Five long years passed, the training with mana manipulation allowed me to learn and cast tier 4 spells, while I also reached the step 99 with the torture, the mana density in the training room increased too, allowing me to proceed even faster in the last years.
From what I learned through Sugar, it seems that other mystical races opened other portals, however, nothing that a little 'ray of death and destruction' couldn't manage appeared.
The only relevant news was about my soul, the Matriarch said that it looks like a part of the soul is ready to heal but it's waiting as if withheld by something.
I opened my eyes after finishing the step 99. In front of me a girl 1,60 meters tall with long purple hair and yellow eyes is looking at me with a grin on her face.
[I told you, didn't I? It was too easy, right?
You did it, you only need to finish the last step to find your answers, aren't you excited?]
She asked while her eyes shined with expectations
"There is already more than enough excitement in the air, and not even a bit of it comes from me, you know?"
[Hurry up, I want to see your reaction after your soul is restored]
"As you wish…"
I closed my eyes once again and compressed the mana fused with my body in my heart, this time, I felt like my heart was burning as the mana compressed in the last 99 steps combined together with the last piece to create the Celestial core.
After less than 10 minutes, the core was completed and the mana in the room moved toward my core, the core instead, used this mana to destroy and rebuild my body, this process continued until I could hear a voice within my head.
'Good job, kid, let's combine and become one'
'Who the hell are you?!'
'I'm Icefire, now let's become one, hurry up kid'
When he finished this sentence, I could feel like something is trying to pull me toward a cliff '
'Why should I trust you?'
'I already saved you from the incident five years ago, isn't this enough?!'
I can feel an evil intent behind his words, before losing control of my body I shouted toward the hologram in front of me.
"My soul...ca-he-mat-arch!!"
Darkness fell on me as I couldn't hear anymore, I can only sense a shadow coming toward me, while my survival instinct screamed, I can't move, I don't have a body anymore and there is nothing that I can do anymore… I can only look toward the shadows and wait for the inevitable to happen.
When the shadow arrived in front of me, I could only see a pair of blue reptilian eyes.
At this moment, a silver light fell from the sky erasing the shadows without leaving any traces, silver chains bursted from the ground locking in place me, and the owner of the two eyes… A silver dragon.
The silver chains absorbed power from the silver dragon and sent it toward me after I absorbed the power, I could move my ghost-like body, I created my own chains of light and trapped the dragon with them, after my chains locked the dragon, the silver chains disappeared as fast as they compared, while the silver light disappeared as well, leaving only a silver eye in the sky.
The struggle for the control of the body began.
The darkness compared once again, but this time I created a miniature sun behind me.
The darkness close to me was completely erased in an instant and the chains around the dragon brightened, stealing him more energy as time passed, the struggle continued with him launching darkness-based attacks while I blocked them with my light.
While the fight continued I acquired more knowledge about this place, this should be my spiritual realm, the place where the soul resides.
I don't know precisely how much time passed, but after a while, the dragon stopped retaliating and talked again.
'What will you do now? You can't kill me unless you want to die too, you know? '
I said nothing and continued to absorb his soul energy, before he disappeared I slowed the process so that I can continue to steal his energy keeping him locked here forever without the risk of him dying in the process.
'You are going to enslave me there forever?!'
'Until I find a way to survive without you… Do you want to die so badly?
Don't worry, I will make sure to comply with your wish as soon as possible.'
'Wait, we can talk about th-'
After ending the happy conversation with the dragon I took control of my body again.
From outside…
Even before her little brother told her, Sugar already noticed that something was off within him an immediately called the Matriarch.
The Matriarch entered the training room immediately after opening a dimensional gate
(A. N. :tier 7 spell).
When she came in and saw her son on the ground, her heart skipped a beat.
She immediately activated her purple Celestial core, her Celestial energy erupted from her core at maximum speed and power, every dodo within the city felt the activation of her core.
If someone activates his core like this can only mean that there is an emergency, and every dodo in the base looked toward the training room.
An instant after the Matriarch activated her core, tens of dimensional gates opened around them and all tier 7 and 8spellcasterss of the city entered the room to see what is the emergency.
The Matriarch ignored them all and looked directly at her son's soul, she only needed an instant to understand.
"Damn lizard!!!!"
She shouted while using her Celestial energy to influence what was happening within her son's spiritual realm.
'It's dangerous but it's better than let him die'
She weakened the damn lizard while straightening her son and showing him how to win (A. N.: With the silver chains, after he became a little stronger than the lizard she removed her Celestial energy hoping that her interference won't cause permanent damage.
When the dodos around them understood what was happening, they left one after another after mumbling something like 'Good luck' or 'I hope to see you again'.
Only the Matriarch and a one-meter tall black dodo remained in the room while Sugar looked at her little brother from the side with a worried expression.
The short black dodo is a tier 8 spell caster with a purple core, specialized in necromancy, she is called Death bringer and she is the strongest necromancer currently in the city, usually, she sleeps all day because the mana density is so low that she can't summon even the weaker undead of her higher tier undead army.
White simply watched silently from the side.
During the process, they all watched as his body was destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly, when the process ended, he was a completely different person.
Around 1,50 meters tall, his eyes became bright blue when infused with mana, while his hair fell out, just to grew back again soon later, but this time his hair is short dark with blue tips.
His body became a lot stronger than before and some mana flowed through him naturally.
*****. *****
When I opened my eyes, a black dodo was in front of me, she looked at me as if I were an exotical animal.
Beside her, Sugar looked at me while tears fell from her eyes when I opened my eyes she used some of her energy to temporarily gain physical form and hug me.
When she hugged me I felt like something changed within me, as if a switch has been suddenly flipped.
Tears fell from my eyes as well while I recalled all my memories about my past years with the dodo family, my head and heart were in turmoil while all kinds of emotions passed through them, but the prominent emotion remained fear, fear about what would have happened if I lost against Icefire, fear of losing my body, fear of hurting my sisters and brothers.
This is the moment where he promised himself that he will do whatever necessary to keep them safe and make sure that they will survive the incoming danger.