The most basic, and the most important part of practising the Blood Martial Styles were Blood Crystals. Without condensing Blood Crystals, Alnea could not even begin practicing the other Blood Martial Styles. Condensing Blood Crystals was not easy though. In fact, just in terms of danger alone, probably only the detonating his Blood Crystals, or using them to temper his vital organs could be more dangerous than condensing them.

The process of condensing Blood Crystals itself was not too dangerous though. As long as he followed the instructions of the Martial Style, he should not face any problems, Alnea thought, as he extended the senses of his Spirit into his body. Having spent nearly a year building his foundations with his master, he knew what the different parts of his body were, so it did not take long for him to find his blood vessels. But the red blood cells…

Alnea did not like the vague approach of searching for the red blood cells with the feelings of his Aspects, but he had never heard of blood cells before, let alone some red blood cells. Was his blood not red? Were there any other cells in his blood that were not red? For a moment, he thought of just randomly selecting a cell, and then engraving the Blood Crystal pattern on its surface. But the risks…

In the end, he could only hope that the method mentioned in the Martial Style was reliable. Still, for the things he could control, he made sure to not leave any room for errors, beginning with the choice of Aspects. After taming another Aspect in his recent Wanderings, he had twenty nine Aspects in total. And out of those twenty nine Aspects, the one that had the greatest compatibility with his Heart was the first Aspect that he had tamed. It was also the Aspect with the greatest instincts and emotions. Coincidentally, his first Aspect could also take on the shape of a sword, fulfilling all the necessary conditions.

Ever so slowly, and ever so gently, Alnea channelled the least amount of Oren that he could borrow from the Oren Sea directly into the largest Aspect Well in his Spirit World. Almost immediately, the golden Aspect, with a dark black core, quickly jumped out of its home and rushed towards his Spirit, ready to protect him from any and all kinds of threats. It did not even urge him to play with it… In times of need, his Aspects never failed him.

Soothing the agitated Aspect, conveying his thought to the small blob of light—small enough for him to barely see its light— Alnea directed it into his bloodstream before shaping it into the form of a sword. His sword. It was still a sword of light though, without any substance. To display its prowess, it needed a real sword. Or at least something that could carry its powers. Something like iron…

Alnea felt a strange sensation being transferred from his Aspect directly into his Spirit—into his mind. A sensation of being surrounded by countless stars. Stars which were beckoning him, calling him, and offering him all their powers. Some of these stars were weak, old, and on the verge of passing away. But most of these stars were burning as bright as Enn. And they were all waiting for his choice.

What a strange sensation, Alnea thought, as he chose one of the brightest stars. Right in the next moment, all the other stars disappeared into the void, leaving just the happy thoughts of his Aspect. At the same time, the light of his Aspect also dimmed a little, concentrating all its edge on the body it had found for itself.

Or at least that was what the Aspect was conveying. Within the senses of his Spirit though, all he saw was the already tiny dot of light becoming even smaller than before, small enough for him to not even notice it anymore. Thankfully, he could still feel his Aspect, or else, he would not even have been able to condense Blood Crystals, let alone master the other Martial Styles.

…Subduing his errant thoughts into the depths of his Heart, Alnea reached out to the substance that his Aspect had wrapped around, the red blood cell, and began the next step of condensing Blood Crystals. Trying to make it interact with Oren. Indirectly at first, with the help of the Aspect wrapped around it. And it worked, for a while. Or at least that was how it seemed when the Aspect did not reject the Oren that he was pouring into it. It even began to shine as brightly as before.

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Unfortunately, it was not the red blood cell that was reacting to the Oren, but the Aspect itself. Alnea was not too disappointed though. He just withdrew most of the Oren he had channelled into the Aspect, before beginning his second attempt, guiding his Aspect to resonate with the core it was wrapped around. That was how he had found the blood cell in the first place. And yet, that did not work either. Neither did trying to pour Oren directly into the cell. Or wrapping it with Oren…

…What was the problem? He could try the method mentioned in the Martial Style, but that would degrade the quality of the Blood Crystal. And a lower quality Blood Crystal would mean spending more time on upgrading it. Not to mention that he would have to distort a living part of his body… Unless it was a last resort, Alnea did not wish to distort his blood cells. But then, how was he supposed to make his blood cell interact with Oren…

…try to visualise carving the Blood Crystal Pattern described below directly onto the surface of the cell. The better your visualisation, the faster you will be able to make the cell familiar with Oren…

Right, Alnea thought. The Blood Crystal pattern. The complex and intricate pattern. The first time he saw the pattern, he almost thought that it was a Glyph Array, one formed with at least six to ten Glyphs. That was how complex the pattern was. But it was definitely not a Glyph Array. Rather, it looked more like a small part of a large, and infinitely complex sketch. One that contained boundless mysteries… Maybe even the Mysteries of the Origin Sea.

In comparison, the red blood cell was so small that he had even forgotten about carving the Blood Crystal pattern on its surface. With his attempts of making the cell interact with Oren though, he had gotten more experienced in handling both the Oren, and the cell. Besides, he did not truly have to carve the Blood Crystal pattern on the cell’s surface right away. For the moment, just visualising carving the pattern was enough.

So, readjusting his Heart, and focussing himself back on the cell, Alnea willed the Oren around the cell to gather and coalesce into a thin needle, thinner than even the cell itself. So thin, that he had to rely on the senses of his Spirit to control the Oren. And when he could not make the needle any thinner, he began trying to carve the Blood Crystal Pattern on the cell.

In vain, of course. The Oren could not even touch the cell. How could it carve anything on its surface? However, the process of trying to carve the pattern itself was not in vain. As he was controlling the Oren needle to inscribe the Blood Crystal pattern on what he felt was the red blood cell, he felt a strange resistance from the tip of the needle. It was not the resistance met from contact of two different substances…

No, the resistance from something else entirely. It was a resistance from the Concept of the cell itself, and Mysteries that the Blood Crystal pattern carried. Even if the Oren needle could not leave traces of the pattern on the cell’s surface, the cell still could not stand the Concept held within the Blood Crystal… No wonder Bood Crystals were so unstable. Because the blood cells themselves had an intrinsic resistance against becoming Blood Crystals.

Understandable, in a sense, Alnea thought. After all, the red blood cells all carried a trace of life. Even if it was faint, he could still feel it. Transforming the cells into a Blood Crystal would then be equivalent to taking the life of the cell and converting it into an eternal energy bank. Which living being could accept such a fate?

For a moment, Alnea wavered, wondering if the Blood Crystals were worth it. Even if he knew that the blood cells were a part of his body, and that they had a limited lifespan, as he stood on the doorway of condensing Blood Crystals, he still could not help recalling the torn, bloodied face of the man he had killed. Was taking any life—

“…I will never let my doubts and insecurities cloud my path… I will never stop moving forward…”

It was worth it. As long as it was for the people he loved, everything was worth it. Taking deep breaths, and relaxing himself, Alnea focussed himself back onto the red blood cell. The cell that he was sensing not through his Aspect, but through the Oren needle dancing around in his bloodstream. And the more that the needle danced, the greater his sense of the cell became, until he could sense the needle even after he withdrew his Aspect back into his Spirit World.

The second step of condensing a Blood Crystal was finished. Next was the step of carving the Blood Crystal pattern on the cell’s surface. It was also the most dangerous step of condensing a Blood Crystal. At the same time, it was also the most time consuming part of the process. Carving such an intricate and complicated pattern without any mistakes…

It was not going to be easy. But he was not afraid. Because he was Alnea Oathkeeper.