Chapter 22

Zepp was in an isolated room of pure white, Malus had said to him this morning that they would be going to an isolated training room, the thing different about the isolated training rooms that the Yuem had created was that a series of conditions could be placed upon the room before you entered, one could increase the gravity, the temperature, the air, the time and so on, the thing that had shocked Zepp the most when he had been told this was the condition, ‘time’, according to Malus’s explanations they could change how fast time flowed within the isolated training rooms, for example, they could make a week feel like a year and a month feel like 10 years, this was extremely beneficial for training, this was one of the reasons that the Yuem members were at the pinnacle of power.

The isolated training rooms were only in the main headquarters of Yuem, the main headquarters was where Malus had teleported Zepp, Fenn and Exo to when he had saved them from Kuregg, he wasn’t told where it was located but one thing was for sure, he’d never seen the outside, if there was an outside that is.

Malus stood outside the isolated room, he was about to enter to go instruct Zepp but he was deep in thought at the moment.

‘This...should I really be making ‘his’ son my disciple? If Zepp even has a fraction of ‘his’ power then...’ Malus thought to himself, shivering slightly at the thought he just had.

A couple minutes later Malus had finally made up his mind, he had nodded his head and decided to go ahead with it, he grabbed the door to the isolation room and walked into the room of pure white, in the middle of the room, sat in a mediating position was Zepp.

Zepp turned his head to look at Malus who had just entered, Malus smiled like his usual carefree self and closed the door behind him, activating the ‘time’ condition upon the room.

“Zepp, tell me, have you ever felt different from anyone else?” Malus said, his voice was serious for the first time, he wasn’t going to take Zepp’s training lightly, after all, it was ‘his’ only offspring.

After a little thinking Zepp nodded his head slightly.

“I didn’t when I was younger, however, ever since I was told that I was different I had picked up slight quirks that made me feel ‘different’ as you say, for example, I have a need which I find is impossible to satisfy, deep inside my mind It’s always there, that need to get more powerful and be the most powerful, It’s like an innate need I noticed when I met the first truly powerful person I had come across face to face, my old teacher and principal of ‘obsidian school’.

I find myself trying and justify this by saying ‘I need to get stronger for my family’ and so on but really, deep inside in conjunction to the existing needs I know there are ulterior motives, the motive to try and quench that selfish thirst for power, seeing people more powerful than myself I feel a deep void in the pit of my stomach, like it hurts to see people better than me.” Zepp said in a low voice, his voice was slightly trembling, Malus could tell he didn’t want to tell anyone this, it was one of his darkest secrets, a part of himself he didn’t want to accept.

“Hmm, I see.” Malus nodded, it was indeed a trait he inherited from ‘him’.

“Okay next, have you ever got close to using your own magic?” Malus asked Zepp who was sitting in front of him.

“Umm, no, I don’t have a clue how to even tap into it nevermind use it, do I lack talent?”

“No, what you do lack though, is the initiation phase, the reason you can’t feel or use your magic is because you haven’t gone through the initiation phase, I can help you go through this phase, are you sure you want to?” Malus looked at Zepp with serious eyes, he was like a different person when he was talking seriously.

“Yes, I want to, I want to use my power.” Zepp said strongly, his tone was resolute.

“Mmm okay then~” Malus nodded.

“Die.” Malus waved his finger at Zepp.

“Wh-” Before Zepp could even fathom what was happening his body went limp and he fell backwards, dead.

“Ah, it’s not a very nice feeling, killing my own disciple..” Malus joked, he sat in the same position, staring at Zepp’s limp corpse.

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A couple hours passed outside the isolated training room which Malus had taken Zepp into, on the inside days had passed, Malus continued to stare at Zepp’s corpse which hadn’t decayed in the slightest.

Turning his wrist he looked at his magically made watch, nodding to himself he muttered,

“Mmm it’s about time.”

Seconds later Zepp’s corpse twitched slightly, first his feet twitched, then his legs, then his waist, then his torso, then his chest, then his neck and finally his head, they all twitched in order.

After the head twitched the corpse began to spasm uncontrollably, the corpse looked like a fish frolacing around.

This continued for a couple minutes, Malus watched this process with an indifferent face, he was studying every detail that happened.

The mana in the room was focused all around the corpse, Malus watched with great interest as the corpse sucked up the surrounding mana at an extreme rate, the mana density in the room was tens of times more concentrated that the normal density mana on the Ein continent, for the corpse to suck in this much mana would make a normal mage or warrior implode, it was simply too much to handle for most people but the corpse continued to suck it up like a vacuum.

Suddenly, like it had enough the corpse stopped absorbing, Malus looked at Zepp with even more interest and mystery, he had to erect a barrier around himself because the corpse was forcefully trying to drain his mana too, the mana that the corpse absorbed was nowhere to be seen, it was like it disappeared.

Stillness.

This was what the room had been like for a couple hours now, Malus still sat in that same position and Zepp’s corpse was still limp, everything was still within the room, if someone were to witness this scene they would think that a statue was watching another statue.

All of sudden sounds of bones creaking, clicking and other noises which shouldn’t come from a corpse came from Zepp’s body, a dark, blood red coat of extremely dense mana came from within the body, it covered the whole of the corpse and bathed it in the mana, Malus felt like he was watching the body go into a cocoon of incredibly dense mana, it wrapped around the body like thick mist and all that could be seen was the thick blood red mana.

