Chapter 22 - Blood Clone

The knife cut into his deadly pale skin and with calm hands, he drew a line downwards until around half of his forearm was cut. Blood leaked out in spurts, but strangely the blood didn't fall or drip to the floor but simply floated above his wrist.

Once the cut was complete and his right hand retreated the blade to wherever it originated from, Night Walker began to hum a chant. The crimson blood that floated above his wrist flowed forward and coalesced into a ball of blood the size of a fist.

"Be born, Blood Clone!"

With this command bellowing out, the ball of blood suddenly rippled crazily and the next second began flowing rapidly in a swirling mess. Finally, the crimson blood began to glow in an azure glow that expanded outwards and started to take form. Seconds passed and the azure glow had only grown a few centimeters outside the swirling mass of blood. Minutes passed and it had only grown around a hundred centimeters. Hours passed and finally around a meter of azure glow now surrounded the floating mass of blood.

Finally, after a full days work that azure glow reached its apex at a little less than 2 meters. Having grown to its apex, the aura that was this azure glow began to rotate and take form. Another day passed and the end result of the aura's formation could be clearly seen standing in front of the foreign Magician called Night Walker.

It was a complete clone of himself, just that it was a body coloured fully in azure and that it also gave out a dim glow.

"Now, to create the illusion..." Night Walker at this point was sweating and clenching his teeth in his desperation. This spell had taken a lot out of him in his weakened state and if he failed at this point he would suffer a rebound that could even end in his death! "BLOOD CLONE COMPLETION!"

With a last shout, the azure glow of the Blood Clone's body suddenly retreated and then a fleshly colour began to form at the clone's stomach and spread outward until finally a perfectly copied form of Night Walker was fully birthed into existence!

At this point, Night Walker's pale skin had turned scarlet and his robe had turned damp in his sweat, yet his lips were twisted into a cold grin.

"What are your orders, True Self?" The Blood Clone asked as he bowed, one knee on the floor in a subservient manner.

"Hahaha. Its time to put the Reaper Magical Arts to some good use!" Night Walker said with a wide grin and his Blood Clone's eyes flashed with a look of understanding. "Exit this room and create mayhem above! Slowly integrate an underground society and spread the Reaper Magical Arts and gather me souls to consume. With the souls of thousands of Magician's I can fix the great damage those old fogies have done to this one's great soul!"

"It shall be done!" The Blood Clone answered simply before vanishing from the room.

"Now... All I can do is steadily heal myself and wait patiently..."

★★★

Returning to two days ago. To the West of the continent, several thousands of miles from the unprecedented event that took place in the Claw Reverence Empire. Back in the North of Falcio, the glistening moon had reached its peak and the spar between Jonathan and Uncle Kil had long passed. The match had lasted for several minutes and only ended when Jonathan had tired himself out completely and could no longer go on.

The rest of the day passed as they continued their travels while Uncle Kil endlessly bragged about his victory and the little kitten couldn't help but cry in her thoughts. 'Aren't you a few decades older than Jonathan, and a whole rank ahead of him? Isn't it a little childish to be bragging about a victory under such favorable conditions?'

Jonathan seemed to take this in stride however as he had only walked along, gently caressing the bundle of fur in his hand while she was concentrating on her meditation.

And now, with the darkness surrounding them, everyone has settled down for the night on a large but flat hill a few dozen meters from the dirt road. They were still in a grassy field and there was no civilization in sight, only grass, dirt, a few trees and the faint sight of a few mountains which could be seen clearly if it were not in the darkness of night.

Food having been ate and tired after a days travel, most everyone had gone to sleep. However, inside Jonathan's tent, where he and the little kitten should be sleeping, the both of them were instead cultivating there aura's, with the little kitten's goal being to make her breakthrough tonight!

She has been at the peak of Middle Stage for a while now and she is now in the process of making the breakthrough. This can take several tries as she attempts to condense the fist sized glow that is her soul until it is no more than the size of a speck of dust. This has been a long process and she has spent the whole day of her cultivation doing this and even now her soul is still the size of a pebble, still a distance away from her goal. Over and over again, the glow of her soul was becoming smaller in size by the minute.

Next to the meditating little kitten, Jonathan who was also meditating suddenly stopped and turned his head towards her. He could sense the condensing of her spirit and the signs of a breakthrough having begun.

'How long has it been since she's been cultivating? One week? Hmm... That's quite miraculous considering its meant to take Magical Beasts a lot longer to cultivate than Magician's.' As Jonathan looked on a grin eventually showed on his lips. 'Its begun!'

Thwoom!

A low thrumming sound echoed throughout the tent. Inside the little kitten, she could see that her soul was now the size of a speck of dust. It didn't stay that size for long however, as that small speck suddenly exploded into a dazzling display of a deep blue color like the ocean. Prepared for this, Jonathan shielded his eyes with the back of his right hand as his grin grew wider.

In a tent horizontal to theirs, a certain older gentleman had stopped his own cultivation to face in their direction where he could see the tent light up in that deep blue colour. He simply let out a small laugh and a pleased smile before returning to his cultivation.

In seconds, that deep blue light receded in a flash, eventually condensing into her soul once again and returned to but the size of a pebble once more. While the kitten could tell the size of her soul was much like the size it was when she first came to this world, she could also feel an oppressive feeling when gazing upon her soul that hinted of a greater power. Her soul was much more condensed and she could tell that for her cultivation to reach the peak of late stage was going to take more than two times the time it took to reach the peak of middle stage.

She could only sigh at this revelation. 'It's about what I expected, I guess... It's only going to take longer and longer to advance as time moves on...'

"Hahaha! Congratulations little lass, you can now be considered a proper Magical Beast. Now that you are in the late stage, those spells you have been learning will show there true power to you!" Jonathan laughed with a charming smile.

"Meow!"

That night, the little kitten chose to cultivate a little longer to help stabilize her soul before drifting off into a comfy sleep on top of Jonathan's sleeping bag. Jonathan only joined her a while later. His own cultivation would still take a very long time before he would encounter his own breakthrough, but that was the way of the Magician.