Reincarnated as a Duck: A beast progression litrpg isekai-Chapter 262 - 253: Resonance Realm - Part 1

Dreaming of light, death, and origin was never an easy task. Murai was devoid of that multiple times, forced and kidnapped to live lives that he didn't want to bear. To relinquish what everybody else could never do, he was a bearer of a firm will.

And stupidity, of course. One should never forget that. It was a greedy sort, but he had no further choice. One lie and two forfeits could lead to severe consequences, or a warning or barkings.

Murai joked it would be better since something was very jarring about living without its usual merits. So he lived as he could, either by luck or journeys lacking deaths, yet no planets. But lives he lived for sure meant something, and he was fine calling himself pretty fucking good at it.

He kept on it for no empty promises, even if he was often wondering how far this had changed since the First Epoch, the one where he was still himself and lived like a lunatic, or... well, he couldn't even recall himself that far, or feel who he used to be.

It wasn't as if he was a husk of his former self; it was more likely to call him a changed nutjub who got far too ahead on his line.

The universe and time were plentiful to keep this going, though there was one constancy he shouldn't forget, for he was still himself, and the Old One was speaking from within. It was not twisted. This shitty process had been messy from the start and they told him about it. Every death ate one or few bites out of him, though there was a lot of shits to eat.

And now, something was moving against yet another life. It shouldn't move, yet it did, so Murai wondered what else he was missing, or what changed in this Epoch.

This life barely started, and Murai was left in the sea of Light and Brightness, or was it even that? Elements that were bright and light were numerous, so this must be about the further Realms beyond

Order or Chaos, forever hiding and doing whatever the fuck they wanted since the very conception of realities.

Was it a Brightlord Realm? Lightdream Realm? Dreamcast... Golden Realm? Lightfeather Cascade Realm? Sure, he remembered bits from history, as names could range from the core of the dawning light itself, which moved from the flames to sparks, to such light particles that they were difficult to comprehend or name.

It all started somewhere, hiding from the Hidden Realms or coming out of them because the real realms had to live from something.

After all, mana was also part of the light, but the light was not part of the dividing ways of the universe. It formed somewhere in the Epochs. In a big bang very far away, or it was a fart that Murai would rather forget and never took under these little wings. He considered some duties filial and many considerations as distant as where he began.

Here, swallowed against pride, meaning, or complaints, he accepted the call of the Resonance Realms. Which? He didn't give a shit about which. Sure, he let it happen, but it still shouldn't have happened if it weren't without its merits.

There was nothing good about this because he heard no visit or remark that this was upsetting. But again, this might be his own problem, or this didn't matter in the grand scheme of things in the slightest. Or this was far away from it because this Realm did it all instead.

Calming himself down, his Will might be flying into Somewhere forcefully, but not responsibly. He realized how deep, comforting, and maddening this felt far too late.

His Will was vicious, as well as one hell of a surprising factor, but this sure as hell felt more accommodating than the usual stuff. Crimes had been committed, but fishing into or at the Resonance Realms could happen to anyone.

This time, the hook and fish were quite substantial or inevitable because of anchored stability or calls. Murai saw no significance in the mandates of such a bright Realm. It should spit him out if he were honest with himself. But he wasn't, so... this wasn't his problem.

Swallowed, snatched, and sent somewhere once again by the Resonance that was unnaturally efficient and forceful, giving his body and Will quite a large surprise, Murai was yet to end, let alone start this journey. It went to a difficult scenery that he hadn't felt in any of his lives.

The Brightness was deafening when it forced him to open his eyes, waking him up from these unkempt contemplations that weren't without their merits. He found concerns in anything light, and being this tolerated made him distrustful.

What sort of hardship this Resonance Realm could do to him? What expectations were fine, what pain was dutiful, and where was meaning?

There was no voice. There was no noise. The sunshine touched him, pushed him, and he went ahead with so much clarity and dreadful force that he almost felt he would rather meet his End than undergo this sort of baptism.

Hours followed, and he swore he was still pretty alive and kicking no world in his curse. This was different. He was cursing the one thing that made worlds work from the beginning, so wasn't this very much the worst possibility possible?

He was like a black spot in the starry, yellow, and golden sky, or was it more like the ocean? Depths sounded more up to him than the devilish beauty of elevation that was meant for true royalty. Whatever that was. It might not even exist in this Epoch, yet Resonance Realms will be alive no matter what.

He was more like a dog dragged from the sewers anyway and forced into the light. It might wash him or become stained instead. Good.

