Chapter 8.

‘What is this? I asked Nocturne as I waved my finger around.

‘Don’t do that! That is the flame of creation! One should not play with it so carelessly, let me take over.’ He said and without even waiting for my approval he took my body as his own.

‘Interesting, it is so condensed, and in its rawest form, so powerful yet so dangerous…’ he said

‘What is this flame of creation you talk about?’ I asked

‘This is the first flame, the flame behind everything, its heat made life, and now you have it. boy, for whatever fortune or misfortune you ended up with this thing, you need to hide this well, if anyone discovered it then you will be hunted down. It is said that it can grant life to the dead, or bring havoc to the living… This is the magic of the god of death… only his direct descendants have access to such power, and even they, do not come by it so easily, it is a rare occurrence that you see this even within his descendants…”

‘hang on here, so you are saying I am a descendant of a god?’

‘I don’t really know, but you obtaining the book of death, and having the flame is proof enough don’t you think?’ he said

‘It is hard to comprehend actually, why would a god of death even have descendants?’

‘I know not, but I have known many of them, and they somehow descend to this world to try life as humans, some even end up with children of their own…’

‘I should take pride in being a descendant of a god then’ I said as I laughed

‘Don’t! that being is feared and loathed by all, reason enough for you to never mention your relationship to him, in doing so, They will hunt you down, for that, it is that very being that turned them to the way they are.’

‘That sounds dangerous, so tell me what does that flame do?’

‘I know not much about it, but what I know is that it will only bend to the will of its master, and I am not on, this power is yours and you need to understand it, I can hold this flame because I am one with you, but I cannot use it. there is, however, a way for you to use a part of its power’ he said. He then raised his left hand and the black book appeared within it.

The pages turned until a blank one appeared and he pressed his enflamed hand on it.

The book didn’t catch on fire, but the flame faded into writings and scribbles into the book’s pages.

Hundreds of symbols and writings were written within it.

“Good,” said Nocturne

‘What did you do?’ I asked and found myself back in control.

I looked at the book’s scribbles and somehow felt like I actually understood what they meant, I just couldn’t explain what they meant, but instinctively I knew what to do.

I pressed my right hand onto the book’s pages, my hand sank inside and a black magical circle appeared inside the book.

‘Pull!’ said Nocturne and I did, dragging with me an enormous object, it was the same scythe that I saw back above Nocturne’s throne… only this one was enormous, ridiculously so that ti felt amazed how I was able to carry something of such size without feeling the weight.

The scythe contracted to match my size, from four meters to two, it was a bit taller than me and looked terrifying, but the power emanating from it was lavishness.

‘What is this?’

‘That is the power of that flame, it created something you craved, something you wanted and wished for’

‘But why your weapon?’ I asked

‘Simple, my weapon represents oppressive power, strength beyond comprehension, your mind is thinking of it as something that will be the end to any that cross it, and it is indeed the truth, so your subconscious created something you wanted. Power materialized in a weapon…”

‘Does this mean I seek power?’ I asked

‘Perhaps, But I never thought you to be one that seeks power for yourself, you strike me as one that wants to be left alone, perhaps this is related to where you come from, if it is true that you are descendant from a god, else that you seek power just for your protection, to be left alone, which all comes down to one thing. You want power not for power itself, but for that those that have power stay away from you. This is all I can think of’

‘Now I wonder what should I do with this hulking thing,’ I said as I placed the bottom of the scythe on the ground.

This was impressive, as I stood, wearing the black clothes of a butler and wielding a giant scythe of devastation…

‘Put it back within the book.’ Said Nocturne

‘How?’ I asked I mean it is a book thought I pulled the scythe out is it that easy just putting it back?

‘The same way you pulled it’ he said

I then held the book against the scythe and it disappeared within.

‘Good’ he said

Then I fumbled down the ground, my energy leaving me and was barely able to breathe, my face redden as blood began to rush to my head and my limbs began to hurt and spasm

‘W-what the hell is happening?’ I asked

‘Side effect of carrying something of that weight, size, and power. Your body is far too feeble to use that thing, only carrying it caused you this state, using it to its purpose will mostly kill you…’ he said

‘what is its purpose?’ I asked barely managing to stand back up.

‘To kill’ he sad then his presence faded from my consciousness.

Now how do I go about my earlier task?

To hone the strand of grass I must have done something different than I was instructed.

Channeling the energy toward the strand of grass managed to lit them on fire, what if I just try to channel that energy to the edges of the grass.

I then began the same operation, breathing calmly inspecting the blade of grass then sending the smallest amounts of the energy around its edges.

It took some time because it was hard enough to encompass it all without it turning to flame.

But once I managed to do it, the blade of grass felt like a sharp knife.

Good,

I then took another strand of grass and compared them, there was a small difference that the one I had on my right was slightly glowing while the other was normal

I then crossed them and the one that was glistening easily cut through the other one without bending or losing its form.

A moment later the one in my right hand turned limp, as the energy circulating it must have dissipated.

