It was cold. The peak of Mt. Izahan was covered with recurring gusts of wind and snow.
“Thudd!!”
A giant creature with a face of white ape fell to the ground. In front of it was standing a man as tall as the ape. He had a muscular body but the beard in his face had turned completely white.
With empathy in his eyes and palms pressed together, the man uttered, “May your next life be better and more joyful than this one!”
“Master, why are you praying for the monster?” asked a young child who was standing beside him.
“Monster isn’t the right word, Savai. Though it is human nature to call anything that shows indiscriminate violence a monster, these creatures are just prisoners of their fate.
You’ll understand when you get older.”
“Why are there a lot of them showing up these days, where do they come from, master?”
“Oh so now you’re showing curiosity. Where is this curious mind when I’m teaching you about martial arts?”
“Ack!”
The old man sighed and said, “It is a rare phenomenon. To begin with, spirits can’t even cross over to the human realm by themselves, or at least that’s what people believe.
In all my years as a spirit-master, this is the second time I have witnessed such a large number of spirits showing up in the human realm. It must be because of the unique nature of Mt. Izahan.
At least this time the spirits are low level so won’t cause much destruction.”
“Are there stronger spirits out there, master?”
“There used to be.
Spirits showing up in our world is unnatural, so you won’t encounter anything like this again, especially not a high level spirit.
There are a handful of people who are strong enough to summon them, but I hope you never get to see that.”
“Is that so?”
“That reminds me, I have something for you. Give me your wrist, Savai.”
Savai moved his right hand forward and asked, “What is this master?”
“It is the essence of my life’s work. If a time ever comes where you have to face high level spirit, this will help you greatly.
It works the same as the Divine Objects. You remember how those are activated right?”
“Uh! I forgot.”
“Haha! It’s simple, pour some of your aura in, and then say the words…”
- Present -
“Divine Define: Seeral!
Xi!”
In the seventh second, as the spirit was about to launch the destructive aura beam, the black thread latched on to the right horn and wrapped around it in the middle. One end of the thread extended to the spirits’s right side and thrusted into the ground violently.
As it happened, the neck of the spirit was snapped instantly to the right side. The impact caused the beam to shoot to its left side towards the sky.
Savai dashed away from the direction of the beam. The spirit grabbed the extended thread with its hands and tried to break it while the beam pierced through and destroyed everything in its path. It freed itself but Savai was nowhere to be found.
The spirit stood motionless for a fraction of second and then dashed to the right.
Great! The easy part is done. Now to the hard part…
- Flashback -
“Exorcism!”
“So, you know about that too.”
“Yes, master. The only way to defeat the spirit is to exorcise it.”
“True, but it is not going to be easy. To begin with I would need a part of its body, not to mention the sac…”
There is no way he knows about the sacrifices, right?
“About that, I strongly recommend that you sacrifice your…”
- Present -
Fire! Why would he say something like that? Ice just makes more sense. Never mind that, he knew about the threefold sacrifice and still asked me to exorcise the spirit.
“Hahaha! Truly magnificent!”
“Burrr!”
“Ah! Forgot I was getting chased by a deadly spirit!” thought Savai as he ducked the aura beam and changed direction.
The spirit was able to sense his presence but Savai was not emitting any aura so the attack accuracy was slightly off.
The spirit suddenly stopped and tore its bead bracelet which was held in place by aura instead of a thread. It caught the beads as they dropped and with six of its hands, threw them one by one, towards Savai.
The beads made a zap sound by breaking air at such speed. First two missed, hitting and annihilating the trees before plunging into the ground. The third one was aimed perfectly towards Savai.
No time to dodge!
“Azure - Cross!” said Savai as he crossed all the fingers of his right hand through the left.
A fiery cross, shaped like two half-moons intersecting in the middle, surrounded his body and cut the bead into four pieces.
He dashed forward but three more followed as the spirit side flipped and threw again.
“Azure - Cro…”
The spirit slowly brought its hands together.
“Clap!”
Before Savai could counter the beads, he was hit with three giant hands.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
All three hands pressed him one by one. The spirit moved its hands back and all five beads flew back directly to its palms at equal speed as the throw.
