God From The Abyss

Chapter 37: Chapter 037: The Impossible And Its Creator

"Feel it?" Mikael leaned in with a playful grin. "That little jolt, yes? That’s your core, learning new tricks, Valerian my good man."

He stood straight and tilted his head toward Valerian.

His eyes were mesmerizing: one, a gold sun ringed with sigils. The other was pure darkness, a void so black it looked like it was devouring the light around it. Those looking at him shuddered, for to them he looked like insanity personified. All but a mere trick to lighten up the mood of the time history was changed!

"Now, do you dare break through your limit, Valerian?" Mikael’s smile had long since disappeared, though a bit of amusement still glittered somewhere behind the gold of his eyes. " Break through the rules of your world, lead us into a new era

Duke Alan’s gaze never wavered. But his mind did, for a moment, falter.

"Sir Valerian," he began, his tone grave. "You need not do it if you fear..."

But the knight cut him short, his voice steady as iron.

"My life, my lord, belongs to House Limnor and my knights. I volunteered for this trial, and as arrogant as it may sound,but my pride as the Knight Commander of House Limnor will not let me back down now. If I die or suffer later, then it would be so because I was weak, My Lord. I shall see it to the end.

Now, Mikael. Come. Give me all you’ve got."

Mikael smiled. "Nice spirit you’ve got there. I will make sure you don’t suffer much, or die." He brought the floating shard before the man.

" I just can not bring myself to become the villain of your story. Here we go."

A pulse rang out, stronger than the last gentle pulse, pushing a few unattentive knights back a few steps.

Sir Valerian gritted his teeth in anticipation as the shard disintegrated into light particles that all entered his body. He jerked as they rushed inward, burrowing past blood, flesh, and bone and into his meridians, until they reached his mana core. A sensation he felt for less than three minutes.

Then the real storm began.

Inside him, the particles were like fiery rocks crashing into something fragile.

The particles began splitting apart the natural mana lattice in his core and tearing the threads of the Grandmaster-ranked pathways that made up his meridians, wide open.

His core cracked. He could almost swore he heard the sound, not in clean destruction, but in order to pave way for a forced reformation.

And quite unfortunately for the Commander, these changes came in waves.

Sir Valerian fell face flat to the ground, writhing and groaning, and he looked like he could give out at any moment. This sight sent shock down the spines of his men, even Duke Alan was not left out. Hardly anything had brought the strict knight such pain ever before, nothing they’d ever seen!

As for the creator, Mikael, he simply gazed on with almost non-interest, the concept of failure never crossing his mind that was still thinking up plans, contingency plans just in case things went south. You don’t kill an important person in places you seek ’support’ from.

The first wave of particles burned away the stagnant layers of his Grandmaster Rank core as its crimson color faded into white and its impurities were incinerated.

The second wave forced the core to expand, and then condensed it, stretching it like molten metal being hammered. Into the shape and size of the next Rank.

The third wave rewrote the way his meridians, his mana pathways interacted with mana itself. By then, his core and his visible aura had slowly taken on the yellow gold color of the Sage rank and had solidified to some extent, to become almost semi-liquid.

It was agony — unrelenting and pure. Every nerve in Sir Valerian’s body, every cell, screamed.

Blood seeped from his nose and eyes. His mouth buckled as he gritted his teeth. If this was the price of that much guaranteed, with such little cost, then this pain was... nothing.

Pride. Conviction. Desire. Duty.

They all became his drive to remain until the end, his comfort to rely on till it was all over.

Mikael’s eyes widened a bit as he gazed into the Knight Captain’s body. The shard had been effective — Valerian had entered the realm the mortals would call Sage Rank, equal in potential and power to the Duke and the Duchess. This was a journey, Mikael kad discovered, that took almost decades for the average Grandmaster Ranks. All done in less than hour.

’If I am not a genius, then everything in this world is a lie,’ the inventor thought, blowing his own horn in his mind.

Then he saw something else interesting. And so Duke Alan felt.

The arduous process ended, and the Commander stopped quaking like a mountain about to erupt. His mem rushed with towels and bucket of ice cold water, with the House’s healer right behind them.

There was nothing wrong and after the first care, Sir Valerian got to his feet. But his aura suddenly exploded outward in a tide that pressed on everything in the training hall.

This aura reconvened over the hall, and shrouded over the entire training hall.

The other knights felt it instantly. The Duke felt it too during the reshaping. The knight was now of Sage Rank, the same as him. And there was no visible backlash! At all!

And just immediately after ascending to the Sage Rank, he formed an Innate Soul Domain. That looked just like the training hall though.

He glanced at Mikael, who wore a smug smile. "So he wasn’t joking. This young man is quite strange. To be able to create something like this..."

Sir Valerian knelt instantly before the Duke. "My Lord...."

"I have broken through, my Lord!" The happiness in his voice and in the blood-stained expression on his face were unmistakable. After all, he had achieved a higher rank. With a higher rank came higher privileges, and higher respect and standing. With higher rank came power, literally and figuratively!

Duke Alan helped him up. "I had no hand in this miracle." He gestured toward Micael. "Show your gratitude to the one who deserves it... if he will accept it."

Sir Valerian bowed before Mikael, clearly not remembering his previous hostility towards the lad just an hour ago.

"My heartfelt thanks to you, Lord Micael. I lack the words to express all my gratitude..."

The white-haired boy cut him short with a "Tsk, tsk, tsk."

"Valerian, my good man. How does the Sage Realm feel?" he asked, an amused expression still on his face.

"I feel power, Sir. So much power!"

Mikael nodded sagely. His eyes shifted back to twin gold suns.

"I’ve got one more thing to tell you." He turned toward the entrance of the hall.

"Get used to what you just felt. You will experience it a few times before your death!"

The smiles in the hall vanished as everyone stared at Micael’s back.

A side effect?!

"Tell me, Valerian. Is your core solid?" he asked, no longer smiling.

"Not quite, my Lord. It is almost semi-solid, semi-liquid." Fear began crawling up his spine. ’I should have known. Nothing this good comes without a price.’

"That means just one thing, my good man."

"A side effect?!" The Duke nearly screamed at Mikael, not fancying the idea of his captain and good friend suffering till his deathbed.

A cruel fate.

" Au contraire, mon ami, borrowing the words of a tribe of humans" Mikael said.

"It means you will be able to break through these um..... ranks, realms... At least until your core solidifies and is as long as you keep on with your training. You are one lucky fool, my good man." He laughed quite heartily. ’And I, a friggin genius. Adrian, keep your foul language to yourself please.’

Silence hung over the room like a heavy guillotine as the miracle worker clearly unaware of the magnitude of what he had already pulled off, walked away in calm, lazy strides, hands in pockets.

Reality caught up a bit late with Sir Valerian as he pondered and finally understood Mikael’s words.

He sank to his knees, his eyes filled with pure ecstasy.

The entire hall erupted with cheers and shouts that shook the entire household under him. Even nearby servants were alarmed and got ready to hit the road at the slightest sight of danger.

The Duke’s grin widened with joy. He beamed down a warm smile at his knight. He knelt beside the crying man and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Well done, Valerian. Congratulations on becoming the impossible."

He stood and turned toward the exit. It wouldn’t do hos image much good if he broke down in tears from happiness, before his knights. He also had to go relay the miracle to his significant other!

"Come see me later at my study."

The rest of the knights rushed over to their captain, carrying him on their shoulders, high and out of pride. One shouted out loudly, " V-golds tavern!!!" To which the response was an even greater roar.

"Take a day off," the Duke called out as he too left the hall.

"Yes, my Lord," Sir Valerian replied weakly.

"I will."