The more Sora focused on the energies the lesser he could sense his surroundings. Everything went dark and Sora could only sense his body and the celestial orb. He felt as if he were transported into another realm. In the midst of this darkness, Sora began seeing tiny dots of light, like cotton buds, gently floating in the air. At first he could only see a few of them but as he deepened his concentration – focusing on each breath he took, the number of tiny dot lights exploded. There were an innumerable number of lights swarming him.

Could these be the spirits? Sora could only sense them before as they did his bidding. But now he could see them? Sora wasn’t sure what these were. Sora almost felt frightened at the sight – he didn’t understand what he was seeing. He wasn’t only feeling afraid because he didn’t understand what was going on but there was the reason that these tiny dots of light were exerting a pressure – as if they were alive. Sora could tell these tiny dots of light felt threatened with Sora observing them. Sora reached out with his consciousness – the same way he used to speak with telepathy – to calm the dots of light. Slowly, but gradually, they began to accept Sora and ignore him.

Sora calmly watched the light show – it was beautiful and heart stirring. Sora was unaware of the many feelings he was feeling right now but seeing these lights made him very emotional. A single pearl like tear rolled over from the corner of Sora’s eye. The dots of light noticed Sora’s change in emotions and gathered around him – as if consoling him.

Sora smiled – at that very moment Sora could feel the celestial orb which he was holding, vibrate and then dissolve into thin air. Sora’s focus broke and he was transported back from the shadowy dark realm to where he stood….

Sora was shocked at the sight, it appeared as if a bomb exploded in the room or a tornado had swept through it. The walls were broken, the cushions were nowhere to be seen and one of the Mokanas was missing. As Sora glanced around at the devastation, his eyes fell on Mizuki who getting up from her hiding spot. Her neatly combed hair was completely messed up – even a blow dryer wouldn’t mess it up that bad. There were traces of blood near her lips….and her eyes conveyed her rage. Mizuki was very very angry.

***

“Yes…even the demon lord is one of them…” Mizuki intervened. “However, even amongst adventurers there are differences just like amongst different monsters. But there is no difference between us and them…Just like him if there were a monster from the fortieth gate or higher these artefacts would be useless…”

“Mistress, Blanche, does not understand why are you so interested in this skeleton?”

“Because, we lost Toketsu.”

“Huh?” Both the Mokanas spoke out loud at the same time. “Toketsu, the Ice Vampire?”

“Yes.”

“But, mistress, who slayed him? Is there an intruder party that strong?”

“It wasn’t an intruder party.”

The Mokanas had a puzzled expression if it wasn’t the intruder party, then who else could it be? Toketsu was easily a twenty fifth floor level monster there should be no one of that strength on his floor…

The eyes of the Mokanas rolled over to Sora who was still concentrating on releasing mana.

“It couldn’t be…” Kuro asked as he stared at Sora.

“But it is….” Mizuki replied as she intently stared at Sora.

“But Toketsu must be five circles strong…” Blanche recollected.

“Remember, he has restraints on. Although you were not present, Sora used a seven circle strong spell…”

“Then…” The Mokanas spoke in unison – they finally understood the conclusion. “Three circles strong after restraints would mean, this skeleton is capable of at least ten circles???”

The Mokanas were both shocked and stupefied. The average human (considered amongst the more magically capable creatures) could cast a single or a double circle. Every circle after that required corresponding increase in spiritual energy as well life force – both very difficult to attain. Compared to the average human, Sora was definitely strong. However, fifteen circles would be considered worthy of the elite forces of the Empire. The Cardinal and Sebastian was on a scale that can’t even be measured by circles.

What made it shocking was for the fact – Sora was a skeleton. Skeletons possessed a tenth of the magical abilities of their living self. Technically, they barely possessed any magical ability. This is what made it amazing; if Sora were a living being then his strength could be immeasurable?

The Mokanas were completely wrong in their above interpretation as Sora was an adventurer and the normal rules don’t apply to adventurers. Mizuki did not bother correcting their misunderstanding –right now something else was bothering her.

There is no one correct way of measuring strength, just because one achieves three or four circles doesn’t mean that they can maintain that output forever. However, in Sora’s case it appeared just that. The three circles of light showed no signs of fading away.

“How remarkable…” Mizuki muttered. Very few understood this, but there is no measure for stamina. While strength can be measure and noted down in number of circles how does one measure stamina? If two mages were to clash off, then the one with higher circles wins and the story ends there. However, what happens when one of the mages can continue giving a steady maximum output longer….

A Mizuki continued to stare at Sora, three more rings of light appeared.

The Mokanas were already in a frenzy and switched into frenzy overdrive.

Six circles of light??? After restraints??? There is nothing normal about this skeleton!

Then six more circles appeared at once! Right now Sora resembled the sun, with many circles of light like orbits of planets glowing around him.

Mizuki was already stunned to see three circles, a steady output….but this was starting to become ridiculous, there were currently 15 orbital bands looping around Sora….

Correction make that 30 orbital bands of light…but each orbital band was extremely thin…no to begin with each band had been extremely thin … which was abnormal but nothing worth paying attention to….

… “unless…”

Mizuki’s eyes suddenly bulged as she realized what was going on. “TAKE COVER!” she screamed out to the Mokanas – who were caught in surprise. Take cover from what?

At that very moment, the celestial orb exploded.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Author's note;

1. I just felt so terrible about writing less, that I wrote a bit more.

2. This chapter is dedicated to troyatte ...though I believe he now stands banned for trolling in reviews. Which would explain why his review has been deleted. Dear troyatte, please note how each sub chapter is now min. 1000 words.