As the spirit caught these beads, a wave of vibration swept through the ground. At the location of Savai something erupted. It looked like a fire on the tip of a candle where bright transparent aura at the bottom and red on top was flowing smoothly.
“Azure Divinity: Burning Star!”
The aura was flowing straight towards the sky and no end could be seen from the location of the spirit.
“I didn’t want to use it this early in the battle but what the hell, if I’m saying goodbye then I’ll go all out for the last time!”
Savai ran and the endless aura followed him like flames.
The spirit, with pin-point accuracy, threw the bead with full strength. The bead went straight towards Savai and just as it hit the aura surrounding him. It slowly melted and lost its speed before hitting him.
While running, he moved his arms forward, pointing straight towards the spirit. There was 200 meters of distance between them.
He placed his right palm on top of his left. With straight arms, he slowly moved the fingers inward at the same time, closing both his palms, making fist on top of fist.
Bright red and orange flames erupted from the ground below and slightly above the spirit’s head covering it from all sides in spiraling flames from both ends that met in the middle forming an hourglass like shape.
The spirit squealed. It opened its arms wide through the fire revealing the burning flesh that was regenerating on its own. It lowered its body slightly down and dashed towards Savai.
“No damage! Tck!”
The spirit caught up, it moved its arms back and aura started to concentrate in its right fists followed by the screeching sound. All the aura and outside energy compressed inside the fists.
“Nen!” said Savai just before the spirit moved its fists forward.
Three ends of the black thread extended outwards and wrapped around trees in the distance. The thread stretched a bit as the spirit punched Savai and contracted.
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“Thud!”
The punch landed, sending him flying back.
“Tck! I managed to avoid full impact but it still had so much force.”
Mid air, Savai moved his arms forward, left hand formed into fist and right on top with two fingers aimed at the spirit and two folded towards the palm.
Fiery aura moved rapidly from his elbow to the fingers, at the tip it changed from bright orange to red and then transparent with slight red shade.
The spirit moved forward with its full strength, pulling the trees from its roots, it grabbed and tore one of the thread ends, all three retracted to original shape wrapping around the horn. The spirit dashed, threw three beads towards Savai and jumped in his direction.
A beam shot from his finger tips. It looked similar to spirit’s beam but with much lower radius and aura compressed to the point of max destructive output.
Mid-air, the beam hit the bead, cutting through it. He moved his hand to the direction of the other two beads and the beam sliced them in half.
The spirit appeared from below as the beam cut through its face to its abdomen. It left a glowing scar but the cut was too shallow.
For a split second the spirit was above Savai, in the air, ready to hit him with another explosive punch.
“Thudd!”
He crossed his arms but the punch knocked him to the ground. Smashing into trees he landed and regained his footing. He dashed away at full speed.
“Tck! That damaged my bones. I can’t heal it while the Burning Star is active.
This is getting tedious!”
While my aura techniques are able to somewhat damage its body, I’m fighting a losing battle in the long term. I’ll run out of aura to fuel Burning Star.
Master’s divine thread is placed on the right spot. I just need to endure till the limit is reached.
While running, he heard a familiar sound from the left. As he turned his neck, he saw the bright yellow aura coming towards him and ducked in the blink of an eye.
He jumped up and mid air, he moved his right hand palm to be placed on top of left hand fist.
Bright orange aura launched from his palm with the shape and size of the beam from the spirit.
The beams collided. As Savai moved, the yellow beam followed him precisely. He kept the hands in the same position while running.
The orange beam pushed the yellow beam back a bit but after a few seconds, it was overpowered. Savai managed to dodge the beam and dashed.
The spirit tore another bracelet and threw two more beads. It dashed towards Savai.
He raised his left hand and straightened his palm horizontally towards the first bead. A moon shaped fire appeared at his face level and cut the bead. He rotated the palm upward, the fire rotated, now down-to-up position, cut the other bead.
The spirit moved its arms behind, opening its chest. The circle lit up and the pressure of force pulled everything towards it.
