Mental Training.

After the long arduous training with the King, Veritas and Bello laid down on the ground, defeated and tired.

Both of them were drenched in their own sweat.

Veritas had not participated much in his Father's lessons. However, he was dragged into sparring with him.

Needless to say, Veritas could only last for a few minutes before losing. His Father wasn't going all out too!

As for Bello, he got decimated in an instant. 

The gap between a Beyond and an Impure was too much! Although the King only fought using the blade, Veritas felt that if he were to go all out.. the entire city would be wiped out!

"Ahhh- so tired.."

Veritas let out a long sigh partnered with his sluggish breathing.

He stood up and stared at Bello, seeing his eyes of determination.

"I didn't know that the gap between us would be so large.." Bello exclaimed.

Veritas smirked at him.

"For a beginner, I'd say you were pretty good."

"Am I supposed to believe that after I got instantly demolished by you two?"

Veritas shrugged.

He was saying the truth though, the skill level between Bello and Veritas was quite large. Veritas had been learning the blade since he was a child and he was considered a prodigy too. It was only natural that he became a skilled master of the sword.

Bello was different. 

Swordsmen of Elrod relied on the winds to enhance their senses. It served as an extension of their body, reaching out to far beyond. One could say that a blind swordsman from Erlod was still as potent as a normal swordsman.

But to Bello, he possessed unique eyes. Maybe it was due to being exposed to myriads of beasts, but Bello could observe his surroundings and the other's movements much better.

It was befitting to that of a Beast King.

If he took advantage of this fact and trained rigorously, then Bello would quickly become a prodigy in swordplay.

Veritas and the King knew this fact and hoped that he would become a pillar for Elrod someday..

Veritas planned to leave when he remembered something in his mind.

"Oh, right- we talked about training the mind in the past right? When are you free to do that?"

Bello sat up slowly and stared at Veritas.

"You did say something like that... Hmm. Let's see, how about later?"

"Eh- would that be fine? What about Brother Alune? Are you not going home later?"

Bello stood up and answered:

"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you. This morning, I went home to tell him just that. Your Father gave me permission to stay in the castle... Why are you looking at me like that?"

Veritas looked perplexed due to his words.

'Father let him stay for a whole month?! What is he thinking?"

Veritas then asked:

"So, did your brother agree?"

"Pretty much, yeah. He said he'll be fine, just that.. I needed to visit every day."

"Great, so later then?"

Bello looked dumbfounded.

"What, later? What do you mean?"

Veritas stared at him with disbelief.

'Did he already forget?'

"The training, bastard!"

"Ohhhh.. right, sure."

The two of them walked towards the direction of the castle. Veritas split directions and headed for the baths reserved for royalty and Bello waited for a little while before grabbing his changing clothes.

After Veritas finished bathing, he wore a simple white shirt along with normal black pants. His face looked rejuvenated.

The sun had already set and the moonlight was starting to bask the entire castle with its grace.

Veritas walked towards the library to read some new issues of research and studies.

Although he had already read most of the books in the library, there were apparently some new ones that described various phenomena and theories.

He spent an hour finishing 3 entire books. 

After he was done, he headed towards Bello's guest room.

He encountered a few maids along the way, greeting him with respect even though he wore casual clothing that made him not look like a Prince at all!

Still, Veritas appreciated the maids that worked in the castle. He treated none of them with disrespect and cared for each and every single one of them.

After a few minutes, Veritas arrived where Bello had resided.

With a light knock, the Alabaster-wood door opened, revealing a black-haired boy with crystal blue eyes inside.

"Hello bastard."

"Greetings scumbag."

The two greeted each other with foul words before finally letting Veritas inside.

He sat down on one of the luxurious chairs and asked:

"So, how do you train your mental capacity?"

Bello walked towards his bed and humbly laid down.

"It's simple, really.. I don't really know how to explain it but I trained mine by constantly using my skills."

'Its that simple?' Veritas thought, perplexed and confused.

"For me, I tamed like.. thousands of beasts in the forest. There was a time when I passed out in fatigue."

Bello lightly chuckled, remembering his past training.

"Once I did that, my mental capacity gradually grew better on its own."

Veritas nodded.

"I see. Then, shall I put it to the test?"

Bello sat straight up to witness his skills, he then inquired:

"Ah- right, I haven't asked you what your Path was."

Veritas abruptly stopped.

"I haven't mentioned it yet?"

"Nope"

"Ah, anyways.. My Path is Visionshaper."

Bello reached for a water cup to drink and asked:

"What's the Rank?"

As he began to sip from the cup, Veritas answered,

"Seraph."

He spat out his drink, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Seraph!?"

Veritas got wet from Bello's outburst.

"Gross! You got my clothes wet! Damn!"

Bello, who was still recuperating from the surprising information, couldn't formulate words to reply.

Veritas got up from the chair and immediately called for a maid to fetch him clothes.

In a few minutes, a maid with black-hair came and brought him a plain white shirt.

