Chapter 220: Upgrading Ki Hearts

Three days later,

Howard and Priscilla spent one last night together in bed with her lips pressing against his own. She was so grateful for him that she pretty much attacked him every night no matter what he said. She had on a white tank top, her chest pushing up against Howard's torso as she kissed him over and over again. Yet at the same time, she was worried, Howard would have to leave soon. 

'Howard, can I ask you something? How did you do it? How did you make that last Ki Heart?"

"I heard from Harkel that was the first time he heard of someone making a Ki Heart when someone passed out." Priscilla looked into his eyes while they twinkled from the moonlight. She felt amazed that Howard was with her right now, and couldn't help but smile. "Do-do you want to tell me how you did it? I promise I can keep a secret. I swear on these lips. I swear if I ever tell anyone. Do you mind telling me before I selfishly indulge in you for one more night?"

"Hehe, I-I just really wanted it to develop and it did." Howard kissed her once on the forehead, and then playfully kissed her everywhere else that was visible to his eyes. Her pale skin was twinkling and he just wanted to keep kissing her, but he knew in just a few minutes he'd have to go. "It's almost like I had an intent, and it happened. You're not mad at me for doing it right?"

"No, it's just I'm so grateful," Priscilla's tears started to water while she jumped on top of Howard and pinned him down to the bed. "I-I want to attack you with all my gratitude! My arms, when I woke up, were also completely healed. I want to hit you I'm so happy!"

"Hehe, well that's all I needed to hear," Howard smiled and closed his eyes. "Now, can you do something else for me. However, It's a secret though. Can you come here?"

Priscilla smiled and felt Howard put his hand around her hair before he pulled her down and bit her neck.

"Hehehe, I guess you want to leave a mark tonight?"

"You got it," Howard smiled, and fully enjoyed his last night with Priscilla. That was, of course, right before he got to try out the strength of his new Ki Hearts with Gravanal for the first time.

###

Gravanal, as usual, appeared when Howard went to sleep.

Unlike usual, though, Gravanal seemed somewhat shocked when he saw Howard. He could immediately feel that something was different about him.

"Howard, what? What happened to your body?" Gravanal appeared in front of Howard like a flash. They were in a completely white space with thousands of swords floating around as usual with a few mountains in the distance. "You-you seem like you changed? I-I don't even recognize your aura. What happened to you in the last week? You didn't even fall asleep right?"

"I passed out. I guess that's different than sleeping, haha! I was trying out a new type of training," Howard raised his brow at Gravanal in surprise. "Why? Do I seem stronger to you? I was only able to upgrade 5 out of my 60 Ki Hearts, but it's a start."

"It's impossible to upgrade Ki Hearts," Gravanal laughed and snapped his fingers before thousands of swords from Yesran's domain appeared. He wondered if Howard broke through to the SS rank in the last few days, but now he knew that's not what happened. Clearly, the boys aura was only different because of defeating Armecolith. That's what it had to be right? Could it really be anything else besides that? 

"Howard, remember, don't use your domain today." Gravanal held up his hand before it slashed down and blurred. "Remember, try and focus on outwitting me! There is no other way out of this domain!"

"I got it!" Howard activated his Dream Ki before 50 different copies of him shot in different directions. Hundreds of swords instantly surrounded him on all sides before 50 more copies appeared and then 50 more after that.

Swoosh!

Howard flipped back and dodged a gigantic sword coming towards him while Gravanal nearly dropped his jaw in shock.

"Does he even realize what he just did? He dodged 10 attacks from this domain! The last time, he only could dodge 5!"

"Even though I'm only using 10 percent of the max strength of this domain, that's still incredible! Let's try 20 percent!"

Gravanal held out his hand towards Howard before he sent a little bit of the maximum strength into the sword domain. This did two things, one it made the swords faster, and two increased the size of the biggest sword striking towards Howard.

Howard sighed, and looked up, seeing teh large sword descending towards him so fast that he couldn't even use his Dream Ki.

"Crap, still not strong enough?"

Boom!

Howard disappeared into a cloud of blood before he reappeared in the center of the room as usual. However, this time, unlike last, Gravanal didn't keep attacking. He held up his hand and dropped the domain before slowly walking towards Howard.

