Whatever it takes

After saying goodbye to Elrich; Aran wielded his sword with both of his hands and slowly started to walk toward the entrance. He could see the bright sunlight coming from the entrance as he walked towards it. But it was very far away.

Since he was in the dark; he had to be on his guard and always be ready for the fight. He had to rely on his senses in the darkness and take every step with caution.

He focused on every little sound he can hear, and when he heard a breath of the beast, instantly he realized the beast's position.

Suddenly Aran shifted his mana to his arms and legs to strengthen it.

When the beast started charging towards him, he took his position and got ready for the attack. Because he was waiting for the beast to move.

As the beast ran towards aran, he also charged towards the beast and just before the beast could jump on him and attack with its fangs; aran used the attacking form of the sword technique and swung his sword and also used the Mana to jump left at the same time.

Even though it was dark; since he already felt the beast's presence and was ready to attack, aran successfully injured the beast at its shoulder and jump to his left at the same time.

Aran knew that he can't fight against the beast in the dark so he had to lure the beast to the light. And he also had to move towards the entrance before the beast can get to him.

So he immediately transferred more mana to his legs and ran towards the entrance, as fast as he can.

Even though the beast was stronger than him, it lacked Intelligence. Taking advantage of it was the only way for Aran to win against the beast.

So he had a good plan to fight against the beast.

**

Aran hadn't seen sunlight for days; so when he gets out, he had to adapt himself to the sunlight as fast as he can and get ready to attack the beast.

When the beast comes out of the cave following him, since the beast was in a slumber in the darkness for a long period, it will also take the beast, a brief moment; to get used to the sunlight. Aran wanted to take advantage of that moment, to attack the beast!

After coming out of the cave; Aran quickly got used to the sunlight and took an attacking position facing the came, and when the beast came out of the cave, running towards Aran; it closed its eyes due to the flash blindness.

When aran got the first glimpse of it, he saw that the beast had a physique of a tiger but its skin was dark purple coloured. Although its fangs just looked like those of a normal tiger, the beast's claws were the deadliest he had ever seen.

When the beast closed its eyes, Aran took this chance and jumped on the beast and swung his sword at the beast, performing all the forms of the technique! The attack left the beast with nineteen wounds, and it fell where aran was standing before the attack.

It was only possible because Aran used most of his Mana in that attack. After the attack, it was difficult for him to even stand straight.

But aran was still standing. He was still holding his sword in the attacking position because he knew that the beast isn't down yet!

The beast didn't have any elemental powers but it had a rapid healing ability. Its healing was almost ten times faster than any ordinary beast. So he knew that it was not possible to kill the beast even with that attack.

The only way to kill that beast was to slash both of its eyes. Because its eyes were the primary Mana points in its body. But even when the beast closed its eyes and couldn't see anything; it defended its eyes first, as the survival instinct. So Aran had to be faster than the beast to attack its eyes.

The objective of aran's previous attack wasn't to kill the beast but to slow it down!

***

It took both Aran and the beast, a moment to get ready for the next attack.

Aran knew that he can't attack the beast and defend himself at the same time. Because his mana was too low to do both. He used more Mana in the previous attack than he had already planned.

He had to either defend himself or attack the beast. Even if he defended himself, he knew that he can't fight anymore. So he decided to lower his defence to fight the beast.

Aran knew that he can't survive the beast's attack, but he was happy to know that even a weakling like him can have a warrior's death.

He thought of this as the final moment of his life and with that thought, he jumped at the beast with everything he got as the beast jumped at him.

Aran lowered his defences and let the beast attack him. When the beast saw that and tried to attack Aran, with both of its claws;  Aran utilized that moment to perform the final attack. He infused all the remaining mana he had with his sword as he swung the sword and slashed the beast's eyes when its defence got weak.

Although he successfully attacked the beast, since his defence was also down;  the beast's claws managed to pierce through his chest and both fell alongside each other.

After falling, Instantly the beast got up and went berserk at its last moment, But it couldn't survive long. Since its eyes were the primary Mana points on its body, without the eyes it couldn't heal itself and soon it bled to death!

Aran was also severely injured! He couldn't move his body. With every breath he took, it became more and more difficult for him. His hearing slowly weakened and he started to lose consciousness. His vision started to get blurry! and it continued like that; until there was absolute darkness!

***

Aran heard a loud sound of a water drop falling into a constant water pool and opened his eyes.

When he opened his eyes, he couldn't see anything. Soon he realized that it was not the fault of his sight But he was at a place where only darkness exists.

