Noah had never felt lighter than he currently did. While before, he felt as though he’d been dragging a boulder behind him, now he felt like he could fly through the forest. In fact, he’d managed to ask Grace if he could, considering he could use aura now.

“You’d have to raise your INTELLIGENCE.” she’d said, making Noah even more excited for his future.

The demons continued to chase him through the forest, but he’d be surprised if they could catch up to him now.

I can use aura…

“Sorry to read your mind and all, but while you can use aura, you can’t control it.” Grace interrupted. Before he could ask for clarification, she continued. “Since our souls are linked, I’m taking control of your body's aura output, but I can only put out a fraction of it. Right now, I’m using Flow Manipulation to strengthen your body. When this is all finished, though, we’re going to need to spend a month or two training your fundamentals.”

“Flow Manipulation?”

“I’ll go into detail when we train. For now, look up ahead. We’re almost there.”

Noah pushed back thoughts of training with Aura Manipulation, as much as the thought excited him. As the demons’ screeches got closer to him, he closed in on the campfire area within the forest that Cynric had left him to die in. When he reached the center of the space, he saw the sword he’d neglected to bring with him.

The black, wooden scabbard gave way to a dull, rusted silver blade as long as Noah’s arm.

Of course he’d give me a terrible sword.

“That should be enough!” Grace called. “Get ready, I don’t have time to teach you how to use aura so we’ll have to do this together! It all might be a bit jarring, but you’ll have to trust me!”

She’s already gotten me this far… no need to doubt her now.

“Got it!”

Noah planted his feet and raised his sword into a guarded stance, waiting for the bug-like demons to pounce at him from the darkness. When the sound of rustling leaves sounded before him, Noah tightened his grip on the hilt and readied for battle. As he looked into the depths of the forest, he was surprised to find that he could see the demons crawling through the thick trees at him from about fifty feet away.

Since when could I see that far? Is this what Grace was talking about?

“Analysis coming up! I’ll parse the data for you!”

Rather than ask questions, Noah kept his word and trusted his new companion.

“Got it!”

CLASS A DEMONS

HEALTH: 11

AURA: 0

STAMINA: 11

STRENGTH: 10

MANIPULATION: 0

INTELLIGENCE: 10

SOUL: 0

CONTROL: 0

To Noah’s surprise, the blue screen disappeared as quickly as it’d showed up, and yet he found he’d been able to analyze the information easily. In terms of physical strength, they were as strong as himself, but they could chase him longer than he could run and could recover faster than he could heal. Despite those differences, he found it easy to take pride in the one thing he could do that they couldn’t.

He could use aura.

“Noah, they don’t attack at the same time! Let one of them rush you and kill it! I’ll use Physical Manipulation to strengthen your sword!”

“On it!”

Just as Grace had noted, three of the demons crawled up a tree and waited as one of the purple demons rushed at Noah. As it approached, it raised itself like a snake, towering over Noah, its yellow eyes boring directly into Noah’s. They stood like that for a moment, neither taking their eyes off the other.

“He’s easy prey,” Grace whispered, her tone resolute. “Kill it!”

The demon let out a roar and, much to his own surprise, Noah found himself doing the same.

With an aura-infused step, Noah dashed toward the demon and sliced at it with a swift, horizontal swing. Blue blood spurted from the point of impact and Noah reflexively leaped backward to avoid its blood.

Its massive purple body went stiff, standing as straight as a sword. Before Noah could follow up his strike, the demon let out a deafening screech before crawling toward its brethren.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Noah chased after the demon but stopped when he suddenly remembered his fight against Mizune from earlier in the day.

“You lacked coordination.” she’d said.

He stopped himself and took up a defensive stance, trusting his vision to aid him.

When the next one comes, I’ll be ready.

“You’ve got this, Noah! They’re switching while the other heals. You need to kill it! Once you do, wait for the others to attack!”

Noah let out a grunt and nodded in agreement as he waited for the demon’s approach. As this new one crawled toward him, he found himself assessing his earlier strike.

