Unhinged and Unbound

"Your neural force training, how fast is it?"

David questions Weiss, hoping to incorporate it into his training to speed it up,

"Our neural force training is extremely slow, I'm afraid, on average, it takes a century training to another level, and the stronger you got, the more resistance it takes to overload"

It wasn't feasible, in their current situation, it seems David had to train a few more decades, yet he hadn't given up, he still remembered word by word the criteria to be fulfilled, and one caught his attention, "only those at level 6 of the mortal shpere or above and celestial races can sense and absorb astral energy", David had no way to be sure, yet there was a possibility that the transendent race could be considered a celestial one, but he was only half correct, the transendent race wasn't a full fledged celestial race yet, but a semi-celestial race as at now.

Based on this assumption, he tried to sense the astral energy again, he sat quitely and still as the dead for a long period of time, but he was used to it, many doubts run through his head the more time passed, maybe the strange space he was stuck in isolated him from the astral energy, or maybe the transendent race was only a mutant variation of the human race, he could only perseve and wish for success.

He almost wanted to stop and continue the way he new how to, but suddenly he felt a warmth, then particles of light, and finally streams of the particles formed, first they floated arround, but as their density increased they started to flow in an anticlockwise direction, by this time the stream was bright with white light, like a cluster of stars, they sparkled and shimmerd as the current got stronger, faster, and more turbulent.

"Is this astral energy?"

David wondered as he observed the starry spectacle, abruptly a voice invaded his tranquility,

"Abosrb it! It will disperse if it gets too density"

David came to his senses, instinctively directing the energy to his brain, the energy syphoned into his brain violently, which caused an immediate backlash,

"You are supposed to gather it in your heart, then disperse it to the rest of your body!"

Weiss complained, David was lucky enough to be able to sense and absorb astral energy, now his fighting for his life, Weiss knew the fate of those whose brain gets invaded by unrefined astral energy, survival was blique.

The energy was unforgiving, despite the pain and roars David let out , the energy continued to enter, creating a vortex that continued to gather more particles of energy as it spinned, getting faster after every revolution, Weiss was in crisis, the SAI was quiet, and David continued to wail and groan, his eyes glowed with pale white light, cracks start to appear arround his body, originating from his eye sockets, his trusty helmet broke away, along with parts of his armour, revealing his face which illustrated pain and anguish, all he could think of was, I can't die yet, I haven't challenged the emperor, I have not even reached the pinnacle of strenght, how a can die.

A figure seated on a throne could be seen, a smirk going from ear to ear was splashed on his face, despite the face looking like it was made of marble, the gems he had for eyes flashed with a turquoise light, as he mouth these words,

"Interesting"

Just as quickly as it began, the deterioration began to reverse, the energy vortex slowed down and faded away, the energy in David's head hastenly dispersed, distributing omogeniously in David body, his eyes closed the they opened followed by a violent boom of energy in the form of electricity, he had stepped into the 6th level.

David's gaze was distant and pensive, his pupils were silver, and it brilliance pierced the darkness, his hair was of the purest white, flowing behind him, markings that resembled tribal tattoos, run across his chest, around his arms, then to his forehead, just like his eyes the markings were a brilliant shade of silver.

He quietly stared into the void for a while, then sundenly widened his eyes, and said

"Break"

With this word, a bolt of lighting shot from his eyes, seemingly dissappearing in the darkness, moments later, a loud crack was heard, followed by a flash of light, the space around him breaks like a curtain suddenly opening to let in sunlight,

"You broke the barrier!"

Weiss who had been quite the whole time finally exclaimed in shock, and amazement, despite Weiss' enthusiasm David didn't reciprocate, he had a look of disinterest and confidence.

He slowly walked with his hands at his back, his head raised up high, he had a serious expression, and despite potential hostility, he wasn't bothered to brandish a weapon, maybe because he could no longer access weapons as a result of the destroyed suit or he just didn't deam it needed.

Warden observed from his lofty throne as his captive swagged out of the cell, but instead of dissapproval he rather smiled and complemented, this is how a true Quintessential should be, noble and unbound, unafraid and domineering.

Meanwhile David was now out, but he found himself in what appeared to be an archive, but what it recorded was still a mystery to David, the archive had an ancient presence to it, it architecture was like none that David had ever seen, it's structure was narrow and was divided into rooms that seemed to go on for an eternity.

In every room there was a path that led to the other rooms, in each rooms there were endless rows of collection, most probably books, at the entrance of every room stood two giant statues made of an unknown alloy of gold, maybe.

The two giant statues were female, they had golden pupils that stood out like David's silver pupils, they also had tattoos similar to that of David, but contrary to David's, their were golden like there pupils, but most importantly, they each wieded mighty lances that glinted with golden brilliance.

David was meters away from the threshold when suddenly a creaking noise and the scrapping of metals could be heard, the statues previously thought to be inanimate, commenced movement.

David was unbothered as he calmly observed the two giants slowly getting into a sort of battle stance, his expression was unchanged seemingly unsurprised by the current turn of event.

It didn't take long, when the two giants pointed their lances at David, they exuded no killing Intent, but they were by no means friendly.

"You are an unidentified entity, state you name and purpose, or go back the way you came"

The statues stated in unison, their voice doubling over each other, it was so loud, the air seem to vibrate.

"How come!"

Warden, who was attentively observing exclaimed, almost jolting from his seat, clearly displeased.

Meanwhile, David who had been faced with these options, turned back to look where he came from, there was the opening to the Void.

The giants, although possessing vocal capabilities weren't intelligent, they didn't understand David's gesture.

"I am David of Alba"

David said, flaunting his sixth level aura followed by the familiar sparks of electricity,

"You are unauthorised, as the guardians of the first Quintessential archive, we sentence you to death"

"That's a bit unreasonable"

SAI commented, as the giants can be seen towering over David who confidently stood with his arms folded on his chest.