Jenna had learned to fly with her newfound powers of the soul. In a mixture of excitement and fear, her careless curiosity made her wish to know more about this ability.
The air was hot, and the decomposing vegetation made breathing hard as she quietly sat down on a rock and closed her eyes.
The stern woman began meditating once again. Her long brown hair waved in the wind as the world's elements began twirling around her soul. It resonated with them as the world's essences grew hotter and accelerated, making a small cloud.
*Crrrrrrk!*
Jenna opened her eyes to the loud vibrating noise. The cloud slowly dissipated. Before realizing what had happened, she heard a loud thud and looked over, finding a tall fallen pine tree to her right.
Looking at the tree stump, she saw a golden aura forming the shape of a gigantic buddha which had punched the tree. Looking closer, she realized her trainer was controlling it, doing the same exact movements. The aura the size of a 10 metres tall mech had surrounded him like a forcefield.
"Now is the time for the real deal. Do you want to learn how to do this?"
Jenna got up in amazement. A grin quickly formed on Jenna Angel's face. "Do I want to learn how to do that? Hell yeah!"
The aura grew smaller and disappeared into the NPC's body. He smiled, "What you saw was a manifestation of my soul, a soul manifestation. There isn't any way to explain how to manifest it. Feel your soul, believe you can do it, and desire it to manifest."
Jenna bonded her hands by interlocking her fingers as she placed them on her heart and closed her eyes again.
With a serious and focused expression, she began concentrating, trying to reach within her soul while repeating a mantra. "I am one with my soul, I trust in its power, I bring forth its manifestation."
As she recalled this mantra, a golden glow appeared in her hands and pulsed about her body. With each heartbeat, the aura grew exponentially, and before long, it had reached 8 metres above her, finally manifesting into a concrete shape.
Jenna opened her eyes. Her pupils turned to gold, and her scleras became pure white. She noticed the golden light all around her, and though she could not see the shape from within it, she could feel what the soul manifestation resembled.
It was an angelic figure, a woman with precious feathered wings, each the same size as its gigantic body.
The first thing she did was smash her giant palm to the ground. However, Jenna wasn't accustomed to this ability and fell on her knees, breathless. The golden hand disappeared and left a deep handprint on the ground.
The bald, humble bot gave her his hand. "You'll need to continue practising on your own if you want to maintain the soul manifestation longer."
Jenna caught her breath and got back up with his help. "So, do I pass?! Can I get out?"
The NPC frowned. "Yes, well, actually, this soul transportation machine is not made for transporting multiple souls at different intervals, so you need to wait until your comrades finish their training so you can go back all at once."
Jenna Angel touched her chin as she examined the walls boxing her in. 'Then, could this mean that we are all in the same virtual world right now? I need to fly up above the walls and see!'
"Can I take a stroll?"
"Of course, watching over you is not my job."
...
"AARGH!!!" The glowing red orb on Aaron's nose traumatized him.
His head blew up, leaving a headless body which disappeared shortly after his death.
He appeared on four legs, his body completely renewed. 'Gaah! How can the pain be this real?!'
The wind mage had lost count of how many times he had died. Blowing up and again, he had experienced extreme pain at the hands of his sadistic trainer.
Aaron had lost the will to dodge and screamed endlessly, hoping the NPC would eventually stop killing him.
But nothing had changed.
He kept suffering, tortured to death every time he found himself on the ground again.
'I have experienced this pain countless times already. What even is pain?'
It was gruesome. Any ordinary person would have gone mad, but not Aaron. He was a mage, and even at his young age, he went against criminals, lost his parents, got betrayed by his younger brother, and even crossed the line, killing Crow.
Knowing his current strategy was pointless, Aaron Amon got on his two feet, ready to try the other option.
"This isn't real life. Dying means nothing-"
"AAAH!"
But it wasn't that simple. The short woman threw another orb at Aaron's neck and decapitated him.
Aaron appeared on his two legs this time. He looked her dead in the eye as he prepared to counterattack with wind magic.
"I WILL DEFEAT YOU!"
The woman AI smiled with excitement.
...
"LEARN! EMBRACE THEM! USE THE BLACK FLAMES!" Luo's trainer spat black fire across the burning forest as the mage ran away.
Luo avoided them, but he was approaching his limit. He had numerous burn marks, and his clothes were all torn up. 'This has been going on for hours. I haven't even landed a single blow! Should I really... try to use them?'
Luo contemplated if he should follow the middle-aged man's orders and try learning how to make black flames despite their ominous presence.
They were hotter than anything he could fire and produced ashes everywhere they hit. The air was also suffocating and irritating for the nose.
The man in the black and white suit prepared for another row of flames by fueling the fire with anger.
"FUCK, JUST DO IT! YOU KNOW YOU WANT THIS POWER! PUT YOUR ANGER IN YOUR FLAMES!"
He threw more flames at Luo, who hid behind a tree trunk but suffered major burns.
"HOW ELSE WILL YOU AVENGE YOUR DEAD COMRADES?!"
Luo couldn't breathe. He ran away from the fire while coughing out the ashes.
'Dammit! Will I die in real life if I die here? How do I go back-'
Instead, he turned his feet abruptly and faced the flames. 'No... he's right."
"RAAAH!" Luo screamed with hatred directed at the apostle, the demon who had killed hundreds of thousands. At last, he summoned the black flames himself.
His two hands filled with black fire as he walked forward with only one thing on his mind: killing the apostle.
"HE'S RIGHT. IT'S THE ONLY WAY!"
Author's note: Thanks for reading! We're finally at the 50th chapter! Luo, Aaron, Jenna, and Isaac have/are getting buffed, and I have a lot more planned out in the upcoming chapters...