Chapter 14: The Spirit Strain
The second cultivation session began thirty hours after the first, barely enough time for Jace's spiritual channels to stabilize. He'd pushed the timeline deliberately, ignoring Kiri's concerns about inadequate recovery. They had three days until the Academy trials, and he needed to break through to proper Rare Tier, to hit that critical Spirit threshold of 100 that would unlock Kiri's potential for proper combat readiness.
The problem was simple and brutal: conventional forced cultivation, even accelerated, wouldn't get him there in time. He'd gained twenty points in the first session, pushing from 45 to 65. To reach 100, he needed another thirty five point jump. That would require materials and techniques far beyond what they could afford or safely attempt.
Unless he took a shortcut. A dangerous, potentially lethal shortcut that the royal archives had warned against in the most explicit terms possible.
Jace sat in the basement cultivation chamber, surrounded by materials that made Kiri visibly uneasy. The chalk circle was different this time, incorporating glyphs and patterns that looked wrong, twisted, like they'd been designed to force reality to bend in ways it shouldn't. At the circle's centre sat three items that had cost him nearly everything they had left.
A vial of Corrupted Spirit Essence, extracted from dying mana beasts and sold on the black market to desperate summoners. It was significantly more potent than pure essence, capable of forcing massive stat increases in a fraction of the time. It was also highly unstable, known to cause spiritual mutations, very high chance of channel scarring, and in roughly one case out of four, immediate death from essence poisoning.
A cluster of Blood Lotus petals, a parasitic herb that fed on spiritual energy and amplified cultivation effects by orders of magnitude. Consuming it while cultivating would accelerate the process dramatically. It would also feel like having molten glass poured through your veins, and the forced feedback through any active contract bonds would be severe enough to potentially harm the contracted beast.
And finally, a Soulfire Catalyst, a crystalline shard that forced the spiritual core to burn hotter and brighter during cultivation, pushing through natural limits through sheer violent intensity. Using one was like setting your own soul on fire. The royal archives had recorded exactly three instances of summoners surviving its use, and all three had suffered permanent spiritual scarring that limited their future advancement.
Kiri stared at the materials with undisguised horror. "This is insanity. These are forbidden materials. The kind that kill more people than they help."
"I know," Jace said calmly, his hands steady despite the fear coiling in his gut. "The royal archives are very explicit about the dangers. Corrupted essence alone has a twenty five percent fatality rate. Combined with Blood Lotus and a Soulfire Catalyst, the survival rate drops to single digits."
"Then don't use them," Kiri said, her voice carrying an edge of desperation. "We'll find another way. We have time after the trials."
"We don't," Jace corrected. "You're capped at Rare Tier, and you can't fight properly until I break through to proper Rare myself. That requires Spirit of over 100. These materials can get me there in one session. Conventional methods would take months or years we don't have." He met her gaze steadily. "I'm not doing this out of recklessness. I'm doing it because it's the only viable path forward."
Kiri's expression twisted with conflicting emotions. "And if you die? What happens to me?"
"You go feral from the contract break and die shortly after," Jace said bluntly. "I'm aware of the stakes. That's why you're going to help me survive this."
He gestured to her position outside the circle. "Your role is critical. The Corrupted Essence will destabilize my spiritual channels violently. The Blood Lotus will amplify that instability. The Soulfire Catalyst will push everything to the absolute breaking point. At multiple points during the process, my spiritual core will start to collapse completely. When that happens, you need to feed stabilizing energy through our bond. Not to stop the cultivation, but to prevent total structural failure."
"You're asking me to help you kill yourself," Kiri said flatly.
"I'm asking you to help me survive an impossible breakthrough," Jace corrected. "There's a difference. I need you to trust me."
The Seraph was silent for a long moment, her golden eyes searching his face for any sign of doubt or uncertainty. She found none. Jace's determination was absolute, backed by the cold, calculating certainty of the Prince's tactical mind. He'd run the numbers, weighed the risks, and accepted the probability of death as a necessary component of the equation.
