The scene moved to a stone walled room, one large enough for a jousting tournament to be held. From the equipment arrayed around, it was a training room, one that was very well stocked with weaponry and items for development.He was still with the same companion, only this time they were standing at a distance – something that gave Lars a great relief.
"Listen closely! No matter what, you must keep this secret and never, ever, ever tell anyone about it! No-one should know, not a soul! Can you promise me this…?"
"Y-yes, Hakundak, of course! You know that I"ve never spilled a single secret of yours, don"t you…?" Lars" host felt hurt at the tone of voice used and couldn"t help but retort petulantly, looking away.
Then Lars stiffened as the big man rushed over to hold his host"s hands tightly as he spoke, "No, no! That"s not what I mean, Aerol… You know I trust you more than anyone else in this world… Only…"
The man, Hakundak, pursed his lips as his eyes showed a moment of indecision, before resolve returned to his face.
"…Nevermind. Though my sect persecute me and hunt me down… Aerol, for you, I"d give it all up…! Heck, I"ve already given up everything to stay here with you and fight against the Sun Lord… What else is there to lose…?" Hakundak looked deeply into Aerol"s/ Lars" eyes, gaze filled with care and intimacy – almost making Lars puke.
Lars could feel his host"s heart fill with love as his face burned and he said a quiet "Thank you…"
Then Hakundak stood straight, releasing Aerol"s hands. He stepped back and stood, face turning serious as he seemed to channel an invisible yet familiar power.
"Listen and watch closely. I can"t afford to show this twice, lest the Sect Leader sense it and track me down… Observe…!"
He sucked in a deep breath and pressed his palms together before performing numerous complex and esoteric hand-finger seals, his elbows moving rapidly to accommodate the movements.
As he grew in momentum of his movements, his legs began to move, drawing an opposing yet parallel pattern that seemed to resonate magically with the seals his hands had weaved.
His tempo and cadence rose, growing faster and faster, higher and higher. It seemed like his steps had even left the floor without using any energy or powers at all, so great was the mysticism of the powers at this moment.
Then, the movements stopped.
As suddenly as he had begun moving, he grew still. Silent.
Hakundak stood with his two palms grasped in front of his abdomen, legs bent in a //keima// horse-stance pose.
Then his two hands began circling one another in a yin-yang pattern and then suddenly he yelled out loudly as one hand rose to point with all five fingers to the heavens while another seemed to strike the earth.
And in response, the ground shook, a tremor ran through the air and something seemed to //CRACK//.
Then, it was still again as he whispered the name of this skill as the vision faded away.
"Demon Hunting Arts Sixth Seal: Mana Seal!"
"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"D-d-d-demon, demon hunting arts!?!"
As the vision faded away and he found himself back in his all-white internal world, Lars" eyes widened into saucers as he plonked himself down onto his b.u.t.t and seated himself to focus.
"What a windfall, what an absolute windfall! //Durian runtuh//! [literally "durians collapsing/ falling" - an expression that means a windfall of profit] Who would have expected this b.l.o.o.d.y despicable world to have clues of the Demon Hunting Sect and their Arts, much less for Belic"s memories to directly gift me the Sixth Demon Hunting Seal!"
Lars forced himself to recall every moment of the memories. He sucked in a deep breath and steeled himself even as he studied every motion, minute movement and inch of Hakundak"s body while he executed the sixth seal of the Demon Hunting Arts – Mana Seal!
He even paused, rewinded, fast forwarded and swivelled the memory from every angle in order to ensure he captured absolutely everything related to his heritage of the Demon Hunters.
"Alright… Alright! Based on his movements, there should be 322 seals, 420 movements and 69 steps…" Lars nodded to himself as he reviewed the moves.
Finally, satisfied and over 99.9% confident he had captured the intent and seals, Lars shot to his feet and readied himself. And he began.
Moving precisely, he replicated Hakundak"s motions carefully and slowly. Despite his deliberate and measured movements, he was still smooth in execution thanks to his perfect memory and infinitesimal control of his body.
A little over a quarter through the seals, Lars could feel the familiar ripples of the universe resonating with his soul, letting him know that he was on the right track. Then, when he was halfway through, he begin to sense an immense flood of power, feeling as if though he was connecting to the core of the cosmos themselves.
At the 3 quarters point, his skin started to tingle and he felt his heart shaking – he could nearly see the vision of a galactic being lifting its hands in response to his actions, moving according to his will.
As he approached completion, this giant ent.i.ty flickered through s.p.a.ce and time, moving so quickly he might as well have been teleporting across entire galaxies. Then, in Lars" mental view, this invisible gargantuan cosmic ent.i.ty arrived and hovered outside the planet he was on.
Surrounding the planet were a sun and a moon, however, the sun looked strange. Instead of being a ball of gas suspended in the starry sky, it was a person"s disembodied head. The eyes were closed and the expression peaceful, but every now and then the nostrils would flare slightly as it breathed, the only sign that the head was still alive.
On the other hand, the moon was… Bizarre. It was a haphazard combination of ma.s.sive machinery and living flesh and blood, tissues fused together with the highest peaks of technology. And the key thing Lars also noticed was that it was… Purple…
With a single glance, he could tell that these represented the two major powers vying over dominion of the planet – the Sun Lord and Aerol of the Distortion.
The galactic ent.i.ty drew close to the atmosphere of the planet, his humongous size making the planet look like a gumball while the sun was just the size of his thumb. And despite his immense size and power, or perhaps, due to his great power, it appeared that he was undetected.
As the ent.i.ty searched the planet, he appeared to find what he was looking for and smiled while releasing a terrifying aura of destruction that caused the hairs on the back of Lars" neck to stand on end and his heart to stop.
Then the ent.i.ty withdrew his aura, then whispered a word that echoed in Lars" mind.
"Penjara planet... Sealed for 9,999 years… Until the coming of the one of prophecy, the final inheritor of the Demon Sealing Arts…"
"The one who will understand the true meaning of the Sixth Seal..."
The ent.i.ty"s voice sounded like the frigid cold of absolute zero winter, while at the same time overflowing with endless pa.s.sion like the fires of infinite h.e.l.ls. And this voice… Was familiar.
It was the voice that had whispered in his heart the words Ignus Exeneratus and Acies – the voice of Insight.
"The voice of Insight…? Is it… The same presence that I encountered when cultivating Earth Pulse…?" Lars furrowed his brows as he experienced the vision.
Having frozen in place when he saw the being smile at him, he gulped, then decided that if the being wished to eliminate him, it would have done so already.
Gritting his teeth, Lars sucked in a breath of air and resolved himself to finish the sixth seal – Mana Seal!
As he completed the seals and stood in the keima position with one palm cleaving the heavens and the other slicing apart the ground, the great ent.i.ty smiled at him gently from outside the planet.
Then apparently from nowhere, great streams of blue astral winds began to gather from the hundreds of millions of kilometres around Penjara planet, congregating to form a vortex around the planet – still unnoticed by the Sun Lord and Lord Aerol.
After what felt like minutes of the blue vortex growing thicker and thicker and circling the planet, finally the blue streams of mana stopped. However, the vortex only grew more violent and suddenly turned into a funnel descending…
Right where Fetch homestead had been.
"!!!!!"
Lars tried to respond, to raise his defences, to rise to his feet and protect himself, but all this happened too fast.
Before he could even exit the vision and his mental world, the concentrated mana of a star system had arrived before him and struck him in the forehead.
As his consciousness faded, Lars felt the ground, earth, sky and seas churn, rumbling as the 9,999 years of sealed mana was concentrated into his mana core.