Enlightenment

Emile stood up and pulled his arm over his head, he bent over and touched his toes and then did a few squats. Meanwhile, Pyra vanished into the sea of lava.

After receiving Emile's request, she stepped onto the lava and began sinking into the depths. Shortly after, the sea began to boil.

Waves of magma crashed into one another, smoke marinated the air and the temperature began to rapidly climb. Then, out in the distance on a remote island, a slime burst from the magma and occupied the island.

Another slime jumped from the lava, then another. Suddenly, waves of slimes piled on top of one another, crowding the smaller stone islands.

Soon, the slimes began erupting on the main island where Emile was. Ten, twenty, a hundred, two hundred, the slimes continued to burst from the lava.

In the center of the platform, with his scimitar on his shoulder, Emile watched the plentiful slimes with gleeful eyes. Before diving in, he inspected his soul core:

[Soul Rank: Chosen]

[Soul Saturation: 563/1000]

[Soul Essence: 482/500

[Gift: Breath of Essence]

[Description: Accelerate cell growth and division and increase soul essence production]

[Enhancement: Breath of Essence is applied to self]

[Relics: Enlightened Nimbus Charm, Enlightened Royal Scimitar]

'Halfway there'

Emile inhaled through his nose and released a heavy sigh from his lips, he lifted his sword from his shoulder and scanned the army of slimes before him. Picking out one from the crowd, Emile bent over and fed Nimbus some essence.

Emile exploded. He appeared in front of the wall of slimes in a second.

Wielding his scimitar, he slashed across the wall. Immediately, a handful of slimes popped and dissolved into essence.

[Chosen Blazed Slime Slain] x 7

Emile didn't rest. He reversed his grip on his sword and slashed skyward, mincing the slime's bulbous form into neatly cut cubes.

After he finished slaughtering the slimes on his platform, he instantly activated Nimbus and flew to another island. Since the islands were overcrowded to begin with, the boot of Emile's shoes crushed a handful of slimes as he landed.

Seventy against one, the slimes began to counterattack. Hundreds of blood orange tentacles grew from the slime's bodies and soared towards Emile.

As if he were omnipotent, Emile carefully took control of his body and narrowly evaded the onslaught of attacks. Simultaneously, his sword never stopped hunting.

While perfectly dodging, Emile cut down another twenty slimes. He evaded attacks from the front, back, and sides. He cut the tentacles he couldn't avoid and pierced the body of any slime that was within his reach.

Very quickly, the small island Emile found himself on was empty. He hopped across the lava and repeated the process.

Needless to say, it was a massacre. Every second that passed two or three slimes burst into essence, Emile's hunting proficiency had never been so great.

Two hours later, Emile stood alone. He returned to the center island, to the center of the labyrinth, and brought forth his soul core.

[Soul Saturation: 984/1000]

"Pyra—" Emile called out.

"Yes?" She manifested beside him.

"Would you mind summoning sixteen more slimes?" Emile asked, his eyes burning with vigor.

"Not a problem!" Pyra clapped her hands and the lava surrounding the center platform began to boil once more.

One at a time, sixteen slimes bounced onto the stone in quick succession. The slimes were perfectly distanced, surrounding Emile from every side.

But Emile didn't care. The likes of slimes were nothing more than ants to him.

He cast his gaze around and thought of an idea.

'What if I never stop pouring essence into the Nimbus Charm?'

'Does the effect stack?'

Emile gently touched the amulet around his neck. It slowly began to glow, the white cloud burning a bright white.

As the light strengthened, Emile's body began to shake. Like a glitch in a video game, Emile's being started to distort.

Nothing bad was happening, at least he didn't think. Emile didn't feel any pain, so he continued to pump essence into the charm.

While his body was violently vibrating, Emile was studying this new sensation. From his understanding of the Nimbus Charm, it converted essence into energy, or light.

The light is then imbued into Emile's cells, allowing him to move at incredible speeds. Theoretically, he should be able to move at the speed of light.

Or at least, this process could hypothetically allow him to move that fast. The issue lied in Emile himself. Even though his cells temporarily merged with light, they didn't entirely become light.

It was more split than that, half of his cells had the properties of light while the other half remained solid. This prevented Emile from reaching light speed.

On the other hand, the phenomena currently shaking Emile was due to his lack of movement. The charm stored light in his cells and when he moved, the light would explode, granting Emile his speed.

But since Emile wasn't moving, the charm was continuously stacking light in his cells over and over. The light was fading, but Emile poured so much essence into the charm that it produced far more energy than Emile's body naturally burned by standing still.

As a result, Emile's cells were distorting. They were trying to use the energy, the light, stored in them, but Emile wasn't moving.

At the height of the shaking, Emile finally took a step forward. The platform beneath him cracked and a crater appeared where he first stood.

Emile exploded forward and the space he once stood imploded, the air collapsed and an explosion occurred. Meanwhile, Emile's distorted being transformed into a single streak of white light.

The white light struck like lightning and a single streak of energy appeared around the island, piercing all sixteen of the slimes and forming a halo of light.

The second the thousandth soul soaked his core, Emile felt a miraculous pressure release. As if his core had always been submerged in water, Emile immediately felt light and free.

But that weightlessness only lasted a second, since the next second the evolution began and pain ravaged Emile's body.

[Soul Saturation: 1000/1000]

[Requirements Fulfilled]

[Soul Core Beginning Evolution]