Chapter 572: [Bonus Chapter] The Fifth Stance

--An: Bonus Chapter 3/14--

In a dark space where time seems to have twisted, Rain found herself floating in this strange place. "This place… Feels comfortable..." 

The space around her seemed to warp to her presence as if acknowledging her. There was no resistance as she swam through this sea of black. The time around her had come to a halt as if frozen, waiting for her command to begin again. "Is this the makeup of time and space?"

Rain ran her hand through the space around her. It acted like a liquid at her touch, sending ripples along its surface, but it did not reject her. She let her hand soak in the black liquid of time and space, casually swaying her hand back and forth as she sat cross legged floating in the eternal abyss. "So this is the make up, the true form of time and space."

She did not know why but she felt the black liquid was talking to her, wanting to merge with her body. She also did not know why but she felt connected to this black liquid. She could feel it tickling her finger tips asking to be consumed by her.  The bluish flames in her eyes flared up and started to turn black as Rain giggled and said: "Hehe... If you so wish... Then come." 

It was as if being summoned. The black liquid surged into Rain's body. At the same time, magic runes were being imprinted into her mind. Her understanding of space and time was quickly rising at a steady pace. She sat there with her eyes closed, allowing the black liquid to surge into her body. It did not hurt. Unlike how much it did to be able to become a spirit and read the ley lines. It was gentle and imprinted the information in her mind slowly. 

Time for her had paused. She had no way of keeping track of how many days or even years passed as she sat quietly in the space…

---

It had been thirty years since Yana began merging the gravity force sword style and her own. She had undergone the painful baptism with each stance she learned. She was now back on the fourth stance. She realized each stance was now building up to something even more powerful. The four she had merged so far were as follows.

First stance: In the beginning, there was nothing.

Second stance: When there was nothing, creation was born.

Third stance: With creation came destruction.

Fourth stance: With the birth of creation and destruction came chaos.

It seemed her new sword style was a set of stances that told a story of the beginning of everything. Each stance progressively got more powerful so much so that Yana was no longer in the underground training room but in the deep mountains devoid of any life. Along with her were Lord Ein and Gia. 

Yana stood in front of a large canyon in the ground. The end of it came right to her feet at a sharp point. Beyond that, the mountain that was majestic and tall was split right in half. This was the power of her fourth stance. 

"Every time you merge a move, it gets more and more powerful. Just slicing a mountain in two is already a feat in half. At most, I can chop the top half of the mountain off with the gravity force last stance, but this is just…. You changed the entire landscape..." Lord Ein looked on in envy. He was jealous but also happy that his adopted granddaughter and disciple was able to accomplish such a feat in such a short time. Not once had she actually learned one of the moves in his sword style. She took the basic concept of the move and merged it with her stances, creating something terrifyingly powerful.

"If this keeps up, she will end up cutting a hole into a whole new dimension or even to a plane unknown to us." Gia also felt defeated. She had only learned the second stance of Yana's sword stances but even trying to merge the gravity force stance with it causes her unbearable pain. So much pain that she stopped trying altogether.

"Yana, why don't you stop there for today?" Lord Ein called out. They did not dare get near Yana as the area around her for fifty meters while she trained was considered a no man's zone due to the gravity pressure being so high. It had gotten to the point that even Lord Ein was unable to deal with it.

"Not yet..." Yana closed her eyes and sheathed her sword, and got into a new stance that they had never seen more. "Fifth stance…. When there is chaos, corruption reigns..."

Yana slowly pulled out her sword only a tiny bit from its sheath. A black and purple glow shined brighter than the sun engulfing the area. 

*Boom!* 

A loud explosion was heard, and the whole area in front of Yana disappeared. The new canyon, the mountain, all of it was gone. She had not even pulled out her sword fully, and this was the damage she was able to do. She slowly slid her sword back into her sheath before de-summoning it back into her hand. As she did, her whole body suddenly turned into a liquid and fell to the ground as a puddle.

"Yana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Gia screamed as she went to rush forward, only to be pulled back by Lord Ein. 

"Don't! You will die!" Lord Ein could sense it. The area that Yana was currently in was not a place Gia should go near. The air itself was fluctuating, giving off an ominous feeling.

"Grandpa, but Yana is!" Gia was still panicked and tried to run forward, but Lord Ein once again stopped her and chopped her on the back of the neck to knock her out. 

Sighing, he looked at Gia and then at Yana and furrowed his brow. "Lass, you can only rely on yourself this time..."