Opening the door, I found Kath and Sylv fighting more beasts.
Brushing a small bit of dust from the handle of Night's ballad, I said. "Leave them to me please."
I took Night's ballad out of its scabbard, and exploded forward.
Even though Night's ballad merely grazed the beast because of its size, it was cleanly cut into two pieces. A dark blue fire consumed the beast, leaving only its aether behind for me to absorb.
...
Standing in front of the large castle, I could now truly see its scale. It was much larger than Indrath's castle, and I was certain the exit would be there.
The castle was however protected by a thick, extremely concentrated barrier of mana that I simply couldn't breach. I tried to disrupt it, but I lacked the required mana control.
I sighed
"My mana control is not good enough, we can't get through." I groaned
"M-maybe the exit is somewhere else." Kath stammered
"Searching for it is worth a try.." I mumbled
...
Returning back to our camp empty-handed, we had a meal, and I went into my tent.
Taking out the black marble, I sat in a comfortable position and let myself get sucked in.
I found myself in a valley fully covered in snow, with a snowstorm raging in the skies. Faint rays of sunlight shone through, just enough to make it slightly visible around me.
A howl from behind me startled me, as I didn't sense a creature creeping up so close. I immediately whirled around, finding myself face to face with three wolf like creatures.
The one in the front was obviously the leader, A wolf with horns facing behind him and curving a little bit outwards into a perfect circle, his face filled with white fur except the top of his snout and the black tribal-like markings around his eyes. His ears were a combination of black and white fur, ending in a sharp point.
The bottom of his body was filled with snow white fur glistening in the little sunlight there was, while the fur on the sides and top of his body was a obsidian black color.
His eyes looked like portals to a dimension of fire, with small black slits inside them.
The other two wolves looked virtually the same, lacking the horns, instead two small stubs were where their horns should have been. The left one had snow white fur while the right one had obsidian black fur.
I took a fighting stance, when suddenly, the leader spoke.
"Greetings, being of mana and aether. My name is Silver, the one on my left is Shadow, and the one on my right is Snow. We have been tasked by the Djinn to reside inside this artifact, until a being worthy of our training appears."
"And how do I prove my worthiness?" I asked apprehensively
"You already have..."
"Arthur"
"You already have, Arthur. By gaining access to this artifact."
"Alright, how will the training proceed?" I asked with a newfound curiousness in my voice.
"We will be fighting. Over, and over, and over. Each time you kill us, manipulating mana will get more difficult. In the second part of your training, you will be trained to resist forceful extraction of mana out of your body."
I nodded, taking a fighting stance.
"You are free to use the sword."
Summoning my sword, I asked. "How did you know?"
"I am a centuries old being, I too have a few tricks up my sleeves." Silver chuckled
Shooting Silver a cheeky grin, I answered. "You bet!"
...
KATHYLN POV
It's been two weeks already, since Arthur sat down into that meditating position and began funneling all the mana from the atmosphere into his core much more aggressively than ever before. With each day, he has been absorbing more and more mana from the atmosphere, to the point where he has even started stripping my core of mana whenever I am close to him.
"I wonder what he's doing, what kind of training is he going through." I told Sylvie with a slight blush
"If he wants to face the Asuras, he needs to train even harder. While I truly believe he is already close to the power of the average Asura, he needs much more than that. Kezess, my grandfather, is on a whole different dimension of power compared to even the second most powerful Asura. But I believe in Arthur, I believe he will save Dicathen." I answered
ARTHUR POV
I had already spent 6 months in here, my mana manipulation along with my power raising leaps and bounds beyond my old self. I had a feeling that the bird that almost killed me would now be swatted like a fly.
Slashing my sword at Silver, I left my back wide open. This was a trap, and when Shadow pounced on the opportunity, I created a pulse of mana, throwing him away, and shooting a concentrated ray of fire particles at him.
I had been fighting in this difficulty for over a week now, constantly getting closer and closer to victory. One down, two to go.
Throwing my sword at Snow, I instantly called it back and executed an overhead slash at Silver, who dodged with practiced ease. Creating a tunnel of ice around him, I swiftly followed, but my tunnel easily crumbed with a simple body slam.
9 months later
"You are ready for the second part of your training. This part will take much less time, as you merely have to keep the mana in your body from leaking out of your body." Said Silver, pride visible on his face.
Stepping into a cave, I saw dozens of runes line the walls.
"Stand in the circle, there." Silver said, nodding in the direction of the circle.
Upon stepping into the circle, a smile lined my face.
"I'm ready"
The mana started draining out of my body with surprising speed as I fell to my knees.
"Control the mana and don't panic!" said Silver
The mana trickled out of my body, eventually leaving me in my hibernation state again.
1 month later
I had finally learned how to stop mana from draining from my body.
"Alright, now you will be doing the exact same thing, but you will be casting spells during it. Go"
Stepping onto the circle, I stopped the draining of mana. As I tried to create a spell, my control over my mana was suddenly broken, the mana once again draining out of my body.
2 months later
"Arthur, it was a pleasure teaching you." bowed Silver, along with Shadow and Snow.
"It was a pleasure being taught by you." I said, bowing back
Suddenly, I woke up in the real world with a scorching pain all over my body. The marble turned into mana, automatically absorbing itself into my body.
Pulses of mana coursed through my body, the tents, islands, and even the surrounding atmosphere crumbling around me. My body exploded with dark blue flame, even the atmosphere itself was bursting into flames.
It felt as if my body was assimilating with the universe, the surroundings, the aether. Mana coursed through me, yet it was.. different, almost as if through the enormous pressures inside me, it fused with the aether, becoming something entirely new. My senses expanded, the new, upgraded mana inside me concentrating to extreme densities. My runes were filling up and expending the aether at an unreal rate, and cracks in spacetime started appearing in the air around me.
This went on for another five minutes, before finally culminating in a great dark blue pillar shooting into the sky, atomizing the island I was on.
The entire floor started crumbling, the cracks increasing in size.
'Sylv, where are you?' I asked, getting no response.
I rushed out of the island, sensing a presence in front of the castle barrier. Upon closer inspection, it was Kath with a sleeping cat-form Sylvie.
Kath looked at me with astonishment. "A-Arthur, what happened?"
"I have no idea, is Sylvie alright?"
"She said she needs mana, but you absorbed all the mana in here." Kath responded in an urgent tone.
"Alright, let's go." I said as I effortlessly parted the previously unconquerable barrier, absorbing the mana that it was made out of.
We rushed to the portal, finding an intricate puzzle involving precise mana control. I finished it with just a thought, a shiny purple portal opening in front of us.
I took Kath by the hand, and together we jumped into the portal.
Author's note: I wanted to do smth cool in this chapter, so I hope you guys like it. it is a pretty radical change, but balance be damned. Thx for your support guys.