Spirit Soul

The moment Kyle instinctively shouted those words at Selene, his entire body, including his eyes were tightly sealed.

Even if he didn't know what was going on, he had a distinct feeling that his entire being was being dragged somewhere.

A lot of unexpected things happened in an extremely short period making him feel extremely confused.

Despite being pulled away from the Jars, Selene and Gaby, Kyle's mind was eerily calm.

This unexpected composure caused goosebumps to erupt all over his body.

'How the hell am I so calm right now?' He wondered.

It was then that he tried to recall everything that had happened recently.

All-in-all, the three kingdoms, and the Guild had grossly messed up in taking care of the unique flower, causing the current state.

In fact, he and the others were only alive because of the golden glowing black scale that had protected them.

It had the conscience of the mysterious woman sealed within.

This was already weird, but Kyle was rather glad about how things had turned out.

To him, the most important thing was that they had escaped a disaster, unscathed at that.

His injury on the right side had already fully healed owing to the heavenly phenomena.

Thus, he didn't have to fear that the mysterious woman would harm him.

If Kyle had read the emotions in the woman's voice correctly, she sounded charming and delighted.

Though she had been happy to have found a new toy, there had also been a trace of relief in her tone.

As such, Kyle didn't think that something extremely bad was about to happen to him.

The comment about him entertaining her was also something Kyle couldn't take seriously.

He believed that she was just being a little cheeky and made that up.

There was the possibility that everything he felt was wrong, and that his senses were deceiving him. But that didn't matter because the others were safe!

Now, the dangers had passed and there was nothing that could seriously hurt the others anymore.

Fortunately, the small Tenux cloud didn't obliterate them.

Additionally, the entire energy of the mysterious woman had been used up to transport him wherever he was being taken

Owing to his Nurture ability, Kyle had seen the faint traces of energy.

They were glimmering within the black scale that had dispersed just as his body was sealed.

As such, he felt relieved and thankful to the mysterious woman who had protected them.

Even if it was the barrier's automatic reaction in response to the occurrence of an anomaly, ultimately she had been a part of it.

All of that didn't matter, and in the end, only the result mattered to Kyle.

'I will find you, Selene!' He thought with determination.

Clenching his fists, he motivated himself to overcome every obstacle that would emerge in front of him.

There was no use crying over spilled milk and thinking about what could have happened.

Thus, Kyle simply awaited the next miraculous event that was bound to happen.

He was clueless about where he was or how much time had passed.

Even though he looked around, there was no sign or indicator to give him even the faintest idea of his current location.

Thus, the only thing he could do was to wait patiently.

It was only fortunate that his conscience could enter the depths of his body.

This allowed him to do many more things than one could assume.

One of the things he was capable of while being unable to move his body was to comprehend the essence of the wind.

From what he sensed, the remnants of the heavenly phenomena were still lingering around him.

This gave him the chance to understand much more of the wind's essence than he would otherwise have.

Thus, he grasped the opportunity tightly, making use of it as long as it was possible.

Kyle only threw a sole glance towards Arashi's white shroud, indicating that his evolution was bound to be completed soon.

He then returned his attention to the wind affinity seed.

It was slowly growing, and would soon reach the development degree Arashi's current wind affinity seed had.

However, his smile vanished when he realized that his Spirit Soul would get an upper hand over him again.

Arashi would receive a drastic enhancement the moment the evolution was completed.

It was then that he realized yet again that his comprehension would still be too low.

Because of that, he had to comprehend as much as possible.

He needed to decrease the gap between his own comprehension and the degree at which Arashi's wind affinity would be enhanced.

With his entire body still tightly sealed, Kyle couldn't move.

All he could do was dart his eyes around but even that gave him no clue of his current whereabouts.

Hence, he averted his entire focus to the wind affinity seed and his comprehension of the wind's essence.

Owing to this, several days passed without his knowledge.

One such day, he noticed movement in the white shroud that was enveloping Arashi.

It began to tremble a little, pulling Kyle out of the trance he had entered.

Arashi still required some time to finish evolving, but it was slowly nearing the end.

However, the moment Kyle regained his senses, he felt something that caused him to smile lightly.

'I can move my body!!'

The heavenly phenomena's effects had long since ceased to exist, but even after that, he had been unable to move.

Fortunately, this had now changed and he could slowly move his fingers, toes, and mouth.

His eyelids were still heavy but after some time Kyle was able to open his eyes.

Yet, what he saw astonished him because he seemed to be enveloped by thick fog.

Unable to see anything beyond a meter from him, he was unsure whether or not he should be happy about the location the mysterious woman had teleported him to.

'Is that the location where she wants to be entertained by me? What a weirdo…' Kyle wondered. He patiently waited to regain control over his entire body.

This didn't take too long, and once he could finally move again, he immediately felt that his feet were wet.

Looking down, he noticed that he was standing in a swamp or something similar.

This made Kyle turn even more vigilant than he already was.

Because his combat prowess was of no use to fight almost any kind of beast, he inserted all of his soul force into his Nurture ability.

