Mystical Journey

Garen was aware that he had been recently oppressed by the Divine Wind General’s terrifying Willpower Energy Field. It caused his entire body to collapse and a lot of internal and external bleeding. His Crouched Eagle Talon that was also a important element of his resistance was immediately destroyed as well, leaving him with only his Level Two NIS Energy Machinist Willpower. Despite being a Level Five Mech Pilot powerhouse earlier, he had completely turned into a normal Level Two Energy Machinist. Moreover, he could not be considered as a true Energy Machinist because he did not have his own Energy Machine Imprint and biochemical pool.

If someone were to ambush him again, a single Willpower attack from a Level Three Mech Pilot was all that was needed to get rid of him immediately. The Willpowers of Energy Machinists were simply not designed for combat.

“Don’t worry, I will arrange everything”, Celine could see the anxiety on Garen’s face. “You just need to rest well!”

“My Willpower, it might be destroyed”, Garen raised his head and glanced at her with a calm look on his face.

“I believe in your talents. Besides that, you’re still young and you’ll be able to get back up sooner or later!” The expression on Celine’s face was slightly pained but she managed to force a smile. “After all, you’re Celine, the combat master!”

It was easy to say but rebuilding Willpower, especially combat Willpower simply needed an extended amount of time. Special cases like these where the foundation was destroyed and needed to be rebuilt needed twice the amount of time taken for normal repairs.

Both Garen and Celine actually understood that although they only spent two to three years studying the practices of the Crouched Eagle Talon in the beginning, this time frame included the fact that they had transferred certain parts of studying other types of Willpower beforehand. It was important to note that Nonosiva had actually spent at least five or six years practicing these things previously. If this increased by twofold, he would need another ten years. Meanwhile, no one could be able to tell how many unknown Mech Pilots would be able to surpass him greatly within these ten years despite not being as good as him in the past.

“Alright, you should just rest well. I’ll go and get more medicine for you”, Celine stood up and ran out of the sick ward as if she was fleeing because she did not know how to console him.

Garen laid on the sickbed alone. He raised his head and looked at the ceiling.

“I must heal my Willpower as soon as possible. Otherwise, I won’t even have the basic ability to protect myself!”

Without any hesitation, he tried manipulating some of his basic Willpower again. He began to follow the trajectory of the Crouched Eagle Talon before sketching the Willpower Imprints on his arms slowly.

Suddenly, there were no signs before a sharp pain surged throughout his arms and pounded against the depths of his brain violently.

Boom!!!

A terrifyingly deafening ramming noise could be heard.

Immediately, Garen felt like two gongs had smashed beside his ears loudly. His ears became deaf for awhile before they were filled with humming noises.

His head became dizzy and his eyes were blinded at once while his mind was hazy. Even his basic Willpower became drowsy immediately after being hit by the impact.

After waiting for half a minute, the noise and tremors gradually disappeared and weakened.

Only then did Garen realize that the powerful sky blue Willpower was entrenched within both of his own arms. They were like two live skinny snakes that had forcibly occupied the spaces that were actually suitable for the engraving of Willpower Imprints.

The deafening noises from before were not caused by other things. Instead, they occurred when those two shrouds of Willpower were attempting to rush into his mind. The crashing noise occurred when they clashed with the Soul Seed’s strong defense.

During this moment, the shroud of Crouched Eagle Talon Willpower that had just condensed had now completely vanished into thin air. This made Garen’s face even more contorted with pain.

“Such venomous measures!” Only then did he understand why the Seventh Divine Wind General had left so easily. As it turned out, his true intentions were actually here!

He discovered suddenly that once he had arrived in this world, he had encountered many obstacles but did not know their true sources.

As his Willpower sank into the surroundings of his Soul Seed, Garen used another the strong detection abilities of another two Soul Seeds to begin sensing the state of his own body again.

Seconds and minutes ticked by and his consciousness could sense that Celine had returned once again. She changed two bottles of energy water with the ones that she was holding. She sat at Garen’s bedside for awhile before leaving temporarily.

Garen fell into a state of semi-deep sleep. He forgot the time and the current condition of his wounds.

He used his entire body and mind to focus on his Soul Seed that was sensing the state of his own body. He felt that his journey ever since he arrived in this world had always been filled with obstacles while the things that he wanted to develop were constantly suffering from damages and obstructions. There was something that was not quite right with this state.

