TBATE - Havaca Rises

Chapter 16 - Beyond the White Core

Walking unto the stage where Sabastian once stood, I conjured a throne of black flames and sat down overlooking the 36 men who were on their knees struggling to keep themselves off the floor.

"Who-who are you?" asked one of the men.

"I am your new leader," I said still releasing the same amount of pressure I used against Sebastian. "You were promised the world by this pathetic Meinu, and yet in the face of true power he fell, and not even his ash remains. Join me and I'll give you power, you couldn't even begin to fathom; however, you will be living the life of an ascetic. You will leave behind worldly desires in pursuit of knowledge and power. I am your new master and as such I will provide the necessary tools for your training. In return I ask for your loyalty and obedience; now, do we have a deal?"

Without much of a choice everyone including the 18 I previously rescued, bowed and said, "We greet our new master."

"Good, welcome to Black Gold Squad," I said releasing my pressure so that they can breathe.

"Master, if you don't mind me asking, by unfathomable power do you mean you'll help us reach white core?" asked a former maid.

"No, white core is merely the beginning of our journey," I said piquing everyone's interest.

"Master, there is nothing more after white core!" she shouted but quickly realized her mistake as she just as quickly apologized for her outburst.

"It is fine, as long as you all show me due respect we won't have any problems," I said dismissing her blunder. "Also, that's the reason why I said I can give you power you can't even begin to fathom. Sit and get comfortable as we will be here for a while."

Thanks to Grey's future memories I know from his findings the path mages should take. "What I am about to tell has been lost to time, and is a top-secret in our sect," I said earning nods from everyone. To be honest I didn't think it would be this easy to win them over but I'm not complaining. "At the start of life, every living thing has the capacity to use mana. After passively collecting ambient mana, we form a mana core and thus we begin our path of the mage. To our limited knowledge of mana, we believed that our progress stops at the white stage however that is incorrect. There are other Realms of power. From black core to light core is what we would now know as the earthen Realm. White core is the Sage Realm, Heavenly Sage Realm then the Heavenly Fate Realm, then Emperor Realm and finally Sage Emperor."

"The goal of the earthen Realm is to learn how to utilize mana in both its pure and elemental forms. The earthen Realms requires either decades of meditation or the use of elixirs to progress through its latter stages."

"Breaking through to white core you enter what is known as the Sage Realm. In this Realm, you are to meditate and reflect upon your elements. After gaining sufficient insight into mana and its elements you begin to develop a Spiritual Vine. Depending on innate talent and the depth of your newfound insight your Spiritual Vine will be formed of a number of smaller vines. The number of vines is separated in different Realms as well. 1-3 vines – is known as the Man Spirit Realm. 4-6 vines – is known as the Earthen Spirit Realm and 7-9 vines – is known as the Heavenly Fate Realm."

"Once you develop your Spiritual Vines you have just entered the Heavenly Sage Realm. At this stage, you have to pour as much mana as you can at once into your Spiritual Vine. This process would repeatedly drain and strengthen both your core and vine. The lower rank your vine the easier this task would be, however, you'll have less power than someone with a higher rank vine. You'll continue this until you form a leaf-like construct on your vine."

"This is known as the Heavenly Fate Realm. The leaf-like construct is made of pure mana containing your DNA, memories, and acts as a mini core. Should you fall in battle your body will die but your Spiritual Vine with 1 Fate will travel and resurrect you at the safest place you can think of which would be our future base of operations. Note should you die you lose the power boost that came with that Fate Realm. Your goal in the Heavenly Fate Realm is to gain 7 Fates."