The wind howled in the distance.

  Eclipse’s confession resounded like a thunderclap in Chael’s mind. After a few seconds, he said, “H-huh? No Gift Core? What do you mean?”

  Eclipse’s eyes were almost hollow, "Why can’t I form the core? I did everything I was supposed to."

  "It's exactly as I thought," Celestia sighed. "You have an immense amount of Qi and your Anima is much stronger than the average, but it seems you don’t have a Tenelux."

  "Huh, how can he not have a Tenelux? He's got so much Qi & Anima…" Chael frowned.

  "I.. didn’t mention this earlier, but not everyone is capable of forming a Tenelux. Though it’s very rare, despite having learnt how to manipulate Qi and Anima, there are people who can never form the Gift Core because the soul refuses to change its structure. This isn’t a flaw… some souls are just really stubborn.” Celestia explained solemnly, “Eclipse’s soul just so happens to be that way…”

  Eclipse’s head bent down a little, and his grey fringe fell over his eyes, casting a shadow on them. He clenched his knuckles, then unclenched them.

  Then clenched them once again.

  Only to unclench a few moments later.

  Eventually, he spat out, his tone full of disappointment and regret, “What now? Is there anything I could do to get one?”

  “No.” Celestia cut him off coldly and bluntly. Her voice was cold and final, “There isn’t. All you can do is hone the cards you have right now to the best of your abilities.”

  Eclipse scrunched his brows and his fists clenched so hard his knuckles had turned white.

  Eclipse was in complete denial, “No that can’t be. There definitely-”

  “No…” Celestia repeated, shaking her head in dejection, “You can’t form a Tenelux, Eclipse.”

  Chael could only watch helplessly. He has good emotional intelligence and thus has ways with words to comfort people, but at this moment, he couldn’t say anything.

  They were friends and rivals after all. How could he possibly comfort his friend after it dawned on them that he’ll always be ahead of him now, no matter what?

  Not to mention his goals were grander.

  Eclipse soullessly got up before trudging back towards the cottage, slowly - one step at a time.

  Chael subconsciously reached out to him, and almost forced himself to call out to him, but in the end, he remained still.

  Celestia looked hard at his shrinking figure before turning her attention to Chael, “Well, now then. Let’s hone your Tenelux. Let’s go to the foot of the mountain, shall we?”

  “But what about Eclip-?”

  Before Chael could finish his sentence, Celestia appeared behind him like a grim reaper and launched a powerful back kick which Chael just about turned to, managing to block with his arms. The force of the kick sent him skidding across the wet grass for several metres.

  “Worry about yourself. Eclipse will be fine.” Celestia said grimly.

  Soon it was sunset.

  Chael was charging towards Celestia with his Odachi glowing a powerful beige and thick tree roots following his path as he bulldozed towards her. The roots were disorderly and haphazard, but Chael could control their general direction about now.

  The days of training continued, with Chael honing his skills with his newly discovered Tenelux while Eclipse grappled with the weight of not having one.

  Each day, Chael's control over his Tenelux grew stronger and more pronounced, and his connection with nature was seamless, as if he was born to wield such power.

  Eclipse, on the other hand, found himself struggling to keep up. He watched with a mixture of admiration and envy as Chael battled Celestia while commanding the tree roots from beneath the earth. The disparity between them weighed heavily on his mind and filled him with a sense of inadequacy.

  And the final straw for him was when he sparred with Chael one evening and realised Chael held back on purpose to prevent him from losing morale, and this weighed heavily on his heart.

  One night, while Chael was fast asleep, Eclipse approached Celestia who was drinking away in the living room.

  “Couldn’t get sleep tonight, kid?” Celestia asked as she held the gourd of ale over her tongue and tried to shake out the last few drops.

  "Is there really nothing I can do?" he asked, his voice tinged with frustration and anger.

  Celestia continued shaking the bottle over her tongue. "No."

  She put the opening of the gourd over her eye to look inside, "I swear there was some left...”

  Eclipse's frustration only intensified. He couldn't accept that there was nothing he could do to bridge the gap between himself and Chael.

  "Please, there has to be something," Eclipse insisted, his voice almost pleading at this point.

  Celestia regarded him for a moment before sighing heavily. She put the gourd on the table and got up.

  "Well... there is one thing," she said reluctantly.

  Celestia's eyes suddenly darkened several fold, and the atmosphere around her immediately became glum, “Tell me, how much are you willing to suffer.”

  Her tone was harsh and fierce. A cold, malevolent Anima pressure washed over Eclipse's entire being. His eyes widened and he gritted his teeth as he tried his best to withstand the force of this sudden change.

