Sparring with an Audience

Rowan stood across from the man who had taken him as his disciple a year ago at this point. In the past year, he had failed more than he had at anything in his life ever. Regius lowe, or master as Rowan had been brutally forced to call him after a long training day where Rowan got pissed and insulted his entire bloodline which resulted in his master beating him black in blue in the name of fully tempering his fully evolved mana body.

Regius demanded perfection from Rowan at every step. When he needed to recultivate, he forced Rowan to start from the beginning despite his mana space already being developed and evolved. His mana center currently sat full of platinum liquid that was so full that there was not space for it to even move. Regius had beat into him the importance of perfection in your cultivation because later in life it would be the difference between life and death.

"Master, I thought you said we would get to eat dinner or that some of the tiny wolves would be visiting. Why does it look like you are about to beat me up again? I didn't do anything this time." Over the course of the past year, Regius Lowe's family had stopped by to see him and at the same time inspect his first disciple, he had met all of his master children and soon realized that they were all monsters in their own right, no less exaggerated than the father that could birth him. There was one point in which, for two months, his master had to leave and so the rest of the Lowe family all took turns training Rowan, the scariest among them being the Queen Eve. She was the first to change the terrain of the room, something Rowan didn't think would matter until he was put through a rigorous training regime that almost broke even his newly molded body.

The tiny wolves, on the other hand, were some of Regius' grandchildren; they weren't born from his daughters; they were both adamant that they would only marry a man that could be as powerful as their father no matter how long they had to wait for, something their mothers complained about endlessly.

Rowan thought of all these things as he realized he truly would miss the time he had spent with his master and his family. Regius let him ponder and reminisce and commented the moment he noticed that he was done. "You have reached a satisfactory point, I'm sure you will be able to make your way back here in no time but for now it's time for you to go home but first…" A sheathe slowly began to appear on his waist and Regius stretched which resulted in a series of pops. "Before I send you back, though, how about one last training session with your master? A spar of sorts. I will limit myself to the strength of a rank five and you give it your best shot. What do you say? You want a shot at the king, kid?"

Rowan's eyes glowed with a brightness that not even he could fathom as his mana tattoo and soul mark began to appear on his body at the same time. In the past year, they had accomplished a lot and Rowan looked nothing like he did previously. He had gotten slightly bigger thanks to his strength, but he was still a mass of well-defined muscle. The purple had bled from his hair, with his mana evolving, and his now platinum hair was braided into several long braids of platinum hair that reflected an almost metallic light.

He was standing across from Regius, completely shirtless. He had started wearing fewer clothes because Regius beat him up so often during sparring that the mana used to create a shirt was a useless expenditure at this point. Rowan had a massive tattoo of a four winged falcon on his back but wrapped around its body and crossing into an x shape over the hawk's back were two cloud rings.

Rowan was ready to pull out his weapon when Regius held his hand‌ up to stop him. "Hold on, we will be having this battle someplace special. It's the only proper way for a send off and put a shirt on you animal." Rowan grumbled, but he complied and before he knew it, he was wearing a plain gray t-shirt. To go with his slacks when Regius looked at him exasperated. "You really know nothing of style, kid."

Regius waved his hand and Rowan's casual armament faded away and before he knew it he was wearing close fitting black cargo pants and a white t-shirt covered in the images of platinum clouds. The first thing Rowan noticed was that it was still his skill and made from his own mana, but somehow Regius had taken control of it and changed it to his will. Regius snapped his finger and was wearing a similar outfit but with a big cartoon wolf wearing a crown on his shirt.

"Ya know disciple I quite like the armament spell, i think I will have created something quite cool with it by the next time that I see you." Rowan stuck his nose in the air with pride on his face "Oh so you have learned from me now would that not make me the mas.." Rowan smacked him through the surrounding mana and silenced him in the same second. "Come on, brat, let me take you to the venue for our last sparring session."

Rowan rubbed his head and looked at his master like he had been wronged as a tear in space opened and they both walked through it. Rowan was amazed by what he saw: a massive coliseum in the stars that was actually packed to the brim with people. Rowan knew the faces of Regius' children among a couple of others, but the majority of the people there were complete strangers; it wasn't long before Regius' voice boomed throughout the entire area.

"The last time I stood on this stage was to commemorate my children, becoming mana users." The crowd went wild at that. Many of them had been here when that battle took place and the king had not used it since. Today would be the second time ever. "Most of you have wondered what I have been up to, and that is training my first ever disciple after this. He will be returning to the second layer but first a special sparring session for all of you to watch. I hope that you all enjoy the show." Everyone went wild once again as they looked forward to what would happen next.

Rowan took the time to stretch as Regius stepped closer to him. "Use your full abilities or you will embarrass yourself. Rowan froze on the spot as he realized that his master was taking this seriously; he even had the world sword on his hip. A quiet settled over the entire crowd as Rowan finally went back into his position. Rowan, on the other hand, grasped his hands as he began to summon his Astra. A blood red longsword with feather patterns appeared in his left hand, while a black longsword with octagonal patterns appeared in the other. But what was strange was that at the same time, two more long swords appeared in the air behind him. One was white and covered in glistening black stripes while the other was a beautiful azure and had a scale pattern on it.

The divine beasts were what the four longswords were called. Rowan had been surprised when Regius took the souls of the zodiac gang and purified them using life mana. Then afterward, he melded them together until there were only four to make what he called the divine beasts. The divine beast blades were helpful for Rowan to channel different storm aspects, but even more importantly, then that was the fact that through him Regius had accomplished a massive feat. He had customized Rowan's recently born soul weapon so that the Astra would be able to be combined into it.

Rowan learned of the soul weapons from his master. The soul weapon was a weapon born of the soul and typically exclusive to users attuned to creation mana. There was a chance that non creation users could give birth to one, as Regius had discovered recently, but it required being the holder of an extremely unique attunement, something that Rowan managed to accomplish. His was called the sword of storms, it appeared in the air in front of Rowan and he let go of the swords and they floated before melding into the middle of the great sword. The sword was shaped like a feather with the same light curve before coming to a point almost like a giant scimitar.

The feather pattern on the blade stood out while the spine of the feather that looked like a dark galaxy that ran up the platinum blade. The blade originally was plain but several moments after the four blades merged into it that changed as the blade morphed to become a replica of Rowan's feather after he used berserker's sin. It left the edge of the blade a vermillion color while the platinum sword had a line of white appear past the edge with the center of the blade still being platinum. Rowan flicked his wrist, and the weapon let out a raptor call as Regius let out a chortle and smiled. He knew that the entire process he had just went through could have been done in a matter of seconds if Rowan wanted. "Of course, my first disciple likes to be a showoff."