Savai jumped to avoid it, but was pulled in. As his body flipped back, he put aura towards his legs.
With some support against the pulling force, he raised his left arm. With fingers opened wide and palm facing the spirit he moved the right arm straight. Made a fist and pulled the arm back.
A beam of fire launched from a circle like ring of fire that appeared in front of his left palm.
The pulling force accelerated the speed. In a fraction of second after launch, the fiery beam pierced spirit’s chest, carving a hole right through it.
Without any reaction to such damage, the spirit moved its body a little, broke another bracelet. It grabbed the beads.
As it moved the arm back, aura poured in its hand and a screeching sound followed.
Savai moved his arms, creating a cross with one arm straight and another sideways. Two moon shaped half circles of fire appeared in front of him. One going foot to head, another from his left side to right.
It threw three beads one after another with just a second of difference. The first bead hit the fire but instead of getting cut, it went through, hitting Savai on the tip of his upper left shoulder.
“Tck!”
Savai immediately yanked his arms back and suddenly formed the cross again. The half circles became full circles. Rings of fire moving at high speed covered both the front and rear of Savai.
Both beads hit the fire but were knocked back because of the speed of fiery rings.
“Its attacks are evolving! Then I’ll have to end it here.”
A third ring appeared, covering his foot to head, moving in the direction of his left shoulder to right.
“Bring it on, Majestic creature! I’ll counter everything you throw at me!”
It threw three more beads then clapped its hands.
The fiery rings sped up causing them to turn almost as a sphere coving Savai.
The iron hands appeared, but got completely annihilated by the fiery rings. The beads hit the rings and with the impact, were launched back or upwards.
The spirit moved its arms back and launched the beam. It hit the rings piercing through, but before it could hit Savai, he jumped back.
Divine Objects!
There are only a handful of these unique weapons that exist in the world.
And the one my master gave me — Seeral: Exorcism Thread, is designed for defeating spirits like Nora!
It has only one aim and three functions.
Xi, with the contracting and hardening properties.
Nen, with elastic property.
And the third and most powerful function…
“Divine Define: Tan!” said Savai as he was mid air.
The thread on the spirit's horn extended and unraveled, launching several ends.
Few of the ends extended and wrapped around spirit's body covering it head to toe. Its mouth was sealed shut, stopping the beam.
Its arms immobilised and effort to overpower the thread caused the thread to cut its skin, restricting the movement even further
Several of the ends launched away from the spirit, wrapping around trees and thrusting into the ground.
Savai landed on the ground, he opened his arms wide.
“While it won’t do much damage to you, this is the most powerful attack I have in my arsenal.
Since this is my last time to ever use it, I hope you enjoy it to the fullest!”
Savai moved his hand to the front.
“Clap!”
He slowly moved his hand away from each other revealing flames that looked like a bunch of elastic threads wrapped together. He grabbed both ends of the fire with his hands, pulled to the opposite direction while making a grunt sound.
“Transformation: Star Shower!”
It started from some distance over the spirit’s head. From one small point, rays of fire launched towards the ground. It looked like bright red lines of fire that turned orange and then bright yellow as they hit the ground.
Thousands of sparks of fire launched in from that single point. One after another hitting everything in a circle from where the spirit was standing.
The continuous sparks of fire hit the spirit over and over. It made noise of pain as the shower of fire continued to rain on it.
“Forgive me o creature, for I am just trying to survive!
If I was stronger, maybe you would’ve met a peaceful death.
But this is all I can do!”
The sparks slowed down a bit revealing the spirit. Its body was covered in flames. Some parts had burned and turned black.
Time for ice now!
Several of the extended ends of the thread broke by the fire. The spirit was now free as the thread retracted to its horn again.
The fire aura around Savai disappeared completely.
The halo behind spirit's back started spinning around and all burns started healing up.
Savai moved his arms to the front. Both hands formed a fist as the arms straightened. With left fist below and right on top, he tapped his knuckles twice.
The halo sped up. The strips on spirit’s eyes tore and it opened its eyes.
The round blue eyes looked bright as the ocean. In the centre were dark vertical pupils shaped like a line.
