Alan shook his head. "Nothing interesting from me... It's all been my spell I've been working on. Quite boring really..."
Ethan also gave a negative reply. While he could have used this opportunity to ask questions, the ones he had were too revealing, likely to prompt questions about *why* he needed such information.
Gwain simply nodded. A moment later, Ria and her staff entered, efficiently serving the steaming breakfast before withdrawing.
A few minutes later, Kaelen appeared, his hair unkempt and his expression weary. He fell into his seat with a heavy sigh. Gwain, Ethan, and Alan remained silent, sensing the tension in this moment.
After a tense pause, he looked up, his voice heavy. "I might have been wrong."
The statement made everyone frown, leaning in to hear his next words.
"It seems the demons and the other races also felt the shift in fate. No... from what I saw, they definitely know more than we do."
"Prepare yourselves; we will perform both awakening ceremonies today. I fear the Human Domain is not as prepared as it should be for what's coming."
Once Kaelen finished speaking, Gwain was the first to speak. "The Order? Don't they know anything?" As a Rank 4 ascendant, he still wasn't part of the order council.
Kaelen shook his head weakly. "Unfortunately, they are just as clueless. The demons went to great lengths to conceal their preparations.... But with Ethan needing a Rank 3 soul crystal, I had to venture into the Nether myself to acquire one. That's when I stumbled upon their army. I don't know their target, but if something can impose order on the chaos of the Nether, it's the Demon Lords themselves. It's the same situation with the other races, they know something and, I fear we are all unprepared in the human domain."
Ethan and Alan listened, the topic far beyond their rank, but their status as students granted them this terrifying information. Ethan was particularly stunned. His master had ventured into the Nether realm for an ingredient for *his* awakening. The gratitude he felt was immense; if such a resource was this difficult for a Rank 5 ascendant to obtain, he would have had zero chance of acquiring it in the next fifty years.
"I'll be on the tenth floor. You will all join me after your meal."
"Yes, Master," they chorused, recognizing his seriousness.
Ethan and Alan couldn't fully grasp their master's paranoia, but Gwain understood. In his long life, he had seen his master truly flustered only a handful of times, but never to the point of neglecting his appearance in front of others.
"Gwain, come with me. You will prepare the elemental bath for Alan while I prepare for Ethan."
Gwain nodded.
"Tower Spirit, to the tenth floor. Bring Gwain with me."
A flash of light consumed them, and they vanished.
Ethan and Alan quickly swallowed their food and headed for the stairs as soon as they were done.
Reaching the tenth floor under the guidance of the tower spirit, they entered a vast, laboratory-like hall filled with blood samples and liquids in strange containers.
In the center, Master Kaelen was carefully pouring a blue liquid onto the floor, where it solidified into the intricate lines of a magic circle with four circular grooves at each point.
Across the room, Gwain had his own task. He stood shirtless, stirring a huge, bubbling drum of red liquid.
Alan spoke as if in a trance. "My entire body is telling me to drink what's in that drum."
Gwain heard him and stopped stirring. "Finally, you're here. Take your clothes off and step in."
Alan's voice was barely audible. "Everything?"
"Yes, everything. The awakening solution requires direct skin contact for proper absorption. So, take it all off. Everything."
At that moment, a laugh escaped Ethan's lips. "Pftttt."
Alan glared back but ignored him. He knew why Ethan was laughing; he was very private and believed only a lady should see him undressed. Now, he had to strip completely in front of three men.
Ethan didn't look away, determined to make his friend as uncomfortable as possible.
Just then, Master Kaelen's voice cut through. "Ethan, it's ready. Take your shirt off and sit in the circle."
Ethan immediately stiffened as he smirked at Alan, He was going to escape this time. He walked over, removing his black shirt, and looked at the magic circle. "Master, is this a magic circle?"
Kaelen didn't pause as he placed rough, faded, large blue stones—almost white—into the grooves. "This is an ancient magic circle," he confirmed, his focus absolute. "It works only with soul energy." Ethan, from the conversation earlier, was able to identify the stones as the soul stones with soul energy needed for the circle to work.
Kaelen turned to Gwain, who was across the room, about to guide Alan through his awakening. "I'm about to begin here. If anything goes wrong, instruct the Tower Spirit to turn off the barrier separating the room."
