"So you want to forego creating a Soul Nature entirely?"
If others saw Alauna's nonchalant response to what should have been a bombshell, they would most definitely check to see whether she had a fever or not. Since when could breaking free of the Heavens be spoken of so casually?
Yet, Alauna simply expected her father to accomplish the impossible. There wasn't much of anything he could say to shock her.
"Hm… It's a bit more complicated than that." Dyon said thoughtfully. "I want something beyond a Soul Nature.
"The concept of a Soul Nature is too simple. Why does one's Soul Nature have to be an element? Why fire, or lightning, or death? I want to build my Soul Nature upon something greater."
Alauna's gaze burned. "A Concept?"
"Maybe…" Even Dyon seemed to not know the answer to this question. "… A Concept may be heading in the right direction. I feel like the true answer is something even more enigmatic."
"Concepts are already so difficult to grasp. They have no rankings and partitions among them, yet everything seems to know their names subconsciously. What could be more enigmatic?"
"Well, if I knew the answer, maybe I'd already rule over everything." Dyon smiled somewhat cheekily. "But, there's a start here. This is why I brought you, if possible, I'd like you to follow my footsteps.
"It's rare to be able to travel to another world… This is a rare opportunity. We can grasp something here that we can't grasp anywhere else."
Alauna looked around the rune etched room. Would never know that her father had battled here endlessly for an entire year. There wasn't the faintest drop of blood, nor were there residual marks.
Dyon walked to its center. Calming his breath, he sat at the very center. In a moment, it felt as though he had completely disappeared, his breath completely in tune with the ways of this world.
Dyon stayed in this state for hours. Alauna silently watched.
Though she wanted to meet her father's expectations and follow in his footsteps, she truly had no idea where to start. Her cultivation was above her father's, yet her mind didn't seem to be as flexible as his. The concepts and theories he managed to connect were often beyond reason. She couldn't fathom his conclusions sometimes.
This sort of inferiority was something she had been forced to live with for a long time. She knew well that her father purposely didn't hide this from her specifically to toughen her resolve. Alauna's life had been very easy, so Dyon had to provide her another sort of battlefield to sharpen herself upon.
On the third day, the winds of the battle room began to shift.
The atmosphere began to change rapidly.
Sometimes the pressure would drop. At other times, it would be so high that it felt that the sky was falling down upon them.
A streak of blood leaked from Dyon's corner lip, but his face remained expressionless, it was as though he couldn't tell what was happening.
In that moment, a familiar illusory white flame burned around his body. Numerous golden runes whipped around him ridiculous speeds.
Alauna could tell what they were immediately. These were the fundamental runes that created the foundation of arrays. Each was capable of tapping into a fundamental law of the world. Grasping these fundamental laws would theoretically allow one to create an array capable of performing any task.
One could liken them to the base ten number 0 to 9. With those ten variables alone, one could build any number in existence. By manipulating these numbers into variables and formulas, one could extrapolate toward the forces that controlled everything… gravity… electromagnetism… strong force… weak force… the unknown, undefined forces that have yet to be labeled…
However, despite knowing this, Alauna's heart trembled fiercely because these fundamental runes… She had never seen them before!
There was only one possible explanation for this. These runes weren't from her and her father's realm… The truth was that Dyon had used three days to rip these fundamental constants from the jaws of this world's laws!
'… Do you really have no limits?' Alauna thought bitterly.
To understand how shocking this was, one only need to look back toward the analogy drawn to the number 0 to 9. Only one thing needed to be said: these numbers had to be invented.
It's hard to wrap one's head around, but the number '0' didn't always exist. It's concept itself had to be created by the minds of the past. In fact, its creation could be noted as maybe one of the greatest discoveries in all of human history.
This was something too difficult to understand. What was life like without a concept of 0?
As difficult as it was to grasp the answer to something like this, imagine how much more difficult it would be to create a concept of 0 without ever having had one before.
This was exactly what Dyon had just done. Even more shocking, he hadn't just grasped this world's '0', he grasped its 1 to 9 as well!
Alauna thought back to the words her father had said just 3 days ago.
"I want you to see what it means to disdain everything." …
The fundamental runes Dyon wrested away from this world continuously tried to break free, crumbling under his control only to be forcefully solidified once more. Again and again, the process repeated in a violent exchange, riddling Dyon's body with injuries. Yet, he remained completely expressionless.
In their world, there were thousands of fundamental runes. Unfortunately, no one could claim to know the exact number, nor could one claim to have a perfect understanding of each of them.
This was exactly what Dyon realized, a reality that made him look down on the [Dao of Array Alchemy] all the more.
He was tired of relying on the Heavens to sustain his comprehension. He had no doubt that there were some fundamental runes the Heavens purposely hid or made near impossible to sense and comprehend. If one truly grasped them all… Not only grasped, but comprehended to the core… Only then would only truly be above the control of the Heavens.
