"I understand your point, Igor. So, this time, you will try to transform?"
"Yep. But I can't just go into it willy-nilly. I have a process I have to go through before I succeed. It's another theory I have, but I'd rather test it before I tell you, sister."
He then placed the book in her hands and stepped away from her by a few metres.
"Just watch how I succeed, sister. You'll have the glory of witnessing the first Super Human."
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|DxD|
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Igor stood silently in the clearing with his hands clenched. At his suggestion, Aurelia had given him a few dozen metres of space in preparation for what he was about to do. In both the times Igor reached Kaioken x100, he had also noticed a key detail that he hadn't noticed until a few months ago.
[Remember, Igor. Your ki must be dense. Channel it and squeeze it into the divine strand.]
From both the times he accessed the times-hundred Kaioken, he noticed that the key to accessing it was "squashing" his strands of ki into each other and then shoving that dense ki into his divine strand. In both times, it was something he did unconsciously.
The immense amount of rage he felt triggered his ki to flow in a way reminiscent to the Aura-Flowing State, a chakra technique.
[Forcefully increasing the flow of my ki will make it denser, which would also slow my movements. But in this case, I need my ki to be dense in order to trigger the transformation.]
Having those details in mind, he began channelling his ki and made it flow faster and faster through his veins.
"?!"
The effect was immediate.
[Haaa….so this is what it feels like.]
His body froze on the spot like a stiff mannequin. The ki that was flowing through his body was so dense that just twiddling a finger was becoming something impossible.
But that didn't mean he would stop.
[Come on Igor. Let's do this!]
su su su su Su Su Su Su Su Su! Su! Su! Su! Su!
Slowly, the faintest hint of his aura leaked out of his body. His ki was incredibly dense and his muscles had noticeably swelled. The amount of ki Aurelia could feel from him was staggering. And what was even more astonishing was that he was continuing to generate even more ki.
[This is not good for his body.]
She was worried because his torso really was becoming massive. If this was going to be his method of transforming from now on, then he would cause damage to his body in the long run.
[Should I stop him?]
She was about to, but then she saw the white aura around him slowly turned red. Her eyes widened briefly as she thought he was about to succeed, but she felt his power didn't ascend beyond doubling.
Even more, she could see that he was visibly struggling.
[Is it…a failure?]
She was worried as to what it would do to him if he failed at this point, especially after all the effort he put into figuring all of this out. As much as she didn't want him to do this, Aurelia didn't wish for his failure.
But…wishes were only that-wishes.
"Damnit!"
As much as Igor struggled, his power was only equivalent to Kaioken x2. He was already making his ki flow as fast as he could, yet all he got were measly results. Feeling some amount of anger in his failure, Igor stopped powering up.
Su! Su! Su! Su! Su Su Su Su Su su su su su su...
With his body deflating, his aura turned back to white before it also slowly vanished. The blonde stood on the spot, an evident frown on his face from lack of success.
"Tch!"
He crossed his arms in annoyance while Aurelia flew over and stood in front of him.
"Are you alright, Igor?"
He released a frustrated sigh.
"More or less. My body's fine, but I won't succeed if I try that method. I'll have to figure out another way. Maybe if I use the…"
Gradually, he seemed to ignore Aurelia as he mulled about in his thoughts.
[If I try it that way, it'll never work. I can't divert enough of my ki to enter my divine strand.]
While Igor did increase the flow, barely a percentage of his ki was entering his divine strand. Even if he tried to control it, at most, only five percent would divert from the ki network into his divine strand.
[Think about this, Igor. What do I do? How do I move over this? If increasing the flow speed doesn't work, then what will?]
Imagining everything in his mind, the blonde pictured his ki veins as a pipe. This pipe had a crack where water would occasionally trickle out. What he did was similar to opening the water at maximum capacity, and only getting a slightly bigger trickle of water. The rest of the water would flow through the pipe while only a bit more would leak out through the crack.
His only problem was that unless he somehow widened the crack or blocked a part of the pipe, then he would never be able to divert enough water, or in this case, ki, into his divine strand. The only amount of ki he was able to divert by increasing the flow speed was barely enough to activate Kaioken x2.
[Should I widen the runoff point? If my ki veins were like a highway that had five lanes and I seclude four lanes as an off-ramp, would that work?]
He considered the choice but then shook his head.
[It won't work. Forcefully altering my ki veins is begging to be a cripple.]
It was not impossible to do so, but the cost would be too great. Mulling about what solutions he could use, Aurelia did not interfere him. It was a perfect opportunity to dissuade him, but she couldn't help but admit she was interested in seeing how he would succeed.
[I believe in you, Igor.]
She was content to simply watch from the sides as he pondered to himself. If it was about mana, she was confident she could provide some hints to help him. But ki was out of her forte. Even the knowledge of ki she had from her ancestral memories was not much.
As for Igor, he pondered different theories in his head that revolved around the Aura-Flowing State, but found that no matter what he tried…
[Not only would it be impractical for battle, but I'll also suffer lasting damages.]
In face of all of these facts, he could only sigh.
[Well. I guess I can only bulldoze my way through this.]
It was the original method he came up with, but the consequences of failing to properly execute it would leave him bed-ridden for a month and unable to use ki for a few more months. But instead of fearing the consequences, he only sighed tiredly.
"I should've just done this from the start instead of trying to act all smart and use the Aura-Flowing State."
"..."
If those words came from another person, Aurelia wouldn't be worried. But these words came from Igor. In other words, he was about to do something stupid again.
"Igor? What are you doing? What is this method you want to try now?"
The blonde only shrugged.
"It's simple really. I'll just power up and then shove all of my ki into the strand.
"..."
Aurelia was momentarily surprised.
"That's it?"
"Hm? Yeah. That's it."
"..."
The silverette was momentarily surprised by how "safe" it sounded. If all he was going to do was power up and channel his ki in a certain way, then she saw no danger in him doing that.
"Oh…alright then."
But, she forgot one thing. Igor was not very apt in his explanations. To put it bluntly, he was not very forthcoming. He neglected to explain just what he meant when he said "all my ki". Igor was quite literally, going to channel all of his ki into his divine strand.
This was dangerous because this included even the ki supporting his muscles and flowing in his brain. Ki was part of his body and it was no different from his blood. By removing all of his ki from his body into his divine strand, not even ten seconds would pass before he would suffer from a combination of brain damage, heart failure, and organ collapse.
What he was doing truly was a gamble, a gamble that if he failed, he only had a thirty-percent chance of surviving. Being unable to use ki for a few months was the most optimal outcome in the event of failure.
But Igor being Igor, he would do it anyway.
"I'm going to start now, sister!"
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AN
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Remember how I said I would upload in the evening? I neglected to take into account some personal circumstances that would prevent me from doing so. Either way, enjoy these four chapters.