Received Mana Burn(Moderate)

Received Nervous System Overload (Moderate)

Jack couldn't move his body properly, he could barely keep his head up to watch the worms close in on him once more. Syraviel had healed him yet again, not even saying anything this time, just giving Lisaseron a worried look and disappearing. Jack stayed focused on his recovery, seeming almost uninterested in the charging worms.

He'd noticed being able to direct and even slightly increase the regeneration enhancement of his Innate by focusing more on it. It wasn't much but what really excited him was the fact that he could notice the difference in the first place. After being on the edge of collapse for so long, he finally had a hint of what it meant to push his regeneration further. He furiously cobbled together the dregs of his stamina, while trying to stabilize his mess of a body with the minor increase in his regeneration.

The worms were on him before his gains could make much of a difference. As the worms attacked, he gave them the minimal attention he needed to dodge them. Their movements, their speed and rhythm were beaten into his brain at this point. He kept focusing on his Innate, same as the past few hours, using the last bits of his mental energy and his extremely limited Soul Perception to visualize the mysterious chained figure.

He still didn't understand what the dark figure exercising with chains had to do with regeneration. As far as he could tell, as his condition got worse, the only thing that changed in his Innate was that the dark figure started exercising faster and faster. Jack felt like he should be more frustrated but instead he found himself fascinated by its movements and intrigued by the surroundings. Nothing worked. He tried communicating with it but it didn't seem to respond to him, although it did seem to exercise faster when he practiced the Meditation technique Lisaseron taught him, attempting to drawing strength from the world.

He shook his head. The only big thing he'd managed to figure out wasn't even a help in his current situation. By now he'd put it together that Lisaseron and Syraviel expected him to advance his Innate today with all this pressure. It had to be the case, Lisaseron even said he was close to advancing his Innate. He only wondered why they didn't tell him outright? Was this a kind of test? Should advancing his Innate have been easier and he was just messing it up? That had to be it. Feeling his horrendous condition and looking at their worried gazes, he refused to believe he wasn't under enough pressure.

Jack changed his approach. Obviously he didn't know anything about regeneration, so he was going to learn from someone who did. His movements shifted, his grazing dodges turned into more forceful, regimented movements like those of an exercise. With each sidestep, he synced his movements to the rhythm of his Innate exercising. His stamina approached his limits even faster than before but he kept doing it.

Naturally, with his odd and less effective movement, he got hit again. His tumbled across the disk, once again, barely held together by The Will To Resist, Empowered Bones and multiple runepatches. When he finally came to a stop, he didn't bother cataloging his injuries. He got to his feet again, mimicking his Innate's movement. Through the bond, he could feel genuine worry from Alicia. He probably looked like he was crazy to them. Maybe he was.

***

“I've seen enough,” Syraviel whispered. “What you're doing to this boy stopped being training long ago.”

Lisaseron nodded quietly

“I'm ending this here.”Syraviel said.

Lisaseron shook her head. The smaller Goddess gawked at Lisaseron.

“We both let this drag on too far,” Lisaseron said. “But even though he was complaining earlier, he hasn't been for the past hour. Can you not feel him constantly pondering and experimenting? The moment he says he is done, he will be done, but until then keep supporting him.”

***

As Syraviel reached out to heal him, he focused even harder. His movements grew sharper, mimicking his Innate even more closely. He could vaguely hear his broken bones grinding as he moved and Syraviel's chastising voice but he didn't care. The pain of the runepatch came and he pushed it down. He was so close. He could feel there was something special his Innate was doing with the chains, something that made the magic of increased regeneration happen. But he was tired. He could barely stand, let alone think about all these abstract concepts and theoreticals of the soul. But he still was still holding out on account of one last idea.

The healing magic rushed though him just like before. Only this time he didn't allow it to heal his. He fought the Goddess with his level one Mana Manipulation, pushing her carefully arranged healing magic into disarray.

“Have you seen enough, Void?” Syraviel asked. “He's done! He's fighting back when I'm trying to heal him!”

“Keep healing,” Jack groaned. “Almost. Almost. Almost!”

He was bending her healing magic even further, pushing it deep towards his soul, except it wouldn't enter his soul. He screamed in frustration, shoving and mashing it towards where he visualized his soul but nothing happened.

Syraviel gave a pointed look towards Lisaseron. The space Goddess let out a sigh and nodded her head. Syraviel let go of the boy and proceeded to kill of the remaining void worms in quick succession.

Jack continued to push the scraps of Syraviel's healing magic towards his soul to no avail. If there was anything that could help him understand regeneration it had to be healing magic but he saw no change in his Innate, with the exterior of his soul surrounded by stray healing magic. He just didn't understand why the healing magic wouldn't go inside his soul.

The aura of his Innate surged up as a new idea struck him. He used Mana Manipulation to push the healing magic within him towards his soul bond. He felt pain erupting from his head and Alicia's as well as the Weaver's distorted voice filled their bond in clipped off phrases. Jack pushed the aura of his Innate through the bond, reaching out towards the fading scraps of healing magic.

“Heal,” Jack said. “Heal.”

“Jack, it's over now,”Syraviel said.

Jack shook his head.

