The outer edges of the ritual circle began to glow with radiant light. Thalion was fully focused to give it his all. Even with his preparation, it would be difficult. He wouldn't fall here. This was just one obstacle he had to overco. Thalion channeled all his emotions into this mission, trying to be at his best. If the mory crystal was correct, he would be thrown into a new dinsion brimming with spirits of power and life.
It was one of the most powerful dinsions, which was precisely why he had chosen it in the first place. The risk was imnse, but it was worth it. The alternatives were even worse. He had no idea where the portal created by the madman would lead, and he needed an imnse power source to pull such a powerful spirit back into his own dinsion. This was, in part, what the circle had been designed for, and the magic cirle under and around him was powered by a god and probably not a weak one.
Now, all the runes glowed with insane intensity, and a portal opened before him. This was the mont he had worked for the whole year. With all his preparation done, he walked the last ters to the portal very slowly as the next decision would shape his future.
Either he died or would beco a true powerhouse. It might even allow him to achieve immortality and overco the negative effects of his title. According to the library, such a feat was unheard of in this whole dinsion. This was one such reason why he did the ritual besides the upcoming fight in the tutorial. The mory crystal showed him that after bonding with an outsider, he had millions of years to live and maybe even more with such a powerful outsider of life.
There never was a way to check how many years soone had left if one couldn't check the spark of life that empowered his soul in the first place. If this spark would run out, the only way to keep the soul from collapsing would be a lot of slaughter and leveling, special treasures, and more. There was even a way about stealing the spark of another soul, but those things were far too advanced, which is why he didn't read those books further.
The portal started glowing with more and more power, and in the middle was just a black sphere surrounded by a golden edge.
Thalion stepped through, landing in a dinsion that defied all logic. There were no solid objects. Only arcs of light, either dancing with one another or flying freely through black space. Thalion observed the surreal scene, searching for his target.
The circle had transported him to a part of this dinsion populated by spirits close to his own soul's strength. If sothing stronger ca along, he would die in a heartbeat.
He needed to rge with one, but it wouldn’t be easy. These beings moved with incredible speed. Even though they weren’t feeding or absorbing mana from the environnt, their agility made them difficult to track. It took him so ti to find out how to move in this dinsion, but the solution was blood manipulation. Nothing else worked.
He had to watch out to not absorb multiple outsiders at once and therefore couldn't dive right in the middle. If that happened, all his preparation to protect his soul and anhilate the outsiders ego would break in an instant. This was what made this so difficult, as the streaks of light were flying around in random patterns and with incredible speed. If he wanted to make contact, he had to move long before the outsider ca close.
He tried to get closer to them since at the mont he was in an area where almost no outsider flew around, which was a bit weird because there was nothing in this dinsion besides the blackness of space for the outsiders. He was still connected to the other dinsion with a golden line made from pure energy. If he would give the command, he would get pulled back in the other dinsion. When the struggle with the outsider began, it would be difficult to maneuver and find the way back through the portal.
Well, if he would be able to find one, it was hard to not lose the intense concentration he had built up. The good thing was that he still had his title, which helped him greatly to maneuver through the outsiders. He was now at a position where many of the smaller outsiders were flying around, and he tried not to get hit by one.
Thalion was unsure how much ti he had before the others would pull him out since normally you should go for the first mote of light, which wasn't that difficult. He watched how many of the longer ones were at least five tis as long as the short ones, which were currently moving around him.
You would think that the bigger body made it harder for them to move, but it was the exact opposite, as they were much faster than the others. He felt it as he looked at one of the bigger ones which was about to pass by under him very soon.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Thalion dove toward one of the longer streaks of light, determined not to settle for a weaker entity. The light didn’t even attempt to dodge. It flew in a straight line and collided with him. If the soul was an overlay for the physical body, this streak of light beca an overlay for his soul. Thalion wasted no ti and activated the circle to pull him back into his own dinsion while trying to keep the outsider spirit bound within him.
At first, he had underestimated these beings. He hadn’t thought they possessed much willpower, given their erratic movent, but he was profoundly mistaken. The outsider's relentless desire to shift and change every mont overwheld him, making it nearly impossible to focus.
The formation designed to neutralize this desire was already at work, tearing into the will of the outsider. It was difficult to keep it up at the sa ti, and he was very glad that the circle pulled him back oautomatically, as he was not really able to do anything besides fighting the desire of the outsider. It was not like the outsider had a consciousness like his and could talk but was more like a natural law that demanded change.
The pressure peaked as they approached the portal. The outsider fought desperately, going so far as to destroy parts of Thalion’s soul with its imnse power. If it had the will to control its power, it would beco a lot more difficult for Thalion, but for the mont he just needed to accept that parts of his soulbody got annhilated as the outsider rampaged.
As he dropped back on the ritual circle, Thalion drew on additional power as he maintained his formation, channeling the newfound energy.
Normally, this would have been the phase where he stabilized his soul using the circle’s power and the new training began. However, Thalion used the circle to eradicate the outsider’s will entirely. The outsider didn't have as much survival instinct as he would have expected and just weakened when it slowly got destroyed.
The process cost him dearly. He lost the soul shapes of both legs and one arm. But when the process was finally complete, the power source, now stripped of its own will, beca fully integrated with his soul. Before the outsider had full control about his power source, now with its consciousness gone, it was all there for the taking.
Incredible energy surged through him. The damaged parts of his soul rapidly regenerated, though the spirit veins did not return, at least not those completely destroyed. Despite this, his spirit body felt denser and far more powerful than before, even without the many veins. This effect only took twenty seconds after the will of the outsider was gone.
Thalion, now nearly finished, felt an odd sense of calm once the outsider’s will was destroyed. He felt rejuvenated, as though he had just woken from a restful sleep. Strangely, his connection to his title had grown.
Did the two share a common origin, he wondered? The good thing was that his soulcore had protected Rylak's soul all the ti, which is why he only got a minor souldamage that should fix itself very soon. Due to the stronger connection to his title, he felt that ti was already over and he needed to go back imdiately.
“Okay, this is it. Goodbye, Rylak,” Thalion said, activating the failsafe that pulled him back to his real body in the tutorial. The transition happened so quickly that he didn’t even hear Rylak’s reply, which was sad. Thalion hoped that they would et again in the future.
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