25 We Meet Again (1/2)

Once Arnin entered the door on the left, what met him was a spiraling staircase that led downstairs. He walked down with Vilis, occasionally finding doors to other rooms, however, there were very few of those. The walk down the stairs took Arnin quite a large amount of time. When he finally reached the floor, he noticed a brown door. It was round from the top while the edges were carved sharply. There were no bars or glass on the door; it was fully made from heavy wood. Arnin nodded slightly before slowly opening the door.

*CREAK*

A creaking sound resounded from the door. Arnin understood that the door was used very rarely and was probably extremely old. since it was an old door, it was bound to make some noises.

When he entered the room, the first thing he ran into was a spider web. It was covering the whole door entry, giving off the feeling of ancientness and passing of time. Arnin smiled slightly and walked in. After Vilis also entered, he shut the door behind him.

A dim candle, which sat on a dusty table, barely lit a small portion of the room. There were no windows because the room was underground. Although the light was able to infiltrate most of the darkness, there were still some spots that were untouched.

”What a nice room. It is underground and away from almost everyone. If I just add some barriers and other protection symbols, then I can do almost anything I want in this place.” Arnin was extremely happy with the room. He was glad that he could get privacy from others. Plus, the room was now his for the keeping. He inspecting every nook and cranny in the room. The bed was wobbly and made noises, but it wasn't anything that he couldn't handle. The room was very large. A table sat in the middle, while a bookshelf was hidden in the corner. The large bed was on the other side of the room, plus the walls did not have any extra accessories. It was a bare room, but Arnin saw lots of potential in it.

”Vilis, let's first clean this place up before we begin settling down. I need a clean space to begin my cultivation.” Vilis nodded his head before he began to use his tail to sweep the floor. Arnin, on the other hand, found a broom beside the door, so he used that to clean. An hour passed by; the room was not completely clean, but there was no visible dirt or webs. It was enough for Arnin to begin cultivation.

”I will have someone come and clean this room before I head to the academy tomorrow. Let's first begin by testing out some of the marks.” Arnin sat down on the chair and faced the table. Vilis jumped onto the bed and began his nap, not concerning himself with what Arnin was going to do.

Arnin went through his memories and tried to remember the marks he saw in Xillar's book. Since he was barely able to draw the first mark, he wanted to practice more and get a better handle on them. He was luckily able to recall five of the marks from the book. Since he was working on the first mark, he didn't try to remember the other marks, but he skimmed through them once, so he memorized a few.

Arnin decided to draw the first mark once more. He had a better idea as to how he should proceed, plus he wanted to test out a theory that he had. From what he knew, the solar essence was necessary for creating marks, but when he was drawing his first mark, he found that the white saber had properties similar to the solar essence. Not only that, but the white saber was even stronger the solar essence. He also remembered that he felt a darker energy while he was gathering solar essence. He assumed that the dark energy was related to the essences that fell under death. If the sun released life and flame components, then he should be able to find darker components underground and away from the sun.

Arnin went in his body and searched for the white saber. The white saber was next to the cube that sealed his power, shining with bright white flames. Arnin tried to control the saber and this time he didn't feel any resistance. The saber allowed Arnin to use its power, which Arnin found to be a great thing. Same as last time, Arnin had the blade go into his hand and then duplicate into smaller blades. Five of them headed towards the fingers while one of them came out of his palm. The transformation this time was extremely quick, however, Arnin found that his control over the blades had decreased. He knew that the reason behind this was because of the blade regaining its previous splendor.

He decided that he would try and increase his control over the blades as he practiced mark making. Arnin began by collecting a large amount of essence. Just the same as last time, different colors shrouded the white blades. Arnin scoped through the different colors and, after a few minutes, found the death related components. It was a grey colored essence. The grey was much more abundant underground than on the surface.

Arnin pulled the rest of the essence towards the blade on his palm, while the grey essence stayed on blades that came out of his fingers. He wasn't sure what the essence was exactly, it gave the feeling of death, but there was still something more to it. Arnin absorbed some of the grey essences into his own body and had his threads break them down into usable energy. He knew that the orb was capable of transforming the essence into something the body was able to use. Arnin theorized that if he absorbed the essence, then it would be able to split into different energy types. From that, he would be able to discover what the grey essence was truly made of.

