CHAPTER 230: CHAPTER 229 - THE CREATIVE PHASE.

Inside the ever-shifting landscape of Arietta’s divine realm, time flowed at 1:16 the normal speed. A hundred internal days meant barely over six real-world days—but for Raven’s group, it felt like a lifetime.

And that lifetime began with—

The "Creative" Phase.

"Alright!" Raven clapped his hands from atop a summoned obsidian platform.

Beside him, Arietta floated like an ethereal supervisor, arms crossed and eyes glowing with a slight glow of divinity—and annoyance. "Today, we start experimenting with your elements. Don’t die."

Everyone stared up at him.

Selena raised her hand. "Define ’don’t die.’ Like emotionally, spiritually, or—"

"Physically," Arietta cut in. "Emotionally, it is inevitable."

........................

The first to jump into the fray was Selena, who stepped into the training field’s shadowed grove, raised her hand, and called upon her power.

A ripple of black-purple mana pulsed from her feet.

Shadowy hands crawled from beneath her as dozens of wolf-like, eyeless creatures materialized—massive, silent, and grinning far too wide.

Devourer Beasts.

"Go on," she whispered. "Stretch your legs."

The wolves howled and vanished into the shadows like ninjas on coffee.

From a nearby rock, Jessy gulped. "So... she’s basically the Shadow Beast Mom now."

Rufus nodded. "Cool. Terrifying. She’s got a zoo in her legs."

A few minutes later, one of the wolves returned—wearing a flower crown Lia had somehow put on it.

Selena blinked. "...Okay, I didn’t summon that."

Lia grinned innocently.

What Selena would learn, however, was something only time would tell.

She was a summoner, and summoners didn’t have techniques since their fights were completed by their beasts.

Selena, however, seemed to think differently. The sharp glint in her eyes made it clear.

Meanwhile, Clara stood in a flower field, her whip-like blade unsheathed.

"Alright, Sound Element. Let’s see what you’ve got."

Her aura shimmered, and in a blink, dozens—no, hundreds—of illusory swords spun out from her in every direction.

They hummed. Literally—the air vibrated.

She snapped her fingers.

All the swords swirled into a symphony of slicing, whistling notes like the tentacles of an octopus that flew toward the designated training dummy: a boulder painted with Alex’s face.

The swords tore it apart in a synchronized, melodic shing-shing-shing-shing!

Alex, from afar: "Hey, that was my favorite training boulder."

Clara smirked. "Now it’s a musical."

Arietta took notes with a twitch. "Her sword technique has officially become a surround-sound concert of death."

What Clara was trying, however, was to master and upgrade her original sword technique, the Thousand Sword Art.

The art relied solely on illusions, and before, she had relied on wind to help her with those illusions, but now, she had a better medium.

Now, she had the sound element.

Elsewhere, Siris was busy crafting a glacier out of sheer willpower. Her arms moved like a conductor, guiding the freezing void.

Everything around her—air, light, time—seemed slower.

She exhaled. The void mist followed like obedient wolves, curling around frozen shards in her palm.

Then she blinked and released it all in a silent pulse.

A ten-meter chunk of ground simply vanished—converted into a glittering mirror of sub-zero void ice.

"...Okay, I’m officially calling her the vanisher," Clara muttered from a safe distance.

Raven: "That just means she’s doing it right."

Siris, however, wasn’t satisfied.

She knew that she needed something new.

After all, she was like any other dagger holder. Yes, she was more proficient, but that didn’t mean she could go past the limits of a dagger.

She had to find something new.

Meanwhile, Lia had decided the field wasn’t green enough.

With a flick of her wrist, a jungle bloomed—giant sunflowers with punchy attitudes and vines that clapped like seals spread across the battlefield.

Jessy tried to walk past and was tripped by a sentient vine.

"WHY are your plants sentient?!"

Lia smiled sweetly. "Because it’s fun."

One vine gently tried to offer Raven a daisy.

Arietta snapped her fingers, and it disintegrated.

"I’m watching you."

Lia pouted, but then she returned to her talk with her plants, discussing ways to use her ability more capably.

Then there was Jessy.

She stood in the center of the battlefield like an iron fortress.

With a grunt, she activated her magnetic field, drawing every stray metal weapon and ore fragment nearby.

She now looked like a walking scrapheap samurai.

"This is fine," she muttered.

She punched the ground. It cratered.

Selena whistled. "That punch had depth."

Jessy: "I call it, ’You Shall Not Pass... Without Getting Flattened.’"

However, she was only warming up.

This was the first day, so she was trying some light work with her ability.

On another island of the divine realm, Jake disappeared from the spot where he was standing.

Literally.

"...Jake?" Graye, who was closest to his island, called.

From behind her, a voice whispered, "Behind you."

