Subconscious Overtake (01)

Val entered a Tunnel Hallway which led into the Training Hall.

'Old routine'

Several veiled deacons seen standing at the end of the hallway. Val came and halted before the entrance door.

- "We greet his grace the third"

All deacons knelt. Without looking at them, Val gave a nod and stretched his hands wide.

- "Then pardon us your grace"

After receiving Val's permission, the head deacon signaled others to remove Val's chimere and vest. As Val was only left with his black collarless shirt tucked in black pants, 3 pair of deacons approached him holding a tray of magic armor equipments.

They put copper cuffs on his both ankles and wrists. Then, copper shoulder pads on both shoulders. Then, a copper gorget on his chest, and finally a copper crown armor on his head.

'It's too flashy'

Thought Val as he looked at the equipments. Every piece were embedded with 5 marble shaped mana stones, giving 5 chances to absorb enemy attacks before becoming useless.

To check them, Val activated the equipments using his mana.

Woong!

Upon activation, a pair of blue mana gauntlets, pair of mana pauldrons, pair of mana greaves, a mana breastplate and a mana helmet formed on Val's body.

- "Is my brother already here?"

Asked Val in indifferent tone after deactivating his armor.

- "We were informed that his grace the second will arrive soon"

After hearing it, Val moved toward the left wall where all types of weapon were racked and picked up a ring and a sword. Val put the ring in his left hand and signaled deacons to open the entrance door.

***

Clack

The doors closed behind Val as he entered the Training Hall. It was as big as a baseball field, several rays of sunlight shone inside the hall, passing through the gaps of dome, illuminating the interior. It was circular in shape which looked more like the indoor stadium with several towering pillars and statues of knights built around the hall.

'It's vacant. Zion's doing I suppose'

Usually in every previous sparring session, many knights stood around the hall to ensure the safety but it was totally vacant now.

'They always ignored Val anyways. Let's warm up first'

Val pierced his sword in the ground and did some simple stretches. Then, he channeled his mana to his limbs to amplify the strength and speed. A blue aura started emanating from his limbs, leaving a straight trail like smoke, flickering and fading at the end.

Although, he was continuously using the primal mana breathing method but it didn't enhanced his physical capabilities as it was nature's raw mana. His body didn't calibrated with the nature's mana yet but it did increase his mana regeneration rate a little.

'Next, flexibility'

Val performed some acrobatic moves like cartwheel, aerial cartwheel, backflip and handstand. In the handstand position, his instincts rang off and he stood back up with a flip.

Clack

Zion entered in hall from the opposite side, holding a greatsword and wearing the same equipments. Doors closed and he walked toward the center while gritting his teeth. His whole body emanated a similar blue aura, giving him an intimidating look.

'He's furious, well that's better for me'

Val picked up his sword, activated his magic armor and walked toward the center. Soon, they both halted 30 steps away from each other.

- "How dare a sinful existence like you tried to stand before me. It seems like you are very eager to die. Well, I'll happily grant that wish of yours"

Said Zion fiercely. Val's confident walk and activation of his magic armor, provoked him greatly.

- "Do you still have my lost pendant in your possession?"

Asked Val indifferently after ignoring Zion bluntly

- "You...you really seek death, don't you?"

Zion pointed his greatsword at Val, holding with a single hand

- "I want it to be returned"

- "This scoundrel...you want it back? Then try to take it"

Fwp!

Zion vanished from his place as he shot toward Val in a terrifying speed, but Val stayed still in his place, unfazed.

In a blink, Zion was just 6 steps away. Second blink, he vanished again.

'So predictable'

Sighed Val before throwing a kick behind his back. His kick got connected with Zion's abdomen and sent him flying backward by few meters.

Zion managed to land on his feet. Clutching his stomach, he froze momentarily, baffled by Val's irregular movement.

- "How dare you"

pssssss fuwok

Enraged, Zion clenched his sword while glaring at Val, his sword turned hot red and then enveloped in raging flames

Seeing that, Val reverse gripped his sword and froze it in an ice layer

kirikikikkkk

And the fight began in earnest

Slash!

