Chapter 160: Testing

Chapter 160: Testing

Was it a flickering ember? It looked like it. Almost ethereal, it was located just below her heart. Astrid could feel a sense of connection from her third eye, as if it was the reason why she could see the ‘soul’ now.

Astrid just chalked it up to her eye having some bonus effects that she didn’t know about. Sinking her psychic energy into her soul, she felt a sudden coldness brush up against the back of her shoulders.

Pinching her cheek, she sunk into her own thoughts. If she [Crashed] the soul, what would happen? Would it be a full explosion since she couldn’t exactly ‘see’ it? Astrid shook her head. She couldn’t [Crash] anything she couldn’t directly see. It was exactly the reason she couldn’t aim straight for the heart. But surely there would be a method to at least injure it in some way.

Astrid spent a few hours sitting by the illusionary soul arrows. She recalled the feeling of when they struck her to every single detail. Feeling the challenge, her blood boiled. She wanted to recreate it.

Ignoring the chilling pain that the arrow caused to her soul, she decided to absorb the matter. It was only then could she get a true grasp on how the arrow was able to attack. As the matter seeped into her hand, it had a faint resemblance to that of regular grey matter and dark matter. Like a combination of the two.

Then, with the soul matter fresh in her mind, she connected to a passing arrow and [Crashed] it. However, her brows sank when a regular explosion rocked the area in front of her. But it wasn't all for nought, the explosion had lessened. As if she was dozens of Levels behind, and had somehow regressed.

Attempting it again, she noticed that her [Crash] was vaguely different. Although it didn’t deal a lot of damage–it was more like a strong puff of air–it now resembled the soul within her. Like a glowing white, it illuminated the surrounding area.

She had to test it.

Astrid summoned a void clone in front of her and used the new [Crash] on the fake her to see what it would do. Not surprisingly, the clone survived the direct hit.

Clicking her tongue, she got the clone to connect to the matter in front of her, and [Crashed] her body again. However this time, Astrid smirked. The clone's connection with the matter was severed.

So a soul attack can stop a spell from being cast? No wonder the Flynn family keeps it a secret. Astrid smiled and tested it a few more times. It was difficult to use properly, or more accurately, she needed time to form the soul [Crash] unlike her normal one which was instant.

But in the end she wasn’t fully satisfied with its usage. She heard soul attacks could destroy the very soul directly, but she could only interrupt magic spells. Well, it just meant she would have to experiment with it more. Besides, it was another trick up her sleeve if she could make it instant.

It would be impossible to predict.

Happy with the results, Astrid destroyed the illusion with a [Crash], and moved further into the tunnels. It wasn’t long before the tunnel transformed into a large room. Mirrors lined the wall as she could see her own reflection wherever she looked.

Just as she entered, she could tell an illusion was forming, and in an instant a humanoid sizzled into view. ‘It’ as it was impossible to make out the gender of the being since it had no features, took a step forward.

Astrid prepared her defences as the humanoid pushed its hand forward. Astrid felt the air swirl, then with the power of a psychic, it pushed the matter against her barriers. Of course such a hit dealt no damage, but Astrid was questioning the validity of the test.

TIlting her head, Astrid [Crashed] its body, instantly erasing it from existence, but another formed in its place. Astrid destroyed body after body, but it just recreated itself, then replicated its pushing blast move ceaselessly.

Does it want me to copy it? Astrid mused, then thought of pushing the humanoid with Psychokinesis. She surged her mana, then pushed against it. JHowever, the result wasn’t the same as the humanoid’s forceful push.

Astrid flew around the large room as she obliterated the army with all that she had learned. Wide area of attacks with her Psychokinetic blade of matter, rapid fire bullets, or creating spikes from the ground.

The more attacks she used, the harder it was to read what she would do. None of them could react as she smashed through them as if they were nothing but porcelain dolls.

The warriors attempted to block, but the ground would erupt in an explosion. The mage’s and archers tried to keep their distance, but bullets awaited them. There was nothing they could do against Astrid’s new arsenal of psychic attacks.

Soon, there was none left. Then they were replaced with even bigger enemies. Monsters that she had never seen before, but they were obviously from the mind of Zephyrion.

Astrid wasted no time as she fought with them. Her mind [Crashed] into them, while her clone charged up powerful dark matter attacks, and launched them into the crowd. It was chaos, and that meant Astrid was having fun.

As she slaughtered the enemies, she also was discovering something else. It felt like a strange force was guiding her during her matter control. Like a master's hand was placed over her own.

Astrid closed her eyes and focused on the feeling. She shaped the matter then compressed it. Of course, she had always compressed the matter, collecting it all into one point to then [Crash] it. But the hand had another idea.

One matter became two.

Creation! Astrid’s eyes widened, only to notice that the attacking warriors had stopped. Not willing to waste a second longer, Astrid focused on the already compressed matter, then ordered it to split. Thousands, millions, billions of matter grew in the matter of minutes–then she [Crashed] it.

An apocalyptic explosion rocked the earth, the crystals surrounding her brightened, then popped like an over surged lightbulb.

Uh, did I pass? Astrid looked around at the cracked crystals. No doubt they were extremely expensive–or used to be.

She was beginning to feel bad about destroying all the tests, but it wasn’t her fault. They were just weak.

Astrid tried out the newly evolved [Crash] once more, but this time spent less focus on the Skill. She made sure it was combat ready, and that meant she had to use it almost instantly.

After a few hours, by her estimation, she increased the strength of her [Crash] by at least fifty percent, maybe less. But it was something that caused her to jump on the spot.

Why couldn’t all teachers be like Zephyrion? Astrid still remembered the sour memory of her household tutor drilling mathematics into her brain. How boring. Maybe teachers weren’t so bad after all?

Another door opened and Astrid immediately headed on in. What else would she learn?

She stopped on the spot as she gazed at an old man with a long wiry white beard. He wore black matted robes with strange glossy black details covering it like markings.

The man's mouth opened, but only a cryptic message left his throat.