Three days had passed since Leo’s first day at Cernery and his first time cultivating the soul. In that time, he had made no friends, only ended up killing vegetative spirits in the spirit realm, and had managed to break a toe, which sucked even if it had healed in only two days. In summary, it felt like his life was still miserable.

Leo sat cross-legged on his bed as he usually did before entering the spirit realm. This time, he wouldn’t consume the vegetative spirits. He wouldn’t. The ruthless absorption of their entire existence disgusted him, even if it didn’t disgust his soul.

With a heavy sigh, Leo dragged his mind into the spirit realm and took a few seconds to get used to it, very deliberately trying to ignore the vegetative spirits all around him.

Speaking of, Leo had gotten the answer to why his soul only moved when his mind was present in the spirit realm, and it was because it was hardly any better than a vegetative spirit in terms of consciousness. Even when his mind lost out and his soul took charge, it was still using his basic mental faculties in order to control itself.

His soul was enormous compared to before, and it was stronger; incomparably so. Leo had brought it into the physical realm a few times and had even managed to snap a bar of iron in half, despite that being a very inefficient way to use the soul. Somehow, though, it still didn’t seem to be enough to engage in creation.

There was a reason that Leo was attending the greatest awakened academy within the Ander Empire, though, and it was for exactly this purpose. Leo’s seemingly unsolvable problem was answered with ease by Professor Stein.

Leo‘s soul was terribly dense and powerful compared to before, but it was actually even more fragile than before. If Leo tried to engage in anything deeper than crushing, it would cause grievous- possibly even irreparable- damage to his soul, for it would be unable to endure its own power.

Basically, Leo was only capable of crushing things right now due to the fact that Leo couldn’t leverage very much of his soul to do it.

Thus, the solution was simple, and it didn’t involve absorbing vegetative spirits- in fact, absorbing vegetative spirits was negative to the process. Leo just needed to damage his own soul, let it heal, and then damage it again, just like one did to strengthen the muscles.

The process was going to be unpleasant, supposedly, but not overly so. Pain was something that souls could perceive, but not nearly as distinctly as the nervous system.

Leo didn’t allow himself to stall for long; if he took too long, it was likely that his soul would overpower his mind and begin engorging itself on the vegetative spirits.

According to Stein, the best way to do it as of now was the most crude; he simply had to injure himself. Leo steeled his will, determined to enact complete control over his soul, even if it was only briefly. The moment that he did, Leo attacked his own soul.

The power that the attack held was far greater than his soul’s durability, and cracks ran throughout its- no, his- existence. Leo tried to scream, but he had no vocal chords. The process was unbearable, even in the form of a soul.

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Leo hated how talented- and lucky- he was. His soul shouldn’t have grown so much more powerful in such a short amount of time, but a mixture of constant growth stemming from his young age and the constant consumption of vegetative spirits had completely ruined any sort of balance it should have had.

It was only the beginning, though. Leo thought the pain was unbearable, but it hurt so, so much more to try and hold it together. Leo hadn’t meant to use so much force on his own soul, but it was only barely intact.

‘Am I going to die?’ Leo wondered.

He struggled to keep the fragments of his soul in place, and to mend the tiny, fragile strands that just barely connected the many fragments together.

‘No,’ Leo recognized. ‘Not dying. Can heal.’

He was going to be okay. Leo ‘calmed down’, but in reality, he had never been very afraid; the emotions he usually felt were muted and distant in the spirit realm.

The profound power of his soul- again, relative to its durability and tenacity- allowed him to mend it rapidly. The strands that connected the many fragments grew in size and strength, and as Leo pressed the fragments together, they began to fuse again. In only what felt like an hour- Leo had gotten pretty good at telling the time in here-, his soul felt intact enough for him to release it.

Leo was glad to see that it didn’t fall apart even on its own, and also that a few seconds after he released his grasp on it, his soul took over for him on his own. With a relieved sigh, Leo pushed his mind through the core of his soul- the spirit realm’s equivalent to the soul sphere- and returned to his body.

Leo’s muscles all seized up at his return, and Leo held back a desire to hurl. It was only yesterday that he’d managed to return without throwing up, and it was even harder today than it had been last time.

The feeling of being unused to his own senses and body faded rapidly, though, and Leo finally recognized something.

‘Where the hell am I?’

Leo wasn’t in his room- instead; he was inside a largish cube-shaped room with pitch-black metal walls. Leo could feel the room rumbling beneath him, and could clearly hear the purr of an engine. The shock didn’t let him register what he was in even then, until the vehicle hit a bump and Leo was jolted upwards.

Pain flared in his wrists and ankles, and Leo suddenly noticed the chain-bound shackles that dug into his skin, as well as the dried blood around them and the dull, throbbing pain.

Leo strained his muscles in an attempt to break them, but he felt weaker than he ever had been before- weaker even than he had been a few weeks ago, before awakening.

For a split-second, Leo considered that it was because of the damage to his soul, but knew that that wasn’t it- he hadn’t felt this bad even after he had fought off Maxwell’s soul.

Speaking of his soul… Leo decided to bring it out even if it was damaged. Spurred on by his fear and pain, it exploded out of his soul sphere and into the physical realm- or, rather, it was meant to.

Instead, it exploded outwards for only a few yards before stopping, meaning that he couldn’t even bring the entirety of his soul out. His soul couldn’t move past the walls of the vehicle, and thus only made him aware of everything inside the ‘room’.

Of course, he wasn’t on a room- he was on a vehicle, after all-, but was rather in the trunk of what seemed to be a semi-truck, judging by the lots and lots of furniture around him. All of it was anchored down, luckily, or else Leo might have been crushed.

The most alarming discovery was the four awakened sitting in the darkness, the closest one only a foot or two away from him.

Leo’s soul coming out into the physical realm obviously didn’t go unnoticed.

“He’s finally out of the spirit realm,” The woman sitting nearby said into an earpiece, “Activate the soul suppressors.”

A second afterwards, Leo felt an overwhelming force descend onto his soul. It came from every direction, slowly and steadily pushing in on his soul. Inch by inch, his soul was forced through his soul sphere and back into the spirit realm. Within a minute, his entire soul was removed from the physical realm.

“Fuck,”

For the first time in his life, Leo cursed.