chapter 586  agnes’s soul avatar (part 4)

    seeing, agnes, lilia and rya''s amazed expressions, aster couldn''t help but laugh, this is something he trained in secret even from that possessive mother of his, not to mention rya who is practically all the time on the look.

    the reason is quite simple, he practiced while rya was under her daily treatment or after he had already filled both that lewd dragon mother and his cute empress with his love, so they weren''t looking when he trained.

    of course, he basically ran simulations in his mind, which was possible thanks to his insanely skilled soul cultivation, the previous came with a risk though, mental training put a lot of stress in one''s soul, since one would immerse into the created simulation.

    basically, the repercussions incurred while in that state, will reflect in your soul instead of in your body, so it was quite an advanced technique for anyone who wasn''t a soul king.

    but aster''s soul cultivation method, consisted in breaking the limits of his soul anyway, so for him that was a win-win situation, that being said, the pain of the "aster" in the simulation having his body being thorned apart, was quite something.

    and he had to go through that countless of times before he was able to get some progress.

    "annihilation is both fierce and flashy but strangely stealthy, if i followed a normal path, i would have had to discard one at some point, since they are extreme opposites, but i thought that it would have been a shame, considering how much potential does soul energy which is nearly non-existent, has", said aster.

    attributes develop based on the paths chosen by their owners, the same fire will have a different result on an energy cultivator than on a body cultivator, aster''s annihilation used to center on the energy path.

    and he still remembers rya''s awe, when his soul showed to be immune to annihilation, not to mention the incredible exception of being a dragon who can cultivate his soul, so he didn''t want to let that go to waste.

    soul energy can be both stealthy or flashy, the first one favors things like telekinesis, parallel thinking, spirit weapons and the like, while the second one focuses on illusions, condensing, mind attacks etc.

    back then, aster killed someone using soul energy imbued with annihilation, without anyone noticing, that was a rudimentary form of what he wanted to achieve.

    since the moment he created the black sword spirit weapon, an idea was born in his mind "why not use sword intent with it", technically ghost sword and sharpening could be applied to anything.

    the problem is that by doing so, the previous advantage of being practically undetectable, was lessened to its extreme, since his sword intent was on the aggressive side, as proof of it, his sky rendering, the technique he created by putting his everything into his sword, manifested as a huge pillar of light.

    "though i ran countless simulations in my mind, it was thanks to two people that i got a hint on how to give form to it, the first one was esmeralda...", said aster, his free hand was cladded by his sword intent.

    sometimes when a problem appears to be unsolvable, the answer is to look at it from a different perspective, esmeralda did it, the path of a spirit element is to develop more properties of the same element they embody.

    but she abandoned her comfort zone and instead looked to cover the areas where she was lacking by looking for a connection between her original element and what she desired to obtain, in her case it was the concept of "green".

    of course, aster couldn''t completely follow her steps, since he isn''t a spirit element, what inspired him from esmeralda, is the fact that she linked many different things by finding something they had in common.

    "since i would have had to discard the stealth aspect at some point, then why not completely separate it, without the two aspects colliding wouldn''t i be able to maximize both of them, as to what will keep them connected and obedient, that will be my intent", mumbled aster.

    the intent projected by his hand, was then split into two by a line of golden light, resulting in two different smaller streams of intent, the surprising thing is that while in size they of course lacked in comparison with the previous, their intensity, purity and level didn''t diminish at all.

    agnes saw the skin of aster''s fingers suddenly rip apart, but since aster was smiling at her, she bit her lips and remained silent.

    "don''t worry, the truth is that splitting my intent doesn''t cause me any pain, since annihilation can''t harm me, or anything related to me, that includes my intent, the only problem is that my body isn''t strong enough as of current to manifest both intents at the same time, because they extremely oppose each other", he said before he dispelled both intents, his skin regenerated not too long after.

    in your case the sword, as well as one of your two paths, which in your case it is the energy one, another path can''t interfere unless agnes mumbled a couple of things before saying.

    "it can''t be as simple as you make it sound, intent is an agglomeration of the experiences attained with its respective focus, in your case the sword, as well as one of your two paths, which in your case it is the energy one, another path can''t interfere unless you are...", agnes suddenly stopped speaking, her eyes sparkled as she intensely gazed at aster who laughed in response.

    "yeah, the second inspiration was you, the sight of your soul avatar integrating with your genesis core is still fresh in my mind, also you can let go of my hand now, you know", he playfully said.

    agnes pouted, he was teasing her again, she looked away but instead of letting go of aster''s hand, she tightened her grip on it, which made aster chuckle.

    "just like you said, it isn''t as simple as i made it sound, since i have only set a foot in the third level of intent, no matter what i do, until i fully enter the third level, my intent is bound to have "flaws", otherwise it won''t be a half step third level intent", he said.

