Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 51. Infernal Phantom.
“I would like to ask you too,” Claire stood up from her seat and walked up to Flora’s side, but unlike her teacher didn’t kneel or prostrate herself. “My life… I wanted to dedicate it to repairing the mistakes of my past and helping this country, but I’m beginning to realize how powerless I am. I intend to take my family and leave this place so I can’t promise to serve you, but I can promise to do everything in my power to help you shall you need me,” she said in a very calm demeanor and lowered her head.
“Wow…” Amber said very quietly, not having expected Flora and Claire to be willing to go so far. She herself had already lost all her family as everyone had fought until the bitter end, so her only desire was to extract revenge on the three Yimars of Eulene and the Sword of Rala of the Great Prophet’s who had arrived this spring and instigated the purge. She couldn’t help but wonder if she would have done the same if someone of her family was still alive and in danger… and somehow, she had a feeling she wouldn’t be willing to go as far as Flora and Claire.
Laien groaned inwardly. It was quite awkward to be pleaded by two grown women in this way and he was feeling rather embarrassed about it. However, despite the offers of those women being enticing, he still wasn’t convinced if risking themselves to help them was worth it. He already had a grand Red Dragon School firmly behind his back, he could also count on the support of the Twin Phoenix School and whoever from the Heavenly Flame School that followed Injar would be on his side too. With so many supreme experts on his side, two spiritual masters were a nice addition… but they were just that; a nice addition.
Yin was similarly conflicted, though he was thinking about very different things than Laien. He was imagining how the escape from the Grand Palace would potentially go and what they could expect there. Apart from that, he was also pondering another thing. He could tell that his training speed, especially with regards to the rate at which he was gaining new insights, had grown considerably compared to the time before he met Laien.
Naturally, he was pretty sure a part of it was due to the Blood Pact they had established, but he could also tell that the gloominess and worry he had been secretly keeping sealed deep inside his heart had melted away somewhere along the way, without him noticing anything. Thanks to that he could wholeheartedly focus on training, unbothered by the specters and demons of his early childhood. Just how important was having a clear heart to a practitioner? He wasn’t sure, but his instincts were telling him that it wasn’t something that could be ignored.
He could tell that it wasn’t only Laien who felt like that; he himself in his heart he also wanted to help those women and those two boys. Their hearts wanted to help, but they were restraining themselves through their minds. With those two aspects in conflict, which one was the right to follow? Was acting based on emotions reckless and always wrong? Was following logic and the balance of gains and losses always right? He couldn’t tell for sure, but he could guess the truth was somewhere in-between those two extremes.
“Yin…?” Laien looked to the side. Was Yin really thinking about accepting this request? He was the one to always urge not to take stupid risks, so did something change?
“I think we should help them,” Yin said and gave Laien a meaningful look, silently promising to explain his reasons later.
Flora and Claire both twitched slightly when they heard Yin argue for the option favorable to them. They held their breaths, waiting for Laien to respond...
“If you say so, then let’s do it.”
and they both felt their minds go blank with relief when Laien agreed. With the aid of those two boys, the chances of saving Nathan and Louis would go considerably up!
“Thank you,” Flora said quietly and sat down on the calves of her legs. “I will keep to my words. After those two are freed I’m in your service,” she reassured, intending to fully abide by what she said.
Laien and Yin smiled helplessly and exchanged a quick glance. “We don’t need servants,” Laien said with a weak laugh. “I will happily take whatever you have on the runic arts and all the spell formulas you mentioned, but apart from that it’s fine if we just stay in a good relationship in the future,” he said lightheartedly, tired of the grim and serious atmosphere.
“Why would you…” Flora couldn’t help but ask in a low breath, bewildered by the way those two boys made their decisions.
“You have preparations to be made, no?” Yin asked with a smile, letting Flora’s question go by unaddressed. “If you have a map with a detailed layout of the Grand Palace give us that. Any information on how to recognize their top experts along with the places they usually stay would be helpful too,” he requested, having already thought about a few things they would need to make this whole endeavor a bit safer to go through with.
“Mhm, and tell us how you are planning to send us to that harem too,” Laien mentioned with a smirk. He would rather know all the details of the plan beforehand since they had only discussed what awaited them in the Grand Palace and omitted how they would actually get inside it.
“Teacher,” Claire said with a slight smile and put her hand on Flora’s shoulder. “How about we sit down first?” she suggested, finding it rather awkward to speak with the boys while standing before them and with her teacher sitting on the floor just beside her.
“Hah, we won’t be spending enough time here to make sitting down worth it,” Flora responded heartily, the flames of life having been reignited within her heart. She closed her eyes for a moment as she began sorting through the things inside her interspatial ring, then produced a silver top-grade ring and threw it to Laien.