He'd failed at getting the healing magic into his soul, he'd felt frustrated but then he started laughing. His Innate was a prisoner, it couldn't be easy sneaking stuff in for it! The dark figure was chained and left to starve, yet it was not only hale and healthy, it was downright vigorous. That couldn't be right. Even though he'd failed to smuggle in some regeneration, the dark figure must've found out a way. In fact, given the setting of his Innate, there was only one way- it was through the chains.

At this moment, he could feel the gaze of the figure in the Innate heavy on him with expectation.

“These chains don't bind us,” Jack said. “They make us stronger.”

His Innate started moving faster as if agreeing with him. Jack continued moving in sync with his Innate.

“But we can do better,” Jack said.

He focused on his worn out body, screaming for recovery. Jack replayed each crushing blow, each desperate dodge as his stamina wore down. He took all his exhaustion and pain and imagined collecting it within his hands and the hands of his Innate.

“We've already been doing it,” Jack said. “We pull stronger when shit gets hot. Why not do it all the time?”

His Innate moved even faster but Jack kept with it, no he was the one pushing it faster, shaping it to his liking. Once Jack understood that he controlled his Innate at this moment, he squeezed his hands into his fists as hard as he could. His Innate's grip on the chains tightened and although he couldn't hear the chains creaking he just knew they were. He was almost there.

“Why chew on a bone, when you could be getting the marrow?” he asked.

With all his pain, all his weariness he squeezed like he'd never squeezed before. A crack appeared on a chain and a drop of gold leaked onto his Innate's hand. His Innate let out an elated roar. The chain quickly healed back, but with blood already in the water, Jack went for the kill. With each movement, Jack clenched his fists, crushing the chains in his hands, letting the nourishing golden juice slowly drip onto him.

He could feel that exquisite control over his Innate slipping as the dark figure took back the reins. Jack felt his entire soul shake as a specks of dull gold appeared on the black chains. His aura burst out as he felt the edges of his soul crack open and expand like a tender sprout bursting out from a hardy seed.

RANK UP!

Innate(Rank 1): Unbridled Vigor → Innate(Rank 2): Unbridled Vigor

All regeneration increased by 100%

He hollered incoherently, throwing his broken arms up towards the stars in a defiant victory pose. The dark figure of his Innate mimicked the boy before continuing its exercises. The boy held his arms out for a few second before her fell back to the ground, his short celebration draining what little stamina he had left. Still he let out a chuckle every now and then, managing a few exhausted fist pumps while he laid down.

He finally turned his attention away from his Innate, satisfied with its new look and vigour. He opened his eyes, expecting to see more massive invertebrates waiting for him but found nothing but severed worms halves and two very proud Goddesses.

“Well fucking done,” Syraviel said.

“Congratulations, Jack," Lisaseron said. “You have performed exceptionally, and I mean it sincerely. In fact, excellent work from all of you. Diana, you're nearly out of mana, why don't you join Jack and Alicia in taking a break?”

The exhausted blue-haired girl nodded, walking over to Jack and sat next to him. The boy gave her a nod, panting all the while. Alicia walked over as well, laying her back against Jack's back, soothing her torn soul. Diana raised an eyebrow, a smirk appearing on her tired and sweaty face.

“So... you and Alicia...” Diana said. “As wild as fighting space worms on a magical disk is, I never would've thought you two would get together.”

“It's just a soul bond,” Alicia said. “It's not like we're going out or anything.”

Diana blinked hard, shaking her head in disbelief.

“But... It's a soul bond? And I heard it's a Heartwoven Lives Bond. Like, that's the most intense one. Even most married couples don't pick that one.”

Alicia's face soured while Jack grew more curious.

“What do you mean the most intense one?” he asked. “What's so crazy about it?”

“I mean this is just what I heard so-”

“Out with it,” Alicia said.

“For one, it comes with soul tethering which doesn't allow you two to separate far or for long periods of time. That makes the bond super strong but it makes it much more difficult to block the other person's thoughts or hide your own. Plus... you know... the big one. They told you that much right? Please don't say you guys didn't- oh my god."

Alicia and Jack tensed up, seeing the blue haired girl physically cringe.

"You guys didn't know that if either of you dies, the other one dies too?” Diana asked.

TheAscendentQuill

And Scene! Bit of drama to bookend the epic conclusion to our training mini-arc. We've still got a bit of void left to cover, however, the First arc starts when we arrive in Unceasing territory and we are not there yet. Hold onto your seats folks. On another note, I was a bit sloppier last chapter(apologies) and I've gone back and given it the old editing spit shine with extra carpal grease. Writing quality is very important to me, but I've made my schedule and I'm sticking to it. Even if it's not polished to my standards, I'll ship the chapters on time but I'll work harder in the future to make sure I can maintain my quality while doing so.

On a more positive note- 100 Readers! Pretty cool milestone! Hopefully the first of many! I'm glad so many of you have found yourselves drawn to this story. I'll do my best to make sure it continues to be a story that is worth your time, especially in a world where there are so many other great tales out there. Thank you for your support!

As always, let me know if you see any errors or inconsistencies. If you have any ideas or adjustments you'd like to see, feel free to share and get my creative juices going!