Flawless Supremacy

Gareth woke up on the day after he entered into a contract with Bethel, the Paravina spirit. He had a great time with his new partner, so much that he had exhausted himself with practice. He ended up falling into a slumber, and it was of no doubt a refreshing sleep.

Standing up from the cold ground, the first thing he did after stretching his body to get the kinks out was to project his consciousness into his Soul, one of the two pillars of cultivation.

He stood before the mansion, where Bethel was sitting on the porch and staring into the skies.

"Hey." Gareth called out as he arrived before her.

Bethel removed her gaze from the ever brilliant skies. She smiled at him.

"How is the place you are now?"

Gareth was surprised that she was asking this of him now. She never mentioned anything about this during their time yesterday, not that he asked anything of this sort from her too.

There was still some feelings of distance between the two of them, but she blasted such feelings apart with this question of hers.

Gareth sat beside her, his gaze towards the beautiful skies of this world crafted within his soul.

"I am currently within a sect called the Martial Seekers Sect."

Bethel brows rose up, seemingly intrigued by what she was hearing.

"It is a good place." He said to her, before he continued.

"The members of this sect have a reputation of being known as martial maniacs, but they do have their focus on other fields too. Not what you would expect of the martial arts fanatics they are known to be."

He shook his head at that, his thought going back to the special section of their library on world weaving.

"Anyways, what is the spirit world like?" Gareth asked her something he was curious about.

"A very interesting place."

*

Gareth walked out of his sect lodging. It was nearing midday, and there weren't a lot of people around.

Gareth looked at the sun that hung in the sky, blaring with a heat that was scorching but not unbearable. It was unlike the skies he had been under since yesterday.

His first thought was to go see Jasmine, and share with her the news of his breakthrough to the first completion of the Awakening Realm.

He walked to her place, but he could not find her.

However, he found this to be not so surprising. Considering the time of the day, she was probably in one of the sect facilities, or at some of the sect elder's lecture.

That said, he decided to go after Lunara, and he knew just the place where he could find her. Or rather the place he was most likely to find her.

Arriving at the library of the outer sect, he moved to the one place that had a connection to all of the sect's libraries.

The library section for world weaving.

This mostly quiet section gave him a surprise he didn't expect, however.

The two people he was searching for were together, doing something he least expected of them. They were arguing.

Jasmine seemed to be in disagreement with whatever it was that Lunara seemed to have told her.

As the two seemed to be spitting fire over whatever it was they found to be of contention. Lunara's spirit, Melanie, was in the form of a little fairy. Having transformed her height to the size of a palm, she hovered above the two. Flitting from one to the other, she tugged on Lunara's hair, then Jasmine's. Messing up their hair as she performed her own little spirit antics.

The two in a world of their own, did not notice the arrival of a third party, but the little spirit was not so oblivious to her surroundings.

She made that fact known by staring at Gareth, before she continued her antics of hair tugging. Although this time around, it advanced into hair pulling, which somehow snapped the two out of their argument, as they took notice of him, the third party in the room.

The two kept their mouth shut immediately. The silence was unnerving, but Jasmine being the cheerful spirit she was, lightened the atmosphere.

She ran to him, pulling him into a hug.

"How have you been, Gareth?"

She freed him of her embrace, looking into his eyes, as her lips curved into a delighted smile.

Lunara scrutinized Gareth, her gaze sharp, looking like it could bore into his being.

"Oh!" Lunara said.

Lunara's spirit partner, Melanie, also exclaimed, before she burst into a song that Gareth had no idea of. She landed on Lunara's shoulder still in her palm sized form.

Jasmine also seemed to have caught on, as she also exclaimed.

Looking at the three of them. Gareth lost his enthusiasm.

'What the…' he thought within.

The three of them seemed to have caught on, and whatever surprise he wanted to spring on them was no longer possible.

Was he that obvious?

"I see that congratulations are in order." Lunara said.

Melanie continued with her song.

Jasmine pulled his arm as she dragged him along to where she previously sat with Lunara.

"I am happy for you Gareth. I knew you would reach your first completion before me, but I never expected it to be this soon." Jasmine could not get a hold of her excitement.

"Well, anything special happened?" Lunara asked. She did not seem to be as excited as Jasmine, but he could see that she was indeed happy for him.

"Tell me. Tell me. Tell me." Melanie happened to have stopped her song.

The spirit was extraordinarily cheerful today, with her antics and all. She hopped from Lunara's shoulder, coming to hover above him, as she began to tug at his hair.

