-Chapter Thirty-One-

Rage of the Spiritual Eye

Aelius gasped as he was returned to his mind, his hand shooting up to his chest as he inhaled frantically.

“Fucking hell!” he exclaimed, looking at the ground to see the wooden planks were there as they always had been, and he was still seated on the chair.

In front of him, Saki had just snapped her fingers and was dropping her hand again, giving him a beaming smile.

That just now was…

He reached up to rest his hand on his temple.

That was the content of my first life, but I could have sworn I remember seeing something just before that-

He flinched as pain stabbed him in the brain again.

“Welcome back!” Saki exclaimed, snapping his attention away clasping her hands together. The pain faded like it was never there and he quickly forgot what he was trying to recall.

Looking up at her in bewilderment, he quickly noticed the air vibrating with colours around him.

The countless rainbow rays came together like fabric sewing together a surface, gushing forward like the waves on a beach.

“W-what?” he looked around.

“What you’re seeing now are the threads that bind this reality together - they are the lines of the Abstract realm,” Saki explained.

“Wait, that’s it? You guys are done already?” Aelius heard Lia ask and looked over to her before blinking in surprise.

Her entire body was engulfed in a dark blue energy, like an overwhelming aura, he noticed.

It was incredible.

This must have been what Saki meant by Lia having ‘Heaven’s’ Blessing.

“What do you mean done already?” Aelius asked, looking around him strangely.

“All she did was snap her fingers. You’re already finished?” Lia asked in confusion.

“It was a lot longer for the both of us,” Saki smiled, putting a hand on Aelius’ knee. “I wouldn’t have guessed you had a past like that. Y-you’ve been through a lot,” she shyly told him, her face blushing.

“Did you… see everything?” he asked her hesitantly.

“Yes. Like I said, this Universe recognises you and I as one entity. If it pulled your consciousness into the Abstract Gate, of course a portion of myself followed as well. But don’t worry, your secret is safe with me,” she assured him and he sighed.

“Well, I’ll trust you. You’re not curious at all about what you saw?” he asked.

“No. When it comes to Awakening Arts, I’ve seen far crazier. Worlds are nothing more than constructs, similar to books. It is Awakening Arts that allows us to freely enter and leave them.”

Aelius bit his lip.

So Awakening Arts have something to do with time travel?

He recalled the Sword Saint’s words from his previous life, about the time discrepancy between the Spirit World and the Real Realm.

“Why were I shown those visions?” he asked Saki, still resting a hand on his head.

“That’s a difficult question to answer,” she responded with a short breath. “One sees what is most important to them when going through Liberation. The reason is because…” she put a finger to her lips, thinking in deep thought. “Liberation opens a pathway from your mind, to everything that is. Through that new opening, memories gush through. To say memories is not quite right though. Memories are like facts stored in your head, but Liberation is more like reliving your past. It is a re-experience rather than mere knowledge.”

Aelius nodded at her explanation.

“It certainly felt that way,” he chuckled.

Ah, how frustrating. I just know I had some sort of memory that keeps trying to come back, but something is completely stopping me from remembering. It seems I only have a few ways of getting the memories of my past life back. One is through the unintended side effect of the Inheritance Violet left me, Rekindling, and the other would appear to be undergoing more Awakenings? Is that even possible? Or perhaps, by expanding the power of my mind itself, I can recall more details?

“You okay?” a soft voice asked and he looked over to notice Asura floating over him.

A calm, smile of relief found its way onto his lips.

Yeah. I was just reminded of some things from a long, long time ago. I remembered the day I met the sword saint, he answered her and he saw her expression turn sour.

“What did you have to do with that womaniser?” she responded in disgust and Aelius had to suppress the urge to break out in laughter.

“Fufu,” Saki giggled opposite them, watching onward with affection. “Now, your abundant Spiritual energy can be used for something else other than pointless summoning rituals,” she said to Aelius elatedly, who was looking down at his hand with a frown.

“I still don’t know how to Realise though, as you call it. What was it? Manifestation and Authority?” he recalled.