Zion sent a wave of flames toward Val with a slash, then followed it up by lunging at him. But

Fwish BOOM!

Val ducked the flames, inclined his body forward and shot toward Zion like a spring, shattering the ground underneath his feet.

'This'

Zion flinched in the middle of his motion and abruptly attacked Val

BOOM!! psssss

Both of them clashed and thick vapors released from the collision of their sword

Using his strength, Zion shoved Val back easily

Bang

Val got bounced back and stopped after scraping the ground. In a blink, Zion appeared in front of him and started raining the attack

Slash Clang!.. Swish Screech!.. Slice Cling!.. Swoop Stab

But Val dodged and deflected his every attack while moving backward. As he already knew the attack patterns of Zion, Val moved to evade Zion's attack almost at the same time as Zion moved to attack Val, which made them appeared like performing a well coordinated dance.

'H-How is this'

Bewildered, Zion started attacking more desperately

Slash Swish Cling! Stab Clang!

While evading the attacks, Val thought

'I need to break his fighting spirit before he decides to use his divinity'

As of now, Val could barely match Zion's speed, not to mention his superior strength, but if Zion decided to use his divinity, then Val wouldn't be able to take even 3 hits from him.

Zion was prideful, he didn't activated his armor and used his divinity because he didn't consider Val as a threat.

So, Val decided to take advantage of this.

Slash!

Zion made a horizontal swing but instead of dodging, Val purposely blocked his heavy attack by taking it head on, and due to the strong impact, he flung away

Val pierced his sword in the ground and used his feet to stop the momentum

Unaware by the trap, Zion quickly lunged at Val

Val stood up but didn't pick his sword, instead he covered his left mana gauntlet in ice and took a step forward

kirikikikkkk

In a blink, Zion came flying straight in front of Val and stabbed his sword toward Val's face

Fwp Swish

But Val deflected Zion's sword with his left hand while moving close to Zion.

'Huh?'

Reaching close enough, he grabbed Zion and slammed him into the ground with a judo throw

BOOM!!

- "Ugh.."

Shock and pain, stunned Zion momentarily, and as he opened his eyes, he saw Val, who stood wearing no emotion but looking at him like looking at an insignificant insect.

The eerie feeling which Val exuded, raised a doubt in Zion's mind. He felt that he was fighting with a completely unknown being.

And the fear of unknown soon inspired into him.

Swing!

Val's sword was just few inches away from his face when Zion flinched and activated his armor instinctively. In Zion's short defenseless state, Val picked up his sword and started swinging at Zion's face ferociously.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

First time seeing such brutal ferocity wearing a face of indifference, fear crawled up to Zion's heart.

In fraction of second, 4 layers of Zion's mana helmet got destroyed. It made him snapped back and Zion hurriedly covered his face with hands.

Not wasting any time, he mixed his divinity with mana and cast a fire magic.

Shwaaaaa!

A huge fire pillar shot up from Zion's hand and engulfed half of the hall including Val completely. Zion took that opportunity to get back on his feet and quickly distanced himself from Val.

- "I-It's a fitting end for a sinister existent li-"

Swoosh!

Zion froze in mid sentence as he saw his flame pillar dispelled in vapors by a cold gale in an instant.

Pssssss

As Vapors cleared, Val was seen standing with a mana shield which was covered in damaged ice layer while his minorly burned clothes, revealed the bandages of his chest.

'1 mana shield, 1 mana layer of helmet and 2 mana layers of breastplate, these are all remain now. And after using the Mistral Wind, I only left with quarter of my mana'

With his super instincts, Val quickly deployed the mana shield from his ring and covered it with the ice layer which reduced the damages. But even though he faced no problem using a high scale magic because of his inhumane belief system, the mana consumption was quite high.

Zion sensed the drop in Val's mana and used his divinity. As his eyes started glowing and body emanated a fade golden aura, Zion flew and levitated in mid air.

