"What do you think of my shot against her now?" he asked after completing the twelfth drop of Radiant Aether. These days his body was sizzling with power, even though for most of the day he couldn't feel much of it, on account of him being terribly stressed through the process of absorbing the transcendent-grade elixir, or through fights with Karim and Ovium.
His master had left him no room to rejuvenate, as though masochism was the only way to power. Well, her way was working so far, so he hadn't voiced out much in the way of complaints. His body had been adapting to all the changes, going beyond natural orders.
The Void Vanquishing Physique currently stood at 73%; he had made a lot of progress in the short couple of weeks, but even that was slowing down as his physique was adapting to it. Thankfully, he probably wouldn't have to worry about it; his little Master would probably find something to torture—no, train him.
"As you are now..." she deliberated over the question for a few seconds before letting out a brief sigh. "Well, it all depends on her, to be honest. If she brings out her full power, you won't last the blink of an eye, but thankfully, she was too prideful to implement all her power.
She'd implement only a fraction of her power, but even then, it would be tough for you to keep standing for over a minute."
He gritted his teeth. All this tortuous training and he felt like he had grown a lot, yet hearing he wouldn't last a minute was truly disheartening.
"Don't be discouraged, poor disciple," she said. "The contest was skewed in her favour from the beginning. It's not about you defying her or dominating her..."
"Then what's this about?" he asked.
She tilted her head. "To impress her," she said with a simple smile. "To get her acknowledgement, obviously. To make sure you're her chosen one, not a mistake."
He sucked in a frigid breath, some twirls of pattern inhaled along with the breath, though on a whole municipal level compared to his master. Still, it was an improvement.
"That's going to be a tall order," she said. "I don't know if you have noticed it already, but we do not get satisfied easily."
"Tell me about it," he mumbled and stood up to look for Karim or Ovium for sparring.
"I gave them a rest for today," Ariha said. "They have fallen too low, staying in this detrimental environment for too long; they alone aren't enough of a challenge to bring out your potential anymore."
He frowned. "Then?"
Ariha sat close to him and drew her right palm over his abdomen where the void core was located. She met his gaze and opened her lips again. "There are two ways to do it. The safer path is to awaken the radiant core inside the void core, while the second is more risky. It is to replace the Radiant core as your heart construct."
He whistled.
"Don't be happy yet, neither of the two is a perfect way. Well, far from being perfect. Honestly, it felt like my other self had no idea what she was doing."
"What are the benefits and demerits of both ways?" he asked.
"The first path is relatively safe, but considering the dominating power of void, your core will likely always revert to this state now. Eventually," she said. "I'm not sure how long it will take; it depends on the balance of power. Your void essence grows too fast; it's practically impossible for most people to ingest essence as you do...
Anyway, in this way, you'd have to put in at least a couple of hours or more to balance out the two powers."
He nodded in understanding. It didn't sound too bad, honestly. Power has a price, after all.
"What about the other way?"
"The other way is more permanent. It's risky, so risky that I don't intend to replace your heart with the radiant construct," she said. "If you are to have your void core and radiance core separated, you'll always have to be completely in control of your essence. You'll also need to create a separate path for the radiance essence to flow, as attribution between the two powers will only weaken you."
He thought for several seconds, with his mind initially leaning towards the first path as Ariha intended. However, he had to stop himself to question: "Why does the second path sound like it isn't worth the risk?"
Obviously, because she made it sound like that.
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"Which path will give me more of an edge against the other you in the battle?" he asked, letting out a sigh.
"You know it already," she said with a sigh. "If you replace your heart construct with a radiance core, your regenerative power will be beyond gold rankers. You'll likely never run out of energy, and your regenerative powers... well, let's just say most kinds of physical wounds won't be enough to damage you much."
His eyes shone...
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