《Refining the Heavens》B2, Chapter 84: The Practice (Part 2)
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While the others are shocked at the harshness of the battle, and the Phantoms are looking at the unbelievable fight before them, right now, Kairos is thrown into a situation to use skills that he had never tried before while facing a rampaging devil.
But no matter if it is speed or power, he is completely outmatched by his opponent.
His only advantages are that Syriong is a low-ranking devil whose soul had been beaten to an inch of life, and half of his flesh is destroyed but recovering at a snail's pace. Even so, his current repertoire of skills could not slay a devil, it was a situation that would be fatal if Kairos could not pick up the new skills Aisa had taught him.
With his poor cultivation talents, even if he already understands the way to execute the techniques, it's arduous for him to succeed.
Kairos could feel how his body refused his control, but it only made his determination burned stronger, "Here it goes!"
Everyone had their eyes glued to him as he dashed forward once again, seemingly invincible.
Kairos observed as the headless devil continued attacking him with its guts. With its ribs have already regrown, soon the whole upper torso will be completed.
Those rope-like intestines that flew at him broke the sound barriers easily. It lashed towards him with so much force that he only dared to dodge.
It is a speed far beyond what Triple S rankers could achieve, and much quicker than even his Lightning Flicker Body. Though Kairos has reached Mid SS rank thanks to his mana and Origin Infusion, the Lightning Flicker Body mainly depends on the strength of his body instead of his cultivation.
Fortunately, he thought up another skill that could give him a temporary boost of speed.
"The Eternal Empyrean, Burst!" Kairos whispered, and concentrated his physical strength only into his legs. This defensive technique that collected power in a localised area, not only would help protect him, but could also be used to boost his abilities for a moment.
What he is doing, is not much different from a mortal winding back his arm for a punch or going into a sprinting position for a burst of speed, except that Kairos is not limited to his limbs but any part of his body.
Kairos anticipatorily dodged the attacks using his soul perception, with his sight unable to track the lashes that came at him repeatedly.
Without a head, Syriong' body is attacking Kairos by itself, no different from an automatic defensive mechanism.
But ultimately, it is easily outwitted by Kairos' movements allowing him to slip in between the attacks.
"First move! Astral Cataclysm!" He yelled and punched at the closest tendril.
But besides knocking it back a little by his brute force, his skill failed.
"Again!"
He focused first on dodging, then repeated his attack at first opportunity.
Like Kairos thought, the martial arts that accompanies the Origin's cultivation method is of a level that he could not easily learn. Without feeling down, he continued trying, repeating the attacks over and over again but never succeeding.
He knows that he have no time to feel demoralised, those that had time to feel sorry for themselves did not have the 'life or death' urgency that he is experiencing now.
Syriong's arms began to form as he healed, but at the same time, this recovery means that his guts are now unable to extend out of his body and attack. It changed its attacking methods instantly, swinging its feet and half made arms at Kairos.
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Kairos, on the other hand, found this speed much more manageable and attacked many more times than before, granting him hundreds of attempts in a short while.
The combat lasted only five minutes, then a skull has fully formed.
This healing speed is so dismal if any other devils heard of it, they would have pitied Syriong, but with a weakened lesser devil as his catalyst and the Guardian's soul nearly beaten to death, this is the best he could do.
Just as Syriong's head fully healed, Kairos' eyes brightened as he felt that he was getting the hang of controlling the power. The Guardian opened his eyes filled with hatred and stared at Kairos with green flames. But his timing was bad, because, at just as he re-awoken a fist came at his face at a distance impossible to dodge.
It struck him with full force, and by physical strength alone, caused half his head to explode.
"Uhh... that's gross" Kairos said after hitting him. Syriong would not die from that, but once again his body became mindless.
A proper devil would be able to control the flesh by the strength of its soul even if its head is blown off, but Syriong being a new devil could only leave it to his devilish energy to retaliate with his body.
With a smile on his face, Kairos dodged a sharp stab from Syriong's knife-like nails, and then returned with another punch that caused the place his fist contacted explode.
