Ascension of the elder

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

When the other guards heard Kyle's shout they all came out of their trances and looked for the source. The man that Kyle was stood in front of was a man called Dylan. This man was considered a hero amongst the enlisted men as he was closing in on Ash's strength at that time and was only a level below him but while patrolling around the city he was situated in, his group were caught by a large number of beasts. The men weren't strong enough to fight against this onslaught but Dylan stood in front and took the brunt of this assault. Luckily in this pack there was no beast with poison but in order to survive Dylan was forced to push his cultivation beyond his level and this ended up in crippling him but not before he saved his men.

Kyle was looking at Dylan's sprit realm and was dismayed at the level of damage present. When he pushed past the limit Dylan had broken all the nodes on his path leaving only the nodes in his brain intact. Kyle could see that Dylan's main channel was still intact but any mana that he absorbed was pumped towards the nodes and when it hit the nodes it immediately dissipated. The damage was similar to what Kyle had seen before but far more advanced and for the first time he felt true pity for this man. He didn't know why this man was this badly damaged but he would do whatever he could to help.

"What is your name?"

"My name is Dylan sir."

"Okay Dylan can you tell me if you can sense any mana in your body and if you have any control over the flow?"

Kyle wanted to know if Dylan could consciously control the flow of mana in his body or if it just sought the easiest exit from his body which would be the broken nodes.

"Yes sir I can feel the mana flow but I can't control it or gather it."

On hearing this Kyle pondered as to what he could do to fix this problem. With mana a human can heal over time but as his body couldn't contain any mana how could they fix this. Deciding to at least have an attempt Kyle decided to try using his soul force to plug the leaks and see if the mana present could seal the nodes it would be like using putty to seal a pipe he could only hope it took so the mana could seal the breach.

"Dylan I need you to follow the technique and just keep operating it until I tell you to stop. The rest of you continue to train!"

As Kyle was talking to Dylan he noticed the rest of the guards had stopped training and were watching what was happening and hoped that Kyle could help their friend. They had already begun to look up to Kyle as someone mysterious and almost godlike.

Once Kyle saw the men begin training again he turned towards Dylan with an apprehensive look on his face.

"Okay Dylan I won't lie to you, in all the people I've inspected I have never seen damage like this and I don't know if I can help you but I'm willing to try so start your training."

On hearing Kyle's words Dylan was a little depressed as he felt Kyle would be able to help him but he knew it was wrong to put all his faith in a child, so he just began to train as he was instructed while wondering how Kyle was raised to be so calm and caring at such a young age whilst being a noble who were known to be selfish and brutal.

Once Kyle saw Dylan had begun training again Kyle mentally offered a prayer as he had seen the hope and faith in the men's eyes and he didn't want to disappoint or let them down so he focused and began his dive into the spirit realm again.

Ignoring the blasted landscape around him Kyle watched the mana flow and was once again shocked by the loss. Even though Dylan's mental nodes were intact the mana dissipated before it could reach them meaning if Kyle couldn't fix this he would never be able to cultivate again.

Kyle decided he should start from the beginning meaning he should first focus on the node in Dylan's chest. If Kyle could fix this one node even if he couldn't train the remaining level 0 nodes he may be able to bypass them and continue from the level 1 nodes.

Checking the flow of mana into the node Kyle began to check the worst points where the mana was flowing out from. There were three main breaks with a couple of smaller tears but the loss was minimal from these so he started with the larger breaks. He first tried to use his soul force on the outside of the nodes to plug the holes but this ended in failure as when he blocked one another would have an increase in flow. Kyle thought on this before he tried to seal them from the inside. This prevented the mana escaping but it couldn't do anything else and once it was sealed no new mana could pass through and once he left the spirit realm his seal would dissipate meaning nothing would change. He also tried merging his soul force with Dylan's mana but he couldn't prevent the mana escaping as it just went for the path of least resistance only being a little slower.

While Dylan continued training Kyle contemplated on what he could do and just tried the only thing he had left which was the opposite of containing the mana within the node and that was to create a bubble around the node containing the mana inside and outside the node.

To his surprise this netted almost immediate results. When the mana was contained around the node, it seemed to draw from this static mana pool. Kyle could see the breaches were healing at a visible rate. While they were a little thin they continued to thicken over time until they appeared to be only as damaged as the standard soldiers nodes.

Kyle had succeeded so he immediately released his soul force allowing the mana to flow freely again. The mana split and flowed to Dylan's legs where the next two nodes were located. To save time Kyle split his concentration between both nodes and created his soul force bubbles around both once again.

This time there was no mistake or experimentation as he shielded these nodes and allowed them to heal properly. Kyle was astounded at how the human body could make use of the mana to heal itself and he wondered how far this healing went. Is it possible to utilise this information as a true healing technique which as far as Kyle was aware didn't exist and if it did it must have been hoarded by the empire.

After a suitable amount of time Kyle believed the nodes had healed enough to move on to the nodes in Dylan's arms. Continuing with this momentum Kyle once again shielded the nodes and watched as they healed little by little until they were stable and could withstand the mana flow again. Releasing his soul force again Kyle continued to watch as the mana rejoined into a single flow and entered Dylan's mental nodes.

This bit was a little bit of a surprise as Dylan's mental nodes drained the mana flow, this hadn't happened before but Kyle assumed this was because of the loss of mana due to the damage and his other nodes were drawing in the mana to either repair or replenish themselves. This must mean that their bodies would draw mana to a certain extent without their knowledge. Kyle didn't know what this loss of mana to the brain would mean but it couldn't be a good thing as our bodies know what we need more than we ourselves do sometimes.

Kyle inspected Dylan's spirit system once again to make sure it was functioning in good condition and after a few moments Kyle couldn't see any further problems and decided to return.

While Kyle was fixing Dylan, he was in turn watching Kyle. Some gifted people could cultivate while being aware of what was happening around them. This was usually due to having survived through a number of ordeals. A few of the other guards and Ash could do this as well and when it was found you had this ability you would usually be stationed around those who were training as an alert system.

While Kyle was healing Dylan he began to sweat even though he wasn't aware of it because the level of soul force and the control needed was more profound than what he's used previously and his body needed time to adapt but all Dylan could see was a child giving his all to help him. A few of the other guards some with the same ability as Dylan and some who pretended as they wanted to know what would happen were also watching.

As Kyle came out of his focus he said to Dylan.

"I think that's it, focus and let me know if you can feel your mana again."

Hearing Kyle Dylan focused on himself again and he could feel the mana flowing under his control once again. Standing with tears in his eyes Dylan said.

"You've healed me I can be a cultivator again. Thank you thank you."

In this world those who can fight and cultivate are held up a shining examples while those who can't like Dylan and Kyle previously are derided and despised as parasites. Kyle didn't think he'd done anything deserving of thanks so he tried to step forward but due to the strain on his body he stumbled and almost fell. Dylan with his once again functioning warrior physique caught him while the others who had heard what they had said stood up and rushed to their master's side. Kyle just smiled at this reaction before saying.

"Don't worry guys I'm only a little tired."