One slash was enough to make it go stiff. If I keep going, I can probably kill it. I’ll just have to get dirty.

As this next demon approached, he was surprised that it didn’t raise itself. Instead, it crawled toward him at full speed and began biting at his feet.

Noah jumped as high as his body would let him, which was about twenty feet with his new aura prowess, and readied to skewer the demon through its body.

In response to this, the demon slowly raised itself, opening its massive mouth as wide as it could go, planting itself where Noah would land.

Once his body reached the apex of his leap, he brought his sword back in preparation for his final strike.

With a loud roar, Noah brought his sword down toward and through the demon’s head, the weapon splitting the demon’s body in two as Noah landed.

When he looked down, he found that his white robes had been stained with the demon’s blue blood.

The remaining three demons screeched in unison as they observed Noah’s form. He turned toward them with a cold, resolute menace. Though Mizune drilled a calculated efficiency into his fight style, Grace’s warning of killing the demons quickly rang through Noah’s head.

He launched himself at the demons, his hands firm on his sword. As he rushed toward them, they raced down the tree and began speeding toward him. The demons took on a flanking position, one rushing Noah directly while the other two ran to the blind spots behind him.

As the demon before him raised itself, Noah thought to himself quietly.

I already know what to do.

In one quick step, Noah closed the distance between him and the demon and cut the same area he’d attacked earlier.

When the wound reopened, the demon went stiff once more. Rather than hop back, he leaned into it, slashing at its body over and over again.

The demon screeched as Noah slashed, but it did nothing to attack Noah.

I have to end this before the other two get here.

Noah shifted his position and brought his sword back as far right as he physically could. With all of his might, he swung the flat of his blade at the body of the demon, launching it toward a tree on their left.

Boom!

The impact its body made surprised even Noah with how loud it was. The demon’s body spasmed for a brief moment before stopping altogether. Noah’s exasperation was cut short by Grace’s words.

“That one’s dead! The next one is about to attack!” the golden woman shouted from his shoulder. “Don’t take too long on it, I think the next one is going to try jumping in before you kill it!”

Before Noah could respond, the familiar roar of the bug-like demons sounded from behind him. When he turned to face the creature, it raised itself in preparation for an attack.

No time to waste!

Noah rushed toward the demon in front of it and let out a flurry of sword slashes. Before the demon’s body could stiffen, Noah pierced it with his sword and impaled it on the ground.

When he looked up, he could see the final bug-like demon skitter towards him in a daze. Rather than pick up his sword, he decided he’d try something new.

As the demon approached, he widened his stance as if to dare the demon to attack him. Calling his bluff, the demon launched itself at Noah. Before it could attack, Noah closed his eyes.

Look for the blue light.

He did find it, rather easily in fact. The only issue was that it was headed right for him. Not only that, but there were three other blue lights in his periphery.

Must be from the other demons I killed, I guess?

“Love the enthusiasm, Noah, but you aren’t good enough at Soul Absorption to do it on a moving target! Kill this one and then we can focus on absorbing the souls.

“Alri–”

Noah stopped and ducked to his right, dodging the demon’s massive bite by mere inches. The sound of its clamped jaw being loud enough to startle him despite himself.

That was… close!

Rather than attack, the demon surrounded Noah’s sword. As the demon opened its mouth once again, Noah found himself cursing his prior lack of focus. The demon clamped its jaw on Noah’s sword, the upper half of the weapon now lost in the beast’s stomach.

If only I hadn’t gotten too eager.

“Don’t dwell on it, Noah! You’re stronger than it, just beat its ass!”

He found himself debating what his next move should be. His overconfidence lost him his sword, yet his lack of action could lead to him losing something else.

“What happened to your confidence?! Now is not the time to sink into yourself! Kill that demon, Noah!”

“...Right!”

He launched himself at the demon, preparing to kick its head off through the cone-shaped carapace.

