Kai floated in the water – his eyes closed, his awareness stretched across realms. In his soul realm, he used his spiritual sense to look out at the rocky hellscape of broken spires and jagged mountains that littered the sea floor of the storm planet. Dark and hidden things darted away from his illuminated body into shadowed crevices and deeper caverns.
The frigid water pressed against him, but his white aura rose and lapped at the water, consuming the icy assault and transferring it to another realm.
On Long Yuan, he floated within an ever-filling cube, his white flame surrounding him. The once-contracting orange walls had come to a grinding halt, rebelling against the unyielding torrent of water. Over the last thirty minutes, the water’s warmth and pressure grew, an ominous sign of the hydraulic forces.
Around him, the expressions on the cultivators' faces had long lost the smug satisfaction of imminent victory and had transitioned to dismay, confusion, disbelief, and settled into despair. Each molecule of water added to the cube was another stone on their path to defeat, and they could do nothing to stop it.
The water kept coming, an undeniable tide that pushed with more force than any team of cultivators could combat. They tried. They had summoned reinforcements and attached more binding lines. Kai observed them with his God’s Eye Art.
A hundred cultivators surrounded him, holding aloft the cube. Purple-robed guardians worked alongside the Lou family elders in coordinating the effort. Conscripted hawk riders provided much of their labor. Blue energy bindings streamed from the saddles of the mighty hawks.
The cube expanded, pushing back against the bindings, pushing the walls out, and as the cube enlarged, the barrier thinned. Ignoring them, Kai made his move. He sliced through the dense water towards the orange energy, pressing a glowing palm against the tense surface. The barrier quivered under his touch – stretched to its limit.
With a final redirection of the orange energy, the barrier wavered, threatening to burst. Time seemed to suspend in anticipation. And then, with a climactic surge of his white flame, the wall trembled, teetering on the precipice of rupture...
Kai steeled himself, the last of the orange energy receding into his soul realm. He shattered the barrier with a final, concentrated burst of his white flame.
The immediate release of pressure was like a bomb going off. Water exploded outwards, a monstrous wave that rippled through the air. The temperature plummeted, the icy chill transforming the wave into an explosion of dense rolling fog that spread rapidly, obscuring everything in a swirling, impenetrable mist.
The shockwave swept across the exhausted cultivators: shouts of surprise, fear, and disbelief echoed. Some cultivators, less fortunate, were blown clear of Azurewing. They screamed as they plummeted through the clouds, their bodies small and helpless as they plunged toward the distant ocean below.
In both worlds, Kai moved. Rising from the ocean, he soared, his form shrouded in the billowing storm clouds. From within the icy fog, he darted towards Azurewing, guided by his spiritual sight, navigating to the heart of the blue serpent.
Reaching Azurewing, he descended onto her gigantic back. His hand, surrounded with the most intense flame he could summon, sent pulsations against her scales, transporting the sky serpent into his soul realm. An energetic flash marked their departure, leaving behind an Azurewing-shaped void. The cultivators who had clung to her vanished – their startled cries cut short as they transitioned from the frigid fog to the eye of a storm.
The elders and guardians took their new surroundings inside the tumultuous storm. Their expressions varied between shock and defiance. Some vocalized their disbelief, while others cried in anger. Kai was already soaring towards Azurewing.
In this realm, he needed no wings. He required nothing, for this was his soul realm, his dominion. It responded to his every thought, his every desire. It was his cosmos - at once a mental projection and a physical reality that he had absolute command over.
A soul space was a unique feature intrinsic to every soulforger - a place they could create and govern as they liked.
"Stop," Kai commanded, and Azurewing, amid her flight, froze. Kai ascended to face her, moving past her enormous, gleaming eyes to hover before the creature.
"Listen closely," Kai began, willing the storm to abate. As the storm calmed, the skies cleared, ensuring his words reached the immobilized cultivators.
"I have taken you from the Arcadian skies you once knew and cast you into this tempest-tossed plane. You will stay here until your clan meets my demands." Drifting back towards the cultivators, he added, "One of you will return with my terms for Azurewing's release. I demand a tenfold increase on my previous price."
With a wave, he freed them. Regaining mobility, Azurewing attempted to snap her jaws at Kai, but she froze mid-movement. Her gleaming fangs became a still image before him.
"Do not test my patience, child," Kai warned, his words reverberating amidst the sizzle of lightning. "As bad as it is here, I have far more dangerous places to put you."
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
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Arcadia's sky grew ominous as the unprecedented atmospheric collision occurred above. The fog's explosive release provoked a shockwave, inducing the clouds overhead to churn and swell. An aerial draft seized the icy water of the dark ocean, lofting it into the high atmosphere.
The fog's bone-chilling coldness, bolstered by the pressure released from the defeated Heavenly Barrier, confronted the warmer air of the lower sky. The ensuing clash instigated a steep drop in temperature, causing the air's moisture to condense and crystallize, birthing formidable, charcoal-hued clouds, their underbellies gravid and foreboding.
