Ascension of the immortal Asura

"Your successor has fallen into Rafinia's soul art," the Mage Sovereign said to the Prime Shadow. She had a small smile on her face and was clearly enjoying this development. "Your successor may be strong, but he overestimated himself by allowing Rafinia to land this attack for free. Had he fought all out from the start he would have no doubt won, but now that things have gone this way, I'm afraid your successor is in quite the bind."

The Prime Shadow looked at her, then simply smiled. It was a carefree smile, one that had no doubt or worry. The Mage Sovereign frowned, then looked back to the arena, as did the Prime Shadow.

The roaring of the crowd intensified as Rafinia continued to taunt John. He was completely stationary, his gaze distant, the hallmark signs of being trapped in a soul art.

"Rafinia has successfully landed her Eternal Soulbind Art! It's the first time we've seen it used since the previous Dao Tournament three years ago!" the announcer exclaimed, her tone a mixture of excitement and shock. "Once this art has successfully landed, no opponent has ever managed to break free from its grasp. And to make matters even worse, John's soul has been restricted to be a minor realm lower than Rafinia. Is there any hope for his escape?"

Without many realizing, John had become a monstrous powerhouse in the eyes of everyone watching, his limits still unclear. For him to be bound in this illusion art, and potentially lose this way, was quite anticlimactic.

Rafinia smiled radiantly as she heard the crowd cheer and the announcer talk about her. Her previous demeanor was a complete ruse. Her true personality was that of a sadist that loved attention. She slammed the base of her staff into John's forehead again, much more forceful this time.

"Tch," she clicked her tongue, noticing no damage had appeared on John's unprotected forehead at all. "Just how thick is that skin of yours, you brawny beast?"

"Just try not to go completely insane. I'd rather not get disqualified from the tournament…Hmm, on second thought, that might be worth it," Rafinia said. "Your smug attitude, as if you're better than everyone else, has really pissed me off."

A soft snicker escaped John's lips, soft enough that it was easy to dismiss as a sound from the crowd. Rafinia frowned and looked at his face, studying it carefully. Her eyes narrowed for a moment, then she relaxed, thinking she misheard the sound.

"Right now, you're trapped in an illusion where you live countless lives, lives that all end in miserable tragedy. This cycle continues endlessly until your mind can no longer withstand the pain, and it breaks down completely. The longer you resist, the greater the lingering damage," she continued, then laughed at herself a moment later.

"I don't know why I'm even telling you this. You're caught in my illusion. You can't hear a single word I'm saying," Rafinia sneered.

"No, I can hear you just fine."

Rafinia's eyes and mouth snapped wide open as she looked at John and noticed his gaze was no longer distant and unfocused, but was focused on her.

"You….how…!?" Rafinia exclaimed, taking a few steps backwards. "You were trapped. I know you were!"

"You're right," John said calmly, his full focus returning to the real world. "I was trapped, although only partly."

"What?" Rafinia said with complete confusion. "How is that possible?"

"Come on," John scoffed. "You didn't expect that childish ruse of yours to actually work, did you? You might fool others with that ruse, but not me. I detected your malicious intent, bordering on killing intent, when I agreed to withstand one of your attacks. Because of that, I was able to fully prepare myself for your attack, which based on your soul talent score was obviously going to be a soul art of some sorts. If you're going to try to trick an enemy like this, you need to hide your malicious intent better."

"Wha…but…you were caught in the illusion! Even if you knew it was coming, you were still trapped! How did you escape? Its impossible for you to have escaped!" Rafinia said, her voice becoming loud and panicked.

"I was caught in your illusion because I allowed myself to be caught in it," John said, taking a step towards her. "I wanted to see what type of soul arts the Mage Dao Sect uses, and to be perfectly honest, I'm rather disappointed. I've seen far more profound illusory arts before, and from someone even younger than you. Breaking free of your soul art was easier than farting into the wind."

"Im…impossible!" Rafinia exclaimed, teeth gritted. "You must have used a trick of some sorts. And even if you did manage to escape with your own power, there's no way you didn't drain nearly all of your soul power to do so. You're merely acting calm and relaxed to trick me into thinking you can easily withstand my soul arts."

