Naath continued his soul cultivation and as he did the soul energy that left his central soul core began to crystalize. However, this time Naath’s speed in reviewing all of his memories had reverted back to his speed when he was doing it for the second time. The crystal grew more and more with the passage of time.
If the rune had a body it would be in tears right now as it thought to itself. “Why did I get bound to heaven's chosen child?! Why a child from another world?! Is this always what has happened?!!! Damn you heavens, damn you!!!! You know what NO I refuse, I have chosen this child as well, the heavens will have to fight me for him! This king, I, has been silently cowering to you for these billions of years. No more! This king’s revenge starts right here, right now with this child! Heavens one day I will tear you down no matter what it takes!!!”
After the rune had this thought storm clouds appeared in the sky out of nowhere turning the world pitch black not a single ray of light was able to come down through the sky. The rune wished he could turn pale at this moment, he recognised the clouds on a very personal level. All of the elders outside the formation were startled and they started to wonder what was happening as thunder rumbled in the dark clouds.
All of them paled when they felt the pressure coming from this thunder. A long streak of lightning moved through this mass of black clouds like an enraged dragon and began to circle the formation below it. The elders and sect masters paled further and one of them yelled, “Heavenly punishment! Sect master Su what the fuck is this?! Your sect is raising someone the heavens cannot tolerate?!” Sect master Su, the sect master of the raging river sect was also completely pale. He muttered under his breath “h-how can this be, no his luck that glow in his eyes. He should be heaven's chosen child, so how, how can he enrage them like this?!”
The lightning in the sky circling the formation grew larger and larger as the storm clouds expanded. The power and pressure it was giving off made even the sect masters present have not even the slightest thought of resisting. However, this pressure was not focused on any of them but Naath. To be more specific it was focused on the rune in his soul sea. Said rune was in a panicked state as he felt this pressure however he stood his ground saying it out loud.
“Damn heavens! I chose him first, fuck off!” In response to his words, the clouds doubled in height and radius. The power of the lightning in the sky tripled and it took the rough shape of a serpent. The rune had truly completely enraged the heavens! Thunder sounded from the sky sounding more like the hiss of a world serpent, after this the rune finally took a step back.
It thought “haha heavens you truly think highly of me! Even sending lightning beats! Hahaha you didn't even use these billions of years ago against me and my brothers and sisters!”
As if this rune touched a taboo of the heavens the storm grew again and the lightning once more tripled in strength. Now it was in the clear shape of a serpent with wings that looked to be in the process of transforming into a dragon. Feeling the pressure coming from this serpent all of the elders present coughed up blood. They felt only pure destruction energy from this lightning and just the pressure of its aura was enough to heavily injure them. They all retreated back a mile until the pressure was finally tolerable. Naath inside of the formation did not feel any of this pressure and was just reaching the end of his ninth cycle.
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A ringing noise sounded throughout Naath’s soul sea like a melodious crystal coming to life. The crystal in his soul sea had grown to the same size as the lake had been, before it had begun to crystalize. Naath had finished his ninth cycle and was breaking into the soul opening realm. He took in a deep breath and realisation dawned on him all at once about himself and who he was. It was a kind of enlightenment only a soul master could achieve. Naath saw the surface of himself and began to realise who he truly was as a person. The crystal in his soul sea began to vibrate madly and from the very center of it came a blinding light. Eventually, the light began to settle and slowly changed colours dyeing the entire crystal as it went.
The rune became distracted by this and when it saw Naath’s soul colour it almost entirely forgot it had enraged the heavens. Soul colour had nothing to do with any outside factors, it was purely based on the person themselves. Even heaven's chosen child could not bypass this selection. One's soul energy would be read by the heavens and a colour would be bestowed to them based on what the heavens saw in them. That is why the rune was so startled. It spoke out loud, “You heavens even you cannot see through this child?!” In Naath’s soul sea was a giant crystal with every colour in existence swirling inside of it.
This meant even the heavens had no idea what Naath could accomplish and where the end of his talent and abilities lied. More than this it meant even the heavens could not understand his inner self. While the rune was distracted by all of this the winged lightning serpent in the sky suddenly struck down and went towards the space between Naath’s brows. It pierced right through and into his soul sea, it bit at the rune with all its might. The rune caught off guard put up a defensive soul energy barrier. It was a perfect sphere of soul energy and was trapped in the mouth of the serpent.
It was unable to swallow the rune or destroy it’s defences with a bite, after realising this the serpent pulled the rune out of Naath’s soul sea. The rune felt a sense of defeat at what it saw next, up in the clouds five more winged lightning serpents were circling each other. All of them charged down at the rune’s barrier in order to destroy it and remove it from this world forever, not even its soul would remain. All six of the winged lightning serpents were now biting down on this orb of soul energy the rune was using for defence. The rune let out a cry of desperation and rage.
“Damn heavens! Even if I am destroyed I will not allow you to get away with this! On my death, I will share my knowledge with all of this world!!!”
As if enraged the heavens sent down six lightning bolts these bolts struck the serpents and seemed to empower them. Each of them suddenly had small feet appear on the bottoms of their bellies, they were becoming more and more dragon-like. Their power more than tripled after this, small cracks began to appear on the runes defensive barrier. The rune began to feel despair as it slowly watched the cracks spread across the surface of its barrier.
The rune began to speak once more, “Little brat! I left a soul seal behind in your soul sea, inside of this seal is a copy of all the memories you will need as you develop and of the favors, I would have asked from you in the future as you became strong enough to accomplish them. I regret sealing you in that forest and I'm sorry, however, it was for your own benefit and after re-living your life nine times now I'm sure you can see that as well. Little brat despite how little time I was bound to you, you have treated me the best of any host I had taken before. Before I perish from this world I am grateful for everything and I have left my legacy to you within your soul sea. You are too weak to know these secrets yet, however, when you are ready it will open on its own.
This may mean one day that you will have to-” Naath opened his eyes at this moment and they were glowing a brilliant emerald green, after a moment the glow stopped and Naath spoke with a light smile. “Old rune what is with all of this nonsense? Tell me yourself later, what will destroy you, these little snakes? When I was advancing to the soul opening realm I felt a slight connection to the heavens and I learned a few things.” after reaching soul opening Naath had grown past the rage he had harbored towards the rune.
After all, he had now lived through nine lifetimes since then, if he still held this grudge it could only be seen as childish.