Finally, Kiri knelt outside the circle, her posture rigid but ready. "Then I'll do what I can. But know this, if you die, I'm going to find a way to resurrect you just so I can kill you myself for being this recklessly stupid."
Jace allowed himself a small, grim smile. "Noted."
He settled into the centre of the circle and began the ritual. The Corrupted Essence went first, consumed in a single quick motion. The effect was immediate and catastrophically different from pure essence. Instead of liquid fire, it felt like acid and ice simultaneously, a violently conflicting energy that tore through his spiritual channels like serrated knives. Jace's body convulsed, his spine arching off the ground as the corrupted power flooded his system.
Through the bond, Kiri gasped, feeling the echo of that alien, wrong energy. It wasn't just pain. It was corruption, a spiritual poison that wanted to twist and mutate everything it touched.
Jace forced himself to continue through the agony. He consumed the Blood Lotus petals, the parasitic herb dissolving instantly on his tongue. The amplification effect was immediate. Every sensation multiplied by ten, the pain becoming so intense that Jace's consciousness nearly fragmented from the sheer overwhelming trauma. Blood poured from his nose, his ears, his eyes, his body trying desperately to purge the toxic combination flooding his system.
Then he activated the Soulfire Catalyst. He crushed the crystalline shard in his fist, letting the powder absorb through his skin, and his spiritual core ignited. Not metaphorically. Literally. The core that represented his soul's capacity caught fire, burning with invisible flames that consumed everything they touched.
Jace screamed, a raw animal sound of absolute agony that echoed through the basement. His body thrashed in the chalk circle, blood spattering across the glowing glyphs. Through the bond, Kiri felt a fraction of that pain and nearly collapsed, her own body responding sympathetically to the catastrophic trauma.
But she held her position, forcing herself to observe, to wait for the critical moment when stabilizing energy would be needed.
Inside the inferno of his own consciousness, Jace plunged into the cultivation trance. What he saw was apocalyptic. His spiritual channels weren't just breaking. They were disintegrating, burned away by the Soulfire Catalyst while simultaneously being mutated by the Corrupted Essence. The Blood Lotus amplified everything, turning the controlled demolition he'd planned into complete structural annihilation.
This wasn't cultivation. This was spiritual suicide.
But buried in the royal archives, in the most forbidden sections of his inherited knowledge, was a technique designed specifically for this scenario. The Phoenix Rebirth method. A cultivation style that required complete destruction of the existing spiritual infrastructure followed by rapid reconstruction from the ashes. It was meant to be used by dying Sovereign tier summoners attempting to extend their already outrageous lifespan through forced rebirth. Using it at Common Tier was pure insanity.
Jace had no choice. He stopped trying to preserve his channels and instead let them burn. Completely. Every spiritual pathway, every energy conduit, every connection that made him a functional summoner, he let the Soulfire consume it all. His Spirit stat, his carefully cultivated 65, dropped to zero. His contract bond with Kiri flickered, the connection thinning to a hair's breadth from complete severance.
Kiri felt the bond dying and panicked. "Jace! The connection is collapsing!"
She pushed stabilizing energy through the bond on instinct, trying to hold it together. But Jace's consciousness reached back through that dying connection and stopped her. Not with words, but with raw intent transmitted mind to mind: Trust me. Let it burn.
Kiri froze, every instinct screaming at her to intervene, to save the bond before it severed completely. But she'd sworn to trust his knowledge, his plan, even when it looked like madness. She pulled back her energy and watched, helpless, as the contract bond flickered and nearly died.
Inside the spiritual inferno, Jace began the reconstruction. The Corrupted Essence, now fully integrated into his disintegrated channels, provided the raw material. The Blood Lotus amplified the reconstruction speed. And the Soulfire Catalyst, having consumed everything else, now turned its burning intensity toward forging new pathways from the ashes.
New spiritual channels formed, not following the old, weak paths of his Common Tier infrastructure, but carving entirely new routes through his spiritual anatomy. Channels that were wider, stronger, capable of bearing exponentially more load. His Spirit stat began climbing, not gradually, but in violent lurches as each new pathway stabilized.