John raised an eyebrow in amusement at her assessment of the situation, but gave no reply. His silence only enraged Rafinia even more.

"I know I'm right! Not only is your soul at a lower realm than mine, but your soul talent score is also less than mine. There's no way you are able to withstand my soul art with such ease," she raged, her voice angered, and almost maniacal. Clearly she had taken a great mental blow when John broke free of her soul art, which was the first time such a thing had ever happened to her.

"I will admit it took quite a bit of soul power to break free of your illusion. In that regard, you have my respect, as the profundity of your soul art is quite amazing. But the soul talent scores?" John said, then shook his head disapprovingly. "Placing your trust in those scores is quite idiotic, especially for the soul talent score. There's only a single score for one's soul, which means defense, offense, soul arts and more are contained in that one score."

"So?" Rafinia replied, her guard raised.

"So? It means that there's far too much variability in what that score truly means," John replied calmly. "Tell me, if you were to take that illusory soul test and only have your soul defense become your soul talent score, what would it be?"

"I…I don't know," Rafinia replied, clearly having never thought of that question. However, it was certain that her score would be much lower if it didn't include things like her soul power, her Eternal Soulbinding Art, and whatever else went into it.

"Well, for me, I don't know a single soul art. I don't even know a single soul defense art, if such a thing exists. Your score might be ninety-seven to my ninety-five, but my ninety-five consists solely of my natural soul power and soul defenses. That's why I'm saying that score is beyond flawed."

"Impossible!" Rafinia exclaimed, almost yelling. "No one can score ninety five on soul quality alone!"

"Is that so?" John smirked. "Then allow me to make the impossible, possible!"

A moment later, John pushed his soul power to the limit, bathing the entire arena with its formidable might. Rafinia's eyes went wide with shock, as did everyone else in the audience, as they felt a soul power unlike any they had felt before. It wasn't the profundity of it, or the complexity of the soul power. It was the sheer density and quality of soul power that they had never felt from someone in the Dao Transformation Realm.

The soul power flowing from John was so thick, so overwhelming in its quality that everyone felt as though they were being drowned by it, as if it were an ocean they couldn't escape. Even Rafinia couldn't help but cower before it, her mind completely unable to grasp how one's soul could be so formidable.

She recalled the words she had said to him earlier, that even if he had escaped, his soul power would be almost fully drained. With the soul power washing over her, she knew her claim had been completely false.

Flash!

A flash of lightning flickered in the arena and then vanished. The crowd gasped as they noticed John had appeared before Rafinia, whose neck was now held in his hand. John lifted her off the ground and brought her eye to eye. Rafinia's eyes went wide with fear as she struggled against his grip, but didn't even manage to budge it a little bit. Her fear intensified as she noticed the smile on John's face, a smile that looked completely devilish to her.

"I conc-"

John's other hand suddenly pressed against her mouth, stopping her from being able to concede. Rafinia's eyes widened with horror as her body became bound with lightning chains, restricting her movement completely.

John released his grip from her neck, then reached up and placed the palm of his hand on her forehead.

"Now, I might not know any soul arts, but I'm sure I can manage to do something. Your soul art tried to break my mind with misery and torment to the point of despair. Let's see if I can do the same to you," he said as his flaring soul power was sucked back into his body like a whirlpool, then flowed through his hand directly into Rafinia's head, enveloping her soul like a vice-grip. "

HIs soul power pierced forward like a spear towards her soul, which flared with power to defend against it. A battle between souls took place for a short time before Rafinia finally ran out of soul power, unable to win a battle of attrition against a monster like John.

Careful not to pierce too deep and cause irreparable damage, John instead created a link between his soul and hers. Rafinia immediately felt her mind become pained beyond compare as a sinister aura, so hellish and malevolent she was unable to believe it existed in the first place, flowed into her mind. She felt as though she had been plunged into the depths of a nightmarish hell. She felt as though her soul was about to collapse from the pain she felt.

Her cries of pain and agony filled the arena, while the horrified crowd watched on in stunned silence.