Spirit Soul

Silently staring at the Tenux storm, Kyle was not sure what he was supposed to do.

His body wanted to move, but at the same time, it wanted him to witness the scene unfolding in front of him.

Though devastating, it was an incident he would never be able to forget in his entire life!

While Selene and the others were trying to ask him to climb down so as to leave, he couldn't hear anything.

Right now, Kyle could only hear the sound of rustling leaves and bushes.

The wind was slowly growing stronger as the Tenux storm was truly beginning to take its true form.

The energy that was carried with the wind brushed into Kyle's face.

Interestingly, instead of pain, he felt invigorated.

His body constitution was different from others just like the way he cultivated.

Owing to this, he was able to make use of all three cultivation energies.

Thus, he was still fine with small amounts of the merged energies.

It allowed him to be directly exposed to them for now.

Suddenly, just as the Tenux storm seemed to have fully manifested, he noticed something odd.

This caused his eyes to widen in shock as he cursed out loudly,

"Fuck!"

Only a moment later, he ignored the height of the large tree as his body moved of its own accord.

He dived and reached the ground only a moment later.

With a shocked expression, he appeared in front of the others.

Before Kyle could open his mouth, Gaby intervened, trying to soothe the situation.

She didn't want Kyle to instill fear within the others once again.

"What is it now, Kyle? Don't try to make us worry again!!"

However, Kyle's reaction and next words caused her to stiffen. as she appeared on the treetop only a moment later.

"There...is a crack in the barrier!!"

Far away at the horizon, Kyle had seen a minuscule crack in the barrier!

Even if she couldn't believe her eyes, it was staring at her.

As such, she also saw what happened next, causing her entire body to stiffen.

A small fraction of the Tenux storm was able to push through the crack, enlarging it.

At that same moment, many things happened at once.

Out of nowhere, countless runes manifested all over the barrier that released a shockwave of energy.

This shockwave devastated the immediate surrounding, uprooting trees and tearing out stones.

Gaby could even see large beasts being flung through the air like pebbles as they got caught in the whirlwind.

The strong currents made Gaby almost lose her balance as the shockwave arrived near them.

After the runes manifested on the barrier, the crack was repaired.

It separated the small portion of the barrier that had already pushed through it, from the Tenux storm.

The last thing she saw before she was hit by the shockwave and forced to the ground had been even more shocking than anything that already happened.

Even after it was detached from the Tenux storm, the small cloud had enough energy to devastate the surrounding area.

After that, the innate repulsive effect of the barrier's runes was initiated.

Through this, an enormous amount of energy was instantly accumulated and released.

This energy shaped itself into a small cloud, catapulting itself away from the barrier, and directly towards their group!

It was only a small portion of the entire Tenux storm.

But the fear instilled within Gaby was visible.

It made others know that something bad had happened.

As they looked at each other nervously, the turbulent energies within the wind around them were intensifying.

Perceiving this, everyone understood that something extremely bad must have happened.

But even before they could move in an attempt to escape their inevitable fate, the energy in their surroundings transformed.

It became denser and higher in both quality and quantity.

The density of the energies reached an extent to which both Kyle and Selene were unable to move.

They were suppressed and pushed to the ground which began to crack open.

Both were getting slowly crushed into the ground, and the Jars and Gaby followed suit a moment later.

They could do nothing against the density of energies that increased further.

Nobody knew how far the small cloud of the Tenux storm was.

But that didn't matter because they were already having issues with breathing properly!

Kyle's past flashed before his eyes, and the pressure continued to increase.

He felt as if his life would end any moment in the most gruesome way possible.

His mind painted a vivid picture of him being torn apart by the ravaging energies right next to those that were important to him.

It felt as if he was living through his past life in a time-lapse.

Each memory made him recall everything he had ever regretted, and the things he never wanted to happen ever again.

As such, he was unwilling to allow the second chance he had obtained out of a fluke, to be wasted away!

Never, in this life would he give up, not as he did in his first life after countless failures!

Thus, after circulating his soul force through his body, Kyle was able to move his finger by just an inch.

Yet, instead of being able to move further, his hand slipped away.

He lost his balance and fell as his shoulder was pressed into the ground.

Half of his body was already buried into the loose soil, making him wince in pain.

A fresh wave of pain shot from his shoulder and went straight to his brain.

