Lost in training his sword, Alnea forgot all sense of time. By the time that Yuri came back from her Wandering, his Spirit Power had already recovered to its peak. So, after a brief greeting, he went back into the cave with Cecilia, and started Forging his Spirit, the most painful part of his training. Yet, in a sense, it was also the easiest part of his training. All he had to do was follow the instructions of the Art that his master had created, and then let the Mysteries do their work.
He would not deny that the Art was painful, almost to the level of torture, and often left him in a dazed state, but the greater the pain that the Art brought, the greater the benefits he reaped from it were. At the same time, the higher his Spirit Power became, the greater the amount of Oren he could use, increasing the effect of the Art as well. It was not without reason that his Spirit Power had increased by over two hundred units, reaching the Fourth Level, in just under a month.
Back when Yuri had first reached the False Rank, she had barely reached the threshold of three hundred units in one month, and had been stuck at the bottleneck to the Fourth Level. Of course, she was also not going through the intense life and death struggles back then, but then, she was using Divine Grade Arcanas of her clan, while the Art that Alnea was using could barely be considered to have reached the Divine Grade.
Thus, the progress that Alnea had in such a short period of time could be considered to be pretty decent. It was just that the pressure that he had been in had been too much, making him feel as if his progress had been slow. He had gotten rid of that impatience with the help of the Fortune Spring, and its Good Fortune, but as he closed his eyes, and reached out to the Origin Sea, he could not help himself from wondering what his progress this time would be.
With a peak Spirit Power greater than eight hundred units, he would be using more than two hundred units of Spirit Power in each round of his Art of Spirit Rebirth, or roughly more than twenty thousand threads of Oren, more than twice of what he had used the last time he had Forged his Spirit.
When he had first used the Art of Spirit Rebirth, just the twenty five hundred threads had been enough to send him in a daze. With time, he had gotten slightly used to the pain, so that even as his Spirit Power had increased, he had still been able to keep a hold on himself while Forging his Spirit, but doubling the threads he would using to Forge his Spirit would probably go over his limits.
He could, of course, start with a lower number of threads, and slowly increase it over the next few days, but that would not be the most efficient way to train. Besides, other than increasing his Spirit Power, this time, his aim in Forging his Spirit was also to solidify his gains from the Fortune Spring, and remove the vain feeling from his Spirit Power. Though Yuri had said that it would fade away over time, he would still have to Forge his Spirit to make that happen. And the more thoroughly he Forged his Spirit, the faster that his Spirit Power would lose all its hollow feeling.
Thus, without even a shred of hesitation, Alnea drew as much Oren from the Origin Sea as he could without losing his control over them, before dispersing it all around his Spirit into tiny threads, completing both, the condensation, and the dispersion phase of the Art of Spirit Rebirth in one go. Next was the manifestation phase. The phase where he had to summon the Mysteries, and let them do their job. But that also meant losing all his control…
Honestly, the thought of losing control over Mysteries inside him scared him a little. Especially since their manifestation was going to be stronger than ever. But his fear was not enough to pierce through the Serenity of his Heart.
Once again, without any hesitation, he reached out to the more than twenty thousand threads of Oren inside of his Spirit, each condensed from a hundredth of a unit of Spirit Power—maybe, that limit would decrease after he reached the next Stage, or Rank, but for the moment, this was the best he could do— and made them beat with the rhythm of the Mysteries of Destruction, before reaching to his Roots to summon the corresponding Mysteries.
And soon after, the ever generous Mysteries came answering his summons in the fastest speed they could, ignoring all the defences of his Domain, and the barriers between the world, waltzing right into his Spirit World, ready to pounce on his Spirit, only to be sucked in by the tens of thousands of Oren threads raging inside his Spirit, all beating with the strange rhythm of the Mysteries.
It was also then, that Alnea finally lost all control of the Oren threads. Even his Spirit was beginning to behave a little strangely, beating with a rhythm completely opposite to the rhythm of the Oren threads inside its boundaries. He still had a little control left though, one which he used to let his Roots beat with the same rhythm as his Spirit, sending his second summons into the Origin Sea, calling for the Mysteries of Creation.
