Chapter 124: The Next Stage
Chapter 124: The Next Stage
“Origin…Chaos?” I echoed, slightly confused.
Mei Gui nodded. “Again…the names are just something I came up with as there is no standard naming system or anything, but this essentially means you’ve gotten even stronger than before, Master.”
“Hm…I see…but is there anything specific that I unlocked after breaking this third seal or whatever?” I asked. “Like last time, after breaking the second seal, you popped out of nowhere.”
“…I-Is Master not satisfied with just me alone?” Mei Gui stammered nervously.
I chuckled. “No no, that’s not what I meant. I’m saying…did I unlock a new ability or anything, related to Chaos?”
“Oh…that is what Master meant. I am relieved,” Mei Gui said with a deep breath. “As for new abilities…yes, you have. As Master gets stronger, more of my memories come back, so I naturally know what powers are unlocked at the third stage of Chaos.”
“Hm…oh, the rain stopped,” I pointed out. Then, after some thinking, I suggested, “Why don’t you explain things to me on the way back to the dorms? Saves time that way.”
“Understood, Master.”
The two of us took flight into the mystical night sky, and headed for the school dormitories.
*****
– During the Flight –
“So, Mei Gui – what new powers did I unlock?” I asked as we soared through the sky easily, following the wind current.
“Through this advancement, Master, there are three benefits,” Mei Gui explained. “One, the Chaos within your body – and mine, since we are interconnected – has become more pure. By this, I don’t mean the quantity, since that is limitless, but rather the quality of the Chaos energy.”
I had no idea what she was talking about, and could only echo what she said quietly. “Quality…?”
Mei Gui nodded. “Correct, Master. This means that our Chaos energy is one step closer to becoming the almighty Primordial Chaos.”
“Hmm…this Primordial Chaos…the same one that created the universe? Or so it’s said, anyway…”
“Yes. It is also the last stage of Chaos – in other words, once you break all of your seals, you will achieve full control of the Primordial Chaos, and thus full control of the entire world. “
“Man…you make world domination sound so easy, Mei Gui,” I chuckled.
She tilted her head, but after hearing me say ‘never mind’, she carried on with her explanation.
“Speaking more practically, improving the quality of our Chaos energy basically makes our already-amplified normal spells even stronger. At the initial stage, our Chaos energy could only amplify our spells by 3 times. Once Master broke the second seal, our spells were amplified by 5 times. And now, after breaking the third seal, our magic are amplified by 8 times.”
“Hm…yeah, you’re right. We’re using Sky Magic right now to fly, and it certainly does seem much lighter and easier to control than before,” I noted.
Mei Gui, seemingly satisfied, moved on to the second part of her speech. “Now then – the second benefit of reaching the Origin Chaos stage, is my memories. I stated this earlier already, but whenever Master gets stronger, more of my memories start to return. I do not wish to sound arrogant, but my memories are very precious, as they contain the mysteries of the universe itself – after all, I was born from the same energy that gave birth to the universe.”
Wait…doesn’t that make you the universe’s sister? Hold up…nah, it’s better not to think about it like that…my brain hurts…
Mei Gui seemed unconcerned about what she just said, and continued to talk nonchalantly. “I am sure my knowledge will be of use to Master one day, so I listed this as a benefit as well.”
She seemed so confident while saying that, and I couldn’t help but smile. “Right, I’ll be counting on you when the time comes.”
Mei Gui beamed at me happily in return. What happened to your usual deadpan look?!
“Alright, moving on…the third and most important benefit of advancing to the Origin Chaos stage, is something called multicasting.” Mei Gui said calmly. Seeing my shocked expression, she continued. “Indeed – just like the name implies, this ability allows you to cast multiple spells at once. Not one after the other in rapid succession, but literally at the same time.”
“You serious…? How would that work?” I asked in surprise. “Multitasking doesn’t actually exist, so how would I be able to think two incantations simultaneously?”
Mei Gui then smirked like a little devil with her long red hair, and spoke. “Multitasking indeed does not exist…under normal circumstances, that is. The whole point here, is that multicasting enables you to multitask, and being able to multitask enables you to multicast.”
Huh? What?
“H-Hold on, you lost me there…” I muttered as I tried my best to set my brain back on course.