Gwain gave a firm nod without lifting his head from the solution he was preparing. "Yes, Sir."
Kaelen moved to stand behind Ethan. "Tower Spirit, secure the room and focus all advanced concealment circles in the tower on this floor—I don't want anyone sensing what's going on here. Erect a sound barrier across the middle of the room, and increase the energy level on this floor by 0.5 percent."
The Tower Spirit's robotic voice echoed in the chamber. "Yes, Tower Master. Advanced concealing circle deployed. Sound barrier is active. Tower energy consumption has increased by 2 percent."
Ethan, hearing the commands, was intensely curious to activate his Elemental Eyes and witness the flow of energy within an *advanced* concealment circle, but he restrained himself.
"You need to calm your mind, Ethan," Kaelen instructed, his voice steadying. "The Soul Body awakening is not complicated or as physically painful as the Elemental Body's. Your only task is to remain conscious. If you pass out, the procedure will end, and you will never be able to awaken your soulbody again. The circle will purify the soul energy and channel it into your soul. All you must do is endure and hold on until your soul absorbs enough energy to awaken your soulbody."
Ethan nodded, bracing himself. He was no stranger to pain from his soul, having repeatedly trained to the point of exhaustion, pushing the very limits of his soul energy until it felt like he was being torn apart from the inside. That brutal regimen was the only reason he could manipulate soul energy at all.
"Okay, take a deep breath now and focus on staying awake."
Kaelen placed the final soul crystal into the empty groove and stepped back. He was careful not to use his own soul energy in the room; If he did, the circle would drain him dry. This was an Ancient Soul Circle, a relic of a nearly extinct race in Talruy. Humanity, in its relentless pursuit of power, had stolen the very ritual these non-corporeal beings used to awaken the soul body of their newborns.
At first, Ethan felt nothing more than a minor cold giving him goosebumps as the purified soul energy made contact with his soul.
Then, like a profound thirst awakened within his soul, it began to absorb all the purified soul energy. Just as he began to feel a sense of satiation, the energy was slowly siphoned away, pulled toward a point in his forehead.
He fought the urge to say something to his master about this development right away.
He observed, horrified, as the speed of the energy that was drained began to outpace the absorption.
Suddenly, a deep cold set in, followed by an overwhelming drowsiness—It felt like a sweet lullaby promising the most perfect rest he could ever imagine. He was on the verge of surrendering when he noticed something, a faint outline was forming at the point of the drain on his forehead.
He couldn't make out its shape at the moment, but he started counting, as a desperate tactic to maintain his grip on consciousness as he felt like he was standing without clothes in a blizzard, It got increasingly hard to breathe with each passing moment.
Meanwhile, on the outside, Kaelen watched, shocked to his core. Ethan had already consumed four Rank 2 soul crystals in the first five hours.
At first, he was worried that something was wrong when the awakening stretched into 5 hours. A normal soul awakening should only take 2 or 3 hours at most, but when he saw the energy within the first 4 crystals deplete at an alarming rate, he knew that as long as the circle was working, hope wasn't lost.
When Kaelen had undergone his own awakening, he had used four rank 1 soul crystals. Ethan was on track to consume 8 rank 2 soul crystals, explaining his shock.
Meanwhile, Alan sat cross-legged in an empty drum that was filled with bubbling red liquid, his body now more toned, his hair slightly longer. Faint arcs of lightning of varying thickness crackled across his skin, creating a constant, low static hum.
Behind him, Gwain stood with his hands pressed to Alan's back, helping him, using his will against the ferocious consciousness within the Rank 3 Lightning Qilin blood.
Meanwhile, within Alan's mental space, Alan was running for his life. Unarmed and unable to access the runes inscribed on his body, he was at a severe disadvantage. Thankfully, the beast chasing him was also relying on physical strength, but with each blow he received from it, he received a stunning jolt of lightning that he couldn't defend against. He had to run before he became a roasted lunch for the lightning beast.
Using a forest-like terrain to slow the creature, Alan knew his time was running out. If he didn't find a way to turn the tables soon, his awakening would end in catastrophic failure as the will of the beast would consume him instead of the other way around.