The morning air carried the familiar scent of cherry blossoms as Fenix made his way back to the estate, his mind still processing the wealth of information Ghost had shared about aura core development and the dangerous Art he would spend the next three days learning to control.
The walk through the estate's corridors confirmed once again how dramatically perceptions had shifted. Servants offered genuine smiles instead of perfunctory nods, distant relatives lingered hopefully near doorways, and even the guards seemed to stand a little straighter when he passed. The transformation was complete - he was no longer the family's disappointment, but something approaching a rising star whose potential commanded respect.
But respect built on demonstrated power was a fragile thing, requiring constant maintenance and continued growth to remain meaningful. The expedition to the Viraldean Temple would test whether his capabilities could translate from controlled trials to real-world dangers where mistakes carried lethal consequences.
In his modest room, Fenix quickly changed from his formal attire into practical training clothes - loose black pants that allowed for full range of motion, a fitted sleeveless shirt that wouldn't restrict his movements, and sturdy boots designed for extended physical activity. The transformation felt symbolic, shifting from the role of family member navigating political relationships to warrior preparing to push his limits once again.
Black Soul remained at his side, the weapon that had become as natural as his own heartbeat over months of intensive katana training. But today's focus would be on techniques that transcended mere swordplay, exploring the dangerous frontier where aura manipulation approached true artistry.
---
The return journey to the sakura hill carried different energy than his morning walk. Where before he had climbed toward answers and explanations, now he moved toward practical application of knowledge that could revolutionize his combat effectiveness or destroy him if handled carelessly.
Ghost was waiting with his characteristic patience, but the training area had been modified since their earlier conversation. Several wooden practice posts had been driven deep into the earth at precisely measured intervals, their surfaces scarred from previous training sessions. More unusually, a collection of mirrors had been positioned around the hilltop's perimeter, each one angled to provide different perspectives on the central practice area.
"The mirrors will help you observe your aura splitting attempts," Ghost explained as Fenix surveyed the modifications. "The Astral Doppelganger requires perfect visual feedback during initial learning phases - you need to see what's happening to your energy projection, not just feel it."
The setup spoke of extensive preparation and deep understanding of how complex Arts should be approached safely. This wasn't casual instruction but systematic development of capabilities that could determine life or death in real combat.
"Before we begin," Ghost continued, his tone taking on the serious edge that preceded dangerous training, "I need you to understand something crucial about Expert-rank Arts. They're not just advanced techniques - they're fundamental alterations to how your aura functions. Mistakes during development don't just cause training failures; they can permanently damage your core's development or create instabilities that manifest months later."
Fenix nodded gravely, understanding that he was about to cross a threshold from which retreat might not be possible.
"That said," Ghost's expression shifted to something approaching anticipation, "you've already demonstrated capabilities that suggest you can handle advanced development. Your core evolution and impossible rate of improvement indicate that normal limitations might not apply to your progression."
The qualification carried both encouragement and warning - his unusual potential might allow him to master techniques beyond his apparent rank, but that same potential could make failures catastrophically more dangerous.
"Let's begin with basic aura splitting," Ghost commanded, moving to a position where he could observe from multiple angles. "Manifest your crimson aura at half intensity, then attempt to divide the energy flow into two distinct streams."
---
Fenix settled into his meditation stance and began channeling his aura energy with the controlled precision that had become second nature over months of intensive training. His crimson aura emerged smoothly, painting the hilltop in shades of liquid fire that seemed to dance in rhythm with his heartbeat.
The energy felt stable and responsive, ready to be shaped according to his conscious intent. But when he attempted to split the flow into two separate streams, the first indication of the Art's complexity became immediately apparent.
The moment he tried to divide his aura, the entire manifestation began fluctuating wildly. What had been smooth, controlled energy became chaotic and unstable, threatening to collapse back into his core in ways that could cause painful backlash.
"Steady," Ghost called out, his voice carrying the calm authority that had guided Fenix through previous breakthrough moments. "Don't force the division - coax it. Think of your aura as water flowing through two separate channels, not as something being torn in half."
Fenix adjusted his approach, trying to guide rather than compel his energy toward the desired configuration. The crimson flames around him began to stabilize slightly, but the splitting remained erratic and unreliable.
