Freya POV

Freya had been hoping that by acquiring another powerful skill, Julius would initiate his soul evolution. She happened to be correct on that assumption, but she also felt like it might have been a mistake.

While she had some experience with healing soul damage, she would by no means call herself an expert on soul magic. There were only a few people she knew who had such expertise. Most of them were likely locked away in some room, spending all of their time researching.

Now she felt like she should have taken Julius to one of these people. The first and second soul evolutions weren't usually a concern. They were natural progressions of one's soul as they climbed up the tiers.

The first soul evolution was typically experienced when you were around Tier 2 or advancing to Tier 3, depending on your circumstances. Some people might evolve in Tier 2 if they managed to gain powerful skills like Julius had done. Or for some people who consumed expensive soul-strengthening treasures, they might also evolve in Tier 2.

This evolution primarily focused on strengthening one's soul in preparation for future development and laid a solid foundation. It was a straightforward overall enhancement with minimal specifications.

The second soul evolution commonly occurs after advancing to Tier 4. That barrier was much more challenging to cross early than the first soul evolution. It was natural, considering the increased power required.

Yet, there were still cases when people experienced it early. Many of these individuals often specialized in the soul or had consumed a unique treasure at some point to facilitate the process.

Julius had done neither. However, he had a special case where he had evolved his soul while at Tier 2 and possessed a large number of epic-rank skills, which would have hastened the evolution. It was also worth mentioning that he had a much more powerful soul than an average person.

All of these factors were why she believed he could evolve his soul. It was a great thing as well because she had been concerned about his soul's ability to withstand the advancement to Tier 4.

While most people got their soul evolution after advancement, she was worried that Julius would need the improved soul to handle the advancement. Cain agreed with her as well.

That was why she had pushed him to get that skill he had been holding off on. However, she might come to regret that decision. Especially seeing Julius undergo his soul evolution right before her eyes.

He was on the ground in a fetal position, constantly in and out of consciousness, silently screaming out in pain. Her heart ached seeing him in that state, but she knew that she couldn't intervene too much.

Typically, the second soul evolution was a more forceful version of the first evolution. It didn't require the person to experience the growth and changes one would experience during their third evolution.

Yet, from what she saw of Julius, she suspected that something was wrong with his evolution. She had been convinced that there had to be some reason why Julius's soul hadn't already evolved and had come up with several hypotheses.

The first one was that his soul damage had made lasting impacts on his soul and was the reason he wasn't able to cross that threshold without a much more powerful nudge.

Another hypothesis was that he had such a powerful soul that he simply required an extreme amount of power and time to fill it up completely.

She also thought he might have had a mutated or uniquely designed soul, which caused it not to act like a normal one. This wasn't uncommon, especially in monsters. She had come across many creatures with unique souls and had developed abilities around such phenomena.

Just a few years ago, she had come across a variation of a Windstriker Crow whose soul had somehow merged or consumed a Wind Elemental's soul. This combination had led to the Windstriker Crow becoming extraordinarily powerful. A gust of its wings was enough to wreak havoc on a nearby village, as if a tornado blew right through their homes.

However, the hypothesis that she leaned toward the most was that it was a combination of all three of these things. It was very likely that the drastic damage to his soul had caused some irreversible changes. It was also possible that he had a soul so powerful that it required a monstrous stimulus. Furthermore, she had noticed that his soul was slightly different than the ones she had examined before.

She didn't know if it was quite mutated or if it was the soul damage, but Julius's soul was different from other human souls she had inspected in the past.

Usually, it was only when you reached your third soul evolution that things became more complicated. It was during that time that you finally began to acquire soul traits that would impact the rest of your path.

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She didn't think he would quite get to that point, but she wouldn't be shocked if he started exploring some of those more esoteric abilities.

She halted her musing when she saw him start to convulse again. She quickly sent some of her healing magic through him. There wasn't much she could do, but she should be able to alleviate some of the immediate concerns.

For example, now that he was barely conscious, some of his other abilities were going out of control. The previously tight control he had over his kinetic energy was nowhere to be seen. Large pulses of crushing kinetic energy were being blasted outward from his body.

