"Eh?"
Zariel lifted his gaze to me and smirked. " Our sister is even helping. Watch it. Or all your women may end up dead to some loli, screaming her name. I've seen it before."
"I low-key hope you're messing with me."
Zariel shrugged. " You do you, bro. I know how to keep my cock in check."
My brow shot up." Is that jealousy?"
Snorting, he shook his head. "I'm one of the most powerful people in the Myriad Heavens. If you think I can't find another woman, you're more naive than Vancurro."
"So Van agrees with my assessment. Great minds and all. You need experience, Little Brother. You got married too early. Who knows."
Zariel sneered and stabbed his finger against my brow. Suddenly, a heavy sensation pressed over my being, bringing me to my knees. I groaned, gasping for air, grunting at how my lungs seemed to contract even further. Sweat poured out of my pores like a lake as my vision swayed between light and oblivion.
"I've sealed it for twenty cycles. Just the time it'll take to reach the center of the Calvorain Sea." He said, looking around at the storm on all sides of the ship.
Despite being in the Mirrored Realm, the sway of the water against the ship was terrifying. Was it not for Sera, Kuro, Adrian, and the other members we'd kidnapped to help run the ship? I'm sure we would have capsized already.
We had only been sailing for a decade, but the harsh winds and water came at us like a wild beasts every second of the day. Most of the sailors were beaten raw, leaving them in a pool of blood as they tried to scramble to their feet. When lightning struck, blood bled from our ears, tingling our flesh.
Not to mention the issue with food. Were it not for the Shadowfell's ability to enter the shadow realm and enter Noctem, we'd starve by now. Fishing was out of the question, and no one dared to dive. Despite being gods, we were mortals in this storm.
Zariel looked me over for a while and sighed. "Your adaptation is something I made to create the perfect race. But it seems like you have mastered it so well that it's affecting your learning. I will not seal your forsaken bloodline for obvious reasons. But try not to abuse it. That blood you carry can do more than destroy weapons and armor at any level." He said and vanished, leaving only silence.
Struggling to stand, I groaned from the many lacerations carved into my flesh and drew Mephisto and the mysterious Safi attention.
"You look like shit," Mephisto said, looking me over. "Interesting. How do you feel?"
"Like half myself is missing," I answered, glancing at the intrigued look in Safi's silvery white eyes. Her head was tilted, and a faint smile over her lips seemed to deepen the longer she stared.
'Lily, do you know her?"
"Yup. I'm Lily. I'm the baddest bitch out there." Lily replied with pride in her tone. And just like that, I didn't want to talk to Lily. I'm the only one who can talk like that.
"Well, be that as it may. Safi here will be responsible for the next level of training. She's a Spatial Lord. A special one." The Trickster announced, taking a step back. "I'll be around to sneak attack you. So watch out." He added, ready to fade, when a sudden thought came into my mind.
"Wait! The Aspect of Sealing. I wish it to connect to the Plane of Shadows. I want all my hits to be able to not just seal but transfer the power to another plane that isn't accessible to various Gods."
'Then you wouldn't send it into the Shadow Realm." The one call Safi explained. "You would send it into yourself. A dangerous feat, no doubt, but the benefits are higher than most people can grasp. What would happen when you face a god who can enter the shadow realm? They'll just recover their lost ability."
Mephisto smiled and faded as Safi continued. " When mortals become cultivators, they steal Qi from Heaven and Earth. You are stealing qi or divinity from various Gods. You need to create a domain within yourself. One of Dead Laws that will ensure that you can store wild divinity within yourself no matter how strong an attack may be, Almighty or not."
Hmmm. I've created an artificial hive mind. I guess it only makes sense I create a specialized core, but everything has a limit.
"You ought to be thinking that there must be a limit?" Safi coldly said, lifting her lips into a half smile. ' And you'd be right. But can you explain how a sliver of Qi can grow so powerful despite using the same amount of qi of a mortal, it can kill a god?"
"It uses laws," I answered, unsure where she was going with this.
'Then what about the Slive of Qi? Where is it?"
"... in the attack. At the core. It's the energy that connects all the laws tog… together." Pausing as everything suddenly connected, my lips grew wide.
High-level gods that don't have seemingly endless qi like me will use the minimal amount of divinity to create almighty attacks or any other types of artes. While using more divinity could strengthen an attack, it's unnecessary as the increase in damage would be minimal.
'Seems you get it. Sealing is all about pinpoint accuracy. Something a spear user should understand. All you need to do is pinpoint where said Arte uses the divinity as a battery. And seal it."
"You seem quite proficient in darkness laws."
"It's an Aspect. Water has the Aspect of Ice. And Darkness the Aspect of the Sealing. Light has the Aspect of Fire. Every Aspect can be a law but knowing where such a law originates from is crucial. For example, The Law of the Earth and the Aspect of Vibration go hand in hand." She spelled out, and I could only nod. Kind of annoyed Bael didn't have knowledge like this. Guess it wasn't needed for beings in the Fourth Heaven.
"Do I know you?" I couldn't help but ask. "You seem familiar. Did we do it in a past life?"
Safi's cheeks flushed as she shuttered, bowing her head to hide her emotions. "Are you ready?" She asked after a second or two of embarrassment. "This battle will require blood mastery, darkness mastery, and Wind Mastery."