“Correct. Which would you like to learn first?” Saki asked.

“Well, I feel like Authority might have more practical uses for combat, for now. Let’s learn that first,” Aelius chose with a nod.

“Yes, good choice,” Saki nodded before frowning, falling silent.

Aelius frowned back at her, noticing she was tilting her head to look to Aria.

“Something wrong?” he asked with a raised brow and Saki’s eyes darted back to Aelius.

“Oh, well…” she looked between him and Aria. “She hitched a ride off us.”

“Huh?” Aelius frowned and looked over to see a tsunami of golden aura erupting out of Aria’s body. “What the hell?”

“Aria took the chance to awaken her Mind’s Eye just now. Using the bond between you two, she syphoned a portion of my Spiritual energy into her own mind to stimulate it,” Saki explained and Aelius noticed sweat dripping down Aria’s neck and back.

“Christ, was the weapon not good enough for you? You just had to join what we were doing, didn’t you?”

Though his tone sounded like he was in annoyance, Aria could tell through her God-eyes it was more worry and concern than anger that was coming through.

“Didn’t I mention no distractions?” he asked, kneeling down beside her with a towel, gently dabbing at her eyes and cheeks before wiping down the front of her neck.

“I was curious,” she answered without opening her eyes, focusing on binding the weapon.

Reaching up, Aelius took a hand full of Aria’s hair and gently pulled it aside, revealing her bare but sweating neck from behind.

He quickly gave it a wipe down as well and then let her hair fall back into place before pulling away.

“Well, no more distractions now. You can learn the rest off Saki after you’re done with the new staff,” Aelius staunchly told her. “Oh, and don’t forget to give it a name. That’ll complete its formation process.”

“Mmhmm,” Aria hummed in response.

Aelius continued gazing at her for another moment before sighing and shaking his head and returning to Saki.

“Did she go through that exact process as well then, just now?” he asked and Saki nodded.

“Yes. Though I don’t know what she would have seen. But to the users of Awakening Arts like us, introspection is vital,” she explained with a gesture.

“Alright then. So, what’s next?”

“Next is your eye!”

“Look here,” Saki projected a mental point before Aelius. “Well done,” she told him as his eyes followed along.

“Now look here.”

The mental point, like the line off the end of a fishing rod, zipped around the room whilst glowing a myriad of colours. “You’ve already gotten the hang of it. The next is to focus your vision.”

Saki retrieved the mental projection and Aelius saw it retreat back into her fingertips.

“If you concentrate, you can focus your vision. Before you, there will be potentially hundreds of threads. Practice isolating one of them, one at a time.”

Like Saki described, around Aelius in the air, it was like he was staring at curtains before him, made of countless threads.

Each was a different colour, culminating into a myriad of rainbows and colours he had never seen before.

“Yes, just like that,” Saki gently urged him on as he zoomed in one of the threads, reached out and grabbed it.

A strange pulse went through his mind. He was unable to tell what he had latched onto.

“What the hell is this, exactly?” he asked.

“Hmm… that appears to be the pork buns being sold from the stall outside,” Saki answered, examining the thread. “Oily. Salt, years of refining the art of cooking it, familial heritage. A life of hardship. What else might we sense? Yes, the pure, child-like and innocent happiness of a child waiting at home for her father to bring back delicious buns. Poverty. Broken sandals and dirty cloth dresses.”

“Huh?” Aelius answered.

“Give it a smell.”

He whiffed it at her insistence, smelling the rich smell of meat and oil.

“Oh…” All at once, all the things Saki described flooded into his mind as he further focused on the thread.

Visions of tears and sweat, suffering and joy came through to him from his mind.

He let the thread go, bewildered by the emotions surging within him.

“It’s okay,” Saki soothingly comforted him. “It all fades away in a moment.”

Like she said, the empathetic emotions quickly died down and Aelius was back to normal now, breathing deeply as he calmed himself.

That was… a lot to handle at once.

“You’ll get used to it. Now, try another.”

