Sovereign of the Karmic System

A few days later, when Daniel, along with the other traveling students of his group, went back to his planet, he had received the news that a second outcast of Iewah's faction had appeared.

This time, however, there was something different. Instead of simply acknowledging his existence after kicking him out of their protective scope, an additional order had been given. A direct order from Iewah, which dictated that, whomever happened to cross paths with the one called the Brutal, would have to do all they could to kill him.

"How are you two doing?" Asked Daniel to Aeron and Edmund, who were sitting one in front of the other in one of the training grounds built specifically for Daniel's strongest companions. The latter was trying to get used to his new power, while the former, was cautiously weakening his protection over Edmund's mind in order to allow him to limit the experience to a bearable level.

At the same time, Aeron's consciousness and mind power hovered outside of this protective bubble, and used the connection between the multiverse and Edmund's mind to refine his own mind power in order to cultivate.

"He still doesn't have enough strength to withstand his powers. His mind needs to be at the same level required by mental warriors to form their avatars, but it is overly complicated for him. It feels like his mind is pressured by an endless ocean." Responded Aeron, slightly annoyed by the three consecutive years of failures.

While one could believe that cultivating the mind would be easier than body or spirit, that was not the case. The mind was, by far, the most difficult part of a body to strengthen, as shown by the fact that, instead of simply requiring a type of mana which could be absorbed and used, one needed mental strain to cultivate their mind power.

The mental warriors had solved this by leaving the territories of their factions, and witness to the pain of which the lives of the commoners were filled with. Grieving, sorrow, fear, panic, anger, and hate. All parts of the side of human emotions which would shape a mind more than a happy life with one's family and friends would.

Edmund's situation, unfortunately, was different. The amount of strain was too powerful for his level of mind power, which put him in a position similar to that of an immortal cultivator, which instead of cultivating with crystals, tried to refine his body and spirit through the use of essence gems. To use a waterfall to fill a glass of water, one would say.

"Alright.. Keep trying then. Anything new?" Asked Daniel as he walked past them, and towards his sister's house.

"A few new students. One with memories of your appearance." Responded Aeron before once again closing his eyes, and focusing on what he was doing. He then added, "I have already removed your face from her mind."

-----

During the past three years, Hiel academy had been moved out of the pocket dimension, causing it to grow to an impressive size, and reach a point where the terrain which included its training grounds was larger than most cities. At the same time, the uninhabited part of the planet had slowly been populated with different kind of beastkin, humans, and various kinds of Elementals.

The terrain of Daniel's planet was also perfect for the cultivation of all sorts of plants and herbs, as thanks to Daniel's comprehension of the concept of life of plants, he was quickly able to speed their growth, and turn his entire planet into an alchemical garden.

Unfortunately, most plants required the help of other elements to grow, and their growth was left to the care of what, during the past three months, had become the three elemental kingdoms.

The title of the kingdom was naturally superfluous, as their inhabitants did not consider themselves to be anything but part of Daniel's group. However, the students had slowly adopted this way of calling these three separate groups of elementals.

The first of these kingdoms was known as the Kingdom of Fire and Steel, which was mostly inhabited elementals of the fire and metal essence. The second one, was the Storm kingdom, inhabited by water, wind, and lightning elementals. Finally, the third and last one, was the Kingdom of Nature, inhabited by earth, and wood elementals.

These three kingdoms were a favorite destination for anyone who wished to reach a perfect comprehension of the elements.

At the same time, a few more cities had been erected on the planet's surface, and had been populated by the large number of common humans which populated the now empty pocket dimension.

Due to these changes, the limitations employed to keep the enemies out of the pocket dimension had become obsolete. After all, the protection granted by the spatial formation which Daniel had created around his planet, which was currently being controlled by Nova the spatial elemental, were much more effective than the tricks he had employed to prevent people from infiltrating his pocket dimension.

To remove an unwanted visitor from his planet, to Daniel, was as easy as to wish so, and his planet would teleport away, or simply push him out.

This, as well as Daniel's fame as the first outcast of Iewah's faction, had allowed for his planet to turn into a place that could be visited, but which was impossible to latch on to by using spatial essence.

During the years, many had realized that Daniel's planet was nothing but a treasure created by his gift, and its perfection, as well as the generally happy state in which its inhabitants were, had lead to the false belief that Daniel's powers had something to do with happiness, or realization.

Regardless of what the truth was, many had hoped to form a path between their territories and Daniel's planet. If not in order to obtain the planet for themselves, at least to sell the information regarding its position to another one of Iewah's chosen ones. 

Unfortunately, each attempt had failed miserably. 

Contained within the formation which surrounded Daniel's planet, were the concepts of shattered, and collapsed space, and whenever an unauthorized portal would be opened, the two ends would be unable to find each other.

