Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

Ember flashed over my flesh as my spear clashed with Safi's, shaking the mirrored realm. I grunted as I tried to seal the force and divinity she employed. We danced through the ship's deck, our spear coiling like two vicious snakes battling. I felt myself slowly becoming beaten.

Despite all my soul's working in hyperdrive, the more I learned, the more Safi revealed how little I knew. She was simply mixing over a hundred laws to move her body with darkness and spatial laws at the forefront. Her movements didn't make any type of sense. There was no weakness. And the only way I could react was with instincts.

With each clash, I got the sensation I was growing stronger. And after a week, I felt twice as strong as I originally was. After a month, disgust at my past prowess filled my heart. I was over a hundred times stronger. Not in terms of qi but rather technique and understanding.

Safi didn't teach much, but how her blade flowed and how it treated the Laws around me allowed me to grasp my imperfection. Safi spear technique had reached the level of Almighty. Each spear stroke was guaranteed to hit. There was no dodging. At least not without an almighty movement arte of my own.

Hissing at the taste of blood bubbled within my chest, hammering like a rabbit. I stared at Safi, who stood perfectly without a single stain on her snow-white robes; I grimaced and dashed forward.

However, against all reason, I pivoted backward on the heel of my feet, twisting Noctem in an upwards semi-arc as a blade pierced through the void aimed at my lift eye. I swatted the spear tip away when all of a sudden, its intent flared. As the Law of Wind created an illusion, the law of fire flared, destroying my vision, and the darkness sealed away my sense of awareness. In a single attack that didn't land, I was blind and without direction.

Sealing the seal on my awareness the best I could, my instincts kicked in as Safi shot toward me like a speeding bullet. Carrying no intent of where her attack would land, my instincts only kicked in as her spear pierced the center of my chest.

"When attacking, simply using a single law is a crutch against what we sentient beings can do. Multitasking is key. A man with a hive mind like yourself ought to know this."

"..."

Tene? She and Lilith are the only ones who know what I am doing. Not even Mephisto knows about my Hive mind. And he wouldn't know unless he could read my mind.

"Wind grants infinite flexibility, Earth infinite defense, Lighting infinite might, and Darkness infinite range. Use them all. This is what being a Chaos Lord entails. You have a profound understanding of every single Dao in creation due to the Flames of Hellfire. But you've never fused them all. You got all the key elements but not a mind to applying them."

Hamming her words into my mind, I nodded at her lesson.

"Remember, a single strand of qi can summon as many elements as you want. You, as the Master, just need that level of control to wield them." Safi coldly said, ruthlessly digging her spear out of my chest.

I groaned as my wound healed, as no intent stopped my healing factor. I looked up at the chilling Safi and smiled at her insane ability.

"To be a chaos Lord requires every action you make, every dao you use to be almighty. It's an impossible feat that requires hundreds of Chaos Cycles. You have, at most, a few dao cycles. Let's take a break. I'll give you a year to put everything you learn together."

Lowering her blade, Safi faded away, leaving nothing behind, not even the Mirrored Realm that dissipated from my view.

"MASTER!!!!" Adrian cried, rushing towards me as I collapsed to my knees. "What the hell happened? Where were you?"

"Hurry, take him to his chamber." Kuro hurriedly said. "We don't have time to care for him. Another wave is approaching."

I glanced at Kuro, who nodded. Adrian waved his palm, banishing me into my chambers and onto the bed.

Too weak to keep my eyes open, I closed them as my body activated the Path of Abyssal Night. I began to meditate while my body took care of my wounds.

Pulling myself into a dark web of nothingness where I felt the most comfortable, I pondered the various mixes of laws to employ. Blood, Wind, Lightning, Fire, and Darkness were key. But I needed more. The way Safi moved was impossibly quick and flexible. Her reaction was instantaneous.

Despite not having a technique like Shadow Step, Safi was somehow able to create a defense that made it so she could react to anything. It wasn't fair, but Almighty Techniques aren't supposed to be fair.

The Hive mind was definitely useful, allowing me to comprehend techniques and laws that would otherwise take cycles to come to me in days, if not hours. I just needed more souls. And I refuse to use low-level souls.

"Lily can help you know." The little devils said.

"No, this is something I need to do on my own. Safi... or Tene showed me a path for Chaos Lord. I need to create a technique or multiples technique to help refine myself. I'm close."

Lily went silent. And with this, I closed my mind to the Myriad Heavens and began to meditate on the laws engraved in my blood and bones.

Darkness was my main focus, but since I had over a billion souls in my hive mind, information continuously poured into the core of my being.

I quickly found myself in a world surrounded by strands of knowledge. Like rain flowing down from the darkness, nodes of liquid light dripped, shimmering within the void of my soul. A sense of awakening began to grow within me.

An awakening unlike anything I've ever felt before. As I didn't just work on Heavenly Laws, but Mortal Laws like the Seven Sins, my spearmanship, and bloodlines. A profound sense of harmony sprang from out of my soul and into my body, stirring me awake and into a world of light.

I shuttered, not out of any excitement or fear. But rather, the sheer might tearing apart my cabin.