Ascension of the elder

"Well you're f*cked now."

The general saw the crazy in front of him begin wiggling around in excitement while making strange noises and thought of a story his father told him when he was young, it was one of those stories people told children to teach them life lessons.

"..and that was how the hero lost everything, his power, money and position after leading a good and true life while supporting the poor and infirm."

"So dad what is the point of the story isn't the hero supposed to ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after?"

Asked the young general while his father looked at him with a strange look.

"My son greater and stronger men than us have been brought low by a single mistake. Not all stories have a happy ending after all and the moral of this story is don't stick it in crazy!!"

Switching out from the old generals memory he could be seen nodding to himself as he finally found himself agreeing with his father.

"Guards!! Take this young lady away and tell all the men she is to be unsullied, you hear me no one is to touch her!"

The guards who rushed in at the generals shout looked at the girl then at the general with questions in their eyes. They knew the general was partial to girls like this although he generally only partook in those who were paid for their service rather than force someone. They didn't know this was also some advice from his dad as he said if you force yourself on someone you don't know who would turn up after the fact for revenge.

The general saw the looks on the faces of his men before turning his attention to the girl who was now panting on the ground in a show of obvious excitement. Returning to the men's gaze he simply stated.

"Don't forget the fable of Donny Jepp."

A look of dawning comprehension appeared on their faces before looking at the girl with trepidation before collecting her while maintaining as much distance as possible. The general decided to prevent his men from playing with the girl as well because he didn't want to mess with however tamed this beast. This single act would become the one saving grace for the general and his men.

***

Return to Kyle

***

Kyle was still feeling his mana spiking and was directing it to the nodes he still hadn't yet cleared causing him reach the final step of level nine of stage one. The mana in the surroundings was continuously giving him enough energy to complete his growth.

Alfred began using some of the mana accumulating arrays in the nearby area saturating the estate in highly condensed mana. Those who weren't fully aware of what was happening could sense the increased mana density and so began training straight away.

As Kyle became stronger his soul power also began to strengthen and reinforce itself. This wasn't a growth of his soul power, rather it was his body that was able to tap into and direct more of his ocean like soul power.

This excess power flooded through his system and overflowed into those things that were connected to him. These were of course the arrays and seals he had created directly or indirectly (using the seal stones).

The most obvious of these connections were to Alfred and to Rih. Alfred gained greater connection to the associated cities through the relay system that gave him details of what was happening. He was now able to influence the arrays without directing his attention at them. This was similar to a reflex action rather than an unconscious action like it was previously.

This was a subtle distinction but now he was aware of any change were previously he would only become aware of what had happened when he checked or an alarm was raised. Rih change however was even more obvious.

He was already the largest of the falcons due to being nourished by Kyle's soul force which allowed him to control more mana improving and evolving him faster than his kin. With the sudden burst of soul power Rih was able to evolve even further than previously.

The caretakers were shocked as Rih suddenly lay down in apparent pain before a shifting barrier of energy surrounded him. Within the barrier Rih was changing, his wings shifted further to his back while his legs shift in to a form where the ankles looked to be in a similar location to the knees and new legs and talons began growing from the side of his chest.

His from now resembled in form a griffin or some mythical beast similar to this but he was still obviously a falcon due to his looks. In this form he was now better suited for battle and with his size now completely eclipsing what it was previously he was a force to be feared by any sane person.

To give some perspective Rih's wingspan was now approximately sixty feet from tip to tip and his body was around twelve feet in length. He was now gigantic in size and his strength was proportional to his size.

With this increase in strength his mana core also grew and was now three times larger than before allowing him to cast the instinctive magic's of his species with impunity.

Back with Kyle he had finally cleared the last of his nodes and was now gearing up to breakthrough. He was now surrounded by increasingly strong winds and lightning and fire were visibly striking the wind flow. This was a breakthrough the likes of which no one had seen before as this was the first of the new generation to break into the second stage.

Susan was watching this and finally said what was on her mind.

"Show off!"