As time continued to pass, Garen could gradually feel that something was abnormal.

Some unknown forces started hovering around his own body. These forces were very strange and could conceal themselves very well. If it was not for the Soul Seeds extremely strange detection abilities that could even sense the abnormalities between worlds, he could not detect the movements of these forces.

“What is this?” Suspicions flashed through Garen’s mind.

These forces seemed somewhat familiar and caused him to vaguely associate it with certain negative memories.

They were the exact same unknown forces that he had sensed the first time he saw Clint and his own younger brother Baylon.

“Could it be something that only the main forces and influencers of the world possess?” Garen recalled Isaros and her sister that he had once met in the previous world who had these same forces wafting around their bodies.

“I definitely did not have these forces around my body in the beginning. I’m certain about that. So when did these things produce themselves then?” faint uncertainties stirred in Garen’s mind. The Soul Seed’s instincts were telling him that the source of all his bad luck stemmed from these strange and nameless forces.

“Everyone who possesses these things are the centers that many other major events revolve around. They have the ability to change the turning points and progress of these major events and can control many aspects of various matters. In other words, they can be temporarily known as the forces of cause and effect.”

This definition was very vivid. Everyone who possessed these forces of cause and effect, from Goth to Isaros and her sister, were key figures who were implicated in a great number of interrelated events.

“I don’t know the main functions of these things or their sources. However, according to my identity, the most likely source is Baylon and my connection with respect to Red Moon.”

Garen analyzed this step by step and felt that it was most likely that these forces of cause and effect stemmed from Baylon, Clint, and Red Moon.

After straightening out some things, he retreated slightly further away from his Soul Seed slowly and allowed his consciousness to return to his body before opening his eyes and noticing that his vision was completely black.

Faint rays of light cascaded inside the window while the curtains were slightly raised by the breeze. Celine was sleeping on a temporary bed on the right side and held the remote control of an alarm device in her hand tightly. Her breathing was even and gentle, giving off the feeling that she would wake up at any moment.

Garen did not know how long she had been keeping guard. However, he saw that her face was extremely sallow while dark eye circles could be seen there clearly. Garen’s heart felt slightly warm. Celine who had already entered Level Four had started to cultivate her Resonance Degrees with the Exclusive Mech that her household had already prepared for her much earlier. Despite being considered as one of the prodigious Mech Pilots, she had actually been willing to quietly guard him for such a long time.

Even though a long duration of time had passed, he had not seen any of the other collaborative partners come over to visit him for awhile. Over there, perhaps the professor had come over before Garen had regained consciousness.

Garen remembered that Celine had mentioned in the beginning that some of Professor’s people were guarding the periphery. His mind settled slightly then.

Once he had composed himself he entered his dreams slowly once again and discovered that his body had actually almost healed completely after lying down for so many days. However, the important part was still the restoration of his Willpower. There was currently no way to reconstruct it fully because it was being obstructed by the two shrouds of sky blue colored Willpower. Without combative Willpower, he would be unable to pilot even basic Level One Mechs.

During the next few days, Garen attempted to use the Living Secret Technique’s Devoured Energy Field to try and devour both of the foreign Willpowers. It was indeed effective but its speed was terribly slow. After focusing and attempting to devour it for an hour, he could only consume less than 1% of the sky blue colored Willpower.

The density and mass of both of these Willpowers were simply insanely high! It was more than a few times stronger than his own initial Level Five Crouched Eagle Talon Willpower. The fact that the Living Secret Technique’s Devour talent could consume it was indeed a miracle.

However, it was extremely exhausting to focus all his efforts into devouring it like this. Garen could only use it continuously for an hour each day.

A few more days passed before Professor Van Doe’s people finally arrived.

The door to the ward was opened slowly before two hefty men in black military coats followed behind the doctor and walked inside.

Both of them had thick eyebrows and big eyes and it looked as if their features were slightly similar.

The man in front glanced at Garen who was on the bed. His eyebrows furrowed slightly suddenly and his gaze fell on Garen’s arms immediately. His facial expressions became somewhat contorted and solemn.

