping it, feeling its lines, and forcing it away from Murai's body. With a thud, he barely flinched and saw how Lining grew fingers and maintained a long, glistering, almost white spear in her much greater, almost surreal grasp.

Her sticks seemed hazy and weird, almost like her hair and fingers, which seemed delicate, long, and different from her generic rest. She spun the spear around, enjoying the meaning of Royals.

The priest paused, forcing Aisling behind his back. "Yes, he would probably agree, which isn't wrong, and... you don't understand. What do you think you are doing with Royals?!"

"Borrowing?" Lining regarded it, pointing the large, crisp, and long spear forward. Thinning edges were at each end, making them strange for a spear. Dread thundered and leaked from the open wound, yet Murai grunted, grimaced in faked annoyance, and lifted his wings, putting pressure where it belonged.

"Damn body... Shitty soul and shitty meanings." He complained and felt how some balance cracked to its limits. Then, he heard a roaring thud right beside him when Lining pressed the spear down, trying to calm the Dread. It didn't work in the slightest, which disappointed her more than anything else today.

"See?" The priest regarded her with a new prayer, making waves at her as he bowed with his head. "Beyond Royal, this one is."

"Hm. I like him even more now. Where to go with this, Uncle Master?"

"In light, I refuse to elaborate. Soldiers! Apprehend this demon for the time being and let us proceed to the Court!"

Murai sighed and let himself be caught. Another stab didn't come, yet he wasn't alone.

Lining disagreed and shifted her spear, preventing the soldiers from coming closer, no matter what wounds or bad things would happen to her or them. They held similar-looking spears, but most of them were lacking in density and sheen.

"What are you doing, Lining?"

"I don't deny them anything, Uncle Master. I am saving them instead. The Master will suggest something light and new with this, I bet. In Court, eh? Is this the... Calling? Is he involved with this visitor? He... has worried me for a light year, so this is it? Is this why he forced me to the backs and grunts and spend time outside?"

"No bet in the light I will bend my light to your words, Child. You can see the truth, however, because that is our point, whilst yours is yours. Your Master demands it, for this is still the Calling of the deserved." The priest halted his words, getting a serious headache over this girl.

Humming and then cheering, Lining agreed. "What a shocker! This makes no more sense, but that is good in some light. Are you glad, little demon bearing weird eyes and light and... er... Words leak from me, I fear. Am I talking too much?" She regarded Murai, who kept complaining about his wounds, and glared at her like a lost duck.

He said nothing, unlike the priest.

"You are always talking! It's you, so to the Grandmaster we go, but you handle it yourself if you are so moonless in this realm." he pointed to Murai, and Lining beamed in delight.

She stabbed him without hesitation and chuckled over his barely flinching sigh, complaints, and reaction. Then, she picked him up without touching him, creating a perfect method to handle this apocalypse by using a Royal like a fishing pole.

"See, Aisling, this is how you pick up a demon. Learn and fear it like wishing for a fish." She teased Aisling by chasing him with Murai on the tip of her spear, which hadn't ended that well. Falling and screaming, Lining had way too much fun after Murai's dreadful consequences paused in the air.

Chaos ensued, but after the priest solved them both with words and prayers, they soon took to the sky, traveling on that weird creature of many triangles that assembled a weird chicken.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Murai felt defeated, glaring from the spear's tip at the surroundings without much bother on his face. His head was hunched, his wings relaxed, and he bet there were worse days in his lives.

Something was back, after all, albeit connected to a very new and different beginning, which made him contemplative, afraid, and kind of taken aback by getting these wounds and mindsets going. Or it was Lining who was connected to him via that Royal and her invasive light.

It was no bond. He accepted nothing but his grudge because something accepted him instead, even if it shouldn't. He wasn't sure if it was the most rudimentary link to the Child of Resonance that felt comparable to gains he felt three times at this tier before, or if it was weirder.

Back in those days, there was a Flame Spirit, an Intellect, and a Sword Ego, and about dozens of others that hadn't ended in very large equality, shared tier, or in anything substantial.

The closer one was a complicated link, followed by density and meaning, which were profound and set in different sets of integrity. It was an old and deep sense of power, as it was what existed and bordered on the rules of energies, and that which lived.

Lining accepted and enjoyed this process quite a bit.

He felt fear in her, reluctance to stop or delay this, and bright childish mockery, followed by blazing, heated strength. She was a different sort of warrior, though he couldn't guess her meaning or what she was to this realm or himself. It was a bit invasive, wild, yet with already wounded points, he couldn't stop this.

