Chapter 618 Felicia''s intangible gauntlets & Alexandra''s reflection armor (part 6)
Leaving aside Alexandra''s imagination which was running wild as of current, multiple shing figures followed by explosions and violent currents of wind could were constantly produced a few dozens of kilometers away where Aster and Felicia trained. Or more urately where Aster was being fiercely assaulted by a Felicia who was happily smiling in high spirits.
"ng!", their images stopped for a moment as the iplete ck sword soul weapon shed against Felicia''s right hand which was covered in a ck wed gauntlet.
"Besides Eris and you I has never met someone who took the soul path as the secondary one and was still able to match up with my parallel thinking, but you know being too fast isn''t good for a young man", jokingly said Felicia.
Aster''s lower lip twitched a bit, but instead of answering he pushed his free hand frontwards blocking Felicia''s telekinesis attack, which came not too long after her verbal
one.
"Booom!", the result of their telekinesis shing at pointnk was a loud shockwave which made both of them retreat, for different reasons though, Felicia has a strong body as her main path is the body one, but her focus ispletely offensive, simr to Tiana, so she retreated to not waste spirit energy on blocking the impact.
Aster on the other hand, retreated because while Felicia''s soul energy couldn''t pull soul energy towards it, the explosion disseminated small particles of it on the main area of impact and if he was touched by them, as minimal as it might be, they would slow him down which would allow Felicia to take the lead.
Seeing Aster avoiding her soul energy like the gue, Felicia chuckled and then feeling the refreshing and inspiring sensation that flooded her mind after every sh between her soul energy and Aster''s, her smile furtherly widened as she charged towards Aster, her wed gauntlets first of course.
"You both mother and daughter surely have a strange way to express gratitude", said Aster as he dodged the sharp ws Felicia''s gauntlet, to then kick her right side only for his leg to be caught midair by a ck soul energy w that emerged from the ground.
The moment that ck w made out of soul energy touched his skin, he felt his body being drawn downwards, it was as if the w belonged to a mysterious monstrous being that tried to drag it into the darkness from which the thing emerged.
Of course that wasn''t the case, others, soul cultivators included would be led to believe the previous, because unless one uses telekinesis, soul energy can''t affect the physical world with high intensity.
But Felicia''s innate ability affects everything which contains spirit energy and regardless of path, a cultivator''s body contains spirit energy, thus allowing Felicia to create the illusion that she summoned an unknown entity is assisting her in the middle of the battle.
In other words, Felicia had already integrated her innate ability, her darkness attribute and an illusion technique to disturb the mind of the opponent, perfectly, which in part exins why her strength output was so high.
Of course it wasn''t an easy thing to achieve, she managed to pull it off, because after reaching the peak of the Carnal Disaster realm, she couldn''t advance anymore, so she put all of her focus on finding ways to increase her battle prowess without the need of a higher realm, that and ten years of trial and error gave birth to this technique,
Which is why she was marveled to see Tiana creating a technique that didn''t lose against. her own in terms of potential, in a matter of months, given their constitutions which are the same but with contrary attributes, even if Tiana managed to seed faster, the difference would have been a year or two... unless she had fortunate encounter, which she had, namely Aster.
''Mmm, what an interesting sensation, my soul energy is already as pure as it can be at my current realm, so unlike Tia, I won''t be obtaining shes of inspiration and insight caused by sudden increases onprehension level, but it is still slowly but surely softening the bottleneck recently created on a path that didn''t exist for me before! amusingly thought Felicia as she analyzed the influence that Aster had on her and Tiana. The previous took some time to describe, but thanks to the magic of parallel thinking, for Aster and Felicia only a fraction of a second had passed she trapped Aster''s leg with her innate ability, it is worth mentioning that she was already wing towards Aster''s chest with her left hand this time, while she pointed her right palm at his leg which was trapped by her soul energy to reinforce the lock.
Aster''s golden glowed for a moment, he let go of the iplete ck sword soul weapon which perfectly understood his intentions, flying to block Felicia''s left hand, while at the same time Aster threw his arms backwards, to then stomp his free as he also used telekinesis to impact the rocky floor.
