Damien appeared over a vast blue ocean that stretched so far he wasn't sure there was even an end to it. It was midday, and the ocean glinted from the sunlight streaking down on its surface. Floating above, Damien made out large moving shadows swimming below the vast body of water.
Usually, he would be expecting islands dotting one part or another, but at this moment his attention was taken by the giant inverted mountains hovering many miles above the water level. Aside from the upside-down position of the mountains, a first for him, he could sense the power brimming from them as they almost filled his vision, power which could wipe him out in an instant if unleashed. And that made him wary.
He counted only five inverted mountains hovering close by, hovering majestically over the ocean.
"Where are we?" Damien asked.
[Planet Se, a neighboring planet in your Star system.]
"Wait, we teleported to another planet!" Keilan's eyes were opened wide in shock, mirroring his mouth.
[We aren't there, there. This is a mental projection, not actual teleportation.] Gray answered.
"Isn't that dangerous? Our psyche could fall prey to all manners of unknown things out here," Keilan asked.
[Don't worry about that, I have us hidden.] Gray assured, which did nothing to calm them since none of the humans knew his capabilities.
"How?" Damien asked.
Gray looked him straight in the eye. [You aren't the only one wielding the essence of destruction.]
Damien could only look on in confusion. "What does that m—"
But Gray had already moved on, interrupting his question mid-sentence.
[While this is a memory reading, I couldn't show you this without first moving you towards the site. So, let me put your minds at rest. We are not on the planet per se; we are in the memory landscape of this planet.]
"What are we doing in a foreign planet's memory anyway, and how'd you do it–like, project us?" Damien asked with enthusiasm, anything to further his power...
[Ahh, I see now. That's what I'm about to teach you. I did say I would teach you the workings of intent, didn't I?. Now, before we start, I want you to know a few things: to learn the workings of intent, huge focus and a massive amount of willpower is required. Without those two, you will either accomplish nothing, at best, or find yourself gravely injured.]
"Injured? What do you mean?"
[Intent isn't just something you can wish for and poof, it happens. Without focus and controlled willpower, your will could manifest, but in a very unpleasant way.] Gray answered in a tone that projected more than just simple unpleasantness.
[Now, watch.]
Immediately, a figure materialized a distance away, floating very close to the inverted mountains.
Damien couldn't tell who it was since the person was putting on a simple red robe with black trims. He also couldn't tell their level of power since they projected no aura, but he knew simply by just watching that they were more powerful than him, far more powerful.
Immediately the figure arrived, loud alarm bells and sirens began sounding all over the mountains and then figures began coming out in the thousands.
They flew out from three of the mountains close to the figure, including at least ten figures bearing an aura Damien had never felt before but knew of regardless.
Spirit Kings.
They all brimmed with so much blinding powers that even the thousands of peak tier Spirit lords shied away from them, clearly overwhelmed. The world tinted in different colors as their auras spread out, trying to suppress the single figure standing against them.
Damien frowned, turning to Gray. "Why isn't the auras affecting us the same way as them," he said, pointing at him and Keilan and then waving toward the other Peak tier Spirit lords.
Keilan nodded. "True. I feel enough to know the true power of the Spirit lords, but not enough to overwhelm me."
The world paused.
[You wouldn't be able to concentrate if most of your mental capabilities were devoted to pushing off the influence of their auras, so I took the liberty of reducing both their mental and soul effects on you,] Gray explained.
Damien nodded, "Oh. Ok then, continue."
And then everything resumed.
Space warped and twisted as the red robed figure unleashed their aura, the destructiveness alone contending and even pushing back the other Spirit Kings. The figure's aura tinted the world Crimson with the mere power of their aura, a wave of crimson against ten other colors.
The sky darkened and thunder rumbled as the wind began whipping. More destructive than Damien had ever witnessed. The ocean below them darkened as Damien felt something deep below rising, darkening the ocean for miles with the sheer size of its body.
Even though it was just a memory landscape, Damien stepped back in shock. "What is that?" He said as he looked down, the massive ocean writhing violently, as if in fear of the presence of the approaching creature.
[That.... Is a World Sentinel.] Gray answered.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"What?" Damien didn't understand. He stared at the incomprehensible aura rising out from the ocean; his mind glitched at the sheer aura of power projected. Damien identified the aura as that of a Spirit King's, but its power alone rose above the other Spirit Kings in the area.
[That is the big stick all planet uses when things get out of hand.]
Damien finally understood. Menoe had once given him a broader view of the number of Spirit Kings residing a distance from their planet. From the amount she'd said and their powers, Damien had begun to wonder why they hadn't already overwhelmed their World Spirit. Even he wasn't sure he could hold out if hundreds of elite-level Monarchs attacked him. If this was the kind of creature the planet employed to keep Spirit Kings away, Damien didn't blame them for staying away.
[Oh, this isn't all of them. I'm aware of at least four more sentinels dwelling in the four corners of the planet. The appearance of this one is just a warning,] Gray replied to Damien's thought.
The thousands of Spirit lords and eleven Spirit Kings sensed the approaching sentinel at the same time, but it was the crimson robed figure who reacted first.
Their aura spiked as they raised a sword to the sky, both hands on the hilt. The world took on a deeper crimson hue as everyone sensed the action. Damien didn't know what they felt, but apparently, it was powerful enough because they all sped toward the figure; even the approaching horror sped up its ascension.
When the sword reached its apex, pointing directly at the sky, the world rumbled, long tears in space spreading. The defenders sped up even more, techniques manifesting all around when the sword came down...
....and the world was consumed in crimson rain.
