Soul Training

In the dark space, Bastian sat cross legged, observing the white haired boy on the other side of the transparent barrier. A look of contemplation was on his face, as he struggled internally with what to do next.

*Buzz*

Then suddenly a loud buzzing noise, like a swarm of bees, entered Bastian's ears.

Sigh, here it comes again.

In preparation for what was about to come, Bastian sat upright and backed away from the barrier.

Although the Soul Force membrane could not get past the barrier, it could at least illuminate the surrounding area, showing what was happening on the other side.

The white haired boy got up the moment he heard the buzzing, then, in frenzy, he backed himself into the barrier, completely ignoring Bastian's presence.

The source of the buzzing was directly where the white haired boy was looking at. The white haired boy screamed, as if he was suffering excruciating agony. The louder the buzzing sound became, the closer the source of the sound was.

At some point, the source of the buzzing noise came into the area illuminated by Bastian's Soul Force membrane.

It was what looked like a group of ghost like translucent creatures covered in black cloth from top to bottom. The creatures had no legs and merely floated above ground. They only had two holes in the cloth for eerie red eyes and their hands were like the hands of a corpse that had been void of life for years.

Bastian had seen these ghost like creatures come time and time again, while he was in this place. He had been in his Soul Site for quite some time and had observed the same even occur over, and over again.

The ghosts like creatures would come at set intervals, and they would all rush at the white haired boy. Entering his body and causing some sort of harm, or at least Bastian assumed they were harming him, because every time the creatures entered the white haired boy's body, his screams would become louder and more intense.

These creatures were quite fast, and the haired boy had no way to defend himself against them.

At times like this, Bastian could only watch. He had looked through all of the knowledge on souls he had been given, but none of it had any information on the creatures before him.

Bastian had tried to break the barrier with his Soul Force countless times, but to no avail. The barrier itself was like an unmovable boulder, and Bastian's Soul Force was like a twig. This sensation felt similar to the restraint put on his Soul Force by the enchanted shackles. This was an unpleasant feeling but it gave Bastian an idea.

Bastian did not enjoy watching the boy suffer, but unfortunately there was nothing he could do at the moment.

Bastian did indeed have a plan, but for now he could only do two things, the first was observe, as a former scientist on earth, Bastian knew the value of observation.

The second thing Bastian was doing was manipulating his Soul Force. At first it was just a bubble, but at that moment, after what felt like hours, Bastian could manipulate it to take on different shapes and sizes.

Whilst the creatures were not there, Bastian would manipulate his Soul Force. At first, he tried to do simple things, like expanding and retracting it. Bastian discovered that the larger he made the Soul Force bubble, the weaker it became at one particular area, showing that it was being spread thin.

Bastian could somewhat feel the Soul Force, as it was a part of himself.

The larger the bubble was, the dimmer the light became but in return, a larger area would be illuminated.

After expanding and retracting, Bastian tried to change the shape of the bubble, from spherical to cuboid to a pyramid. After a bit of practice this became much easier.

The next step of Bastian's practice was to only concentrate on a specified area of the bubble, whilst the rest of it remained stationary. This was a bit tricky but it did not take too long for him to master.

The next part however was much harder. The next part of Bastian's training, was to change the shape of the bubble in two or more areas at the same time. This was quite difficult; it was similar to trying to draw a circle with one hand and a square with the other, at the same time.

It required a high level of ambidexterity and concentration. In the Soul Site, there was no sense of hunger or sleepiness. Thus, Bastian worked tirelessly to improve his control over his Soul Force.

After a while, Bastian finally achieved the control he had wanted to achieve. He shrunk the bubble to a suitable size, the he created hundreds or needle like partitions on the surface of it. These needles were quite sharp, and rotated ceaselessly. This was the idea that Bastian wanted.

The energy that was in the white haired boy, which had penetrated his body during their bout in the arena and had allowed Bastian to channel his Soul Force into the white haired boy, even though he was wearing enchanted shackles, was also needle like in shape.

Whenever Bastian tried to go past the barrier, he would not be able to do anything and his Soul Force would feel restrained. So, Bastian surmised that perhaps the needle like energy was able to bypass the shackles due to its properties in terms of shape.

Although Bastian had realized that this was a bit of a long shot, he did at that moment, have quite a bit of understanding toward magic involving the soul. And he was confident in his hypothesis.

Armed with hundreds of needles made form Soul Force, Bastian attacked the barrier. All the needles focused on a particular area of the barrier.

A grinding noise echoed throughout the area. This time Bastian felt much less resistance. Not only were the needles rotating, they were also vibrating, adding to their penetrative power.

Bastian could feel the barrier breaking away, with the resistance becoming weaker and weaker where he was attacking it, and after some time, he finally broke through. With a plop, the entire barrier from top to bottom disappeared, like it was made of nothing.

The real issue starts now.

Bastian was happy that his plan had succeeded, but there were too many unknown factors.

From what Bastian knew, in a normal Soul Brethren ritual, the barrier and the creatures were not supposed to be there. Bastian had assumed that the barrier had existed because the ritual was initiated without the other party's consent.

But even so, it should not have been this easy to break.

Unfortunately, what Bastian did not know was that the barrier depended on the mental state of the party who put it up. It was somewhat similar to a subconscious action. The white haired boy was constantly under attack from the creatures, thus the mental barrier he had was rather weak.

Bastian walked straight to the white haired boy, in an attempt to communicate with him.

Whenever the creatures were not there, the white haired boy would merely lie on the ground. He would only get up once he sensed the buzzing. Bastian was curious to see what would happen if he approached the white haired boy.

In theory, the two souls involved in the ritual would have to brand each other with the Soul Force of the other person involved.

Bastian could easily brand the boy if he wanted to but he was not sure if the boy would accept the brand and be willing to brand Bastian as well.

Well, here goes nothing. Please don't resist.

Bastian approached the white haired boy's body slowly, in order to avoid spooking the boy.

What a dim light.

The light surrounding the white haired boy was quite dim, showing that his soul was in a weak state.

Can he even survive the process?

Whilst Bastian was contemplating his next course of action, the worst possible scenario occurred.

*Buzz*

The ghost like creatures had arrived!