"Though-"
"Caelus!!!"
Turning to the side, he looked at Elysia approaching. Blinking once, he put his finger out, stopping her from continuing to walk forward. Elysia, on the other hand, bumped into his finger, though not hurt, she stopped and stepped back. "Owwww."
"Maybe don’t run at me, I don’t want you jumping on me and my tail hurting you." A sigh of annoyance as he looked at her. "You came here because you wanted to do the spar, right?"
Tellus, who was about to leave, paused, turning back, her eyes widened.
"Yup! I want to learn how to actually fight, though, uh, Kiana doesn’t wish to do that, and no one else wanted to either. Are you ready? We can go to where Lady Theresia usually trains!"
"...Sure, might as well since I doubt she’d want to hit you by accident." Caelus watched her grab his hand and teleport with him. Her Mana was almost as big as his despite being at a realm below him, but maybe it was just some gift she had.
The pressure in the place changed; two ladies sat on chairs, their size making it look more royal, which Caelus assumed were some of the Holy Mothers, but he wouldn’t bother. "Not gonna talk with them, not risking anything."
Next to him, a rift floated in the air, unlike the one he had gone into before, which had grown fast; this one was different, a bit calmer. Walking side by side, Elysia let go of his hand, and she followed right after.
Once inside the rift, the entire place changed to a completely different world. Literally, looking outside, he noticed a nearby star burning brightly; it was a similar ’color’ to the one from Earth, so it was younger than the one his planet orbited now.
Moving away, Elysia assumed a fighting stance, smiling as she held a staff, her eyes filled with pure excitement. "Come on, let’s get started!"
"Alright, just give it a second." Turning towards her, Caelus waited for her to move first, slowing himself down so she wouldn’t be moving too slow against him. He also tuned his strength so it wouldn’t instantly vaporize her body.
Rushing in, Elysia punched his chest, only to release a blast behind him, which launched him back towards her, which she used to send a kick right to his ribcage, or where it would be, sending him flying to the side.
"Okay, she’s using techniques, maybe I should as well."
Rolling in the air he pushed himself up and stood upright, to which she gave him no time to react, though, right then Caelus’s tail swung, wrapping around her chest and throwing her up, only then Caelus pulled his punch back, using Mana he pulled her in by increasing the gravity of his hand enough that she would be pulled by it instead of the planet. Though localized, it didn’t pull the planet as well, though he didn’t assume it could.
Sending his hand forward, his hand slammed right into her head, throwing her farther back up.
Her eyes burned bright as she spun and shifted her body mid-air, sending herself down. She used Mana to make her body flicker, only to become ghostlike, leaving no thermal reading and no way for Caelus to see her skeleton or organs. Shifting her body once more, she landed right next to him.
Turning to Elysia, who was now visible, Caelus pointed his hand and sent out a Rend point-blank at her. Though-
"RETURN!"
Instead of simply turning his attack back, she had made it spin and fly up, though due to the properties Caelus put on it, the Rend locked into his position, having turned it into her own attack. Additionally, the attack’s power was triple its previous output.
Jumping back, Caelus sent out a few more of his Rend, though this time with more power and more precision, having held himself back because he didn’t want to hurt her too much in a spar.
"Though, since she’s willing to go this far, might as well keep up with her."
Turning to the left, his tail gripped her leg; his Rends flew back as she used her teleportation to be next to him. The Rend she returned flew into Caelus, and, using this momentum, he was launched into the air.
However, he grabbed her hand just before being sent flying, and she moved her other hand to grab his hand and let go of his grip, though he held tight, being pulled up with him. She was thrown abruptly into the atmosphere. Trying to regain her balance in the air-
Caelus teleported right ahead of the trajectory, grabbing her head as he came back down to the ground.
"Okay, I think this is enough for right now. You’ve grown incredibly fast compared to anyone else I’ve at least fought. But I still need to make time to get better at Alchemy."
"Please, can we continue?, I wanna fight more!"
"Not right now, Elysia. Even then, I doubt Theresia would like it since she’s been watching the fight the entire time."
"Nice that you noticed Caelus, and honestly, what do you mean by how much she’s grown? I thought this was her start?"
"Well, it is, but also she started with a single technique I taught her a day ago, she got two more techniques she’s shown, and probably one more she hasn’t."
Theresia paused, ready to reply, only to realize. "Hm, she’s grown fast, this is way too abnormal for a normal cultivator... Unless Elysia has some sort of Foundation, which makes her more powerful."
"I see, well, what type of Foundation does she have?"
"It’s called the Crystalized Foundation; it isn’t known because I invented it technically, but it’s incredibly good for cultivation starting though." A white lie, perfect for this, because Caelus did not want to give a Holy Mother the Supreme Foundation at all.
"Ah, that one, yes, it’s not really invented by you, though you haven’t seen anyone with it, but it’s about as good as one like a Dual Core Foundation, though still it doesn’t match the one Nyx has."