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Once again, the Mysteries responded promptly, wasting no time in bypassing the defences of his Domain, and the barriers of his world, before manifesting in his Spirit World. Next, if nothing unusual happened, they would have pounced upon his Spirit, and then would have given him a taste of what the Mysteries effects were.
Before they could do that though, the Mysteries of Creation were attracted by the strange rhythms of his Spirit. And just like how the Mysteries of Destruction were consumed by the rhythms of his Oren threads, the Mysteries of Creation too were consumed by the rhythms of his Spirit, forming a strange state, where both the Mysteries existed within his Spirit at the same time, bringing an end to the manifestation phase of the Art of Spirit Rebirth. And with it, an end to the last shred of control over his Spirit.
Still, Alnea did not panic. He just braced himself for the impact that was about to come next. A clash of the Mysteries, that grew in intensity with every passing moment, tearing his Spirit apart from within itself, while distorting his Spirit to the point that it felt as if it was about to lose all its shape. It was as if—
No, there was no comparison. The pain coursing through his Spirit was so intense, that his senses held no meaning for him. Yet the Mysteries continued wreaking havoc inside of his Spirit, bringing even more pain to him, until they finally intersected with each other, and erupted in one final explosion that blacked him out for a few moments.
Fortunately, he had been Forging his Spirit with the Art of Spirit Rebirth for a nearly a month. With some prior preparation, he was able to avoid falling into dreams, or illusions to escape from his pain. The improvement in his state of his Heart might have also helped him in endeavour to stay sober, allowing him to regain his consciousness. However, staying awake, and aware also meant facing all the strange sensations wreaking havoc his Spirit, and the pain that they brought with themselves. Yet, no matter how great the pain that they brought was, it was still not able to break past the barriers of his Heart.
Thus, as the five elements, along with the concept of Creation, and Destruction raged inside his Spirit, clashing with each other, and making him bear all kinds of sensations, Alnea dove into those sensations, and searched for the seed of Life within his Spirit, before reaching out to it, and connecting it with his Roots, the golden black thread connecting his Spirit to the Origin Sea. And at the moment, the same golden black thread was connecting the Seed of Life to the Origin Sea.
It was only natural then for the Mysteries of Life to manifest directly inside of his Spirit, within the small seed of Life, that was almost on the verge of breaking apart. Before that could happen though, the Mysteries of Life were successful in germinating the seed, prompting it take root in his Spirit. And in the next moment, as the seed spread its roots through his battered, and torn Spirit, the Mysteries of Life also spread through them, giving a new life to his Spirit, letting it go through a round of Rebirth.
That was what the Art of Spirit Rebirth was, drowning his Spirit in the cycle of Destruction, and Creation, making it go through rounds, after rounds of Rebirths. And he had only completed one round. There were three more to go before he was done with his training session. But his Spirit had yet to complete its ‘Rebirth’.
He was starting to regain his senses, and at the same time, a warm, and fuzzy feeling was spreading through his Spirit, but his Spirit had not completely recovered. At least not enough to go through another round of Forging. So, while waiting for the Mysteries of Life to do their work, Alnea reached out to his rowdy Aspects to assure them that he was alright.
Unsurprisingly, that did not take much effort on his part. After all, his Aspects were already familiar with his daily routine. They had seen him suffer so many times, that at this point, they were not even worried about him. Their rowdiness was just a form of their curiosity. There were times when they even question him if they could join him in his play…
Chuckling at the cheeky behaviour of the Aspects, Alnea shook his head, and shifted his focus back to his Spirit, right in time to see the green light from the Mysteries of Life fade away. With all the Oren consumed, there was no way for the Mysteries to maintain their manifestations. But it did not matter. His Spirit had already recovered from the first round of the Art of Spirit Rebirth.
So, after a brief rest to adjust his Heart, Alnea reached out to the Origin Sea once again, and started with the second round of the Art. And when that was over, he went for the third round, and then the fourth round. Only when his Spirit was completely exhausted, did he finally come to a stop. However, he could not rest. He may have finished Forging his Spirit, but his day was far from being over.
He was exhausted, both mentally, and physically, but his training had to go on. Letting out all his exhaustion with a sigh, Alnea opened his eyes, and picked up his sword, before walking out of the cave to continue with his training. To continue with the way of his sword. To continue on the path of the strong.