Mei Gui sighed deeply in response. “This is…quite difficult to explain in words…it would be best if you were to just actually try multicasting yourself, Master.”
Since Flight wasn’t an active spell but instead one that always remained passively on after the initial cast (until the caster manually turns it off), I couldn’t experiment with multicasting here. Instead, the two of us soon landed before the familiar front gates of the school dormitories.
“Whew…we’re finally back,” I murmured to myself, then walked up to the gates.
I activated the face recognition system, and the gates soon swung open. I mentally thanked the heavens for the fact that this wasn’t some old metal gate that creaked loudly as it opened, but instead quite an advanced and high-tech one that made little to no sound at all. Otherwise, if any other student were to wake up and see me out here so late along with the extremely beautiful Mei Gui…the number of misunderstandings it could cause would be endless.
Anyway, after the gates closed once more after the two of us were in, the first thing I did was test out multicasting, like Mei Gui had suggested.
“Okay…here we go.”
Level One Fire Magic – Flame Lotus – Level One Ice Magic – Generate: Ice.
…Holy shit, it worked. I glanced down at my hands – in one of them was a flame in the shape of a lotus, while in the other was a chunk of ice I had generated using a Generate spell. I had combined Fire and Ice magic, and cast them literally simultaneously. Like Mei Gui said, it was hard to describe in words, but this feeling of multicasting…it was great. There was so much potential I had now and endless new tactics I could use in battle, where even split milliseconds could make all the difference.
For now, as I needed to use my hands to control where my projectile-based attacks went, I was limited to using two projectile-type offensive spells at once. However, at the same time, I could be casting passive spells or spells that didn’t require my hands to direct, such as the Potentia spell family of Blessing Magic, or Vanishing Shadows of Shadow Magic. Hm…firing off a spell right as I am sinking into the shadow realm…could be useful, depending on the situation.
“Looks like Master succeeded,” Mei Gui remarked.
“Yeah…this definitely is one hell of a useful skill to have,” I replied, glancing down at my hands in awe.
Mei Gui smiled. “As Master breaks more seals, the abilities obtained will become even more powerful.”
I smirked in return. “I look forward to it.”
The two of us then headed into the boys dormitories, and I used multicasting to cast Conceal Presence on myself while using Detect Presence on my surroundings at the same time, just to be safe. Man…this is really convenient. Sure, before, I could’ve just cast two spells in rapid succession, but there is still a delay between spells. Now, I can cast them literally simultaneously.
After a short while, we arrived at my room, and the two of us piled in. I let Mei Gui shower first, and after she was done, I went in. As an aside, she finally figured out how to get the water running without my help.
Once we were both done cleaning ourselves, I crashed onto my bed almost immediately, completely exhausted. Mei Gui slid under my blanket, and though I wanted to object, I was too tired to even say a thing. Instead, I merely patted her head, and whispered to myself.
“…What an eventful night, huh?”
After that, I let the drowsiness overtake me, and drifted off to sleep.
*****
– The Next Morning –
I woke up to the familiar beeping of my alarm. I slept at past one in the morning last night, meaning I only got around 6 hours of sleep. I sat up groggily and glanced at the clock on my bedside table. 7:30 AM.
I noticed there was someone clutching onto me tightly from under the blanket, so I pulled her up gently and flicked her forehead. “Mei Gui…I gotta get ready for school…mind letting go?”
“Mm…” she moaned, shook her head weakly, and held onto me even tighter. I sighed and did my best not to look at her stark naked body. “Guess I have no choice but to do this then…!”
Suddenly, I began tickling Mei Gui, but kept my eyes closed while doing so.
“N-Nya?!” Mei Gui shrieked cutely, then began twisting and turning uncontrollably under my…torture? “M-Master…stop…s-stop…no…!”
Eventually, she let go of my arm at last, and I let out a sigh of relief. “Finally…well, I guess I found out something new about Mei Gui today. Who knew she’d be ticklish?”
Leaving the now fully awake and pouting Mei Gui on my bed, I headed for the bathroom nonchalantly and began brushing my teeth.
Now then…I wonder when people are going to find out the entire Xuan family was massacred in just one night? Kuku…well, it won’t be long, I suppose. I guess I’ll grab a newspaper on the way to school today.