With faintly glowing eyes, he looked around, trying to see what lay behind the thick fog.

Through his Nurture ability, it was not difficult to gauge the position of beasts five meters around him.

This gave him more than enough time to react.

Every single being seemed to be asleep or hibernating inside the swamp which was an advantage.

And, by moving around as silently as possible, he moved in the direction that seemed the least dangerous.

Using his Nurture ability like a compass, Kyle moved around as if he was in a maze.

He was walking on eggshells and every single step cost him precious time.

But that was a must to avoid the unmoving beasts as well as the lotuses, and other plants inside the swamp.

Not knowing what kinds of dangers the plants might harbor, he didn't even dare to near them so as to not accidentally touch them.

Kyle knew of more than enough plants that could emit sounds, a unique scent, or used other means to attract the attention of beasts upon being touched.

As such, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Hours flew by, and Kyle's soul force had already replenished.

It was a clear indicator that the surrounding energy was much purer and denser than that of the Sadorla forest.

He was not sure how far he was from Selene and the others, but the distance had to be huge.

The density of each of the three energies was vast.

The vast and pure energy currents swept through his body at a consistent pace and he felt oddly invigorated.

But what surprised him was the absence of intelligent races.

Not a single one was around despite the availability of dense energy that should attract hordes of beasts.

In the beginning, Kyle had hoped that he was still in the kingdoms adjacent to the Sadorla forest, but that seemed to be wrong.

Thus, he could only comprehend that he had been dragged further away than initially expected.

Yet, what he was thinking had been completely wrong!

Kyle was neither far away, nor near the Sadorla forest.

He couldn't simply walk towards the Jars nor did he have any idea of how to leave the place.

Oblivious to the mysteriousness of the place he had entered, he continued to walk ahead.

He was trying to find a place far away from the swamp.

One that was without any beasts, devoid of water that reached up to his knees or the fog that blocked his sight.

While he walked ahead, the level of water began to increase, reaching his thighs.

He was sinking deeper into the water with every step.

Meanwhile, Kyle utilized his wind affinity, trying to use the things he had comprehended on his own.

Understanding the wind affinity and executing it with the acquired knowledge were two completely different things.

The former had already been difficult, but using the wind affinity with absolute control was near impossible without practice.

He was consistently manifesting small whirls of wind next to him while moving them at the same time.

Kyle had been so engrossed in the act that he stepped into a hole in the muddy ground.

The brownish water had made him unable to avoid it.

Because of that, he almost tripped but regained his balance a moment before he would have fallen into the water.

Sighing in relief, Kyle got up again as he paid attention to where he stepped next.

Yet, at the same time, he was unable to ignore practicing his wind affinity.

As such, he manifested a single wind whirl which he simply maintained without doing anything else.

While maintaining this state for as long as possible, Kyle noticed that this was a really good way to train his subconscious and improve his multi-tasking skills.

Increasing the difficulty by conjuring more wind whirls, or increasing the finger-sized whirl's size was his next goal.

Just as he wanted to do this, he perceived something through the Nurture ability's help that made him smile brightly.

After being separated from Selene, he realized how important she had become to him.

However, he was certain that they would reunite soon.

His gut feeling told him that this was not how they would part ways forever..

Nevertheless, Kyle also knew that Selene would grow independent without him as long as she didn't give up on herself.

This was great, and he felt relieved and overjoyed, just by the thought of it.

Yet, what caused him to smile right now was not the thought of Selene.

He was surrounded by an abundance of grass and other plants he had seen through the Nurture ability.

With a few more steps taken, Kyle could now see the piece of land with his bare eyes too.

Slowly, he dragged himself ahead, pulling his legs out of the deep mud.

It had enveloped his feet up to his calves.

Half a day, if not longer, must have passed since he had been walking through the foggy swamp.

And, tackling the muddy water was extremely exhausting.

He had already grown weary after walking for half an hour.

But, by forcing himself not to stop in a dangerous area, Kyle had gotten himself into a much better position.

It had made him feel dead tired and overly exhausted, but he didn't encounter any beasts that would have torn him apart at any moment.

With that thought in mind, he looked out for the first tree he could find and walked towards it.

After crossing the swamp and reaching the tree, he leaned against it before slumping to the ground.

His exhaustion vanished the moment he used the Nurture ability on himself.

He felt strength return in his legs and entire body, barely giving him enough energy to wonder how the others were faring.

How could he have known that Selene was extremely devastated ever since they had separated?

For the last few days, she had been blank and absent-minded.

She had cried her eyes out and had puffy eyes.

It was only after days that she began to smile again, the moment Kyle had arrived in the foggy swamp.

Whether it was her gut feeling or something different Selene didn't know, but she was sure that Kyle was fine, and that was the most important for her.

It was as if she had been revived from the dead just like that, without any earlier signs.

Unbeknownst to the others who were still perplexed about the multiple miraculous, yet also terrifying events that had happened just in a few days she knew one thing for sure.

'He will find me… I am sure about that!!'