Looking across to a different strand of light, Aelius hesitantly reached out and grabbed onto it.

“This is…” as he examined it, the image of a flowing stream entered his mind.

“It’s the small river that runs through the city centre,” Saki explained.

“Yeah…” Aelius answered in wonder, browsing each of the threads.

For some time, Saki enjoyed looking at the childlike curiosity she was seeing in his eyes, until Asura suddenly dropped down beside him and pointed to one of the threads.

“Aelius. That one,” she urgently brought his attention to it, and as his eyes landed on it, his eyes began to widen, and then narrow in rage.

Grabbing onto it, the stench of rotting blood suddenly filled his nostrils, and he felt both rage and excitement well up within him.

“Aelius?” Saki asked when he sprung to his feet.

“Stay here and protect each other,” he said in a low tone.

Saki watched as he turned and approached the door, an overwhelming amount of bloodthirst firing out of his entire being.

“W-what is it?” she asked, looking to the thread he had locked onto and inspecting it. “What is this!?” She exclaimed.

—-----------------------

As soon as Aelius smelt that stench, his vision turned blood red.

Asura’s glare had also narrowed, as Aelius sprinted out the inn and chased down the thread to its source.

“Are you confident you can take it on?” she asked.

“Yes. I have revolvers. And I have you.” he answered, rounding corners at frightening speeds.

With Mana-enhanced movement, he shot through the city, his breathing rigid but calm.

As he drew closer he felt restlessness grasp him, until he came down one final stretch and saw it.

It was a busy market street with dozens of stalls, stores and browsers.

He immediately locked onto a flower stall with a young woman exchanging flowers with a man in armour.

She had an impeccable smile, but that was what was so eerie about it.

“That’s it,” Asura pointed out the woman.

Before it could sense him, Aelius disappeared down a nearby alleyway, breathing harshly now.

“It’s a higher ranking one, since it’s able to don human form,” she added.

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll end it just the same,” he answered curtly as he reached into his dimensional storage portal and retrieved a 0.50 calibre bolt-action sniper rifle into his grasp, and then jumped up to the rooftop of the building.

“Whew…” he exhaled deeply as he dropped to a prone on the edge of the roof, scoping in on the flower stall.

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“One shot isn’t going to do it,” Asura warned him.

“That’s alright. This is just the start. I’m ready for anything it tries,” Aelius answered, making sure he had his revolvers strapped to his waist.

Before him, he watched as the woman behind the flower stall bowed to her customer as she handed the flowers over.

Through his scope, he saw her open her eyes slightly, revealing a deathly red glow emanating from behind her eyelids.

“Bastard,” Aelius muttered and pulled the trigger, zero hesitation behind his shot.

—-----------------------

Leina was, in many ways, the lifeline of Farrien.

If people wanted to reach the Royal Capital, the South, the West or the East, they had to go through Leina.

And due to it being a trading city, it was occupied by countless, heinous crime organisations, had countless conflicts and disputes taking place each day, and almost anything anyone could imagine.

As a result, Leina had developed a Guard Order on par with the Royal Knights of the Capital, save for the Holy Knights.

Thus enters one Hamish Allonsy, a proud, freckle-faced ginger-head in his late thirties now.

His prowess as a warrior was impressive, being at the Sixth Ring, and his dedication to his position as the leader of the Leina Guard Order has occupied the majority of his time.

Having grown old, he was finding himself wishing for a family, but could not ever find someone suitable.

There was, however, someone who always took his eyes.

He first met her a few years ago, but by now, he was a regular.

Someone of his underlings called him eccentric, but love is love.

On one of the busy market streets, there was a fair-skinned and pretty woman selling flowers.

She was a mute so no one could ever know what was going through her head, unless a grand-mage could come and cast telepathy magic on her, and that was never going to happen.

However, whenever he bought flowers from her, she would always give him a heart-melting smile and a polite bow.

Maybe someday, he’ll gather the courage to confess his accumulating feelings for her.

Today was just another day that he decided to visit her and support her business, as well as patrol around the area to make sure there was no danger to the stall-holders.

