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Rhys followed after Eternal Paragon for some time, at first he had trouble moving within the void, but as he saw how Eternal Paragon moved like fish in water through the void, Rhys started to copy her movement.
It took a few minutes for Rhys to get used to the movement he copied from Eternal Paragon and move just like her through the void. He still was missing his left arm, but it did not matter as there was basically little to no gravity within the void.
Rhys saw he could access the Jade ring, but only the most basic parts, that is pills and weapons, no money or treasures higher-grade or higher. But Rhys could not heal his arm, mostly because the energy of the pill would be destroyed by the aether. Even if he did find a way to take it, no energy in his body meant no way the energy could move, his body was merely using aether to keep itself alive.
That too was only because of the physique he has allowed him to use aether like that.
'Unless I progressed to stage 4, I doubt my use of aether will increase...'
While Rhys was lost in thought, Eternal Paragon was simply moving freely as she felt training Rhys would bring her some form of fun, 'I wonder how should we start? Easy or hard? Hehehe.'
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Rhys stood in the middle of a group of fiends, Rhys's body was full of bruises as he panted.
'Dammit, how did things end up like this?'
Rhys thought as he clenched the high-grade glaive in his arms, but before he could say do anything, he heard a voice he had grown used to by now.
"Fufufu, at it boy! You can do it!" Eternal Paragon laughed as she floated higher than Rhys and looked at Rhys's fight with interest.
Rhys felt like beating her up, but he would be killed with a simple snort of hers. He remembered what Eternal Paragon made him do first, in her own words, she wanted Rhys to 'learn to use aether like it was part of him.'
'Learning to use aether by fighting!? This shit...!' Rhys complained, but he still did as he was told and fought against the fiends of the void, they were relatively young and weak, only True Realm levels of power, but Rhys had no experience in using aether masterfully.
He had only ever used it to destroy, disrupt, and kill his opponents by making their insides break. Even now, he only released aether in pulses outward, but it did not hurt the fiends as they could use aether better than him, they used it to protect themselves.
Even newborn fiends would do better than him, but it wasn't his fault either. Fiends were born in and for the void, they could use the natural aetheric energy around them as easily as breathing, while everyone else needed a technique to use it in an orderly way.
But techniques to use aether could be counted on one hand, only one person possessed them as well, Eternal Paragon had them. Because of her self-made physique, she had experimented a lot with different aether uses and written notes, in the end, they turned into special techniques which only she had, she might make lesser copies and send them out into the universe, but that was rare.
So Rhys struggled to gain good control of the aether was by nature a destructive chaotic force, so to force control, Rhys would need a higher stage physique. The most he could do was force it into one's body by making it move through his meridians, or make a little bit appear on his hands, or hand now. For one, Rhys's physique was only at stage 3, so the purity of aether, as well as the quantity, wasn't the best. He only had so many chances to practice before he ran dry.
Bam!
A purple blast left Rhys's hand as he punched the fiend, whose body was thrown back, but Rhys soon started to get pounced by multiple fiends, he quickly stopped making a fist and grabbed his glaive.
Crack!
Quickly, the glaive cracked under the pressure of the aether being channeled into the glaive, its material could not withstand the destructive might of the energy.
Rhys made a slashing motion, an arc of purple energy left the glaive and moved forward, striking more fiends before the aether destroyed the glaive in Rhys's hand.
'My body is a better conductor of aether!'
Kakaka!
Rhys heard the laughs of the fiends as they saw him as weaker due to his trash use of aether.
Rhys smiled back as he launched forward and started to exchange hits with his one arm, aether blasts left his arm every time his fist connected with another object.
'As I thought. His physique grade is too low to control aether... stage 5 would be required for the control of aether to improve as I made it in my technique... but I can feel some bloodlines in his body... Dragon, Phoenix, Elven, and Spirit. What if I use the aether to influence a bloodline mutation?...' Eternal Paragon thought.
'But that would be too much, there is no record of this... if something went wrong he'd become a deranged being at worst... and die at best...'
Eternal Paragon had a silly thought in her head, 'I can imagine a Void Dragon... ooh that sounds cool! I wonder how the wise and prideful strong dragons would react if they knew that a being of their blood has done something they cannot do without my techniques or physique?... Hehehe.'
If Rhys knew her thoughts he'd also be interested, after all, if it succeeded, the strength boost would be stupendous. But he had no idea how to progress such an idea.
Even Eternal Paragon wasn't sure how she could influence bloodline mutation without exposing's Rhys's bloodlines to the aether and void, but there was also a chance the aether would destroy his blood and kill him.
'I will have to test it by asking the boy some of his blood every now and then, the boy can become very strong and then help me in my endeavors!'
