I arrived at my training area a few months ago. The meeting is to be held in around 30 years from now, plenty of time for me to start branching out my power.
So far I have focused solely on skills only, trying to take my anti-magic to the absolute limit. Which I think I have achieved, I have two unique skills linked to anti-magic, many extra skills I have curated over the centuries related to it too. My overall hope and goal was to be able to merge all these together and evolve them into a never before seen Ultimate Skill. However, doing this in practice has been frustratingly difficult.
Shaking my head I moved to the centre of the clearing and thought about what I could utilise. Yes there was elemental magic like most Primordials use as their main source of power considering their long lives that they have to master it to a high level. However, after surprisingly seeing Bleu in our fight use what I think is Battlewill made me revaluate my options. I dislike having to fight face-to-face I would much rather sit at range and blow up my opponent with overwhelming firepower, all that effort in using your body puts me off. Looking at the wider picture though, this would be the best path to take. My largest weakness is physical combat. Yes, my nature as a Primordial makes my physicality immeasurable, but that means nothing against an angel, a true dragon or Rouge.
Also, after mainly using a power that nullifies or weakens other peoples powers, it has opened my eyes to the fear of maybe someone out there having a counter to my powers. Because as I identified before, there are some problems or weaknesses with anti-magic.
Now I will base my training of this Art around a weapon rather than focus solely on the body.
"Hmm, which to pick. " I mutter aloud as I pace back and forth as the ground underneath my feet crunches with each step.
A sword probably? It seems to be the best pick from what I read back on earth. Wait! What if I combine this Battlewill training with my Unique Skill: Death Materialising? The skill summons weapons and uses them as an anchor for the long range beams of energy to cause huge damage. But they do much more than that, like in my fight with Bleu and Blanc, when Bleu used her Aura Bullets my skill made use of the weapons to automatically deflect them away. It would take a lot longer, but if I am able to master every type of weapon along with Battlewill and combine its use with Death Materialisation, I would have weapons of every kind at my disposal that I could wield at any time in a fight, along with those weapons being anti-magic, having a great automatic defence and long range AOE nuking ability! Add onto this my Eyes of Darkness that allow me to perceive actions at a much slower rate...
"Hahaha...." I lifted my head in the air and let out a laugh. If anyone in Hell saw this they may do a double take or think I had gone insane. But I was happy, I could see my future win playing out in my head and Rouge at my feet. I shook my head, no don't get sucked in, calm down...
I refocused and started my long training session that will elevate me onto a whole new level in more ways than I initially expected.
----------------
30 years later:
A young man, with grey hair that now flows down his exposed back in waves like a waterfall and eyes that were grey with black specks like stars in the sky and pitch black sclera. Surprisingly those eyes that were once dim sparkled with some sort of emotion that was non existent in this man a short few decades ago - Determination and sort of calculated calmness. Gone was the lazy disposition, gone was the unmotivated and destructively driven man who once seemed to revel in harmful and chaotic thoughts.
Weapons of all different kinds were hovering around him like some sort of servant. With a mere thought from the man he would let go of one which would float back to join the others and another would take its place in his hands.
From spear, spinning and sweeping then stabbing, to a sword slashing and overhead swinging, then into a long staff with an axe-like blade on the end was swung in a 360 degree motion. As he then let go to replace it with a greatsword that was large and heavy. The man seemingly held it aloft as the invisible energy that surrounded his body would surge into the blade before he swung it down to cause an outward projectile to launch itself with a thunderous bang into the distance splitting the ground and creating a ravine like some sort of natural phenomena had struck. As a black aura of anti-magic was left in its wake and the very air of Hell was torn apart.
He then seemingly took one step and disappeared as he blinked metres away as the weapons in the air followed him like seeker drones looking to seek and destroy. He then gave a mental command and thousands of weapons matching the ones around him this whole time appeared and instantly a static charge was heard before death rained down upon the clearing:
BOOM! BOOM!
The man stuck the large, wide and pitch black blade made up of anti-magic into the ground as he leant on it, seemingly catching his breath, his muscles had grown considerably over this time, from a lean and compact frame, that was something a noble scion may have. To a more robust, wide and muscular body of a seasoned knight. An 8-pack of thick and large abs crawled up his abdomen and his hands once slender now noticeably thicker, with callouses.
He created a towel, something quite earth-like, and wiped his face before dispelling his skill and going to sit on a nearby bench he had made earlier.
