Damien was still in his head about the things Gray said he could do—the implications of what he could do but hadn't tried, he was ecstatic. At least now I don't have to worry about finding powerful weapons and armour, he thought to himself, feeling a strange kind of relief. That was when a strange thought struck him. Voicing it, he asked. "Can your armour form be destroyed?"

[Yes, don't look so surprised,] Gray said, motioning at Damien's surprised face.

Truthfully, Damien hadn't expected the answer. He had begun to have this strange belief that the little grey figurine couldn't be destroyed, so hearing it prove him wrong was kind of a surprise.

[Don't despair, it'll take a massive amount of damage to truly damage me.] He said, confusing them.

"What levels would you say is appropriate to truly damage you?" Keilan asked the small figurine.

[What, already began planning my destruction?] Gray said, to which Keilan only rolled his eyes. [To answer your question, it would take an ascendant level of power to even damage me.]

Keilan whistled, "Damn, that's going to make you pretty overpowered," he said to Damien.

Damien could only nod slowly, still thinking about the implications. He knew very little about ascendants and even less about their levels of power. All he knew about them was that their powers were planetary—meaning they couldn't be contained to a single world. So for Gray to imply that only an ascendant could do any sort of damage to him, he laughed. Overpowered didn't even come close to defining what Damien was going to become.

[Pause whatever you're thinking right now, it isn't going to do you good,] Gray said, interrupting Damien's wild imagination of cosmic battles. [Let me warn you now, nothing good comes without a price. Wielding me isn't something that should be taken lightly. Yes, you'll become pretty overpowered for your tier, but only because the damage I'll be taking won't put much strain on your soul.] Gray said, confusing both Damien and Keilan.

Expounding, Gray continued. [Wielding me only in weapon form puts a strain on your soul, but it's so minimal it might as well not exist. Wielding me in armour form is another matter entirely because you wouldn't only be protected to an insane degree but your base strength would also be vastly increased, making you to be able to fight stronger opponents. Since the quality of the armour is high, the strain on your soul would also be higher than normal, and that's minus the strain you'll receive when you take damages. I know you have this insane Idea that you might be able to fight an ascendant, but let me warn you now, a casual blow from an ascendant would kill you, armour or not, the strain would be so much that it'll completely destroy your soul.] He finished.

Damien pouted, his idea of battling a certain ascendant quashed.

"That's still insanely overpowered, fighting with an armour that cannot be damaged by anyone under ascendant level," Keilan said, cheering Damien up a little.

[Yes,] Gray confirmed. [Unless the strain on your soul kills you first. My advice is for you to make use of me with caution, never using the armour until you absolutely need to, and never taking more strain than you can handle.]

[Thankfully, there's a solution,] he continued, a look of confusion on his little face. [Did any of you happen to see a small orb, a little larger than me and glowing kind of purple.] He asked.

"You mean this?" Keilan said, a purple glowing orb appearing in his hands.

Damien and Gray looked at him.

Keilan looked at them both. Shrugging, he said. "What? I took it when you fell unconscious. Was looking for a way to bring it up but haven't had the chance." He held out the orb to Gray."What does it do anyway? It doesn't emit any kind of energy that I can detect."

The orb floated out of his hands, levitating closer to Gray until it came to a stop, floating beside him. [This is your ticket to easily wielding me and also a road to faster progression,] he said, knocking his tiny knuckles on the orb. [With this, you wouldn't have as much strain wielding me as you would have. It'll reduce the weight on your soul manifold and also help you progress faster, without drawbacks.]

If Damien wasn't shocked before, he was now. Cultivators would pay a lifetime's worth for this orb, and considering that the cultivators who could come close to affording it were the ones who lived for thousands of years, Damien couldn't even begin to imagine the amount this thing would bring.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

The one thing every cultivator always searched for was a way to speed up progression, rising through the ranks quickly. They always got disappointed eventually. It wasn't that there weren't things to speed up cultivation, there were, but the drawbacks were always unpredictable and not worth the results.

Finding something that'll progress you faster without drawbacks was something every cultivator in the universe would kill for. Burning planets to nothing and committing genocides just to lay hands on any kind of object believed to speed up your progression without drawbacks.

"That's not possible," Keilan said, his face, a mask of shock. "There are always drawbacks."

[Not when they are constructed by Damien's father. It was made for him, so why would his father create something that'll lead to heavy drawbacks?]