"So many laws." I mused.
"You want to be a Chaos Lord, right? Then you've got to master and be as proficient as any god can be within this Heaven."
Ember flashed over my flesh as my spear clashed with Safi's, shaking the mirrored realm. I grunted as I tried to seal the force and divinity she employed. We danced through the ship's deck, our spear coiling like two vicious snakes battling. I felt myself slowly becoming beaten.
Despite all my soul's working in hyperdrive, the more I learned, the more Safi revealed how little I knew. She was simply mixing over a hundred laws to move her body with darkness and spatial laws at the forefront. Her movements didn't make any type of sense. There was no weakness. And the only way I could react was with instincts.
With each clash, I got the sensation I was growing stronger. And after a week, I felt twice as strong as I originally was. After a month, disgust at my past prowess filled my heart. I was over a hundred times stronger. Not in terms of qi but rather technique and understanding.
Safi didn't teach much, but how her blade flowed and how it treated the Laws around me allowed me to grasp my imperfection. Safi spear technique had reached the level of Almighty. Each spear stroke was guaranteed to hit. There was no dodging. At least not without an almighty movement arte of my own.
Hissing at the taste of blood bubbled within my chest, hammering like a rabbit. I stared at Safi, who stood perfectly without a single stain on her snow-white robes; I grimaced and dashed forward.
However, against all reason, I pivoted backward on the heel of my feet, twisting Noctem in an upwards semi-arc as a blade pierced through the void aimed at my lift eye. I swatted the spear tip away when all of a sudden, its intent flared. As the Law of Wind created an illusion, the law of fire flared, destroying my vision, and the darkness sealed away my sense of awareness. In a single attack that didn't land, I was blind and without direction.
Sealing the seal on my awareness the best I could, my instincts kicked in as Safi shot toward me like a speeding bullet. Carrying no intent of where her attack would land, my instincts only kicked in as her spear pierced the center of my chest.
"When attacking, simply using a single law is a crutch against what we sentient beings can do. Multitasking is key. A man with a hive mind like yourself ought to know this."
"..."
Tene? She and Lilith are the only ones who know what I am doing. Not even Mephisto knows about my Hive mind. And he wouldn't know unless he could read my mind.
"Wind grants infinite flexibility, Earth infinite defense, Lighting infinite might, and Darkness infinite range. Use them all. This is what being a Chaos Lord entails. You have a profound understanding of every single Dao in creation due to the Flames of Hellfire. But you've never fused them all. You got all the key elements but not a mind to applying them."
Hamming her words into my mind, I nodded at her lesson.
"Remember, a single strand of qi can summon as many elements as you want. You, as the Master, just need that level of control to wield them." Safi coldly said, ruthlessly digging her spear out of my chest.
I groaned as my wound healed, as no intent stopped my healing factor. I looked up at the chilling Safi and smiled at her insane ability.
"To be a chaos Lord requires every action you make, every dao you use to be almighty. It's an impossible feat that requires hundreds of Chaos Cycles. You have, at most, a few dao cycles. Let's take a break. I'll give you a year to put everything you learn together."
Lowering her blade, Safi faded away, leaving nothing behind, not even the Mirrored Realm that dissipated from my view.
"MASTER!!!!" Adrian cried, rushing towards me as I collapsed to my knees. "What the hell happened? Where were you?"
"Hurry, take him to his chamber." Kuro hurriedly said. "We don't have time to care for him. Another wave is approaching."
I glanced at Kuro, who nodded. Adrian waved his palm, banishing me into my chambers and onto the bed.
Too weak to keep my eyes open, I closed them as my body activated the Path of Abyssal Night. I began to meditate while my body took care of my wounds.
Pulling myself into a dark web of nothingness where I felt the most comfortable, I pondered the various mixes of laws to employ. Blood, Wind, Lightning, Fire, and Darkness were key. But I needed more. The way Safi moved was impossibly quick and flexible. Her reaction was instantaneous.
Despite not having a technique like Shadow Step, Safi was somehow able to create a defense that made it so she could react to anything. It wasn't fair, but Almighty Techniques aren't supposed to be fair.
The Hive mind was definitely useful, allowing me to comprehend techniques and laws that would otherwise take cycles to come to me in days, if not hours. I just needed more souls. And I refuse to use low-level souls.
"Lily can help you know." The little devils said.
"No, this is something I need to do on my own. Safi… or Tene showed me a path for Chaos Lord. I need to create a technique or multiples technique to help refine myself. I'm close."
Lily went silent. And with this, I closed my mind to the Myriad Heavens and began to meditate on the laws engraved in my blood and bones.
Darkness was my main focus, but since I had over a billion souls in my hive mind, information continuously poured into the core of my being.
I quickly found myself in a world surrounded by strands of knowledge. Like rain flowing down from the darkness, nodes of liquid light dripped, shimmering within the void of my soul. A sense of awakening began to grow within me.
An awakening unlike anything I've ever felt before. As I didn't just work on Heavenly Laws, but Mortal Laws like the Seven Sins, my spearmanship, and bloodlines. A profound sense of harmony sprang from out of my soul and into my body, stirring me awake and into a world of light.
I shuttered, not out of any excitement or fear. But rather, the sheer might tearing apart my cabin.