“Everything you requested is inside. As for how to get you into the main harem; your looks more than qualify you for being sent there. To make it absolutely sure no one touches you I was thinking of sending you in as a gift of some Yimar for the Grand Yimar. You remember the ally we mentioned? He is an influential figure in the house of coin of Ikarians. I will have Amber take you to him to be prepared to be sent tomorrow morning. Until then it would be best if you stayed here in the inn on our private floor,” she explained enthusiastically, displaying so much energy and enough quick-thinking to make it hard to believe she was an eight hundred years old granny.
“Really no point sitting down,” Laien agreed with a laugh. She didn’t think Flora would clarify everything so quickly, but she did.
“What about us?” Liza asked, finally bringing herself to join the conversation. “If possible I want to help with the diversion,” she offered, unable and unwilling to just stand on the sidelines while everyone else would be risking themselves.
“We can make use of you martial masters,” Flora said and nodded calmly. “However, that only goes for those who want to help. I can’t guarantee you will make it out alive. I fully expect at least ten of our forty allies to die… along with at least a thousand Ikarians,” she stated clearly. Their group consisted mainly of spiritual masters; martial masters would be of some use protecting them as they retreated, but they weren’t absolutely necessary for the diversion to succeed.
“How about we wait by the walls of the Grand Palace?” Ruan proposed. “If Laien and Yin find it hard to escape, we will be able to help them. We can lend a hand to your two kids if we have enough space to maneuver too,” he explained, thinking that it would be more practical and more reasonable for them, as the boys’ guards, to do that instead of joining the diversion.
“That’s a good idea,” Flora agreed without giving any objections. “One or two of you should go with the boys tomorrow then. You will be told where to wait and where to hide in case you are pursued. Amber will also inform you about the layout of the runic formations we are going to prepare,” she elaborated and stood up with a little bit of aid from Claire.
“If that’s everything, we should get going. There’s no time to waste,” she asked, knowing how little time they had and how much to do there was.
“You are rushing too much,” Laien said with a laugh. “You didn’t even tell us how to recognize Nathan and Louis, we only know their names,” he reminded, finding it strangely amusing that this old woman got so excited she began forgetting the simple things. She really needed to slow down a bit or else she would make some silly mistake and kill them all, and that would surely not be amusing.
Flora’s eyes widened for a second before she laughed at herself and nodded. “I indeed am rushing too much. Let’s take it step by step. My grandson is ten years old, he is a head shorter than either of you and is more skinny too. His eyes are black, his hair is brown. He is a spiritual practitioner of the third rank and a martial practitioner of the first rank,” she described simply, pretty sure that the boys would be able to easily recognize Nathan based on this much information.
When Flora finished speaking Claire swiftly followed up. “Louis is eleven, he is as tall as either of you but his body is more bulky and muscular. You will spot him easily since he has long light-brown hair reaching halfway to his back. His eyes are also light brown… and he is a martial practitioner of the fourth rank. Do you remember everything or do we need to repeat, or write it down?”
“We remember everything,” Laien said with a laugh. The two of them would be able to remember the layout of the Grand Palace after looking at the map for a few minutes; committing appearance of two boys to their memory was a child’s play with how high their perceptive abilities had become.
“This time it should be everything,” Flora said and raised an eyebrow, looking around at everyone’s faces to see if they had something else to add. “Good, let’s go,” she said after ten seconds of silence.
“Wait.” Just as Laien retrieved the sofa into his interspatial ring and was about to leave with Yin and the rest, Darcy brought herself to speak up. Everyone’s eyes turned to her; she pursed her lips and said while keeping her head low. “I apologize for attacking you. I don’t know what was I thinking.”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Flora and Claire looked at Darcy with slight smiles on their faces, their gazes softening considerably. An apology wasn’t all that much, but what was important was Darcy’s change in attitude and the ability to humble herself. As long as she kept going in the right direction her Spiritual Core would stop suffering from her unstable mental state; who knows, if she wholeheartedly committed herself to training and studying, then there was a slim possibility of her becoming a powerful expert despite all the years she had already wasted.
“Rather than apologizing,” Laien responded with a wry smile. “Make sure the diversion is successful. I wouldn’t want to get swarmed by enemy martial and spiritual masters while making my way out of the Grand Palace,” he said seemingly lightheartedly, but with a surprisingly serious look in his eyes.
At first, Darcy appeared to be speechless, but then she nodded strongly as the look on her face finally turned into a strong and confident one. This wasn’t the time to be sulking or getting angry at the world; rather than that, she felt that she should take an example from Amber and focus on getting revenge.
“I’m glad you managed to settle the meat between yourselves,” Lucinda began saying, very much to everyone’s honest shock. “But can you stop blocking the way? I don’t think you realize how hard it’s going to be to set up all those damned formations throughout the city in complete secret,” she barked at Laien and Yin, already feeling annoyed at the thought of how much work awaited her.
