-Sylph Race’s Ultimate Pursuit-

“Now you look like a normal kid, haha!!” the old man laughed heartily as he admired his handiwork. The rope vanished the moment he finished binding kid, but, the kid still stuck with that bound pose.

“Shut up, you dirty geezer. If not for my weakened state, I would have killed you in a flash.” The kid gnashed his teeth, showing whites of his eyes. He dearly wished to punch this old man to oblivion with a single punch. But, with anger, he also felt a hell lot of fear. Unexpectedly this backward plant had a member of that category. The most feared, yet most revered category of people across the multiverse. Unless you could kill them, never to mess with them.

It’s a good thing that those people weren't as united as others, or else this multiverse would have fallen to their hands long ago. Thinking of this, the kid could only shake his head and lament at his bad luck. Out of all people, he had to stumble across a freaking irregular.

Leaving the kid alone, the old man went near to Kenshin’s fallen form. He was laying face up, with his eyes wide open and unfocused. If not for his calm breathing, he would have thought he died. His hands started to glow golden, as he went to wake him up from his trance. Just as he was about to put his glowing palm on his head, Kenshin’s hands twitched.

“Hmm!” the old man was startled. He was aware of what the kid had done to him, by now, Kenshin must have been trapped inside his own memories, looping on some which he tried to forget. To get out of that place on their own wasn’t a fit that easy to accomplish. One’s willpower must be strong enough to endure that kind of torture. Seeing his finger move that time, the old man stopped his advance, instead waited to see if this boy could wake up on his not or not.

And he wasn’t disappointed. Soon, Kenshin’s body gave off a mild red aura, which was contaminated with something blue, looking like flames. At first, the old man startled to see this, then a smile broke into his face. This was a good sign for Kenshin.

“I have trapped that man in a nightmare from where he could never get out from, don’t waste time. Not even you can save him, hahaha!!” the kid gave a snarky remark before breaking into a laughing feat. In his mind, Kenshin was as good as dead right now, with his consciousness faded to nothingness.

“Hmm! I don’t think so.” The old man calmly said and turned away from the way to let the kid see Kenshin’s state. At first, he was confused, but when he saw Kenshin, his jaws hung loose. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as his head began to throb. Pulling his jaw, he shouted, “What the hell is that?” he was in disbelief of the incomprehensible spectacle in front of him.

The boy whom he pushed into a world of nightmares, was emitting a red and blue aura. More importantly, the blue aura looks like its real flames rather than aura itself. It was out of the boy’s expectations.

“What the hell? Isn't that elemental spirit aura? That’s a human, right? How can he develop elemental spiritual energy? It's impossible for a human?” the kid shouted at the old man who also looked as surprised as the boy. But its for a different reason than the kid of sylph race. To old man having elemental spirit energy wasn’t odd but the element itself. Having a fire element as a spiritual element was pretty rare, not to mention this mystical blue flames. The old man was able to feel the power and obscureness of the flams, to him, it doesn’t look like an average blue flame.

“Whats weir about us having WIL elements? Look, even I have one…” as the old man said, his hands glowed golden color before solidifying to look like a small rock, an indication of Earth element. The old man shamelessly showed off, pissing off the kid even more.

“Shut up, you old man, your kind doesn’t count.” The kid growled angrily. Then both fell silent as Kenshin’s body gave off an invisible shockwave, it was strong enough to rouse their attention. They silently observed lying Kenshin silently. The blue flame steadily corrupted more than half of Kenshin aura, the suddenly something percent happened. From within Kenshin’s body, a deterrent force appeared, stopping the blue flame invasion in its track. It was during that time another invisible shockwave appeared with Kenshin in its epicenter. This was was stronger than before.

From within Kenshin's body, two silhouettes appeared, one was a huge eastern dragon with 9 limbs and a chain-like structure on its neck, the other was a conical object with a katana-like handle. These two projections clashed against each other, with each obstructing other, the dragon attacked the conical object with everything, but the conical thing was steady in its defense, not even flinching or showing sign of retreat. As time passed, the dragon gradually lost its light and started to dim gradually. A few seconds later, the dragon steadily receded into his body, but the contamination of blue flames didn’t lessen, neither did it increase. In the end, Kenshi’s form covered in half blue and half red aura, before it also went out. The supernatural phenomenon occurred for only 10 seconds, but it was the weirdest phenomenon for both the old man and the kid.

After everything calmed down, the kid of sylph race asked in a trembling voice, “What did I just see? A dragon made of spiritual flame and its intelligent? Isn't that the highest form of Spiritual energy manipulation, to give conscious to your own spirit manifestation? How can a weak brat like that have managed to achieve it?” the kid couldn’t understand it at all.

His race, the Sylphs, had forgone the usage of magic and physical energy in favor of manipulation and study of Spiritual energy. They believed that if one practices their spiritual energy to its highest level, they can free themselves from everything and achieve the true [Freedom]; a state where they were out of the control of [Fate], [Destiny], [Mortality], [Rebarth], the four prime principles of world. For this, they researched countless years to find the correct way to practice and cultivate their [Spiritual Energy].

From their research, they found out a secret, the [Spiritual Energy] can be given a consciousness, it can also manifest outside the body in the form of a solid form, aiding the user in battle and defense and even mundane tasks. The highest form of this practice was when the manifestation develops its own consciousness. It when the true road to [Freedom] starts. But to achieve that level, one had to practice for countless years. Some even died without even able to develop a physical manifestation.

But, a human, not only he had two such manifestations inside his body, but also both of them some sort of consciousness of their own. The kid felt ashamed after seeing this, even though he was hailed as a genius during his time, he still couldn’t compete with this brat. If he was of the same species as the old man, then he could understand, but he was just a normal human. The kid from Sylph race laughed at his foolish self back then, who felt proud to be called a genius. He felt like a frog in the well and a shallow well at that.

“Hm, I also don’t know. We, humans, took a different path to train out WIL than you people of Sylph race. Having a manifestation wasn’t a weird sight, all hunters who had crossed level 100 managed to do it. A few genius ones even managed to do it before hitting their first awakening. But it's like an empty container without any substance, which we would fill slowly later.

You know, to make a pot filled with golds, we first have to make a pot then fill gold one at a time…we use that method.” It's actually the direct opposite of the path you people of Sylph race had taken.

“I see, so that’s why is it normal to have two manifestations or have consciousness this early?” at the kid’s question, the old man shook his head negatively and said, “Nope, this boy is a special case. Most of our manifestations influenced by our true desires, so rarely they ever appear in a humanoid shape. Developing consciousness of a non-humanoid object is pretty hard you know…even I haven't managed to do so.”

“AAhh! What happened? My head’s feeling heavy, ahh! My vision’s swimming…” with a whine, Joy gradually came back to sense. At that time, his eyes landed on Kenshin, who was glowing in two different colors. All colors drained from his face as he remembered what happened not long ago, he shouted unconsciously “Aah! Kenshin!! not again, man!!” he tried to stand up to run away, but unable to do so, feeling nausea hitting him hard. He had completely depleted his magic. He can’t even use [Boost] to restore his magic faster.

It's during that time he saw two other people present in the vicinity. It’s the old man who made him lose consciousness and the kid who handed them, their respective asses, within 20 minutes. The three people stared at each other silently as a weird atmosphere formed between them.