This should be enough to–

Noah had no time to dodge the projectile. In one swift motion, the demon lurched forward and spat Noah’s broken sword straight toward his left shoulder, his entire left arm going limp as the impact hit.

As much as he wanted to shrug the blow off, Noah found himself reeling in pain from the speed of the blow. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the demon crawled toward Noah’s left foot.

“Jump!” Grace shouted.

Without hesitation, Noah jumped as high as he could manage. He wasn’t sure what he’d do when he landed, but he trusted the golden woman knew what she was doing…

“Punch it!”

…at least, he hoped she did.

Noah raised his right fist as far back as it could go, hoping to gain as much momentum as he could with the punch.

As Noah prepared to strike the demon, an orb of light... no... a collection of aura gathered around his fist.

Let’s see what this can do.

When Noah brought his fist down to attack the bug-like demon, he was stunned to find a massive ball of yellow light where his hand should’ve been. The moment it connected with the demon, its body exploded, blue blood splattering across the open field and Noah’s white robe.

I… did it!

He smiled to himself in satisfaction before falling to his knees. Whatever that attack was, it took a lot of energy out of him. While on the ground, though, he decided to take in the battlefield as he caught his breath. A pierced demon lay in the center of an open campfire within the forest. Another lay curled up by a tree a few feet to his right, and another lay sliced in half to his left, it's blue blood and green guts staining the grass. Above him, the guiding light Grace had made before they bonded burned bright.

Did I just… kill five–

“You fight like you’re still weak!”

As Grace spoke, she materialized before Noah, taking the same human-sized she had when they’d first met.

“What do you mean? I killed them, didn’t I?”

“You did, but when then you just… froze up all of a sudden!”

Noah couldn’t help but frown at the woman.

“But I killed them! I’m sorry I’m not normally the type to rush at enemies all haphazardly!”

Grace let out a long sigh before fixing him with an annoyed gaze.

“Whatever.” Grace motioned toward the demons about the campsite before continuing, “For now, absorb their souls so you can level up.”

“...Fine.”

Noah closed his eyes and focused on the four blue orbs in his vision. He found that the task was far easier when they weren’t moving. With a deep breath, he whispered.

“These souls are mine. They belong to me.”

When Noah’s body filled with a zap of energy, he knew he’d done it right. It was as though he hadn’t fought at all. His left shoulder was as good as new, and all the energy he’d lost in that attack on the final demon was gone.

YOU HAVE GAINED 8343 SOUL POINTS

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEND THEM?

Noah looked at Grace, who nodded at his silent question.

“Yes.” he called to the blue screen.

ACKNOWLEDGED.

WHICH STAT(S) WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEVEL UP?

HEALTH: HOW RESILIENT ONE'S BODY IS

CURRENT: 10

AURA: HOW LARGE ONE’S AURA RESERVES ARE

CURRENT: 10

STAMINA: HOW LONG ONE CAN FIGHT

CURRENT: 10

STRENGTH: HOW PHYSICALLY STRONG ONE IS

CURRENT: 10

MANIPULATION: HOW STRONG ONE’S AURA IS

CURRENT: 10

INTELLIGENCE: ONE'S ABILITY TO USE COMPLEX AURA TECHNIQUES

CURRENT: 10

SOUL: HOW STRONG ONE’S SOUL MANIPULATION IS

CURRENT: -BOUNDLESS-

CONTROL: HOW STRONG ONE’S WORLD MANIPULATION IS

CURRENT: 0

Rather than put it all into aura again, he decided to consult Grace.

“What do you think?”

“Pick whatever stat keeps you from freezing in front of a weak enemy.”

Though Noah would’ve liked to yell at Grace, he decided not to. Sure, she was being petty, but it’s because of her that he'd even gotten this far. He froze up in front of an enemy that both of them were confident he could beat, and so—”

Grace sighed before groaning, “Now you’re making me feel bad!” She walked closer to him, appearing in front of the blue screen before continuing. “Listen, I know my advice and your training conflict, but you aren’t some weak kid without aura. You’re the Incarnation of Souls! You don’t have to fight like–”

“I appreciate the kind words, Grace, Noah interrupted. “But I’ve been some ‘weak kid without aura’ my whole life. It’s hard to unlearn that in one night. I’ll try not to freeze up again, but I’ll be honest and admit that it’s gonna take some time.”