The blood red cocoon stayed for days, there was no sign of it opening at all.

Malus didn’t move neither, he sat in the same position, staring at the corpse which was now wrapped in a cocoon of dense thick blood red mana.

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Malus watched the cocoon of blood red mana which was coated around Zepp’s corpse, the body had been in this state for a week now, it neither moved or showed any signs of opening.

On the 8th day it happened.

An extreme pressure came upon the isolated room, the pressure was felt by even Malus, he was safe though, he sat in the barrier he had created when the body tried to extract mana from him, nothing could break this barrier.

However, the air outside the barrier was shaking and quivering, another unique part of the isolated training room was that the room had mana fed into it so it was replenished from when Zepp’s corpse sucked up all the mana in the room.

Every atom in the area shook, like an earthquake but with particles, the epicenter was the blood red cocoon in the middle of the room.

*CREAK*

The room seemed to creak under the enormous pressure that it was under, Malus, who was watching this with an intense gaze was extremely surprised that it had managed to affect the room which was build by the joint effort of all the Yuem members.

The particles within the room battered against the invisible barrier that Malus had put around himself, they smashed with great force.

*BANG*

The particles continued to batter into the barrier with suicidal tendency, smashing and shaking the other particles around them, the particles were super charged with dense mana, the very space with the cocoon as it’s epicenter continued to vibrate and shake.

Every day it got worse and worse, the air in the room got more violent and the vibrating space was turbulent.

On the 4th day since it started all action within the room stopped, it went still again, it was calm like the ocean, you couldn’t compare it to before, it went from like a violent storm to a calm ocean.

Then, the cocoon opened, the blood red coat of mana receded back into the human shape that appeared from within.

The figure that appeared from the cocoon was 2 meters tall and had extremely defined muscle, he had dark yellow eyes and the veins on it’s body were a deep red colour, it looked like a strange tattoo, but if you looked more you could see it was a common appearance through the whole of his body, it appeared that Zepp had undergone a transformation.

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Zepp opened his eyes, the last thing he remembered was Malus saying ‘Die’ and then he blacked out, looking in front of him he saw Malus was sat in the same position, smiling at him.

“So that was the initiation phase, hmm, your body has undergone some serious changes Zepp, have a feel.” Malus said, smiling.

“Wait! before that, DID YOU KILL ME!?” Zepp shouted, confused.

“Yes, I killed you, you have to die to start the initiation phase, peculiar right?” Malus replied to Zepp’s questioning.

Zepp’s eyes darkened as he spoke in a serious voice, “You actually killed me? The ‘initiation phase’ was is that?”

“The initiation phase is something you have to go through to use magic, it’s unique to your race, ‘Nether’, it allows your body to use the unique magic you were born with, it also transforms your body, I’ll say it again, feel your body.”

Zepp nodded, Malus was extremely ancient and knowledgeable, it wasn’t surprising he knew more than Zepp did about himself.

Zepp tensed his muscles in his body and looked at himself, his left arm had regrew! and it was stronger than before, well.. everything was stronger, his veins were a deep blood red colour and his muscle definition was much higher, he also felt taller.

His body was overflowing with power, and he could feel the mana in the air much more clearly, it was like he could sense it.

“You will also be able to use Abyss and Blood magic, we’ll start your lessons on learning to control it soon, first of all we need to get you comfortable in your new and improved body.” Malus spoke whilst Zepp was checking himself out, Zepp had a big grin on his face at his new found power.

Whilst this was happening Exo materialised himself next to Zepp, Malus’s eyes widened at this, the only other familiar he had seen was ‘his’.

“Master, I also feel much stronger, I feel the mana in the air much better than I did before, it feels natural to me” Exo said.

“Yes you're familiar should also have his own unique magic, he should have benefited from the initiation phase also.” Malus said in a low voice, staring at Exo.

“Exo, from now on I want you to be my clothing, morph into it, instead of a weapon I think this will be much more useful, after all, I don’t have any good armour.”

Exo nodded and smiled with glee, he was always happy to be of help to his beloved Master, Zepp imagined what he wanted Exo to morph into and Exo took the form of what he imagined.

A beautifully blood red full body cloak appeared on Zepp’s body, it was exquisitely formed and was light and moved to match the state of Zepp’s surroundings, Exo was told that he was to react to the surrounding atmosphere and morph himself into a clothing suitable for that atmosphere, it was essentially, the ultimate armour.

“Amazing, Exo, you’ve actually outmatched my expectations, well done, is it hard to stay in this form for long periods?” Zepp said as he admired his new clothing.

“No Master, I can stay in this form for as long as you wish, It’s actually more conservative than my human form and only slightly less conservative than my dematerialised state.” Exo said aloud.

“oooh~ it’s extremely strange seeing talking clothing, I’m jealous!” Malus burst out, he couldn’t help but be a little jealous of Zepp’s clothing, using his familiar he has created something even the most powerful of combatants would be jealous over, morphing clothing.

“Well now you’ve admired yourself and your familiar, let us begin the actual training, it will be different from the training you’ve received so far, once we have you comfortable in your new body we will begin magic training, I’ll warn you now, I’m a tough person to please~”

“Yes, I’ll do my best to live up to your expectations, Master.” Zepp replied.

“Ah, right, Don’t call me Master, that’s too generic, call me Senior , you are going to become a part of the Yuem, you better act like it~” Malus said playfully.

“Yes, Senior.”

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