-------------------
It should be about 30 years now I thought as I looked down at my hands, calloused, cut and bruised. I could heal them, but I think I won't. They can remind me of an important lesson that I learnt in these last 30 years, something I never did over the last few centuries.
A stable and calm mind can be just as sharp and powerful as any magic or skill.
I never took any of this seriously, this life or my opponents, even if I said I didn't underestimate anyone, which was true. But deep down I saw myself as the protagonist as the one that will be above all and oh I will be, do not mistake my words. But I never would have if I did not spend this time to understand myself and stopped running from my past. What started out as a way for me to gain more power for what was my life's purpose has actually gave me something extra that may have took me a lot longer to understand.
This training was very different from the other times. All I did was think up ideas and used my anti-magic in different ways to create extra skills through a lot of experimenting. Was it time consuming? Yes. Was it difficult to master these skills? Yes. But it was reasonable comparatively because it felt relatively easy considering the nature of my Unique Skill: Anti-Magic. Which gave me an innate control and a high level of manipulation of the energy. It was like asking a genius how they did something, they couldn't explain it, they just do it because they can. Something others might struggle to understand.
Compared to trying to master all these different types of weapons, I did not have a skill here that could be my shortcut or make me a genius. I had to earn it. That process for someone like me, who has always took the easy way out, blamed everyone else, the world, random strangers for my problems or my lack of purpose and drive which I convinced myself that I did not need was a lesson that has made me rethink my past behaviour and come to an understanding of my weaknesses.
First before learning Battlewill Arts, Aura or using my Unique Skills, I created a wooden version of each weapon, a sword, greatsword, halberd, spear. Just me and the weapons. I wanted to build a strong foundation and after just a few days I wished to quit and give up. That parasitic voice in my head saying for me to stop wasting my time. That my current power was enough, that I didn't need to put in all this effort. When I can let myself get older and naturally stronger or learn skills linked to anti-magic, to continue with the status quo and stay where I am comfortable. Like some sort of poisonous whisper of the devil.
Then I remembered what Kali said to me and that was when I finally decided to stop running and identify the problem and try and fix it. So I decided to keep pushing to try and allow myself to let go of the past that still clings to me. A week, month, year, 5 years, 10... By the time I hit the 20 year mark, I had made progress in leaps and bounds. Mentally and physically. Gone was the indolent and languid behaviour I had when wielding my power, or even when speaking and acting like even those things were a bother. Now replaced with a calm and honed mind. One that has pushed passed its limits and one that has finally learned to not take the easy way out when faced with challenges.
Through all this I gained an extra skill linked to the mind: Thought Acceleration - It allows for an increased thought-processing speed and near-instantaneous analysis and decision making.
As I continued to stare at my hands it made me feel good. For once I felt positivity from something that wasn't destructive in nature. I was proud of my actions of overcoming myself, who for most of my first and essentially the majority of my second life has been my strongest enemy. The one I could never prevail over.
I wanted to chase that feeling, I want to hold onto it. To replace that detrimental high from before, that high that I would get from seeing people lose to my power and to my superiority. Treating them as tools to achieve my goals thinking all I needed was to prove my supremacy over them and they would follow. And they did. It is one of the fundamental characteristics of Hell and daemons, and as I spend more time in this life I realise Hell might have been the worst place for me to start, that and being a daemon has compounded my issues.
After thinking all that what if one day I become weak or fail? Will they when seeing me weakened and try and take a chunk of my flesh? This is what I have been thinking through over these few decades. It isn't just about me becoming better for my own sake but also for the sake of my purpose in this life. Because don't get me wrong my purpose has not changed, domination and conquering are what drive me forward. But not if I am doing it for the wrong reasons. Before I may have wiped out a city for fun, however, now I would still do it, but there had to be a valid rationale.
Anyway, after building a strong foundation in using weapons I started to incorporate my Death Materialisation into my training, using those weapons instead of the wooden ones, getting used to swapping them out while attacking.
Then for the last few years I have put my all into mastering Battlewill. I was able to sense and use Aura pretty easily, but learning to use it with my weapons and learn techniques was challenging to say the least. So far I have only grasped Aura Slash. I am also in the process of mastering Instantmove.
I am still nowhere near where I want to be, but baby steps, my power now is so much more than before and more importantly my mentality has shifted slightly in a direction that I think will allow me to grow beyond what I would have been, beyond what I was. I may not have evolved race-wise but I have in other ways. And for the first time in this new life I feel like my second chance is just starting.
New Skills:
Thought Acceleration