Chapter 173 - Another Enemy (1)

Chapter 173 - Another Enemy (1)

Chapter 173 - Another Enemy (1)

1

The essence of Spirit Order had everything to do with the mastery over one's mind.

It boosted the mind, and one could control one's senses according to one's will. In turn, the mind and senses were expanded using the mental waves. If one limited the comparison to the manipulation of the mind, an Archmage at the zenith of his magical power couldn't come close to a high ranking Spirit Order Practitioner.

In martial arts, one trained one's body first. Techniques were cultivated then the mind was trained.

However, Spirit Order was the opposite. The training of one's mind allowed one to gain control of one's magical energy. This was used to cultivate techniques, and the body was trained last.

The techniques used to control the mind was the essence of the Spirit Order. It was inevitable that one of the most important training method was meditation.

When one meditated, Spirit Order allowed one to observe one's inner workings as if one was reading the palm of one's hand.

One could find out the rhythm of one's heart beat, and one could observe how one's circulation changed depending on the rhythm of one's heart. Then there were the Rings of Life surrounding the heart. The Rings of Life created magical energy as it pulsed with the heart. One could observe the pattern in which magical energy was spread throughout the body……

The pulsing of the heart created the magical energy, and the magical energy saturated one's energy pulse before it was spread outside of one's body.

At the same time, one's senses expanded.

Even as one closes one's eyes to monitor the inner working of one's body, one was able to meticulously observe one's surrounding.

Ddoohk……!

The sound of dew falling on top of the grass could be heard.

His senses extended beyond it. It was as if his senses were following the blowing winds. Further and further…...

In the next moment, Azell opened his eyes from several hundred distance away.

Cheeee……!

Smoke emanated from his entire body.

That wasn't the only thing that happened. From behind Azell, the sound of an explosion rang out as strong winds swirled around him. The beautiful trees were broken. The animals and birds fled in surprise.

"…what did you just do?"

Laura, who had been standing there, asked in surprised. Azell created cold air to cool his body.

"Instantaneous Movement."

"…that really was Instantaneous Movement? You traveled around 500 meters."

Azell had been meditating on top of a mountain. When his senses reached this location, he used Instantaneous Movement in a lightning fast manner to travel to this place.

"It was slightly less than 400 meters. This is what happens when I use my full strength. However, this isn't a practical move. If i used this in a real battle, my body would be sent flying by the rebound."

Azell's Instantaneous Movement from a moment ago was several times faster than the speed of sound. Moreover, he had to suffer enormous shock at the beginning and the end. This one Instantaneous Movement had tired him out.

Oooooohng…….

He had consumed an enormous amount of magical energy, yet his Energy Pulse had filled up in no time.

There were eight Rings of Life encircling Azell's heart.

They were all finished using the Dual Banding technique. It was as if his source of Dragon Demon magic was limitless. He was continuously producing highly dense Dragon Demon magic.

Laura mumbled to herself as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Even if you've inherited 9 Dragon weapons, I can't believe your magical energy became this high……."

"It isn't just the Dragon weapons."

"What?"

"Carlos hadn't just stored my Dragon weapons….. He used the Keepers of Prophecy as a source for Dragon Demon magic. An enormous amount of power was stored within the Dragon weapons. This was why a flood of power had come into me when I inherited the weapons. It was as if I had completed a Dragon Slayer's Ritual."

This resulted in Azell's wounds healing in an instant, and his body had become much stronger. It also increased the density of his Dragon Demon magic.

In the process of settling the swirling power within his body, Azell had been able to create his 8th Ring of Life. He had also completed the Dual Banding.

Laura queried.

"Didn't you say you handled 13 Dragon weapons in the Dragon Demon war?"

"I did."

"How strong were you at that time?"

"Mmm. I'm not sure? It should be comparable to my power right now. I never expected to recover my power to this extent….."

Azell answered her as he tilted his head to the side. Laura puzzled over his answer. Azell hadn't been able to inherit three Dragon weapons. These weapons were destroyed. So why wasn't there any noticeable difference in his power?

"I'm inferior to my past self in some aspects, and I'm superior in other aspects. If I'm to point out the inferior parts, I've lost three Dragon weapons, and my body is weaker than before. Moreover,the quality of my magical energy is a bit lacking compared to when I had use of my full Dragon Demon magic.."

His body was incredibly strong, but in comparison to his body during his prime years, it came up short. Moreover, the loss of three Dragon weapons meant his tactical advantage had lessened significantly.

"The improvement is the magical energy."

"Magical energy?"

"If I'm to be precise, the amount of magical energy I can produce in a short period of time. I can produce over twice the amount as before."

"How can this be? You….. In the past, you were also an Octuple master."

Laura queried him. She couldn't comprehend what he was saying.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say that an Octuple master had almost reached the human limitation. In the Plain of Darkness, no one had reached this level. So there wasn't many she could use as a measuring stick. In the case of Duran, he had died at the hands of Azell. Duran had been superior in terms of magical energy compared to most Dragon Majins. He wasn't someone that could be easily ignored.

Azell possessed twice that amount?

"It is thanks to a technique called Dual Banding."

Azell had never talked about the Dual Banding to his party members.

He had two reasons for doing this.

First, he had never completed the technique before. He was walking through uncharted territory. He was making good use of this technique, but he hadn't consolidated it into something that could be taught to others. He wasn't confident in his ability to teach it.

Moreover, no one in his party fulfilled the criteria for learning the Dual Banding. Kairen and Leticia were Dragon Arts practitioners. Laura and Yuren were mages.

'Giles and Boar…. Their standard is too low for them to learn the Dual Banding.'

Azell had lost all of his magical energy, so he had been able to start applying the Dual Banding with his first Ring of Life.

