The sounds of something clashing could be heard resounding through the white and desolate world of the training room. Two shadows move to and fro from each other with every time the shadows meet produce countless sparks and clashing sound.
The shadows came to a stop revealing the identities of the two shadows. Stella and Serias. Both of them holding sword made of light. In Stella’s right hand is a saber while Serias hold a long sword and a short sword in his right hand and left hand respectively. Both of them stood with a stoic expressions. Serias mouth curved into a smile and with a single step, move forward with a speed that couldn’t be followed by ordinary eyes.
Stella received his first blow with her saber and moved it to her right side successfully parrying it leaving her chest wide open. Serias quickly stabbed toward the heart with the short sword on his left hand. Stella quickly generated light shield on her chest and short sword was stopped right there but the momentum send her a few meters back. She steadily get onto her feet quickly. And dashed forward and executed about 15 slash filled with elemental waves of light onto Serias.
Serias quickly put his left palm forward. A wall of light appears in front of him while dispelling the short sword that he used to stab Stella a while ago. The wall of light received the full brunt of the elemental waves light up slightly in yellow tinge. Halfway through the elemental waves attack Stella accelerated faster than the waves arriving in front of the wall. Her sword raised high above her hand with two handed. It changed from its saber form to a near 2m great sword. With a tremendous speed she brought it down, slicing the wall and Serias who stood behind it.
No blood were spilled from what seem to be Serias. It only dissipate slowly into countless particles of light which flew upwards and then slowly fall down like snow. Stella didn’t seem to mind it in the slightest. Immediately after the great sword touch the floor, it changed again into a rapier. Stella turn backward and thrust her rapier before stopping. It release a tremendous shockwaves that could knock out even the most powerful warrior on the planet.
“You lose” the word came out from her like a whisper.
Serias dispel his invisibility magic and from his sight he could see the pointy tip of the rapier was on his Adam’s apple. Only few millimeters more and it would cut his throat. He also dispelled his sword. Stella flick her finger and the room change back to its original appearance of much smaller room.
“That’s my 36th clone, master” Serias stated unhappily.
“Not that I care. Yours is not perfect. I could see there is no mana presence in the clone. What did you think by lowering your shield durability?”
“I thought of slowing down your sword speed for a few milliseconds could be enough for me to strike your back”
“In your dream. Your invisibility spell is good, but did you remember what I said by disguising your mana presence to be same with your surroundings. You’ll be harder to be detected if your mana presence is same as your surroundings. You’ll stick out like a sore thumb if you make your mana presence is completely invisible”
Stella strode out of the room followed by Serias slowly afterwards. From this day on, his first phase of training was finished.
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For almost 33 years, training in the training room was the most terrible experience Serias ever had since he was alive. His sword skill rose by leap and bound in that period. His mana also increased by tremendous amount. Now it was equal to an S-class mana well.
He was now standing in a boundless realm where someone couldn’t even see the horizon. The sky above him is dark blue in color. It is like seeing deep ocean but this is on his head. His feet was submerged to his ankle with bluish liquid that is cold and calming. The bluish water was concentrated mana. A blue orb that about 1m in diameter was floating in front of him. He could see some of the mana slowly evaporated into thick blue mist before being absorbed slowly into the blue orb.
He was now in his soul space. Inside his own soul. After being taught by Stella about soul and how to enter his own soul space he always visit this place, pondering at the blue orb which is his soul core. The soul core was a black box that never had been be touched by human hands. It is really dangerous to tinker with the soul. Stella also had taught him few soul based attack that attacked the soul directly regardless of physical defense. It is useful in high speed battle where a few seconds of stun could render someone dead.
He had tried tinkering with his own soul. Using the soul based attack on his own soul he successfully slipped into the soul core. He only could transverse a few upper layer when he is pulled back into the soul space. Forcefully.
He could sense that the soul core have thousands of layer while he could only travelled a few upper layer. He also confirmed that the layer contain the personality and memories of someone. He reported his founding to Stella. She was amazed to find that Serias could break through the layer of the core. She agreed when Serias ask her to help him.
He was pondering when Stella arrived. She wore a golden dress that look majestically mesmerizing to his eyes. He thought he should ask her about her appearance after this experiment.
