Aimless Ascension



Gale could move around in the secret lair with a little pain, but he was ill at ease finding what was transpiring outside. First of all, the natural energy density was raised to a tremendous degree, easily competing against any spirit art holy land.

That was where the good things ended. The all-encompassing darkness seemed to bring rather a high discontentment among all the dwellers of this land. Wild beasts or spirit animals have been clamouring since it started. It didn't seem it would change any time soon.

Also, the higher energy density would affect the spirit beasts more than they could handle. Some of them might be able to handle it and advance to the next rank, but most of them would die soon at this rate. That's not a good thing for natural balance.

Somehow Gale felt himself being the culprit of all this. Well, he had brought down the storm, and also created the spatial detonation, which seemed to be the main catalysts of this change.

The spatial laws of the surroundings seemed to have been altered as well, it was more unstable. Gale found he could open the Void lock barely putting any effort, the Qi usage decreased by a significant portion as well. Currently, Gale would need only about a tenth of what he usually needed to open the portal.

Sadly, he couldn't do anything about it at the state he was currently at. Well, Maya went to look, so in the meantime, he would use the time to heal up well.

And what better way to do it than bonding with one of the most potent fate locks created for self-regeneration and healing?

Gale juggled the radiant fate lock bead from one palm to another as he crept to the cultivation chamber, Xiaolin trailing behind with a sombre look on her face.

"I guess the high mana density would make things easier," Gale muttered as he activated many of the script constructs. The room lit up as a thick blanket of energy encompassed the chamber. That wasn't all, Gale prepared other constructs to go through the ritual of bonding the fate lock.

"It would have been much easier if Maya was here," Gale said as he turned to Xiaolin. "I fear you have to go out of this chamber now. Your mind won't survive the ritual I set up here."

Xiaolin nodded easily to agree, but the sombre expression never left her face. "What is the ritual?"

"It is not that difficult, I think, just that I will have a migraine for a long time with this," Gale said. "What I have to do is pretty simple, I have to spend a large amount of time in the blinding light this fate core emits. Sounds pretty simple right?"

Xiaolin didn't know what to say. It sounded pretty straightforward, but she heard the fate core was created from the gem heart of one of the Celestial Radiance's angelic figures. Straight forward didn't necessarily imply it would be easy.

"I'll be fine," Gale told her, finding her anxiety rising. "The worst that can happen is that I wound up blind, but that can be solved with some care."

Xiaolin bit her lips. Gale came forward and hugged her, after exchanging a short kiss on her lips, he sent her out of the chamber.

Without further ado, Gale sat cross-legged in the centre of the chamber with the fate lock bead in his hand. The familiar presence of Saarya ticked on the back of his mind, providing him with enough confidence as she would help him out if anything went wrong.

Gale waited no more after he calmed his heart and spirit. He formed his Qi into a corporeal sting and pierced the bead, activating the bonding process.

With the contact of his Qi, the bead flew out of his hand to hover in mid-air, surging in storming light energy.

Gale braced himself, as cracks started to appear on the bread.

[Hmm, interesting,] Saarya said in his mind. [Although healing was the main function of this core, it wasn't necessarily all its features.]

"It will also provide light attribute as far as I know," Gale said. "It wouldn't be the Radiance of your race, but I guess it would be pretty close to it.]

[Yes,] Saarya agreed, her voice full of hate, [our Gemheart creates the beast material to create light attribute fate locks for others.]

'I'm sorry,' Gale whispered in his mind.

[Don't be. You aren't in anyway responsible for what happened to my race, and I can't find anyone better to inherit this fate lock.]

Gale nodded as he focused on the sharp rays of light emitting out of the cracks of the fate lock. Some of the flashes came right at his face, but instead of straying away from the light's path Gale stared at it, narrowing his eyes.

That's the ritual of bonding this fate lock. He had to prove to himself that he could handle the intensity of the light.

