Due to its similarity to the Strands of Spirit Energy, my arm unconsciously reached for Fleur's arm. Though she was surprised at my sudden action, she let me pull her opened palm near me.
Upon closer observation, it's not made with Spirit Energy at all. If I have to guess, it contained the properties of a Strand of Spirit Energy while still being composed of Water Elemental Energy.
"Fleur, what can these strings do? And do you also get something like an illusory Twin upon glimpsing at your Transcendent Pathway?"
A Spiritual Twin may or may not prove my guess. In any case, her Transcendent Pathway got me more curious. Will it be the same with me? But I have all the five types of Mortal Pathway. Will I only have one Transcendent Pathway or will each of them have a separate Transcendent Pathway?
Err… It's too early to take a guess.
"Based on your reaction, you seem to be familiar with these strings. Also, I don't recall producing an illusory Twin, only these. Initially, there's only one string but each time I made some progress with awakening my Main Core, it will produce a new string."
Fleur controlled one of the ice-like strings on her palm. It grew longer and floated in the air, swaying freely with it. The surrounding Water Elemental Energy where it passed through was naturally pulled into it, giving it a vibrant glow.
It might look just like a normal string, but given that it's something from a Transcendent Pathway, it couldn't be judged just by its appearance.
The Spiritual Twin is probably unique to the Spirit Pathway in the World of Spirit. I've already guessed before that Mortal Pathways differ amongst different Mortal Worlds regardless of their Source Energy. The Anzeans' Mortal Pathway is probably a bit different from the Meta Pathway but their essence is the same. There are also the other Otherworlds where my other classmates were summoned to. All their Otherworlds' Source Energy will fall upon one of the five types, and from it, the Mortal Pathway suited for the denizens of the World.
In any case, these strings which Fleur produced weren't made from Spirit Energy, but it has the properties of one and she needed to incorporate it into her Main Core along with its awakening.
If I go by this information she provided, is the Transcendent Pathway all about incorporating another Mortal Pathway? Or if by a long shot, is it about incorporating different Source Energy properties?
Ah. Guessing like this won't be enough. I have to get information about more Transcendent Pathway to confirm this, or I could just wait until I started treading my own Transcendent Pathway, which was still unclear when I would reach that.
"Yes. That string is quite familiar to me. I mentioned before that I have five Mortal Pathways, right? It's similar to one realm in the Spirit Pathway. Look at this."
It's better to show it to her than just talking about it.
Like her, I opened my palm and materialized one of my Spirit Pathway Rivers.
Afterwards, I split the River into ten which transformed it back to ten Streams. And lastly, I picked a random Stream and split it again and transformed it into ten Strands.
When I reached that point, Fleur's mouth slightly opened in disbelief as she watched the dancing Strands of Spirit Energy.
After admiring it for a minute, she pulled my open palm this time and copied what I did.
"This string isn't made of Elemental Energy…"
She held one of the Strands in her hand and examined it carefully. After determining that, she put the ice-like string of hers next to it and compared the two.
"Yes. It's a Strand of Spirit Ocean Connection. It's from the Spirit Pathway."
Upon hearing my answer, Fleur promptly closed her eyes while still holding onto the Strand in her hand. As soon as she did that, the Elemental Energy around her started to shake from the Aura that was being emitted by her.
She's trying to understand the underlying properties of it and in turn, apply it to her Transcendent Pathway's ice-like strings.
If she's successful, it will be like gaining enlightenment and she will surely make some progress on her Transcendent Pathway. A much better result than what she could get from grinding by absorbing more energies or training herself.
Just like I thought. Ten minutes after she fell in that state, Fleur opened her flame-red eyes which glowed brightly. Following that is the sudden storm-like surge of Water Elemental Energy. It created a huge commotion that the five who were resting inside the Energy Zone got startled awake. They all stood up and looked over to see the commotion that was happening from one of the Transcendents.
As the dense amount of Water Elemental Energy flooded our position, I took a step back to give the space to Fleur.
