Chapter 616 Felicia’s intangible gauntlets & Alexandra’s reflection armor (part 4)
616 Felicia’s intangible gauntlets & Alexandra’s reflection armor (part 4)
Seeing Alexandra's cute indecisive expression as she considered to halt the full focus training on the body path she has adopted, Aster chuckled before saying.
"Of course, by telling you to retake the energy path as your main priority, doesn't mean you can't keep your current advancing speed on the body path as well".
"Are you serious?".
As immersed in her thoughts as she was, Alexandra couldn't help but gaze at Aster, his words carried too much eight after all.
Advancing on one's secondary path is way harder than doing so in the main one, this is especially true for anyone who has entered the Transcending realms, this is an iron set rule and for a change it isn't a limitation set up by the Heavenly Law, but a natural occurrence.
The more a person circulates spirit energy through their bodies, the higher their existence becomes, and of course the harder cultivating becomes, reaching the Mortal Transcending realm, means surpassing the limits of a human being, after all lineages can be created by the sole reason of reaching a high cultivation realm.
A big leap in power comes with it yes, but also big challenges, as to why most cultivators still choose to enter the Transcending realms with their main path, before either starting to cultivate a second one or focusing on it, that is to extend their years as members of the youngest generation.
The young generation is different according to one's realm, for the Mortal realms, below eighty years it is, for the Earthly realms the number increases to three hundred years, for the Transcending realms the number goes all the way up to two thousand years as for the Heavenly realms the number goes up to five thousand years, there also exists a "youngest" generation, just cut the previous number in half and there you go.
Anyone past the young generation is part of the current generation and past that there is the old generation.
Amusingly enough, despite there being mothers in the group, each and every one of the girls is still either part of the youngest or young generation, anyway the point is that for a cultivator who has entered the Transcending realms, advancing in their secondary path requires all their focus, thus halting their progress in the main one, which is why Aster's words had such a big impact on Alexandra.
Alexandra was brought back to the real world by Aster's next words.
"Yes, I am, however I can't just give you such a valuable information for free, you'll have to earn it, let's see mm, you'll have to make me use my strongest defensive mean", he playfully said.
"You mean that giant version of your golden armor?", mumbled Alexandra, only for her pupils to constrict when she saw Aster softly laughing in response.
"Nope, the expansion of the armor is an application of my Paragon Body, which I developed for support, as it amplifies the techniques used in that state, while it does indeed enhance my defense past the level of my battle prowess, that isn't the peak of my defense".
Alexandra was rendered speechless by Aster's casual explanation, she saw what the golden giant version of the armor could do, in a rough calculation she judged it to be able to fight Void Manipulation realm beings, to what extent it was unknown, but still there is a really big gap between Genesis Manifestation and the Void manipulation, beings, after all the former is only the transition to the late Transcending realms, while the latter is part of them.
And yet, a technique that allowed Aster to jump that chasm-like breach, wasn't the peak of his defensive means, it was insane.
'Wait, that would mean that he has a way to go against a Law Integration enemy! But he isn't even at the peak of the Earthly realms!', inwardly screamed Alexandra.
The mastery on her innate ability to combine a hundred pieces of black heavenly gold into one, making it strong enough to store the power akin to an attack from a Law Integration cultivator, is something she obtained after reaching the peak of the Star Tribulation realm, not too long before she entered the Mortal Transcending realm.
Aster was still far from that and yet he was capable of something similar to it, it was a bit too much, strangely enough she didn't feel defeated nor down about it, past the initial shock of her conclusion, her desire to compare her defense against Aster's, grew higher.
"Fine, against a monster like you, using anything but my strongest technique would be meaningless", said Alexandra, all the black metal plaques floating around her, returned to her body, then a nail sized black piece of metal came out of her chest.
Unlike the other ores of black heavenly gold that Aster has seen Alexandra use, this one not only looked way more refined, but despite its relatively small size, Aster could see that it was actually an octagonal plaque conformed of many even smaller plaques joined together, like a perfectly done puzzle.
'Mm, if the black spheres are raw "ore", then the result of combining a hundred of them it's a refined "ingot" I would say, interesting', thought Aster.
Alexandra who looked strangely down for some unknown reason, gazed at Aster to then say.
"Be careful, I'll stop restraining this little one's effect on our surrounding".
Aster nodded and what followed was a huge pressure descending upon the nearby area, Aster's golden pupils shone for a second, the ground cracked below his feet as the pressure radiated by Alexandra's black heavenly gold, rained down upon him.