It wasn't even harmful since what wouldn't kill him might get lost or strengthen him instead. That was an old saying he wasn't comfortable with right now, but it was also possibly the sole excuse he held onto because he was indeed very invaded. By the stuff of Light, of all things.

By now, he guessed what was going wrong. The previous instances of wounds, strands, and shards were getting bewitching, chaining around his darkness, or doing specific churrs and links so they would be stronger and attest their Will. If nothing else worked, they would cease to exist, which they did, but in him.... which wasn't dead itself.

He hated those facts, as he didn't want them, yet they were already caged in him, unwilling to leak away and return where they belonged, even with Lining's small connection. Strands and lines went for his source instead, finding fulfillment like little pigeons fallen into way too large a nest.

This felt as raw as Resonances went and this wasn't really about gains or preying on these Realms like some assholes would say. Comprehension was built in less forceful matters. They were about thinking, trying, failing, and getting things done and right because Resonances can be understanding, and gains vary.

The wrong approach caused reluctance, but Realms could do that as well because mistakes could happen to anyone, anywhere, and at any time.

Murai hadn't felt a thing. No spark. No touch. He became the Resonance. A new hope. A violation to make old promises binding and filial.

He needed an answer if he was just a wrong and insolent freak toward everything or one thing specifically, or if his body was the only thing of note because this duck moved out of his Will, but also within him. Maybe this whole realm was one massive joke, and a certain jerk was playing with him.

It shouldn't have happened, so this must either be because of his silly soul, or he underestimated the current link to his body, or the Robust Spirit. He tried to think more, deducting reasons or matters of his soul as his travel continued above the ground, going further into this Realm.

The view over his journey wasn't stagnant, unlike the constant banter between Aisling and Lining, who kept teasing him with Murai on top of her spear. If it weren't for that priest, this journey would have been insufferable, ending sooner rather than in a finishing line, or Murai would drop and paint this Realm into a delightful perspective rather than live through this like a caught fish.

After circling around the places, hills, and mountains, and looking at various structures, moving towards the tower for hours was most of this journey.

Murai saw a mountain made of gold, crystals, walls, and carved hills, creating ridiculously sized palaces out of the imagination and countless elements. Pillars beamed like flames and twisting, rotating strands. Flames beamed in many colors and curves, and even lighting danced around many trees and towers. There were even wooden elements and various stones, and brilliantly crafted buildings and roads. It was like a paradise.

Light and Brightness had this beaming sensation that was impossible to appreciate unless one watched the depths of the universe, yet this Realm wasn't all about them. Murai saw some matters that many would find surprising.

There was a sense of fulfillment in cheering for sister and brother elements, and many Realms got along quite well for as long as they could, this one included. Most of the flame elements and fissures had a softer side to them, accompanying the Brightness and Light coming from everywhere.

That tower looked like the core, looming behind these palaces, looking overbearing like Murai saw in that little pond, but it was esseicanly looking across everything. It was bizarre, or maybe it was truly so large, this mere realm was like branch towards it. It was part of the palaces, yet... these places were like a grain of sand before a proper tower.

"Oh, a creature and demon of darkness and dread," the priest started as he glanced back at Murai, apprehensive in his eyes. "have you seen such a sight before? Do you feel... change in light and matters of pride? You are going to a place the likes of you never visited."

Murai flinched his head away, grunting. "Then cheers. Makes no itch away, frankly. It seems like it would all crumble in a puff of smoke and dust if it weren't for this spear and my willingness to see this through. Be grateful for how stable and fine in memories and lines I feel. Usually, I would slaughter you all."

"How delightful the usual is not around." Lining argued and laughed, hugging her spear and feeling very proud of herself. She was ascertaining her choices, and her Uncle Master probably knew about them but couldn't stop anything.

Perhaps it wasn't a problem. It was just a knock, and Lining was uncovering and feeling Murai for herself, noticing his Brightness, dreadful disposition of his Cursed Living, and overall weight and depth. It made her shudder, interested, and playful. And silent, of course, which was beyond rare.

She was barely talking to him on this journey because of it, so she played with Aisling instead. It was an interesting coping mechanism that Murai wished to hold as well. Yet what would cope with him? Who?!

"You... mean it. Oh, I will...." The priest's head went up in light, and his sticks went ahead, trying to grab Murai. Lining yanked the spear aside, almost dropping Murai from the sky as she pointed somewhere else with him at the tip.

