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"It’s finally done—a proper foundation."
It was only the beginning, but Maria had reached her goal just in ti, barely a day before they were scheduled to depart. She had poured blood, tears, and endless effort into it, to the point her very soul felt exhausted and covered in deep cracks that took days to heal.
Until now...
{True Martial Arts}
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: First Form – Phantasmal Fist] [Comprehension: 100% (Mastery)]
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: Second Form – Sword Soul Heart] [Comprehension: 100% (Mastery)]
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: Third Form – Soul-Chasing Ghostly Viper] [Comprehension: 100% (Mastery)]
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: Fourth Form – Dream Soul Sphere] [Comprehension: 100% (Mastery)]
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: Fifth Form – Dream Ghost] [Comprehension: 100% (Mastery)]
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: Sixth Form – Nightmare Soul Heart] [Comprehension: 80% (Quasi-Mastery)]
[Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: Seventh Form – Spectral Nightmare Embodint] [Comprehension: 20% (Beginner)]
Maria glanced at her True Martial Arts window and saw the progress she had made over this entire period. She had finally grasped seven forms of the Spectral Ghostly Fist.
It was done!
And yet it also felt like only the beginning.
"Yeah, I just reached twenty percent on the seventh form. It’s a decent start, but far from mastery," Maria sighed.
The Nightmare Soul Heart itself was not yet mastered either. The more difficult the concepts beca for her disciples to grasp, the slower this collective enlightennt progressed.
But that was perfectly fine.
"Martial Arts exist to protect oneself and those you love. I can’t keep growing just by sitting here. I need to step into battle and face my fears. Only then will I truly continue to advance."
Yet she already knew one thing for certain.
Yes."This Martial Art is the Path I’ve been seeking all along. Upon it, I will build the power to shatter the Heavens above Floor 100 and destroy the Tower of Babylon."
The cycle of endless destruction had to end.
How many worlds had already been lost across these floors?
Hundreds? Thousands?
Perhaps millions.
In the past, the Heavenly Father had only consud worlds that were naturally reaching their end.
But now, hunger had driven him mad. He prematurely forced disasters upon worlds to hasten their destruction and devour them.
He was no longer a benevolent creator and guardian. He had beco a starving beast, impatiently awaiting his next al.
"For now..."
Maria gazed at the beautiful sun high above. Her dark sphere—the Nightmare Soul Heart—overflowed with powerful energy.
It quickly returned to its original form. She still lacked full mastery.
However, the shape it had briefly taken earlier was not its true form either.
The true form of her Nightmares—and even her Dreams—remained as elusive as ever.
But she now had clues.
And they were tied to her own experiences, her emotions, her suffering.
And also her dreams, her hope, and her joy.
It was strange.
"Could my true Dream Weapon be an embodint of everything I’ve ever lived through? But isn’t that the case for everyone’s Dream Weapon? Or... not?"
Dream Weapons were manifestations of dreams, and like dreams themselves, they could evolve or transform completely as a person changed.
Above all, they embodied hopes, deepest needs, or even soone dearly missed.
Maria had learned that no Dream Weapon was inherently bad. They all existed for a reason and shared a profound connection with their wielder, even when the owner felt ashad of what they had received.
Even if they refused to admit it.
"The principles behind the Dream Soul Sphere and Dream Ghost techniques... they are a path toward finally discovering my true Dream Weapon."
And her Nightmare Weapon—the counterpart to her Dream Weapon. Maria had discovered that this duality was the true nature of Dream Hearts.
They were not limited to Dreams alone. They could embody both Dreams and Nightmares simultaneously.
Of course, this knowledge had remained hidden until she beca a Nightmare herself, and then she wove it into her teachings.
"For now, I should continue practicing these techniques and teaching them to my disciples... While doing so, I’ll keep seeking enlightennt through training. I can’t waste a single day."
Maria had never been more diligent. Founding a sect had sohow given her trendous motivation to improve herself for the sake of the children she now taught.
Being a master and having disciples changed people. For her, soone who had suffered greatly in childhood, it was especially aningful.
She wanted these kids to have better, happier lives—to grow strong enough to face the world on their own terms.
She explained the principles behind the techniques to her disciples and watched several more manifest their own Nightmare Soul Hearts.
