The next day dawns. While lying on his bed with two warm bodies on each side of him, Kanoru reluctantly gets up. He has already formed 94 elemental runes and only needs to form 6 more elemental runes to reach the number 100.
And as he forms a new energy, he will automatically become a councillor.
Talking about the councillor, he remembers he also has to go to the High Council and inform them he has mastered the Grey energy.
But not today. He will go tomorrow. Today, he will create some water elemental spells for the Spirit Realm.
The spells are for Mingzhu so that she can quickly comprehend the water element and start forming runes in her spiritual space and break through to the Spirit King realm quickly. With him protecting them in the war, there should be no problem.
But his mind will ease if Mingzhu also advances to the Spirit King realm. And about meeting the councillors, he will go and meet them tomorrow.
He closes his eyes and senses the water elemental particles.
He focuses on the particles present in the outer layer.
Mingzhu is starting to comprehend the water elemental energy for the first time. With her spirit strength at the Spirit Lord realm, it would be easy for her to comprehend the water elemental energy particles in the outer layer.
Mingzhu needs eight water elemental runes to break through to the Spirit King realm. By mastering one water elemental spell for the Spirit Realm, she would be able to break through to the Spirit King realm. But he still decides to gift her at least three water elemental spells.
After mastering them, she would at least be able to form around seventy runes, so that she would be able to quickly advance her strength even after entering the Spirit King realm.
After an hour, Kanoru senses all the aspects contained in the thirty water elemental particles. He discovers that among the thirty particles, there are seven aspects of the water element, and the rest of the runes are for absorbing spiritual energy, transforming the spiritual energy into water elemental energy, and controlling water elemental energy.
Among the seven aspects present in the outer layer of water elemental energy, only two are complete. Among them, he has already named Heat, Cold, Vibration, Hardness, and Softness. But these five aspects are not complete and cannot be fully comprehended from the outer layer. The two complete aspects that can be comprehended in the outer layer are the Nourishing aspect and the Adaptability aspect.
Mingzhu comprehended the Wood and Metal elements. Kanoru thinks the Nourishing aspect and Adaptability aspect must be present in the Wood element, even if they are not present in the Metal element.
But he did not comprehend all thirty unique water elemental particles, only 13 of them. So, he did not fully comprehend the Nourishing aspect or the Adaptability aspect.
He comprehended only two Nourishing aspects and one Adaptability aspect.
After discovering all of this, he decides to gift three spells to her.
He already has names for the three spells. He would not create all three spells for her, as he already has some water elemental spells that he created in the past. He will tweak two spells from his collection and create one spell for her.
The two spells he is going to make changes to are the Holy Water spell and the Ice Shield spell. The Holy Water spell does not contain any light elemental rune and is a simple healing spell containing one nourishing rune and one adaptability rune. The Ice Shield spell is a defensive spell containing Hard and Cold aspect runes.
The third spell he decided on would be a spell with the vibration aspect, as he thinks every element would contain vibration. The Thunder element surely does, and he is not sure about the Wood element, but he thinks it does, too.
For the Holy Water spell, he only has to add another nourishing aspect rune and all the runes he comprehended for the absorption of spiritual energy, transformation, and control of the water elemental energy.
He cannot make changes to the spell while lying on the bed. He carefully disengages his limbs from them and their limbs from around him. He then equally carefully gets down from his bed without disturbing them. They may already sense him trying to get down from the bed, but as they are showing, they are sleeping. He should also maintain decorum.
Getting down from the bed, he cannot directly walk outside to their garden, as he has to wear some clothes first. After wearing the clothes, he walks into the garden. Enjoying the freezing breeze of the winter season, he sits on a bench and starts to make the changes he envisions for the Holy Water spell.
Only adding the runes would not do. The runes should be placed around a specific structure for the full power of a spell. It didn't take much time. In three hours, he made the changes to the Holy Water spell. He then thought to give this spell to Mingzhu first so she could start practising it. The spell itself contains 8 runes, and by mastering only this spell, she would be able to break through to the Spirit King realm.