Grace looked down in defeat before speaking again, surprising Noah with her words.

“I apologize, Noah Hearts. I should have been more cognizant of your… situation. I will be sure to take it into account going forward.”

She didn’t take her eyes off the ground as she spoke.

“Now you’re making me feel bad” Noah tried, chuckling the words.

As Grace looked up at him she gave him a weak smile and responded, “Now we’re even.”

The two shared a laugh as Grace walked to his side. Facing the blue screen together, Noah motioned toward it and inquired once more.

“What do you think?”

“Well…” she contemplated, “We’re going to be out here for a while. I’m guessing we can’t go back to Haven, unfortunately, so I think we should focus on stats that’ll help our survivability. I say we split everything evenly across HEALTH, AURA, STAMINA, STRENGTH, and MANIPULATION.”

“Why those five?”

Grace faced him before continuing. When Noah met her gaze, she continued.

“Well, if any more demons attack us out here, STRENGTH, AURA, and MANIPULATION can help us fight them off. If a really strong demon comes, our STAMINA lets us run farther. If they catch us, HEALTH will keep us alive.

Noah couldn’t find any arguments for her points. The one thing that stuck with him was what she’d said about their living situation. They wouldn’t be going back to Haven. If the Upper Echelon wanted him dead, Noah knew that walking back through the walls would be akin to suicide.

Now wasn’t the time to dwell on that, though. They discuss their plans after they finished here.

“Alright. Let’s do that.”

As he told the System his upgrade choices, he smiled as it read out his new stats… and his new level.

TWO LEVELS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO [HEALTH]

TWO LEVELS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO [AURA]

TWO LEVELS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO [STAMINA]

TWO LEVELS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO [STRENGTH]

TWO LEVELS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO [MANIPULATION]

CONGRATULATIONS. YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 11. GENOVA SMILES UPON YOU.

CURRENT STATS

HEALTH: 10 > 12

AURA: 10 > 12

STAMINA: 10 > 12

STRENGTH: 10 > 12

MANIPULATION: 10 > 12

INTELLIGENCE: 10

SOUL: -BOUNDLESS-

CONTROL: 0

“Eleven?! Wasn’t I just two?”

Grace matched his enthusiasm with a smile of her own. “Sure, the upgrades were minimal, but you leveled up five separate stats two times just now. A level 0 is quite rare, so boosting it to level 10 is similar to reaching the starting line, not blowing past it like you just did.”

Her expression turned from enthusiastic to smug as she continued, though. “You’ll be leveling up pretty fast since you’re new to the system. Once you reach LEVEL 200 or so, it’ll be a lot slower.

“Two hundred?!” Noah said incredulously. “How many levels are there?”

“Seven hundred and four!”

****

“Disgusting cultist.”

As he looked down at the red-haired boy from about five hundred feet away, he couldn’t do anything to stop his hatred from boiling over. Nala had told him that he tends to make poor decisions when he’s emotional, but the sight of that man sickened him.

“The miniature human and his unattractive cohorts should’ve finished that cultist off.”

He was sure the boy, Noah Hearts he’d heard his captor say, was a member of the Truth Seeker cult. For one, he’d been talking to himself as soon as those strangely dressed humans left in the horse carriage. Beyond that, Noah managed to take out five demons despite being near-death mere moments earlier! Sure, those five demons were the weakest of the weak, he’d wiped out all the Class Cs and Class Ds in the forest with Nala earlier that week on a job, but for the cultist to go from weak to strong in such a short time was… strange.

“I suppose I could follow the cultist boy to his lair and kill them all.”

As he pondered the idea, Abaddon smiled in triumph at his genius.

“That is what I shall do!”