Book 2: Chapter 28

Cyil arrived at the Polite Palm Pub that had renovated since its bizarre incident 2 years ago. At that time, the pub had suddenly exploded from within, but there was no fire and miraculously no one was hurt. The cause of the explosion was never confirmed and had always remained a mystery to this day. Though, contrary to the owner’s worries about losing customers, the wild story attracted even more people to the pub making it a tourist hotspot in the city. Now the pub stood taller and radiated brilliant light like no other.

Cyil still remembered that time two years ago and silently apologized for what he was about to do.

Cyil walked into the noisy pub that was surprisingly full despite the tournament. Instantly he was greeted by a charming young woman who blushed when she saw Cyil’s face. Cyil smiled, then winked at the lady, teasing her a little before saying, “miss, would you be so kind as to sleep for a bit?”

“Sleep? With you?” The young lady’s face grew red like a ripe tomato as various thoughts ran through her head. She misinterpreted Cyil’s words and tugging at her apron she couldn’t even say yes before losing consciousness.

Soul Domain--Suppress & Illusion!

Cyil’s eyes had long since turned completely white and a tangible pressure radiated from his body, covering the entirety of the Polite Palm Pub.

This was his domain--something generated purely based off the power of his soul and had no ties to his elemental body at all. Within this domain, Cyil was in control and could sense everyone’s thoughts and feelings. He could feel their souls and uncover all its secrets. He could also suppress another person’s soul, attack it with illusions, and many more things.

This domain was what Cyil had been working on with the Nefarious Saint for 2 years. It had been 2 years in Nakrul, but for Cyil it felt as if several lifetimes had already passed by; and this was true to an extent, because Cyil’s training required him to become someone else. Cyil would live the life of a farmer or a martial warrior; he even remembered being magical beasts and people of the opposite sex. There was a life that Cyil found interesting, because he was no longer in Nakrul, but in a place called Earth. The magic there was advanced in its own ways when compared to Nakrul’s magic, but Cyil found that living there was pleasant. Of course, while he was stuck in the illusion, Cyil didn’t know he was from Nakrul and really believed Earth was his home. It was only after Cyil escaped from that realm by realizing that he was in an illusion that he moved on to his ‘next life’.

The spell Cyil was put under was similar to the Death God (Crystal Cyil’s) spell, but this one was more complex and placed great strain on the soul to the point where Cyil’s soul even began to crack around its edges.

Whenever this occured the Nefarious Saint would grit his teeth, but ultimately choose not interfere. The Nefarious Saint had to maintain the effect of the spell after all and it took up a great deal of his energy reserves. He couldn’t worry about every little thing.

Sometimes, the Nefarious Saint would stop the spell and tutor Cyil in controlling his soul force before sending him back into the spell. It was during the end of the first year that Cyil developed a soul domain, shocking the Nefarious Saint. Then afterwards, the Nefarious Saint learned that Cyil’s soul domain could do various unbelievable things. Thus, hand in hand, both Cyil and the Nefarious Saint learned how to control a soul domain.

After 2 years, the Nefarious Saint ran out of juice and had to stop Cyil’s training otherwise his own soul would crumble. Moreover, he was concerned because Cyil’s soul strength was progressing too quickly! This was not necessarily a bad thing, but Mahoj’s body can not support such a strong soul, meaning it would deteriorate even faster. In addition, Cyil needed to solidify his soul and learn how to use it step by step or he might harm himself instead. This is similar to giving an infant a sharp blade. The infant might have the blade and could harm adults, but the infant wouldn’t know how to use the blade and could even hurt themselves wielding it. Thus the Nefarious Saint recommended Cyil temper his skills in the annual mercenary tournament.

Cyil took a few weeks to nourish his body to top condition and to digest all the information from his past lives. He found that his body’s strength had grown stronger along with his soul. He marveled at how sleeping could give him such well defined muscles along with six inches of height. Cyil asked the Nefarious Saint about this, but the Nefarious Saint simply laughed and said, “with the strength of your soul, I was surprised this body didn’t develop muscles ontop its muscles!”

Cyil laughed at the Nefarious Saint’s joke, but was firmly reminded that although the body was now stronger, it was also deteriorating quicker. By now Cyil had such a strong soul that his perceptive abilities had skyrocketed; he could feel the time Mahoj’s body had left and it wasn’t very long. 3 years 9 months and 1 days. That was the amount of time he had left to reclaim his body. Along with feeling the condition of Mahoj’s body, Cyil could sense a strand of connection to his own body, allowing him to guess its vague location and feel its vitality. What surprised Cyil was that his own body had moved from Emerald forest and was somewhere close to where he was.