The only way to reach Daniel's planet, was by obtaining permission in what before was the headquarters of Golden Karma company, and now worked as a point of passage between Daniel's planet, and the many company branches.

"Uncle Dan! Look, I have reached the eighth rank!" Said Than with a cheerful voice, after noticing Daniel walk up the path that led to his family's house.

After meeting Than, Daniel had become very close to him. To a point where, whenever he would have time to, he would spend it by teaching him his comprehension of mana, swordplay, and even card tricks. Now that Daniel had found himself unable to cultivate, that amount of time had extended to most of his day.

To Daniel's surprise, Than's talent in cultivation, even before becoming part of his group, was extremely shocking, and of all the people within his group, only Cynna and Jerigh could be compared to him. A talent likely attributed by Daniel's good luck.

At the same time, his curiosity and competitiveness allowed him to be extremely comfortable with spending his days exploring the depths of natural mana, by bothering the many elementals who, in order to find Daniel to report the situation in their territories, came to their house on a daily basis.

When not busy with his cultivation, Than would spend his days in the company of Virgil, who had helped the Golden Karma company's business by inventing what was considered the hottest protective talisman in the market. A weakened version of the essence bomb, which would store, and redirect the essence contained it, into creating a protective barrier, as well as warn the owner of the essence with which it was charged.

Naturally, protective talismans were not a new object, but their use was triggered manually, and made use of a formation that required a vast amount of knowledge and patience to be created. Virgil's talisman, on the other hand, would activate the protection automatically. 

The invention of the essence bomb, on the other hand, had been kept a secret.

Only one time had one of Virgil's essence bombs been put to use, and that was when, after approaching the territory of the Sovereign of Corruption, a group of students in the middle of their pilgrimage, had been attacked. Instead of calling for support, Lady Night, assigned to their protection, had made use of one of Virgil's bomb, which had been charged with ten times the full amount of immortal essence contained in the body of a high immortal at the thirteenth phase.

The explosion had been so devastating, that the blast had disturbed the orbit followed by the system's planets, changing its path forever. If not for the fact that only fully corrupted monsters lived in those planets, Daniel would have done all he could to evacuate them.

"Show me your progress. Give me your best shot." Said Daniel before giving his nephew a playful smile.

"HEY! Don't even try it! I just bought those clothes!" Said Reila with an angered expression after walking out of her house. She then turned to look at Daniel, and said, "And you! Go get some onions and garlic. I need them to make dinner."

Slightly annoyed by his sister's behaviour, Daniel placed his hands on his sides in defeat, and said, "You didn't even say hi.."

After seeing Daniel's defeated expression, Than walked next to him, and after grabbing his arm, he said through a cheeky smile, "She knew you were going to be defeated, uncle. She saved you."

"You.. you nasty brat." Responded Daniel before grabbing Than's head, and adding, "You are coming with me!" However, before they could take a few steps, Daniel suddenly looked up to the sky. "Stay here." he said before letting go of Than's head, and disappearing from where he was standing.

When he reappeared, he was floating in space around a million kilometers away from the planet, which had now stopped its random march, and was floating behind Daniel. 

Soon after, next to him quietly appeared Sewah, Aeron, Xargy, and Nova.

After what felt like an hour, from the depth of the endless space, appeared the small figure of a wandering individual. He was shirtless, and was carrying a massive single bladed sword filled with veins, which appeared to be able to split the very essence of space.

It did not take long for Daniel and the others to recognize this man, based on his appearance, as the Swordsman. One of Iewah's most known chosen ones. A fame created by his constant fights with his sister the Tamer, and his brother, known as the Mindhive.

The Swordsman did not appear to be looking for Daniel, but had instead simply bumped into him, as shown by the fact that, instead of initiating a fight like he always would, kept moving forward despite the presence of him and his companions.

Naturally, the possibility that the two could casually meet in the dept of space was infinitesimal, causing Daniel to believe that he had come specifically for him.

"Can you read his mind? Why is he here?" Asked Daniel to Aeron.

Aeron nodded faintly before turning to look at the Swordsman. He then tried to use his powers to reach into his mind, but the moment his consciousness and mind power reached the distance of ten kilometers, an incredibly powerful and sharp power cut it into pieces, causing Aeron to vomit multiple beads of blood which randomly floated in space.

This form of attack was incomprehensible to Daniel and the others, as just like the minimal control over karma related events was only comprehensible to Daniel, only the Swordsman knew what sword intent was.

Seemingly undisturbed by Aeron's action, the swordsman kept approaching, and the more he approached, the more Daniel felt himself become small. No matter where he looked, he knew that if the swordsman decided to attack him, his body, mind, and spirit, would turn into nothingness.