"Thank you, Miss."

"It is my honor, your majesty.."

With that, Veritas quickly got changed, giving the wet shirt back to the maid. He then turned around and glared at Bello.

"My bad."

"It's fine."

Veritas sat down once more and continued with his actions.

"Anyways.. I'll try it out, call a maid if I faint from exhaustion or something.."

"Alright."

Veritas gazed upon his Soul, seeing its pure-white glory, and looked at his Path.

[Path: Visionshaper]

[Path Rank: Seraph]

[Description:

The Visionshaper uses imagery to manipulate reality around them. By conjuring mirages, or illusions, a Visionshaper can directly trick anyone and everything. Additionally, a Visionshaper could see and manipulate an individual's memories. They could live through in their past, present, and future, depending on the user. Once a Visionshaper had understood an individual, they could start to manipulate their actions and memories. ]

Veritas hadn't understood the full extent of his Path yet. However, to some degree, he could use it well enough to even trick the Puppeteer that attacked the Elrod Investigation Agency.

So, Veritas had some theories about his own Path.

One, based on the description that he read, he can create any type of illusions as long as it matches his imagination. Additionally, those illusions can interact with the physical world, not being limited to only becoming an illusion.

This could be quite a dangerous weapon for Veritas to use.

Not only could it not get hit by anything, but his illusions could interact with the physical world. Meaning, it can cause damage to anything or anyone that he aimed to attack!

The second theory was based on the statement in his Path's description. It said that he could directly trick anyone and manipulate an individual's memories.

Veritas didn't know how to use this aspect of his Path yet, but he had some ideas on how to. He could either directly enter their mind and alter their memories, or utilize his Path and gaze directly upon their Soul.

Either way, Veritas felt like it would take a long time to master this skill.

The final theory that he came up with is the process of manipulating their actions. This was the trickiest out of the three skills that he possessed. Although altering memories could somehow be related to manipulating actions, Veritas knew that there was some sort of untapped power that he was not familiar with.

Maybe it will come in the near future..

Veritas did not know but he would try to break his limits in order to understand the true extent of his Path.

That said, Veritas began to use his Path. 

Whenever he tried to use the unique abilities of his Path, Veritas would feel his mind split apart and his Soul to shake. 

Skills themselves needed Soul in order to operate, that goes along with the Paths too. However, Veritas' unique Path needed a great mental capacity in order to pull off. 

Veritas could lessen the burden by pairing it with his Will of the Winds, but he wanted to use the uniqueness of his Path independently.

After a few moments of trying, Veritas conjured an identical illusion of him.

It stood beside him and its face was hollow and emotionless. Veritas saw two visions at once.

Bello saw this and he was amazed.

"Oh! I see why it's called Visionshaper.."

"Y-yeah, one illusion already caused me to become dizzy though."

Veritas felt his mind spinning after conjuring an identical illusion to him. 

This feeling of dizziness was much worse in the battle against the Puppeteer. Veritas was actually forced to conjure a separate scenario to that of the real one.

He made identical illusions of 16 people all at once, including the fallen bodies of the deceased. 

The day after that incident, Veritas felt his head split apart. 

"I could do a few more."

In order to grow, Veritas needed to learn of hardship. 

So, he conjured 3 more identical illusions. They were all standing near Veritas with an emotionless expression.

This was his limit, Veritas felt his mind splitting apart. 5 visions at once was not something that he could handle yet..

Veritas immediately dismissed the 4 illusions and saw his vision returning back to a single point.

"I'm gonna puke."

"What?! No way!"

Veritas kneeled down and covered his mouth. Then, he felt the feeling of dizziness slowly vanish away.

"Never mind.. It's fine."

Bello let out a sigh of relief and Veritas stared up at him with confusion.

"I can't manage 5 visions at once, how do you even deal with thousands?!"

Bello stopped for a second before replying.

"I don't necessarily see thousands of visions at once. I just feel the senses of a thousand beasts. Once I've established a connection with one, I would feel their presence at all times. After that, I have the freedom to control their wills, thus making them obey my orders."

"However, controlling a thousand at a time would fry my brain! However, I could control a hundred at a time and maybe in the future that would further increase!"

Veritas then inquired further:

"How do you take care of myriads of beasts though? That would take an ungodly amount of food to eat."

"I simply.. don't. I let them roam around in the forest, fields, and anywhere."

"You cruel man."

"Shut up."

With that exchange, Veritas rested up for a bit before finally trying another set of illusions.

This went on for a few hours until the two of them were finally called to eat dinner.

"My head is spinning, I don't think I could eat."

"It's alright, you'll get through it."

Bello pat Veritas back and the two of them went out to the halls, heading towards the dining room.

Upon arriving and meeting with the King and Queen, the four of them ate together. 

As the minutes passed by, they eventually finished their meals and separated ways. 

Veritas arrived at his room and plunged his face to the soft pillows.

It was a long day.

For now, he would have to rest.

And for tomorrow, he would train once more..