For nearly an hour, he wrestled with the fundamental challenge of maintaining dual energy streams without destabilizing his entire aura system. Each attempt revealed new complexities - timing issues that caused one stream to collapse while the other overcorrected, resonance problems that created painful feedback between the two flows, and concentration difficulties that made sustaining the technique for more than a few seconds nearly impossible.
"This is harder than anything I've attempted before," Fenix admitted during a brief rest, sweat beading on his forehead despite the relatively mild physical exertion.
"Expert-rank Arts are supposed to be difficult," Ghost replied without sympathy. "If they were easy, every Intermediate+ fighter would be using them. The challenge is what makes them valuable - and what makes them dangerous."
---
By midday, Fenix had managed to achieve rudimentary aura splitting for periods lasting up to thirty seconds. The division was crude and unstable, creating two streams of obviously unequal strength that wavered constantly on the edge of collapse. But it represented genuine progress toward mastering the technique's foundational requirements.
"Better," Ghost acknowledged, though his tone suggested significant room for improvement remained. "You're beginning to understand how the energy needs to flow. Now we add the next layer of complexity - basic projection."
The mirrors positioned around the training area suddenly became crucial as Fenix attempted to extend one of his divided aura streams outward from his body while maintaining the other as a protective coating around his physical form.
His first attempt was a disaster of epic proportions.
The projected stream shot outward with no control or coherence, dissipating into uselessness before traveling more than a few feet. The recoil effect destabilized his remaining aura so dramatically that he staggered backward, his vision blurring as aura energy rebounded through his system in chaotic patterns.
"Focus on maintaining the connection," Ghost instructed as Fenix recovered his balance. "The projected stream isn't separate from you - it's an extension that remains tethered to your core. Break that connection and you lose all control."
The afternoon progressed with gradual improvement that came at the cost of mounting exhaustion. Each failed attempt drained energy that normal training didn't require, drawing not just from his aura reserves but from deeper sources that left him feeling hollow and drained.
But slowly, incrementally, the basic projection began to take shape.
By late afternoon, Fenix could maintain a crude aura division for several minutes while projecting a dim, wavering echo of his energy several meters away from his position. The projection was weak, unstable, and completely incapable of the amplified striking power that made the Art valuable, but it represented the foundational skill from which everything else would develop.
"Adequate for a first day," Ghost declared as the sun began its descent toward the western horizon. "Tomorrow we work on motion synchronization - making your projection move in harmony with your physical actions. That's where the real difficulty begins."
---
The evening found Fenix more exhausted than he had been since his early days of aura training. The unique strain of splitting his aura energy had affected him in ways that normal cultivation never had, leaving him feeling disconnected from his own power systems.
He sat in his room as darkness settled over the estate, attempting to process the day's lessons while his aura core gradually returned to its normal, unified state. The sensation was like reuniting parts of himself that had been artificially separated, a relief so profound that he hadn't realized how much tension the division had been causing.
A soft knock at his door interrupted his recovery meditation.
"Come in," he called, expecting to see Abigail with her usual evening visit.
Instead, Abel entered the room with the careful precision that marked him as someone approaching a potentially sensitive conversation.
"Cousin," Abel said formally, offering a respectful nod that would have been unthinkable just days earlier. "I hope I'm not intruding on your preparations for the expedition."
"Not at all," Fenix replied, gesturing toward the room's other chair. "What can I do for you?"
Abel settled himself with characteristic analytical precision, his expression carrying the complex mixture of respect and uncertainty that marked someone whose worldview had been fundamentally altered by recent events.
"I wanted to discuss what happened during the trials," Abel began carefully. "Not the outcome - that speaks for itself - but the implications for our family's future and your role within it."
Fenix raised an eyebrow, interested to hear his cousin's assessment of the political ramifications.
"Your demonstration changed everything," Abel continued, his voice taking on the focused intensity of someone working through complex strategic calculations. "The other houses are going to reassess every assumption they've made about our capabilities. That creates opportunities, but it also creates dangers."
He paused, organizing thoughts that had clearly been building since witnessing the trial's conclusion.
"There will be those who see your abilities as a threat to be eliminated before you can reach your full potential. Others will seek to recruit you away from our family through offers that seem too good to refuse. Still others will try to manipulate you into conflicts that serve their interests rather than ours."
The analysis was thorough and concerning, painting a picture of political complexity that Fenix was only beginning to understand.
"What do you recommend?" Fenix asked, appreciating his cousin's strategic insights even though their relationship had been distant in the past.
