Tiana’s flashing spear & Nerissa’s flowing sword (part 4)

Seeing Aster's mischievous smirk after casually telling her the awe-inspiring traits of the golden armor, Nerissa slightly pursed her lips to then continue with her explanation as per Aster's request.

"The previous attack uses the second "sword" which I created by taking inspiration on the capacity of water to cut through the most solid materials, despite its soft nature".

"I developed it to specifically deal with those body tempering freaks who focus on defense and so far, it worked quite nicely", she said with a slightly aggrieved voice as she gazed at Aster's armor which was perfectly fine.

Aster chuckled in response, he had no choice but to admit that Nerissa was quite a genius, normally when someone hears about water attribute, a strong offensive isn't what comes to their mind.

But the truth is that even the most regular water can cut through steel under the correct circumstances of course, so you can imagine how much strength can water manifested through a cultivator's spirit energy, can exert, of course the previous depended on the understanding of said cultivator.

Needless to say, but Nerissa is quite outstanding in what comprehension regards, she as a peak Star Tribulation can fight a Genesis Manifestation head on when she goes all out, meaning that even if she isn't at the level of a Star Maiden, she isn't too far from that.

It's not that Aster is biased towards Alice and the others, but Nerissa's previous attack only managed to leave a scratch on the golden light protection that surrounds the armor and his body all the time, while with the same level of attack, Alice would have reached the armor directly, landing a proper hit on Aster.

Such is the power of the Star Maidens, to begin with they could cross ranks to fight and then they got the power of the stars which directly ignores realms to affect the opponent.

"Don't look at me like that, your sword didn't reach me not because your slash was weak, if your previous attack clashed with Alice's one, the outcome would most likely be a tie, unfortunately and as ironic as it might sound, my armor is especially good against sharp type attacks", said Aster.

Nerissa slightly nodded, the last time, all the girls below the Genesis Manifestation realm, had to join hands to suppress Aster and the one who contributed the most to break his unreasonable defense, so that the others could land their attacks was Camila, whose spear focuses on piercing through everything, as she blowing holes in mountains from thousands of kilometers away with a thrust from her spear, has demonstrated.

Besides that, they can also try to wear out the golden light protection with physical high impact attacks, like Alice, since purely energy type attacks are basically useless against the golden armor.

Nerissa thought that adding sword intent to her attack would be enough to take Aster by surprise, since her attacks are mostly energy oriented, and while it did affect Aster, she ultimately couldn't slash through the golden light protection, as for soul attacks she didn't bother to try, it's not a secret that Aster's soul is monstrous, in fact his soul cultivation realm is higher than hers.

'The only soul type attack that I have seen work on him was that time when Aria…', a slight blush appeared on Nerissa's face as she remembered Aria using a "charm" illusion to make Aster lower his guard, of course not only she doesn't know any illusion techniques, but even if she knew she wouldn't resort to that.

Aria could do it because she is Aster's lover, otherwise it wouldn't have worked, or at least that's what Aster himself affirmed after being fiercely questioned by Alice when they were analyzing that specific spar session.

Still, that doesn't mean she is powerless when facing the monster in front of her, with a determined expression on her pretty face, blue spirit energy surged like a torrent, causing ripples in the nearby atmosphere.

Suddenly an instant ocean was manifested out of thin air, Aster didn't bother to dodge since part of the plan was to experience Nerissa's technique directly, that being said, he was indeed amazed at the water level which reached all the way to his waist.

Even if particles of practically all kind of spirit energy, exist in the atmosphere almost all the time, that doesn't mean that cultivators can manifest their attributes in large quantities with ease.

The fact that Nerissa just created a miniature ocean with quite a decent water level without any preparation, proves that her reserves of spirit energy are quite above average.

Feeling the fierce current that actually managed to push him a couple of centimeters backwards, Aster inwardly nodded at Nerissa's idea.

"If sharpness and energy aren't enough, what about a tsunami-like amount of water", she said as she fiercely gazed at Aster who limited to smile in response.

"This is not just water though", he said as his golden pupils changed into vertical slits.

Nerissa softly snorted, knowing that she couldn't hide anything from Aster, instead she extended her hand and her sword which at some point had sunk into the nearby ocean, emerged so that she could wield it once again.

