====== 14 - Be prepared ==========
The power of the sixth chakra truly opened up a wonderful space for creativity and experimentation, and it was worth acknowledging that, for his time, Yoon had thoroughly studied its possibilities. Not only could he freely change the properties of objects, but he also had plenty of power to perform these tricks without significant energy expenditure... unlike me, who was exhausted almost immediately after a few such advanced magical techniques.
The thing is, it seems that changing properties could be divided into levels of difficulty, which were determined by the level of control. The greater the need for control and the opening of the sixth chakra, the higher the level of technique. Conditional polarity reversal, which allows you to change the trajectory of lightning, or simply accelerate corrosion, could be classified as low-level techniques. Supercompression, which I recently copied from Yoon, is a much more advanced level — perhaps this is exactly what I was missing to compress coal into a diamond.
I found it difficult to even think about the highest level — did Yoon use something similar? It was impossible to determine; most likely, I had such a catastrophic lack of knowledge or power that I would not understand it until I opened the necessary chakra myself. In any case, Yoon became a real treasure trove of knowledge, useful even to me, but his defeat was not surprising. This magic was too outdated — yes, he could lift large stones, but I was able to find ways to counter it. He couldn't.
That's why his half-broken body was sitting on his knees in front of me, and, quite unusually for a spirit, bleeding. He was surrounded by iron sand — essentially the only reason he couldn't suddenly depart for the spirit world or attack us all again. Dehydration was the best weapon to block his qi and chakra points. At the same time, however, he hardly wanted to continue the fight: his hair was standing on end from the powerful electric shock, his hands and body were blackened, and he was staring at me with a very evil look. The four-hundred-year-old spirit had only one question in his head:
"Are you seriously not going to kill me? He had a strong fixation on this subject, which I only partially understood. On the one hand, higher spirits, by logic, should want to destroy his soul and do everything to ensure that a being who knew the secrets of absorption was dead. On the other hand:
"Not everyone who is searching for you wants to kill you. And Wang Shi Tong isn't interested in the death of such a cruel magician; he only cares about the knowledge that can be exchanged.
The angry Afka, who was actually hiding behind my shoulders, piped up. The evil one had frightened her.
"I doubt it. Although I never asked, my safety is more important to me.
I communicated with him without a shred of interest. The only thing that concerned him now was my iron sand. But he didn't ask any questions about it, simply accepting the fact that he had fallen behind the rest of the world, and that showing surprise would mean exposing himself as weak and ignorant. At least, considering Yuna's character, I could be right.
"You don't look like a madman who has gone insane from the influence of dark energy. And I don't see any desire to take over the mortal world in you," I sat down in front of the guy and made eye contact. "So tell me, what happened to you?"
His face hardened with every word I uttered, until it was devoid of even a hint of emotion. All the hatred and malice remained only in his eyes, which saw right through me.
"Take over the world? It's impossible to communicate with people because they lie, and with spirits because they're cowards. Why would I want to take over worlds that I hate? There was a lot of hidden hatred in his questions. It was as if he was sincerely asking, "What do you all want from me?" The only thing I want is to live in peace and pursue my dream.
Yun appeared to be a broken man whose only interest in life was self-improvement. Realising that we were not trying to kill or subjugate him, Yun cautiously agreed to answer questions so that I could understand his personality better. However, he did so with one small condition.
"If you let me go, I'll tell you even more... and if you don't touch me, I won't touch you," he said with complete honesty. And although it was difficult to believe a creature that could gain any power from spirits, I agreed. Except that another railgun shell was prepared and aimed at the man's head.
He responded with a meaningful look, but he kept his word. Sitting down with a bored look on his face, he began to explain lazily:
His views and new goals began to take shape immediately after his death at the hands of his lover and best friend. Yoon had thought out a plan in advance in case of his death, what to do to avoid ending up in the foggy ocean — after all, he was not called an excellent tactician for his pretty eyes.
At the moment of his death, he used the power of his father, Firefly, to move his soul directly from his body to a safe place in the spirit world. As it turned out, all the rumours that he had destroyed the spirit so that it could not escape after the death of its host were just a fairy tale that Kiyoshi had spread either deliberately or simply because she had fallen for a little trick. What's more, the spirit was still in Yoon's body in a subordinate state, allowing him to move between worlds...
***
"Did my plan work?" Appearing on a mountain plateau, surrounded by strange roots branching out into the sky, Yuna touched his body and found himself in perfect condition. The organs that had been frozen and destroyed by Kioshi's blow were intact. Although, now they were simply unnecessary. Ahead was a misty ocean, which he had managed to avoid. Through its thick arches, he could see thousands of souls leading their miserable existence." His heart felt so empty, as if this place was sucking the life out of him... He must not give up.
After standing still for a while and realising that no one was going to pursue him, Yoon put his hands in his pockets and wandered aimlessly in the direction his eyes were looking. He had no idea what to do next, what to strive for, or who to befriend. Besides, finding a home in a new world proved impossible.
Every creature knew about Yoon the enslaver. Everyone, from young to old, feared him for his submission to the dark spirit. They continued to call him the false Avatar, and because of this, not a day went by without him having to fight for his own survival. His previous visit to this place had destroyed his reputation forever — in order to find a way to gain the power of his father, Firefly, he had killed over a hundred spirits. But this time... he decided to start experimenting.
"If I absorb the spirits of four different elements, will I be able to gain the power of each of them? Holding a small fire spirit that screamed loudly and writhed in his stone gloves, as well as a small transparent fish whose movements caused the water in his hand to behave strangely, Yoon managed to trap their bodies in a deadly shell using only his sixth chakra.
