Book 7: Chapter 31 – Stay Together

Like the others, Joel had gotten past his previous heart demons. Still, as the eldest of their cohort, the fact that so many of his juniors had either surpassed him or were close to doing so wasn't something he was okay with.

It didn't come from a place of jealousy but one of competitiveness. Ace's words after he awoke from his coma had woken something in him that he hadn't felt in a long time. He loved each member of his cohort, but he was determined not to be outdone by them.

As he stepped forward, bolts of lightning began to flicker around his body and even in his eyes. At the same time, a faint sound of roaring could be heard originating from his body.

"[Thunder God's Divine Body]!" Joel announced slowly as he drew the sabre by his side.

Seeing that, an amused light flashed across Aiden's eyes before he signalled for the round to begin.

The Deathgod Golem didn't even have time to finish his first step before his new opponent was already on top of him.

Although not to the same level as Kannal, Joel had also reached a level where he was capable of infusing his insights into the Concept of Lightning into his self-created Sabre Art – [The Storm Wielding Sabre Art]!

It was merely one strike, one single chop, but as Joel's Sabre fell, it was like it embodied the fury of heaven.

For the fifth time that day, the Deathgod Golem was once again sent flying, crashing into the side of Beirut's metallic lifeform castle.

Although it got up moments later without so much as a scratch on it, Joel had done enough for him to prove his strength.

Despite only being at the middle of the ninth rank as a mage and warrior, the strength he just exhibited was equal to that of a fairly powerful mid-stage saint.

As previously mentioned, his use of Concepts was inferior to that of Kannal, but in terms of insights into the profound mysteries, the only person who had surpassed him amongst their group was Killian.

Even Aiden nodded imperceptibly to himself as he looked at the lightning flickering around the young man. With his vision, he was able to instantly discern that the mystery Joel had gained insight into was the Lightning's Profound Mystery of Lightning Body.

Like Fire's Profound Mystery of Fire-Body used by Ace, it allowed the user to transform their bodies into their elements. It was this that allowed Ace's body to become intangible, but that was just a basic technique of this type of mystery – as shown now by Joel.

Instead of making his body intangible, Joel decided to take it one step further, allowing the lightning-element mage force from his [Force Armour] to stimulate the electrons in his body, including that of his nervous system.

As a result, his whole body saw an enormous rise in physical ability – especially his speed and reflexes. Just his raw power jumped from the ninth rank to the early stages of the saint rank, but his speed, it leapt all the way into the middle stages of the saint rank, and unlike Killian, this wasn't just straight-line speed, this was true overall speed, and with the increase to his reflexes, he had full control of his current speed.

As far as Aiden was concerned, as far as techniques using the profound mysteries went, this was the best technique with the most potential created by any of their cohort, including Ace.

After Joel went back to join the others, Osiris stepped forward next. Although not as domineering as those who came before him, the dark-haired young man showed great skill as an archer to defeat the puppet.

He had only reached the early stages of the ninth rank as a mage and the peak of the eighth rank as a warrior, but with his insight into the Laws of Darkness's Profound Mystery of the Essence of Darkness, he was able to create arrows made of pure darkness to overwhelm the Deathgod Golem, preventing it from even getting near to him.

He wasn't overwhelmingly fast or monstrously strong, nor was his defence particularly noteworthy, but Aiden was able to see that Osiris' skill lay in his ability to control the flow of the battle.

After the dark-haired archer went back, next up was Faye. She had broken through to the early stages of the ninth rank as a warrior and the late stages of the eighth rank as a mage; as such, she struggled a lot more than all those who went before her.

Still, she wasn't called a genius for no reason. The mystery she had gained insight into was the Earth's Profound Mystery of Gravity. With it, she was able to control the gravity around her with deft skill, to the point where she could decrease gravity for herself whilst freely manipulating the gravity around her targets.

Although she hadn't gained insight into the Concepts of the Earth, her combat ability had reached a high enough level that allowed her to assume complete control over the flow of the battle, slowly but definitively suppressing the puppet until finally defeating it.

The last of the bunch to go up was Yulana. In terms of realm, she was the lowest of the group, with her being a warrior at the early stages of the ninth rank and a mage at the early stages of the eighth rank. Still, as a member of the Yin-Yang Pavilion, her strength couldn't be understood just by looking at her realm.

