Helial was tirelessly trying to balance the two Manas inside his Meridians. That was yet another failed attempt. He was now standing still, perfectly immersed in a meditative state. The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The deadly silence was only shattered by his steady slow breathing. From time to time, he would hear the echo of footsteps in the distance.

Caesar had given the order not to interfere with his disciple’s training. Nobody would have been such a fool to disobey the King’s word, which made the greatest deterrent in all Orma.

Suddenly, something breached the peace of the room. If someone had been there with him, they would have seen a young boy sitting cross-legged who exuded a terribly thick black Aura. His Aura looked like a storm that would sweep over everything along the way.

Death.

The Aura gave off an oppressing death emanation. It was so terrifying it could suffocate you.

Helial sensed an astounding rush of power through his Meridians. He pondered: “Let’s see how strong it’ll be this time.”

Helial had indeed made several attempts to develop the Skill created by Vidio. However, none of those turned out to be successful. The Devil had already explained all the Skill’s principles to him, but Helial still didn’t seem able to reach the perfect communion between the power of Life and that of Destruction.

When he created Metamorphosis, Vidio still hadn’t developed any Life Mana. While Helial did. This was the reason why Vidio actually ran into fewer problems. It was strange, but true nonetheless; Body and Flame of the Qilin soaked the boy’s Soul in Life Mana. Therefore, he was stumbling on many more problems than Vidio had to face when trying to strike a balance between the two.

Helial’s intention was to let Life and Destruction erupt simultaneously once they reached a stalemate. The common explosion would have unleashed the highest destructive power they could reach. In this way, he would form an even more powerful Mana, because it would have been generated by the perfect combination between Life and Destruction. Vidio had come very close to this result. However, he didn’t manage to purify his Mana and then lead it towards Life while still being able to use that Skill.

This was obviously the reason why nobody had ever pulled that off and stepped forward on that path throughout the centuries.

A big role was naturally played by the common taboo that one should never mix two opposite forces. Let’s all imagine what would happen if all of a sudden, a pupil from a Clan, Sect or Guild of Life lost their moral compass and tried to cultivate Destruction Mana as well.

While Helial was focused on Mana balance, the Devil inside his Soul decided put cuisine aside for one day and moved to a snowy peak instead. He was focused on trying to build the ultimate, gigantic snow puppet. His snow puppet was big enough to have two rocks for eyes and two trunks for eyebrows. He put the tree trunks diagonally, so as to give it an angry look.

The kid was wearing dark gloves with ghosts on them, and a ski gear with a huge bat on the back that seemed to be laughing evilly. Helial’s terrifying master was busy creating a lethal weapon of mass destruction Helial understood nothing about.

“Who’s the best snow puppet maker, huh?” the Devil snorted to himself as he stared at his creation in satisfaction. He was planning to add a couple more demoniac details. This year, he would definitely win the contest on the best snow puppet in the whole universe.

Then, the Devil swiftly glanced at Helial. He fell deep in thought and pondered for a while. Then, he told him: “Your Mana is in its thickest state. Try again.”

Helial didn’t need to hear that twice. He immediately began to work on the Mana he had gathered and transformed it into Destruction Mana.

His Aura seemed to crystalize in midair. One second later, it began to flow fiercely towards the boy. Helial looked like the eye of a storm that would swallow up everything.

Helial’s Meridians suddenly burnt as two opposite forces fought within his body. While the Mana of Destruction pushed its way to become his Soul’s prime mover, Life Mana clashed against its nemesis. This time though, Helial didn’t withdraw it intentionally.

Helial furrowed his eyebrows as he let out a snarl, in pain.

The struggle his body was experiencing would have probably killed someone in the Third Phase. Also, the mere learning of the first level of this Skill appeared to be far more difficult than any other Skill he had acquired before. He had learnt the primordial Flame of the Qilin almost by mistake, so he had always given for granted that learning Metamorphosis would be just as easy as that, considering also his talent. But he was wrong.

Metamorphosis.

His old Master really created an extraordinary Skill. However, he only developed its lowest level. The Devil told him that Vidio couldn’t level up Metamorphosis farther than the second level. Despite being so low-level though, it unleashed a jaw-dropping power.

It was likely that Vidio could have never brought Metamorphosis to Grade Master or Grand Master. An entire life spent trying wouldn’t still be enough. The Skill was created due to a lucky chance meeting; if someone can’t cultivate what luck brings to them, it will be impossible to advance.

Helial did grasp this well enough. Many people would have already given up on the idea of Grinding such a complex Skill. And yet, Helial felt a jolt of electricity running through his body every time he thought of what he could do with Life and Destruction Skills. The Devil had already told him that nobody in his same Phase could hope to match him, at that point.

Mixing Life and Destruction was impossible; this was an unbreakable rule of the universe they currently inhabited. Whoever distorted this ancient dogma would gain matchless power.

Every drop of Mana in the room was swallowed up by Helial’s body. Helial activated his Breathing Technique.

Skill Activated:

Death of the Desolate Universe

The legendary technique rippled the space all around him. The Mana filtrated by this technique was sensibly more violent and explosive. And yet, for how devastating the technique was, his Affinity for Light, as well as Body of the Qilin, would nevertheless convert some of his Mana into Life Mana.

The Demon’s Meridians, Body of the Qilin and his Affinity for Light really did clash. They were slightly misbalanced towards Life. Metamorphosis sought to find the balance point between the three. Though, the term “balance” isn’t accurate. What Helial was looking for was some kind of highly dangerous border area where the two clashing powers would collide so strikingly that they would stick together permanently.

If Life and Destruction really were like water and fire, Helial sought the point when it would all come to the boil. Helial wasn’t trying to separate them or use them individually. He was looking for an explosive combination that would let him enhance his Skills’ and body’s destructive power. Exponentially.