"Mister! Mister!"
It was getting dark, Gunnen had been following Cain for a while. He couldn't turn back, he was lost and could only follow the dirty back of the strangest vagrant he'd ever seen.
Cain hopped and skipped while whistling an off-key tune. He seemed happy and childish.
The two passed by many questionable people, even passing a few strange establishments where Gunnen would hear strange noises and laughter. But as they went deeper he started to hear screams and fighting.
"Oooh! Tis the flock heralding? Whips to crackle and ships to sail! Hehehe!" Hearing the noise, Cain giggled to himself and shifted in its direction, going down a darker alley where the buildings started to suffer from age and erosion.
"Mister wait!" Gunnen tripped as he scrambled and chased, by the time he caught up he froze.
The boy's eyes were like jewels shining in the night, staring at a man.
Above of sea of two gangs fighting, with men bashing each other with fists and wood, a lone person walked atop their heads as if he were walking on water.
No one noticed the man's presence as his feet moved from one head to another in a swift and elegant motion, like the wind. It seemed so natural as the moonlight slightly enveloped the alley through a broken window.
Jolly and free, as gentle as a butterfly, the man in dirt dregs spun and danced. The dust and dirt would fall off and reflect the light, turning into something similar to stardust. The vagrant no longer looked like a vagrant, but a deity beyond compare. He sparkled and glowed like a celestial, his face gazing at the sky and etched with a confidant smile.
Gunnen was baffled, he was mesmerized. Soon, the gangs fighting each other noticed Cain too.
"What the hell! Dust got in my eye!"
"Haha! There's a footprint on your head!"
"Look! Some guy is standing on that person's head!"
Gazes locked onto Cain as he stopped and stood still. He was no longer standing on someone but a tall wooden pole. His eyes locked on the sky. Those who saw him became quiet, they didn't wish to disturb the scene and instead memorized it in their hearts.
Light sparkled, the moonlight shined and Cain was the enigma of it all, the convergence of beauty.
"Mister!"
Taking the opportunity of the paused brawl, Gunnen ran through the crowd and made it to Cain.
"Mister you forgot your cloth!"
Looking at Gunnen, Cain's eyes locked onto his. His eyes revealed intelligence before a fog overcame them and he once again frowned in confusion.
"Gattlespack... home pie is east.....journalism..."
He spouted random words and shifted his head back up at the sky. This all chilled Gunnen to the bone, the person before him was incomprehensible.
One of the gang members came forward, "Is sir perhaps a legendary immortal?"
Flickering with life, the vagrant looked downwards once again, this time, his mouth pulled upward.
Cain's lips parted. "Of course not! I'm the magic man!"
"The magic man?" The gang member asked.
"The Magic Man!" Cain shook his head up and down.
Cain then took a step off the pole and disappeared before everyone's eyes. No one saw him again.
Gunnen frowned as the gang members all looked at him.
"He had something from the immortal!"
"Didn't you hear, it's just some crazed hoot!"
"Who cares, if it was a real Immortal it would all be worth it!"
Alas, the world was cold, and humans were unempathetic. Very few in the crowd cared that Gunnen was only a child. Many of them long lost empathy as they grew up, all of them went through hardships others could never endure, and their hearts were cold towards anything but power and wealth.
That night, Gunnen didn't go home, his parents never found him, and they went into a downward spiral looking for their child. Their lives soon ended when they both committed suicide.
As for Gunnen, he ended up dead in an alley 10 years later.
He wasn't killed when Cain had left, no. The boy was just beaten until the criminals got bored, and from there he was taken in by one of the gangs and eventually became addicted to drugs, becoming a slave to them and dying trying to steal some from a vagrant in a back alley sometime later.
He never did find his way out of the alleyways. Even until his death, he was looking for that strange vagrant to lead him out.
Pitiful, if only he didn't meet the vagrant so long ago. If only he didn't follow Cain into the darkness. But in that scene, where he saw Cain dance like a deity, there was a part of him who felt like it was all worth it.
In the end, Gunnen had the amount of regrets you would expect from someone who lived and died with nothing to his name. Only that mystical experience so long ago helped lessen the regret in his heart.
...
After Cain left the scene of the two gangs fighting, he found a random tree to cultivate in. From time to time he would chirp like a bird and eat leaves. He lived like this for a week.
When he woke up one morning, Cain looked down to see one of his right leg glowing with white sigils.
He had entered the Growth stage and now all he needed was another soul to harness. Of course, he didn't know that. He had long forgotten.
"Glow! Hehe! White fuzz buzz with...er....soup? Stew? Hahaha white is white!" The crazy buffoon cackled and hopped out of the tree to wander around. He stretched like a cat and revealed his yellow teeth.
Running through the crowds, he caused people to move due to the sheer smell he gave off.
Although he had no recollection of cultivation, now that Cain was in the growth stage, he entered an important point. The growth stage was a milestone where the soul of the cultivator would connect with the souls they harnessed on a superficial level.
This meant they would have more control over their harnessed souls and wouldn't have to ask permission to use the soul's abilities like some high-level Demons of Spirit Beasts require from their contractees.
Luckily, Cain used spirits, and the Mythical Soul he did have was well-behaved and trained prior to being sold. All to increase its value.
In addition, Growth Stage cultivators gain an innate spell that uses the power of all the harnessed souls simultaneously.
This spell grows with the cultivator but in the growth stage, it's only useful for fighting weaker opponents, the spell only becomes strong in the enlightenment stage, and even then it depends from person to person.
It's believed these spells can be created but the majority are granted from the heavens, hence the name for the Enlightenment Stage. Creators of techniques can try and make a manmade innate spell but it's rare, as the spell will rely on the souls in the body along with the seals of the technique.
But then why isn't the growth stage called the enlightenment stage? Well, that's because of another reason. But what was important was that Cain was going to learn his innate spell in a few days when the heavens bestow it.
When that time comes, a large occurrence will happen. Depending on the quality of the spell, the whole world might go into an uproar.
After all, it would be the Imperial Demon's Innate Spell.
...
"Sir, aren't you worried the innate spell given by heaven will disrupt your plans?"
A young man sat on a throne overlooking a world of blood. He smiled at the question his servant gave.
"Of course not Leon. Innate spells require specific conditions related to the user's harnessed souls, they can evolve or devolve depending on the souls housed, which is why it's important to cultivators that they don't lose their harnessed souls. The Emperor's innate spell was that giant projection, a basic level spell. He wasn't very lucky at all."
There were 7 levels for an Innate spell - Nadir, Basic, Median, Firmament, Apex, Transcendent, and Zenith
This was not to be confused with other spells which only had three levels - basic, median, and apex.
Leon bowed. "Please enlighten me, my lord."
The young man smiled and Leon obliged, "These Innate spells are a trap. It's heaven's way of picking who it likes and doesn't, to create balance. In the end, these spells are only a representation of heaven and have no real power outside the territory where heaven doesn't reside. They're useless to me and easy to unravel. But it does give me an idea of how to use my abilities as they combine. I already created the black point spell and used it on those two fools who protected Sun Xiang."
Chuckling, the young man didn't say more while Leon lowered his head.
Leon didn't know how his master would deal with the spell if it became trouble but he didn't worry. He had absolute loyalty to him.