Kanoru releases his spiritual energy from his body. He finds Mingzhu in one of the rooms. But at that moment, he does not find Asuna in their house, nor also not present in the city. He thinks she may be outside the city, perfecting the Nine Sun Burst spell.
As tomorrow he will go to the High Council. After that, they may be told to mobilize at any time to participate in the ongoing war. So, wasting a moment is a sin for those who are weak.
Kanoru sends a message to Mingzhu to come with some parchments and a feather pen using his spiritual energy. In a minute, Mingzhu enters the garden and gives him the parchments and the feather pen, and she sits beside him.
Mingzhu says, "You already created a spell. You are so fast."
Kanoru says, "It was already created, and I only made some changes to it."
Mingzhu stops talking and looks at the parchments, where Kanoru starts writing. After twenty minutes, she has the spell model of the Holy Water spell. After browsing through it a few times, she gets up from her seat and stands in the centre of the garden.
She starts practising the spell.
Kanoru watches her practice for a few minutes, then closes his eyes again and starts making changes to the second spell, the Ice Shield spell. Like the first spell, it took another three hours to complete the changes in the spell. By mastering this spell, 10 runes would be formed. Among them, six runes already existed in the Holy Water spell.
After finishing the spell, he again writes the spell model on the parchments. After finishing the writing of the spell, he then starts creating the third spell. He is only using two vibration aspect water element runes, which he has already mastered, as only two vibration aspect runes are present in the outer layer of water elemental energy.
But he was not able to create the spell by the next day. Then he went to the High Council, where he again met with the six councillors. He explains to them the rune structure of the Grey element, and they also explain to him the rune structure of their elements. At last, they tell him he should not connect 100 elemental runes early.
Kanoru, hearing them say he should not connect 100 elemental runes, understands the reason. Right now, their situation is very bad. In the high-ranking strength tier, the number of people with strength similar to Kanoru is less than the enemy.
And Kanoru is only missing six runes. If he chooses the vibration aspect of the Fire element to comprehend, already having completely mastered the vibration aspect present in Wind and Water elements, he would be able to comprehend the complete vibration aspect in 15 days, as he has already comprehended two vibration aspects of Fire elemental particles. Then his connected rune count will climb to 97.
And like the vibration aspect present in the Fire element, there are also other aspects present in elements where he has already mastered those aspects in two other elements. So, in a month, he can connect 100 elemental runes and become a councillor. To win the war, more councillors are needed, but not now.
Now, one or two councillors cannot change the situation. To overwhelm the Greyrose Circus and win the war, they would need a double-digit number of councillors. So, to maintain the situation and gain some advantage, they need more people with strength similar to Kanoru, and like Kanoru, who can become councillors at any moment.
Kanoru says, "I understand. I will not connect the last elemental runes before I receive the command from any one of you."
Hayate says, "I heard you did not create your phantasm. During this time, try to create your phantasm. That will also increase your strength, and to win the war, phantasm will be needed."
Kanoru asks, "Why?" Reaching their strength, I do not think phantasm can increase their strength too much. The increase in strength would be negligible, Kanoru wonders.
The six councillors look at each other. Kanoru understands they are communicating with their spirit.
After they finish their discussion,
Hayate speaks, "Among the six of us, you only see me using the phantasm. Can you tell me what difference my phantasm has from the others?"
Kanoru checks his memory. He remembers seeing Hayate's phantasm—a blue-winged lizard with thunder sparking around its body. But at that time, he was busy fighting and did not have time to pay attention. He only noticed that Hayate was not inside his phantasm but fighting separately. Even separated, their strength was equal.
From the Spirit King Realm, phantasm can fight separately, but without the creator of the phantasm inside them, a phantasm can display only 10% of the creator's strength.
