"...!" Just as Temorsth raised his leg to take one more step, he stopped in mid-motion.
"Slash the space?" Hearing the explanation of Brilliance, Persona said to himself.
"...?" Hering the words Temorsth murmured, both Elah and An opened their eyes with wonder.
'He wants to tear the space? Without the energy of transcendence, that is suicide!' Anastasia didn't say anything against Temorsth trying to learn the Unique Ability of Xalier.
She wasn't worried about him not yet reaching Transcendence, she wasn't even concerned because learning abilities could take tens, if not hundreds of years, but now... 'Transcendence is the first advancement, only after it could the body stand the pressure of space when traversing it.'
'In the first place wounds appear on his body because of the slight shifts he caused with the skill. But if he tears it open, and if he steps in... the thing that will appear will be no more than dust and blood.'
"Slash the space before me."
'I need to stop him...' Hearing his intentions An moved toward him.
"Uh? Why are you...?" Elah raised her hand to stop Antanasia from going further.
"He is using a Unique Ability."
"..." The words full of certainty made Antanasia think for a second, after which compliance followed.
'Unique Abilities are indeed the representation of the order and law of the world breaking, but still... I'm not sure, will this succeed?' Even though she stayed put, her mind didn't calm down, she was worried.
'Uh? Hey, why am I worried!? He is just a boy who I don't even know for a week! What does it matter if he gets hurt?' Realizing what her mind was on about, Antanasia tried to clear her head.
"With what do I slash it...? Father... his hands were empty." Temorsth continued his words with a low voice, he wasn't even paying attention. His mind was completely away from the matter of reality.
"Dad... It was his leg... his step was light and soft yet they cut it... It was the darkness... The shadows... slash the space with shadows..." Slowly all the things placed themself into position.
"A blade..." As his imagination depicted the sharp form of Xalier's darkness, he order his burning energy of dark to the same shape.
[Notice: You are commanding the darkness with your will!]
[Congratulation: Your authority over the dark has slightly risen!]
Even though he heard the system, he didn't react to it.
After he experienced the pain of his body getting broken and then healing thousands of times, he started going into a state of enlightenment.
"Darkness is my blade." As his mind imagined the form of a blade, the energy and force of the dark started to morph into the image.
The burning black flames sharpened, they didn't lose the shape of fire but the tongues of flames straightened to form the blades.
"A blade to cut... to cut even space." Even though the tongues of flame turned and looked sharp they wavered like any normal fire.
"..." Seeing the wavering motion around his legs Temorsth squinted.
"It isn't complete..." But since it didn't need to be a perfect imitation, it still wasn't a concern. With the intention to cut, he started moving his leg again.
"This... It changed!" As Temorsth hit his foot on the ground, his burning energy full of motion froze.
"...!" No movement was shown and even Temrosth's body did the same, it looked as if time stopped around him.
'No, I will not accept you!'
"...?" A voice Temorsth never heard before appeared and with it, the ground around him shook.
"No!" It didn't take a second for the shaking to make the earth crack beneath him. Purple cracks almost like lighting appeared around Temorsth.
The ground, air, and all the space were thoroughly showing the small tears and rifts of the void that appeared.
"Heal!" Now even Elah moved, she started casting not just heal but enchanting and even barrier spells, she didn't do so until now because her energy would disturb Temorsth's making his whole training much harder.
*SCREECH* A high-pitched sharp piercing shriek sounded from the matter and space-filling the void.
*pop*pop* "Uh?" With a light popping sound the shriek disappeared, the problem was that this only happened for Temrosth.
"Uh." He wobbled as he felt the warm blood flow down from his ears.
A strong pressure followed, which made his body stop moving again. Even though the barriers stood the pressures, *crack* Temorsth bones couldn't even stand the little that got through them.
"Ugh!" As the void cracks sucked in the wind and the energy of nature, first his clothes then his body got cut up.
Below the small pieces of still intact clothes, Temorsth's flesh opened up and drenched even those clothes in his blood.
Right now according to height, Temorsth looked to be around 13 yet he still was only 7. And then his physique and exquisitely defined muscles, which showed beneath the torn clothes looked nothing like a 7 or 13 years olds build, no rather not even an adult would have so many muscles built up, and now all those muscles were jerking from constantly getting cut then being healed.
*Ugh...* He couldn't move not just because of the pressure but because his body couldn't even handle so many things happening to it at once.
'I will not accept the light!' As the voice shouted in his head, he couldn't tell if it was a men's or a woman's voice.
"Light?" Hearing the word Temorsth noticed something.
'The sun... Is it already up?' He was so surprised by the sunlight shining onto his face that he was at a loss for words.
'The night... It was still night a moment ago.' It wasn't that his mind didn't pay attention to the surroundings but that his own thoughts and the constant suffering and information update of his body overpowered his senses of time.
