Lakshman could not believe by the information that his wife, Erza revealed. Then, he began thinking about information and for him, it made sense.
“Currently, whenever I transform, my hair goes golden while my Elemental Glow is golden-red. It’s pretty obvious that golden colour is justice and red colour is power. So, it explains why my future self would have such a hair colour because my future transformations will be different since I will be possessing a lot more power than I do right now.”
“That is the right way of thinking about it I guess, but I don’t remember any Phoenix Titan with such a hair colour before,” said Tetra with perplexed expression on her face. “All Phoenix Titan that I can remember only ever transformed into having spiky blonde hair and to boost their powers, they used the Phoenix Armour that I custom made for all of them.”
“There’s a simple reason to that, Tetra,” Lakshman told her and she looked at him with a surprised expression on her face. “In my previous lives as the Phoenix Titan, it’s most likely that I never bothered to push my limits to reach for greater power. It’s most likely that, because of being corrupted by the Voice of the Phoenix, all I thought of using the powers I currently had without ever achieving my true transformation. That explains why most people associate me with my other title, the Sacred Armoured Phoenix Titan.”
“Ah! That actually makes sense!” Tetra said and she nodded in understanding. “I do remember the Phoenix Titans to always have a tendency to use their natural power instead of training hard and becoming strong like you. I don’t think that even the first Phoenix Titan did that in his time.”
“No. I highly doubt my first incarnation, Ashura, ever fully trained like me because of possessing such massive amount of energy right from the start. That’s why, he and every single past lives of mine simply used the Phoenix Armour and the other power up techniques to power themselves up.
However, this time, it’s different! With my threat, I’m certain the Calamity Titan will focus all of his time and energy into achieving his ultimate transformation. If he does, I doubt even I can defeat him, even if my full powers are unleashed if I can’t transform into my true transformation, then it’s hopeless!”
“No need to worry. In the future, your transformation was different, which you called it the True Phoenix form,” informed Erza with a smile on her face. “It’s true that you’re weaker than your future counterpart that arrived in my world, but I’ confident you will achieve that kind of power. I believe in you.”
Erza smiled at him and closed her eyes before nodding once in reassurance. She really believed in him because of how much he had done for her and the world which he landed on. Tetra also smiled cheerfully at the prospect of him truly becoming strong and achieving his true transformation.
Lakshman looked at both of them and smiled before telepathically saying, “You two… Thank you.”
He was smiling when, all of a sudden, he stiffened when he heard a telepathically familiar voice say, “Hey… Why is it that I can’t talk at all here?”
Turning around, they saw Venezuela sitting on the bed with a dishevelled appearance from just waking up. The other girls were also waking up as Emilia, Silvera, Ondine and Cantia slowly woke up. They attempted to speak, but no sound came out of their mouths due to him using Silencer in the entire room.
Venezuela looked around the room and telepathically asked, “Why is Silencer active in the room?”
Lakshman quickly deactivated the spell and said, “You were sleeping and I didn’t want to disturb your sleep with my talk, so I activated the spell to let us talk using the Telepathy technique.”
“Oh…” said Venezuela shortly before wiping her eyes blearily. “What were you talking about?”
Lakshman smiled slightly before turning to face Erza and Tetra, who were grinning broadly.
“Actually, we were…” began Erza and she informed the girls about everything that had happened while they were asleep.
***
A while later, Amaranda woke up and she appeared to be very surprised to find herself in bed. Lakshman visited her just in time to see her knocking on Temidan, her Sacred Spirit staff, hard on his head.
“Why are you hitting him?” he asked curiously.
Amaranda turned to look at him with her eyes closed and telepathically said, “This idiot tried to hug me, his master! So, I’m dealing him some punishment!”
“D-Don’t say that, mistress! I was very worried about you!” Temidan said before receiving another hard knock on his head from her hand.
“Always being so stupidly…!” she said telepathically in an irritated voice. She turned to Lakshman and said, “Please, ignore what he said, Phoenix Titan.”
Lakshman chuckled and said, “That’s fine. More importantly, how are you? You’ve been sleeping for almost two days straight, so we were getting worried.”
“You weren’t as worried as me!” Temidan said and was knocked hard on the head once again.
“I’m sorry I troubled you by being unconscious these last two days. How shameful of me to be rescued by a fellow member of the Nine Pillars of Power?” Amaranda said in an apologetic voice. “So, can you bring me up to speed on what has happened in my absence?”
“Sure thing,” said Lakshman and he told her everything that had happened while she had been asleep.
She listened to his explanation quietly and once he was done, she nodded in understanding.
“I am glad to hear your success in conquering yourself to realise the right choices that you must make. Often, people struggle really hard to find themselves of their weaknesses due to how forgone they are. However, you managed to pull through it by realising the obvious and not worrying about anything else. Excellent!”
“No. It was thanks to you pushing me and stating clearly about how flawed my previous ways were that I came to realise my own weakness. I still view killing as something evil, but when I’m left with no choice and when my enemies don’t take my warning words seriously, then I have no choice. Bringing the hammer of justice down on them is a must because of my duty and the responsibility I shoulder.”
