The siblings spent the whole of the fifth day sleeping while their astral cores worked to replenish their lost astral energy. They had overworked their bodies to the point that most of their muscles couldn't handle the strain and tore. So they weren't only fighting while being exhausted, but were also enduring a large amount of pain.
The next day soon came and the siblings woke up just as Lin arrived. Though, they still wanted to rest more as Victoria had only recovered about seventy five percent of her energy and Gideon only recovered fifty percent, which would have been much slower if not for their astral cores.
"Well you two are going to be enduring a large amount of pain later so it won't really matter whether or not you've recovered all your energy." Lin said plainly while the duo grimaced, they could bear the pain, but that didn't mean it was nice.
"Regardless, see you guys later." Teran said before his head turned towards Lin and he said in a solemn voice.
"If they've finished the first stage of your training then go easy on them for the next." Upon hearing this, the siblings had feeling of unease in their hearts.
"No promises." Lin said with a shrug before the siblings were engulfed in a sphere of green wind and they along with Lin vanished the next moment.
"Well, God knows I tried." Teran said before crumbling into hundreds of pebbles.
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Very quickly, the duo found themselves near the massive world tree once again and immediately felt their bodies relax. But their minds were far from relaxed however.
The two of them looked at Lin who had her usual impassive expression and waited for her to explain to them what the next stage of their training would be, and she did not waste their time.
"As you probably know, you two have advanced to the next stage of my training, which as you expect, is probably going to be very painful." Lin paused and observed their expressions, although she saw some hints of hesitation, they didn't show any signs of backing down, causing her to nod.
"Previously you two went through large amounts of physical pain, so it's safe to say that you two can take a hit. But what about your emotions?" Lin asked and the duo immediately knew where this was going. Seeing their looks of realization, Lin continued.
"Your pain tolerance before the training was decent, but you two seem to lack the ability to properly control your emotions." Upon hearing what she said, the duo's mouths twitched as she felt that she was spot on. Gideon especially since there were numerous times where he lost control of his emotions, not to mention when he had sliced off Lin's ear.
"So this time, you two will be going through high levels of emotional torture. After all, even if you can take a hit, what's the point if you loose control of your emotions and attack recklessly and make yourself an easy target." Lin finished and even though the explanation made sense, the duo still shuddered. No wonder Teran had asked her to go easy on them, and quite frankly, they wanted her to do so as well.
"Anyway there's no need to waste anymore time, so get ready." Lin said and before the duo could react, wind condensed around their bodies and immediately robbed them of their ability to move.
Before they could even make a sound, their minds blanked out and they lost consciousness.
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Gideon slowly opened his eyes and found himself sitting down on an old chair inside a dark room with a pane of glass in front of him, but it was too dark to see through.
"Ugh." He groaned from a heavy headache and tried to hold his head only to see that his arms as well as his legs were bound to the chair.
'What's going on? I was about to surprise Victoria with her birthday gift but then everything went dark.' Gideon thought with some confusion as well as fear, seemingly having his memories altered.
He tried to break through his restrictions but found out that he couldn't muster any strength, much to his shock.
"Hey, who's there and what's the meaning of this!?!" Gideon yelled but there was no response causing him to feel frustrated.
However, just as he began to contemplate on how to get out of his predicament, the glass that seemingly led to another room brightened up allowing Gideon to see what was happening on the other side, and what he saw caused his blood to freeze.
A little girls who looked to be no less than 10 years old was bound by chains on her arms with a weird looking collar around her neck as she knelt down on the ground, she had purple hair and fair skin and seemed to be unconscious. It was Victoria.
"Victoria? VICTORIA!" Gideon muttered at first before shouting as he struggled against his restraints but the struggle was useless.
After some seconds, Victoria opened her eyes slightly and seemed confused by her situation. She then looked forward and saw Gideon tied up to a chair.
She began to shout but Gideon couldn't hear her as the glass seemed to be soundproof much to his dismay.
He started questioning why this would happen but looked at Victoria with an assuring look to tell her that everything would be fine.
But before he could do anything else, the collar around her neck glowed with an ominous crimson light, and before he could react, her head exploded.