Chapter 336 8

"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Kalya and the girls roared as they felt the unbearable pain after Ziel doubled the amount of origin power he injected into their bodies. Some of them cried because the pain was beyond their body's tolerance. If it weren't for their willpower, the girls would have already been knocked unconscious.

Ziel knew that forcibly changing the energy source would cause an overwhelming backlash. The human body will automatically reject foreign energy sources suddenly injected and flow within their mana channels.

He felt his heart ache when he saw their condition, but he had no choice. Ziel had to increase the power of the girls as much as possible, and he didn't have much time before the primeval gods came to the Clorius continent. So he decided to use the most effective and fast method even though it was painful.

"You have to endure the pain. If you faint, I would have to repeat this training from the beginning. I want you to familiarize yourselves with origin power as long as I circulate it within your bodies." Ziel said seriously.

The girls couldn't answer Ziel's words or respond with movement because their pain made them forget everything around them. Ziel didn't know if Queen Helena and the others had heard his explanation. But judging from their struggles to maintain their consciousness, he thought they had already realized it without hearing his words.

"I hope you can hold out until training is over. Although I won't be able to change all of your energy sources, I can at least replace a small part with origin power. That number will increase each time you do this training until origin power fills your body." Ziel explained.

The second stage of the training aimed to replace the girls' energy sources. Ziel will empty the energy source in their bodies and then inject origin power. After that, he would forcefully circulate them within their mana channel.

Ziel made the artifact to make their training more manageable. The cube has a dual function. The first was to suck dry the source energy from the girls' bodies and turn it into origin power. It could completely duplicate the structure of origin power and use it as the basis for transforming the girls' source energy.

The second was to help Ziel control the circulation of the eleven people. Circulating origin power with excellent control over so many people would be too tiring even for him. Ziel had to carefully process the energy source transformation because the origin power was so powerful and violent. He could destroy their mana channels or even explode their bodies if he injected too much.

Initially, the girls' bodies would resist when suddenly injected with a foreign energy source, and the backlash would be terrifying. But over time, their bodies will become familiar and adapt to their origin power.

Humans can automatically replenish the energy sources within their bodies when their amounts are low. The energy source that will be produced is the same as that circulating in their bodies. Therefore, Ziel emptied the energy source of the girls first and injected the origin power afterward.

N0 v el Next. CoM

After the girls' bodies recognized the new energy source, they slowly produced small amounts of origin power. Of course, they were few and could not replace the energy source that had been with them since birth. But the longer they do the training; the more origin power will be produced and replace the old one.

Time passed quickly, and the second stage of training had already dragged on until noon. Even though they could maintain their consciousness up to this point, their condition was extremely pathetic due to the terrible pain.

Lilith and the others suffered no external injuries like yesterday's training. But the torment inside their bodies was excruciating, more than anything they had ever felt.

Ziel suddenly frowned when he saw that some girls were on the verge of losing consciousness.

"It seems like I should stop this training since they've already reached their limit." Ziel shook his head. Initially, he intended to do the training until night. If one of them fainted, it would disrupt the balance of the artifact, and what they had done would end up in vain.

Because of that, Ziel had to stop the training before either of them lost consciousness. He stretched out his hand, and the undecagonal prism floating in the sky stopped rotating. After that, the flow of origin power to Princess Freya and the others was stopped.

The undecagonal prism turns into a cube again. Ziel pulled the artifact back into his hands, and the girls fell unconscious, except for Kalya, Azalia, and Lilith.

"Fortunately, I stopped the training in time. Otherwise, the pain you feel will be for nothing." Ziel said softly to the three girls, who could still keep their consciousness. Kalya, Azalia, and Lilith looked at Ziel and smiled weakly.

"I will recover your condition and give you one hour to rest. After lunch, we will continue this training." Ziel stretched out his hand, and the girls were enveloped in a gray light. After that, the pain in their bodies slowly diminished and one by one began to open their eyes.

"Ugh! My head feels dizzy. Did I faint during training?" Princess said in a weak voice and looked around.

Clara and the other girls felt the same way about her. They remember nothing but the terrible pain after Ziel threw the cube. They didn't even hear what Ziel said after that. Because they think it is training, they try to fight it with all their might. But in the end, they fainted because the pain had exceeded their tolerance limit as humans.

"Did our second stage of training fail?" Princess Irene asked. She remembered Ziel saying that the training would end at night. But now it was still daytime, and Ziel had stopped their training. Princess Irene was afraid that they had let Ziel down again, just like in the first stage.

"No. Your practice doesn't fail. I stopped it because I thought you had reached your limit, and continuing it would only harm you. To determine whether your practice is failing, you can check the energy source in your body." Ziel smiled and explained.