Lovingly, as he received his flowers from her, he gazed at her in a love-daze.

But it was in that moment a thunderous bang erupted from down the street, causing him to flinch.

Not a fraction of a second passed - he didn’t even have time to blink when her head exploded into a bloody mess before his very eyes and Hamish heard himself screaming as her body flopped over.

“Ahhhhh-!” he cried out, lunging forward as her limp corpse hit the ground, leaving him standing over her, trembling violently. “W-what just happened?” His shaking voice broke.

“Get out the way,” a young voice said from behind him and he turned around, seeing a teenage boy approaching them.

“W-who?- No! Stay back,” Hamish reached to put his hand on the hilt of his sword. “I order you - stand back!” He was shaking, but he found himself freezing at the cold, apathetic, disinterested and callous red-eyed glare from the boy before him.

“Hah,” the boy scoffed, stepping past Hamish, who was completely unable to move.

I was… completely ignored? Hamish shakily thought in shock. Who is this child?

—-----------------------

A thunderous bang erupted from the rooftop and Aelius watched with exhilaration as the woman’s head exploded and her body flopped over onto the ground.

The crowd around her immediately broke out into hysteria as Aelius cocked the rifle again and scoped back in.

Before him, he watched as the woman’s figure remained completely unmoving with the same armoured man standing over her.

“She’s playing dead, and he’s getting in the way,” Aelius clicked his tongue. “Should I just shoot through him?” he wondered.

“We can go in close-range. I’m confident I can destroy it, with that much blood in the vicinity,” Asura said as she pointed to the pool around its fallen body.

“We should seize it before it all dries up.”

“…Alright. Let’s do that.”

It didn’t take long for Aelius to reach the spot.

Not much to his surprise, the armoured man was hostile towards him, but it was only because he was unaware of what monster was lying on the ground behind him.

“Humanoid Devils are far more troublesome to deal with, tsk,” Aelius scowled after paralysing the man and stepping past him.

Even as he was three steps away, the Devil didn’t flinch.

“Hey, come on. What do you want me to do? Poke you with a fucking stick?” Aelius’ tone was arrogant and unattached at first, but suddenly, he glared down at the monster with anger. “Get. The Fuck. Up, you man-eating piece of shit. Before I kill you just like this!” he snapped and the corpse shuffled for a moment.

From the ground where it laid, he heard an eerie laughter begin to echo out.

Before him, the flesh morphed and moulded, regenerating on its own until the Devil was standing up right before him, looking down at him with a mocking smile.

For a moment, the two exchanged gazes - Aelius glared at it while it looked mockingly back at him, both in complete silence.

The wind blowing by was all that could be heard, but as soon as the breeze faded seconds later, the Devil flashed forward with lightning speed.

Aelius pulled back instantly but his body could not keep up and pain ran up his arm.

“Hah!” he laughed at what would have been agony to anyone else, but was nothing to him. “As expected, you’re a big fish,” he remarked, jumping back and clutching his injured arm.

“Aelius! What the hell are you doing!? Hurry up and use me!” Asura ushered as the Devil came back in for a second round.

“Come on, let me shake off the rust a little.”

Aelius cracked his neck, loosening up as the Devil got within three steps of him.

Using Sixth Tier magic, he summoned an Arcane barrier in the air before him but the Devil ran head first into it, shattering the barrier like paper-thin glass.

It swiped down again and Aelius met it with his blood blade, but as soon as its claws hit his sword, its brute strength at the Twentieth Ring was enough to snap his arm on the spot.

In the opening, with his other arm, he stuck his revolver into the gut of the creature and pulled the trigger.

The force from the Devil’s blow sent him sprawling across the ground in the dirt, and he propped himself up again, spitting out blood.

“Of course, a confrontation of raw strength doesn’t work.”

Even though his actions might have appeared foolish, it was actually all intentional.

He sacrificed one arm to exchange a blow with the Devil. It only further confirmed his expectations.

That as he was, it was difficult to confront a Devil head on without Asura.