As soon as Cyil made this discovery he grew alarmed and checked once more only to find out that his previous assumption was off. His body was still far away, stagnant, and unmoving. Cyil shook his head as an uncomfortable feeling grew inside of him.

“I have to hurry back. As long as it’s a fight of our souls, I can beat him.” Cyil felt as if something horrible had happened to Baccaus and Kara and this feeling lingered on in his mind as he continued to prepare for his fight.

Even now, Cyil had returned to the Polite Palm Pub to retrieve something that would bolster his fighting strength. It was something he had seen when the Nefarious Saint had Time Warped spacetime around the Polite Palm Pub. The item he was searching for was the heart crystal of the rat that he had seen and pitied so long ago.

Cyil carefully extended his soul domain into the ground, groping around for the hidden heart crystal. He could feel and see everything within 360 degrees drawn up in his mind. The people sleeping, the ants crawling on the ground, and even the minute cracks on the wooden tables were conjured in his mind in a three-dimensional manner.

After probing 20 feet deep into the ground Cyil was near the limits of what his soul domain could handle. Normally, he could easily extend the soul domain to 50 feet, but using it to travel through the ground was three times as difficult.

As sweat dripped down Cyil’s forehead, his soul force was repelled by a small object, the size of a walnut seed.

“That’s it!” The Nefarious Saint happily chimed in.

“It can actually repel my soul force?” Cyil was now convinced that this heart crystal was extraordinary. The Nefarious Saint had gone on and on about how lucky Cyil was to actually have seen a monarch level magical beast. By now Cyil understood that aside from their normal levels and rankings, magical beasts had additional titles for each time they evolved. The first title bestowed to a magical beast would be ‘ancient’. Then if the magical beast was to metamorphosis once more they would be bestowed the title of ‘elder’. And finally, if the magical beast managed to break through once more then and only then would they be bestowed the title of ‘monarch’.

“I don’t remember seeing the rat undergo any tribulations or metamorphosis at all,” Cyil said to the Nefarious Saint, who had a smug tone as he replied.

“Usually that would be the case, but this magical beast was born at the monarch level! There was no need for it to evolve any further.”

“If it really is a monarch, then why did it look so ordinary?” Cyil couldn’t help but thinking that the monarch magical beast seemed so weak and lonely, not at all like the terrifying force the Nefarious Saint had described.

“That’s because it never needed to display any of its powers. Monarch leveled magical beasts are extremely intelligent and are above everything else. Perhaps, even god level mages would lose in a fight against one. Keep in mind that Oiyst, the so called supreme ruler of the dragons, was only at the elder level of power and he was already one of the strongest beings under the god level. If not for me being a dual attribute Saint on the eve of godhood, I would not have defeated him so easily. If he were a monarch? I don’t know what would have happened then.”

Cyil was gradually influenced by the Nefarious Saint’s enthusiasm and decided it wouldn’t hurt to find the heart crystal of the monarch rat.

As soon as Cyil located the heart crystal he punched a hole through the wooden floor and began to dig. His fingers cupped like a shovel, Cyil quickly burrowed his way down 10 feet. When the ground became too hard, Cyil summoned water to soften the ground.

After only a half hour did Cyil reached the heart crystal; it looked like a rock. There was nothing unique about it except for its shape, which was oblong and jagged. Cyil carefully plucked the heart crystal out of the ground and observed it, but still ended up with nothing.

“As they said in my other life, ‘don’t judge a book by its covers’. This is defintely it. My soul force cannot penetrate it at all.” Carefully placing the heart crystal in his breast pocket, Cyil hopped out of the 20 foot hole in one leap.

Cyil began dusting himself when he froze. Standing in front of the Polite Palm Pub entranceway was a young woman of around 18 years with a jagged wooden stick. She wore a patchy dress and worn out shoes. Her hair was neatly combed and flowed like a waterfall over her small shoulders. She was thin and seemed malnourished. Most surprising of all was that her eyes were closed, but she was not sleeping. She was not sleeping meaning she was not affected by Cyil’s Soul Domain at all!

In fact, Cyil hadn’t even sensed it when the woman entered the pub.

“Who are you?” Cyil clenched his fist, ready to fight or flee.

The young woman smiled as her ears twitched. “Selia said someone was mean to her, so her big sister is here to make things right. Say, you won’t try to avoid responsibility, right, mister Nefarious Saint?”