Soon, sparring matches began. Her students unleashed the techniques she had taught them, using Dream Ghosts to boost speed and power, striking decisively with the viper form.
They targeted each other’s souls, yet a thick layer of Phantasmal Ki, Dream Ki, and Nightmare Ki protected them. It was a passive effect of the Dream Soul Sphere abilities.
By expanding it into an invisible barrier, they could shield themselves completely.
Like magic, yet it required no Mana at all.
"It’s wonderful, isn’t it?"
["Honestly, Maria... you’ve truly outdone yourself. I’m speechless. You’ve created sothing entirely your own. It’s amazing."]
Michael’s praise caught her by surprise. He rarely went that far.
"You really think so, Michael?"
["I do. No system power could have guided you to this. You didn’t copy any existing skill or technique..."]
"I still feel it’s lacking. It needs more depth, more foundation. But the path is clear now. We just have to walk it together."
["So you’ve realized it at last."]
"Yes. I can’t complete this Martial Art alone. I need my disciples to practice it and bring their own ideas... Slowly, I’m beginning to see it. I gain enlightennt through theirs."
["Exactly. What do you see now?"]
"I see that boy using the Dream Soul Sphere to create a mist-like veil that reflects projectile attacks."
"I notice another fusing their eyes with the Dream Soul Sphere to gain sothing like superhuman vision."
"And there’s one who turned their Nightmare Soul Heart not into a weapon, but into a massive beast-like shadow."
"Each of them brings sothing new. It’s my duty to refine their dreams and give them proper form."
["I can’t believe you’re the sa Maria as before... You’ve truly grown."]
"Thank you... but I’m still myself. Nothing about has changed. If anything, I’ve simply accepted who I am even more. I’m being honest with myself."
["I wish I could do the sa..."]
"Michael?"
Before she could pursue the topic, Michael fell silent, slipping into deep slumber.
Perhaps he was avoiding it. He didn’t want to delve deeper into what troubled him.
But Maria already knew what caused him such pain.
The betrayal by his own father and siblings. How they stripped him of his Administrator Privileges and compressed him into a re System Seed.
A seed ant to manipulate her into fulfilling Gabriel’s will.
Thanks to her, he had escaped that fate.
They both understood their original purposes.
And how deeply their fates were intertwined.
Maria had been ant as Gabriel’s puppet. Through Michael, she would grow strong enough to overthrow Odin’s reign.
It sounded noble on the surface, but it was only so Yggdrasil could be unsealed and then swiftly destroyed by Calamities.
Through that destruction, the world would be ripe for devouring.
Michael had been ant to obey his brother, to repent while manipulating her.
Perhaps afterward he would earn forgiveness and salvation.
But thanks to Ginnungagap and Hel’s interventions, Gabriel’s plans crumbled. Maria and Michael gained awareness of their places within Fate and began resisting it.
Their fight against Fate had carried them through more than ten different worlds.
And they would keep moving forward—toward Earth, Maria’s origin—defying the Fate that insisted she should remain dead there.
Well, "supposed" to be dead.
From the fragnts of her lost mories, Maria suspected her original body might still be alive, kept in a vegetative state without a soul.
Swoosh!
Maria continued practicing her movents. She had studied countless Martial Arts and Cultivation Manuals from the sect treasury and from the cultivators and martial artists she had captured over the past few days.
She absorbed many new techniques, though most were shallow and incompatible with her nature. All Cultivation Techniques proved completely unusable. She could only crudely imitate a few things from her enemies.
It seed the "Heavenly Dao" had forsaken her entirely.
There were likely many reasons, but the primary one was simple: she was technically dead.
Undead beings received no blessings from the heavens. They were rejected and confined to the Underworld of Murim—a desolate realm where restless, vengeful souls were imprisoned.
Of course, the strong could resist the pull and remain in the living world. Thanks to Maria’s unique power, she felt no such pull, and any undead she created gained the sa immunity.
Yet in the end...
"I’m still dead."
Even so, Maria swung a simple bronze sword—up and down, left and right.
She practiced with everything she had. Each swing incorporating the techniques she had learned helped her grow.
The Heavens of this world might have abandoned her, but she would forge her own understanding and enlightennt.
She moved on to spear practice, then the axe.
