Jani had hunted six avatars since his awakening. Each rewarded him with an artifact with a certain ability.
First was the avatar of sharpness. He received the cleaver, which was so sharp the opponent's durability didn't matter. The weapon would cut regardless, no matter what.
Second was the avatar of shadows. He received his black overcoat. It could turn itself into shades that had many abilities.
Third was the avatar of justice. He received the justice ring. It had very strict conditions to activate, but its ability was unmatched.
Fifth was the avatar of knowledge. He received the glasses of information, which could let him analyse abilities and properties of matter. He knew the vestige needed to perceive a target to ignore it, for example.
Sixth was the avatar of lightning. He received the bracelet of static. It could generate electricity, and while its attack power was quite limited, it was a nice bluff option.
But most importantly in this scenario, his fourth prey was the avatar of peace. For his head, he received the peace pendant. Its ability had conditions, but the payoff was very worth it.
Only once per year, if he is in a conflict with an enemy that aims to take his life, that enemy is not mindless and he hasn't attacked that enemy in the last fifteen seconds, it can activate.
For five minutes Jani and his adversary would not be able to affect each other or anything that the other owns. They would also be unable to leave the conference room created by its power, forced into a peace negotiation.
Jani's expression faltered as he thought about the item.
He missed her. He terribly missed the person he hunted for it.
Bound in a prison of unmoving air, Jani activated the ability.
The pendant flew into the air, a giant dove made of energy spreading its wings behind the man.
Light shined from his body, turning into a cage of luminosity binding himself and the vestige into a conversation.
The creature looked confused, trying to stab the man with its talons. They simply scraped off his chin.
"Huh? What did you do, human?"
Jani smiled, taking a seat on a chair made of light.
"Just made it so we have to talk for a few minutes."
The creature rolled its eyes and tried to ignore the space around them. As seconds ticked down and nothing changed, its eyes widened, each arm that formed its wing tightening into a fist.
It then struggled to ignore its own position, trying to teleport outside the cage. It couldn't.
"Why the hell can't I use my ability?!"
Jani smiled.
"You can't affect me or anything I own, in here. To stop the ability, you'd have to ignore me, my right to the five minutes of negotiations, our very state of interaction or even the space inside my ability's conference room. Now, onto the—"
The creature interrupted the man, yelling out:
"Fine! I'll just ignore time itself!"
It attempted to focus itself on making time itself disappear.
"That won't work."
Jani flashed the creature the peace pendant. On it was a white dove, in its eye a series of numbers, ticking down each second. Currently it was '4:23'.
"You'd have to affect my pendant's timer, vestige. So let's just talk! Have a little chat!"
The vestige scowled, then sat down onto the chair of light.
"What do you want, human?"
"What do you think space is? Not the cosmos, but like, the space between us."
The vestige raised an eyebrow.
"I know almost everything an average intelligent being does, you pathetic human."
Picking his rapidly healing wounds, courtesy of being an avatar, Jani smirked.
"Seems to me like you're dodging the question."
The vestige growled the answer out.
"Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions."
Jani stuck out his hand, as if reaching toward the vestige.
"Yeah. I can't reach you, because space is between us. You clearly understand that."
He moved his palm onto his face, looking at the sky partly covered by the ceiling of light and viridescent barrier shielding the city.
"So you understand something at a normal level now, not like an animal as before, hm? So, tell me, why do you think you can ignore something you comprehend?"
The creature raised the bridge of his brow, seeming uncanny as it was completely hairless.
"What? I understood it before too."
Suddenly, its face distorted into shock.
"Wait—"
Jani chuckled.
"Finally, you get it. If you're cognisant of something, you're not ignorant to it. Everything is connected, everything is important. You seem pretty aware that's the case, so that fact will forever be in the back of your mind, unignorable, won't it?"
The beast looked up, attempting to erase a cloud outside the cage. It couldn't.
'How can I ignore it? The vapor is made of molecules, each affecting themselves and other molecules. The cloud also occupies space, so what happens to it? Is it also ignored? What happens to time? It's interlinked with space, so does it—'
Millions of thoughts circled through the creature's head. Everything is connected, everything is important, everything is real.
How could it ignore reality itself?
How could it cut a string of fate's tapestry without destroying the whole masterpiece?
"Was it easier when you were mindless? Was it easier when you understood things, but could truly believe they're unimportant, separate from the world at the drop of a dime?"
The creature attempted to ignore anything. Every item, concept outside the cage was subject to its ability, and none were affected. Even if it didn't understand something, the vestige understood it interacted with other things, other concepts in tangible, real ways.
Raising from the chair as he embraced the cleaver, Jani said, seemingly a bit annoyed:
"Don't even try ignoring your memories or your intelligence; you know your memories are real, you understand and remember them. To ignore your intelligence, you have to use your, well, intelligence, which obviously won't work."
The beast tried getting up, but fell over, crawling away on its back.
Jani walked it down, the negotiations ending in 45 seconds.
His expression contorted into one of outrage.
"You know what pisses me off the most? You ignored everything that isn't important in favor of the only thing that is."
The vestige pushed its back against the wall of light, trying to escape the hunter.
Jani continued, unbothered.
"Intelligence, cognisance, strength, character, none of that matters. What matters is life. Life is a courtesy granted by whatever beings concepts are, and you ignored it for simple sentience."
The vestige curled into itself, attempting to get any amount of space between them.
The creature tried to push Jani away from itself, screaming in desperation as its pitiful attempt to affect him failed:
"Get away from me! Get away! Please just get—"
Jani knelt down, his face suddenly very close to the white skin of the creature. The walls started crumbling, the negotiations almost over.
"I won't kill you, I don't do that, except to prey."
His cleaver touched the creature's arm, unable to affect it for only a few more instants.
"But for your sake, I do truly hope you can ignore pain."