"Booom!", the ground exploded in all directions, the curtain of dust produced by the impact acted in a strange way, instead of expanding like it should have, it contracted to reveal the result of the previous sh.
Aster was standing exactly at the same spot as before, with the difference that he was in the center of a thirty-meter wide and five-meter-deep crater, while Felicia stood at the border of said crater since she retreated to avoid the purely physical explosion Aster cause by stomping on the ground.
"That armor is cheating", mumbled Felicia, earlier she witnessed Aster ignoring the explosion and all the debris that flew in all directions, impacting him producing even more dust, which Felicia concentrated on a sphere of her soul energy which now floated above her right hand.
"That attack posed no real threat for you, I only sted away the ground to force you to retreat while using my soul energy to dispel yours along with your telekinesis", said
Aster.
"Humph, I was referring to my clothes, you haven''t had to experience the pain of your favorite outfits turning into dusty rags when a fight breaks, thanks to that light protection and even if that fails, you can instantly clean yourself with those blue mes", said Felicia with an exaggerated aggrieved voice.
"So, she just wants more exposition to Rigel''s mes, oh well we can hit two birds with one stone..., thought Aster for a moment before he snapped his fingers, making a thinkyer bright blue mes envelop Felicia from head to toe.
Contrary to how anyone would react when covered in mes, Felicia''s mood brightened over the sight of those pretty mes which surrounded her.
"These mes are amazing, no wonder Tia''s skin felt even smoother in ourst bath", she said, which made Aster clear his throat to change the subject.
"Ahem, during thest mission I saw you appearing out of one of those ck vortexes, was that spatial movement?", he asked.
Aster was genuinely curious about that, since moving through space without the help of a formation is territory of Void Maniption cultivators and above, sure there are some exceptions but even the most talented monsters had only managed to do so after reaching the peak of the Genesis Manifestation realm, Lilia is an example of that.
In case you wonder why Eris and Mylene who are recultivating like Lilia, can''t move trough space, when Lilia didn''t lose that ability even after her realm regressed, it''s easy, apparently the space''s structure in this Mortal realm is quite different to the one they are used, so they have to train and learn all over again, they took it as an opportunity to refine their abilities so it''s all good.
As for Agnes whose talent isn''t lower than Lilia, she is still younger than her and just like the dragon mother and her sisters, she is currently focusing on her secondary path before entering thete Transcending realms, so she still has time to develop the ability to move through space, Valentina on the other hand had already demonstrated not to be inferior to the previous generation of Fey princesses before she broke through to the
Void Maniption.
Anyway, there is another case where people obtain spatial movement before reaching the Void Maniption realm, but not only it''s rarer but also has incredibly tough requirements, namely a spatial oriented body constitution, in the record that lists all the known constitutions of the four Heavenly Quadrants, there is only one spatial oriented
body constitution.
And contrary to what one would expect, said constitution isn''t even in the top thousand, because besides an increase in affinity with space, there are no other benefits, it might be a useful trick but the energy needed is still at the level of the Transcending realms, a temporary advantage below the Genesis Manifestation but above the Earthly realms is nothing to brag about.
Felicia shook her head, with a wave of her hand a ck vortex appeared below her, before she suddenly sank into it, then another vortex opened a few centimeters ahead of
Aster, from which Felicia creeped out, her long ck hair and the dark void inside the vortex made her look like something straight out of a terror movie, however her pretty
smiling face shattered that possibility.
"Nope, this is not spatial movement, unfortunately I can''t ignore physical restrictions like walls for example, when I enter my vortex is more as if I be part of my darkness attribute, I can move faster than my maximum speed outside though, creating the illusion of travelling through space, she said as her upper half protruded out of her vortex, floating horizontally in front of Aster.
Aster couldn''t help but recognize her craftiness, just by making her vortexes appear on top of physical surfaces, like a wall for example, she created the illusion of moving
through space.