The pain was unbearable but it was the same time he witnessed something miraculous.

Kyle had looked at Selene for a moment, trying to gauge if she was still fine.

However, at that moment his attention was magically pulled towards the small Tenux cloud.

It was about to reach them as it slowly drifted in their direction.

Along with the cloud, the barrier was also inching closer.

It could be clearly seen owing to the disastrous state the forest in front of them had turned.

Everything was destroyed, and not a single tree was still standing straight.

For as far his eyes could go, he could see an open yet devastated plain.

Kyle didn't even realize that as his eyes were firmly glued to the barrier.

He watched intently as the almost translucent shine had turned pitch-black.

Yet, instead of dreading the ominous aura, Kyle felt a spark of hope igniting within him.

Suddenly, the pitch-black hue gathered at the position at which the crack had been located.

The black mass was catapulted towards the Tenux cloud that had slowed down owing to the lost momentum.

Seeing this made Kyle feel hopeful again. Even if he was unable to comprehend what the barrier, or whatever it was, had done.

Just a moment after the black mass was shot towards the small Tenux cloud, a thunderous sound reverberated throughout the entire Sadorla forest.

The noise was ringing through Kyle's ears, almost bursting his eardrums open.

The black mass broke through with the speed of sound, emerging in front of the small Tenux cloud.

Only a moment later, the black mass grazed the small Tenux cloud.

It enlarged all of a sudden, taking a shape similar to that of a net.

Kyle's eyes widened when he saw this, and it was only moments later that a fight between two tremendous energies occurred.

The black mass tried to devour the small Tenux cloud that was retaliating.

In a desperate attempt to save itself, it was releasing more and more energy to escape its doom.

Weirdly enough, the released bursts of energy didn't reach Kyle and the others. The black mass was like a black hole, absorbing the energies of the surroundings, and devouring them completely.

Through this, the black mass was being enriched, enlarged, and empowered.

Slowly but steadily, it began to overwhelm the small Tenux cloud.

With the entire energy in the surrounding devoured, the small group of five was released from their suppression.

This gave Kyle the motive to pull himself out of the ground.

His right side was aching horribly, but he managed to get up while ignoring the pain.

After that, he looked at the others to see how they were faring.

And, once he noticed that all of them were alive, he sighed in relief.

His eyes flicked upwards as he stared into the sky.

Before he hadn't realized it, but the small Tenux cloud had almost reached them.

And, it was only thanks to the black mass that they weren't dead yet.

However, even if that was the case, for now, Kyle wasn't relaxed. The black mass didn't look as placid to Kyle as it was the case only a few moments ago.

The eerie sensation it enveloped caused goosebumps to spread all over his body.

But that was nothing out of the ordinary.

Right now, the entire situation in front of them was unpredictable.

Nobody could tell what would happen next.

Everything was chaotic, and to think that a Tenux storm appeared out of nowhere was unimaginable for Kyle.

Something had to have caused a chain reaction and manifest the storm.

But that was something he couldn't care less about.

There were other things he had to pay attention to, such as surviving this hellish event!

Even after the small Tenux cloud had been fully enveloped by the black mass, Kyle wanted nothing but to retreat, just like the others.

However, nobody was able to move a muscle.

They were frozen in place, and could only witness what was about to happen at any moment.

Suddenly, an explosion rang through the air. In a last-ditch effort, the small Tenux cloud that was almost out of energy made its last attempt to escape the black mass's grasp. The explosion made it release every single trace of energy left within itself.

At that moment, the black mass began to inflate like a balloon. It kept growing until the enveloped energy was fully devoured.

After the ravaging energies of the explosion had been devoured and converted, they became dangerous.

Nevertheless, the energy had to be released somewhere.

It could no longer be contained in the inflated black mass that was being pulled together.

The speed at which this was happening was terrific, causing thunderous sounds.

This pull force was compressing the enlarged black mass that sized down visibly.

A sudden thought flashed through Kyle's mind.

'Is compressing the purest form of the three cultivation energies that had almost destroyed everything... the best idea?'

Kyle was not sure about the correct answer and he got a premonition, only for something worse to happen than what he could imagine.

If the last few minutes had been strenuous, what was waiting for them was nothing short of horrific.

They had to tread a dangerous path that was filled with thorny obstacles.

However, a thorny path was not bad because it made those that overcame all obstacles much stronger than anyone else!