She watched him speak seriously and listened intently to his words. His word sand his expression made her feel great admiration for him. Records of the past have been left in the care of the Eternal Turtle and she went through them to learn a great deal about the other Nine Pillars of Power from the past. The one thing that alarmed her the most was how dangerously reckless and foolish the past Phoenix Titans were.
“In the past, they were all beings who committed great crimes the world never knew about, but the Magic Titans were far too weak to bring them to light. As such, I feared the current Phoenix Titan might be just like his past lives, but I felt this strange difference in him. He was a positive, caring and a respectable person with a rather unsettling belief. Who would’ve thought such a man would change this much after enduring the training I put him through?”
She smiled at him once he finished speaking and then telepathically spoke to him.
“I am really glad to hear your renewed firm belief. It is the right thing to do because of who you are and in addition to that, you have a great amount of power to back you up. As for me, despite possessing great knowledge and such, I am still nowhere strong enough to call myself powerful.”
“Powerful? I think you’re powerful as you are right now,” he said with a smile on his face, but she shook her head.
“I possess the knowledge and such that makes my mind powerful. However, I’m not powerful enough to use really strong magic spells like the previous Magic Titans,” said Amaranda telepathically while looking gloomy.
Temidan became overly shocked by the gloomy expression on her face and he immediately said, “Please, do not worry, mistress. You are simply 130 years old and have much more time before you can truly become strong! So, please don’t put yourself down like that!”
She waved his support aside and telepathically said, “My age is one thing, but at situations like the time where I am unable to fully rely on elemental energy, I am in trouble. So, I must find a solution to this slightly issue, but I’m not certain where to start…”
Lakshman remained silently and listened to her troubled words with a thoughtful expression on his face. Then, when an idea came to him, he smiled and said it out loud for her and her Sacred Spirit to hear.
“How about you do some physical exercise for a change?”
Amaranda appeared to be surprised by his suggestion and Temidan exclaimed, “Huh?!”
“Well… The strength of one is mostly dependent on how strong their body is. While I was thirteen years of age, I was put through intense rigorous training by the Phoenix Emperor, Felix Phoron and the Death Titan, Sevedant.”
“What?!” Temidan exclaimed with wide eyes.
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“You were trained by such powerful men?” she asked him with a surprised expression on her face.
Lakshman nodded at them and said, “That’s right. This was to prepare me for the Battle of Prematria to reacquire the Legendary Sword of Justice. I got extremely strong for my age because I had trained by doing intense meditation, reading and learning great techniques with the help of Decisive Player and finally, training at 1000 times gravity. Of course, now I am capable of training at over 1500 times gravity.”
Temidan’s jaw dropped in utter shock while Amaranda was startled by what she just heard.
“You trained under 1000 times gravity? That’s impossible! No human is capable of training any more than ten times gravity and even if they did, 100 is the maximum. There is absolutely no way a human, such as you, would be capable of training in such intense gravity!”
Lakshman chuckled and said, “Actually, I am human, but I possess phoenix blood in me.”
“Oh… That explains it then,” said Amaranda telepathically and she nodded in understanding. “If you have the magical properties of the phoenix blood in you, you can train at such intensity with minimal difficulty.” Then, a sudden thought came to her and she immediately asked him, “Wait! Are you suggesting that I train like a madman like you?”
He blinked in surprise and asked, “Madman?” He laughed heartily before saying, “No, no! Not at all! I’m not suggesting it or anything. It was just an example to give you an idea of how strong I became, despite having fifty percent of my full power sealed away.”
“Oh. I see,” said Amaranda shortly while looking unconvinced.
He smiled at her before saying, “I mean, take for instance my wife, Ondine. She’s super strong and no average person, below the rank of King, can take her on and hope to win against her. On the other hand, she totally sucks at using magic and lacks the basic understanding on how the water element works.
However, she totally makes up for this drawback by learning amazing skills and training hard to make her body strong. If my wives were to verse each other, then without a doubt, she will put up excellent challenge due to how strong she is with the sword.”
“Yes. I have seen her amazing skills first hand,” said Amaranda in an understanding voice as she remembered back to the time when the demon warriors attacked them. “She showed remarkable sword skills and showed great strength with her body. However, I feel she is very reckless with her direct confrontational style of battling.”
Lakshman chuckled and scratched the back of his head in embracement before saying, “Unlike the rest of us, she prefers to settle arguments with her fists. Other than that, she’s a very nice person to talk to that I am happy to have as my wife.”
“Good for you,” said Amaranda with a pleasant smile on her face.
“Thank you,” said Lakshman brightly. “Actually, I’m thinking of training my wives soon to make them get stronger. I know they graduated with excellent results from Astral Academy at Floria Kingdom, but what they are taught in class and what is taught by life are totally different. That’s why, I want them to become strong and adapt to any situation that present themselves, like the time we were attacked by the demon warriors. While I’m at it, I also thought I should train the Manjuvad Demon Clan warriors to become strong to defend for themselves since they’ve shown great aptitude for magic.”
