Chapter 153: Flaws in the Form

Two days had passed since Elene’s recovery. Over those two days, Ethan spent most of his time with Amelia and Sarah, touring the Outer District of Northwatch at Amelia’s insistence, from the merchant streets to the food stalls she refused to leave until she had tasted everything at least once. Whenever he had time to spare, he looked in on the Ashwood sisters and their cultivation.

Today, Ethan woke long before sunrise and quietly changed into his training clothes. Rune lifted his head at the faint noise, watched him for a moment, then settled back to sleep. Ethan smiled at the sight before slipping out of the guest house without disturbing anyone. He made his way to one of the private training chambers in the Outer District, the streets still dark and deserted at this hour. Inside, the only sound was the faint hiss of the enchanted lamps lining the walls.

He began with his usual routine, running laps around the chamber before moving on to push-ups, sit-ups, and the rest of his exercises. Only a few minutes in, he could already feel the subtle changes in his body. His muscles felt stronger, his movements came more naturally, and his whole body felt as light as a feather, answering his thoughts with a fluidity he had never felt before.

Once he finished, he picked up the Eternal Sovereign Blade. The moment his fingers closed around the hilt, he sensed something different through their connection. Whether it was because of the enormous amount of blood essence the blade had absorbed during the Beast Tide or something else entirely, he couldn’t tell. He set the question aside and turned his attention back to his training.

Ethan closed his eyes, recalling the silver-haired man’s movements. He took a deep breath and adjusted his posture... then settled into his stance and swung the blade. He made a subtle adjustment to the rotation of his hips, changing how the force travelled through his body, from his shoulders all the way to his fingertips. The difference was immediate. The blade cut through the air with a noticeably smoother motion.

"Tch..."

Even though he could feel the improvement, the gap between his own attempt and what the silver-haired man had performed was immeasurable. Not letting the disappointment take root, he swung his sword over and over again, making small adjustments with each attempt before moving on to thrusts and slashes. Gradually, his movements grew smoother, and each attack carried its force more efficiently than the last. Yet no matter how much he improved, the vast chasm between himself and the silver-haired man remained painfully clear.

Then the image of the silver-haired man performing the Mountain Cleaving Strike surfaced in his mind... the moment the man had used it to cleave the Demonic Dragon in two. In that moment, it had looked as though the technique could truly cleave an entire mountain.

Ethan opened his eyes and moved again.

This time, he tried to carry the same subtle shift the man had made into the form, adjusting the distribution of his weight and the precise moment his blade began its descent. The first attempt felt wrong, almost clumsy, as though he were breaking a rhythm he had spent decades learning. The second was no better. Yet unlike what he usually did, he didn’t move on to another form.

He kept repeating the Mountain Cleaving Strike, determined to understand the difference. From the very start, he hadn’t used a single drop of his aura... he had relied entirely on his physical strength and technique. At first, the blade left only a faint scratch across the stone floor. Then, with each attempt, the mark grew longer and deeper as he gradually corrected his movements. He became so completely lost in it that he didn’t even notice the two figures who had entered the chamber quite a while ago.

Marcus leaned his back against the wall near the entrance, watching Ethan train without disturbing him, while Elena stood a few metres away.

Marcus had watched Ethan perform the Mountain Cleaving Strike before, and even then, the level of mastery he had shown at such a young age had surprised him... something that had taken Marcus himself years to reach. This time, however, something was different. Ethan’s movements looked awkward, almost as though he had forgotten parts of a technique he had once performed with remarkable precision.

At first, Marcus couldn’t understand what he was seeing, and even Elena noticed the same thing. But as Ethan repeated the strike over and over, making minute adjustments with every attempt, something in Marcus’s eyes changed. Each movement became smoother, more efficient, and more destructive than the last. Watching him, Marcus even began to notice subtle flaws in his own execution of the technique, flaws that all his years of practice had never once brought to his attention. Beside him, Elena watched both Ethan’s steady progress and the growing shock in Marcus’s eyes.

Marcus’s eyes didn’t leave Ethan for even a fraction of a second.