The water level around her diminished while the contrary happened on Aster's side, but it only lasted for a moment before the tide reversed until till the last drop left Aster's side, to the point that his clothes which were previously soaked were completely dry now.

"That's the high-grade of control one would expect to see from a Sea of Knowledge cultivator", he said as he looked at the giant wave that formed behind Nerissa.

"Mm, the third "sword" was created to make up for the lack of physical strength that an energy/soul cultivator has, water might not have the explosive power of fire, nor the toughness of earth or the piercing effect of ice, but in terms of impact it won't fall behind anything".

"Nine Sea Sword, Rising Tsunami", what followed Nerissa's soft voice was the giant wave surging towards Aster, while Nerissa was nowhere to be seen.

Aster looked at his left where Nerissa who had previously dived into the giant tsunami, suddenly jumped as she slashed towards Aster's chest.

Aster laughed and then punched frontwards, the air trembled as Aster's armor cladded fist, clashed against the giant tsunami which crashed onto him at the same time as Nerissa's sword.

"Booom!", the result as expected was an earth-shattering explosion, the weakest sword which were buried nearby, directly exploded into tiny shards due to the countless pieces of debris that flew all over the place.

"Damn, are you sure you two are soul/energy cultivators!", shouted Tiana who was watching the show from the side, this time there was no curtain of dust, but the moment those two clashed she jumped in a hurry to avoid the shockwave but even then, she had to break some of the huge rocks that flew her way, unfortunately she couldn't prevent the artificial rain that was created by the tsunami being turned into countless drops of water, from soaking her, which is why she felt a bit aggrieved.

"You can't blame it on me, turns out that despite the gentle and calm surface, our Nerissa is quite fierce, I guess she does incarnate water's nature in all the meaning of the word", the thin mist that resulted from Aster and Nerissa clashing, slowly disappeared as Aster's voice sounded.

The result from the previous clash was revealed on the spot, despite all the water being turned into thin mist, there was some dripping sounds echoing through the whole area, the origin was Nerissa's right hand which was holding her blue jade sword, there were some small drops of blood coming from it.

As for Aster, the golden light protection of the chest area was full of cracks, the corners of his sleeves were also quite worn out and his hair was a bit disheveled since it was completely soaked, still the armor was perfectly fine, which made Nerissa bit her lip out of frustration.

Of course, the previous wasn't her strongest technique, but it was the best she could do without the intent to kill her opponent, she knew that Aster was also limiting himself to defend, despite the competitive light that burned in her eyes, her pride didn't allow her to take advantage of that, so she did her best while limiting to the same extent as Aster, and as she expected, on the same level she was no match for him.

Don't look down on her because of the previous, even Eris, Mylene and Mira who come from Divine Firmaments, recognize that back when they were at Aster's level/age, they wouldn't have been his match as Ley and Rox learned the hard way.lightsnovel

But they now have the chance to correct that, the difference between Aster and others, is that his cultivation is flawless, his spirit energy is as pure and strong as possible in his realm and the same applies to his soul energy, and even with all the extra time he has to spend in each realm to attain such a thing, he is still the youngest in the four galaxies to reach both the Stellar Constellation and Star Axys in the energy and soul paths respectively.

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Of course he has annihilation, the stars, his dragon lineage and so on, but if Aster knows something is that, foundation is the most important thing.

That's something he realized thanks to the "Aster" that died due to being unable to endure his own strength.

"When I took a peek into your manual, I saw four currents, three of them had what now I know were the focuses you took for each of your swords", said Aster.

"Four?", Nerissa's eyes shone as she heard Aster's words.

Aster softly laughed in response to then add."Yes, but the fourth current was both there and not, after experiencing the techniques you created and the other aspects of your cultivation so far, I still have one question, what is the concept of your sword intent?".

Before she could answer, Aster continued.

"I saw you using your intent, spirit energy and soul energy to slash, flow, stream and so on, however the final outcome was always an offensive technique, but didn't you say that your attribute and manual allows you to attack, defend and support?".

Nerissa couldn't help but frown in response.

