Previously
"She killed. . .all of the spirits?" I asked.
"No," Ivanka said. "She devoured them all. She raped, killed, stole and comitted every sin known to the heavenly principles, officially bearing the title of 'The One Who Bears All Sin'." Ivanka let a small smirk form on her lips. "She was evil enough an existence that the world spirit rejected her existence, creating a realm just to trap her in."
That made sense. Thinking carefully, there were some parts in the Demon God or Nyx's lore that either just didn't make sense or were completely ignored in the game. One of which was explaining how she even got that strong, strong enough to be considered an existence equal to all of heaven and the other realms. Her true form was on the same level as the GodKing and the World Spirit, combined.
"She's. . .that strong?" I asked, sounding rather defeated. I wasn't acting completely. I said that I wanted to get some form of revenge on the Demon God. I knew from the game that she was the final boss but never really thought much on her difficulty since they never revealed her origins too much. Also, the game was a lot easier once you went the pay-to-win strat and bought yourself a god-slaying sword and god-slaying armor.
"And more," Ivanka said. "She is strong enough that if your emblem was any other crest, I would tell you to give up on your revenge. But no matter how strong she is, she isn't omnipotent."
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I knew that was a half-lie. The Demon God, in her true form may not be omnipotent but she was the closest being in this universe to it. "And how is martial. . arts supposed to help me in beating her?"
"Patience," Ivanka chastised again. "As I was saying, during the age of spirits, many advancements in science, agriculture and the four energies were made. But the most heaven-defying of them all was the creation of a supernatural battle prowess called 'martial arts'."
"Here's the heaven-defying part," Ivanka held out her hand, forming it into a fist. A split second later and her fist was covered in this wisp-like, gray energy—it's form ethereal like ashy smoke. Then, right in front of my eyes, she punched the air beside her with the speed of a snail.
BOOM!
"Argh!" I covered my face with my arms, protecting myself from the sudden gale that blew from Ivanka's epicenter. It felt like being slapped with a thousand winds from the force behind her punch. Between my fingers, I could force an eye open enough to see that a crack in space had formed from where she had punched and suddenly I felt like I was being sucked in by a blackhole.
I felt something warm from inside me, like I was going to puke out something as the Dress of Heaven activated it's core skill automatically to protect me. [Heaven's Guard] activated, summoning forth multiple celestial, feathery wings of an angel around me, covering me enough that only my eyes could be seen from the dome of wings protecting me.
It was then that I could see a look of minor surprise on Ivanka's face, as if she didn't expect me to get acquainted quick enough with my Dress to unlock a core skill. Then she decided that she had given a good enough presentation as her ashy-colored hand swiped down on the crack, mending space itself so that everything around us wouldn't be sucked into the miniature singularity.
FWOOP! The last of it's suction force disappeared with a funny noise before Ivanka turned to me with a raised eyebrow as my wings unfurled slowly, relieving me from it's protection—a wing at a time.
I was sheepish in my look. "For some reason, we hit it off really quickly."
She gave a minor shake of her head. "Returning to the matter at hand, what you saw just now was but a minor thing one could achieve through the mastery of martial arts."
"Please give me a warning next time," I sighed.
"So what is martial arts?" Ivanka ignored my remark. "Some say that it was formed through countless centuries worth of observation of the gods when they were still vying for the top seat. Others say that it was a direct declaration of independence from the spirits to the gods."
"You however don't need to know the why, yet. All you need to know is that it will be an important tool in your quest for vengeance."
"It's that strong?" I asked.
". . .Like all battle systems in the world," Ivanka pointed a finger at her head. "It depends on the wielder. The reason why it's known to be forbidden and forgotten—hidden away by the gods and reaching potential farther than any of their systems—is due to a single fact, really."
Ivanka raised a finger. "Anyone can use it."
My eyes widened. "Anyone?"
"Anyone," Ivanka nodded with certainty. "The spirits, gods, humans, dragons—all ranging from the nubile to the old. Anyone. Can you imagine? With this power, the old man downlane can rip space and time just like I did. The kids playing their little games could carry mountains. Anyone."
"That's. . .broken," I whispered. It appeared that just like in my previous world, this world also had it's way of maintaining balance. Something as broken as martial arts would definitely be too volatile just as Ivanka had described. In the game, the world maintained it's balance by letting the spirits govern their own realm, never allowing them to step out unless in retaliation. In this reality, they had the Demon God kill them all, a lot more brutal but definitely far more favorable for the petty gods.
I wanted to laugh when I imagined the Demon God, the ultimate evil and sin, the Devil essentially, receiving a gold medal from the heavens for her brutal work. Now, I found the gods extremely hypocritical. Many times when my mother had dragged me to church of Hum, the priests and pastor told of how the chief gods and the supreme king forbade strife, conflict and the like, painting them as these benevolent beings when in reality, there was nothing but the things they supposedly forbade in the world. Another similarity between my previous world and this one, I suppose.
"Yes but that is only under the scenario that you master it's arts," Ivanka said. "It'll still take a minimum of a century for the average layman to even think about mastering it."
I didn't want to say that, a mere century for a commoner to master a whole battle-system was still extremely broken. "How long for me?"
Perhaps my question came off as a little agitated but Ivanka didn't seem to mind, chalking it to the impatience of the young. She flicked me on the forehead as I yelped in pain, glaring at her. "There are steps before even beginning on the path of martial arts. The three main things you have to train first are your soul, mind and body."
Her eyes glowed for a second. I felt like naked meat in front of those glowing eyes of hers. She blinked her glowing eyes away. "Looks like you'll be able to skip the soul stage."
Instant cold sweat. Does she know that I'm a transmigrated soul? "What do you mean by that?"
"Your soul. I've only seen two people with innate soul strength as concentrated as yours," Ivanka said. "No, perhaps yours might be a mol'e more concentrated. Something to ponder later."
I sighed a breath of relief in my mind. I'll have to find a way to block soul-searching from people soon enough. "So, what's the plan?"
"Since you've graduated from the realm of the soul," Ivanka raised two fingers. "We'll be focusing on the mind and the body."
"That tells me nothing," I quipped.
She only narrowed her eyes at me. "The body can be trained easily enough. . .but I might have to re-adjust it for you."
I was offended. If this was a roast fest in my previous world, the crowd would go crazy but since there weren't any pimple-faced teenagers yelling 'Oooh', I decided to let it go and stay silent for now.
"What about the mind?" I asked.
"Not yet."