Devourer Of Destiny - Chapter 156

The knock at the office door came just a little over four hours after Albus had learned the Heartlock Sutra. Ebon Dirge noted with some approval that the youth had been diligent; one refreshing thing about the young demon was that once he embarked on a path, he was decisive and didn’t prevaricate.

“Come in,” Dirge called as he remotely swung the office door open. Theo entered and blinked a few times as he noticed the young man sitting cross-legged to one side of the room. “Theo, Albus, you’ve already met. As you can see, we were just making some progress with Albus’ physique cultivation.”

“Holy shit!” Theo exclaimed before he could apply any sort of filter to his speech. “Um, Miss Sable… you don’t happen to have any extra of what he’s on, do you?”

Dirge laughed as he noticed only the faintest little points of a flush on Albus’ cheeks at the other young man’s reaction. “Unfortunately not, Theo. Albus’ heritage makes him more accomplished at physique tempering; you’d have to put in an enormous amount of effort to accomplish what he has, effort better put into advancing your essence cultivation.”

Theo nodded, sighed, and shrugged. “It was worth a shot, I guess,” he said with a smile.

“Albus, continue meditation on the sutra while I work with Theo here, we’ll review your progress in a bit,” Dirge told the demonic youth as he flicked the office door closed with a thought. “Theo, we have a few things to cover, if you’ll grab a chair.”

“Of course, Miss Sable,” Theo replied with a nod, grabbing one of the chairs from the side of the room. Albus closed his eyes and returned to his meditation, so he didn’t notice the quick glances from the other student.

“Today we’re going to open some more meridians and handle your first compression, Theo,” Dirge announced, pulling out a ribbon from storage and throwing it at the young man, who snatched it out of the air. “Demonstrate your control for me, if you will.”

Theo held the ribbon in front of his face with thumb and forefinger, his brow furrowing as he concentrated on it. Streams of essence flowed out from his body, converging on the ribbon and contorting it in a dance as it knotted up.

Less than ten minutes later, the knotting up of the ribbon was finished, done much more completely and elegantly than the previous samples Theo had created. The young man let out an explosive breath. “Phew. Is this good enough, Miss Sable?”

Dirge smiled. “Your progress is good. I think you’re ready to apply that control with some real magic.”

Theo returned the smile with a grin. “Thanks, Miss Sable.” Then he frowned. “You already got the opening done?”

Dirge laughed. “Of course, I wasn’t going to just stare at you while you knotted a ribbon. Since you already had ten open, I went for another ten this time. You should have twenty meridians open now, about a third of your total. That’s a good place to be at during your first essence compression.”

At the side of the room, Albus’ eyes shot open for a moment and he looked at teacher and fellow student, but he quickly enough closed them and resumed his efforts. Dirge inwardly smiled at the reaction; the young man had no doubt been inundated in the conventional wisdom on the subject of meridian opening.

Part of keeping Albus in meditation during the session with Theo was to test the young demon’s response in a controlled setting. Another part was in playing this little game: Harmony Sable was a teacher who transformed the impossible into the real. This was another anchor for the transformed student to hold onto: even if he wasn’t sure of his path, someone was, he just had to endure.

“Okay, Theo, listen carefully,” Dirge began. “The compression of essence is what divides the early from the middle and the middle from the late when we speak of the stages of Meridian Circulation. Unlike meridian opening, there’s only so much assistance I can provide in this step; you’re on your own for the most difficult part of it. What you are going to do for this process is internalize as much essence in your plexus as you can… and then you’re going to exceed that limit.”

“This is going to be a bit painful, and you can cause some very real damage if you fail,” Dirge warned. “What I am going to do is aid in directing a great deal of essence into your vicinity, and once you are at that critical stage, I am going to temporarily seal all but one meridian, which you will continue to draw essence in with. Most cultivators require multiple attempts with months between them; I expect better of you. You have practiced control, and now you will reap the rewards; all you have to do is figure out how to apply that control internally so that the essence in your plexus liquifies. Got it?”

Theo’s eyes were a bit wide during the recital, but he nodded. “Anything more to know?”

“There’s a whole body of literature on the subject, but I doubt it’d help you, Theo,” Dirge replied. “The last bit of advice I will provide is that this isn’t a fast race; you do have a time limit to perform the process in, but it isn’t an immediate one. The pain will mount and your endurance of that will set the cap, but if you persevere, you will succeed. That will set the basis for your next compression, and from there, your entry into Foundation Building.”

Theo’s forehead was creased as he engraved that advice in his mind. “Okay.”

“Let’s begin, then.”

——–

“Congratulations,” Dirge announced a bit over an hour later. With a sweep of a hand, the dim essence stone floating over Theo’s head floated over to the desk where it hovered over the surface. “Welcome to the middle stage of Meridian Circulation, Theo.”

