A/N: Another long chapter!
It's a double release so I hope you forgive my cliffhanger ;-;
Happy reading :D
"N-no...!"
Nobody was there.
Behind the corpse or anywhere else, nobody. I despaired only for a moment as I shut my eyes, bracing for impact.
I landed on the ground, my skin scraping against the floor as I rolled, skin tearing and flesh ripping until I flew out of the cave and slammed against a tree. I reeled in pain, not noticing the darkness of the night. The entirety of my right side was burnt from the friction of skidding from the initial impact.
As for the rest of my body, it was covered with various wounds. Fortunately, I wasn't missing any large chunks of flesh, but I had various open wounds.
"Kahk!"
I coughed blood. It seemed my ribs were broken too.
"Huek... uekk..."
Though I was sprawled out over the ground face down, I didn't rest.
I wanted to take a break, but I knew I couldn't. Every second was worth more than gold right now.
I did my best to get onto my feet, but I could barely move my arms, let alone get up.
"Dammit all... keuk! Move!"
More blood spilled out my mouth. I completely overdid myself. Still, I didn't have time to think about anything. I needed to move, to get out of here, but, as I was, it was impossible.
My leg muscles were absolutely toast, let alone any of my other injured body parts.
"...Dammit."
Still, I kept trying. Though I might have failed to kill him, at the very least, I should escape. Living was a victory, not killing the other guy.
—Tap, tap
"!"
Suddenly, the sound of light footsteps rang out, causing my hair to stand on end.
My pupils shook as I lifted them up. However, rather than see a pair of grey feet, I saw a pair of eyes instead.
"!"
I wanted to move, no, run away. His face was a scene out of a horror film.
With maggot-infested eyes, his face was lumpy with ulcers. His eyes were looking in different directions, with short strands of hair sprinkled over his otherwise bald head. His teeth had either fallen out or had become yellowed or blackened. He really didn't look human.
"...How ugly~!"
Abruptly, he whipped his head up and manically smiled while he spoke in a sing-song voice.
"BUT!"
He interrupted himself. His grin spread wider, revealing that the ends of his mouths seemed to have been ripped, making his smile even more terrifying.
"You can become an adorable cutie, too~!"
He continued to ramble on and on about all sorts of dissection techniques and exactly how he would use them.
But I didn't care. In fact, I wasn't even grossed out anymore.
"Keuk..."
I—
"HMM? What might yew be doing~!?"
"Ahk—!"
A foot slammed against my skull as I was pressed against the floor.
"Uh ho~ Non non, you can't go~ We have so much fun to get to~~"
Looking up at the man's unfocused pupils and yellow sclera, I felt death.
Yet... I felt nothing. No fear, no anguish, no denial, no anything. But my face betrayed me and distorted into one of pure fear.
Seeing this, the grey man started cackling.
"Kuhahaha~!"
I shut my eyes.
...Just according to keikaku.
"...Huhu, you can't imagine how much fun we'll have~!"
Whatever, you creepy old man, I need to explain my brilliant plan.
The short story is this, power up mid-fight. The long story is based on an old saying.
Magic is the mage's ability to materialize their imagination.
Imagination.
There were always mystical abilities in ancient tales and old stories that seemed to be redundant. They sounded cool, but after some thought, they were inefficient and had better alternatives. For example, divine spears made of lightning, intricate dragons of ice, life-like golems of magma, etc.
But that was the misconception of those who were "smart." In truth, these skills probably didn't consume much power at all. They were... a kind of superpower.
It was materializing themselves into reality. Not merely creating something but actualizing the self.
...No, that was a bad way to put it.
The most accurate explanation I could think of was this.
The Transcendent Realm... no, the Unrestrained Realm was a realm that a person could achieve simply by memorizing what they had seen, heard, and had been taught. With some talent and faithful training, anyone could reach these martial realms.
However, what was beyond this?
The Unrestrained Realm was what I considered to be the ultimate pinnacle of martial prowess, where one was unrestrained by any limits and could fight with their body and will as one. So, what could possibly be beyond such a god-like state?
The answer is surprisingly simple.
