sees souls

The world around me exploded into color in a way even my senses had never seen. I saw myself, but in a way I never had before, my skin seeming to burn under my gaze and fall away. As it did, it revealed what had lain beneath it—light, pure and mercilessly bright. It glowed until everything was gone, until I didn’t seem to had fingers or hands, but merely shaped and focused radiance. One by one, I saw eyes open on my skin by the thousands and scattered power roared from my back in a pinnate wave.

I looked down at my hands and saw beyond my mortal flesh to the spirit within. I knew that nothing had changed physically, but that I was looking at myself. I looked like Keter, of course, but only to my own eyes.

Shifting my attention to Adam, I saw him as well, skin falling away to reveal a monstrous armored form in his place. Red lightning had gathered in a physical shape around him, glowing in his armor, his writhing sword, at the tips of his claws, and even within his burning eye sockets. Clouds of smoke and sparks drifted up from the corner of his eyes, at once hiding and revealing the outline of a crown upon his head. Behind him, Gou stood as a black silhouette, a three dimensional shadow with the approximate shape of a dog. It was featureless, even so, like the event horizon of a black hole that didn’t allow any light to touch it and leave.

I was seeing them, not as they appeared on the surface, but as they were.

I was looking at their souls. I was sealing souls not in the vast and formless field that Bianca had described, but as they existed in this world, shaping the flesh which they’d briefly attached themselves to. At the same time, I saw power racing through the air and ground, clearly illuminating the sprawling trails of energy that coursed through the world like invisible rivers. In the distance, I could see Mistral, shining with the lights of so many souls. From this distance, I could make out their forms, but I could see the intensity and color that rested within each like a Beacon of luminescence.

It was as if an eye had opened on my forehead and allowed me to clearly see the world. I felt my heart pound as I considered the possibilities, the glowing point within it pulsating with every beat. If I could look at Cinder this way or Ozpin…admittedly, the shapes were hard to understand without any context, but it should reveal something, right? This power alone was a goldmine—and my energy continued to gather, swirling at the top of my head.