Princess Aishia and the others nodded and then closed their eyes. The girls recognized the characteristics of their respective energy sources and would quickly notice if there had been a change.

"Huh!? What's this? Is this the origin power? This source of energy feels terrible!" Princess Freya was shocked when she discovered a terrifying foreign energy source mixed within her mana. He was sure that it was the origin power in Ziel's words because he felt its dominating force.

"This is amazing…" Azalia said in awe. She could feel that the origin power within her body was many times stronger than divine power.

The other girls were excited after finding origin power mixed with their source energy. This shows that their training did not fail. Of course, the amount of origin power in their bodies varied; each had origin power of less than ten percent of their total source energy. But some people have exceeded that number.

The ones who managed to replace most of their source energy with origin power among the girls were Azalia, Kalya, and Lilith. They were people who could maintain their consciousness until the training was stopped.

"Alright, you can check on that again after lunch. I'll give you one hour to rest. After that, we will continue this training. Furthermore, I will not stop before the time is up, no matter how much pain you all feel. Show your greater determination in this training." Ziel smiled, and his figure disappeared from the girls' sight.

Queen Helena and the others' faces became severe as they felt the pressure from Ziel's words. They realized that their efforts in this second stage of training fell short of Ziel's expectations and may have let him down.

The training was supposed to end at night but was forcefully stopped during the day because some would lose consciousness. If Ziel didn't do it, then their struggle to endure the pain would be in vain as they wouldn't get any benefit. When one of them collapsed, the artifact would become unstable, and their training would be forcibly terminated. They would fail without any results and even get a backlash because of it.

"Is Ken disappointed with the results of this second stage of training?" Clara looked at the girls and asked. She felt disappointment in Ziel's tone before he disappeared. Princess Aishia and the others were silent and lowered their heads without being able to say anything.

"I don't think so." Azalia said. That sentence made the girls turn their attention to her and wait for her to continue.

"Ziel has never been disappointed in us. Be it in training today or the first stage. What he feels is a concern for us. I think Ziel is afraid that he can't protect us when the primeval gods come to the Clorius continent, and we can't fend for ourselves. He wanted to get us stronger as fast as possible so he could rest easy on letting us fight against the primeval gods." Azalia explained.

"Yeah, I feel that way too. What he feels for us when the results of our training do not meet his expectations is not a disappointment but worry. He was thinking about our safety all this time. Therefore, he is strict and cruel to us in training. His actions were solely for our good." Kalya spoke sadly.

"In other words, Ziel loves us. He doesn't want us to be powerless and injured when fighting the primeval gods in the future." Queen Helena added.

"Then what should we do now? I don't want him to keep worrying about us." Princess Aishia said, and tears flowed from her eyes.

"Hmm? Didn't he say it before? We will rest for an hour and then continue the training. This time we must ensure that we hold out until this second stage is over." Kalya smiled and patted Princess Aishia's shoulder gently.

N0 v el Next. CoM

The girls looked at each other and nodded. Afterward, they took out the food from their space storage and ate it on the spot—the food they had made a few days ago and kept for their supplies. Lilith and the others didn't make lunch today because they didn't think they would have time to enjoy it.

An hour later, the girls had finished their break. Not long after, Ziel appeared in front of them and smiled when he saw the expressions on their face. He felt their determination become many times more solid than before.

"Have you eaten your lunch yet?" Ziel asked.

"Yes, we have." Princess Cordelia and the others in unison.

"Then, we will continue the training. I hope you guys are ready because I won't stop it before the appointed time. Do you understand?" Ziel said seriously.

"We understand! We will do our best!" The girls answered firmly.

"Good! Please sit cross-legged in a circle as before. I will not repeat my explanation because you already understand the process. Well then, let's continue with the second stage of training now." Ziel said and took out a cube from his space storage.

Azalia and the others immediately took their seats. Ziel threw the cube into the air, and the girls released their energy source. After that, the same process occurs. Ziel channeled origin power to them after the energy source in their bodies was utterly depleted.

Unlike before, Clara and the others seemed calmer when they felt that inhuman pain. Their faces were distorted with pain, but they didn't whimper and continued to fight against it with their willpower.

Ziel smiled when he saw that. He increased the intensity of the origin power he injected into the girl's body little by little. He tried to make up for the hour they had wasted on their lunch break. Ziel hoped the girls could hold on until the training was over.

Time passed quickly, and the moon had replaced the sun in the sky. The second stage of training was completed, and origin power had taken over more than twenty percent of the total energy source in the girls' bodies.