The moment the first Void Spawn decayed and splattered on the floor, a blast of pain struck Fen directly in his heart from the purple energy implanted within his body.
"Argh!" He cried out from the pain before being driven to his knees, his joints locking in place from the shock. The Vitality within his body tried its best to remove the injected energy, but it felt like all his attempts to remove it only entrenched it further inside him.
[Fuu...] Igris sighed over the speaker. [I thought you were better than this, to be honest. You don't even know how many Void Spawn I'll be making you fight, and yet, you wasted so much of your Vitality on a single opponent. You're talented for sure, but that talent's only useful in duels. Nobody, in any universe, is going to let you fight in a fair one-on-one while everybody else fights around you. Wars are commonplace to the point that people like you? Stage two Empowered? You're less than useless- you're just irrelevant.]
[You're only good as military police, and even then, if someone uses a high enough quality weapon, you're still only good as fodder for their bullets. At best, you can use your body to block the attack to protect some other Stage two Empowered, 'cause Heaven knows that you wouldn't be helping the Stage three Empowered with the power to face attacks like those without breaking a sweat. Who do you think you are? You still don't even have a body capable of traveling through space!]
The scorn in his voice dug into his mind with the aide of the purple energy, which twisted and writhed in his chest at every insult he spat. Fen had no choice but to sit there and listen, taking notice of every dig and verbal jab just to take his mind off the pain racking his body.
Another Void Spawn popped through the gate while he was talking, one with only two legs and a cavernous mouth taking up most of their body. Needles sharp like knives stuck out all around their body, while two holes on top of it sucked in Void energy and used it to propel itself from a tube in its back like a thruster.
The monster roared before charging towards him with Void energy thrusting it forwards, its two legs smacking the floor to keep itself stable, but Fen's body still couldn't move. Every time he tried to move, the purple energy circling his heart made him feel a level of pain that even the damned didn't deserve.
His muscles were quivering from his willpower, but the purple energy was so far entrenched inside him that his nerves were firing at random. If he wanted to swing his sword ahead of him to chop off the monster's leg, his leg kicked the ground, and so on. There was a pattern to it, but right now Fen didn't have enough time to unravel the mystery because the monster was just about to reach his body-
Then it happened. Igris's control over his body disappeared, and Fen was free to move how he wanted. His Vitality reacted to his will and bubbled through his body, enhancing every strand of muscle fiber while his mind whirred in his head to find a proper way to execute the monster. Without any time to spare, he surged his Vitality to his arm and controlled his green glowing short sword to cut through the air and chop through the monster's leg.
Because it was so close, Fen misjudged the amount of energy, and what was originally a move meant to dismember became a killing stab that violently cut the creature in half before it could even realize its own death.
[Well, that's better. At least you didn't waste your energy using a complicated technique like Life Control. Still, the amount of energy you used to dispatch such a weak creature like that was a little overboard. For the upcoming Void Spawn, aim to control your energy output to only use the bare minimum necessary power needed to kill. Eventually, you'll get a feel for it, but for now, this is suitable. Terrible, but at least you're no longer wasting energy.] Igris analyzed in a calm voice, for once showing his teaching skills. However, his educational aura was destroyed by the image of him playing with the purple energy bouncing in the palm of his hand, which caused small lines of pain to strike through his chest.
Through the dim glow of Void energy present in the arena, Fen could see that the Mage's crazed grin was replaced by a look of focus, and his glazed eyes looked sharp enough to pierce through his soul and see everything about him, including the things that he might not want others to know.
[But an improvement is an improvement,] the Mage sighed, [and it proves that you aren't going to waste my time by that much.] He flicked his hand and a console made up of golden particles appeared in front of him. He created a link between his will and the structure using his refined Mana so that he'd have perfect control over the building, enabling him to change the difficulty of the test without needing the Foundation's authority, thus bypassing the need to contact an Archon and inform them about Fen's training.
After a few flashes of blue light that signaled the transfer of intent between him and the console, another gate started rumbling, and the white crystal embedded in its center started to darken with Void energy before the same process as before repeated itself, and another opening into the Void appeared.
For a moment, Fen saw the massive horde of Void Spawn chittering outside the facility, searching for the cloaked building. Void Spawn the size of cities swept away the sea of monsters and devoured the rampant Void energy the dimension created, but that sight wasn't as horrifying as the feeling they gave off- there was nothing inside those beasts besides an endless hunger. Their gluttony wasn't fueled by madness or even beastly instincts, but rather a malicious intent to destroy and eat anything that could satisfy them.
The blurry stars that created light within the dimension seemed small compared to these monsters that were right in front of him. Hell, Fen could even see the light created from the stars bend around these colossal beings; they were so large that not even gravity could avoid their sickening attractive force.