Looking up, he saw the Devil had lost a slight bit of blood, looking at the wound in confusion.

The wound was not nearly enough to hinder its regenerative abilities.

If I wanna kill this thing with my own two hands, it looks like I can only shoot it to death with my guns. But in order to last that long, it looks like I’m going to need at least an Eighth Tier moving technique.

Sighing, he pushed himself to his feet again.

“Stop being stubborn and just use me!” Asura shouted in his ear, looking at his shed blood with eyes tearing up.

“Nah, I’ve got one more thing to try out,” Aelius answered with a smug half-smile.

User has activated the skill Path.

-Path-

???

???

At his will, a dark energy emerged from Aelius’ skin.

“Try on my Divine power for size.”

The wave-like energy shot forward and tackled the Devil down, but to Aelius’ suspicion, it did not have the same melting, purification effect on the Devil as before it became corrupted by the Path skill.

“Damn. Well,” Aelius could feel his breathing getting heavier from his twisted arm and excessive use of skills.

The Devil recovered quickly, shooting forward with insane speed that Aelius could barely react to.

“Use me and manifest me!!!” Asura shouted in his ear again and he raised his hand to the pool of blood behind the Devil.

“Asura!” he summoned her presence with her holy name.

The blood immediately heeded to Aelius’ control and just as the Devil was about to reach him, a red bolt of lightning struck the Devil from the sky overhead.

What was a clear day with broad daylight, instantly turned to dark skies with black clouds pounding rain upon them.

The Devil was repelled for but a moment, but by the time it sprung back to its feet again, its blood puddle had taken life.

Morphing on its own, the Devil watched in apprehension, turning around over its shoulder to see its own lifeforce get hijacked and transform into the glowing silhouette of a lustrous woman.

Glowing bright red, Asura summoned a blade the size of an entire inn and swung it.

Aelius watched on in silence as she split the ground, and the disguised reptile along with it, and its halved body fell into the endless darkness beneath their feet.

“Ah…” the blood dispersed, leaving Asura floating in the air, panting harshly.

“You did great as always,” Aelius remarked, stumbling forward and looking up at her.

She turned around, dark circles under her eyes and returned to him a small smile.

“Of course, honey. Now, I’m going back to the Spirit World for a bit. Don’t get into trouble without me,” she said through her harsh panting and her energy quickly began to fade.

Against her will, her eyes fell shut and she reverted into a foetal position.

“Yeah, rest up,” he simply told her as her body faded into red particles. In a few seconds, she was completely gone. “I’ll get you some blood again soon, princess.”

—-----------------------

Saki perked up as Aelius came back in through the door.

She immediately noticed Asura was missing, standing up with worry.

Lia was kneeling next to Aria, the two were whispering about something together when Aelius returned, a sour look on his face.

“You’re injured!” Saki exclaimed, rushing to her feet and lending him her support, putting a worried touch on his arm.

“Was that a… kyuketsuki?” she asked as she escorted him to the bed.

“Huh? Kyuketsuki?” Aelius asked through a cough.

“They steal the blood off humans and use it to grow their own power. They’re a notorious, parasitic race that becomes incredibly hard to handle if they multiply,” Saki answered him.

“They existed in your realm too?” he asked in surprise. Though the name was different, what she described matched a Devil perfectly.

It’s good I didn’t leave any traces of its body. If the Devils were to be discovered too early, who knows what changes that might do to the timeline.

Knowledge of the future is like a double-edged sword.

On one hand, I want to change things. But on the other, the more I change things, the more unpredictable the future becomes and less reliable my knowledge becomes.

At least, until I save Alea from her original death and help her awaken as the Saintess, I can’t significantly change things.

Aside from a few eye-witnesses today, this news is unlikely to make it very far.

All it would have looked like is two mages fighting.

The identity of the Devils is not necessarily exposed. And I don’t have to worry about its fellow species coming to investigate, because this one was a sleeper agent with no contact with the rest of its species.

In my last life, I stumbled on many Devils out in hiding, waiting for the day their announcement to move gets made. Thanks to that though, I can shave them off one-by-one without them ever knowing.