- "hehehe... This is the difference between us. Hehehaha.. You, you people are an unsightly stain to this sacred world, who are not even deserve to breath the same air. And out of all, you are the most ugliest one"

Fwp!!

Zion teleported in front of Val and punched toward his stomach. While Val couldn't able to react to that speed but his hand reflexively moved the shield to cover his body.

Bang!

Val went flying and crashed in the wall.

BOOM!

'Ugh'

After recovering from the shock, Val struggled to remove himself from the cavity of shattered wall.

Thud

'This is bad'

Val stood up weakly while holding his left broken hand and face, half covered in blood. With destroyed armor and heavy injuries, he was now completely defenseless but still, there was no change in his indifferent expressions.

- "Struggle all you want because it'll be your last"

Levitating arrogantly, Zion laughed at Val's miserable state.

'This is the only way'

Drooping in pain, Val weakly lifted his right hand to aimed at the entrance door near him

Kirikikikkk

Several ice arrows appeared above Val but before he could launched them

- "No you don't"

Zion shot several fire balls at Val

Swoosh

As they came with a lightning speed, Val tried to dodged it but still got caught up in the fiery explosion.

BOOM!

The strong impact thrown Val dozens of meters away as he came to stop after rolling on the ground.

pssss

Unconscious, he laid with his right side severally burned leaving his shirt and bandages in tatter. The intense pain from his burned and broken body, on top of his rock bottom mana, thrown him into a slumber.

***

From the start, Val's first priority was his safety. Not because he was afraid of death but simply because he was bound by a condition which was the necessary requirement for his purpose.

The second step to attain Moksha required the individual to conquer the corporeal body by awakening of all chakras, but it had one strict condition of eligibility. According to it, the individual's body must remain or maintain in its natural state until the awakening of first chakra.

If the body suffered any type of internal injury or had any organ replaced or any part amputated, then it'd be consider as the disturbed state and if the natural state of the body get disturbed then it'd also disturb the chakras which would permanently restrict their awakening.

Since, Val was in a magical world, healing any internal and external injuries was quite easy but it'd be different if his limbs or any part got amputated.

He always repeated in his mind to be careful not to break his frail body, but surrounded by all these vicious hostility, it was just his wishful thinking.

- "Huh? He is still alive even after this? Whatever, you shouldn't have acted like that in the first place. See, now I need to shred you apart myself"

Said Zion with a wicked smile as he levitated over Val but when he raised his hand at Val, Val's body twitched

- "huh?"

Val stood up slowly like a zombie with his head drooping and his body emanating a strong mana pulse.

Woong! Woong! Woong!

- "S-Struggle all you like.."

Zion got flustered by the strange mana pulse and distanced himself from Val, but soon he left in utter daze after realizing that Val was not drooping because of his injuries and weakness but because he was still unconscious.

The strong will to keep his body safe and sensing the looming threat, the subconscious of Val got forcibly awakened and taken over his body control to ensure his safety.

Woong! Swish!

As mana pulse ceased, Val stood up straight with his eyes still closed and his whole body started to turn blue

- "W-What is happening? W-What is he mumbling?"

- "Mana calibration increased by 54%, mana healing available, recovering injuries.."

Said Val in an inaudible robot like voice

BOOM!

With a mana explosion, his blue skin shredded and faded away, while his injuries healed completely and his skin rejuvenated and recovered.

His subconscious mind, which had a cellular level of control over his body, modified his cells to calibrate with nature's mana. It increased the calibration up to the point where the healing ability made available to use.

- "H-How is this possible? I-I never saw this much of mana"

Shwa Shwa

Abysmal amount of blue aura emanated from Val's body reaching all the way to the ceiling as his mana capacity increased by 10 times and his temple rank changed from Apprentice-Priest to Arch-Priest. But his mana capacity was not the only thing which improved.

- "Starting Threat Elimination"

A robot like voice was heard

{Notification: Author is taking a 2 week break for personal reasons.

Chapter 012 - Subconscious Overtake (02) will release on 18/Mar}