This was the secret of Yun's power: enlightenment could be achieved in many ways, and he did so after realising that spirits were mortal creatures whose souls could be bound by force. There was no point in asking them for permission or entering into incomprehensible contracts; one only needed to see their true nature, open the third eye, and take possession.
However, no matter how many experiments he conducted, he was unable to achieve results. It was impossible to obtain power from the spirits of plants, fire, water, and even air, as his father Firefly had done.
"Power based on manipulating pure energy is within my grasp, but the elements and their parallels are beyond me," said Yoon, pulling the pitch-black soul that had undergone the process of subjugation out of his body and throwing it into a deep, dark pit. It seemed that it had no bottom, that the abyss of the universe itself had accepted another gift... but if you looked closely, you could see that it was not a pit, but an almost filled ditch, filled with creatures as black as pitch, piled on top of each other like dead weight, all of which could easily be mistaken for a hole in the ground.
He looked at them all as if they were mere animals. People, especially in his time, also often killed living creatures either for food or for scientific purposes, although ordinary beaver antelopes and lion turtles aroused more sympathy in him than these dark spirits. However, unlike the locals, Yoon considered those who behaved like the lowest of the low to be dark spirits. Cattle that were completely useless in experiments to create an Avatar...
Only once did an elemental spirit truly affect his abilities.
"Since when did mountains start growing near my house?" Stepping out of his stone hut, Yoon realised that an unfamiliar shadow was falling on him and looked up. Where there had been a simple clearing, there was now a whole rock.
"You are the object of my search," said not just a rock, but a huge living mountain, whose slightest movement seemed capable of wiping out an entire city. It crept up on the small, lifeless corner of the spirit world where Yoon lived and roared in a deep voice, "Devourer, you should not exist. Because of you, fewer and fewer spirits are passing into the mortal world to protect it from humans.
"I couldn't quite hear your words because of the sand flying into my eyes," said Yoon, rubbing his eyelids and putting his hand to his ear. "Did you say protect my past world from humans? What are you talking about, you blockhead?
"Mortals like you are destroying the favourite places of many spirits. Recently, they ruined my friend Old Iron's favourite place. And all because you prevent spirits from entering the mortal world and protecting sacred places. I am here to take away your right to make thoughtless decisions.
"I have no idea who this Old Iron is, but by the way, you're a two-faced creature... - Cracking his fingers and subjugating the surrounding stone, which began to resemble water, Yoon took the stance of a water mage." - You are now on territory that I am sworn to protect.
The compressed stones formed sharp waves that began to cut off the giant spirit's enormous legs. Its head was subjugated by Yoon's magic, and its arms were torn off and used as clubs. It did not live long. After acquiring a mortal body, the giant shrank to the size of Yoon's soul, giving him the ability to control his element more precisely. Now, instead of simply throwing a stone, he could control it and give it unimaginable acceleration. Enveloping himself in stone armour, he could move at wild speeds, and he had even more power to use his developed magical techniques.
Since then, more higher spirits began hunting him. The face thief himself tried to go hunting a couple of times, but due to his lack of attachments and loved ones, his plans always came to nothing. But he never managed to discover how to achieve the four elements.
***
"Old Iron... he's on your list," the fox looked at me, thinking hard about the story I had told her, sometimes grimacing at the cruelty she had heard, sometimes amazed at Yuna's great achievements. "Wang Shi Tong allowed us to deal with him because he doesn't share any information.
"Your guardian spirit asked you to kill another? Funny joke," seeing us exchange glances, the guy shook his head. He was visibly tired after the story, as if he could hardly remember individual moments from a hundred or even three hundred years ago.
"Not kill, but subjugate, apparently those words are synonymous to you, bloodthirsty mage," the fox girl said boldly. General Old Iron first appeared mortal during the era of Avatar Yangchen. He was one of the most powerful elemental mages, even Yang Chen had difficulty dealing with him, even though she knew how to use the Avatar state. Now his remains are buried under a settlement, which, by all logic, should be guarded by dark spirits... Is it really because of you that there are fewer guardian spirits in the world?
Yun folded his arms across his chest and shrugged indifferently. He didn't give a damn about the mortal world, only raising an eyebrow once when he heard about the Avatar, but nothing more. However, he understood the gist of the conversation perfectly:
"So you want to know the secret of my obedience? I don't think it's worth it. Have you heard the saying, 'Don't try to catch a falling knife'? Let events take their course, or you'll end up with a fate no better than mine.
"You mean the Avatar will kill me just like he killed you? - I hit the nail on the head," - "You don't even know who lives in this era," I pointed to his forehead.
"I have studied every Avatar who was born before me, Dagoth, and they are all the same," he emphasised dramatically, like a good orator. "There is rubbish, and then there is more rubbish, nothing more." In any situation, they will try to solve their problems by force, forcing the desired result with threats, because that is the only power they have... but if you want to be ready for that, I can still tell you how to prepare for a fight. I will gladly help the Avatar's enemy.
A sly smile spread across his face. If I chose the path of the seven chakras, then he chose the opposite option - killing the weak and dominating the strong. And it wasn't too late for me to turn back... According to Anubis, if you haven't influenced fate yet, you can take a step back and accept something more certain. Be prepared in advance for even the most terrifying fights — that's what Chin's entire experience had taught him, and now Yuna's too. Besides, he had learned to protect his mind, and that was a compelling argument in favour of accepting such power.
If Wang Shi Tong takes me under his wing and protects me, even if I end up in the spirit world, it's worth a try. In that case, I have nothing to lose.
"Alright... take away my illusions about spirits.