Its earrings shined brightly, reflecting rays of sun.
Here we go!
The spirit moved its right foot forward. Pure black aura that looked like fog, poured out and spread to all directions. The aura moved through the surface covering Savai’s feet inside. He could not move his lower body a bit.
The spirit slowly moved towards Savai.
“Azure Divinity: Absolute Crystal!”
The spirit started running.
Savai’s body hardened like ice. Within seconds he was covered in bright blue aura that merged with his inner and outer body. On the icy skin, some smoke-like aura was flowing.
The spirit moved its right arm back, black aura poured into its fist and compressed it to the point where the colour became transparent.
It attacked Savai with a punch right to the face. It sounded like it hit a thick layer of ice. While Savai’s face looked the same, spirit’s fist was covered with smoky ice that started to spread.
“Bring it on!”
Spirit followed with another punch and Savai couldn’t move a bit. It got faster.
The spirit continued with consecutive attacks. Each attack caused a breaking sound and at point of impact the skin turned a little red.
It moved back, the black aura concentrated in its right lower leg. It ran towards Savai, hitting him with a flying kick. The impact knocked him backwards in the distance.
He smashed through rocks but he could move his body.
The spirit dashed after him.
He put his hand on the ground to stop. As he slowed down, he dashed straight towards the spirit.
The spirit came at him with another punch that followed the screeching sound. He ducked down and touched its right leg, leaving behind a frozen and smoky ice mark.
The spirit tapped its foot down on the ground and rotated its body back. The dark aura spread out moving through the spot where Savai was.
He couldn’t move again. The spirit berated him with consecutive attacks. The sound of ice breaking surrounded the entire area.
Every attack left the ice on his body a little damaged while the skin turned more red. The icy aura covered more and more of the Spirit’s fists.
The last attack knocked Savai backwards again. It dashed. The spirit didn’t give him any room to find his footing.
While dashing, it moved its arms back, opened its mouth wide and aimed at Savai’s neck.
“Clunk!”
The teeth hit his hardened body, leaving a shallow mark.
More! Need more time!
Savai tried to run away from the spirit. The circle on its body started glowing and he was pulled towards it. It tapped the foot again and attacked with a punch from the right arm, knocking Savai back.
At the same time, it clapped the lower two arms and giant iron hands crushed Savai. It dashed.
The ice covering Savai was damaged significantly but the aura flowed and covered any spots that had exposed skin, turning into ice.
Before Savai can find his footing the beam launched straight in his location. He raised his left arm, the beam hit at the spot in the middle of his elbow and hand. It disintegrated the ice completely and blood started to gush out.
The beam stopped, Savai lowered his arm and saw the fist of spirit coming directly at him. He leaned his upper body back, dodging the punch. He grabbed spirit’s arm with his right hand and jumped over it.
The spirit punched him with left arm and he had his arms crossed but he was launched back, in the air. His left arm got covered with ice and the bleeding stopped.
The spirit jumped after him, with its lower arms it clapped. Savai moved his body mid-air, but the iron hands hit his left foot, the ice covering it broke. The second hand missed completely.
As he was falling, the screeching sound followed him and the punch hit and knocked him to the ground.
The spirit landed on the ground and tapped its right foot. The black aura poured and immobilised Savai again.
It attacked with consecutive punches. Savai’s upper body was now covered in dark red spots but the ice kept forming as it got damaged.
Savai was knocked back again.
“I have to go offensive!”
This time he gained his footing and charged straight.
The spirit attacked with the punch again. Savai dodged it and hit the spirit with consecutive palm attacks. Its chest got covered with the smoky ice aura and it started to breathe heavily.
Its movement slowed down. As Savai was hitting it, the layer of ice on his skin started disappearing.
Hope this was enough to push it to the limit. It's up to you now Divine Object Seeral!
The spirit slowly moved its arms, took a deep breath and exhaled. The icy aura started to disappear.
It tried to attack Savai but its movement was not fast enough so he managed to move back.
The ice on his body disappeared completely.
“Formless Existence!"