However, Dual Banding was a technique that required an extreme sense for magic. If one wasn't a high ranking Spirit Order practitioner, one wouldn't be able to understand the basic concept of the technique. One wouldn't be able to get into the construction phase of the Dual Banding.

Suddenly, Laura spoke.

"May you show me your maximum output of magical energy?"

"Mmm. Should I give it a try?"

Azell accepted her request.

Ooh-oong…….

The eight Rings of Life had been formed around the heart in a slightly staggered manner. The beat of his heart caused them to vibrate. A torrent of magical energy flooded forth.

Goo-goo-goo-goo-goo-goo-goo……!

He wasn't doing anything, but waves of magical energy was pouring out of him.

The ground started to shake. The radius of the earthquake ranged several hundred meters. Dirt and pebbles were floating in the air. When the earthquake started to calm down, the wind turned into a fierce gale.

"My god……."

Until now, Laura had never experienced being overwhelmed by someone else's magical energy.

It was to be expected.

She was of the Dragon Demon race. Moreover, the Aunsarus tribe had wanted an excellent heir, so they had employed forbidden techniques to create her. She had grown up while being subjected to hellish training. Her potential Dragon Demon magic had been brought out to its full capacity.

However, she was having a hard time breathing just by being near the torrent of magical wave flowing out of Azell.

It felt as if she was on a beach as she watched a tsunami coming towards her. What could anyone do against such vast magical energy? She felt an acute sense of despair.

What's worse, Azell hadn't raised his magical energy to its maximum output yet. He had done a self assessment, so he knew his limit. However, he had wanted to monitor his power with his senses as he produced it. This was why he had brought up his magical energy in a gradual manner, and he was still increasing the output.

It was at that moment.

"Hey, Azell. You are interfering with my training session."

A displeased voice could be heard.

At the same time, the mountainous magical energy produced by Azell quickly diminished. He let out a bitter laugh as he spoke.

"We are also training."

When he turned around, no one was there. The owner of the voice was Reshoo, and he was standing at a beach that was 1 kilometers away.

However, the two of them conversed as if the distance was inconsequential. They could see each other clearly, and they used their magical energy to modulate their voices. Their voices could be delivered to each other at such large distances.

"You should either do it farther away from here or you should put up a barrier. What the hell are you doing? The forest is in a complete mayhem. I'm trying to teach a very subtle technique."

"I'll be careful."

"By the way, your magical energy has become outrageously large. I think you might be comparable to me."

"Not yet. I might be comparable to your old self. Haven't you become stronger?"

Laura was shocked at his words.

'He has such an enormous amount of magical energy, yet he is inferior?'

She had once heard that Reshoo was the strongest in terms of Dragon Demon magic amongst the Dragon Demons.

However, the amount of magical energy shown by Azell right now had exceeded the amount of Dragon Demon magic possessed by Almarick. He might exceed the amount possessed by Reygus after his transformation. Yet he was saying he was inferior to Reshoo?

Reshoo spoke.

"Anyways, you should be careful. Their lives are on the line when learning the Dragon Soul. It'll be troublesome if an outside factor caused them to lose concentration."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Azell shrugged his shoulders.

They had already stayed 10 days at Reshoo's home to learn the Dragon Soul.

Each members of Azell's party had their own training regiment to pass the time.

Azell sparred against the warriors of Albatan. Laura and Yuren continued to speak with Albatan. They also exchanged knowledge with the other magicians.

Kairen and Leticia were learning the Dragon Soul from Reshoo…..

As each day passed, they became indebted to Saibein.

2

"I have to treat such grievous wounds for you every day. I would like you to stop this."

Saibein had been called here at night, and he let out a sigh. Reshoo scratched his head.

"Ah, I'm sorry. The fact that you are here makes me push them harder."

"Ooh-ook……."

Kairen and Leticia was on the floor, and they were moaning.

The process of learning the Dragon Soul was harsh.

The reason being one had to endure the process of one's Dragon Demon magic move in an uncontrolled manner. One had to put one's life on the line to learn this technique, so the sense of accomplishment at the end of each session was large. Moreover, one was able to acquire a huge amount of power in a very short amount of time compared to the time needed to create a Dragon weapon.

Saibein spoke.

"Their reservoir of Dragon Demon magic is large, so healing them is easy…. However, it feels as if I'm fixing dolls you have broken on a daily basis. Wouldn't it be better to do this a little bit more slowly?"

"I'm sorry, but they told me they don't have a lot of time. That is why I have to do this in a quick way. Anyways, once they learn how to summon the Dragon Soul, their own ability would have the biggest influence on what happens next."

"Hmmm……."

"You must be feeling some mixed emotions."

"That is true, but at this point, it is out of my hands."

Saibein let out a bitter laugh.

When he left the Plain of Darkness to become a resident of this forest, he had to give up his past as the son of the Dragon Demon king. He had cut ties with his comrades, and he had no longer been able to do anything for his daughter. It was unfortunate, but he couldn't break his promise.

It wasn't just about his own resolve not to break his word. Albatan wouldn't have allowed him to go back on his word.

After staring at him for a brief moment, Reshoo changed the subject.

"I heard Azell defeated the warriors of Albatan."

"He is establishing the record for the most consecutive victories."

There were those within the forest that possessed Dragon weapons. There were also beings that had awoken their Dragon Soul. These beings were under the direct command of Albatan, and they were called the warriors of Albatan. It was the highest honor to be called a warrior of Albatan within the forest.

These beings became aware of Azell's identity, and they had expressed their burning desire to spar with Azell…. In the past 10 days, Azell had set a winning record by notching 37 consecutive victories.

Reshoo grinned.

"It seems they've totally lost face. I bet everyone is grind their teeth right now."