Kanoru says, "Your phantasm, separate from you, can display the same strength as you."
Hayate says, "Yes, but do you know why?"
Kanoru shakes his head and says, "No."
Hayate says, "I created the third stage for the phantasm. To enter the third stage, a core needs to form in the phantasm. Then, a phantasm can absorb the energy of the world by itself without the help of its creator."
"I put the method in the core chamber of the library. And you need to connect 100 runes to become one of us. So, you can go and check the method in the core chamber."
Kanoru nods, "With the third-stage phantasm, our strength will double."
"But I do not think anyone can learn the third-stage phantasm method, as you guys put the technique in the core chamber."
Hayate says, "You are right. As the Spirit Lord can only learn the first stage of phantasm, the Spirit King can learn the second stage. Only those who created new energy can learn the third stage."
Kanoru says, "Then all the better. If every one of you formed the third stage of phantasm, then all of your strength would double. Then you six with your phantasms could defeat the three leaders of the Greyrose Circus."
Akila speaks then, "Any three of us joining forces would be able to defeat the clown, but the other two leaders would be difficult. Even if our number doubled, it would still be difficult to defeat the other leaders."
"If we had learned the third stage of phantasm when the two leaders came to our world, we would have been able to defeat them. But now, as time passes, they are becoming familiar with the energy of our world, and their strength will start to recover."
Hayate says, "The third stage of phantasm is not for defeating them but to destroy the Blood Moon. With our strength, it is impossible to defeat the Greyrose Circus head-on. The only chance of our winning is to damage the Blood Moon so that they leave our world on their own."
Kanoru wonders if they can leave the barrier of the world and reach near enough to attack the Blood Moon. He also thinks they will be able to win the war if they are able to damage the Blood Moon. The Greyrose Circus would be afraid that the Blood Moon would be seriously damaged and the portal would not be able to open again. Then they would not be able to return to the Nightmare World.
But then rises the question—outside the world barrier is deadly cold, chaotic energy, and there is no oxygen. If the other two problems can be solved, then the oxygen does not matter. In their realm, they can hold their breath for months. But it is difficult to solve the other two problems. Kanoru asks, "Can the third-stage phantasm leave the barrier of the world?"
Hayate says, "Yes, I sent my phantasm outside the barrier of the world. It lasted for three hours outside the barrier of the world. Three hours is enough time to damage the Blood Moon, as we cannot launch more than three strikes against the Blood Moon."
After that, they discuss which war zone Kanoru will guard.
But before leaving, Kanoru would have to take an oath not to betray the world. It is because he is aware of the plan to defeat the Greyrose Circus, and the most important reason is that after forming new energy, the punishment of the world against them is half effective.
If one who did not create new energy betrays the world, the world will block them from mobilising the power of the world. And the cultivators of the world after the Spirit Realm depend on the energy of the world. After the world blocks them from using the power of the world, they will not be able to increase their strength. As time passes, they will get weaker and weaker, and after some time, they will become mortal.
And for those who create new energy, the punishment of the world is half effective. As their elemental energy is stronger than the world's energy, and as the world's energy is widely spread, they can snatch the world's energy and absorb it.
Kanoru felt nothing wrong when they asked him to take an oath because if he were in their position. He would have done the same. So, after taking the oath, Kanoru left.
Then he left the room. Outside, he talked with other people who had left their clones in the castle. He shared with them the rune structure of his Grey energy. He then got the fifth Heat aspect rune present in the Wind element, and also the runes of Fire, Water, and Wind present in alien energy.
These runes are written on jade scales. He learns these are Ywet fallen scales, the only material in the world now on which elemental runes can be written, where they hold 100% of the rule contained in a rune inside them, and can be used for comprehending the runes.
The last thing he did in the High Council castle was to enter the core chamber of the library and imprint all the information and knowledge inside. Then he left the castle.
The next day at dawn, he returned to his house.