Spirits were careful condensations of mana that could absorb mana. At the instant that a spirit tears, a massive influx of atmospheric mana rushes into the torn halves of the spirit at the site of the tear, before a scar forms that holds together the two parts of the spirit and seals up the spirits that have now become two spirits that function simultaneously. The scar has volume, which means that the spirit has effectively gotten larger.

Noah was a greedy person. He did not settle for two spirits. At the same instant his spirit tore from his usage of mimicry, his transformation into a lich was forcibly halted by the water slash ripping his heart apart.

A small delay existed between the slash that cut his heart and the one that cut his head. It was in this infinitesimal moment that Noah chose to display his avarice.

'Mimicry - Lich!'

The slash passed through his brain without touching it, but the lich form was torn apart regardless. However, the form did not regenerate. That required Noah's constant focus, and Noah's mind was currently preoccupied. That said, the semi-corporeal lich form would be relentlessly shredded in the following slashes, but he would not die.

At this point, the two halves of the torn spirit were not yet functioning as one entity. After all, they had not scarred together yet. It was effectively like having multiple independently operating spirits within him.

Noah had used one of these broken halves of his spirit to use mimicry. The broken half, which needed time to scar and form a closed vessel to use the atmospheric mana that had rushed in, was still fragile and exhausted. It tore apart into two even smaller, fragile parts upon Noah's forced use of mimicry.

'Mimicry - Lich!'

This time, with the other half.

Repeated spirit splitting was only performed once the spirits had healed together. Every time it was sliced apart, the practitioner would give it time to heal and scar before attempting it again. Not doing so could lead to two problems.

The first was that the soul could escape during the process, considering that the spirit held the body and soul together. If the spirit weakened too much, it would simply leave.

The other was that it was simply too difficult. How could one expect to stay conscious to tear their spirit apart multiple times in a row?

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Noah negated the first problem by occupying his Lich form, which did not have a body. It simply had only a spirit and a soul, albeit impure. As for the second? Noah had gotten hooked on validation, and he needed strength to get it. It was his vow.

He was now at four independent spirits. But he was not done. With spirit building, the number of spirits that overlapped was the number of circles of magic the practitioner could use.

When it came to spirit splitting, the unclear laws that spirits operated by dictated that the number of 'circles' of magic the practitioner could use was the index of two plus one circle. Two fragments of the spirit meant second circle, four fragments was third circle, eight was fourth circle, sixteen was fifth circle, and so on.

In short, if a practitioner waited for his spirit to heal every time before splitting it again, the number of times he did it would dictate the order of circle magic he could use.

Within Noah, the fragments of his spirit had not yet scarred together, which meant it could not make use of the atmospheric mana that had rushed into it yet. Further use of mimicry would tear his spirit apart more.

'Mimicry - Lich!'

'Mimicry - Lich!'

'Mimicry - Lich!'

'Mimicry - Lich!'

Madness.

Each of the four fragments of spirits split apart again, and he was now at eight.

With the increased surface area, the amount of scar volume, and the rate at which it formed increased. The scarring had already progressed too far for him to split the fragments apart again.

Still, Noah was satisfied. Or he would have been if he were fully conscious. Even without a body, the process was still excruciating enough to cloud his brain.

He had formed three circles with spirit splitting, even though his initial goal had been just two.

Mana surged within him, and enormous scars formed on his spirit, such that it almost seemed like his spirit was more scar than fragment.

Mana infused with slowly moving water currents and accelerated it. In the deep depths of the seabed, where even the leviathan had moved too far away to sense, a whirlpool began to pick up. It started on the sea floor but gradually moved up and grew larger. It was a shame no one would witness the current sight, since it truly looked as if a primordial being had opened its eyes for the first time in eons.

The whirlpool dragged in a red-headed woman who had been sinking to the same depths. Caught in Noah's warm arms, she let herself succumb to rest.

The next moment, a tsunami of mana was expelled out of Noah, signalling the completion of his rebirth. The water parted away from the concentrated and fierce burst, and a dome of air exploded into existence several times the size of the leviathan underwater, which finally caught its attention.

'Mimicry - Drake x 8!'

He may only have had three circles, but the eight parts of this spirit could each activate the skill. A four-legged serpent the size of the leviathan made its presence known with a beam of pure heat and light the width of its own body.

The beam pierced through the leviathan's body near its tip, immediately severing its tail.

Round three.