R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 59

R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 59

Sophia blinked, her eyes narrowing as she looked around her.

‘...I’m back on Earth?’

She was standing in the middle of a familiar park.

In front of her was a large, grassy clearing with a small building in the middle. A playground was set off to her right, its ground filled with woodchips and soft gravel. A long, stone bike-path cut through the back of the park, moving from one forested section to another.

‘Isn’t this Great Oak Park?’

The sounds of birds chirping and insects buzzing echoed softly in the background, making the quaint park feel alive.

Sophia paused, rubbing her temple as she tried to remember.

‘Where was I just now…?’

For some reason, she couldn’t quite recall.

“Whatever.” Sophia shrugged and took a few steps forward, taking in the world around her.

Sophia was born in the U.K, but her parents had moved to America when she was young. She possessed dual nationality, with family members on both sides of the sea.

Great Oak Park was a park she frequented when she attended a certain highschool in her teenage years.

“Wait… hold on…” Sohpia muttered as the memories in her brain fought their way back into the forefront.

“Inheri- Layer- Heart Tri-!” She sputtered, her eyes opening wide open as everything flooded back.

“Right, this is a Heart Trial!” Sophia spun around, her heart pounding as she prepared herself, expecting something to happen.

“...”

“But why is nothing happening?”

As soon as Sophia finished speaking, she realized something strange.

“Hold on… what is this…?” Sophia reached out with her right hand.

A split second later, Sophia’s eyes glowed white as a huge gust of air blasted forward, slamming into the playground.

Thousands of chips of wood and small pieces of gravel were flung into the air, cascading forward in a large wave of debris. These small pieces of shrapnel smashed into the bathroom at the center of the park, pelting it with hundreds of tiny holes.

“No!” Sophia yelped with a frown as she pulled her hand back.

“What is this… this isn’t supposed to be like this.” Sophia grabbed her head and groaned, concentrating to control her Ki.

All around her, the air began to tremble and twitch. Great bands of wind ripped the earth apart, creating a storm of dirt and dust that flowed just a few feet from her. Small drops of water began to condense and flow into the rippling wind at the same time as thin bolts of lightning ripped their way into existence.

In the original timeline, Sophia Morgan was one of Humanity’s strongest, on a Layer that held billions of humans. Despite suffering from horrific, crippling injuries, Sophia obtained power that commanded immense respect, an S Ranker who’s very name, with no exaggeration, struck fear in the hearts of her enemies.

That begged the question: Why?

Why was she so strong? What sets her apart from everyone else?

There were several things that could be considered the answer to that question. From her strength of will and determination, to her willingness to risk her life and bravely dive headfirst into danger. Without these factors, she would never have grown to the extent that she did.

Apart from all the rest, however, was one answer that stood out, something unique to Sophia:

Her talent.

Sophia’s Soul was uniquely predisposed to sensing and manipulating Conceptual Powers.

Before entering the Soul King’s Inheritance, Sophia had only ever made contact with 3 Conceptual Powers.

The Path of Illusions, through her Fairy Eyes Ability.

The Path of Wind, through her Wind Sweeper Ability.

The Path of the Sword, through her Sword Mastery Ability.

All three Paths were Conceptual Powers that she touched upon thanks to the Abilities she possessed. These Abilities acted as a ‘bridge’ that allowed her to touch upon the Conceptual Power without any other relevant training or knowledge.

However, as potent as they were, Sophia had never been exposed to what a deep connection with a Conceptual Power felt like…

Until now.

Mastery.

It was a realm of comprehension, a realm where a being first grasped a Conceptual Power at a deep level, allowing them to exert power that could change the world around them.

Sophia first-hand experienced Leia’s Mastery of the Conceptual Power of the Storm through Leia’s memories… and as a result, her Soul’s incredible talent kicked in.

She immediately began to undergo enlightenment, her Soul undergoing a baptism as it reached out and touched upon the Conceptual Power of the Storm.

In a vacuum, this was a great thing for Sophia. Her Soul was being strengthened, while she gained a new understanding of a power that could change the world around her in fantastic ways at the highest level.

However…

The energy inside Sohpia’s body and Soul had reached a breaking point. She was just a hair’s breadth away from breaking into the Earth Tier of Ki. The concentration of energy had reached such a point that she had to consciously hold back on breaking through.

This confluence of events, Sophia’s Soul touching upon the Concept of the Storm and Sophia’s Mortal Tier Ki stretching to its limits, led to something Micheal never would have predicted.

Sophia simultaneously underwent enlightenment at the same time that she underwent a Heart Trial.

And… as a result, something strange happened.

“This is… weird…” Sophia spoke out loud after several long, tense seconds as she managed to get the boiling energy inside her under control.

“Is this my Heart Trial? Why is everything so… odd?”

Sophia blinked as her vision wavered.

For one split second, she found herself back inside the Third Gate, standing in front of the table holding several Memory Crystals.

She blinked again, and she was back at the Great Oak Park.

Her vision constantly wavered back and forth, all while her Soul underwent a baptism of cool energy from the Conceptual Power of the Storm.

“Ah.” Sophia grunted and fell down to one knee, her breathing turning ragged.

“Wh-what?!”

As the Ki within Sophia’s body began to evolve into Earth Tier Ki, a strange interaction began to take place between that Ki and Sophia’s Soul.

“Arrgh.” Sophia began to hyperventilate.

