An Unwelcome Hero - shadow slave

Elbaf nodded with a bright smile at Chiron's giddiness to begin contributing to Aranai the moment he was welcomed back. "I am completely willing and happy because of your initiative, but you won't stand a chance. Even if you can beat me, I am a defense specialist and your ascended power seems to be speed and power attack, while the awakened one seems to be the defense method of my Guardian Corps. If you meet another speed focused ascended, you will die."

He entered into a deep thought and eventually shook his head with a frown "No, you wouldn't stand a chance against ANY ascended of Analand. My two weaknesses are speed and special combat focused awakened and you directly countered me with your ascension, but the majority of ascended don't have such a weakness to speed. You probably don't even have a method to sense your essence yet or even use your abilities properly, so you will stand even less of a chance against a country famous for its Ascended and ascension methods."

This bitter conversation brought back some painful memories of how his first meeting with an ascended went. The assassin flashed through his mind and Chiron shuddered. *F"cking Ron! I don't think I would stand a chance even now against him! Just remembering his speed is enough to throw any idea of fighting him out of the window!*

He wasn't confident he could even beat the assassin now, with the ability to live out 10 seconds in 1. Every second Chiron lives he realizes more and more how much of a fluke his victory against Ron was. He had almost died several times that day. If not for Rong being careless and Chiron using his own speed against the ascended, he would have died from starvation.

*Ron could have stabbed my ears out, drowned me out by leaving me to die by thirst. To put it simply, the only possible scenario where I survive happened out of the possible thousands. If I had to fight Ron with the reputation of being an Ascended to live up to myself, He'd f"cking kill me!*

*No shit, Sherlock! I'm not even an awakened yet, much less an ascended, how am I supposed to use what I don't even have! Hell, I've been bluffing my way through the entire 'fight' with Elbaf! Sure, I can VERY theoretically kill him, but it will take hours to whittle Elbaf down. If he was any other ascended, I would just be cut down. H-*

Before Chiron could even begin pondering over his plan more thoroughly, the solution was given to him directly by Elbaf "I'll help remedy that. I'll teach you a technique to use your essence before you set off." Chiron's face hardened as he locked in and stared at Elbaf seriously for the first time *I remember! Right, there was a mention of an ancient way of accessing your soul essence without the help of the spell in the original book!*

It was as if his mind had suddenly expanded beyond normal human limitations, as he brainstormed and came to a conclusion *So this is why nightmares are over within a couple days! The spell doesn't want the humans of the two times interacting too much and spreading this information! How peculiar. I wonder if this technique can help me with my plans...*

Elbaf sweated a bit at the intensity of Chiron and said "Don't get your hopes up too much. It's a simple meditation method that was developed by me after studying the queen's Transcension. It helped me develop my Guardian Tortoise style, but it might or might not work for you. It didn't work for me, and I spent 5 years using it, then another 5 remodeling it and only managed to fully comprehend it 10 years after my ascension. I had to learn how to figure it out myself and it is no easy matter."

Chiron sighed "I haven't had the time to gather my essence yet, so it doesn't matter much. Even if I can grasp the meditation you mentioned, I don't have enough essence gathered to make use of it. As you might remember, I didn't have the luxury of cultivating my soul sea these last few months."

With a nod of acknowledgment, Elbaf took out a manual from his desk and handed it to Chiron. "This is the more developed technique I mentioned. I use it right now to help with sensing my soul sea and the essence within. When you gain the sense, you will be able to use the contents of it to aid you. After you master the fundamental I gave you- *F"CK! I WON'T BE HERE BY THEN!* I will then give you this later half to study."

Chiron nodded his head, but internally he sighed *Sigh, he is telling me to use a technique, that might not even do anything to sense my soul sea, when I will unlock it naturally after completing this nightmare and will only offer me the ascension method after I can enter my dormant soul core. The ancient way sure is inferior to whatever Weaver cooked up with the nightmare spell. If someone handed a human in my old world a book about meditation and asked them to learn to sense mana, they'd laugh and throw it back. Even if they agreed, they'd never achieve anything with it.*

*Hell! Even IF that would work, offer them a choice between the meditation for 2 decades and going through a single nightmare once and see how many will choose the safer option! Eh. Not like I can lose anything from this, so might as well accept it.*

With the book in hand, Chiron looked towards his men and said "Men, this is Ascended General Elbaf, your new leader and the men you will answer to in my absence!" He turned towards Elbaf now and continued "What he says is law and you will wordlessly follow every command he gives, especially if it involves killing an enemy or killing in general! Elbaf, if you wish to give an order to them, have Sean here translate for you." Elbaf nodded his head and looked at the 20 dormant level awakened now under his command with great pride.

"Only thing I ask of you in return is to devote your best men and teachers to help Sean learn proper spear arts and how to use a shield. That's the only request I have. When I come back, a hero, having crippled Analand, I want to see my men ready to become my own retainers and be worthy enough to swear an oath in front of the holy queen herself!" Elbaf nodded once again with a smile "It is only natural. I will take care of these fine warriors and won't disappoint, Ascended Chiron!"

"I hope you are serious about this and won't go back on your word. Because, and I can swear on my own life, I WILL come back and I WILL be stronger! By then, I will massacre all those dear to you and torture you for years after I make you watch OUR country burn to the ground, burned by the same 20 men you took responsibility for! By then, transcendent Chiron will make sure you don't die a good death!"

Elbaf shuddered at the lasting threat Chiron made before his window shattered and he saw the aspirant plummeting to the ground and running east. The iconic pulsating his body did, when this ability of his was in use nowhere to be seen. He turned back to the 20 awakened and smiled "Let's get you all properly outfitted and begin the most intense training of your lives!"