"Be careful who you trust outside our immediate family," Abel replied without hesitation. "Your power makes you valuable, but it also makes you a target. During your expedition, focus on building relationships with the team members who will be your primary support structure. When you return, we'll need to discuss longer-term strategies for navigating the changed political landscape."
The conversation continued for another hour, covering various scenarios and potential complications that Fenix's new status might create. Abel's analytical mind proved invaluable in breaking down complex political relationships and identifying potential allies or threats.
As his cousin prepared to leave, Abel turned back with an expression that carried genuine sincerity rather than mere political calculation.
"For what it's worth," he said quietly, "I'm proud to share the Ackerman name with someone who refused to accept limitation. What you've accomplished gives us all hope that our family's best days might still lie ahead."
---
The second day of training began before dawn, with Ghost having prepared even more complex modifications to their hilltop practice area. The mirrors had been repositioned to provide real-time feedback on motion synchronization, and a series of targets had been established at varying distances to test projection accuracy.
"Today we discover whether you can make your astral echo move in harmony with your physical body," Ghost announced as Fenix changed into fresh training clothes. "This is where most practitioners either achieve breakthrough or suffer catastrophic failure."
The warning carried particular weight given the previous day's exhaustion and the mounting complexity of each developmental stage.
Fenix began with the aura splitting that had challenged him so completely during his initial attempts. To his satisfaction, the technique came more naturally after a day of practice, allowing him to establish dual energy streams with only minor fluctuation and instability.
But when Ghost commanded him to begin physical movement while maintaining the projection, the difficulty spiked exponentially.
His first attempt to coordinate physical and astral motion ended in immediate disaster. The moment he tried to move his body while maintaining the projected echo, both energy streams collapsed into chaotic feedback that left him gasping and disoriented.
"Synchronization isn't about forcing the projection to copy your movements," Ghost explained as Fenix recovered his equilibrium. "It's about understanding that the astral echo is you - just displaced in space. Move as if both positions are equally real and equally important."
The concept was intellectually simple but practically nightmarish. Fenix found himself constantly favoring either his physical position or his projected one, creating timing mismatches that destabilized the entire technique.
For hours, he struggled with basic coordinated movement - simple steps forward and backward, arm raises, basic defensive postures - while trying to maintain a projection that moved in perfect harmony. Each attempt revealed new ways the synchronization could fail, from timing issues that created jarring disconnects to concentration problems that caused one aspect to lag behind the other.
By midday, he had managed crude synchronization for basic movements, but anything approaching combat application remained far beyond his current capabilities.
"The projection needs to feel natural," Ghost observed, watching through the positioned mirrors as Fenix attempted a synchronized sword draw. "Right now you're thinking about it as a separate entity that you're controlling. It needs to become instinctive - as automatic as using your own hands."
---
The afternoon session focused on target practice, attempting to make the astral projection interact with physical objects while maintaining synchronization with his body's movements.
This proved even more challenging than basic motion coordination.
When Fenix tried to make his projection strike training posts while his physical form performed matching movements, the results ranged from embarrassing to potentially dangerous. His projection would phase through targets without making contact, or it would destabilize completely upon impact, or the feedback would knock him off balance as confused sensory information flooded back through the connection.
"The echo exists in a liminal state between physical and metaphysical," Ghost explained during one of many necessary rest periods. "It can interact with solid matter when properly stabilized, but that interaction requires perfect will imprint and energy density. Most practitioners take months to achieve reliable contact."
Despite the encouraging words, Fenix's progress felt frustratingly slow compared to his normal rate of advancement. Where other techniques had yielded to determined practice and focused attention, the Astral Doppelganger seemed to resist his efforts with stubborn complexity.
By late afternoon, he had managed to make his projection deliver a few glancing strikes against stationary targets, but the attacks carried no significant force and required such intense concentration that maintaining them for more than seconds was impossible.
"This is the most difficult technique I've ever attempted," Fenix admitted as exhaustion threatened to overwhelm his ability to maintain basic aura manifestation.
"Which is exactly what makes it valuable," Ghost replied. "If it were easy, everyone would use it. The complexity is what ensures that only dedicated practitioners ever achieve true mastery."
---
The final day of training before the expedition's departure focused on the Art's most dangerous aspect - attempting to trigger ascension amplification without causing catastrophic backlash.