“Ah. That’s so nice of you to take your time to help them become stronger,” said the Magic Titan telepathically in an impressed voice. She then appeared hesitate for a moment before telepathically asking, “May I also participate in one of your training exercises with them, so that I may acquire some tips on improving myself?”
Lakshman blinked at her in surprise and Temidan appeared to be shocked by her words.
“Mistress! You’re going to lower yourself to this guy? You’re the eighth ranked member of the Nine Pillars of Power! You shouldn’t be doing this!” Temidan said immediately in an anxious voice.
This time, it was Lakshman’s turn to get annoyed at him and he turned to glare at Temidan. Sensing this, Temidan slowly turned around and flinched when he saw that Lakshman had activated his Phoenix Eyes. He was a Sacred Spirit and due to being such, he could easily see the radiating anger that was surrounding Lakshman.
“If there is one thing I hate the most, above the fact of takes lives, is the ranking system itself! We are Nine Pillars of Power and we were given that name by the great Emperor of the World, Zekadraite Askajengret. He was the most powerful being in the world that quickly brought an end to the Warring Era and started the Iron Era. Such a man went and created the Nine Pillars of Power by adding nine of the strongest warriors in the world.
So, why did such a person create such a group? Is it to show that we are the strongest warriors around the world? Is it to create a ranking system within the group that makes one feel superior to each other? No! None of it! He created the Nine Pillars of Power and assigned us the roles of guardians of the world! We are the strongest in the world and as such, we must use our powers responsibility for the benefit of the world, stoping evil from happening and keeping peace all around.
Only recently that people everywhere began questioning the powers of the Nine Pillars of Power and created the stupid ranking system. It created a misconception that we members of the Nine Pillars of Power feel inferior or superior to each other, which is totally wrong! We are the nine strongest warriors with only one goal; to protect the peace of the world as its guardians!”
Lakshman glared at Temidan fiercely and said, “Don’t you ever dare try to make one of our members weaker than us! Got it?”
Temidan slowly nodded his head with a shame faced expression on his face before bowing. Amaranda felt her respect rise greatly for Lakshman by his words.
“Please, ignore what my Sacred Spirit had said to you just now. The previous Magic Titans always got carried away by their feelings of superiority by being part of the Nine Pillars of Power and felt great jealousy towards its other members. This caused them to always look down on the Sword Titan as the weakest member to be part of such a powerful group.
I greatly disliked such arrogance, so it makes me feel proud of my knowledge of the old by knowing that you also thinking the same. I truly believe we Nine Pillars of Power are meant to be this world’s guardians and nothing more. I also believe the World Guardians should only be summoned when the world is in great peril and not like how the previous Phoenix Titan summoned them over 8000 years ago by sacrificing his life.”
Lakshman chuckled and said, “I believe the same. So, without any ill intent, I’m offering you my assistance in training you to get stronger per your wishes. What will your decision be?”
Amaranda appeared to be surprised by his words, but she immediately smiled and telepathically said, “Of course. I will take you up on that offer.”
“Then, let’s shake hands and strengthen our friendship,” said Lakshman and she nodded in agreement.
The two of them held their right hands out and firmly shook hands. This was observed by the slightly bowing Temidan, Mother Nature and the slowly lumbering giant turtle. The Eternal Turtle let out a loud roar in consent at the two of them marking the beginning of their friendship by their handshake.
***
Lakshman was walking alone and climbed the stairs leading to the top of the Eternal Turtle’s back. After reaching the top, he turned around and looked down at the bottom surface of the Eternal Turtle. Ondine and Cantia were walking around while instructing the men in swinging their swords while Venezuela and Erza focused on training the women to use magic.
Then, they were called to a halt by Emilia and Sumara, who came out carrying a great load of food in what appeared to be a large bucket hovering off the ground. The Manjuvad Demon Clan people sat down on the ground and took plates being handed to them before receiving the deliciously smelling food. After taking one bite of the food, they exclaimed how delicious the food was, which made Emilia and Sumara really happy.
Lakshman watched this scene as the breeze slowly ruffled his hair and felt cool to touch. He lifted his gaze to look at the sky, which was beautiful with only a few clouds to hide the cool blue sky. Even the rays of sunlight dropping down was very good. Standing there and looking out into the world gave him a beautiful scenery to look at and he thoroughly liked it very much.
“This is peaceful,” said Lakshman quietly and he sighed deeply before closing his eyes blissfully.
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Author's Note
End of "Arc 11: Disappearing"!
Hey everyone! It's me again and once again, the time has come for the end of another arc! It revealed a lot of things as well as set many other things into motion! We got to see Lakshman's Phoenix Titan: Final transformation and learn many more secrets hidden behind his powers and such!
So, I hope that everyone liked this arc very much like me and until next time when the rising continues, be safe and have fun! Also, if you have any questions that you want to address to me, feel free to go ahead and ask away. I will do my best to answer them free of spoilers!