"Master! I can call on the Door now!"
Like a kid reporting to his parents, Boris gleefully ran over where Fleur appeared. She had just decided to show herself at this moment even if she was already watching us earlier.
She first looked at Boris and praised him before turning to me. Her eyes contained her unconcealed gratitude.
Giving him that slot pushed him towards the threshold and in turn, I delivered what I told them during our first meeting.
Making more allied Transcendents for the World's defense against the invading forces.
Fleur knew that Boris is someone from the same world as me. Like Hikari to Arland, she picked him up to become her disciple when she found out how special of an existence he is. She was hoping to raise another Transcendent like her after the loss of two Elemental Supremes. Because of that, she guided him until he reached the point of becoming an Elemental Monarch.
"Go ahead and call on it, Boris. It will happen in three days so prepare yourself."
"Yes, master!"
After getting permission from his master, Boris ran off and activated the supposed skill to call upon the Door of Transcendence. Like what I did back then, Boris raised his hand before activating the skill.
As soon as he did that, a strong surge of Elemental Energy swirled around his position which gathered everyone's attention. Soon after that, all of his Elemental Energy gathered on top of his palm and was unleashed towards the blue sky.
When it reached a point in the sky, the Elemental Energy scattered and created the phenomenon of conjuring an illusory Door of Transcendence.
When the other trainee on the field saw that phenomenon, they all stopped at what they were doing and watched in awe with a smile hanging on their lips. That marked another rise of a Transcendent. Even though there's a chance to fail the Transcendent Trials, having that chance is already enough.
"What do you think? You saw the whole process."
Fleur drew near and stood next to me as we watched Boris call upon the Door of Transcendence. Her eyes were shining with a glimmer of hope as she released a long sigh of relief.
Only after that did she reply to me, still in glee.
"Un. Impressive. That sudden burst of his strength… It's not becoming your companion, am I correct?"
Ugh… That is quite scary. Why will I make him my companion?
"Of course not. It's part of my ability. I can put them to my support list. There are only limited slots which depended on my current realm so… I only add those who came from the same world. But my Companions also received the same boosts and it probably doesn't have a limitation."
"I see. No limitation but why do you only have seven Companions?"
Err… This question. She's most likely thinking why I only have seven when I can add anyone to be my companion. But that's not really how it works.
Even before the destiny thing, it's all about my attraction to them. This time, I know that I'm attracted to Fleur. The difference this time is I'm the one who admitted to it first.
"It's because they're the only ones who I feel a certain connection to."
Simply put. I'm attracted to them and vice versa. I may be in denial at first especially with Erin and Jayna but yeah. I just need to learn to accept it. Just like now where I instantly acknowledged that I like this woman. Well about the four in the World of Meta, my mind was closed due to sticking to waiting for that destiny to do something, maybe if I see them once again, I'll be able to determine that.
"Uhm… I see, I understand. About becoming your companion… I think that even if I accept your offer, I'm not qualified to be one yet."
"Why do you think so?"
"Based on what you told me, that certain connection you're talking about. It's love, am I correct?"
"Most likely, yes."
I love those girls. There's no doubt about that now. That's our connection.
"I never had any experience in that regard, Daisuke. I can admit I am also interested in you but that's also why I feel like it doesn't qualify me to become one of your Companions. That being the case, for the time being, I want to know more about you."
"I see. It seems as if what I told you yesterday is forcing you to make a choice. I'm sorry. Treat it as me confessing to you so you don't need to choose. Let's go along with what you think. Likewise, I also want to know more about you, Fleur."
It might be a part of appealing to her, showing the benefits of being with me. But becoming stronger is the most important for her right now. If I push it like that then it's really forcing her to choose to take up my offer. That beats the meaning of becoming my Companion.
"I'm glad. In that case, can I invite you to visit our Forest?"
"Sure. I'd love to go."
Upon hearing my answer, Fleur smiled politely and reached out to my hand. As if naturally, it ended up with us interlocking it. That experience last night must've grown on her where I kept on reaching for her hand.
Even without the need for our hand to touch now, holding each other like this made it feel like we now have that certain connection.
Well, I can only hope that we really reached that point. With the upcoming meeting with the holder of the 5th Orb, she'll see the destiny thing in play. As to what effect that will bring to our relationship, I can only guess.
-
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As the training for the elites continued, Arland only showed himself in the morning to check on the progress of Hikari and the three Magi he brought. Throughout the day since we brought back the artifact, he spent all his time on using it to strengthen the Formation that was centered on his Magus Tower.
The scene of Boris calling upon the Door of Transcendence became an energizer for them and made everyone more eager to breakthrough that they asked me to up the difficulty of their training.
Around noon. At a certain spot inside the Energy Zone where Hikari was sitting, an alarming surge of Elemental Energy was emitted by her. Along with that, the dense amount of energy inside the Energy Zone swirled along with her as it continued to be absorbed inside her body.
After 2 days of training, Hikari's Elemental Pathway has finally reached the point of breaking through to the Elemental Forming Realm. That amount of energy she was absorbing was what she needed to completely form her first Secondary Core.
When the other elites saw her, they all exclaimed as they only realized that Hikari is someone that is two realms behind them. As crazy as that may be, they'll probably have a heart attack if they also realized that the Transcendent training them was even below her.
In any case, it's already enough for only Arland and Fleur to know that. I only revealed it for them to fully trust me.
Ignoring the gazes of everyone else, Hikari's Main Elemental Core materialized on top of her head. It's a golden brilliant sphere of light. After it materialized, an empty vessel formed next to it.
That will be the vessel of her Secondary Core.
Hikari then stood up as the swirling energy around her ceased to move. At that point, both of her hands moved as she started to control the Energy around her. Soon afterwards, a specific variation of the Elemental Energy, the Fire Element, started to be extracted from it which moved to fill the empty vessel.
At the same time as that was happening, Hikari became covered with a fire-like aura which enhanced her energy control and sped up the extraction of the Fire Element.
As soon as the empty vessel was filled up with Fire Elemental Energy, Hikari sat down once again and continued to absorb more Fire Element which made it as if she's burning.
When her Main Core and the Secondary Core hanging above her head dematerialized, that marked her successful breakthrough and the following absorption was for consolidating her new Secondary Core.
A few minutes after that breakthrough, Hikari once again created a commotion. And this time, it's more than the first one.
Well, I already predicted that it will happen. That's the only thing left for her to reach Transcendence.
Like Boris, she stood up and gathered all of her energy on her palm before shooting it up in the sky to call upon the Door of Transcendence.
When the illusory Door of Transcendence appeared once again in the sky, a loud cheering coming from the rest of the city exploded. Two new Transcendents are more than just good news and it will probably increase enthusiasm for every resident. Regaining hope like this, their morale will be raised once again.
Also having the two of them reach that threshold back to back gathered more crazed response with the remaining five.
Armel and Isabel wanted to challenge two clones at once to push their training further.
Elmer and the siblings, Almira and Mara requested for my real body to train them. They wanted a more difficult training by challenging me, a Transcendent.
Since I'm just spending some quality time with Fleur while waiting for the Luxians and watching them train. I granted their request.
The 𝘮ost uptodat𝑒 novels are pub𝙡ished on fre(e)webno(v)el.𝒸𝑜𝘮