Golden Array Snakes, 5th Stage

Heian Ciemnosc's Master's abode, midnight.

Heian Ciemnosc walked into the empty black space. His Master was already waiting for him at a specific zone. When he arrived, his Master simply gestured with her hands towards somewhere after nodding at him. Heian Ciemnosc walked to where she gestured with a tilted head. But before he turned around, he saw his Master start taking several tools and devices that she only spoke about to him.

The place his Master had prepared for him wasn’t a cultivation room but a meditating room that seemed made just for him. It was dark, of course it was, and was spacious, but it didn’t seem to matter as it was like the room was diminutive from how dark it was. Unlike Teacher Puru’s meditation room, this one didn’t have a ‘freshener’ to draw pure energy in. But it was alright since Heian Ciemnosc was allowed to use such things solely when breaking through realms.

When Heian Ciemnosc entered the room, he felt disconnected from the world. But instead of feeling imprisoned, Heian Ciemnosc felt a calm that could have never been reached without rhyme or reason. Thinking about making this meditation room his by asking his teacher after coming out of cultivating, Heian Ciemnosc sat down and started piling up corpses from his Covert Space bags onto the empty, black floor… Unbeknownst to him, this meditation room wasn’t only good and made for him, it was his all along…

Sitting on his bum, he bit the arm of a Retired Ancestor, starting cultivation, his All-Devouring Force Chronicles thundering in whispers as he did. His dark Power Energy commenced roaring inside his body, and Heian Ciemnosc felt he could go farther than 1 stage this time…

With his bum against the floor, pure energy and Power Energy became his dark Power Energy. His injuries from before, already closed but still hard at work to heal, fastened the process. His storage was similarly restoring faster, even as it is consistently restoring thanks to his All-Devouring Force Chronicles. The self-storing of dark Power Energy was equally enhanced.

Heian Ciemnosc quickly reached the maximum of his 2nd stage cultivation base, reaching the peak and already contending against the barrier to break into the 3rd stage!

. . .

Several days later, in the same empty black space, 4th day of the following week.

Thu- blasshhhh~~~.

Heian Ciemnosc stepped out of his meditation room with his bare torso, sweating and relaxingly letting breaths out of his puckered-out lips. Smoke followed his back as he came out. It was all caused by yet another breakthrough within just a week. He had become so focused that he went all out and almost made his meditation room into a tornado, tearing his shirt apart and startling him. He didn’t know he could accidentally create such disasters! He would have to restrain himself when cultivating outside the Academy’s territory.

Because even cities in the Academy’s territory were well taken care of. Even Gustav or Count City might not be as safe as a city within the Academy. That was something Heian Ciemnosc learned last week…

“Hurry, I’ll supervise. Wear something before my daughter sees,” Heian Ciemnosc’s Master pressured Heian Ciemnosc and reprimanded his reckless, roguish acts with a tone only an adorable and angry granny can do. Heian Ciemnosc grinned slightly and took a mini-shirt the size of his pinky before slapping it against his solar plexus. He then said with a pair of excited eyes, “Master, I will proceed now. Thank you for arranging them for me.”

Though Heian Ciemnosc used 200 merit points to get his ingredients in order to craft his first Artifact - create - not repair, polish, clean up, or help his Master create. It was his Master who ensured those ingredients would arrive fast and swift, even more than it already is, which was a big deal, especially with the incoming mission. Without her, these ingredients would have arrived a day or two later, Heian Ciemnosc might not have sufficient time.

“You’ve cultivated well, and your foundation has always been the most solid I’ve ever seen, my disciple. I can swear without guilt that you might be the only one with such a foundation, but that is not all it takes to walk on the cultivation path. Quel your mind and prepare to create your first Artifact. I will not watch as my one and only disciple forgets his place, and I will watch as you trek on it as I have taught you.”

Lady Calisneia wore a casual expression but spewed words that directly tranquilized and apprehended Heian Ciemnosc. His eyes looked at his Master, determined and slightly shining. She nodded at him, and he nodded back, took a tool that was the combination of several ‘tube-like’ thingies and placed his dark primary tools all around himself. Heian Ciemnosc’s Master had already disappeared from his sight, but he could still feel her watching him in the dark behind him.

Heian Ciemnosc’s dark workbench was slammed as he threw his Steel Array Snakes onto it, almost broken and tattered by the passage of time. Heian Ciemnosc gave it a good look and rubbed one of its tubes lightly before taking a step forward, communicating with it directly after a long time.

