Soul Rune Ascension Promotion

"Ahem, Miss, please…" The larger guard finally said after enough embarrassment, forcing her to stop arguing with Minos.

"Right, right. Anyways, let's get back to business. First of all, my name is Tylia."

"Minos."

"Well now that we're partners Minos, I should tell you our plan." Tylia said, clearing her throat before explaining.

"First of all, as you know, the Thousand Forest Continent is quite unique in that it doesn't have any Teleportation Formations, so we're going to have to go to the Divine Maiden Continent first, which borders it."

"After that, we'll join a special caravan that specializes in traveling through the Thousand Forest Continent, one of their destinations being the Cat Kingdom."

"Of course the Cat Kingdom is quite xenophobic, so once we get inside, we'll need your help to show us the ropes and get us around."

"No problem." Minos said, despite not actually having any idea what the Cat Kingdom was really like.

"Great! Then we'll head out tomorrow morning, right as the sun rises." Tylia cheered.

"Before then, I need some money." Minos said honestly.

"Money? No worries, that's what I'm here for!" Tylia giggled, tapping her spatial ring and handing Minos a couple hundred Nux Stones worth of Nux Cards.

"I'll see you in the morning then." Minos said, waving goodbye as he took the money and rented himself a room for the night.

"Miss, as much as we trust you, are you sure this is a good idea…" The first guard asked as Minos walked off.

"You worry for nothing, when it comes to people, my eye has never been wrong." Tylia said confidently, her pupils glimmering as Minos walked off.

…

Renting a room, Minos finally took a seat on his bed, his legs crossed as he finally had a chance to check his current state.

His 'evolution' hadn't just changed his appearance, it went even further, and Minos could feel a surge of energy within him waiting to be consumed.

Most of all, he could feel a large deposit of energy in his soul, simply waiting to be absorbed.

Breathing deeply, Minos began using his Soul Rune Ascension, quickly turning this soul energy into his own, the Embryonic Rune once again appearing on his forehead.

As it appeared, 8 runes quickly split off from it and began slowly revolving with it as the center.

Absorbing more energy, the spinning became faster and faster, soon reaching the point where it would be a blur to most eyes.

With the speed finally reaching a critical point, the Embryonic Rune in the middle split off a new rune, the ninth and final one.

Nine runes all revolving in unison, Minos's soul once again evolved, a new split soul joining the other 8.

But even as he broke through, Minos still had a massive wave of soul energy left behind.

Deciding to take the risk, Minos once more gathered the energy, his entire mind focused on the Embryonic Rune resting silently on his forehead.

Gathering his strength, Minos pumped a surge of energy into the Embryonic Rune, causing it to pulse, giving off a strange pull, like it had turned into a blackhole.

The pull was extremely weak, but it was super effective against the runes that surrounded it, and almost instantly, the first split rune was absorbed, collapsing back into the Embryonic Rune.

At the same second as the rune rejoined its master, a split soul similarly collapsed back into Minos's main soul, becoming one with him again.

But things didn't stop there, and with the first rune being consumed, the second came even faster.

Everytime a rune was absorbed by the Embryonic Rune, Minos's main soul would similarly absorb one of his split souls, causing his soul's strength to repeatedly surge.

Finally, in what seemed like the blink of an eye, the ninth rune was absorbed by the Embryonic Rune, and at the same time, Minos's soul had once again become one.

However, things didn't stop there, and Minos suddenly felt as if his soul was being pulled by the Embryonic Rune.

Before he could even understand what was happening, his soul was 'pulled' from his body, becoming one with the Embryonic Rune.

As the two collided, Minos felt what seemed like an explosion, his entire world going dark before the light reappeared.

Opening his heavy eyelids, Minos nearly jumped, shocked despite having already expected this.

In front of him was, well, him! An exact doppelganger, and the strangest part, was that he could control these two bodies with absolute ease, feeling no sense of disconnect at all.

It was as if he existed in both bodies at once, quite similar to the way his split-souls worked, but far more advanced.

This was the final stage of the Soul Rune Ascension, and once it was accomplished, one would acquire an ability called Soul Form.

The Soul Form ability was exactly as it sounded, allowing Minos to actually detach his soul from his body and take physical form, having the same strength and abilities his physical body had.

In a way, the Soul Form was actually the 'real' Minos, whereas his physical body was more of a vessel he inhabited, and while he could survive if his physical body was killed, he'd absolutely die if his Soul Form was.

Of course that would only be the case if Minos was normal, but with his Eternal Flame Aptus, he wasn't worried either way.

Anyone else who had unlocked this ability would likely use it as a second life, sending their physical body off to take risks while their Soul Form sat behind and watched from the shadows.

That way, even if their physical body died, they would still have their life intact, albeit it would come at a great cost.

As great as the Soul Form was, it couldn't actually cultivate, meaning that if one's physical body was destroyed, their cultivation would be stuck at whatever realm it was at before death, forever.

On the plus side, the Soul Form could live around ten times longer than the physical body could, so even if that happened, one could enjoy thousands of years of life before dissipating.

Minos, on the other hand, wasn't worried about either, having already split his Abyss Flame into two pieces, one he carried in body, and the other in soul.

This way, not only would one be forced to destroy both his bodies, but both his Abyss Flames as well, which was a near impossible task.

Not to mention the special nature of his Eternal Flame Aptus extended to the Abyss Flame, meaning it had truly become an eternal flame.

Even if one flame was destroyed, as long as the other part was around, it would almost immediately recover, meaning you'd also have to destroy both flames at once.

Of course if an overwhelming power attacked him, as broken as his ability was, he'd still die, so increasing his strength was still his main task.

With a single thought, his Soul Form immediately dissipated, becoming one with his physical body once more.

Opening his eyes, Minos looked down at his fleshy hands that seemed a little different then his Soul Form one's, thinking for a while before he got back to cultivation, though this time it was Nux Cultivation.

Turning his attention towards his Inner Heaven, Minos soon activated the Heaven Forsaken Furnace Technique, absorbing all the energy that was still hiding throughout his body.

As he sucked it in, the small fingernail sized piece of solid Nux began expanding, like a snowball down a mountainside.

Right now it filled up such a small space in his Inner Heaven that it was hard to even notice, but with this massive surge of energy, it rapidly expanded.

From the size of a fingernail, it became as big as fist, then a watermelon, only stopping when it was as large as an adult man.

But even after all that, Minos was only about 10% to completion, and he still needed a lot more before he could make another breakthrough.

In fact, most of the energy Minos had absorbed had gone towards awakening his new Aptus, and only a small bit was left behind.

Had he been able to absorb everything, it was possible he'd have been able to reach the Aperture Opening Realm directly, but Minos wasn't complaining, after all, the power he got in exchange was more than worth it.

With his cultivation over, Minos turned his attention back to his Soul Form, summoning it from his body once more.

The Soul Form still had one more critical ability that he had yet to test, and now that his Nux cultivation was over, he could check it out.

With a single thought, his Soul Form began splitting from the middle, one turning to two, two to four, four to eight.

Minos only stopped when he had split ten times, each Soul Form looking around the room with interest, with him still capable of controlling each body independently, no incongruity whatsoever.

The stronger his soul was, the more he could split, his current limit being around 100, however each split would cut his power in half, so with ten different Soul Forms, each only had 10% of his normal strength.