Maria heard Susan say this and quietly crept up behind her while she was still concentrating on Kyle and before Susan could react grabbed her underwear and pulled up hard. Yes that's right Susan the goddess of chaos was finally defeated by a wedgie.

"Eeep."

Was all Susan could get out before the crowd was stilled again by a sound which caused most to cover their ears.

"Squaw..Cough ROOOOAARR!"

Rih had come out of his change and decided to announce his presence. People from around New Grange City looked towards the estate and saw a massive form leaving what had become the aviary. This form was quickly joined by several smaller forms and they began what could only be called an aerial ballet.

Those who had the seal knew something was happening and that all this was due to the Powell family so the simply chose to stop for a bit and watch the spectacle. There were cheers and clapping while the people watched unknowingly becoming stronger due to Kyle's soul power quietly improving them.

Back with Kyle he was observing and directing his mana. Even though he was using his anger and rage to grow more powerful he didn't forget this was the first time someone using his cultivation method broke through to the second stage. As such he needed to analyse the change and prepare for when his people reached this stage.

Kyle was within his spirit realm and was observing what was happening. His main channel was flowing to the end of the line or the final gate depending on your perspective while his nodes and sub-nodes were pulling in mana from outside and were adding it to the main channel changing it from a river to a tsunami rushing through his soul realm.

When the wave struck the final gate there was no suspense, no charging up for a second run. No as soon as this wave of mana hit the final gate didn't burst open or break it simply ceased to be. The mass of mana flowed through freely and Kyle could feel his view changing like he was being pulled away.

Gradually as his view retreated he gained a larger and larger overview of his mana system until finally he could see the whole thing and to his surprise it didn't look dissimilar to those pictures you sometime see of the veins and nerves in a human body.

The network of his mana system, while complex was nowhere near as complex and convoluted as the blood network in a human not even mentioning the nervous system. Kyle put this down to the mana system seeming to be created using mana while the other parts in a human body were created through evolution or more accurately trial and error.

Looking for the change that would occur from stage one to stage two Kyle saw his mana pooling in the centre of his chest but as usual he was aware this wasn't real or in the physical realm or he would already be struggling to breathe. This was purely metaphysical, as such Kyle watched how the mana reacted and saw it seemed to be denser than the mana in his channels and nodes but that was all.

Kyle began thinking of way to improve on this like he did with his cultivation technique and so decided to begin with the most obvious way of improvement and that was to increase the density of the mana so he began to exert his soul force and the mana pooling within him.

Gradually the mana began to condense until there was no more freely flowing within that space but Kyle continued to push and finally he was rewarded when his mana solidified into a crystal. This crystal appeared tiny but while Kyle watched more mana flowed in from the channel and added to the crystal.

As this new mana flowed in and struck the crystal rather than pooling it instead added to the crystal. Kyle sensed what he could do with this new addition and found that the crystal was releasing a constant flow of mana adding to his system while it was drawing from the channel at the same time increasing the amount it released.

Currently the crystal was drawing more mana than it was adding but checking this at the smallest way possible Kyle could see the crystal was gradually increasing the amount it pumped out while what it drew in was constant.

This was good as it meant he would be constantly cultivating even when he wasn't actively doing so, but Kyle had another idea to increase the flow of mana and so he focused on the crystal and began to manipulate the man within. Making it move in a circular motion faster and faster the mana formed a whirlpool increasing the flow of mana to the crystal.

This also had the effect of increasing the flow of mana in his main channel drawing more mana in with each breath. This also had an unexpected effect as the mana within his whole system of nodes and sub-nodes began moving as well. He wasn't drawing from this source rather this mana seemed agitated would seem to be the correct term.

This would take some investigation to see what difference this would make but for now Kyle had somewhere to be. So once he stabilised at his new level Kyle returned to the real world and looked around.

Everyone was watching him with shocked expressions except Susan who was rubbing her ass. While looking at Maria with a grumpy expression.

"Well looks like I broke through so I need to go and pick up my girl."

Kyle said with a smile while those watching could see a light in his eyes that wasn't there before.

"Welp he gonna kick somebody ass."