"Well, it seems like she really is skilled in the soul path, I wouldn''t be surprised if she bes an Illusion Queenter on, he thought, only to hear Lilia''s not so happy rambles from within the mind space.
"So, it''s more like entering anotheryer of this ce than to dimensional travel, how does it look from the inside, strangely even with my eyes I can''t see anything besides you floating in a dark void?", asked Aster to which Felicia nodded like saying ''It should be like
that''.
"Mm, it''s normal, to ess this secret hideout of mine you have to have my Heavenly Behemoth energy constitution and darkness affinity, that or be invited and guided by me, otherwise you shouldn''t be able to let alone enter but even perceive it, even Tia can''t, the fact that you can still see part of me that''s inside the entrance of the vortex, is already incredible", she said.
"Hoh?", Aster''s curiosity was piqued, when meaning they unconsciously or not, resist his eyes, as of current he can reach up to the superficialyer of the soul when he inspecting their bodies and yet he couldn''t peek into the ce to which Felicia''s darkness connected.
"What, do you want toe inside and getfy-", said Felicia as she expanded the entrance of the vortex as if she was inviting him, only to giggle the next second. "It''s not impossible, mmm, let''s see. Tia was curious about it as well, so she asked for me
to invite her as her reward when she entered the Earthly realms, so you''ll have to earn
it".
Aster bitterly smiled, of course she returned his words right back at him. "Sometimes I wonder who is the mother and who is the daughter... she is such a bad loser'', thought Aster but he didn''t exteriorize it.
"I''m joking of course, but it''s a bit embarrassing to see that little girl having surpassed
me after a little escapade with you, so if you help me reach the same point, I wouldn''t mind giving you a little "darkness ride", what do you say?", added Felicia only for her to see Aster''s previously "bitter" smile, changing to a mocking one as he said. "Okay, but you''ll have to use this movement technique during our little spar, I want to see more of it up close for future references", Aster still remembers how his eyes adapted to see the difference between regr rocks and the extensions of the Rock Gigas Andras, back at Esmeralda''s realm, his dragon eyes continued to evolve, so perhaps with a little more experience, he''ll be able to see through it. "Fine, this little secret still falls behindspared to your invincibility anyway, but doing so will consume physical energy so our train will be shortened", said Felicia with a
feigned saddened expression.
Aster chuckled, she clearly wanted to extort more of Rigel''s mes out of him, not that
he minded though, since he was going to give them to her anyway.
"I''ll actively add those mes to all of my attacks instead of only to my telekinesis, is that
enough for you?", he said.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
"Deal~", Felicia''s eyes sparkled, with a single happy word, her upper body was absorbed back into the vortex which then disappeared from Aster''s sight.
Aster observed his surrounding with his dragon eyes, while Felicia was inside that ce, he couldn''t detect her, however even spatial movement had a small window of time between the moment when the portal opened and when it was possible for the people inside to cross it and the same applied to Felicia.
Of course, this moment consisted in a fraction of a second merely and it would be
reduced the more Felicia grew skilled in using this technique, but for now she knew it was impossible to directly ambush Aster with it, his reaction time was not worse than hers after all.
That being said, not being directly able to ambush someone doesn''t mean you can''tnd a surprise hit, you just have to use your brain a bit more.
Aster''s dragon eyes saw the space trembling at his right, a sign that Felicia was about to open a vortex, but as he prepared to send the iplete ck sword soul weapon which was now covered in Rigel''s mes, in the same direction, Felicia''s voice could be
hearding from his left.
"Since you are interested in my secret yground, a little hint, distance works different
here, which means that... all calctions made from the outside are useless", suddenly another vortex appeared behind Aster, from which two ck wed gauntlets and a maic pull emerged.
Aster softly snorted, using his telekinesis he blew away Felicia''s one and then his back
exploded in blue mes which pped away her hands, making the now zing ck wed gauntlets to retreat into the vortex.
"Given the nature of Felicia''s attribute and the threatening aspect of her soul condensed
gauntlets, as well as the "pure" aura imbued in Rigel''s mes, it looks as if I am exorcizing a demon or something like that, amusingly thought Aster.