The smoky ice aura around his body disappeared. He dashed away from the spirit.
The icy aura on the spirit’s body disappeared completely. It took a stance, tore another bracelet and threw three more beads in the direction of Savai. It dashed towards him.
Savai managed to dodge the beads but the spirit was right behind him ready to punch him. A direct hit without the ice aura to defend it, meant he was going to almost die with just a single punch.
The spirit compressed its aura inside the fist, moved its arm to punch.
Before it could hit Savai, its right horn split at the point where the thread was wrapped and dropped to the ground.
Savai moved his shoulder just in time to avoid the punch. He rolled down, picked the horn.
Before he could dash away, the spirit tapped its foot and released the black aura fog.
Savai got caught and couldn’t move.
The spirit looked at him and started walking.
It was the end.
“Divine Define: Tan!”
The thread was loose but hadn’t completely unwrapped.
It happened again. Several ends of the thread extended outwards latching on to trees and thrusting into the ground.
Some of the ends covered the spirit’s body and wrapped to cover its eyes.
The black aura fog disappeared. Savai could move freely.
“Right on time! Had me worried for a moment.
Now then!”
Savai dropped the horn on the ground.
“Fifty percent should be enough to satisfy the condition.”
Savai took a deep breath and poured aura inside his veins.
He moved his thumbs under both his arms and pressed against the skin. With force, he quickly yanked both thumbs while being pressed. The thumb nails cut the skin under both of his arms.
Blood started to pour out, he crossed the arms and held them over the horn. The blood drenched the horn.
“Right about now it shou…”
“Da-bum”
Savai’s heart beat loudly. His body weakened, he fainted a little but quickly stood his ground. He took a deep breath. Aura started flowing in his arms, healed his skin and stopped the blood flow.
“Now for the second!
Goodbye!”
Fiery aura poured out of his body and started spreading from the horn to the location of spirit’s body.
The fire spread in a line from the horn to the spirit.
“Lastly!
O divine overseer of the Spirit Realm,
I offer you the threefold sacrifice to take this spirit back to the place where it belongs!”
A giant metallic door appeared behind the spirit.
“CLAAAANG!”
The gates opened revealing a cloudy white space.
A shiny golden arrowhead launched and pierced through the spirit’s chest. The arrowhead thrust into the ground revealing the golden chain attached to it.
Few more chains came out and pierced through the spirit’s body.
Savai, who was standing in the front, was breathing heavily.
He slowed his breathing and said, “Forgive me! O creature of the noble realm!
For I have sealed you to a fate worse than death.”
The chains pulled the spirit's body inside the cloudy space. The gates closed.
Savai walked to where the spirit was standing and picked up the black thread which had turned back to its original state.
A white torii gate appeared in front of him.
So this is where he is. I wonder if I can defeat him in his state.
Savai went inside the white torii gate.
--------------------------------
Key Techniques Used
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Divine Object - Seeral: It has one passive functionality and 3 active functions. Thread remains wrapped and its ends can extend outwards.
- Xi - Extend one end of the thread and turn it into a hard contracting material
- Nen - Extend, up to 3 ends, with elastic property
- Tan - (Up to 2 times only) Extend, multiple ends, shaped like thin steel wires to completely immobilise the opponent
Burning Star: It is a state in which Savai can exert 99% of his fire aura. After activation, he releases a pool of aura that flows upwards. He can transform this pool of fiery aura into several shapes such as beam, spirals, rotating rings (like Saturn) and shooting sparks.
Transformation - Star Shower: It is the most powerful individual technique used with the fire aura from Burning Star. In terms of damage it is only behind Azure Divinity - Serenity, which uses both fire and ice aura.
Absolute Crystal: It is the most powerful defensive technique of Savai that uses icy aura. It turns his body colour to light blue, and covers the entire skin with an icy aura that is hard to break with any normal attacks. The spirit is an exception in terms of how much damage was made.
Spinning Halo: Originally the spirit can only attack with one of its/eight’s techniques at one time. The halo on the back, while spinning, grants it the ability to simultaneously use multiple techniques at the same time.