Isis chuckled lightly in response, "We'll get there, Finn. But for now let's focus on the basics of the basics."
Isis continued, going further in explaining common knowledge and standard practices of the Ossuarist world to Finn, expanding his knowledge base.
The class went on for the rest of the morning, and even past midday. But Finn had no issues with it. He was fully immersed in the knowledge Isis was giving to him, so much so that he hadn't even heard the footsteps of a newcomer as they silently entered the classroom he and Isis were in.
"Oh. Althy… you're here already?" Isis noticed the person first, then took a glance outside the window to gauge the time. "I didn't even realize we had used so much time."
Finn, also snapping out of his prior attentive state, turned to look at the newcomer.
It was a girl, probably around his age, maybe slightly younger. She had pale grey eyes that stood out against her near-purple colored hair, the same as her eyebrows and eyelashes. She was the second person Finn had seen with such brightly colored hair, he couldn't even tell if it was natural or dyed.
The girl was slightly above the average height for a woman, but Finn reckoned he'd stand taller than her if they stood side by side.
Her gaze was locked on Finn in observation just as he also observed her, but hers was more 'calculative.' She gave Finn the feeling like she was measuring his worth, his threat level, the danger he could pose in a fight. Finn would've felt flattered by the attention if it weren't for the fact that he got a threatening feeling just by looking at her.
She's dangerous. He thought, before smoothly turning to face the front again.
"Were you able to get it, Althy?" Isis asked the girl, who nodded curtly and walked up to meet Isis.
"Father was surprisingly easy-going about it," she shrugged, setting a weird looking container down on the table before Isis.
"Oh yeah, Finn. This is Althea. Althea Seneschal. She was my junior back when I was still in this school…" Isis quickly introduced, while mainly focused on the container Althea had dropped.
Finn and the girl exchanged formalities stiffly, before Finn refocused his attention on the container.
"So what's this?" He asked curiously. He could feel a vague attraction towards what was inside, so he really wanted to know.
"Well, you said you wanted to know how to purge chaotic soul masses, right—?" Isis took the lid off the container carefully, exposing its contents. "—the best way to learn that is practically."
An actual chaotic soul mass?! Finn's brow tilted up in surprise as he observed what lay before his eyes. Inside the container was a simple, plain-looking metal bar. Besides the exquisite inscriptions etched onto the metal, it looked just like any other you could find on the street.
The main difference between this and those was that he could feel an intense pull and attraction towards this metal bar. Like an urge to assert dominance… as though he was being… challenged? By a metal bar?
Isis chuckled, watching the changing expressions on Finn's face. "No need to feel conflicted or confused. It's a normal feeling for every Ossuarist… and all Soul Mages in general."
"If it were an Arcanist in here, instead of the attraction you're feeling towards this, they will feel an intense repulsion and natural desire to stay as far away from this as possible…" Isis explained. "This is an E-Grade chaotic soul mass embedded into an artifact by a skilled Ossuarist. You are going to purge this yourself."
"Nice." Finn's eyes lit up in anticipation. Finally, some practicals. It wasn't like he'd been bored of his and Isis' talks about standard Ossuarist practices all day, it was just the natural eagerness to get his hands dirty.
"I won't offer you any tips or guides. Just do what feels natural, but make sure you purge it." Isis walked to the side, same as Althea. They both silently watched as Finn took prime position in front of the metal bar, breathing out slowly as he calmed his mind.
Okay… What do I naturally know about soul masses and how to purge them?
Isis hadn't one-for-one told him how to purge chaotic soul masses. But from all her general teachings throughout the day, he already knew the driving force behind a purge was his superior soul strength as an Ossuarist.
He needed to use his domineering soul to force out the soul essence that had merged with mana and created this new volatile thing called a chaotic soul mass.
First, he calmed his mind, then placed a hand on the metal bar, with his eyes shut tight in concentration. He tried to focus and pinpoint only the soul essence within the chaotic mass, but it proved extremely difficult.
For starters, the soul mass wasn't his to command, as it was not bound to him, so it remained as chaotic as could possibly be, naturally rejecting every probe Finn sent its way.
Second, even if he could somehow get past the extreme, untamed volatility of the soul mass, then he still had to face the fact that the dead soul essence was so intertwined with mana already, knit tightly on a scale forged over years and years of repeated casting during the soul's lifetime, that it was near impossible for Finn to go about it the way he started.
So he stopped and took a step back to reassess.
This method is wrong. I can't separate the two and target only the soul essence itself. He shook his head, frowning. He needed to stop thinking about them as two separate things. A chaotic soul mass was a whole different thing on its own.
It wasn't mana exactly, and neither was it just a soul.
Immediately that clarity came to his mind, he felt kind of embarrassed. In his bid to succeed in this test, he'd gone too far in overanalyzing when all he could have simply done right from the start was… brute-forcing!
He raised a hand, and 'forced' — or more aptly, 'congealed' — his domineering soul as though it was a physical thing. He could almost visually see it pressing forward as he placed his hand on the metal bar.
It burned through the E-Grade chaotic soul mass in a show of pure might, purging the entirety of it within a few seconds.
"Whew…" Finn let out a breath after feeling the last bit of essence destroyed. He knew he had succeeded when he noticed he no longer felt the trace of anything left within the metal bar. Based on Isis' explanations, that meant all that was left was mana. And since mana wasn't within their sensory range…
"Seven seconds…" Isis clapped lightly with a baffled expression, looking at Finn through new eyes yet again. "That is so not normal, Finn. You're very talented at this…"
"Really?" He turned, rubbing the back of his neck nervously at the praise.
"What you just did was a Formless Purge," Isis explained. "Usually it can only be done on low grade soul masses like this one. And even then, usually not within seven seconds like you just did. The average Ossuarist would take nothing less than three full minutes to do the same."
"Really?" Finn's brows shot up at the huge difference. Was he really that talented?
The other girl — Althea — who stood watching without speaking since, suddenly stepped forward with an unreadable expression on her face. She pulled out another container from her bag, before speaking in a measured tone, "I guess this is why father asked me to bring this along?"
She placed it atop the table too, this one more heavy than the last.
"A C-Grade soul mass?!" Isis yelled in surprise. The headmaster had truly allowed Finn access to a C-Grade soul mass just like that?!