Guild Wars

"Right, and what about Tier 3 Body of Godliness?" Misery asked as he released a sweating Kiran who felt like his life had almost come to an end just now.

"Well, that one is about being able to slightly control blood - not just bloodflow - within the body. At this point, one can accelerate their healing, send blood to and from places within their body at will as well as forcibly stop their hearts for periods of time to deceive enemies." Sublime explained as she watched Misery bully Kiran with a happy smile.

"I'm not there yet, though I can feel like I'll soon reach that point if I restart my intensive training regime. I'm assuming there are higher levels?" Misery replied while gauging himself.

"Just one more as far as we know. We'll have to wait for Draco and Eva to come out of their Unique Quest to find out." Kiran answered while glaring at the smiling Sublime.

Misery rolled his eyes. "Enough with the married couple antics, and give me an answer!"

Kiran and Sublime scrambled at that, remembering their 'issue' with a blush. Sublime finally managed to answer with a defeated tone.

"Tier 4 Body of Godliness is when you have the ability to control the blood thoroughly and adeptly, as well as some non-lethal organs. One can overstimulate their blood to increase their speed, power, and intelligence for a short period of time. It allows you to create great amounts of body heat that escapes in the form of steam and greatly reduces nutrients in the blood requiring great sustenance later."

Misery was shocked. "My god, that would be epic for battle. I could boost my physical prowess by almost 500% because my blood is that of a Lineage, so the kind of power within it is greater than the average human."

Misery then pointed at Kiran. "And that's just me who has the Magus Inheritance!"

Kiran tilted his head with confusion. "Didn't you tell me you had both?"

Misery rubbed his chin. "Sort of. I descended from The Legendary Hound of Culann and the Greatest Sorceress, so my prowess is not a joke."

He then sighed. "But right now, I can only officially use the Magus Inheritance. If I could access the Knight Inheritance, it would be great."

"Anyway, back to the topic. What about the last one?" He prompted calmly.

"Well, the last one is Tier 4 Void of Perfection, which is basically being able to expand the mind outside the body for an immense range, around 8x the base at Tier 1. Psychic abilities are further perfected, being as strong as what you'd see in movies about espers, especially since one can use all five senses at that stage." Kiran began.

"However, the most terrifying aspect is that at this level, one can also peer into the atomic realm with intense focus." Sublime concluded.

Misery's heart leapt up to his throat. He wanted to shout holy shit, but his brain was still trying to process the craziness of what was put forth to him. Eventually, he calmed down and asked the most prudent question.

"How do we get to Tier 4 and above?"

Kiran shook his head. "We don't know. The Avatar Draco left behind only trained us to reach Tier 3. However, he plans to do an in-depth Control training session for the entire guild after concluding another round of recruitment, so we'll probably find out more there."

Misery breathed out. "Alright well, that's enough of that. Let's begin your training, starting with Kiran. Your bloodline is a mixture of the Buddha Lineage and Merlin Lineage, and you have miraculously unlocked one Inheritance for each. In my book, that makes you a wonderchild, even though the elders would call you an abomination."

Kiran gripped his fists, remembering that his special circumstances and birth led to the separation and suffering of his parents. However, he could only clutch his head the next moment when Misery chopped him on the scalp.

"Stop moping around, boy, you aren't a movie character. Tragedy happens to everyone, and some have it worse than you. Focus on what you can do rather than things you couldn't have changed even if time reversed itself." Misery chided with an unhappy look.

Kiran felt his heart quake, then calmed himself. His uncle was right, he had only been a baby back then. What the heck could he have done, acted cute to defuse the battle?

"Right, as I told you earlier, you forcibly boosted yourself to a 2nd Order Knight through a method I have no idea of, and frankly do not care to find out. Your foundation is so bad that, in my eyes, it looks like a Jenga tower with only a single piece holding it up that is being slapped around by an inquisitive cat."

"It can come crashing down at any time, and heh heh, you will NOT like the feeling of that." Misery smiled with amusement.

"How do I fix it?" Kiran asked with seriousness.