It was going further beyond what you've learned and practiced.
It was the discovery of one's inner mysteries and creating wonders based on that or, another way to put it was, defining the concept of your life and transcending its meaning to make it your own.
It was a realm where the fundamental essence that proves a person's existence manifested, the countless experiences of a lifetime materialized with one's self. This was the Materialization of the Mind:
This was the Profound Realm**.
If we went back to the skills I mentioned earlier, the spear of lightning was the manifestation of the user's state of mind or the shape of their soul, which was a spear. The dragon of ice and the magma golems were the same.
The issue was... what? What was I supposed to materialize?
I had barely become an adult before I died. I didn't have a wealth of life experience to materialize in the first place.
...
I looked up briefly to look at my impending doom, and then, something dawned on me.
...No.
I did.
I lived a life as well.
I lived a life where I worked my ass off, too, doing anything and everything I could to the best of my ability, and I do so now.
It was short-sighted of me to think that I didn't have a wealth of life experience. Before looking at what I didn't have, I needed to look at what I did have.
Once I did, my path became clear.
It was tiny, but that tiny, almost obvious change in perspective was almost enlightenment for me.
My eyes began to glow gently as the flow of mana within me began to accelerate.
The story I had written from the day I was born to the day I died and was born again until this very moment began to weave itself throughout my body.
I didn't force any of it.
As soon as I began telling my story, the rest began to follow naturally; all I did was release the dam.
"? What are you dyoing now~?"
I looked up at the grey man and, gathering all the strength I had, I spat out words laced with venom.
"...Killing you."
—FWAAAA
And a powerful, brilliant light flooded the nightscape.
**
3rd Person POV
The light began to fade, and the grey man turned to the light's source.
For the first time in a long time, his scarlet eyes focused, showing the intelligence of a genius researcher sent to study a topic on the frontier of science.
"...Ho?"
His eyes cleared as they took in the sight.
The boy, who had been so helplessly at the man's feet, was no longer laying down, unable to move.
Now, he was on his feet, resplendent golden eyes staring into his bland yellow-tinted ones.
"Haha..."
The maniacal insanity he had was long gone. Right now, the grey man was the former head assistant researcher of the greatest researcher to have ever lived.
His eyes were filled with life and child-like interest as they desperately tried to record everything they saw, but alas, it was too late.
His life had already been severed like a snapping cord.
The last thing he saw, as his head flew off from his neck, was the scene of a boy. A surreal sight of pure white hair and a snowy tail illuminated by the starlight, like a winter fox that had come out a few months too early.
"Beau... tiful."
Were the final words he spoke, as the last wisps of his life fled.
**
Asher POV
I lifted my hands and stared at them.
It was strange.
I had achieved my goal in a completely different way.
I tried moving the newly formed white translucent appendage, which obeyed my will to my pleasant surprise.
Lost in thought, I seemed to have forgotten all about my victory.
Anyways, the nature of this... tail(?) was containing mana like a battery. With it, I was capable of carrying enough mana for the greater spells I was so worried about. I mean, as it was right now, it contained about 4 of my total mana pools, and I didn't know what the upper limit was.
At any rate, this thing resulted from attaining the Profound Realm.
It was, frankly, a complete gamble. The concept of the Profound Realm was a theory I had come up with in my past life after reading too many murim/wuxia novels. I had seen the correlation between what I had imagined and the epics that were in the royal library, but that wasn't enough.
And even if I had believed it was real, I hadn't even reached the Transcendent Realm with my swordsmanship, so I had no clue if I could've even achieved it.
"..."
But I won.
The gamble, I mean.
I could've died easily, but it looked like fate still had plans for me... or something like that.
At least, that was my feeling.
Then, a reflection of the light that my tail was softly emanating entered my eyes. Curious, I turned over to a puddle.
"What the—"
But rather than commenting on my pupils that had become slits, my eyes were drawn to a pair of translucent white ears perked up on the top of my head.
"...Agh!"
I immediately tried to bat them off, but my hands just went through it as if it were nothing but an illusion.
"What are these!?"
But no matter what I tried, I couldn't get rid of them.