The process of absorbing the essence took a long time because the orb was breaking the essence down into specific components. It was a much more tedious task then just absorbing the essence and transforming it all into a general body essence. The latter method only allowed the essence to become usable, however, there was no variety.

Ten minutes passed before the first batch of essence was finally separated into individual components. To Arnin's surprise, he found that there was life essence inside the new batch. He also found an essence that exuded a strong death-like feeling, which made him conclude that the energy was that of death. There was one more component left inside. The last one didn't have a color. It was visible, but Arnin was unable to determine the color of the component. Arnin tried to sense the type of energy that it was, but all he could sense was an old ancient type of energy. It had the feeling of oldness, yet also something new. It didn't feel like it belonged in the present, but it still exuded a presence of something from the present. It was a very confusing type of energy that Arnin was unable to figure out. He first thought that it was related to space, but he knew the feeling of space energy. He had mastered space in his previous life, the only thing that he wasn't able to comprehend was...time!

Time was the most mysterious power in the universe. Although he touched upon it, he was unable to master it. The heaven lord exceeded him in the area of time because the heaven lord was the ruler of heaven, however, even that person was unable to fully comprehend time. It was a type of power that was always there but also always dispersing. There were many species in the universe that could efficiently control time power, but none got as far as him and the heaven lord.

”Is this truly time essence? If it is, then this energy that provides power to Afloria is much more mysterious and powerful then I first thought. It might even be stronger and older than the power I used in my past life!” Arnin couldn't disguise his shock. His previous power was considered as old as the heavens themselves. He always thought that there was no power stronger than his own, this stayed true... until now. The mysterious energy supporting Afloria was much older than his own.

”Hahaha! Time power! If I master this, then I can finally enter that place!” Arnin laughed hysterically. His eyes turned a bright red, as his tattoos began to glimmer. A faint halo of his demon appeared behind him.

”ROOAAR! AWOOOO!” Vilis stood on the bed and howled. There was an intense excitement in his eyes. Nothing but happiness could be seen from Vilis. He got off the bed and walked towards Arnin. He rubbed his head on Arnin's arms before lying down beside him.

Arnin was filled with so much joy that he almost released his own powers. He quickly calmed himself down before smiling widely.

*Knock Knock*

”Who's there?” Arnin was annoyed that he was disturbed at such an important time. He walked from his seat towards the door. He opened the door and saw the woman from the front desk.

”I heard some noises and was wondering if everything is alright?” Fae put on a facade of worry, which greatly irritated Arnin.

”Nothing is wrong here. You can leave.” Arnin waved his hand and turned around to shut the door, however it was quickly grabbed by Fae. ”What are you doing?” Arnin looked at Fae with impatience.

”Arnin, right? Why does it feel like you have some hate for me? I don't think we have met before, or am I wrong?” Fae innocently looked at Arnin, her eyelids fluttering. Arnin scoffed before putting on a face of irritation.

”I have never met you before and I am happy about that. You feel the hate from me? Well, you must have felt wrong. You are not even worth that much affection. Leave, now!” Arnin angrily looked at Fae. He was finally touching on the concept of time, and the person who gave him so much irritation had to show up. He was extremely pissed.

”Now, is that really how a five-year-old should speak to their elders? I could be your mother's age.” Fae patiently spoke with Arnin, her fake smile still planted on her face.

”You could be my great-grandpa's age and I would still say the same thing.”Arnin mocked Fae without hesitation. She, on the other hand, was shocked, she still continued to smile.

”You are interesting, kid. I like that style of yours, however, don't you think that you will make fewer friends and more enemies with that kind of attitude?” Fae asked with a 'concerned' face.

”I don't care if people come knocking on my door. If they want a fight then they should prepare their own graves beforehand. Same goes for you, miss Fae. You should leave now before your coffin is the first to be lifted.” Arnin smirked evilly at Fae before slamming the door shut in her face.

”This child is truly special one. Hehe!” Fae smiled before walking up the steps slowly.