Spirit Soul

[A/N Big thanks to Alekzi for the Magic Castle!]

While the terrifying beings Kyle had perceived earlier seemed to be in an intense discussion, he was completely oblivious to this.

Instead, he just realized how many Undead cores had he hastily thrown into the dried-up well.

'Was that too much?' Kyle wondered, before deciding to wave off his worries.

Yet, the moment he turned around, he saw that the other six Undead beings had disappeared.

Even though his Nurture ability, Kyle couldn't find them. This was weird because this had worked before.

Not knowing how long it would take before the trial would truly start, he took the silver serpent spear out of his spatial ring.

Swinging it around, Kyle tried to test all kinds of movement sequences.

He wanted to see if he could handle the spear while rapidly changing his stance, and what he had to improve on.

First, Kyle moved around as he saw fit, without actually trying to follow any kind of proper martial art technique.

Because of that, he didn't use soul force either.

Using the silver serpent spear properly was not easy, and Kye knew that he had to train a lot in order to learn how to extract the most efficiency out of it.

Spears were mostly used to thrust and stab viciously.

But it was also possible to make use of the silver serpent spear to slash in a very efficient manner, without the need to enter close combat, at that.

This was exceptionally useful, and Kyle didn't even realize how much time had passed as he tried and tested things.

It was only when he heard the loud noise of a horn being blown at a distance that made him stop his practice.

Turning towards the direction of the source of noise, Kyle's body stiffened the moment he perceived the hues of countless beings.

Licking his dry lips, he tilted his head, while Arashi, who had returned to his shoulder, did the same.

"That...is supposed to be a siege?!? More like a crowd of death…"

Arashi felt as confused as Kyle, but both of them almost instantaneously understood what was going on.

"Looks like I cranked up the difficulty a bit too high." He muttered nervously, while it seemed as if Arashi was nodding his head.

Kyle realized that he had been overly ambitious.

But at the same time, he knew that it was already too late to complain.

Fortunately, Arashi seemed to have adopted his mindset.

Instead of worrying about the past's mistakes even he had learned to focus on the present.

Nevertheless, both of them were a little bit worried because the entire horizon was filled with thousands of Undeads!

He was not sure why, but oddly enough, Kyle was able to remain relatively calm.

However, it was exactly this behavior that made him become more restless than before.

'I really am too accustomed to the sensation of death...I should leave the castle behind as soon as possible!'

Even though Kyle liked the rewards and opportunities he received from the Castle of the Undead, he did not let greed overwhelm him.

His rational mind allowed him to know that it was simply too dangerous to stay for a longer time in the castle.

It had begun to influence his mind, which was also the reason for Kyle to walk out of the center of the farmhouses.

As if he was strolling through a park, he moved ahead while looking at the masses of Undead beings that charged towards him.

According to what he saw, Kyle could clearly determine that most beasts were ordinary Skeletons, followed by Ghouls, and Ghosts.

Each of them was either at the Low, or Mid Fortification stage, which was reassuring.

However, the cultivation base of the biggest combat force was the only thing that was advantageous.

There were dozens of Black Skeletons, several hundred Zombies, Poltergeists, a Death Knight wearing a black armor, and a headless knight riding on a Nightmare horse.

The headless knight was a Dullahan. A big, dark blue flame erupted from the hollow of its neck where its head should have been.

Kyle felt the most intimidated and pressurised by the Dullahan too.

Unfortunately, the Death Knight was similarly terrifying, and this was only logical.

They were beings above the Krysal stage, after all!

Even if his mind was forcefully conditioned to the constant exposure of the death aura, Kyle couldn't help but feel intimidated.

He knew that he stood no chance against the Death Knight and Dullahan if both were to attack him.

Because of that, he subconsciously took a step back as he faced the army of the Undead.

He had already grown used to the sight of undead beings.

But, seeing so many at once was another blow to his mentality.

He knew that they would simply overrun him, the moment they reached him.

In the end, the enclosed space of the second trial couldn't be called a waste.

And if the Undead army were to push him into a corner he was certain of dying a horrible death.

However, he didn't want to die, and even if his mind tried to trick him into believing that this was the case, Kyle knew one thing for sure- he wanted to live, and keep living!

As such, he had to overcome the second trial.

It might seem impossible, but that was only the case because nobody had yet to accomplish the unthinkable.

He might as well be the first to achieve it.

And the only thing he had to do was give his best shot.

With that in mind, he took a step forward as he grasped the silver serpent spear tightly.

"Do not waste your soul force...just kill those that I miss, or when we are in danger...this battle will take long, very long."

Not knowing how long the battle would last, he gave his instructions to Arashi.

It was clear that soul force was what they would be lacking the most.

That being said, neither Arashi nor Kyle were allowed to use too much of it during the fight.

Kyle had a few ideas on what they could do.

But in order to achieve this, he required tremendous amounts of energy to supply his Nurture ability.

Without the Nurture ability, Kyle would be certain of their death.

