Tsimikas Teamwork Unleashed: Cultivating Death

Will's first clash with the Agonised Banshee was unexpected and caught everyone present off guard. Achilles was still alive and kicking, building up momentum with each second while Will seemed to casually hold the giant Banshee's arm in place. It would not be an exaggeration to say that only Lyra and Achilles knew part of what was happening.

'I can't believe that he could actually utilize mental energy like this.'

Normally, one cannot easily detect the mental energy of another, but thanks to the unique connection the trio had, they could feel each other's spiritual abilities quite well. Just before Will had been struck by the Agonised Banshee, Will had created a spiritual link with each of the Metalos Blades. This was possible thanks to Mana Pool Connection, their various buffs, and Will's new mental energy skills.

Achilles could pull strength from weapons thanks to an innate talent from his class, Armoury Maestro. Will, on the other hand, could do the same, thanks to his identity as a Swordborn and his Conductivity Concept.

Achilles had to physically be in contact with one blade to gain spiritual power from it, but all Will needed was for it to be within a certain range of his Area. Thanks to this, Will could siphon spiritual power related to hardness and power, the speciality of these Metalos Blades, from all 400around him.

Each of these blades had been imbued with the Armament Concept, a concept Will was also quite familiar with. Not only could he siphon the spiritual power of the Metalos Blades, but he could also resonate his Armament Concept with the concept in each blade. Although he was still very inexperienced and extremely inefficient, it was enough for him to block the creature's blow.

The real question on Lyra's mind was different, "What on Earth am I seeing here?'

From Lyra's perspective, a large amount of killing intent swarmed Will from the Agonised Banshee from nowhere. This was not odd as there was a chance that the creature had simply switched targets. The problem was that the creature seemed equally stunned as well. It had a skeletal head incapable of revealing expressions, but its demeanour and awkward posture revealed that this was not its intended target.

"So this is what he meant by pulling aggro." Lyra surmised as he watched the show unfold in front of him. In Will's set of instructions to him and Achilles, Will had mentioned that he could pull the Agonised Banshee's aggro, allowing Achilles to move freely. In the system, such skills, similar to Guardian's call, were somewhat rare but still available.

The issue was that Will did not use any mana, qi, or energy. Instead, it was as if the Banshee had willingly changed targets. Even when Achilles used the Guardian's Call, there would be energy fluctuations of some sort, but Will did not exhibit such fluctuations. Any energy he released had to do with his drawing of power from the Metalos Blades around him. And this was only detectable by Lyra and Achilles. Leaving the Frozen Asgard Maidens and the Agonised Banshee at a loss.

'My killing intent, it's all going towards that human, why?'

The Agonised Banshee could not understand what was happening as the death-type world energy on its arm was absorbed into Will's body. Strange runes materialized on Will's exposed skin as his body greedily sucked in the death-type world energy.

Will's ability to suck in death-type aura wasn't as shocking, as the creature had determined earlier that Will had a great affinity with death itself. But the fact that he had pulled its killing intent like a magnet without using any skill or spell was what truly confused it.

At this point, Achilles had come around once again and approached the right side of the Agonised Banshee. The former decided to attack the latter again, raising its arm coated with a death aura. Yet a similar outcome occurred.

'Bam!'

Its strike, intended for Achilles, went straight towards Will instead, and the latter casually blocked the strike and absorbed the death-type energy that coated the beast's hand!

The Agonised banshee released a howl of fury as it rained down multiple strikes coated with death energy. It was trying to attack Achilles and sometimes even Lyra, who stood a few meters behind Will. Yet despite its best efforts, its attacks only landed straight at Will, while the latter casually blocked and absorbed the death-type energy it released

Will was not simply absorbing death-type energy for the fun of it. He was using this opportunity to cultivate a power he had ignored for far too long. As Will absorbed the death aura with each blow of the banshee, he started to utter a mantra that the four ladies above were only far too familiar with.

"The path of the sword is the path of death. The sword is not a toy, neither is it merely a tool. It is a weapon designed to kill. The best way to master such a weapon is to master its aspects. In other words, to master the sword is to master death. You must understand death; let it permeate your very soul.

Death must become even more important than your brother; you should focus on it more than you do your sister; you should love it more than you do your mother, and you should learn from it more than you do from your father.

Understand death.

Use it.

Master It.

Become a Sovereign of death, and the Dao of the sword shall become your slave!" 

This was not just a mantra, but also a chant that assisted in manifesting a specific ability!

Alison covered her mouth as she uttered, "This is the opening mantra of the Solitary Sword 

Sovereign Manual!"

This one single act had confirmed what Lisa and the others had been contemplating all along. 

The fact that he was indeed a Solitary Sword Sovereign!

Will was now cultivating the Death aspect of the Solitary Sword Sovereign Manual. The SSS manual mainly covered 4 aspects. Death, Solitude, the Sword, and Sovereignty. 

Of these, Will could not understand Sovereignty while Solitude he had only started to scratch the surface of it. The Sword was easy for him to comprehend, but Death was very difficult for him to cultivate.

The only way to cultivate the Death aspect was to be in an environment filled with death aura or allowing one to have multiple near-death experiences. Since leaving King Yama's gate, Will rarely faced any true danger to his life and thus had few true near-death experiences. Thus if he wanted to cultivate the death aspect, he had to find an alternative!

The alternative that Wodin had come up with was simple and effective. Use Primordial Refinement to cultivate his body with death aura from an Agonised Banshee!

Primordial Refinement was a body cultivation skill that allowed one to effectively refine a body with certain energies as the catalyst. The energy used would affect the properties the refined body possessed. So far, Will had been using his Empyrean Intents to refine his body, improving his ability to heal thanks to refinement via Radiant Energy and improving his ability to destroy thanks to refinement via Bloodlust. 

Now Will's next objective was to refine a body that was closely related to the Dao of Death itself! This would not only make him immune to death-type attacks, but it would strengthen all of his SSS-type abilities across the board. How could he pass up such an opportunity?