In terms of realm, she was the weakest; she had yet to gain insight into the Concept of Water, and she was also the last to gain insight into a profound mystery, but, as if to award her for her patience, when she finally did gain insight into one of water's mysteries, she did so with sudden enlightenment.

Now, not only were her insights into Water's Profound Mystery of Circular Softness approaching that of a mid-staged saint, she had even been able to infuse it into her [Force Armour].

When the Deathgod Golem struck Yulana's [Force Armour] coated whip, the force of its strikes was easily dispersed, allowing her to continuously entangle the puppet, slowly suppressing it with elegantly flowing strikes that seemed to want to drown it.

Watching that, a faint glimmer of light flickered across Aiden's eyes. Although the others couldn't see it, as the founder of the path, how could he not see that Yulana was only one step away from comprehending the concept of water?

Realising that, Aiden moved like the wind and casually knocked the golem away.

Yulana, like the others, was surprised and was just about to withdraw her whip when Aiden's voice entered her ears. "Don't stop; continue attacking me like you did the puppet."

Yulana didn't understand what Aiden intended to do, but she didn't dare to disobey his direct instructions.

In response, Aiden used his hands to replace his glaive. His attacks were like a dance, a seamless flow that aimed accurately at the weak points of his young opponent's whip strikes.

Despite Aiden's relentless onslaught, Yulana's eyes sparkled with excitement. Each flick of her wrist seemed to carry a newfound vigour. Instead of being discouraged, she wholeheartedly embraced the challenge.

The dance between the glaivesman and the whip-wielder continued, creating a mesmerising display of both skill, excitement, and determination.

As the training session progressed, a subtle transformation took place within Yulana. Her whip attacks, initially strong and precise, began to evolve. There was a newfound grace to her movements, and the whip seemed to embody the very essence of water, flowing effortlessly and adapting to the contours of the battle.

It was right then, in a moment of revelation, Yulana finally took that step, comprehending the concept of water. Her attacks, now imbued with this newfound insight, gained a profound quality.

Each strike echoed the fluidity of water, and her control over her whip reached unprecedented heights.

Aiden, recognising her accomplishment, nodded in approval before casually flicking his fingers at the tip of Yulana's incoming whip.

The act was incredibly simple, but the power of the flick forced Yulana to retreat several steps, unable to disperse even half of the force behind Aiden's attack.

"Alright, that's enough. You've passed," Aiden nodded. "You can go back and join the others."

Yulana completely ignored the numb sensation travelling up her whip-wielding arm as she bowed excitedly towards her Grand Elder. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"No need for all that," Aiden waved dismissively. "You did all the hard work; I just gave you a little nudge."

Yulana didn't say anything further, but the smile on her face was impossible to miss.

"Now, that's all of you," Aiden continued. "Unless Julius' coming as well?"

"No, Fatty decided not to enter this time," Joel answered. "He says he has no interest in spending the next few years fighting for his life in a place called the "Necropolis of the Gods"."

"Not that that freak needs to speed up his rate of improvement," Faye grumbled under her breath.

It had to be remembered that in terms of raw talent, Fatty was the only one who could always be mentioned alongside Ace and Amira. Even if not quite on their level, he wasn't too far off. His perception had always been off the charts, and that hadn't changed – especially after entering the pocket dimension.

He, like a lot of them, was a mage at the middle stage of the ninth rank, but his insight into Fire's Profound Mystery of Heat had reached that of a peak saint; even more impressive was that he had actually begun fusing it with the Profound Mystery of the Essence of Fire. And if that wasn't impressive enough, he had also recently gained insight into the Edict of Fate.

If not for the fact that he had no interest in fighting or competing with others, he would be a name that would undoubtedly have shocked the world.

Still, Aiden merely nodded, understanding Julius' pacifist-like nature, before carrying on. "Alright, in that case, you seven can enter now, but before you do, let me give you a little advice. Make sure to stay together.

I don't know what's going on inside, but if I know little Kong and that foolish disciple of mine, I'd bet that at least one of them had done something to piss off the masses, and chances are, you brats will end up paying for it."

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