"My Apologies then, I didn’t mean to say I invented I-"
"Caelusss, can you let go of my head now?" Pouting once, she dropped to the ground, turning to him and punching him in the chest once, though with full Force.
"OW, okay, sorry, I didn’t mean to, I got distracted talking, you know."
"Hmph."
"Well, I’ll get going then, though, I need to start with Alchemy." Caelus walked past Elysia, reaching Theresia. Staring at her for a moment, he looked away, leaving the rift and feeling the air once more. It felt weird, especially because the other planet was devoid of air or ’oxygen’ due to having a thin, almost non-existent atmosphere.
Teleporting to the entrance of the Alchemist Association’s building, he went inside. At the bottom of the building, he took a dense book, holding it up as he read the name. ’Formulas for Pills’
Looking through it, he instantly flipped to the page that would help during a battle. "I won’t use it as much unless I need to, only during dire situations, I guess."
Reading through the book for at least fifteen minutes, he’d kept the memory of each of the pills in his mind. Closing the book, he put it down, flying up to the third floor, and he landed, noticing fewer people here. "Ah, yeah, cultivation is slower; it must be weird that I’m here."
Taking a bunch of items, he’d put them down on the counter, letting the receptionist see them all, though not getting attacked, which was already better than before. After paying, Caelus walked to the area where people made pills. He quickly went to the first one, noticing the cauldron looked much better. He passed it off as the place just making the place better.
Sitting down, crossing his legs, his tail curled up in a circle, since he didn’t want to get his tail stepped on, especially since the lower bit of the entrance was cut off, probably for airflow.
One breath in, one breath out, Caelus took out a few of the ingredients...
[Ten. Hours. Later]
[Caelusss, I got a new quest for you- Oh wow, you really burnt yourself out, didn’t you?]
Having finished all the pills, Caelus was lying down in one of the tavern’s rooms, since it was also an Inn as well. Or whatever an Inn was in a world like this. However, Caelus was absolutely done with doing anything. "I have infinite stamina, and I still won’t make myself do too much at a time, wow. I wonder how Nyx gets any cultivating done."
"Oh, Hi Aphro, I’m tired, yes, I did. Stop talking."
[Seven days of making a technique didn’t tire you out, but this does, how ironic. Well, good rest~]
"Oh, look who’s watching me. I wonder who sent you. It totally couldn’t be the Yun Clan." Caelus rolled to the side, looking up as whoever was next to him shifted back, just from his moving once.
"The Yun Clan has sent me, and this shall be where you die. You are only of the Virtuoso Realm while I am at Soul Formatio-" Her voice rough, though still feminine, it wasn’t hard to tell they were a lady.
"Okay, no, I already knew they’d have someone stronger." Caelus grabbed the person’s hand and teleported them to the Marou Dynasty, wanting at least some rest and not wanting to deal with a problem like this.
Turning back, Caelus’s tail sprawled across the floor.
[Two hours later]
"Alright, so they aren’t back yet, and they aren’t waiting outside... So what are they even doing?"
Caelus spoke to himself, confused about why the Assassin didn’t come back, but it wasn’t much of a bother; he was still unwilling to do basically anything because there was nothing left TO do. It was just roaming around, and that was about it.
Getting up from the bed, Caelus left the room and went to the Tavern area. He sat down on one of the chairs near the counter, looking at the masses here, who weren’t drinking much Alcohol but instead drinking what he assumed was tea, though it could be hot chocolate.
He wouldn’t just jump to conclusions. Closing his eyes, he moved his head back, though still aware of his surroundings.
"Hello, sir, would you like something to drink?"
"No, I’m just gonna be sitting here." Sighing once, Caelus remembered he was still nineteen, though his body was physically older; he could have Alcohol, but he didn’t really like the smell before, so it was better if he didn’t. However, the smell of people’s bad odor was still evident.
"Well, just inform me or tap the table once if you do wish to order." Walking away, he went to the back to look for something.
Caelus, looking back, noticed the huge amount of Alcohol mounted to the wall. "Ah, they’re drinking this only because it’s winter, I doubt they’d drink this the rest of these seasons."
Hearing new footsteps, something like a cultivator’s, different from normal people’s, due to it being coated with Mana, making it incredibly obvious it was a cultivator, aside from their Mana fluctuation being weak. Hence controlled.
Opening his Eyes, it was Sol, and two other guys, as they went to the table, and sat without noticing him. He didn’t want them to anyway, so he went back to closing his eyes.
"Ugh, okay, I need to find something to do, I can’t just... Stay around and talk to people. Right?"
He’d forgotten that he didn’t need to work all day. Being used to that place he’d been to for high school, he’d assumed that was how it worked everywhere; he could just... Rest. He didn’t need to keep his mind full or feel wrong about that. It was just alien to a world like this.