"It lacks substance, but this is still physical pressure akin to what a Void Manipulation spirit pressure would radiate, not bad", he said as he stretched his body.
"Mm, I was able to sort out a few dangerous situations with this "bluffing", though it lacks the mental suppression that a real Void Manipulation can inflict on weaker beings, you'll be surprised on how coward is quite a lot of people~", happily said Alexandra.
Aster chuckled amused at her clearly bragging about having found such an interesting application to her special attribute, it was an imitation but such a thing aligned with the soul path, since it was an "illusion" kind of technique, intimidating possible enemies by making them believe you are stronger. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
Anyway, this level of pressure wasn't enough to render Aster immobile, Alexandra knew it, but she hoped that it was enough to reduce the gap between their speed, after all while she does have a movement technique, she is sure the same applies to Aster so she needed to close the gap.
'Humph, why did you made me think we were going to take things step by step, if you were going to make me go all out next', was the thought that kept repeating in Alexandra's mind, the more she thought about it the more bitter she felt, her legs tensed and spirit energy cladded them before she flashed towards Aster.
"Boooom!", Aster's pupils contracted, the extra weight pressing down on him certainly got in his way, but while his speed was reduced, his mind was working as fast as ever, so he punched leftwards meeting Alexandra's delicate fist which had an almost impossible to see, micro black metal plaque floating a few millimeters in front of it, with his golden armored fist.
In case you wonder why was there an explosion and a resulting impact this time, that is because Alexandra is on the offensive this time, she was releasing the power stored within that special combined piece of black heavenly gold, naturally she couldn't absorb and release at the same time.
That being said, the result was enough to make up for that inconvenience, Alexandra's eyes sparkled as she saw cracks appearing all over the golden light protection around Aster's hand, which only made her increase her fierceness, as she kept exchanging punches with Aster.
"Crack!".
With a tap of her right foot, Alexandra exhibited her flexibility by doing a high kick aimed at Aster's shoulder, naturally Aster bent his arm, using his forearm to block her kick.
"Booom!".
The result was the light protection which had been weakened by the previous barrage, shatter, next Alexandra's black heavenly gold directly clashed against the golden armor, resulting in a thunderous explosion and Aster being forcefully pushed backwards.
"Phew, those are some seriously heavy attacks", said Aster as he closed and opened his hand a couple of times, the armor had some scratches here and there but was pretty much still okay, the difference being that since the light protection was gone, the impact travelled through Aster's arm.
The biggest difference between the golden armor and Alexandra's body constitution, is that the armor doesn't nullify the impact, but distributes it throughout the whole armor, reducing it quite a bit though, it still requires Aster to have strong physical body, which is why the Paragon Body reinforces the body granting Aster a plethora of different enhancements, including, speed, strength and of course defense.
Alexandra on the other hand, doesn't have those extra perks, but in exchange her defense is practically absolute, an attack blocked by her won't reach her body at all, not to mention the capacity to send the attack right back at her enemy and also stack power to then release it in a single discharge.
"You turned out to be quite crafty for an energy/body cultivator", said Aster as he saw the slightly proud smile blooming on Alexandra's face.
"Boooom!", a huge explosion, followed by a thick curtain of dust enveloped the nearby area, Alexandra jumped out of the reach of the explosion to then wait until the dust was settled.
To her surprise, Felicia's giggles could be heard from afar, making her frown.
"Don't be too hasty to smile, if the tales of that little girl are not exaggerating, then, it would take more than a single peak Void Manipulation attack to harm him", she said.
And as if to confirm that, the dust was dispelled to reveal a huge crater at which center stood a perfectly unscathed golden armored youth, it was a strange sight considering there was no intact ground below him, in other words he didn't use a barrier but it was more as if he had avoided the attack.
Needless to say, but Alexandra was in awe at such sight, her previous surprise attack blew a large chunk of the ground, it was to the point that lava from the underground layer of this planetoid, seeped out surrounding Aster.
"How did you do that, my punches were being effective so a surprise attack from my Heavenly Reflection should have been even more impactful", mumbled Alexandra.
Aster raised an eyebrow at her.
'These violent girls, since when being able to harm me became so important?', he wondered.
"Ahem, I told you right, you have yet to see my strongest defensive mean, well this is it", said Aster as he extended his arms, naturally that didn't answer Alexandra's question.