Only because he possessed a godlike ability like this that he held his hopes high.

He saw the army of the undead in front of him, not as opponents but as an endless supply of energy to invigorate himself.

This thought boosted his confidence as he geared up to fight and claim all of their souls for himself.

Each of the Undeads had a soul, and this soul was the energy he required.

This was simple, and the more he defeated with the smallest possible energy consumption, the better his chances of survival became.

His mind was rattling with all kinds of tactics he could make use of.

But there was only one that gave Kyle the highest possible chance of survival.

Taking in a deep breath, he turned in the direction of the Ghosts that were amongst the fastest.

"Forget what I said before...use your entire soul force to kill as many Ghosts as possible in the shortest amount of time, and then...let me do the rest!"

Kyle seemed to have gained more confidence, and Arashi, who shared a distinct bond with him as his Spirit Soul, knew what he wanted to do.

It was a risky plan, but at the same time, it was the best they could do while considering their circumstances.

When he shared the details of his plan, Kyle received the consent of Arashi, only a moment later, who nodded his head vigorously.

Afterward, he used a small amount of his soul force to circulate it through his body in order to exert the Swift Steps movement technique.

At an alarming pace, he rushed towards the Ghosts without a trace of hesitation in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Arashi was already gathering the entire soul force he had accumulated within his body, ready to release it at once.

His sudden advance towards the Ghosts caused the entire army to change their direction too.

Like a horde, they turned around and began following him as if they were starving, and he was the only snack around.

Kyle noticed this, but he tried to ignore the pressure weighing him down because of the Army's actions and sounds.

This was easier said than done, but the moment he emerged in front of the biggest crowd of Ghosts, his entire mind was calm and freed of all possible burdens.

"Now!!" Kyle suddenly shouted, and it was at exactly that moment when Arashi let out a bark.

Blood was oozing out of his snot as several long rows of dozens of wind needles manifested around Kyle.

Without holding back, Arashi forced himself to exceed his limits.

He shot out all wind needles in one go as they reached a terrifying velocity, the moment they were released.

This prevented even the fastest Ghosts from evading all wind needles, which was exactly what Kyle had hoped to happen.

As such a sly smile emerged on his face, the moment he realized this.

So far, everything was going according to the plan he had quickly put together.

Barely a fraction of a second later, the Horned Tempest Fox disappeared.

It vanished within Kyle, where the Spirit Soul's real work just began!

Almost all Ghosts had been pierced through by multiple wind needles, weakening them tremendously.

Their translucent bodies were shaking violently as if fighting against death.

There were even other Undeads that had been hit and injured owing to the aftermath of the huge batch of wind needles!

Some of them succumbed to their injuries and seemed to have died already too.

The chaos caused by his wind blades caused a bright glint to appear in Kyle's emerald-colored eyes.

Wanting to finish off the rest of them, he swung around the silver serpent spear.

Enveloping the tip of the spear with a faint membrane of his wind affinity, he saw it glow lightly.

Using the enhanced tip, he slashed out, severing several Ghosts at once.

With the death of the Ghosts, their souls dispersed into countless particles.

Those particles were drawn towards Kyle, whose body acted like a natural magnet, attracting the roaming souls.

At the same time, Arashi had returned to Kyle's vessel.

​ Settling in, he began to absorb a tremendous amount of the surrounding energies that were both pure and dense.

Following that, the Spirit Soul converted the gathered energy into soul force.

Once this was done, he released it towards Kyle, who had to annex it before being able to use it.

This was the tricky part in his entire plan.

There was an abundance of soul particles all around him that he could derive from killing the numerous Ghosts.

With the help of these particles, Kyle wanted to nurture Arashi's energy absorption and conversion paths.

This would maximize the amount of soul force Kyle could receive.

The only disadvantage was that he had to actively annex the soul force once it was generated.

He could not afford to delay it in the slightest.

Because this was the only disadvantage, Kyle was relieved.

It could be seen in his relaxed facial expression as he slashed apart the weakened Ghosts.

His attack was the final straw, ending their miserable life that was filled with the thoughts of revenge, regret and agony.

Devouring their souls, he empowered the Nurture ability without hesitation.

He then distributed the accumulated energy equally on the energy gathering and energy conversion paths.

The sensation of being full of energy, only to be deprived of it a moment later made Kyle's mind dizzy.

But without even a single moment of hesitation, he continued to kill the seemingly countless Ghosts.

Weirdly enough, it took the Undead Army entire two minutes before they had encircled him.

This time was more than enough to nurture two of Arashi's paths to a great extent.

They still needed a tremendous amount of energy to be satiated, but Kyle couldn't be bothered about that right now.

Instead, the current conversion process of energy was more than enough to give Kyle a surplus of soul force.

As such, what he was lacking behind was the annexing process.

But, this only meant that he had more than enough soul force to show everyone that he was not to be taken lightly!

"Now, the real fight can begin. Let's eradicate the Army!!"