"That won't happen."
It exercised its will, its authority, and as if obeying an imperial command, the darkness, even under the threat and suppression of the aberration, obeyed it.
The aberration, which was halfway to sinking, failed to do so. It was repelled, and even the darkness moved and began to trust it, holding it down and keeping it fixed in place without falling or rising.
The aberration was stuck.
Just as I thought.
Cassian, seeing that happen, understood that this was about to end, he had no doubt. Sometimes understanding something was a decisive factor that would break something that was stuck in a stalemate.
Instead of attacking it, he appeared above the aberration, on a platform made of darkness, in fact he was upside down, circulating his mana and preparing for his next decisive move.
Although at that moment he felt his hands a little stiff.
It's that annoying wolf.
He had been ignoring it because he needed all his concentration on the aberration, but the wolf was doing its thing and, in fact, whatever it was, it was working.
Cassian felt it: it was bitterly cold, they were below freezing, and any normal human would already be frozen.
Sure, his body was so hot from the intense movement that he didn't notice it, but in this brief pause, he felt his fingers a little cold and stiff.
He understood that if it continued to increase, the cold would freeze him, not to mention that there was a huge storm surrounding them now.
They were in the eye of it, and in fact, he was beginning to feel his connection to the darkness outside becoming weaker.
He didn't understand what it meant, but it was definitely not a good thing. But to start with, he planned to finally finish off this aberration and go after that annoying wolf.
He turned his attention back to the aberration, already in position, and circulated the art intensely, filling his legs, muscles, abdomen, pectorals, and arms.
In fact, he decided that the two extra arms were unnecessary.
"Okay, let's try this..."
To Cassian, honestly, saying the name of the technique sounded a bit Chunni and even silly, as it was basically like telling his opponent what he was going to do, and that thought didn't change, even if he was fused.
Yes, it's true that a person can execute the techniques without saying anything at all.
But, as Yeling had already told Cassian, visualization was crucial to focusing his intention and executing martial arts techniques correctly; moreover, saying their names helped reinforce that process.
In fact, it could even make him perform better than he should, and doing it enough could make it stick in his subconscious so that he could then execute it with the same intensity even without saying it.
That's why she recommended that, as a beginner, he say the techniques. And in fact, he himself clearly understood and felt the difference between saying a name and not saying it.
Now that the two of them were one, he obviously put that into practice, starting to speak aloud.
"Art of the Eternal Night-"
What he was about to execute was something Yeling had not perfected, having only just begun to practice.
Encouraged by him, she took up Plouthys' art and began practicing it in his shadow. It also helped her calm down, and curiously, it wasn't so different from the art she had previously practiced.
Perhaps it was coincidence, perhaps it was Plouthys doing his thing, giving each of them what they needed.
This allowed Yeling to quickly grasp the basics and understand the art, but she had not been able to execute it.
"First stance."
That's why Cassian shouted out the number of the stance, even though it wasn't really important, much less necessary.
But Cassian thought... What if visualization and intention were really important? Obviously, they had to be intensified enough to be able to execute something... something she had never done before.
She had heard Celestine say it before, and she really felt that doing the same thing now would improve her visualization and chances of success.
In fact, as he did so, he felt a chill run through his body.
It could have been the blue wolf, it could have been that it reminded him of his dark phase, but he also felt that the mana that was lodged in the key points, according to the art, was further stimulated and he was even better able to follow what he had to do.
It had worked, but why did Cassian want to use a technique from an incomplete and unsuccessful art?
The answer had already been answered by Yeling and everyone else, who had said it clearly.
The things that Plouthys had given were far superior to everything known, the difference between what they could do, was abysmal.
"Touch of Nyx."
...
After that cry, there was no noise, no explosions, nothing.
In fact, even the devastating cold wind fell silent.
It was absolute calm, which did not in the least show the result of what had happened.
That aberration was incomparably much stronger, and Cassian would say it was even more difficult than having cleaned up the entire city.
It was on a higher order of strength, but even so, the result of executing that technique was...
Cassian, on the ice below, holding three cores in one of his hands, just as he had done with the weak aberrations at the beginning.
And the aberration in the sky destroyed in several cuts and beginning to wither. It was an attack that seemed like a combination of the first and third stances of Yeling's art...
But its effectiveness and power were superior, and his body did not even suffer the strain as it did before; it was a superior art in every way.
It was an overwhelming attack, even for them who were in a different league.
hmmm, it felt much easier than the art of the inner void, hmm, although this one feels stronger... it seems that the world of the arts is bigger than we know.
This battle, although it seemed long, was brief, and it helped Cassian understand his state, the darkness, and everything else.
He felt he was getting stronger, no, he was understanding and getting better and better at what he was really capable of.
His current state seemed to have absurd potential, he felt he could still do more, he could understand how to better control his body, he could understand how to better control the darkness, he could make more combinations with these two.
With his current knowledge, instinct, and talent, he felt he could go further. The only thing limiting him was that he used up more energy, whether it was mana or stamina.
But that was easily fixed. Cassian immediately put those three cores in his mouth. The feeling he was experiencing was good, but there was no time to waste. There was still another problem.
His mana and stamina recovered, not to the point where he was when the battle began, but he still had a little more than half left.
He looked at the wolf, which had been wreaking havoc all this time.
This couldn't go on, but he didn't attack it right away: that wolf was extremely tough, normal attacks wouldn't be enough, so he thought of something else.
He felt that his control of the shadow was, in fact, better than when he started fighting, but that wouldn't be enough to pierce its hard armor.
And there was still the possibility that the aberration was out there. He didn't know if that was part of it or if it was really all of it, but it was an annoying creature.
He needed to act fast, and, understanding the darkness even better, he prepared himself. He began to alert everything around him; the infinite darkness that the night provided began to accumulate and come to him.
Cassian felt that, although he was spending mana to attract it, it wasn't too much, and the effects were better than spending mana to strengthen himself further, as this same darkness was assimilating with the tattoos on his body and the same with the Knives made from those tattoos.
They were becoming more physical, more real, more existent, a solid, unbreakable, and sharp material, something he could withstand.
The cold was increasing and at any moment it could become very dangerous, but Cassian patiently joined that darkness and made it part of him, making his tattoos more abysmal, more marked, more detailed.
His eyes were also basically black holes from which light would never escape. Cassian was assimilating with the darkness.
Once he felt it was enough, he merged one of his knives with the other, leaving only one. It was now twice its original size, and it didn't stop there.
The blackness surrounding Cassian's hand began to move toward this knife; in fact, it revealed the Bracers and gloves.
He really thought he had lost them somewhere, not that the darkness had assimilated them and fused them with his body.
He really felt that he still had to understand the darkness more... or was it the skill that fused them?
But that wasn't important now, and that darkness went to the Knife, making it bigger, sharper, more lethal.
He looked at the wolf that was still circling around this pillar. Perhaps it didn't know that the fight was over, and that it would be the next prey.
At this point, Cassian understood that this was some kind of trap, from which there would be no escape once it was complete, and that was why the wolf was so determined to finish it.
Cassian thought this because he felt that his connection to the darkness beyond the tormaeta finally broke completely, he could no longer move quickly out of it.
But that didn't matter; he wasn't going to run away anyway.
"Art of the Eternal Night—first stance..."
He had already secured the feeling and the complete execution, so performing it again was a piece of cake, and in fact it was more fluid and faster. And without any delay:
"Touch of Nyx."