Of course, it wasn''t that his mes harmed Felicia, he just pushed her arms away with a discharge of spirit energybined with Rigel''s mes, in case you forgot about it, body is more effective towards energy, energy is more effective against soul and soul has the upper hand against body, she felt the impact but the mes had no offensive power, well
a fresh sensation assaulted Felicia upon contact but that wasn''t exactly detrimental for
her.
On the contrary, she waited until the blue mes that were covering her arms extinguished, enjoying till thest second of exposure to them, before nning her next.
move.
''Just a bit more, the next one should do the trick, but needs to be a full-frontal sh,
she thought as she happily smiled, she was obviously happy that Tiana had it easier than her to find her way, but it is also true that after a decade of training she was dying to
finally take thest step that she instinctively knew existed, despite having no proof of it. Back at the outside world, Aster''s pupils contracted a bit as distortions appeared all over
the ce with a meter of distance between each other, meaning that Felicia could appear from any of them.
Strangely, while normally the vortexes created by Felicia would drag anything which contained spirit energy into them, she could also prevent anything from entering, so Aster couldn''t use those vortexes against her, only the one from which she emerged had to open after all.
Of course, he already tried it and neither his spirit energy nor soul energy were able to enter without permission, Annihtion probably could tear its way into them, but he didn''t know id that would hurt. Felicia so he decided against it, perhaps it would be a
nice experiment forter, but for now Aster sharpened his senses, feeling the dangerous sensation that came from each and every distortion.
''Don''t tell me she is going to..., Aster''s thoughts were interrupted by a huge sensation of
pressure that came from every direction, it was as if countless vacuums were created at
the same time, the suction was so horrible that a giant piece of the ground was teared apart and dismantled in all directions.
Aster who was floating in the middle of countless pieces of debris, didn''t lower his guard, such a simple move couldn''t be Felicia''sst attack.
And he was right, arge explosion of soul energy emerged from all the distortions which
transformed in vortexes on the spot, followed by countless giant ck ws that emerged from them in every direction.
Aster who was in the center of it, saw the nightmarish wsing at him from everywhere and he adopted a firm posture, using telekinesis an invisible force rotated
around his body, elerating until it created a fierce current before he exploded in blue
mes.
From the outside a marvelous spectacle was produced, a bright blue star tried to expand while countless ck ws surrounded it trying to suppress it, the shock produced by the sh between Felicia''s telekinesis against Aster''s, pushed the ground to the side, creating a perfectly inverted dome-like hole on the ground.
It had apletely smooth surface, as if someone had pushed a spherical object into the
ground.
"Damn, how strong are their soul energies, they have created an intervention field by shing their telekinesis, that normally happens only when Soul Kings sh!'', inwardly eximed Alexandra as she came out of her ck barrier.
The ck ws and the blue star-like ball of mes didn''tst long, Rigel''s mes burned Felicia''s soul condensed creations to multiply, but at the same time they were being absorbed by the ck vortexes, this continued until the mes made the vortexes copse and the vortexes absorbed all the mes, practically at the same time. At that point, the invisible filed deployed by the sh of those two''s telekinesis, had
carved a vertical tunnel into the ground, reaching the hotyer of the rock right above the moltenva one.
With a wave of his hand Aster dispelled the steam that covered his field of vision, only for him to instinctively look at the wall at his right, just to discover that there was no distortion there, but it wasn''t that his instincts were failing him as the sphere of darkness that emerged out of nowhere suggested, but more of something against which he had no special defense since it waspletely new to him.
Aster reacted on time to dodge the ck sphere, but the thing exploded and a giant
curtain of dust exploded in all directions, blocking his sight, Aster jumped backwards toe out of the "smokescreen" but like a ghost, Felicia emerged from the wall behind
tackling him on the spot.
"Thud!", with a solid impacting sound, Aster fell to the ground, making it crack, he looked
upwards just to see Felicia who was sitting next to him with her ck wed gauntlet covered hands, resting on his chest as a result of her previous attack.
