Sky Piercer Force

Nathan recalled the Sky Piercer Mantra in perfect detail. It was glass-clear down the last syllable. He still didn't know what it meant since it wasn't a language meant to be understood.

The Heavenly Demon had tried to explain it a couple of times with euphemisms like it being akin to the whispers of the wind, the creaking of a growing tree, or the murmur of the shifting ground. It didn't convey meaning, but it held the truth of the world.

By chanting the mantra of a Mystic Art, depending on what kind of Mystic Art it was, one could communicate with the world itself and use it to grow stronger somehow.

'How is that even supposed to work?'

Nathan had never understood it. But the Heavenly Demon and their cult were proof enough that it didn't need to be understood to work.

The Sky Piercer Mantra also sounded slightly different from the other mantras Nathan had heard, so he wasn't even sure if it followed the same principle as the others.

Nathan sighed with a frown.

Remembering his conversation with the Heavenly Demon reminded him of how dire his current position was. He was forced to rely on a suspicious Mystic Art. He didn't like it.

Nathan swore vengeance upon the Heavenly Demon for putting him in this position.

Then, he set aside his thoughts and focused on the mantra so that he could start training the Sky Piercer Codex. 

As soon as he began chanting it, Nathan felt his consciousness tremble. The mystical words flowed from his lips and wrapped around him like a swarm of glowing butterflies. Nathan's awareness of his surroundings faded.

Usually, Nathan would be alarmed since he was always on guard. It was one of the many consequences of racking up enemies in a dystopian world with more danger than grains of sand in the desert. Currently, he also had to be wary of the Vijang Syndicate.

However, he was calm—calmer than he had been since his regression.

No, it wasn't that he was calm. He could still feel the frustration, anger, and confusion at everything that had happened. But he was also looking at it from a third-person perspective. It gave him an incredible opportunity to figure out what he felt and thought and why he felt and thought what he did.

Nathan reluctantly had to admit that the Heavenly Demon hadn't lied. Mystic Arts were good for the mind.

The outside perspective of his mind was just the beginning.

Nathan's consciousness expanded and floated just outside his body. Contradictorily enough, he felt the state of his body better than ever. He could count the number of ruptured and torn blood vessels. He could measure the length of the fractures in his bones.

As Nathan chanted the mantra without being swept away by the wondrous surprise, he felt a mysterious force move through his body. It was so faint that he wouldn't have noticed it without Peerless Perception. It was less than a single drop of rain in the ocean.

The effect it had on his body was next to nonexistent. But it was undeniable that it tried to affect his body.

Nathan was suspicious at first.

But it didn't take long before he figured out that this mysterious force was the goal of the Sky Piercer Codex.

'Already?'

From what he remembered, many Mystic Arts revolved around the accumulation of some kind of force or energy, depending on the specific art. But that simple idea had stumped countless who wanted to become the next Heavenly Demon.

Nathan's Peerless Perception helped since it became easier to control and gather more of the force when he could sense it as soon as it came into existence. But even without Peerless Perception, Nathan would have accumulated enough to sense before long.

Nathan would have scoffed if he wasn't in a trance.

He continued chanting the mantra, attracting, accumulating, and guiding the Sky Piercer Force in his body. When the amount surpassed three or four drops in the ocean, Nathan noticed the effect it had on his recovery. So far, it was as good as reducing the time he needed to recover by an hour.

But if he had a handful of drops of Sky Piercer Force or more, Nathan could start competing with physical reinforcement awakeners.

Nathan continued chanting until his lips, tongue, mouth, throat, vocal cords, and mind were numb. He had gathered seven units of Sky Piercer Force. It wasn't as much as he had hoped he would get, but it would have to do for now since he had reached his limits.

However, even if he had reached his limits, Nathan felt refreshed. He had plucked apart his mind and arranged his feelings and thoughts so they were less unruly. He had started piecing together his body. And he had shortened the time necessary to grow as strong as he needed to root out the Vijang Syndicate and take revenge for his parents.

If he had been a better person, he would have apologized to the Heavenly Demon for disparaging Mystic Arts to the degree he had. But he wasn't a good person.

The Heavenly Demon would also be too stunned at Nathan's progress to care about an apology.

The mystical letters of the mantra faded and turned into vanishing specks of invisible dust when he stopped chanting. Nathan sank back into his body and he returned to being an ordinary mortal, caught in the fetters of his mind and the chains of his heart.

'Okay, I kind of get it. I should have done this earlier.'

Nathan got up. No, he tried to get up. Instead, he fell to his side.

His legs were stiff. His body was tired and numb. And he was all out of energy. It felt like he hadn't eaten in days.

"Urgh."

"Nate! You're conscious!"

Anita held a glass of water to Nathan's parched lips and helped him sit up again. Her eyes were red with worry.

"What happened to you?"

Nathan sipped on the water until he was in a condition to talk.

"I was training, I guess you could say."

"By remaining motionless surrounded by weird light for five days?! You had us worried sick!"