Chapter 17: Why are we here then?
Sitting by a small stream a girl who looks to be 12-years old is soaking her leg while playing around with the water. Her violet hair flutters as the calm breeze come grazing her face. She has a cold expressionless face that somehow charming. Her violet eyes are fixed at the swimming fish. She gave a slight grin and then flicked one of her fingers. A sharp light piercing through the water. She then flicked her finger again and a fish come flying. Stuck at its body is a small thin needle that can only be seen with mana sense. If one looks closely, it resembles a sword-like dagger.
The fish is then sent into a bucket filled with water where there are other fish swimming around inside. The thin needle disappears and the fish was dropped into the bucket of water with a plop sound coming out from it. Although it looks dead, after some time it will start to move and swim again. This was acupuncture. Momo perfectly aimed at acupuncture points of a swimming fish! She licked her lips while looking at the bucket full of fishes with some kind of evil intent emanating from her eyes. She then continues to fill the bucket, humming the 'Rasa Sayang' melody.
Several metres from the stream Kim is sitting cross-legged on a patch of grass. He seems vulnerable and lifeless to an ordinary person but with mana sense, one could feel his neverending vitality burning brightly. An indescribable amount of mana circulating through his veins and body. If one gets as close as tens of meter from him, the person would be crushed due to the domineering pressure of his mana. Even a boulder come falling in would be destroyed to bits without even reaching him.
Kim is currently fighting with the voice human form inside his mental domain. Images after images are forming everywhere between the two of them. It looks like they are repeatedly teleporting from one place to another but all they are doing is simply moving very fast. Even when standing nearby one can only catch a glimpse of them the moment their fist is clashing with one another. Blink and you would miss two or three movements! Just in a mere second both of them already had hundreds of bouts.
"Fist of Heaven and Earth!"
Immediately, shining white light emanating from Kim's body with his left fist as the focused point. His mana is so powerful that ordinary mana-users would forcefully submit themselves purely from the pressure. The young man just readied his stance and send out a fist with similar power. Both of their fists clashed and created a devastating shockwave that would destroy everything within several kilometres of distance. Fortunately, they are fighting inside Kim's mental domain which didn't affect the outside world.
At first glance, it seems that both of them were levelled. After a while, a clear sign of weakening is shown by one side. Kim is struggling to keep up with the clash and finally, he was sent flying several hundreds of meters away. It caused a backlash causing blood to ooze from his mouth and eyes. Kim then shouted at the young man with frustration.
"What was that? It was way more powerful than yesterday!"
"Oho... that's only 15% of my power kid."
"15%?! Yesterday was 8%! It must be the crocodile right? You always get mad whenever I ate a big meal"
"I don't care about yesterday!" The young man answered grumpily.
"Oh yeah, I enjoyed it to the last bone. It was magnificently delicious. Since you don't care I would go hunt more next time."
Suddenly, the young man body flashed and appeared in the air on top of Kim. He gathered mana around his right fist.
Feeling alarmed, Kim rolled backwards to stand back up. He then jumped while crossing his arm in front of his face. He then employed all his mana to make a barrier several more times harder than the natural barrier he always had on. This was currently the strongest barrier he could possibly employ!
Although Kim avoided direct contact from the fist, the shockwave was powerful enough to blow a giant tornado at the size of Mt. Everest!. Cracks formed at Kim's barrier and finally, it shattered! The instant Kim woke up, he coughed a mouthful of blood.
"Damn old geezer! I only can use my mental domain for 2 hours in a month. Now I need to wait for next month to completely recover its power. You wasted a whole month!"
"Who cares? Although it's not as potent as the original one, you could actually use it once per month. Even someone as incredible as I am could only use it once in my entire lifetime! That's like a cheat!"
"It's your fault for never trying it again anyway!"
"Y-Y-You still won't match up to me soon!" The voice stumbled a bit and let out a snort.
Feeling annoyed Kim stayed silent and wiped off the blood from his mouth. He went to the stream to wash his face. He could see that Momo is still happily catching the fish with a greedy look on her face. Cute but deadly.
He sits down to meditate to recover his loss of blood. Kim then speaks to the voice telepathically.
"15%? Seriously? I thought you told me I was only as strong as 10% of your power"
"No. You could only utilize mana equal 10% of my power. If you could utilize 100% of your mana, it might be higher than 15%"
"Still, you were using the same amount of power with me... how can I keep losing?"
"Well, it's not about mana kid. The vessel holding the mana must be strong as well. A metal box and a wooden box which one will break first when the pressure is applied unto them? Besides, my body is far superior to humans. It's a common thing to lose to me when we are about the same level."
"So my full power only amounted to that much huh..."