“You sure want to this? It is dangerous to tinker with the soul. Even my master didn’t dare to approach too deep in this soul matters. There is no turning back after this.” Her forehead wrinkled in worries. She still didn’t believe that her disciple was really brave enough in this matters.
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“Don’t worry. I just need master to cast Aura of Death and Aura of the Damned on my soul core so I could slip through the soul layers and pull me out if something bad would happen. After all how could I retreat in the face of a big discovery.” he replied nonchalantly.
Currently, he is using his mind’s bodies to stay in the soul space. There were two ways to enter the soul space. First by meditating and focusing on his soul. Second is to use the mind’s body that is constructed in the mind space. The mind and the soul are two things that can’t be separated. Separate one from another and the people will sure to die. The reason he used the mind’s body is so that his consciousness would not fade while under influence of Stella’s soul attack. He couldn’t lose his consciousness while inside the soul core or its consequences would be too great for him to handle.
Aura of Death and Aura of the Damned are soul based attack that directly attack the soul. It induced fear on a colossal amount that could make some people untrained in fending their soul faint. It also weaken the soul defense on the soul core making the soul more susceptible to subsequent soul based attacks.
“Prepare yourself. I’ll cast both of the aura with the strongest magnitude.”
Serias prepared himself, facing the blue orb. Stella started casting the spell. Black mist seep out of her body little by little it become dark that it look ominous to someone who saw it. After a while the black cloud was hurled toward the blue orb at high speed. As soon as the black cloud touch the orb, it shuddered and for a few seconds it reveal its outer layer like an orange peel.
Serias felt an immense pain run through his body as the soul core get peeled layer by layer. He cut the pain reception using his magic and flew toward the soul core. The black cloud dissipate and entered the soul core slowly like how the mana being absorbed. He successfully entered the soul core without any problem. Slipping past the first 100 layers of soul core was no easy feat even although it is still under attack.
After a few moments in the soul core, he started analyzing the complex pattern of that were embedded on each layer of the soul core. Floating closer to the 99th layer he could the pattern resemble something that Stella had taught him the defensive ward’s magic circle. This contain more intricate and small patterns embedded in each line. He came closer and started copying one of the pattern into his photographic memories, courtesy of his body and mind enhancement that Stella had performed on him before he started practicing the Light Stance.
After that, he sailed past a few hundred layers while stopping for a while to analyze the pattern on every layers. The pattern of the layers changed after the first 100 layers. This really piqued his interest as the pattern become more complicated and intricate the deeper he dived into the soul core. A few hours in the soul core didn’t make him meet the end of the road. In disappointment he started turning back, driving his mind’s body outside.
“Better not be greedy. All of the pattern should take time to analyze” he thought.
Outside of the soul core, he was greeted by Stella’s worried face. Seeing him getting out she heaved a huge breath of relieve. She thought something had happened in the soul core. Serias give a satisfied look at Stella albeit with a small just hint of disappointment.
“What with that look. Shouldn’t you be happier doing something that even our predecessors couldn’t do?”
“I could only travelled a few hundred layers of the soul core and I don’t think that the end of the layers is near.”
“Don’t be too greedy. Just do it slow and steady. Soul is not something that mortal like us to interfere.”
“Alright. I’m going to start analyzing the thing that I found in the soul core.”
“Good luck with your research.” After saying that Stella’s body slowly disappear to reality leaving Serias alone in his soul space. He sat down and using his memories he started analyzing the complex pattern that were embedded in the soul core’s every layer.
Browsing through his memories he selected the magic circles that were embedded on the 51st layer. Deliberately he expanded the magic circles to see the basic outline of it. What shocked him is the basic outline of the magic circles is almost the same for a basic defensive wards that he learn before. Then he noticed that the line used one the magic circles were a little rugged. Expanding it again in his mind he was utterly stunned. The line were made using thousands of small string of words and according to one of the Precursor’s text he could translate it into binary number that executed a certain function. Some of the line were adjoined like electronics circuit but this were more complicated. He didn’t worry too much about that as he had wrote a thesis before regarding binary code. It were his specialty. So how could he doesn’t understand it. He laughed loudly that resonated throughout the whole soul space.
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It took a long time to churn out new chapter, although some people that I see could bring you 1 chapter per day. Well, I don't know how they do it but BANZAI!! to them. This chapter had to be rewritten before it could be posted. Well, comment and advise are always appreciated.