"I don't know who his father is, since you refused to even tell us his name," Keilan said with disbelief. "But I find it hard to believe that one man could create this and not make it public, right? The money one would make if he sold this would be beyond imaginable, You'd be a universally rich man!" He exclaimed.

Gray remained quiet, giving nothing away.

[So that's another lead, use it to find out his identity, but make sure you're strong as hell to handle anything that comes your way when you find out,] Gray said. [Now, to get back on topic, this artefact was made as a countermeasure to the strain of wielding me. It'll r-.]

"What does it do exactly?" Damien interrupted. "All that you've been telling us are the aftereffects, but you haven't said what this thing was exactly made to do?"

Gray looked at them both for a moment before answering. [It'll increase the quality of your soul.]

Everything was now coming together. "By increasing the quality of the soul, it removes the strain that affects the soul when you accumulate too much power too quickly, removing the need to slow down," Damien said.

Gray nodded. [You don't actually need that effect, I can perceive your soul and I'm not even sure if you'll ever need to slow down your cultivation.]

"But he would," Damien said, nodding to Keilan. "He's pushed himself to spirit lord in such short years that I'm sure he's going to need to hold off on cultivating for a while."

That was the problem with cultivating too fast, there was always a drawback. Damien and Keilan had done it as a necessity in order to be free from the whims of the different rulers who wanted to either kill him or put a collar around his neck.

Cultivation was something that begins with the soul and eventually leaks out to the body. The body is bathed with energy when the soul advances, acting as a physical manifestation of the soul's power. Since the actual power to cultivate resided in the soul, it also dictated how fast you get to advance before you'd need to slow down or risk damaging your soul.

Everybody would need to slow down at some point, it was a universal law. The soul could only take a certain amount of energy too quickly before it needed to slow down to grow, as taking too much energy too fast doesn't give the soul time to slowly accumulate the energies and grow at the normal rate, thereby putting a strain on the soul.

That was why after rushing to spirit lord too quickly, they knew Keilan was reaching his limits, he'd said that he could feel it. Damien on the other hand didn't even feel any sort of thing that he could qualify as a strain on his soul, leaving him the opportunity to continue soaring higher in ranks.

Gray looked at him. [I know what you're about to s-.]

"I want to give the orb to Keilan," he said, visibly shocking Keilan and putting a grimace on Gray's tiny face.

"Damien," Keilan started.

"Why do you sound so surprised," he interrupted. "Did you think I was going to leave you behind?"

"It's not that. Damien, this thing is too important to give to me," he said reluctantly. "From what Gray has said, I take it that there's a bigger plan in works here, requiring you to rise quickly. Giving this to me might disrupt that plan, and I don't want to be the reason you have to slow your cultivation."

Damien looked at him for a moment, the boyish face with blond hair and ocean blue eyes. The closest friend he'd had since his awakening. They'd both faced tragedies together and had grown from it. Keilan had always been the only person who could rein his anger in, always able to calm Damien when he was too enraged. He'd never leave him behind. "I'd rather slow down my cultivation than leave you behind. To be honest, it'll pain me, but I'd do it for you. We've been through a lot together and I'm not going to leave you behind. We're brothers," he said, averting his face so they wouldn't see the raw emotion that was threatening to tear through his face.

Everybody was quiet for some time. Both Damien and Keilan took the time to clear the raw emotions away from their faces, while Gray just floated there, looking from other man to another.

Keilan smiled, his eyes a little bit red. "We're brothers," he repeated.

Damien nodded. "And I'm not about to leave my brother behind. We're going to climb heights of powers together and you more than deserve to stand beside me through it all," he said, to which Keilan immediately hugged him, fiercely.

"I love you,"

"I love you too," Damien replied.

When they were done, they both looked at Gray.

[I'd support this whole brotherly love thingy if Keilan wasn't about to plan my demise,]

Damien rolled his eyes and Keilan snorted.

"I want to give him the orb," he repeated.

[You do know that you'll go through huge amounts of pain if you wield me without that orb?]

"I know,"

[And you're willing to go through with it? For him?]

"Yes"

Gray sighed, [you're so soo confusing. Alright, get ready.] He said, levitating the orb closer to Keilan chest. Reaching his body, it slowly sank into his body like water, making Keilan visibly shiver. The moment it fully sank in, Keilan froze, and then immediately went unconscious.

Lacking something to balance on, he fell to the ground.

Damien looked at Gray questioningly, to which the tiny man shrugged.

[Oops, forgot to mention that.]