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Time passed, Rhys's 'daily' routine, if you can call it that, consisted of training aether control on the day and cultivating the Eternal Paragon Void Body with the help of Eternal Paragon, making him slowly, but surely rise closer to the peak of the 3rd stage.
Right now, Rhys was currently surrounded by the corpses of fiends, their purple blood floated in the void as he panted. He was slowly getting used to controlling it as he liked by seeing the fiends use aether to defend or attack.
He could make a shield of aether, it will only be active for a second and be very weak, but it was still progress in Rhys's mind.
'Still, why does Eternal Paragon ask me for my blood every two days?...' Rhys felt confused but it didn't hurt him, so he had no reason to refuse her questions. He thought she might want to test something, after all, 'There is no way she does not know of the four bloodlines in my body, she must be messing around with them.'
Rhys thought before he closed his eyes and started to replenish the aether he spent, his dantian and meridians were also slowly, but surely becoming more and more used to aether, they already were, but now, because of the lack of the other elemental energy, aether was taking over as the main affinity in his body.
'In the end, I will become like Eternal Paragon, using aether as the main energy...' Rhys mused as he thought of himself using aether to overwhelm his enemies and control space.
'I still am only an Earthly Saint... I need to reach the Supreme Saint stage to be able to comprehend spatial laws.' Rhys sighed to himself before he continued.
Hours ticked by as he floated in the void that was very quiet, allowing Rhys to enter the state of emptiness much more than before.
As Rhys cultivated his physique, within the dark void, Eternal Paragon was sitting in the middle of nowhere as she took Rhys's blood and injected different quantities of the pure aether within the void.
Rhys's blood slowly started to turn slightly purple in some tests, but in others, it was destroyed by the chaotic aether.
'I see... so it has a slight resonance but it can't be too much... then that means if I inject little bits of pure aether into his bloodstream, his bloodlines would slowly undergo mutation?...' Eternal Paragon made an amused smile before she vanished and appeared before the cultivating Rhys.
Rhys did not feel her presence at all, Eternal Paragon's golden eyes turned slightly golden due to the use of a technique before it ceased, as if it was a lie.
'I see, he has some blood essences for the perspective bloodlines in his dantian... oh? Aether seems to have changed the blood essences slightly, almost to the point it is null, but that is some progress, I will just up the quantity of aether in my next experiments to see what will happen...'
Eternal Paragon smiled before she vanished and appeared back where she was.
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During all of these, Rhys never had any idea of what Eternal Paragon was thinking. He was simply recuperating his aether reserves and trying to remember how the fiends use aether to copy their ways.
'Claws, offense, shields, defense, aura, support. They can use it in three different forms, make claws of pure aether or similar weapons for offense, make shields or similar objects for defense. They could cover their bodies in aether and use it to boost their strength.' Rhys reviewed everything as he moved the aether in his body in specific ways.
To his hand, he tried to make a claw, although the aether did travel to his arm, it did not cover his fingers and make claws. In fact, it just left his body back into the void.
'Fuck.' Rhys cursed in his mind as he felt he was getting nowhere with offense. Defense was another thing as stated before, he could make a shield of aether for one second.
Rhys opened his eyes and stopped trying, he still felt the warmth of Eternal Paragon's domain covering him, 'To keep it powered up every day and from so far away while she leaves who knows where. Just how much energy does she have? She also has to suppress the Void's will to keep it from throwing me out.'
Rhys felt more reverence grow but it was taken away by the prideful dragon bloodline.
Rhys was about to try and train once more before Eternal Paragon appeared before him.
'Hello.' Rhys moved his mouth, Eternal Paragon merely nodded, as she took his hand and within a second, they were in another place, although it was hard to tell because of the dark void.
She immediately stopped grabbing his arm and pointed at Rhys, "This is your new training place, the aether quality is higher and the enemies stronger. Good luck."
Once more, she vanished before Rhys. No spatial fluctuations or anything of the sort was left behind.
'Haa... It's too quiet, and Eternal Paragon won't stay here for long unless it is to help me cultivate...' Rhys thought before he saw there were some fiends getting closer.
'Get stronger... Stronger!'
Rhys muttered in his mind before he clenched his fists and threw himself forward. Aether left his body in pulses, pushing him forward. Meeting the new wave of fiends, Rhys started to fight once more.
...
Purple blood and body pieces filled the void during the hours of fights.
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Eternal Paragon was not gone, she simply turned invisible and watched over him. She was interested in seeing how the aether changes his blood essences in real-time. Her eyes glowed golden before she stared intently at Rhys's stomach, where the dantian was located.
'But how does he have such thing on him in the first place? That jade ring? I shouldn't be rude enough to intrude since that would be the same as hurting his privacy, no?' Eternal Paragon thought before she stopped and frowned as her head turned deep into the void.
'Tch, that pest is getting very annoying!'
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Author's Note:
3/3