Ascension of the elder

Kyle continued his speech. He had an idea for how he wanted his people to act and this was the perfect time to give them the run down.

"Before we continue I'm going to lay down some ground rules for how I expect my people to operate and as you will be my main force this applies to you. There is to be no ****, if I find any of you have committed such an act I'll kill you myself. If you have been falsely accused I will defend you with my dying breath but don't lie to me as I can use my abilities to tell and if you do something to a kid no men or gods will ever be able to put you back together. AM I UNDERSTOOD."

Kyle shouted the last part, this wouldn't be intimidating from a child but he'd coupled this shout with his soul force which made it feel as if this was a command from a god to these guards. These were good men and these sins weren't in their personality in the first place but with Kyle's pressure it was pushed deep into their psyche and even the thought became abhorrent to them at this point.

"We are now a family as such we don't leave our own behind whether that is a guard, soldier, cook or cleaner we look after our own this includes your families you are all brothers. Next is pride, you can take pride in your actions and in each other but never let this become arrogance. Don't look down on an enemy as the one you look down on will be your undoing. Finally try to avoid civilian casualties as much as possible, I know sometimes accidents happen but try to minimise collateral damage as much as possible. Any questions?"

Once Kyle had finished his monologue he waited for any of the men to ask questions but nobody did as these were simple commands to understand even if some situations would make them difficult to follow. The men gained an understanding of Kyle's mentality from these commands and they hoped they could feel the pride he spoke of while doing their duties. Seeing that no one had any questions Kyle moved on.

"Okay if there are no questions let's begin, we'll start with the new cultivation method. If you can follow me to the central training area we can begin."

Walking to the training zone Kyle stood in the centre waiting for the guards to arrange themselves. He didn't give them any instructions on how they should sit as he wanted to see what they did. The men arrange themselves so they sat around him so they were all facing towards him while allowing around 2 meters clearance around each other. This was how they were trained to sit while they were in the army and were going to be shown skills or techniques by their instructors.

Seeing that everyone had got comfortable and were looking at him with expectation and hope on their faces Kyle took a calming breath before he began to speak to them.

"My cultivation technique is different in that at certain points in your bodies you will loop the mana. The reason for this is that there are multiple channels leading from your main mana flow which are connected to nodes. These nodes need to be cleared to give you greater strength and this is also connected to the healing properties I spoke of. The reason your previous techniques were damaging your bodies was due to the energy being forced out of these channels or flowing in the wrong way. While you are training this technique I will be moving amongst you to check the level of damage in your bodies and issue any needed corrections. I can do this due to me having a sorcerer ability which allows me to see your spirit realm. Any questions?"

Once again Kyle asked them if they had any questions, the men were a little confused as this was knowledge far beyond anything they had heard of before but as it wasn't their concern they choose not to worry about it and just wanted to start their new training. Seeing their eagerness Kyle imparted the first level of his training as he'd decided it would be better for them to clear their first nodes as quickly as possible in the hopes of repairing the damage that was already caused to them.

Once the men had been told the technique they immediately began their training while Kyle moved amongst them. There appeared to be a universal form of damage to the channels and nodes in their bodies caused by the technique they had been trained in which made their nodes ragged to one degree or another. Kyle found a few men who had managed to partially clear some of their nodes but these amounted to only 3 men and this may have been due to the differences in their physiques.

Out of all these people Kyle was the most concerned with the injured. Coming to one of the men who had received a slash on his thigh from a poisonous demonic beast which caused the muscle to die, Kyle dove into his spirit realm to see what was going on inside.

Kyle saw the expected damage had been done to the nodes but on inspecting the area which corresponded to his leg he could only see a desolate land where the mana couldn't flow freely while a black miasma floated around. Inspecting this black material Kyle deduced this was the remnants of the poison from the beast which was slowly destroying the muscles.

After watching for a few moments Kyle decided to try something. Adding his soul force to the man's mana he began to push through this desolate land. The man could feel something happening within him which caused the area which had been poisoned to heat up. It wasn't uncomfortable to start with but as the feeling of heat increased he began to feel a prickling sensation. This shocked him as ever since he had been injured he had lost the feeling in his leg. Coming out of his trance due to the pain he looked around and saw Kyle standing behind him with his hand stretched out and his eyes closed.

As the pain and heat continued to increase the man couldn't take it anymore and ripped to side of his trousers to see what was happening, thinking he could always sew them up again later. What he saw shocked him, under his amazed eyes he could see black blotches beginning to appear at the surface of his skin. Eventually these black blotches began to be pushed out of the pores in his skin and the man could smell a foul smell coming from this black fluid. This was of course the remnants of the poison and Kyle had used the man's own mana to force it out of his system. Once the poison had been forced out Kyle inspected the area again, while it was still desolate the mana had begun to flow freely and greenery had already begun to appear around the course of the mana. Kyle took this to mean that the mana had already started to repair the damage previously done.

Coming out of the man's soul realm he was greeted by the man looking at him with awe and gratitude in equal measure in his gaze.

"How are you feeling?"

"I feel great, my leg aches and that is awesome it's the first time since this happened I have been able to feel anything from it."

The man was ecstatic as he could now move his leg again. It was still stiff and was still feeling hot but the pain was largely lessened.

"Good to hear it you should use the showers over there and change into a training outfit. Make sure to wash the poison off fully, we don't want it to seep back in okay."

Kyle decided it would be best to ensure the poison was cleared off the man's skin as soon as possible and he made a mental note to keep an eye on the injured in case there were any complications. The man moved off with a much lighter mood than he'd had in years while Kyle carried on with his rounds. The surrounding men who were aware of what just happened found themselves also in awe of Kyle as not even the top level alchemists would be able to cure this wound, not that they would demean themselves to help a low level soldier like them.

Kyle moved on and after a few men who only had the basic damage he came upon one who made him exclaim.

"What the hell have you done to yourself?!"