Chapter 474: Ryun

Chapter 474: Ryun

Battlefield

Ryun walked the battlefield, his sense expanded as far as it could go, and he kept his mind focused with a combination of his {Mantle of Gathering Twilight} boosting his intelligence and his Titanic Swift Mind. Every moment stretched into almost infinity, as his perception of Time slowed down to a crawl. There were great warriors on the field, powerful individuals. Though few of them had reached the final, ninth, tier of their primary focus. It made sense, not many had done that in the Real Realm either, and of those that had, not all were warriors.

And Eerv had told him that there were other areas of the Warrior Afterlife away from this place. Ryun, wasn't really interested in all that fighting, instead he focused more on avoiding attacks, whether by focusing his Aura to dismantle techniques and abilities before they reached him, or simply moving out of the way of swords or spears.

But |Divided Mind| allowed another part of his mind to focus on something else. Something far more important. As he walked through the battlefield, Ryun pulled Essence into his core and cycled. It took a lot of concentration to do it even just while walking, but by now he had become very good at it. And he had done it every moment since he arrived in this place and realized that the Essence here was... Different. His eyes couldn't see the individual particle of Essence, but everything around him was still part of the same laws. The Essence was just... More complete, or at least that was what his current theory was. He didn't really know, nor did anyone who he asked that lived in this place.

Still, pulling in Essence that was the foundation of the Afterlife had proven to be a great boon. It was obviously of a better quality than what he had encountered before, and that was probably the reason why most people in this place had managed to reach the last tier of their Aspect Mastery here when some might never even accomplish it during their lifetime. They couldn't advance their focuses through the tiers, but they could progress in other ways.

Ryun assumed that the nature of this place and the Essence was made so that they would have an easier time of it. Though, he still didn't know the purpose of for it, there were things about the Afterlife that intrigued him.

An attack broke his concentration, and he had to stop cycling. A needle made out of extremely compressed and powerful Ice Qi blasted through Ryun's aura before he could react and pierced through his throat, exiting out the back of his neck. He blinked and turned his head at his attacker.

He grimaced inwardly as he felt Qi enter his body and attempt to repeat the earlier feat. This time Ryun didn't waste time by trying to fight the invasive Qi, he just swung with his arm and summoned an axe mid swing, cutting his leg off. Before he even finished a step Qi and Essence flowed out of the wound and a new foot landed on the ground.

His shape rippled widely, his meaning and the idea of his being inside his Soul wavering. He felt his body grow, turning into the Wolf of the End without him meaning to. It was what he had discovered his Soul defaulted to, when he didn't pay attention. He let it change, there was no need to keep his human shape now.

Qi flowed through his body as warriors around him decided to fight him together, their cries filled with elation and calls to glory. They were after all Souls who had earned their place in the Warriors Afterlife, they enjoyed the battle and challenges above all else.

He was their guest, it was only proper that he gave them what they were looking for. The Wolf of the End took a step, and Qi flowed out of his body, spheres of concentrated Oblivion Qi formed outside of his body, and his mantle empowered him within. With a thought, he began.

He fought and lost all semblance of time. His mind dropped into a state where his core reached out naturally, the plane of Oblivion opened up and his core started to fill, Qi replenishing as it was spent.

In the distance he felt another fight, a great one. He recognized Nayra, and made his way over to her. Without a word exchanged, he slipped next to her. A Wolf walking on air next to a flying Valkyrie shrouded in black and gold fire.

Together, they dropped down and met the brave warriors of the Afterlife.