Plop, plop, thud, plop, thud tak.

The ingredients he bought with 200 merit points were picked all around with his dark Power Energy. He was already infusing the technique to spiritualize them with his Spirit Sense according to his Master’s terms and teachings. Heian Ciemnosc closed his eyes and placed the ingredients on top of the workbench, his arms crossed and focused on his task that he didn’t notice a pair of two-colored eyes looking from afar behind his Master’s back.

After they were placed on top of the workbench, Heian Ciemnosc walked forth, still not separating his dark Power Energy from the ingredients with the Steel Array Snakes at the center and edge of the table. He held this tool that had been with him for the longest in his path of cultivation and spoke to it inside his mind.

‘You are also one of the last vestiges of the Sinvonnia Kingdom. For that, you cannot feel anything else than pride and be honored.’

Heian Ciemnosc let it fall on the workbench again and took out a pair of Inscription Pens. Each was as long as his wrist, with a fatter lower body and a much thinner upper body. The lower body was 5 cm thick, while the upper half was only 1.5 cm. It had a main, dark, deep blue color and platinum here and there. It was clearly tuned up. It had the Wrath Nihilit Acdemy’s emblem and Heian Ciemnosc’s Spirit Sense mark as his signature.

He began inscribing an array formation below, with the regular pentagram’s shape but with several circles around the center and a special one before the center. The array formation was a luscious, cyan color, but it made the empty black around shine with a golden luster. When it was finished, Heian Ciemnosc dropped his legs and crossed them in the process at the center. With a light tug of his hands facing the ceiling, his Steel Array Snakes floated towards him along with every other ingredient.

The Steel Array Snakes were placed at the specially prepared spot before the center where he sat. The ingredients were placed in the rest of the circles, some mixing with others that did not go well together and some even alone. Seemingly continuing from his previous thought, Heian Ciemnosc spoke in his mind. ‘But I also am creating you now. You’re no longer just from the Sinvonnia Kingdom. You are my, Heian Ciemnosc, Artifact. First, and the reason why I’m learning how to create them before an Earth grade weapon or equipment.

‘You belong to me, your new creator, and you will feel honored because of that and live in joy by my side. So help me do as I bid, trap and snare my enemies, leave them helpless. It will be just like before, but instead of using another tool to kill them, it will be my own hands and prowess! You’ll grow up - a lot. And then, you’ll belong to the world.’

Heian Ciemnosc lightly touched and rubbed his Steel Array Snakes’ tubes a little bit more. He grinned, tilted his head to the right, looking genuinely affectionate, and sat cross-legged with his thumb, pinky, and ringer finger interlocked and his index and middle finger semi-intertwined.

“...” - “!...” Lady Calisneia’s eyes were mesmerized the moment Heian Ciemnosc let all his inhibitions out and focused on sending his dark Power Energy to the array formation on the floor, which began ascending up, halting right above the top of his head. But the markings were still inscribed on the floor. It was like a hologram coming to life, and 3D, only that it was Heian Ciemnosc and his array formation, one inside the other, and vice versa.

The array formation began to glow cyan brighter with every half an hour. The golden luster became ever more prominent and apparent. Heian Ciemnosc’s outlined figure disappeared by the time half a day went by. And since the moment he seriously began the starting refining process, those pair of colorful eyes never left his back. They were always so intense and trembling, shining as she understood everything was happening with her very eyes.

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… On the first day, Heian Ciemnosc spent most of the 24 hours refining all the ingredients into the array formation and forming a link between him, the effector, and the almost-broken Steel Array Snakes, the receptor. But together, they formed a beacon that was the light the ingredients merged into the array formation and in their physical form to manipulate and connect with them.

Lady Calisneia paced back and forth with her arms crossed. Even after witnessing hundreds of thousands of talented people or trying cultivators in their process of crafting their first Artifct or Earth grade weapon or equipment, she was this seriously anxious about her own disciple creating his own. She wasn’t afraid he would fail. He couldn’t since she was his Master, and he had an incredible talent with boundless potential even if she wasn’t.

Nor was she worried the Artifact would be less than ideal or imperfect. She knew her disciple knew what would be best for himself. She was also not concerned he would try something new. Being risky meant, very few times, gaining a significant victory or conceiving an unthinkable flawless result.