  Eclipse's eyes gleamed with a fierce determination and hope as he squared his shoulders and faced Celestia, despite the intense anxiety in his heart as a result of Celestia's Anima pressure.

  "I'll do it," he declared, his voice firm and resolute. "I'll die for it."

  "Eclipse, you don't understand," Celestia began, her tone grave. "What I'm about to propose has consequences beyond what you can imagine."

  But Eclipse's resolve remained unwavering.

  "I don't care," he insisted, his voice filled with determination, hatred and sheer vengeance. He ground his teeth and spat viciously, "I'll do anything to kill every single one of them."

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Celestia sighed heavily, her expression troubled. Her pupils wavered, as though she was seeing something besides Eclipse.

  After a long moment, her shoulders finally slumped. She whispered under a shaky breath, ‘I really hoped it wouldn't come to this…’

  Eclipse tilted his head at her slightly, waiting for a response.

  "Very well," she said and got up, her voice tinged with resignation. "Get ready! Tonight I'll take you somewhere."

  Hope and fierce determination flared through Eclipse’s mind and he nodded immediately, “I already am. Let’s go right now.”

  “You’ll be gone for quite a long time. Do you want to tell Chael?”

  “No, it’s fine.” Eclipse scrunched his brows, “Next time I see him will be when I kick his ass.”

  Celestia and Eclipse stepped outside. Eclipse looked through the room window and sure enough Chael was sound asleep, snoring away whilst Shadow was curled into a ball at the foot of his futon.

  "Let's go. It's going to be a long walk." Celestia said.

  With that, the two set off along the rocky mountains. They continued along the way, and eventually, three hours passed. During this time, they didn't exchange a single word with each other, and even though the walk was long and tedious, they didn't show any signs of tiring or exhaustion in the slightest.

  Celestia finally came to a stop at the peak of a large mountain. It didn't look any different from any of the other areas they passed on the way, "We're finally here."

  Eclipse frowned and looked around. "This place doesn't seem special. It's just a mountain top, and we passed like a good twenty of those on our way here..."

  Celestia chuckled. "Look closer, kiddo."

  Eclipse concentrated on the plains below.

  Nothing happened; the wind simply swept past the trees, causing them to sway from side to side.

  Just then, Eclipse's eyes shot wide open. The plains and the large trees underneath him slowly vanished, almost as if they were an illusion.

  Eclipse had his eyes peeled in surprise as he witnessed the most bizarre thing in his life.

  Soon, a buzzing sound echoed into the atmosphere, which had turned into a shade of purple. The plains, which stretched on for thousands of kilometres, seemed to be the cause of this noise.

  Eclipse blinked, and the next instant, the plains had disappeared, replaced with a large stretch of purple matter roaring violently, purple tendrils and flares shooting upwards.

  His eyes trembled, "What... is that?"

  Celestia's face remained solemn. She raised her hands as if to praise this magnificent sight.

  "Behold, the sea of lightning!" Celestia proclaimed. Just as she said this, the overcast sky rumbled with purple lightning, and several bolts as thick as tree trunks crashed down into the sea of lightning below. The sea roared and echoed for tens of miles around.

  Eclipse’s eyes quivered as he looked at the spectacle and the violent, trembling tendrils of lightning. His fingers quivered, "This… How deep is it?"

  "Three-hundred feet," Celestia shouted. It was hard to make any sound that wasn’t completely drowned by the angry roar of the rolling lightning below.

  Eclipse’s eyes widened.

  "This sea of lightning has been here in the Bloodmoon Region for thousands of years," Celestia continued, her tone carrying a hint of solemnity. "This is where lightning has been collected for over aeons and it is said that this place had been used as an execution site a long, long time ago. Because of the destruction of the Bloodmoon Region over the past thousand years, it's also been long forgotten."

  Eclipse was surprised. "How do you know about it then?"

  Celestia put a finger on her lips and shot him a smile, "It's a secret!"

  Eclipse stared at her with a blank expression before turning his gaze back to the Sea of Lightning below. "Why are we here?"

  His tone was cold and determined.

  "You can’t form the Gift Core in your soul," Celestia explained solemnly. "But there's a way for you to still get a Tenelux."

  "How…?" Eclipse said and his pupils reflected the purple lightning underneath him that stretched on for miles as it roared and rolled.

  "To put it bluntly, you're going to have to absorb all of that."

  Eclipse sneered darkly. He couldn’t believe it but his suspicions had turned out to be true, “And how do I do that?"

