Ascension of the elder

Chapter 65: Almighty Ash

"I think you broke him."

"Well I'm sure he'll be fine....maybe?"

Kyle was feeling more and more guilty for how he used Dylan as his training dummy but what's done is done so moving on. Kyle looked at Ash who was watching him as he knew that he was next up.

"Okay Ash same procedure as Miranda sit, focus and I'll need to watch your spirit realm you don't have any issues with that I assume?"

"No problem what so ever plus you've already seen it before so why would I worry about it now."

Everyone's interest peaked again as they were watching Ash and Kyle. Everyone cared about the others but if this is successful it would directly impact on their future prospects. Altruistic or not everyone would put themselves first if it wasn't a life or death scenario as it has been shown so many times in the face of true adversity people will drop any hate for each other and band together.

Kyle had thought of this aspect to people before, he had a theory that the way humans treated each other was similar to how siblings fight. It can be as vicious and brutal as any war or genocide but the moment someone or something else tries to get involved, well just watch out because you're likely to get your balls handed to you in a basket.

Anyway that's just one theory. Kyle dismissed these silly ideas and instead focused on Ash. When he dove in he could see Ash's channel was much wider than Miranda's and because of his longer time cultivating even if it was a lower grade technique, his nodes were already cleared and strengthened to a greater degree than Miranda's.

This was the advantage of accumulation, due to the long time of continuous training Ash's body had strengthened due to the presence of mana within it. This wasn't the directed and controlled means they were using now but it still had an effect.

Ash began to follow what Miranda had done and began to compress his mana down into as small an area as possible. Within his soul realm Kyle could see the flow was being reversed with mana gradually being drawn back.

Suddenly there was a change within the flow and mana began to be pulled back from past the first gate. This mana was of a higher form than the rest and as happened when Kyle had opened his first gate, the inclusion of this mana had an effect on the mana already present.

This reaction seemed to be putting pressure on Ash's channel and was forcefully widening it. When Kyle saw this he used his soul force to contain this new mana form, protecting Ash's channel and preventing damage occurring.

On the outside people saw Ash struggling. He had veins popping out on his arms and on his neck and blood began to flow from his nose. Clara and Lauren began to panic and wanted to rush to Ash. They were stopped by the others present however and Maria was the one who came and spoke to them.

"Do you trust Kyle?" Maria asked them this while looking straight at them.

Clara and Lauren looked at Ash who was still obviously in pain before Clara spoke up.

"Yes I trust Kyle."

Lauren hugged her daughter tightly before she also spoke.

"Yes I trust him as well."

"Well give him a chance, even though it looks painful he has still maintained his calm so it isn't beyond his tolerance. Trust in Kyle I know he won't fail."

As Maria spoke she calmed the mother and daughter duo down while showing the blind faith she had in her son. Everyone was watching from the sidelines and were thinking to themselves if would be able to accept this risk themselves and they all came to the same answer. The answer was a resounding YES. This was a chance to be more than they were and to step past being just a servant or a slave and instead be the foundation for something better.

The 'shadow hand' were the most affected by this as they had lived as bandits without any real backing or a place to return to and now they found this place they would fight for it, not like they had much of a choice but there was a big difference between choosing to serve and being forced to.

Back with Kyle he was exerting a massive amount of soul force and mana to contain the mana within Ash's channel as more was flowing back from the next area so Kyle was using level 1 mana to contain level 2 mana. While Kyle was struggling he was also quite happy as the pressure from this action was merging his soul force into his mana and they were now twinning together making both stronger.

Kyle was only able to merge a tiny portion of his soul force with his mana but he could feel the strength of his mana was beginning to reach beyond his level so theoretically he could fight above his level even at later levels.

Even if Kyle didn't know what advantages a stronger soul force would bring to others he decided to find out if it could be trained more easily than how his mother was training using array projection.

Gradually the flow of mana into Ash's channel began to slow down and he began to draw mana from his nodes and finally through his sub-nodes which meant it was now time to give it a go. Before he released the mana Kyle looked at the mana stored in the channel and saw this mana was taking on a red hue unlike Miranda's blue so there was something special with different people.

Kyle's mana had remained bright white almost silvery in its appearance so this was something to look into. But regardless it was now time to release the beast.

'Now' the command went out and Ash with a great sense of relief released his control allowing his mana to blast through aiming for the now pitiful gate which was going to suffer.

On the outside the effect of the breakthrough was even more pronounced than with Miranda with a strong wind blasting in which knocked a few people off their feet and Clara was clinging to Lauren to prevent herself from being knocked away.

Landon was watching all this happening and decided to speak to Kyle when he was finished as he hoped he could further open his gates like what Kyle's people were doing.

When Ash released his mana all the pressure was released from his body allowing his veins to return to their normal state which relieved Lauren as she didn't know what she would do if anything happened to Ash. Maria was standing next to her and put her hand on her shoulder. She knew what Lauren was feeling because if anything happened to her Landon she would be equally lost.

Ash's mana continued it tsunami rush to the gate and like what happened with Kyle when the mana hit the gate it didn't open it, no. It obliterated it and continued on its course, when it hit the next gate it didn't have enough force to fully open it but it did manage to open it further allowing the next level to gain more mana.

Until they caught up with Ash's level it looked like this would continue but this wasn't a bad thing as it would give his body a chance to strengthen up for the next push but Kyle would wait at each level until all the nodes were clear to support the next change.

Coming out of the connection Kyle looked at Ash who was sweaty and with blood dripping from his nose. Ash was still cultivating like Miranda to build up some more mana because the feeling of being drained was a little uncomfortable.

When they saw Kyle was up Clara and Lauren rushed forward with concern etched on their faces.

"How's my dad is he okay?" Clara blurted out before Lauren could even speak.

Kyle turned to them and with a big grin just gave them a thumbs up while both of them looked at him in confusion. What did that mean was it good or bad?

"This means he's fine, he'll just cultivate for a bit to balance his new mana levels." Kyle realised his blooper so he clarified what he meant.

Leaving them to watch over Ash, Kyle went to his mother to have a chat while his dad came over as well.

"Hey Kyle when will I be able to do this?" Landon asked with excitement etched on his face. This was something new and he wanted to see what difference it would mean for him.

"Soon I'll need to check you can support the new mana level but due to your training it should be fine once I've rested for a bit. Just a thought dad when do you train I don't think I saw you train before you joined us, I mean physically?"

"Well I trained with the guards when I was younger but I haven't done any for the last 10 years or so why?"

"Well you still look like you train but if you haven't been how has your body maintained itself?"

"What do you mean maintained, once you get strong you stay that strength."

On hearing his father Kyle knew something was different about these peoples understanding. If you stop training your muscles would begin to atrophy and you would lose you edge but something was maintaining their strength once they hit a certain point.

Thinking about the properties he had seen when mana was present in their bodies, the strengthening and evolution not to mention the healing Kyle thought the most likely thing was mana was supporting them. But if mana was being used to support the body less could be used to progress hence why cultivation slowed with not only the level but also the age of the practitioner.

This however didn't take into account how if you trained and mana was used to alter an evolve your body it would be stronger and last longer so it was a tightrope between training and cultivating.

While Kyle was thinking about this his mother elbowed him in the stomach making him groan a bit.

"What was that for?"

"Because."