*Cough* "I need to hurry..." From the pressure, his internal organs got damaged and blood flowed out of his mouth.
"One more time." Straightening his back, his wavering bloodshot eyes turned to a firm determination.
"A blade to cut everything..." As his energy firmed itself, he raised his leg.
"..." Even though Elah saw what her son was doing, she didn't try to stop him. After she successfully surpassed most of the space torn open, she released much of her magic from around Temrosth.
'This crazy bitch!' Seeing it Antanasia got angry. 'This isn't how you train your child!' She wanted to shout at Elah but she couldn't.
"AGH!" As she saw Elah's eyes tremble, she hit the ground with her feet, she knew that Elah wasn't doing this because she wanted it and since she lost even the last target of her anger she got even angrier.
*BOOM* Following Antanasia, Temorsth hit his foot to the ground. And...
'I will never accept you!' Everything happened the same.
First the shaking... "Uh..."
Then the sound... *Ugh*
*Cough* Then his body broke down, but now, since his imitation got even more perfect, the force that resisted him got even stronger.
*Cough*Cough* Temrosth fell onto his knees, now not only his ears and mouth but even his eyes and nose started bleeding.
"Son..." Elah's voice full of concern shook as she summoned even more protection.
*cough*cough* 'I can... I can do it...' Temorsth tried to support himself, but then...
'I will never accept your light!' The words, this time were even louder and this time Temorsth realized.
"Hmh!?" This voice wasn't helping him get his thoughts together, this voice wasn't anyone he thought it was before, and this voice... it was denying it... it was denying the light not outside but inside him, this voice...
"You!"
'...'
"You dare deny my light!?" So much hatred was expressed towards the voice, that tried to deny the worth of the energy he got from his mother, that even Elah herself go surprised.
"Uh? Baby?" Elah never heard Temorsth speak with such a tone, it might have happened by mistake since he couldn't hear his own voice, but it was the true voice he had after his family's worth was dismissed.
"Then I!" He stood up.
'...!'
"I deny it!" His hands turned to fists, and as he raised one forward, *crack* a sound came from it. This sound was the breaking of his fingers, the anger, the hatred, the strength he used to clench them broke every single one of them.
'...!'
"Your say in it!" The pure white energy of light burst out around Temrosth, but the dark didn't disappear. No, at this moment Temrosth was burning in the flames of both the energy of darkness and the energy of light.
"If you deny, SO DO I!" With the anger resounding the ground cracked, his energy was not sharp it wasn't even blade-like, but he raised his leg even though.
This was the time that Temorsth threw away the imitation of his father, that he worked so hard for all this while and finally, he released his own 'step'.
*BOOM* As his foot hit the ground the impact made it brake down.
And in that moment. "Uh?" The world froze, it was almost the same as before but now, Temorsth felt it, he was free.
'A chance... I give you one... one chance.' Feeling that there was no more pretense in the step, the voice spoke up.
"..."
'Tell me... why do you want to cross the world.'
"...?" Following the silence of surprises. "Who?"
'Tell me...'
"..." Realising the answer wouldn't come, he tried to create his own.
"For them... my parents... to make their enemies pay."
'No... not theirs... yours.'
"I... My purpose?" It was not that he didn't understand the words, no... no, he fully understood it.
It was just he has never said it before, not even to them, his parents, no not even before reincarnating did he say it to anyone. And even now he had no intention to do so and yet... and yet words came from somewhere, from something...
"I'm the ruler of the Light... and the Dark! I will rule both the bright and the shadow!"
*HAHAHA*
"I alone will be the ruler of the heaven and the earth, with a step, I'll cross the world!"
'...' As the speech finished the voice silenced in contemplation.
"..." Even if these words weren't 'his own'... They at the least told a portion of the truth the voice needed.
'To take the world... Say my name! Say my name to take the world!'
And right at this moment as the voice continued. "Say its name..." In the world where time stood still, Xalier's words echoed.
"Dad!?"
...
It was right at that moment when the energy of light appeared that Xalier came back, "What the...!?" and the welcome made his eyes widen and mouth hung open.
"..." Seeing his son burn in black and white flames with torn and blood-drenched clothes, two thoughts arouse one after the other.
'What did he do to get his mother so angry?' The first was a thought from his personal experience.
The second, 'This... the energy of space...? It is already opening...? No, not yet he needs the last piece.' was the filtered realization of the real and important part of the situation.
As he used his own step, he arrived at the same world of stopped time.
"...!" First a big smile showed, then came his words of help. "Say its name..."
"Dad?" And now hearing his father's words, a large smile appeared on Temorsth too.
As the look in his eyes turned to satisfaction, "Shadow Step!" the colorless world of stopped time disappeared.
...
"Oh, a Mortal Knight of darkness?"