"Hey, don't look down kid. Imagination is your only limit. Stop limit your thoughts and go for it. Not many can match up to your Master. Even my strongest follower the same kin as me can only muster up to 50% of my power. Although, I'm not sure how strong he is now... I don't think he would be as powerful as me"
Momo stares at Kim with an innocent look at her face. Her mouth keeps opening and closing as if she wanted to say something. She then gave up. When she saw Kim standing up after his meditation she smiled and waved at him as if welcoming him back. Kim smiled back and sat down nearby the place she was fishing. With her short legs, she ran to the nearby forest to gather some woods. She came back with a pile of them and stacked it in front of Kim. Kim then flicked his a finger and made a small fire. The fire then becomes larger as it started to engulf all the woods. The bright red fire perfectly complements her beautiful violet eyes.
"Master is really getting better. The first time you tried to lit a fire, you burn down the whole forest and dried the river."
The voice couldn't hold himself from laughing at Momo's statement. Kim felt annoyed but knowing that Momo doesn't mean any harm he only replied with a bitter smile.
Momo then pulls the bucket full of fish and throw the fishes to the air. She clasped her hands together and several sword-like needles pierced all the fish to the ground, circling the campfire.
"Surely, my Momo is getting better now," said the voice happily like a doting grandfather.
"Did you fight with grandmaster again today?"
"Yes"
"How does grandmaster looks like?"
"Momo must want to see your Grandmaster right? Come, come" said the voice even though only Kim could hear him.
Kim let out a snort. He didn't feel obliged to let Momo see the voice image in his mental domain. However, looking at the innocent look in her eyes, Kim can only blurt out a sigh and ask her again.
"Why do you want to know?"
"I'm just curious"
While asking Momo her intentions, Kim sent out his thoughts to the voice
"So can she or can she not?"
"A Conjurer like Momo has a strong mental capacity so she has the aptitude but...the only reason you can interact with me is that you absorbed all my memory. The mental domain is only unique to me and you."
"Can't you do the same thing to Momo?"
"If you want her head to explode in an instant sure. Besides, one can only pass on his memory once in his lifetime. That's as far as I know. Who knows, you might find another way."
Kim them give himself a deep thought whether or not what the voice said was the absolute truth. Even if one lived for more than thousands of year, doesn't mean one could experience everything in their lifetime. As far as Kim concern, he still can't figure out how to bring Momo into his mental domain. Teaching her might be impossible since he himself got it by force from the memory. Even though he recreated the mental domain to become his own, it was still based on the original which was unique for both him and the voice. He shook his head and thought of a reply.
"Well, the image he showed is not his real self but... if you ask me... that ugly old geezer is a hideous freakish monster that would eat a kid like you Momo!"
Momo didn't even flinch a bit. She gave a short thought and after a short silence... "So, who is uglier? Master or Grandmaster?"
The voice laughter exploded inside Kim's mind which annoyed him. He then took out a bottle of milk.
"You want some milk Momo?"
She stands up firmly with a face of no hesitation and full of determination as she stares at the exquisite behemoth's milk.
"You are the most handsome man I've ever seen Master! Momo was being a fool! Please punish me however you like!"
Kim let out a sigh and threw the bottle of milk to Momo. She rubs her cheek against the bottle as if it's the most precious treasure in the universe. She acted exactly like the stoor hobit and its ring. She bottled up the milk and let out a sound like an old uncle after drinking a cup of soju. She then looked closely at the bottle and a sudden realization hit her! There's only half of it left! She had a dilemma and her face looked like she wanted to scream 'NO' until her lungs are out. She wanted to drink more, but the more she drinks the less she will have left. She walks circling the bottle with her hands behind her waist while looking at the bottle of milk as if she was thinking of a way to savour the milk as much as possible. It is the most crucial moment in her entire life right now.
'It's only milk. I wonder how she would react if we manage to get out someday'
"You could bring her out from this island. No problem"
"Yeah, you are right I could just bring her out of... wait I could?!"
Kim then heard a broken whistle voice, feigning ignorants from slipping his tongue.
"Seems like the crocodile meat was not enough... Should I found bigger meat several more times than the Behemoth? What do you say? Might be a feast for your eyes!"
A sound of cruelty can be felt from those words as Kim put on a grim smile with his eyes shines, projecting the vicious thoughts coming from his mind. Although the voice felt intimidated, there was a hint of hesitation within his heart. Thus, he closed his lips tightly.
For Kim, it was out of the ordinary for the voice not telling him anything he knows. If he could, the voice would continue to blabber on until sun change to moon and moon change back to the sun.
"I'm pretty sure of what I heard just now so at least tell some truth to me... why didn't you told me earlier?"
"Because... you never ask?"
A dumbfounded look covered Kim's entire face with his jaw agape. He looks at the blank space, while Momo enjoying one of the grilled fish she caught.