Gradually, a serene lull descended amidst the tumultuous uproar. The initial snowflake embarked on its journey downward, a unique crystal navigating the whimsical breeze. Another, and another soon joined it until the sky was teeming with a deluge of snowflakes, a serene shroud veiling the upheaval of moments prior.
Kai moved with a sense of tranquility through the thickening snowfall. His robes billowed around him, their fabric dancing on the gusts as he stood on the back of the graceful heron, the golden body of the ferrox nestled securely in his arm. The remaining silver and blue hawk riders faltered under his overwhelming spiritual pressure and hastily retreated. Kai continued his descent, his heron landing on the dock.
Stretching out his hand, he summoned a shocked elder above the dock. The man fell, stumbling to catch himself.
"Three days," Kai announced, his voice cutting through the snow-filled air. "In three days, I will return. If you value Azurewing, bring what is rightfully mine." He didn't linger for a response.
He urged his mount up, propelling himself into the sky. Kai disappeared into the falling snow and misty clouds, leaving the elder to collapse on the dock behind him.
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Kai ascended the rocky slopes above Arcadia, his feet gently touching down onto the snow-coated cliffs. As he landed, the graceful heron that bore him dissolved into a cascade of golden light, retreating into the depths of his heart core. The body of the golden ferrox was gone; Kai sent it to the lab within his soul space, where Relay eagerly plotted his upgraded ferrox model two.
Crunching snow underfoot, Kai ambled toward a modest cave nestled amidst the cliffside. He found a smoothed rocky surface and settled himself into a meditative stance. His focus turned inward, drawing his consciousness towards his heart core. There, the golden mote revolved persistently around its white counterpart, a celestial dance of energies nearing its end. Once a beacon of vibrance, the white mote now waned close to extinction.
An unforeseen energy expenditure had triggered this rapid decline; the transfer of Azurewing and her desperate entourage had proven more taxing than Kai had anticipated. His white mote's lifespan, which he had thought might stretch out for days, was cut dramatically short.
Bracing himself, Kai readied for the imminent transition. A clear mental image of his adult form came to life in his mind's eye, as vivid as a photograph. He grappled with his doubts, questioning the plausibility of his plan. If each transformation involved an entire reconstruction of his body, then could he not nudge the process to mold him into an older version?
His mind bristled with potential challenges to his theory, but Kai shook them off. He resolved to experiment, pushing the boundaries of what he believed possible. It was time to challenge the norms of his existence.
A resolute breath parted Kai's lips as he closed his eyes. It was time. His heart raced within his chest, reverberating a peculiar rhythm. The white mote within his heart core flickered weakly, its power bleeding out, the golden counterpart swelling to overtake it.
Suddenly, an intense surge of energy erupted from the core, spreading throughout Kai's body like an all-consuming wildfire. His veins lit up like a network of burning rivers, marking their path beneath his skin. The world outside the cave vanished from his senses, as if he'd been thrust into an endless void. His consciousness, however, remained firmly tethered to his body, bearing witness to his impending metamorphosis.
A sensation unlike any other gripped him. His very existence seemed to unravel, pulled apart molecule by molecule. It was an excruciating deconstruction, dismantling his form at the most fundamental level. Yet, amid the pain, Kai's resolve stood undeterred. He offered the mental image of his adult body, his spiritual intent moving against the energy to impose his will upon it.
His body responded. The white mist gave way to golden energy as his body coalesced from his primordial energy. His bones formed, lengthened, and thickened, reshaping beneath the invisible hands of transformation. Muscle fibers formed and multiplied, weaving themselves onto his taller frame. His skin, a storm of swirling cells, reformed, stretching over his newly-molded physique.
Time slipped away, lost within the vortex of transformation and pain. But finally, the burning rivers beneath his skin began to dim, the fiery energy slowly receding into his core. An exhausted gasp escaped his lips as his eyes flickered open, revealing the dimly lit cave again.
Kai slowly rose, a hand reaching to touch the angular features of his face. His body felt more muscular and leaner, and new power tingled beneath his skin.
“Not quite what I was going for,” his voice, not the deep baritone of his adult form, was lower than he expected. Donning his soul crown, he looked at himself.
Despite its uncertainty, the experiment had adhered to his will, albeit with a slight detour from the intended goal. His physique had grown lean, his body defined by a lattice of corded muscles gracefully lying beneath a canvas of unblemished, smooth skin.
His face, once characterized by the plumpness of boyish charm, had undergone a striking transformation. Its softer lines had sharpened, granting his visage an air of matured, elegant structure - an artist's symphony rendered in flesh and bone. The rounding of his cheekbones had tapered into a striking jawline, granting him a distinguished allure that transcended his years.
And within this new form, his golden amber eyes remained - now more intense and captivating than ever. Framed by dark, arched eyebrows, and long, black eyelashes, they blazed with an inner fire, embodying the strength and resilience of the soul behind them.
With his transformed appearance, Kai was no longer merely a youth walking the path of soulforging. He had become a striking figure on the cusp of manhood, his image resonating with the promise of potential and power.
“It’ll do for now,” he frowned, summoning his golden motes, and a charcoal robe surrounded him, his amber inner robe beneath. He pulled his long hair back, the waves falling over his shoulders.
He had work to do.