The pulses were so intense that she suspected some Tier 3s would have died from being exposed to them. That was how scary strong he was for his tier.

If that wasn't bad enough, his other skills showed signs of acting out of control. She had always been impressed by his degree of control over his mana and aura, but for the first time, she started to see it lashing out without any control.

Large swaths of fire started to flare outward. His unique blue flames were hotter than ever. She normally didn't grasp how hot his fire was because he usually used his fire mana to create hardened constructs, but the fire mana was really quite scorching.

He never used fire magic like regular fire mages. Thus, when she felt the stinging heat on her skin, it surprised her.

It was hotter than she usually saw from other fire magic spells. She always assumed he had connected it with his kinetic energy, but she started to notice other properties of the flames now that it wasn't being heavily controlled.

Even his life mana started to act up. Thankfully, life mana was relatively peaceful, but there was a lot of it bursting out. It was heavy as well, since he was subconsciously adding his Phoenix Concept to his life mana.

Despite all of this chaos, it wasn't even those three energies that were problematic. It was actually his aura that she was concerned about.

A big reason why she believed he had some kind of unique or mutated soul was because he had one of the most volatile and destructive auras she had ever seen from a Tier 3. He liked to call it his ruinous aura, and she couldn't help but think it was the perfect descriptor of it.

The aura was Ruin incarnated. It attacked everything in its sight. It didn't matter if it was mana, aura, or any kind of energy. It lashed out and attempted to tear it to shreds. It was especially bad now that he couldn't keep it contained, as he underwent his soul evolution.

The fact that he had been holding such an aura back all this time was incredibly admirable. She would have to make sure she told him that when he was done with his soul evolution. She knew that he enjoyed his cake, so that might be a good thing to get him.

Another massive convulsion caused him to release a deadly pulse of aura. Thankfully, she had already sealed off the area to avoid him destroying their house. She had learned her lesson when he had destroyed his room back at Auraulos during his late-night training sessions.

In hindsight, she probably should have just had him move down into the training rooms instead. It wasn't like he was sleeping all that much.

She chewed her lip in worry and reached out and infused another bit of healing magic into him. She made sure not to give him too much. He was powerful for a Tier 3, but he was still a Tier 3. That meant he could only take so much of her mana before popping like a balloon.

In the meantime, she would just have to wait until he was finished. She wasn't too scared, though; something in her soul told her that he would survive. Not only that, but she believed that he would come out much stronger than before.

***

Julius POV

The pain became so bad that he had to curl himself up in a little ball in the corner of his soul as everything was rearranged. That was saying a lot considering that he didn't even flinch when his arm was blown off.

He could do nothing but endure.

He didn't know if it was normal for a second soul evolution, but many things had changed within his soul. For example, his soul space used to be quite barren. There were the occasional orbs of light that represented his skills and other things, but other than that, it was empty.

However, now there was something in the air. It kind of looked like sparkly dust, but he had no clue. He would need to examine it closer when he had the time.

He groaned and ground his teeth so hard together that he felt his jaw crack from the pressure. Thankfully, it seemed the pain was slowly going away with each pulse. He had a feeling that his soul's evolution was coming to an end, and instead of being miserably in pain, he started to feel a little excited.

He wanted to see what he would gain from this.

First, he began to try to regain control over his mana, aura, and other abilities. They were still blasting outward with brutal force and hated that feeling.

However, he could already tell that they were calming down without him having to command them to. What was even more interesting was the fact that his mana responded differently than usual.

If he didn't know any better, he would have assumed his mana had changed.

As he was thinking about the curious nature of his mana, he finally read the notifications he had received.

Notice: Soul threshold has been met.

Soul Evolution commencing…

Congratulations, Second Soul Evolution Complete.

You are qualified to select from the following rewards…

Free Upgrade of Any Epic Skills to Legendary

Soul Enforcement Pill

Enlightenment Potion

One Additional Skill Slot

Skill Combination Crystal

Unique Soul Bound Item

Notice: You have five minutes to decide on your reward. If no reward is selected after time has elapsed, one will be randomly decided for you.

The smile on his face could have lit up the entire night sky.

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