"This is where the technique either becomes useful or kills you," Ghost announced with characteristic bluntness. "The amplification effect that makes your echo strikes one tier above your base level requires forcing your projection beyond its natural stability limits. Push too hard and the feedback can permanently damage your aura core."
The warning was sobering, but Fenix understood that without amplification, the Astral Doppelganger would remain an interesting but impractical technique with limited combat applications.
His attempts at forced ascension were disasters from the very beginning.
The moment he tried to push his projection beyond normal stability parameters, violent feedback tore through his aura energy systems. The pain was unlike anything he had experienced - not physical damage to his body, but agony that struck directly at the core of his being.
"Too much force," Ghost called out as Fenix staggered from the backlash. "You're trying to compress the projection like normal aura enhancement. Ascension requires expansion, not compression - stretching the echo's capabilities rather than concentrating them."
The distinction was crucial but difficult to implement. Fenix found himself constantly reverting to familiar aura manipulation patterns that worked for other techniques but proved counterproductive for the Art's unique requirements.
Hours passed with minimal progress. He could achieve brief moments where his projection showed slightly enhanced capabilities, but sustainable amplification remained elusive. The technique demanded a level of aura control that went beyond anything in his current skill set.
"Enough for today," Ghost finally declared as the sun began setting over the ancient sakura tree. "You've established the foundational skills. The Art will continue developing during actual use - combat pressure often triggers breakthroughs that can't be achieved in safe training environments."
---
As Fenix prepared to leave the hilltop for the final time before his expedition departure, Ghost's expression carried the complex mixture of satisfaction and concern that marked someone sending a student into dangers beyond their control.
"You've made remarkable progress in just three days," Ghost said, his voice carrying genuine approval despite the technique's incomplete mastery. "Most practitioners require weeks to achieve basic aura splitting, and months to manage crude synchronization. Your accelerated development suggests you'll be able to refine the Art during actual application."
The encouragement was qualified but meaningful, offering hope that continued practice would eventually yield the mastery that seemed so elusive during controlled training.
"Remember the warnings about overextension," Ghost continued. "Better to use the technique conservatively and survive than push for maximum effectiveness and suffer feedback that leaves you vulnerable to enemies. The Art's greatest strength - its amplification potential - is also its greatest weakness if mismanaged."
As mentor and student parted ways for what might be months of separation, both understood that the next phase of Fenix's development would occur under conditions far more dangerous than any training environment could simulate.
The expedition to the Viraldean Temple awaited, carrying with it challenges that would test not just his existing capabilities but his ability to grow stronger while keeping himself and his team members alive in one of the most dangerous environments on the continent.
The foundations had been laid. Tomorrow would determine whether they were strong enough to support the weight of real combat against threats that recognized no distinction between practice and life-or-death struggle.
---
That evening, as Fenix sat in his room attempting to process everything he had learned about the Astral Doppelganger Art, a profound exhaustion settled over him that went beyond mere physical fatigue.
Three days of splitting his aura and forcing his aura energy into configurations it wasn't naturally designed to maintain had strained systems he hadn't known existed. The unique demands of Expert-rank Arts apparently required recovery periods that normal training didn't necessitate.
But beneath the exhaustion lay satisfaction at having taken the first steps toward mastering capabilities that could elevate his combat effectiveness to unprecedented levels. The technique remained crude and unreliable, but the foundational understanding was there, ready to be refined through practice and real-world application.
Tomorrow would mark the beginning of the most dangerous phase of his journey since awakening in this strange world. The expedition to an ancient temple filled with unknown threats and guarded by creatures that had killed countless previous explorers.
But tonight, for just a few hours, he could rest in the knowledge that he had done everything possible to prepare for what lay ahead.
The room's window looked out toward the distant hills where the sakura tree stood silhouetted against the star-filled sky, its ancient branches swaying gently in the night breeze as if keeping watch over the estate and all who called it home.
Soon he would leave this sanctuary behind, venturing into a world where strength alone determined survival and where the techniques he had spent months mastering would face their ultimate test.
The thought brought not fear, but anticipation. He had climbed from powerless failure to warrior capable of facing Expert-rank opponents. The next phase of his journey would determine whether that transformation was merely the beginning of something even greater.
Sleep came easily despite his excitement, his enhanced physique recognizing the need for recovery before facing challenges that would demand everything he had learned and more.
Three days of foundation work had ended. Tomorrow, the real test would begin.