"Ahh. Realmtor? Hello? World." Murai spoke, figuring his senses were back in some substance, his sense of voice sharpened out of nowhere. "Great, back to being senseless, dutiful Eldrich. What world is here to sense me back, hm? Is this the opening, or am I back in reality?"

"Nah. I don't have a body. No doors mean no welcome, but Resonance isn't reality, yet it is still real, so... this is new, isn't it? Alright. Let's back away twice and think about what the fuck is going on across this nonsense. Resonance Realms are familiar with my nonsense as I am."

Murai tried to open his eyes beyond the bright light that surrounded his every corner, sense, and meaning. It was difficult to see how detailed, vast, and moving everything was. As for opening his eyes, that physical meaning lost its principles.

Nothing was enveloping him, but he sure as hell was misplaced like an onion felled into sacks of corn. There was also a constant sense of sizzling and muted pressure like a dense cloth over his head.

"Ah, that's right. I forgot about this sort of thing. It spits me to a different sort of thing. I am there, Somewhere, and challenged to get ahead and up. Unknowing where are a sense of downs or ups, this sure is cursed. I might as well go and go forever before losing my ways. Oh... wait. That is a cursed possibility or what this place wants. I am a poison depending on context."

Light and bright textures were everywhere he looked, making him feel as if he was in the depths of the sun.

Which of him was there? What kind of beings would be able to feel this disturbing sense of Resonance? There was nothing to move him, and he had yet to get over it himself. What was even speaking out of him, or what sort of thing was he? When swallowed, the origins of souls and Will would move forward, creating something new or fitting for one or two purposes.

Right now, Murai was unable to determine shit from the star so he shifted his senses and tried to move. He felt he could move but wasn't sure how.

Every Resonance was usually different unless it revolved around well-known principles, or just a bunch of cryptic efforts, or a myriad of dimensions. There was a spectrum to this insanity, and one could get a whisper or true swallowing pact of Resonance, and there were many differences, yet very few choices. The Children were making the most choices.

Thus, some principles could make surprising gains or duties never seen before in this Epoch or previous ones. In that sense, ridiculousness was part of these treasured domains homing the Laws in ancient doctrines since the time itself commenced.

One should be glad to even touch this once, let alone twice.

This kind wasn't in Murai's memories, but that wasn't surprising since it was right. He heard of it instead. His body...well, what he was looking like seemed weird at first, so he got how he stirred and sizzled. He had no limbs, yet he moved, which reminded him of Death and the Afterlife.

He was just a rotting blob of darkness with soft dots of whiteness within that made the surrounding ocean of light truly breathtaking. He looked like his usual soul, yet he wasn't dead or out of Somewhere, let alone in the Soul Space of his existence.

His Will took this shape out of its resolve—an inconceivable concept turned and emulated how he should look like in his most primordial principle. In a sense, he was a soul and concept of self that made hundreds of lives probable and one. Both cursed and living, it unleashed so Murai felt himself like a kite with limitless sky after countless years.

He cheered, turning the blob of darkness into a weird dance that moved against the light. "Oh my! Oh! This freshness and freedom. I am all-swallowing!"

There were weight, difficulty, and challenges with how Resonance worked with those snatched in elevated respects. Light around him was tight, trying to seep into him, yet it couldn't even go near him,

It was afraid.

These peculiar depths left him wondrous, but that was for now. There was no way this particular Resonance Realm didn't take his current impression lightly, even though it caused him to come here for the great beginning, or shoving him deep into the pit to chill or cope with something for as long as it was necessary.

Murai was, of course, not as concerned with this and chuckled, figuring immediately what he was and what kind of place he was witnessing. He didn't have to have personal experience to seek bits of truth.

He studied all sorts of possible Resonance Realms personally, through dangerous contacts, or legends. Through recordings across many worlds, he placed several pieces of advice for the horns of icebergs.

For the current him, it was his definite accumulation of Dread that winced this light, putting fear in the first pit of this Realm. It seemed his sense of self woke up well amidst this insufferable course that went against his flesh. But there was no flesh here, even if it was still linked to it, and most likely the cause for it. Anatidaes...

His soul backfired against this process, fought for him on its own, and established the crumbling.

"You don't seem to like me all that much, eh?" Murai spoke to this light. "Servers you right! That's so funny to me, considering how everything works with an overbearing meaning, but we can discuss this. How about it?"

Silence spread. It was an eerie silence followed by a deafening rumbling that felt completely mute, coming from no particular direction.

The sea of light kept going around him, and multiple strands tried and itched closer but chose to retreat under his moves or soul. Murai ignored them, taking the strands for curious fish. He won't take a bite. He won't allow this to go forward without his own choice.