She swung. He vanished again.

Over the next few minutes, Jake began learning to step in and out of shadows like a phantom—his scythe now slicing through his own shadow to boost his movement.

Rufus tried to scan him. "No readings. Just edgelord energy."

Jake materialized long enough to raise a thumb, making Raven shake his head, "Edgy and proud."

After failing to locate Jake for a long time, Rufus decided to start his own training.

His suit hummed as he ascended in a red-black blur, a sphere of light forming in his palm.

He unleashed a beam that carved the forest edge into molten glass.

Then the light turned into a laser-cat hologram.

"...Oops."

Arietta blinked. "Why was that cat wearing sunglasses?"

"Style."

Arietta and Raven were observing everything from afar.

Yes, Raven wasn’t training yet because he already had many ideas, but above all, it was because Arietta had asked him to talk with her after he was done monitoring others.

So, Raven turned to the next person.

It was Alex.

He had upgraded.

He was now basically a lava-covered, snarky symbiote monster.

"Blargh, activate Molten Mode."

Blargh: "Meltin’ time, baby."

Molten claws erupted as Alex punched a dummy. It didn’t explode—it evaporated.

"...I am so hot right now," he grinned.

Raven facepalmed. "You’re impossible."

"I’m lava," he said, flexing. "That’s my whole thing."

Not far away from him, Nibbles floated on a nearby training platform.

With a single flick of his paw, a stone pillar imploded like it owed him rent.

He raised a sign: "DON’T TEST ME."

Another sign followed: "I AIN’T EVEN USING BOTH PAWS."

Arietta narrowed her eyes. "...What is he?"

Raven: "A squirrel who had realized that it didn’t need to worship others."

BOOM!!!

It was then that a loud explosion was heard, pulling Arietta’s and Raven’s attention, but the moment they saw who it was—

"Hah... I would rather not go there," Arietta muttered, floating toward the most comfy cloud in the domain.

"I’ll wait for you there," she added, making Raven nod his head.

Graye, on the other hand, was swinging her huge sword, and with her slash, her fire burned brighter and hotter.

It seemed like her flames, like her divine tale, were battle-progressive—the more she fought, the stronger they got.

Unfortunately... her swordplay still consisted of: Big Slash #1 and Bigger Slash #2.

Raven approached as she lit the sky on fire—accidentally.

"You need a form," he said.

"I have form!" she shouted, swinging again. It split a mountain.

"That’s force. We’re working on the form."

"Same thing!"

"It’s not."

Then, shaking his head, he decided to train her for some time.

After hours of coaching, Graye finally performed a clean, subtle, triple-step feint-slash that narrowly missed Raven’s shoulder.

"YES!" She shouted. "I tricked you!"

"You did," Raven said, proud—and terrified.

It was a good thing that he had moved, or he might’ve lost his shoulder.

However, he was now sure that with more training, Graye would learn more than slash.

Once she did, she would be unstoppable, since the only thing she lacked was technique.

For the next hundred-plus days, everyone trained and experimented as Raven had asked them to.

In a blink of an eye, even a time as long as a hundred-plus days passed; each member honed their power—failing, succeeding, arguing, and learning together.

Arietta, from her perch, had stopped glaring at the other girls quite as much. Mostly.

Raven, despite making time for his own training, never missed a moment of the others’ training, and along with Arietta, he helped them whenever they needed him.

Then, every night, they gathered around a summoned campfire—Alex cooking (badly), Nibbles flipping signs, Graye begging for a kiss and getting denied, and Lia pretending not to stare at Raven when he wasn’t looking.

On Day 111, Raven stood before them.

"You’ve all grown stronger. You’ve surpassed what most people ever dream of," he said.

Everyone looked proud.

Then he added, "But Graye still can’t name her technique."

Graye raised a flaming sword. "I’m calling it—BIG UPGRADED FIRE SLASH TWO!"

Jessy groaned. "We’re doomed."

Raven smiled.

They weren’t perfect. But they were his family.

Soon... after one more day, they’d return to the world for another day of rest.

Then, after coming back to the domain for the last time, they would start the final phase of their training, which Raven still hadn’t revealed to them.

For now, they will be resting.

But as the campfire crackled, Clara leaned closer, eyes gleaming with curiosity.

"Hey, Raven," she asked, tilting her head, "what did you learn from Arietta all this time? We saw you floating in the air like some meditating sage."

Selena and Siris perked up, clearly curious too. Even Jake paused mid-shadow.

Raven smirked faintly. "You’ll find out soon enough."

Clara narrowed her eyes. "That’s suspicious."

He turned slowly toward Arietta, who had just descended beside him.

Their eyes met.

In perfect sync, both of them grinned.

The group immediately sensed it.

Something dangerous—and absurd—was coming.