430 Aptitude Exams 1.4 (1/2)
”Seal All Force!”
”Seal All Living Beings!”
”Seal All Elements!”
”Seal All Earth!”
”Seal All Skies!”
Three months passed within the hall of the second exam. Raven stood at its center with five golden seals flashing on his fingertips.
As the seals flashed and the world seemingly turned still. Constant droning sounds emanated out of Raven's body due to the mysterious power of the seals on his fingers yet instead of feeling satisfaction, doubt filled Raven's face.
He didn't notice this at first when he mastered the first three seals but as he learned and practiced the fourth and fifth seal, great doubt appeared on his heart.
'There's no mistaking this. This Ancient Art is strong and all but I can't help but to feel that I'm missing something here…' Raven thought inwardly.
'Sealing…exercising one's will onto something, forcefully determining its activity. This concept is cool and all but in reality, all this seals do is to restrict a certain element's movement. It's nothing too special at all.'
'If we're talking about restricting something, then I absolutely have no need for this art. My Spacetime Laws could do much more than this art. Not only could I restrict, I could decide where they will appear, when they will appear and much more compared to this seals…'
Instead of calling it sealing, it's more accurate to say that this technique just restricts something. The seals could restrict the movement of Force, Living Beings, Elements, Earth, Skies, Life, Death, and Laws. And should one attain mastery of every single seal, then they could fuse it together and form them into the Allheaven Seal which could restrict everything and anything.
At least that's what the bamboo slip contained…
”This isn't seals at all, this is more like restrictions. Well, I guess they could pass as restriction seals. But this technique is too rigid.” Raven grumbled as he pursed his lips in disappointment.
What he didn't expect was…
”Junior, are you doubting the work of our kin?”
The ancient voice's sudden remark stunned Raven into speechlessness. It was completely out of his expectations that the owner of that voice was actually observing him all this time. Raven managed to get out of his stupor, he couldn't help but ask…
”Are this hall's Treasure Spirit?”
”Answer my question.” The voice demanded using a cold voice.
Raven was silent, many thought's flashed on his mind for a few seconds.
'Unless…' A barely visible glint appeared on Raven's eyes as he slowly drew into a conclusion. He took a deep breath and said:
The hall trembled fiercely. A malicious and chilling aura suddenly descended and filled every single corner of the hall. Raven's hairs stood on their ends, yet he wasn't frightened by this at all. This reaction from him was more of an involuntary response from his body due to it being surprised by the sudden changes on his surroundings.
The honest expression on his face remained, he could a heavy weight pressing him down but honestly, Raven wasn't impressed. But he didn't dare to show any kind of changes on his current expression.
”Explain.” The voice sounded once again, though its tone was colder and sounded apathetic this time around. Still Raven wasn't impressed at all, instead he calmly explained his reasons.
”From what I can understand, Seals share the same origins as Inscriptions. While I'm not aware which came first, I am pretty convinced by this line of thinking.”
”Inscriptions are created through various means, and with how things progressed since the ancient times, the Path of Inscriptions has come a long way from its infancy. There's so much more about Inscriptions that I'm afraid that one lifetime isn't enough to reveal all of its mysteries.”
”A simple arrangement of Inscriptions could form Arrays. From sets of Arrays, a Formation will be born. Whether be it Arrays or Formations, none of these two are limited to just restricting someone's movement. Certain Arrays or Formations could be used offensively or defensively. It could hide, isolate, separate, transport and so much more.”
”With this in mind, and with how I supported the idea that Seals and Inscriptions share the same origins, I refuse to believe that Seal could do worse compared to Inscriptions. If simple inscriptions could achieve so many things, then it would make sense for Seals to be able to do the same.”