The place was so quiet that he could hear his own heartbeat.

As he tried to take a step, he noticed that the floor was filled with water and he could hear the sound of him stepping on the water every time he took a step.

Aran couldn't figure out where he is and what was happening. He couldn't even remember what happened to him and how he got there.

"Is anyone here?"  Aran started to shout But there was no reply. He didn't know what to do, so he just continued walking. After walking for a while, as he was about to lose his mind at what was happening,

"You fought well kid, you are worthy! "

Aran heard a familiar voice coming from behind him. When he turned around, he realized that it was Elrich.

Aran was confused, about how he could see Elrich in that darkness. After seeing Elrich, he gradually regained his memories. He remembered how he met Elrich and his fight against the Beast.

"Am I dead?" Aran asked.

"Not yet! "  Elrich replayed calmly. It looked like Elrich was looking for something around there.

"Where am I? and why are you here? "

Aran got a slight idea of where he is after regaining his memories, but he wanted to confirm it and wanted to know why Elrich was there.

"This is the place where people come; before they die and I am here to look for something.

It won't take long. It will be here in a moment." Elrich said.

Aran couldn't understand what Elrich was talking about.

"What will be here? "

"That! " Elrich replied pointing his finger at something.

When Aran turned toward where Elrich was pointing, he saw a flash of light moving toward them.

When that light got closer to them; Aran figured that it was a slide of his memory. After passing through them, that slide continue to move away from there, for a long way before it got completely disappeared.

After the first slide, more memory slides continued to emerge and move toward them. In those slides, Aran saw some of his happiest memories.

He soon realized that it was his last flash of memories and that he is going to die!  He couldn't accept the fact, that he got so close to his dream but couldn't achieve it. He immediately fell on his knees; thinking that if only he was stronger!

Although Aran was having his last moment, Elrich just continued to watch those memories without minding him.

He saw all of Aran's memories. He saw how aran was gifted with a strong soul and had stronger soul cultivation since he was a child and he also saw how Aran learned most of the low-level sword techniques, faster than others; at a very young age, and how he learned many things through reading hundreds of books.

Elrich realized that Aran had the potential of getting a lot stronger; if he had broken through to the next stage and awakened any elemental attributes. He realized why he felt a little different about Aran when he first met him.

When his doubts got cleared and he confirmed what he was looking for; He finally decided to take action.

***

Elrich walked towards Aran who was on his knees and extended his right hand towards Aran. As aran looked at it, some kind of a star-shaped light appeared on his hand.

"Take my hand! " Elrich said.

Aran looked at that star and couldn't understand what it is and why Elrich is doing this.

"What is this? " he asked because he wanted to know what that is before doing something.

Elrich knew that if he didn't say everything, Aran will ask more questions. But there wasn't much time to explain everything. So he wanted to quickly explain some important things and make Aran accept it before it was too late.

"It's a divine soul-binding technique. If you accept this; a part of my soul will be bounded with yours and it will help you strengthen your soul and give you some more time to recover yourself from your injuries.

After that, you will obtain my divine soul vision skill, which only the cultivators of the divine soul realm possess.

After the soul binding, the book that contains all my knowledge will become a part of your soul and it will appear and disappear just by your thought, whenever you want.

With this you can learn all the demonic techniques I knew when I was living and the greatest techniques I created after I turned into a soul. It also has some heavenly techniques I recently created.

Just don't learn all of them at once, your mind can't handle it.

It's a book I created using a part of my soul, so it has its own will. It can do most of the things I can, use it properly.

I'm not giving this to you, for no reason!

When you get strong enough, You will get my revenge for me. You will get the remaining details in the book. If you accept these conditions, then take my hands and accept the soul-binding!"

Although Aran did not know anything about revenge or most things elrich had just said, he thought that it might be difficult but he had no other choice. He felt like he is getting more than he deserved.

So, he placed his hands on the star, that appeared on Elrich's hands, and accepted the conditions!

Suddenly some kind of threads of light begin to spread out of that star and started to bind Aran and Elrich's hands together! And Elrich slowly turned into small pieces of light and flew away in the darkness.

The memory slides which were disappeared, begin to reappear and move in the opposite direction; towards where they all came from. The threads continued to bind Aran's whole body and finally, they covered his eyes, blinding him.

Aran tried to open his eyes, but he felt some restrain. As he tried harder and harder to open his eyes, he started to feel his body. He also started to feel the pain and the pain begin to increase as he tried harder.

After trying for a long time, when Aran opened his eyes, he was finally awake!