Volume 5 – Chapter 7 (in-editing v2)

Volume 5 – Chapter 7

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(No stat screens in here yet, that'll have to wait for the next chapter)

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Shin gazed upon a world made of translucent lines of energy.

It was the world he saw whenever he teleported, an infinite number of pulsing energy lines, tying together the fabric of reality.

As he looked around at the familiar sight, a question popped into his mind.

‘Why am I seeing this now?’

He wasn’t teleporting nor was he trying to teleport.

Absorbing the two Magic Gems had started out rather simply. He held the two stones in his hand and watched as they slowly began to melt, interacting with the Ki that suffused his body.

The rush of energy had filled Shin’s skin to the brim, a feeling of comfortable warmth overtaking his body as the Miracle Gems began to take effect.

Up to this point, it was exactly how Micheal described it would be.

It was only a few minutes later that something strange began to happen.

The world around him began to change.

It happened slowly at first, faint, colorless, almost invisible lines began to appear, slowly replacing the dirt beneath him. Gradually, these lines became more and more solid, recognizable from the world he saw when he teleported.

It took around half an hour for all of Shin’s sight to be replaced. Now, instead of a tree at his back, he saw a thousand different colorless lines, intertwined in endless patterns beyond comprehension.

‘This is strange.’  

Shin could sense something within him starting to shift… a process he had never felt before…

He felt something begin to change.

A feeling that had been forced upon him not long ago… familiar and yet not, powerful and yet distant.

A moment of enlightenment struck Shin as he recognized the strange feeling.

‘Is this… this is a Conceptual Power.’ He realized abruptly.

He was touching upon a Conceptual Power, one that was boosting his Abilities, inadvertently strengthening and activating his Warping Phaser Type.

It was impossible to describe, a sensation of his Soul reaching out and touching something that didn’t physically exist.

‘This must be what Sophia felt.’

It wasn’t fair to her, but Shin couldn’t help but feel envious back on the First and Second Layers, watching Sophia master Sword Energy so quickly.

He had spent weeks upon weeks trying to touch upon the esoteric energy, all to no avail. He made do using weapons like guns to make up the difference, but Shin knew he was falling behind. The way Micheal described the higher Layers, the battle he witnessed between Orion and Micheal…

He wasn’t strong enough.

He just didn’t have quite the same spark as Sophia. She was different from him, he recognized.

That didn’t mean he gave up – he continued to try, and try again, determined to grow no matter the effort required.

And now, the months of effort he had put in finally came to fruition, in a way he never expected.

‘I know this feeling.’

It wasn’t the Conceptual Power of the Sword that Micheal had taught him much about…

It was the Conceptual Power of Strength.

A Power he had personally felt, imbued within the memories of Bilt, one of the fallen Dark Wraith Masters whose memories he experienced in the Soul King’s Inheritance.

Bilt’s story was an odd one.

The Dark Wraith had been a stubborn man, arrogant and strongheaded, with a backbone that would never bend. He rushed through life relying on Strength alone, Mastering the Conceptual Power and becoming one of the strongest members of his species.

Bilt died rather ingloriously, but that was through no fault of his own.

Sion Swordsoul was a nigh-unbeatable opponent that felled all who stood in his path.

Shin marveled as he felt the odd force propagate, touching intimately upon his Soul.

‘If I hadn’t felt it through Bilt’s eyes… I never would’ve noticed this.’ It was a quiet connection, almost invisible to his senses, ephemeral in nature.

The sensation of Bilt drawing upon the Conceptual Power of Strength had felt sickening and strange when Shin felt it through Bilt’s memories in the Soul King’s Inheritance.

‘That’s because it wasn’t touching my Soul… it was touching Bilt’s.’

The difference between then and now was stark, like night and day.

What once felt utterly strange now felt comfortably familiar.  

Strength was one of the odder Conceptual Powers.

Despite its general namesake, it was an extremely rare Conceptual Power to come across, with almost no practitioners, especially when compared to widespread Powers like Weapon Mastery. Very little was known about it.

There was, as it turned out, a good reason for that.

As Shin felt his Soul touch upon the Power of Strength, he realized something, knowledge about the Power innately forming in his mind.

He was at a crossroads in his life, here and now.

The Power of Strength did not tolerate other types of energy.

Ki, Mana, Chakra, Divine Energy, the type of fundamental force didn’t matter.

Strength was a Conceptual Power that, despite not being sentient, felt almost jealous in nature.

There could only be Strength, and Strength alone.

To touch upon this Power was to dedicate oneself to the Power of Strength.

If he took this step forward, he could never go back.

In that moment, as Shin realized this, he felt his understanding of Bilt deepen.

The Master of Strength’s stubborn, single-minded personality now made a great deal more sense.

It wasn’t that Bilt chose not to use powers like Elemental Energy or Ki… it was that he couldn’t.

Shin felt himself teetering back and forth. He needed to make a decision.

There was no time to prepare, no time to ask Micheal for advice.

Here and now, this was about him, and him alone.

It was jarring, but that was life.

‘You don’t get to choose your time.’ Shin slowly nodded to himself.

In this split second, time seemed to slow down as Shin’s mind raced ahead of himself.

He thought back to when he first arrived on the First Layer, of the terror of encountering Morenkai, the fear of being torn from his family and thrust into an unknown world, the battles waged against monster and man alike.

He thought back to how helpless he felt as he watched his best friend risk his life to stop a newly forged God.