"Seriously, what the hell!?"
Unfortunately, it seemed these things were stuck for good.
"...!"
After struggling with these incorporeal pair of masses for a while, I came up with an idea.
I quickly tried to deactivate Materialization, and, almost immediately, the tail and ears faded away.
"Succes—!"
But before I could finish, I flopped onto the ground.
"...?"
Greatly puzzled at the sudden phenomenon to the point where I had yet to blink still, I examined my body.
"Ooooh right, my body was screwed over. I forgot."
With several broken bones and various other injuries, I was a far cry from being okay. In fact, if anyone ever eared of this, they'd be suspicious I was even alive.
"...Haha... ha..."
I deadpanned at my own crappy joke.
Raucous laughter from the pure hilarity of my joke aside... what was I supposed to do now?
I couldn't really move my body at all, and just laying out here could get me killed. That meant I needed to find a place to heal and regain my strength. But it can't be too far since I probably can't move too much without further injuring myself...
My eyes naturally drifted towards the cave.
I spoke with a distasteful face.
"...You gotta be sh*tting me."
*
—Drip.
With the Materialization of the Profound Realm active, I had enough mana to completely control the movement of my body. Using pure augmenting, I could use mana to artificially move my limbs.
"...Tch."
I really didn't like this place anymore. Mainly because I had almost died here and all.
—Thump
Oh yeah, I was currently dragging the corpse of the grey dude with my tail. I didn't know why, but I felt that I should keep him here as evidence or something.
Soon enough, I reached the door.
"Owie."
As I no longer had adrenaline literally pumping through my veins, I was currently also enduring the full brunt force of gravity pushing my absolutely totaled body against the rigid ground.
In any case, I stepped over the rubble and entered what was behind the door.
"!"
I almost puked.
The stench, for one thing, reeked. From what I could tell, it seemed to be a mix of predominately poo, piss, rotting flesh, and a serious case of body odor.
It wasn't just that; the visual stimulation of piles and piles of random limbs and body parts seemingly discarded in massive heaps as well as monsters with malformed and almost mutilated appearances put in cages would make anyone sick to death.
And don't even get me started on the floor that seemed to be a disgusting smoothie of flesh, blood, and guts.
But what made it 10 times worse was how big this place was. The cave seemed to be the size of Ingesseum, and it was filled with this gore.
"No wonder this guy looked so crazy; this place would drive anyone mad."
I glanced at the decapitated body of the grey guy before turning back to the horrific scene.
"...Jeez."
Still, I had to stay here. At least until I healed some.
Finding a relatively clean spot (which wasn't objectively clean at all), I shook my poncho off and spread it out as a mat. Sitting down in a relaxed position, I deactivated my Materialization and did my best to rest.
Though difficult, I needed the sleep.
And soon enough, the power of exhaustion overtook the pungent smell of death.
**
—ip.
—rip.
—Drip.
"...?"
The sound of something dripping entered my ears.
Seeing as I felt that I had rested enough, I cracked my eyes open, curious of the sound.
Blinking a few times, my nose was bombarded by the ridiculously potent odor, and all drowsiness was blown away.
"...Ah!"
It was then I finally realized what the source of the dripping noise was.
It was one of those chimeras... drooling.
"...Jeez, it's ugly."
Seriously, these things were terrifyingly hideous.
But, as it was safely locked behind bars, I rested my head back, doing my best to try to filter the stench. I suppose the best thing to do now was think. Rest and think.
I had been moving and moving endlessly for the last couple of weeks. No matter how much energy I might have, rest was necessary. The worst-case scenario was if I burned myself out or seriously injured myself.
"Ah... that reminds me..."
My ribs were broken.
I closed my eyes.
This was going to hurt.
Putting a piece of fabric in my mouth to bite down on, I lifted my shaky arm and touched one of the broken ribs.
"!"
It hurt.
"Ermphhh!!"
But I didn't stop. Touching each of my ribs, I felt the condition of each bone.
"Phah, hah, haaa..."
After an excruciating amount of time, I managed to feel all of them. Fortunately, I kept a layer of mana within me, and it looked like the bones were just bruised, not broken.
