The poisonous green gas finally dissipated after a few minutes and the whole cave was in ruins. The essence stones were broken into small fragments and there were multiple cracks on the cave walls. Normally when essence stones break into tiny fragments, those fragments will grow larger based on the amount of soul essence in the environment.
Merlin's clothes were in tatters. The clothes slowly dissolved into a green puddle. A few patches of skins were missing from his body. His body started healing slowly, his soul essence diminishing which each passing second.
Merlin sat down on the ground breathing in a sigh of relief. He looked at his previous scythe which was now just a pole with a few cracks on it due to the corrosive gas. He picked the scythe up and decided to do something.
He imbued his soul essence into the broken scythe and the scythe glowed an amethyst light. The broken scythe changed into various different shapes. Ranging from a square to a star to rectangle and even turned into circle until into turned into an orb.
Merlin willed the purple orb to turn into scythe. The scythe length was two meters long, the blade of the scythe was curved and sharp and on the surface blade there was skull carved into it. The scythe gave off a dark and foreboding aura that was similar to the scent of death.
"We shall reap many souls together," Merlin muttered as his fingers trailed across the blade's surface. Merlin heard a system notification from his system and decided to take a look even though he knew what the contents of the notification.
[Congratulations!]
[You have created your first soul weapon]
[What do you wish to name it?] The system asked.
Merlin pondered for a while and got the perfect name for it. "Holy Scythe of Death," he said. After naming his soul weapon he decided to check his status screen.
[Name: Suguru Merlin]
[Race: Angel Hybrid and Vampire Hybrid]
[Title: Celestial of Death]
[Class: Master of Death]
[Rank: Supreme Soul Soldier]
[Level 6]
[Soul crystals:0/10 000)]
[Talent shards: 55]
[Soul Essence:5000/5000]
[Unassigned Stat Points: 27]
[Physical stats: (Strength-44), (Agility-44), (Defense-34), (Health- ???)]
[Mental Stats: (Perception-34), (Intellegence-44), (Willpower-34)]
[Class Talents: (Spirit Contract-S Rank), (Spirit Wraith-A Rank), (Spirit Summon-C Rank), (Spirit Storage-C Rank)]
[Innate Talents: (Light Manipulation), (Shadow Manipulation), (Blood Manipulation)]
[Learned Talents: (Shadow Sense-B Rank), (Shadow Step-C Rank), (Shadow Storage-C Rank), (Shadow Bind-C Rank), (Light sword-C Rank), (Light orb-C Rank), (Light Golem-C Rank), (Light Whip-D Rank), (Shadow Tendrils-D Rank), (Shadow Sword-D Rank), (Shadow Coat-E Rank)]
[Celestial Talents: (Celestial SecrecyLv1)]
[Soul Weapons: Holy Scythe of Death]
Merlin decided to use some of his stat points. He assigned five of them to perception and six of them to defense.
"Let's cultivate, show we," Merlin muttered with a wide grin on his face. He decided that he'll use the soul essence to strengthen his body and soul before going out. He sat in a lotus and started absorbing the abundant soul essence in the air.
***
Keith had been training Natasha in sword fighting for the past two months. He taught Natasha a fighting technique that suited her the most. It was called the Flying Steel Dragon technique. This sword style perfectly balanced both defense and offense. The Flying Steel Dragon Technique was created by a dragon clan that only awakened spiritual energy.
The Patriarch of that family spent years creating this sacred art and he passed it down to his descendants who perfected the art. This art was only taught to the descendants of the clan. One might ask how did Keith get possession of the sword technique.
His mother who was the Celestial of Vengeance before him came from a clan known as the Versatile Dragon Clan. The clan was a ruthless and barbaric clan that was hellbent on being the best dragon clan known to existence.
It attacked every dragon clan in its pursuit for power. This war in his original universe was known as the War of Blood and Steel. The Versatile Dragon Clan won the war and demanded numerous harsh conditions. One of the many conditions was to surrender of all their martial techniques.
The Versatile Dragon Clan's patriarch did this in order to train his descendants to be well-versed in all forms of combat. The other reason was in case a war broke out and the other clans decided to rebel against their oppressors, their clan members would already know how to counter their fighting techniques. So, Keith was pretty taught almost every martial art known to the man by his mother from the moment he learnt how to walk on his two legs.
Even though the Versatile Dragon Clan had all these martial arts techniques and had a strong army they still go annihilated.
The individual responsible for the clan's downfall was no other than Keith's mother the former Celestial of Vengeance. Keith didn't know the reason why she would lead her entire clan to ruin but he guessed that her actions were justified since the Celestial of Vengeance only punishes the wicked.
There is another Celestial who also punishes the wicked known as Celestial of Justice but he doesn't resort to extremist and brutal methods like the Celestial of Vengeance.
"Huh," Natasha breathed out as she sat down on the ground in exhaustion. She had been training for two hours straight without rest. Her muscles ached and every breath was rugged and laborious. She felt tired and was in a sour mood. The training routine Keith gave her was torturous and it was worsened by the chilling cold temperatures.
"As promised, I shall answer any question you have. But the question should not be questions concerning my personal life," Keith said whilst he sitting on top of a tree and sharpening his blade.
Keith had found a way to stop Natasha's bombardment of questions by allowing her to ask one question after she was training. This method was proven effective because she would sometimes faint during training and he wouldn't answer any question if she didn't finish her training or if she fainted.
Natasha pondered for a while before a perfect question came to mind. A question she had on her mind since she was ten.
With a curios glint in her eyes, she asked, "What is difference between soul essence and spiritual energy?"