Back inside my soul I could see Gil had not wasted anytime renovating the island my soul had given us. There were several buildings scattered around and in the center there was a large tower that looked unfinished.
"I see you've sure spruced up the place," I said while petting Fen, Lupa was next to Gil.
"And nowhere near done for what's needed to make you the strongest I can, but I have what I need to at least start," Gil said with a smile.
"Well what did you have in mind?"
"First is how you fight. You don't think at all, you just act on instinct. That's not going to work for long at all. So we're gonna work a lot on that and hand to hand combat. Then we will move on to weapons, and after that your abilities."
With that, my harsh training at the hands of Gil started. He refused to pull any punches on me, his way of training was simple. Beat me bloody again and again without letting up. While I recover, tell me what I did wrong and could have done better. And then do it again.
I quickly lost count of how many times he knocked me onto my back without trying. As much as he annoyed me, I had to admit. He was a skilled fighter.
The hour of real world time he took each day equalled roughly twelve hours inside my soul training. The rest of the time I sat in bed recovering. Xynthia would come visit me and would let me know how her training was going, but said I had to wait to see the rest of our team in person. Apparently I'd be shocked at our last member and which "teacher" was assigned to our team.
This pattern repeated itself for about a week. Some days the time inside my soul would be a few hours, sometimes a couple days, and one time, months. I never was able to level up my classes or skills during this, but Gil said that all the training would transfer to my real body so I'd be faster and stronger along with having a better battle sense.
I was released from the infirmary late one night and told I could grab some food and then I should head to bed as I'd be going back to the training schedule everyone had. I was half expecting Xynthia or somebody to ambush me like last time, but nobody ever did.
Through the halls and into the cafe, everything was silent. I knew it was late, and most everyone would probably be asleep. But even so, it was an uncomfortable dead silence.
'Does this feel weird to you at all?' I asked Gil as I grilled some meat in the cafe.
'The fact that you know how to cook, or the silence?'
'You very well know I mean the silence, and why is that shocking? You know what, never mind on the second part, it doesn't matter.'
'You get annoyed too easily still, but yes this is strange. Even with your animal hearing there isn't any sounds coming from outside this one, not even snoring.'
The whole time while cooking and eating I tried listening for any sounds at all, but nothing at all. Even though there was not a lot of people here, no building was ever totally silent. Something would always be going on in the background to keep everything running. Total silence was not something that ever happened.
After I finished eating I went back outside to see if everything was weird outside too. Luckily it was not, the storms as always continued on surrounding us, and I could hear them when I stopped blocking out the sound. So I decided to check every other building, and sure enough. They all were silent. And not once did I encounter another person, or even a hint that another person was anywhere around.
"Well if nobody is around, no reason to be this careful," I said as I summoned Fen and Lupa to my side. Or, tried to at least. The skull was executed flawlessly, but nothing happened.
'Gil, this is bad, my abilities won't work either,' I worriedly said as I couldn't even transform either.
There was no answer, Gil has gone silent. Panic was starting to settle in. I was cut off from my powers, and was seemingly entirely alone. Keeping my composure was simply not possible for me.
That's when it all got worse. The green tint was starting to surround my vision again. The sound of the storms went from silent to deafening as I could no longer block them out and it seemed they were getting closer. All the way until one giant storm surrounded the training camp on all sides.
Lightning began to tear across the sky, rain pelted me from all directions. The book of thunder and sound of the cyclone of water was all I could hear. My body started going numb.
The cyclone started closing in towards me. Tearing the green and buildings apart. I couldn't move. Every cell of my body was out of control and no matter how hard I tried. I couldn't do anything. Not even scream.
Then it all stopped.
In an instant there was a sunny sky, no green tint to my vision. It was just me sitting on the ground in a giant puddle. All that was left around me was a circle of ground left.
And then Gil appeared in front of me, laughing.
"Sorry Caesar, I really am, but while trying to train you I realized something. You are nothing on your own. Without me and my powers you would have died in that cave on that island. So this is goodbye. I will be taking your body for myself now, don't worry though. I'll protect those you care about in your absence," he said, as he walked towards me.
"Is that what all this was? You showing off your power inside of me to try to take my body from me?" I shouted while standing up.
"And what if it was? You're nothing compared to me. Do you plan to try to stop me? Then come. Show me again how pathetic you are!"
I wasted no time. And ran towards him.