"I did it!", shouted Felicia, her ck hair faded until it returned to its usual mix of ck
and gray, as a proof that she had used a lot of soul energy and couldn''t keep that state
anymore, she was also slightly panting and her chest was moving up and down, but the triumphant smile on her pretty face was absolute.
"Really, you advanced inside that ce?", bitterly asked Aster, with Tia he got the chance to observe the changes that happened to her body after she created her "Dragon ying" technique, since it involved an improvement on the mastery of her innate ability, it affected her constitution and Aster saw immediate changes on her meridian
But Felicia went through her advance hidden, denying Aster that opportunity, seeing his unconvinced expression, Felicia giggled as she softly hit Aster''s chest with her fists a couple of times.
"I told you, it won''t be as easy as with Tia, now get up, I still have enough energy for a "demonstration" of my own unique technique, if you manage to counter it... mmm, let''s see, I''ll fulfill one petition from you", she said as she jumped up to stand near Aster who
also got up the next second.
To Aster''s surprise, Felicia didn''t take distance or used vortex anymore she just wed
towards his chest like normal, so Aster called the iplete ck sword once again to block it, but this time something incredible happened, her hand, no her whole arm passed through the iplete ck sword, reaching his body.
And that wasn''t all, the ws of her gauntlet "touched" the golden light protection of the
paragon body but weren''t stopped by it, her hand actually dived into Aster''s chest! Let alone Alexandra who unconsciously got up ready to intervene, thinking that Felicia had managed to wound Aster, thetter was amazed by what he was seeing, because
despite the image of her hand sinking into his chest, being as clear as day, he couldn''t
detect it nor feel it at all. It was a hard to exin sensation, like seeing something while your mind was unable to
register its existence, truly a strange experience.
"Amazing right, this is my new technique... ahhh!", Felicia''s exnation was interrupted midway, when Aster''s skin suddenly gained a dark golden glow, next, the gray-haired mother was violently sent flying backwards, shing against the rock wall. Despite the wall cracking due to the impact and the print on the solid rock with the
shape of Felicia''s back, she was fine, because body cultivator, that being said she felt her hands trembling a bit.
"Y-You, how did you do that, my hands where in an incorporeal form!", she eximed, unaware of the fact that Aster was also confused about it, until something clicked on his
mind.
''Right, this was simr to back then when that thing tried to invade my body, he thought
before saying. "What is the best tool for a body cultivator to defend against a soul cultivator?", to which Felicia answered without a second of hesitation. ca
"Aura... wait but I saw you using your aura at the Silicon Forest, I thought it enhanced the spirit energy contained in your body and the way you manipte it, which is why your attacks became heavier and at the same time you were able to physically touch that
ray shot by the Diamond Orchid and nothing of that is rted to my technique", she
mumbled. Aster chuckled as he deactivated his Dragon Aura which acted on its own, after all he had a really small permanent reserve of it, and had to burn insane amounts of
murderous aura to use it continuously.
"Close but no, like anyone else''s aura, there is a strong emotion behind mine, Alice''s for
example awakened her aura by desiring to resist soul attacks, her aura allows her to use
her physical body to battle against soul energy".
"Mine on the other hand is a bit moreplicated, as a proof of it, not only I didn''t try to awaken it, but the thing can act on its own like earlier, it was created using my dragon lineage as a catalyst since I am not a body cultivator, and the result was "pride", when my dominance is defied, I''ll get stronger in the respective aspect if I use my dragon aura, if the opponent surpasses me in physical strength, I''ll get stronger and so on, of course
thises with a hefty price, but it''s worth it".
Felicia''s mouth was cutely agape, by the revtion of such an outrageous aura, but she
still refused to give up.
"Still, that doesn''t exin how you expulsed my hands earlier!". "Well, you tried to invade my body, and that is defying this prideful my dragon lineage of
mine, so you immediately suffered retaliation from it". Felicia was in awe for a second before she pouted.
"That''s cheating!", she shouted.