A black red aura surrounded me. It signalled the completeness of my transformation. Streaks of red lighting appeared around my body at spaced intervals. I frowned as I clenched my fist.
"Not enough."
My transformation was not even close to complete. Because of the constant lighting strikes, I no longer had enough energy to fully transform into my Vermillion Phoenix Mode.
"If only I wasn't interrupted."
I saw Ashley and Maria fly up to me and instantly, I went and hugged the both of them. I couldn't help but smile
"I...remember everything."
The force and pressure of my transformation had broken the mind-sealing barrier the spirits had placed on me Ashley and Maria couldn't hold back their tears as they held me tighter. Ashley smiled.
"Idiot."
As I embraced the tightly, I saw Karina watching us from the ground. While still holding Maria and Karina, I vanished and appeared on the ground. I didn't let them go as I looked at Karina in the eyes.
"Thank you. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to remember who I am."
"Don't worry about it. Besides that, what will you do now?"
I looked at Maria and Ashley.
"Take a break. I desperately need one."
3 weeks later, Lasvidia Continent, Linchestin City, Imperial Academy
I was sitting on the newly built clocktower of the academy and enjoying the view. It was quite nostalgic to be back here after twenty years. All my classmates had already graduated and were in various positions of their own, not that I cared though. I was watching the new bloods down below as they scurried to their next classes. I got up and jumped down. I landed with a huge thud as the concrete on the ground cracked. The students were shocked as they stared at me.
"All of you get to class, especially my students."
I vanished as multiple students began running to their classes. I was sitting on the chair in my classroom when multiple students rushed in. They took their seats and looked at me with high expectations. I stood up.
"Okay begin."
One boy instantly put their hand up. I pointed at him.
"You."
He pushed back his chair and stood up.
"Mr Blake. It's about rune magic. I'm having a hard time inscribing a fire rune on this sword. I checked all the books to make sure I was doing it correctly but I can only make weak fire slashes. Is it because my mana nature is water or..."
He fell silent. I took out two swords from my dimensional storage and gave one to him.
"Both of us will inscribe a basic fire rune and we'll compare effects. Ready?"
"Yes!"
The students looked on in anticipation as we began inscribing runes on the blades of the swords. Both of us finished and compared our runes. I spoke.
"Both of them are the same but, let's see how effective they'll be on the field."
I opened a void corridor and the students went in it. We appeared at the training field.
"Now, swing your sword."
"Yes."
He took a stance and swung his sword. A weak flame emerged from it. He frowned.
"See?"
I stepped forward.
"Watch."
I simply swung the sword and a huge gust of flame in the form of a sword slash made its way for a few hundred metres before it finally dissipated. I held out the sword.
"Take my sword and slash."
His hands were slightly shaking but I shoved the sword into them.
"Don't waste my time."
He took his stance again and with all his might, he swung the sword. Flames shot out of it. He was shocked.
"A-AMAZING!"
"Next time you inscribe something, imagine what you want to come out. When I inscribed this sword, I knew what I wanted to happen whenever I swung it. You should do the same to. You can keep it as a basis for research."
He bowed in admiration and respect.
"THANK YOU SIR ISAAC!"
I smiled.
"Now, who's next."
I saw dozens of hands shoot up as I sighed.
"All right."
I made shadow clones to help me with my lesson. I was occupied for the whole day.
Linchestin City, Blake Mansion
Lately I've taken to staying with my parents. They haven't shown even the tiniest signs of aging. They stopped their body's aging process at 29 while I stopped mine at 21. I'd occasionally spar with father from time to time, using only my giant sword. I'd taken to focusing back on the basics and enhancing what I already know. It was father who advised me to...
"First digest your food before you consume more or else you will harm your body in the long run."