[Don't worry. None of them can see us. At most, they can detect the Void energy being manipulated and used as a cloak to prevent them from seeing us, but there's no Leader Archetype in this area, so none of them are smart enough to know what they're sensing. And if there was a Leader, you'd long be dead before I could shield you from them anyway, so there's no need for you to worry!] The Mage's chipper tone did nothing to hide the grim atmosphere hanging in the air.
The scene beyond his comprehension was veiled with a twist of the Mage's hand, and suddenly he realized that he was holding his breath. After his mind snapped back to reality, the first thing he did was take a deep breath of the energy-filled Void air, which suddenly seemed much more 'alive' than before. A small drop of sweat rolled down from his hair, and Fen unclenched his hands that had tightened from seeing the swarm of Void Spawn.
[The Void Spawn that you saw in the facility were comparable to Stage two Empowered- the ones you fought a minute ago were weaker and were at the Stage one level... barely, they were really weak, weaker than most of the Void Spawn that hang around the Colussals]
'Huh. Good to know those giants have a name...' Fen absently thought, doing his best to rid the image of those ginormous beings from his mind, all while knowing that he'd never be able to forget them.
[Oh shit, I almost forgot... let me close the gates so I can talk for a while without having you fight at the same time.] At the end of his words, the two open gates shut with a booming sound. [As much as I love the idea of training your mind to focus on many things at the same time, we don't have the time for it. That, and Raisen didn't ask me to do it, so no reason to waste more energy than I need to.]
A screen of golden particles manifested in front of him, before forming into a massive wall of text that didn't make any sense to him no matter how much he tried to read it.
[Like any other Lesson, there's a practical part and a theory section, where you sit down and learn from the instructor talking. I showed you earlier, but I am a certified instructor for the Program,] a correlating image that proved his words flashed across the screen in front of a shocked Fen, who believed that this would be nothing but constant fighting.
[I sent you a record of Void Spawn biology broken down by some Mages and Knights who studied their life force, so make sure to review it before your next training session- wait, why the hell am I talking about this now? You still have to survive this first one! Haha!] Igris turned his head to the closed gates before waving their hand, making the gates rumble before opening up again.
Fen redistributed the energy in his Vital constructs to harden the edges, vibrating the blade with his energy so that the black blood slid off. "How many do I have to kill to get out of here?"
He eyed the approaching Void Spawn with violent intent, inwardly scoping out their powers with his energy sense, using the amount of Void energy stored within their bodies to compare their powers to the other Void Spawn he encountered. Whether or not that was an accurate method of measuring power for these monsters or not, Fen could feel the slight differences in the energy inside them compared to the monsters that invaded the facility, and so started basing off his estimates on that.
But while he was busy absorbing the information his energy sense was giving him, one of the monsters in front of him with long legs disappeared from his vision.
"Eh?"
The monster reappeared right in front of him, close enough that he could count the individual teeth gnawing through his Vital Skin. Fen jerked away and slashed down with his dagger, maneuvering his body so that the creature's teeth slid through his energy technique and away from his body- but in doing so, the other Void Spawn took advantage of his momentary lack of focus and charged forwards, uncaring whether or not they trampled themselves in the process.
"Shit! Fuck you," He let his dagger dissolve into Vitality and crushed the long-legged monster with his hand, throwing its lifeless body back at the other monsters behinds it. Its quick dash ability was similar to his Vital Hyperdash, but for some reason, the technique didn't have any negative effects on its body, possibly because of the different properties between Void energy and Vitality.
'I should study that,' he thought while spearing a dog-like monster with a few Vital Spears and controlling the rest to block the attacks of another. 'If I can mimic that technique then maybe I can upgrade my movement abilities, or at least enhance them.'
No matter how strong his body became, the Vital Hyperdash technique squeezed out the maximum potential from his muscles whilst also enhancing them at the same time, achieving tremendous strength at the cost of destroying the limb. If that Void Spawn was capable of doing the same thing with a different type of energy that wasn't even meant to amplify physical strength, then it was possible that by reviewing the biological information in the records Igris gave him that he could then invent a Vital Dash with the same effects as it's more powerful version.
'If it depends on basic biology- sweep the legs with a spear and pierce with another- then I'm screwed, but if it's solely an energy technique then I just need to observe it more.' His thoughts were interrupted by a more tenacious Void Spawn that refused to die despite the three Spears tearing through its chest, but after manipulating a few of the Vital Spears he quickly managed to kill it.
[Conserve your energy, that's it, rely more on your manipulation skills rather than brute strength. Use their energy against them by shifting the force along with your muscles, absorbing the energy, and redirecting it like that- yeah, perfect. Hmm, he's learning quickly, even for a Vitul. Wait, is he even paying attention to me?] Igris scratched at the back of his head before shrugging and messing with the console controls in front of him with some strands of purple energy. [If you can hear me, I'm only allowing those with Stage two strength inside the arena. This'll serve as a good teaching moment for you to learn about using your environment to your advantage. Or maybe you already understand that, in which case I'll just be observing your strategic skills... Heaven be damned, pay attention to me!]