This is only temporary, I guess that honing requires precision and bursts of honing, or I just have a low amount of energy to do the job. Either way, I must learn how to hone any item just before contact with another object, then release the energy so that I don’t end up with wasting energy.

With this mindset, I took a piece of wood and tried to cut it with the strand of grass, results… it didn’t even slice it.

Perhaps the density has a huge role in this…

I then began focusing on the piece of wood until I saw many small dots, Monochrom vision allowed me to see the weaknesses of any given object.

I then decided to cut through the wooden piece passing by the points of weakness.

Once the blade of grass touched the first point, it easily slid through, like a hot knife passing through butter, there was barely any resistance or any form of friction, I thought about a problem when I was cutting through, it was that the moment I passed the weak point the blad would find trouble cutting through the material, that was however soon proven pointless as once I cut through the first point, another soon appeared next to it, then another, then another, and I kept on sliding the blade of grass until I ended up with cleanly severing the small piece of wood.

It seems that whenever I pass a weak point, the material becomes much weaker next to it resulting in the creation of another weak point… this is most useful.

Good.

I then moved toward the large pieces of logs, I grabbed the same strand of grass and decided on cutting through it.

The results were satisfying as I managed to slice it in the first try, though I lost the energy while the strand of grass was in the middle of the log, after taking a short break and another deeper breath I managed to fully slice through it.

So it is possible to do it, now to the harder task. To slice that log with a blunt tool. Though the wooden sword was much stronger and sturdier than a strand of grass it would prove to be much harder to achieve the same result. The first hurdle was the bluntness of the sword which I needed to find a way around, the second was the size of the wooden sword, it was much larger than a strand of grass and would require more energy to hone. Even if I knew how or managed to do it, honing all of it is not going to prove to be helpful…

So I sat down and tried to remember how the master swordsman did his trick, but nothing came to mind, he was too fast and I was not in a correct position to see how he managed to do it…

I then stood up and tried to hone just the side of the sword that will be in contact. But soon found that it would be problematic to just keep one side of it honed long enough for it to pass

But once I managed (that was after a few dozen tries) I slowly tried to slide the wooden sword on the log, results

Nothing happened even after contacting a weak point…

This will be problematic… I can manage to cut through the wooden log if it was a smaller and sharper tool, but with this, if I didn’t see Master Shen do it I would have thought it to be impossible.

Nocturne seems to have left me to figure this out on my own, he gave me enough insight to find the way around this, but I need a hint, I need to see the same act again…

I went to find master Shen whom I found resting nearby. I guess he was asleep when I managed to summon the flame of creation, otherwise, he would have intervened…

“Master Shen” I spoke

“Yes?” he answered while sounding like he was still half asleep.

“I need you to show me once again how you cut through the wooden log.”

“I already showed you once, if you didn’t get it the first time there is no need to do it again, you must find the way yourself”

“But I already managed to cut through one of them but with a smaller object, the wooden sword is much harder…” I said

“What?!” said master Shen as he stood up instantly as if woken from he daydreaming

“You are telling me that you already cut through it? boy, if you lie to me I will strangle you right now!”

“I will never lie to master, I just did what you asked me and found the way around it, Honing is not that hard just needs to be accurate…”

“Show me,” he said

Then I took a strand of grass and began honing it

“Boy… you are bringing me great pride and shame at the same time, pride having you as a disciple and shame for having spent much, much more to achieve this. follow me and I will show you again what I did” he said and moved forward

His surprise didn’t go unnoticed once he saw the wooden log that I cut through but he decided not to say anything.

He took a wooden sword and slowly cut through the log

“Did you see it?”

“yes… now I understand”

It was actually simple, he never sliced the wooden log with the blade, it was only the tip, he took the sword, and managed to transfer the energy that I was trying so hard to make it encompass the whole of the sword and gathered it at the tip, making a sharp wave of energy as an extension to the length of the blade.

With that energy, he sliced through the weak points of the log and managed to cut it.

I then began by mimicking him, it was not as hard as trying to focus the energy to one side of the blade. The energy gathered atop the blade’s tip, but it was wavering, I need more control to make it more stable, so I took me more time just to stabilize it. Once I did I felt that I don’t have much time before it would fade.

All of this happened under the gaze of the master.

I was also thankful that the black flames didn’t appear, I wouldn’t want to cause him a heart attack…

Slowly, I sliced through the wooden log, but couldn’t manage to cut through all the way as I dropped to my knees gasping for air.

I was spent.

“That was impressive… need just a bit more time and you will be able to do wonders.”

“Thank you, master,” I said

“You can go to rest, you are done for today,” he said while inspecting the cut I made with his own hands…

Walking towards the main house I saw a group of people entering the manor. They stood before Lord Ling, one of these people was someone I knew… Fernand Videl, the man that was responsible for that day’s humiliation.

Lord Ling turned around and saw me… he then smiled and said

“Basara… come over here”

Well, this is aught to be troublesome I thought as I walked toward the group…