"We are here, Uncle Master." She reminded.

They landed in a small tower, devoid of figures or beings, apart from one odd butler and a large flat surface ornamented into a way too complicated carpet filled with carved matters of lines, strands, words, and caricatures.

"I appear to catch a whiff of a demon, head priest," the butler said as the group dismounted from the chicken, bowing and looking squared, softer in silvery sheens, and kind of thin.

Lining went ahead with Murai at the tip of her spear, ignoring the landing, soldiers, this butler, or Uncle Master's annoyances. "Caught it myself, isn't that right, Riling?"

The butler pressed his sticks together. "Yes, most lavish hunt this one sounds like. Delightful work, and it appears as such since the Master is waiting for you all at the third-level observatory."

"Third level observatory!?" The priest shouted. "Why there? Not the first?"

"Light no. That is what sort of attention this one seeks," the butler said coldly and gestured his stick behind him without giving Murai further attention.

Lining went ahead on her own long before that, leaving others in the dust because she ended up running away from Uncle Master, who forced soldiers to secure her alongside Murai. It didn't work, even if the third-level observatory was a sensitive matter filled with pride and royalty.

"Handful, huh," the butler, Riling, said and scratched his round, smooth jaw, letting sparks dance in his head.

Inside the tower, Lining went down until she reached the huge hallway filled with ornamented lines of countless strands stitched like vines all over the walls. They made bricks, walls, and pillars. Everything.

"Nice and big, isn't it?" she reckoned to Murai.

"What a Realm. You grew a full society here, huh?"

"Here? Have you seen the others before?" Lining asked curiously. "We are proud of our matters and meanings, and we built this over time. Light and Brightness is compact and nice, and, if you...Well, you get my point, but you fear its consequences and dread the matters of the end. Are you... afraid of Death? What is it?"

"What is Death?" Murai asked and laughed afterward, noticing how genuinely curious Lining was. She looked like that as well; light danced within her head, and her finger clutched the spear. "It's just the End, Child, and another route to Somewhere."

"Somewhere?"

"Well, places that are between Nowhere and these lots. Realms are fine with you, aren't they? Homing rules and pieces of the Origin, you are a contemplative lot that makes reality really blunt and sometimes tedious."

She nodded. "I like Realms. Makes me light and nice and fine since looking around is part of Light. So... are you afraid? I am not."

"Barely. There is no real end for you, Child. For me? There is no end either. It was my choice, you see. Am I to be judged by this Realm as a sinner or what? I stole nothing. These sticking tools out of me are scraps! Not worth mentioning."

"Depends."

"On whom?"

"Everything, actually. Resonance. You. My Master, or perhaps the King himself?" Lining said and wondered where this was going to end. She knew directions to the third-level observatory, yet what would happen there? Well, her Master would be there, and this whole incident was soon to be clearer or over.

"King?!" Murai blurted out. "You have a full-on kingdom?! Ahhh... Realms these days."

"Realm is a realm, but you've arrived from the Real Realm, so... what to make of us? I find our link bizarre, and Uncle Master felt nothing too terrible about it. It is a weird perspective, isn't it? We don't know what lies behind some of our light, yet the world is ours and vast, while the light is part of yours. Nay moon! It is everywhere! What lies beyond is bigger, isn't it? Unimaginable, I bet. The End?! Oh, I dream of the end of the Light sometimes. It makes me shiver at... well, there is nothing to it, so it is dark, black, or other moon things? What is nothing anyway? We see less of it here, as you can imagine."

"Yes." Murai simply answered, taking her interest in who she was. "But speaking of Children of Resonance, I underestimated many things, and don't know even more of them than anyone could regard in me. It is expectations. An example? Are they wrong about me, or don't know me even if they think they do? I watched worlds burn, turn, and crack. I helped, too, but for all of that to fall apart because it was inevitable. You know Epochs, do you?"

"A little light bit. Time is why, but.... well, not really. I don't judge how it loops, but Uncle Master thinks it is serious and many do as well."

"Yeah. I am not getting far with you, aren't I?" Murai said, wondering on top of the spear.

"I still promised!"

"I am not at fault for that. How to convince me? Try me."

"Well, there is probably no Light fit for you, so that is why you don't feel a thing, right? Royals protect and find their ways in ya, yet I drill and find no proper forms in light of yours. You, dear creature, demon or moon, are really odd in your core. It is still possible for light to live in this sort of lot, as you like to say? Lot. Are you a big or piece of many lots?"

"How do you know that? Aren't you making further assumptions?"