She simply wanted to see the moments in which her disciple found himself amidst the wonders of creation, his reaction, and his face as he became aware of all the things he could create and help improve by charging into the impossible.

… After the starting refining process, and for half of the second day, Heian Ciemnosc no longer sat and became part of the array formation to integrate those ingredients and his dark Power Energy into the Steel Array snakes. The tubes were now more than repaired, longer, and had a thinner volume. If they could already elongate themselves between 3 to 10 meters and were heavy to carry, now with their repaired bodies and a layer of crusty obscure silver, they weighed so much Heian Ciemnosc had to utilize 15,000 kg of bodily strength to lift them.

Instead, Heian Ciemnosc began ‘restarting’ the array formation by slowly thinning it out, shrinking it into the Steel Array Snakes. The array formation was slowly becoming part of the Steel Array Snakes, not simply an addition, as it merged and shared existence from now. But that wasn’t everything that was needed in order to accomplish an Artifact.

… On the third day. Heian Ciemnosc no longer used array formations or ingredients. However, with his Inscription Pens, he drew a mix of his dark Power Energy, Spirit Sense, and drawings of array formations. However, it wasn’t to form an array formation but simply to draw lines in the air, letting them float, with his Spirit Sense making them even thinner and slimmer.

Once that was done, they had the same cyan color. But this time, enveloped by darkish, translucent energy, Heian Ciemnosc grabbed them between his fingers, wielding them like claws amidst his knuckles. This was the last refining process. The hardest as well as the fastest of all others.

To complete an artifact, at least with his Master’s methods, techniques, and ideologies. Heian Ciemnosc had to ‘brandish’ those ‘extra limbs’ in order to shape and give the capability and potency the Artifact should have in his mind. It was a most tricky situation. Heian Ciemnosc would swing his arms and bend his elbows time and again. He would twist and force his wrists around while transmitting his dark Power Energy, Spirit Sense, and part of his blood essence into the extra limbs each time to perfectly ‘hit’ the Steel Array Snakes.

Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t fail and mistakingly sent the mix of all that into the air, disrupting the clean and enhanced space he created the first day and setting the ingredients within the Steel Array Snakes in total disarray. Creating something above what a Mortal grade can compare to wasn’t just about smelting things and placing the correct materials here and there with the help of an array formation or two.

The array formation Heian Ciemnosc inscribed at the beginning was called the Simplicity Fabrication. It used its creator as the effector, the materials or tool in question to be improved into an Artifact as the receptor, and the ingredients were used by both as a beacon to instill them into said tool or materials.

After the array formation was finished, it would purify the space, not from impurities per se, which did. But it was doing its work so the air surrounding the array formation, once shrunken and becoming part of the tool or semi-finished product, would be instilled with only the creator’s thoughts and will. If the Craftsperon in question wasn’t making the Artifact for themselves, they could simply tell the specifications to the Craftsperson or join in and build the Artifact in thought with the other person within the purified space. The person’s thoughts alone would be heard by the Artifact in the making, and it was also one of the most awe-inspiring truths of the cultivation world.

Heian Ciemnosc spent the rest of the second day and night and some of the third day’s first hours hitting the crusty Steel Array Snakes with a thick layer over its tubes. His dark blood essence, Power Energy, and Spirit Sense made a clear and crispy ‘ta-chang’ every time it was hit. And it was every time Heian Ciemnosc swung his extra limbs. It was usually necessary for only one of the extra limbs from the 4 in each hand to hit the tool or semi-finished product. But Heian Ciemnosc was hitting it with all 4 extra limbs!

This wouldn’t make an Artifact better than most. All an Artifact mattered was what its focused function was about. It couldn’t have many possible features like a Relic. But it was enough to become one of any organization’s most important weapons, defenses, and means of transport.

In Heian Ciemnosc’s case, he only wanted one thing… for none of his enemies to escape him! To catch them all in one go and never let them feel safe as soon as they were slightly close to wherever he was! An Artifact could also semi-fly in the air with its bonded cultivator’s connection. The latter’s Spirit Sense was the fuel and their energy, its prowess, efficiency… or both.

At last, when the third day’s 3 a.m. was nearly becoming a 4, Heian Ciemnosc let the final stroke of his extra limbs land on the thinner and already visible semi-Artifact appearance. Its inner body had become slimmer, and Heian Ciemnosc could feel it. But the crusty layers were impeding even Spirit Sense, let alone his sight. Even as he thinned out those layers to almost reveal its truthful body, it was still impossible to discern.