Finally, Ethan slowed and drew a deep breath, allowing the adjustments he had made throughout the session to settle deeper into his instincts. His stance steadied as he raised the sword once more and let the Northern Heaven War Art circulate through his body. Aura flowed into the blade, and he performed the Mountain Cleaving Strike again.

SWISH!

A tremendous crack tore across the chamber floor.

Marcus’s eyes widened. For a fleeting moment, he was no longer watching Ethan, but remembering his father performing the same technique. The resemblance was startling. Even Elena looked taken aback... for that brief instant, the strike had carried something of Adrian’s presence.

Ethan paused. The first grey light of dawn was creeping through the high windows.

Then he drew upon the Unknown Energy.

It stirred within the sphere beside his Warrior Core before flowing down his arm and into the blade. The moment it entered the weapon, he could sense how much it had changed since the Beast Tide. After devouring the purple mist, the energy had become far denser, darker, and heavier, as though its very nature had transformed into something else entirely. A thin layer of it spread across the black steel, resembling aura so closely that anyone glancing at it would never have known the difference.

Wanting to test how much power it now held, Ethan raised the sword.

At that moment, Elena exchanged a glance with Marcus and gave him a small nod... and the two of them stepped forward. Ethan halted and turned towards them, only then realising how long they had been watching.

"How long have you been there?" Ethan asked.

"Quite some time," Marcus said calmly, reining in his shock at what he had witnessed only a few moments earlier, while Elena watched Ethan with a hint of concern.

Their eyes had gone to the blade in his hand, to the dark layer still clinging to its edge, and for a moment the chamber fell completely quiet.

Ethan understood their hesitation. Ever since he had woken up, neither of them had asked him a single question about the energy, but he knew they had concerns. Sarah had told him that Mythralis had shown both Marcus and Evelyn her memories, including how the Unknown Energy he possessed had saved her. She had also mentioned Elena’s worry over what they should tell the Emperor about it.

Their concern was understandable. An energy capable of devouring one of the demons’ most prized creations was no ordinary power, and the Emperor would inevitably want to know where it had come from... even knowing that Ethan had helped avert a disaster for the Empire.

Even Ethan himself was still struggling to understand the nature of the Unknown Energy. Before the Tide, he had already suspected that he was the only one capable of wielding it, though he hadn’t been certain. When he had tested it on Iron Wolf, the man had been injured the instant it touched him. The same thing had happened with Corvus and Stone, as though the energy didn’t even want to go near anyone else. Back then, he couldn’t understand why.

Now, however, the memories he had witnessed offered another clue. His mind drifted back to the silver-haired man... the man who had shown him those forms.

There is certainly a connection between the silver-haired man and this energy, and the way the man had looked straight at him, as though he had been waiting for him all along... it was as if he had known that one day, Ethan would witness all those memories, and be the one to carry this energy.

Then he recalled what Peter had told him earlier, about the strange beast that had attacked him and the strange sword it had wielded. Somehow, that encounter was tied to the energy now residing within Ethan’s body. He still couldn’t piece together how everything fit, but the similarities were too significant to dismiss.

There is no way this is a coincidence...

The more he thought about it, the more the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

Complicated emotions stirred within him as his thoughts returned to the Emperor, and to Sword Saint Reiner’s Divine Ability, something Ethan understood better than almost anyone apart from a handful of people. Even if Reiner used it, there was no way he could see how Ethan had acquired the energy... and Ethan knew the Emperor certainly wouldn’t ask him to do that in the first place. He then looked at Marcus and Elena, and noticed the hesitation in their expressions.

A faint smile touched his lips, barely visible.

They were worrying more than they needed to... given what had happened during the Beast Tide, the Emperor had every reason to reward House Ravencrest.

Seeing their hesitation, Ethan broke the silence first. "You want to ask me something."

Neither of them answered immediately.

After a few seconds, it was Marcus who gave in first. He let out a long breath and scratched the back of his head.

"Ethan... you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to," he said, his voice unusually subdued. "But what exactly was the energy you used during the battle?"