The Mage, frustrated at the lack of reaction from his entrusted Opfer, slammed his foot down and pillars of ice thrust up from the arena floor, with branches of hardened ice manifesting from the pillars that poked and stabbing anything near them until the ice stopped spreading.
One of the pillars appeared dangerously close to Fen, who struggled to dodge the ice encroaching towards him while maintaining a grasp of the battlefield at the same time. One of the ice needled through his calf, making him grit his teeth and endure the pain before breaking it off with his hand, tensing his leg as his flesh mended together with the aide of his Vitality.
When he glared at Igris, the Mage simply shrugged before gesturing towards the third now-open gate where two slender Void Spawn were looking at him.
[Make sure to use the pillars! Otherwise, we'll be here for longer than any of us want to be, but although I have time to spare, you don't, do you? Haha, better hurry then!] The Mage dipped into a portal of purple energy and appeared on the other side of the observation room to get a better angle at Fen, who stopped paying attention to him to give his full focus to the new, larger Void Spawn.
[You must be feeling it right? The memories?] Fen snorted before nodding his head slightly, dipping behind a pillar as a large claw crashed against it and almost cut him into two pieces- he wasn't too keen on finding out what regenerating the bottom half of his body would feel like.
[You know, as somebody who delved deep into the Magical Arts and the practical applications of magical energy, I know a bit about psychic energy. Or, as a certain subgroup of Mages calls it, soul energy.] Fen could feel his smile through his voice, while he remained silent, silently drawing a connection from what he already said to the memory orbs stored inside the mental space.
The Mage drew a symbol into the interface and pulled up a screen of written notes so jumbled that it could pass as abstract art before squinting his eyes, and reading a small bit of it aloud, [...Archangels, blah blah blah... Vitul, here we are. In the Dimensional space that the Veratul civilization created, as reported by living Vituls and their ancestors, the memories of the living creatures they killed can also be used as, well, memories, but also as fuel.]
[Because what is Vitality, if not the willpower that makes up all life? And a memory contains nothing if not the will of the past! And a memory that's absorbed from the dead- well, that must contain their final will and intent. Your people figured out a way to weaponize memories, something so fantastical and miraculous that nobody, except for a few Psychics, understands them!]
'...what the hell is this guy talking about?' Fen passively listened to his words because of the charging Void Spawn, but at the cost of a few deep scratches, he did manage to catch the gist of the Mage's impassioned speech. 'If there was a way to do that, I would've figured it out by now...'
He had spent so much time wandering in the memory space that anything that was something was explored, and any ability that he gained because of it was learned- not that there were any that he could find, unfortunately- and now Igris was telling him that there was a way to weaponize the memories stored within the space?
'...Was Dey useless, or what?! What kinda Vitul forgets about their own racial talent that could solve my problem with memory storage?!' Fen roared in his mind, becoming fully convinced by the Mage's words after remembering all the things that Dey forgot in the small time that he knew the God.
A hulking Void Spawn the size of a minibus interrupted his thoughts with a swinging tail that cracked against the large ice pillar he was behind, sending ice shards of all sizes flying everywhere. The difference in strength between these monsters and the initial wave of Void Spawn was so massive that Fen started to appreciate the lesson Igris gave him about conserving as much of his energy as possible- if he hadn't, and had instead blown away those monsters with his energy then he'd be left defenseless against these stronger versions.
Though, technically, it was Igris who put him in danger in the first place, so fuck thanking him. This was his fault in the first place!
[If there's still not enough incentive for you to activate your racial ability, I'll let you in on the whole point of this exercise: I just want to see you use Soul energy as a Knight. Energy conservation, combat training- fuck all of that. I want to see if the rumors are true and if Vituls can access two different types of energy. Just do that for me, and I'll take you back to the facility! I'll stake my honor on it!]
'Dammit, I would if I could you Mage bastard!' Fen's senses strained to the limits to perceive one of the attacks in front of him from one of the faster Void Spawn, using a Vital Spear to intercept and counter the stab whilst also piercing through the creature's head. In a last moment of desperation, he punched an ice pillar with his free hand and flooded his muscles with Vitality, using the momentary burst in strength to tumble the large mass of ice to crush a few unfortunate Void Spawn.
The entire time he'd been fighting against the Stage two-level Void Spawn Fen had been forced to run around and confuse the monsters with confusing zig-zag maneuvers that worked more effectively against him than them, and hadn't even had a minute to spare his mind to think about how the hell he was going to do what Igris wanted.