Chapter 57 - First soul element

Hati nodded at his father's words, "Alright, so what's the next step?"

Sif held up three fingers in response, saying, "We still need to do three things during the rest of this training year.

One, you need to establish a soul element, as your father and I feel you need something more destructive.

Two, we need to teach you to control your bloodline transformations.

And three, we use any time we have left to train you in using all your elements while boosting your spirit and soul core ranks as much as possible."

Hati nodded, excited to continue growing stronger, "Okay, so do we start with the soul element or the transformations?"

At those words, Belphegor pulled a large stone disc filled with runic markings from his storage ring and put it on the ground in front of him.

He then said, "We want to start with your first soul element since we don't know how long it will take to get your transformations under control.

As for the choice of the element, while your input in this is obviously important, we do not have a large assortment of choices, as your mother or I do need to be able to teach you the element.

We also highly recommend getting something destructive, as your current elements primarily focus on speed, defence and versatility.

Your current choices are metal, water, wind and space. That last one is obviously the most powerful, but we don't recommend it, as it is also the most difficult and, therefore, not a good choice for your first soul element.

Meanwhile, wind would not add much to your current elements, as both it and lightning are focused on speed. Metal is a good choice, as it brings a lot of the destruction you need, but it is more defence-focused, which you already have in abundance.

That brings us to the element we suggest: water. It has excellent compatibility with blood, lighting and, obviously, ice while also being the second most destructive power among the fundamental elements after fire.

Plus, we think it fits well with your personality. Calm on the surface with a raging storm underneath."

Hati had a thoughtful look on his face as he briefly considered trying to convince his parents to teach him the space element, as it sounded much more interesting than simple water.

But he decided against it in the end; he already had enough on his plate without adding one of the most challenging elements known to Asgard. Better save that for when he was further along his Einherjar path.

And since he trusted his parent's judgment, he nodded, "Alright, water it is." He then looked curiously at the disc and said, "I'm guessing the training method has something to do with that?"

Hearing his son's question, Belphegor smiled proudly, "That's right, I created this myself."

As you should recall, while spirit and physical elements are almost entirely hereditary, any element can theoretically become a soul element as long as you take the time to train in them.

This disc is called a training stone and can only be created for a single element by runesmiths who use said element themselves.

This training stone was created by myself and will help you in acquiring the water element as a soul element." At this point, he started smirking, "I hope you are prepared because, compared to your previous ordeal of some toxin buildup, this training stone is really going to test your determination."

********

Hati found himself, once again, floating in a seemingly infinite void. Only this time, there was no disembodied voice to accompany him; it was his own choice to be here, and it was a deep blue void instead of black.

He felt like he was sinking into an ocean back on Earth, but strangely enough, he could breathe fine; he didn't even feel like he was getting wet.

After his father had explained a little more about what would happen and given an introductory lecture about the water element, Sif had voiced some apprehension. Still, in the end, she knew her son wouldn't give up just because of some pain and discomfort.

When Sif had calmed down a little, Hati had taken his seat on top of the training stone, after which it was activated, causing Hati to find himself in this void.

It wasn't an illusion, nor was it all in his head like the previous infinite spaces he had found himself in; instead, the training stone had him floating slightly above it while surrounded on all sides by a thick concentration of the water element.

To the outside observer, they only saw a stone with a large, deep blue sphere floating above it. Or at least, to the outside observer without soul sense, which, in this case, was only Sif, while Belphegor could see perfectly well what was happening inside.

After Hati had gotten somewhat used to his surroundings, he started probing around with his sixth sense to try and identify the water element that was supposedly there. 

Unfortunately, he was not yet able to find anything. Although water was one of the basic and more straightforward elements, it could still not be easily learned.

Having failed to find anything of note with his sixth sense, Hati started floating around in this void. His father had mentioned that this place would only seem infinite, while actually, the border was always just in front of him, but Hati obviously wanted to test this out.

As it turned out, he was unable to prove his father right since no matter how far he felt he moved, he never reached any edge. 

He suspected that the training stone had some space element runes inscribed, which somehow expanded the available space so that the water element sphere he was floating inside was much bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside.

This made Hati chuckle as his thoughts drifted towards a particular space doctor who travelled in something similar.

But before his thoughts could drift further, he looked ahead and swallowed hard; it looked like his father had started the training earnestly.

In the distance, it looked like a whirlpool was forming. The whirlpool was dark blue in colour, allowing it to be distinguished from the light blue void surrounding it. 

The whirlpool whirled faster and faster as the surrounding blue void seemed to be in turmoil, like an actual sea in the middle of a storm.

Hati looked at the seemingly faraway whirlpool with some apprehension as he knew what was coming next. While far away at first, it was quickly coming closer and becoming more prominent, giving Hati no chance to avoid it.

Before he knew it, he was right in the middle of the whirlpool and felt like he was being torn apart. Wounds appeared everywhere, as his body was getting tossed around like a ragdol while being cut by the currents.

Hati was in extreme pain, something he was more than happy to express in screams. Luckily for Sif, the sound was not leaving the sphere, causing only Belphegor to be forced to listen to it—something he took stoically.

As quickly as the whirlpool appeared, it was also gone again.

Hati now floated in a once again calm blue void, barely holding on to his consciousness as the healing runes in the training stone began to work on his wounds.

He heard his father's voice right beside his ear, "I know it hurts, my son. But you need to concentrate on feeling the elemental fluctuations around you. Ignore the pain and focus on calming down the agitated water element using your understanding of it."

Hati could barely nod before he fainted. However, Belphegor did not deactivate the training stone. Belphegor and Sif were determined to leave Hati there until he either learned the water element or they decided that he was never going to learn it.

They knew Hati wouldn't want it any other way.

Besides, floating inside such a thick concentration of the water element while unconscious would still benefit his understanding of the element.

A few hours later, Hati was awoken in the most cruel way possible by once again being in the middle of a whirlpool. 

He started screaming again, but this time, he pushed through the pain and extended his sixth sense into his surroundings, allowing him to observe the water element as it wreaked havoc on himself and his surroundings.

He didn't gain anything yet, but he knew it was only a matter of persistence. When the storm moved on, he fainted once again as the runes started the healing process.

This continued for days, then weeks, then even months. Only occasionally interrupted to feed Hati large amounts of nutrients and fluids in pill form.

Two months later, Hati was finally not affected by the whirlpool anymore, as he found himself floating in a bubble, surrounded by what seemed like an underwater storm combined with a whirlpool. He smiled at his own progress.