"It does, but when I started cultivating, I had to choose in what aspect to focus first, only after I completed it, I would be able to change my focus", she said just to see Aster smiling at her as he accommodated his hair and then used spirit energy to dry himself before saying.

"Your talent isn't any worse than Iris's, so I wondered why she took a step faster than you, it might sound selfish, but I even thought that it was my fault, until we returned from the Silicon Forest, you spent relatively the same amount of time as her with me and saw my intent as much as her, but you still couldn't advance in that aspect".

"Instead, your soul cultivation advanced, but you can't create the fourth sword and now I experienced your techniques so I understand what's your problem, your intent and your manual are aiming at each other throats", he casually said.

Nerissa was rendered speechless, she ran countless of simulations in her mind and ultimately, she couldn't understand where was the problem, and Aster didn't blame her, since he experienced the same not too long ago, and it took him quite a bit to reach an answer, it's just that he had the extra time courtesy of the mind space, so he gave her a hint.

"Water is one of the few things that can adopt any form and your unique attribute supposedly takes that aspect to the extreme, but then your manual seems to go against that".

Nerissa's pupils contracted a bit on the spot, it was as if something exploded in her mind as she mumbled.

"M-My intent's base is flexibility in other words the freedom of being "formless" like water, so my intent is clashing with the restrictions of the manual, but why!".

lightsΝοvεl ƈοm Aster nodded at her realization, one's intent is the representation of experiences, mentality, attribute and a cultivation path, in order to reach the third level, Aster should have been forced to abandon one of the aspects of his attribute, because it was in direct conflict with the main aspect of it.

But instead of that, he thought of a way to keep both advantages and further amplify the benefits, the result is that he was able to separate the parts in conflict to create two different intents on the same level.

Needless to say, but others couldn't do that, he was able to do so, because annihilation which is what he used to separate something as ethereal as intent, couldn't harm him, otherwise doing what he did would be the same as to cut a part of his soul, memories, his very existence even.

So, Nerissa couldn't follow the same path, fortunately despite the similarities, her case was relatively easier to solve, intent is the ultimate expression of one's self, which is why every intent is different, since no one can have the same experiences, mentality and so on, as another person.

Which leaves us with only one possibility, her manual, her manual which was colliding with her very core, had to be modified and judging by her dazed expression, Aster knew that she had reached the same conclusion as him.

"I can't be a hundred percent sure about it, take into account the fact that your manual might be incomplete, or more accurately, it was purposedly changed to lack a part of it, the fundamentals to be more accurate", said Aster.

Seeing Nerissa's expectation filled gaze on him, Aster couldn't help but find her cute.

"Ahem, this is just a theory, but as someone who has fully read "Seven Swords of Transformation" and derived a technique based on it, I feel as if the previous and your manual go against each other, which raises the question of why they were found together, but also why seven swords is of a lower grade than the other".

"You mean that, the Azure Sea of Stars that I have was messed with to only leave the advanced parts, while the seven swords were messed with to only have the fundamentals at some point and then they were adapted to work even in that state", she concluded.

"Yes", limited to say Aster.

"But then, that means that my manual is flawed so…", she mumbled, her gloomy expression was adorable, but Aster interrupted her before things got too serious.

"The correct would be to say that it "was" flawed, your techniques might not be the original ones in the manual, but so far, they incarnate the essence of your attribute as much as possible, maybe unconsciously or by pure instinct, but didn't you add at least two aspects to each of your swords, energy and soul, energy and intent, attribute and energy".

"The only aspect being left out, is the fact that they are all fully offensive techniques, but that was caused by the manual itself, so it wasn't your fault, in other words, to break the wall in front of you, your fourth sword must combine the two things that the manual prohibited".

"A sword that is both for offense and another of the three major aspects!", exclaimed Nerissa, she then sat down cross legged, ignoring her surroundings, Aster's dragon eyes could see the change in her aura and he knew she was about to take a step in the right direction, another major hint was the fact that without she doing anything, the swords that were coming at her were being automatically repelled, which is something only an intent that had surpassed the one stored in these treasures, could do.

"I'm pretty sure, I'll be able to experience the result before our date ends, since she needs time now, how about we take things to other place", said Aster to Tiana who was still in awe.

"Mm", Tiana slowly nodded with a strange light shinning in her eyes.