'Spatial movement… no, to move through space without the need to use a spatial formation, one has to be a Void Manipulation realm, at most I would say that a monstrous Genesis Manifestation might manage to do it, but then, how is he completely fine but the ground nearby him was destroyed?', she thought.
Though Aster enjoyed teasing her, he didn't want Alexandra to get fiercer, that previous attack from her was quite dangerous after all.
"Invincibility", a single word resonated through the area, reaching both Alexandra and Felicia's ears, making the two of them doubt their ears.
Even Felicia who has heard Kana's epic tales about Aster, among which the little girl confidently affirmed that her big brother is "invincible", was in awe at Aster confirming it.
Aster smiled amused at their reaction, before saying.
"Ten seconds, for ten seconds during a day, I can be invincible, though to be honest I have only tested it with my mom's help, so I can only confirm it works against the Heavenly realms".
It took those two a whole minute to come out of their dazes, Felicia remained silent, but Alexandra had a ton of questions she wanted to make.
"Can you use it at will, or is it an automatic kind of protection, also how many did you use a moment ago?".
Aster nodded in response.
"Both, the invincibility activates by itself if my life is in serious danger, otherwise I have to do it myself, in other words unless I'm at the risk of dying, I'll have to command the invincibility to protect me, in part that's why put so much effort in accelerating my reaction speed, which might have led me to enter the soul path".
"As for your second question, I only used a second of invincibility to ignore the main impact, I endured the aftermath by myself", he said.
Alexandra's eyes shone for a second but the light on them dimmed down almost instantly.
"What a shame, I don't have enough power to produce an attack equal to that of a peak Law Integration, even if our spar had to end fast, I would have loved to put that invincibility of yours to test", she mumbled.
Only for her to see Aster mischievous smile.
"Heh, so that's why you were angry, I didn't want to rush this little exchange of pointers, I simply wanted you to learn more about my body constitution, so that you wouldn't find it outrageous if I told you that your strongest piece of black heavenly gold, can be replenished to its maximum capacity on a daily basis now".
"What!", Alexandra couldn't help but exclaim in disbelief, but then something clicked in her mind "If I can use my defense as offense, couldn't he do it as well", is what she thought.
And her thoughts were on the right track, as Aster warned.
"Don't try to mirror it, absorb it, I have only tested this with my mother before and until not too long ago, it wasn't viable for combat, so let's not take risks, okay?", Alexandra was surprised by Aster's sudden seriousness, contrary to his usual carefree and playful attitude, his voice was though firm, caring, making her unable to react for a moment.
"Mm", she limited to say, in a marvelous display of ability, the hundred different fragments of black heavenly gold that conformed the whole piece, separated and surrounded her.
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Due to their really small size, they were hard to notice until they all sprouted thin branches that expanded and connected each other, resulting in a spherical kind of barrier formed by a lot of octagonal black metal plaques, since she was told by Aster to fully focus on defense, Alexandra took a stationary position.
Aster nodded; this is something he has only tested with Lilia's help before, but with his previous capacities it wasn't a viable technique for combat, what changed you might ask, well, the Paragon Body changed after that time when he used the expansion to fight together with Camila and the others, and also with a 92% fixed strength output, he should be able to pull it off.
Felicia who was enjoying the show from afar, saw Aster's legs explode in lightning before he continuously flashed appearing some kilometers away after a few seconds.
'Don't tell me he is going to…', Felicia's thoughts were interrupted by the ground below Aster's feet exploding, sending debris flying in all directions, making Felicia immediately think on summoning a black hole in front of her, but she stopped as she saw her body glowing in a warm golden light, which made her pout.
"You could have simply told me beforehand, Mr. tease lover", she mumbled, being protected by the golden light and adding her own physical defense as a body cultivator, she had no need to do anything else, so she instead focused on what was about to happen.
Alexandra was isolated from the outside world by her barrier, focusing on absorbing as Aster told her, so she was unaware, but Felicia watched the whole thing, Aster accelerated towards Alexandra and at the last second, a different much more solid golden glow enveloped him.
"Boooom!", contrary to let alone Aster, but even Alexandra the moment that golden projectile clashed with her barrier, there was an explosion, but that wasn't the most eye-catching thing, but the fact that a one-hundred-kilometer sized piece of the ground behind the black spherical barrier, was blown away, ascending into the skyless atmosphere.
And the surprises didn't end there, Alexandra along with her barrier were pushed backwards a whole fifty meters, that being said there was no damage to the barrier, in fact the thing looked way more solid than before.
Aster waved his hand an