Leia, the Master of the Storm, was a Dark Wraith. The memories that Sophia inherited from Leia showed the Dark Wraith’s deep connection with the Storm. Sophia’s talented Soul lived through those memories as if they were her own, experiencing the same things that Leia experienced.

And here, and now, as Sophia grasped ahold of the Concept of the Storm, her body reacted in the same way it ‘remembered’ from Leia’s memories:

By channeling Elemental Energy.

“It burns?!” Sophia gave up on speaking to herself as panic set in.

All across her body, Sophia felt an intense, painful, burning sensation as her Ki was mixed with Elemental Energy.

Elemental Energy made up the building blocks of reality in the 7 Layers. At its core, it served as the fundamental bedrock of all energy.

Ki itself, if broken down to its base elements, was formed from Elemental Energy.

Like breaking down an Atom to form Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons, nearly all types of energy could be broken down into Elemental Energy.

So, why do Humans, and many other species, use Ki or Mana, and not Elemental Energy?

The reason was simple:

It’s sheer, unstable volatility.

Sophia’s left hand scrabbled as she grasped ahold of her Spatial Ring. Her vision flickered back and forth, from her Heart Trial to the Third Gate, as she managed to find it.

Sophia’s hands trembled as she pulled out and swallowed several Mid-Tier Healing Pills.

The nourishing Pills cost 8,000 Points each from the Shop, and were imbued with cool restorative energy that washed over Sophia.

‘It’s not enough.’ She thought as she concentrated intensely, blocking out the agonizing pain as she struggled to contain the riotous energies inside her body.

A lone drop of blood dripped down her face from her nose, falling and staining the grass beneath her dark red.

The crashing energies in her body were impossible for her to contain.

‘What do I do?!’

It was an incredibly stressful situation, dealing with unknown energies attacking her body from the inside, whilst trapped in the middle of a Heart Trial that wasn’t quite a Heart Trial, while her Soul was being enriched with the Concept of the Storm.

‘Calm down.’ Sophia overcame her panic and forced herself to focus.

‘What would Micheal do here?’ Her eyes glinted.

‘Stay calm, observe, and adapt.’

You couldn’t control everything that happened in life… so she simply needed to adapt to the changes.

‘Control it here- it’s not enough- what if I isolate it here- it won’t stop- can I grasp it here?- no it still isn’t working.’

Sophia’s mind raced at a hundred miles a minute as she did everything she could to resolve her situation.

She drew upon her Fairy Eyes, her Wind Sweeper Ability, her Intermediate Sword Mastery, her Ki.

Bit by bit, she rapidly used all of her Abilities to her utmost, and…

It helped.

The agonizing burn of Elemental Energy tearing through her body was temporarily stymied.

“Okay.” Sophia muttered out loud as sweat poured down her face, mixing with drops of blood from her nose. She slowly raised her shaking right hand up to her head, massaging it.

Her brain ached immensely, but she had managed to get her situation under control, at least for a few minutes.

“I need… something more.” Sophia’s vision was blurry as she opened the Shop, her words stilted as she operated under extreme focus.

.

—-Abilities—-

Eon Walker Type - 91,283,300 (0/1)

Violet Adaptation Type - 23,003,520 (0/1)

Pun Chal Fist - 837,308 (2/24)

Xygian Baralt Type - 1,940,052 (1/100)

Manister Guard - 451,951 (3/45)

Ekker Psyker Type - 94,820 (15/15)

Current Control - 286,100 (31/56)

Brilliancy Type –  8,447,039 (1/1)

Dark Gaze - 305,190 (18/256)

Stable Blast - 49,650 (401/401)

… (41/41 page)

.

The Shop opened to the last page she had visited, its final page, which unlike all other pages was not even half filled.

Before she could peruse the Shop further, seeking out any Ability that could help her, Sophia was forced to stop.

“I can barely think.” Her voice was ragged as she felt more and more Elemental Energy pour into her body.

Her Soul was doing its best to adapt that energy under her control. Thanks to her training with Micheal, and her practice at ‘Directed Cultivation,’ Sophia’s control of her Ki was highly refined.

However, the physiological differences between humans and Dark Wraiths could not be rectified so easily.

Dark Wraiths were half corporeal beings. They were easily able to channel Elemental Energy because of their unique Physiques.

Adding Ki to a Human body was akin to a blood transport: an outside object that was added or transplanted to one’s body, gradually adapting and merging into it.

Adding Elemental Energy to a Human body was the same thing, except instead of blood you were transplanting molten lava.

It was an energy source that could not normally be handled.

‘It’ll be a miracle if I survi- wait…’ As Sophia’s body shuddered, a clear thought cut through the chaos.

‘A miracle…’

Sophia’s shaking hands tapped on her Spatial Ring, bringing out an Artifact she had just obtained from Micheal.

A large, purple gemstone.

‘A Miracle Gem.’

Sophia grasped ahold of the crystal and activated it without a whit of hesitation.

For a brief, split second, nothing seemed to happen.

That moment passed as Sophia’s body rapidly began to evolve, the magic power of the Miracle Gem modifying the genetic and physical makeup of her body, mixing with the Elemental Energy within her, and the baptism of energy from the Concept of the Storm in her Soul.

Sophia sat down on the ground, shuddering in relief as she felt her body begin to change.

‘I can- this is bearable.’ She thought as she concentrated, her lungs burning.

As countless thoughts raced through Sophia’s mind, there was only one thing she was certain of.

The Sophia who left this Inheritance would be nothing like the Sophia who entered.

.