Seed Of Speed

Grand Master Shadespear watched through the eyes of his clone as Brightmelody and his team fought against the Core Disciples. His clone was in a third-layer of space separate from both the students' and masters' which was granted to him by being the master of the island's wards. Because of this separation, he was privy to a number of conversations between the masters that they would not have had if he, the Lead Grand Master, was present.

Ordering all of the masters to attend a duel via clone was certainly unusual, but they acted as if he had gone senile putting such importance on a single student. Swordflash's compulsion to always seek perfection had caused Brightmelody to go relatively unnoticed. Brightmelody had only spent a single day battling in the arena before he gave the order to scoop him up.

A Soul-Singer with a perfect-affinity in both Thunder and Light, that also had great martial potential, and spells even the Great Founder could not see through?!? They would have been fools not to hide him away while they refined his strength, but that also worked negatively in his favor.

By hiding his strength, yet pouring resources into him, some of the masters grew bitter. They only viewed Brightmelody as a tool for the sect to strength its disciples since they had only seen the effects of his concert, as Brightmelody insisted it be called. They had no idea of the practical value he could bring.

While he was surprised by the suppressing power of Brightmelody's black bulls, Shadespear knew that, ultimately, the shocking strength was borrowed from the power of his 'hellflame' which was gained from his tyrannical Demi-Body cultivation method. Although Brightmelody offered it to the sect in exchange for a weaker Demi-Body cultivation manual for his clan, there was no way they could support someone above the second rank without his spell to combine element gems and beast cores. Anyone practicing this method would doom themselves to mediocracy without a lucky encounter.

It still seemed to do the effect as he noticed a shift in the attitudes of all the masters after Whiteriver was forced to bless the group, so they would not be affect by the spell. Even he had to give a nod of approval since he knew Brightmelody was still in the first stage, maybe this method would not be as useless as he thought. If they could find a few more Soul-Singers and had Brightmelody teach them this song, they would go a long way in helping to defend the sect should war ever come. Who know, if he made Brightmelody their mentors, maybe he would help them gather the ingredients they would need for their cultivation?

What truly impressed Shadespear was Brightmelody's creativeness with his spell. He picked apart the layered defense of the Core Disciples from the moment he stepped foot on the island. The weather restricted Rosepetal and Hawkeye, Moonfall's specialty with Mind Arts was able to negate Dreamcaller's spell, then using clone explosions to crack Blackshield's barrier. This showed careful planning and an understanding of these magics unseen in someone so young. (Let's be clear, Katalina was the one picking out the weakness while Diego just exploited them.)

Shadespear had he instantly understood Brightmelody's actions when the ice wall erupted, both to divide and conquer as well as block off Quicksand's spell. Since it needed a perfect balance of water and earth to control his {The Great Sand Sea} domain, the ice walls would disrupt anything Quicksand controlled passed them, but then the music changed, and he felt the power he had seen once before in the grasslands.

{Elemental Tempest} could even strip the Wind and Water mana from Shadespear's, the holder of an eight-point Magic Crest, control. Now, Brightmelody was no longer relying on his cultivation, but the pure power of his Soul-Singer abilities to suppress the masters. This was a real example of how a simple Soul-Singer, without Brightmelody's lucky encounters, could help strength the sect as a whole.

With Brightmelody also displaying his unique cloning skill and tireless efforts to bring down two Core Disciples at the same time that both two stages of cultivation on him, no one would think of him as a tool anymore, just as Swordflash predicted. He had come to him shortly after Brightmelody's concert after hearing a few remarks insinuating that Brightmelody had only been placed under Swordflash to make him a Core Disciple.

The swordsman had been in a rare rage at the insult. He had nothing but praise for Brightmelody's martial talent and objected to these statements. He wanted to prove to the entire sect that the first disciple he truly accepted was worthy of his name!

"The young man certainly had lived up to your tenaciousness, old friend," Shadespear said to himself. With a trace of will, he shifted into the layer where the masters had gathered and looked around the group, matching eyes with each person there.

"This is the power of a single Soul-Singer at the First Stage of the Demi-Body and whose Magic Crest has congealed a single point! The Grassland Nations have dozens of them under their banners! The only thing that stops them from invading our sands is their own fighting and our lack of resources!

"One day, they could put aside their civil wars and then what? We hope that we still aren't worth the hassle to invade? No, we need to take advantage of our nation's unity and grab this untapped source of power! Not all will be gifted like Brightmelody, but the power we gain from their music is without question!

"Brightmelody has written down some of his experiences and helped develop a possible solution. He's produced a few simple melodies that can be easily taught. They will be spread throughout the sect and the villages, with clues of what to look for. The effects are mild at first and must be built up. It was just a lucky encounter that his senior-sister from his tribe broke through a bottleneck, or he may never had realized what he could do.

"This weakness is from an oversight, and one we will work to fix. I want volunteers to work with Brightmelody to learn this music and sensing the effects of his power. Those picked will then venture through the villages for a month's time and work with the locals. This will be a Grade Seven mission reward and any Soul-Singers discovered will earn a ten thousand pellet, one-time stipend!"

After Shadespear's impassioned speech, followed by a juice reward, there were plenty of volunteers, but he would not be making the choice. Brightmelody would choose ten masters that displayed enough understanding of his notes and the music after he returned from his expedition.

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Time is fleeting, never to be held back or slowed... Diego's expedition went on without a hitch, gathering plenty of metal for both the sect and Silverflame. He also helped with the Head Grand Master's plan and taught a group of master's how to sense the effects of his Bardic power.

Although Swordflash tried to pull him back into his hellish, Diego got a unique reprieve from it by way of the Great Founder, himself. He offered Diego the chance to use a special teleportation gate within the Catacombs that would give him the chance to harvest shadow-beast cores in return for the blood of the upir bats he had to kill for them. It was a powerful alchemy ingredient, but few people would want to deal with them.

Shadowbolt had argued with Swordflash for half a day before he finally relented and gave Diego a day to fight in the Catacombs that was not just his day off. He worked hard, but all in all, he could not complain too much. For the first time, in either life, Diego felt he had found a kind of peace and belonging that he never thought existed before.