  Celestia stared calmly at him. She knew at this point that Eclipse was disinterested in the mechanics of how it all worked, but she explained it to him nonetheless, “This sea of lightning gives off its own Anima Pressure just like the blood moon. So when you go down there and become engulfed by it, your Anima will be forced to adapt to it, if you’re able to survive for that to that point - at most, in about a month or so. By adapting, I mean that your soul no longer sees it as a threat after not being killed by it for so long, it will rather, see it as one and the lightning won’t be able to kill you once your adapted. When this happens, your soul will accept the lightnings pressure and so your soul will begin to absorb the sea of lightning’s Anima Pressure, you will still feel the same pain until you’ve absorbed it whole but only this time you won’t be able to die from it. When your soul starts to absorb the anima pressure, it will realise that this Anima pressure doesn’t belong to it and so it will slowly reconstruct to officially make it its own, creating an artificial Gift core. This entire process would take roughly two years, and by the end of it, you’ll have absorbed all the Anima Pressure within the sea of lightning, and cause it to cease to exist. In turn, you’ll have a lightning manipulation Energy type Tenelux.”

  Eclipse nodded grimly in understanding as he processed Celestia’s words, after all, this would be the last time he’ll receive guidance from her for a long time.

  "Lightning manipulation?" Eclipse's voice trailed off, his thoughts racing with the gravity of what he was about to attempt. But despite that, there wasn’t any hint of hesitation in his eyes. “I’ll do it. How can I not die in there, though?”

  Celestia pulled out something from her pouch, her expression grave. Eclipse frowned as she revealed a small glass tube containing a thick, purple, fuzzy liquid. His gaze fixated on the violet liquid, curiosity mingled with apprehension evident in his eyes.

  Celestia explained, her voice tinged with worry. "This potion will keep rebirthing your physical body over and over again… millions of times a second… when that happens your soul and anima will need to become adapted… its your only hope of attaining a Tenelux… but it’s properties will diminish in about a month so you will have to adapt to the lightning before then otherwise you will perish.”

  Eclipse reached out to take the potion from Celestia's hand, but she hesitated, her grip tightening around the vial. Eclipse looked up at her, and she widened her eyes, as if snapping out of a trance. With a reluctant nod, she finally released her hold and let Eclipse take it.

  “Please reconsider this…” Celestia's voice was sorrowful as she detailed the ordeal that awaited Eclipse in the Sea of Lightning. "You will feel as if you are dying every second down there. You will face extreme physical and mental pain, as if being stabbed hundreds of times every second. Enduring such torment for two years will test your willpower to its very limits."

  As Celestia spoke, Eclipse's eyes grew darker, his expression becoming distant as memories of his past flooded his mind. The weight of her words settled heavily upon him, and he fell silent, lost in contemplation.

  Celestia observed his reaction and genuine sadness crept onto her face. She already knew Eclipse would seize this chance at all costs.

  Without saying anything, Eclipse removed his earring which were given to him by Duozian and handed them over to Celestia

  “I have to do this… Thank you for giving me this opportunity, master.” He then flung open the lid of the bottlet.

  The anticipation hung heavy in the air as he lifted the potion to his lips, the glass cool against his skin. With a determined gulp, he swallowed the liquid down, feeling a surge of energy tingling through his veins.

  As soon as he did, agony seared through Eclipse's skull. His head felt as though it were being split apart, and he clenched his teeth so hard that he tasted blood. His hand curled into a tight fist, nails digging into his flesh as he fought to suppress the pain.

  "This is just the very, very beginning... the pain you'll feel down there won't compare to this." Celestia voiced her last line of dissuasion.

  "I'm... ready...!" Through gritted teeth, he growled his affirmation with his voice raw with determination. As Eclipse forced himself to stand tall, his gaze locked with Celestia's. Despite her nod of acknowledgment, her eyes were cast with worry and concern. This may very well be the last time she's seeing her student.

  With a resolve and desperation, Eclipse stepped forward, his heart pounding in his chest as he faced the churning sea of lightning. Each crackling bolt seemed to taunt him, promising both power and torment.

  There was no turning back now.

  Eclipse walked forward, his gaze fixed on the sea of lightning before him. As the vicious flares of lightning reached towards him, Eclipse narrowed his eyes.

  He took a step forward, then another.

  Suddenly a ghostly apparition walked beside him. Eclipse mind felt like it was struck by a thunderclap as he immediately took his eyes to the ghostly apparition.

  It was a faint, translucent image of a muscular, elder man. He had a calm and gentle disposition, and his azure pupils shone with generations of wisdom.

  “Grandfather…?”

  Eclipse stopped, staring at the apparition for a long time. For a moment, the deafening noise of the rolling lightning below him seemed to disappear.

  The apparition of Duozian gave him a faint smile, before it dispersed into the air.

  Taking a deep breath, Eclipse then dived down into the abyss.

  Celestia subconsciously reached out, as if trying to save him, but in the end, he was gone.