Laien blinked a few times, not having expected this stern and emotionless woman to show some signs of human-like behavior. He chortled and moved to the side, gesturing for her to go ahead; what she did after snorting loudly.
“We leave the same way we came, let’s go,” Flora said helplessly. Lucinda was a great help in battle and during any kind of active work, but her character had always left much to be wished.
“Well, let’s go,” Laien said and shrugged his shoulders a little. He would love to have some quiet time to collect his thoughts after this whole craziness.
---
“I will have someone bring you the meals, so do not leave the floor,” Claire told Laien, Yin and their guards. “The runes will be deactivated now. Keep that in mind and be careful not to make a scene even if some drunk noble makes his way onto this floor. Let our guards handle any unexpected situations,” she advised, keeping her eyes especially on Liza and Laien as she felt those two would be the first to stir up trouble if any opportunity to do so came.
“Yeah, yeah,” Laien shook his head and walked into the room. He knew better when he could afford to fool around and when he needed to restrain himself; he didn’t need this woman to lecture him.
Yin chuckled and nodded slightly in Claire’s direction, after what he followed Laien and closed the door.
Liza laughed to herself and similarly headed to one of the rooms. She totally expected this kind of reaction for Laien and had only waited in the corridor to see it.
As for Claire, she shook her head helplessly. She really wasn’t suited to raising children, just this much had already ticked her off quite a bit. Just taking care of Liza when she was young had been a major challenge for her; she didn’t even want to imagine how angry she would be every day if she had a kid like Laien. When the remaining guards also went into their rooms she sighed heavily and headed out to meet with some of their allies and work out the battle plan for tomorrow.
---
“It’s pretty nice in here,” Laien said as he threw himself back-first onto one of the two soft beds in the room. “I don’t dislike sleeping out, but having a bed and a roof over your head once in a while is good too,” he mused aloud. “We even have our own bathroom. It’s small but good enough,” he added with a laugh, very much pleased that they wouldn’t need to share the bathroom with everyone else like in some of the cheaper inns.
“So, what do we do? Are you going to study the runes now?” Yin asked, seating himself cross-legged on top of the second bed.
“Nah, it’s not something that can be mastered in a short period of time,” Laien replied without a second thought. He had already looked at the tomes about the runic arts which laid in his interspatial ring and he could tell the runic magic wasn’t as simple as just shaping a correct rune in the air. The rune needed to be made with varying strength and currents of spiritual energy and required a miniature Spiritual Core-like system to be contained within it to change natural energy into elemental spiritual energy.
If he had a few days he could probably learn how to use the basic runes, but that alone wouldn’t raise his strength by much, if at all. In the end, he had an Absolute Water Spiritual Domain; the advantage of casting powerful spells almost instantly was already his. He could improve the sheer power of his magic through the runes like with using a full chant to release a spell, but that alone wasn’t worth the effort just yet. The basic level of runic magic didn’t amount to much and the advanced one required a long period of studies and a considerable amount of effort. Right now wasn’t the right time for him to fully commit to learning this type of a support-type ability.
“If not that, then…” Yin said with a smile. He could tell what Laien’s intentions were so he moved over to his bed and also laid down, then allowed his aura to seep out of his body and fill the nearby area. Laien did the same, both of them making full use of their insights and of the complete foundation of the Aspect of Awareness. In the past they refrained from training within their soul and even more so, hesitated to both do it at the same time because of the pretty much unconscious state it left their bodies in. With their new insights, however, they were able to stop their training whenever any danger approached; it was no longer so dangerous.
Without exchanging any unnecessary words the two of them grabbed each other’s hands and allowed their consciousness to sink freely. It had been a challenge for them to establish a connection the first time they tried to, but now their souls joined together almost effortlessly and their spiritual avatars appeared within their Combined Soul Realm. With their souls strengthened and intermingled so closely they could see and feel the vast Spiritual Sea of water-element energy surrounding the space they were in; they could also see the emerald lightning dancing and striking through the masses of water as if it was lightning in the skies.
Only spiritual practitioners could enjoy the benefit of their soul being constantly and passively protected by a Spiritual Sea. Martial practitioners didn’t have such a benefit, but Yin’s soul appeared to be protected by his innate Heavenly Lightning at all times. With both of their souls so tightly guarded it was only possible for them to join so smoothly because of the Blood Pact which allowed their energies to coexist without interacting with each other; it was as if both the Absolute Water and the Heavenly Lightning belonged to one person… no, it was beyond that.
After all, those two energies not only weren’t rejecting or weakening each other but were fusing perfectly as if they were part of one whole to begin with. Such a thing should have been impossible; although water and lightning were fairly compatible with each other, it was ridiculous for no friction or power loss to occur when they mixed. Yet, it was undeniably happening here.