Yet no matter how many sword techniques she mastered...
"I suppose this is my weapon."
The simple bronze sword simply felt right in her hands.
There was sothing alluring about its very simplicity that inspired her.
After seven straight days of sword training, Maria reached another realization.
"All my previous swordsmanship was terrible."
Completely awful.
She had been swinging the sword like a club, with no finesse, no technique, no grace.
The blade might as well have been a rock.
But now things were different.
With her {Sword Soul Heart} technique, Maria not only absorbed swordsmanship faster but also felt Sword Ki accumulating in her ridians and even her central dantian.
"Huff... puff..."
Maria breathed out in relief, exhausted.
That was strange. She was nearly tireless, yet practicing swordsmanship with Sword Soul Heart drained her soul the sa way physical exertion tired a living person.
"This is... a feeling I actually missed. Haha."
She checked the Sword Ki she had cultivated through {Sword Soul Heart}. A rich amount swirled within her, sharp as a hundred blades.
"Not bad. It’s growing stronger and sharper... My very soul is being forged into a sword."
Maria had absorbed the fragnts of her previous Dream Weapons—the sword and halberd—fusing them into her soul to fuel her growth.
As she suspected, once she willed it, those weapons no longer regenerated. They had beco part of her.
She had abandoned all forr weapons and now wielded only a plain bronze sword.
And yet...
She gazed at the sky. Her sword glowed with Phantasmal Ki and Sword Ki.
"{Sword Soul Heart}!"
Her soul surged from her hands into the bronze blade as she swung upward.
RUMBLE!
A massive shockwave of pure Sword Energy sliced through the Lower Heaven Layer, parting hundreds of kiloters of thick white clouds.
"It has certainly grown stronger... Not bad, but still far from perfect."
Maria was no longer satisfied with what she had. She hungered for greater improvent. She refused to feel she had already grown strong enough.
Over the past days, she had trained relentlessly, pushing herself as hard as her disciples—if not harder.
The reason was simple. Their effort, their brilliance, their growth motivated her.
Witnessing their progress made her so happy that she felt guilty for not doing more herself.
Above all, she needed to create new techniques they could learn too.
While resting, three of her Dream Ghosts continued reading Cultivation Technique books, morizing their intents and philosophies.
Maria sat cross-legged atop the castle, breathing slowly in and out.
She could absorb environntal Ki...
Crackle!
"Ugh?!"
Black blood spilled from her mouth. She couldn’t even begin a Cultivation thod.
"Another failure?! I can’t use any of these at all? Not even the Darkwood Sect or Nether Harbor Sect thods?!"
She had taken these manuals from the sect mbers who attacked her days ago—mbers who now served as her loyal subordinates.
Yet none worked.
She truly had been forsaken by the Heavens.
"I’m incompatible with this world’s Cultivation thods... I can only learn Martial Arts, and even those feel weaker when I use them."
While most visitors to Murim gained the ability to Cultivate and master powerful Martial Arts, Maria remained utterly incompatible.
"I have to create my own path of Cultivation... but am I not already doing that?"
She suddenly realized the Spectral Ghostly Fist Art was not rely a Martial Art. It also functioned as a Cultivation thod.
It helped practitioners develop various energies and strengthen both body and soul.
More importantly, it seed to be a way to cultivate Dream Hearts—a concept never discovered throughout Azure Star’s long history.
People there had only ever fought with their powers and learned spells. They never truly understood how to nurture their Dream Hearts or draw out their full potential.
"Ghostly Dream Soul Cultivation? Or maybe Three Paths of Forsaken Cultivation? Ghostly Soul Cursed Cultivation? Nah..."
Maria considered many nas but ultimately decided to keep it simple and rge it with the Martial Art itself.
Due to her limited knowledge, she probably hadn’t realized it yet, but she was pioneering an entirely new form of Cultivation—one that fused soul and Martial Arts into a single path.
Unlike other soul cultivation or undead manipulation thods, hers required no consumption of souls, ghosts, or undead.
It simply demanded constant forging, refining, and improvent of the soul.
"Whatever."
She smiled confidently, swinging her sword up and down before infusing her body with the rest of her Dream Ghosts, boosting her abilities trendously.
"I don’t need their stupid thods. I will create my own."
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