More cracks started to appear on the surface of the core, as the blinding light rose in intensity. All of it seemed to come for Gale as he activated the bonding process with it.

A short few minutes after, the small bead hovered like a small sun, scorching with its radiance, all blinding and tyrannical. Gale found some tickling in his Gold skin. After his injuries, the radiance was making him even more uncomfortable.

But that was the small price to pay for getting the power of the fate lock.

***

When Maya came back, she found Xiaolin standing on her tiptoes, peeking through the glass of the cultivation chamber. She seemed to be in that position for some time, with how blood froze in her tiptoes.

"What is happening?" Even though she asked that, she shot her presence into the chamber and easily find out what had been cooking up since she was gone.

"Damn it, Gale," Maya cursed. "Can't you wait until you're in a fair state!?"

"Senior Master," Xiaolin greeted, bowing her head in reverence.

"At ease," Maya told her with a sigh. "Like I told you, just act naturally around me."

Xiaolin nodded, though without much change in her demeanour. Maya crept to stand next to her. She was easily a head taller than Xiaolin, so she didn't have to tiptoe to see what was going on in the chamber.

Maya narrowed her eyes as the vision cleared in her eyes. She found Gale in a blanket of light, his skin swollen red from the intense heat the light was providing, his eyes bleeding a little from the intensity.

"Will Master be alright?" Xiaolin asked, biting her lips, anxiety jittering her expression.

"No," Maya said straightly, annoyed at her junior apprentice-brother for doing whatever he desired. "He's pretty much blind for now, and the ritual would last for at least half a day longer. I think he'll have all his skin burned and bleeding, mind in a blasting mess by that time. But after he succeeds in that trial, he would be just about fine, I guess."

Maya acted being at ease with her annoyance, but her straightforward words didn't put Xiaolin at ease. The petite girl simply peeked into the chamber even though she barely could see anything with the blinding light.

"Don't worry about him, he went through worse than that multiple times," Maya said. "Also, come with me. I promised to check on you, I think I can help you know what you are."

"But. . ." Xiaolin's voice trailed off, still peeking at Gale. Maya wondered what Gale did to get a disciple like this.

"Like I said it would last half a day, you will have more time to watch him suffer."

Xiaolin grunted as Maya took her to the next chamber.

"Okay, show me your Fate Mark," Maya said immediately.

"Hmm, aren't you going to rest, Senior Master?" Xiaolin asked. "You seem to have been working since I found you."

"Perhaps after I help you too." Maya smiled.

Xiaolin could only oblige. She loosened her robe and pulled it up to show the complicated mark on her abdomen.

A frown crept to Maya's brows immediately the moment her eyes laid on the mark. She touched, drawing her finger over it, infusing a little of her senses inside the mark. Or marks. There were two of them, both of them incomplete as far as she could tell.

"Hmm," Maya hummed, considering. "Gale was right about you being one of the spirit races. Water attribute, and space for more. And this mark is. . . For a bond?"

Maya met her gaze. "How did you bond?"

A tint of red appeared on Xiaolin's face as she answered. "Master."

"That explained why I felt the intimacy between you even when you two are distance apart."

"What do you mean?" Xiaolin answered, blushing.

"Calm down, it's nothing," Maya said. "This bond is of more spiritual nature than most. And more intimate too. But the direction of it should be Gale, it should be him who would feel protective of you."

"He is," Xiaolin said.

Maya gave her a look, as Xiaolin blushed harder.

"Anyway, the bond is incomplete," Maya said, "you guys probably have guessed that."

Xiaolin nodded. "Can you tell me what will happen once it completes?"

"Basically, you two would be bound to death," Maya said in a grave tone. "And I think Gale was supposed to get a portion of your power, however, with you being marginally lower in strength compared to him, he gets nothing being your Knight."

"My knight?"

________

I think I won't write the flashback anymore. Some part of it destroyed the pacing of the story.

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