Antares

Krios was now confused even more. If he was the father and the progenitor of their clan, why was he excluded in everything?

"If he was indeed the one who started things, why was he removed from the annals of our clan?" It did not make any sense to him.

"Because Antares and Arcturus were in a disagreement. And before they had the chance to mend things between them, Antares vanished. Never to be seen again."

"What did they disagree on? It must have been something very serious for them to just denounce each other and forget about familial relationships."

The elder nodded.

"According to what I have gathered throughout the years, it was about a secret art that Antares refused to give to his son." Krios' forehead creased as an idea popped up in his head.

"At around seven hundred thousand years ago, Antares created the white flame secret art, the cultivation and mage art being passed down from Clan Head to Clan head. It was as we all know it, the flame that ignited the start of our clan's long history."

"He passed this down to his son, but Arcturus wanted more. He knew his father had another secret art. And he also wanted that. He wanted the more powerful secret art his father had created." The elder continued.

"Antares refused for some reason. And that is when the disagreement between father and son began."

"When Arcturus found out his father left without any trace, without leaving him the second unnamed secret art, he was enraged. In his rage, he ordered the erasure of his own father from all of the clan records. His name was wiped, his legacy removed. During that time, the clan was still very small, around a hundred close family and followers. Which is why it was easy for Arcturus to remove the name of his father from everything."

"Wow, that was a lot." Krios mused.

The elder smiled.

"I hope this elder was able to satisfy young master with that story."

"Thank you so much for your time elder. It was indeed an enjoyable and satisfying talk."

"It has been my pleasure to share with you the knowledge I have on things you want to know about, young master." The elder smiled warmly.

Krios went out of the library with his head full of thoughts.

'If I'm guessing correctly, the other secret art Antares refused to teach his son is the Chaos Cultivation that I have.'

'But why? Why me? Why hide it from his son?'

His thoughts continued to come and go as he was walking down the hallway.

After arriving at their private accomodation, he immediately went to the meditation chamber to cultivate.

'I need to prepare for my ascent to the Core Reformation Realm' He thought to himself as he sat down in the middle of the chamber.

This chamber is equipped with a mana pool under its floor making it a good place to meditate and cultivate. And although the chaos energy in the room was less than the outside, it was enough for him to do what he needed to do.

He spent the entire afternoon meditating. Absorbing and releasing both mana and chaos energy. Trying to memorize both their flow and familiarizing himself with the sensation.

He has been at the cusp of ascending to the next realm for a while now but has been stuck in the Soul Defining stage because of his condition. Doing this process with a fracture mana core like he had before would have been a suicidal move.

But now, with everything that had happened, he can finaly move past it and it's only a matter of time before he does.

After hours of meditation, he finally opened his eyes, sweat dripping down his face and back.

"I'm almost there." He whispered to himself as he stood and went out of the meditation chamber.

The night went by normally. He read the chaos book again but found nothing of significance. He found it to be lacking. It was as if the book was unfinished. But he couldn't know for sure.

'It's frustrating that there are a lot of things I still don't know about this chaos thing and all. And what's even more frustrating is that there is no way of answering any of them.' He thought as he laid down his bed.

The next morning, while eating his breakfast. Krios decided that it was finally time for him to break through to the next realm.

He was nervous, but he knew that he would never be able to know the extent of the possibilities in his life if he didn't try.

"Alice, I am going to the meditation chamber. I ak not to be disturbed by anyone except for my family. Understood?" He told his attendant as he started to walk towards the meditation chamber.

"Yes young master." His attendant answered.

Entering the meditation chamber, he starter to concentrate on his goal. He started to absorb mana at a rapid pace, filling his core to the brim.

'Almsot there' He reminded himself. This proces is extremely dangerous as this can lead to your mana core exploding if not done properly.

After filling his core with mana, he started to push the mana towards the surface of the mana core, pushing outwards in all direction all at the same time. The objective of this process is to increase the size of the core to triple its starting size.

'It's so painful but I have been through so much just to give up now.'

The process is one of the most painful things a young cultivator could feel in their young journey. It would feel like their cores are going to break at any given minute. This pain combined by the fact that they might end up losing their core, or their life, adds to the pressure of going forward.

Despite the pain, Krios continued on. His breathing was shallow, forehead creased, while his body was covered in sweat.

During the process of him pushing his mana core outwards, he tried to use his chaos energy to slightly press back against his mana just so he can control the expansion of his mana core. The second layer of his mana core, the one made from condensed chaos energy, proved to be a sturdy, yet malleable material which made the process safer.

Mana was continuesly leaking out of him sending waves of energy that can be felt by anyone within a fifty meter radius. This also caused Krios' body to levitate a few feet into the air. This was all a byproduct of the process of mana expansion.

Another hour has passed in his painful ordeal and Krios was at the brink of losing consciousness when all of a sudden, a muffled boom was heard from where his core was. A blast of mana came out of him and he started to fall. But someone caught him before he fell completely to the ground.

On the hallway just outside the east wing, Kane and his wife Reah, were both walking back to their accommodation after arriving from their journey to the union grounds.

They were talking to each other about their son who was participating in the three month long training expedition when Kane suddenly felt a wave of energy radiating from their accommodation.

"No, no, he can't be doing this." Kane said in a panic starting to run towards their room.

"Honey what was that?" Reah ran behind his husband. Both running frantically and as fast as they could

"It's Krios, I don't know what has gotten into him but I think he's trying to ascend to the Core Reformation realm! Hurry, we have to stop him before it's too late!" Kane ran as fast as he could, heart pounding with the thought of losing his youngest son.

"Alice, where's my son?!" He asked in a hurry, his wife following behind him.

"He's in the meditation chamber my lord." The attendant answered back.

Kane literally flew towards the door of the chamber, slamming against it sending the door flying. But then the door flew right back as a strong wave of energy blasted out from the center of the room.

"Krios!" Kane ran as fast as he could and caught his son mid fall.

"Oh good lords what were you thinking!" Kane cradled his son in his arms, tears streaming down his face.

His wife arrived a moment later, her face full of shock and horror as she saw her son looking lifeless in the arms of her husband.

"Oh my goodness my boy. What happened to my boy?!" Reah screamed as she ran towards her husband.

Krios heard the familar pair voices and opened his eyes to see what was happening. He saw both his parents, and it made him feel warmth and comfort.

"M-mom, d-dad. I d-did it!" He said weakly. His face was white while his body felt feverish to the touch.

His dad looked at him in shock. He was so afraid of losing his son that he didn't bother checking his cultivation at the moment.

He used his soul sense to scan his son's core and he was dumbfounded by what he saw.

"Oh my god. Krios, my son. You really did it!" Kane exclaimed as he hugged his son tightly but gently.

Krios gave both of his parents a weak smile before finally losing consciousness.