The result already showed itself. From that enlightenment of hers, Fleur successfully broke through one small stage in the first realm of her Transcendent Pathway.
When she finished absorbing the ocean of Water Elemental Energy which flooded her position, the ice-like strings on her hand became four and her Transcendent Aura which unconsciously opened grew slightly stronger than before.
The five Grand Magi and Elemental Monarchs were pushed down to their knees from being exposed to it.
"Showing my Transcendent Pathway isn't fruitless at all. I reached another level of understanding about it and broke through. Thank you, Daisuke."
Fleur said while showing a truly captivating smile. At the same time as that, she once again suppressed her Transcendent Aura, releasing the five from being subjected to it.
"No. You earned that. I also got something from seeing your Transcendent Pathway. By the way, do you want to try testing your new strength on me?"
"Yes! If it's not any trouble."
I also wanted to try fighting her again when she's using those ice-like Strings of her. I remembered that when I was still a Natal Spirit, I got the skill Potential Drawing wherein the Spiritual Twin could borrow the main body's stats to strengthen it. 10% per Strands.
If she didn't have the equivalent of a Spiritual Twin, I wonder what those Strings can do.
Increase her base stats? Improve her Spells?
Well, there's one way to try to find that out. Maybe she was already using that before, but because I was not aware of it, I didn't notice it.
After I helped Fleur enter the Virtual Space, I left the five Elemental Fusing Realm elites to train with the clones again. There's no one who would supervise them but since those were my clones, what they experienced were all transmitted to me.
Nevertheless, they're all eager to reach Transcendence so they wouldn't think of slacking off.
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"Now I'm confident that Marina will not stand a chance against you."
"… But even without that Totem of yours, if you use all your skills, I can't hit you at all, even when I used the Strings."
During our sparring this time, I used every skill I have in my arsenal against her who immediately made use of the Strings from her Transcendent Pathway.
And in that way, I got to know the function of her strings. Unlike the Potential Drawing from my Spirit Pathway, those Strings allowed her to multicast. It's like she grew four more hands.
However, those Strings could only mimic what she was currently casting and it would be lower in strength. Even so, that was enough for her to prevent me from approaching.
Well, even when I managed to close the distance between us through the use of transformed Flash Step, she also showed her prowess in closed combat. In the end, without using the Totem, I could say that I wouldn't be able to defeat her.
"Well, that's my real fighting style. If I can't beat you on one strike, I will exhaust you first. I don't really like direct confrontation."
"Next time use the Totem against me. I want to see everything about you."
Err... That sounds a bit dirty, right? Or it's just me trying to make it sound dirty. Knowing this woman, she's not bold like Nysia. And as someone who doesn't have any experience in love or the acts of love, she will never say those with a dirty meaning.
"Alright. I'll bring the capsule when I visit the Elemental's Forest. That way we'll not be slacking off."
"You don't need to. Let's use that time to… understand each other."
With that slight pause, Fleur displayed a hint of bashfulness. Though it instantly disappeared, I guess within this short time, I'm making progress with her.
"You're right. That time will be better spent like tha-- Eh? This Aura… Is it them?"
I stopped halfway with what I'm saying to her because of the appearance of an unfamiliar Transcendent Aura that was detected by my Adaptability.
Woong!
As soon as I noticed that, Arland's Magus Tower glowed and his Light Projection was instantly conjured.
It looked at our direction first before heading off somewhere outside the city. Fleur and I understood that and like him, we took off from our location and followed him.
From the direction where Arland's Light Projection flew over, I saw a group of winged-figures flying to our direction. Behind them was an enormous silhouette of something.
Upon closer inspection and using my Energy Control to extend the reach of my senses, the silhouette behind winged-figures was an island.
A Floating Island.
Its size was even bigger than Arland's city. Also, with the way how the Elemental Energy was being disturbed with its appearance, the Floating Island was being maintained by an enormous Formation.
This is them. The other race who secluded themselves. The Luxians.
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