"I have a good Master. And eyes!" Lining chuckled, pointed towards her with her crips fingers that were part of this Royal, and not her, and hurried forward before others would catch up. "And I stick to what I light."

"You know you have no eyes, right?"

"Your assumption," Lining said. "If you open your eyes, it would be better. We are looking quite normal, all things considered. You don't, all light considered."

Murai grunted and mumbled some noises until Lining reached the wide room of the observatory, which was a humongous hollow globe in an underground portion of this ridiculously large complex. It was round like a planet, with a platform suspended in the middle like a bridge going onward, reaching the middle portion in a couple of kilometers.

At the end of it stood a lone figure, completely naked in light and looking like a waterfall guided by dense clusters of shards and watery light.

The edge of the bridge was round, looking small compared to the height and depth of this observatory. This figure did not face Lining, as she dropped to her knee and pressed Murai onwards when she reached him, looking as if she was offering a precious hunted catch.

"I wish I'd caught some strands rather than a demon, Master," she joked. "It is also lovely, as you would say, or it's cutting-edge enlightening. Royals feel like grieving tombs of philosophy, and this catch makes them into whimpers of unfit teenagers. They lost billions, but won moon nothing. They are quite bitter losers. I pity them."

The figure turned, revealing a stick figure of quite weird proportions as its back suggested. It was tall, shaped in all kinds of ways and patterns. They were so densely clustered that it was no longer smooth but burly in lines of light, resembling muscles and many human details. The face was still janky, but the details were far beyond anything else.

Murai considered them close to human aspects. Then, some were as far away from humanity as a sense of reason to be made of such wild energies. The waterfall of light was the hair that reached the ground, and a constant aura around it created an idyllic picture resembling a weird halo or clouds of light. Either way, how to look at it was changing depending on the one looking at it, and Murai was too bothered to care to go further.

"I see," the Master said, regarding Murai with a flash of understanding. It was a deep, experienced male voice that wasn't as old as Murai imagined.

Murai noticed a single thing. This one had a mouth in his head, not on there, but inside. It moved and seemed real enough for one not to notice it if one didn't look really freaking well. Feelings were required, and Murai kind of felt dazzled by his complexity. He challenged his vision until he caught as many details as he could.

"I see, as well." Lining said, "That I've been expected, played with, sent back, and... holding onto an unexpected contingency plan, disaster, or something that Uncle Master said that I should know. What is it, Master?"

"No small disturbance stirred the Preying Lake, my dear. It was indeed a plan. A challenge. A trap, nay? Yes indeed," the figure said, walking closer, its sticks behind its back, and talking in a lofty tone that would never appear wrong.

"Oh, it was the Preying Lake? I thought those were.... extinct. Oh, the Royals? Is that why it had trouble? Wait, no. This is brutal. Why?"

"No matter at all," the Master said, chuckling after regarding Murai's intense glare on that spear that was closing on his eye level. "Resonance is still Resonance, but gains and merits follow principles. Who moves? Who gains? What plays? You see, Lining, this has been an ancient challenge rather than a tea party."

"Oh, yuck. I hate tea parties," Lining scowled, motionless, still holding the spear.

"How does this one feel?"

"It plagues and thinks and laughs and argues and is so full of odd matters and patterns that make it so lovingly broken that fixing might be impossible. Oh, and it speaks and looks like this odd thing. How is it called? Bird? Curious. I like it."

The Master laughed, finding this very much on point. "Yes, I see."

Murai looked at how this figure reached him, glancing and smiling at him. One was obvious, as no eyes were there in this ridiculous light and fissured abundance. It was hot, light, and who knew what else.

"Who might you be?" Murai demanded, speaking for the first time after moving to this bridge, which ended in proximity to a very high-class Realm Entity.

"My name is Oogling. You are?"

"Weird name."

"Odd name, that is. Oh, that matter of speech lacks the light. Apologies. Can you tell me yours before judging my light?" Oogling didn't seem to be hurt, and he kept his smile and interest intact.

Lining kept kneeling, and it was quite unnatural as Murai's stare. She poised her spear exactly where it should be, and Murai still felt her link. It was wavering, calming, and turning sharper amid turbulence that he regarded as forceful. It was as if she aged and her mind stirred to give her Master her duty. Some children could grow up so fast.

"No." Murai refused. "Names are not my fort."

"You must have one, no?"

"What is this get-up?" Murai changed the subject, which Oogling accepted. He might call him weird just for a further chuckle and a story.