Gareth seemed to have recovered his mood when Lunara asked him that question. Even with Melanie tugging at his hair, a confident smile hung on his lips.

However, he decided first to inquire what the deal was with the overly cheerful spirit.

He swiped his hand at the little spirit, aiming to catch her in his palm. She, however, evaded him with ease.

"Melanie seems a bit too cheerful today," Gareth said.

"Ah, about that. She is just being her usual self. No need to worry." Lunara said, waving it off, as if it was of no concern.

Jasmine however snickered, but she said nothing.

Gareth was becoming aware that there was more to this, and promptly decided to move on to his surprise.

"Something special indeed happened," Gareth replied to Lunara's previous question.

His smile turned mysterious, not speaking any further.

There was tension in the air, as the silence continued.

Even Melanie stayed still, not saying anything, nor flapping her wings.

"Did you …" Lunara started, but could not continue. Probably, she realized how unbelievable whatever it was that she wanted to say sounded.

Melanie also seemed to be in the same state of shock.

Jasmine was the only one still confused.

He only gave a slight nod.

Lunara eyes widened, and Melanie seemed to gain a burst of wind to her sail.

"Let me see!" She kept screeching as she now pulled on his hair.

Well, that might be a problem…

Lunara shook her head.

"You are something else."

Gareth seemed to understand what she meant. He wondered how she would react, if she knew the full extent of everything that happened.

Jasmine was looking between the two of them, wondering what it was they were talking about. However, she soon reacted like she was struck by a bolt of lightning, as she realized something.

She slowly turned to Gareth, her lips parting as she asked with incredulousness.

"Did you contract a spirit on your breakthrough?" Her voice expressed how even she found this to be totally unbelievable.

Gareth only smiled at her. Even with Melanie almost pulling his hair from its root, all in order to satiate her curiosity about the new spirit.

Lunara however came to his aid, as she summoned the silly spirit to her side.

Jasmine coming out of her reverie, grabbed his cheeks, turning his face left and right. As if to confirm if he was real.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Can I see the spirit?"

"Spirits are usually reticent when they are first contracted." Lunara cut in.

'Well, not in this case.' Gareth thought, but he thanked Lunara for providing him with a good excuse.

"That can always happen some other time then." Jasmine also seemed to agree with her.

Bethel had stated to him that she had no wish to be used as a showoff.

"Well, let's have something for you to drink." Lunara said, as she placed a cup on the table between them.

Gareth looked at the beverage placed before him, and as he moved to lift the cup, Jasmine who sat beside him prodded him with her foot. Her gaze subtly glanced to Melanie who still seemed to be in her own world.

Lunara only gave her a dirty look.

Chapter 29 - Hangout

"You little…" Lunara did not finish her words.

She was receiving her own nasty glare from Gareth, who did not look pleased with whatever she had planned with the beverage.

Jasmine who was by his side was having the time of her life, giggling.

"Oh come on," Lunara began, her hand moving as if to wave something away. "It is not something that bad, Melanie is just reeling from the side effect. Look at her, she is having the time of her life."

Melanie, the spirit in question, was indeed having the time of her life. Having no care in particular what anyone felt.

"It is a new concoction, I and senior sister have been working on. Melanie was our first … consumer."

"It is a potion." Lunara disagreed on that one point.

They had Gareth's interest now. He looked carefully at the con… potion before him. The weavings of the energy within it appearing before his eyes, as his senses teased them apart.

"It is a potion that increases the rate at which your world energy circulates-"

"But it only happens for a short time, and at a very rapid rate that is almost berserk in nature." Gareth said, completing the words Lunara had to say.

She looked at him as if he had grown two heads.

"You are right. That was what we figured out, along with the very much unexpected side effect." Jasmine said.

There was a smile on her face, her eyes shining as she looked proud of Gareth.

"Well, that's the hang of it."

Lunara stood up.

"It has been some time since we last saw each other. I want to see how much you have improved."

*

Lunara, Jasmine, Gareth and a drowsy Melanie arrived at a training ground in Lunara's private courtyard located in the sect's inner court.

Lunara had teleported them from the library into this place.

She placed the sleeping spirit within one of the many flower pots that were on the edge of the training ground. The already drowsy spirit, now embraced by flowers finally fell into a peaceful slumber.

Lunara turned to Gareth who stood at the center of the training ground, observing the sight around him.

Jasmine stood outside, at the edge of the circle that denoted the boundary of the training ground.

She watched as Lunara came to stand a few meters away from Gareth.