Drenched in sweat, Theo smiled as he panted from the exertion. “How bad was I?”

Dirge shrugged. “You succeeded. That’s the important thing.” With a negligent backhanded sweep, he reduced the depleted essence stone to dust and blew the dust into imperceptibility. “You certainly don’t need me to discuss how chasing some ideal perfection is a useless waste of time and talent again, do you?”

“Of course not, Miss Sable,” Theo agreed with a small grin. “Suitability surpasses perfection, right?”

Dirge returned that grin with a small smile of his own. “Albus, how is it going over there?”

The young man’s eyes snapped open after his name was called. “I think I have the hang of it now, Miss Sable. It’s all rather cold, isn’t it?”

Dirge nodded at that bit of commentary. “Several similar techniques include visualizations and even conceptions of frost or ice. Heartlock is more reliant on a personal interpretation of its meaning. As you may have just heard, I don’t push my students into perfection, I ask them for excellence and try to provide the most suitable tools to achieve that aim.”

Albus gave a small chuckle at that. “Sorry,” he said apologetically. “It’s sorta funny that you speak of it like that right after opening a bunch of meridians and guiding someone into successfully compressing their internal essence on the first go.”

Dirge smirked. “Albus, how many times did your first compression take?”

“Three,” he replied matter-of-factly.

Theo, still recovering from the effort and enjoying a moment off the hot seat, almost jumped out of his chair at that.

“See that, Theo? Albus here is considered a rare prodigy, and his advancement was a masterwork for his teacher that allowed him to climb a tier, and it took him three tries,” Dirge reported. “Are you still worrying about if you won’t measure up because you aren’t supposedly up to snuff with your quantity of meridians?”

Dirge hadn’t forgotten the young man’s concerns on that matter, even if he hadn’t spoken of it. Having long ago experienced that same angst but magnified due to the circumstances of his unauthorized conception in a powerful clan, he knew how it could fester even when one pretended it didn’t matter.

“Well, I guess I should be pretty awesome then, right Miss Sable?” Theo answered with a grin. “I did it the first try!”

Albus gave another one of those muffled chuckles at that pronouncement.

“Something to say, Albus?” Dirge prompted.

Albus took a deep breath and rose to his feet. “Sorry again. It’s just that I don’t think he fully appreciates the care he’s receiving here.”

Theo frowned at that. “Eh?”

“I’m not a subject expert, but I’d venture to wager that Miss Sable here could get anybody to the middle stage by their second attempt.” Albus inclined his head in a slight bow at that. “Is that more or less what I should say, Miss Sable?”

“Oh, I imagine there are some who’d do even worse even with my help,” Dirge replied, “but I appreciate the vote of confidence anyway. But enough about me, let’s talk about what both of you are going to be doing next.”

“Both of us?” the two students asked in tandem.

“The next assignment is something for both of you to handle,” Dirge explained. “You’ve both made advancements in your cultivation, but now it is time to receive some techniques to go with it and then to move on to the practical application phase.”

The two looked at each other warily. “The practical application phase, Miss Sable?” Albus ventured to ask after a moment.

“Yes. All of this sitting in a classroom stuff is good for some raw accumulation, but it needs to be tempered. Once you’ve learned a few things, I’m sending you off to the arenas in the city.”

Theo whistled at that announcement. “You’re that confident in us?”

“Of course,” Dirge replied. With a wave of a hand, the flexible sword he had created during the contest and tossed it hilt first to Theo. “Here’s your reward for advancing on the first try, Theo. Since you have practice with control, you qualify to use this sword.”

“Uh, won’t Eloise kill me if she finds out?” Theo asked as he snatched the weapon out of the air and waved it back and forth a few times.

“She’s supposed to be making her own as her assignment for the month,” Dirge reminded Theo. “This is the best way to practice your control in a live environment, alongside some other things I will teach you.”

Theo nodded. “Okay.”

“As for you, Albus, I have to make a suitable armament for you and that will take a bit more time,” Dirge announced. “However, your first task is to accompany Theo to the match tonight and be in the audience, practicing your sutra. I will attend as well, of course.”

Albus nodded, and Dirge could see he understood the first lesson here: rather than unleash him on the student body, he was set to sit in an audience that was mostly city residents. The presence of his teacher would keep any mishaps from going too far.

Dirge of course wanted to make sure the young man picked up his first “donor”, but that need not be explained until later in the evening. It was optimal to get that out of the way sooner rather than later, though; better to make sure it got handled in a supervised situation rather than haphazardly.

If all went well, he probably wouldn’t even have to clean up a body afterward.