Shin’s hands clenched as he snarled, determination flooding him as his heart pounded.

‘I might not get a second chance if I don’t do this now.’ There was no guarantee that he’d be able to touch upon this Conceptual Power again.

To make this decision here was a risk… but…

Shin smiled.

‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained.’  

He had finally found a way forward.

Shin made up his mind, and immediately, felt the world around him change.

His body tingled as a rush of pure, raw power flooded his veins, the very essence of Strength swarming within him.

In that same moment, Shin shuddered, his body heaving as an explosion of energy rocketed outward.

.. .. .. .. .. ..

Micheal shot forward as he felt a wave of Ki blast through the air, cancelling the Spells he was practicing as he turned towards Shin, leaping up in one smooth movement.

He forced himself to halt, however, as he stared at his best friend, eyes wide in shock.

‘Is he… undergoing Enlightenment?’

Shin’s body was surrounded in a halo of pulsating, red light. It was a shroud of energy that Micheal didn’t recognize, unmistakably some sort of Conceptual Power baptism. The red light painted the trees around them, giving the area a haunted, almost bloody appearance.

‘But why did he expel his Ki?’ Micheal spread his keen senses outward, and confirmed his observation.

Every single bit of Ki Shin possessed had been expelled from his body. The movement had stirred up a large cloud of dust, fluttering several dozen meters in the distance, lit up by the eerie red light.

‘He knows that’s dangerous.’ Micheal frowned as he resisted the urge to step forward.

Interrupting someone in the midst of Enlightenment was incredibly dangerous.

His frown deepened as he saw a few drops of blood spatter out from Shin’s lips, injuries wrought from the rapid expulsion of Ki.

He paused for a few seconds, considering his options.

‘Let’s just wait it out, for now.’ He couldn't risk interrupting Shin, so, instead, Micheal sat down across from him, opting to trust in his best friend.

In the meantime, he abandoned his Magic practice and kept up a closer guard, watching steadily as his best friend gained control over his first Conceptual Power.

.. .. .. .. .. ..

20 hours and 38 minutes.

Exactly 20 hours and 38 minutes had passed since Micheal and Shin’s arrival on the Third Layer.

4 minutes had passed since Shin first began the process of Enlightenment.

It was an important time for Shin… but also…

It just so happened to be an incredibly important time for someone else.

In the depths of the Atlas Duchy lay the City-State of Axellion, the formal seat of power ruled by Armon von Atlas, Duke of the Atlas Duchy, and the Hero of Stone.

Axellion was a massive City-State situated on an enormous, oval-shaped floating island that spanned slightly more than 50 miles wide, and 80 miles long. The City proper engulfed almost the entirety of the island, crowded with natives and foreign species alike, seeking safety and shelter against dangerous Void Predators.

Duke Atlas, as of the present moment, held an ambiguous outlook on the numerous new species appearing in his lands, unlike the ‘Red Line’ to the far north, a collection of City-States where all non-Void natives were hunted on sight.

At the center of Axellion lay a large hill, home to Castle Atlas, a large, hulking behemoth of stark black walls, stone towers, and a massive keep. This was the home of the Duke and his family, housing his three wives, four sons, and nine daughters.

Inside this keep, down several twisting passages and narrow turns, lay the room of the Duke’s youngest daughter. It was a splendid room, tastefully decorated in finery. Beautiful paintings cover the walls, interspersed between luxurious tapestries, the very picture of what a noble's room should look like.

On a large, canopy bed, sitting cross-legged atop a comfortable looking blue blanket, rested a seventeen year old Void Noble in the midst of meditation. Like all Void Nobles, she looked almost identical to a human, but with unnaturally pale, gray skin.

On average, Void Nobles were taller than the average human, but not by enough to make too big a difference. In the case of the Duke’s youngest daughter, she appeared roughly five feet and four inches tall (162.5 cm).

She had a small, button nose, slightly flushed lips, and a perfectly proportioned face that would draw the eyes of any who looked. She was beautiful, but that in itself was nothing strange.

The daughters of almost all Void Nobles were subjected to strict diets and carefully planned regimens for their health, intended to cultivate beauty. An ugly or out of shape daughter reflected poorly on a Void Noble’s lineage, and therefore was simply not an option.

The fact that these standards weren’t applied equally to sons was incredibly unfair, but nevertheless, an unfortunate facet of life on the Third Layer.

A minute passed…

And at exactly 20 hours and 39 minutes after Micheal arrived on the Third Layer…

The Duke’s youngest daughter shot forward, her lungs heaving as brilliant white light blasted forth from her eyes.

“I found it. The key to solving everything.” The young Void Noble spoke aloud, her voice shuddering through the air as she trembled, faint motes of energy sparking in the air around her.

The teenager gazed at the world around her, steeling herself as she quickly slid off her bed and stood up.

“But where?" She muttered, her voice hurried as she quickly began to change out of her nightwear.

Had Micheal been present, he would have immediately recognized her.

She was a genius renowned for having awakened her family’s Noble Lineage at the age of only five, forming her 1st Mana Circle at the age of seven, her 2nd Mana Circle at the age of nine, her 3rd when she turned twelve, and her 4th Circle at 15.

She was Vesper von Atlas.

“I must find him.”

Micheal, however, would recognize her from the name she gained in the future.

“The Grandmaster with eyes of blue."

She was Vesper von Atlas...

The Herokiller.

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