Chapter 1557 Training Hard
It has been two more weeks since then, and it has officially been two months since our training began. I was cultivating my demonic and divine energy together, with the help of all my divine spirits and Ashlock, while I admired everyone else's progress over the training grounds. I was sitting atop the ice castle inside my Divine Realm right now, but with my expanded senses, I could easily see everyone else.
The first person I saw amongst the large group was Tisha, her Divine Aura had finally progressed, and she was now unleashing its power to her liking. She had no longer wielded a sword since the training began and was now shaping her own Divine Aura into many blades. The Frost Queen taught her a technique named "Sword Realization" which helps sword masters use the memory of their blades and imbue them into their auras.
It quite literally helps them shape their power as a sword, to become the sword themselves. Tisha had just begun tapping into this Divinity Aura Cultivation Technique but was already progressing by leaps and bounds once she got the hang of it.
"Now Tisha, concentrate and keep your focus." The Frost Queen said. "You have not wielded your sword for two months now, but you feel like it never left you, isn't it?"
"S-Somehow…" Tisha had her eyes shut.
"Now, take your sword and swing it against your target. Expand your senses, and search for the target." The Frost Queen explained.
"My sword…" Tisha's blue divinity aura slowly shaped around her strong hands, shaping into a giant two-handed blade, almost the same one she uses, but made out of her own power. "It's here, it never left me. My sword is with me… I am the sword."
Her eyes kept shut, and the dummy moved fast around her, trying to make it very hard for her to aim. This "dummy" was an incredibly fast ice golem that the Frost Queen asked me to create.
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
The golem kept circling around her, making it harder for Tisha to aim at it. But suddenly, I felt her senses meld with her divinity aura, as a wave of near-invisible divine power was released.
And in that second, a single slash was released.
SLASH!
The golem fell to the ground, split in half.
"Well done."
"Huh?! I did it?!"
Tisha opened her eyes to see the results of her two-month training, she was shocked. The Ice Elf had never been this good and precise in terms of senses before. She was just a barbarian type of warrior who overwhelmed foes with great power. But that hasn't really worked for a while now, as we fight even stronger enemies.
"Your hard work has paid off well! It took you a long while to do something so basic, but it finally worked." The Frost Queen giggled. "Most Gods would learn to do this automatically, but for some reason, it took you a long while. Yet, it feels like because of that, such a simple ability has been sharpened even further."
"I-Is that so?" Tisha was still flabbergasted. "I need to keep practicing!"
"Drake, more dummies please." The Frost Queen called me.
"Okay." I nodded, and with a thought, I summoned more of these golems around Tisha.
Instead of one, there were now twelve of them, and they were coming to attack her with the strength of Rank 8 Monsters. They were still frail and would melt in an hour, so I was able to afford their creation quite easily.
"They're coming, be careful." The Frost Queen guided her.
Tisha gritted her teeth as she clashed against a dozen golems at once. Her divinity aura fluctuated constantly; a single blade was not enough. She surrounded herself with many blades at once, each one defending her and attacking at the same time.
She was progressing steadily, but there were many more like her as well. I noticed Hector concentrating on his divinity aura. He was talented enough to easily shape it but was now beginning to comprehend how to enchant his soul with it.
Belle, the Fox Venerable, was a very harsh teacher at that. She was constantly slamming him each time he failed to combine his soul and his divinity aura. But he was progressing slowly.
"Wrong again! Stop thinking about other things, focus solely on the inside of your soul and your damn divinity!" Roared Belle. "Or I'm going to snack on a leg or an arm next!" She was already in her giant and monstrous fox form.
"Focus, focus… focus…" Hector groaned, his eyes glistening with light. "Soul and Divinity… As one!"
FLAAASH!
A bright radiance surged from his body, his Aura erupted from within, resembling countless angelic wings spreading out and flapping rapidly. Hector gave a guttural sound as if he was being torn to shreds by the pain.
"F-Fuck! It hurts like hell! AAARGH!"
"Keep going, you're not even halfway through!" The Venerable said. "This is called [Divine Soul Radiance]! It's a basic ability that gods should always learn, I can't believe Drake has been spoiling all of you so much that you lack basic knowledge about how to become stronger! Now keep trying."
"Y-Yes ma'am!" Hector cried.
A similar scene could be seen with everyone else. Kraxka, Larzak, Tyrannus and his warriors, and many other fighters. They required the Divine Soul Radiance to encompass their bodies with this combination of soul and divinity and become several times stronger.
I had already learned this ability when I became a Divine Dragon, so I never thought it had to be learned. I guess I wasn't really a good mentor for these people as I originally thought. I've learned a lot from the two Venerables myself as well, Belle taught me a week ago what I was doing now.
She called this technique "Divine Spirit Harmony Cultivation Technique", and it uses divine spirits to cultivate your body through the constant infusion of spiritual essence, which I use to also control divine power and demonic energy. Somehow, it is working better than I ever thought.
Not only my body but my soul… It feels much larger, I can now hold the power I gained from eating Pandemonium's Lung much better.
And right now, I was already breaking through.
[Your Soul has broken through its former shell and has progressed to the next stage.]
[Your Soul Ether has increased from S+++ to SS-!]