"No comment? Fine. I think this is a fine process that might provide me with a wonderful experience. So don't mind me, whatever you are, wherever you are, and whoever you serve." Murai wasn't surprised by the lack of meaning.

He had no idea where he was exactly or what was ahead of him, but what could happen next was another thing. He could be lost here forever, dry out from the inside out, and something consequential might exist within this choice. They knew. Or they didn't. These two matters had a separation like light and darkness.

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The itching, closing light that wanted to come closer to him indicated otherwise. It was an interest of this Resonance and not the drowning that he considered important. Some strands sizzled to dust or in defeat when they got too close or he got angry.

Some wanted to gift things, or anchor to him, and see if he was worth it. Never mind that. It wasn't worth anything but their survival.

"You want a piece of me, you scum-light? Well, it isn't about Light alone because it would be more starry and like the sky, wouldn't it? This one looks and feels deep, but it is all sorts of things, Laws included. I don't think the name matters. I won't be dropping anything either. I get it... though how was it again? Those elements of this opposition are stinky, aren't they? Am I in the wrong? Nah. This place gets me. If it didn't..."

Murai didn't even want to imagine what consequences the destruction of this Resonance Realm would have on the great balance.

He wasn't sure whom he was speaking to either, or if it was fine to be this... free, happy, and taking this land for a pool. Perhaps his mind took it better this way because he couldn't ascertain his willingness. It was his soul that made one eerie truth, pointing to something that wasn't right or uncomfortable. Was it his Calling, or a trouble they cautioned against?

It was unexplored, and his inner lives began its typical course. He started to think and research his memories and wondered where this could lead. He felt many things in the past. Be it Laws, Ends, people, or many races with very high regard for universal cultures, which were quite diverse, ancient, and close to Resonances as everything.

He perceived the ends of civilizations and saw their growth and methods. Remembering what had been lost and what might return came again like whispers of Fate, he ever so hated.

If anything, his perception of old and new things was equal, thanks to the variety of his understanding, which made this Resonance harmful in ways he couldn't really express.

The worlds were peculiar in most cases, similar to how Paths acted along with both Divides. He felt a few of them very close, but worlds were different.

They had a constant flow to them, dictating possibilities of how one could live, not because of some laws, but sheer limits of the world. Even if it wasn't about planets as a whole, the ones who would eclipse that were worth respecting.

Living beings were bearing most choices, which pointed to careful matters of balance. Almost like a different kind of Law, worlds were both limits, walls, and filters. Most wouldn't come far before discovering the scale of the desert that was the universe and how a tiny grain could not set examples or rules upon the Divides.

For individuals, a sample of a few grains was enough, giving their bodies and Paths benefits, going hand in hand, often carrying meanings and efficiency, like a scabbard to a blade.

Now, where was he? What was the blade, and what was a world, or what was right? Surrounded by immensely awkward strands, he thought this couldn't get more out of touch.

Then, it wasn't as bad as he thought, since this Resonance felt gentle for as long as he didn't move, but Murai often exaggerated what he felt, and he couldn't be like a fish in a tank.

"Hello!?" He shouted, wincing, and many strands of light shot away from him like a frightened puppy. Few even sizzled to dust after fearing that tremor of a voice.

"Hell," Murai whimpered next, feeling kind of bad, "this feels different from those pictures and flashes. Am I tested like this? Patience... you say? Who said that!? Screw that. I am just at the bottom of a barrel, or am I? Uh... time to move on."

Murai began his path forward, figuring that he could fly like a soul, but he knew he wasn't one. He wasn't a duck, nor was he his Robust Spirit. He didn't even know where he was going.

This was a weird state of existence that only Resonance Realms could create. They truly bring the best and worst out of those they want to touch, bear, or punish.

Many mages said that it was close to looking at a New Beginning without meeting one's End, but Murai disagreed. This felt freer and much more complicated. The true End was simple in comparison, and full of elation and peace. Ugly stuff, truly.

As he flew, the light around him hurried away from his path, unwilling to touch him, though a couple of them here and there tried it anyway, wincing and slowly uncovering more of this place.

Murai began to discern differences, and most of it was about those strands of matter that sometimes had different patterns, lights, and even colors.

It wasn't about magic, runes, or mana. It was about meaning that pivoted the Laws into rightful colorations, paths, and methods. They were wild in this place, free, and waiting for countless evolutions.

Murai laughed at these strands, leaving them like stray cats, detached and disappointed, while hoping for pats or sustenance. None of them went after him, for there was a sea of them all over the place, giving him no breaks.

As he went upwards, endlessly floating and flying, there was no horizon, sea, or ceiling. Murai saw the light and strands, feeling as if he should return. Where? How? That wasn't how Resonances worked.

