Ready For War

Verra looked up at the ranking board and gnashed her teeth."I wanted him to fail. I wanted him to fail as punishment for dumping all his work on us. But, he's gone and shot up to 7th, pushing poor Wanton to 10th." She chuckled. "If he was here, I wonder what he would think of this situation?"

"How long has it been since they set off, two years?" Megan asked absentmindedly.

"Coming up on it, yes, I miss El. If that Xasha ever tries to separate us for this long again, I'll sever his manhood as punishment."

"Hey, hey, hey... don't punish me, punish him. That manhood is my property. Be sure to stay clear of it," Megan said threateningly.

Verra burst out laughing. "Alright, fine." She stretched her slim waist. We finished all that paperwork. How about we cultivate in the Magic Tower? Or should we say Vlast towers?"

"I'll keep saying magic towers, too many unfamiliar words. My brain is already melting from signing papers. As for cultivating, I have a better idea." Megan took out her bike and rose. "Come with me," she said to Vera and flitted to the outskirts of Stardust City.

The two came to a stop outside the North Star Mountain. The north most of the Six Star Mountains. She entered the magic tower and stepped inside the elevator, but instead of up, she pressed down. Verra was confused but reserved her questions for later.

After nearly a minute of descending, the elevator stopped and opened up. Megan walked out and began explaining, "it is still incomplete, and Xasha doesn't want to reveal it as yet, but this place is still the best for cultivation on the continent. He started working on it a few months ago when he found out the truth."

Verra looked around and couldn't believe her eyes. Xasha had hollowed out the mountain and turned it into a mana pool. These mana pools were cylinders that ran the entire length of the mountain, but instead of pushing the mana up, it pushed it down.

"Where does the mana go? Where is it from?" Verra asked.

"The entire enchantment department has been business scrubbing runes from all the magic towers, replacing them with etchings. Because of this, the attraction and purification power of the Magic Towers had multiplied. He did not want to release all that mana at once and cause shock. So he began the process of hollowing out mountains and turned them into mana pools.

"It's more accurate to say these mountains are mana pillars. We store all the excess Imperium here, then released it inside the city. He increases to output one percent per day. So it goes unnoticed by most people and doesn't shock or overload our systems with Imperium."

As Megan spoke, she walked up to a green cylinder filled with nature Imperium. Verra looked at it and found the Imperium in her body became excited. Megan continued, "Xasha told me this place is the best cultivation ground for us who have already become Lava Sages. We can absorb all the Imperium here, and it wouldn't be enough for us to reach the next rank within a hundred years."

"Really?" Verra asked in flabbergast.

"Yes," Megan replied casually, then shoved Verra into the Cylinder with Nature Imperium. She passed through the forcefield with no problem and sunk into the cylinder of nature Imperium. Verra did not panic but closed her eyes, crossed her legs, formed the sign, and activated her breathing technique.

Like a roaring river, the Imperium charged into her body and gushed through her veins and meridians. To her surprise, there was no pain. She could handle the pressure, no problem. The Imperium made its way into her Valdis and, in no time, it filled up to bursting. Verra was no stranger to this feeling and knew it was soon time to compress, so she calmed down and focused on her cultivation.

Megan smiled after seeing Verra began her training. She walked over to the water cylinder and drove in.

The sky above Xasha's training arena inside the Hurricane Territory was filled with hundreds of powerful wind spells. Somehow, all of them were stuck in place, unable to move an inch. Xasha was huffing and panting from exhaustion. He had tossed out hundreds of full-powered vlasts, but his opponent froze all of them in time.

Mylyn, Jackle, and Xandria sat in the gallery and watched the fight with interest. No one cared about Xasha, but Ari was a novelty they couldn't look away from. This was their first seeing a time cultivator in action. To see time Imperium used to create powerful vlast and used in battle was a fascinating sight.

Even the old man could not resist and came out to watch the spectacle. His massive body cast a shadow over the entire arena.

"Ari, you are curious about my ruler before, right?" Xasha smiled as he held up the black ruler before him. Etching on the ruler's body glowed, and a second later, it split up and unfolded out into a fan. It was a large metal fan that was larger Than Xasha himself while standing behind it, Ari could no longer see him. There was a single word etched into the center of the fan, meaning, Oppress!

Xasha waved his fan once, but Ari couldn't see any form of attack. She prepared for what was to come but was shocked when nothing happened. She eased up her defensive stance, thinking it was a feint, but the moment she did, an invisible force sent her flying.

She lost concentration for a second. The vlasts she stopped in time all began moving again. She steadied herself and waved her hand. All the vlasts disappeared then reappeared in different places on the battlefield, all aiming at Xasha.

Explosions rang out as vlasts landed on the spot Xasha stood. Ari took a defensive stance. She was sure none of those attacks would hit Xasha. A shadow flitted in front of her. With a wipe, the now-closed ruler released a blade ray aimed at her abdomen.

Ari smiled coldly and stabbed with the pointed end of her staff. None backed down, and both hits landed. Xasha's blade ray got teleported to a random spot in the arena. Ari's staff passed through Xasha, but he soon turned transparent and floated off with the breeze.

Ari gritted her teeth. "Slippery fellow."