"Howard, do you know how much you just surprised me right now?" Gravanal said, stopping a foot from him as he held out his hand. "Do you want to guess how long I thought it take for you to get me to use that level of power?"

"Uhm, a week longer."

"5 years," Gravanal responded with his arms crossed. "I expected it to take 5 more years for you to get that strong. Unless, of course, you broke through the SS rank, in that case I'd say one year. Yet, right now, your body is still only in the S rank. You-you've got my attention Howard. Now tell me one more time what you did to upgrade your Ki Hearts? I promise, every word we say here, will be kept between me and you."

"I-I'm not sure if I can explain it." Howard sighed and held out his hand. "The only way I could show you is by taking you to 1000 Monster Valley, and that's impossible for you right?"

"Nothing is impossible in this space," Gravanal pointed in the distance before thousands of mountains started to appear with a lush landscape also appearing. "It's in your dreams and my dreams Howard. If you're willing to show me, I'd be more than likely to see."

"I-I can't copy what I saw in my dreams," Howard bit his lip, realizing it was hard for him to explain. "Have you ever heard that we're not the first beings to be in the Furnace? There were others millions of years ago?"

"This sounds complicated," Gravanal sighed and shook his head. "Howard, many people may make you think that I've betrayed the Varlen, and that I'm a horrible person, but I don't like to meddle in areas that I don't have to. Listen, just keep doing what you're doing, whatever is making you stronger. Once you get strong enough to defeat Yesran's domain at 50 percent power, I'll ask you again? How about that?"

"Hehe, good, because otherwise I was about to kick your ass," Howard said, smiling and laughing while Gravanal also joined in the laughter. "Now, come on! Attack me again with all your might! I can do it! I can beat Yesran's domain!"

###

Howard spent one more week at 1000 Monster Valley with Waxel and Harkel.

For some reason, Harkel and Waxel weren't as much in a hurry to get him to rush to the Jarkalon Abyss after he worked with Priscilla. In fact, he heard that in a few days, Monica would be here as well for the same process.

He smiled, and worked in the training chamber for almost 5 hours everyday in order to put his intent into more and more of his Ki Hearts. He felt like he was getting stronger quicker than he ever imagined possible, yet it wasn't quick enough.

He only got Gravanal to use Yesran's sword domain at 30 percent power with 40 of his Ki Hearts already full of his intent. Even with all 60, he imagined that at most he'd be able to block 40 percent of his domain.

Howard sighed and walked outside only to find Harkel and Waxel waiting for him. They had said something about fighting him together today, but he didn't really think to much of it. After all, both of them were still injured. Would it really be a fight if they weren't at full strength.

"Howard, so nice for you to finally join us. I have good news, my SSS rank strength just returned to me," Harkel said while him and Waxel laughed. "You still want to fight me today? Waxel, here, found a very special plant that was extremely good at nourishing my ghost miasma. If you'd like, I can fight you at my SS rank strength like I used to. After all, I've yet to fully show you the difference between an SS and an SSS ranked domain."

"I-I'm more than ready to fight you two, however, can I ask you? Who do you think is stronger, you or a man named Yesran?"

"You mean of those three brothers you met?" Harkel tapped his finger and tried to remember their strength. "Hmmm, I'd say I'm a lot weaker than them, but much better at arrays. If we fought, I'd probably be able to kill all three of them, but I'd also die."

"Then, today, I want you to fight me with arrays," Howard got in a fighting position between Waxel and Harkel. "I want both of you to use everything you can to defeat me. I won't hold back either."

Harkel and Waxel could sense an air of confidence from Howard and suddenly this put them on edge. They had made him wait before leaving to Jarkalon Valley specifically so they could get Harkel back to full strength.

They wanted to beat him so bad that he'd be careful in the dangerous, strange lands of the Jarkalon Abyss, yet for some reason, when he said those words he put both of them on edge.

"I won't hold back, but I won't use arrays until you give me confidence I need to use them. However, that also makes me wonder Howard. Do you want to learn arrays. To keep what happened with Gorgolith from ever happening again?"

"I don't know yet. Let's see if you two can beat me first, and then maybe I'll think about it." Howard pushed back his foot before his Ki surged around him. "Lets' do this! Let's fight!"