“Alone we can at most kill one elite martial master of the second rank each,” Yin said, or perhaps thought. When their souls were joined there was no way for them to hide their emotions or thoughts; everything was bare here. “But when we fight together, we should be able to kill four of five elite martial masters of the third rank at once,” he added very much contentedly. He had never heard the Blood Pact could bring the two sides such amazing benefits; it was really lucky for him to have met Laien and decided to become partners with him.
“You are going to make me blush,” Laien said jokingly and sat down in the air with his legs crossed and with his hands joined loosely. “We should be close enough to comprehending the first piece of the Profound Mystery of Inferno. Let’s focus on that for now,” he requested and laughed merrily, becoming aware that Yin was of the same mind before he even finished speaking… or thinking.
The two of them focused on the Soul Imprints the fiery-haired woman left on their souls. Since it wasn’t the first time they were training in this manner their actions were coordinated; they no longer randomly activated just any part of their Soul Imprints and both focused on the same little area. As a result, a really small part of the surface of their souls was lit with the fiery runes, inside which the insights into the Profound Mystery of Inferno blazed with fierce flames.
The fiery-haired woman had covered the entire surface of their souls with a layer of runes to just barely manage to seal her full insights into the Profound Mystery of Inferno into the Soul Imprints. The area which Laien and Yin were focusing on consisted of not even one ten-thousandths of the full Soul Imprint and yet, they already had trouble attuning themselves to the insights this little part contained. To fully comprehend this small portion of the Soul Imprint… they weren’t confident in doing so even if they had ten or fifteen years. They would probably need a few decades to accomplish that small goal at their current pace.
Contrary to the ridiculous amounts of time needed, however, the two of them were extremely happy with their progress and the gains they were making. Truth to be told, if the fiery-haired woman was there to see the rate at which they were attuning themselves to her Soul Imprint she would have been utterly shocked. The benefits the Combined Soul Realm brought them weren’t anything to scoff at. Not only was meditating on the insights dozens of times faster in just a normal soul realm, the Combined Soul Realm further enhanced those effects and even allowed them to work together in a perfect unison! The speed at which they were comprehending the Profound Mystery of Inferno was hundreds of times faster than if they were to work on it separately.
With the fiery runes blazing with steady, terrifying flames, the time began to pass. While training in this manner Laien and Yin were pretty much unaware of how much time was passing outside; what to them felt like merely a few moments were many hours in the outside world.
The day passed very quickly and so did the night. The sun once again rose up on the horizon and began slowly climbing up the walls of the City of Palee.
At that time Laien and Yin were still completely engrossed in attuning themselves to and comprehending the very first layer of the little piece of the Soul Imprint they were working upon. Compared to when they began, the fiery runes were now burning much more strongly; the aura they were constantly releasing made it a wonder as to how their souls hadn’t been damaged by them.
The spiritual avatars of Laien and Yin’s sat there within their fused souls, unknowingly having been surrounded by a storm of raging phantasmal flames. The fire swirled around them in surges, once in a while releasing a breath of flaming tongues outwards. Was this not a manifestation of insights the two of them were gaining, then this Infernal Phantom would have long since torn their souls apart and killed them.
Being able to call forth a Phantasmal Essence of a Profound Mystery… having reached this level, If the two of them subsequently succeeded in implementing even this minuscule part of the Profound Mystery of Inferno, of the Mystery that was regarded as one of the top three Mysteries of the Elemental Law of Fire, into their own techniques, then their power would immediately rise by a qualitative level. That was however only if they could control those new insights; otherwise, the backlash could very easily cause them heavy wounds not only to the body but also to the soul.
Having reached a certain threshold, Laien and Yin stopped training and opened their eyes within their Combined Soul Realm, to then see the Infernal Phantom that surrounded both of their spiritual avatars.
“Whoa, that’s so amazing,” Laien uttered quietly, watching the flames swirling around him and Yin. He felt as if he was looking at a true inferno… not one that was merely akin to a forest burning, but one that was as hot and wild as the flames of the stars.
“This Phantom resembles the sun…” Yin murmured, just like Laien unsure from where those pieces of knowledge were coming from. Could it be that along with comprehending the Profound Mystery of Inferno they were automatically understanding some truths about the world and the universe?
The two of them were extremely excited, but also very much mentally exhausted. They had totally overexerted themselves to reach this point; to being with, they managed to stay in their Soul Realms for so long only because they had fallen into an enlightenment-like trance while pondering the Profound Mystery of Inferno. Unsure how much time they had spent training, they didn’t delay any longer and dissipated their avatars, allowed their souls to separate and returned their consciousness to their bodies.
“We are leaving in twenty minutes. Hurry up.”
And as soon as they did, they were greeted by knocking on the door accompanied by Amber’s voice.