Large bolts of crimson lightning rained down on everything, and the thousands of peak-tier Spirit lords, beings capable of leveling mountains with a single punch, were consumed in an instant, turning into dust.
The sheer display alone stupefied Damien. The thunder that followed almost deafened him until the sound suddenly dimmed to a safe level.
[Sorry about that.]
The ten figures manifested one technique after another, intent on withstanding the technique. They held on for a few seconds until the power of the technique spiked up a notch, completely overwhelming.
They all scattered, fleeing immediately as they discovered they couldn't handle the power the figure dished out.
The power then spiked up higher, becoming more incomprehensible. There was a loud, tearing screech as more tears appeared, and then the first Spirit King was consumed.
A lady, making use of powerful techniques to flee faster, but she didn't flee fast enough.
A dozen bolts landed on her one after the other in seconds, and all her defenses were overwhelmed, the world lighting up as multiple energy shields were broken.
In a few seconds, she was a burnt crisp.
At that moment, the fleeing Spirit Kings completely abandoned all forms of mortal methods of fleeing, immediately teleporting out one by one.
The ocean itself wasn't spared either from the wrath of the Crimson lightning, fogs rising as the ocean, for many miles, was turned into hot steam as the water level was noticeably reduced. And even still, Damien couldn't still see the body of the approaching horror.
When all was done and the world reverted back to normal, dust could still be seen raining down into the fog rising over the ocean.
The crimson robed figure disappeared immediately just as the sentinel broke the surface of the water, inky black orbs scanning everywhere. Finding no one, it immediately descended back down, no doubt returning back to its slumber.
The only thing that remained were the mental audience and the still-standing inverted mountains. And what was strange – Damien frowned as he looked closer at the mountains, Seeing a subtle change in them.
"They weren't destroyed? How's that possible?" He asked.
[Yes, I can see that. Look deeper.]
Damien did as told, his face scrunching up as he concentrated.
"They're new! I mean–they look new," He turned to Gray. "I ask again, how is that possible?"
[Intent. One of the benefits of intent mastery is that it allows you to warp the core directive of your element into your needs, not too far from its core directive, though.]
"And that was what the robed figure did?" Keilan asked.
Gray affirmed. [Yes. When the figure, which, by the way, was a man. When he rained down destruction, the directive of the element was split into two, warping into a purification force that removed all forms of decay that an old artificial mountain like this would have accumulated from the innumerable years it had stood, bringing it back to new. All the while, a part of the element followed its core directive: Destruction.]
"Wait, that was destruction? I didn't know it could be used like that," Damien interrupted, surprised.
[Damien, there are a lot of things about the element of destruction you're unaware of.]
"Why was it crimson, and why come in the form of lighting? I thought destruction came in grey," Keilan asked the question Damien should have asked.
[That is because those are the main characteristics of destruction: a crimson lightning.] Gray answered, a calm, reluctant look on his face.
"Wait, you're saying the element of destruction I use isn't the same as that?" Damien waved his hands toward the site of destruction.
[Yes.] Gray answered reluctantly.
"Are you going to explain further?"
[No. That is as far as I will answer.]
Damien fumed, about to argue, when Keilan interrupted.
"We can get to this argument at a later time. Let's focus on our main mission."
Gray gave him a grateful look. [The directives of all essence can accomplish more than their base; you just need focus and controlled willpower, and bam, your needs are accomplished. Take destruction for example. What the man did was manipulate the essence of destruction to, instead of destroying the mountains themselves, it instead destroyed the concept of decay, thereby removing every damage that had ever been incurred.]
"Isn't that healing?" Keilan said.
[Yes.]
"Wait, you're saying that destruction could be used to heal?" Keilan said, his wide eyes turning to Damien.
Gray chuckled. [Not in the way you see it. Destruction can be used to remove the concept of an injury taken, but real healing takes more than just simple damage removal.]
Seeing their confused faces, Gray further explained. [When a person takes damage, a chunk of both the physical and spirit layer is destroyed. Now, the element of destruction can only be used to heal the physical, slowing, or better yet, removing the concept of damage, but that doesn't mean the injury is already healed. We have the spirit layer which has to be restored lest the victim becomes magically paralyzed.]
"Ohhh, that was why Elora Darkfang lost her Spirit lord powers when Damien destroyed her astral image...." Keilan said, realization dawning.
Gray nodded. [Yes. Had there been a healer beyond the Spirit lord, the Snake lady would have been restored to full power in weeks.]
"Weeks? Why weeks?" Damien asked.
[When the life element is used to heal the Spirit layer, it is always paramount to rest since the spirit layer would still be too fragile, incapable of withstanding any power channeled through it.]
"I don't understand, what does the spirit layer have to do with how much power we wield?" Damien asked.
Gray slapped his tiny palms on his forehead. [Sometimes I forget how much you lack in knowledge. Okay, In case you didn't know, the soul houses your powers, acting as a well for your true strength. The spirit layer, on the other hand, serves as a conduit for that power, diluting it to safe levels so as not to overwhelm your physical layer when it is channeled. That is why you cannot unleashed your full strength at once. So when a crucial part like that is destroyed, you would have to abstain from channeling lest your body gets destroyed by the unsafe level of power that would flow into your body. That is why you see people dying gruesomely when they push themselves beyond their limits. The spirit layer has only so much it can take.]
What Gray had just said left a lot for Damien to think about. Sensing it, Gray decided to move them back.
The dream landscape began dissolving, turning into purple wisps as their mental forms disappeared...
...only to appear in a room full of powerful, strange essence wielders.