"The Astral Cataclysm!" He exclaimed happily.
Everything which he hits will shatter into dust by his attack, leaving a perfectly spherical wound. It is a skill with fearsome power and control. Most external practitioners have enough strength to shatter a large boulder with a punch, but who among them could contain the damage only to a localised area and leaving the rest of the rock unharmed?
If this is a Ki-attack, it would be easy to achieve this level of power and control as long as one's cultivation is enough. But to have absolute mastery over the impact and strength using brute force is a technique both astonishing and unheard of.
Yet, this destructive power that could harm even a devil's body is merely the first stage of this martial arts. From the images Kairos saw, when he reach the next level of the skill, he would be able to damage anywhere on his opponent's body as he wished.
The images that Aisa showed him was using the fist as a weapon, but Kairos suspected that after mastering the second stage, he could channel his strength through his weapon and significantly increase his range.
After succeeding in using the technique, he did not merely stop there and attempted to achieve the second stage of Astral Cataclysm. From his relentless attacks, several parts of Syriong's body has broken again, but it did not stop retaliating.
Kairos defended himself valiantly, however, as Syriong's flesh become more attuned to the devilish energy, the devil's retaliation becomes more precise, and every strike that landed caused threatened to rip through the Eternal Empyrean technique.
Though he had ensured that Syriong could not restore his head, the damage began to stack up, as sweat and blood drenched his robes.
I'm already out of energy?
After reaching Titan Rank in physical strength, Kairos had not felt so drained. With his stamina transcending human limits, he can easily fight for a week without tiring, but just a few minutes of using what Aisa taught him, he is already exhausted.
Unable to practice physical skills any longer, Kairos began trying out the dragon magic, but surprisingly Aisa called him off at once.
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Kairos~ Magic cannot be learned by trial and error~
But in response, Kairos shook his head and gave her a confident smile. Unlike before when he had to practice the techniques, he started replicating Aisa's magic circle.
Unexpectedly, a flawless symbol appeared, just like what Aisa had created.
Seeing it, Aisa immediately cast a barrier around them, one that would hide the magic circle from everyone else.
From the beginning when she took action, she had concealed herself from prying eyes and ears. However, when Aisa used her dragon magic she noticed a strand of intrusive perception that seemed attracted to her mana.
With a single look disregarding the vast distances, the dragon perceived its source came from the Southern Countries. Like what the rumours said, the mage guild truly had a way of searching for magic circle being used.
Every living thing is born with mana, the energy of nature herself. It is only when one has the aptitude to use it that a magic circle would appear and materialise the energy. But at that time, the mage guilds from the South will come for that person.
Of course, they are unable to breach the Primordial Dragon's concealment, but for Kairos, on the other hand, could not protect himself from their detection.
With a mere blink of her eye, an invisible barrier shrouded Kairos and made him invisible to those nosy 'flies'. Aisa is already upset at being disallowed to assist him, in most things. Now that she could help a little, she does not appreciate uninvited guests from nosing their way in.
As a little revenge, the dragon sent a little of her energy back with the detection device that the mages are using.
This day, the mage guilds will detect numerous 'individuals' across the mortal realms. Although, not one of those 'people' would be found.
After blocking the annoying recognition magic in the air, only Kairos' magic circle is left.
Unlike the physical defensive and offensive techniques that depend on one's fighting talent, magic is dependent on the user's intelligence, and for Kairos it is something much easier to do.
His bloodline might be poor, but his intelligence is at a higher level of enlightenment than anyone in the mortal realms. Perhaps only in the Immortal Realms or even the Divine Realms could he find a match to compare astuteness.
Even Aisa did not know that he would be able to understand and pick up magic so quickly.
As a primordial dragon that lives and breathes mana, she did not know how difficult it is for the other races to learn magic but she has heard that it takes tremendous patience and a great number of years to succeed.