“More importantly, your wounds!” Saki telekinetically pulled the draw open from across the room and pulled a set of bandages to her grasp.

“Aelius?” Aria looked over in worry, seeing Lia and Saki hovering around him. “How did you get so injured?” she asked with concern, about to put down her staff.

“Well, y’know. Fighting,” he chuckled. “Don’t worry about me and focus on your binding. And Saki, you don’t need to treat me. I have my ways.”

“You can?” Saki asked.

“Here,” Lia readied the bed quickly, having already seen him self-heal once before.

“Thanks,” he gave her a small smile as he laid back, feeling his mind fading.

The prerequisites for the innate talent Phoenix’s Love has been satisfied.

Phoenix’s Love is now taking effect.

「Phoenix’s Love」

Wounds that greatly impair or have the chance to cause permanent damage to the individual will trigger this skill and heal over a good nine-hour sleep.

The power to heal over sleep is only possessed by the Phoenix. For a human to come to possess this power, they must be the one the Phoenix blessed, at the cost of their own life. Imbued with power from the one who adored you, may you wake up from the long dream anew.

Side effect: Rekindling!

This skill heals by administering an effect similar to rewinding time. This effect however, if triggered, will affect parts of the User’s mind.

Caution is recommended!

The worse the wounds, the higher chance of triggering or increasing the intensity of the side effect Rekindling.

Alert!

Rekindling has been triggered.

Repeat, Rekindling has been triggered.

The system urges the user to protect their psyche so it may remain intact and… sleep well…

…

…

—-----------------------

Hamish collapsed onto his knees before the split earth, unsure of what just took place. Not even her body remained; the flower girl was truly dead.

Killed by a random teenager using some strange abilities he had never seen before, Hamish was powerless to step in at all.

What was worse, instead of simply dying, she fought back.

What exactly was the identity of the girl he had fallen in love with for so long?

“Captain!” he heard from over his shoulder and glanced behind him to see one of his squads rushing up to him.

“What happened here, captain!?” the squad leader asked in bewilderment, gazing at the large slash in the ground.

“I-I…” Behind the squad leader, the other guards quickly parted ways, revealing a young, slender figure approach.

The young woman wore all white with a rose to it, radiating energy beyond even Hamish himself.

“M-miss Holy Knight,” Hamish gasped as the blue-eyed, silver-haired elf looked down into the earth.

“What happened here?” she asked with a narrowed gaze.

—-----------------------

Saki watched with fascination as Aelius’ consciousness faded away and an orange energy, akin to blazing fire, began to well up from within him.

“Is this… the lifeforce of the Phoenix clan?” Saki wondered, inspecting him.

Beside her, Lia shrugged her shoulders, turning her attention back to Aelius’ sweating face.

With a sigh, she rested her cold hand on his forehead.

“Did you see what he was doing out there?” Lia asked softly, gazing at him.

“He was fighting a monster in the middle of the town. One that disguises itself as a human.”

At Saki’s answer, Lia pursed her lips.

“I see-”

Before they could speak any further, they were interrupted by knocking at the door.

Lia’s breath caught in her throat.

Having been on the run from the Forbidden Order her entire life, she had encountered many times where her identity was compromised while hiding at an inn.

This moment felt no different to then.

Saki was about to stand up when Lia put her hand up and stopped her.

She silently gestured to Saki to get ready when more knocks rang out, harsher this time.

“Who is it?” Lia called as she approached the door.

“Open the door, or we’ll break it down,” a man’s voice came in from the other side.

Lia looked doubtfully to Aria, who was preoccupied with her staff, and Saki who was glaring at the door.

“Okay, okay,” Lia took a deep breath in preparation, opening the door to see a group of knights dressed in white gathered at the doorway.

“We have some questions for you,” the knight asked, stepping aside to make way for a young woman wearing a uniform with the sigil of a white rose on it.

“Oh… okay…” Lia gave a small, nervous smile, trying to appear unfazed.