A week later, two people sat across from each other on the cold floor of the underground dojo, their eyes closed. With their legs crossed and their hands resting on their laps, it seemed as though they were meditating.
Of course, they weren't.
While Sunny was calm and relaxed, Nephis was the opposite. There was a furious torrent of soul energy flowing through her body, making it hard for her to remain still. Invisible to anyone except for her partner, radiant streams of ethereal essence rushed through her veins like rivers of flame.
Her breathing was uneven, and there were beads of sweat on her face.
Sunny observed Changing Star through his shadows. After a while, he said:
"You are doing much better. While crude, your control is already stable. However, there is no precision to it… a Master has to be intricate in how they apply and expend their essence. That is what truly separates us from the Awakened. While the soul of an Ascended is more potent, the gap is not too large.
It is our ability to make better use of this potential that really separates us from the rest of them."
Neph was doing well. In fact, her rapid progress in learning how to control her essence was nothing short of exceptional. However, she was facing substantial obstacles in her training. Not only was Changing Star completely new to that aspect of her power, she also simply had too much soul essence. Compared to normal Master, she had at least five times as much of it.
If most Ascended contained a tranquil current of essence within their bodies, Nephis contained a furious sea.
Her soul essence was also different from anything Sunny had ever faced. It was much more potent, fiery, and vibrant, probably because of [The Fire] Attribute she had inherited from her mother.
What it effectively meant was that Neph would have to put much more effort into learning to control her essence. However, once she did climb over that steep obstacle… the result was going to be simply terrifying.
Showing her the way put Sunny's own experiences in perspective, gifting him a few new insights of his own. Just as it had been with Rain, the role of a mentor allowed him to learn a lot himself.
Teaching was truly the best way to learn.
Now, Sunny felt that his own essence control was far more precise and nuanced than that of most, even without the help of Soul Serpent.
…Of course, he had no chance to test it in actual combat yet. He was also growing more and more sour about the fact that both Blood Weave and Bone Weave were purely corporeal in nature. Although shadow essence was unique, it did not receive any augmentation from his Attributes.
In fact, the only time its strange nature played a role had been during his encounter with the Vile Thieving Bird's Spawn. Even though that single instance had saved his life, Sunny really wished for more.
'Maybe I am not utilizing its full potential…'
If there was a way to do so, however, he had no idea how. Maybe if Weaver's lineage had not devoured the Shadow God's, Sunny would have been in a different situation. As it stood, though…
'I wonder if there is a Soul Weave…'
Nephis sighed, and opened her eyes. The turbulent flow of soul essence in her body settled, returning to a calmer cycle. She rested for a moment, and then rose to her feet.
Sunny did the same, commanding the four shadows to wrap themselves around his body.
"Are you ready?"
She nodded, and then exploded in motion, attacking him with her fists.
Empowered by the shadows, Sunny easily dodged, deflected, and blocked the torrent of devastating punches and kicks. This was the second part of their training — Nephis not only had to learn how to control soul essence, but also how to use it in battle. She had to retrain herself from the ground up to account for all the new possibilities that the Ascension granted her.
This was not an easy task, considering that the difference went much deeper than simple physical ability and explosive might. At their high level, combat became much more tactical. Soul essence was a precious resource that could achieve a lot, but was also easily wasted. A Master had to be strategic in how they unleashed their powers.
Their physical performance, Aspect, and Memories could all benefit from vast amounts of essence. However, they could also quickly deplete it. The same statement held true for Awakened, but to a much lesser degree, since Masters had much greater powers at their disposal… and thus could exert much greater volumes of soul essence.
It was a constant and complicated dance that required a lot of skill, foresight, and cunning to be performed to the best result.
Sunny himself still had a lot to learn.
Serving as a bona fide punching bag for Nephis was not the most efficient way of learning, but it had its own merits. By dedicating himself to nothing but withstanding a constant barrage of attacks and rationing his essence in the most efficient way, Sunny was teaching himself how to prepare for long battles of attrition.
…At least she had mastered essence control enough to not ruin the dojo!
For a while, the underground chamber was filled with nothing but the sounds of heavy breathing and flesh hitting flesh. Both fighters were exerting themselves to the utmost degree. Sunny had it easier since he was defending, but receiving so many crushing blows in a row was still not for the weak of heart.
Each of Neph's essence-empowered strikes could have punched through an armored vehicle, after all. If not for the fact that she was not using her flames to augment herself, Sunny would have been suffering from internal bleeding by now. Having nearly indestructible bones was a big advantage, but it did not make him invincible.
Their furious clash lasted until Nephis exhausted most of her essence. Determined to launch one last attack, she stepped closer. Her slender leg whipped forward, threatening to crush Sunny's ribcage. He swiftly turned and caught it in the air, then gently placed it on the ground.
"That… that's enough for today."
Since this had been their routine for the entirety of the last week, neither said another word. Both fell to the floor, spent and utterly exhausted. Their breathing was hoarse, and their clothes were soaked with sweat.
'Damn… I need a shower…'
However, the idea of standing up seemed too cruel right now. Sunny turned his head to glance at Nephis and judged that she was in an even more pitiful state. So, they simply remained on the floor for a few minutes, laying side by side and trying to catch their breath.
After a while, Sunny's communicator suddenly made a sound.
Of course, it was not on his person. A clash of such intensity would have quickly destroyed the expensive device, so Sunny had left it on the lid of the Dreamscape pod. Now, he faced the necessity to walk all the way to the alcove to retrieve it.
Instead, Sunny commanded the happy shadow to glide there, turn tangible, pick up the communicator and bring it back. The fool was utterly delighted to oblige, anyway…
As the shadow gingerly crossed the underground dojo and presented the communicator to Sunny, he glanced at the screen, and then sighed.
"Time to go, Neph. Cassie is on her way…"