One couldn't give up, even if it was feasible. It would disappoint, hurt this process, and make them unhappy. He had already decided to give them a chance.

Murai didn't like being a sore or happy loser or winner, even if he was like a drop of ink on a sheet of paper for an ocean. Slowly, ideas and visions started to blend and change, sharpening his perception as if he were getting used to this place. He was unable to see how strands did leave their mark, digging and trimming ever so slowly behind his attention.

He started to see differences in these strands, their hues, and how they separated in odd patterns. Many were independent, dancing together, seeing others, writing something akin to poems, but flowing around as if they were part of one giant entity that was this ocean.

Some strands were big like a sea when he guided his perception at them, frightening them, or killing them. Guided around storming patterns and structures, many were of dense light fissures, looking like hair, lines, waves of hands, or patterned symbols that one couldn't read, no matter how one tried.

Even Murai couldn't, for they might be well beyond the First Epoch in understanding, which meant that the Second or Third might not get them either. Murai was wondering if substantial improvements could allow understanding, but the universe was supposed to be rather stagnant if it had to weather the living.

For one Epoch to be better than the other meant a change of balance and a shift of the center.

Wondering, lost, and cutting his way through, everything looked like many flames of various hues of light: yellow, light orange, and weirder mixtures of reddened light.

That was the starting point of his first collection of comprehension, yet wasn't that anticipated under his memories? He more or less knew how many elements showed incredible depth, variants, and points.

Not every light was the same, similar to colors. Even a child would know how hues and shades, or light or shadows, would mix and change the colors. And he was one giant dark quill going around them, yet changing and writing nothing because he didn't want to.

Looking around, strands of red were rarer, usually flying quickly like lightning, often cracking other strands and barely staying in one place.

They didn't approach him very often, and when they did, they escaped like many others. There were clusters of other softer strands, looking gigantic compared to others, or like a whale, perhaps?

"Oh, this feels... familiar. Is this the kind of place that makes me question what is fine and prominent? Prisma Realm, was it? Well, some worlds called it weirder names, let's be honest. Realm feels so much better when one sees the facts and logic behind them. Strands are mere first fraud. There is more to this... light?"

"What is Brightness, if not a heated source of life? I doubted how descriptive and odd it sounds, but it is right. Like a sea of sunshine, rays, and patterns of lines, speed is one with light, and one could get lost in here like nothing. So... where am I even going? There is a flow to this place, but they don't escape to one direction, or flow from something, or somewhere."

Murai still kept going, ignoring structures, clusters, or those red strands. Slowly, he even began to dodge bigger red stripes that wanted to pierce him, acting like protective dogs against unaffiliated intruders.

Everything wanted him, be it as a gift or a curse, yet Murai accepted none of them on instinct alone.

"Now, this is weird and weirder. What am I supposed to do here?" Looking at the changing perspective of his body and senses, he felt like his condition was rather weird because of what could be real and in this Realm might no longer be within his perception.

It was bizarre. Why wasn't he a duck, Murai wondered. His Robust Spirit seemed like an overpowered aspect that meddled with his soul like something that shouldn't happen, because what could influence him?

The one carrying so much.... It carried what made him so menacing, and it moved in one simple direction: to make a difference and make him whole, but it could do neither. Not yet or forever peeking for the answer.

That was a quick thought for sure, while this realm was even weirder. Nothing was happening as it should. No storm. No pain. No comprehension crashed his senses because he was doing so instead, obvious by numerous storms, cracks, voids, and patches of darkness that slowly disappeared, mended by those strands left behind him.

His Robust Spirit didn't seem to involve this Resonance more than any other reason. It came with his Will, or was Will or Soul not part of the one entity? It was, so Murai grunted and snapped at several strands that pushed at him like a legion of hungry dogs. They scurried away the moment he got close, snapping at them without fleeing.

Murai laughed at such attempts and chased those closer to him, finding them funny, little, or scared. Their light better be scared of his little soul, yet it was hitting him bit by bit.

What was he supposed to do with them? Should he chase these things, change them, fix them, or do anything about himself? He rejected most ideas, like everything that rejected him.

That was bizarre for Resonances of this elemental kind. Usually, one would have trouble getting a proper footing in them and thinking straight alongside them. He was doing that just fine, feeling no pain or hindrance. Most others would be running on slow methods, lacking Will, or overwhelmed emotions, feelings, or comprehension, and many elements would pursue and crash the mind.

Depending on the time and endurance, once one left, they would gain incredible merits and gains depending on their results, pacts, or understanding.