    "mm", agnes who was still "ignoring" aster nodded, maybe she didn''t know about flaws, but when she saw aster''s previous intent when he was still at the second level, she was sure that it was perfect, he couldn''t polish it more than what he had done at that point.

    but after he set a foot into the third level, small yet important details had to be solved so that he could advance more, she knows it as she did the same back when she hadn''t reached the third level.

    "it''s easier for soul cultivators like us to develop much stronger intents, since our comprehension is naturally enhanced, normally to enter the third level of intent one has to at least solve 60% of the details that appear after setting a foot into the third level, the vast majority of cultivators go along with this, since anything past that it''s not easy to achieve".

    "do you know why is it that me and sister valentina find ourselves comfortable around you, well, besides the fact that we can''t feel an ounce of falsehood from your soul?", said agnes as she looked at her soul avatar.

    "well, i have been told that i''m quite handsome", jokingly said aster, which made agnes giggle.

    "it''s dazzling, the brightness that your soul radiates surpasses anything i have seen before, it''s warm and comfortable to the point that even my soul avatar allows you to touch her, even without me ordering it~", she said with a bright smile on her pretty face.

    "i see", mumbled aster, agnes''s soul avatar became a ray of orange light and returned to agnes''s body as if it was running away from aster''s gaze, which he found rather amusing.

    "i was planning to use some time of the date to fight using our intents, but i want us to stay like this for a while... can we?", she cutely asked.

    aster softly smiled before saying.

    "sure, why don''t you tell me more about yourself, since we have opened ourselves to each other".

    agnes''s eyes sparkled, her big "secret" ended up not being relevant in aster''s eyes, so she had no reason to not tell aster more about herself, from back when she lived at the sun sprite heavenly quadrant.

    ...

    the saying goes that time sure flies when one is having fun, without aster nor agnes noticing, the hours passed while agnes talked about her childhood at her clan, even after using almost a whole day to it, it wasn''t more than a couple of years of events, which could be resumed by the fact that she was trapped at the castle of her family branch.

    now aster understood why she had valentina and his godmother in such high regards, valentina was from a close generation, though from another family branch, she practically spent all her time at agnes''s family''s territory, because their mothers were best friends.

    as for aster''s godmother, she did what she wanted and since she was kind of a black sheep, most people didn''t approach her, but those two could see she wasn''t a bad person, thanks to their lineage ability, which ended in them idolizing the one who was considered the strongest of the young generation among the fey.

    aster enjoyed seeing agnes laugh as she dug out memories from her childhood, maybe she lacked in terms of quantity when it came to friends, but she excelled in terms of quality.

    before they noticed, the illumination started to diminish, meaning that the end of their date was close.

    "say aster, since i''m now "taken, would it be okay if i...", said agnes, her voice lowered by the end until her words were barely understandable.

    even without using spirit sense but just his excellent senses, aster could hear agnes''s heart racing, her grip on aster''s hand tightened a bit, which he found rather cute.

    "sure, as much as you want...", as aster was speaking, he stopped in cold as he saw agnes suddenly laying down on top of him, her eyes were closed and her face was slightly blushed as she placed her left cheek for a kiss.

    aster chuckled before saying.

    "i was referring to holding hands".

    agnes''s face exploded in red, her eyes opened on the spot but before she could escape, aster swiftly moved upwards and gently pecked her cheek.

    "i-i, y-you, ahhh!", agnes didn''t know how to react, her image flashed as she became a line of light that soon disappeared from aster''s sight.

    aster who was left behind didn''t rush after her or anything, in any case she stopped to wait for him at the other side of the entrance of the treasure graveyard, she was sitting with her hands covering her face.

    "how cute, truly worth teasing", mumbled aster as he got up, only to hear lilia laughing at him.

    ''you are too mean darling, you knew what she was referring to but still teased her by telling her you thought it was about holding hands, be sure to take responsibility~'', she said.

    aster laughed to himself, he didn''t have the intention of playing with agnes''s heart, but this is as far as they''ll go for now, she originally felt attracted by the aspects of his soul she could see, but she slowly but surely has become attached to him, the same applies to aster though.

    "she''ll be accompanying me to all of my missions, so we''ll have more than enough time to get closer, she was already a part of my family anyway, so i would like to see who dares to try and play any tricks", said aster as he stretched his body.

    no matter how she tried to not externalize it, aster noticed how much she hesitated at first when she had to talk about her family, she also obviously skipped some parts about her childhood, not to mention she didn''t speak about why she left the sun sprite heavenly quadrant.

    but nothing of that mattered for aster, once a girl had managed to move his heart, he''ll pursue her no matter what, he even took lilia and rya for himself, from his point of view it was going to be hard for other girls to be more troublesome than those two.

    "oh well, it''s time to get back", said aster as he calmly walked towards the exit, giving time to agnes to recover from what happened earlier.