I sighed in relief and closed my eyes.
*
After spending some time ripping apart my poncho into sheets to use as unsanitary bandages, the reality of the situation slowly started catching up with me.
Slowly, I lifted my eyelids and stared at the grey hell before me.
"...Did I just almost fucking die???"
I didn't really notice because I was caught up in the heat of the situation, but I almost died. For real, if I hadn't managed to achieve the Profound Realm, I would've died! Otherwise, there would've been no other way to create a mana weapon.
"..."
I paused for a moment, letting the fact sink in.
"Doesn't that mean...!"
I stared down at myself.
"... I'm freaking awesome!??"
—...awesome ...some ...ome ...mm
My voice echoed in the dreary space.
—...Ugh.
"Oi, did you just groan at me??"
I snapped at one of the chimeras that seemed to have groaned. Was it my imagination? The chimera, which I could've sworn groaned, was standing stiller than a statue.
"Just wait until I'm better..."
I flicked my head away and pouted. But I soon began thinking of my earlier fight.
It was terribly foolish of me. I should've done something else like send a report back or anything. So what if I wouldn't be able to become a Royal Knight for another decade? Something like this should've taken precedence.
Still...
I gained far more than I lost.
The Profound Realm... wasn't like reaching the white core or the Unrestrained Realm. Rather than acquiring a new peak of strength, it was closer to attaining enlightenment. It was like a reawakening of the mind.
Removing all that was unnecessary and letting only the purest, fundamental essence that is proof of your existence manifest and materialize as yourself.
That was why activation and deactivation were so seamless. It was because it was more like an inborn trait rather than a skill.
It was fundamentally different and...
An unknown cause made me sigh.
...I was fundamentally different as well.
"..."
In the end, it was a bunch of metaphysical knowledge that was pretty much nonsense to my immature mind.
Perhaps the simplest explanation was that the Profound Realm was simply like another Realm, a level of swordsmanship, kind of. Like how you didn't need to have a perfect body to be able to know how to perform a Secret Art, one didn't need to be a white core to attain the Profound Realm. It was a bad analogy, but it was perhaps the easiest to think of.
In any case, I felt it was a fluke that I managed to attain the Profound Realm like this, but...
My consciousness began to fade. It seemed that I needed more rest than I expected.
...I felt...
My eyes began to close.
...That all would be explained... eventually...
And like that, I fell asleep peacefully.
**
3rd Person POV
In the silence of the darkness, lit only by the occasional mana core and magic stone, the chimeras began to shy away.
It wasn't because of the strange boy that had arrived a while ago.
That wasn't scary to them, especially after what the master had done to them.
What caused them to cower, despite their massive obscene bodies, was an ethereal figure.
Dressed in a graceful white robe with flowing, almost glittering, white hair that cascaded like a waterfall, the existence seemed to almost float across the ground.
Their footsteps, lighter than a feather, carried her through the blood and guts that caked the floor.
Eventually, the being stopped.
They bent down, tucking some of their hair behind an ear as they smiled gently.
The being lightly touched the boy's face.
"You've done, so, so well..."
Her voice was smooth and clear, yet also otherworldly, like as though it were a voice belonging to a ghost.
It was eerie but still somehow beautiful.
"...So, sleep. Sleep soundly for when you awake, all will be well..."
Her smile deepened as her gem-like golden eyes crinkled yet still sparked like a pair of stars.
"...My child."
**If you couldn't tell by my references, the profound realm refers to achieving the level of mastery over magic and oneself to be able to materialize your mind, or the shape of your mind. This is just me ripping off Volcanic Age though.
In any case, I'm setting it so that the Lances will have reached the Profound Realm, their unique signature techniques being the materialization of their minds.
A/N:
The plot thickens again!
Next chapter will be a solid time skip of around 11 months. So fast-forwarding to near the end of his Asceticism Journey.
Anyways, It's been kinda crazy, going straight into the story like this again, makes me think I'm kinda rushing a bit. I don't even know if I'm getting the suspense right.
I hope I am though.
Regardless, that's enough from me.
Thanks for reading!
Rua