Yet for Kairos, this isn't a problem. He comprehended the symbol rather quickly. As he was fighting for his life with Syriong, part of his mind was deciphering what Aisa taught. With his intelligence, he could work on several hundred problems at a single moment, while fully concentrating on what is happening before his eyes.
After he understands the magic circles planted in his mind, he did not attempt to weave the symbol by directly manipulating his mana but instead wove it through his soul like how he inscribe runes. Needless to say, his control is impeccable, and the symbol he weaved was a perfect replica of what Aisa did.
A giant flower made of holy light blossomed before him, and completely covered the Devil, as Aisa stared hard at the scene, with all the golden runes on her scale glowing irrepressibly.
Kairos! This purity... No wonder...
As the True Holy Dragon and the controller of the Holy Element, she could not help but react to the strong sacred power in the air and gave a gasp when she saw his magic.
It's so... perfect...
The element obeyed Kairos like it is a part of him. Though the power of his spell is limited by the mana he could use, but the purity is refined beyond what a beginner should be able to achieve.
Before everyone's eyes, the whiteness that flooded the area washed away part of the nearly recovered devil. The strength of the spell is far weaker than what Aisa did, but Kairos was still pleased with the effect.
Confident in learning magic, he moves on to the last combat technique, the only one that could slay a devil. Soul Tempest!
To fight with the soul, he would first need to develop a combat soul.
This time, Aisa guided him step by step.
Kairos~ When you form your combat soul, pull in all the elements you can control.
For some reason, not just holy, but all sixteen elements are extremely obedient to his beckoning, and they flowed into him the moment he circulated his Ki.
Afterwards, following the dragon's instructions, he gathered his conscious in an area with the mixture of elements.
For many techniques in the Mortal Realms, this is only the first step to enter one's sub-conscious, but with the unnamed technique which Aisa introduced, Kairos is able to exit his flesh by forming an astral body.
However, just projecting an astral body is not enough, he still needs to alter it into a combat soul.
The sixteen elements that he had absorbed, now come into place and he clad different parts of his astral body with an element each until he dyed his soul with sixteen different colours.
Kairos~ now imagine a shield appearing before you!
As instructed, Kairos imagined his astral body holding a square shield, and a large slab of spirit metal immediately appeared before his soul to hold.
Though the element he had picked to form the item was the metal Ki, he knows that he could materialise a shield of any elements.
Following that, one after another, he created helmet, plate mail, greaves, gauntlets, a cape, and his Swallow. After being completely armoured, Aisa nodded at him pleased and said,
Not yet~ Kairos, stabilise your astral form more~!
Like how he controlled his soul perception, Kairos focused his astral body, and it changed from a blurry image that was like a wisp of smoke, into a more solid form.
A domineering aura undulates outwards from his soul, and Syriong's mindless body immediately turn and fled from him. Shocking not just his friends, but the Phantoms who were looking at this spectacle.
The moment Kairos' combat soul is completed, Syriong felt a danger similar to what the dragon did to him. But before he could escape, Kairos' eyes started glowing brightly as power gathers. Combat Soul martial technique: War God's Epithet.
In the spiritual realm, Syriong's soul that had absorbed and became a devil quivered. He could see the armoured astral body of Kairos converting all elements into the Holy attribute and gathered in the Swallow.
"NOOOOOO!" The Guardian screamed in fear and rage, but it did not stop Kairos' from swinging his weapon downwards.
A gale of wind blade swept across him.
The wind which struck him turned into a hurricane and shredded what was left of his soul.
A pain unimaginable ran across his soul, as he felt completely ripped apart, piece by piece.
If such agony wrecked a person's physical body, it would have at least caused the person to become unconscious and therefore, have some reprieve. But in the spiritual realm, there was no escape for Syriong's tortured soul, for he could neither faint nor escape. Even the path of madness is closed for him.
The storm shattered his soul into bits until every sliver of devilish origin has been decimated. Then, his human's soul weakly reformed.
Now human once again, he is without a body to return to and Syriong's soul slowly faded. From whence one's soul came from, it hence returned.
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