At last, when the last double-stroke with his hands’ extra limbs landed on the tubes, longer and different from before, a ‘ta-KA CHANG!’ sound thundered everywhere in the zone of the empty blackness Heian Ciemnosc had been sitting and standing on for a few days nonstop.

The Steel Array Snakes emitted a glow, forcing anyone to close their eyes… everyone except - not only its creator - but also its owner: Heian Ciemnosc. As it hovered in the air, raising a bit more and more before slowly coming back down, as if looking down at Heian Ciemnosc gently and through the eyes of a child, Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes consumed all of the breathtaking golden sheen his eyes should’ve reflected along his eyes’ trembling and affection.

. . .

A few days after the start of the Golden Array Snakes, on the 7th day of the week. Heian Ciemnosc was waiting at the entrance of the Saberbone Diabolical Club with Elena as they both waited for their team members.

Elena wore her Academy uniform with her jacket on her long-sleeved shirt. Meanwhile, Heian Ciemnosc wore the same, appearing like differently-looking twins or a couple with matching clothing styles and colors. Heian Ciemnosc stood with his back straight and arms crossed before Elena, sitting on the ground with her legs wide open and her forearms supported on her knees.

… step… step, step… step, step, step… From the distance, some footsteps could be heard by Elena’s ears. She immediately opened her eyes wide in surprise. Looking up at Heian Ciemnosc, her pouty lips praised him, “Woah, it’s true. How can you have such an immense Spirit Sense so early on? I will have to take my baths in Master’s mansion if I don’t want a peeper to visually rape me.”

“Huh? Your clothes are enough to block my sight. Why would you run away so far? Give me a chance. Besides, it is correlating to my manliness size. Wanna see?” Heian Ciemnosc asked her, casually turning his hand to the right and facing Elena, whose mouth widened to a goose’s egg size. She then shook her head as the tigress she is rose to her feet and showed her eerie, spotless white and cute tee- fangs at Heian Ciemnosc, her prey!

“Who wants to see that?! Besides, Arla told me everything about it, hmph.” Elena crossed her arms before her manly chest, closing her eyes delicately, arrogance written all over her ferocious countenance that was definitely not rarely cute. Heian Ciemnosc was taken aback. Why were women in the world this traitorous? He banged one, and she started bragging about him like it was nothing? Dafack?!

“Oh? Everything?” Heian Ciemnosc asked, mimicking her arms crossed before her and leaning slightly down as he was still growing and not just taller, the motherfucker. Elena’s neck blushed from the lower left side, but she remembered she was a cultivator and hid it from him. Not knowing he smelled her skin blush before it even showed. “Of course! I know everything about you- ah- err… it.”

“Oh, yeah? Even its veins and how far it explores?” Heian Ciemnosc pressed on, his nose on the left side of her head and its tip grazing against her blonde hair. She immediately shook her head, scrunched up her pale nose, and looked slightly up at him with her front layer of hair cutely appearing dumb. Her brown eyes defiantly looked up at this miserable, unbearable villain who dared to breakthrough into the 5th stage of the Spirit Birth realm when she barely managed to start cultivating through the 10th stage of the Ashes Soul realm after solidifying it.

She even solidified her cultivation more than ever before since knowing Heian Ciemnosc. How could she not feel disastrous that this terrible monster was beating her?! He was already more powerful than her! He could grab her and force her to practice sex without her consent! Ugh!

“Yes! Every single fucking vein! The one closer to the base, those that appear like mini-penises that cause her to sob in delight, and the one surrounding your entire sha-!!”

“Team leader! Is everything okay? Why is fellow Saberbone Heian Ciemnosc making you fight? Do you need our help?! We’ll protect you ‘till the end!!!” From afar, Elena’s words were interrupted as she sobered up and realized how much she had spoken and exposed herself with… She blushed, her pale skin turning rosy from the soles of her feet up to the scalp atop her head, passing through her womanless chest.

“Oh, our teams came. Aiyoh, yours seem to treat you like a goddess. How scawee.” Heian Ciemnosc grinned, hugged her shoulders, and faced their incoming teams. Elena appeared to be a girl at last, her hands covering her face as she remembered she was a cultivator yet again and reduced her blush to maximum potency. Ah! But his hand rubbing her right shoulder close to her neck didn’t help… at all…

…