Besides from refining my combat skills, I also decided to increase my knowledge in regards to alchemy. Being able to make even one of the most basic pills can be a lifesaver in an intense situation where you have run out of mana. I asked mother to teach me in that aspect. She's been making pills for herself and father for more than a hundred years now so there's no better teacher. I tried to fit many things onto my schedule in a day. In the early mornings, I'd spar with father in a special void dimension where we could go all out. If there was one thing I've learnt, it's that father is incredibly powerful. He's atleast equal to my power in my eight tails mode and that's not even him going all out. I suspect he may be much stronger than me. I refrained from using any sort of transformation. Only basic mana control skills like physical enhancement skills. After we were done sparring, I'd go to the academy as a guest teacher to teach a few classes. Lady Raika tried to make me into a full time instructor but I refused. My way of teaching was simple. I'd have the students write down whatever they wanted to ask and then ask me the next day. Due to this, it made my job much more easier since I became more of an advisor than a teacher and I also had thousands of years of experience. After I'm done with the students, I'd go to the Imperial Palace and spend some time with Maria and sometimes Ashley if she was there. Maria had handed over most of her duties to Renata and was focusing on refining her own strength most of the time. She was focusing more onto healing magic and archery. I don't know what sparked her sudden change but I'm glad. If she wasn't training, we'd have a few 'rounds' of sparring together in private. Ashley would sometimes join us also. She's been taking good care of the Familia these days while I was away. She prevented the Familia from growing too big and kept the numbers at 5,000. Each Original was responsible for 100 disciples. This meant it was manageable for each of them. Our influence was also pretty widespread now. We were very well know in Linchestin, especially by the nobles. Our reputation kept them in check although, there were still cases where we had to clean up. Amongst other countries, we weren't as well known. Since the annexation of Aria, the Linchestin Empire has grew to be the second largest empire in the continent of Lasvidia, lagging just a bit behind the Gradze Empire which has reigned as a powerhouse of Lasvidia for thousands of years. There were also few dozen other countries that existed much further west. In the evening I would go and practice alchemy with my mother in her alchemy room. She'd teach me the names of herbs and methods to concoct them into pills and elixirs. She was very strict with her training, despite her appearance. It made me feel nostalgic about the days as a kid when I'd get a healthy dose of killing intent accompanied by a loving smile if I messed up a technique during my training as an assassin. Suddenly, mom hit me with an unexpected question.
"How's your core?"
"?!"
"Don't ignore me. Tell me how it feels now."
I sighed since I knew it was pointless trying to hide things from her.
"I keep oozing mana uncontrollably at times and I feel a stinging sensation if I try to go into my Vermillion Black Mode."
She put down her ingredients.
"Looks like I was right. Your mana reverse flowed for a while when you were being struck by that lightning. The sudden change in direction of the flow caused cracks in your chaos core. Now, ever since I recieved the cores from the chaos beasts you killed 25 years ago, I've learn quite a few things about chaos cores so I should be able to patch you up. All I need is a high tier rejuvenation herb and we can begin."
I smiled.
"You don't mean the ones that take hundreds of years to grow right?"
"..."
I sighed as I opened a portal to the Familia Mansion. Mom smiled.
"You can already live for more than tens of thousands for years. A few decades shouldn't mean anything to you anymore."
"Decades are still decades mom."
"It doesn't matter. Just go and get that herb if you want to heal your core."
I entered the portal to the Familia Mansion to get some rest. Sleeping in my own room after twenty long years felt nice. At this point, the Dimensional World was about the size of a small country. We had hundreds of large fields where we grew high quality herbs and textile factories where we knitted our own special clothing like the black cloaks the assassins and spies wore. We had everything we would ever need. I was genuinely proud of how far we had come.
3 years later
I'm now in my forties, if I don't count all the years in the Dimensional World or the 20,000 years in the Spirit World. I've been living a relatively comfortable life so far. I had cut off a bit of my hair. It now only extended to my shoulders. I also managed to find the herb mom wanted in the Dimensional World and it would mature in a few days according to the Familia alchemists. I was sitting on my usual spot on the roof of the academy when I saw some students fighting. I took the opportunity to observe the situation for my amusement. The fighting was between two girls. One was a 4th year and the other was a 3rd year. They were fighting a martial battle. This means no mana skills were used except those related to physical enhancement. The 3rd year was pushing the 4th year back by quite a margin.
"Hmm, interesting. It's clear she's refined her skills, including the core basics."
They continued exchanging pointers. The 3rd year was gaining the upper-hand in their battle as the 4th year suffered more and more bruises from the combo attacks being unleashed on her. As the fight drew on, the 4th year toppled to the ground when a powerful punch landed square on her chest. The 3rd year girl spoke as she rubbed her fist.
"I hope you won't bother me anymore."
"Y-you wench! If you don't kneel down in front of me right now, I'll have whatever is remaining of your family killed!!!"
The 3rd hear clenched her fists.
"You promised that if I win, you'd leave me alone!"
"OF COURSE NOT YOU STUPID BITCH! MY FATHER IS GRAND DUKE ARMIN! That means, with one word...I CAN HAVE YOUR ENTIRELY FAMI-"
"That's enough of that."
*Crash*
I had jumped off from the roof and landed on her face. I had her under my boot as I looked at the 3rd year.
"When someone talks about killing your family, BREAK...EVERY...BONE...IN...THEIR....BODY. Understand?"
She stared at me wide-eyed, as if in confusion. The other students were silent from shock and fear.
"It looks like you don't understand. Let me show you an example."
I unleashed a purplish wind blade on her foot. It severed completely as she screamed in pain. I kept her under my foot as she struggled while also using telekinesis to restrain her body.
"Looks like I made a mistake. Let me try again.
I proceeded to aim my hand at her leg, pulled it back and quickly shot it forward. The pressure caused the leg to cave into the ground as the bone completely broke. The ground itself cracked