Misery took a swig of his rum and laughed. "Fix it? Brat, you should have thought of that before doing this. There is no fixing this, not the way you think at least. As such, there's only one way. You, with your own hands, are gonna smash your foundation apart and rebuild from the ashes."

Kiran's entire body shivered. Given the way his uncle had described it, he was not too keen to experience it, yet he now asked him to be the one to lead to that miserable outcome. Truly the IGN was a perfect fit…

"Hey, it's either you do it yourself, on your own terms, and rebuild what you can under the guidance of someone who knows what they're doing, OR you can play around and wait for it to inevitably collapse in battle and leave you crippled in mind and body. If you're fortunate your enemy might show mercy and kill you." Misery concluded with a cold smile as he shrugged.

Hearing this, Kiran's face changed and then he hardened his will. "Teach me how to do it, Uncle!"

Misery smiled with gratification. "That's a good lad."

"It's not that difficult. Here, let me help you out." Misery walked over to Kiran harmlessly, who was expecting the other to show him something.

So he was naturally not ready when Misery suddenly punched him right in the sternum, where his heart was. Kiran took three steps, wobbled, and then spat out a clod of black blood.

He fell to his knees gasping for breath, wanting to ask his uncle why. However, Misery had pulled Sublime away as he started counting down.

"Three… two… one…"

Suddenly, Kiran froze, his face showing horror and incredulity. White light manifested around him, stacking twice as it grew brighter and brighter. He looked holy and righteous at this moment, but Kiran understood what was going to happen next, and he couldn't believe it.

He raised his head to gaze at Misery and Sublime with disbelief, then smiled wryly. The next moment, the white light stagnated before erupting, exploding forth from Kiran's body in a huge dome shape that spun rapidly.

(Author's Note: Kiran basically did Majin Vegeta's atomic explosion.)

Sublime's expression changed as she had not expected this, while Misery's expression remained neutral as he clapped his hands together in a prayer-like position.

"By the power of Merlin, I command thee: Magic Ward!"

With his cast, white light manifested and formed a colorless dome-shaped barrier around himself and Sublime that completely blocked out the shockwave and heat from the explosion.

Soon, the fanfare settled down, and Misery walked over to the crater where a blackened and charred body lay limply. Sublime wanted to run over to him, but Misery placed a hand on her shoulder gently and shook his head. The adult man walked beside Kiran and touched him. After a while, Misery stood up and raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, I already knew it, but that Buddha Lineage bloodline is fucking sick. Only his exterior suffered from that, his internals are completely fine. I don't even need to use a healing spell for fucks' sake. He's healing like some superhero in a comic." Misery reported with a deep swig from his bottle. Having emptied it, he threw it to the side and grabbed another from his Inventory.

Sublime saw that he was right as the black skin flaked off Kiran, revealing new, perfect skin underneath. Not only that, but his Epic-grade Daoist robes still remained intact, though they had lost a significant amount of durability, so there was no sudden nakedness.

In a matter of minutes, he pushed himself up off the ground and wobbled into a standing position, the last of the impurities being blown off his skin and hair. Apart from a dull look in his eyes, he looked as good as new.

"Well, well, this is fucking amazing. Your recovery is absolutely stunning, and I'm not just talking about the speed. You should have suffered some damage to your bloodline source… but that doesn't seem to be the case for you."

"Your fucking Buddha bloodline is supporting your Merlin bloodline like they are the tightest of brothers. When it recovered you, it also provided its own energy to the other bloodline to recover itself instead of stealing that spot to expand itself. Your existence is…" Misery was just in utter awe of his nephew this time.

"I think I have to agree with my Little Princess calling you Protagonist Haircut. Putting aside the fact that you do look like a generic protagonist, dress like one, cut your hair like one and even think like one, you might as well actually be one!" Misery finished the entirety of the second bottle this time, quaffing most of the third he procured.

Kiran and Sublime shared a look, understanding that there must be something special about Kiran to agitate Misery like this.

Misery himself put his drink aside and laughed. "However, this also means that you'll be able to handle the toughest of training regimes. What I previously thought up is no longer applicable."

Misery tilted his empty bottle over with a devilish smile. "You're out of luck. If what we planned was gonna be hard mode, then we're gonna enter impossible mode."