Without question, there was immense weight put into perspectives, what one was sensing, seeing, hearing, and feeling. There were many ways one could see success, try for failure, or specifics, or do something really stupid, like going way over the minimum line or maximum.

There were little things one could gain from the start or sometime later, or in places that few in the universe ever touched. Murai felt and gained nothing, yet could it change, or did he even want something?

He wondered and tried to think of the usual Resonances. He felt his Dread was an unavoidable part of him that fueled his insolence, curses, and options.

"Oy, this isn't a fucking joke!" He cursed the surroundings, "You all snatched me! Sough me like a fool. I refuse to get sorted out like this, you hear me?"

His voice echoed and turned down or far, slowly turning into a howl of unwillingness and tremors that winced the strands once more.

The space shivered, halting unknown seas of visible strands around him. Those amounted to millions of various sizable elements that hid Laws or many visions of what numerous odd cultures or races called Raystranding, or Raystrands.

Murai recalled old, foolish descriptions in their passing knowledge, calling them insolent, arrogant, royal, and part of collective efforts to put light where it belonged. Then, they moved where they did not belong.

As he howled, everything wavered and stopped moving, and an eerie, silencing echo thundered around the Strandseas.

For ten seconds, Murai wasn't sure what was happening. Then, the spaces and gaps cracked, and every strand in his vicinity and beyond turned at him, eying him as if he had insulted their mother.

"Oh?" Murai calmed. "Now, you want to play? Can you afford it, huh? If so, I will play with you."

Nothing moved as he remained in the spot, unmoving.

So he charged ahead, flying slowly to the closest strand of light, looking like a dense cluster of lines and many red and yellow fissures. It reminded him of mixed metals. He poked it with a strand of his darkness, figuring he could do it if he really tried.

This strand felt like touching a hot ember, and it didn't wince away. It also didn't follow or gain him anything, which was weirder. It just jolted away upon his touch as if he slapped it out of its shock, or he was hotter than it.

"Peculiar. Could I gain something with these issues around me anyway? Me, of all beings? Well, the body and soul are still tied, so perhaps I can. Comprehension comes with it, so I get why I am here. My body, in Reality, forced this change, yet without soul and mind to accommodate it, my body would be just an empty husk. Resonance or not, I have to do this no matter what. Alright, let's see if any strand will like me...or, how does this freaking work exactly? Is it weird, or am I weirder? Both! Yes. Surely it's both."

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He tended to repeat his wonders and talk to himself in weird circumstances, or where no soul was around him to reprimand him like one devious Soul Wraith.

Stranded in such a sea wasn't what Murai wanted, so Murai began to fight his way through these strands that no longer seemed reluctant to flee or fight against him. Murai forced many away, touching hundreds as he flew.

He scared them off under every direct touch, leaving many little particles seeping away, becoming one with other strands, or washing over him. Not one got his appeal, it seemed, even if they no longer had to try to do anything.

The flow froze, and even red strands seemed to be reluctantly inclined to try their unusual business. They bounced off from Murai, cracked apart, or listened to sizzling matters or the echo of Dread.

Murai kept going until he reached some sort of edge in his journey that felt like hours of effort. What appeared ahead was like a dense wall of red, yellow, orange, and all sorts of other hues, glowing and looking like a wall over his entire weird horizon. Up, left, right, or down, this Wall kept going into unknown depths or heights.

Many odd strands were before this wall, so Murai charged at them, yet they didn't even budge as he banged at a cage before a royal wall.

Still, it was enough for him to get a proper look at the immense structure beyond the strands that were big, thick, and sturdier than any he had seen before.

Beyond them was one gigantic strand or a pillar, if he dared to call it that.

"Now, what is there to do?" Murai wondered near this cage.

He flew at them again, but countless dark shades of red of glowing intersected lines obscured his paths like countless threads and bars and snakes.

Their light was low, which made them look like charcoal midway through the blazing flame, or their point was hidden inside of them.

"You want my piece, for once? Oh, there you go if you dare!" Murai offered them his Dread by flowing forward, acting without thinking.

One chunk of hundreds of strands slapped him, but the strand—looking like a tail—snapped in half, its dim light sizzled and turned into a hazy dust cloud, trying to reconnect to that tail. That was the first transformation Murai had seen in this entire thing. And before that, wasn't that an actual attack?

That was a bit hard to fathom, as actual dangers out of these Resonance Realms were very rare, unnecessary due to their regal complexity, or almost inconceivable because of their existence and fatality. At least in the realms of Order.

In true chaotic Hidden Realms, dying under a breath or an intent was common, but it also brought out perks and rewards to those who were able to survive.