The male doctor changed his drugs quickly and checked the indicated parameters on the examination apparatus at the side. There were no abnormalities. After leaving a few instructions, he exited the ward. The two people who had followed him inside earlier were the only ones who remained there.

Celine had zeroed in on the duo much earlier. She had stood up and was looking at them suspiciously now.

“I’m the biochemist, Bamente.”

The first sentence that came out of the first man’s mouth was enough to shock both Celine and Garen. He glared at Garen who was lying on the sick bed and took a few steps towards him and looked at both of his arms carefully. Next, he removed an exquisite silvery-white badge swiftly. It was a badge that was only given to biochemists.

“Your Professor Van Doe spent a huge sum of money to hire me. I’m here to see if there’s any hope of restoring the Willpower in your body.”

Biochemists!

There were less than a hundred people within the entire Blackboard Region that worked in this rare field. Therefore, the price to hire any one of them would be extraordinarily high. The fact that Professor Van Doe was willing to hire a first-class individual to come and treat him definitely gave Celine and Garen great hope.

“Relax and let me take a look.” Bamente furrowed his eyebrows and held one of Garen’s arms gently. Shrouds of gentle Willpower burrowed into his skin slowly like silk threads before binding the sky blue colored Willpower inside his arms.

Garen adjusted his muscles frantically and tried his best to relax his body.

He could feel that the thread-like Willpower was extremely gentle but tough. If he did not feel it carefully, he would not be able to detect its presence or movements.

“This situation is very troublesome. Two Inherited Willpowers remain inside both of your arms. Whenever the Willpower Training Imprints inside your arms are involved, both of these foreign Willpowers will be activated. They will destroy the new Willpowers that you have recently trained at once”, Bamente’s face was slightly solemn and it was clear that the situation was intractable.

“How do we solve it?” asked Garen softly.

“I have two plans. The first one is that I would perform long-term Willpower surgery on you that will take a month at least. However, I won’t be able to assure you that there won’t be any side effects. The second one is to find another Inherited Mech Pilot of the source with the exact same characteristics to either offset or draw out the remaining bits of this foreign Willpower. You will only be able to rebuild the Willpower Imprints on both of your arms after that,” said Bamente casually.

While speaking, the Willpower threads that were being released from his hands continuously burrowed into Garen’s brain quietly.

Garen knitted his eyebrows and was about to speak. Suddenly, an intense impact force hammered his head brutally at once, striking him to the point where his mind became blurry. The large amounts of thin Willpower threads had suddenly hit the defense that his Soul Seed had formed.

“What are you doing??!!” howled Garen in pain.

“This is an inevitable reactionary procedure. Why are you panicking? Did you think that the remaining Willpower of an Inherited Level Mech Pilot could be dispelled so easily? Idiot!”

He realized that something was wrong when he noticed that the expression on Bamente’s face had not change at all. Instead, a sneer had appeared there faintly.

“You must believe in my treatment procedures! Don’t just complain or I’ll turn around and leave immediately!” he said coldly.

“You!!”

Boom!!

Numerous shrouds of Willpower threads travelled towards the defense area in Garen’s mind and struck it like a large hammer. It hit the Soul Seed’s defenses brutally.

Garen’s entire body trembled. The impact had shaken him to the point where he was unable to speak. Immediately, Bamente Willpower retracted suddenly before surging towards the sky blue colored Willpower in his arms at once.

He exhaled. Meanwhile, Celine who had stood up and was prepared to make a move at any time relaxed when she saw him calm down. She relaxed her tense body slowly.

Just then, Bamente’s Willpower charged into the sky blue colored Willpower suddenly. There was a crashing noise as both of these Willpowers fused into one. They became twice as large as their previous size and transformed into a blue python that sprung itself towards Garen’s brain suddenly!!

Then, a cunning smile finally appeared on the corners of Bamente’s mouth while he stood with his back towards Celine.

Something was not right!!

Fatal life-threatening feelings filled Garen’s mind at once. He focused all of the strength in his body in one step before both of his feet pressed down against Bamente’s lower abdomen in an attempt to kick him away.

“Hold him down!! The remaining Willpower is going out of control! This is a vital period!! Hurry!” Bamente plastered a frantic expression on his face and yelled loudly.

Celine and the other man rushed forward at once and held Garen down quickly.