Chương 64: Spar against Master With the Real Truth Being Told!

Eighteen hours later I awoke. I felt as though I had slept well. I went toward the other room and found Galer still on his task. He had not slept at all. He concentrated like a tunnel-visioned man, targeting only the moving rocks. His face was fully swollen. His body had taken a heavy beating. Yet he currently held a record of one hundred and twenty-one.

He wanted to beat Master's old record of one thousand one hundred and twenty-nine, which Master had achieved in his younger days, which he had to year in start of this task and in his own spiteful way Galer wanted to diminish Masters work. I stood and watched as Galer pronounced the incoming signs in quick succession. The number rose from one hundred twenty-two… one hundred twenty-three… one hundred twenty-four… all the way to one hundred forty-three.

He could not muster another word afterwards and fell from the boulder in pure exhaustion. I caught my fully exhausted friend and rival before he hit the ground.

"Why are you going so overboard with it?" I asked. He looked at me with his swollen face. I could hardly make out the features, yet I still understood his words.

"The truth is I can't let you outdo me… I took this seriously so I can stay ahead on your path!" He closed his eyes. Out of nowhere Master appeared with teleport-like speed, took Galer from my arms, and placed him on his shoulder. He carried him to his room to rest and gifted him the same gi of successful training completion. Master had only wanted one hundred from him—not in a row, just in total and told me Galer in total has eight hundred-thirty-eight. As he carried Galer farther away, he mumbled to himself.

"This boy is also an interesting student. Not wanting to stay behind, both are so different from him." Sadness colored his voice again. Then he disappeared from my sight.. Not knowing what else to do, I went down the mountain and looked at the Rift Lake with my newly found Animo. I decided to catch one Stereolepis Voracis. I dove into the deep dark, holding my breath and keeping myself steady while concentrating on the swimming sounds in the darkness. One of the Voracis' fins flapped aggressively.

I felt it in the deep water. It wanted to drive me out of its territory as my presence here was like another predator trying to take over their territory. Since i swam towards it with the mind to fight... so we fought for supremacy I punched at its face. It dodged and tried to go for my feet. I rolled before the impact, already showing how much I had progressed and i felt we both were equal to each other, since this Voracis was also a big one it made me feel proud.

The massive fish twisted like living steel, its powerful body slamming into me with the force of a tidal wave. Its jaws snapped inches from my shoulder, razor teeth glinting in the faint light that reached the depths. I countered with a heavy elbow strike to its gills, forcing it to thrash wildly. Currents whipped around us as we battled in the silent abyss, as the other Voracis only watched this fight respecting us both. It was a worthy adversary to measure oneself against. Eventually I caught its underbelly.

With my Heart Flame now in its completed form finally had become a true Vestuto, I simply had not yet fully grasped that it was a fully developed form, as the beast got my torso before it could put its teeth deeper into my skin I threw the beast upward out of the Rift Lake and onto the dry surface using the Heart Flame. I then took the fish to the village. For the first time I interacted with the villagers.

I greeted them with a good day, and the curious faces, young and old, looked thankful for the catch and looking at the beautiful "Gi" i wore. They quickly grabbed the still-wiggling fish that flailed right before my eyes. An older woman prepared a salt brine to clean its body of bacteria and begin fermentation. A man took another fish out from the salted fermentation. Its smell was phenomenal. They cooked pieces of it in a small pot and offered me a share after it was ready.

It felt good to eat something powerful in taste. Children played around us. As time moved towards Evening as settled in, i had come to understand that these villagers are all powerful from children to the elder that explains how they can live in this wild Island. Master air-walked down and picked me up forcibly while I still wanted to chat with the villagers a little longer. He said Galer had woken up, so we returned once more to the underground training facility.

When we arrived, Master saw that Galer had already put on the new gi and was waiting in the training hall. He set me down on the marble plates, then turned toward both of us with an eager face. But this time he wanted our promised fight. Both of us were shocked. We were not prepared. We had expected a new training program, yet no... he clearly told us he wanted to fight. He ordered us to begin.

"Deom byeo ra!" — meaning attack me! We charged together. I threw a straight right fist aimed at his jaw. Master tilted his head just enough for my punch to graze his cheek. At the same moment Galer swept low, trying to take his legs. Hwan Songge simply hopped over the sweep and flicked two fingers against my shoulder. The force sent me spinning sideways. I crashed into the wall but recovered quickly and came back with a barrage of hooks and uppercuts.

Every single one met empty air or was deflected by the smallest movement of his wrist. Galer attacked from the side with rapid palm strikes. Master blocked them all while casually lecturing us.

"Too wide. Too slow. Your shoulders scream your next move." I tried mixing feints with real strikes. Master laughed softly and tapped my forehead with his knuckle every time I overcommitted.. The fight dragged on through fifty-one brutal exchanges. Each time we attacked together, each time we were calmly dismantled. My knuckles were raw. My ribs ached from the precise counters he landed.