Spirit 10. Spirit 25. Spirit 40. The numbers climbed with terrifying speed, each milestone achieved in seconds rather than the hours it had taken during conventional cultivation.
Spirit 60. Spirit 75. Spirit 85. Jace was approaching his previous maximum, but the reconstruction wasn't slowing. The materials were still active, still burning, still forcing growth beyond any natural limit.
Spirit 95. Spirit 101. The Rare Tier threshold hit like a physical barrier. Jace felt the system recognize the change, felt his fundamental classification shift from Common to Rare. But the cultivation wasn't stopping. The materials were still active, still pushing, and stopping now would waste their potential.
Spirit 105. The growth finally slow and stopped as the materials exhausted themselves. Jace's consciousness, barely functional, forced the final reconstruction. One last channel, the primary conduit connecting to his contract slot, reformed stronger and more stable than everything else combined.
The Soulfire guttered out. The Corrupted Essence stabilized into his new infrastructure. The Blood Lotus's amplification faded. And Jace's consciousness snapped back to his body with violent, disorienting force.
He opened his eyes to find himself lying in a pool of blood, his body broken and barely breathing. But he was alive. And more importantly, he'd succeeded.
System: Summoner Status Updated
Name: Jace
Stats: Power 100, Spirit 105, Constitution 105, Speed 100
Rank: Rare Tier Summoner
Critical Warning: Spiritual channels show signs of scarring. Temporary maximum potential Spirit cap reduced by estimated 5%. Future cultivation difficulty increased if not treated correctly.
Warning: Essence corruption detected. Requires purification treatment within 30 days or risk permanent spiritual mutation.
His Spirit had jumped from 65 to 105, shattering through the Rare Tier threshold and settling above the minimum. His Constitution had nearly doubled, his body forced to adapt or die under the extreme trauma. Even his Power and Speed had seen massive increases, side effects of the complete spiritual reconstruction.
But the cost was written in the system warnings. Spirit scarring. Reduced potential. Corruption that would need expensive treatment. He'd gained the power he needed, but without treatment, he'd crippled his future growth potential in the process.
Through the bond, now suddenly stable and stronger than before, Kiri felt the shift. She crawled into the circle, ignoring the residual energy still crackling across the glyphs, and found Jace barely conscious, his body trembling with shock.
"You did it," she whispered, her voice carrying equal parts relief and horror. "You actually did it. But the cost..."
"Was acceptable," Jace managed, each word a monumental effort. His throat was raw from screaming. "Rare Tier. Spirit 105. That's enough. You can fight to your maximum now, and when we get the materials, we can make each other stronger."
Kiri's expression twisted with conflicting emotions. Pride at his success. Horror at the temporary damage. And beneath it all, a deepening respect for this insane, brilliant summoner who would literally burn his own soul to achieve his goals.
"You're going to rest now," Kiri said firmly. "No arguments. No pushing forward. Your body needs time to stabilize, and we have two days before the trials. That's enough."
She lifted him carefully, cradling his broken form against her chest, and carried him out of the basement. The cultivation chamber behind them still glowed faintly with residual Soulfire energy, the chalk circle permanently scorched into the concrete floor as evidence of what had been attempted and somehow survived.
Jace's consciousness faded as Kiri laid him on the bedroll. His last coherent thought was a grim calculation: He'd achieved Rare Tier at the cost of five percent of his future potential, for now. He knew ways to treat Spirit scarring to remove the reduced cap limit, and he would deal with that eventually.
But survival was the only thing that mattered. He could worry about capped potential after he'd recovered and gathered the necessary supplies and materials to strengthen each other. And that journey was just beginning.
The warehouse fell silent except for Jace's laboured breathing and Kiri's quiet vigil. Outside, the city continued its indifferent march, unaware that in a forgotten corner, a Common Tier failure had just forced his way into Rare Tier through methods that should have killed him ten times over.
The Spirit strain had nearly destroyed him. The forbidden materials had left scars. But he'd broken through the bottleneck. Kiri could fight the way she was supposed to now. The Academy trials were within reach.
And the climb continued, paid for in blood, agony, and temporarily sacrificed potential.