Galer's breathing grew ragged as he got the words the madman punched Galer eyepatch every time he could to show him even, if you ignore your weakness others will still abuse it.. Finally we both collapsed onto our knees, unable to continue. Disappointed on how little we could entertain him, Master ordered us to use our Vestuto.

"I won't use mine. Show me what you have learned." I transformed my whole body simultaneously with the Heart Flame and something that had never happened before. Even my eyes changed. Only my brain remained untouched. A deep red mixture of deep yellow and bright red heated my veins. The red-orange light within them brightened into a new fused yellow-orange color, blending into a completely new form. Its name came to me at once. Cor Flamma. My arms and eyes filled with inner fire.

My skin hardened as the transformation completed. I felt my Animo almost triple… with no drawbacks left, no overload to fear. No forced thought was required. The power simply flowed passively through my veins, pumping evenly. At the same time my body rejuvenated. The lingering soreness I still carried from the fight against the Voracis and Master melted away completely. I felt this new power's might surrounding my inner body with a strong Spirit-level presence. It shocked me. Is this truly me?

I harbored that thought. Master Hwan Songge smiled for real for the first time in this battle. Galer entered his Vestuto the Prism Sovereign. It remained a majestic, crystalline light-based form that turned him into a living prism, yet now the color had become pure opaque white. That was new. The armor still consisted of shifting crystalline plates, but they were no longer translucent.

They held an elegant yet deadly appearance: sharp geometric lines, flowing crystalline edges, and a regal silhouette that made him look like a true sovereign of light. The armor was primarily white-silver with iridescent edges that stopped light at any angle.

When fully activated it created a constant light-absorption field around him, drawing light into his body and making him stronger and more durable the more he absorbed while he could battle and he felt like one day he could move these prisms individually, but not yet. The Master was impressed by Galer's growth.

'His noble blood really comes to wake his ever-growing Animo,' he thought. He powered up just a tiny bit of an amount without screaming or any visible effort, as if we were still telling us we were meager trash before him. We attacked with everything we had with anew purpose of power. I exploded forward with blazing speed, my flaming fists leaving trails of fire. I unleashed a storm of punches aimed at his chest and wanting the master right cheek in the end of the barrage.

Master moved like flowing wind; each of my strikes missed by mere centimeters again. Galer appeared behind him in a burst of light and fired concentrated light beams from his 2 out of 6 prism wings. Master spun and slapped the wings aside with the back of his hand. I followed with a flaming knee strike. He caught my knee mid-air, twisted, and sent me flying into Galer. We crashed together but immediately rose again. We coordinated better this time.

I drew his attention with heavy flaming strikes while Galer rained light beams from every angle. Master blocked, parried, and redirected everything with minimal movement. His counters remained surgical. A palm to my solar plexus made me cough blood even through the Vestuto. A light tap to Galer's shoulder sent him spinning around in 720 degrees. We again tried to kept pushing on him. One hundred and three exchanges.

Flaming fists, newly opaque crystalline claws, light absorption increased defense, my raw power, but nothing landed cleanly. Every time we thought we had him, he was already somewhere else, wearing that calm, terrifying smile. Finally both of us lay on the ground, huffing for air. We had been beaten so thoroughly that our lungs could not catch a proper breath. Our bodies were bruised and exhausted despite the new power.

With his wide wisdom, Master released a single spark of his own Animo, the "Gyehanpa" technique of the Hwando school, that electrified our backs with a relaxing force, turning us from heavy lumps of meat back into normal humans. Before he could return to his position I spoke.

"Master… no, Hwan Songge… please tell us the truth. Why did you kidnap us? It can't be just for a real battle…this just proved to you we will not be your equal anytime soon..." Master remained silent. I continued.

"We both understood. Since day one we will never truly measure against you. It would take ten or twenty years just for us to approach your base level… if that is even possible." Master finally answered with the revelation.

"You are right, students. The day I kidnapped you," he looked directly at me, "I had come to Dodasch searching for my last family member my young and sweet granddaughter who wishes to walk the arduous path of inheriting my Paladin's legacy, the one I worked so hard to build. On my way back, this old lonely man saw the chaos unfolding in Jeruem… the active Nazarai. Looking with my Animo eyes I spotted, in shock, a man appearing out of nowhere... the Mold Breaker. You, Erumes Flamma.

The boy who possesses two attributes, which i already told you, but in truth there is more to it. I had been lonely on the path of training on Sasaldo Island. When those thoughts of taking you first entered my mind, I realized I needed… no. I wanted you. I wanted you to fill the void in my own mind. Do you know when the last time was that I truly felt happy seeing such eager improvement inside these very halls? It had been many years.

Many years without the heavy Hwan Songge family pressure that broke so many before you. As you both saw, our training regimen is very unorthodox and can break souls as body. And I knew you alone would never cooperate with me. You could break… like him." His voice turned sad on those last two words.

"I had learned that the hard way before, with an important person. So I took Galer as well. Both of you endured my harsh yet fruitful training, and it improved you. You continued to give it everything while I was here. I know you both hold back on Fridays… but that is okay. Today I will treat you to a feast. We will do only light training until I prepare the next phase for you, which begins next week."